Looters Will Be SHOT? You'd Better Believe it!

There is no excuse for the looting in New Orleans , Mississippi, Alabama and other areas hit by Hurricane Katrina. None.

There is much I have read, on the Internet, supporting looting and the looter’s right to loot, but no pun intended, their arguments don’t hold water.

I don’t care how you try to define it down, looting is stealing. It is thievery!

New Orleans and Mississippi and Alabama are not California. Looters WILL get themselves shot by homeowners and shop owners. There are reports already that dead bodies of gunshot victims have been seen floating in the water ravaged streets.

As a Southerner who lives in the “Hurricane Alley” of the Carolinas… this does not surprise me. One of the preparations we make, when a hurricane is approaching, is to check our ammunition, and our weapons, as they might be needed for self-defense and the defense of our property.

Maybe it is time to impose Martial Law in New Orleans. I mean, don’t just threaten to do it… actually do it. Now, understand when Martial Law is declared, Constitutional Rights no longer exist. The Military is the law. No warrants are required, there are no trials, and none of the rights granted under the constitution exist during that period. Looters can, and most likely will, be shot by soldiers… and absolutely nothing will be done to the shooter.

I doubt that a jury of a shooter’s peers here in the South, would ever, ever, find the shooter of a looter guilty of any homicide charges, which might be brought against him, or her. We take property rights extremely seriously.

I was taken aback at the websites excusing the looting as being owed to the looters by the rich folks of the south, etc, etc. Other sites excused the looting of foodstuffs and water and such. I hardly think one can eat a wide screen TV!

Oh, and by the way, blaming George Bush for the hurricane is about as empty headed as it comes. Blaming him for not having enough National Guard troops, here in the states, to aid in emergencies is way off base. Only about a third of Guard forces are deployed at any given time. We have plenty of troops for hurricane duty, not counting regular Army personnel and personnel from the other services. The Left never cease to amaze me with their utter ignorance of the “facts on the ground” at any given time. I suppose that is what comes of being driven by “emotions” rather than “reason”… a hallmark of the Political Left.

We continue to hold our brothers and sisters in prayer as they continue the struggle against the forces unleashed by Nature on our Gulf Coast region. They WILL come back stronger than ever. Such is the faith we here at Insight have in our fellow Americans.

“Longstreet”

The Public Hand Wringing of the "Cowards" of the American Left

The public “hand wringing” of the Left gives aid and comfort to the enemies of the US. That’s as plain and simple as I know how to say it.

The American left is in full panic! So, they run out all their wimps and limp wristed spokesmen, and spokeswomen, and turn their cameras on them while the pens of their scribes smoke across the pages of their notepads being certain to record every nuance, every syllable, of every word uttered in anguish over the possibility that the United States, their very own country, may actually win a military conflict!

If you think this public spectacle in Texas, and around the country, and on the pages of left wing news papers, and TV news channels is rooted in deep concern for the welfare of US troops, you are sadly mistaken. All this Left Wing garbage is aimed at damaging the President, and the Bush Administration, and elevating the Democratic Party in the US. They don’t give a d**n about the welfare of the US Military, or the security of this country. Their single goal is to regain power on the national stage. If that requires giving “aid and comfort to the enemies” of the United States they have proven they are more than willing to do so.

They are disgusting. Their craven, cowardly, actions and will only bring more death to US service men and women and embolden our enemies it step up their efforts to damage the progress of Democracy in the Middle East.

The babbling idiots of the Left don’t have a clue that the very terrorists they are aiding with their “protests” and demands that “the President bring the troops home” would slit their throats, at the first opportunity, and laugh in their faces as their life slips away.

It’s time to stop molly coddling that bunch of anti-American cry babies and start calling them by the name they have earned by their antics…. cowards!

And, another thing: Why can’t we question their patriotism, huh? Only an idiot will buy their claim to support the troops without supporting the war! That is an impossibility. If one doesn’t support the mission of the troops then one does not support the troops. It’s just that simple!

I, along with a few million other Americans, are getting very tired of spending our treasure and spilling the blood of our country’s youth to secure the safety of that bunch of quivering, quaking, trembling, back stabbers from the American Left!

Am I angry? You’re durned right I’m angry! This nation went through this crap in the 60’s and we have entire generations of Americans, who served their country honorably, who have been tarnished forever. An entire generation of Americans who have never gotten over the damage done them by the same political party and the same left wing branch of that party who ceded victory to the communists in Southeast Asia. Due to their efforts the 58,000 Americans died in Viet Nam for NOTHING! And, if they have their way, the dead Americans in the Middle East will be added to the list of those having died in vain! How utterly, and completely, unforgivable!

The yellow journalism we see on out TV screens every evening, and read in our newspapers every morning, is the stuff of sick, poisonous, minds that care for nothing… save their own power. They will gladly climb over the bodies of America’s dead servicemen to again claim the White House and the Congress and further degrade this country and turn us into vassals for that glittering jewel of socialism, the United Nations!

Good Lord! How did we get here? How have we allowed this cancer of socialist malignancy to eat away the soul of the greatest nation on earth?

It’s time to fight back! Americans, who still love their country and still revere the true American dream of freedom, will rise up, in righteous anger, and shout down the voices calling for the defeat of America and America’s efforts to bring freedom to a people who have suffered under the yolk of dictators for centuries.

If those people ever regain power in the United States, she will cease to exist. We cannot turn over the security of this country to a political party which folds as soon as the going gets tough. We cannot give power to a political party that will not defend freedom because the cost is too high.

May God Bless America… and SOON!

“Longstreet”

The Sick Anti-War Protestors Get Even Sicker

About the time you think the anti-war protesters can’t get any sicker… they get sicker!
Thanks to reports on the Internet, we now know of the Left’s anti-war protest in front, of all places, Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

How SICK is THIS?

Oh yes! They’re out front of the Medial Center with their wacky signs and bad clothes and now, I’m told, they even have flag draped coffins lining the streets! All the while wounded servicemen, and servicewomen, inside that institution are trying to heal from the wounds they received fighting to protect the right of those Moonbats to be out there screaming their invectives at the very men and women who have suffered broken bodies and broken minds to preserve the right of those “Leftist Sickos” to make fools of themselves.

As an aside… did you ever wonder if those idiots with the signs have jobs? Did you ever wonder where they get their funding and the money it takes just to live these days? It seems to me that people with jobs, contributing to our society, don’t have time for that sort of nonsense! But them what do I know, right?

What we have here, Dear Reader, are what we have come to know as “Useful Idiots”. They are useful to the enemies of the United States. Seems to me that Al Qaeda would see to it that those folks have all the funding they need… and then some. I’m making no accusations, just wondering.

It takes money to fly all over the country to dog the President’s steps. It takes money to transport, house, feed, and furnish supplies for the ”rent-a mob” crowd. The money is coming from somewhere. I’m only suggesting that it would certainly be interesting to learn from whence it comes!

Maybe some of the Left’s non-biased journalists would like to look into this and do an exposé for all to see. Yeah, right! Don’t hold your breath!

“Longstreet”

Profanity, Vulgarity, and Belittling the SOUTH will not Be Tolerated on this Site!

There’s something we want to get off our chests.

This blog is accessible all over the world. So far, we’ve had respondents from as far away as Russia and Australia. But, by far, the comments with the most rude, and crude, language have come from residents of the Northern United States.

Now, we don’t want to make this a “Yankee vs. Rebel” issue. If we wished to do that, we’d simply start another blog. That’s not what we’re about, here at INSIGHT.

We’re not prudes. I, personally, can hold my own in nearly any “cussing” contest. But, we draw the line when it comes to using profane language in the presence of children and ladies. Yes, Dear Ladies, we Southerners still honor womanhood.

As I said above, I am a Southern male. My ancestors DID fight for the Confederacy and “if the thing were to be done over”, as President Jefferson Davis once said, I’d be right there among them. But, the issue has been settled… for now.

I love my country, the UNITED STATES of AMERICA. I volunteered to wear the uniform of my country and soldiered, as best I could, when called upon to do so.

Yes, we are a bit touchy about the scars left by the Union Forces on the landscape of the South. We consider it rude, and downright offensive, for the implanted northerner to arrogantly suggest that northerners do things differently, therefore better. Southerners would never dream of such behavior in another’s home.

Yes, we do believe the South is a special place, blessed by God, and we cherish it.

We are tired of shouldering all the blame for Slavery when the Northern states ran the Slave Trade and profited mightily from it, yet lay claim to sparkling clean hands when the subject is raised.

For the record, there were 5 slave-holding states in the North at the time of the Civil War. One of those states was Lincoln’s home state of Illinois.

