Elephant In Exile

First is was the GOP sponsored FMA, now IRS officials are trying to punish the NAACP.

Much has been written about how Pat Robertson and many churches across the country have been trageted by BC04 to gin up support for their re-election. As Elephant has stated before, churches or other non-profits who speak out in favor of a particular candidate risk loosing their tax-exempt status. But what really gets my goat here is that when Rove and Co. are out soliciting church membership lists and preachers are calling on folks to vote BC04, that the IRS is going after the NAACP for a speech its leader Julian Bond gave that was critical of President Bush. How heavy handed of them.

Here's what Julian Bond had to say:

Bond, in a speech in July at the civil rights group's convention in Philadelphia, declared: "The election this fall is a contest between two widely disparate views of who we are and what we believe.

"One view wants to march us backward through history -- surrendering control of government to special interests, weakening democracy, giving religion veto power over science, curtailing civil liberties, despoiling the environment."The other view promises expanded democracy and giving the people, not plutocrats, control over their government."

Note that he didn't say Vote for Kerry or Vote for Bush. How is this different than all the church leaders telling their parishoners to vote their values, oh yes, it involves African Americans who 9 times out of ten vote for a democrat. It's shameful and heavy handed.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usirs1029,0,4959347,print.story?coll=ny-top-headlines