just pointed out that the percentages of population for Chicago is well over 100%. I would guess that the mistake is in the Non-Hispanic White.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
NC: Aycock Birth Place
I got a call today that the Department of Cultural Resources Secretary Susan Kluttz will be at the Birthplace next Thursday, April 25th at 11:00 AM.
We do not know for sure what her agenda is at present.
We would like for you to attend to voice your concerns for the closing of the Birthplace in the Governor's Budget.
If you know any Aycock Descendants please ask them to attend.
Bring a friend and make it look like their is a large attendance at the Birthplace.
Thank You,
John Pippin, Jr
President of the Fremont Historical Society
We do not know for sure what her agenda is at present.
We would like for you to attend to voice your concerns for the closing of the Birthplace in the Governor's Budget.
If you know any Aycock Descendants please ask them to attend.
Bring a friend and make it look like their is a large attendance at the Birthplace.
Thank You,
John Pippin, Jr
President of the Fremont Historical Society
A final toast for the Doolittle Raiders
Via Daily Timewaster
Lt. Col. James Doolittle leans over a bomb on the USS Hornet deck just before his "Raiders" began the bombing raid on Tokyo.
It's the cup of brandy that no one wants to drink.
It's the cup of brandy that no one wants to drink.
On Tuesday, in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, the surviving Doolittle Raiders will gather publicly for the last time.
They once were among the
most universally admired and revered men in the United States. There
were 80 of the Raiders in April 1942, when they carried out one of the
most courageous and heart-stirring military operations in this nation's
history. The mere mention of their unit's name, in those years, would
bring tears to the eyes of grateful Americans.
Now only four survive.
After Japan's sneak
attack on Pearl Harbor, with the United States reeling and wounded,
something dramatic was needed to turn the war effort around.
Even though there were no
friendly airfields close enough to Japan for the United States to
launch a retaliation, a daring plan was devised. Sixteen B-25s were
modified so that they could take off from the deck of an aircraft
carrier. This had never before been tried -- sending such big, heavy
bombers from a carrier.
The 16 five-man crews,
under the command of Lt. Col. James Doolittle, who himself flew the lead
plane off the USS Hornet, knew that they would not be able to return to
the carrier. They would have to hit Japan and then hope to make it to
China for a safe landing.
But on the day of the
raid, the Japanese military caught wind of the plan. The Raiders were
told that they would have to take off from much farther out in the
Pacific Ocean than they had counted on. They were told that because of
this they would not have enough fuel to make it to safety.
And those men went anyway.
They bombed Tokyo, and
then flew as far as they could. Four planes crash-landed; 11 more crews
bailed out, and three of the Raiders died. Eight more were captured;
three were executed. Another died of starvation in a Japanese prison
camp. One crew made it to Russia.
The Doolittle Raid sent a message from the United States to its enemies, and to the rest of the world:
We will fight.
And, no matter what it takes, we will win.
Of the 80 Raiders, 62
survived the war. They were celebrated as national heroes, models of
bravery. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced a motion picture based on the
raid; "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo," starring Spencer Tracy and Van
Johnson, was a patriotic and emotional box-office hit, and the phrase
became part of the national lexicon. In the movie-theater previews for
the film, MGM proclaimed that it was presenting the story "with supreme
pride."
Beginning in 1946, the
surviving Raiders have held a reunion each April, to commemorate the
mission. The reunion is in a different city each year. In 1959, the city
of Tucson, Arizona, as a gesture of respect and gratitude, presented
the Doolittle Raiders with a set of 80 silver goblets. Each goblet was
engraved with the name of a Raider.
Every year, a wooden
display case bearing all 80 goblets is transported to the reunion city.
Each time a Raider passes away, his goblet is turned upside down in the
case at the next reunion, as his old friends bear solemn witness.
Also in the wooden case
is a bottle of 1896 Hennessy Very Special cognac. The year is not
happenstance: 1896 was when Jimmy Doolittle was born.
More @ CNN
Salon.com ghoulishly race baits #BostonMarathon bombing with “white privilege” rant
It’s just more David Sirota link bait.
Forcing a rant about “white privilege” and white men into any situation, no matter how ridiculous, has become his schtick.
He did it for the Newtown shooting:
And now he’s doing it for the Boston Marathon bombing:
More @ Legal Insurrection
"Out of sight are the communists who are attacking everything that is sacred – that is right – that is true."
Part of Trimble’s Brigade, the 12th Georgia held part of Jackson’s line in front of the Dunker Church during the morning Union attacks atAntietamSharpsburg. Captain James Rodgers, commanding the 12th, was struck dead by bullets that hit his hand, thigh, and head. This battle flag of the 12th Georgia includes the names of several color bearers who were killed during the tremendous fighting on the morning of September 17, 1862.
==============================
Henry Bacon McKoy was the nephew of Henry Bacon, Illinois native and architect of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. The former was born in Wilmington, North Carolina and served as an engineer on the memorial; he was also a partner in the Morris-McKoy firm that built Furman University’s Sirrine Shrine Stadium in 1936. McKoy wrote the following letter to the editor in the late 1960s.
Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
The Confederate Flag and Dixie:
“Editor of the Greenville News, Greenville, S.C.
Dear Sir,
I
see great changes made every day. Nations fall, former things thought
miracles are commonplace. Heroes are toppled. The road I travel is
suddenly forked into a hundred different directions. Religions become
questionable and faith a myth.
But
little did I think that I should live to see the day when a group of
students at the University of South Carolina would advocate a ban on the
playing of “Dixie” and the display of the Confederate Flag.
