Resurrection of my Blog

I’m resurrecting my blog…it’s been over nine years since I last used this…so, this is a test of whether I can be an old dog learning new tricks…

The Dude

GHOST PHONE LAND WINNING TICKET ANNOUNCED!

Okay, let’s get down to it! It’s an extra MERRY CHRISTMAS for one GHOST PHONE ticket holder. The winning ticket stub for one lucky attendee to GHOST PHONE is 36005573. I’m not sure yet which movie theatre this ticket ties into? I’m hoping Mitchell Theatre’s has a code on these numbers which will tell us.

If you have the matching ticket stub please contact us through our website so we can verify the ticket and start drawing up the deed to your new piece of land in Taos, NM!!!

So, thank you one and all who saw GHOST PHONE. I’m looking forward to meeting our new neighbor up on Cerro Montoso in the Filmmaker’s Colony. Take a look at our previous blog if you’d like to see some movie-goer’s reactions to seeing GHOST PHONE.

Next stop is HBO or SHOWTIME or IFC or SUNDANCE CHANNEL or FX or AMC. One of these channels will be doing the World TV Premier of GHOST PHONE.

Ghost Phone: Hear the Buzz!

We’ve done it! After five years of toiling in the gladiator pit of indie filmmaking, GHOST PHONE is now in theaters! We parked ourselves at the Storyteller 7 in Taos a couple days ago and interviewed people as they came out of movie. We could tell you what was said, but it’s so much easier for you to just watch the video.

If you haven’t seen GHOST PHONE yet, take some advice from the people in the video below and see the movie–four or five times. We’re running through December 19, 2013. On December 23, 2013 Taos Mayor Darren Cordova will draw the winning ticket on Taos Plaza. Think about packing the moving van, because you just might be a winner!

We’ve also received some good newspaper and television coverage. Check these links out:

• Albuquerque Journal: “‘Ghost Phone’ Moviegoers Can Become Landowners.”

• KOB-TV: “Independent Movie Could Mean 5 Acres of Land.”

• Albuquerque Arts: “Ghost of a Revival in Taos?”

• Summit Daily: “See movie ‘Ghost Phone’ in Dillon; get a chance to win land in Taos, N.M.”

Thanks,

Jeff and Darien

Ghost Phone in Theaters: A Call for Help

Have you ever wanted to be involved in a movie production? If no, we don’t blame you–it’s a lot of work. If yes, Darien and I have a great opportunity for you. Either way, keep reading. It might change your mind.

So here we are three days away from our World Premiere of GHOST PHONE in Mitchell Theatres. Starting on Friday Dec. 6 every person who buys a ticket for GHOST PHONE and watches the movie will have a chance to win five acres in Taos. That’s right. Every ticket gets you in the movie and also in the running for a land giveaway. GHOST PHONE, WATCH TO WIN!

Cool stuff! But there’s more.

We have a vision of both marketing our film and using it as a test rocket, a template so to speak for the Resurrection of the Taos Talking Pictures. It’s a fairly complex project we’re entering into. We’re bringing back a film festival AND starting a film distribution company. The film festival will be a showcase for films we accept into the brand and market internationally.

It’s hard work but someone’s gotta do it.

We’re hammering away day and night to promote the movie and the new Taos Talking a Pictures. We’ve emailed and called more media people than that lady in the now-infamous Taos-area police chase video. Darien and I have even scored some interviews in print and TV!

But we still could use some help. We want the Ghost Phone Watch to Win giveaway, and the new Taos Talking Pictures, to go viral, explode over the internet like that Gangnam Style video. That’s where you come in. Please help us spread the word virally through your social media networks. Share our stuff on Facbook, Twitter, Pinterest. Even good old-fashioned word-of-mouth is fine with us. Just get the word out. Please.

We’ll acknowledge your help on our website and social media accounts. We’ll return the favor if you have a cool project you want to share. We might even ship you a movie from our catalogue.   Simply put, we cannot be grateful enough of your help here. We’re including our GHOST PHONE press release that contains details about the movie and the new Taos Talking Pictures. All you have to do is share!

AND REMEMBER: GHOST PHONE, WATCH TO WIN!

Thanks friends,
Jeff and Darien

The Resurrection of “Taos Talking Pictures!”

WATCH GHOST PHONE AND YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO WIN FIVE ACRES IN TAOS, NEW MEXICO!

A VISION? Or a HALLUCINATION? Or a classic ACID FLASHBACK?

What is going on? Is this some sort of dream? Why do I do what I do? All these are fairly universal space cadet questions. I’m older now and should be giving up on those types of questions. But, nooo, I’m still eccentric and perhaps eclectic.

First let me confess I’ve consistently broken the cardinal rule of film-making which says you only use OPM (Other People’s Money) to produce your films. I’ve funded my films myself with the grace of Taos land as our sponsor. But, as a result I’m often on the verge of bankruptcy because of this passion.

