The Internal Revenue Service has launched an investigation to determine whether the non-profit NAACP improperly “intervened in a political campaign” when its Chairman Julian Bond gave a major speech condemning the Bush administration’s policies. Bond said yesterday “I think what’s at issue is our right to criticize the president of the United States. The IRS is saying that because I criticized the president’s education policies, his economic policies and his war policies that somehow I placed the tax exemption for the NAACP at risk.” During the speech in question Bond said, “The NAACP has always been nonpartisan, but that doesn’t mean we’re non-critical. For as long as we’ve existed, whether Democrats or Republicans have occupied the White House, we’ve spoken truth to power.”