Thursday, May 02, 2013

Senate Gungrabbers Not Done Yet! ... J. D. Longstreet

Senate Gungrabbers Not Done Yet!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

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Senator Joe Manchin, a democrat of West Virginia, says there was confusion about the gun control bill he and Senator Pat Toomey, a republican of Pennsylvania, introduced in the US Senate recently.  It, of course, failed.

We have warned our readers umpteen times that the leftists are relentless in their grab and grasp for power -- and so it is with gun control.

In a television interview a few days ago, Senator Manchin said he would re-introduce the bill (or a bill similar to the original) that would require criminal and mental health background checks for gun buyers at shows and online.  He appeared convinced that once senators read the bill they will vote in support of it.

The first thing that crossed my mind when I saw this interview was:  "What was the Senator smoking?"  It is clear as a bell that once senators actually read the bill, more will refuse to support it than refused the first time around.  A NEW bill, however, might be something else, altogether.  In any event, gun owners would be wise to stay abreast of the gun control debate going on "sub-Rosa" in the Senate -- and elsewhere -- on Capitol Hill.  

It is also clear that the bill will not be introduced immediately.  Obama and his henchmen need time to beat, bash, and coerce those in the Democratic Party who had the temerity to vote against the Manchin/Toomey Bill.  They will need to be brought back in line by whatever threats -- or bribes -- are necessary.  (Remember how Obama got support for Obamacare???)

So, it is back to the barricades for gun owners in America.  Once again we must man freedom's ramparts to defend our own constitution from the very people who gave us an oath, swore on the Bible, not to do exactly what they are doing.

It is a sad day for America -- and a sad day for the world -- when Americans have to defend themselves -- and their rights -- from their very own government.

Consider this:  "According to a pair of recent polls, for the first time since the 9/11 terrorist hijackings, Americans are more fearful their government will abuse constitutional liberties than fail to keep citizens safe."  SOURCE:  http://www.wnd.com/2013/04/americans-fear-government-more-than-terror/

Even after the Boston bombings, the article goes on the say:  "the polls indicate Americans are hesitant to give up any further freedoms in exchange for increased “security.”

Look.  Even before the Declaration of Independence was written American colonists were reluctant to go against their government.  In that case it was King George and the British Parliament.  The colonists bent over backwards, at least in their own estimation, to avoid a confrontation with the crown.  But it did not work.  It never does when dealing with a tyrant and/or a despot.

Dealing with Obama, and his Marxist/Labor/Democrat Party, modern day Americans have finally arrived at the very same conclusion their ancestors did in the 1700's, which is: this far -- and NO FARTHER!   

By now we are all aware of something one of our esteemed Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin,  wrote:  “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

I'd like to take Franklin's statement a bit farther and quote Edward Gibbon:  “In the end, more than freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all – security, comfort, and freedom. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.”  -- Edward Gibbon (27 April 1737  – 16 January 1794) was an English historian and Member of Parliament.

No matter how many times I read the quote above, I catch myself nodding my head in agreement with the sentiments of Gibbon. It is as though someone held a mirror up to all of America and in it we can clearly see our current reflection.

I invite you to re-read the Gibbon's statement above and instead of the words "Athenians" and "Athens" insert the words "Americans" and "America."  No further explanation is necessary, is it? 

Does it not send cold chills up and down your spine? 

Here's another observation by Edward Gibbons.  It was made concerning the Roman Empire but, much as the quote above, this one, too, looks as if it were actually describing modern day America: 

“The five marks of the Roman decaying culture:

Concern with displaying affluence instead of building wealth;

Obsession with sex and perversions of sex;

Art becomes freakish and sensationalistic instead of creative and original;

Widening disparity between very rich and very poor;

Increased demand to live off the state.”

― Edward Gibbon
SOURCE:  http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/11628.Edward_Gibbon

Another quote from Gibbons comes to mind as I reflect on the under-handed way so much of our legislation is rammed through Congress these days.  It is this: “Corruption, the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty.”
It would seem corruption is something we who live in a constitutional representative republic must expect -- and guard against -- incessantly.