I’m impatient and can’t stand the process of trying to take your script and film vision and run it through the Gladiator School of Hollywood fundraising. For a humorous view of what I’m saying, see Kevin Bacon in THE BIG PICTURE. This is similar to what I experienced in Hollywood.

Another film that applies to me is THE BIG LEBOWSKI. Many of my old high school friends thought “the Dude” was based on my early days in Venice Beach. This is not true, but in fact the real life “Dude” that inspired this Coen Brother’s character was another guy named Jeff who coincidentally had an office two floors directly above mine in Santa Monica when The Big Lebowski came out.

The Dude

The Other Dude

So, why am I writing this blog? It’s to get a flow going in relating to the viral world, i.e. my friends all around the world many of whom I’ve yet to meet. Hi, hello, nice to meet you, please don’t stalk me if I offend or attract you.

I’m writing to let you know GHOST PHONE is going to have it’s World Theatrical Premiere beginning December 6^th, 2013 and running for two weeks to December 19^th, 2013, EXCLUSIVELY at MITCHELL THEATRES. Yes, we’ve formed a partnership of sorts with Mitchell Theatres. They are great people to work with, humble dirt farmers in Oklahoma who have expanded into movie exhibition.  They’re excited to work with us on putting out GHOST PHONE in this highly unique and unusual way because? — I guess life is an adventure to them too.

And, we’re inviting you to join us. My new associate and partner in the Resurrection of the Taos Talking Pictures, Darien Fernandez, has brought combustion into our thinking processes and we’ve come up with a “Vision.” And here it is…

We’re putting GHOST PHONE out into the world as a test rocket, an explorer, breaking ground, setting a new paradigm for getting an independent film out before the masses. There are no clear pathways, lost hopes of hitting the homerun deal at Sundance or Toronto or Cannes, even though that’s the goal of all independent filmmakers. The filmmaker spins in confusion as I have also. Everyone is an expert out there, offering sage advice and access to their connections and knowledge, if you’ll only pay them a small fee. The pathways are not easily found, the jungle of distribution and marketing is fraught with overgrown vines, snakes and even Chupacabras.

Courtesy of http://www.csupomona.edu

I’ve been holding back on GHOST PHONE entering this “marketing Jungle” for a few years due to a general state of confusion and doubt about how you traverse this jungle. Then about two months ago the “Vision” started to appear in the ethers as Darien and I bludgeoned about with our ideas. He’s young and naive and I’m old and cynical; a magic elixir of concepts emerged from this catalyst.

We’re the little engine that could (from that children’s book I read so many times to my kids). By giving five acres to some lucky GHOST PHONE audience member we hope that you’ll pack the theatres. The real star of our film is not Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt, but it’s land in Taos and you the audience members who support us by coming to the movie.

In our ideal goals, we will get a phenomenal turnout and the national media will pay attention. We then plan to take the movie to a wider national theatrical audience. Then we plan to set up a relationship with either HBO or IFC or AMC or FX or Showtime or Netflix for us to launch our World TV Premiere with one of them. Again, this is just a test rocket or a scout sent out to clear a path through this jungle.

The second part of the “Vision” is, it’s just about as much work to distribute 50 films as it is one film. And there is strength in numbers. So, this is where the “Resurrection of Taos Talking Pictures” comes into play.

The old and currently existing paradigm for film festivals is there’s one in almost every town these days and they’re great for the local economy and they bring films to a community that that community would probably never have an opportunity to see. But, the actual filmmakers really get very little from this endeavor. They’re kind of like Gladiators who’ve been invited to town to put on a show and what the audience’s don’t usually realize is that these “Gladiator/Filmmaker’s” have put their lives on the line to create their films. This is where we’re at with GHOST PHONE too.

So, we’ve Resurrected the name TAOS TALKING PICTURES (TTP) as a combination film festival and distribution co-op. Here’s how it will work…

We’re going to put out a call for entries for filmmaker’s to submit their films to TAOS TALKING PICTURES. We’re guessing we’ll get apx. 3,000 entries. We’re hoping that we’ll find at least 50 films out of these 3,000 which we think are inspired, innovative, stimulating and great stories to experience. The brand we hopes emerge is that we are discovering the next Tarantino, Linklater, Rodriquez, or maybe even a young Altman.

And with these first 50 films we will program our first Viral Film Festival which will serve as a combination festival and money-raiser to launch the TAOS TALKING PICTURE’S FILM CO-OP. It will take place as a KICK-STARTER CAMPAIGN where each film will be presented as a potential “Gift” on the site. So, there will be 50 different gifts in the form of films. The filmmaker whose film garners the most “Gift donations” will receive the Grand Prize of 5 Acres in Taos, NM.

