Bill's Bloviations

We hold these truths …

2014-07-05T17:00:00.001-04:00

When the Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia in May 1775, the revolution against Great Britain was well underway. The outbreak of the revolution occurred less than a month earlier with the bloodshed at Lexington and Concord, followed by the Battle of Bunker Hill and the evacuation of the British army from Boston by sea.

Although it had no authorization from the thirteen colonial governments to do so, the Second Congress began functioning as a national government – appointing generals, sending representatives to European governments, signing treaties, borrowing money, and issuing paper currency (called “Continentals”) – all with the primary focus of managing the war effort.

Initially, the war was not a war of independence; it was a rejection of the authority of Parliament to rule the Colonies without Colonial representation. But as the Second Congress labored on into 1776, it became apparent that the recalcitrance of the advisors to the Crown and Parliament itself made any reasonable accommodation impossible and made independence inevitable. A formal declaration of that independence would be necessary to declare to the world the right and the reasons for Colonial independence; otherwise no world nation would get involved in a family squabble between the Crown and a family member.

The Virginia delegation to the Second Congress included Peyton Randolph, the cousin of Thomas Jefferson. When Randolph was called home to become the President of the Virginia House of Burgesses, Virginia’s government, much to the chagrin of Jefferson, sent him to replace his cousin. Compared to other delegates, Jefferson was relatively young at 33 years, hated cities and public speaking, missed his wife and plantation, and almost from the day he arrived in Philadelphia, began writing the Virginia officials asking to be recalled.

But his reputation for science, reading, and literary composition had preceded him. When the Second Congress decided on June 11 that a formal declaration was needed to proclaim Colonial independence, it delegated the task to a “Committee of Five” consisting of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston, the delegate from New York, and Roger Sherman, the delegate from Connecticut. There are no minutes from this committee, but it is puzzling how its youngest member was chosen to write the draft of the declaration. Franklin was not chosen because he had gone home to deal with a severe attack of gout that caused his absence at most of the Committee’s meetings. In letters written decades later, Adams explained that he and Jefferson were therefore assigned the task of writing a draft and Adams, aged 41, deferred to his younger partner after refusing Jefferson’s deference to him. Adams’ letter says he gave Jefferson three reasons: “'Reason first, you are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. Reason second, I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular. You are very much otherwise. Reason third, you can write ten times better than I can.”

For the next seventeen days, Jefferson toiled over the document which was written on a mahogany traveling desk that he had commissioned Benjamin Randolph, a noted Philadelphian cabinet maker, to make for him a year earlier. After his presidency ended, the desk was lost when a wagon carrying the Jefferson personal effects overturned crossing a river en route to Monticello.

When Jefferson had his draft, he showed it to Franklin and Adams who made revisions (which can be seen today in their handwriting) along with revisions in Jefferson’s handwriting which may have come from conversations with Franklin, Adams, or the other committee members. From these revisions, Jefferson wrote a “fair copy” which was titled "A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled.” This was presented to the 56 delegates of the Second Congress on June 28.

While Jefferson’s document would become one of the two most important documents of colonial times – the other being the Constitution – it was not so at the time it was written. To Jefferson and the other delegates it was simply one of the many bureaucratic papers that were written during those early days when the delegates were making things up as they went along in their process of becoming a republic. Ignominiously, the document was tabled (literally as can be seen in John Trumbull’s famous painting) while the Congress took up more pressing matters.

One of those matters was a Resolution of Independence that the Virginia Convention had instructed its delegate, Richard Henry Lee, to put before the Philadelphia Congress back in May:

Resolved, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.

Some delegates had not been authorized by their state conventions to vote for independence and thought it was premature to act on Lee’s resolution. Now, on July 1, the delegates were prepared to debate and vote. However, Edward Rutledge of South Carolina, the youngest delegate at age 26, asked that the vote be delayed a day so that unanimity might be sought. On July 2 the vote was taken and the resolution passed with twelve affirmations and one abstention, that of New York, whose delegation had not yet received permission to vote for the resolution.

