Friday, October 26, 2012

Benghazi update: There was a Spectre on station

 
BlackFive confirmed with a retired Delta operator: The fact that ground personnel were painting the target says there was a Spectre on station.
Having spent a good bit of time nursing a GLD (ground Laser Designator) in several garden spots around the world, something from the report jumped out at me.
One of the former SEALs was actively painting the target.  That means that Specter WAS ON STATION!  Probably an AC130U.  A ground laser designator is not a briefing pointer laser.  You do not “paint” a target until the weapons system/designator is synched; which means that the AC130 was on station.
Only two places could have called off the attack at that point; the WH situation command (based on POTUS direction) or AFRICOM commander based on information directly from the target area.
If the AC130 never left Sigonella (as Penetta [sic] says) that means that the Predator that was filming the whole thing was armed.
If that SEAL was actively “painting” a target; something was on station to engage.  And the decision to stand down goes directly to POTUS.
More @ PJ Tatler

Meddling

 


On 26 October 1949 President Harry Truman raised the minimum wage from 40 cents an hour to 75 cents an hour (87.5% increase in one jump), continuing a long tradition of meddling in an economy he didn't understand. Presidents have been doing that ever since.

I Side With: Take The Quiz

Via  Hype And Fail

@ I Side With

 

Candidates you side with...

88%
Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney Republican
on social, economic, immigration, and environmental issues 

87%
Gary Johnson
Gary Johnson Libertarian
on domestic policy, foreign policy, economic, science, and healthcare issues

Josh "Tank" Watts

Via Benjamin Slider

Voting and the Pier

 2008 and 2012I'm a sucker for losers.
Only two write-ins available and since Michael promised he would write me in for President, I thought this was the least I could do..........:)
Plenty of empty chairs down here, but these pink ones are a first, though come to think of it, quite appropriate.
 It's coming.
As soon as I turned, two big ones came in.

Paul Morphy

 VERBATIM 
 

https://a5cdad55-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/290foundation/ancestors-page/paul-morphy/Scan.Paul.jpg?attachauth=ANoY7coPDTMUqAqr8kZmP7_hiag0rjht6Wnb-Pu0eNdP_K1ZlTTTz3B4Pn-Bp7ZvBim-q1v6zkJ-7sqAjewWAvTFcvcUMYh3bemymqcO1dJdOUN4i1Kxcdbf2exhKVKALznwo4NeaVzNO2-w4AilksMP_XUa1DJl2MhTyvImN1HfjjtWPzAGwRUmWpwtDmmII8f2Ag0LRFtxAeHTRke4fyGsGjJA0SuWCJPNmN0hjzF1zx3H917reBUUPvpbrXA9s0nOmXC7cRb2&attredirects=0 
 
This gilt, signed engraving of Paul Morphy hung for many years 
on the walls of the Liverpool Chess Club
until that establishment closed in 1938.
Recently gifted to the 290 Foundation (BVI) Inc,
it will be displayed appropriately in the months to come.
Paul Morphy was born in New Orleans, Louisiana to a wealthy and distinguished family. He learned to play chess by simply watching a game between his father and uncle. His family soon realized the boy’s talent and encouraged him to play at family gatherings and by age nine he was considered one of the best players in New Orleans. At just twelve years old, Morphy defeated visiting Hungarian master Johann Lowenthal in a match of three games.

Receiving his law degree in 1857, Morphy was not yet of legal age to practice and found himself with considerable free time. He received an invitation to play at the First American Chess Congress in New York City. Morphy won the tournament which included several strong players of the day. Subsequently Morphy was hailed as the chess champion of the United States and stayed in New York playing chess through 1857, winning the vast majority of his games. In 1858, Morphy travelled to Europe to play European Champions, usually winning easily. While the much touted match with Chess Master Staunton never came about, Morphy was hailed by most in Europe as the world's best player. 