What I’m theorizing is that by having 50 filmmaker’s driving their social media networks towards our KickStarter site, we will have a chance for a massive funding launch of the TAOS TALKING PICTURE’S FILM CO-OP. All 50 filmmakers will participate in the funding and profits of the TTP. Each of the 50 films participating in the first Resurrection of TTP will also have an opportunity for a theatrical release (as exemplified by GHOST PHONE) and we hope to have established a partnership of sorts for their World TV Premieres with one of the entities I referred to above. From their we work on selling the Co-op films to foreign territories and getting them effectively out into the world of Video on Demand (VOD) such as being available on iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, DirecTV, etc.

So our strength will come from the viral banding together of many filmmakers with the common goal of having their films both seen and making money on them so they can continue their careers.

Eventually, I believe we can use this viral strength in numbers to raise production funds for co-op members’ future films. We also plan to do a local version of the TTP Festival here in Taos.

We invite all of those people interested in the TTP to help us in launching this endeavor. Please feel free to contact us with your thoughts and desires along these lines. If you would please pass this on to those in your social media networks. Thanks for reading this whole thing.

Here’s a link to some of the old TTP publicity articles

THE HISTORY OF TAOS TALKING PICTURES LAND GRANT AWARD

http://www.taoslandandfilm.com/LandPrizePublcty.html

And here’s the GHOST PHONE trailer.

Muchos Gracias!

Jeff

Perdido: My Latest Film Project

     I’m really excited about my next film project, PERDIDO, adapted from a novel by Taos, New Mexico author Rick Collignon. PERDIDO takes place in a small town in northern New Mexico and, like a Steinbeck novel, the characters and setting are equally important in telling the story. Will is a newcomer to Guadalupe, only living in the community for 17 years (many people in Guadalupe claim six or seven or more generations in the area).

     He’s been accepted as a resident but still considered an outsider, especially when he learns of the unsolved death, decades ago, of a young woman. He starts asking questions about the case, and the reactions from community members familiar with the case force him to confront his own lingering questions of how much he really is considered part of the community.

     Will and the dead woman are Anglo, in a community that is almost exclusively Hispanic and wary of outsiders of any ethnicity. These racial tensions come to the surface as Will begins to dig deeper into the mystery of the young woman’s death. Despite working, shopping, eating, drinking, playing baseball, and even sleeping with the locals for years, he discovers that he is just as much a newcomer now as he was when he first came to Taos. But he is still tolerated and not run out of town in the middle of the night by an armed mob, which sometimes happens in northern New Mexico.

     Anyone who’s ever moved to a new town knows what it’s like to adjust to new sights, sounds, smells, traffic patterns, people, and cultures. I’ve moved around quite a bit, growing up in Michigan, living in California, and now New Mexico. I’ve been able to carve out a niche among the creatives here by selling land to fund my independent films. I’ve also been accepted as a member of the Taos community, something that isn’t experienced by every newcomer. Perhaps that’s why PERDIDO interests me so much.

The more I read the novel–and I’ve lost count of how many times that is–the more I see Rick Collignon as the northern New Mexican Steinbeck. Both of their works are genuine, pulling no punches and pummeling the reader with the truth of the human experience, good and bad but always poetic.

I’ve been so moved by the power of the book that I optioned the rights almost immediately. This will be my first movie shot almost entirely in New Mexico, in my adopted home of Taos. I have my ideal cast in mind, and work actively several hours daily to reach out to those actors, some of the biggest performers in Hollywood and around the world.

     I envision Arron Paul (Jesse Pinkman on Breaking Bad) as Will. Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica, Stand and Deliver, American Me) would be perfect as Telesfor, the wise storyteller. Benicio del Toro (Traffic) would bring Ray to life. I’ve already received a commitment from Sandra Echeverria (Casa de mi Padre, The Bridge, Savages) to play Will’s girlfriend, Lisa. I look forward to sharing any updates with you. In the meantime, have a wonderful day and thanks for reading my latest post!

P.S. You can read more about the book at the Unbridled Books publisher website. Buy the book, read it, and let me know what you think of it!

IRS Goon Squads

The Power to Destroy

Report by Jeff Jackson – Originally published in Hustler Magazine, March 1989

So, let’s talk about DEATH & TAXES. This is a documentary I produced approximately 15 to 20 years ago. The five year gap is how long I spent making this film.  We have a lot of stuff up on our website for those who might want to immerse in the subject matter obsessively.

DEATH & TAXES started out as an article I wrote for Larry Flynt’s HUSTLER MAGAZINE (March, 1989). At that time Larry hired me to do an investigative piece on IRS atrocities. Ironically it’s even more apropos today then ever before. He was fighting the federal government in the courts over his constitutional right to freedom of speech, i.e. making a ton of money putting out pornography. Some of you older codgers might remember that he was wrapping himself in a diaper made from the U.S. flag and rolling himself into federal court in a solid gold wheelchair and paying his fines with wheelbarrows of pennies.

