@ Amazon
Monday, October 14, 2013
Georgetown erects Vietnam memorial amid shutdown
Via LH
The Georgetown University Student Veterans Association, in partnership with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation (VVMF), has erected a replica of the authentic Vietnam memorial on Georgetown’s main campus.
The two organizations created the exhibit, called The Wall That Heals, in response to the ongoing government shutdown that has closed the actual Vietnam Veterans Memorial to visitors and veterans.
The Wall That Heals is an aluminum replica that contains the nearly 60,000 names of those who died in the war as well as 23 Hoya alumni.
“It is fantastic to see Georgetown and the VVMF work together to overcome petty politics that would otherwise prevent visitors to D.C. from experiencing this Memorial,” said Peter Frantz, a Georgetown University alumnus from the Class of 2002 and a current biotechnology industry executive.
The Georgetown University Student Veterans Association, in partnership with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation (VVMF), has erected a replica of the authentic Vietnam memorial on Georgetown’s main campus.
The two organizations created the exhibit, called The Wall That Heals, in response to the ongoing government shutdown that has closed the actual Vietnam Veterans Memorial to visitors and veterans.
The Wall That Heals is an aluminum replica that contains the nearly 60,000 names of those who died in the war as well as 23 Hoya alumni.
“It is fantastic to see Georgetown and the VVMF work together to overcome petty politics that would otherwise prevent visitors to D.C. from experiencing this Memorial,” said Peter Frantz, a Georgetown University alumnus from the Class of 2002 and a current biotechnology industry executive.
More @ The Washington Times
Off-duty deputy handcuffed, assaulted female soldier he was fighting with at bar
Via LH
An off-duty Richland County sheriff's deputy is in hot water after allegedly assaulting a woman, handcuffing her and slamming her head into a table at a Columbia restaurant on Monday
Columbia police arrested 49-year-old Deputy Paul Allen Derrick at Buffalo Wild Wings on Devine Street and charged him with assault.
The incident happened just after 11 p.m.
According to a Columbia Police Department incident report, Derrick approached a female soldier from Fort Jackson who appeared to be upset. The report states the 23-year-old showed no interest in Derrick and the two started arguing.
Police say Derrick, who was not in uniform and was drinking alcohol, left the restaurant and returned with handcuffs he retrieved from his vehicle.
Several people in the business recorded the incident on their cell phones as Derrick, according to the report, tried to handcuff the female soldier. Derrick overpowered the woman, handcuffed her, pulled her to her feet, and slammed her head into a metal table, the report states.
A police officer who reviewed cell phone video of the incident reports hearing Derrick say, "This is how Marines deal with soldiers," while slamming the woman into the table.
An off-duty Richland County sheriff's deputy is in hot water after allegedly assaulting a woman, handcuffing her and slamming her head into a table at a Columbia restaurant on Monday
Columbia police arrested 49-year-old Deputy Paul Allen Derrick at Buffalo Wild Wings on Devine Street and charged him with assault.
The incident happened just after 11 p.m.
According to a Columbia Police Department incident report, Derrick approached a female soldier from Fort Jackson who appeared to be upset. The report states the 23-year-old showed no interest in Derrick and the two started arguing.
Police say Derrick, who was not in uniform and was drinking alcohol, left the restaurant and returned with handcuffs he retrieved from his vehicle.
Several people in the business recorded the incident on their cell phones as Derrick, according to the report, tried to handcuff the female soldier. Derrick overpowered the woman, handcuffed her, pulled her to her feet, and slammed her head into a metal table, the report states.
A police officer who reviewed cell phone video of the incident reports hearing Derrick say, "This is how Marines deal with soldiers," while slamming the woman into the table.
