IRS Also Ripped Off "Mad Men." But Wait! There's More!

June 7, 2013 - The IRS's horribly awful and expensive ($60,000) "Star Trek" (2010),  the shipwrecked "Gilligan's Island" parody (2010) and the embarrassing dance video were bad enough. But wait, there's more! From the looks of things, the IRS has been wasting taxpayer money on heinously bad videos for decades. That's right: For decades. One has to wonder why: Who the heck actually sees these videos other than IRS employees? We've got some old IRS training videos below, but let's start with this one from 2012, below, which rips off "Mad Men."

"In the noirish video," reports the New York Times yesterday, "an actor appears to echo the character of Don Draper, the besuited advertising executive of the show who dreams up campaigns for cigarettes, airlines and bras. Shot in black and white, with a horn-heavy soundtrack, the four-and-a-half minute video reaches deep for art-world metaphors to describe how I.R.S. employees can assist confused taxpayers."

The NYT also notes that the "Mad Men" ripoff "does not appear on the [IRS's] YouTube channel, which was started in April 2011. Instead, it was uploaded to the site by Michael R. Davis, the professional actor hired to play 'Mr. Draper'."

Michael Davis, IRS Actor

Davis's YouTube channel is "ACTINGREELMRDAVIS," and features only nine videos of his work, including the IRS training video. We found more about him at the website of Stephen Smith Films. Davis has a role in "The Rendezvous," a short film (you can see a trailer there).

The site says that Davis has "starred in TV commercials, numerous government and private industrial films for agencies such as NSA, FBI, and DoD, and hosted a show that aired on HGTV. He has also appeared on such programs as 'Game Change,' 'VEEP,' 'Sex and the City,' 'Homicide,' and 'America’s Most Wanted.' Of his favorite roles was that of a stunt driver/photo double for a character on the TV show 'Bones'."

Oscar Nuñez, IRS Actor

Expect to see Davis making the rounds on talks shows in the very near future. This should be a boost for his career. More power to him. He did nothing wrong. He's just an actor doing what he's paid to do. He's not like the IRS folks, who are overpaid to act like they're working.

Rondo The Midget
As the NYT says, the "Mad Men" themed video is not on the IRS YouTube channel. In fact, there are surprisingly few videos posted there. Fortunately, there is Rondo The Midget. Yep, and his YouTube channel is called "rondothemidget." Makes sense, right? Sure. Rondo seems to have a love of IRS training videos, and he's got a bunch posted over there. I think my favorite is titled "IRS Videos, Understanding Taxes - Direct & Indirect Taxes" (watch it below).

Rondo (the midget) describes the video this way:

"As shown in Mr. Hiles' classroom; badly written and acted videos produced by the IRS in the 80s, demonstrating that taxes are cool. This one could be titled, "Taxes, Pets or Meat." In this video, the main character gets his own bachelor pad, eats Donkey Kong cereal, does shots of Orange Crush, but may lose all this awesomeness because of a property tax increase. He then watches a giant 1" videotape at the library, learns the difference between direct & indirect taxes, and wins a steak dinner bet with his sister who owns a pet store. Main character is Oscar Nuñez, who continues to act, most recently seen in The Proposal with Sandra Bullock & Ryan Reynolds and is/was a regular on The Office."

With any luck, and badly need acting coach, doing government films and videos will be the same career booster for Michael R. Davis that it was for Oscar Nuñez.

The next video, below, is titled "Understanding Taxes - Taxes Raise Revenue."

Rondo says this about the video:

"In this video, the star football player rocks the Le Tigre shirt and the 80s shoulder sweater knot, takes a shine to the plain but studious girl, psycho mom who serves paste for breakfast and is happy when her daughter is ignored by boys, a token handicapped person delivers a note, bizarre characters attend the county council meeting, and the boy comes to the girl's rescue by shouting 'Jean!' In the end, bridges are mended both literally and figuratively."

Ironically, after decades of spending big bucks on lousy training films and videos - ostensibly to help people avoid audits - the IRS itself would fail an audit.

It occurs to me that Rondo The Midget should consider a career as a film reviewer. He's pithy and poignant.  Also watch "Understanding Taxes - Bikes & Withholding," which teaches us that paying taxes makes you a chick magnet. Of course, learning to line dance like an IRS employee will also make you more sexually attractive.