John Adams, writing to his wife on July 3, predicted that the date of July 2 would become an American holiday because of the passage of Lee’s resolution, thinking that the date of the vote on the resolution, not the vote on the declaration and announcement, would become “Independence Day.”

For the next two days, the delegates reworded Jefferson’s text and deleted nearly one-fourth of it, which Jefferson absorbed in silent agony. As Pauline Maier writes in her excellent book, American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence, “[Jefferson] had forgotten, as has posterity that a draftsman is not an author …” Nevertheless, Jefferson had produced a masterpiece, without benefit of books, and strictly from the recollection of his well-read mind. His ideas as expressed in the Declaration have been the subject of much scholarship and books. My personal favorite is Garry Wills’ Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence.

Franklin had rejoined the delegates after his attack of gout, and was sitting near Jefferson during this painful process. “[Franklin] perceived that I was not insensible to these mutilations,” Jefferson recalled years later, and in an effort to give Jefferson comfort while the editing and amputations were going on, Franklin told him a story of a hatter who was about to open a shop. The hatter had a sign made to advertise his business which said, “John Thompson, Hatter, makes and sells hats for ready money” followed by an image of a hat. Before hanging his sign, Franklin continued, he asked the opinion of several friends. One recommended that the word “hatter” be removed since it was redundant with “makes hats.” Another said the word “makes” should be excised because customers wouldn’t care that it was Thompson who made the hats. A third friend noted that the term “for ready money” wasn’t necessary since merchandise wasn’t sold on credit. Finally, a fourth opined that “sells hats,” could be stricken because Thompson could surely assume no one expected him to give them away. In the end, Franklin sighed, the sign simply said, “John Thompson,” with a picture of a hat, which said what was needed quite well. It seemed Jefferson’s declaration was headed to the same fate.

On July 4, the Declaration of Independence, as it is called today, was approved and sent to the print shop of John Dunlap a few blocks away where about 200 “broadside” (typeset) copies were printed during the night from the engrossed copy and distributed for public readings. The first public reading occurred in the yard of Independence Hall and readings continued throughout the thirteen colonies. A copy was sent to General Washington, who was in nearby Trenton and who had it read to his troops. After the reading concluded, a long period of silence followed, which gave the General concern. But after contemplating what they had heard, the troops broke out with loud “huzzahs.”

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson became fast friends as a result of their service in the Second Continental Congress, no doubt helped by an eight-year difference in their ages. Both held positions as ministers abroad and were out of the country when the Constitutional Convention was held. The first presidential election unanimously elected George Washington. Adams became Vice President and Jefferson became Secretary of State. However, Jefferson left the Washington administration during its second term and returned to Monticello due to his ongoing disagreements with Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton over the fiscal management of the new nation.

When Washington refused to run for a third term, the election of the second president set friend against friend because both Adams and Jefferson wanted to be the second president. Adams won, and because he received the next highest total of electoral votes, Jefferson became Vice President by default.

The tumultuous election of 1800 tore their relationship asunder when Jefferson’s election as the third president denied Adams a second term. They did not speak to each other again until both reached old age and their mutual friend, Dr. Benjamin Rush, a noted Philadelphia physician in colonial times, arranged a reconciliation that got them started on a most remarkable letter-writing exchange beginning in 1812.

In an historical irony, Thomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826 – the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Declaration of Independence. John Adams died a few hours later on the same day.

Jefferson never made pretensions about being president. After his first inaugural, he stood in line at his boarding house waiting his turn to eat. After his second inaugural, he ceased delivering the State of the Union message in person. On one occasion, a visitor to the White House knocked on the front door, which Jefferson himself answered in a tattered house robe and slippers. Not surprisingly, his tombstone mentions his three proudest accomplishments, making no mention of his presidency:

Here was buried

Thomas Jefferson

Author of the

Declaration

American Independence

of the

Statute of Virginia

for

Religious Freedom

and Father of the

University of Virginia

Sauce for the Gander

2014-06-28T16:38:00.000-04:00

Assume you are a small business owner – say a dozen or so employees.

