A Book Report

Enlarged.

My Friend, NAGO And Drew Dix, CMOH Winner

A few weeks ago, while on the road, HH6 and I stopped to do some shopping at a local thrift shop (a favorite past time). Amongst the other items she found, HH6 found a couple of books for me. Most notable of these, thus far, is a book I read decades ago, in junior high or high school, on the Vietnam conflict.

"Silence Was A Weapon: The Vietnam War in the Villages," by Stuart A. Herrington, is a study of the author's experience as a young military intelligence Captain in the Phoenix Program. Because of the relevance of this book to the subject of this blog, I'm going to take the time to quote some excerpts, and interject my own commentary on why any specific excerpt is relevant, and how it ties into the resistance side of the spectrum, versus the counter-insurgent's.

As COL. Herrington (as an interesting historical note, now retired Colonel Herrington's audit of Abu Ghraib was one of the primary causes of the public exposure of the abuses that were occurring there. As will be seen below, his experiences and the abuses he witnessed in Vietnam led to a career-long disgust with torture and "enhanced interrogations.") points out in the preface to his book, the views he expressed were "offered with the sincere hope that they will assist in clarifying why the well-intentioned efforts of our country to win the "hearts and minds" of the South Vietnamese people ended with the ignominious departure of our ambassador from the roof of his embassy in an evacuation helicopter."

(Critical Note: This article is not intended to portray myself as an expert on the Vietnam War. While I have, for obvious reasons, studied the shit out of it, I was not there. I can only look at it, through the prism of history, based on the recollections and reports of those who were there. So, as I critique things that occurred, it is not intended to belittle or badmouth the veterans who went, most often poorly trained for the conflict they were entering, and did the best they could under the circumstances, often with Olympian results that belied the piss-poor preparation they were given. While the argument has been made, accurately, that U.S. forces smoked the shit out of PAVN and VC forces every time they faced them on a conventional battlefield, that is not the same thing as saying "we won the battles and the politicians lost the war." In reality, the PAVN and VC learned from battles like the Ia Drang and the Tet Offensive. Yes, the U.S. military can leverage our technological might and monkey-stomp the fuck out of any conventional force on the planet. The difference is, with few exceptions, such as SF, the U.S. military is terribly hide-bound and unable to look back to the Founders and remember the lessons of UW, while the PAVN and VC had no institutional pride to overcome. They adapted to the threat they faced, and mastered UW. We have a lot to learn from them and other irregular forces that the U.S. and other large, conventional militaries of the world have faced over the last four or five decades. That is my goal with book reports like this. Expect more of them. --J.M.)

More @ Mountain Guerrilla

Paul Ryan: Embarrassing Obama

How sweet it is!

Radio Vietnam

Via Billy

A mix of pop, rock & R&B filled the airwaves in harmony along with a new heavier rock & roll just starting to take off and all sorts of poets protesting. It was the sounds that defined a nation during the Vietnam War. Sound clips from Good Morning Vietnam, Full Metal Jacket, Hamburger Hill, Adrian Cronauer, Presidents Nixon & Johnson speeches as well as AFVN announcements are part of the broadcast.

For all the upcoming events on Radio Vietnam, please be sure to regularly check the Programing Schedule!

Swing by the Facebook page and watch selected videos and more!

The System

Via Fight The Power

And your point, cartoonist at the Miami Herald? That the government is always so lily white that the militia is not necessary? Fail.

White House Yanks Anti-TSA Petition from Website

For a former community organizer, President Obama certainly seems to support anti-democratic activity with zeal—from his disproportionate use of Executive Orders, to this most recent action:

According to the Electronic Privacy Information Center,

At approximately 11:30 am EDT [Thursday], the White House removed a petition about the TSA airport screening procedures from the White House “We the People” website. About 22,500 of the 25,000 signatures necessary for a response from the Administration were obtained when the White House unexpectedly cut short the time period for the petition. The site also went down for “maintenance” following an article in Wired that sought support for the campaign.

The Wired article is also well worth a read, “Court Demands TSA Explain Why It Is Defying Nude Body Scanner Order.”

More @ The Independent Institute

All Aboard Amtrak for “Fraud, Waste and Abuse”

As a child, the trains were wonderful. Silverware, china, wonderful service and excellent food. We took it from the west to the east coast in 2002 and it was absolutely horrible. Never again, as long as the government is in charge. Pathetic.

Amtrak holds a monopoly on food and beverage sales on Amtrak trains. That has not prevented the taxpayer-funded rail system from losing nearly $1 billion—a full $834 million—on those services since 2002, about $80 million a year. In 2011 Amtrak spent $206 million on food services but collected only about $121 million. A hamburger that goes for $9.50 on Amtrak costs taxpayers $16, according to critics of Amtrak on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. A $2 drink costs taxpayers about $3.40 and labor adds nearly 60 percent overall, critics said. Also in play is subtraction by Amtrak employees.

