Maggie's Farm

I suppose I should be happy that the fact that the IRS has the potential to commit political crimes is better understood, but I do find it more than a little bit maddening.

The IRS (as it's constituted) has no place in a free society with or without the Sixteenth Amendment. No arm of the government should be able to trample the civil rights of citizens with impunity yet the IRS has been doing it for decades and there's not a court in this country that would take your case if they do it to you.

It's almost a joke to hear "civil libertarians" bleat on about how our Forth and Fifth Amendment rights are in jeopardy. In jeopardy??? They are merely given lip service by our government and the rest of us.

The IRS can and routinely does violate the both of those amendments. Every time you file out a 1040 tax form, you are required to be a witness in a potential criminal case against you. Every time the IRS conducts an audit, it searches through your private papers without even discussing the situation with a judge much less procuring a warrant. Every time it seizes property, garnishes wages, drains a bank account, or shutters a business, it does so without due process.

The fact that we and our politicians have allowed that to go on for so long with essentially no dissent is evidence that we are getting just what we deserve. However much we deserve it because of our lack of attention to our liberties, our children do not and they will be the ones most affected by the lack of our vigilance.