Morphy returned to America in May, 1859, and was greeted with all the enthusiasm due a conquering hero. Morphy's embryonic law career however, was disrupted in 1861 by the outbreak of the American Civil War. Morphy’s brother Edward joined the army of the Confederacy although his mother and sisters emigrated to Paris. Paul Morphy’s Civil War service remains a rather gray area. He visited Richmond, Va., seeking to obtain an appointment in the diplomatic service of the Southern Confederacy but in this, he was 'seemingly' unsuccessful, returning then to New Orleans. He was there when the city was captured by the federal forces. At some point however, he was appointed to Beauregard’s staff and was certainly seen at Manassas. A reliable witness and resident of Richmond in 1861 described Morphy as then being 'an officer on Beauregard’s staff' though other sources indicate the General considered Morphy unqualified. Paul Morphy's intellect plus his many contacts abroad, were in fact of considerable use to the South for which he became both spy and unofficial 'ambassador' to European businessmen. In October, following the capture of New Orleans, we now know he escaped to Havana in a Spanish man-of-war, the Blasco de Garay and after remaining there a few weeks (?) sailed for Cadiz. From there he travelled on to Paris by rail where, apart from visits to London, he remained until the spring of 1865. Strangely, all records of Paul Morphy's activities, stored in the basement of a sheet iron and tin store belonging to a John R. Mountcastle, were 'accidentally' destroyed by fire in  August1868.
 
Following the war, despite several earnest endeavours, Morphy was never able to establish a successful law practice and was ultimately deemed to have lived a life of idleness, gaining support from his family's fortune. Despite appeals from his chess admirers, he never returned to the game. Returning from Europe in 1867 both his exploits as a world chess champion and secret, confederate agent were soon forgotten. He died in 1884 from a stroke at the age of forty-seven.
 

Big banks control both parties.

  

A former aide to Vice President Joe Biden describes the former Delaware senator in a tell-all book as an “egomaniacal autocrat” who was “determined to manage his staff through fear.”

But the author of “The Payoff” — Jeff Connaughton, a Biden Senate staffer who is now a lobbyist — admitted to Politico that he was deeply disillusioned with Washington and was embittered by his experience with Biden.

The vice president inspired Connaughton to enter politics, he said.

“I came to D.C. a Democrat and left a plutocrat,” he told Politico.

Connaughton served as chief of staff to former Delaware Sen. Ted Kaufman, who succeeded Biden. He describes his unsuccessful effort to get an amendment to the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill of 2010 that would have broken up the nation’s largest banks.

More @ Newsmax

The flag of the Union of Surveillance Authorities

VERBATIM
Remember, they only spy on us 'when absolutely necessary'........or when we're walking down the street, or driving, or shopping, or sitting in the park feeding the ducks, or........

Can you come up with a caption for this picture?

Still Thinking About Voting for Obama?


The Shame of a Nation

Via Traditions & Skills

 
Amen.

I came across a news article that touted the United States as a "Food Stamp Nation".  I know that in recent years food stamp usage has soared, but a food stamp nation?  In America?  It couldn't be true!

I stared in disbelief as I read the article before me.  44 MILLION people in the United States accept food stamps.  Another 9.3 MILLION accept WIC.  What has this nation come to?

When I was growing up, accepting "Food Stamps" was shameful.  Men would rather dig ditches or shovel manure than see their family pay for food with government issued stamps.  And it wasn't just pride that kept these men from accepting charity, it was a matter of freedom and justice.  Free men don't stand in lines waiting for their daily bread, slaves do.  Free men don't depend on someone else's benevolence to provide for their family, slaves do.  Free men don't wait for others to direct their lives, slaves do. 

Running on Empty


Escape and Evasion Operations, Part One: Planning Considerations

 

(I would like to apologize to all readers for my extended absence from the blog. HH6, TMO, and myself spent the last month on the road, conducting training classes, and slipping in a visit to family along the way. In 20 days, I conducted two training SUT classes, including night-live fire iterations of battle drills in one of those, and drove over 8000 miles. Upon our return home to our new operational area, we just signed a contract to purchase 40 acres in the mountains, and are preparing to build a range facility, a house, and livestock pens–probably in that order. Because the new place doesn’t have grid-power, and our alternative power system will require some time for me to make the money to install, my posting on the blog will be limited to when I can get to town and find Wi-Fi. Bear with me folks, I’m not giving up the fight, I just have to develop my family’s security at the same time. Thanks for hanging in there! –J.M.)

(To begin, for readers who are still on active-duty, I recognize that the doctrinal term for escape-and-evasion/recovery has been changed to “personnel recovery.” I grew up with E&E and have no job requirement to change my terminology, so it will remain E&E. –J.M.)

Escape-and-evasion operations are a traditional task of Special Forces in the UW paradigm. It is also a historically critical resistance operation. Much of the following section of this discussion will revolve around the doctrinal theory behind E&E operations, with much more specific details to follow in sequel articles.

Escape-and-evasion operations consist of five essential tasks that must be completed simultaneously and/or in sequence. These tasks consist of Report, Locate, Support, Recover, Repatriate.

