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IRS Hearing: NOM, Tea Party Get Slammed For Playing Victim (Video)

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At yesterday’s House Ways and Means Committee hearing on the IRS, six conservative groups — five Tea Party organizations and NOM, the National Organization For Marriage — played the victim. The Tea Party groups were angry because the IRS actually dared to investigate and make sure they weren’t scamming the system. A tax exemption is not a right, it’s a privilege, and most of the Tea Party groups claiming they are promoting “social welfare” — which the laws says has to be your primary purpose for the tax-exemption — are lying.

Some Democratic Congressmen, not that the mainstream media has bothered to report — actually challenged the “victims” at yesterday’ hearing.

But Congressman Jim McDermott, Democrat of Washington state, wasn’t going to play any games:

“But as I listen to this discussion, I’d like to remind everyone what we are talking about here,” Rep. McDermott told the “victims.” “None of your organizations were kept from organizing or silenced. We are talking about whether or not the American taxpayers would subsidize your work. We are talking about a tax break.”

“Each of your groups is highly political,” McDermott continued. “From opposing the President’s healthcare reform, to abortion restrictions, to gay marriage, you’re all entrenched in some of the most controversial political issues in this country – and with your applications you are asking the American public to pay for that work. Many of you host and endorse candidates. The line between permitted political activity and non-permitted political activity can be very fine, and it’s important that tax payers know which side you fall on.”

NOM’s victim-playing did not go unaddressed either.

In an op-ed at the Huffington Post published after he participated in yesterday’s hearing, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, Democrat of Oregon, continued to take John C. Eastman, Chairman of NOM, the National Organization For Marriage, to task:

Let’s get real and stop the charade about what a ‘social welfare’ organization is.

Last year, internal National Organization for Marriage (NOM) strategy documents were leaked, stating that the organization seeks “to drive a wedge between gays and blacks” by promoting “African American spokespeople for marriage,” thus provoking same-sex marriage supporters into “denouncing these spokesmen and women as bigots,” and “to interrupt the assimilation” of Latinos into “dominant Anglo culture” by making the stance against same-sex marriage “a key badge of Latino identity.”

Does this sound like social welfare to you?

Social welfare organizations should work in the public interest — not to divide, exploit, and conquer.

When I brought this up at the hearing today, Dr. Eastman, Chairman of the Board of NOM, angrily groused, “To say that defending traditional marriage doesn’t qualify for defense of the public good is beyond preposterous.”

To Dr. Eastman, I say that it is the denial of my constituents, and all Americans, the right to marry the person they love that is preposterous. To exploit racial and religious differences so you can fundraise for and enforce your specific worldview is preposterous.

One last note.

I know I will make no friends among my progressive colleagues by stating this, but my responsibility is to my readers, to reporting the truth, and to moving the progressive agenda forward with facts.

I’m extremely disappointed in some larger left-leaning news organizations and their associated bloggers, and others with major platforms for not covering yesterday’s hearings better. Some didn’t cover it at all, some just pointed to the same two-minute seven second video of Eastman responding with rhetoric to Rep. Earl Blumenaur. Not all of us have the resources that some well-funded groups do. Most of these groups in the past have done an excellent job covering the lies and twisted tales the right weaves daily.

That is no longer the case.

If you don’t think the progressive news media has grown complacent, try this.

Go to YouTube and search for “IRS,” or “IRS hearing,” or anything else related.

You will find hundreds of copies of selectively-edited videos, with titles that clearly show they were uploaded by right wing Tea Party supporters.

There are (almost) none from the left.

(And thanks to The Raw Story for the above video and transcript, and for being one of the few outlets to actually report on the critical parts of the hearing, and not from a right-wing false point of view.)

I watched a good portion of yesterday’s hearing — in fact, I was, to the best of my knowledge, the first blogger to tip off the rest of the liberal media that there was a hearing scheduled for yesterday.

Rep. Charlie Rangel executed a superb, eloquent take-down of NOM’s chairman.

I’d like to see that video — other than in a non-embeddable C-SPAN version.

If someone can find it I’ll add it here.

