McConnell Won’t Rule Out Government Shutdown

 

 Newsmax

VERBATIM

Government spending is the No. 1 problem in America, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he won’t rule out a government shutdown if President Barack Obama refuses to address the country’s growing fiscal woes.

“We now have a debt the size of our economy, which makes us look a lot like Greece,” McConnell said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “It’s a shame that the president doesn’t embrace the effort to reduce spending.”

When host David Gregory asked McConnell about the debt ceiling, and whether Republicans would consider a government shutdown to force the issue of spending cuts, the leader did not rule out the possibility.

“None of us like using these situations, like the sequestration or the debt ceiling or the operation of government, to try to engage the president to deal with this,” McConnell said. “If we’re not going to deal with it now, when are we going to deal with it? We’ve watched the government explode over the last four years.

“Now, the question is, will the president lead?” McConnell continued. “Why should we have to be bringing him to the table? Why isn’t he leading us in the direction of beginning to solve our long-term debt and deficit problem? It’s perplexing to me that the president of the United States, elected to lead the country, is so reluctant to engage on the most important issue confronting our future.”

McConnell said the Democratic Senate and Republican House have no choice but to work toward reducing America’s “massive, massive debt.”

“I wouldn’t have chosen this government,” he said. “I voted for Mitt Romney. If Mitt Romney had been elected, nobody’s taxes would have gone up, but this is the government we have, and can we make some progress for the country over the next two years? I’m hopeful we can.”

The answer is not tax increases, McConnell added.

“We don’t have this problem because we tax too little,” he explained. “We have it because we spend way, way too much.”

 © 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Ron Paul

Via Daughter Dixie

This is encouraging:  Most Popular Age Group, 25-34 years old.

I hate it when I wake up in the morning and Ron Paul is NOT President

 

Feinstein caught in a lie

Via The Lonely Libertarian

Major General William Mahone's Presentation Sword

Roundabout via Timothy

Received from the grateful citizenry of Petersburg, Virginia for saving their city during the six-month siege. 

 

 Collectibles

Held in Gettysburg, PA in conjunction with the Gettysburg Civil War Show, June 2007, the auction gallery sold 744 lots for a grand total of $6.5 million dollars.

The presentation sword of Major General William Mahone sold for $388,375. 

