Let’s talk about scandals

Benghazi is not a scandal. Congressman Darrel Issa, R-Calif., or a cohort, released bogus summaries of CIA emails about Benghazi to Jonathan Karl of ABC, who reported them as fact. That’s a brewing scandal.

Contributions to political Parties aren’t tax deductible. The Tea Party wanted to be treated differently. Now they’re whining because it took so long. To have donations be tax deductible an organization must be engaged in social welfare, like the Red Cross. I know the Red Cross, I give to the Red Cross, friends, the Tea Party is no Red Cross. The IRS faces this scam all the time from liberal and conservative crooks. While a Bush appointee directed the IRS, they were swamped with right-wing organizations seeking tax exempt status, many under the Tea Party banner. The Inspector General reported IRS personnel in Cincinnati applied different criteria when scrutinizing these groups. According to their conservative Republican Supervisor, a 21-year IRS vet, it was he alone who pushed to have these groups scrutinized more closely. IRS personnel were just following his direction and were not politically motivated.

Darrel Issa purposely edited the supervisor’s remarks to trump up a scandal that never existed. That’s sinful. Individual donors weren’t targeted and there wasn’t an “enemies list” emanating from the White House or anywhere else. Don’t assume these organizations qualified for the tax status they eventually received. All the groups I heard testify before Congress are heavily involved in politics and fraudulently applied for a tax exempt status for which they didn’t qualify. Is another scandal brewing? One group had as its goal “to pit blacks against gays to help defeat Obama.” That’s hardly social welfare. Did John Boehner mention jail time?

Donations to the tax exempt NRA are not tax deductible. Donations to the NRA Foundation are tax deductible because it is involved in education. The question is educating whom, to what? Confusing, isn’t it? So is the 100-year-old law, often amended, governing contributions. Political groups twist the law allowing donors to illegally claim a tax deduction. The IRS should challenge these groups’ status. A problem arises if progressive and conservative groups are purposely treated differently. Why are donations to the Heritage Foundation tax deductible when donations to liberal MoveOn.rrg aren’t? Both are political heavyweights.

Steven Miller the acting director of the IRS was fired by President Obama, perhaps prematurely. Still, the IRS must be above reproach. According to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, records show Douglas Shulman of the IRS visited the White House 11 times over four years to discuss the health care law with administrators. Bill O’Reilly apparently misspoke (a Fox trademark) when he claimed Shulman had been to the White House a whopping 157 times during that time. So much for O’Reilly’s smoking gun. Congress must enact laws which can’t be manipulated by political groups, and any group which fraudulently received tax exempt status must have it revoked. The Inspector General’s report brought the suspected wrongdoing to light. It clears Obama of any involvement whatsoever. Still, Fox noise and Congressional Republicans continue to falsely accuse the president based on Issa’s tampering.

The Justice Department has confirmed checking the phone records of Associated Press reporters while seeking the source of government leaks. U.S. Sen. Rand Paul’s claim of government wiretapping isn‘t true. I’ve always thought the press should not publish government secrets if lives will be jeopardized. That’s playing God to get a scoop. Since reporters won’t divulge their sources, the Justice Department must ferret out the mole within the government using their own legal investigation. There’s no scandal here; just a waste of time. The telephone is the least likely means of passing secret information. The NSA can’t listen to your phone conversations. Still, some of us who opposed the Patriot Act, are concerned about the possible overreach by the NSA.

The epidemic of sexual abuse and violent assaults in the military is a full-blown scandal! Male and female victims receive little justice. They often face retaliation for filing charges. Military justice is a joke. Many accused offenders go untried, and 50 percent of those convicted are allowed to remain in the service! An excellent novel by Nelson DeMille, “The General’s Daughter,” deals with this subject. A commanding General does nothing when his daughter is raped because it might blemish his record.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., blames rape on male hormones. Boys will be boys, he implied. Rape is not hormone related, it‘s a violent assault! How could he not know that? Let’s remove these cases from the chain of command. If justice requires it, let’s have public trials in public courts.

Glen McAdoo, a Churchill County resident, can be contacted at glynn@phonewave.net