Or,
that I would have ever thought it advisable to add dignity and
recognition to such a movement, by opposing it. Millions have admired
and loved all that the Confederate Flag has stood for and all that
“Dixie” meant to the hearts and aspirations of a defeated people.
Only
because of ignorance and misunderstanding, and a hate that has recently
been engendered by those who are capable of nothing higher, is the
Confederate Flag and what it stood for, and Dixie – in thought or words
ever considered to degrade or belittle the Negroes.
The
South lost greatly in its youth and the best of its men and future
leaders, and its wealth, and it has taken a hundred years to partially
recover their loss. Their defeat they accepted. There remained, however,
honor, integrity, honesty, truth and God. These the South took and
engraved them on their hearts and minds and allowed the Confederate Flag
to become a symbol of all the good they believed in.
Christians
honor the cross, not as a fetish, not for its value, but for what it
represents in their hearts. They object to its desecration because in
doing so one attempts to destroy what it stands for.
The
Negro was not the cause of the Confederate War, but “The Excuse” for a
war of aggression and conquest. It has been claimed the reason, and like
Hitler’s LIE – told so often, that it finally became to be thought the
truth.
It
seems wrong to me that the Confederate Flag and Dixie should need any
defense on my part – it doesn’t. But if I and others stand silent while
this attack is being made, then our uninformed young and our ignorant
youths will think that we agree and accept this lie, and that we are
ashamed to answer it. A thousand facts and records substantiate my
words.
I
condemn this movement and the thoughts behind it. Out of sight are the
communists who are attacking everything that is sacred – that is right –
that is true.
Henry B. McKoy”
(Second Thoughts and Talks, Henry Bacon McKoy, 1975, pp. 63-64)
Boston Marathon Bombs Made From Pressure Cookers
It’s being released now that the explosives that were used in the deadly bombing yesterday at the Boston Marathon were contained in 6-liter pressure cookers which were then hidden in black duffel bags. This comes from a source close to the investigation who shared this information with the Associated Press.
According to the report,
A person briefed on the attack, which left the streets splattered with blood and glass, said the explosives were in 6-liter pressure cookers and placed in black duffel bags that were placed on the ground. The person said the duffel bags contained shards of metal, nails and ball bearings. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.
These types of pressure cooker explosives have been used in Afghanistan, India, Nepal and Pakistan, according to a July 2010 joint FBI and Homeland Security intelligence report. One of the three devices used in the May 2010 Times Square attempted bombing was a pressure cooker, the intelligence report said.
“Placed carefully, such devices provide little or no indication of an impending attack,” the report said.
More @ Freedom Outpost
Gun owners sharply divided over CCRKBA background check support
Via avordvet
Because all the negotiations and deal-making and compromises notwithstanding, ultimately, the Second Amendment means what serious people with guns say it does, and since some of us will not back down nor cede another inch, we’ll just have to see how hard those who would force us to bend to their will have the arrogance to push. That’s the singular miscalculation those otherwise brilliant players on “our side,” who think things can all be settled with a roll call, the autographing of a piece of paper or the banging of a gavel haven’t factored into their equations.
We will not disarm. And we are everywhere.
Because all the negotiations and deal-making and compromises notwithstanding, ultimately, the Second Amendment means what serious people with guns say it does, and since some of us will not back down nor cede another inch, we’ll just have to see how hard those who would force us to bend to their will have the arrogance to push. That’s the singular miscalculation those otherwise brilliant players on “our side,” who think things can all be settled with a roll call, the autographing of a piece of paper or the banging of a gavel haven’t factored into their equations.
We will not disarm. And we are everywhere.
More @ Examiner
Goodies from Ol' Remus
1940, Dubuque Iowa.
A boy hops a freight train. During the Depression
it was common for boys in their teens to unburden the family by leaving
home to restart their life elsewhere. Freight trains were the default
transportation for the destitute of all ages.
Rules 11 through 14, 1889 National Hobo ConventionWhen traveling, ride your train respectfully, take no personal chances, cause no problems with the operating crew or host railroad, act like an extra crew member.
Do not cause problems in a train yard, another hobo will be coming along who will need passage through that yard.
Do not allow other hobos to molest children, expose all molesters to authorities, they are the worst garbage to infest any society.
Help all runaway children, and try to induce them to return home.
National Hobo Museum
Karl kicks Connecticut off Market Ticker 
-
I've scrubbed my system's records. If you're a donor and live in
Connecticut, you can't donate any more to my system. I won't allow it.
I'm done. I don't want your money and I don't want to provide you
service. I won't come to CT, I won't knowingly buy things from people in CT and I won't do business with you.
Karl Denninger at market-ticker.org
-
I've scrubbed my system's records. If you're a donor and live in
Connecticut, you can't donate any more to my system. I won't allow it.
I'm done. I don't want your money and I don't want to provide you
service. I won't come to CT, I won't knowingly buy things from people in CT and I won't do business with you.Karl Denninger at market-ticker.org
Dodd Frank -
It's secret provision permits looting depositor bank accounts. Four
months ago, formal strategy was drafted. It's ready when America's next
crisis hits. FDIC implementation rules are ready. Eventual crisis is virtually certain. Only its timing is unknown.
