Given that there have been various discussions of abuse of power under
the current adminstration, I'd like to submit a recent incident for
consideration.

Federal tax agents showed up at a small manufacturing facility, presented
a search warrant that listed the facility as the place to be searched, and
gave a vague suspicion of tax law violations as the...

Forgot to mention that there has been speculation that the "raid" was
prompted by the company's owners stepping on some (political) toes,
in the last year or so.

Paul Stevens wrote:

Paul, not that I doubt your account, but how about some sort of cite...?

jak

"jakdedert" bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:NWsyj.4552$rE5.88@bignews5.bellsouth.net...

Not Paul... and not really even the same story, but another possible example
of very likely Nixonian abuse of power nonetheless... regarding the IRS
deciding to "investigate" the entire United Church of Christ denomination
because Barack Obama was invited to make, and did make, a non-partisan
speech about his own faith and the role it plays in public life.

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/14724.html

"jakdedert" bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:NWsyj.4552$rE5.88@bignews5.bellsouth.net...

Well, I was trying to delay the eventual banter about "gubs", since this is
a Fourth Amendment issue of a federal tax agency walking in with a vague
warrant, then confiscating just about everything the company would need
to keep it's day to day operations going, from a financial view (how do you
keep your employees happy, if you just lost *all* of your payroll records?).

Given that there are no specific charges, no licenses pulled, and no
arrests, it (at the very least) has the appearance of being motivated by a
desire to put the company out of business.

Don't know where this story's charges of fraud and money laundering came
from, as it's the wrong agency for such charges, and the agent interviewed
stated "federal firearms violations"(tax law violations...

On 2008-03-02 12:54:26 -0600, "Paul Stevens" bellsouth.net> said:

banter
1676, slang, origin uncertain.

noun: light teasing repartee

verb: be silly or tease one another; "After we relaxed, we just kidded
around" [syn: kid]

WordNet(R) 3.0, (c) 2006 by Princeton University.

http://ktar.com/index.php?sid=746736&nid=6
"It's still not clear if the nature of the investigation is as serious as
the
evidence implies."

Uh, what evidence? Other than the guns the BATF put out on the
sidewalk for display to the media (and what is that evidence of?)?

Still trying to figure out where I saw the reference to a contractor being
used to do the seizure.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/110061

"TAKING INVENTORY: Members of the ATF and a contractor
branch, Forfeiture Support Associates, sort through piles of arms
seized from Cavalry Arms Corp. in Gilbert on Wednesday."

No comments on the issue of the federal government having a
contractor set up to provide manpower for government seizure
of private property?

I could see some argument (don't think I'd agree with it, though)
for using a contractor for seizing property that had been forfeited
in a court order to sell the property to settle a tax debt, but this
incident was supposedly a federal agency serving a search
warrant and seizing "evidence". If the feds were using a 'forfeiture
support' contractor, was it collecting evidence in a case, or just
seizing property for the purpose of seizing it?

Is the federal government turning handling of evidence over to
private contractors? If you were serving on a jury, what would
you think of "evidence" that you had been told was collected,
tagged, and inventoried by an employee of some low-bid
contractor?

On Sun, 2 Mar 2008 21:08:30 -0600, "Paul Stevens"
bellsouth.net> wrote:

Okay, I'll bite.

In the first, and maybe only place, there is simply way too little
information to go on based on what you've provided so far. And I
really can't help but believe that if this raid had netted drugs,
child porn, or auto parts from a chop shop, you wouldn't be on your
high horse about it. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have been a blip on
your radar.