Rhode Island and Massachusetts led the Slave trade in slave ships and slaves, bought and sold, trading rum for slaves in Africa and sailing their shiploads of shackled slaves back to their northern ports to be off loaded and sold. No Southern Ships ever trafficked in slaves. The Confederate Battle Flag never flew over a slave ship. The flag the slaves first saw, on the ship, and when coming down the gangplank, was the Stars and Stripes of the USA.

When the War Between the States broke out, the two cities with the most slaves, per capita, were: Charleston, SC… and New York City!

Yes, we are tired of carrying the entire blame for that horrid institution. But, having said that, we are even MORE tired of the history of the North’s “neck deep” involvement with the slave trade being buried and, or, glossed over, as though in didn’t happen.

The Confederate States passed the first “ANTI-SLAVE LAWS” in this country! We strongly suggest you read the Constitution of the Confederate States of America. It is easily found on the Internet.

So, if you are going to use profane language, and vulgarities, and try belittling the South, then we prefer you visit some other Blogsite. We do not want you on this site.

We suggest you read the header at the top of this page. It plainly says comments with Profanity and excessive Vulgarity will be deleted.

That is a promise.

“Longstreet”

The Founding of a Democratic Iraq

Has the MSM, in the US, missed the historic moment in the Middle East, or, as is more likely, have they decided to ignore it, as it does not fit their template for failure of the US in the Middle East?

I am referring to; of course, the writing of a constitution in what will become the first Democratic Arab state in the Middle East. Can you see the momentous landmark in the history of the Middle East? Here is a region of the world still living in a 12th century feudal system which has, with the help of the US and others, thrown off the centuries old yolk of one dictator after another and embraced democracy.

Somehow the MSM doesn’t seem to grasp what a fantastic accomplishment this is.

Sure the writers of Iraq’s constitution are haggling over details. They should. Our forefathers sure as heck didn’t sit down and create our constitution without many days and weeks of arguing back and forth before they produced the document so loved by Americans and emulated by a number of democracies in the world today.

Now, I am not so naive as to believe the Iraqis will have smooth sailing with their fledgling democracy once the founding documents are established. There is always the chance it won’t work and Iraq will slide right back into a dictatorship in a few months. The Iraqis are going to have to fight for their freedom just the same as the US and other democracies around the world. Allowing themselves to be doormats for any strongman who comes along must end and they must stand on their own two feet without assistance from the US.

Now, for long time readers of this blog, do not suppose that I have suddenly come around to supporting the efforts of the US at “Nation Building”. I certainly have not. However, we are already committed to building a new Iraq and to stop now, would be a failure in the eyes of the world. We cannot afford that.

I am still in favor of bombing any adversary back to the Stone Age and walking away. But the dye is cast in Iraq and we have no choice but to stay the course.

It is becoming clearer everyday that our next battlefield will be in Iran. We will need a friendly nation at our back when the war in Iran begins.

I have said, from day one, there would be permanent US bases in Iraq. I still believe that.

In the meantime, we need to support the Iraqis, as they become a part of the modern democratic world.

“Longstreet”

Return of the Ditch Bank Diva and the Ditch Bank Dummies

Now, look… Cindy Sheehan got the benefit of the doubt the first time around. She won’t get it this time.

Entirely too much of what Ms. Sheehan stands for and promotes is known now for her to be able to capture any of the Media audience to any serious degree. Her 15 minutes of fame is nearly over. The media created her and the media will destroy her.
Anyone who states publicly “This country is not worth dying for” insults me as well as any family having lost a loved one in the armed forces of the US since 1776.

Sheehan is just the face of another pathetic attempt of the Left to foment unrest and create an aura of the 60’s for which they long. The 60’s, in America, was the most shameful decade in our history. And the left loved it! They still do. It was their “hay day”. It was the high point of their pathetic little lives. And they want it back! How utterly sick!!!

Those clowns on the ditch bank in Texas are a cross section of the Left’s Loonies, and Moonbats, let loose upon the Texas countryside. And now, the Ditch Bank Diva, herself, has rejoined her troop. Oh joy, Oh joy!

The DNC ought to hide. Instead, those running that now, all but defunct, organization and urging the Ditch Bank Dummies on. Have they no idea of the damage they are doing their party. Far be it from me to alert them to the dangers that lie before them as a result of this fiasco, but, good heavens, are there any sane people left in the Democratic Party??? I am embarrassed for them.

Oh well, this is America and everyone has a perfect right to make public fools of themselves as the Ditch Bank Dummies, apparently, have decided to do.

I suppose the thing that actually hurts is the way they desecrate the memory of so many of our fine young men, and women, who believed this country was worth dying for and felt, deep in their hearts, that they ought to risk their lives, and perhaps lose their lives, so that idiots like the Ditch Bank Dummies could make a spectacle of themselves on television.

Now… that hurts!

“Longstreet”

Citizenship Reform Act of 2005

“Anchor Babies” must go!

Tired of illegals coming into the US pregnant and delivering their babies here and collecting off the US Government, and state governments, and running your taxes through the ceiling? So am I, and so are several million other Americans.

How do they get away with it? The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, that’s how

Section one, of the 14th amendment, was written to ensure that former slaves would enjoy full citizenship in the US. But, it has been stretched to encompass the babies of those who have entered this country illegally. Once that baby is born, they have their “anchor” here and at age 21 that now “grown” baby, can petition the government to bring his family into the states as well.

Lets look at the amendment as it is written in the US Constitution:

14th. Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law, which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

There is the problem. Section one of the 14th amendment. It HAS to be changed.

The “Citizenship Reform Act of 2005” has been introduced by Georgia Congressman Nathan Deal, a Republican. It is designed to deny US citizenship to children born to illegal immigrants in the US.

Estimates are that over 300,000 babies are born to illegal immigrants, every year, here in the states.

The US is now the only country, which allows this practice. Ireland did, for a while, but quickly changed the law when it became obvious that pregnant immigrants from Africa were flooding their country every year.

The term Anchor Babies” is used to identify babies born in the US from illegal alien mothers. Under the Immigration Act of 1965, those babies can, at the age of 21, bring in their family as permanent residents of the US.

Let’s go back and look a little closer at the 14th amendment. It was ratified in 1868. It’s intent was to protect the rights of native born Black Americans recently freed from slavery.
The intent of the 14th amendment was laid out for us in 1866 by Senator Jacob Howard who said: “Every person born within the limits of the United States, and subject to their jurisdiction, is by virtue of natural law and national law a citizen of the United States. This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers accredited to the Government of the United States, but will include every other class of persons."

Theses days, however, illegal aliens are defying US law and flooding across our borders and having babies at the rate of over 300,000 (babies) a year.

So how the heck did this happen? How as this been allowed to happen? Simply because we are adhering to article 25 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Not the US Constitution! Here is what that article says:

Article 25.(United Nations Declaration of Human Rights)(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Do you see the problem? Again we have the United Nations in our business.

US Taxpayers are footing the bills for their birth, medical care, their education, (even college), and their food, darn near everything. It’s not Uncle Sam any more. It’s Uncle Sucker!

Now here’s the problem with Representative Deal’s bill. If enacted, it will be a law. It will be a law, which will not stand the scrutiny of the US Supreme Court. (At least not the liberal court we have now.) So, the only way to get this Citizenship Reform Act into law is to amend the US Constitution. If passed by both houses of the Congress, and signed by the President, ratification by the states would come almost overnight. I don’t see this happening. Not with this President.

Lean on your Congressmen, Congresswomen, and Senators, to get this “Citizenship Reform” into the Constitution. It is past time to right this wrong. It is WAY past time.

There is an alternative, however. That is to enforce the 14th amendment’s original intent. But to do that, will necessitate having a different Supreme Court than we have now. A conservative court made up of “originalists”. Currently we have two “Originalists” on the court. That’s two out of nine. We need at least three more. We have a chance to get two of those three coming very soon.

Look, we Americans have to take back our country. This flood of illegal immigrants and “Anchor Babies” must be stopped. We know how. Do we have the will?

Maybe the better question is: Do we have a choice? Do we wish to continue as a viable country and not slide into the template for a third world banana republic? For that is where we are headed… as straight as a Martin to its gourd.

Contact your Congressperson and your Senators and let them know how you feel about this. It will only find its way through the Congress with grassroots support. Push them at every opportunity.

May God save America, for we Americans seem unable to do so.

“Longstreet” >> COMING TOMORROW on "INSIGHT": "Return of the Ditch Bank Diva and the Ditch Bank Dummies".

Did You Ever Wonder...

Did you ever wonder why ALL the Republican Presidential candidates, and Presidents, are said to be so dumb and ignorant? Huh?