Report

Michael Collins and the Eight Hundred Year Occupation

 Via WRSA

 

“Realists appealed to Collins. There would be no more glorious protests in arms, he decided. He built a cadre of realists around him, first in the IRB, then at Volunteer headquarters, where he took over Pearse’s old post as Director of Organization before becoming Director of Intelligence, finally in Dáil Eireann, as the underground government’s very effective Minister for Finance. Collins was a doer. Essentially a well-informed opportunist with very few scruples, his entire ideology could be stated in five words: ‘The Irish should govern themselves.’” 
 -- Sean Cronin, “Irish Nationalism: A History of its Roots and Ideology”

“The characteristics which mark Collins out as a remarkably successful Director of Intelligence during the War of Independence include his evident appreciation of the importance of the collection and assessment of information as primary elements of intelligence operations which should precede action; his partial penetration of his adversary’s own intelligence system; the efficiency and ruthlessness with which action based on good intelligence was taken; and his success in preserving the security and efficiency of his own organization both in Dublin and in Britain despite the pressures it operated under because of the constant threat of raids, arrests and the capture of documents.”
 --Eunan O’Halpin, “Collins and Intelligence: 1919-1923 From Brotherhood to Bureaucracy” (in the anthology Michael Collins and the Making of the Irish State)

 Introduction

Michael Collins was a tough young Irish operative during the seminal years of Eire’s final divorce from the United Kingdom at the beginning of the twentieth century.  This paper will attempt to discover if Collins was the culminating point that brought Number Ten Downing Street to the negotiation table, stared down Winston Churchill and came home with the solution for Irish independence from the British Crown.

Ireland was invaded and occupied the British crown in 1169 and suffered a brutal occupation punctuated by indigenous risings, rebellions and pockets of resistance. Sinn Féin emerged in 1905 to formalize a political vehicle to liberate the Irish from the British occupation.  These sophisticated rebel organizations started to emerge in the in the 19th and 20th century, culminating in the 1916 Easter Rising which led to the mismatch and overreach that would be the undoing of English rule over the Irish.

Michael Collins would emerge as the premier guerrilla leader during the crucial struggle between 1916 and 1922.  He embodied the early germination of the non-state soldier as a twentieth century variation on the age-old warrior in history and fought in Ireland under a variety of covers and positions within the political hierarchy of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB).  Collins would fight for the next four years culminating on Bloody Sunday on 21 November 1920.

 The Rising in 1916

More @ ZeroGov

OBAMA WENT TO BED


From Matt Bracken:10-25-2012

The biggest stench from the Benghazi fiasco is that it is beginning to smell like Obama went “nighty-night” to rest up for Las Vegas, instead of manning up in the Situation Room and seeing the crisis through and (had he only been awake) ordering a rescue mission.

In Benghazi, after 6-8 hours enduring a few “Fort Apaches,” with running street battles in …
between, (like a mini Blackhawk Down), the living Americans must have been thinking, “Any minute now, here come the helicopters! Just hang on!”

But they didn’t. So even though Delta had forward staged to Sigonella Sicily (rumint) from base in Germany, nobody was willing or able to pull the trigger and send a rescue force. Or even a few F-18 supersonic flybys, to bust windows and warn, “Here comes American airpower, and you camel jockeys know what that means.” Just as a morale booster it would have helped the besieged staffers.

But it was never sent, not even a lousy supersonic low-level flyby. One hour from bases in Italy, max.

Here is the deal. The military automatically does a lot on its own, under standing orders and SOPs. The minute they see that the consulate is under attack, and the ambassador and others are in a “safe room” hiding, it becomes TOP priority. Every other mission aborts or slaves over to support any possible rescue.

At that moment when the critical incident alarm messages start ringing, military steps happen on autopilot in real time. Everybody in the Navy and USAF chain of command swings into a crisis contingency plan mode. What ships are closest? Helicopters? Marines? Delta is in Germany? Get them moving right now. Where is closest? Sigonella, for now. It’s NATO, no permission needed, just fly.

En route in C-17s, the D-boys would even be prepping for an immediate action rescue mission, that is, the C-17s will fly directly to some desert road outside of Benghazi, and here comes “The Raid On Entebbe,” done in crisis mode, canned actions, but they would do it. They practice for these exact scenarios, and leave gear staged for them.

They would coordinate with fighters out of Italy, mid-air-refueling platforms start shifting, it’s a huge show that swings into action for thousands of miles around Behghazi. The ongoing consulate attack is JOB ONE, the only job. VIPs will be tossed off of planes at remote runways if they need that platform.

