The U.S. Military's Anthrax Foul-Up Is An Embarrassing Wakeup Call

Via comment by Anonymous on US troops in South Korea exposed to live anthrax

 

The U.S. military recently shipped live anthrax spores to eighteen labs in nine states and South Korea, according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and the Pentagon. This is not an immediate health threat. But it is a huge embarrassment that illustrates grave flaws in the U.S.’s bioterrorism  preparedness safety system.

Anthrax specimens were inadvertently shipped from the Army’s Dugway Proving Ground, in Utah, to California, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin, and to South Korea.

“At least 18 labs in nine states received sample kits containing 23 marked specimens and 2 controls,” said CDC spokesman Jason McDonald. “One of the controls was labeled ‘antigen 1.’ It was, in fact, live anthrax spores. Notably, samples were reportedly sent by a commercial carrier to private and commercial labs involved in field-testing a diagnostic test, and were to be relayed to others. A private lab in Maryland expected an inactivated agent, but found they were able to grow live anthrax bacteria, prompting the initial report to the CDC. Here is what we can learn.

Background

More @ Forbes

Soft-peddling Socialsm During the War of Northern Aggression

Via Billy

Over the years I have picked up some historical fiction books about the War of Northern Aggression. Though not completely accurate historically they often do contain a large measure of truth if you know what to look for. Some do briefly hint at certain truths, but usually not enough to catch the attention of the average reader.

I am reading one now, which I have read previously, called The Last Full Measure by Jeff Shaara. It was a New York Times bestseller, which may explain why some of the history has been soft-peddled. If Mr. Shaara had told his readers more about some of what he hinted at it probably would not have gotten published by his publisher, Ballantine Books and it might have interfered with the New York Times picking it as a best seller.

I’ve read several of Mr. Shaara’s books and they are entertaining and readable and he does give you some accurate history, but he also leaves out some things that the regular history books leave out, and if he did research for the books he has written on the War of Northern Aggression I can’t believe he didn’t run across some of this.

More @ Revised History

NC: Buddy Melvin’s Treehouse: 17 years, 16 rooms, 12,000 square feet “for the fellas to hang out.”

 

 

In 1997, Willie "Buddy" Melvin wanted to build a treehouse on family land outside of Roseboro. "Only, I didn't want a little boy's treehouse." He was 42 years old. With recycled lumber he built a room that wrapped around the base of a water oak. His friends came by to admire it, so he added to it. "Tearing down old houses and tobacco barns, cleaning up the wood, hauling it back here." He expanded it every year "except '02."

By 2014, Buddy Melvin's Treehouse had 16 rooms covering about 12,000 square feet.

"Two bathrooms, four bars, two bedrooms, a dance floor, a kitchen. I had a four-hole putt-putt in here at one time." Inside the VIP Bar and Lounge on the second floor you'll see polished wood surfaces, sofas, TVs, twinkling lights, music, easy chairs, a mural, sculptures. From a balcony seat perch "like the Apollo," you look down onto a large dance floor that can accommodate a band or a DJ. You can wander up to the Pool Room to play a round, walls adorned with art and posters (many showing off Livingstone College, Willie's school). You can kick back on the open-air deck. "It's a place for the fellas to hangout.

More @ Carolina Country

11 Southern Pictures 1894 - 1969

Circa 1927. "Sweet Briar College, May Day exercises." In 2015 it's Mayday in more ways than one at the women's college near Lynchburg, set to close this summer due to a financial crisis. 

More @ NamSouth

11 Southern Pictures 1894 - 1969

THE STATE-BY-STATE GUIDE TO AMERICA’S MOST POPULAR TASTES

 

Every state in the U.S. has a unique flavor, from Chicken Cheesesteak to Chinese Chicken Salad. Foursquare analyzed the data to pinpoint which food or drink is most disproportionately popular in each destination, and worked with Mapbox to create the dynamic map. Click and zoom to see the tastes—and the best places to try them now.

More @ Map Box

The U.S. is on the edge of rebellion

Via Skynet

Dated

The United States is primed for a rebellion. So argues Chris Hedges in his new book, Wages of Rebellion, in which the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and polemicist examines revolts from 1700s to the ending of apartheid in South Africa, as well as the “sublime madness” that drives the people at the centre of such rebellions. Why is America next? He recently spoke with the National Post’s Ishmael Daro about what he sees as a pot about to boil over.

Q Is this book a warning or a prediction?

