Parallels between 1776 and 1861

 John Tyler's Virginia is belle of the ball - in both D.C. and Montgomery

The parallels between 1776 and 1861 are many, as in the latter case Americans in the South followed the very spirit of Jefferson’s words in the Declaration of Independence regarding the right of self-government and the consent of the governed. They wanted to end the galling economic dependency on the Northeastern cotton mills and financiers as their fathers ended economic dependency upon England.

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

Political Independence the Forerunner of Economic Independence:

“In the [American] colonial era of hand-manufacturing most manufacturing had been of the home and domestic variety. In all regions the finer goods had been imported from England, paid for in the South by surpluses of agricultural products and in the North by the proceeds of the fur trade, ship-building, fishing, and the favorable balance derived mainly from the West India trade and to a less extent the Mediterranean.

When at the beginning of the nineteenth century commercial manufacturing began to arise, its locus became the Northeast rather than the South for a number of reasons. Among these the most important was the fact that the profits from commerce and allied enterprises during the Napoleonic Wars did not find adequate outlets for investment in the new manufacturing industries, principally textiles; while the profits derived from the older agricultural staples in the South found outlet for investment in land and slaves, in the new staple cotton which spread rapidly in the upland regions of the South Atlantic and then across the Gulf Plain of the deep South, continuing to the very eve of the Civil War when the interior of Texas and Arkansas were being penetrated by cotton culture.

As profits from manufacturing accumulated, there was a steady outlet for their reinvestment in the enlargement of plants, the creation of new plants, and the fabrication of many articles other than textiles. Of these the products of iron became most important, particularly in Pennsylvania.

The new forms of transportation – improved highways, canals, steamboats, and finally railroads – absorbed great amounts of capital in the North, and even in the South some of the profits from agriculture were invested in this sort of enterprise…..[but] even to the end of the ante-bellum period the South bought most of its manufactured goods from the North or indirectly from Europe through Northern concerns and was to some extent dependent upon Northern credit for the financing of its own enterprises, so that in a way the South was an economic dependency and sphere of influence of the Northeast.

This condition was a galling one and was by no means negligible in bringing on the bloody conflict of 1861-65. In this respect at least, the attempt of the South to secede from the North was comparable to the earlier efforts of the American colonists to rid themselves by force of their dependence upon England. In each case it was the belief of the secessionists that political independence would prove the forerunner of economic independence.”

(The South Looks at its Past, Benjamin Burks Kendrick & Alex Arnett, UNC Press, 1935, pp. 76-78)

Parallels between 1776 and 1861

Obama Kept Us Safe

CIA chiefs face arrest over horrific evidence of bloody 'video-game' sorties by drone pilots

Via Michael Downing


The Mail on Sunday today reveals shocking new evidence of the full horrific impact of US drone attacks in Pakistan.

A damning dossier assembled from exhaustive research into  the strikes’ targets sets out in heartbreaking detail the deaths of teachers, students and Pakistani policemen. It also describes how bereaved relatives are forced to gather their loved ones’ dismembered body parts in the aftermath of strikes.

The dossier has been assembled by human rights lawyer Shahzad Akbar, who works for Pakistan’s Foundation for Fundamental Rights and the British human rights charity Reprieve.

Filed in two separate court cases, it is set to trigger a formal murder investigation by police into the roles of two US officials said to have ordered the strikes. They are Jonathan Banks, former head of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Islamabad station, and John A. Rizzo, the CIA’s former chief lawyer. Mr Akbar and his staff have already gathered further testimony which has yet to be filed.

 

More @ Mail Online

Cantor Takes Obama to Task for Imperial Presidency

 Newsmax

VERBATIM

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has produced an 8,000-word report assailing President Barack Obama for instituting an imperial presidency.

Even The New York Times noted recently on its front page “an increasingly deliberate pattern by the administration to circumvent lawmakers,” Cantor writes.

Pieces appearing over the course of the past several months in The Washington Post, National Review, and The Wall Street Journal have talked about his "imperial presidency."

The Obama administration’s lack of respect for the law is hampering economic growth and individual prosperity, particularly the jobs market, he says.

“Property rights and rule of law are essential for the proper and efficient functioning of society and the economy,” Cantor states.

“When ‘laws’ are created without going through Congress; when laws are selectively executed; when an administration intervenes into the normal judicial process and diminishes an individual's property rights; and when the normal regulatory process is circumvented, the rule of law is eroded.”