May 21 Tea Party Rallies Nationwide to Protest IRS Abuses

May 20, 2013 - Tea Party Patriots is calling on conservative groups across the U.S. to rally at IRS offices on May 21 in protest of recent abuses of power. 

"On behalf of Tea Party, Patriot groups, 9/12, liberty activists, and the American people," TPP says on their website, "we are calling for anyone and everyone to protest the IRS’ complete abuse of power on Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at noon local time."

They even include a handy "Protest Toolkit," a digital how-to help package that includes nine essentials for the inexperienced rouser of conservative rabble.

Dan Pfeiffer Admits White House Knew About IRS Scandal Before It Was News (Videos)

Pfact Pfudging, May 19, 2013

May 19, 2013 - Sometimes even a liar tells the truth, albeit accidentally. On CBS's Face The Nation today, White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer inadvertently admitted that the Obama Administration knew about the IRS scandal well before it hit the news. Surprisingly, this admission was missed by many.

First, we saw yet another example of the "mainstream media" expressing displeasure (and distrust, even) of the Obama Administration.

Second, host Bob Schieffer, fond of lobbing  softball questions at Democrats with little or no follow up, actually asked tough questions about the ongoing IRS scandal. Pfeiffer lied, lied and lied.

Obama's Weaponized IRS and Dept. of Justice

May 14, 2013 - The Obama Administration scandals just keep coming. The bungling of the Benghazi tragedy, and events leading up to it, was enough to make the administration scramble for cover and excuses. Within the past week, however, we've learned that the Department of Justice used a secret subpoena to snag Associated Press phone records of reporters and editors, and that the IRS improperly targeted conservative groups for extra scrutiny in 2011 and 2012. These abuses of power have a lot of people upset, including quite a few Democrats.

One of those Democrats is former Clinton Administration attorney Howard Fineman had harsh criticism for the Obama Administration. He was a guest today on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" show (video, left).

Fineman spoke about the AP phone records. "Every possible thing that DoJ could have done wrong, they did wrong in this case. Widely overbroad, in terms of the people whose records they got, no notice whatsoever, before or til long after the fact. No evidence that they exhausted other ways to find the information. One of the key things you have to do is look for other ways to find the information before you do this, and they apparently slapped it on quickly, did it very broadly, and the DoJ guidelines say at the top 'our goal here is to be as unintrusive to the press, as protective of the press as we possibly can be.' So, they violated both the letter and the spirit of their own guidelines in doing this. The question is 'Why?'"

Why? Willful abuse of power for political gain might well be the answer, and Fineman himself has said in the past that the Obama Administration is not above using government agencies as weapons. He said that Sheriff Joe Arpaio is a good example of such abuse.

Feds Hog Tie William Beavers, The Hog With The Big Nuts

Big Balls Beavers: Nuts

February 24, 2012 - County Commissioner William Beavers has been indicted on federal charges of tax fraud.  According to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Beavers was indicted on Thursday, February 23 "for allegedly obstructing the Internal Revenue Service and failing to report, and pay taxes on, all of his income." The indictment was announced by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.

The federal charges allege that Beavers, 77, "concealed his under-reporting of income and underpayment of taxes on thousands of dollars that he converted to personal use from his campaign accounts—including more than $68,000 in personal gain on one occasion that was not reported—as well as from his county discretionary spending account."

Altogether, Fitzgerald said that Beavers owes over $226,000 that "he took from his campaign funds and his county expense account to go gambling and to boost his city pension," reports the Sun-Times. "The crime was not taking the money ­— it was failing to report it and pay taxes on it when he converted it to personal use, Fitzgerald said."

Beavers is a man known for outrageous statements, and the indictment was incitement for yet another one from him. Beavers claims that he indicted because "he refused to wear a wire on fellow Commissioner John Daley," says the Sun-Times. “They tried to get to me to become a stool pigeon, and I wouldn’t become a stool pigeon,” Beavers said Thursday, when he learned of the indictment from the Sun-Times. “They wanted me to wear a wire on John Daley. S---.” He said he had no idea why the feds would want him to wear a wire.

Beavers is a man with no class. Before heading back into the county board meeting in 2007, Beavers turned to reporters and loudly declared that that he is “the hog with the big nuts and I’m gonna tell you what it is.”  (What is it about Democrats that makes so frequently speak about their gonads?)

