Archive for May, 2013

Memorial Day

Monday, May 27th, 2013

Here are a few photos from a visit to World War II sites in 2006. I’ve posted some of these before.

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This is my daughter, Annie, and her cousins at the American cemetery Omaha Beach. Annie is the farthest from the camera.

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This is the theme building at the cemetery. The statue is called “The Spirit of American Youth.” The web site for the cemetery has a nice video. We walked around the cemetery and spent a week visiting battle sites as I wanted my daughter to know about this and remember.

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The view of the bluffs from the top shows the magnitude of the problem of getting from that beach to the land above under hostile fire. This was completely different from the situation at Utah Beach where the transition from beach to the land behind it was almost level. Note the people climbing the path from the beach. It gives a scale of the size.

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Here is Utah Beach and it is nearly level with the land inland. The problem at Utah was inland where the land was low and had been flooded by the Germans. The Airborne divisions were tasked with capturing and holding the inland end of the causeways from the beach to beyond the flooded fields.

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The inland side of the beach was no obstacle to tanks or men.

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Ponte du hoc was a point of land between Omaha and Utah that was believed to hold big guns that could command both beaches. The climb the Rangers made is almost unbelievable. Rangers at the 1984 ceremony for the 40th anniversary said they could not imagine how they did it. The guns had been shifted a mile inland to avoid naval gunfire but the casements still needed to be taken.

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A view of Omaha Beach from the bottom of the bluffs show German gun emplacements which were turned to avoid naval gunfire and allow them to sweep the beach. Fortunately, the German guns were zeroed at the high tide line and the troops landed at low tide. This provided some shelter as they left the Higgins boats.

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This is a reconstructed Higgins boat.

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This is a famous photo from Omaha Beach on D-Day showing troops leaving the Higgins boat and wading ashore.

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The Omaha bluffs are just as impressive from the bottom as from the top.

How to respond to the IRS scandal

Wednesday, May 15th, 2013

Washington DC seems to be convulsed this week with scandals. Most of us were well aware of the Benghazi disaster and coverup. The IRS scandal is new and does a lot to explain the quiet status of the Tea Party groups that were so active in 2010. Many of us expected to see more of them last year in the run up to the 2012 presidential election, as well as the other races for Senate and House. Now we know what happened.

The Tea Party groups that filed for 501 (c) 4 status were harassed and threatened by the IRS. 501 (c) 4 status does NOT grant tax exemption to donations, contrary to the statement of Nancy Pelosi, not a good source in any situation. It only allows tax exemption for activities intended to education the public on issues of interest to the organization. From the IRS web site:

The promotion of social welfare does not include direct or indirect participation or intervention in political campaigns on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office. However, a section 501(c)(4) social welfare organization may engage in some political activities, so long as that is not its primary activity. However, any expenditure it makes for political activities may be subject to tax under section 527(f).

The Tea Parties were organized for political and educational activity, not as lobbies. There are plenty of lobbies. Other organizations singled out by the IRS in this scandal included those concerned with “The Constitution” or other philosophical topics. Several examples are included in this article.

Kookogey’s organization, Linchpins of Liberty, is one of several groups still awaiting approval of their applications for tax-exempt status after more than three years. Linchpins, a conservative mentoring program for high-school and college students, has received extensive and intrusive requests for information about the organization. Unlike most of the groups targeted, however, Linchpins of Liberty was seeking status as a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit, as opposed to a more overtly political 501(c)(4) “social welfare” group, and had no direct “tea party” affiliation. The group’s stated mission is “to challenge the imagination of the rising generation” through “the study of books about the human condition and about civic order.”

I see no evidence of lobbying intent there.

The agency sent him more than 30 questions in response to his application, including some that defied comprehension. “They asked me to identify the students I’m teaching and what I’m teaching them,” he says. “Now, imagine the disservice I’d be doing to the parents of these kids if I reported their children to the IRS. It was clearly meant to intimidate.”

This is far beyond the role of a tax agency.

How do we deal with this ?

First, donations to 501 (c) 4 organizations are NOT tax deductible for the donor. The organization benefits from the fact that its own activities are tax exempt. It cannot conduct a business that returns profits to the organization although educating members and charging for that service may be permissible.

Under this technical instruction program (pdf) the social welfare group would be allowed to engage in business as a means of financing the social welfare program. The business might consist of holding seminars on politics.

I was president of such an organization years ago. It was the Orange County Medical Association. It was tax exempt and, when we began to organize a subsidiary that would provide health care for low income persons, we made the subsidiary a for-profit company and allocated all business expenses related to the provision of health care as expenses to that subsidiary. We had no IRS trouble although Reagan was president and the IRS was not political as it is under Obama.