Did you ever wonder why the Democrat's Presidential candidates, and Presidents, are said to be so smart, so intelligent? Huh?

Did you ever wonder why so many more of those dumb, ignorant Republicans get elected? Huh?

Did you ever wonder when, if ever, the Left is finally going to realize the fact that they come across, to the average American, as arrogant "know it alls", who talk down to the rest of us whom they see as the dirty, unwashed, masses lucky, mind you, to have them offer themselves as a candidate to be President? Huh?

Did you ever wonder after all the promises the Left has made, and not kept, to the Black minority in the US, Black Americans continues to vote for them overwhelmingly? Huh?

Did you ever wonder why the Left has no solutions to ANTHING to offer?

Did you ever wonder why the Left is able to do nothing but disrupt, obfuscate, block, and hinder?

Did you ever wonder why the Left is not willing to defend this country? Why they do not feel the US is worth fighting and dying for?

Did you ever wonder if they ever see themselves thru the eyes of the average American who thinks their antics, such as the demonstrations in Crawford, Texas are childish, silly, and do nothing to aid the country and everything to aid the “Islamofacists” sworn to wipe America from the face of the earth?

Did you ever wonder why the Left thinks more of trees and animals than they do for God’s own children, the human race?

Did you ever wonder how the Left can manufacture lies such as accusing the Republicans of stealing the Presidential elections in 2000, and 2004, and then come to believe their own lies?

Did you ever wonder where the Old Democrat Party went?

Did you ever wonder how the socialists managed to take over an entire major political party in the US... without a struggle?

Did you ever wonder why the Left is so cozy with that bunch of thieves, brigands, and reprobates, at the United Nations?

Did you ever wonder…?

“Longstreet”>>... COMING TOMORROW ON "INSIGHT": "ANCHOR BABIES". WHAT THEY ARE, HOW WE GOT THEM, AND HOW TO STOP THEM!!

Oil Terrorism

I don’t see a ceiling on the price of gas any time soon. I think 5 to 6 dollars a gallon is realistic. God awful… but realistic. The thing is… it’s not necessary. The gas shortage in the 70’s was a fraud. It is a proven fact. I don't believe there is a shortage now. I do believe the OPEC nations are simply refusing to increase the supply to meet the demand as punishment for us"Infidels".

There was no shortage then… and there is no shortage now. The petroleum is there. I know we are going to have to have an alternate fuel, but as I said, that is a very long way off. In the meantime, we will either drill into our own deposits of oil, or squeeze the shale oil out, or, our economy will crash. It’s as simple as that. I see this gouging by OPEC as simply another form of terrorism.

We are, at some point, going to drill in ANWR. We are, at some point, going to drill off shore. The public demand will override the “environazis” and, to satisfy demand, and to keep their jobs, Congress will allow it.

The fact that we are in a war that will last for many decades will also push the demand for oil up. We will be forced to actually begin “taking” the oil of the Middle East. I don’t think there is any question about that. That has been on the table since the ‘70’s.

When all this happens, and when the demand for petroleum products has peaked and our economy is crashing, all the “conservation” slogans will go right out the window. All the “try to understand the Middle Eastern folks”, and the “Islamofacists” will go out the window and the people of the US will face the reality of being a second rate power… and ... the strong possibility of ceasing to exist as a single, strong, country. This will push the government into going after the oil at any, and all, costs. And we will. (Like starving people fighting over a bone.) It won’t be pretty.

The OPEC nations have no idea the wrath they are bringing down on their heads.

“Longstreet”

Go Get the Oil !

I bought gas today. Paid $2.75 a gallon. That was for Hi-test. Regular was $2.57 a gallon. I think Mid-Range was around $2.67 a gallon.

How long before Americans get P.Oed enough to demand that we use our OWN oil? We don’t need theirs. We are decades away from a REAL alternative fuel. We have the world’s largest supply of shale oil in the west, and Midwest, and it will cost us $30.00 a barrel to extract it. That’s less than half what we’re paying now for oil from OPEC. Plus, we have giant pools of oil off all three coasts and that “mother of all oilfields” under ANWR.

I guess when the price of consumer goods goes thru the roof as a result of shipping costs passed along to the consumer people will wake up and lean on those week-kneed clowns we have in DC.

Perhaps we should invade Mexico and take their oil…what’s left of it, in payment for their citizens draining our treasury! Of course, I doubt they would even notice if we did invade. There’s nobody home down there. Guess where they are! They up here sucking on that giant US teat! And, as they say, the pig on the front teat doesn’t see a problem.

If the Confederacy had won, we’d own Mexico, Central America, and a large portion of northern South America. Them were the plans, anyway. But, the best laid plans, etc, etc.

I stopped buying gasoline made from oil from Venezuela, after the Communist President of that 3rd world country/circus started bad mouthing the US. I'll buy no more from that puffed-up, self important, little pip-squeek. There’s not much I can do to help the US, but I sure don’t have to help that Commie "Tin pot dictator"!

I’m off the soapbox for today.

"Longstreet"

Invasion from the South

There is talk coming out of beltway sources that the Administration is setting up a new “revised” Amnesty Plan for our Hispanic illegals here in the US. I can only hope the folks, supposedly in the know, are simply blowing smoke.

How is it that Washington cannot feel the anger of the average US citizen toward any relaxing of the immigration laws, especially toward the Hispanics who are flooding our country and bringing our health services, and educational services, and welfare services, to the breaking point? How can Congress and the President not know this? How?

Common sense dictates that they must know this. So, why are they continuing to refuse to secure our southern border and return those illegal Hispanics already inside the US back to Mexico… or... their country of origin? Instead, they now want to make those who are already here illegally… legal? Are they nuts???

There is at least one Congressperson in touch with her constituents… Sue Myric, the Congresswoman “from Charlotte”, NC. She has introduced a bill in the US House, which, if passed, will allow police and the US Government to deport any illegal caught operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Now, this is a bill most Americans can get behind and support.

North Carolina is overrun with illegal Hispanics. A friend of mine is an interpreter for the Police and Sheriff’s Department in my small town in NC. The jails are filled, nearly every weekend, with intoxicated Hispanic illegals. They can get a legal NC operators license and drive the roads… unable to speak English and unable to read the road signs… thus endangering other motorists. When arrested, they are unable to communicate with police and that’s when my friend is called in. The experiences she has had with police and illegals is hair-raising.

Now, North Carolina is one state out of 50!

I cannot believe the Administration is about to propose a plan to take what little pressure there is on the illegals off them. It is unconscionable.

I’m a conservative republican… but I have three things bothering me about the Bush Administration: The lack of concern over the security of our southern border with Mexico, the Administration's push for the creation of a Palestinian state, and not prosecuting the war in Iraq aggressively enough. You DID notice which one I placed at the top of my list… didn’t you?

So, if the Administration is smart, they’ll drop any plans for the introduction of a new and improved amnesty plan for illegal Hispanics. It ain’t gonna fly!

I understand at least one, maybe more of the southwestern states, which have common borders with Mexico, are considering building a fence/wall the entire length of their border, with Mexico, and presenting the bill for said wall/fence to the Federal Government. Frankly, I don’t think they’d have any trouble getting the citizens of the fence building state, as well as other states, such as North Carolina, to contribute toward the building, and maintenance, of that wall/fence.

Something has to be done. If the Federal Government will not do it’s constitutional duty of securing the borders of this country, then we need to clean the House, the Senate, and the Presidency, in DC, and elect people who WILL get it done!

Will the Federal Government wait until concerned citizens form armed Militia Units to secure the southern borders? Will federal troops engage the Militia of US Citizens who are engaged in an act of national security, thus violating the Posse Comitatus laws? Do you see what a mess we are in… and where this mess, unaddressed, is heading?

We have a serious national security issue with our nation’s southern border. It will be handled, one way… or the other. The federal Government would be well advised to take charge and secure that border. Citizens of the South have a long history of taking care of problems… their own way, when the authorities choose to look the other way. No one should be surprised when armed Southerners decide enough is enough!

“Longstreet”

The Oil Shortage? What Oil Shortage?

I can’t help but wonder if we are into another fabricated “Oil Shortage” similar to the one back in the '70’s.

Why?

Well, the MSM is reporting that there is a terrible shortage of oil and the US economy is going to crash as a result and, well, basically, it’s the end of the world!

What’s wrong with that, you ask?

Nothing, much… except there is no shortage of oil, the per barrel price has come down, and the US economy is humming along.

Sure, gas prices at the pump are high, but, it’s the peak driving time of the year and gas prices tend to go up every year at this time. Plus, the very simple, but troubling, fact that we simply do not have enough oil refineries in the US.