Or Marines on amphibious ships in the central Med, (if any were available), would also be put on the real-time options board. We used to have a “Amphibious Ready Group” of about 3-5 USN gator freighters, including a helo carrier like a Tarawa class. They carry an entire battalion of USMC, plus SEALs etc, with helos and Ospreys to carry them all. (But not at once.) Where was our ARG? Does our Navy have enough ships for that mission any more?

But while all of that military staging would have happened/did happen during the 6-8 hour battle at the consulate and annex, what the military cannot do on their own say-so is cross an international border without an order from the NCA, the National Command Authority, and that means POTUS, Obama.

Only POTUS can authorize a cross-border hostile mission. That is, guns clear, no official permission from the Tripoli govt (if it really exists outside State Dept fantasies.)
Only one man can pull that trigger and say, “GO!” Obama.

More @ WRSA

Lecture

Via Knuckledraggin' My Life Away

WW II British Tank recovered from bog in Poland

 

Taunting Panther's Fans Force Marine Amputee Out Of Moosehead Bar and Grill

Via Don

This guy better make himself scarce.

On Sunday a U.S. Marine who lost both legs in Afghanistan was forced to leave Charlotte's  Moosehead Bar and Grill along with his wife, parents and friends after another patron at the restaurant became verbally combative and the restaurant staff asked the Marine to leave.

According to the Charlotte Observer: "The incident happened after Garrett Carnes, his wife Courtney, their parents, and friends Brett and Nicole Coburn stopped at the restaurant for dinner after attending the Carolina Panthers’ game against Dallas. Several members of the party, including Garrett Carnes, were wearing Dallas Cowboys jerseys.

Coburn said that when the group reached the front door, the fan, who other patrons called Tank, was waiting for them."


Josh "Tank" Watts and friend at a Panthers game.
“He was standing at the door, and he started harassing us because of the Cowboys jerseys,” Coburn said.

He said Tank told Garrett Carnes, “Don’t use your wheelchair as a crutch.”

According to multiple accounts of the incident, Carnes told the patron – and others who were ridiculing the group for being Cowboys’ fans – that he was a veteran and had lost his legs in Afghanistan.

Members of the Carnes-Coburn party tried to “defend ourselves verbally,” Brett Coburn said.
He said Tank walked toward Carnes in a threatening way, and some other patrons stepped in to break it up.

Neilsen said his employees are trained to separate possible combatants, in an effort to defuse such situations. On Sunday, staff members asked Garrett Carnes and his party to leave, while they took Tank to another area of the restaurant."

More about Garrett Carnes here and Deadspin picks up the story and takes in national here.  The Daily Mail in the UK piled on this morning here.

Meanwhile the Moosehead Bar and Grill is getting slammed with neg comments on Yelp which is here. Moosehead's Yelp rating has "Tanked" to two stars out of five as Marines from across the nation hammer away at the four star rating the bar had this morning.

Cedar Posts suggests that Josh errr "Tank" may want to leave the state, or at least lay low for a few months. But as the following photos attest he just ain't that smart.

More @ CP&BWF

EXCLUSIVE: CIA operators were denied request for help during Benghazi attack, sources say

Via aronatbc


Fox News has learned from sources who were on the ground in Benghazi that an urgent request from the CIA annex for military back-up during the attack on the U.S. Consulate and subsequent attack several hours later was denied by U.S. officials -- who also told the CIA operators twice to "stand down" rather than help the ambassador's team when shots were heard at approximately 9:40 p.m. in Benghazi on Sept. 11.

Former Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods was part of a small team who was at the CIA annex about a mile from the U.S. Consulate where Ambassador Chris Stevens and his team came under attack. When he and others heard the shots fired, they informed their higher-ups at the annex to tell them what they were hearing and requested permission to go to the consulate and help out. They were told to "stand down," according to sources familiar with the exchange. Soon after, they were again told to "stand down."

Woods and at least two others ignored those orders and made their way to the Consulate which at that point was on fire. Shots were exchanged. The quick reaction force from the CIA annex evacuated those who remained at the Consulate and Sean Smith, who had been killed in the initial attack. They could not find the ambassador and returned to the CIA annex at about midnight.