The IRS audits your business tax return and says you’re underreporting your income. There’s no evidence for this, of course, but the IRS doesn’t need evidence. You’re guilty unless you can prove yourself innocent. (Hey, what happened to due process? Oh, didn’t you hear? That doesn’t apply to the IRS gestapo.)

The IRS launches a massive invasion of privacy against you, telling you all the records you’re required to produce going back seven years, among them emails. In other words, you’ll be investigated not only for their specific allegation, but also, while the IRS is at it, they will go on a fishing expedition to see if they catch any other misdeeds. You are, after all, presumed to be in a perpetual state of IRS guilt.

Notwithstanding what records you produce, it isn’t good enough. IRS gun-toting goons show up at your place of work and confiscate your computers, servers, and paper files. The fact that this effectively puts you out of business is of no concern to them. (I personally observed them padlock a friend’s retail store during shopping hours for suspected underpayment of payroll tax.)

An investigation of your computers reveals no digital trail past the time that the IRS investigation of your firm began. An explanation is demanded.

“Well, uh, you see sir, the computer system crashed,” you say.

“All twelve of them?” the lead inquisitor asks incredulously.

“Unfortunately so,” you say. “Darndest thing I ever saw. Came in one morning and they were toast – dead as doornails.”

“And the servers?” asks the inquisitor.

“Them too,” says you.

Inquisitor: “Where are they? Where’re the drives?”

You: “Shredded I reckon. No good, you know.”

Multiple choice pop quiz: “At this point, the IRS is likely to (a) curse and terminate the investigation for lack of evidence, (b) charge you with a crime, (c) believe you’re telling the truth and invite you to lunch – at his expense.”

Those of us who have been audited know that this story is pretty much factual down to the start of the dialog. No doubt your sympathies were on the side of the guy being hounded by the IRS.

Reading the dialog, however, I’ll bet you thought, “Oops, this dog won’t hunt.” Okay, maybe you didn’t think exactly in those terms. But I’ll bet you were thinking something equivalent to, “Anyone who would believe the story of crashed drives would buy the Brooklyn Bridge.”

Well that’s what the folks at the IRS (aka Comedy Central’s joke-writing affiliate) would have us believe – “us” being you and me and members of Congress investigating the allegation that the civil rights of targeted groups were suppressed by those wonderful folks who ruin every April 15. The President breaks the law with impunity, after all. Why shouldn’t the IRS?

We know for a fact that Obama and the Senate and House ranking Democrats ran a smear campaign against conservative organizations in the run-up to the 2010 election. That’s a matter of public record, spoken publicly and reported by the complicit mainstream media. We know that Obama and his congressional Myrmidons publicly urged the IRS to investigate these organizations and revoke or refuse their tax exemptions on donations – that’s also public knowledge. All the usual suspects – Chucky Schumer, Carl Levin, Dickey Durbin, and Elijah Cummings (the minority party Co-Chair of the House committee which is investigating the IRS, chaired by Representative Darrell Issa, R-CA) – were up to their armpits in conspiracy complaints they’d written to the IRS about conservative groups.

We also know that Lois Lerner ran a political hit campaign inside of the IRS. We know she took the Fifth after blaming every targeting action, memo, meeting, telephone call, decision, and lunar eclipse on “that office of rogues over in Cincinnati.” Anyone who believes that, line up for the weekly sale of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Additionally we know that Lerner shipped a database of 12,000 non-profit tax returns to the Criminal Division of the FBI, which has no jurisdiction over taxpayers, inviting them to go on a fishing expedition. “Look around, boys. Nobody’s perfect. Surely you’ll find something.” Unauthorized disclosure of confidential taxpayer information is a crime – even among government agencies.

What we don’t know is whether the IRS and elected officials – Obama and the congressional Democrats – collaborated to use the power of government in suppressing the political rights of a group. If that could be shown, it would be a crime. Some folks might go to Big Boy prison.