Did you know we have not had a single new refinery built in the US for over 30 years now? It’s a fact. The big brother government regulations make it next to impossible to get the environmental permits issued to build such an installation. The US has only 149 refineries… period. If one goes down, for any reason, gas prices shoot up. The existing refineries are working round the clock at peak production to supply the gasoline needed by the American motorists. The wear and tear on those facilities, and those who work in them, is phenomenal.

Added to the mix is the fact that the US is dependent on overseas suppliers of oil. OPEC, for the most part. They have a strangle hold on the US as a result of our own stupidity. That’s what I said… stupidity!

We have enough oil, right here, in America, to tell the nations of Opec to “take a hike”. The only thing standing between the domestic oil and us is… the “tree huggers” and the “greenies”, and some “leftover Lefties” in the EPA in Washington, and a few still in the Congress. Enough of them are in positions from which they can affect American petroleum policy that they have managed to bare America’s throat to our enemies.

Folks, we have enough shale oil in the US to last for decades… and it’s cost, to extract from the rock, is $30.00 a barrel. Compare that against the $66.25 per barrel price of sweet crude from OPEC now. ANWAR is awash in oil. We have huge oil deposits off our coasts.

Now, at some point, we are going to have to get that oil. The longer we wait, the closer to a state of emergency we will find ourselves. This problem is quickly turning into a national security problem.

The answer to our oil usage is not those little “beer can automobiles” the carmakers are trying their best to foist on us. Besides being death traps, in an auto crash, they are UGLY!

There is simply no excuse for our dependence on OPEC oil. None. We have our own oil. If we stop buying OPEC’s oil, the price will come down. It’s the law of Supply and Demand.

Look, we are going to have to face reality here. We have the oil we need right here. We need to go get it. And we need to build more refineries, ASAP. If that means relaxing the EPA rules, because of an emergency, then do it. And do it now!

The outlook is very clear. If we don’t break our dependence on foreign oil, the next war may actually be for the oil. If we can’t use our own, and we can’t buy it, than the only option left is to take it. We are going to get the oil… one way, or another.

“Longstreet”

Iran Revisited

Iran is skating on very thin ice. Their arrogance is either covering for their stupidity, or a national death wish. Either way the life of their country is in the balance.

Iran is setting itself up for a pre-emptory military strike by Israel… or the United States, or (most likely), both.

The fact that the US has been fighting a ground war against Iran, for many months now, is not lost on the intelligence communities of Israel, Great Britain and the United States. Although it has not been spoken of by the press in the US, to any great degree, the British press has been printing the facts about the 12,000 man Iranian force which flooded across the Iraq/Iran border shortly after the US and British Invasion of Iraq. It is certainly a contributing factor in the continuing battle to knock down the so-called “Insurgency” within Iraq.

Iran finds a democratic Iraq unacceptable as a neighbor. Therefore, they intend to do anything within their power to cripple all efforts to establish such a government in Iraq. In the meantime, their efforts to create a nuclear bomb, missiles, etc, is on track and is due to be realized well before the ten years our misled intelligence services would have us believe.

All this is racing toward a cataclysmic resolution… nuclear war in the Middle East.

It now appears it is unavoidable.

Israel has a first, and second, strike capability. She has nuclear-armed subs, at sea, as a back up to her ground based nuclear arsenal. If attacked, she will certainly strike back and… she has the capability to take out the entire metropolitan population of Iran a number of times over.

For many years, now, Israel has warned that she will use her nuclear option rather than be the recipients of another holocaust. However, the IDF is thin, indeed, for a ground war on a very large scale. The US will immediately be brought in to strengthen the ranks of the IDF. Assistance from Great Britain is somewhat “iffy” but expected, even if under the cover of lending assistance to the US military.

The United Nations will, as expected, back away from the conflict and silently boost the Iranians. We can expect no help from that quarter, or from the remainder of Europe. Europe has grown soft as a result of the years of appeasement, having learned nothing from the First and Second World Wars… except that… the US will come save them. It has gotten tiresome, frankly.

Iran is bringing her doom closer with everyday she continues her nuclear program. Yet she perseveres toward suicide.

In the meantime, it must be clear to every thinking person on the globe now… the US is in the Middle East to stay. We cannot withdraw. The table is set, the places are marked, and the world is now racing toward her date with Armageddon.

“Longstreet”

Militia Units and Liberal Presidents

A few days ago, I was reading a liberal lady columnist who writes for the NYT. Besides the bitterness dripping, like hydrochloric acid, from the paragraphs of her tome, I saw something I had thought of before and stuffed back into the darken recesses of my mind only to bring out when a situation warranted it.

One can only be stricken with the huge, the gigantic, and the monstrous proportion of the naiveté of the Left. They do not live in the same world or on the same plain as the remainder of us humans. I think it is genetic. Maybe someday science can isolate the “liberal gene”

For Instance, this writer was droning on about the war and how ridiculous is was to go to war and if we’d behave ourselves and try to understand those who dislike us so much there would be less hate in the world, etc, etc, etc. The usual drivel from the Left.

As I was reading this woman’s rantings, and stifling a belly laugh, I remembered a telling situation, which arose during the reign of the last liberal in the White House. I’ll bet you remember it, too.

During the Clinton Administration (I use the term loosely) remember the sudden increase in the number of Militia units all over the US? Remember? Men who banded together to train as paramilitary units? Remember the attacks upon them by the MSM as a bunch of right-wing nut cases? Sure you do. It was all over TV… every evening.

Now, ask yourselves… where are all those militia units now that we have a Conservative President in the White House? Huh?

My state had three armed militia units operating here during the Clinton Administration (Again, I use the term “Administration”, loosely). One of our State Militia Units is controlled by the Governor and has no connection to the National Guard. None.

Do you wonder why they only seem to appear when there is a liberal President in the White House and liberals control the Congress? Well, you should. The reason they exist is tied directly to the expectations the people of this country have about a Liberal Administration.

You see, common folk are savvy. They understand that Liberals have neither concept of military force nor the application of that military force. Therefore, they have no concept of national defense… in so far as the use of military force, to protect this nations citizens, is concerned.

Look, when a liberal President is in office, the common US citizen understands it is “everyman for himself”. We know the government cannot be relied upon to protect the nation so, US citizens take it upon themselves to do the government’s job. The sale of semi-automatiuc weapons and handguns skyrockets. Why? Because people fear for this country's safety, and the safety of their families, under a liberal regime.

And that, Dear Hearts, is where the Second Amendment to the US Constitution comes in. That is one of the reasons The Founders put it in the constitution in the first place. The US citizenry is the best-armed citizenry in the world. Any outside attacking force will be met with a standing army of citizen soldiers the likes of which the world has never seen.

Of course, the other reason, "The Founders" put the Second Amendment in the Constitution, was so the citizens could protect themselves from... the federal government! Actually, that was the primary reason.

So, with the next Presidential election campaign already underway, we should consider this as we peruse the list of liberal candidates for that office. If the US elects another liberal President, militia units will pop up, seemingly overnight, sorta like mushrooms after a long wet spell. Adding urgency to their appearance is the fact that the US is already in a struggle with Islamic terrorists for its freedom, even now.

I don’t believe this will come as a blinding light of epiphany to any of my readers, but I thought it was worthy of consideration, anyway!

“Longstreet”

The Ditch Bank Diva

I have deliberately waited before commenting on the Sheehan fiasco in Crawford, Texas.

I wanted to allow as much leeway as I possibly could to a grieving mother. Well, something happened.

When I was a kid, there was an expression: “You give them an inch… and they’ll take a mile”. The simple meaning was that some folks would take advantage of your generosity. That appears to be what has happened in Crawford.

Mrs. Sheehan was given all the latitude in the world to make her protest known to the President and the world. Now, however the Left’s propaganda wiz kids have moved in and taken advantage of the situation and make a mockery of what began as a grieving mother’s manifestation of grief over the loss of her son.

There is no shame remaining on the political Left in the US. What they have done in Crawford, Texas is beyond any kind of absolution. I include the MSM along with the spin miesters of the Left.

They have reached a new low. I didn’t think it was possible, but, somehow, they have managed it.

No longer is the protest of Mrs. Sheehan an embarrassment to the US, it is certainly being made use of by our Islamic enemies. For that reason, alone, if for no other, the Kabuki Theater presentation, on the Ditch Banks of Crawford, Texas need to be closed down. It cannot be good for national security.

The continual groveling before the cameras is cheapening the memory of her son and of his sacrifice for his country. He made a voluntary choice to become a member of the armed forces of the US and then, when his first hitch was up, he re-enlisted knowing he would be sent right back to Iraq. A man doesn’t do that unless he believes in the cause for which he is fighting.

