Archive for the ‘Tea Party’ Category

Tea party wins 8-year battle with IRS – WND.com

It took eight years of frustration, court battles and waiting. It took the complete change of a presidential administration. And it took the persistent fighting of a top-level team of lawyers.

But the Albuquerque Tea Party now is registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)4 organization, even though it was one of the hundredsof conservative groups obstructed by the agency under Barack Obama.

The American Center for Law and Justice, which has represented dozens of those groups in court fights, said the Albuquerque Tea Party now has its exempt status nearly eight years after originally filing its application.

This is a major victor for free speech, ACLJ said.

The legal team theObama administration had orchestrated a complex scheme to dump conservative and tea party nonprofit applicants into a bureaucratic black hole.'

The conspiracy to delay the conservative groups application for tax-exempt status, hindering their ability to raise funds, likelycame from the top, ACLJ said.

Your one-stop recourse for the best books on economics, from The American Dream Under Fire to End the IRS Before It Ends Us and Godonomics, is the WND Superstore.

Hundreds of documents have been uncovered in recent years that clearly establish that top IRS officials in Washington, including Lois Lerner and Holly Paz, knew that the agency was specifically targeting Tea Party and other conservative organizations.'

ACLJ said December would have marked eight years since the IRS cashed the application check of its client.

The IRS literally took their money and then ignored their application requesting tax-exempt status for eight long years. This is outrageous. No organization should ever be forced to wait that long for a determination, the legal nonprofit said.

The Obama administration called thescandal phony.

But ACLJ and its clients beg to differ.

As you may remember, the IRS constructed a special group to send all applications associated with the Tea Party to Group 7822. It was apparently designed as a special team developed to snare targeted organizations tax exemption applications in order to severely limit the impact of their advocacy on the 2012 elections, ACLJ explained.

The IRS was able to protect its politically targeted scheme by hiding its operations and activity behind the hundreds of layers of the bureaucracy festering within the IRS and with the cooperation of other government agencies.

When its application check was cashed by the government, ACLJ reported, the Albuquerque group was given a letter from the Department of the Treasury in Washington that their file was under review.

No explanation ever followed.

The ACLJ report said: To be clear, the IRS did not want to approve their application. Last year, the IRS proposed a denial of their application. We fought their denial, and we won. This result was long overdue. The targeting, the delay, and this type of unconstitutional discrimination should have never happened.

WND reported another such victory in Aprilwhen, after seven years,the Tri-Cities Tea Party obtained tax-exemptstatus.

Your one-stop recourse for the best books on economics, from The American Dream Under Fire to End the IRS Before It Ends Us and Godonomics, is the WND Superstore.

It was in 2013 when Lerner, then the director of the Exempt Organizations Unit of the IRS, admitted publicly that the IRS had been targeting conservative, Christian and tea-party groups, and ACLJ sued on behalf of dozens of organizations from more than 20 states.

While the IRS targeting scandal was just one of several dozen major controversies to plague the Obama administration, it was one of the more egregious, as the official weight of government power bludgeoned activist groups that wanted to participate in the political process.

Judicial Watch, the Washington watchdog that has for years been fighting to access IRS documents that reveal the extent of its discriminatory actions against Christians and conservatives, has asked President Trump to consider criminal counts against the much-feared federal agency.

Tom Fitton, the groups president, called for President Trump to reopen a criminal investigation.

Evidence has revealed the IRS agents would deliberately delay issuing a decision on organizations that were in conflict with Obamas agenda. That meant they couldnt obtain tax-exempt status, and they couldnt even appeal.

Among the IRS strategies was to ask inappropriate questions, such as what was the content of members prayers.

The IRS also was found to have been making inappropriate demands, such as that a conservative group denounce opposition to Planned Parenthoods abortion agenda.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled at one point that the IRS did, in fact, discriminate against tea party groups.

Back in April, a federal judge ordered the IRS to open its records to groups victimized by its obstruction tactics.

The order came in a case brought by ACLJon behalf of some of the targeted organizations.

ACLJ said in a report on its website the ruling stated the groups are entitled to seek additional information about the IRSs targeting scheme.

Like the D.C. Circuit, which previously rejected the IRSs position essentially a just trust us plea without the evidence necessary to back it up the district court rightly confirmed that the IRS may no longer hide behind its unsupported assertions but instead must turn over information about its discriminatory treatment of these organizations.

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Tickets for Princess Tea Party available – Alliance Review – The-review

By CHEYANNE GONZALES cgonzales@the-review.com Published: July 21, 2017 3:00 AM

Tickets for the Greater Alliance Carnation Festival's Princess Tea Party are now on sale at the Alliance Area Chamber of Commerce.

The price is $15 for each princess and $3 for each guest. The princesses are able to bring two guests each. Girls ages 12-and-under are welcome to attend the party.