So, last week as the noose tightened around the neck of a government official who had pled her Fifth Amendment rights to avoid self-incrimination, we learn (a) her computer hard drive crashed in 2011 when the investigation following the 2010 election began, (b) the hard drives of six other IRS employees implicated in this developing scandal also crashed – darndest coincidence, (c) that rather than recover the data on the hard drives – standard practice where I work – they were shredded, quite likely in violation of the Federal Records Act, (d) the hard drives on the mail servers also crashed and were shredded – wow! must have been an outbreak of something, (e) that there has been no back up of the mail system or network hard drives in two years! – now, where’d ya’ say that Bridge is? (f) that there was no fail-over system in case hard drives start crashing – also standard practice in my office – which would make possible the restoration of lost data, (g) that there were no offsite mirror servers to run in tandem in case of a catastrophic failure – like the place burns down – and prevent the loss of billions and billions of irreplaceable taxpayer records, also SOP – can you believe it? – and saving the best for last, (h) when the new guy, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, took over this Singapore cesspool around the first of the year, he learned in February that “computer problems” had happened, yet he promised Issa’s committee later that spring that Lerner’s emails would be delivered forthwith. That’s called lying under oath in my family – a definite no-no.

Lots and lots of coincidences here – long strings of coincidences, in fact – are making cooperation with Darrel Issa’s committee investigation of IRS wrong-doing dang nigh impossible. Of course, I don’t believe for a heartbeat that most are true, but it’s going to take a Special Prosecutor to get the information and charge someone with a crime. Maybe someone in the IRS will get nervous and ‘fess up or rat out the bad guys and gals.

Memo to John Koskinen: Hey, Kosk; since you guys stopped using the IRS abacus network a while back and switched to the modern invention we call computer networks, well you may not know this, Kosk, but you see, when ol’ Lois there and her fellow conspirators were connected to the network, their keystrokes weren’t writing on the hard drive under their desks; they were writing out on the network drives, so the only thing their drive crashes did was create a bad smell. Might want to tidy up your story before your next congressional appearance. I think Issa is getting royally torqued over all these unbelievables happening in the middle of his investigation.

“What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander,” my Granny used to say. But there’s no gander sauce when it comes to government. It cheats.

You and I are expected to retain seven years’ of taxpayer information available on demand, abide by laws requiring the payment of confiscatory taxes by a minority of income earners while a majority pay little or none, cooperate fully in any investigatory audit that seeks to indict us for not paying Caesar his full pound of flesh including interest and penalties, suffer the presumption of guilt and the adverse consequences of incomplete or lost records, and annually engage experts to complete tax returns for an arcane revenue code that makes the Minoan maze of the Minotaur look like a nine letter crossword puzzle.

Here we have an unimpeachable example of open air law-breaking that is being defended by political interests in the Democrat party who believe obeying the law is just a quaint practice. Where is the public outrage? Why isn’t the Obama approval rating below the 13% Congress is getting?

What the IRS apologists would have us believe that we have here is a government department with the undisputed power of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, charged with the administration of taking in trillions of dollars every year, year after year, with all the record-keeping attendant thereto, yet doing so with Stone Age era technology, we’re told, upon which all the plagues that Moses and God could release 3,500 years ago seem to have been revisited recently, all the while laboring to discharge its duties loyally like good little civil “servants” while right-wing congressional zealots attack them with stupid questions and subpoenas.

Anyone who believes that, line up over here on the Left.

Brooklyn Bridge, straight ahead.

Bergdahl’s Betrayal

2014-06-21T15:56:00.000-04:00

Article 85 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice is the statutory military regulation which addresses desertion:

(c) Any person found guilty of desertion or attempt to desert shall be punished, if the offense is committed in time of war, by death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct, but if the desertion or attempt to desert occurs at any other time, by such punishment, other than death, as a court-martial may direct.

It’s estimated that about 50,000 American soldiers deserted in the European theater of operations during World War II. Over 21,000 were sentenced to various punishments, 49 of which were death sentences. Only one, Private Eddie Slovik, was actually executed.

