Via IOWAHAWK
Monday, June 20, 2011
We Must Set Aside Old Myths
Via Old Virginia Blog
"Setting myths aside
, a review of the Civil War era strongly suggests that economics, not a moral crusade, brought on the war and shaped its aftermath. More specifically, an examination of this period indicates that the evolution of the Northern and Southern economies was the most important factor producing the conflict . . . Now more than ever we must set aside old myths. Economics more than high moral concerns produced the Civil War."
~ Professor Marc Egnal
, a review of the Civil War era strongly suggests that economics, not a moral crusade, brought on the war and shaped its aftermath. More specifically, an examination of this period indicates that the evolution of the Northern and Southern economies was the most important factor producing the conflict . . . Now more than ever we must set aside old myths. Economics more than high moral concerns produced the Civil War."~ Professor Marc Egnal
The story of Confederate Color Sergeant George Dance
George Dance (back row, position 9 and extreme left flank of the line) Photo: Moore County Tennessee Genealogy (1914)
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Initially serving as a Color Bearer, George Dance, pictured in the 1914 picture above, was promoted to Color Sergeant of the 8th Tennessee Regiment in the Confederate States Army. Even in today’s terms, the appointment of Color Sergeant is a military honor. On the battlefield during the American Civil War, troops depended on the Color Guard as their 19th Century rendition of today’s Global Positioning System (GPS).
In the book, It Happened in the Civil War, Michael R. Bradley, an American author, states: “When the noise of battle made it impossible to hear orders, soldiers followed the flag. As men went down, the gaps were filled by closing in on the colors.” So why was George Dance, an African-American chosen to serve in the Color Guard?
Ron Paul Issues Statement on ATF Gun Scandal
Second amendment abuses by ATF are ongoing
LAKE JACKSON, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, 2012 GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul commented on the recent revelations about the federal government’s botched program to track gun sales. See statement below.
“The ATF has a long history of abusing our Second Amendment rights, so I was glad to see Congressman Issa demanding answers on the Project “Gunwalker”
"My hope is that the recent hearing will further expose the ATF's and Attorney General Eric Holder's assaults on law-abiding gun owners, and more people will start questioning the need for unconstitutional agencies like the ATF that exist solely to infringe on American citizens' God-given right to keep and bear arms.”
For more information on Congressman Ron Paul’s Presidential Campaign visit www.RonPaul2012.com.
Contacts
Ron Paul 2012
Gary Howard, 1-855-886-9779
GOA Action Alert
Gun Owners of America
Oppose the Cover-up Protection Act
-- Vote could come as early as Tuesday
As we reported to you on Friday, House Republicans got a royal “drop dead" from Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich when he testified before Rep. Darrell Issa’s committee last week.
Weich had earlier written Congress to deny wrongdoing by ATF in connection with allegations that it was intentionally allowing firearms to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. This Justice Department denial by Weich turned out to be false.
Weich had also refused to respond to repeated congressional demands for documents, and documents which he did provide were frequently nothing more than jet-black pieces of paper.
At the committee hearing, Weich told Chairman Darrell Issa and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that he would continue to withhold documents from Congress.
He also refused to answer questions from committee members such as Utah's Jason Chaffetz and South Carolina's Trey Gowdy.
And, incidentally, Weich refused to provide any information to Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley, on the sole excuse that Grassley was a mere “Republican." If Republicans wanted to exercise their constitutional oversight functions, intoned Weich, they would have to go begging to liberal anti-gun Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy.
So imagine our surprise that the Senate is poised to take up S. 679 -- “bipartisan" legislation which would exempt Weich, his successors, and 203 other similarly situated federal officials from Senate confirmation.
One would think it’s important that federal officials who are responsible for telling Congressmen what documents they can or can't review should be first approved with the “advice and consent" of the Senate.
But for Republican Senator Sue Collins, it’s apparently no big deal. After all, she is a sponsor of S. 679, the legislation to exempt hundreds of officials from Senate scrutiny.
Gun owners who have watched Weich cover up ATF's anti-gun policies -- policies which have intentionally flooded Mexican gun cartels with guns and resulted in the murder of federal law enforcement officers -- realize why it is important that the Senate should be able to block liars like Weich.
