The I.R.S.’s Very Silly Strategic Plan

I leave for the NWTRCC National Gathering in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

I’ll bring along a laptop just-in-case, but chances are I won’t have time and opportunity to post any updates here until I get back.

Yo hago mucho por bizkaia. Yo hago objeción fiscal a los gastos militares

Here’s some information about a war tax resistance campaign in Biscay, in Spain’s Basque region. It looks like it’s still getting off the ground, but they’re hitting the right notes:

No longer can we ignore our responsibility for preparing for wars through taxes to fund armies that we pay year after year.

They are asking people to withhold a percentage of their taxes and to redirect this money “to finance other alternatives and social struggles in solidarity, antimilitarist alternative projects that we offer to you here or others that each considers closer to their idea of what is necessary for real defense” [my, probably inept, translation]. On their site they include a sample letter that people can send in with their tax forms to explain their resistance and redirection.

Connie Neal is so engaged with her work for the IRS that she bursts into song frequently

Agent Greg Leong demonstrates the wireless cellular telephone that is his team’s part of the IRS technology portfolio

The IRS recently released their Strategic Plan. It’s full of vague bureaucracy-speak rah-rah about how in order to “proactively identify and promptly address” problems, they’re going to “build and employ just-in-time capabilities” and “strengthen partnerships” and “enhance coordination” and “streamline processes” and “leverage research” and “expand employee knowledge and awareness” and “develop deep expertise and capabilities” and “capture efficiencies” and “continually monitor the technology portfolio” and “increase employee engagement” and so forth.

There’s really nothing there. You should check it out, though, just to make fun of the employee photos they decorated it with.