My poor mother was so proud her newly sober son was getting published as a writer. But, writing for Larry Flynt made it hard on her telling all her friends. If you know how anarchistic I am, you know I enjoyed the controversy of working for this guy. In defense of Larry Flynt I should say that during this same time period he hired me to do a series of columns in HUSTLER on the burgeoning AIDS epidemic and I exposed issues around AIDS which the main stream media were ignoring or distorting. At that time the majority of HUSTLER MAGAZINE’s apx. 3 million subscribers were inmates in prison(s) who were hit as hard as any group by AIDS.

This process is where I stumbled upon the Gordon Kahl story. It was great being paid to dig up stuff on the federal government. Incredibly, things have gotten much worse. So, we’re going to put this original article up in this blog for your edification.

Subsequently, I spent the next five years after writing this article documenting the Gordon Kahl story, Death & Taxes, which spider-webbed into the world of conspiracies within conspiracies. At one point during this process I was contacted by Hollywood producer/director Michael Apted, who was doing a documentary, INCIDENT AT OGALALA, on life long incarcerated Indian activist, Leonard Peltier (Wounded Knee).

It turned out that the same federal prosecutor and federal judge who prosecuted Peltier had also prosecuted the Gordon Kahl family following the infamous Medina, ND roadblock shootout between federal marshals and Kahl and his family and friends. Apted had been unsuccessful in getting the federal judge or prosecutor to talk with him about Peltier, whereas I had been able to talk with both of them and got a lengthy interview on film with Lynn Crooks the federal prosecutor. I shared whatever information I could with Mr. Apted, and now I share whatever information I can with you.

Gordon W. Kahl, a 63-year-old farmer, was driving his family home from a church meeting in Medina, North Dakota, on the evening of February 13, 1983, when he ran into a roadblock. Shots rang out, and Kahl saw his son gunned down. He pulled a Mini-14 automatic rifle from his gun rack, and a battle took place with local and federal officials–a battle that, Tax Patriots say, was fought because the government wanted to silence Kahl’s outspoken criticism of the income-tax system. When the smoke cleared, Kahl, a decorated WWII veteran, had killed two officers and wounded three others.

Thus began the largest manhunt in Arkansas’s history. Kahl went into hiding as 100 heavily armed state and federal agents combed the countryside. On June 3, 1983, more than 40 federal agents armed with automatic weapons surrounded Leonard Ginter’s farmhouse, where Kahl was purportedly staying. Gordon Kahl was shot a point-blank range in the back of the head. The sheriff who went in with two other officers to get him was shot by one of his own men. The house was then torched and Gordon’s body left inside to burn.

One deputy later admitted following orders to pour gasoline down the chimney to start the fire. The coroner reported that one of Gordon’s hands and both feet were missing from his body. A few weeks later a New York Times reporter found one of the feet under a refrigerator in the ruins; it had been chopped off. None of the siege force has come forward with a clear vision of what happened that day. No grand jury has convened to resolve the controversy surrounding Kahl’s killing and its bizarre aftermath.

Gordon Kahl confirms a taxpayer’s worst nightmare about confronting the IRS. Many within a growing tide of disenchanted Americans claim the IRS acted with the intention of striking terror into the hearts of Americans and portraying tax protesters as violent outlaws.

While Kahl represents an extreme, thousands of Americans are actively questioning the fairness of taxes and the tactics of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Many call themselves tax patriots, harking back to the Boston Tea Party–a rebellious gesture of our forefathers against the tyranny of taxation that lit the fuse of the American Revolution. Tax patriots today claim their hard-earned rights “to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” are being denied and violated by the U.S. government.

Tax Protestors or Illegal Tax Absconders?

The IRS reports the number of “people who illegally protest against federal taxes” as growing from 7,661 in 1978 to 53,628 protesters in 1982. “The Freedom [tax] Movement is growing by leaps and bounds. Like the antislavery movement of the 1850s and the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the Freedom Movement is the human-rights issue for our day and time,” insists Lawrence Beecraft, a Huntsville, Alabama lawyer.

The IRS claims 1,063 convictions of illegal tax protesters in the past six years. All were convicted of willful failure to file. “We have about 24,000 illegal tax-protest cases per year on which we take enforced collection action,” states Larry Batdorf, spokesman for the IRS national office.

“They can call me an ‘illegal tax protester’ if they let me interpret it in my way and say I’m protesting illegal taxes,” maintains John Voss, director of the National Commodity & Barter Association (NCBA). His organization describes its main purpose as “putting a stop to the tyrannical activities of the IRS against the American citizen, and ridding America of the present, counterproductive system of income taxation.

Goon Squads Target Anyone and Everyone

The IRS seized nine-year-old Carmen Fisher’s savings account in Junction City, Oregon, to satisfy an unpaid tax lien against her grandfather, Charles Fisher. They hauled in $70.76 that the little girl had collected in pennies during six years. Under the spotlight of national scrutiny, the IRS admitted a mistake had been made and returned the money.