That’s exactly what has happened under Obama, Cantor says.

“While administrations of both political parties have been known to test the bounds of the limits of their power, the breadth of the breakdown in the rule of law in recent years has reached new levels,” he writes.

Cantor’s report cites more than 40 examples of the White House’s lack of respect for the law.

This includes:

• Ignoring Advise & Consent, such as through recess appointments;

• Creating laws outside of the Congressional process, such as changing the unionization process, telling businesses where they are allowed to locate, imposing propaganda mandates on employers, telling federal contractors who they have to hire, regulation of hydraulic fracturing, establishing a national ocean regulatory policy, creating a new land regulation program, global warming regulations, network neutrality regulations, auto efficiency mandate, claiming the power to define what constitutes religious employment, draconian regulation of coal;

• Ignoring the Plain Letter of the Law & Failing to Faithfully Execute the Law, such as waiving work requirements under welfare; the contraception mandate and the rights of religious employers, expansion of the refundable tax credit providing for premium assistance, Medicare Advantage quality bonus demonstration, medical loss ratio requirement for health insurers, termination of Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, rewriting bankruptcy law, failing to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, recognition of Jerusalem, lobbying for abortion overseas, halting the airport screening partnership program, expedited airport screening for members of the Armed Forces, DREAM Act deferred action, administrative amnesty for illegal immigrants, withholding critical information about counterfeit goods, Medicare Solvency Requirements;

• Circumventing the Normal Regulatory Process, such as abuse of sue and settle tactics, re-write of coal regulations, abuse of guidance documents, refusing to disclose regulatory agenda, failing to list essential health benefits, Gulf drilling moratorium; banning uranium mining in Arizona;

• Government By Waiver, such as education policy by waiver and healthcare law waivers;

• Creating New Programs Not Authorized by Congress, such as the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation, new “super” agencies, the healthcare Independent Payment Advisory Board, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

“There is no excuse for this continuous disregard of legislative authority and the Constitutionally-required separation of powers,” Cantor writes.

“This is no way to govern. The President has set a precedent that even his supporters should find troubling. . . . The Founding Fathers wisely gave the President many powers, but making law was not one of them.”


© 2012 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Paul Ryan: Keep Homeschooling Free!

HSLDA

Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan backed homeschool freedom at a recent campaign event in Florida.
At the town hall-style event in Ocala, Florida, on Thursday, October 18, the following exchange took place. e encourage you to watch the video clip.

Transcript:

Questioner: “What is your position on homeschooling and will it continue?”

Paul Ryan: “Absolutely, we have friends who do a lot of homeschooling. In Wisconsin it is very well known, very well used. You know what, we believe in freedom. [Applause] And if you believe the best way to raise your children is to homeschool your children, then God bless you, and in a free society you ought to be able to do just that. [Applause] Absolutely. So yes. Look, we don’t want to sit in Washington and micromanage your schools. We don’t believe all the best ideas lay in Washington where bureaucrats micromanage. We believe in choice; we believe in competition; we believe in giving parents control over their children’s education. Whether that’s getting the kid stuck in an inner city school out of a failing school and into a better school, or whether it gives you the ability and right to take over and control your child’s education by educating her yourself, that’s the kind of freedom we want you to have and preserve in this country.”

DYING CONFEDERATE PRISONER

Via Robert

Among the wounded brought to the rear was a boy in gray, Private Thomas J. Roberts, of Company I, Twelfth Georgia. We lifted him from the ambulance, and, having spread a blanket on the grass and laid him on it, I called a surgeon.

A minie ball had struck him in the groin, and but a slight examination was enough to show that the wound was fatal. He was a mere boy, and I can still see his really beautiful face as he lifted his dark, lustrous eyes to mine. It was little that I could do for him, but I spoke such words of comfort as I could command. He showed fortitude and cheerfulness for one in so sad a situation, and he told me about his friends at home, speaking also of those from his own family circle who had already been killed in the war.

While we were talking he asked for a drink of water. I brought it, and as I raised him to a sitting posture, so that he could drink, he leaned his head forward upon my shoulder, and without a struggle was dead. We could give him only the rude burial of a soldier, but over his grave was lifted the prayer that the God of all comfort would tenderly support those far away who would wait in vain the return of the boy of their love and hopes.

