I hear that news of the site is spreading like a 'virus' among Veterans organizations. <;)
Posted on 03/05/2004 11:00:03 AM PST by The Shrew
That's Politics!
By Peter Roff
United Press International Senior Political Analyst
Publication Date -- March 4, 2004
I received this as an Email Alert item will not be found on Upi.com's site! - TS
WASHINGTON, March 4 (UPI) -- Campaigning for a U.S. Senate seat in South Carolina, Republican Rep. Jim DeMint Tuesday called for radical changes in the structure of the U.S. tax system. He wants the current tax code scrapped in favor of a system that "simple, fair, and promotes savings and investment."
"The complexity of our 45,000-page tax code is an enormous drain on our economy, costing Americans an estimated $183 billion annually in compliance costs alone," DeMint said. "The federal tax code is the No. 1 job killer in America. High rates and tax complexity are robbing Americans of their time and money and driving jobs overseas."
Politically, however, the effort necessary to make such changes is very hard to pull together. Since every person and business is affected by changes in the tax code, everyone has a dog in the fight.
DeMint has a plan, which he unveiled while speaking at Harsco International in Columbia, to make a major restructuring of the tax code possible: the Tax Reform Action Commission, based on a legislative proposal he has put forward in the House.
The TRAC Act calls for the creation of a panel modeled on a mechanism invented by former Rep. Dick Armey, R-Texas, to close or reduce the size of superfluous U.S. military installations.
Just as the Armey commission took the politics out of base closings, DeMint's TRAC would take the horse-trading and wheeling and dealing out of the tax-reform effort, or at least push them far enough away to get a real proposal on the table.
The TRAC would be made up of a panel of experts who would be more insulated from the pressure brought by lobbyists than the members of the congressional tax-writing committees. The DeMint legislation requires the panel to submit its proposal for a new tax code within two years of its creation in the form of legislation that the Congress would then take up.
"Fundamental reform of the tax code is a good thing," said Damon Ansell, vice president for policy at Americans for Tax Reform. "DeMint and others should be applauded for trying to move the idea forward -- we just hope it does not become a witch hunt looking for so-called loopholes to close that actually end up raises taxes. Any recommendation must at least be revenue neutral."
"In an election year, an idea like this does not have much chance of actually passing. However, it is certainly an idea worth discussing," Ansell said.
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· When conservative activist Scott Swett created the wintersoldier.com Web site, he never realized just how much attention it would get, receiving just fewer than 130,000 hits in its first nine days of operation.
The site, which Swett says is "dedicated to the American veterans of the Vietnam War, who served with courage and honor," is an archive of materials relating to the so-called Winter Soldier project undertaken in 1971 by the group Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
What was the Winter Solider project? "On January 31, 1971," the Web site says, "members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War met in a Detroit hotel to document war crimes that they had participated in or witnessed during their combat tours in Vietnam. During the next three days, more than 100 Vietnam veterans and 16 civilians gave anguished, emotional testimony describing hundreds of atrocities against innocent civilians in South Vietnam, including rape, arson, torture, murder, and the shelling or napalming of entire villages. The witnesses stated that these acts were being committed casually and routinely, under orders, as a matter of policy." Historian Guenter Lewy later described the controversial effort as being "packed with pretenders and liars."
Later that spring, the group staged a weeklong protest in Washington during which the Senate Foreign Relations Committee heard testimony from a decorated Vietnam veteran, John Forbes Kerry, about what the group's investigation found. All 32 pages of Kerry's testimony can be accessed through the site.
A call made to Kerry's presidential campaign seeking a comment on the Winter Solider issue was not returned.
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· The once formidable Christian Coalition is now the target of a lawsuit, filed in Arlington, Va., by one of its former employees. At the heart of the lawsuit is the disintegration of a family.
The roots of the problem, according to the plaintiff's attorney, Jon Moseley, lay with the decision of current Christian Coalition of America President Roberta Coombs to employ her daughter, Michele Ammons, in a communications position and to hire her daughter's husband, Tracy Ammons, as the coalition's Senate lobbyist.
"The Ammons' wages," Moseley says, "were paid to a company controlled by Michele." He alleges that Tracy Ammons never received any of the money, some $114,000, that he says is owed to him by the Christian Coalition of America as back wages.
The Ammons are in the middle of a divorce, currently being hashed out in a South Carolina Family Court, which led, Moseley says, to Tracy Ammons being fired from the coalition.
When contacted by UPI, Michele Ammons declined to comment, saying it was a matter for the courts.
Moseley says that the lawsuit is an effort to recover funds from the group so that Tracy Ammons can pay the $36,000 the South Carolina court has ordered him to pay his soon-to-be ex-wife in order to avoid being jailed for contempt.
Christian Coalition of America Board Member Billy McCormack, who says he is speaking for the group in this matter, was initially unaware that the lawsuit had been filed. When asked to comment on the allegations raised by Tracy Ammons' attorney, McCormack said the matter was "for the South Carolina courts."
"It is a divorce case. It has nothing to do with the Christian Coalition no matter what the suit implies. The suit has no validity -- the matters raised belong in the divorce court, not the Arlington County Circuit Court," McCormack said.
This started out as just an effort to mine the Kerry / VVAW book "The New Soldier" for anything of interest. But the more we dug and the more we read, it started to become clear that these guys invented the entire poisonous image of the drugged-out, murderous, psychologically damaged, dirty street bum Vietnam veteran. And that they did so in coordination with America's enemies...
We are winning ~ the bad guys are losing ~ trolls, terrorists, democrats and the mainstream media are sad ~ very sad!
Bowing? Nonsense.
You were doing the Antler Dance right along with the rest of us.
If we can make the site into an email virus, we won't need the mainstream media. :)>
I hear that news of the site is spreading like a 'virus' among Veterans organizations. <;)
Notable!
Regards,
TS
Just had to repeat that! Great profile page. Thanks for the kind words!
TS
You've made the big time now! How much longer can the NYT ignore this story?
Regards,
TS
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