***

What’s a best-selling author doing in prison? “I wrote a book called How Anyone Can Stop Paying Income Taxes [Freedom Books, Hamden Connecticut] which sold 175,000 copies and was on the bestseller list for two years,” Irwin Schiff laments. “I am a political prisoner. I am in here for allegedly violating a civil code, not a criminal code. They can only charge you a fine for a civil violation. They cannot incarcerate you.” This statement was made from the Federal Correctional Institute in Lorretta, Pennsylvania, where Irwin currently serves a three-year sentence for tax evasion and fraud.

Schiff is probably the IRS’s most outspoken critic, having given hundreds of seminars around the country, lecturing on tax laws and the Constitution. His book states: “1. No American is legally required to file an income-tax return; 2. No American is legally required to submit to a tax audit; and 3. No American is legally required to have income taxes taken out of his pay or to pay quarterly tax estimates.”

In 1974 Schiff began filing “Fifth Amendment” tax returns on the grounds that any information he provided in his return could–and probably would–be used against him. Schiff’s position would seem to be backed by no less an authority than the U.S. Supreme Court. In Garner v. United States (1976) the Court held, “The information revealed in the preparation and filing of an income-tax return is, for Fifth Amendment analysis, the testimony of a ‘witness’ as that term is used herein.’

“Can the government compel you to supply them with information that can be used against you in a criminal proceeding?” asks Guy G. Curtis, prosecuting attorney for the state of Nebraska. “No. Since no citizen can be compelled to be a ‘witness’ against himself, any statute that attempted to involuntarily require you to file a return would be unconstitutional.”

The Committee to Free Irwin Schiff and Other Political Prisoners issued the following statement: “Irwin is innocent (as are all other so-called ‘tax protesters’) of the crimes for which he is incarcerated…federal judges, as well as U.S. prosecutors, knowingly disregard the law and send innocent people to jail in order to intimidate the public into believing that filing and paying federal income taxes is mandatory rather than voluntary…”

Taxes and the Constitution: A Voluntary Requirement?

Peggy and Bob Christensen of Montana got so fed up with taxes that they studied the U.S. Constitution and formed the Golden Mean Team to assist tax patriots in courtroom battles with the IRS. They’ve participated in more than 300 cases and claim to have won more than any lawyer in the country. Simple country people, the Christensens got involved with the Tax Protest Movement when “Bob came home one day and said he’d go to jail before he’d pay more taxes to finance the destruction of our two sons,” Peggy Christensen relates. “I started studying the Constitution to prove him wrong! Instead, I became a born-again taxpayer, or nontaxpayer.” Peggy and Bob started filing Fifth Amendment tax returns, and they sent along copies of the Constitution on four-by eight-foot sheets of paneling, “to make it easier for the tax officials to read.”

Peggy and Bob represent what the IRS fears most: common people who’ve become tax patriots by taking a stand., speaking out and informing the public that the tax system is corrupt.

The central belief of tax patriotism is that the filing of federal income tax is voluntary. Strangely enough, the IRS itself agrees, sort of. IRS guidelines state, “The IRS’s primary task is to collect taxes under a voluntary compliance system.” When questioned about that, Larry Batdorf, spokesperson for the IRS, states, “The argument for voluntary compliance is asinine, absurd!”

The U.S. Supreme Court in Flora v. United States (1959) decrees, “Our tax system is based upon voluntary assessment and payment, not upon distraint [force].” A dictionary defines voluntary as something “done of one’s own free will and without legal obligation.”

“Uhhh, overall the payment of taxes is on a voluntary compliance. But, failure to pay taxes puts you in a collection status with the IRS,” explains Jim Mack, IRS Information.

“No, it’s not voluntary…hold on…my supervisor reiterated what I just told you: It is a voluntary requirement. It’s the law that you should file your taxes,” elucidates Ms. Stevenson, IRS Information. “I’ll tell you how voluntary it is. People call in to report other people that have been evading taxes. Then the Criminal Investigation Division looks into that individual and finds out, in fact, that they are breaking the law. Then they prosecute that person to the fullest extent! If it was voluntary, you would not be able to prosecute them.”

Tax patriots claim the IRS has a history of saying one thing and doing another, relying on unclear laws that can be bent to fit its needs in any dispute with a citizen.

Asseverates Ron Paul, last November’s presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party, “The IRS is probably the most abusive of all agencies in the U.S. government. It has no respect for the Constitution. There is no due process of law, and the assumption always is that you are guilty until you the citizen can prove yourself innocent. it is totally un-American.”

Tax Thieves Strike Again

The IRS abuses raw force to confiscate property, seize bank accounts, sell houses, attach wages and notify employers to disregard an employee’s sworn “exempt” W-4 statement.

Paul Adam of Chicago had his $50,000 house put up for auction by the IRS over a disputed $500. The IRS offered the house for a minimum bid of $989.