Between 2006 and 2008, says the U.S. Attorney’s Office, "Beavers allegedly paid himself more than $225,000 from three separate campaign accounts and used at least a portion of those funds for personal purposes, including gambling. In 2006, he used more than $68,000 from a campaign account to boost his city pension, and between 2006 and 2008, he used his $1,200 monthly county contingency account for personal purposes without reporting any of these funds as income on his federal tax returns, the indictment alleges."

See the full statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois.

In his announcement of the charges against Beavers, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said, "If politicians choose to use their campaign funds for personal use then they, like all the citizens they serve, share the obligation to honestly report their income and pay the correct amount of taxes,” he said. “The indictment alleges that over a course of three years, Commissioner Beavers repeatedly used his campaign accounts for personal use and then thwarted the Internal Revenue Service by causing his campaign committees to create false records to cover it up.”

• William Beavers Indicted On Tax Fraud Charges (chicagoist.com)
• Beavers: Feds Charged Me Because I Wouldn't Wear A Wire (chicago.cbslocal.com)
• Leave it to Beavers: Another Chicago politician indicted (marathonpundit.blogspot.com)
• Jesse Jackson family castrates "hog with big nuts" (marathonpundit.blogspot.com)

IRS Health Control Checkpoint (Photo)

Not so exaggerated, really. Found at Jim McMahon Chicago. Also see "More ObamaCare assaults on our economy" at Marathon Pundit.

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Please Help the Crow Creek Sioux Fight Washington and the IRS

Please help the Crow Creek Sioux in their struggle against an unusual land grab by Washington D.C. Have a look at the petition below, and please sign it. The Sioux made a video that explains their desperate situation, with the long but appropriate title, "As Obama promises 100 billion a year for UN Climate Scam, Our people live like this!!!" A summary of the landgrab situation here, from USA Today: SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — About 7,112 acres of land on a poverty-stricken South Dakota Indian reservation was auctioned Thursday by the Internal Revenue Service but the buyer's identity is a mystery. The IRS auctioned the land on one of America's poorest Indian reservations after efforts Wednesday to block the sale in U.S. District Court failed. The Crow Creek Sioux Tribe had gone to court to try and stop the IRS auction to settle overdue employment taxes it claims are owed by the tribe. But the auction went ahead, with a winning bid of $2,577,210, IRS spokeswoman Carrie Resch said "It's the first time I've ever heard of the IRS moving against tribally owned property in this manner," said Robert Williams Jr., a law professor and director of the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program at the University of Arizona. (Source, and full story: USA Today, IRS to auction land on Indian reservation, by Jeff Martin, Dec. 3, 2009, accessed Dec. 22, 2009) An excerpt from the petition reads as follows: On December 3, 2009 the Internal Revenue Service unlawfully auctioned off 7100 acres located on Crow Creek Sioux Tribal land. The land is owned by Crow Creek Tribal Farms, Inc. a Tribal corporation and distinct legal entity from the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe. According to the recent motion for temporary restraining order, filed by the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, the IRS seized and auctioned the land to recover $3,123,789.73 dollars in unpaid employment taxes. The document states, Because of erroneous tax advice received from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe became delinquent in the payment of employment taxes collected by the IRS beginning in 2003. The BIA had informed the Tribe that, because it was a federally recognized Tribe, it was not necessary to pay federal employment taxes. The Crow Creek Indian Reservation was created by the 1868 Treaty, Act of April 29, 1868, 15 Stat. 635, and by Section 6, Act of March 2, 1889, 25 Stat. 888. "Taxes collectd by the IRS?" Wait a minute. By treaty, the Indian nations are - nations. For Washington to tax any of the reservations created by treaty is illegal. Imagine Canada trying to tax Illinois, Michigan or North Dakota. It's long past time for Washington to live up to the treaties that it made with the Sioux and other Indian nations within our borders. RELATED: Crow Creek gains support of Calif. tribe IRS sells SD Indian tribe's land to settle debt Obama Administration Agrees to Settle 13-Year-Old Indian Lawsuit for $3.4 Billion Crow Creek: Stolen Lands, Wind Farms and Taking a Stand for the People South Dakota Office of Tribal Government Relations -- Crow Creek Sioux Tribe Video: Native American Rights Under Assault Video: Crow Creek Indian Tribe on The Power Hour, 1/9: Government land theft Leave a Comment * Conservative T-Shirts * Follow CNB on Twitter * RSS Feed

Northside POWER Sleep Out A Snoozer

Alderman Joe Moore left the "Sleep Out" wide awake. So did most of the attendees of this lame and puzzling protest demonstration this evening. (Video from The Bench on Monday evening, 2/25.)