© J. D. Longstreet

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Wednesday, May 01, 2013

Benghazi Lies ... Alan Caruba


Benghazi Lies


By Alan Caruba
At an April 17 session before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the new Secretary of State, John Kerry, lightly dismissed the assassination of a U.S. ambassador and three security personnel in Benghazi, Libya, saying “I don't think anybody lied to anybody. And let's find out exactly, together, what happened, because we need -- we got a lot more important things to move on to and get done.”
This has been the party line of the White House since the attack occurred on September 11, 2012. The initial response was to send out the hapless lackey, then-US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, to tell absurd lies about a video that incited the attack. Even the Libyan president dismissed that.
Operating on the belief that the longer the attack recedes into the past, the less likely it will be a political problem, the administration continues to stonewall. That’s not going to happen. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), speaking on Fox News on April 27 promised “explosive” congressional hearings regarding the Benghazi attack, saying they are “coming soon.”

 Larry Bell, a Forbes columnist, noted that “The House interim report states that ‘reductions of security levels prior to the attacks in Benghazi were approved at the highest levels of the State Department, up to and including Secretary Clinton.’”
A group, Special Operations Speaks, recently sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, raising the following questions:

Why was there no military response to the events in Benghazi?

Were military assets in the region available? If not, why not? If so, were they alerted?

Were assets deployed to any location in preparation for a rescue or recovery attempt?

Was military assistance requested by the Department of State? If so, what type?

Were any US Army/Navy/USMC assets available to support the US diplomats in Benghazi during the attack?

What, if any, recommendations for military action were made by DOD and the US Africa Command?

What, if any, non-military assistance was provided during the attack?

How many US personnel were injured in Benghazi?

Why have the survivors of the attack not been questioned?

Where are the survivors?

Who was in the White House Situation Room (WHSR) during the entire 8-hour period of the attacks, and was a senior US military officer present?

Where were Leon Panetta and General Martin Dempsey during the crisis, and what inputs and recommendations did they make?

Where were Tom Donilon, the National Security Advisor, Denis McDonough, his deputy, Valerie Jarrett, and John Brennan during the attacks, and what (if any) recommendations or decisions did any of them make?

Why were F-16 fighter aircraft based in Aviano, Italy (less than two hours away), never considered a viable option for disruption (if not dispersal) of the attackers until “boots on the ground” (troop support--General Dempsey’s words) arrived?

Were any strike aircraft (such as an AC-130 gunship) in the area or possibly overhead that would cause former SEAL Tyrone Woods to laser-designate his attacker’s position and call for gunship fire support, thereby revealing his own location that led to his death?

Who gave the order to “STAND DOWN” that was heard repeatedly during the attacks?
   
What threat warnings existed before the attack, and what were the DOD and DOS responses to those warnings?

What data (which will reveal exact timelines and command decisions) is contained within the various SITREPS, records, logs, videos and recordings maintained by the myriad DOD, Intelligence Community and State Department Command Centers that were monitoring the events in Benghazi as they unfolded? 

Why did the Commander-in Chief and Secretary of State never once check in during the night to find out the status of the crisis in Benghazi? 

What was the nature of Ambassador Stevens’ business in Benghazi at the time of the attack? 
What guidance has been provided to survivors and family members since the time of the attack, and who issued that guidance?

Why are so many agencies now requiring their personnel who were involved in or have access to information regarding the events that took place in Benghazi sign non-disclosure statements?

“As veterans of Special Operations, we find this deeply troubling.” All Americans should find the Benghazi attack and the total lack of response and seeming indifference to it at the highest levels of our government deeply troubling.

If it turns out that the alleged witnesses to the attack begin to turn up dead that would be especially troubling.