The event is 3-5 p.m. Sunday, July 30 at the Alliance County Club.

The Princess Tea Party gives little girls in the Alliance area the chance to live out their dream of becoming a princess. The royal treatment will begin the moment they walk through the door. The 2017 Carnation Festival queen contestants will help serve the little princesses their very own plate of cookies and glasses of punch.

Each princess will get her picture taken with 2016 Carnation Festival Queen Taylor Penird and court members Reilly Davidson, Alexis Hatton, Anissa Lautzenheiser and Marisa Baylor.

They will also get to design and make their very own princess crown, which can be worn during the Princess Parade. The parade gives them the opportunity to show off their fancy dresses and beautiful crowns to all the guests.

Not only will the princesses get to spend the day as royalty, but a couple lucky little princesses will have the chance to win special gifts as well.

"There will be a crown bank and a princess tea set parents can buy tickets for," said Cathie Brookes, co-chairwoman of the event.

Accommodations can be met for princesses or guests with dietary or handicap restrictions. For more information, contact 330-704-8410.

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Stop by Allandale for a little Sunday ‘Tea Party’ – BarrieToday

What could be better to celebrate Ontarios 150th birthday than with a free, live concert with some of the provinces best bands such as the Skydiggers and USS, near one of Barries favourite historic landmarks?

And if youd like to throw in a little Tea Party with that, playing some of the tunes that made them famous two decades ago, hey, so much the better.

The ONtour concert series makes a stop this Sunday evening, starting at 6, at Allandale Station Park, providing what organizers call the soundtrack of Summer 2017.

The Tea Party guitarist Jeff Martin, drummer Jeff Burrows and keyboard man Stuart Chatwood have been with us off and on since 1990, and Chatwood tells BarrieToday the city of the Spirit Catcher is something of a second home for him and his mates.

Barrie is really the heartland of the bands support, which is central Ontario, but we havent had an opportunity to give the people of a Barrie a proper rock show since we headlined Edgefest back in the 90s at Molson Park.

Chatwood is also excited at the intergenerational feel the band provides.

Many younger people in the crowd have not had an opportunity to see an authentic rock act and there are not that many rock acts touring anymore. Tool doesnt play Toronto too often and Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and many others, sadly, dont exist now. I hope the fact that the show is free will bring out a lot of fans eager to hear the band for the first time.

The Allandale show will be the Partys second ONtour date, and Stuart says previous gigs raised the bar.

We played an incredible show with USS last Sunday in Sault Ste. Marie. They blew the crowd away with their energy.As weve been around for 25 years, we are quite comfortable in our shoes, so were in a position to embrace other acts without feeling jealous or insecure.

Chatwood says the bands sound evolved since getting back together in 2011. Musically, we have all become better players and the fact that we are a little older has translated to us not being afraid of what people think of us, so in that sense it has brought freedom.

When we meet new fans they describe our sound as power trio rock with world music influences and Im pretty good with that as a starting point.

We see nothing wrong with taking your music seriously and putting passion into your music.

Moreover, 2017 marks the 20th anniversary of the Partys Transmission album, a pivotal piece for Chatwood and the two Jeffs.

We moved into a more keyboard heavy sound, which meant a little less guitar, and this was disappointing for myself on some levels as the band broke on the strengths of Jeff (Martin)s guitar prowess.Jeff (Martin) was producing the band and it was under his direction that we forged into world music heavily on Edges of Twilight and move into more electronics on Transmission."

When the concerts gain momentum, the crowd no longer calls for just one song. Stuart says fans tend to want to hear the whole shooting match, consisting of 10 albums across 25-plus years.

The requests come in for music from our whole catalogue which is a nice statement to its appeal. People argue over their favourite album by The Tea Party, and I think thats just an incredible compliment.

The ONtour series of free concerts hits Allandale Station Park, Sunday evening with USS taking the stage at 6:15 p.m., Skydiggers at 7:25 p.m. and The Tea Party at 8:45 p.m. To learn more, click here.

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Stop by Allandale for a little Sunday 'Tea Party' - BarrieToday

Albuquerque Tea Party granted tax-exempt status after 8 years | Fox … – Fox News

Its taken nearly eight years, but the Internal Revenue Service finally granted tax-exempt status to a Tea Party group in what lawyers representing the group on Wednesday called a major victory for free speech.

Graham Bartlett, president of the local Tea Party, said he was informed about a month ago that the group's request was going through, The Albuquerque Journal reported.

The group filed its request in December 2009. Several months later, the IRS demanded more documentation concerning the organization's activities. The group complied, but then the IRS requested even more documentation. The Tea Party provided more than 1,000 pages of documentation about the group's activities. Eventually, it filed a lawsuit against the IRS.