All parents, well, most of us, at some point in the lives of our offspring, come to the realization that they are capable of making their own decisions. They may not be the same decisions we’d make, but, nevertheless, they will make them. It’s a part of the cycle of life. Our job, as parents, is to support them in that decision and do everything in our power to simply “be there” if their decision leads to failure. Second-guessing them will only add to the magnitude of the failure and the time it will take for them to recover from its effects.

If the family of Mrs. Sheehan can do it, the nicest thing they could do, right now, for this distraught lady, is to go to Crawford, Texas, collect her, and take her home. I make this suggestion out of love and respect for a grieving mother. Nothing else.

“Longstreet”

US Military Force Against Iran

Well, I see President Bush has placed the use of force on the table along side other diplomatic tools in the coming US/Iran confrontation.

This has been coming for a long time. Iran has done nothing but egg the west on by insisting on pursuing a nuclear bomb.

Iran has been totally unresponsive to diplomatic entreaties to stop their efforts to create a nuclear bomb and literally dug-in. By that, I mean two things, they had “dug-in” in holding their position on continuing to make the bomb and they have physically “dug-in” some nine, or more, nuclear installations which they have placed underground.

Iran would do well to understand that they will soon be on the receiving end of some serious military attacks against those installations. The patience of the west, meaning the US and Israel, has just about run out. This time there will be no “run-up” to the war. Our troops are already in place and for all practical purposes so are the troops of Israel. Military strikes could happen in minutes and at any minute.

I cannot fathom the seemingly total ignorance of the Muslims nations concerning the will of the US to back up its threats of war. They seem to think they can continue to flaunt their willingness to defy the west’s request for common sense on their part and blithely go their on way making, for all intents and purposes, the “Islamic Bomb”.

That is not going to be allowed to happen. The entire world knows the first target of such a bomb, Israel, and second, the US. Then, the Islamic Bomb would be used on carefully chosen targets in Europe. The western world cannot, and will not, allow this bomb to be made. What is so difficult for the Middle Eastern Muslims to understand about that? What?

Now the US President has officially placed the use of force on the table. They had better understand that this President will not back down and he will attack them with whatever it takes to destroy their bomb making capabilities. They have only to look to either side of their nation. Iraq and Afghanistan. Saddam didn’t think we’d do it, either. Today, he is lucky to be alive and in prison awaiting trial.

The days and weeks ahead will be interesting as the war of words escalates between the US and Iran. Once again the US has determined the unwillingness, or inability, or both, of Europe to cope with the growing threat of the “Islamic Bomb”. The US will now have to lead the way, as we have done nearly since our founding. We really have no choice. We cannot allow Europe to fall… and we are not about to allow Israel to fall, nor ourselves.

We are in a fight for our very existence. We have no choice but to win this one. The peacenicks had better just get out of the way. Unless of course, they want to live as the Iranians live and as the Iraqis lived under Saddam and the Afghans lived under the Taliban.

Most Americans understand the threat to America and we are ready, and willing, to defend our country. Islam should be warned… we are not ready for the slavery of Islam. Nor shall we ever be!

“Longstreet”

Conservative Christian Republicans

There seems to be some question as to the way Conservative Christian Republicans “stay away from the polls” when unacceptable candidates are on the ballot. At least one of the readers of this blog suggested that action might be un-republican.

The short answer is this: We don’t care!

Let me try and explain the Conservative Christian Republicans view on voting. To get a basic understanding of the Conservative Christian Republican’s view of the world you must understand our priorities. They are in this order: God, Family, and then, Country.

Understand also, we feel it is sinful to vote for a candidate who does not share these priorities.

You begin to see where we are coming from.

Look, we believe that voting for the lesser of two evils is still voting for evil and we won’t do it. We answer ultimately to a much higher power and we recognize that and try our best to act accordingly. We do not always succeed, actually we don’t succeed most of the time, but we are bound to continue trying.

If the Republican Party nominates a candidate we see as unqualified, by our standards, we will not go to the polls and support that candidate. The RNC knows this. It is no secret. The GOP has understood where our ultimate allegiance lies since the Conservative Christians began their migration away from the Democratic Party when it adopted so much of the Socialist/Marxist platform. There is something of a compact between Conservative Christian Republicans and the RNC. We will support the Republican Party as long as it toes the line. The minute it steps away from the line… we are gone.

Remember where our allegiance lies. We do. And, we know that, in the end, we have to give an accounting of the time we spend here on this earth. That is far more important to us than voting to ensure the Republican Party wins an election.

I remain, just another Pharisee,

“Longstreet”

Conservative Lutherans Battle back.

Well, Lutherans of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America began the long road back to a scriptural church, this past week, as they met in Florida and voted to stay unified, voted not to bless gay marriages, and not to allow practicing gays to pastor a church. Had the two latter votes gone the other way, the first vote would have had no validity. The church would have split immediately.

What all these votes represent is a church finally showing its determination to remain a church based solely on the scriptures.

There has been a liberal movement afoot in the church for a number of years. Many of us, and I include myself in that number, are from the “old” church. We saw the movement away from scripture, and towards modern political correctness, as the destruction of a church... a church, which came directly, out of the Reformation and was founded on "scripture alone". Nothing could change that. Scripture is NOT politically correct.

But, in recent years an attempt has been made... and was partially successful.

Lutherans are slow to accept change and even slower to move against change they do not like... until momentum is built up. Over the past few years that momentum has been building.

Lutherans have been asked to accept so many “non Lutheran” practices in recent years that we were/are in fear of losing our church. Things like the “Historic Episcopate” which is not a part of Lutheranism. Some of us refused to accept that. I was among them.

Old Lutherans still believe what the scripture has to say about homosexuality. It is wrong, and it is a sin. As a result, we cannot bless a union of men, or women, living in what is obviously a "state of sin". Neither can we accept allowing a homosexual pastor to stand as the leader of a congregation and setting an example for others to follow.

A sharp dividing line was drawn between the Lutherans who believed the scriptures and those who did/do not. The disagreement was just that simple. But it was a disagreement, which would split the church apart... and may yet.

The past few years I have not participated in ELCA services. Instead I attend a Missouri Synod Church some 50 miles away. My tithing to the church continued, only to the Missouri Synod church, not to the ELCA Church of which I am officially a member. I simply could not bring myself to compromise on those things I felt were right... those things I felt were scriptural.

Finally, this last week, in Florida, my faith in the Lutherans was restored… partially. We still have a long way to go, and a lot to do, to regain our former position as a scriptural church. But… we are, at last, on the way.

“Here endth the lesson for today”.

“Longstreet”

What Did the Commission Know, and When Did They Know It?

Heard about “Able-Danger”, yet? If not, chances are very good that you will. The mainstream media is being dragged to this story by the "blogosphere" (as has been the case with so many stories of late).

It seems the military had a secret intelligence group know as "Able Danger" prior to 9/11 and Able Danger was keeping a eye on the would be terrorists who struck the US on 9/11. It seems this super-secret group was operating during the Clinton Administration and made known their findings (about the men who would later hijack four airliners.... and, well, you know the rest...) to the Clinton administration and somehow, nothing was ever done.

Information is still turning up on this developing story, but one of the most troubling aspects so far is the report that staffers of the 9/11 commission were given this information and squelched it, for whatever reason. If that is the case, then the findings of the 9/11 Commission aren’t worth the paper they were written on and lend credence to the theory that the 9/11 Commission was more a “get Bush” commission than it was a fact-finding commission.

Well, this will come as no surprise to those of us on the right who felt that way about the Commission from the git-go.

Many conservatives in the US were disgusted with the way the Commission went about it’s business and frankly, we decided the “end result” was already decided before the gavel dropped opening the first meeting. The little show we saw on our TV screens was more an attempt at damaging the President than it was about keeping the public informed about the work of the Commission which now appears, as we had suspected, to be deeply flawed.

There are calls, all over the blogoshere, for a commission to investigate the 9/11 Commission. In other words, “investigate the investigators”. When will this vicious cycle end? This immense game of “gotcha” is a doing much more harm than good to the nation and is, quite frankly, playing right into the hands of the terrorists.

In the days and weeks ahead, more will become known about “Able Danger” , their report, and why it was bottled up and never saw the light of day. As each bit of information leaks out, more and more names of former public officials are likely to be connected to this story. It could easily lead to the biggest scandal in a very long while.

One thing, chances are very good, the mainstream media will try, with all their might, to stir clear of this story. You see, their favorite people are implicated, to one extent or another, in the unfolding mess, which begins to smell of conspiracy.

The blogoshere will play a vital roll in seeing that this story stays alive until the entire details are known.