The New Civil Rights Movement doesn’t get any funding, we don’t have any resources other than a laptop, our smarts, and our occasional wit.

Progressives are getting lazy and complacent, as I noted last week in “To The LGBT And Progressive Communities On Our ‘Loss’ In The Illinois Marriage Fight.”

Time to get back to work.

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News

Trump Expected to Grant Clemency to Almost All J6 Criminals, Including Violent Felons

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January 20, 2025

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President Donald Trump is expected to grant “sweeping” pardons and sentence commutations to all or nearly all the approximately 1600 people convicted of crimes related to the January 6, 2021 insurrection and assault on the U.S. Capitol — including those convicted of some of the most violent acts against law enforcement. Trump, who was also charged with crimes related to the insurrection and his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, has called those serving prison time “hostages” and “political prisoners.”

Those convicted of violent crimes are expected to receive sentence commutations, which could mean lesser sentences or even release from prison.

ABC News’ Katherine Faulders also reports the actions would include “commuting the prison sentences of hundreds of his supporters who have been convicted of violent attacks against law enforcement, sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.”

READ MORE: Skipping Hand on Bible, Trump Declares ‘We Will Not Forget Our God’ at Inauguration

Rather than look at each person on a case-by-case basis, Trump, according to The Washington Post, “would grant some form of clemency to virtually everyone prosecuted by the Justice Department, from the plotters imprisoned for seditious conspiracy and felons convicted of assaulting police officers to those who merely trespassed on the restricted grounds on Jan. 6, 2021.”

The U.S. Department of Justice “would also dismiss about 300 cases that have not yet gone to trial, including people charged with violent assaults, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss pending plans,” the Post added.

After the 2024 election, Trump had told TIME magazine, “I’m going to do case-by-case, and if they were nonviolent, I think they’ve been greatly punished.”

READ MORE: Trump Expected to Target Citizenship of Children With Undocumented Parents

He also told NBC News’ Kristen Welker, and supporters at his rallies, he would act “on day one.”

According to the Post, 14 of the January 6 defendants have been convicted of seditious conspiracy. At least 379 were charged with assaulting police or the media — the vast majority of them have also been sentenced. 287 were charged with “less violent or nonviolent felonies.” Most of them have already been convicted. And 869 were charged with “misdemeanor counts such as trespassing or disorderly conduct.” The vast majority of them have also been sentenced.

Contrary to claims by many of Trump’s supporters, including lawmakers and those in the media, the January 6 attack was not “peaceful,” or nonviolent, and weapons were used in the attack.

“Participants carried weapons including firearms, chemical sprays, stun guns, axes, baseball bats, a sword and a hockey stick. A female rioter was shot and killed by police inside the Capitol, and one officer succumbed to two strokes that were partly attributed to the stress of the attack. Three people died as a result of medical emergencies suffered during the riot. Four police officers later died by suicide,” the Post reports.

Watch the videos above or at this link.

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Image by Tyler Merbler via Flickr and a CC license

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Skipping Hand on Bible, Trump Declares ‘We Will Not Forget Our God’ at Inauguration

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January 20, 2025

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During his presidential swearing-in inaugural ceremony, Donald Trump several times invoked God, while inexplicably not placing his hand on either of the two Bibles Melania Trump held at his side.

“I was saved by God to make America great again,” Trump told the former presidents, lawmakers, and billionaires in attendance at the Capitol Rotunda. “We are one people, one family, and one glorious nation under God,” Trump also declared, adding, “We will not forget our God.”

Many, including the Deputy Chief of Staff to a Democratic U.S. Congressman, noted that Trump did not place his hand on the Bible. And while not a constitutional requirement, it was a striking anomaly.

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Also reporting Trump not being sworn in with a hand on the Bible, The New York Post noted, “Trump used both a family Bible and the so-called Lincoln Bible, which was sworn on by the 16th president in 1861 as well as Barack Obama in 2009 and 2013.”

“Instead,”the Post reported, “Trump stood with his left arm down by his side as he raised his right hand for the oath of office.”

Few presidents have skipped the hand-on-the-Bible portion of the swearing in.

President John Quincy Adams in 1825 reportedly used a law book instead of a Bible, according to PBS.