More @ National Post

Mysterious low-flying plane over Twin Cities raises questions of surveillance

Via avordvet

Flightradar24.com tracked a small airplane as it circled low for several hours Friday night and Saturday morning over Minneapolis, the Mall of America and outhdale.
 

Aviation buff John Zimmerman was at a weekly gathering of neighbors Friday night when he noticed something peculiar: a small plane circling a route overhead that didn’t make sense to him.

It was dark, so a sightseeing flight didn’t make sense, and when Zimmerman pulled up more information on an aviation phone app he routinely checks, he had immediate concerns.

The plane’s flight path, recorded by the website flightradar24.com, would eventually show that it circled downtown Minneapolis, the Mall of America and Southdale Center at low altitude for hours starting at 10:30 p.m., slipping off radar just after 3 a.m.

“I thought, ‘Holy crap,’ ” said Zimmerman.

Bearing the call sign N361DB, the plane is one of three Cessna 182T Skylanes registered to LCB Leasing of Bristow, Va., according to FAA records. The Virginia secretary of state has no record of an LCB Leasing. Virtually no other information could be learned about the company.

Zimmerman’s curiosity might have ended there if it weren’t for something he heard from his aviation network recently:

More with video @ Star Tribune

Police Snipers Spotted at Two Texas Harley Dealerships in Wake of Twin Peaks Shooting

Via David

 

Photos on the Facebook page of a group called Free All The Waco Bikers appears to show police snipers on an apartment building rooftop, across the street from a Harley-Davidson dealership that was a hosting a memorial service for one of the bikers shot and killed outside a Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco on May 17.

This is the second time in less than a week that snipers have been posted outside a Texas Harley Davidson dealership after the Waco incident.

The most recent sniper sighting occurred at the “fundraiser and celebration of life” for Jesse Rodriquez, a decorated Vietnam vet who was known to fellow bikers as “Mohawk,” and frequently did charity rides with his wife. The fundraiser was held at Geuene Harley Davidson in New Braunfels, south of Austin.

It’s unclear why snipers were in place. Many who knew Rodriguez—a father of 7 and grandfather of 19—have disputed that he was a criminal. According to the New Braunfels Heralnd-Zeitung:

More @ Breitbart

HUMAN CARNAGE committed in the name of Allah

Via LH

 

Warning!  Not a pretty sight.

The picture below is one of many appearing on Arabic social media about the Islamic State’s barbarism, where those deemed ‘infidels’ are treated as pieces of meat to be carved up for fun. Arabic writing behind the Muslim savage reads, “One umma, one state.”

More @ Bare Naked Islam

Motorcyclist files lawsuit over Waco biker brawl arrest

 

A 30-year old father and former firefighter who is also a member of a motorcycle club has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging he was illegally swept up in the police dragnet following this month's Twin Peaks biker shootout in Waco.

Matthew Clendennen of Hewitt is a member of the Scimitars Motorcycle Club and was at Twin Peaks on May 17. He was one of approximately 170 people arrested after the melee, which left nine dead, and was charged with engaging in organized crime.

Bail for each of those arrested was set at $1 million.

In his lawsuit, filed in federal court in Waco on Friday, Clendennen said he "did not encourage or solicit any criminal activity at Twin Peaks that day."

It states he was arrested "without probable cause and his motorcycle was illegally seized."

His lawsuit names the City of Waco and the McLennan County Sheriff's Office, as well as individual officers working the Twin Peaks case.

More @ WFAA

Islamists Promise ‘Kuffar Blood’ Will Spill at Phoenix ‘Draw Muhammad’ Contest

Via avordvet

 

Breitbart News previously reported that former Marine Jon Ritzheimer and fellow bikers will be holding a “Draw Muhammad” contest Friday night at 6 p.m. Islamists now warn participants not to bring their children with them if they love them, promising blood spill if Muhammad is drawn.

According to Gateway Pundit, “Islamists have promised to murder the attendees [at the contest] tonight in Phoenix.”

More @ Breitbart

Suppose

Via Carl

 Andrew and Silas Chandler

A few days before Memorial Day in 2002, a Sons of Confederate Veterans camp received an email from a lady who apparently had been receiving the camp’s newsletters. Her letter was courteous, expressing her puzzlement and dismay at the tone of the SCV’s material and voicing her hope that Southerners could set aside their resentments, be good sports and “live in peace in this great country.” Her post was eventually forwarded to Roger McCredie, who had not yet joined the staff of the SLRC, but was the SCV’s immediate past Chief of Heritage Defense, and McCredie answered on his own initiative. His answer is even more relevant now, over a decade later, as the runaway train of political correctness threatens to overrun Confederate history and heritage. Here is McCredie’s reply:

Dear Ms. Kinley-Ruth:

You appear to be a genuinely decent and thoughtful person, and your post is doubtless well intentioned. One of your remarks deserves to be addressed in some detail. You say, “I never know whether you folks are really talking like this because it keeps the fervor going for your re-enactments or because you are still so angry, after all these years.” Because you do seem to be an empathetic person, let me try a little role-reversal on you.