Stephen Lendman at sjlendman.blogspot.com (H/t: alt-market.com)
Stephen Lendman at sjlendman.blogspot.com (H/t: alt-market.com)
Whenever a progressive refers to "investments," he or she is referring
to confiscation of private wealth. Whenever a progressive invokes the
"community," that term refers to a state-engineered collective in which
the individual has no rights. Whenever a collectivist refers to "public
education," that phrase is shorthand for the process of destroying a
child's developing sense of self-ownership and indoctrinating them in
the notion that they are the property of the "community," says William
Grigg in this article, Nationalizing Children, at Pro Libertate. The next time you go into DMV,
please realize that you are subsidizing a drivers license for about a
third of the people. You are also paying for their health care, food
stamps and shelter. And many of these lower class, poverty-stricken
"Americans" are living a higher standard of living than you are, says
Dave Hodges in this article, It No Longer Pays To Go To Work, at The Common Sense Show. (H/t survivalblog)
With the rhetoric heating up and the situation not calming down but
escalating, it is time to analyze the real threat, North Korea's
unconventional delivery options for WMDs.
The absolute worst case scenario would be for the the DPRK
to sail two or three subs into the container ports of Long Beach, Los
Angeles, and Oakland, surface and detonate crude but effective Hiroshima
sized atomic weapons, says John Galt in this article, North Korea Crisis: The US West Coast IS Vulnerable to WMD Attack, at Shenandoah.
Monday is trash day in West Philly. This week I saw a leather couch
that was nicer than my living room couch out by the curb. Last week I
saw a big screen TV in the trash. I
must really be doing something wrong. The amount of trash outside these
low income townhouses is two to three times the amount we generate in a
week...
The money printing of the Federal Reserve with no anchor to gold has
allowed the welfare state to grow to immense proportions, says
Jim Quinn in this article, 30 Blocks of Squalor, at the Burning Platform.
16% of US annual silver production just vanished -
At 9.30 pm local time on 10 April 2013, Kennecott Utah Copper's Bingham
Canyon Mine experienced a slide along a geotechnical fault line of its
north eastern wall. Movement on the north eastern wall had accelerated
in recent weeks and pre-emptive measures were taken to relocate
facilities and roads prior to the slide. All employees are safe and
accounted for. Mine operations are currently suspended while experts
assess the extent of the slide and impact on operations. [5 million ounces of silver, 500,000 ounces of gold anually]
Press release at riotinto.com (H/t: TC)
Press release at riotinto.com (H/t: TC)
State To Seek Death Penalty In Beating, Burning Death
Via Ol' Remus
The State Attorney’s Office may seek the death penalty against three people accused of beating a woman then burning her alive.
Anthony Lamar Pressley, 26, Kiesha LeShay Pugh, 28, and Gregory Edward Williams, 21, were each charged with homicide and robbery for the March 31 death of Melinda McCormick inside her burning apartment of Mobile Highway. All three have confessed, investigators said.
Deputies say an autopsy shows McCormick was hit 40 times with a hammer, lead pipe and crow bar. She was still alive when her bed sheets were set on fire, according to the State Fire Marshal’s Office. They were caught on video (see below) headed to and away from the area of the apartment.
Williams reportedly told investigators that he hated white people, and that was a partial reason for the crime.The trio allegedly planned to steal Social Security money from McCormick. Officials said arson charges may also be added against the men.
The State Attorney’s Office may seek the death penalty against three people accused of beating a woman then burning her alive.
Anthony Lamar Pressley, 26, Kiesha LeShay Pugh, 28, and Gregory Edward Williams, 21, were each charged with homicide and robbery for the March 31 death of Melinda McCormick inside her burning apartment of Mobile Highway. All three have confessed, investigators said.
Deputies say an autopsy shows McCormick was hit 40 times with a hammer, lead pipe and crow bar. She was still alive when her bed sheets were set on fire, according to the State Fire Marshal’s Office. They were caught on video (see below) headed to and away from the area of the apartment.
Williams reportedly told investigators that he hated white people, and that was a partial reason for the crime.The trio allegedly planned to steal Social Security money from McCormick. Officials said arson charges may also be added against the men.
More with video @ North Escambia
NC Senate Bill 410 "Enabling Heroes Act" or "Constitutional Carry"
With your right to keep and bear arms under a constant assault in Washington, it can be easy to overlook what's going on in the halls of your state capitol.
But I have some good news to report in Raleigh.
Senate Bill 410, the "Enabling Heroes Act" (also known as "Constitutional Carry") has been introduced in the North Carolina General Assembly this year!
Constitutional Carry means if you can legally possess a firearm for self-defense, then you can carry it without having to first beg for government permission.
And with the assault on your right to keep and bear arms moving forward in Washington, passing this important piece of legislation is more important than ever.
Unfortunately, without your help, SB-410 is at the mercy of anti-gunners who would love nothing more than to kill it quietly.
Make no mistake,this is exactly the kind of bill that draws the ire of out of state gun-grabbers with deep pockets like playboy-billionaire Michael Bloomberg and his ilk.
As a North Carolina resident and patriot, your lawmakers need to hear from you!
That's why I need your help right now!
Here is what you can do:
1. Click here to contact your Senate Rules and Operations of the Senate Committee
members.
Urge them to schedule a hearing on SB-410, vote yes, and pass it with out delay!
Urge them to schedule a hearing on SB-410, vote yes, and pass it with out delay!
2.
Give your Senator a call at 919-733-7928 and prod them to get behind SB-410.
There’s no time to lose.
Please act now!
For Freedom,
Dudley Brown
Executive Vice President
The Boogie Woogie and The Shag
Via Ol' Remus
Unbelievable. Check out this couple with the Shag one below. They could be twins!:) Both dated 2010 also.
Cain doubtful he will ever run as a Republican again & GOP Would Back Dr. Ben Carson
“When you wear the labels of a Republican, then you are challenged to defend the entire Republican brand and I can’t defend the entire Republican brand,’’ Cain said.
But he added that he still feels affiliated with the party, “the conservative part.’’