My suggestion is to contribute and help the Tea Party and similar organizations to organize themselves under another model. Perhaps legislation to allow educational organizations to function free of harassment would be in order although Democrats in the Senate would probably try to block it. Complaining about the IRS will only accomplish so much. The history of misuse of the IRS is long and goes back to Roosevelt

President Franklin Roosevelt used the IRS to harass newspaper publishers who were opposed to the New Deal, including William Randolph Hearst and Moses Annenberg, publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Roosevelt also dropped the IRS hammer on political rivals such as the populist firebrand Huey Long and radio agitator Father Coughlin, and prominent Republicans such as former Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon. Perhaps Roosevelt’s most pernicious tax skulduggery occurred in 1944. He spiked an IRS audit of illegal campaign contributions made by a government contractor to Congressman Lyndon Johnson, whose career might have been derailed if Texans had learned of the scandal.

Andrew Mellon, Treasury Secretary under Coolidge, was harassed by FDR until he died. After his death, Mellon was exonerated completely.

The administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt subjected Mellon to intense investigation of his personal income tax returns. The US Justice Department empaneled a grand jury, which declined to issue an indictment. Roosevelt hated Mellon, as the embodiment of everything he thought was bad about the 1920s; Mellon vehemently denied the charges. A two-year civil action beginning in 1935, dubbed the “Mellon Tax Trial”, eventually exonerated Mellon, albeit several months after his death.

We should support the Tea Parties and get tax lawyers to construct a standard application with responses to legal and appropriate questions.

Conspiracy Theories

Sunday, May 12th, 2013

Last week was a week for the conspiracy theories. First, we had Benghazi and the hearings which interviewed career State Department officers, most of whom probably vote for Democrats. The fact that they were ordered not to talk to Congressmen and denied any attempt at help when under attack, even from as close as Tripoli, invites speculation about motive. Peggy Noonan, a little unusually, hits this one out of the park.

Since it is behind a pay wall, I’ll quote a few bits.

What happened in Benghazi last Sept. 11 and 12 was terrible in every way. The genesis of the scandal? It looks to me like this:

The Obama White House sees every event as a political event. Really, every event, even an attack on a consulate and the killing of an ambassador.

Because of that, it could not tolerate the idea that the armed assault on the Benghazi consulate was a premeditated act of Islamist terrorism. That would carry a whole world of unhappy political implications, and demand certain actions. And the American presidential election was only eight weeks away. They wanted this problem to go away, or at least to bleed the meaning from it.

That sounds about right to me.

Because the White House could not tolerate the idea of Benghazi as a planned and deliberate terrorist assault, it had to be made into something else. So they said it was a spontaneous street demonstration over an anti-Muhammad YouTube video made by a nutty California con man. After all, that had happened earlier in the day, in Cairo. It sounded plausible. And maybe they believed it at first. Maybe they wanted to believe it. But the message was out: Provocative video plus primitive street Arabs equals sparky explosion. Not our fault. Blame the producer! Who was promptly jailed.

If what happened in Benghazi was not a planned and prolonged terrorist assault, if it was merely a street demonstration gone bad, the administration could not take military action to protect Americans there.

Yup. That has to be it unless someone comes up with a better rationale. Maybe one of those additionla whistle blowers who are asking to testify.

Why couldn’t the administration tolerate the idea that Benghazi was a planned terrorist event? Because they didn’t want this attack dominating the headline with an election coming. It would open the administration to criticism of its intervention in Libya. President Obama had supported overthrowing Moammar Gadhafi and put U.S. force behind the Libyan rebels. Now Libyans were killing our diplomats. Was our policy wrong? More importantly, the administration’s efforts against al Qaeda would suddenly come under scrutiny and questioning.

The military disgraced itself, as well. Why no plans for evacuation or reinforcement ?

Maybe those generals and admirals who were relieved in the weeks after Benghazi were too willing to do something when the orders were to do nothing.

On October 18, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta appeared unexpectedly at an otherwise unrelated briefing on “Efforts to Enhance the Financial Health of the Force.” News organizations and CSPAN were told beforehand there was no news value to the event and gave it scant coverage. In his brief remarks Mr. Panetta said, “Today I am very pleased to announce that President Obama will nominate General David Rodriguez to succeed General Carter Ham as commander of U.S. Africa Command.”

AFRICOM was the area command that was asked for help.

The information I heard today was that General Ham as head of Africom received the same e-mails the White House received requesting help/support as the attack was taking place. General Ham immediately had a rapid response unit ready and communicated to the Pentagon that he had a unit ready.

General Ham then received the order to stand down. His response was to screw it, he was going to help anyhow. Within 30 seconds to a minute after making the move to respond, his second in command apprehended General Ham and told him that he was now relieved of his command.

The story continues that now General Rodiguez would take General Ham’s place as the head of Africom.

That sure sounds like it. However:

On Monday October 29 General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, released the following statement:

“The speculation that General Carter Ham is departing Africa Command (AFRICOM) due to events in Benghazi, Libya on 11 September 2012 is absolutely false. General Ham’s departure is part of routine succession planning that has been on going since July. He continues to serve in AFRICOM with my complete confidence.”

