Charlie Rose

SharkswithfrikingLazers  03/19/2013 02:28 AM Report

"Vexatious Litigation"

Notable vexatious litigants

The Church of Scientology. "Plaintiffs (Scientologists) have abused the federal court system by using it, inter alia, to destroy their opponents, rather than to resolve an actual dispute over trademark law or any other legal matter. This constitutes 'extraordinary, malicious, wanton and oppressive conduct.' As such, this case qualifies as an 'exceptional case' and fees should be awarded pursuant to the Lanham Act... It is abundantly clear that plaintiffs sought to harass the individual defendants and destroy the church defendants through massive over-litigation and other highly questionable litigation tactics. The Special Master has never seen a more glaring example of bad faith litigation than this." (RTC v. Robin Scott, U. S. District Court, Central District of California, No. 85-711-JMI (Bx) 85-7197-JMI (Bx), January 20, 1993, Memorandum of Decision).[40][41]

RULE OF LAW?

JUSTICE?

FBI, we need you to get the bad people.

Time to check on the children.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  03/19/2013 02:15 AM Report

Lawrence, Wikipedia tells the IRS story a bit differently:

Negotiations with IRS

In 1991 Miscavige, together with Marty Rathbun, visited IRS headquarters to arrange a meeting with Commissioner Fred T. Goldberg, Jr.. For more than two decades, the IRS had refused to recognize Scientology as a nonprofit charitable organization, a status granted to most established religious organizations.

Prior to this meeting, Scientology had filed more than fifty lawsuits against the IRS and, according to the New York Times, "Scientology's lawyers hired private investigators to dig into the private lives of I.R.S. officials and to conduct surveillance operations to uncover potential vulnerabilities... [and] taken documents from an I.R.S. conference and sent them to church officials and created a phony news bureau in Washington to gather information on church critics. The church also financed an organization of I.R.S. whistle-blowers that attacked the agency publicly."[26] At the meeting with Commissioner Goldberg, Miscavige offered to cease Scientology's suits against the I.R.S. in exchange for tax exemptions.[26]

This led to a two-year negotiating process, in which IRS tax analysts were ordered to ignore the substantive issues because the issues had been resolved prior to review. Ultimately, the church was granted recognition as a nonprofit religious or charitable organization in the U.S., which creates a tax exemption for the Church of Scientology International and its organizations, and tax deductions for those who contribute to their programs.[5][26]

Senior Scientology officials and the I.R.S later issued a statement that the ruling was based on a two-year inquiry and voluminous documents that showed the church was qualified for the exemptions.[26]

To announce the settlement with the IRS, Miscavige gathered a reported 10,000 members of Scientology in the Los Angeles Sports Arena, where he delivered a two-and-a-half-hour address and proclaimed, "The war is over!"[5][26] The crowd gave Miscavige an ovation that lasted more than ten minutes.[27]

(Wonder why the Mafia hasn't tried this?)

SharkswithfrikingLazers  03/19/2013 02:00 AM Report

Indeed, here is Tom Cruise on Scientology:

http://youtu.be/UFBZ_uAbxS0

(Please let Tom go on vacation even though he knows what he knows period. Charlie, help him--Eric Kandel comes to mind.)

SharkswithfrikingLazers  03/19/2013 01:50 AM Report

We are told that in 1993 Scientology became a religion after 2400 lawsuits by Scientology against the IRS. Dropped the lawsuits then got to become a religion.

So then about how many lawsuits against the IRS in order to get the "Church of Tax Code Reform" approved as a religion?

(2,400 lawsuits? We need to start charging them on an exponential scale for filing and court costs.)

REMant  03/18/2013 12:48 PM Report

The stuff they advertise about Hubbard is certainly carefully contrived propaganda. Shirley Maclaine, Linda Evans, Bo Derek, Raquel Welch, Angelina Jolie... Hollywood folk are certainly a weird bunch. At least the women; I've never bothered about the men. Quirky doesn't quite cover it. But they've got a good idea about taxes. I think I'm going declare myself a religion, too.