Hey folks! DLC just lost its tax exempt status!

[cascadiance]

Hah! This blog post quotes a recent Forbes article on this. The DLC doesn't want to disclose their donors like a political action committee is required to do, and they don't benefit "the community at large" (just the "New Democrats") and therefore have been ruled a "for profit" corporation as THEY SHOULD BE!

http://www.correntewire.com/dlc_loses_tax_exempt_status

I like the last paragraph of this blog post:

Some people call for the DLC to be executed. But heck, that’s not how we do things in the USA. After all, it was the IRS that finally put Al Capone away…

[ThomCat]

1. Let's hope that republican front groups

get the same attention from the IRS.

[Vincardog]

4. And the repiglickin front FAUX CHURCHES

[EFerrari]

2. Good. n/t

[fooj]

12. Ditto.

:smoke:

[Kurovski]

63. Very good.

The DLC doesn't honestly give a shit about most of us.

[Phredicles]

3. There's really only one response to news like this:

:evilgrin:

[rinsd]

5. Wow a six month old article celebrating Bush's IRS going after Democrats!

Woo-hoo!

[MonkeyFunk]

6. exactly!

And if Bush had Hillary Clinton arrested on the floor of the Senate, people here would cheer that, too.

[otherlander]

16. I really doubt that.

[MonkeyFunk]

21. I don't....

someone here says DLC members are traitors and should be in prison. It's right here in this thread.

I don't find left-wing fascism any more attractive than right-wing fascism.

I can see the DLC is going to be in 2008 what Skull & Bones was here in 2004 - a mythical hyper-powerful secret cabal that rules everything. In fact, DLC is just a think-tank, and S&B is just a frat.

[merh]

50. Well, the PNAC is just a think tank.

Look what trouble it has caused.

I don't like the DLC - they are too concerned with corporations and satisfying their own greed.

If they don't want to play by the rules then they need to get out of the game.

[JackRiddler]

53. Let's get our years straight, please...

The DLC already was in 1992 what Skull & Bones was in 2000-2004: a tool for the unscrupulous seekers of power.

Let's hope it won't be able to ruin a progressive alternative ever, ever again. It's too bad if you can't see why a front group for neoliberal economics, corporate feudalism and globalist/neocon wars is *just as bad* when it pretends to be Democratic as when it openly and honestly advocates these same barbaric policies on the Republican side.

[tavalon]

42. Um, no

Just because I (and many others here) don't want her to run, I have no desire to oust one of our own. But the DLC is fooling you with the term "Democratic" in its name - they took a page from the Rethugs and Orwell. Their agenda is to subvert the actual Democratic agenda. I doubt seriously that the Bush administration went after them - Rove at least is too smart for that. They are his wolves in sheep clothing.

[originalpckelly]

7. Democrats?

:shrug:

[natrat]

8. dlc are not democrats -they are traitors and thieves and belong in prison

[rinsd]

10. Wit us or agin us DUers should flock with the rest of the black and white thinkers (nt)

[originalpckelly]

11. No, when a "Democrat" accepts money from right wing charities...

and big corporations, then goes out and preaches "free trade" I think we ought to examine their motives. I have and I came to the conclusion that DLC is some type of front group trying to steer our party to the right.

[rinsd]

13. Democrats like Al Sharpton?

[originalpckelly]

20. Democrats like Al Sharpton?

[rinsd]

24. I was referring to rw funding sources. Google Roger Stone.

And I am so glad you are in favor of selective prosecution because you do not share the same political beliefs yet the same party as the group.

[MonkeyFunk]

17. Yeah!

ARREST BILL CLINTON NOW! ARREST AL GORE NOW! ARREST HOWARD DEAN NOW!


Jesus Christ - calling people traitors and urging their arrest because their politics differ somewhat from yours: how very Freeperish.

[originalpckelly]

19. Howard Dean was attacked by the DLC.

What are you saying there friend?

[MonkeyFunk]

23. I'm saying Howard Dean

was a member of the DLC.

ARREST HIM NOW!!!! PAPER PLATES NOW!!! HAND LOTION NOW!!!

[madfloridian]

27. Until they had a meeting to say he would not be president.

Remember that? They gave statements to the press. He crossed them during the primaries. Dean never pretended to be anything but centrist. But his grassroots funding was not tolerable to them.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/336

"More than 50 centrist Democrats, including Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner, met here yesterday to plot strategy for the "New Democrat" movement. To help get the ball rolling they read a memo by Al From and Bruce Reed, the chairman and president of the Democratic Leadership Council. The memo dismissed Dean as an elitist liberal from the "McGovern-Mondale wing" of the party -- "the wing that lost 49 states in two elections, and transformed Democrats from a strong national party into a much weaker regional one."

"It is a shame that the DLC is trying to divide the party along these lines," said Dean spokesman Joe Trippi. "Governor Dean's record as a centrist on health care and balancing the budget speaks for itself."