At that point, they called again for military support and help because they were taking fire at the CIA safe house, or annex. The request was denied. There were no communications problems at the annex, according those present at the compound. The team was in constant radio contact with their headquarters. In fact, at least one member of the team was on the roof of the annex manning a heavy machine gun when mortars were fired at the CIA compound. The security officer had a laser on the target that was firing and repeatedly requested back-up support from a Specter gunship, which is commonly used by U.S. Special Operations forces to provide support to Special Operations teams on the ground involved in intense firefights. The fighting at the CIA annex went on for more than four hours -- enough time for any planes based in Sigonella Air base, just 480 miles away, to arrive. Fox News has also learned that two separate Tier One Special operations forces were told to wait, among them Delta Force operators.

More @ Fox

Gallup: 2012 Electorate More Republican than 2004


This morning, Gallup released a bombshell survey of likely voters this November. It wasn't a horse race poll, i.e. which candidate is ahead, but rather a look at the underlying demographics that will make up the electorate this November. They slap the survey with a very misleading headline, "2012 U.S. Electorate Looks Like 2008." While this is true in many respects, it obscures one very big difference. For the first time in a presidential election, more Republicans will vote than Democrats.

In 2008, 54% of likely voters identified as Democrat or lean Democrat. 42% of likely voters identified as GOP or lean GOP. In other words, the electorate, including independents who lean towards a particular party, was D+12. This year, however, the Democrat advantage has disappeared. 49% of likely voters today identify as GOP or lean GOP. Just 46% of likely voters are or lean towards the Democrats. This is a 15-point swing towards the GOP from 2008 to an outright +3 advantage for the GOP. By comparison, in 2004, when Bush won reelection, the electorate was evenly split, with each party getting support from 48% of likely voters.

If these numbers are within even a few points of what this survey suggests, then Romney will win decisively and the GOP will pick up the Senate. We are likely standing on the edge of another GOP wave election.

More @ Breitbart

Blood Pressure

"Jane Fonda can kiss my ass, I wouldn't walk across the street to watch her slit her wrists." --Jim Webb

 Testing, 1,2, 3............
Dammit Brock! With all the stuff you post on your page, I am having a really hard time keeping my blood pressure under the doctor's orders.....He may need to revise the numbers. Keep up the good work.
          CB





Father of Slain SEAL: Who Made the Decision Not to Save My Son?

Middle east in flames

Charles Woods, the father of Tyrone Woods, who was killed in the 9/11 terrorist attack at the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, reveals details of meeting Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton at the publically broadcast memorial service for the slain Americans at Andrews Air Force Base only days after the attack. And, in a recent radio appearance, Woods publicly questions who made the call not to send in back-up forces to possibly save his son’s life, as well as the three other Americans killed in Benghazi (which includes the American ambassador to Libya).

“When [Obama] came over to our little area” at Andrew Air Force Base, says Woods, “he kind of just mumbled, you know, ‘I’m sorry.’ His face was looking at me, but his eyes were looking over my shoulder like he could not look me in the eye. And it was not a sincere, ‘I’m really sorry, you know, that your son died,’ but it was totally insincere, more of whining type, ‘I’m sorry.’”

Woods says that shaking President Obama’s hands at his son’s memorial service was “like shaking hands with a dead fish.”

“It just didn’t feel right,” he says of his encounter with the commander in chief. “And now that it’s coming out that apparently the White House situation room was watching our people die in real time, as this was happening,” Woods says, he wants answers on what happened—and why there was no apparent effort to save his son’s life.

“Well, this is what Hillary did,” Woods continues. “She came over and, you know, did the same thing—separately came over and talked with me. I gave her a hug, shook her hand. And she did not appear to be one bit sincere—at all. And you know, she mentioned that the thing about, we’re going to have that person arrested and prosecuted that did the video. That was the first time I had even heard about anything like that.” 

More @ TWS

Glenn Beck’s Definition of “Honor”

NC Renegade
VERBATIM

 


Glenn Beck has been focused on the Benghazi tragedy as an example of the dishonor prevalent in Washington, DC.  I agree. The administration has initiated a major cover-up of this scandal through misdirection and outright lies. Mr. Beck explains this morning (October 26th, 2012) on his radio show how we must not let the “pendulum” swing too far to the right or left. We must return the pendulum to the middle as Abraham Lincoln did. Excuse me? Isn’t this the same man who has been preaching that we must not have a French Revolution in the United States?

Mr. Beck’s continued excuses for Lincoln are an example of dishonor. Does anyone want another tyrant who was responsible for:

1. At least 618,000 Americans died in the Civil War, and some experts say the toll reached 700,000. The number that is most often quoted is 620,000. At any rate, these casualties exceed the nation’s loss in all its other wars, from the Revolution through Vietnam.

