Taxes For Thee But Not For Me

When nonprofits attack:

THE RAINFOREST ACTION NETWORK and the Ruckus Society are two of the biggest practitioners of so-called civil disobedience. For instance, in its campaign to stop Home Depot from selling lumber from old growth forests, Rainforest Action Network has had disloyal Home Depot employees rig their stores' intercom systems to announce "Old-growth wood for sale on aisle number 3." At one event a Rainforest Action Network activist dressed as a black bear chained himself to the store's rafters and used a bullhorn to assail employees and customers with loud denunciations of store policies. In 1999 Rainforest Action Network proclaimed May 25 a day of "ethical shoplifting"; activists stole lumber from Home Depot stores, which they later handed over to the FBI. The San Francisco Chronicle recently noted that Rainforest Action Network activists wear their arrest records like badges of honor. Rainforest Action Network executive director Michael Brune has been arrested a dozen times for offenses like trespassing and disorderly conduct; the arrest record of Rainforest Action Network founder Randy Hayes reports 18 arrests for similar offenses. Rainforest Action Network is unashamed that its illegal actions violate the rights of Home Depot's employees to make a living and its customers' rights to purchase legal products.

The Ruckus Society is even more brazen. Several times each year it hosts an "Action Camp" where, according to the Society's website, "participants split their time between theoretical and strategic workshops focusing on a wide array of advanced campaign skills and hands-on technical training in tactics for nonviolent actions." Those nonviolent actions include illegal ones. One camp provided "training to perform illegal acts, such as using bicycle locks to join activists into human blockades," according to an article in California's Contra Costa Times. A Baltimore Sun article recounts an exercise in how to handle police arrests. After arrestees are put into a van, the participants are instructed to blockade the van by lying down around it and locking arms.

Ruckus Society director John Sellers claims that much of his group's training is for legal activities protected by the First Amendment, such as "constructing giant props and holding protests." He insists that the training "isn't intrinsically designed to break the law." But after he described various climbing techniques, I asked, "Is this just for climbing trees?" Sellers replied, "It includes urban climbing techniques to hang banners from buildings." "So it is activity that can potentially get you arrested?" I inquired. "Yes," he responded.

Why on Earth does the GOP stand for these last redoubts of Bolshevism to go unimpeded? If the government sees fit to go after churches' tax exemptions for political involvement, how do they justify refraining from taxing domestic terrorists like the groups mentioned above?