Faultline USA

IRS To Administer Obamacare ... J. D. Longstreet

noreply@blogger.com (Longstreet) — Mon, 20 May 2013 04:57:00 +0000

IRS To Administer Obamacare
Be Afraid. Be VERY Afraid!

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
**************

From ABC News we learn the following: "The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation.

Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today." SOURCE: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/05/irs-official-in-charge-during-tea-party-targeting-now-runs-health-care-office/

That bit of news ought to scare you to death!

I find it incomprehensible that anyone, I mean ANYONE, is surprised by the antics at the IRS.

Conservative commentators, conservative groups, conservative political groups have been complaining for years that the IRS was really leaning on them. Now there is irrefutable proof. Heck, the IRS even admitted it!

Now we have the added horror of knowing that this same government agency will be administering our healthcare.

THIS is a NIGHTMARE!

I sincerely hope that all the folks who have joked and made fun of those of us on the right side of the political spectrum as a result of our distrust of big government will finally see exactly what we are afraid of from a strong central government.

All last week, I asked myself this question: If the government is willing to admit THIS overreach, just how deep IS their overreach and what will we find if we continue to dig especially into the depths of the agencies under the direct control of the executive branch of the government. I shudder just thinking about it.

In the same article from ABC News we also learned: "Sen. John Cornyn even introduced a bill, the “Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act of 2013,” which would prohibit the Secretary of the Treasury, or any delegate, including the IRS, from enforcing the Affordable Care Act.

“Now more than ever, we need to prevent the IRS from having any role in Americans’ health care,” Cornyn, R-Texas, stated. “I do not support Obamacare, and after the events of last week, I cannot support giving the IRS any more responsibility or taxpayer dollars to implement a broken law.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also reacted to the revelation late Thursday, stating the news was “stunning, just stunning.” SOURCE: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/05/irs-official-in-charge-during-tea-party-targeting-now-runs-health-care-office/
Look. We can thank God that the AP scandal became public at the same time as the IRS scandal. Had it not, I feel certain we would not have the participation of the leftist Mainstream Media in coverage of the IRS mess. They are heart broken and outraged to learn that their messiah, Obama, could do such a thing to them -- especially them -- as they have worked so diligently to whitewash the Obama administration. Their lapdog-like adoration of Obama either blinded them to his feet of clay, or they have deliberately chosen to drop their facade of unbiased reporting of the news and throw their considerable resources toward advancing Obama's Leftist/Progressive/Marxist agenda for America.

The past four and a half years American consumers of news have been subjected to a gusher of leftist propaganda unlike anything the country has ever known.

Now, however, the low-blow by Obama may, and I say that reservedly, MAY have knocked some sense into them. But it will take some time for the MsM to regain the confidence of their consumers ... if ever they do.

The investigations in Congress will continue and will intensify. This is only the beginning. Whether the end result will be the deconstruction of the Obama presidency, or not, remains to be seen. But investigations of this type have a way of snowballing touching off other investigations by other congressional committees until someone -- somewhere -- breaks and spills the beans.

We have warned of the overreach of Obamacare. Many of you are not going to believe just how deep into your personal affairs the government is going to delve under cover of that monstrous law we call Obamacare.

Hopefully, the hearings on the IRS will bring Americans to their senses enough to bring pressure to bear on the Congress to repeal that godawful law.
This is why the election of 2014 is so important. To repeal Obamacare we will need a Senate AND a House of Representatives to even have a CHANCE of repealing Obamacare. And then, to seal the deal, we must win the Oval Office.

So -- please pay attention to these hearings and learn just what the Obama administration thinks of the American electorate.

This is important, dear reader. America is on the cusp of a constitutional crisis. It could be the crisis that brings America down.

It is imperative that Americans reclaim their country -- before it is too late.

© J. D. Longstreet

Missing America ... J. D. Longstreet

noreply@blogger.com (Longstreet) — Sun, 19 May 2013 11:51:00 +0000

Missing America

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

With Memorial Day and the 4^th of July (celebrated as Independence Day in the United States) fast approaching, scribes all over the nation are dutifully dipping their quills into their inkwells to scribble the obligatory few lines on the topic: “What America Means to me”, again this year, as in every year since, well, since 1776, I suppose.