More @ Newsmax
Putting Maine to the Torch
The
spring of 1864 was an active time for Confederate planners wanting to
exploit Northern weariness of the war and its death toll, and influence
the November presidential election. A primary figure in the secret
operations was Captain Thomas Henry Hines, a former officer under
General John Hunt Morgan. A favorite route of Southern agents travelling
to Canada was a Wilmington blockade-runner to Bermuda, then a British
mail packet to Halifax, rail car to Montreal, Toronto and finally
Niagara Falls – then slip quietly across the Suspension Bridge into New
York.
Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
Putting Maine to the Torch
“[When
Hines] was planning the Chicago uprising….Confederate prospects for a
[Northern] revolution looked good. The Copperheads were promising a
great deal. [Confederate Commissioner in Canada, Jacob] Thompson,
believing them, was spending huge sums, and gun-runners were crossing
into Indiana with large shipments of rifles and revolvers.
Someone
in Toronto….decided that a major diversionary move was needed to keep
the attention of the Federals away from Hines in Chicago at the time he
was to set off the revolt in the Northwest. It was decided to organize
another expedition, sent against Maine and the Northeast coast.
Couriers
slipped south with messages for President Davis. He gave his approval
of an eastern facet of the Northwest Conspiracy. An army of 5,000 men,
with a large number of field artillery, commanded by officers of
[General John Hunt] Morgan’s, Mosby’s and Stuart’s commands, who had
been summoned to Richmond from the field by Secretary of the War [J.A.]
Seddon, were to be brought to Canada by eight fast blockade-runners. The
troops were to be disembarked on the coast of Maine at night.
Detachments were to be sent out first to gather up [railroad] rolling
stock, pack horses, cattle and food.
The
stock and food were to be brought to a rendezvous in northern
Maine…[and] from that point the army was to be split into five columns
to fan out, “but within supporting distance of each other” to put Maine
to the torch. As [partisan veteran Francis] Jones said, “The troops were
to sack and destroy public and corporative property of the United
States government.” Local Sons of Liberty were to be used as guides.
The
expedition was to be a combined operation. In April, 1864, Secretary of
the Navy [Stephen] Mallory, in Richmond, sent 1,500 seamen and
privateersmen “on special duty” to report to Thompson at Toronto. They
were to man the armed steamers Tallahassee and Florida, which were to
sail out of New Brunswick to shell and burn Maine’s coastal cities.
In
the Northwest, the date of the uprising…[was to be] August 29, 1864,
the day the Democratic Convention opened in Chicago. There would be
large crowds; half the delegates would be Peace Democrats, members of
the Sons of Liberty and Knights of the Golden Circle. Chicago would be a
powder keg; one spark was all that was needed to touch it off.”
(Confederate Agent, A Discovery in History, James D. Horan, Crown Publishers, pp. 113-115)
Food Stamp Profits Are A State Secret
The most important strategy to protect government corruption is keeping the details hidden. There is no way to hide the fact or corruption, but as long as the nation’s lords of corruption can keep the details hidden, they will always have some level of plausible deniability. They will almost always be able to escape real consequences from accountability if they can keep specifics out of public awareness.
Thus, the AllGov website reported yesterday:
“Unlike those in charge of other federal programs that spend billions of taxpayer dollars each year helping Americans, officials overseeing food stamps have refused to release details on who benefits financially from this assistance. Currently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) does not make public how much money individual retailers make from food stamps, officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Nor does the USDA disclose which products are purchased with SNAP dollars or how much is spent on each product.”
First of all, let’s think about how crazy that is from a liberal/socialist/welfare/totalitarian perspective. Our nation is filled with social science researcher out there trying to justify their existence in the industrial-education complex. Plus there are loads of grad students who need dissertations to write. Wouldn’t that information be worth studying to see if SNAP can be improved or amended in some way? If there are problems to be fixed, they will never be.
More @ Last Resistance
How do politicians become so wealthy?
There wasn’t even an official vote, Friday. Congress just unanimously sent the bill to Obama’s desk, as the Senate had already done the day before.
But first some background. Perhaps you are old enough to remember all the way back to March 22, 2012. That was when Congress passed what Senator Joe Lieberman called “the most significant ethics legislation in at least five years.” NPR quoted him:
“I mean, here’s a case where a problem was identified that cut directly to the public’s faith in their elected representatives. We dealt with it quickly and on a bipartisan basis in both houses of Congress.”
The “case” Lieberman mentioned was a 60 Minutes story revealing insider trading and other corruption lining the pockets of Congressmen and other people in he STOCK Act was only opposed because it wasn’t strong enough. They passed a severely weakened version of the bill. But not weak enough.
More @ Last Resistance
Waging War to Destroy, Not Preserve, the Union
On
January 3, 1861, Senator Stephen A. Douglas spoke in the Senate Chamber
regarding the inability of the Committee of Thirteen to find compromise
to end the sectional crisis. He saw the Republican party’s ultimate goal
of surrounding the South with abolition States and confining the
institution in such narrow limits as leading toward race war or
colonization of the Negro – and appealed to the people of Illinois to
help find a more human and Christian solution to the evil of slavery.
Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
Waging War to Destroy, Not Preserve, the Union:
“Are
we prepared for war? I do not mean that kind of preparation which
consists of armies and navies, and supplies, and munitions of war; but
are we prepared IN OUR HEARTS for war with our own brethren and
kindred? I confess I am not.