© Alan Caruba, 2013
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Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at "Warning Signs" and shared on dozens of news and opinion websites. His blog recently passed more than 2 million page views. If you love to read, visit his monthly report on new books at Bookviews. For information on his professional skills, Caruba Editorial Services is the place to go! You can find Alan Caruba on both Facebook and Twitter as well.
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Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Obama's Cloward-Piven Strategy Taking Longer Than Expected ... J. D. Longstreet

 Obama's Cloward-Piven Strategy Taking Longer Than Expected
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

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Obama's plan to fundamentally change America by crashing her government and her society and remaking it in the model of a socialist dung heap (Cloward-Piven in a nutshell) is taking longer than had been expected.

See, these pesky conservatives refuse to go away.  We're "hanging in here like a hair in a biscuit!"  Crude?  Yeah.  Accurate?  Darned right!

Think about it.  Obama only has to defeat half the country.  Nearly half of America's citizens pay no taxes and have no "skin in the game."  They could not care less what happens to America so long as those "gov-mint" checks keep showing up in their bank accounts and/or mail boxes.

Unfortunately for the "Progressive/Marxists," America's conservative core will not surrender.

So the Obama revolutionaries push even harder.  They are relentless in their drive to transform America into a communist country and a police state.

The increase in Americans on the government dole is a major part of their scheme.  In fact it is the foundation upon which the plan to collapse the American economy is built.   It is also the corner stone of the strategy to collapse our constitutional representative form of government into a communist "republic," you know, like North Korea. 

Think about it.  Already the Cloward-Piven bunch has captured one half of America's citizens.  The government feeds, clothes, and houses them -- and even gives them a cell phone. -- for FREE!  There is no way under the sun that that 49 percent of Americans will ever support a form of government that demands they work for a living and contribute something, anything, to their country. 

Half of the country is made up of wards of the government/state.  Over the generations, responsibility has been bred and indoctrinated out of them.  They are now, for all intents and purposes, drones.

Generations of families on the dole have established that form of living as the "norm." within the drone community. 

But what about their indoctrination?

In an article by David Kupelian entitled: "Americans 'snapping' by the millions" Mr. Kupelian says the following:  "We need to realize that Americans could not have twice elected a leader as transcendentally unworthy of the presidency as Barack Obama without first having had their minds and hearts captured. Through constant leftist indoctrination, emotional manipulation, ruthless intimidation – and then being rewarded once they have “converted” – perhaps half of the American electorate has been programmed over the course of decades by a subversive school system and equally perverse “news” establishment. Truth be told, both institutions have become full-blown abominations, occupying as they do near-sacred stations of public trust in American civilization." SOURCE:  http://www.wnd.com/2013/04/americans-snapping-by-the-millions/

Mr. Kupelian is spot on.  The Progressive/Marxists have been at this a very long time.  It did not just spring up with Obama.  Obama just happens to be their willing co-conspirator believing, as he does, in the Cloward-Piven Strategy -- and -- having been groomed since childhood for just this task -- at just this time in history.

Years ago, I wrote of the America's roiling rage just below the surface.  With the added weight and effrontery of Obama and Cloward-Piven, with the audacious (even arrogant) behavior of Obama's minions in the various departments of government, that rage is beginning to break through to the surface.  

Stress is the order of the day in America.  Everyone, I mean EVERYONE (except the drone community), is on edge.  Nerves are stretched to the breaking point.  There is a sense that something is about to happen, something that will throw America into chaos.

Firearm sales are at historic levels.  Ammunition has, for the most part, been sold out across the nation.  Ammo dealers and gun dealers have stacks of back orders.  Ammo manufacturers say they are working overtime to turn out as much product as possible and yet, they are unable to meet the demand.

What's happening?  Well, that fifty percent of Americans -- not in Obama's orbit -- are preparing to defend their rights, their constitution.  They are preparing to defend the country many swore to defend in the oaths they took as members of America's military and as police officers, and sheriff's deputies, etc., plus -- the millions of Americans motivated by love of freedom and the determination to fight to preserve the country their ancestors fought, bled, and died to hand down to them.

The atmosphere in America today is electric.  Like the two poles of a magnet, the two political poles repel each other. 