More @ My Gov Cost

U.S. Army officer becomes first openly gay general

Via Carl

Tammy Smith has become the first openly gay officer to be promoted to the ranks of Brigadier General in the U.S. Army.

Smith's promotion took place on Friday in a private ceremony at the Women’s Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. She received her stars from wife, Tracey Hepner, the first time her longtime partner was officially recognized as her significant other at a military gathering.

Smith is assigned as deputy chief in the Army Reserve Office of the Chief in Washington, D.C.

More @ Mail Online

The McKinney Examiner, 1926

Via Calvin Johnson

Egypt Pyramids Discovered On Google Earth, Researcher Says

Via Kimberly

Venezuela plans a 'guerrilla army' against US invasion

Via Bonnie Gadsden

Venezuela is training a "guerrilla army" aiming to be a million strong by 2013 to fight off a possible US invasion, an opposition lawmaker said Sunday.

"Plan Sucre" -- apparently crafted with input from close ally and fellow US foe Cuba -- covers the legal, logistical and other angles necessary to "transform a professional army into a guerrilla army," Representative Maria Corina Machado told El Universal newspaper.

The former presidential candidate said she had obtained a copy of the plan, printed by an institution affiliated with the national army.

"The strategic objective is to build a new Bolivarian military doctrine" that would prepare Venezuela to be successful in a prolonged popular war against "the empire," or the United States, Machado said, citing the document.

"This is clearly a proposal with Cuban inspiration and advice."

She said the military plan also provides for strengthening the guerrilla force at the expense of the regular army.

More @ Yahoo

My better half on left 20 years ago:)

Silver Shadow Gilboa Snake Double Barreled AR-15

Via The Feral Irishman

Silver Shadow has officially unveiled the double barreled AR-15. The Gilboa Snake has two barrels that are fired simultaneously, essentially double tapping on a single trigger pull. It will be available in both semi-automatic (two rounds per trigger pull) or full auto. The rifle, with its two 9.5″ barrels, weighs 9.4 lbs.

More @ Zombie Apocalypse Academy

I had a pet raccoon

Via Dashing

Resort

Via Dashing

Shotgun robber no match for victim with handgun

Via mpopenker

12 News
VERBATIM POST

Police say an armed robber got more than he bargained for Friday night when he targeted the wrong victim.

Just after 10 pm a 36-year-old man was confronted by a robber with a shotgun in the parking lot of the Walgreens located in the 3600 block of College. The man said the robber held the shotgun to his head and demanded money.

The man, a concealed handgun license holder, was able to get his handgun and fired one shot at the would-be robber. The robber dropped his shotgun and took off running fleeing south behind the store. The intended victim was not injured during this confrontation and he did not lose any property.

Patrol Officers set up a perimeter and with the assistance of our K-9 Unit began to search for the robber. An officer saw a man hiding behind a business near the area of ​​Interstate 10 and Corley. The man matched the description of the robber. Police say the man also had a gunshot wound to his hip.

The original victim positively identified this man as the robber.

Beaumont EMS took the injured suspect to Christus Hospital St. Elizabeth for treatment. Officers then took him to the county jail. He has been charged with aggravated robbery as well as two outstanding warrants for burglary of a habitation and a pending warrant for a previous unrelated aggravated robbery.

Officers also found a vehicle near the scene of the robbery that had been reported stolen.

Police say an investigation revealed that the man had used this stolen vehicle during the commission of Saturday night's robbery attempt.

Free Phone Frenzy - abuse of the federal Lifeline program

Via Cousin Colby

Old, but first time I've seen this video.

USA medalist Leo Manzano waves Mexican flag after silver win; Americans angry

Leo Manzano won the Men's 1500 meter race on Tuesday bringing home the silver for the United States, but what happened next has fans furious at the Olympian. As most athletes do in track, the winners wrap themselves in the colors of their countries, which is exactly what Leo Manzano did with the United States flag. Then he picked up the Mexican flag and waved it to the crowd.

The opportunity to show off both flags has enraged the fans of Team USA. Supporting the athlete from the beginning to the podium, many fans feel they have been betrayed by Manzano’s decision to hoist a flag from another country (who he technically wasn’t representing.) The issue has become heated and even the win has people refusing to Leo Manzano’s contribution to the United States team.

More @ Examiner

Charlotte woman accused in tax scheme

Via Tom Stedham

Candida Mayo Figueroa, 40, has been accused in a tax scheme to defraud the government of more than $3.8 million. MECKLENBURG COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE

A Charlotte woman has been accused in a tax scheme to defraud the government of more than $3.8 million.