Well, that tells us more about Dempsey than about Ham. In 1964, as he edged into Vietnam, Lyndon Johnson repeatedly sidelined war fighters and replaced them with politicians like JCS Chairman Earle Wheeler, who spent six years presiding over the Vietnam debacle. Wheeler had no command or combat experience in WWII. He had always been a staff officer. It makes me think of Courtney Massengale, the villain of “Once an Eagle, Anton Myrer’s wonderful novel of military life. It is still required reading for military officers of all branches. I have often wondered if Myrer chose the name of his villain from the name of a popular douche at about the time he was writing the novel.

There were flag officers relieved right after Banghazi. Nothing to see here. Move along.

We will learn more about the Benghazi story and Democrats dishonor themselves by their transparent efforts to divert attention and discredit honorable officers.

The next scandal that erupted last week was the IRS auditing expose. Tea Party groups have been complaining about selective harassment by the IRS since 2009 when Obama joked about doing just that.

A BEDROCK principle of U.S. democracy is that the coercive powers of government are never used for partisan purpose. The law is blind to political viewpoint, and so are its enforcers, most especially the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service. Any violation of this principle threatens the trust and the voluntary cooperation of citizens upon which this democracy depends.

So it was appalling to learn Friday that the IRS had improperly targeted conservative groups for scrutiny. It was almost as disturbing that President Obama and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew have not personally apologized to the American people and promised a full investigation.

And that was the Washington Post !

And then we have the spectacle of the HHS Secretary asking health executives to fund Obamacare with donations.

“Nice little insurance company you’ve got there. It would be a shame if something happened to it.”

Over the past three months, Sebelius has made multiple phone calls to health industry executives, community organizations and church groups and asked that they contribute whatever they can to nonprofit groups that are working to enroll uninsured Americans and increase awareness of the law, according to an HHS official and an industry person familiar with the secretary’s activities. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk openly about private discussions.

Yes, it was all voluntary.

Young said that Sebelius did not solicit for funds directly from industries that HHS regulates, such as insurance companies and hospitals, but rather asked them to contribute in whatever way they can.

But the industry official who had knowledge of the calls but did not participate directly in them said there was a clear insinuation by the administration that the insurers should give financially to the nonprofits.

And so goes another week of Obamaworld. And I didn’t even mention “immigration reform.”

An interesting update on Benghazi.

Thursday, May 2nd, 2013

Today, another blog has an interesting post on the Benghazi fiasco and some informed speculation on why it happened.

On the night of the Benghazi terror attack, special operations put out multiple calls for all available military and other assets to be moved into position to help — but the State Department and White House never gave the military permission to cross into Libya, sources told Fox News.

The disconnect was one example of what sources described as a communication breakdown that left those on the ground without outside help.

“When you are on the ground, you depend on each other — we’re gonna get through this situation. But when you look up and then nothing outside of the stratosphere is coming to help you or rescue you, that’s a bad feeling,” one source said.

The Special Ops community has been particularly angry about what happened.

Once the alarm is sent – in this case, from the consulate in Benghazi — dozens of HQs are notified and are in the planning loop in real time, including AFRICOM and EURCOM, both located in Germany. Without waiting for specific orders from Washington, they begin planning and executing rescue operations, including moving personnel, ships, and aircraft forward toward the location of the crisis. However, there is one thing they can’t do without explicit orders from the president: cross an international border on a hostile mission.

That is the clear “red line” in this type of a crisis situation.

No administration wants to stumble into a war because a jet jockey in hot pursuit (or a mixed-up SEAL squad in a rubber boat) strays into hostile territory. Because of this, only the president can give the order for our military to cross a nation’s border without that nation’s permission. For the Osama bin Laden mission, President Obama granted CBA for our forces to enter Pakistani airspace.

On the other side of the CBA coin: in order to prevent a military rescue in Benghazi, all the POTUS has to do is not grant cross-border authority. If he does not, the entire rescue mission (already in progress) must stop in its tracks.

That permission was never given. Did he go to bed so he would be bright and ready for the fund raiser the next day ?

Or did he watch them die like they were rats in a maze?

The Special Ops community has a few opinions.

As The Whistleblower Revealed: Obama Knew Who Was Behind Benghazi, FBI Now Releases Photos

The FBI has posted the photos of three individuals who were on the scene during the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi.

The three individuals, who were not named in the FBI announcement, are suspected to have more information on the attacks. Here’s the FBI’s notice:

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation appreciates that the Libyan people and the government of Libya have condemned the September 11, 2012 attacks on U.S. Special Mission personnel and facilities in Benghazi, Libya.

The FBI is now asking Libyans and people around the world for additional information related to the attacks, which resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya.

From the Foreign Policy website.

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The FBI is now looking for them. The trail is pretty cold by now. “What does it matter now ?”