Source: Heritage Auction Galleries

John Newland Maffitt

290 Foundation

 VERBATIM

John Newland Maffitt John Newland Maffitt was born at sea on February 22, 1819, onboard a ship bound for New York City, his parents having emigrated from Ireland. The Reverend John Newland Maffitt and his wife Ann Carnicke, settled with their infant son in Connecticut but when John was about five years old he was adopted by his uncle, Dr. William Maffitt and moved to Fayetteville, North Carolina. John Maffitt entered the United Sates Navy as a midshipman in February 1832, aged thirteen. He first served aboard the 'USS St. Louis' in the West Indies and was later assigned to the Pensacola Navy Yard. In 1835 he joined the 'USS Constitution' serving as an aide to Commodore Elliott in the Mediterranean. His service aboard Constitution would later become the basis for a novel, Nautilus; or, Cruising under Canvas, published in 1871. He also served on the frigate, 'USS Macedonia' (Photo), becoming its acting Master in 1841. Maffitt was ordered to the United States Coast Survey in 1842 and promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in 1843. He spent more than fourteen years in the hydrographic survey and a channel in Charleston Harbor still bears his name. Also, he was first to chart the Cape Fear River up to Wilmington, N.C. for the Coastal Survey, known as NOAA today. In 1857, John was placed in command of the 'USS Dolphin' and tasked to capture any pirates and slavers in the West Indies. On August 21, 1858, ‘Dolphin’ captured the slaver ‘Echo’ with three hundred and eighteen Africans on board and sent her into Charleston. These liberated slaves were later sent back to Africa. Two years later, Maffitt became commander of the 'USS Crusader', continuing with his assignment to suppress slavers in the West Indies until February 7, 1861. In May 1861, with the coming of the Civil War, John Maffitt resigned his U.S. Navy commission and became a First Lieutenant in the Confederate Navy. He served as naval aide to General Robert E. Lee while preparations for the defense of Savannah were in progress. In early 1862, Maffitt was ordered to take the civilian steamer 'Cecile' and run the blockade with supplies for the Confederacy. On August 17, 1862 John Maffitt became the first commanding officer of the 'CSS Florida', taking her through a difficult fitting-out period during which most of the ship's company was stricken with yellow fever. While docked in Cuba, Commander John Maffitt himself contracted the disease. Despite his condition, he was determined to sail the ‘Florida’ from Cardenas, Cuba to Mobile, Alabama. Finding the way into Mobile Bay blocked by Union warships, ‘Florida’ braved a hail of fire from the blockaders and raced through to anchor beneath the guns of Fort Morgan. The bombardment from the blockaders was severe and caused considerable damage to his ship. Maffitt was unable to return to sea for more than three months and to further prevent his escape, the Union Navy increased the blockading force near Mobile. Having taken stores and gun accessories the ship lacked, along with added crew members, John Maffitt waited for a violent storm to give cover, before setting out on January 16, 1863. Skillfully, he managed to lose six pursuing blockaders. After coaling at Nassau, the ‘CSS Florida’ (photo) spent six months off the north and south American coast and in the West Indies, making only necessary calls at neutral ports. All this while she was raiding merchantmen and eluding the large Federal squadron pursuing her. It was during this period that John acquired the nickname ‘Prince of Privateers’ (a somewhat inaccurate appelation, since he was a serving naval officer). Maffitt was promoted to Captain in May 31, 1864 ‘for gallant and meritorious conduct in command of the steam sloop Florida.’ Ill health and the lingering effects of yellow fever forced him to relinquish command of the Florida at Brest in France on February 12, 1864. Leaving CSS Florida at Brest, Maffitt travelled to Scandinavia to rest before returning to Liverpool in order to board a vessel that would help him return to the Confederacy. Not yet over his illness and suffering heart problems as a side effect of the yellow fever, Confederate Agent, James D. Bulloch advised him to spend some time recuperating at the Royal Hotel in Waterloo, close to the home of Bulloch. In the summer of 1864, recovered and returning to the Confederate States, Maffitt was given command of the ironclad ram, 'CSS Albemarle'. Under his captaincy, the ‘Albemarle’ dominated the Roanoke River along with the approaches to Plymouth, North Carolina throughout that summer. In September, he overtook command of the blockade runner, 'CSS Owl' and on October 3rd 1864, escaped to sea from Wilmington arriving in Bermuda on October 24th with a large and valuable cargo of cotton. Maffit made several more successful runs through the Union blockade in the ‘Owl’ before the war ended. By coincidence, Maffitt's son Eugene, was a midshipman on the Confederate States cruiser 'Alabama' serving under Raphael Semmes at the time she was sunk by the 'USS Kearsarge'. He, Semmes and many other crew of the 'Alabama' were picked up by the British yacht Deerhound.   During his service to the Confederacy, Maffitt repeatedly ran the blockade to carry needed supplies and captured and destroyed more than seventy prizes worth $10 to $15 million. At the end of the war, Maffitt refused to surrender his ship to the United States. Instead he returned the 'CSS Owl' to agents in Liverpool in England and chose to remain there, passing the British naval examination before served for almost two years in command of the British merchantman ‘Widgeon’ running between Liverpool and South America. He returned to the United States in 1868 and settled on a farm near Wilmington N.C. In 1870 however, John Maffitt returned to the sea and commanded a warship for Cuban evolutionaries during the Ten Years' War.   John Newland Maffitt died in Wilmington on May 15, 1886, leaving an unfinished manuscript about piracy in the West Indies. His collected papers are kept in the library of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C.

Rand Paul: I'm thinking about a presidential bid

 

Sen. Rand Paul, heir to his father Rep. Ron Paul's political establishment and following, said Friday that he is thinking about running for president, declaring that only a "libertarian-Republican" can unite the GOP.

Speaking on "The Andrea Tantaros Show with Jason Mattera," which debuted this week, the Kentucky Republican said that while he hasn't ruled a presidential run in 2016 in or out, the GOP is going to have to turn to somebody like him to win enough voters to beat a Democrat.

"We are going to have to have somebody a little bit different than we've had in the past," he told Tantaros on the show that replaced the Laura Ingraham Show on the Talk Radio Network. "Someone who can appeal to people in New England and on the West Coast. Someone who has a little more of a libertarian-Republican approach, I think, would have a better chance with independents and moderates.

"And so we'll think about it."

More @ The Examiner

Guns are not the Problem -- Democrats are the Problem

Via Tino

People across the United States of America are seeking solutions to gun violence.  Rational people arm themselves, pay taxes for quality police protection, and pay for prisons to isolate dangerous criminals from free society.  Arizona counties find armed citizen posses and armed private citizens to be logical approaches for the protection of society from madmen and criminals.

Mass murderers are a relatively rare occurrence, occurring at most every month or so.  Armed citizens and no gun free zones without armed protection offer the best protection against madmen, since police cannot be everywhere and may take a long time to arrive when called.

The real shooting problems are in Democratically controlled cities that the Democrats have allowed to become infested with criminals and gangs.  Democratic politics and corruption have made living in Democratically controlled cities more dangerous than living in Third World Banana Republics.

Democrats keep guns out of the hands of honest citizens in dangerous cities such as Washington, DC, and Chicago.  Democrats use every mass shooting to push for even more disarmament.  Democrats fight to keep violent insane criminals on the street and viscous criminals out of jail.

Disarming citizens increases murders.  Chicago had 513 homicides in 2012, up from 448 in 2011. 

More than 60 children were murdered in Chicago during 2012, as honest people are defenseless against armed criminals.