But, I must confess, I am having difficulty this year. Each time I pull up to the keyboard, and type those few words, I have to confess, my eyes want to tear up and I get that lump in the throat that I used to associate with singing the national anthem and watching the flag march by, proudly held aloft by a veteran of the US Armed Forces. All of you Vets know exactly what I mean. It is a common trait among those of us who have worn our nation’s uniform.

Ah, but this year, this year, the would-be tears are not only for those who have paid the price of our freedom with their body and blood - and sometimes even their sanity, it is for what we, as Americans, as a nation, have lost in recent years.

Near the top of my list of things we Americans have lost is PRIDE. Pride at being an American. Pride that was earned - that was paid for by the men and women who went before me into the jaws of hell and back to free a people in a country the name of which we often could not even pronounce. It was pride earned because Americans were a people who would lend a hand to their fellow man, far away, who yearned to be free from a brutal dictator.

America used to be thought of as a “can-do” nation. It didn’t make a lot of difference what needed doing, America could, and would, do it. It never occurred to us we could fail. I mean, after all, we were AMERICANS! We DON’T FAIL!

It was confidence. Self-confidence, if you will. We were a nation of rugged individualists who did not rely on government for a damned thing. As a matter of fact, the less government we had - the better.

The nation, itself, was founded largely by the outcasts of other nations. Occasionally, other nations would send their criminals here as punishment. I know that is difficult to believe but it happened! They were people who had nothing to lose, with their backs against the wall they had one way to go and that was straight ahead - and the devil take the hind most! Those were the people who formed the bedrock foundation of the people the world would come to know simply as “AMERICANS.” Unique in the history of the planet - there had never been a nation made of people like those Americans. They were different. They knew it and they loved it.

They were a people who wanted their freedom - and so they took it – and they took it from a world superpower, no less. They created an experimental system of government called a constitutional representative republic and made it work! Some 80 years later they fell out, over state’s rights, and split into two separate countries and went to war against each other.

The War for Southern Independence was unlike anything the world had seen before and since. They went at killing each other with workman like precision. On more than one occasion soldiers would cheer and applaud the other side’s bravery in the midst of the battle! More Americans died in that war than in all the wars America has been involved in added together. Some say the way that war ended has much to do with where America finds herself today. I cannot disagree with that. As a result of that war’s ending we stand today as one nation containing two countries made up of 50 separate and sovereign states. At some point it is bound to unravel.

America’s downfall came quickly once it began in the early 1990’s.

I have concluded ignorance is the cause of America’s downfall. We Americans are, as a whole, stupid. We are the least educated, dumbest, society on earth. How else can you account for the people we elected to lead the nation? I mean… just LOOK at that bunch! Now… look at what they have done to the country in just the last few months! There is no easy way to say this – the election of Obama was a huge triumph for ignorance in America. If you STILL do not believe me, stick around for oh, a year, maybe eighteen months, or so, and watch what is going to happen and THEN tell me I am wrong.

Come on folks! Look at the fare on your TV. Most of it is insulting to anyone with a slightly above average IQ. You must understand the comprehension level of the average adult American today is around that of a third grader, or below. The people who produce the garbage on TV have to dumb it down so the average American can understand it! How else are they going to be able to sell it to the networks as vehicles for their commercials?

Our public school system (the government schools, as many now refer to them) is absolutely pathetic. It is a colossal failure. The curriculum has been dumbed down so that we are graduating kids who can barely function in a world that will surely pass them by. We know what is wrong with our schools and we know how to fix them - but we won’t. You must understand that for the government (we now have in America) to continue to control the reins of power they need MORE dumb Americans - not less. Our cookie-cutter schools are turning them out by the millions every year.

So, if you say America has passed her zenith, I certainly would not argue with you. Today’s America is but a caricature of the real America. And I really, really, miss America!

