The Conservative Groups Often Deserved Investigation

The New York Times writes about how conservative groups screaming about being investigated by the IRS actually deserved it in multiple cases. The 501C4 status they were applying for limits direct participation in political campaigns. Yet these groups were actively campaigning for Republican candidates and that kind of activity is directly prohibited by law. Gee, maybe that was why they were being investigated.

New Audit Allegations Show Flawed Statistical Thinking - NYTimes.com

Nate Silver shows through some simple analysis that the claims that are being made about Republican donors being targeted by the IRS are questionable at best. Simply put, if you can find 4 people who say they were audited and they were donors to the GOP you haven't proven a thing other than those 4 people were audited. Innumeracy abounds in America though, so don't expect many to understand this.

Blame Congress For the IRS-Tea Party Mess | Mother Jones

Among all the faux outrage, the claims of paranoia being justified and attempts to link the IRS actions in Cincinnati to the White House,remember this essential truth, that the single entity most responsible for what happened is most likely Congress itself for passing such a vague, even mushy law.

Is this the reason the IRS screw up and Benghazi are being pushed so hard?

The deficit is dropping in absolute numbers and in the near future will continue to do so. When combined with a GDP that's increasing, although not as much as those who follow these things would like, it means that the measurement that most economists consider more meaningful than the dollars involved will be improving as well, which is the annual deficit expressed as a percentage of GDP. This robs the GOP of their biggest screaming point of recent times so they need something else to use to attack their enemies with.