Often since that night have I thought of that Southern soldier lad who died actually in my arms, as if in a mother's embrace, and I pen this reminiscence that possibly it may make known to some surviving comrade or dear one that in his last hour what little could be done for him was tenderly performed.

Chaplain Norman Fox, Seventy-Seventh N. Y. V. Morristown, N. J., September 4, 1898.
Confederate Veteran, Vol. VI, No. 11 Nashville, Tenn., November, 1898.

600lb Black Marlin Jumps in Boat

Not Optimal

The Neocons and the New York Times vs. Me

The Confederate Navy

290 Foundation 

 VERBATIM 

'He is not impressed with the necessity of building ships.' John N. Maffit entered those prophetic words in his diary following a meeting with Jefferson Davis shortly after the civil war began. This future Captain of the commerce raider CSS Florida was one of the first United States naval officers to resign his commission and offer his services to the South; but those ten words made a fitting epitaph for the Confederate States Navy and with it many argue, the Southern cause.

Jefferson Davis never fully appreciated the critical role the Confederate States Navy, especially the Ironclads, would have to play if the South were to survive. From his landlocked point of view, Davis could not understand the importance of sea power. Nevertheless, it is fortunate with hindsight, he was astute enough to appoint his former colleague in the Senate, Stephen Mallory as Secretary of the Navy but not astute enough to give him the full support he needed to help the Confederate Navy realize its full potential.

Mallory's strong desire to see the Confederacy equipped with a substantial and 'competent' navy was at odds with many and by the end of the first year of conflict, the Secretary of the Navy was acutely aware he was competing less favourably for funding from those commanding the (many) southern armies. Army commanders remained confident the war would be short-lived and that opinion - and their expectation was shared (though not desired) by many politicians in the new government! It is not clear what Mallory's point of view in this was; but his determination to realise a susbstantial navy remained, so in an effort to bypass the usual channels; and seemingly more aware of shortfalls to come, Mallory wrote directly to President Davis, laying out in no uncertain terms what would be necessary to further the aims and ambitions of their (Navy's) cause. His letter was as follows:

Confederate States Navy Department

Richmond, March 4th 1862

Sir: 

In response to the resolution of the House of Representatives passed on the 3rd instant, '..that the President be requested to communicate to this body, at the earliest practicable moment, what additional means in money, men, arms and munitions of war are, in his judegement necessary, or may be within the present year, for the public service, including military operations on land and water'.. i have the honor to say that fifty light-draft and powerful steam propellors, plated with 5-inch hard iron, armed and equipped for service in our own waters, four iron or steel-clad single deck, ten gun frigates of about 2,000 tons, and ten clipper propellors with superior marine engines, both classes of ships designed for deep-sea cruising, 3,000 tons of first-class boiler-plate iron, and 1,000 tons of rod, bolt, and bar iron are means which this department could immediately employ with incalculable advantage to the best interests of the country.

To this point in his communication, Mallory was determined to point out the resources he had to hand - but in truth his statement was somewhat embellished in regards of readiness or quantities of materials, no doubt based on the reports received from his immediate subordinates? Now however, Mallory sought to alert Davis to the possibilities a more substantial naval force would bring about. He continues:

Under the head of arms and munitions of war, this Department could immediately employ with equal advantage 2,000 pieces or heavy ordinance, ranging in caliber from 6 to 11 inches, and in weight from 6,000 to 14,000 pounds, 2,000 tons of cannon powder, 1,000 tons of musket powder, for filling projectiles and pyrotechny, 4,000 navy rifles, and 4,000 navy revolvers, and 4,000 navy cutlasses, with their equipments and ammunition.

Mallory however, was very much aware that these quantities were well beyond the resources of the new administration and had already auhtorised lengthy discussion with both European and South American suppliers through his network of purchasing agents and spies. Though an actual number has never been confirmed, it is widely believed that the Navy Secretary had over twelve hundred such men and women acting on his instruction world-wide. Some, like James Dunwoody Bulloch were officially appointed to act on his behalf; but the majority provided their services freely in the belief that the Confederacy would ultimately gain proper recognition and achieve a military victory over the North. Mallory no doubt alerted Davis to the likely shortfalls they would experience in equipment at every opportunity, but in this letter he records for the first (and only time) the numbers of men (additional) needed for his fledgling navy:

We could use with equal advantage 3,000 instructed seamen, and 4,000 ordinary seament and landsmen, and 2,000 first rate mechanics. These means and munitions of war cannot presently be obtained within the Confederacy, and the extent to which they may be supplied [sourced] from abroad, I cannot yet determine.