The Union armies had from 2,500,000 to 2,750,000 men. Their losses, by the best estimates:

Battle deaths: 110,070
Disease, etc.: 250,152
Total 360,222 
 The Confederate strength, known less accurately because of missing records, was from 750,000 to 1,250,000. Its estimated losses:

Battle deaths: 94,000
Disease, etc.: 164,000
Total 258,000
 
2. Along with a declaring martial law, President Abraham Lincoln ordered the suspension of the constitutionally protected right to writs of habeas corpus in 1861, shortly after the start of the American Civil War. At the time, the suspension applied only in Maryland and parts of the Midwestern states.

In response to the arrest of Maryland secessionist John Merryman by Union troops, then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Roger B. Taney defied Lincoln’s order and issued a writ of habeas corpus demanding that the U.S. Military bring Merryman before the Supreme Court. When Lincoln and the military refused to honor the writ, Chief Justice Taney in Ex-parte MERRYMAN  declared Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus unconstitutional. Lincoln and the military ignored Taney’s ruling.

3. Deported women from Georgia to the North because they were traitors: they worked in cotton mills making uniforms.

In July 1864, Union General William T. Sherman ordered the arrest and deportation of more than 400 women and children from the villages of Roswell and New Manchester, Georgia. Branded as traitors for their work in the cotton mills that supplied much needed material to the Confederacy, these civilians were shipped to cities in the North (already crowded with refugees) and left to fend for themselves. This work details the little known story of the hardships these women and children endured before and–most especially–after they were forcibly taken from their homes.


Upon this news reaching the North, a New York newspaper wrote: ”It is hardly conceivable that an officer bearing a United States commission of Major General should have so far forgotten the commonest dictates of decency and humanity…as to drive four hundred penniless girls hundreds of miles away from their homes and friends to seek their livelihood amid strange and hostile people. We repeat our earnest hope that further information may redeem the name of General Sherman and our own from this frightful disgrace.”   Sherman said the women were ”tainted with treason and…are as much governed by the rules of war as if in the ranks. … The whole region was devoted to manufactories, but I will destroy every one of them”  Another paper wrote ” only think of it! Four hundred weeping and terrified Ellens, Susans and Maggies transported in springless and seatless army wagons, away from their loves and brothers of the sunny South, and all for the offense of weaving tent-cloth.“ The women were kept in prison until they signed allegiance to the United States.  Those that did sign were released and sent across the Ohio River; those that didn’t stayed in prison.
Most of the returning Confederate soldiers died never knowing the whereabouts of their wives, sisters, children or cousins. Imagine the fate of those expatriated women.  How would they survive, some with children?

4. Theft of private property:

“I have no time for particulars. We have had a glorious time in this State, Unrestricted license to burn and plunder was the order of the day. The chivalry have been stripped of most of their valuables. Gold watches, silver pitchers, cups, spoons, forks, &c., &c., are as common in camp as blackberries. The terms of plunder are as follows: The valuables procured are estimated by companies. Each company is required to exhibit the result of its operations at any given place. One-fifth and first choice falls to the commander-in-chief and staff, one-fifth to corps commander and staff, one-fifth to field officers, two-fifths to the company. Officers are not allowed to join in these expeditions, unless disguised as privates. One of our corps commanders borrowed a rough suit of clothes from one of my men, and was successful in his place. He got a large quantity of silver (among other things an old milk pitcher), and a very fine gold watch from a Mr. DeSaussure, of this place (Columbia). DeSaussure is one of the F. F. V.’s of South Carolina, and was made to fork out liberally.

Officers over the rank of captain are not made to put their plunder in the estimate for general distribution. This is very unfair, and for that reason, in order to protect themselves, the subordinate officers and privates keep everything back that they can carry about their persons, such as rings, earrings, breastpins, &c., &c., of which, if I live to get home, I have a quart. I am not joking. I have at least a quart of jewelry for you and all the girls, and some No. 1 diamond pins and rings among them. General Sherman has gold and silver enough to start a bank. His share in gold watches and chains alone at Columbia was two hundred and seventy-five.

5. Unconstitutional acts carried out by Lincoln are documented in Judge Andrew Napolitano’s book “The Constitution in Exile“.

Lincoln’s “actions were unconstitutional and he knew it,” writes Napolitano, for “the rights of the states to secede from the Union . . . [are] clearly implicit in the Constitution, since it was the states that ratified the Constitution . . .” Lincoln’s view “was a far departure from the approach of Thomas Jefferson, who recognized states’ rights above those of the Union.” Judge Napolitano also reminds his readers that the issue of using force to keep a state in the union was in fact debated — and rejected — at the Constitutional Convention as part of the “Virginia Plan.”