The country is split into two nearly equal halves.  There is a near audible hum emanating from the energy built up on both sides.

The clash, when it comes, will be "biblical" in it's intensity.  Believe me, the scars left from the last American-on-American clash are still visible and still raw after 150 years -- at least in my beloved Dixie.

There is a pressure valve, however, to ease the pressure and stave off a nationwide explosion.  It is the mid-term election in November of 2014.  If we can make it that far without going to war with each other, we may have a chance.    

In order to stop the coming conflict between Americans, voters will have to vote for conservatives to hold the US House of Representatives -- and -- capture the US Senate.  It is the ONLY way to avoid a meltdown and the explosion that will tear the nation apart no matter who "wins" the conflict.

© J. D. Longstreet
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Monday, April 29, 2013

Syria is a "NO Win" for the US ... J. D. Longstreet

Syria is a "NO Win" for the US
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

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Don't know about you, but I haven't lost a cotton-picking thing in Syria! And I am not eager to have the US become entangled in another Middle Eastern civil war in which there are NO GOOD GUYS!

Involvement in the Syrian mess is a no win situation for the US. Any faction we back has the potential to turn the arms we provide them on us -- now or later.

The first thing the White House ought to do, it seems to me, is shut up!  Obama should stop creating so-called "red lines," "lines in the sand,"  and "game changer" scenarios. 

Assad is not afraid of Obama. Hardly anybody is, for that matter.  He is seen world wide as a motor-mouth with no spine to back up his threats.

Obama's pronouncements of future action in Syria are not taken seriously -- and with good reason. His empty threats are now seen as more comical than serious.   Frankly, it makes America look bad internationally, and it embarrasses many of us here at home.

Worst still, it nullifies America's implied power abroad.  Our allies look at us and wonder if we can be trusted any longer.  America's word is in question. To this ole southern boy it is worst, even, than that.  It means our HONOR is in question.

When one looks objectively at the Syrian mess, there simply are no good options for America. 

As the well qualified "armchair general" that I am, I an say without hesitation I see no way to "win" in Syria.  It looks, for all the world, like another Iraq and another Afghanistan.  The scenario I see is that we'd send in thousands of US troops (and materiel), and months, or years, later we leave having spent gobs of our treasure and gallons of our blood only to have Syria revert right back to the mess it is in currently -- even before the dust of our last exiting deuce-and-a-half has settled.

Gone are the days when the American military would land on the beaches of Syria and drive inwards all the way to he borders of Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon, cutting down all before it like a scythe.  That's not going to happen. 

If there is military operations against Syria, it will probably be in the form of cruise missiles lobed from ships standing well out in the Mediterranean Sea so as not to come in contact with Russian warships anchored or cruising just off Syria's shoreline.

There is considerable talk of imposing a "no-fly" zone over a part or parts of Syria.  As I understand it, this would create humanitarian zones in hopes that the Syria refugees now flooding surround countries could stay in relative safety inside their own country without fear of being shot or strafed from the air, bombarded by artillery, or fired upon by missile and rocket firing combat helicopters.

Establishing no-fly zones is not easy. It entails dong extensive damage to the target country's air defense system, likely its air force, most certainly bombing air fields and landing strips and shooting down Syrian aircraft in the air and on the ground, and even clearing and maintaining an artillery free zone for more than a score of miles around the designated humanitarian zone.

And the maintenance of the no fly zone would be extraordinarily expensive for it requires twenty-four hour a day air patrols to insure that, indeed, nothing flies in than zone other than approved aircraft.  It is NOT an easy task.

The US is the world's premier breaking and entering military.  In our own form of blitzkrieg, or "lightening war," we have the ability along with the equipment and the combat tested and hardened troops to smash our way into a country swiftly and violently.

The real warriors in the US military will tell you that imposing a no fly zone anywhere over Syria will, no doubt, be answered by Assad's military, which will then have to be dealt with.  That may, very well, entail US boots on the ground and what every US commander hates -- "mission creep."  Next thing you know, we are in a full blown war in Syria with no pre-planned end game in place.