Walking away from a military post in a war zone will almost always assure that either a charge of AWOL or desertion will be filed against the missing soldier. The difference is not trivial. Using a bit of syllogistic logic, all desertions involve being AWOL, but all cases of AWOL are not desertions. AWOL is somewhat like playing hooky – absence without official or approved leave-taking. In cases of AWOL, the intention is to return to service. In cases of desertion there is no intention to return.

Notwithstanding the ominous sounding Article 85, its wartime application has been lenient. While 50,000 desertions is a small percentage of the total number of men under arms in the fight against Germany, less than half of the desertion charges led to punishment convictions. And only one of 49 death sentences was carried out. Ironically, Slovik did not desert a combat post; he never saw combat. He deserted before getting to the front lines by refusing to go there.

Now comes the case of Bowe Bergdahl. Nine fellow soldiers in his squad accuse him of deserting Afghan outpost duty in 2009. An Army investigation of his disappearance led to a conclusion similar to Bergdahl’s accusers albeit stopping short of calling him a deserter since that would require knowledge of his intent which exists only circumstantially at this point.

Nevertheless it’s surprising that the smartest man ever to be President would risk making a Rose Garden announcement that he had gotten a suspected deserter released from Taliban captivity. Flanked by Bergdahl’s parents, Obama apparently expected that he would be hailed for pulling off another gambit, second only to the killing of Osama bin Laden. What conceit to believe the American public would consider the ransom of a suspected deserter for five known killers a fair trade! As the details have leaked out, polls have shown 55% disapprove of the price paid for Bergdahl’s ransom (i.e. five top Taliban commanders) and close to three out of four want Bergdahl charged with a military crime if he is found guilty of desertion.

An official investigation of the Bergdahl betrayal has now been launched. Allegedly, it will collect facts and evidence to determine if a court martial trial on the merits is warranted, and if so, the charges and punishments that the prosecution will ask the court to consider – if it gets that far. I doubt that it will. Pardon my cynicism about anything this government does while Obama is President, but Bergdahl’s trade is a sideshow for political decision to release Gitmo prisoners. Nothing will come of the military’s Kabuki impersonation of a real investigation except to obfuscate the issues. Remember Benghazi? Obama jailed a guy on a trumped-up accusation that his video caused the Benghazi tragedy. Ever hear how his sideshow turned out?

There can be little doubt that Bergdahl deserted his post in wartime given the testimony of his fellow soldiers, Bergdahl’s own letters and emails, and information learned in searching for him. Bergdahl is not likely to be as accommodating as Eddie Slovik in admitting his desertion. In those pre-Miranda days, Slovik not only admitted in writing that he would desert, but he also complied with an order from a superior officer to write on the reverse side of his “confession” that he fully understood the gravity of his admission. He expected to go to prison, where he’d spent several stints as a civilian before being drafted into the Army. Three squares a day and a clean bed sure beat living – and quite possibly dying – at the front during the Battle of the Bulge in the worst winter Europe had seen in living memory. The last thing Slovik expected was a firing squad.

In today’s PC world even bad soldiers are treated well. Bergdahl will be treated with respect and deference as he “reintegrates” – whatever that means – after five years in captivity. He has been returned from an Army medical facility in Germany to one in San Antonio where his “reintegration” may take months of medical and psychological care. During that time he will be “off limits” for questioning by investigators who will be his legal adversaries should his case go forward.

Taxpayers will provide him the best legal defense money can buy and those lawyers will never allow him to testify as a witness if he comes to trial. It’s unlikely that he will even answer questions on the record for investigators. Lois Lerner, move over.

So circumstantial evidence is all that the military investigation can hope to get in explaining Bergdahl’s disappearance. If that wasn’t good enough to accuse him of desertion in 2009 it won’t be any better in 2014.

Here’s what the circumstantial evidence looks like.