He also discusses Lincoln’s Confiscation Act of 1862, under which “any slaves behind the Union lines were captives of war who were to be freed and transported to countries in the tropics. This was in keeping with Dishonest Abe’s lifelong position (his “White Dream,” according to Ebony magazine managing editor Lerone Bennett, Jr, author of Forced into Glory: Abraham Lincoln’s White Dream ) of deporting all blacks from the U.S. “Colonization” was the euphemism that was used for this.

“The Confiscation Acts,” writes Judge Napolitano, “show that Lincoln did not have much concern for the slaves. He did not suggest to Congress that freed slaves should be granted civil rights or citizenship in Northern states. Once the freed slaves were transported out of the United States, they would no longer be Lincoln’s problem.” This is also why Lincoln tinkered with proposals for compensated emancipation in the border states while they were under U.S. military occupation during the war. These proposals included immediate deportation of any freed slaves. He saw the occupation of the border states during the war as an opportunity to begin ridding the country of “The Africans,” as he referred to black people, as though they were from another planet. Judge Napolitano quotes Lincoln in one of his debates with Stephen Douglas as saying what he repeatedly said throughout his adult life: “I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races — that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes.” “Lincoln was more concerned about the failure of [the seceding] states to collect tariffs than he was about slavery, ” says Napolitano.

So what is Glenn Beck advocating? I see no honor in Lincoln or his Restoring Honor at the feet of Lincoln. I know that Sacred honor and our founding principles are the only path back to Liberty. We must be careful not to be led astray by people whose agendas seem to be aligned with patriots but whose true motives sometimes ring hollow. The surest path to another French Revolution would be another repeat of the example shown by Lincoln.

David DeGerolamo

Roy Moore: "These are the times that try men's souls."

Via Billy

roy moore 10-25-12

Making a campaign stop in suburban Gardendale, former Chief Justice Roy Moore quoted the 235-year old words of Thomas Paine that, "These are the times that try men's souls."

Those words are relevant today for conservatives unhappy with the country's direction, Moore said.
"These are certainly times that try the soul of our nation," Moore said.

"One of the things that is trying the soul is the different things coming out of the White House," he said. Moore then questioned the constitutionality of some of the actions of the White House from the bombing of Libya to the decision to stop deportations of young people brought to this country illegally as children by their parents.

Moore spoke at the Gardendale Civic Center at a candidate forum put on by the North Jefferson Republican Club. Moore, a Republican, faces Jefferson County Circuit Judge Bob Vance, a Democrat, in the Nov. 6 race for chief justice.

Moore focused mostly on national issues and did not mention his opponent at all in his brief 10-minute speech. Asked  why the national issues were relevant in a state race, Moore said they impact people in the state and they were also what the Republican club was interested in hearing about.

Moore said he could have talked about his background, but, "They already know me."
"It's time we wake up in this country to the restraints of the Constitution," Moore said.
"We've got to back to the Constitution, back to the acknowledgement of God," he said.

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Muslim Who Accused Israel Of 9/11 Attack Is Official US Rep At Int'l Conference

Via Billy

Salam al-Marayati / mpac.org 

The Obama Administration has chosen Salam al-Marayati to represent America at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) cofererence in Warsaw, Poland.

Al-Marayati is the head of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, a Muslim Brotherhood front group, more proof if any was needed on how pervasive the Islamist influence is in the Obama Administration.

Al-Marayati publicly blamed Israel for the 9/11 attacks, and he has a long and execrable history of defending and apologizing for terrorism, using the usual sophistry that the activities of groups like Hamas and a Hezbollah are 'legitimate resistance' rather than terrorism. That includes, by the way, statements written by al-Marayati excusing the 1983 Hezbollah attack in Lebanon that murdered 241 U.S. Marines as 'legitimate resistance.' The MPAC has also been very public about calling for the removal of genocidal groups like Hamas and Hezbollah from the official U.S. list of terrorist groups.

He was also a major fundraiser for convicted terrorist Sami al-Arian, Palestinian Islamic Jihad's own man in America and has been a major voice urging American Muslims not to cooperate with the FBI or law enforcement in domestic counter terrorism efforts.

Follow The Yellow Brick Road

Via Billy



Former Members of General John H. Morgan's Cavalry CSA Lexington, Kentucky -- 1866

Via Calvin Johnson

Benghazi v. Watergate

Via Daughter Virginia

 

Dear Alex,

Well, here I go again!

