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Fighting through the local legal system had proven to be futile. The Good
Old Boy Network had already demonstrated that the local legal system was bought
and paid for and they could basically do what they wanted when they wanted.
If you think I'm exaggerating about their ability to do something like this,
then recall what happened several years ago in Toledo when the voters approved
reopening the workhouse in Whitehouse against the wishes of the City of
Toledo’s politicians. After the Toledo politicians clearly lost in the
election, did they follow the voters’ mandate and reopen the workhouse? Hell
no. They challenged the issue in court and held it up for two years. Then they
put it back on the ballot, fully knowing that by then any interest in the issue
had been killed, thus allowing them to have it their way; the voters be damned.
And if they didn't win that time they'd just hold it up in court again and put
it back on the ballot until they did win.
Could you or I hold up the results of an election? Hardly. We’d be laughed
out of court. Yet our elected officials did exactly that. This may not seem
like a big deal to you, but when the government can go against the wishes of
the voters and the judicial system goes along with it, you end up with a
government that's controlled by the government and not the people. That's a
tragedy, especially in America.
Now I somewhat hesitate to say this because I'll probably be labeled as an
anti-government extremist or a member of the militia, but I believe that it
states in the Constitution that when this happens, it's time that we overthrow
the government. I don't think this necessarily means that it has to be done by
force. In fact, I'm a strong believer that it can still be accomplished at the
polls. But when the government shuts off that option, it may be time to knock
sparks.
It's extremely dangerous, not just for me but for everyone, when the
political Good Old Boys Network in both parties controls the political system
and the judicial system and their decisions. What's even more alarming is the
fact that the government is powerful enough to even get to an individual’s
attorney if necessary.
Now even though the local political and judicial system had proven beyond a
doubt to me that they were corrupt, I hadn't totally given up on the system. As
far as I was concerned, the only chance I had of ever turning things around was
to make enough money so I could hire a competent out-of-state attorney, someone
whom they couldn't buy off, someone who wasn't afraid to challenge the
government, someone who couldn't be intimidated by them. Hopefully we could
then take this to a higher court.
I knew that this would be a formidable challenge, especially with the IRS
waiting in the wings to pound me at will. Even though I knew that the odds were
against me, I decided that I wasn't afraid of them. I refused to allow anyone,
especially the government and the legal system to defeat me when the only law
I'd broken was not bowing down to them.
Now, before I tell you what I think of the extortionist psychos from the
Internal Revenue Service and demonstrate to you one last time that my melee
with the IRS, besides being a set-up, was illegal, bungling, unethical and
nothing less than a political favor, I'm going to point out to you what some
other people including the press say about the IRS.
Let's start with the cover of Newsweek magazine, October 13th, 1997
issue: "INSIDE THE IRS, LAWLESS, ABUSIVE AND OUT OF CONTROL."
At the top of the article it states:
Victimization of taxpayers isn't just the isolated deviltry of a few agents.
The IRS itself has become a rogue organization, wielding its awesome power
under a cloak of secrecy.
The article goes on to say that nationwide, IRS abuses are the product of a
badly dysfunctional agency, a seemingly totalitarian financial regime where
bullying personalities can find a place to exercise unbridled power over
peoples lives. In some cases taxpayers have been unjustly imprisoned and even
driven to suicide.
It continues to ask:
How could this happen in America? For decades IRS agents have had wide,
almost astonishing powers to enforce the tax code, unlike any other law
enforcement officers, they have a free hand to peer into and lay claim to bank
accounts, pursue debt even after bankruptcy and to decide, somewhat
whimsically, whether you get to keep your home or not, all without going
through the courts.
Those powers were mostly held in check by congressional oversight and the
IRS's own rigid code of ethics. But since the 1970's, a post Watergate law
ironically passed to protect taxpayers' privacy has allowed the agency to
shield itself from many inquiries into its activities. So when the IRS came
under pressure from Congress to show more efficiency, the agency poured its
energies into boosting seizures and case closures. But the IRS managers were
almost never held accountable for how they achieved these goals.
So twisted is the IRS hierarchy, and so top-heavy with managers protecting
fiefdoms, that even long-time employees are not sure who's reporting to whom.
Problem resolution caseworkers assigned to look into complaints actually fall
under the authority of the managers they’re supposed to be looking at.
The next article in the LP News states in bold print: "LP
calls IRS ‘WILDLY INCOMPETENT’." The article goes on to say that:
Recently the Internal Revenue Service admitted it spent 11 years and a
whopping $4,000,000,000.00, 4 BILLION DOLLARS installing a new computer system
that doesn't work. So the much feared federal agency will junk the entire multi
billion dollar system even as its assistant commissioner humbly admitted to
Congress that the IRS lacks the "intellectual capacity" to do the job
correctly. This $4 Billion computer fiasco is just the latest in a long line of
IRS blunders, mistakes and embarrassments. Whether its incorrectly answering
taxpayers' questions or sending out bizarrely faulty penalty notices, the IRS
has proven itself to be the worst kind of bureaucracy--incredibly powerful but
wildly incompetent.
For example:
* Nearly half of the 30 million penalty notices the IRS mails out each year
are erroneous, according to a study by Money magazine. In one case, because of
a computer glitch, a barber in Santa Rosa, CA, was notified that he owed the
agency $4 Billion dollars in back taxes as were 3,000 other people nationwide.
* IRS employees who answer the agency's toll free hotline dispense incorrect
advice at least 30% of the time, according to an internal audit. Of course,
taxpayers who innocently follow the erroneous advice given by bungling IRS
experts could end up in jail or at the very least getting one of those
incorrect penalty notices.
* According to the General Accounting Office, the IRS has no idea how it
spent 64% of its budget in 1992 ($4.3 billion) and none of the agency's
financial statements from 1992 to 1996 can be verified by GAO auditors. Here's
an agency that requires American taxpayers to save every scrap of financial
paper but apparently has shadier accounting practices than the Mafia.
* The IRS's managers pressure employees to seize taxpayers' property so they
can win merit pay bonuses according to testimony before the Senate Commerce
Committee. Agents in a San Francisco IRS office even posted a notice on the
bulletin board that said: "SEIZURE FEVER, CATCH IT." The article went
on to say that a minor mistake on the part of an incompetent IRS agent can mean
years of legal trouble, seized property, thousands of dollars in court costs,
psychological terror and even jail time for innocent Americans.
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