As founder of the DLC, From has been pushing the Democratic Party to the right for nearly 20 years. He was in tall cotton, philosophically speaking, when an early leader of the DLC, Bill Clinton, was elected president in 1992. As Clinton's domestic policy guru, Reed pushed New Democrat ideas -- such as welfare reform -- that were often unpopular with party liberals.

"We are increasingly confident that President Bush can be beaten next year, but Dean is not the man to do it," Reed and From wrote. "Most Democrats aren't elitists who think they know better than everyone else."

[MonkeyFunk]

28. which is all fine and good

but has nothing to do with my point, which is:

calling for the imprisonment of people simply because you disagree with their political philosophy is fascist and un-american.

[madfloridian]

30. I was clarifying what they did as a tax-exempt group.

I said nothing like that.

[MonkeyFunk]

32. I understand

I wasn't accusing YOU of saying that.

I simply used Howard Dean as an example of someone who had been in the DLC. Somebody else would like such people arrested and charged as traitors.

[bvar22]

69. No,

Advancing the power of Corporate CEO's (The Ownership class)at the expense of the Working CLass is Fascism!
THAT is the goal of Fascism, and THAT is the goal of the DLC!

[Kurovski]

64. There's a reason why good Democrats leave the DLC.

The DLC is not very concerned with what Democrats stand for.

We're all sick of them shooting off their mouths about the lie that we have to move to the right to win.

The DLC belongs out on the curb with all other broken-down, tattered and crappy right-wing trash from an era quickly passing.

[EST]

22. Hey!

Quit beating around the bush and just come right out and say what you mean, wontcha? :toast: :spank: :hi: :rofl: :rofl:

The DLC is our version of the corpofascists and, imo, should be discontinued, with prejudice.
Their goals and intentions-and plans for us as indentured servants-are indistinguishable from those of the rabid right wing.

The unfortunate consequence of a totally justified attack on the dlc as a blot on us, and an evil influence on everything we do, gets emotionally interpreted by some well meaning compatriots as an attack on their favorite candidate.

As an aside to all who would read these posts: please do some research on the origin, financing and aims of the dlc. Do it with an open mind and try to appreciate the fact that there is meant no attack on particular person, but an effort to point out and excise a cancer on the democratic party.

We have to kill our own snakes and clean up our own crap, as much for our own benefit as to present all the public with a group of qualified people who are fit to bring America bock from the endangered species list.

Thank you, natrat, for allowing me to piggyback on your own righteous post.

[sandnsea]

29. No kidding

Do they not get that if it's the DLC one week, it's PDA or DFA the next. *sigh*

[mtnsnake]

35. pot kettle black

I don't know what you're always pissing and moaning about, but here you go again jumping at any opportunity to bash anything centrist. True the DLC is far from perfect, but it's not the 100% evil machine that you make it out to be with your nonstop barage of incredulous spin and BS. You've done nothing for the last 2 years except run down the people who have been fighting the most for the Democratic Party. Anyone who happens to defend a DLC'er, even once, or dare praise someone like Hillary Clinton in any way, shape, or form is instantly branded by you as some kind of a traitor. The Party is for all Democrats, not just the ones you deem worthy. Lighten up.

[sandnsea]

36. I didn't bash the DLC

I was agreeing that it isn't a good thing to praise the DLC losing its tax status, it could be the PDA or DFA next.

There is a rule about stalking, however, and it would seem to me that you just broke it.

[mtnsnake]

37. Wahhh

Stalking? Gimme a break. You'd know something about that, though, since you've made a living stalking me and anyone else who dares go against your rules of perfection. Don't forget. The Democratic Party is for everyone, including the DLC that you demonize with non-stop lies, spin, and innuendo. You fool NO ONE. Hope that helps...

[sandnsea]

41. Again. I didn't bash the DLC

So who am I trying to fool??

:shrug:

[johnlal]

67. If the stakes weren't so high, I might agree

But if by "Centrist" you mean, in support of the disasterous war in Iraq, perhaps the biggest US blunder in modern history, I can't support that.

[Morgana LaFey]

45. Democrats? Are you sure??

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x173238

[originalpckelly]

60. I know. That article is one of the reasons they're probably not...

going to be releasing any more details about their contributors.

[johnlal]

66. You mean "New Democrats" n/t

[Horse with no Name]

9. That's very telling

It's not surprising but why would they refuse to disclose their donors? Why indeed.

[AtomicKitten]

14. When the churches that proselytize politics lose their tax status

... that's when I'll celebrate, me being more interested in hamstringing the GOP than a faction within the Democratic party that I just don't agree with on most issues.

[mtnsnake]

39. If only all Democrats had your attitude

We'd get ten times as much accomplished than we do by spending every waking minute figuring out ways to run down those certain factions of the Party that some deem evil.