In the last email sent in late June 2009 to his parents before deserting his post, Bergdahl wrote,

The future is too good to waste on lies. And life is way too short to care for the damnation of others, as well as to spend it helping fools with their ideas that are wrong. I have seen their ideas and I am ashamed to even be american [sic]. The horror of the self-righteous arrogance that they thrive in. It is all revolting. … I am ashamed to be an american [sic]. And the title of US soldier is just the lie of fools… I am sorry for everything here. The horror that is america [sic] is disgusting…

Okay. Hardly the words of a patriot. Then he concluded his email with the following reference to his uniform, computer, books, and journals, which he was sending back home.

There are a few more boxes coming to you guys. Feel free to open them, and use them.

Why would he send his personal effects home unless he knew he wouldn’t need them anymore? Particularly when he had told a fellow trooper, "If this deployment is lame, I'm just going to walk off into the mountains of Pakistan."

The evidence speaks to having planned to desert for some time. Bergdahl left at a pre-dawn hour when there was the least light. When he failed to muster for roll call the next morning, his gear was found in his tent neatly arranged – body armor, helmet, rifle, and web gear. He had taken with him his compass, diary, knife, water bottles, and digital camera.

The call for all hands on deck was sounded and Bergdahl was classified DUSTWUN (Duty Status: Whereabouts Unknown.) For the next 30 to 35 days the mission of his and other units focused on finding him, knowing that an American wandering around unarmed would fall into the hands of the Taliban – which indeed happened.

The search parties had serious misgivings about putting their lives at risk for a soldier who deserted his post. “The enemy knew we would be coming. While searching for him, ambushes and IEDs picked up tremendously,” one of Bergdahl’s squad members said. Within the first week of searching the Taliban set up ambushes by leaking false intelligence sightings to lure search parties. Teams rushed into a house that was rigged with explosives. A car was wired with a bomb. A suicide vest was set to explode in another area.

"We went to a school across a field,” Bergdahl’s squad leader said, “and a child told us that he saw him around 6 a.m. low-crawling toward the town, trying to find someone who could speak English.”

Traveling in an armored vehicle, a team entered a town. One of the troopers waved at the local onlookers and noticed that a child who waved back was promptly back-handed by his father. Taking that as a sign that Taliban were watching, the trooper screamed a warning just as an IED blew up under the vehicle breaking it apart. A fire fight followed.

The search for Bergdahl, who was quickly captured by the Taliban, would claim six American lives. As the Army’s intelligence developed in the search, his whereabouts became known on several occasions, even knowing how many Taliban were guarding him. But rescue missions were repeatedly scrubbed because commanders didn’t want to lose more men. Rescuing a soldier who walked away from his post before being captured would risk lives – too high a price to pay for a deserter.

While he was a prisoner, Bergdahl attempted to explain the rationale for his desertion in two letters made public last week in The Daily Beast. One letter is dated 2012 and the other was written in 2013. Here are the unedited excerpts.

Leadership was lacking, if not non-existent. The conditions were bad and looked to be getting worse for the men that where actuly the ones risking thier lives from attack.

If this letter makes it to the U.S.A., tell those involved in the investigation that there are more sides to the cittuwation. Please tell D.C. to wait for all evadince to come in.

The cercomstance from the begaining of my time in Afghanistan from immedet top to bottom, where bad for troopers espeshly in my PLT. (Platoon.) Orders showed a high disconcer for safty of troopers in the field, and lacking clear minded, logical and commonsense thinking and understanding from the topsides. The cercomstance showed signs of going from bad into a nightmare for the men in the field. Unexeptable conditions for the men working and risking life every moment outside the wire …

Bergdahl was home-schooled by his parents. Apparently not very well.

Prior to his desertion, one of Bergdahl’s whiney emails to his parents evoked this response from his aging hippy father in an email subject line: “FOLLOW YOUR CONSCIENCE.”

That’s what Bergdahl did. He walked out on his fellow soldiers and got six of them killed. At least Private Eddie Slovik presented himself for arrest.

Bergdahl could have done the same.