The crux of Mallory's problems was funding; and this letter to his President provided him with his best opportunity to state unoquivicably the amount he needed for European purchases:

If five millions of dollars were immediately placed in Europe, prudent agents might possibly obtain such means and materials to a certain extent.

I am, respectfully, your obedient servant,

S.R. MALLORY

 Secretary of the Navy

No record of any direct reply to Mallory's letter remains but Davis was obviously less than sympathetic to his demands! Through the good offices of Commodore Duncan Ingraham, commander of all naval forces and Edward M. Tidball, chief clerk, an order was constructed which, by Act of Congress on April 21st 1862, provided details for the man-powering of the navy, albeit at a level far below that which Mallory desired. None-the-less, Mallory did receive 'promise' for enough funding (directly and indirectly) to pursue a programme of equipment that enabled his department to enter into innumerable contracts for gunboats to be built on the Pamunkey, York, Tombigee, Pedee and other rivers. However, the first, major setback for Mallory's infant Confederate navy, came with this allocation. From April 1861 to August 1862, congress made-over $330M to the army but less than $15M was budgeted for the navy. To make matters worse, Mallory initially did not have direct control of his funding. After negotiating with contractors at home or agents overseas for purchases, he had to apply to the Treasury Department for payment, adding further layers of unnecessary bureaucracy. Despite these inconveniences, between April 1861 and April 1865, the South managed to launch over two-dozen Ironclads and during that same period, laid down or contracted for another thirty-six. This was in addition to numerous conventional warships, commercial ships and river steamers, blockade-runners, commerce raiders, gunboats and smaller craft. A prodigious effort considering the extremely limited shipbuilding and industrial capacity of the South in 1861. Records show many of the above were burned before their completion and payment to contractors for raw materials and manpower never paid. Throughout, there remained the problems associated with procurement of propellors, boilers and engines, as those designs to hand lacked sufficient power and endurance and would render this new fleet, inefficient at best. Mallory realised the industrial resources of the south would be directed towards supporting the army for the foreseable future, so he directed his attention to the one proven source of both ships and machinery - Great Britain!

To implement his strategy, Mallory quickly organized the Confederate Navy into four offices. These offices were equivalent to the bureaus of the United States Navy with which he was familiar. The Office of Provisions and Clothing responsibilities included manufacturing, acquiring and distributing uniforms and equipment to the Navy. It also acted as Paymaster to all Officers, sailors, contractors and civilian employees. The Office of Medicine and Surgery saw to the health of the sailors and set up Naval Hospitals. The Office of Orders and Detail oversaw the Navy's paperwork, made personnel assignments and set personnel policies. Lastly, the Office of Ordnance and Hydrography was charged with design, construction and armament of naval vessels. Later, as the war evolved, a Submarine Battery Service was added to develop and fully employ torpedo (mine) warfare. Lastly, a 'Secret Service' was added to the Navy Department. This office was not concerned with gathering military intelligence as its name might indicate. Its function involved the aforementioned procurment of warships, associated supplies and equipment from abroad. (Mallory, it must be said, did not favor privateering because it alienated the English and would in his view, erode their support). In a sereious attempt to regulate this maritime segment of the war effort, Mallory organized all personnel into Regular Navy, Volunteer Navy or Provisional Navy billets. This done, he now turned his attention back to the thorny issue of finding suitable ships...

A Hispanic Month tribute to Confederate Moses Ezekiel

Via Calvin Johnson

 

  Huntington News

By Calvin E. Johnson Jr.

Arlington National Cemetery is located in the shadow of the Custis-Lee Mansion (Arlington House) that was home to General Robert E. Lee and his family until 1861, and the beginning of the War Between the States. This cemetery was first used in 1864, for the burial of Union soldiers.

Tours, through this famous burial place of President Kennedy, General Wainwright and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, are conducted daily.

On June 4, 1914, the President of the U.S., Woodrow Wilson spoke at the dedication of a new Confederate memorial at section 16. The Confederate soldiers were re-interred there in 1900. This monument was trusted into safe keeping to the U.S. War Department by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1914. It has been a tradition of American presidents to place a wreathe and some have spoken there on Memorial Day.

