For Lunch Today, A Bully Burger and some Bull$***

Dawsonville Pool Room seized by tax agents, apparently in spite of the fact that the owner was not at fault in owing the taxes, and was in contact with them about making payment.  Apparently that doesn't exempt you from having an armed band of state-employed bandits come shutter your business, lock the door, ransack your cash registers and bust open your vending machines to take the change.
Employees and patrons said agents arrived at the Pool Room about noon Wednesday, ordered everyone out and took possession of the property.... the state agents “took all the money from two register drawers and cleaned out the video gaming machines.” 
If I was a taxman, before I went to guns in Dawson County I'd take a good look at the whiskey still sitting out on the town square, just beside the Pool Hall.  Dawson County has seen their kind come before, but it hasn't always seen them go. 
on

11 comments:

  1. Eric Blair10:05 AM

    Somebody didn't lawyer-up properly.

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  2. Grim10:41 AM

    You shouldn't need a lawyer to deal honestly with a republican form of government. I mean, it's not even like the facts are in dispute. There's been a court case that establishes the facts:

    "Pirkle said the problems stem from issues he had with former accountant, Warren Pennington. In 2010, Pennington was found guilty on several felony theft counts in connection with funneling client funds intended to pay income tax liabilities."

    It seems to me you ought to be able to call up your appropriate representative, point them at the conviction, and say, "Look, he stole our money, not just your money. We'll try to make it right with you, but you really ought to meet us halfway here -- there's no more reason I should be out of pocket for his thieving than that you should be. Let's split the difference, and we'll need a while to pay."

    I mean, this business has been reliably paying taxes since 1960. It's not like this is a criminal enterprise. (Unlike the government, which increasingly seems at least to be run like one.)

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  3. bthun10:51 AM

    "It seems to me you ought to be able to call up your appropriate representative"...

    You'd think, but my growing cynicism steers me towards the it's who you know and what you have on them... er, how you know them that allows for moderations and/or exceptions in the application of law. Well that and the inherent difficulty in properly using Turbo Tax to do one's taxes.

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  4. Grim11:30 AM

    Maybe so. I'd like to be able to say, though, "Hey, who certified this accountant who stole from us? They ought to share some of the liability for what he stole from you. Oh, you guys are the ones who certified him? Well, then..."

    Or maybe we need a law: "If any citizen of Georgia who makes a good faith effort to notify the state of a problem and take reasonable steps to resolve it; and a state official should then take action against that citizen in such a way as they reasonably require a lawyer to repair the problem; then the state official shall be personally liable for all legal fees that result."

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  5. bthun11:50 AM

    Oh, I agree. Especially with, "then the state official shall be personally liable for all legal fees that result." To included any judgments against the state official, just as private citizens in a civil suit can be held liable for not just legal fees, but damages too.

    Doing away with personal liability protection of gub'ment functionaries, and/or appropriating public monies to cover the liabilities of gub'ment functionaries who are found personally guilty and liable for causing a wrong is an idea whose time has come.

    *reminds the hun to check the tar and feathers store*

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  6. bluflame711:54 AM

    Amen to that law. Now that I'm back to being a Georgia taxpayer, I think yhat I'll contact my representative write my legislator, but he's so busy trying to help straighten out the problems in Richmond and Columbia Counties, he's probably overwhelmed.

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  7. E Hines3:03 PM

    Or maybe we need a law....

    I think you're going in the wrong direction, Grim.

    I think we need one fewer law: withdraw the one that authorizes the government to seize private property on its own recognizance and without a trial.

    Eric Hines

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  8. Grim3:30 PM

    I'll meet you halfway: let's do both.

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  9. BillT2:09 PM

    Dawson County has seen their kind come before, but it hasn't always seen them go.

    As a Piney of long acquaintance once told me, "The grass don't grow so green on the median strip by Speckle's place 'cuz the MiraclGro truck passes by regular..."

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  10. Grim10:43 PM

    There are some men in life whose most outstanding quality is their capacity as fertilizer.

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  11. Ymar Sakar11:13 PM

    Somebody didn't purge enough bureaucrats. 50% is the minimum required to remove corruption in the 21st century. It'll only increase as people sit around sucking on their thumbs waiting for politicians to do something.

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