From www.humanevents.com: Obama's IRS targets Tea Party

Obama's IRS targets Tea Party

Today, Obama has an enemies list.  The IRS is investigating conservative political groups including the Tea Party who oppose Obama's agenda.
 
Tea Party groups in many states applied to the IRS for recognition as non-profit organizations under Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(4) which allows the organization to engage in political debate but does not allow a tax deduction to donors for donations made to the group.
 
Tens of thousands of such political non-profit organizations exist across the political spectrum, including ACORN, and one much in the news these days: Media Matters, the liberal clearing house for reporters and columnists eager to echo the liberal line of the day.
 
Just since the first of this year, Tea Party groups in Hawaii, Texas, Ohio, California, Kentucky, and Virginia report receiving inquiries from the IRS challenging their claim to non-profit status.

Up to 80 conservative/constitutionalist groups, including 9/12 Project groups around the country have reportedly received these letters.  The IRS letters all come from a single office of the IRS in Cincinnati, Ohio.
 
The letters contain lengthy questionnaires asking for information well beyond the facts necessary under the IRC to establish the legal parameters of the 501(c)(4) designation.
 
For example, the Kentucky 9/12 Project applied for a non-profit designation in December 2010.  The IRS return letter stated that there would be a determination within 90 days. The Kentucky group next heard from the IRS on February 14, 2012 in a letter containing 30 main questions with a total of 88 separate inquiries.
 
The IRS letter demanded the schedule and contact of every event sponsored by the group, speaker’s names and what the speaker said, and every written communication associated with the event.  The letter demanded the names and personal information of every member and volunteer.
 
Other questions in the letter demand the names of donors and ask for the names of "board members or officers who have run or will run for office (including relatives)"
 
The letters give the groups two weeks to reply.
 
This wave of letters closely follows a letter from six liberal U.S. Senators to the Commissioner of the IRS.  Senators Bennett, Schumer, Franken, Udall, Shaheen, Whitehouse and Merkley requesting the IRS investigate political activity by these conservative groups.
 
Why the sudden focus now by Obama and the Democrats on the grassroots citizen groups who changed the 2010 election by raising public awareness of the dangers of Obama's out of control federal deficit spending, the bailout of Wall Street, the phony "Stimulus", and the folly of ObamaCare?