Daniel Greenfield categorizes the dangers of Democratically controlled areas very well.  Following are excerpts from his excellent column,

Chicago’s murder numbers have hit that magic 500. Baltimore’s murder toll has passed 200. In Philly, it’s up to 324, the highest since 2007. In Detroit, it’s approaching 400, another record. In New Orleans, it’s almost at 200. New York City is down to 414 from 508. In Los Angeles, it’s over 500. In St. Louis it’s 113 and 130 in Oakland.  It’s 121 in Memphis and 76 in Birmingham.

Washington, D.C., home of the boys and girls who can solve it all, is nearing its own big 100.
Those 12 cities alone account for nearly 3,200 dead and nearly a quarter of all murders in the United States. And we haven’t even visited sunny Atlanta or chilly Cleveland.

More @ Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

If US citizens don't need guns, neither does law enforcement

Via Tino

 

Amarillio  Globe-News

VERBATIM

My family and I grieve for the parents of the children slain during an attack by a mentally challenged person, including an attack on his mother. The parents deserve all the community support they are receiving. We pray for the healing of the parents, and for knowing all the slain children are in heaven.
That being said, we as a free nation must avoid knee-jerk reactions to this tragedy. Democrats throughout history are always the first to jump to badly misguided conclusions about what is good for their subjects.

In this case, the president, Diane Feinstein, Mayor (Michael) Bloomberg (of New York) and the rest of the Democratic Party are the first to call for gun control. They parrot the idea that if they can take away our rights we will be “safer.”

Unfortunately, the number of European theater combat troops are almost gone — which would serve to remind us of the errors of gun control. They witnessed firsthand the atrocities that occur when only the government and police have firearms.

Politicians like President Barack Obama, Feinstein and Bloomberg want us to trade our freedom for security.

I believe it was Thomas Jefferson who said, paraphrasing: If we trade our rights for security, we have neither.

Politicians, especially Obama, understand that if they can take away that one freedom, then the rest of the rights we have as citizens of the United States of America can be quickly eliminated — especially, since Michelle Obama recently stated that Obama wasn’t through changing America, and not one person in the media questions her motive for making that statement.

It is imperative that each citizen ensures their employees (our representatives to local, state and federal governments) know they are not to fall for knee-jerk reactions promoted by Democrats. We must do this while we still have this right. Our employees need to understand that if our right to own firearms is eliminated, then these same rights must be removed from all law enforcement agencies (local, county, state and federal).

The reason is intuitively obvious — if citizens are not armed, there is not one valid reason for law enforcement to be armed.


Floyd Galegar
Amarillo

Gun control has a clear record of failure

Via Tino

In the wake of the horrific murders at the Sandy Hook school in Connecticut, America has been deluged with calls for ever-more-restrictive gun-control laws, and that's understandable. It's natural to think that's the solution if you don't know these measures have been tried and have always failed.
We crave a solution so much that we'll ignore the record and keep repeating failed policies.

We are told that we need gun-control laws. Sounds good, right? Should we make it illegal for anyone adjudicated to be mentally ill to buy a gun? Let's make it illegal for felons to possess guns. Let's license gun dealers and require the FBI to do a background check on anyone buying a gun from these stores. How about an age restriction on buying guns? Gun shows should have to follow the same laws as everyone else.

All those already are law, and there are some 20,000 additional gun-control laws in the U.S. Before one can rationally call for passage of gun laws, he or she must know what already is covered.

How about a ban on “assault weapons”? We're told this is only common sense. But, what is this thing called an assault weapon? It's not a machine gun. There were no machine guns covered in the original assault-weapon ban because those firearms already are tightly restricted. No, the autoloading (called semiautomatic) rifles included in the original law simply looked like military guns. They should be banned on the basis of how they look? They fire only one shot with each pull of the trigger, like a revolver or the cowboy-style lever-action rifle used by John Wayne.

More @ The Columbus Dispatch

Target root causes of violence, not guns

Via Tino

 

Island Packet

VERBATIM

The smartest people solve problems by addressing the root issue that causes a problem. With this approach, the problem has a permanent solution.

Others prefer to address problems by alleviating some condition of the problem, thereby reducing the occurrence of the problem and possibly the magnitude of the problem.

The latter approach is much simpler but the real problem still lingers.

For example, a person in pain goes to his doctor. The doctor tells the patient he has two choices. He can have an operation, which will permanently address the problem, or he can start taking painkillers to alleviate the pain. The painkiller route is cheaper, less risky and much simpler, but it's not going to address the problem.

This example translates directly to the gun control issue. Some people want to use gun control to alleviate the real problems in society. The cause of the recent incident was mental illness and violent video games. It appears that we will not address those issues but instead we will focus on the painkiller approach, being the control of the gun, bomb, knife or poison of choice.

Most people are open to some gun control laws. But when some politicians vehemently suggest our Second Amendment doesn't give an individual the right to own a gun, it closes the door for compromise on gun control. You give this kind of person an inch and he will take the whole gun.

That isn't happening in my life.

Wes Breinich
Hilton Head Island

Read more here: http://www.islandpacket.com/2013/01/06/2331257/target-root-causes-of-violence.html#storylink=cpy