More with video @ WISTV
Trainwreck: Obamacare Officials Now Resorting to Paper Applications As New Flaws Emerge
Dilemma: There's so much fresh, terrible news about Obamacare to report that I'm not sure how to squeeze it all into a single post without it getting too unwieldy. Solution: Serve up one post about the implementation trainwreck here, followed by a piece on premium shock, layoffs, and other failures tomorrow morning. Sound good? Okay, let's go. Up first, the law's administrators are resorting to an anachronism, paper applications, in a desperate attempt to enroll consumers. Obamacare's exchanges were breathlessly billed as -- ahem, "simple and user-friendly" -- Travelocity-style websites for healthcare. Amid the endless shinola-storm of glitches and technical meltdowns, here we stand:
More @ Townhall
Study: Americans in All 50 States More Conservative Since 1964
According to Cornell political scientist Peter Enns, conservatives are beginning to break through across the country. Based on “measures of policy mood for eac state from the 1950s to 2010,” Enns and his colleague Julianna Koch found that there has been a conservative opinion shift in every single state across the country. Most of the increases were “statistically significant”; the same held true for regions.
Between 1964 and 2010, America shifted heavily when asked whether every person should be provided a job by the government, or whether government should allow everyone to get ahead individually. Asked whether Washington was becoming too powerful, the country has again shifted dramatically.
More @ Breitbart
Fingerprinting Burner Phones
Via Terry
In one of the documents recently released by the NSA as a result of an EFF lawsuit, there's discussion of a specific capability of a call records database to identify disposable "burner" phones.
Let’s consider, then, the very specific data this query tool was designed to return: The times and dates of the first and last call events, but apparently not the times and dates of calls between those endpoints. In other words, this tool is supporting analytic software that only cares when a phone went online, and when it stopped being used. It also gets the total number of calls, and the ratio of unique contacts to calls, but not the specific numbers contacted. Why, exactly, would this limited set of information be useful? And why, in particular, might you want to compare that information across a large number of phones there’s not yet any particular reason to suspect?
In one of the documents recently released by the NSA as a result of an EFF lawsuit, there's discussion of a specific capability of a call records database to identify disposable "burner" phones.
Let’s consider, then, the very specific data this query tool was designed to return: The times and dates of the first and last call events, but apparently not the times and dates of calls between those endpoints. In other words, this tool is supporting analytic software that only cares when a phone went online, and when it stopped being used. It also gets the total number of calls, and the ratio of unique contacts to calls, but not the specific numbers contacted. Why, exactly, would this limited set of information be useful? And why, in particular, might you want to compare that information across a large number of phones there’s not yet any particular reason to suspect?
More @ Schneiner
Exclusive: US Army Defines Christian Ministry as 'Domestic Hate Group'
Via WiscoDave
Several dozen U.S. Army active duty and reserve troops were told last week that the American Family Association, a well-respected Christian ministry, should be classified as a domestic hate group because the group advocates for traditional family values.
A soldier who attended the briefing contacted me and sent me a photograph of a slide show presentation that listed AFA as a domestic hate group. Under the AFA headline is a photograph of Westboro Baptist Church preacher Fred Phelps holding a sign reading “No special law for f***.”
More @ Fox
Neighbor shoots, kills burglar
A man was shot to death on the South Side early Sunday but police so far are saying the shooting was justified. Police believe the man was trying to break into a home or car, around 3 a.m. Sunday in the 100 block of Beatrice. Two neighbors came out with guns and one of them fired 10 to 15 shots, police said. The alleged burglar died at the scene. His name has not been released.
More @ News 4
Is Obama Creating a Martial-law-ready Military?
Via Mt Top Patriot and WiscoDave
What kind of leader wants a military more loyal to himself than to the rule of law?
And why?
These are two questions to ponder when considering the strange happenings in the armed forces since Barack Obama took office.
Let's start with a hypothetical. Let's say you were a hard-left-wing commander in chief who wanted the military firmly in your corner. You'd certainly note that our armed forces have been a bastion of conservatism and Christian faith, and you'd know that its members generally weren't very fond of you. So how would you go about changing this?
What kind of leader wants a military more loyal to himself than to the rule of law?