Taking out, or securing Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons wold be a nightmare.  It would require thousands of US troops on the ground searching for those chemical weapons, which Intel informs has been moved to various locations in the country. 

And what about a coalition of like minded countries joining America in Syria?  Well, according to our newly minted Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel,  there is no appetite for any such coalition at present.  His exact words reportedly were:  "no international or regional consensus on supporting armed intervention now exists."

The British and the French can usually be counted on to watch our backs and, I expect, they'd be right in there with us.  But there is a strong possibility they would be it so far as a coalition is concerned.

It is clear America is edging ever closer to a reluctant military involvement in Syria and this commentator is not convinced the American people are with the President if, that is, he actually does decide to commit militarily to Syria.  I know at least one commentator who is certainly not ready for another Middle Eastern War unless, of course, it is with Iran.

Iran is a whole "nuther story" for another day.

© J. D. Longstreet
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SPOTLIGHT: STATES RIGHTS ON THE MOVE ... JB Williams



SPOTLIGHT:  STATES RIGHTS ON THE MOVE
By JB Williams


After four and a half years in fraudulent federal dictatorship, Barack Obama has managed to stimulate only a few things in America – race and class warfare battles, gun and ammo sales, a $17 trillion public debt, a mass exodus of business investors and jobs heading overseas to “free markets” and a growing fight to enforce States Rights.

As the democrats’ Global Agenda has driven the United States deeper and deeper into Democratic Socialism via federal tyranny, literally unchallenged by DC Republicans who have almost entirely abdicated all congressional authority to both the executive and judicial branches, state legislators are rushing to reclaim their constitutional powers through a plethora of states’ rights legislative measures.

Since the people have no influence in the government of, by and for the people in Washington DC, they are turning to state governments to protect their God-given and constitutionally protected rights. An increasing number of state legislatures are answering that call for action.

In my last piece regarding the new Tennessee Balance of Powers Committee, I announced that the Tennessee State Legislature will soon begin reviewing and dealing with federal abuses of power from the newly formed Balance of Powers Committee. The new committee will meet on May 1st to set the structure and agenda of the committee which will be open to accept issues of concern to the people of Tennessee, and it will begin hearing those matters on August 1, 2013.

But Tennessee is not alone… Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Alaska and other states are answering the same calls for action. North Carolina, Louisiana and other states are following these leads and expect to establish Balance of Powers Committees as well, sometimes referred to as States’ Rights Committees.

These measures were launched in all fifty states back in 2011 by members of The United States Patriots Union, the model legislation drafted by the Constitutional Law Division under the direction of Barbara Ketay. The Patriots Union division has since become The North American Law Center. 

It took these groups three years of sustained effort to gain a foothold for states’ rights in numerous states, now sweeping across the country state-by-state. The people must support these brave representatives of the people, as they take a firm constitutional stand for the people.

These measures have met with significant resistance from both likely and seemingly unlikely sources. 

To no surprise, leftist politicos who believe in and desire unbridled central power in Washington DC, the power to dictate policy to the states even on matters far beyond the constitutional authority of the federal government, or support a One World Global Government concept, oppose these measures with all vigor. 

A Democrat Tennessee House member from Memphis made a fool of himself during the committee hearing for the Balance of Powers Act by saying – Well, I guess what we are saying here is that we don’t need a federal government, the states can just run themselves…. (Paraphrased) In matters not within the constitutional authority of the federal government, that’s exactly right Representative dingbat…

When the Oklahoma states' rights committee recently passed a bill that prohibits cities and counties from adopting any environmental recommendations in the United Nations' Agenda 21 plan, many of those in attendance burst into applause. Some Democrats were not impressed, however…

“Where is Jay Leno when you need him?” said Rep. Mike Shelton of Oklahoma City, one of 29 Democrats in the 101-member state House. “If I didn't know this was reality, I would think this committee was something out of a movie.”