Dr. Edward Smith, a Professor of History at American University, has described this monument as probably the first to honor the Black Confederate soldiers.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy commissioned a Jewish-Confederate Veteran, Sir Moses J. Ezekiel, to do the work on this monument. Some people say that he might have been the first Jewish-American to do this type of sculpture. It is written that the UDC was pleased with his work which depicts the multi-cultural makeup of the late Confederate States of America.

Moses J. Ezekiel was born on October 28, 1844, in Richmond, Va. He was one of fourteen children born to Jacob and Catherine de Castro Ezekiel. He was born in a house on "Old Market Street" that is said to have been in the poorer side of town. His grandparents came to America from Holland in 1808, and were of Jewish-Spanish Heritage.

Ezekiel talked his parents into letting him attend Virginia Military Institute and he did enroll on September 17, 1862. Some people say, he was the first Jewish-American to enter there at this the school of the great General Stonewall Jackson.

After three years at VMI, Ezekiel saw military service during the War Between the States. The Cadets, of Virginia Military Institute, were called to support Confederate General John C. Breckenridge at the Battle of New Market, Virginia. Ezekiel joined his fellow cadets in the charge upon the Union lines.

Ezekiel, after the war, went on to finish his education at VMI. It was during this time that he had the fortune to meet General Robert E. Lee who was president of Washington College. Lee gave him the following words of encouragement in his quest to be an artist;

"I hope you will be an artist, as it seems to me that you are cut out for one. But, whatever you do, try to prove to the world that, even if we did not succeed in our struggle, we are worthy of success and do earn a reputation to whatever profession you undertake."

Ezekiel would travel to Italy to study and work as an artist and would become known worldwide. He was honored by King Emmanuel who knighted him and gave him the distinction of "Sir Moses Jacob Ezekiel."

It was Ezekiel's wish to return to his native Virginia but World War I kept him for doing so. He spent his final days in Italy where he died in 1917. His remains were not brought back to the states until 1921.

Among his many great works are: "Christ Bound for the Cross", "The Martyr", and "David Singing his Song of Glory."

His funeral service was held at the amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery. Cadets, of the Virginia Military Institute, stood by his casket that was draped with a flag of the United States. Ezekiel was buried at the base of the Confederate monument. Also buried around the monument are 450 Confederate soldiers, wives and civilians.

Beluga whate imitates human speech

Via  Colleen

Surf fishing

Via Knuckledraggin' My Life Away

Fred Throws Sombrero in Ring

The Only Thing We Have to be A-Fred of is Fred Hisself

I see that I shall have to take over the helm of the country to save it from the impending collapse. It has come to this. I have always said that I would undertake the presidency onl under an assumed name—who would want that on his resumè?—but noblesse oblges. What could be nobler than this column?

You may say, “But Fred, how can you be so bloody arrogant as to think you can run the country?” To which I reply, “We know that the incumbents cannot. I may be able to. In any event, I couldn’t be worse: I have not that talent. Which do you prefer, assured disaster or a sporting chance?”

Apparently the key to a successful campaign is a bumper sticker of supernal stupidity and irrelevance. I can play that game. How about “A Fred in Every Pot.” Or Tippecanoe and Frederick Too.” Or “Better Fred than Dead.” Or "Fred...Ahhhh." Or, most pertinently, ”Well, Have You Got a Better Idea?”

It is my understanding that as a candidate, I need a platform. I think this means a pack of rhythmically mendacious platitudes that would put a crank freak to sleep.  I shall try to do better. The following appear to me serviceable:

“Defense” policy: We don’t have one. The last time the military defended the United States was 1945—the United States, remember,  being that place between Canada and Mexico, a region that does not include (recent graduates, check your atlas) Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Albania, Yugoslavia, Panama, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Iran, Nigeria, or Yemen.

Do not misunderstand me. I am as patriotic as the next guy, and consequently happy to kill remote strangers for no reason, and their wives, children, dogs, and flcoks. Unfortunately, we can no longer afford it. Do you know what bombs cost these days? Thus we must either find a cheaper means of terminating Afghan children, perhaps by poisoning, or else, on purely economic grounds, we must restrain the Pentagon’s appetites.