Suppose that you had been born and raised in a place whose history, culture, traditions, mindsets, and values set it as much apart from the rest of the “United States” as Switzerland is from France, or Ireland from England. Suppose you loved this place, its people and your own place in it very deeply; suppose, in fact, that you were so much a part of it that it was hard to tell where you stopped and it started.

Suppose this place you cherished had once found itself at odds with other members of the Union it had helped found; had attempted peaceably and in good faith to leave that Union, in accordance with the provisions of that Union’s very own constitution; and had instead been invaded and obliged to fight a horrific war against overwhelming odds, during which its cities were looted and destroyed, its countryside ravaged, and its civilian population robbed and brutalized. Suppose that having lost that war, your homeland was further crippled by a dozen years of corrupt and vindictive military occupation called, with supreme irony, “Reconstruction.”

Suppose that this place you love subsequently became the repository for all of America’s frustrations, the object of its ridicule and cynical exploitation, and the whipping boy for its national racial guilt trip. Suppose you had to listen to the daily litany of how your homeland was a dark and backward place populated by incestuous mongoloids. Suppose you were ridiculed for your accent, and for your unabashed love of God, place, and family.

Suppose you found your history turned inside out and your heroes vilified in order to appease the professionally offended. Suppose your children were expelled from school, ostracized and even beaten for displaying the symbol their great-great-grandfathers fought under. Suppose that some municipalities where your brave dead were buried, far from home, refused to allow their graves to be decorated, even for a few hours, with the flag they died for. And suppose that when, as an American, you objected to this very un-American treatment, you were told to sit down and shut up, or be branded a racist, a white supremacist, or even un-American yourself.

That’s a great deal of supposing, I know, but try to manage it, if only for a second. Now consider your original remark in light of it. Our experience as Americans has been painfully different from yours in some respects. On the day known as Memorial Day, this difference is particularly poignant for us, when our Confederate dead are systematically excluded from national mourning. We have – or try to have – our own Confederate Memorial Days, state by state, but often these are given no official sanction. And you ask if we are angry.

Suppose you were us.

~ Roger McCredie ~ Past Chief of Heritage Defense ~ Sons of Confederate Veterans ~

Was the Fourteenth Amendment Constitutionally Adopted? & “There is No Fourteenth Amendment”

 

During and after the Civil War, Southerners repeatedly declared that the cause for which they fought was the “sublime moral principle” of states’ rights. Given such protestations, and given the history of southern resistance to federal authority throughout the antebellum period, it is easy enough to associate states’ rights exclusively with the South—but it is also mistaken. Connecticut and Massachusetts endorsed interposition in 1808; the Hartford Convention of 1814 did the same. In 1840 Vermont made it a crime to aid in the capture of a runaway slave, despite the federal fugitive slave act. In 1846 the Massachusetts House of Representatives declared the Mexican War unconstitutional; a decade later Wisconsin asserted the supremacy of its supreme court over the United States Supreme Court.

Yet it was the seceding states that had carried the doctrine of states’ rights to the extreme, and northern Radical Republicans, in their zeal to punish, plunder, and reconstruct the South, were willing to undermine the doctrine as part of their undertaking.

More @ The Abbeville Institute

*************************************

 “There is No Fourteenth Amendment” 

The following was a September 27, 1957 editorial by US News Report editor David Lawrence. An activist Supreme Court had just used questionable sociological reasoning, not law, to call for the desegregation of schools in the United States. Lawrence reviewed the alleged constitutional basis for the Court’s decision, and the illegality of that basis.

Bernhard Thuersam, www.Circa1865.com

“There is No Fourteenth Amendment”

“A mistaken belief—that there is a valid article in the Constitution known as the “Fourteenth Amendment”– is responsible for the Supreme Court decision of 1954 and the ensuing controversy over desegregation in the public schools of America.

No such amendment was ever legally ratified by three-fourths of the States of the Union as required by the Constitution itself.