Regarding the Benghazi Embassy assault cover-up, I have some thoughts.

First of all, to refresh your memory, President Nixon was forced to resign for his participation in the Watergate Burglary cover-up.  President Nixon did not plan or participate in the Watergate Burglary, but to protect the perpetrators, he lied and tried ti cover-up the incident.

The burglary attempt was bungled,  nothing was stolen, no one was injured.  At the time it would have been considered a political trick gone bad and would have been soon forgotten in the heat of the political campaign.

For this, President Nixon was impeached and forced to resign.

In Benghazi, our Embassy was burned and looted, our Ambassador, along with three other embassy employees were killed. The discovery of recent E-Mails show that top Administration Officials were in the White House Situation Room observing in real time the assault on the Embassy.  They also had knowledge that Military Special Forces
 were stationed less than two hour away from Benghazi. In addition two Navy Destroyers were stationed off the coast of Lybia.

It has also been discovered that the Navy Seal was killed seven hours after the attack began.  This was five hours after, had they been dispatched, military assistance would have arrived,

In view of what was happening, with full knowledge in real time of this assault on American Soil. what did our President do?  HE WENT TO BED AND THE NEXT MORNING, FLEW TO LAS VEGAS TO ATTEND A FUND RAISER.

This was a deliberate, deceitful, dereliction of duty by the President, aided and abetted by the Secretary of State, the U.N. Ambassador and other top administration officials.

If President Nixon could be impeached for the actions of his staff and the subsequent try to cover-up of a Political Dirty Trick attempt, which was of no significance , the question arises:

In an event were our Embassy is burned and looted, our Ambassador killed along with three other Embassy employees, where the President and his administrators try to cover their dismal failure to respond to a life and death situation evolving before their eyes: 

SHOULD PRESIDENT OBAMA BE HELD TO THE SAME STANDARDS THAT LED TO THE IMPEACHMENT OF PRESIDENT NIXON?

A rumor speeds like wildfire, especially when  there is a iota of truth in it, but goes viral when the facts are overwhelming.

The rumor would be, that according to confidential sources, a Congressional Committee is making perpetration for President Obamas Impeachment on dereliction of duty grounds.

In Politics it takes two to tango, but now, only you would be leading not following.

Love

Grandpa

"Women of Color" Racist

 

VERBATIM

In Utah Valley magazine, the phrase "Women of Color" means women who bring color to life -- such as the women who work at the magazine.

But when the phrase "Women of Color" became the headline for Utah Valley editor Jeanette Bennett's column in the July/August issue, the famously snarky gossip site Gawker.com noted that the phrase has a more traditional meaning: Women of African-American, Asian, Hispanic or other ethnic heritage.

And the photo accompanying Bennett's column showed that the seven members of the Utah Valley staff have two things in common: They are all women, and they are all Caucasian.
"That was not intended as an ethnic comment," Bennett told Gawker's John Cook. "It was just clever wordplay. It was that women add color, and there's more than one meaning of color."
By the way, since the Gawker item ran Monday, the headline on Bennett's column has been changed in the magazine's online version. It now says "Colorful Women."




Movie Review -- Taken 2, A Near Miss


Liam Neeson does it again, but with a bit more effort. Taken 2 is a good sequel for those who were fans of the original, but it is not great. The opening scenes are edited with flash bang wizardry and get you into the film without time to fasten your seat belt. Bryan (Neeson) invites his estranged wife. the competent Lenore (Famke Janssen), on a holiday in Istanbul with his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace). Lenore and Kim hem and haw about wanting to go, but then appear in Istanbul surprising Bryan. But the family does not surprise the Albanian terrorists who are laying in wait for Bryan because he killed their sons.

Moored Krasniqi (Rade Sherbedjia) has vowed to seek revenge for Bryan's bloody murderous swath of his family. Bryan and Lenore are almost immediately captured leaving Kim to hold the familial fort. Kim does a bang up job of taking direction from Bryan over her cell. (Oh, where would we be without technology in these action films.) Here the plot loses a bit of credibility as Bryan instructs Kim over the cell about to find Lenore and him in congested Istanbul with one marketplace built upon the other. Lenore is being tortured by the Albanians while Kim has managed to escape the terrorists who had wanted to capture the entire family and transport all three to Albania, then kill them in a public demonstration of loyalty to the sons that Bryan slaughtered.

The acting is top drawer and Neeson manages to hold the audience's attention save for fleeting moments of laughter when Neeson is a bit too deft with his ability to kill off Albanians. 
 
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