Tax-patriot claims that the IRS knowingly uses Gestapo tactics seem to be confirmed in the IRS-manual discussion on “exempt” W-4s: “The employer has no legal obligation to intervene with the employee. However, the Service has found that in many situations, this is the more effective means of correcting an erroneous withholding certificate with the least inconvenience to all parties.” Herbert Mosher, the IRS district director for Massachusetts, states, “The IRS could not enforce penalty on employers who refused to cooperate with this policy. But, ” he continues, “let’s face it, no employer wants to incur the wrath of the IRS.”

Daniel Pilla refused to withhold income tax and social security from his employees’ wages at his St. Paul, Minnesota, printing plant. He lost that battle. The IRS sold his plant to pay his tax debts and sent him to prison for seven months. But the war still wages for Pilla, who wrote a book about his experiences, The Naked Truth. “This is supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave. But it’s the land of the serfs and the home of the slaves!” contends Pilla.

IRS Goons Not Accountable to Anyone

Congressional investigators found that IRS toll-free lines for taxpayer assistance gave wrong answers 22% of the time. Another 15% of the answers were incomplete. IRS Information Publication #920 states, “…if we do make an error, you are still responsible for the payment of the correct tax.”

Ralph Nader’s consumer group tested IRS accuracy. They submitted identical financial records for a fictional family to 12 different IRS offices. Each office computed a totally different amount owed.

IRS commissioner Lawrence B. Gibbs assured a Senate committee investigating the IRS that he would not anticipate the agency imposing penalties on taxpayers if discrepancies on their returns resulted from erroneous IRS information.

Four-term former Congressman George Hansen (R-Idaho) would probably disagree with Commissioner Gibbs’s assurances, having recently completed six months in prison for what many people claim was being an outspoken critic of the IRS and Justice Department. “My husband was railroaded into prison by the U.S. Department of Justice for supposedly breaking a law that the Congress never intended to carry criminal penalties,” states Connie Hansen.

Hansen was accused of not reporting some if his wife’s income on his Congressional financial-disclosure statement. He told the court repeatedly that he sought the advice of the Congressional auditing staff and completed the forms as he was advised. The court refused to take this evidence into account. George became the first and only congressman ever convicted and jailed for violating the 1973 Ethics in Government Act. According to The Justice Times, a monthly tax-patriot newspaper, an estimated 230 members of Congress were then allowed to change forms that would have failed under the same ethics law that sent Hansen to prison.

“I saw the IRS efforts to get rid of Congressman Hansen,” states Paul DesFosses, a retired IRS agent and president of the National Coalition of IRS Whistleblowers, a group that supports IRS employees and citizens who speak up against IRS illegal acts. During Hansen’s 1976 campaign for reelection, “the IRS Idaho district director, Howard Martin, met with Hansen’s opponent and his campaign manager [who is the current Idaho congressman, Richard Stallings] to plan the illegal leak of misinformation to hurt and embarrass Hansen’s reelection efforts,” spills DesFosses.

Many people feel that Congressman Hansen was persecuted because of his book To Harrass Our People: The IRS and Government Abuse of Power (Positive Publications, Washington, D.C.), which details, “Law-breaking government at all levels jails ministers and church members–makes fugitives of women and children–rigs juries, conducts illegal wiretaps and spends billions to send innocent citizens to jail.”

Taxpayer Bill of Rights

DesFosses gives another reason for the IRS’s abuse of Congressman Hansen: “Hansen’s arrest and imprisonment was an IRS message to those in Congress supporting Taxpayer Bill of Rights.” Though it passed the Senate, this new bill is dying in the House of Representatives. If enacted into law, it would require the IRS to prepare a comprehensive statement of taxpayer rights and obligations. It would also allow a citizen the right to recover defense costs and damages if IRS actions were proved unreasonable, careless or reckless and in intentional disregard of statutes. The IRS would also have to issue the taxpayers a Miranda-type warning before interviewing them.

Senator David Pryor (D-Arkansas), cosponsor of the bill, stated at committee hearings that the legislation has “touched a raw nerve in our population. People are afraid of the IRS. The IRS relies on intimidation and arm-twisting to strike fear in the hearts of those it bullies.”

IRS commissioner Lawrence Gibbs responds, “We’re not looking for love. We’re looking for respect and confidence.” The following testimony was made at Congressional hearings:

• IRS managers routinely pressure revenue officers to seize the property of delinquent taxpayers even when less extreme measures are warranted. –IRS memo
• “It’s an awesome organization with powers that are virtually unchecked.” –IRS employee for 18 years
• “…the most hated organization in the United States. People had rather deal with the KGB. I was once proud to be a revenue agent.”
• “For five years I have been consumed by a nightmare that began with a seemingly routine IRS audit. Taxpayers have no rights in dealing with the IRS. They’ve totally destroyed my life!”
• “We are victims of an IRS mentality that believes all taxpayers are criminals and should be punished.”
• “We have in the IRS an agency that simply has too much power.” –Senator Carl Levin (D-Michigan)
• Even congressmen are afraid of the IRS, according to Senator Pryor, who stated that most lawmakers declined to help sponsor the bill out if fear that they would be audited.