One strategy note: We do not expect to defeat the Cover-up Protection Act in the Senate where, sadly, Republican leader Mitch McConnell is a cosponsor. But if we do “respectably” well -- say, we get 20 votes or so against the bill -- it will give us the strength we need to ask that the bill be killed in the House.
The Senate could vote on this bill as soon as Tuesday.
Prison for senior administration officials /indictment against Obama?
Via Sipsey Street Irregulars
The most damning revelations coming out of the hearings on Operation Fast and Furious held by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform are the unmistakable indications that the program was never designed to succeed as a law enforcement operation at all.
A quartet of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) agents and supervisors turned into whistleblowers to bring the operation down, but only after U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was gunned down in the Arizona desert. Two of the weapons recovered at the scene of Terry’s murder were traced to the operation.
Fast and Furious, also known by the more accurate “Gunwalker,” allowed known straw purchasers to buy large quantities of firearms — often a dozen or more semi-automatic rifles — at a time with the full knowledge of ATF agents and executives. The guns were then smuggled into Mexico, as frustrated front-line ATF agents watched, under strict orders to do nothing.
ATF agents testifying in front of the House Oversight Committee could not explain how the operation was supposed to succeed when their surveillance efforts stopped at the border and interdiction was never an option.
ATF Agent John Dodson, testifying in front of the committee, said that in his entire law enforcement career, he had “never been involved in or even heard of an operation in which law enforcement officers let guns walk.” He continued: “I cannot begin to think of how the risk of letting guns fall into the hands of known criminals could possibly advance any legitimate law enforcement interest.”
The obvious answer is that Gunwalker’s objective was never intended to be a “legitimate law enforcement interest.” Instead, it appears that ATF Acting Director Ken Melson and Department of Justice senior executives specifically created an operation that was designed from the outset to arm Mexican narco-terrorists and increase violence substantially along both sides of the Southwest border.
Success was measured not by the number of criminals being incarcerated, but by the number of weapons transiting the border and the violence those weapons caused. An ATF manager was “delighted” when Gunwalker guns started showing up at drug busts. It would be entirely consistent with this theory if DOJ communications reflected the approval of the ATF senior officials they were colluding with — but as we know, Holder’s Department of Justice refuses to cooperate.
At the same time in 2009 that federal law enforcement agencies (the ATF, the DOJ, and presumably Janet Napolitano’s Department of Homeland Security) were creating the operation that led to the executive branch being the largest gun smuggler in the Southwest, the president’s team was crafting the rhetoric to sell the crisis they were creating.
Jefferson Davis Memorial, 1935, Irwinville
This monument, erected by the State of Georgia to memorialize the 10 May 1865 capture of Jefferson Davis by Wisconsin and Michigan cavalrymen, has been the scene of many Confederate Memorial Day celebrations and gatherings of reenactors and Civil War enthusiasts over the years. The Confederate Museum on site was a project of the WPA, but being a fierce opponent of FDR, Governor Eugene Talmadge made sure that the State of Georgia was given credit for the monument. Ironically, Eleanor Roosevelt made a $5 donation to the general fund. The property was deeded to the state by Judge Reuben Walton Clements, and while ownership has passed between the state and the county at different times,Judge Clements' wish that "no Yankee ever own this hallowed ground" has been maintained.
Via T
Bravery of Colorbearers at Gettysburg
One of the most incredible events of the battle occurred here, according to (General) John B. Gordon, who fought with the army throughout is entire existence. Pvt. William Faucette, colorbearer of the 13th North Carolina, had the colors in his right hand when he received a mortal blow that almost severed his arm, tearing it from its socket.
Without halting or hesitating, “He seized the falling flag with his left hand, and, with his blood spouting from the severed arteries and his right arm dangling in shreds at his side, he still rushed to the front, shouting to his comrades, “forward, forward!”
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The author quoted below states elsewhere that “the Confederate battle flag was always a target during combat; that when its bearer was shot another man picked it up, knowing that he would be in the sights of the same men who had shot his predecessor. At the Cornfield in Sharpsburg, the flag of the First Texas Regiment, when captured, had thirteen dead Texans lying around it.
Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
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Bravery of Colorbearers at Gettysburg:
“By 4PM the Federal forces had retreated to Seminary Ridge, where they formed a hastily constructed line with breastworks of rails and dirt on the slope fronting the west of the Ridge. The Confederate Brigades of Brig. Gen. James Lane, Brig. Gen A.M. Scales, and Colonel Abner Perrin, in Maj. Gen Dorsey Pender’s division of Hill’s corps, charged across an open field and then up the slope, encountering a storm of shot and shell from the batteries and the musketry of the infantry. In many cases the colors of the regiments were advanced several paces in front of the line. Despite taking severe casualties, they pressed on as ordered, without firing “until the line of [Northern] breastworks in front became a sheet of fire and smoke, sending its leaden missiles of death in the faces of men who had often, but never so terribly, met it before.”
One of the most incredible events of the battle occurred here, according to John B. Gordon, who fought with the army throughout is entire existence. Pvt. William Faucette, colorbearer of the 13th North Carolina, had the colors in his right hand when he received a mortal blow that almost severed his arm, tearing it from its socket.
Without halting or hesitating, “He seized the falling flag with his left hand, and, with his blood spouting from the severed arteries and his right arm dangling in shreds at his side, he still rushed to the front, shouting to his comrades, “forward, forward!”
A few minutes later Pvt. Levi Walker, the fifth colorbearer of the 13th to be hit during this charge, was shot in the left leg and knocked down. In the 12th South Carolina one colorbearer after another was shot dead until all four were down. Every one of the colorbearers that went into battle with Perrin’s brigade was killed, and several regiments had several men pick up the flag and then be wounded or killed.
The charge broke the Federal lines, and panic ensured. Federal troops fled off the entire line…and headed back to Gettysburg and the safety of Federal reinforcements on Cemetery Hill south of town. Perrin’s brigade followed the Federals into Gettysburg, with the 1st and 14th South Carolina in the lead. The Federals ran through the town of Gettysburg in a mad dash to escape capture. Chaos reigned in the streets, and men who had sought shelter and aid in the residences of citizens found themselves in danger of being taken prisoner.”
(The Damned Red Flags of the Rebellion, Richard Rollins, Rank and File Publications, 1997, pp. 106-108)
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Bravery of Colorbearers at Gettysburg
Hussein's Historic Firsts
Via The Feral Irishman
Yes, he's historic, alright.
• First President to Violate the War Powers Act
• First President to Orchestrate the Sale of Murder Weapons to Mexican Drug Cartels
• First President to be Held in Contempt of Court for Illegally Obstructing Oil Drilling in the Gulf of Mexico
• First President to Defy a Federal Judge's Court Order to Cease Implementing the 'Health Care Reform' Law
• First President to Require All Americans to Purchase a Product From a Third Party
• First President to Spend a Trillion Dollars on 'Shovel-Ready' Jobs -- and Later Admit There Was No Such Thing as Shovel-Ready Jobs
• First President to Abrogate Bankruptcy Law to Turn Over Control of Companies to His Union Supporters
• First President to Demand a Company Hand Over $20 Billion to One of His Political Appointees
• First President to Encourage Racial Discrimination and Intimidation at Polling Places
• First President to Arbitrarily Declare an Existing Law Unconstitutional and Refuse to Enforce It
• First President to Threaten Insurance Companies if they Publicly Speak out on the Reasons for their Rate Increases
• First President to Tell a Major Manufacturing Company In Which State They Are Allowed to Locate a Factory
• First President to Withdraw an Existing Coal Permit That Had Been Properly Issued Years Ago
• First President to Fire an Inspector General of Americorps for Catching One of His Friends in a Corruption Case
• First President to Propose an Executive Order Demanding Companies Disclose Their Political Contributions to Bid on Government Contracts
• First President to Golf 73 Separate Times in His First Two-and-a-Half Years in Office
But remember: he will not rest until all Americans have jobs, affordable homes, green-energy vehicles, and the environment is repaired, etc., etc., etc.
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