While
I affirm that the Constitution is, and was intended to be, a bond of
perpetual Union; while I can do no act and utter no word that will
countenance the right of secession….I will not mediate war, nor tolerate
the idea, until every effort at peaceful adjustment shall have been
exhausted, and the last ray of hope shall have deserted the patriot’s
heart. In my opinion, war is disunion, certain, inevitable, irrevocable.
I am for peace to save the Union.
[The]
proposition to subvert the de facto government of South Carolina, and
reduce the people of that State to subjection to our Federal authority,
no longer involves the question of enforcing the laws in a country
within our possession; but it does involve the question of whether we
will make war upon a State which has withdrawn her allegiance and
expelled our authorities….We are bound, by the usages of nations, by the
laws of civilization, by the uniform practice of our own Government, to
acknowledge the existence of a Government de facto, so long as it
maintains its undivided authority.
[I]
desire to know of my Union-loving friends on the other side of the
Chamber how they intend to enforce the laws in the seceding States,
except by making war, conquering them first, and administering the law
in them afterwards.
In
my opinion, we have reached a point where disunion is inevitable,
unless some compromise, founded on mutual concession, can be made. I
prefer compromise to war. I prefer concession to dissolution of the
Union…[and] simply say that I will meet every one half way who is
willing to preserve the peace of the country, and save the Union from
disruption upon principles of compromise and concession.
The
preservation of this Union, the integrity of this Republic, is of more
importance than party platforms or individual records. Why cannot you
Republicans accede to the re-establishment and extension of the Missouri
compromise line? Why not allow the people to pass on these questions?
The political party which shall refuse to allow the people to determine
for themselves at the ballot box the issue between revolution and war on
the one side, and obstinate adherence to a party platform on the other,
will assume a fearful responsibility.
A
war upon a political issue, waged by the people of eighteen States
against the people and domestic institutions of fifteen sister States,
is a fearful and revolting thought. The South will be a unit, and
desperate, under the belief that your object in waging war is their
destruction, and not the preservation of the Union; that you mediate
servile insurrection, and the abolition of slavery in the Southern
States, by fire and sword, in the name and under the pretext of
enforcing the laws and vindicating the authority of the Government. You
know that such is the prevailing, and, I may say, unanimous opinion at
the South; and that ten million people are preparing for the terrible
conflict under that conviction.
The
history of the world does not offer furnish an instance, where war has
raged for a series of years between two classes of States, divided by a
geographical line under the same national Government, which has ended in
reconciliation and reunion. Extermination, subjugation or separation,
one of these three must be the result of the war between the northern
and southern States.”
(The Politics of Dissolution, Marshall L. DeRosa, editor, Transaction Publishers, 1998, pp. 190, 196, 201-202)
Saudi terror cell, possibly al Qaeda, behind Boston Marathon bombings. Manhunt for escaped suspect
Police and agents search Saudi suspects apartment in Revere outside Boston.
The flat they share in the Revere, Massachusetts, near Boston, was searched after the questioning of one of the suspects, a Saudi student, who was hospitalized with badly burned hands. One of his flatmates was taken into custody over “visa problems.” A third is on the run. All three hail from a prominent Saudi family belonging to a tribe from the Asir province bordering on Yemen.
The search for the wanted man led to the grounding of a plane at Logan International Airport Tuesday. The investigation has meanwhile broadened out to places in and outside Boston in a search for the cell’s accomplices.
The origins of the Saudi cell, if confirmed, strongly suggest that Al Qaeda of Arabia – AQAP –succeeded in planting a cell in the United States for the bombing attack in Boston – and possibly more than one in other parts of the US. Asir Province is known as a hotbed of resistance to the Saudi throne in Riyadh.
US law enforcement authorities in charge of the probe are refusing to confirm any suspects are in custody, or even leads to whoever carried out the bombings. President Barack Obama said in his second statement in 24 hours: “…we don’t know if who was behind the bombings were foreign, domestic or individual.” The President was forced to admit for the first time that the FBI was investigating “an act of terror.”
debkafile earlier Tuesday was alone in reporting that the FBI Boston Marathon probe pointed to Mid-East terrorists with domestic support.
Read on:
More @ DEBKA
Elitism, Intelligence, and Cultivation
Ideas Worth a Shot
To begin: The country desperately needs to embrace an uncompromising elitism, this being simply the belief that the better is preferable to the worse. Somehow America has gotten this simple principle (if I may employ the Latin phrase) bass-ackward. In the things of civilization, we worship the lame, the halt, the dim-witted, and the proven unable. How smart is this?
In correction, I will first raise the voting age to thirty. The present practice of allowing children of eighteen to wield the ballot is transparent madness. The excessively young are callow, uninformed, and lacking experience of the things they affect with the votes. Hormonal turbulence and an eigtht-grade education—about what a high-school diploma is worth these days—do not recommend them as fit to stir the pots of governance. If you are parent to teenagers, you will see the unwisdom of letting our tender sprouts decide anything beyond their choice of godawful music.
More @ Fred On Everything
Boehner Plans Lengthy Review of Senate Gun Bill
Via avordvet
Congressional sources say that GOP lawmakers and strategists are urging Speaker Boehner to kill any gun control legislation that comes to the House by refusing to act on it. The Speaker is planning "what could be a months-long review of the bill that likely would involve chipping away at gun-related measures" and instead encourage options that focus on the mental health aspect of gun violence.
"I fully expect that the House will act on (gun) legislation in the coming months," Boehner said. "But ... I want the (House) Judiciary Committee to take the time to look at whatever the Senate does produce - assuming they produce something - and have members on both sides review that and make their determination."