“The real sad part about this Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights is that taxpayers need special protection. Why shouldn’t the Constitution protect them? And why does Irwin Schiff, who defends himself on the Constitution, go to jail? That tells us how far we’ve drifted from protecting civil liberties in this country!” says Ron Paul., former Libertarian presidential candidate.

Secret Police and Profit-Driven Snitches

In 1975 the IRS started the Fremont County Returns Compliance Program in Idaho. Armed agents went door-to-door demanding proof of filed income-tax returns. The National Treasury Employees Union intervened, complaining to the IRS that the program was likely to provoke violence against the agents.

“Have you ever looked at the wrong end of a .357 Magnum?” asks John Voss of the National Commodity and Barter Association (NCBA) as he describes the day “15 to 20 gun-toting federal agents” burst into the NCBA offices in Denver and threw everybody up against the wall. They “hauled everything away that wasn’t nailed down. A week later the judge ordered everything returned. The whole raid was illegal.”

Hitler consolidated his power in Germany, in part, through a taxing system that allowed the government to invade every individual’s private life. The Gestapo turned neighbor against neighbor, urging them to turn each other in for crimes against der Fuehrer.

“Snitch fees are fairly substantial,” reports Paul DesFosses of the IRS Whistleblowers. “Bank tellers in Las Vegas or Reno sometimes make more money from their referral reports or snitches than they do from their jobs. Somebody will win a large amount of money and come in to get a cashier’s check payable to himself. The tellers run down to the IRS with that report.”

DesFosses also says, “Attorneys sometimes turn in clients. Especially divorce attorneys. Where they have all of the records of the wife, they’ll turn in the husband. If they have the records, they can obtain 50% of what the IRS collects. The poor husband doesn’t have the records to defend himself. He’s in a pretty bad spot.”

IRS Criminal Investigation Division responded enthusiastically when asked if there were rewards for snitching someone off: “There sure is! It’s based on the value of the information turned in,” gushes Special Agent Grant Covey. “We don’t reveal there was an informant, let alone reveal the identity of the informant.” Covey laughs. “I’ve been real busy today!”

“Our tax system is supposed to be a voluntary system. People are supposed to want to support their government,” comments Jim Morrow in the newspaper Freedom. “Why don’t these people want to chip in? Part of the answer may lie in the internal revenue code itself. An individual’s fair share of taxes is determined by a set of laws and rules so complex that it requires a certified public accountant to translate them. The complexity of the code results in and then masks countless injustices perpetrated by IRS agents who say they are ‘only doing their jobs.'”

IRS Tries to Steal Quadriplegic’s Wheelchair

After a two-year battle, Texas patriot quadriplegic Sammy Lott was forced to file bankruptcy to stop the IRS from illegally confiscating his home, wages, wheelchair and specially equipped van, reports The Justice Times (Clinton, Arkansas). Though confined to a wheelchair since a near-fatal automobile accident in 1973, Lott has been self-supporting, receiving no government assistance. In three court hearings requested by the IRS, the IRS failed to show up. Finally, the judge fined the IRS $600 for Lott’s attorney fees and reduced the agency’s “exaggerated” claim of $20,000 owed by Lott to $1,300.

“Our federal tax system is utterly impossible, utterly unjust and completely counterproductive. The present system of taxation reeks with injustice and is fundamentally un-American. It has earned a rebellion, and it’s time we rebelled,” pontificated President Ronald Reagan in May of 1983 at Williamsburg, Virginia.

In the first five years of Reagan’s Administration tax-fraud convictions increased dramatically (18%). There was an 86% increase, 11 months to 21 months, in the average length of tax-fraud prison sentences handed out from 1980 to 1985.

The Constitution stipulates that all citizens have equal rights and receive equal treatment under the law. Contrary to that concept, the IRS targets people for prosecution, keeping a tax-protester hit list.

“That’s hogwash. There never has been a hit list!” says IRS national spokesman Larry Batdorf.

Paul DesFosses disagrees, presenting sample pages out of the “IRS Tax Protester List.” “There are hundreds of thousands of people on the IRS hit list or tax-protester list. John Wayne and Howard Jarvis were put on because they supported the Property Tax Proposition 13. War protesters have been put on. Any kind of government criticism can get you on it,” says DesFosses.

Supreme Court Shoots Down Freedom of Information Act

Would you like to know if you’re on the hit list? Forget it! The Supreme Court, in November 1987, ruled that the public has no right to get information kept by the IRS. Tax patriots see this as a blatant affirmation of what they’ve been proclaiming all along, that the judiciary protects the IRS.

“This ruling essentially immunizes the IRS from public scrutiny,” points out David Vladeck, a lawyer with the Public Citizen Litigation Group. “Ironically, this is the one agency that every American deals with annually. What the court has done is erect an insurmountable obstacle to obtaining IRS records.”