“In 1901, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was hastily sworn in after the assassination of President Wil­liam McKinley,” notes Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “Roosevelt had rushed to Buffalo, where McKinley had been shot by an anarchist named Leon Czolgosz. Roosevelt took the Oath of Office at the home of a friend, and no Bible was used during the private ceremony.”

In 1963, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, “believed it was best for a reeling nation to know that a president was in place immediately. As Johnson was preparing to take the oath of office aboard Air Force One, a Bible was not available. Kennedy’s personal Roman Catholic missal was found in his living quarters,” according to The Washington Post.

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But this may be the first time a president has been sworn in with a Bible by his side yet without putting their hand on it.

Watch the video below or at this link.


READ MORE: ‘Fear Small Crowds?’: Trump and Team Mocked as ‘Snowflakes’ for Inauguration Move

 

Image via Reuters

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Trump Expected to Target Citizenship of Children With Undocumented Parents

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18 hours ago

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January 20, 2025

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Almost immediately after being sworn in as America’s 47th president, Donald Trump reportedly will sign 200 executive orders across a wide range of issues, despite, as critics note, having Republican majorities in the House and Senate, which could allow him to achieve many of his goals through legislation. Among those orders is one that would, in theory, end birthright citizenship — the constitutional right to citizenship for anyone born on U.S. soil — for children born to undocumented parents.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 1898 dealt with birthright citizenship, a guarantee of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which clearly states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

The portion that reads, “subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” the Supreme Court ruled, meant children born in the U.S. to a parent or parents of diplomats of a foreign country.

Candidate Trump in 2015 said he wanted to end birthright citizenship.

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“In August 2015, Donald Trump sat down to talk with then–Fox News host Bill O’Reilly about one of his central campaign promises: the mass deportation of 11 million undocumented immigrants. ‘Our country is going to hell,’ Trump said. ‘We have to start a process where we take back our country,'” Mother Jones reported last year.

“O’Reilly found the plan ridiculous. Such a colossal and expensive undertaking, the conservative host said, would take decades. Before then, the courts would stop sweeping raids. The idea, O’Reilly continued, was just ‘not going to happen.’ Perhaps the most obvious reason why, he said, was the 14th Amendment, which ‘says if you’re born here, you’re an American—and you can’t kick Americans out.’ O’Reilly almost screamed at one point: ‘If you’re born here, you’re an American—period! Period!'”

In 2018 he again said he would do so, with an executive order, that never materialized.

Now, it appears Trump will try to fulfill his decade-long wish.

“This executive order will ‘clarify’ the 14th Amendment, [an] incoming official said, such that ‘that on a prospective basis, the federal government will not recognize automatic birthright citizenship for children of illegal aliens born in the United States,'” Semafor White House correspondent Shelby Talcott said.

READ MORE: ‘Fear Small Crowds?’: Trump and Team Mocked as ‘Snowflakes’ for Inauguration Move

“The incoming official,” The Washington Post adds, “did not provide details on how the administration planned to implement a change that scholars say would be illegal. Trump’s order would reinterpret the words ‘and subject to the jurisdiction thereof’ in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which grants citizenship to all people born on U.S. soil, and redefine the phrase to exclude babies born to parents illegally in the country.”

There are millions of Americans of all ages currently living in the U.S., (an estimated 5 million under the age of 18) who are children of undocumented parents. The claim, “on a prospective basis,” suggests Trump will try to deny any child born of undocumented parents, going forward, their right to citizenship.

Constitutional law professor and political scientist Anthony Michael Kreis declared, “Birthright citizenship is part of the 14th Amendment and the president cannot write it out with his pen.”

Professor of Law Steve Vladeck noted, “Trump’s effort to restrict birthright citizenship by executive order is (1) unlawful; (2) predicated on conflating two entirely distinct legal arguments; and (3) doomed to fail in (even these) courts.”

Mother Jones’ Isabela Dias last year wrote if it were to happen, “It would be nothing short of seismic.”

READ MORE: Trump Threatens FBI Office, Alleges ‘Corruption,’ Demands They ‘Preserve All Records’

 

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