Therefore, under my administration all military officers will be required to wear pink tutus, toe shoes, and brassieres with expandable boob compartments. This will discourage history majors in arrested development from becoming  lieutenants and strutting around like Genghis Kahn simulacra. An army of ballerinas will be much less troublesome.

With each promotion officers will get larger inserts of high-density silicone, so that they get back trouble and retire. David Petraeus will be instantly issued an udder.
Is this not genius?

Further, all pilots of military helicopters will be required to go into combat with their children strapped to the skids. This will calm martial enthusiasm. (I was going to use the pilots’ wives, but on reflection realized that this might lead to an insatiable thirst for war.)

More @ Fred On Everything

In violent urban survival scenario… violence is the easy part.

When times are hard, people show all kinds of their characteristics, or faces, or real face, call it whatever you like.

That is another reason why it is not so popular to talk or write in details about that time. Some people did bad things and survived, or good things and died, or people just acted strange in that time.

Again a lot of combinations. People later do not want to discuss about that, they do not want to remember that. Over the time man can really force himself to believe that he did not do some things, even if he did them.
No happy gatherings of group of people who survived all that, nothing like big reunions with barbecue with cheerful talks about „how it was then“ and drinking beer.

When we sit somewhere together, we do not talk about these times too much. If we really go in something from that time we usually lie to each other. Everybody of us who survived has something particular that he does not want to talk about or to remember.

Often this is something embarrassing or very bad or cruel that one did. It made sense back then in survival situation but even today when you have food on your table it is hard to understand… even for yourself.
I had friend who was pretty fearless guy when it comes to some tough situations, fights, death and life situation, man to man combat until the end and hard stuff like that. He was easy with violence. But what he could not stand was time frame between launching of rockets and detonations when rockets exploded.

More @   SHTF School

Obama Is the Top National Security Threat to the United States

 

Bob Schieffer asked the candidates to name the top national security threat to the United States near the closing of the last presidential debate. The answer is obvious: Barack Hussein Obama.

1. General Motors bond holders had their private property stolen and “redistributed” to the United Auto Workers union. The basic tenets of our Republic are life, liberty and property. Once we lose the right to keep our property, we have become subservient to the whims of Socialist tyranny.

2. As part of an attack on the 2nd amendment, Fast & Furious was to become an excuse to infringe on our right (and duty) to keep and bear arms. The operation failed and over two hundred Mexican citizens were murdered in an attempt to overturn the Bill of Rights. Obama invoked executive privilege to excuse Eric Holder’s contempt charges:

At Holder’s request, the White House invoked executive privilege in June on the information that Rep. Issa’s committee subpoenaed seeking internal DOJ documents after drafting a Feb. 4, 2011, letter to Congress that contained inaccurate information about operations at the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms.

A republic that abandons the rule of law will fall.

3. The Department of Justice has followed a two tiered justice system based on race. All men are no longer created equal as outlined in the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal

During Congressional testimony, Eric Holder referred to the New Black Panthers’ intimidation of voters in Philadelphia as

” I think does a great disservice to people who put their lives on the line for my people”

Mr. Holder refused to charge the individuals involved in a clear case of voter intimidation because of their “race”.

4. President Obama has increased our national debt to $16.19 trillion in less than four years. A 60% increase in our debt has put our national security in jeopardy.

DETROIT, Aug. 27, 2010 – The single biggest threat to national security is the national debt, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff [Navy Adm. Mike Mullen] said yesterday, underscoring the importance of good fiscal stewardship and a need to stimulate economic growth.Once we outsourced our debt to foreign nations, we gave up our security and sovereignty.

5. The president has been committed to transferring dependence of the American people to the government. The best example is food stamps:

since December 2007, or the start of the Great Depression ver 2.0, the number of jobs lost is 4.5 million, while those added to foodstamps and disability rolls, has increased by a unprecedented 21 million

5 more @ NC Renegade

Donald Trump claims Barack Obama bombshell

 

Donald Trump said on “Fox & Friends” Monday that he’ll reveal “very big” news about President Barack Obama by Wednesday but declined to give any hints about his plan.

“Something very, very big concerning the president of the United States,” he said. “It’s going to be very big. I know one thing — you will cover it in a very big fashion.”

Trump, who said he will announce the news on Twitter “sometime probably Wednesday,” suggested it could “possibly” impact the election.