In court documents filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, 40-year-old Candida Mayo Figueroa was named as a suspect.

Federal authorities said the U.S. Postal Service intercepted an “extraordinarily large number” of mailings from the U.S. Treasury Department that appeared to contain checks going to several apartments close to one another in Charlotte. The Postal Service alerted investigators because the names on the mail were people not known to receive mail at those addresses.

Authorities said much of the mail was sent to homes in the Arrowood Crossing apartment complex in southwest Charlotte, and that Figueroa had been seen pulling mail from multiple mailboxes there.

More @ Charlotte Observer

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/08/11/3448695/charlotte-woman-accused-in-38.html#disqus_thread#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/08/11/3448695/charlotte-woman-accused-in-38.html#disqus_thread#storylink=cpy

No Black Veterans in the Army of Emancipation Grand Review

Grand Review of the North’s conquering armies in Washington in May, 1865 failed to showcase the people they ostensibly liberated, and took into their ranks so white Northerners could stay home. Read more about “The Myth of Saving the Union” at http://www.ncwbts150.com/TheMythoftheLostCause.php.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"

No Black Veterans in the Army of Emancipation Grand Review:

“More surprising [in the Washington Grand Review of the federal armies] was the exclusion from the parade of the black Union regiments, some of which had fought a good deal longer than the white units on parade. A number of observers commented on their absence, the Inquirer concluding that “by some process it was arranged that none should be here….They can afford to wait. Their time will yet come.”

The few blacks in the review marched as parts of “pick and shovel” brigades or were included as comic relief. Two large black soldiers with Sherman’s army, for example, were displayed “riding on very small mules, their feet nearly touching the ground.”

Captured slaves were described as “odd looking “contrabands” dressed in all the colors that ever adorned Joseph’s coat.” In the rear of the First Pennsylvania, one such captive, mounted on a solitary Confederate mule, “created much laughter, in which the President and others joined heartily” as he was carried past the reviewing stand.

Neither the free black nor the free black soldier was to be the hero of this national pageant; instead, each was relegated a secondary, rather uneasy position within it. The exclusion of blacks from the celebration was a clear message about the sort of Union the white [Northern] veterans felt they had preserved.” (Glorious Contentment, The Grand Army of the Republic, Stuart McConnell, UNC Press, 1992, pp. 8-9)

No Black Veterans in the Army of Emancipation Grand Review

Obama Rex Tyrannis

Will Freedom Still Ring in 2016?

Mike Scruggs

We are now less than 80 days from what will probably be the most important election in our lifetimes. On it hinges the fate of our Republic and everything it has stood for since the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Never before have America’s founding principles and values been more aggressively threatened by an incumbent president and his party. Virtually everything Americans have believed in, worked for, prayed for, and fought for in the last 236 years is at stake. The vote climaxing on November 6, 2012, may be our last chance to turn back the radical economic and social agenda that is threatening our freedoms, our values, our prosperity, and our national security.

We must take back our country. I do not believe it is an exaggeration to say that unless Barack Obama, his party, and the sweeping socialist measures imbedded in the 2,700 pages of Obamacare—which is far more comprehensive than just a healthcare bill—are defeated in November, freedom may have seen its last hours by 2016. The American dream will have become a totalitarian nightmare without hope of future remedy.

Barack Obama is not your grandfather’s Democrat. In the 19th Century, the Democratic Party was actually the conservative Party. In fact, Democrat and conservative were practically synonyms for generations. Even up until about 1960, there was still a strong conservative and constitutionally oriented minority in the Democratic Party, especially in the South. Cultural and demographic influences have been accumulating, however, which have moved the national electorate to the left.

There are several major factors influencing this shift—racial tensions, immigration, a general spiritual decline and corresponding increase in the secularization of society, and the relentless expansion of “progressive” (left-liberal-socialist) influences in the public schools, universities, cultural institutions, and communications media. The electorate and social influences have changed significantly in the last five, especially the last two, decades.

The Democratic Party first embraced these influences and then molded its political and ideological platform to serve its new constituency. The change was gradual enough to blind a complacent center-right American majority to what was happening and what the ultimate social, political, and economic consequences would be. The Democratic Party has now shifted far to the left, riding the tidal wave of demographic, educational, cultural, and social changes. Barack Obama is a coronation of left wing dominance in the party. Since that coronation, the shift has become more intense and more radical.

There have fortunately been countervailing influences, particularly in the media. Fox News has significantly eroded the left-liberal influence of the mainstream media. The success of Rush Limbaugh as a conservative talk radio commentator has led to the expanding success of hundreds of others. In addition, conservative thinking and politics are still more prevalent among the general American public than left-liberal thinking and politics. But how long will that dominance last? The progressive-left is straining every nerve to change the electorate by whatever means of progressive cultural influence and demographic change.

