Pundola-Gate - Have Tax Laws Been Broken?

[benburch]

I'm gonna keep flogging this issue until some reporter tells me that it is being investigated.

All this money going to paid pudits - Was it ALL claimed on federal and state taxes?

Is there any means of finding out?

Is there any means of MAKING the IRS investigate this?

Can we JAIL some of these traitors?

[Inland]

1. No reason to think it wasn't.

The tax return is the least likely place for this info to be discovered by public.

[benburch]

4. Remember these are Republicans

So they are fundamentally dishonest and HATE paying taxes.

[skylarmae]

2. there was a thread yesterday suggesting that the government

itself was breaking the law by paying these pundants in the first place. Anything more on that??? Sounded logical to me...

[htuttle]

3. It still seems like they violated the Payola law

Apparently, Michael Powell thought the same, as he initiated an investigation regarding Williams and payola:

From AdWeek, January 15:
http://199.249.170.191/aw/national/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000753170

Doesn't sound like he's planning on quitting at the time this article was written. Six days later, he announced he was resigning...

[Just Me]

5. It's the pattern of deceit by the neoCONimperialists that is criminal.

This taxpayer-funded, government-sponsored, deceptive/manipulative propaganda is immoral, atrocious and sufficiently outrageous to fall squarely within "high crimes and misdemeanors" in addition to constituting breaches of oathes.

Fraud against the American people is disgusting and a freakin' OUTRAGE!!!

The neoCONimperialists MUST GO!!!!

[havocmom]

6. "IRS Audits for Pundits " would make a great bumper sticker!

What line does one use on their tax return form to declare bribe money?

The IRS has spent an inordinate amount of resources doing audits on the working poor who have the balls to claim their Earned Income Credit. That could not have resulted in exposing huge tax fraud as it involves people with VERY LITTLE money. It must have been some sort of intimidation to scare the poor off from using a resource.

How about some of that IRS man-hours going for combing through the returns of the rich and mouthy? Bet there would be a better payoff in fraud uncovered there!

IRS Audits for Pundits!

edits: I need coffee and can't type

[RobertSeattle]

7. It would be an interesting challenge - show me your 1040

It seems like the "trick" the Administration was not to pay these mouthpieces directly but through consulting companies, so it would be on the consulting company to make sure the mouthpieces go W-9s.

[xchrom]

8. hey, what's one more crime?

worse -- how many americans care -- or how many elected reps supposedly representing our interests care?
certainly not the same crew trying to sell our retirement money to wall street.

[Squeech]

9. The real reason is

the Education Department had to pay Armstrong Williams directly because the usual VRWC benefactors, like Richard Mellon Scaife, couldn't bring themselves to write checks to people of color.

I think you can assume that virtually every winger pundit has a funding source, but most of them aren't the government.

Regarding the legal question, of course the government broke the law, but the post-Ashcroft "Justice" department will somehow never manage to complete any investigations. Say, how's that Valerie Plame case coming along, anyway?