“Longstreet”

Ruddy or Hillary? Neither Wins the South

A poll showing Rudolph Giuliani would beat Hillary Rodham-Clinton in a head to head campaign for the US presidency in 2008 may be a bit misleading. The polled showed Giuliani would win convincingly.

As a Southern Conservative, I’m not so sure of that. You see, Mr. Giuliani is from the Northeast. It makes no difference that he is Republican, the fact remains that he is from the northeast and we simply will not vote for a “northeasterner”. Conservative Republicans will stay home on election day if Giuliani wins the nomination.

Now, the fact is that neither Party can win a presidential election, in this country, without carrying the South. Hillary cannot carry the South. Giuliani cannot carry the South… and John McCain cannot carry the south.

So where does that leave the Republican Party? Looking for another candidate, a southerner, or a midwesterner that is a conservative, believes in a right to life, and preferably the governor of a Southern state.

I make no predictions here, because I haven’t the slightest idea who the candidate will be, but If the Republican party wishes to remain in control of the Congress and the Presidency, they had better not run Giuliani, or McCain, for President. The same goes for the Democrats running Hillary. She cannot win. Neither can John Kerry.

Senator Bill Frist shot himself in the foot, recently, for the third time, and has committed political suicide as far as his plans to run for the Republican nomination for the presidency. He’s done.

Making no predictions now, but more and more the gaze of Southern Republicans is turning to Jeb Bush. The top of our wish list holds Condi Rice, then, Jeb Bush, and then, Newt Gingrich. Yep, ole Newt!

All three of these Republicans have track records, which could be useful, in a run for the presidency.

I’m not looking for a dark horse candidate coming from somewhere deep within the ranks of the GOP. I believe the candidates are already before us and we need to be paying close attention in the next few months.

My personal preferences are as listed above, Rice, Bush, and Gingrich. Even a combination of any two of those for President and Vice-President would be good… for me. But, then again, that is only me.

The campaign is just around the corner, so we had better get geared up and ready to launch our guy, or gal, as the case may be.

“Longstreet”

Democrats: Funny and Dangerous

It has been said that Liberals are hilarious when they are out of power, but dangerous when they are in power. It is a truism.

As we watch, and listen, to the “out of power” Liberals, on the national scene, they are indeed hilarious. Ted Kennedy, chief among them, is the court jester of the Political Left.

But, for a traveling comedy show one cannot beat Howard Dean as the head of the DNC.

These folks have laughed themselves nearly into oblivion. What makes them even funnier is the fact that they don’t know they are funny, or being funny. They are deadly in earnest, and yet the vacuousness of most of their arguments leads a listener, or viewer, to break out in peals of laughter, just because one must believe they meant it as a joke. Usually their argument, when there is any, is so, well… far out, that you just can’t take them seriously.

The Party itself is not really a political party. It is a conglomerate of special interest groups. Now, all these groups have their own specific agenda. None of the groups are really interested in the party, as a whole, succeeding in attaining any goals, whatsoever. They are interested only in the success of their efforts.

A gathering of this so-called party is reminiscent of a first, or second, grade class or even a daycare class… each pupil with his or her own interest and oblivious of the other interests in the same room.

Now, as a conservative, I’m in no hurry to help them organize, nor help them direct their energies in a single direction. They are just as I would have them… for my purposes. So long as they stay in their current state of utter, and total, confusion, the better we conservatives like it. The more entrenched we will become as they wander about the political landscape wondering when the Florida re-count will be finished and Al Gore announced as the winner!

They have finally talked themselves, the entire Democrat Party, into “victimhood”. They have used the argument so often they have come to actually believe it. Therein lie the seeds of their defeat and eventual destruction as a political force in the US.

They are setting themselves up for another defeat, of biblical proportions, in the presidential race in 2008. They have chosen the most polarizing figure in US politics today as their banner carrier. A sane person would see, instantly, this is a losing tactic. But they do not. They are bound to commit political suicide because they no longer have the wits to deal with reality… with the world, as it is, rather than the world, as they would like it to be.

Like a clown with a sad face they slouch across the stage of American politics, towards what end, no one seems to know.

“Longstreet”

Polls and the Mainstream Media

I recently read a poll conducted, ostensibly, to determine the level of support for the President’s handling of the war in Iraq. The results were overwhelmingly negative toward the Bush administration’s conduct of the war.

Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!

With the MSM constantly beating the drum against the war and playing up every US loss of life, running box scores in their print publications, and in general, spewing propaganda that the war has become a quagmire, what else would you expect the public to say?

I, too, am not happy with the conduct of the war. My opinion is, however that we are not using our military aggressively enough. We are not constantly on the attack, burning, hacking and slashing as we go leaving a trail of death and destruction in our wake that will get the attention of the entire Muslim world.

At the same time, I would eschew the “Nation Building" policy now in place, in Iraq, and let them put their own country back together… if they can. I am of the mind that a country’s destruction should be a part of the payment extracted for attacking the US, period. (That proverbial “pound of flesh”, if you will.)

I want to see a poll asking the simple question: What is it about the way the President is handling the war in Iraq do you not approve of? Now that is THE question!

Anyone having ever been connected to the media understands that polls can easily be made to produce the results you are seeking. A simple slant of the wording of the question will get you any result you want. Pollsters know this... and those who commission pollsters know it… and sad to say… they use it.

Nowadays, more and more of the mainstream media are using polls to editorialize against the Bush administration. You see, a president they hate is in office and they have been determined, from day one of his first term, to bottle him up, and show him and his administration in the worst light possible.

It is a shame and a disgrace! But that is the level to which the MSM has sunk in the US.

If you want to get a balanced view of the news of the US you must go “off-shore” to a foreign news outlet to get it. That, too, is a shame.

More and more Americans are turning to the Internet for their news. The "Alternate News Source", some call it. I, myself, have found that I spend more and more time following news stories on the Internet than I do the newspapers or TV news. I get a more “in depth" coverage and I get more “accurate” and “neutral” reporting on the ‘net.

As the 2006 election approaches the slander campaign against the Republicans and the Bush administration will only increase in intensity. Watch for it. Don’t be surprised by it, and remember, you can get the news… from the Internet!

“Longstreet”

The ADF... American Defense Forces

I have a proposal to make. The creation of an elite Military Force. Call it the ADF (The American Defense Force... after the IDF… The Israeli Defense Force.)

This unit would, as the name implies, be made up of US Army Ranger qualified, and trained males in all combat positions, including war planning. Service would be mandatory for a minimum of four years and members of this elite force would be subject to recall until the age of 45. All military "support" positions would be filled by non- ADF, Regular Army personel.

Here’s the way it would work: The Commander in Chief would call in the ADF, when needed, and present them with the goal of any military offensive. From that point, neither the President, nor the Congress, would have any input into the means by which the ADF accomplished it’s mission.

This would allow for “plausible deniability” by the nation’s weak kneed leaders and allow the ADF to proceed to victory by whatever means it found necessary.

There would be no more Viet Nams. No more Gulf War Ones, and no more Iraq wars. The War against Terror would already be over.

Ahhh, ‘tis but a dream, I know… but, one with roots in reality.

I used to feel comfortable saying that Democrats did not understand military power, or the application of military power. Now, as Republicans are showing the same weakness, I am no longer comfortable with that adage. The baby boomer Republicans have joined the ranks of the crowd, which thinks nothing is worth fighting for. Never mind that some poor dogface soldier gave his life that the entire baby boomer generation could live, and prosper, in freedom. Talk about ingratitude!

My ADF scheme is far-fetched, I know, and I describe it here with my tongue fastened firmly in my cheek! But... we are going to have to do something. Americans no longer have the stomach for a fight. Trying to fight a "politically correct war", and have a large portion of our troops assigned to "Nation Building" is getting our combat forces chewed up, resulting in needless deaths of our service men and women.

Maybe Congress can work out some sort of deal to lease the Israeli Defense Forces to protect America and fight America’s wars. It has become abundantly clear our leadership can’t do it. They have clearly demonstrated they really don’t have the “stones” for it.

“Longstreet”

The Humiliation Campaign against the South

Southerners: Don’t Finance the Humiliation Campaign Against the South!

I admit, right up front, that I have not seen the new “Dukes of Hazzard” movie. I also want to assert, again, right up front, that I have no plans to see it, either.

I am a white Southern male, approaching my 65 birthday, and most of my life has been spent in the South (Southern portion of the United Sates.). After traveling and visiting some 22 states, and so many cities I don’t care to remember, I have never found a place, on this continent, which can even approach the South as a place in which to grow up, to live and to raise your family.