President Obama has demonstrated by numerous actions that he does not consider the Constitution, Congress, or the States any more than a temporary nuisance blocking his radical economic, social, and political agenda.

He has demonstrated in his speeches and actions that he has little regard for the truth. A shocking example is a recent TV advertisement slandering Mitt Romney with outrageous charges of causing a woman’s death because she was laid off and left without medical insurance. These charges have been proved to be outright falsification of the facts. Yet Obama refuses to stop the ad. Has America ever seen such blatant and ruthless dishonesty in a presidential candidate?

He is now ruling the country by administrative fiat. He ignored the Constitution and Congress to give administrative amnesties to between one and three million illegal immigrants working in the United States. This is when 23 million Americans are either unemployed or have been forced to part time work because of economic conditions. How can he seriously claim that he cares about jobs?

He has by administrative fiat changed Congressional legislation that eliminated much welfare abuse. Obama’s changes have made Federal welfare purely welfare with no workfare requirements. Furthermore, the Federal bureaucracy is doing expansive marketing of welfare “opportunities.” Obama wants to turn the American work ethic into a European socialist style welfare ethic. It will also expand his trillion dollar deficits.

The Democratic Party has done everything in its power to block legislation like voter ID. By so doing, it is laying out the red carpet for voter fraud. Is there any question why?

This week the Democratic Party launched an army of 300,000 labor union and Acorn organizers into the field to get out the Obama vote in this election.

President Obama has refused to enforce Congressional legislation to protect the institution of marriage. He has promulgated military regulations that prohibit reference to Christ by military chaplains and forbid bringing Bibles and religious literature when visiting patients at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington.

Barack Obama is testing his limits as a dictator. A win in November would set him securely on a tyrant’s throne. Never before has our freedom been more threatened. The enemy is already in the field. Why stand we idle? We must take back our country.

“Freedom is never more than one generation from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on to them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”—Ronald Reagan

ZAHAL - FAB Defense - M4 'Survival' Buttstock

Brand New Leather Jacket

Via Cousin Bill

You Are John Galt

Via WRSA

Improved Clinch
VERBATIM POST

A recent American Thinker piece, written by Gene Schwimmer, asked the question, Where is John Galt?

The question is answered by Brian Wilson in a piece posted at LewRockwell.com titled THERE IS John Galt!

You are your own John Galt. You may speak for yourself at any time – and should. You may chose to warn, advise, cajole those around you – or not. You can “Go Galt” – or not. You may choose to “lead, follow or get out of the way”. Rand said the Individual is “the smallest minority on earth.” It is safe to say Sam Adams never read Atlas Shrugged, yet he infamously said: “It does not take a majority to prevail but rather an irate, tireless minority, who keep setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.” Strangely enough, anthropologist Margaret Mead may have been channeling some Sam Adams when she wrote: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

There’s the John Galt you’ve been waiting for: it’s you. The “smallest minority”, the “irate, tireless minority,” the smallest “group” of committed citizens is you. Freedom and Liberty cannot exist without Individual Responsibility. You are an Individual. Get off your ass and set some brushfires.

Via Claire Wolfe.

Full Sentinel Ruling Link

Ann Barnhardt
VERBATIM POST

A reader with a Westlaw subscription downloaded this and then emailed it to me. Many thanks for that, as it is NOT published on the internet. Until now. Mwah-ha-ha-ha.

CLICK HERE for the Sentinel Federal Appeals Court Ruling of August 9, 2012

This commentary came from the fellow who sent this to me. I think it is spot-on.

Miss Barnhardt,

I thought you might be interested in reading the actual opinion of the In Re Sentinel Group case, which I have attached in PDF. It was very hard to find for some reason, and I had to access my Westlaw account in order to get it. I think it would be well worth your time to read it, as I am afraid that it appears to confirm what you have been saying.

The entire case reads like an after-the-fact rationalization of a predetermined conclusion. Years ago when I was with a different firm, I worked on numerous major institutional fraud and auditing cases, and I cannot recall a ruling even remotely similar - let alone from a federal court of appeals.

Please pay particular attention to the section on equitable subordination, on pages 6 through 8. Unbelievably, the court acknowledged in that section that even though some of the bankers lied under oath during the trial, that fact did not prove "sufficiently egregious" actions on the part of the bank.

I will quote the opinion: "Instead of finding that their testimony [i.e. their lies] justified a finding of egregious bank behavior, the district court essentially found that the bank officials were such artless liars that they couldn't have been concealing deliberate wrongdoing." See page 7, column 2.

So in other words, a U.S. Court of Appeals has found that if a banker lies under oath during a trial, that fact proves that the bank was innocent of any misconduct with respect to the subject matter of those lies. Did we get transported to bizarro world without knowing it?