And why?
These are two questions to ponder when considering the strange happenings in the armed forces since Barack Obama took office.
Let's start with a hypothetical. Let's say you were a hard-left-wing commander in chief who wanted the military firmly in your corner. You'd certainly note that our armed forces have been a bastion of conservatism and Christian faith, and you'd know that its members generally weren't very fond of you. So how would you go about changing this?
More @ American Thinker
Looking Back One Week Ago – October 22th, 2013
This is just a fictional scenario for the possible consequences
that the people of the United States are facing in the coming week.
Today is the first day in my brave new world. The events of the past week have been surreal to me:
each passing hour seemed to have another announcement detailing the collapse of the United States.
But today, I have no choice but to accept these events and prepare accordingly. Today, reality sank in as I read the following chronology of “highlights” that started on November 16th, 2013 on Reuters.com:
October 16, 2013
Today is the first day in my brave new world. The events of the past week have been surreal to me:
each passing hour seemed to have another announcement detailing the collapse of the United States.
But today, I have no choice but to accept these events and prepare accordingly. Today, reality sank in as I read the following chronology of “highlights” that started on November 16th, 2013 on Reuters.com:
October 16, 2013
More @ NC Renegade
NC's Civilian Wartime experience (1861-1865) in the words of those who lived it.
Via Teresa Sue
July 1, 1863 the Confederacy's youngest Colonel, 21 year old Henry King Burgwyn Jr., commander of the 26th North Carolina, raised his sword as the troops pressed forward to drive the Northerners out of Gettysburg's Herr Ridge.
Too cold for my little ones to be barefooted, if I could help it. The negroes have no shoes yet.
Made another shirt today & attended to the pots
some, they get on slowly making molasses. Atheline & Matt spooling
today. Very cool & frosty mornings. Too cold for my little ones to
be barefooted, if I could help it. The negroes have no shoes yet.
Source: Diary of Cornelia Henry in Fear in North Carolina: The Civil War Journal and Letters of the Henry Family. Clinard, Karen L. and Russell, Richard, eds. (Asheville, NC: Reminiscing Books, 2008).
North Carolina Pastor kills in self defense
David Cantara (Patriot Rovers), and Tom Meese (PGR)
Sheriff’s deputies received a report shortly before 11 a.m. of someone communicating threats at a home at 11378 N.C. Highway 210 North. Six minutes later, they received another call in which emergency dispatchers learned that the caller had shot Griggs.
The shooter, investigators said, lives at the house and was present when deputies arrived. Investigators did not release his identity, but members of the Abundant Life Worship Center said the shooter was their pastor, Pat Chisenhall, who founded the church 25 years ago.
More @ Bearing Arms
CNN Mocks Million Vet March as Tea Party Crazies
CNN.com covered Sunday’s “Million Vet March” in Washington D.C. against the Obama administration’s closure of military memorials by castigating the marchers as Tea Party kooks and fringe crazies. “At tea party-like rally, Obama told to ‘put the Quran down,’” the headline read. CNN derided the size of the crowd:
The rally, billed as the "Million Vet
March on the Memorials," drew far fewer than a million people and
evolved into a protest that resembled familiar tea party events from
2009, with yellow "Don't Tread On Me" flags throughout the crowd and
strong anti-Obama language from the podium and the audience. One speaker
went as far as saying the president was a Muslim and separately urged
the crowd of hundreds to initiate a peaceful uprising.
More @ Breitbart
Forest Fire Wars: Growing Terrorist Threat
Mike Scruggs
According to William Scott, former editor of Aviation Week and former National Security Agency officer, when U.S. Navy Seals killed Osama bin Laden in his hideout in Pakistan, they found of treasure trove of detailed al-Qaeda plans for arson against U.S. and European forest and grass lands targets. Scott, now a fellow with the American Center for Democracy (ACD), said that both U.S. and Russian Federation counterterrorism officials have linked recent forest fires in Russia, California, and possibly Colorado with al-Qaeda arsonists. The ACD, headed by former U.S.CIA Director Ambassador James Woolsey, specializes in identifying economic warfare threats against the United States, including cyber-warfare, arson, and other atypical terrorism and warfare methods. They also maintain expertise in Middle Eastern affairs, political corruption, and foreign elections.