More @ Politico

Mountain climbing

Via dashing

A Move to Block United Nations Poll Watchers from Operating in Alabama

Via Don

 

In response to news that poll watchers affiliated with the United Nations will be sent across the country to monitor balloting in various states and search for evidence of “voter suppression” during the upcoming November 6 presidential election, Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard said he will support legislation in the next session requiring all poll watchers in Alabama to hold U.S. citizenship.

“The United States is the worldwide beacon of free elections and the Republican form of government, so having an international squad from the United Nations playing referee in our elections is insulting and absurd,” Hubbard said. “We’ve been holding elections in the U.S. for the past 223 years without the United Nations playing a role or enforcing the rules, and we certainly don’t want or need them now.

More @ Yellow Hammer

THE DRUMMER BOY OF SHILOH

Unidentified young soldier in Confederate infantry uniform, possibly drummer boy.

290 Foundation

VERBATIM

Luke 23:46, “And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.”
 
During the War Between the States the soldiers on both sides occasionally found a common bond in their music. Bell I. Wiley wrote in his book entitled, The Life of Johnny Reb “…at Fredericksburg, during the wars second winter, a crack group of Union musicians posted on the northern bank of the Rappahannock, staged a concert unique in the annals of war. The program began with a medley of Northern airs – patriotic tunes and war songs…

‘Now give us some of ours,’ shouted the Confederates across the river. Without hesitation the band swung into the tunes of ‘Dixie,’ ‘My Maryland,’ and ‘The Bonnie Blue Flag.’ One song that crossed the battle lines was ‘The Drummer Boy of Shiloh,’ written and composed by William Shakespeare Hays of Louisville, Kentucky. This story of a young Union drummer boy, wounded at the Battle of Shiloh, provided a folk hero for many people.

On Shiloh’s dark and bloody ground, the dead and wounded lay.

Amongst them was a drummer boy who beat the drum that day.

A wounded soldier raised him up; his drum was by his side.

He clasped his hands and raised his eyes and prayed before he died:



Look down upon the battle-field, Oh Thou, our Heav’nly friend,

Have mercy on our sinful souls, the soldiers cried, “Amen.”

For gather’d round a little group, each brave man knelt and cried.

They listen’d to the drummer boy who prayed before he died.



“Oh, mother!” said the dying boy, “Look down from Heav’n on me,

Receive me to thy fond embrace, Oh take me home to thee.

I’ve loved my country as my God, to serve them both I’ve tried.

He smiled, shook hands, death seized the boy who prayed before he died.



Each soldier wept then like a child, stout hearts were they and brave.

The flag his winding sheet, God’s book the key unto his grave.

They wrote upon a simple board these words “This is a guide

To those who mourn the drummer boy who prayed before he died.”

                                                                                

The Truth About Libya - Failed Foreign Policy

Via Cousin John

How many homeschoolers does it take to change a lightbulb?

Via Terry

Rural Revolution

Romney won the presidential debate by looking presidential. Obama had a painful case of Biden's smile

Via Craig

Romney won the third presidential debate – and how he did it was encapsulated in a single exchange. The candidates were discussing military spending and Romney had just accused Obama of making harmful cutbacks. The President wheeled out what must have seemed like a great, pre-planned zinger: “I think Governor Romney maybe hasn't spent enough time looking at how our military works. You mentioned the navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our military's changed.” The audience laughed, Obama laughed, I laughed. It was funny.

But here’s why it was also a vote loser. For a start, Twitter immediately lit up with examples of how the US Army does still use horses and bayonets (horses were used during the invasion of Afghanistan). More importantly, this was one example of many in which the President insulted, patronised and mocked his opponent rather than put across a constructive argument. His performance was rude and unpresidential. Obama seemed to have a touch of the Bidens, wriggling about in his chair, waving his hands dismissively and always – always – smirking in Romney’s direction. By contrast, Romney sucked up the abuse and retained a rigid poker face all night. He looked like a Commander in Chief; Obama looked like a lawyer. Who would you rather vote for?

More @ The Telegraph

Thank you, President Windbag

Watching the debate on TV last night, I decided that no matter how much the mainstream media thinks Obama is great on foreiign policy or anything else, he is just a windbag and windbags are dangerous in high places.  This little girl illustrates a good point with perfect humor. 

 

Mike

 

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are 'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.' "
-- Ronald Reagan

III Arms