More @ Breitbart
Politico: NRA's Total Defeat of Obama, Media Likely
In the immediate aftermath of the tragic Newtown murders, Obama and His Media joined forces to exploit the deaths of innocent children for all it was worth -- with a series of laws that would have done absolutely nothing to stop the very crime they were exploiting. This naked political move to leverage the murder of innocents as an excuse to attack the National Rifle Association and gun owners, who live predominantly in red states, is about as cynical and craven as it gets.
According to Politico, though, all this soul selling is likely to come to nothing. Politico reports on Tuesday that the gun control bill Obama, liberal Democrats, Piers Morgan, Chuck Todd, and all of CNN
want so desperately to pass "has little if any, chance of passing this
Congress – it’s struggling in the Senate and facing outright rejection
in the House."
More @ Breitbart
Bomb Sniffing Dogs Were at Start, Finish Lines BEFORE Boston Marathon - told were only for a "Drill" - YouTube
"They kept making announcements to the participants do not worry, it's just a training exercise," Coach Ali Stevenson told Local 15.
(Shades of 9/11 when workers in the South Tower were told to go back into their offices. That the fire was under control.)
Stevenson said he saw law enforcement spotters on the roofs at the start of the race. He's been in plenty of marathons in Chicago, D.C., Chicago, London and other major metropolitan areas but has never seen that level of security before.
"Evidently, I don't believe they were just having a training exercise," Stevenson said. "I think they must have had some sort of threat or suspicion called in."
More with video @ Charleston Voice
'Arrests in Pakistan, Afghanistan' in Boston Marathon probe
An al-Qaida-allied group in the Gaza Strip claimed to WND that there have been arrests of jihadists in both Pakistan and Afghanistan as part of the probe into yesterday’s Boston Marathon explosions.
The arrests could not be immediately confirmed.
The Gaza sources told WND the online al-Qaida forum messages claimed the bombings were an al-Qaida response to a U.S. military airstrike that killed a high-profile Taliban leader and four other Taliban members last week near Afghanistan’s eastern border with Pakistan.
Jihadia Salafia represents al-Qaida in Gaza.
Hoekstra Predicts al-Qaida on 'Short List'
“I think the short list would be probably al-Qaida out of the Maghreb region [of Northwest Africa] or it would be al-Qaida on the Arabian Peninsula out of Yemen, where al Awlaki came from and gave us the Detroit [underwear] bomber,” predicted Hoekstra.
More @ Newsmax
Gun Background Check Deal in Jeopardy in Senate
Ignoramus
A bipartisan proposal to expand background checks to more gun buyers seemed in jeopardy Monday as a growing number of Republican senators expressed opposition to the proposal, perhaps enough to derail it. But there was plenty of time for lobbying and deal-making to affect the outcome, and the sponsors seemed willing to carve out at least one exemption in an effort to drum up votes.
The White House said President Barack Obama was calling lawmakers, as both sides hunted support for a nail-biting showdown.
As of Monday evening, some senators were saying the vote now appeared likely late this week, rather than midweek as top Democrats have hoped. Such a delay would give both sides more time to find support.
"The game hasn't even started yet, let alone over," said Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who reached a background check compromise last week with Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., on which the Senate was preparing to vote.
In one sign of the bargaining underway, Manchin and Toomey seemed willing to accept a change to their deal exempting gun buyers from background checks who live hundreds of miles from licensed firearms dealers, said one Senate aide.
The change might help win support from senators from Alaska and perhaps North Dakota, said the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private discussions.
More @ Newsmax
How the National Student Database Came to Be
April 16, 2013
It has happened incrementally, and it turns out we have been on this road for a very long time.
In December, 2011, the Department of Education released its “Final Rule” on the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), putting in place the final pieces to allow this database to become a reality. But it would be inaccurate to blame the Department, or certainly to blame them for the whole thing. Rather, their report points out the mile markers passed along the way.
FERPA was adopted in 1974 to protect the privacy of school children by preserving the rights of parents and “eligible students” (students 18 and older, or students enrolled in post-secondary education such as college) to access their education records and to keep others from doing the same. As society and technology have changed, adjustments have been made to FERPA as well, though no drastic shifts took place for 30 years.
During that time, though, computer technology took off, followed by the world-wide web. Now everything is stored in digital format on a computer somewhere.
Along the way Congress passed laws to make the process of building and storing those records more efficient. And they passed other laws encouraging states to share their records among various institutions in order to make their education systems more efficient and more effective.
First came the America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science (“America COMPETES) Act of 2007. This act first set forth the vision of building “statewide longitudinal data systems” (SLDS) – massive databases to store student data for sharing among a state’s education institutions. For instance, the state’s department of education can communicate with the local school district, and also with a state-run college or university, to share information.
The upside cannot be ignored: colleges and universities would get a better idea of what kind of students they will be receiving and how prepared they will be, while public school districts are able to measure how well they are doing at preparing their students for college. No one was going to have a problem with those goals.
Then Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), providing funding for any state that would meet certain federal goals, including the establishment of SLDS. The Department of Education in its report of December, 2011, cited this as proof that data sharing is not only allowed but expected: “Title VIII of ARRAS appropriated $250,000,000 to the Institute of Education Sciences …to provide competitive grants to State[s] for the development of SLDS that include early childhood through postsecondary and workforce information.”
It wasn’t until the Department offered these FERPA rules that many began to picture the dangers of a national database of school children. At that point, though, we spoke up against the idea. The Department’s response was to split hairs.
“The Department is not establishing a national database of PII (personally identifiable information) from education records and we have no intention to do so…. The right to develop SLDS or link SLDS across State lines is reserved to the States…. In fact, HEA [the Higher Education Act of 1965 as amended] specifically states that it does not prohibit ‘a State or consortium of States from developing, implementing, or maintaining state-developed databases that track individuals over time, including student unit record systems that contain information related to enrollment, attendance, graduation and retention rates, student financial assistance, and graduate employment outcomes’.”
