TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 14.

Related: John Fund: The Real Voter Suppression of 2012: Voter ID didn’t reduce turnout, but the IRS may have.

TERMINATION: “I’m quite surprised that no one has mentioned Section 1203 of the Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, which mandates terminations of IRS employees who commit any of what are known in the Service as the ’10 Deadly Sins.’ . . . At any rate, you’ll notice that several of these provisions could be applicable in the present instance, notably (b) (2), (b) (3) (A), and (b) (7). If I were Ms. Lerner, Mr. Miller (who relied heavily on 6103 in his testimony), or anyone in that chain, 1203 would be a huge concern. It is for every Service employee, which is why I and others were always very cautious about taking unapproved initiative in areas that skated close to 1203.”

Plus, why the delays should have been noticed by higher-ups: “To have a statutory or Internal Revenue Manual deadline like 270 days to process something and to blow past without consequences is inconceivable to me. The day that thing went overage, the manager gets a report, and the employee gets asked why. The manager would keep getting reports until it was fixed, and if it wasn’t fixed soon, the SAC would be on the phone, because he or she is getting the same report, and his or her performance report (and bonuses) is on the line.”

ANNALS OF THE .00001 PERCENT: WSJ: Penny Pritzker Understated Income By $80 Million.

BREAKING BAD WORSE: Massachusetts Pol Busted For Dealing Meth. He used to chair the Massachusetts Legislature’s Ethics Committee, which seems about right . . . .

CAN YOU PREDICT PEOPLE’S POLITICAL VIEWS by their views of masturbation? Punchlines abound.

DISTRACTION: Obama Probes Create Immigration Magic as Bill Advances.

But unions are paying attention and don’t like it.

EBOOK REVOLUTION CONTINUES: Amazon To Build A Market For Fan Fiction.

Megan McArdle is interested.

Up until now, most fan fiction has been in a sort of legal limbo–regular publishers won’t touch it because of copyright infringement. Amazon proposes a way to get around that problem: cut the rights holders in on the deal. Kindle Worlds will pay authors a lower royalty than writers get for normal ebooks, with some of that profit diverted to the person who create the world.

It’s a brilliant and even fair solution. Some writers are better world-builders than others; why not let them profit off of their imaginations, while also compensating the folks who can do interesting things within that world? Of course, some fan fiction purists may be disappointed in the control that this will give the world-builders over what is done with their work. Amazon will not, for example, publish pornographic or highly explicit fiction. Under those rules, 50 Shades of Grey would never have been published; it started out as slash fiction set in the Twilight universe.

Still, as a writer I’m always glad to see more ways to compensate writers. And as a business writer, I’m excited to see how much innovation is taking place in this new market.

Some related thoughts from John Scalzi, who’s not quite as positive.

I don’t like the terms that are on offer here. And of course I have my own things to write. Likewise, I would caution anyone looking at this to be aware that overall this is not anywhere close to what I would call a good deal. Finally, on a philosophical level, I suspect this is yet another attempt in a series of long-term attempts to fundamentally change the landscape for purchasing and controlling the work of writers in such a manner that ultimately limits how writers are compensated for their work, which ultimately is not to the benefit of the writer. This will have far-reaching consequences that none of us really understand yet.

The thing that can be said for it is that it’s a better deal than you would otherwise get for writing fan fiction, i.e., no deal at all and possibly having to deal with a cranky rightsholder angry that you kids are playing in their yard. Is that enough for you? That’s on you to decide.

Indeed.

WHY THE IRS WENT AFTER THE TEA PARTY, instead of Establishment Republicans. “Isn’t it ironic that the Tea Party now stands for the rule of law and that elements of the United States government and the Washington establishment have become the rogue, criminal element in America?”

It’s not surprising at all. The Tea Party movement is a bourgeois revolution. The Washington Establishment, regardless of party, does not wish to be bound by bourgeois conventions, which limit power most irksomely. Much of the revolution of the 1960s was about overthrowing those constraints on the ruling class, after all.

SO OF POLLS COMING OUT IN THE LAST FEW DAYS, Obama is up in 1 (Gallup) and down in 3 (Rasmussen, Fox, Economist/YouGov.)

AT AMAZON, deals in Clothing & Accessories.

Also, today only: Dyson AM04 Hot+Cool Heater/Table Fan (Refurbished), $199.99 (33% off).

MITCH MCCONNELL: The IRS Scandal And Obama’s Culture of Intimidation.

ELECTION-ORIENTED COVERUP: Susan Ferrechio: Emails show how Treasury delayed alerting Congress to Tea Party targeting.

IT’S A DUMB IDEA, OFFERED AS A DISTRACTION BY A PRESIDENT WHO FUNDAMENTALLY DOESN’T LIKE CRITICISM: Roll Call: Old Objections Hang Over New Push for Media Shield Law.

Here’s something I wrote back in 2005. We need protection for journalism, not journalists.

ANNALS OF THE ONE PERCENT: Elizabeth Warren, Angus King among freshmen in Senate ‘millionaires’ club.’

JAMES TARANTO: Why Did Lois Lerner Take The Fifth? “The American people have a right to know both how deep and how high the corruption of our government runs. The White House has an interest in minimizing the scandal, and surely that is Obama’s objective if he is trying to throw Lerner under the bus. Let’s reserve judgment on her and make sure not to let off the hook the man whose re-election the IRS’s abuse of power helped to advance.”

ADVICE TO UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS: Restructure Your Law Schools, Or Close Them.

SHOCKER: IRS’s Lerner Had History of Harassment, Inappropriate Religious Inquiries at FEC.

ED MORRISSEY: How the White House’s war on media backfired. “The DoJ’s journalist-snooping controversy is the one scandal that will cause the media to report aggressively on all the others.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: 1 in 6 California Law Grads Can’t Find a Job.

HOW COULD THE IRS SCANDAL GET WORSE? LIKE THIS: The IRS Targets Adoptive Families. “Sixty-nine percent of all adoption credit claims during the 2012 filing season were selected for audit.”

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE: Four Americans Killed In Drone Strikes, U.S. Admits.

BENGHAZI UPDATE: GOP lifts subpoena after Benghazi auditor agrees to be deposed. “Rep. Darrell Issa and Ambassador Thomas Pickering have reached a deal that will allow the diplomat to appear for a closed-door meeting with investigators for the congressman. The agreement led Issa (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, to lift his subpoena on Pickering, who who co-authored the State Department’s independent report on the Benghazi attack.”

FROM VOX DAY, a blog review of the Insta-Wife’s book, Men On Strike.

J. CHRISTIAN ADAMS: IRS Abuse, the Guide. “Pay attention to the emerging fringe narrative of the speech regulators – the Tea Party deserved it. You’ll learn much about the people who want to further restrict your political freedoms.” Tar. Feathers.