"What I understand is the IRS was targeting any organization that had the name 'Tea Party' in it or the word 'conservative,'" Bartlett said. "We weren't the only ones."

In 2012, the American Center for Law and Justice, or ACLJ, filed a lawsuit against the IRS on behalf of the Albuquerque Tea Party as well as other conservative groups whose requests for tax-exempt status seemed to be put on hold during the Obama administration.

"The ACLJ is pleased toannouncethat after a long, arduous legal battle, our client, the Albuquerque Tea Party, has finally received theirtax-exempt status nearly eight years after originally filing their 501(c)(4) application,"the organization said in a statement on its website Wednesday. "This is a major victory for free speech."

"The widespread and coordinated attacks against conservative groups like the Albuquerque Tea Party began in early 2010," the ACLJ said. "The IRS literally took their money and then ignored their application requesting tax-exempt status for eight long years.

"This is outrageous," the group said. No organization should ever be forced to waitthatlong for a determination."

'This is outrageous.'

In 2015, a bipartisan review from the U.S. Senate's Finance Committee found management flaws at the IRS contributed to a "dysfunctional culture" that allowed agents to mistreat conservative groups when they applied for tax-exempt status.

Both Bartlett and Moore said that since President Trump and the Republicans assumed power in Washington in January, there seems to have been a change toward a more equitable policy at the IRS.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Albuquerque Tea Party granted tax-exempt status after 8 years | Fox ... - Fox News

Jay Sekulow: Here’s how the Albuquerque Tea Party FINALLY got tax-exempt status from the IRS – Fox News

It has been clear for years that the Internal Revenue Service unlawfully targeted dozens of conservative and Tea Party organizations in what amounted to a disturbing scheme to keep them on the sidelines in the runup to the 2012 election.

At the American Center for Law and Justice, weve been aggressively battling the IRS in federal court since 2013, representing dozens of these groups that were singled out and effectively punished for their political views.

In addition to battling the IRS in court, we have continued to press our case with the agency itself, publicly calling out the corruption and demanding the agency bring an end to its stalling tactics aimed at our clients.

The IRS has been dragging its feet for years in responding to applications from our clients for a determination of their tax-exempt status. In one of the most egregious stalling tactics I have ever witnessed, the Albuquerque Tea Party has been in limbo for nearly eight years. The IRS has failed to act no explanation, no information, no nothing.

Now, after years of delays, I am delighted to report that our client has finally received its tax-exempt designation as a 501(c) (4) organization.

This critical free-speech victory does not represent a change of heart by a still-corrupt IRS. In fact, if the IRS had its way, it likely would never have responded. But thanks to a federal district court judges order last October, the IRS was forced to act on the pending determinations.

The lengthy delays by the IRS did not go unnoticed especially by the Albuquerque Journal, which has been following this case since 2010. Noting the wait time for a determination of the groups application should have been much shorter, the newspapers editorial board correctly summarized the problem:

Once Barack Obama became president, groups aligned with the Tea Party movement suddenly had difficulty gaining tax-exempt status. In fact, the IRS admitted it did not give the same scrutiny to groups with a liberal or progressive leaning on their applications. At its heart this is not about agreeing with a groups political bent; its about the IRS being a nonpartisan agency that is supposed to enforce the law with integrity and fairness to all.

Lets not forget that those responsible for this unlawful targeting scheme have never been held accountable. For years, weve been demanding that former top IRS official Lois Lerner and others be held accountable for their roles in this scandal.

At the ACLJ, we expressed our support three months ago when House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady and Tax Policy Subcommittee Chairman Peter Roskam sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions asking the Department of Justice to reopen a probe of Lerner, who was at the center of a targeting scandal.

As I wrote in April, in this plea for the Justice Department to get involved, the lawmakers contend there is clear evidence that Lerner willfully took part in criminal activity during her tenure as the Exempt Organizations Division director.

In the letter, Brady, R-Texas, and Roskam, R-Ill., wrote:

On April 9, 2014, the House Committee on Ways and Means voted to send a letter to the Department of Justice referring former IRS Exempt Organizations Division Director Lois G. Lerner for criminal prosecution. As indicated in the attached letter, the Committees nearly three-year investigation uncovered evidence of willful misconduct on the part of Ms. Lerner. Despite this fact and for what many believe were purely partisan reasons, the prior Administration refused to review Ms. Lerners misconduct.

One of the best ways to clean-up the scandal-ridden IRS is to hold those responsible for the targeting scheme accountable. Reopening an investigation into the actions of Lois Lerner would be an important first step.

Jay Sekulow is Chief Counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which focuses on constitutional law. He also serves as a member of President Trumps legal team.Follow him on Twitter @JaySekulow.

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Jay Sekulow: Here's how the Albuquerque Tea Party FINALLY got tax-exempt status from the IRS - Fox News