Government persecutes Campaign For Liberty

From Campaign For Liberty:

I've been bracing for this for months now.

Recently, my attorneys informed me the IRS has launched a new attack on Campaign for Liberty.

The IRS is now demanding sensitive contributor information on C4L donors going all the way back to 2012!

I've instructed Campaign for Liberty staff to give them absolutely nothing until I hear from you.

This assault is flat-out UNCONSTITUTIONAL and illegal.

But I'm not naïve.

I know that more legal threats and hefty fines designed to cripple Campaign for Liberty – or even force us to shut our doors – are right around the corner.

And I don't think it's any accident this is happening right in the midst of our fights to finally audit the Federal Reserve and stop the NSA's out-of-control domestic spying schemes!

But the truth is, I have a decision to make - a critical decision that could affect Campaign for Liberty's very survival in the months ahead.

Do I fight on? Do I risk everything? Do I tell the statist IRS to go fly a kite?

Or should Campaign for Liberty just pay up, keep our head down, and hope this never happens again?

I'm afraid those are my only options.

That's why I urgently need your advice.

So, I've included a special "IRS Battle Survey" with this letter. Will you please fill it out, and return it to me right away?

The truth is, I must hear from you IMMEDIATELY.

Even after Campaign for Liberty members and supporters finally forced the IRS to back down during our standoff last year, I knew there would be more assaults in the works.

And as I warned you not long ago, my worry was they would try to weaken our liberty movement right in the midst of our most critical legislative efforts – right when it matters most!

Now – with congressional fights over NSA spying and the Federal Reserve smearing anyone who dares question their secrecy - it's happening.

What the IRS is demanding from Campaign for Liberty is contributor information on some of our top donors - pointing to a rarely enforced and unconstitutional bureaucratic rule.

As a 501(c)(4) organization under IRS law, all Campaign for Liberty contributor information is supposed to be confidential.

This is a critical protection I wholeheartedly support.

Privacy and liberty go hand-in-hand.

When Thomas Paine published his pamphlet Common Sense in 1776, he did so anonymously.

Forcing organizations like Campaign for Liberty to publicize donor information would have an incredibly chilling effect on political free speech.

Many liberty-loving Americans would silence themselves for fear of becoming targets of political "retribution."

And after the Obama IRS was caught red-handed targeting pro-limited government groups for harassment and intimidation, these fears could not be more well-founded.

So there's no way I would ever just hand this kind of information over to these government bureaucrats.

That's not an option. Campaign for Liberty is prepared to lead this fight on behalf of all freedom-loving Americans. But I need you to tell me what to do. Please tell me how I should respond to this new IRS threat.

When we filed annual reports with the IRS as required by law, we refused to provide this information.

Now, the IRS is demanding this information – from all the way back in 2012!

But the truth is, the IRS has only occasionally sought to "enforce" their ridiculous rule.

And for good reason. Several years ago, the National Organization for Marriage complied with IRS demands and promptly saw their donor information publicized. The IRS was forced to pay a fine to the organization and issue a public apology.

I'm afraid the real reason they're coming after Campaign for Liberty is something far more sinister.

They know more Americans are beginning to agree with you and me.

They know our r3VOLution is growing stronger by the day.

Americans are fed up with BOTH parties' out-of-control spending, unconstitutional spying, backroom "deals," and weekly assaults on our remaining freedoms.

That's why Campaign for Liberty is being targeted.

That's why the statists in BOTH parties want so much to shut us up and shut us down.

I'm afraid without your support and advice today, they could very well get their wish.

I have no doubt if I took the IRS to court over its ridiculous demands, Campaign for Liberty would win, hands down.

But I'm afraid that's not what this is about.

Campaign for Liberty is run on a shoestring budget.

We don't have millions lying around in the bank.

This is about draining us.

This is about forcing me to take resources from other critical programs like Audit the Fed just to keep our doors open!

That's why I want so badly to just say "NO!"

But without an IMMEDIATE influx of funds, I'm afraid we'll be sitting ducks.

I just won't be able to pay for everything.

But the alternative could be worse.

Paying any fine the IRS levies and complying with the IRS' demands - just to exercise our rights as American citizens to petition our government – may be cheaper in the short run.

But it'll simply embolden the IRS and an alphabet soup of other federal agencies to come after us.

This is the price you pay for daring to stand up to a federal government that wants to keep taxing, spending, and printing every American into the poorhouse.

So what do I do?

Won't you please fill out your "IRS Battle Survey" right away?

I'm going to ask my staff to tally up the votes, and I will proceed as C4L's generous members and supporters tell me to.

The decision is in your hands.

But if you tell me to fight, please realize this is serious.

Any potential legal fight is going to take money - money Campaign for Liberty does not have lying around.

So I must ask you to agree to an emergency gift of $30 .

I know that's a lot. But this is the IRS we're talking about. This is not a game.

I have to ask all Campaign for Liberty supporters to go above and beyond what they've done in the past.