The so-called “Fourteenth Amendment” was dubiously proclaimed by the Secretary of State on July 20, 1868. The President shared that doubt. There were 37 States in the union at that time, so ratification by at least 28 was necessary to make the amendment an integral part of the Constitution. Actually, only 21 States legally ratified it. So it failed ratification.

The undisputed record, attested by official journals and the unanimous writings of historians, establishes these events as occurring in 1867 and 1868:

Outside the South, six States—New Jersey, Ohio, Kentucky, California, Delaware and Maryland—failed to ratify the proposed amendment.

In the South, ten States—Texas, Arkansas, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana—by formal action of their legislatures, rejected it under the normal processes of civil law.

A total of 16 legislatures out of 37 failed legally to ratify the “Fourteenth Amendment.”

Congress—which had deprived the Southern States of their seats in the Senate—did not lawfully pass the resolution of submission in the first instance.

The Southern States which had rejected the amendment were coerced by a federal statute passed in 1867 that took away the right to vote or hold office from all citizens who had served in the Confederate army. Military governors were appointed and instructed to prepare a roll of voters. All this happened in spite of the presidential proclamation of amnesty previously issued by the president. New legislatures were thereupon chosen and forced to “ratify” under penalty of continued exile from the union. In Louisiana, a General sent down from the north presided over the State legislature.

Abraham Lincoln had declared many times that the union was “inseparable” and “indivisible.” After his death and when the war was over, the ratification by the Southern States of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery had been accepted as legal. But Congress in the 1867 law imposed the specific conditions under which the Southern States would be “entitled to representation in Congress.”

Congress, in passing the 1867 law that declared the Southern States could not have their seats in either the Senate or House in the next session unless they ratified the “Fourteenth Amendment”, took an unprecedented step. No such right—to compel a State by an act of Congress to ratify a constitutional amendment—is to be found anywhere in the Constitution. Nor has this procedure ever been sanctioned by the Supreme Court of the United States.

President Andrew Johnson publicly denounced this law as unconstitutional. But it was passed over his veto.

Secretary of State Seward was on the spot in July 1868 when the various “ratifications” of a spurious nature were placed before him. The legislatures of Ohio and New Jersey had notified him that they rescinded their earlier action of ratification. He said in his official proclamation that he was not authorized as Secretary of State “to determine and decide doubtful questions as to the authenticity of the organization of State legislatures or as to the power of State legislatures to recall a previous act or resolution of ratification”.

He added that the amendment was valid “if the resolutions of the legislatures of Ohio and New Jersey, ratifying the aforesaid amendment, are to be deemed as remaining of full force and effect, notwithstanding the subsequent resolutions of the legislatures of these States.”

This was a very big “if.” It will be noted that the real issue therefore is not only whether the forced “ratification” by the ten Southern States was lawful, but whether the withdrawal by the legislatures of Ohio and New Jersey—two northern States—was legal.

The right of a State, by action of its legislature to change its mind at any time before the final proclamation of ratification is issued by the Secretary of State has been confirmed with other constitutional amendments.

The Oregon Legislature in October 1868 — three months after the Secretary’s proclamation was issued—passed a rescinding resolution , which argued that the “Fourteenth Amendment” had not been ratified by three-fourths of the States and that the “ratifications” in the Southern States “were usurpations, unconstitutional, revolutionary and void” and that “until such ratification is completed, any State has a right to withdraw its assent to any proposed amendment.”

What do the historians say about all this? The Encyclopedia Americana states:

“Reconstruction added humiliation to suffering . . . Eight years of crime, fraud and corruption followed and it was State legislatures composed of Negroes, carpetbaggers and scalawags who obeyed the orders of generals and ratified the amendment.”

W.E. Woodward, in his famous work “A New American History” published in 1936 says:

“To get a clear idea of the succession of events let us review [President Andrew] Johnson’s actions in respect to the ex-Confederate States.

In May 1865, he issued a Proclamation of Amnesty to former rebels. Then he established provisional governments in all the Southern States. They were instructed to call Constitutional Conventions. They did. New State governments were elected.

White men only had the suffrage (the Fifteenth Amendment establishing equal voting rights had not yet been passed). Senators and Representatives were chosen but when they appeared at the opening of Congress they were refused admission. The States governments however continued to function during 1866.

“Now we are in 1867. In the early days of that year Thaddeus Stevens brought in, as Chairman of the House Reconstruction Committee, a bill that proposed to sweep all the Southern State governments into the wastebasket. The South was to be put under military rule.