[Tellurian]

48. Exactly, and what is all the hootin and hollerin about..

The DLC Appealed the IRS Ruling...as far as I know, they are maintaining their 501(c)(4) status.
The OP is a old blurb from last fall in 06'.. I don't believe it's been settled yet.

[thethinker]

15. If they need to hide where their funding comes from

this bad, that should tell us something. Everyone knows that a lot of their funding comes from large corporations. What else could they be hiding?

[Dr Fate]

18. What else are they hiding? Their membership list.

They used to post their membership list- then they removed it when they realized that the base was using their membership as a type of litmus test to see who supported Bush more than the active DEM base.

Maybe they put it back, but it was not there about a month ago. (I dont want to give their site any clicks to confirm)

[WorldResident]

25. Yay for the Bush administration using the IRS as a political tool!!!

:eyes: :sarcasm:

[Me.]

26. So I Guess The 'D' In DLC Doesn't For Democratic

"Interestingly, the “D”LC is claiming its exemption on the grounds that “Democratic” is really a misnomer:

The DLC responds that its exclusive purpose is to develop and promote its “Third Way” agenda and that some causes it has lobbied for—e.g., welfare reform, fast-track approval of free-trade agreements—got more Republican than Democratic votes in Congress."

[mazzarro]

33. DLC shows that it should not be deeply involved in DNC anymore

That description of the purpose of DLC demands that if that be the case, then DLC should be prohibited from the deep influence and strangle hold it has on the internal decisions of the Democratic party and leaders - IMHO.

[Individualist]

40. Misnomer is an understatement

They should change it to NELC - Neocon Enabling Leadership Council.

[Cha]

62. I like that!

"NELC" it is.

[bonito]

31. DLC overview

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Leadership_Council

[Pastiche423]

34. YEA!

:bounce:

[Tom Joad]

38. Should be ruled to be a "For Obscenely High profits" corporation

[struggle4progress]

43. I'm not at all cheerful when the IRS is used politically in this fashion

[originalpckelly]

44. First they came for the corporate sell outs who would not release their donors...

:eyes:

[struggle4progress]

49. Do you by any chance remember how Nixon used the IRS?

In my view, the Administration has lost all credibility and is not entitled to the benefit of doubt on much of anything.

[originalpckelly]

59. If they're doing that to real democrats, why not come after...

the PDA or some other real liberal organization?

And I think the reason given for their losing their exempt status is quite right, they should. Anyone who'd hide their contributors should not be receiving such tax breaks.

[struggle4progress]

61. For the same reason they went after Jose Padilla first when they decided to attack ...

... habeas corpus. For the same reason that they started practicing mass arrests with drug dealers. For the same reason they set upon Muslims when they wanted to undermine national and international laws against torture. For the same reason they started screaming about illegal aliens having babies when they wanted to give the President authority to revoke citizenship of Americans born in the United States.

Incidently, your explanation must be wrong: under current law, tax exempt 501(c)(4) organizations are not required to disclose their donors.

Do I like the DLC? Not a bit. Do I think they help progressive causes? Not at all. Do I think this is a first move in a more general attack. Yes, I do.

[bvar22]

70. The PDA and DFA do NOT hide their membership or contributors.

The DLC has NO grassroots support, but is exclusively funded by major corporations, and promotes the agenda of transferring MORE power to the CEOs at the expense of Working Americans. THAT is the dirty little secret the DLC wants to hide (along with their membership as of last year).

PDA and DFA are products of Working Americans. Both are PROUD of their supporters, members, and contributors. Check it out.


The Democratic Party is a BIG TENT, but there is NO ROOM for those
who advance the agenda of THE RICH (Corporate Owners) at the EXPENSE of LABOR and the POOR.

[w4rma]

46. This isn't very recent. It was right before the November elections. I do support this, though. (nt)

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

47. The "Third Way" is now a toll road and only allows right turns.

[bobbolink]

52. .

:rofl:

well spoken :hi:

[Oilwellian]

54. Ha! And.....

a toll road that was once owned by the public, but recently sold to private interests.

[Jim Sagle]

58. And it's being outsourced as well...

[derby378]

56. Don't you mean "Turd Way?"

It's like that Who Framed Roger Rabbit? line: "The whole thing stinks like yesterday's diapers."

[bobbolink]

51. Hurrah!

If it's true, :bounce: :toast: :bounce:

After all, it would be fitting for a corp-run organization.

:bounce: :toast: :bounce:

[Nikki Stone1]

55. hmmm

...

[Jim Sagle]

57. Good news for Democrats. Rove fucked up this time.

[Vidar]

65. A lot of poetic justice there. Brings a smile to my face.

[Lilith Velkor]

68. Fuck tha DLC comin straight from the Undergound

A young voter's got it bad cause she's brown...