But if $30 is just too much, won't you please agree to $20 , or at least $10 ?

This is not something I can just put off. I need to hear from you right away. I'm anxiously awaiting your response.

Please fill out your "IRS Battle Survey" and agree to your most generous gift of $30 , $20 , or at least $10 TODAY.

For Liberty

Ron Paul
Chairman

P.S. The IRS has struck again. Campaign for Liberty received a letter DEMANDING we turn over sensitive contributor information to the IRS!

The statists' goal is to cripple Campaign for Liberty and perhaps even force us to shut our doors. So I need you to tell me how I should respond to this new IRS threat using your "IRS Battle ?Survey."

And if you possibly can, please agree to your most generous gift of $30 , $20 , or at least $10 to help Campaign for Liberty fight back TODAY!

Lois Lerner ducks a reporter's questions

Lois Lerner–the former IRS official at the heart of Tea Party targeting–is retired from the IRS. Despite being held in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify, she hasn’t been prosecuted. Yet after her long silence, her exclusive interview with Politico was anything but reticent and reserved. In it, Ms. Lerner said she did nothing wrong and considers herself the victim.

Ms. Lerner bristled at any suggestion she had anything to do with destroying emails, switching to texts, letting her own liberal views influence her treatment of Tea Party a_holes, crazies. etc. Yet in a curious turn of events, journalist and Crapitalism author Jason Mattera showed up in her nice Bethesda neighborhood to pepper her with questions. They included such zingers as “Do you feel bad about turning the government into a weapon to crush political dissent?”

This time, Ms. Lerner wasn’t flanked by lawyers and facing softball questions at Politico. And who can blame her for not wanting to answer these questions. So she scurried to a neighbor’s house and started knocking on the door, begging to be admitted. Ms. Lerner’s day got worse when her neighbors seemed to, well, ‘Take the Fifth’ about letting her in. She stood there on the porch, while Jason Mattera probes with barbs like, ‘it doesn’t feel good to be targeted does it?’

The husband came around front and Mattera said she was trying to get in to avoid answering questions. The husband didn’t want Ms. Lerner in the house either, so she heads for another neighbor’s. You can watch the video here, well, until the hard drive crashes:

OK, this may not be journalism’s finest hour, nor does it necessarily mean much that Ms. Lerner didn’t want to answer these questions. It may not even mean much that the neighbor has probably had enough, and didn’t want to be involved. That’s so no matter how much the neighbor may like Ms. Lerner, or her dogs for that matter.

I’m not saying that anyone wants to be hounded (excuse the pun), either. But being hounded and asked questions of this sort cannot be entirely unexpected and may not even be unfair, especially after Ms. Lerner’s exclusive interview with Politico. It all sounds a little like Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, based on the book by Judith Viorst. Just like Lois Lerner’s day, from the moment Alexander wakes up, everything goes wrong.

Gum in his hair, mishaps at breakfast, on the school bus, at school, and more. From lousy teachers that pick on Alexander, to no desert, a visit to the dentist, and getting punched by his brother, Alexander’s day is ruined. After school, the shoe store doesn’t have Alexander’s size in the cool sneakers, so naturally, Alexander’s mom buys horrible plain white ones, which Alexander refuses to wear. Stopping by his dad’s office, Alexander wrecks the xerox machine and the phone.

His dad even tells him not to pick him up at work anymore! At dinner, Alexander’s mom serves lima beans (ick), there’s kissing on TV , a bad bath, and railroad train pajamas Alexander hates. At each bad turn–and there are plenty–Alexander says he wants to move to Australia, presumably because it’s better there. The book ends when Alexander’s mother says everybody has bad days, even people in Australia.

So how is Alexander faring with critics? The New York Post says ‘Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day’ is awfully mediocre. But we clearly all do have very bad days sometimes. Just think about these unexpected mishaps: There’s having your hard drive crash. Having your texts not saved. Having people question you when they have no right. There’s conservative a__holes and crazies voicing political speech that he Supreme Court bizarrely said was OK, but that really shouldn’t be. Just ask Eric Holder.

Want even more terrible, horrible, no good items? How about those rogue employees in Cincinnati doing things they shouldn’t. I’ll bet all those missing emails would prove once and for all that those confused rogue Cincinnatians did all the targeting non-biased and careful review with no help from the boss. Too bad the hard drive is gone destroyed buried not available despite best efforts. Maybe Alexander had something. Maybe moving to Australia wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all?

Source

Like he said she should be hounded. She should pay. What kind of penalty is she paying living in a house like that in a nice neighborhood like that. That's not a penalty that is a reward. Lerner doesn't belong in a nice house like that. She deserves to languish in prison as Big Marge's sex toy. How many conservative groups was she going to persecute. How many people was she going to send to prison via her inquisition squads? She didn't like being targeted. Poor baby,doesn't feel good does it? Don't like it don't do it. Once Holder is out of office that would be the perfect time to go after Lerner. With Holder gone that may loosen her tongue and she may start singing like a canary.