Moore left soon after delivering a speech that could have been given on the steps of the Kremlin in 1917. The speech by Brian White, before Moore's, was even more radical. Both men called, in essence, for the government to control rent prices, private property prices, and they hinted at racial quotas for housing. White is the Executive Director of Lakeside Community Development Corporation, located at 1806 W. Greenleaf Avenue.

The event flyer included such catch phrases as "Curb Condo Conversions," "Support Balanced Housing," More Affordable Housing" and "Stop Renter Displacement." Right out of the Far Left Handbood of Cliches for Useful Idiots. One observer commented that they "are about eight years too late" to try to stop the condo conversions, and since the housing bubble burst it "seems like a pointless exercise anyway."

Nevertheless, a group of approximately 45 people gathered at W. Morse Avenue and N. Greenview in the 49th Ward at 4:00 p.m. today. The event was billed as a "Sleep Out" with a "prayer vigil and press conference." The "Sleep Out" is supposed to end at 7:00 tomorrow morning, but Moore, White and others left before 6:00 p.m. So much for solidarity.

The so-called "Sleep Out" was organized by Rev. Marilyn Pagan Banks of Northside POWER (People Organized to Work, Educate, and Restore). The flyers for the "Sleep Out" advertised a prayer vigil. Nobody was sleeping out, and there was no prayer vigil as of 8:00 p.m. on this frigid evening.

Northside POWER is politically active advocacy arm of the Good News Community Kitchen, located at 7649 N. Paulina Street in Rogers Park, it is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization. Northside POWER violates the conditions of its IRS tax exempt status frequently, and tonight's event was just another example of this abuse of tax payer goodwill.

But Brian White's Lakeside CDC seems to be violating IRS rules for non-profit organizations, too.

This recruitment ad for Lakeside CDC says that it "is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) housing organization located in Rogers Park on Chicago's far North Side. Lakeside CDC serves eight Chicago neighborhoods, including Rogers Park, Edgewater, Uptown, West Ridge, Lincoln Square, North Center, Albany Park, and North Park. Services include housing counseling for low- and moderate-income individuals, advocacy for more affordable housing, and real estate development activities. Lakeside CDC has a staff of two and depends on the active involvement of volunteers to advance its mission."

Consider this from the IRS:

The political campaign activity prohibition is not intended to restrict free expression on political matters by leaders of organizations speaking for themselves, as individuals. Nor are leaders prohibited from speaking about important issues of public policy. However, for their organizations to remain tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3), leaders cannot make partisan comments in official organization publications or at official functions.

To avoid potential attribution of their comments outside of organization functions and publications, organization leaders who speak or write in their individual capacity are encouraged to indicate clearly that their comments are personal and not intended to represent the views of the organization.

Rev. Pagan Banks and Brian White are both "organization leaders." The "Sleep Out" was an official function. Alderman Moore said that the event was "made possible" by Northside POWER, which put out the blue flyers.

Both Pagan Banks and White presented themselves as being official representatives of their respective (tax exempt) organizations. Both of them spoke on behalf of their organizations. At no time did either of them "indicate clearly that their comments are personal and not intended to represent the views of the organization." Quite the opposite, in fact.

But this should surprise nobody. This crowd to which Moore, Pagan Banks and White belong are experts at playing with TIFs and playing loose with your tax dollars. These self-appointed "community leaders" wish to tell you what to do. Brian White is not only the chief poo bah of Lakeside CDC. He is also the co-chair of the WRPCO TIF/Community Planning Board Committee. It should also be noted that, through his public activities, Brian White has made himself a very public figure.

The White-Moore-Pagan Banks crowd intends to initiate legislation - at city, county, state and federal levels - to be able to command that you do it, too. If you don't believe that, you've been asleep your entire adult life. Wake up.

The Bench: Moore Pagan Activities, Tax Code Violations

The Bench: EXTRA: The "Press Conference" That Wasn't

How Rent Control Drives Out Affordable Housing

Brian White of the Lakeside CDC suggested that $7 million in TIF funds were available; couldn't it be used to buy down the cost of the condos?