This gives the IRS virtually complete protection from outsider monitoring of their activities.

The IRS functions on a level that totally ignores the U.S. Constitution. Our Founding Fathers though our most important rights were those of free speech and a free press. We are supposed to be able to criticize the government without them sending us to Siberia.

But what would happen to the author of an article critical of the IRS? “If you wrote an article advocating any of these things, you might find yourself being considered a tax protester, and we might be taking a look at your returns,” avers Robert Giannangeli of the IRS public affairs.

Cruel and Unusual Punishment?

E. Kevan Rowlee is currently under indictment for 50 counts of fraud, mail fraud, and “conspiracy to hinder IRS activities.” If convicted of all counts, he could be sentenced to 220 years in prison and fined $1.9 million. Rowlee is a tax protester and a social commentator–a writer. His crimes are sending letters to the editors of local newspapers and publishing the New York Patriot’s Society newsletter.

Most people involved believe Rowlee’s trial is a direct attack by the IRS on First Amendment rights. They describe the case as a “landmark trial,” a battle representing the rights of all U.S. citizens.

Rowlee says, “They’ve charged me with telling people that the banks are going to fail, that American banks won’t protect your privacy. They’re not making any bones about it. They’re trying to jail me for the rest of my life.”

Thus far the court has disallowed or disbarred four attorneys from representing Rowlee. The Attorney General apparently doesn’t want to face any attorneys with track records of winning cases against the IRS.

“I watched the booted marshals and their attack dogs prowling the corridors of the federal courthouse, and I saw the fear in the faces of the defense attorneys and witnesses. There could certainly be nothing less equitable behind the Iron Curtain,” states Paul DesFosses as he describes a “trial” of six tax patriots in St. Paul, Minnesota, who were convicted of “conspiracy to hinder IRS activities.” DesFosses was there to present the court two top-secret IRS documents, which he says would prove the IRS charges were without substance. The judge would not allow them as evidence.

Tax patriots believe it’s almost impossible to get a fair trial against the IRS. Whistleblowers documented IRS abuses including:

• memos from IRS managers who instruct their agents how to “educate” judges and attorneys and pressure them to find a person guilty;
• how the IRS has worked with the U.S. postal inspectors, illegally opening citizens’ mail;
• IRS coaching of witnesses to change their testimony the night before a trial;
• threatening citizens with audits and grand jury investigation if they refuse to stop criticizing the IRS.

“Many attorneys are scared to death to represent their clients because of the fear of IRS retaliation. You can imagine what kind of representation their clients get,” states Paul DesFosses.

“They’ve done a good job of brainwashing and intimidating the public,” sums up John Voss of NCBA, who won his “willful failure to file” case against the IRS.

“None of the major newspapers and news media will print what my dad [Irwin Schiff] talks about. They don’t want to antagonize the IRS by letting the truth come out,” flatly states Peter Schiff.

Our Founding Fathers repeatedly warned of the sinister power of federal taxation. Patrick Henry, one of our heroes of the American Revolution, uttered these prophetic words in 1788: “Unlimited power of taxation will produce such dreadful oppression as the people cannot possibly bear. The federal sheriff may commit what oppression, make what distresses he pleases, and ruin you with impunity. How are you to tie his hands? Have you any sufficient means of preventing him from sucking your blood? Thus thousands of your people will be most shamefully robbed!”

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Death & Taxes

Our New Theater Ad

Here’s our new ad for Taos, New Mexico land sales. It will be up and running at the Storyteller 7 theater in Taos on August 1.

GHOST PHONE: A True Story (Part 2)

So as Todd was laying in bed it occurred to him that there was more to this story… His friend of a friend who had received the text messages from the suicide victim was continuing to direct text messages to her lost friend. Of course her phone would inform her that the texts could not go through and he did not respond. Despite this, she felt her replies did somehow make it across the great divide and to this day she continues to communicate with her dead friend. Perhaps as therapy or perhaps she’s channeling a continuation of their friendship through the ether of time. Just an ongoing open line on the Ghost Phone.
Let me ask you, if you had an opportunity for one phone call with a dead person, who would it be? This is also the theme of one of my previous screenplays yet to be produced, entitled, EDISON’S ELECTRICAL ELEPHANT EXPERIMENTS.

GHOST PHONE, A True Story…

Okay, so I’m working with my buddy Todd as we start to promote our feature film GHOST PHONE. He tells me, “I was visiting my ‘Energy Therapist’ and she told me the following story: A friend committed suicide by jumping off the Taos Gorge Bridge about a year ago. Afterwards another friend received text messages from the dead man.  The first one stated that he wanted to score some heroin. The second one was a message was to say hello to a friend of his. And the third one was to tell her that things were okay on the other side and he was sorry that they were sad that he was gone.” We’d like to hear if any of you have had similar experiences or heard of them. Please pass this on…