The legal beagles weighed in – “Under Supreme Court precedent, a state doesn't have the power to block the enforcement of federal law inside its borders,” said Joseph Thai, a constitutional law professor at the University of Oklahoma who served as law clerk to Supreme Court Justices John Paul Stevens and Byron White. “Most such measures do not merit serious comment — at least, not after the Civil War,” Thai said.

According to “experts” at so-called conservative think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and Wall Builders, the states lost their sovereignty and their constitutional rights in the Civil War. Although the Civil War ended without a single successful secession from the union, holding in place the US Constitution and Bill of Rights for all states, some somehow misinterpret these events as having destroyed the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

According to these “experts,” the Bill of Rights no longer apply, either due to the Civil War which held these principles and values intact, or due to some almighty Supreme Court precedence, which itself does not carry a constitutional force of law.

In short, these folks believe that the federal government is totally unbridled in its power, that the Supreme Court is the supreme law of the land, that the Constitution and Bill of Rights are dead and that there is nothing the states can do about it… Are they right?
Republican House Speaker Jase Bolger has set himself on a track for defeat in upcoming elections for coming out against the constitutional rights of Michigan. The people of Michigan are furious with the turncoat behavior of their House Speaker and they should be.

State legislators in a growing number of states beg to disagree, and so do the vast majority of American citizens who are fed up with Washington DC running their country into the ground while pretending that the government of, by and for the people -- does not have to listen to the people, nor the states.

Even a self-proclaimed “constitutional scholar” popular with a few fringe liberty groups, foolishly came out against a state balance of powers hours before its hearings. Many self-styled “constitutionalists” have an agenda driven view of our founding principles and values too, usually aimed at little more than self-promotion, of course.

The effort to derail was so childish and misguided that it didn’t even warrant a response, or even public acknowledgement. Needless to say, the author of that attack watched her bills die on arrival as the Balance of Powers moves across the nation with increasing speed.

At the end of the day, no matter the opposition, there are state officials in at least the legislatures (and a few governors’ offices) who hear the cry from the people for a constitutional conscience and the preservation of our inalienable individual rights as well as those of our sovereign states.

Like it or not, states’ rights are now in the spotlight and there will be no pushing these issues to the back burner again. State after state, legislators rush to establish states’ rights committees to check unconstitutional federal overreaches and it isn’t happening a moment too soon.

Now, it will be up to the people in each state to utilize these committees to address federal and even state overreaches of powers that infringe upon the God-given and constitutionally protected rights of the people and their states.

No more letter writing, faxing, emailing, petitioning, protesting or whining. These states have opened the door for average Americans to bring issues before their states’ rights committees for instant redress in a peaceful and lawful manner.

Saving America is not up to the handful of DC politicians who never fail to serve themselves. It is up to the American people, via these state legislative committees and their state governments. That’s how it was intended to be from the beginning, and that’s how it shall be today, or we no longer have a Constitutional Republic.

Thank you to every state legislator who is taking a real stand for the American people at the state level. May God bless their honorable efforts and may the people of each state stand firm with these brave state representatives as they set a course to restore our Constitutional Republic.

“We're a country of citizens and not subjects,” said Oklahoma Republican Rep. Lewis Moore, chairman of the committee. “It is our fault for not acting as citizens all the time.”
To which I say, Amen Rep. Moore, Amen!

For additional information on a Constitutional Balance of Powers in your state, contact The North American Law Center.

JB Williams
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JB Williams is a writer on matters of history and American politics with more than 3000 pieces published over a twenty-year span. He has a decidedly conservative reverence for the Charters of Freedom, the men and women who have paid the price of freedom and liberty for all, and action oriented real-time solutions for modern challenges. He is a Christian, a husband, a father, a researcher, writer and a business owner. He is co-founder of action organizations The United States Patriots Union, a civilian parent organization for The Veteran Defenders of America. He is also co-founder of The North American Law Center, a citizen run investigative legal research and activism organization preparing to take on American's greatest legal battles. Williams receives mail at: jb.uspu@gmail.com
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