The federal government has suggested such a database and pays money to those states that will work together to create one and connect it to others. But the Department points out that this “would not be ‘national’ because the Federal Government would not play a role in its operation.” Clearly, this is a matter of semantics – and incorrect semantics at that. (Sports, for instance, is filled with “national” things that are not “federal”: the National Football League, the National Hockey League, and baseball’s National League, to name a few.)
Whether the Federal Government runs the database or only calls for and funds it, Congress bears responsibility for its creation. Most important, the data are still being gathered into one place, often without parental consent. And government actors are collecting data on our children to track them from “early childhood through postsecondary [education] and [the] workforce.”
How Do We Start to Fix This?
The proposed Parental Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution will strengthen the role of parents in the child’s life by assuring that “The liberty of parents to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their children is a fundamental right.”
Our investigation of the national database and the spreading “Core Curriculum” is ongoing. We are learning more each week, and working to share that information with you. The more we learn, the more we see the very real need for the Parental Rights Amendment.
If you still have friends or family members who have not signed the petition to preserve these rights, encourage them to do so at parentalrights.org/petition.
Together we can protect our children by preserving our parental rights.
Sincerely,
Michael Ramey
Director of Communications & Research
All quotes (except the Parental Rights Amendment) are from Federal Register Vol. 76, No. 232, Friday, December 2, 2011, pp.75604-75660. (34 CFR Part 99)
Cassy Gray's stirring speech: Stone Mountain 13 April 2013
Via Carl
It has been said that a land without remembrance is a land without memories. And a land without
memories is a land without history.
Standing before this
majestic mountain with its beautiful relief of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson
Davis and Stonewall Jackson, it reassures my heart to know that Confederate
memories and history are alive and well. For these three men were not
only heroes to all in the newfound nation, but they remain heroes, not
only for me, but for many of us here this afternoon.
But this imposing edifice
would not have been diminished through the years if the designers had
chosen three different men to immortalize. If we had gathered to celebrate
Albert Sidney Johnston, Patrick Cleburne and Jeb Stuart or John B. Gordon,
A.P. Hill and Nathan Bedford Forrest. No, this Stone Mountain would
not have been diminished at all… for enveloping this monument is a
great cloud of witnesses – witnesses dressed in gray and butternut
– the brave soldiers who followed Lee and Jackson, fought and died
with Cleburne and Gordon and rode with Stuart and Forrest. The soldiers
of the Army of Northern Virginia, the Army of Tennessee and the Army
of Trans-Mississippi, who picked up their arms and left their loved
ones to defend their homes and their liberty.
I remember the words
of General Armistead at Gettysburg as he prepared to obey the order
to advance on Cemetery Ridge. He faced his brigade and brought to their
remembrance why they were on that battlefield and why they were prepared
to lay down their lives for another if the Lord so asked. “For your
lands! For your homes! For your sweethearts! For your wives! For Virginia!
Forward!” These words survived that bloody day because they
reveal the very heart of the Confederate soldier.
When the Lincoln Administration
called for 75,000 volunteers to put down the rebellion in the cotton
states, the men of the South kissed their wives and children good-bye,
enlisted in the army and poured into the instructional camps that had
sprung up throughout the South.
They were citizen soldiers, a sundry mix of family, near and distant kin, friends,
acquaintances, and strangers. They came from every nook and cranny of
Southern society: plantation owners, farmers barely scraping out a living
on a few acres, merchants, tradesmen, professionals, students, rich,
poor, educated, illiterate, secessionists, unionists, native sons and
recent immigrants. A few of them had previous military experience but
most of them did not. In the end it was not their differences that shaped
them but their similarities.
Their fathers had passed down a legacy
of heroism when they had defeated the might of the British Empire and
had forged a new nation from the wilderness. How could their sons and
grandsons do any less in this the second war for independence?
They may have arrived
at the instructional camps as novices to the art of war, but their instructors
quickly molded them into soldiers – into companies, regiments, brigades,
divisions, corps, and armies. At night, after a hard day of drilling
in the hot sun, they would sit around the campfires jesting about the
hardships they were willing to endure for the Cause. What did they really
know of hardships when their uniforms were whole, their shoes did not
let in water and food was abundant?
But in the four years
they had fought, when exactly they could not pinpoint, but some time
during those four years, when misery, privation, and death became their
daily lot, they had learned the bitter truth. War was the necessity
of marching on empty bellies, on bare and bleeding feet through the
snow and cold, and fighting even past exhaustion. When the last volley
was fired, war was also the sad duty of burying friends you had joked
with around the campfires those many years ago when war was a lark,
one Southern could lick a dozen Yankees and heroes never died. If that
was not enough, war was the cruel reality of having to do it all again
tomorrow if so ordered.
In the long marches
and hard fights, they had been purified in the refiner’s fire and
sifted like wheat by the severe demands of army life. What remained
was the only thing that mattered - the assurance that they had been
weighed in the balance, on the line and under fire, and had not been
found wanting.
They were the courageous and determined soldiers of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Braxton Bragg, John Pemberton, Joseph
Johnston, and John Bell Hood. They followed their generals in the advances
and in the long retreats. They fought for each piece of ground like
it was their home.