I mentioned that I am now, officially, a senior citizen. Having spent the bulk of those years in the two Carolinas. I can attest that I have never seen a Southern family that approaches the slovenly ignorance of the Hazzards… as depicted in the latest movie. A family approximating the movie version would be ostracized and most likely invited to leave any particular county in the South. It is for certain; they would spend a great deal of time, as guests of that county, in the county jail. We Southerners may be “laid-back” but we do not put up with trifling troublemakers resembling the Duke boys. And we do not suffer fools lightly!

So, I can only surmise that once again, we have an onscreen depiction of what Hollywood would like the remainder of the world to think the South looks like, talks like, drives like, and lives like. It’s a lie. It is a fraud perpetrated on the good folks of the South.

Even the members of the cast of the long ago TV show, of the same name, have disavowed it and spoken of their disappointment.

Folks, the movie is a joke, a bad joke, at the expense of the South. As a Southerner I resent the hell out of it.

We Southerners are still made to pay for having lost the war of Northern Aggression. The national humiliation of the South continues… and we, as a people, are fed up.

Here, in the South, there is a seething rage, just beneath the surface, at the ongoing campaign designed to further humiliate us, as a people. Very soon that rage is going to reach a boiling point and spill out with a great deal of anguish for those who so gleefully stirred the pot.

I belong to a Southern organization of men, some 35,000 strong, each with the genes of a Southern Warrior in his genetic make-up. We are not happy.

So, I would ask all Southerners not to pay money to see your heritage slandered by Hollywood. We simply cannot help finance the campaign to continue the humiliation of the South.

Look around you. Look, and listen. Observe, and you will soon see, and understand, the tension between the northern and western sates and the states of the old Confederacy is very nearly as taunt as it was in the late 1850’s. To keep pulling on those bonds, making the tension grow, is only hastening the day there is a breaking point.

In closing allow me to point out this fact: The South views the period from April 1865, to the present, as simply a “time-out”.

We would all do well to remember that.

“Longstreet”

Dump Roberts!

If you are a regular visitor to this blog, then you know I have not been entirely happy with the President’s nomination of Judge John G. Roberts to the US Supreme Court. In two earlier posts I raise some misgivings about it.

Now comes word of his Pro Bono work for Gay Rights Activists.

The problem with this is … it was Pro Bono. “For the good” and without pay. In other words, he didn’t HAVE to do it. He was not compelled to do it. But, he did. This is deeply troubling for conservatives on my side of the political spectrum.

I can only believe this is another marker to indicate Judge Roberts is far less conservative than we have been led to believe… and I don’t like it.

I urge the President to drop Judge Roberts’ nomination and give us a true conservative candidate for the Supreme Court. Judge Edith Brown Clement would be an excellent choice. Plus, it would have the desired effect of driving the Democrats on the Judicial Committee nuts!

Judge Edith Clement is currently serving on the 5th circuit US Court of Appeals. She is from Alabama… a Southerner. (I have to tell you, I like that!)

Oh, by the way, she is a member of the Federalists Society and there doesn’t seem to be any disagreement over that… as there is over whether, or not, Roberts was/is a member.

To my conservative friends, sorry, I just can’t get behind the Roberts nomination. We have been misled many times in recent decades by chameleon-like candidates who appear before the Judicial Committee as one kind of candidate and after confirmation turn out to be something far different from the person we thought we were getting. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me”.

Besides, there are a number of imminently qualified judges out there from the undeniably conservative side of the political spectrum who would make tremendous candidates. I just can’t accept that Roberts is the best the administration could find.

I don’t really care if the open seat goes to a woman or a man. It makes no difference to me. What does make a difference, a huge difference, is whether the person sitting in that chair is a conservative.

Judge Roberts has still not convinced me that he is.

“Longstreet”

... To Do Whatever It Takes!

Sixty years ago today, the US bombed the living daylights out of Japan with the first ever atomic bomb drop. They still did not give up. Three days later, the US dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. Then they gave up.

The crew of the Enola Gay was not instructed to try to miss all temples, schools and hospitals. For that would have gone against the point of the raid. The point was to kill as many Japanese civilians as we possibly could with one blow. It was thought such devastation would shock the Japanese into surrender. It did not. 140,000 Japanese men, women, and children were blown to bits on that fateful morning. Still the Japanese High Command and the Japanese Emperor would not give the command to surrender.

The last bomb we had in our arsenal was dropped on Nagasaki. The Japanese did not know it was the last one. Just the thought of more atomic bombs being dropped on their sacred land brought the war home to them as nothing else could.

Earlier, US warplanes had killed far more Japanese in the firebombing of Tokyo than were killed in the blast at Hiroshima. But it took the awful devastation of two atomic bombs to bring the dedicated Japanese warriors to the decks of the USS Missouri to sign the articles of surrender. Such was the single-minded dedication to the honor of their country.

Estimates of one million casualties would have been suffered by American troops if we had, indeed, invaded the home islands of Japan. But, that was exactly what we were about to do.

You see… this was a time in American history when Americans did not second-guess their right to live free. This was a time when Americans would do whatever it took to keep their freedom and to ensure the safety of their families in the States. The key phrase in the previous sentence is “Whatever it took”. It took two atomic bombs and the killing of approximately quarter million men women, and children to gain victory over the Japanese and bring peace to our world again.

The Japanese wanted a war with the US. To ensure they got that war, they brought the war to us on Sunday morning, December 7th, 1941. On August 6th, 1945 we took the war to them.

Here we are 60 years later and another, much lesser entity has brought another war to the US. A war we did not seek, did not want. But we have it never the less.

They took down two buildings… we took down two countries. But the war goes on. Why? Because we do not have the will to do whatever it takes to win. As a result out military men and women are being ground up in a meat grinder of homemade bombs and hit and run tactics while our troops stand by awaiting the order to do what it takes to clean that mess up in Iraq.

The war in Iraq could be over in days. But, not without a Commander-in-Chief,, and a Congress, with the fortitude to give the order.

President Harry Truman did, and I shall be forever grateful.

“Longstreet”

Propaganda and Secret Underground Prisons

You know, I have been puzzled for months as to why, exactly, Al Jazeera TV is still on the air. Why?

Can you say “Tokyo Rose”? It sure sounds, looks, and feels, like a propaganda tool for the terrorists.

Now, I’m just a dumb ole country boy, but it strikes me as more than just a little strange that they break all the BIG stories, you know, the “inside stuff”, on the terrorists. They seem to, somehow, get videotape of things like beheadings, and such. And then, there are the coded video messages from Bin Laden and Zawahiri. Al Jazeera gets them all…first. Is it just me, or does it bother you, too?

Al Jazeera is located in Qatar, just down the road from CentCom headquarters. Isn’t that even stranger?

Now, I have mulled it over for many months and I have concluded… that US Intelligence Services are using al Jazeera. It is the only logical explanation I can come up with. It’s the only one making any sense at all.

I cannot believe the US military would allow a communications tool with a worldwide reach to remain on the air. Unless… we are using them.

Sooner or later, we will know the truth about it all. In the meantime, it is a puzzlement.

Now, about that super secret underground prison where the US is said to be holding those terrorist prisoners… good! Keep them out of sight until we can squeeze the last drop of information out of them.

I have no idea if the claims by Amnesty International have any validity, or not. Frankly, I don’t care. I have a burning memory of those 3000 people killed in New York by terrorists. Whatever it takes to get the information we need to put a serious hurting on “those people” is fine. Do it.

We are in “early days” of this conflict, which will, in my expectation, last many decades. Anything, and everything, we can do to ensure our eventual victory is acceptable.

We are at war. I suppose we will have to continually remind Americans of this fact... until the bombs begin tearing apart our citizens in shopping malls, and subways, and tunnels, and schools, and airliners, etc., etc.

That terrible time is not nearly as far away as we would like to fool ourselves into believing.

I say again: We Are At WAR!

“Longstreet”

Old Glory and The Rising Sun, Together?

Recently, I wrote in this blog that if China attacks Taiwan, not only will China have to deal with the US military, but China will also have to deal with the Japanese military which will come into the fray on the side of the US and Taiwan.

For some time now, Japan has had the third largest Navy in the world. Plus, it is a modern Navy. Most of its ships are new, or nearly new, and built by Japanese in Japanese shipyards.

Japan trains constantly. Her troops are leaning forward and they are sharp as a razor.

Back in the late 70’s or early 80’s China began its military build-up. China is seen by Japan as a direct threat to Japan. To offset the Chinese military buildup, Japan cranked up her war materials machinery nearly a decade and a half ago..

Under Japan’s constitution she is only allowed 240,000 self-defense troops. Japan is not allowed to engage in warfare… except in self-defense. That no longer is much of a problem. A move is underway in Japan to remove that little obstacle from the Japanese constitution. There is every reason to believe those Japanese politicians in the Diet will be successful.