In the summer of 2012, Colorado officials found that 25 forest fires broke out in two counties within a 24-hour period. These have been attributed to deliberate arson.
They occurred not far from and just before the devastating Waldo Canyon fire lasting from June 23 through July 10. The Waldo Canyon fire was centered just 4 miles northwest of Colorado Springs and destroyed over 18,000 acres of forest land and 346 homes, killing two people The cause of this fire was not lightning. The cause has not yet been released to the public. In addition, 32,000 people had to be evacuated. The damage to homes is estimated to have been over $100 million. Fire-fighting expenses alone were over $15 million. The economic losses to businesses amounted to millions more. Total insurance claims were $454 million.
The Waldo Canyon fire was out of control within minutes as 55 to 65 miles per hour winds jumped the flames over several firebreaks. Witnesses described it as a huge tornado of fire with intensely hot winds. Whole neighborhoods of housing were quickly engulfed. It is utterly amazing that there were so few deaths. This certainly commends the work of fire, police, and other emergency personnel that fought the firestorm and safely evacuated thousands of families from its path. Their heroic effort prevented the economic disaster from becoming a fiery human holocaust
During several weeks of the summer of 2012, there were 52 major forest fires destroying valuable timberland and property and threatening human life across the United States, all at the same time.
Was it all just the weather? Hot and dry weather conditions and acreage filled with dead trees make our forests vulnerable to naturally caused forest fires. These conditions also make them prime targets for arson. We now know that some of the forest fires of 2012 and 2013 were caused by foreign agents. But how many, and how can they be prevented in the future?
Until June 2013, the Waldo Canyon fire was by far the worst forest fire in Colorado history. But beginning on June 11, a forest fire near Black Forest, Colorado, also only a few miles north of Colorado Springs, destroyed 511 homes and took three lives. The fires were finally contained on June 20. Approximately 15,000 acres were destroyed, and damage to homes was estimated at $90 million. The full extent of insurance claims is still unknown at this time. The cost of deploying over 450 firefighters ran over $10 million, not counting the involvement of the Colorado National Guard and U.S. Air Force units.
Several recent internal publications of al-Qaeda give instructions for building and setting off multiple “ember” bombs by remote control. Fire warfare against our timberlands, grasslands, and nearby populated areas is praised as an inexpensive, low-risk method of jihad with high potential of massive destruction and economic paralysis.
The people of Colorado, their firefighters, National Guard units, and other civilian emergency agencies deserve high credit for containing these fires with little loss of life.
But will the Federal Government of the United States open its eyes to the fact that forest fires can no longer be treated as a land management problem alone? We have a serious national security problem that is being covered up and largely ignored. We are also not fully prepared to fight these fire warfare attacks. Scott believes the USAF and Air Guard units need to be equipped with large tanker aircraft for fighting uncontrolled fires.
Our frontline failure to protect our forests, economy, homes, and people lies with our shameful lack of immigration enforcement both at the borders and internally within the United States. Internal enforcement is in a near total state of neglect.
Immigration laws are primarily to protect the American people from foreign threats. This includes not only national security and public safety concerns, but also economic threats. Immigration policy is crucial to protecting American workers and taxpayers from unjust loss of jobs and pay and unfair tax burdens.
Our present immigration policies are based on politics and big money from cheap labor. American workers, taxpayers, and national security are taking a back seat to special political and economic interests. We need to wake up to our folly, or we will find that our country and our families live in constant fear of terrorist attacks as well as growing economic misery caused by both terrorist threats and immigration policies that place American workers, families, taxpayers, and values a distant second to political and commercial special interests.