Manassas, Shiloh, Chancellorsville, Vicksburg, Chickamauga,
Cold Harbor, Atlanta, and Franklin. Never again would soldiers think
of these places as quiet towns or villages full of welcoming friends,
as green places where they had picnicked with sweethearts on the soft
banks of slow-moving streams. The tender grasses where they had sat
had now been cut to bits by heavy cannon wheels, trampled by desperate
feet when bayonet met bayonet and flattened where bodies threshed in
agonies… And the lazy streams and rivers were redder now than the
red clay could ever make them. Never names of places of any more.
Now they were the names of graves where friends lay buried, names where
McClellan, Grant, Hooker, Meade, and Sherman had tried to force their
armies in and Lee’s, Johnston’s, Pemberton’s, and Hood’s men
had doggedly beaten them back.
Each battlefield now sanctified
by the blood that was shed in its defense.
At night, exhausted
and hungry, the soldiers closed their eyes and dreamed of the red hills
of Georgia, the Blue Ridge Mountains covered with mist in the early
morning light, the bayous of the Mississippi River, the jungles of cypress
swamps and oaks covered with waving curtains of gray moss, fields of
golden wheat ripening in the summer sun, and the unending ocean of the
coastline.
The first book I read about the war was Gone With the Wind. In the opening chapter, Gerald O’Hara tells his daughter Scarlett
that land was the only thing in this world worth working for, worth
fighting for, worth dying for. But Gerald was not talking about red
clay fields filled with cotton.
Land meant much more than that to him.
It was the birthright that was passed from father to son and then from
father to son again. It was the place you courted your sweetheart, won
her hand, raised a family, and grew old together. It was the place where
you visited graves of mothers and fathers on quiet Sunday afternoons
and realized that the ties that bound you to the land were thrust deep
into the soil and that soil was well able to sustain generations. The
land was filled with familiar voices, scents, and sights. It was the
incarnation of all they were. It was as comforting as a mother’s warm
embrace, and its value was determined by the blood that was shed in
its defense.
For the men who stood
on the line beneath waving battle flags and marched to the drums’
long roll, their patriotism was rooted in love of country, love of home,
and love of the old ways that were gone forever.
For the Invader had
come. The Lincoln administration slipped loose the dogs of war upon
the rich farmland of the South and in their rage, they had swept away
a civilization.
Nothing remained but memories of old times that would
never be forgotten.
Any hope of true freedom
in this country ended on a warm spring morning, in a small country hamlet
in southern Virginia when Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern
Virginia and the Cause for which the soldiers had so long and manfully
struggled, for which they had braved dangers, endured privations and
sufferings, and had made so many sacrifices. Once they returned home,
they plowed their fields, loved their wives, and raised their children
under the Stainless Banner, that precious flag for which they had fought.
As the century turned
and the grave began to beckon these brave and gallant men, they had
one final task to accomplish. They, along with their wives and
widows of the fallen, built monuments to their generals, placed memorial
markers on battlefields to bear silent witness to their gallantry, and
raised up organizations -- the Sons of the Confederate Veterans, the
Military Order of the Stars and Bars, the Daughters of the Confederacy,
and the Order of the Confederate Rose -- and charged these organizations
with a solemn duty: to guard their history, to emulate their virtues,
to perpetuate the principles they loved, and to present the true history
of the South to future generations. I stand surrounded by men and women
who have kept that charge. It is an honor to stand with them, and I
thank them for allowing me to do so.
In great deeds, something
abides. On great fields something stays. Forms change and pass;
bodies disappear, but spirits linger, to consecrate the ground for the
vision-place of the soul. And reverent men and women from afar, and
generations that know us not and that we know not of should come here,
to ponder and to dream…that the power of the vision should pass into
their souls…
Let that vision take
root in your heart. For when tyranny threatened their freedom, the Confederate
soldier did not hesitate to defend the right.
When reminiscing about
the surrender, Robert E. Lee observed: “We failed, but in the good
providence of God apparent failure often proves a blessing.”
What a blessing these men have proven to be. What men they were!
The war, though war itself is the sum of all evil, revealed to us men
of stature, men of integrity, and men of Christian character.
How much poorer would we all be if Colonel Lee had remained unknown
in Texas, Major Jackson at VMI, Captain Stuart on the plains of Kansas,
Patrick Cleburne in his law office or Nathan Bedford Forrest on his
plantation in Mississippi.
But war did come and
these men, hidden from view, were suddenly revealed…and the fragrance
of their lives still lingers and inspires us today.
These men
I mentioned, these men on this great Stone Mountain, Lee, Davis, Jackson,
Stuart, Cleburne and Forrest were not the exception but the norm. The
Confederate soldiers held them out to history as the best of them…but
still a part of them, from them, holding the same values, fighting the
same battles, accepting their duty, knowing that they could not do more
and never wishing to do less.
The inheritance of gallantry and honor they
left us has not diminished in the last 150 years, even as that legacy
has come under attack by politicians, intellectuals, and academics who would dare tell
us who these men were and why they fought and gave their lives. We face
an insidious enemy who is in the process of turning Southern emblems
of courage and devotion into symbols of hatred and racism.
So now, it is our turn
to meet these new invaders on the verge of a just defense and say to
all those that would turn our heroes into villains that we will not
let you. We will fight to keep their honor. We will fight to keep their
history intact, and we will fight to keep their legacy out of your hands.
For the soldiers we
honor this morning, the price they paid to defend their land is beyond
measure, for what price can we put on a man’s life? All we can do
is stand in awe of their loyalty and devotion to the South, honor them
for their service and their sacrifice, grab the tattered battle flag
from their hands and continue the fight to preserve the truth of their
legacy.
God bless you! God bless
the honored dead who died for our freedom! And God continue to bless
these United States of America.
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