It would be well to take notice that in February, of 2005, the US and Japan agreed to work together to protect Taiwan should the Chicoms attack her. That explains one reason the rhetoric, coming from China, about Taiwan, has cooled, somewhat. Not much, but some.

Japan has but several new, modern, ships of war since the early 90’s. One even appears to be a Carrier. Expectations are that Japan would deny having a Carrier, but it sure LOOKS like a Carrier. (A flattop runway and a helicopter landing pad off to one side of the runway.)

Look, China really should think twice about going to war with the US over Taiwan. Since she will face three opposing forces: the military of Taiwan, the US military, and the Japanese military.

Japan has one of the best-trained, best-equipped militaries in the world. Plus, their warrior nation history should give any adversary pause. On any battlefield, Japan will more than hold it’s on, it will put a serious “hurting” on its opposition.

When the pushing and shoving begins between China, and the US, over Taiwan, do not be surprised when the Japanese navy sails over the horizon to the aid of the nation which so completely defeated her 60 years ago.

Having been born juts a few months before Pearl Harbor; the formative years of my youth were spent hearing the hate-speech against Japan. I believe, to this day, it was right what the US did to Japanese Americans and to Japan with the Atomic Bomb. But the Japan of 2005 is a new, a different, Japan. So, if she feels an obligation to aid US forces on the battlefield, we welcome that assistance.

But… there is one thing to keep in mind. Once the Japanese Military “genie” is out of the bottle, there will be hell to pay getting it stuffed back into that bottle.

Something to think about.

“Longstreet”

It's Time for Action with Iran. Enough Talking, Already!

How much more diplomacy with Iran before the Mad Mullahs slam Israel with a nuclear tipped missile? HUH?

Weston European nations including Great Britain, France, and Germany, are once again trying to “talk” Iran out of continuing to enrich uranium to weapons grade. Once they have accomplished that, would anyone care to hazard a guess as to how long until they choose Israel as a target for a “test” fired missile?

The Mullahs are rather enjoying the “Jaw-Jaw” of the westerners. It makes them feel important. Much the same reason they feel it necessary to build nuclear weapons. That have a gigantic inferiority complex and all the attention from the west strokes their HUGE egos into believing they are something more modern that a backwards 13th century, third-world nation state.

I am beginning the think it is a “toss up” as to which nation is at the top of the hit list in the War on Terror. Syria, or Iran. Surely we must hit one or the other, or both. Both have a lot going for them as they vie for first place on that list.

Syria, while a pain in the backside of the world, is not really threatening anybody outside of their immediate circle of Middle Eastern neighbors.

Iran, on the other hand, is a different story. Once they have mounted those nuclear warheads on the missiles they already have, they can strike far outside the Middle East and deep into Europe. I still feel their first target will be Israel, simply because they know the minute they light up the first nuclear missile, the US will blast them back into the Stone Age. So they have to make that first shot count. It may be their last. Their deep-seated hatred for Israel will not allow them to chance losing an opportunity to visit death and destruction upon the Israelis.

The Europeans have learned nothing from two world wars, nothing. They are still, to this day, attempting to placate their adversaries by bowing and scraping and diplomatically “kissing-up”. They had better wake up and get a grasp on the situation. You see, their perennial protector is sorta busy. The US has its hands full, right now. The US is, as they say, otherwise occupied.

The point of all this rambling is to say simply, it’s time to stop talking with Iran and start doing. Take out a few of their nuclear installations, their enrichment plants, and such. That will get their attention. They do not believe the West has “the stones” for it, so they simply disregard all the diplomatic blather and continue their menacing ways. The quickest way to get them to the negotiating table is to slap them around a little.

It is trite to say, I know, but the Iranians understand power and the application of power. Sad to say, our European cousins, apparently, do not.

So, the US had better hasten their exit from Iraq, so they can get their weapons cleaned and ready for another nasty fight in the desert, one nation over, in Iran.

I mean, after all, who else is there to do it? HUH?


“Longstreet”

An E-Mail I Received Recently

Remember the guy who got on a plane with a bomb built into his shoe and tried to light it? Did you know his trial is over? Did you know he was sentenced? Did you see/hear any of the judge's comments on TV/Radio? Didn't think so. Everyone should hear what the judge had to say.

The ruling was by Judge William Young, US District Court. Prior to sentencing, the Judge asked the defendant if he had anything to say. The defendant's response: After admitting his guilt to the court for the record, Reid also admitted his "allegiance to Osama bin Laden, to Islam, and to the religion of Allah," and he defiantly stated "I think I will not apologize for my actions" and told the court "I am at war with your country."

Judge Young then delivered the statement quoted below. On January 30, 2003, in United States vs. Reid. Judge Young said:
****************

"Mr. Richard C. Reid, hearken now to the sentence the Court imposes upon you. On counts 1, 5 and 6 the Court sentences you to life in prison in the custody of the United States Attorney General. On counts 2, 3, 4 and 7, the Court sentences you to 20 years in prison on each count, the sentence on each count to run consecutive with the other. That's 80 years. On count 8 the Court sentences you to the mandatory 30 years consecutive to the 80 years just imposed. The Court imposes upon you each of the eight counts a fine of $250,000 for the aggregate fine of $2 million.

"The Court accepts the government's recommendation with respect to restitution and orders restitution in the amount of $298.17 to Andre Bousquet and $5,784 to American Airlines. The Court imposes upon you the $800 special assessment. The Court imposes upon you five years supervised release simply because the law requires it. But the life sentences are real life sentences so I need go no further. This is the sentence that is provided for by our statutes. It is a fair and just sentence. It is a righteous sentence.

"Let me explain this to you. We are not afraid of you or any of your terrorist co-conspirators, Mr. Reid. We are Americans. We have been through the fire before. There is all too much war talk here and I say that to everyone with the utmost respect. Here in this court, we deal with individuals as individuals and care for individuals as individuals. As human beings, we reach out for justice. You are not an enemy combatant. You are a terrorist. You are not a soldier in any war. You are a terrorist. To give you that reference, to call you a soldier, gives you far too much stature. Whether it is the officers of government who do it or your attorney who does it, or if you think you are a soldier. You are not----- you are a terrorist. And we do not negotiate with terrorists. We do not meet with terrorists. We do not sign documents with terrorists. We hunt them down one by one and bring them to justice. So war talk is way out of line in this court."

"You are a big fellow. But you are not that big. You're no warrior. I've known warriors. You are a terrorist. A species of criminal that is guilty of multiple attempted murders. In a very real sense, State Trooper Santiago had it right when you first were taken off that plane and into custody and you wondered where the press and where the TV crews were, and he said: "You're no big deal." You are no big deal."

"What your able counsel and what the equally able United States attorneys have grappled with and what I have, as honestly as I know how, tried to grapple with, is why you did something so horrific. What was it that led you here to this courtroom today? I have listened respectfully to what you have to say. And I ask you to search your heart and ask yourself what sort of unfathomable hate led you to do what you are guilty, and admit you are guilty, of doing. And I have an answer for you. It may not satisfy you, but as I search this entire record, it comes as close to understanding as I know."

"It seems to me you hate the one thing that to us is most precious. You hate our freedom. Our individual freedom. Our individual freedom to live as we choose, to come and go as we choose, to believe or not believe as we individually choose. Here, in this society, the very wind carries freedom. It carries it everywhere from sea to shining sea. It is because we prize individual freedom so much that you are here in this beautiful courtroom. So that everyone can see, truly see, that justice is administered fairly, individually, and discretely. It is for freedom's sake that your lawyers are striving so vigorously on your behalf and have filed appeals, will go on in their representation of you before other judges."

"We Americans are all about freedom. Because we all know that the way we treat you, Mr. Reid, is the measure of our own liberties. Make no mistake though. It is yet true that we will bare any burden; pay any price, to preserve our freedoms. Look around this courtroom. Mark it well. The world is not going to long remember what you or I say here. Day after tomorrow, it will be forgotten, but this, however, will long endure."

"Here in this courtroom, and courtrooms all across America, the American people will gather to see that justice, individual justice, justice, not war, individual justice is, in fact, being done. The very President of the United States through his officers will have to come into courtrooms and lay out evidence on which specific matters can be judged and juries of citizens will gather to sit and judge that evidence democratically, to mold and shape and refine our sense of justice."

"See that flag, Mr. Reid? That's the flag of the United States of America. That flag will fly there long after this is all forgotten. That flag stands for freedom. And it always will."

"Mr. Custody Officer. Stand him down."
*********************

So, how much of this Judge's comments did we hear on our TV sets?
We need more judges like Judge Young, but that's another subject.

My thanks to the "UNKNOWN" author of this email.

Longstreet