Main thread for Ed and Elaine Brown vs the evil IRS, Part 20

[CNHT]

Used to like the Union Leader before they became so politically correct.  The Loebs must be rolling in their graves.

They recently smeared Dr. Paul, indirectly and anonymously. That would never have happened before they were infiltrated.

I just hope y'all learned your lesson about M S-K.

[LordBaltimore]

My big question is, why are they doing this NOW, and not years before? It's not like they just stopped paying yesterday for cryin' out loud.

What makes it so important to make a huge issue of this NOW?

I'll leave the answer to you people to speculate....but I know exactly what the reason is.

The amount of time it took to prosecute the Browns is fairly normal. It takes roughly six years to exhaust the civil collections process, a couple of years to investigate criminally, and then it averages anywhere between two years and five years between the raid and the indictment.  The criminal trial itself was supposed to take place last summer, but it was delayed at the Browns' request.

Look at Irwin Schiff.  He was out or prison and loudly peddling his products online and on the radio for fourteen years before he was convicted. 

Bottom line, the government is just frickin' slow.

[LordBaltimore]

It's pathetic really. I mean there must be thousands of people in this state who haven't paid their taxes, but why them and why now?

Most people who don't pay their taxes barely make enough to have to file the forms.  Elaine, in comparison, was netting between $250,000 and $300,000 a year.

[Russell Kanning]

Someone asked me today if there have been any international reporters at Ed and Elaine's place. Maybe they have been:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/24/wfbi124.xml


FBI besieges couple in tax protest
By Tom Leonard in New York
Last Updated: 2:19am BST 24/07/2007

   
Ed and Elaine Brown stopped paying federal taxes in 1996



A retired couple in the American state of New Hampshire have become national causes célèbres after barricading themselves in their fortified home for six months and refusing to go to jail for not paying their tax.

Toting guns, quoting the Bible and pledging to fight for freedom, Ed and Elaine Brown are waiting in their remote hilltop home in Plainfield and daring the FBI to come in and get them.

Officials, who are seeking to enforce a five-year prison sentence on the Browns for tax evasion, say they are trying to avoid a Waco-style shootout.

The authorities have cut off power, internet, house phone, mobile phone and mail to the Browns' 110-acre compound. But armed supporters of the couple have been delivering food supplies to the Browns or championing their cause on the internet.
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The Browns, aged 66 and 64, stopped paying federal taxes in 1996, saying the US Constitution supported their claims that labour should not be taxed.

But in January a judge convicted the Browns of conspiring to evade paying taxes on £1 million in income from Mrs Brown's dentistry practice.

In June, they returned the tax bill unpaid along with documents purporting to establish their stewardship of the property "for the Lord".

US Marshal Stephen Monier, who is in charge of the siege, said the couple should turn themselves in peacefully. "They have been tried and convicted and sentenced," he said.

The Browns say they will die fighting. "You can scare me," said Mr Brown, "you can kill me, but you can't intimidate me.

"There's no more America. It's already gone."

[CNHT]

The article came from NY, and they didn't have to be there to do the research.
However, I think sometimes you are far too trusting of reporters. This guy called it first a 'hilltop home' but then a 'compound'.

MY SISTER LIVES IN A REAL COMPOUND with more than one house on the property surrounded by a fence in a gated community. That's a compound.

A single home on many acres on a hilltop is just that.

[LordBaltimore]

Why?  I think one reason is because Ed sued the IRS.

He only sued them after his raid, which means that the criminal investigation was already well under way.

[LordBaltimore]

The article came from NY, and they didn't have to be there to do the research.
However, I think sometimes you are far too trusting of reporters. This guy called it first a 'hilltop home' but then a 'compound'.

MY SISTER LIVES IN A REAL COMPOUND with more than one house on the property surrounded by a fence in a gated community. That's a compound.

A single home on many acres on a hilltop is just that.

According to the video of Ed's interview with the Boston Globe reporter, Ed thinks the compound label is appropriate.

[coffeeseven]

A compound is that which is comprised of two or more items. A house alone cannot be called a compound but a house and a garage can. With that in mind don't most of us live in compounds?

[Russell Kanning]

I don't ... but I can dream of my own compound someday.

[Lloyd Danforth]

A compound is that which is comprised of two or more items. A house alone cannot be called a compound but a house and a garage can. With that in mind don't most of us live in compounds?

The Corleone's lived in a Compound

[coffeeseven]

A compound is that which is comprised of two or more items. A house alone cannot be called a compound but a house and a garage can. With that in mind don't most of us live in compounds?

The Corleone's lived in a Compound

True.

About the terms and phrases the media uses: I tell lots and lots of people about the Browns, taxation, etc. and it's funny that every single one of them parrots that catch phrases they hear and read.  "aren't they the people that are holed up...?"

I point out that they are not "holed up". All they did was close the door to the house.

Or maybe they are saying "hold up" which is exactly what the IRS does.

[Russell Kanning]

When there are bad men out to get you .... how bad is "holing up"?

[CNHT]

A compound is that which is comprised of two or more items. A house alone cannot be called a compound but a house and a garage can. With that in mind don't most of us live in compounds?

A garage even if it can't be used as a house, i.e. no heat? What about garages that are attached?

I always thought compound meant a property containing two or more homes, actualy houses or aparments...or whatever.

Whatever it's clear that they've used incendiary language to make these folks look as though they are somehow normally violent and a danger to ordinary people... I mean there was one article that talked about how they were going to watch you 'in case violence broke out' at your picnic. I kinda laughed and thought, what the hell, do they think you are going to go up there and hurt each other? That doesn't even make sense. But it shows you a lot about their mindset on this...they truly want the general public to think they are dangerous to them.

Even if one thinks they are totally wrong for not paying, making up this language to color the situation is journalistically wrong. The UL *used* to have journalistic integrity and fairness.

[Kat Kanning]

  com·pound   

NOUN:

   1. A building or buildings, especially a residence or group of residences, set off and enclosed by a barrier.
   2. An enclosed area used for confining prisoners of war.


Seems to be missing the barrier.

[error]

A retired couple sits at their home, day after day. This is about the most boring thing you can read in the newspaper. I can't blame journalists for wanting to liven things up a bit, but at the same time, most of them need to be smacked with a thesaurus.