“The bill passed. It was vetoed by Johnson and passed again over his veto. In the Senate it was amended in such fashion that any State could escape from military rule by ratifying the Fourteenth Amendment and admitting black as well as white men to the polls.”

In challenging its constitutionality, President Johnson said in his veto message:

“I submit to Congress whether this measure is not in its whole character, scope and object without precedent and without authority, in palpable conflict with the plainest provisions of the Constitution, and utterly destructive of those great principles of liberty and humanity for which our ancestors, on both sides of the Atlantic, have shed so much blood and expended so much treasure.”

Many historians have applauded Johnson’s words. Samuel Eliot Morison and Henry Steele Commager, known today as “liberals”, wrote in their book “The Growth of the American Republic”:

“Johnson returned the bill with a scorching message arguing the unconstitutionality of the whole thing and most impartial students have agreed with his reasoning.”

James Truslow Adams, another noted historian writes in his “History of the United States”: “The Supreme Court had decided three months earlier in the Milligan case…that military courts were unconstitutional except under such war conditions as might make the operation of civil courts impossible, but the president pointed out in vain that practically the whole of the new legislation was unconstitutional….There was even talk in Congress of impeaching the Supreme Court for its decisions! The legislature had run amok and was threatening both the Executive and the Judiciary.”

Actually, President Johnson was impeached but the move failed by one vote in the Senate.

The Supreme Court in case after case, refused to pass on the illegal activities involved in the “ratification”. It said simply that they were acts of the “political departments of the government”. This of course was a convenient device of avoidance. The Court has adhered to that position ever since Reconstruction days.

Andrew C. McLaughlin, whose “Constitutional History of the United States” is a standard work, writes: “Can a State which is not a State and not recognized as such by Congress, perform the supreme duty of ratifying an amendment to the fundamental law? Or does a State — by congressional thinking — cease to be a State for some purposes but not for others?

This is the tragic history of the so-called “Fourteenth Amendment” — a record that is a disgrace to free government and a “government of law.” Isn’t the use of military force to override local government what we deplored in Hungary?

It is never too late to correct an injustice. The people of America should have an opportunity to pass on an amendment to the Constitution that sets forth the right of the federal Government to control education and regulate attendance at public schools either with federal power alone or concurrently with the States.

That’s the honest way, the just way to deal with the problem of segregation or integration in the schools. Until such an amendment is adopted, the “Fourteenth Amendment” should be considered null and void.

There is only one supreme tribunal — it is the people themselves. Their sovereign will is expressed through the procedures set forth in the Constitution itself.”

Cleveland/DOJ Agreement: A Framework for the nationalization of all local law enforcement

Via Jeffery

Following a an 18-month investigation by the Justice Department, who issued a scathing report accusing Cleveland police of a large pattern of excessive force and other abuses by police, the city of Cleveland and the DOJ have announced that a ‘settlement’ has been reached.

More @ Truth & Action

Judge Blasts Administration Lawyer In Congress' Separation Of Powers Lawsuit

Via Bill

Today was the first day in court for House of Representatives v. Burwell, et al., the often criticized lawsuit brought by the House against President Obama's overreached use of executive power in changing elements of the Obamacare bill without a congressional vote.

Specifically the actions being contested include authorizing Treasury payments to healthcare insurers without the funding being agreed by Congress and delaying implementation of the law's employer mandate, which required employers with more than 50 employees to provide healthcare coverage.

The Administration of course began by trying to have the judge toss the lawsuit. They argued  the House lacks standing to sue, citing a section of U.S. law that means the House would have to prove it has been directly harmed.

U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer (a Bush #41 appointee) seemed unhappy when she grilled the Justice Department lawyer Joel McElvain who was representing the Administration:

More @ The Lid

DOD Inspector General: Obama’s DOD Employees Charged Casino Transactions Totaling $3.4 Billion On Federal Credit Cards.

Via comment by Anonymous on From dream to nightmare as Obama’s immigration sch...

 

In the latest of many flagrant examples of how tax dollars are wasted, government-issued credit cards were used by Department of Defense (DOD) employees to make more than $4 million in personal charges, including at casinos and strip clubs.

During a one-year period the agency charged 20 million transactions for $3.4 billion on government credit cards, according to a DOD Inspector General report issued this month.

About $3.2 million of it was spent at casinos and nearly $1 million on personal expenses, including about $100,000 at strip clubs by 646 card holders. The casino charges were made through 4,437 transactions by 2,636 charge card holders, according to the report which breaks down expenditures by military branch.

More @ Political Vel Craft