J. D. Longstreet

#IRS Proposed Legislation Update May 18, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Faultline USA) — Sat, 18 May 2013 15:30:00 +0000

This article will be updated as more proposed legislation surfaces. What appears to be clear, however, is that the Democrats are not quite as concerned about IRS overreach as the Republicans seem to be. But then again, when most of your constituents don’t pay income tax, why even bother, right???

Demand Congress Investigate the IRS Scandal!! And keep demanding until the IRS understands who they really work for!

Write to your elected officials every day until they have memorized your name just from their nightmares. Let Your Voice be Heard

Here’s the proposed legislation so far:

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Tom Price, M.D (R-GA) issued the following statement after introducing the Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act of 2013 (H.R. 2009) – legislation that would prohibit the Internal Revenue Service from implementing or enforcing any provisions of the president’s health care law.

According to Dana Loesch on Red State “This is the action we need to see, and need to see quickly. We can’t trust them to regulate tax exemptions without prejudice, so how can we entrust them to do the same with out health care?”

Congressman J. Randy Forbes (VA-04) announced today that he is introducing legislation that would prohibit a massive expansion of the Internal Revenue Service at a time when many Americans are calling into question the integrity of what should be a non-partisan, non-political government agency. The Prevent IRS Overreach Act would prohibit the IRS from hiring any personnel for the purpose of implementing the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The bill introduction comes on the heels of confirmation that the IRS has purposely targeted applicants for tax-exempt status for having “Tea Party” or “Patriot” in their names — demanding confidential donor lists and delaying applications in many cases for years.

Explanation of these two bills (above) from GOP FILES BILLS LIMITING IRS OVERSIGHT OF OBAMACARE

Legislation introduced by GA Rep. Tom Price would block the IRS from implementing or enforcing any part of the ObamaCare law. ”When it comes to an individual’s personal health care decisions, no American should be required to answer to the IRS — an agency that just forfeited its claim to a reputation of impartiality,” Price told The Hill. “It has always been an untenable and unacceptable scenario, and we ought to take this common sense step to take the IRS out of healthcare.

Separate legislation filed by VA Rep. Randy Forbes would prevent the IRS from hiring the estimated 18,000 new agents it needs to enforce the health care law. ”The IRS would be better to police its own than to police the millions of Americans who believe this healthcare law to be bad for their families and bad for our businesses,” Forbes said. NV Sen. Dean Heller is working on similar legislation in the Senate.

Taxpayer Nondiscrimination & Protection Act of 2013

Congressman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) introduced the Taxpayer Nondiscrimination & Protection Act of 2013 on Tuesday that would amend Title 18 of the U.S. code, making it a crime for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to discriminate against anyone (individual or group) based on their constitutionally protected rights of political speech and expression. . .

IRS employees are already prohibited from discriminating against individuals and groups based on protected speech, but this bill would increase the penalty IRS employees could receive. If signed into law, employees, would face a fine of up to $5,000, five years in prison.

Taxpayer Nondiscrimination & Protection Act of 2013, a bill introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) that would add criminal penalties for IRS employees who target political organizations, and the Project Against Ideology-Based Targeting Act, introduced by Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), that would prohibit the IRS from targeting organizations based on ideology.both.

BILL BLOCKS IRS FROM ENFORCING OBAMACARE

According to this article,

Not surprisingly, many House Republicans are enthusiastically backing Price's bill and the congressman said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, intends to introduce the bill on the Senate side. Democrats are not lining up behind the legislation yet, but Price believes some of them might.

Technorati Tags: Congressman Tom Price,Congressman J. Randy Forbes,Congressman Mike Turner,Sen. Marco Rubio,Sen. Jeff Flake,Sen. John Cornyn,H.R. 2009,Prevent IRS Overreach Act,Taxpayer Nondiscrimination & Protection Act of 2013,Project Against Ideology-Based Targeting Act

When YOUR Ox Is Gored ... ... J. D. Longstreet

noreply@blogger.com (Longstreet) — Fri, 17 May 2013 07:31:00 +0000

When YOUR Ox Is Gored ...
Attack of the Lapdogs!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
*****************

WOW! What a turn around! I refer of course, to the repentance of the Mainstream Media. Repentance here is meant in the classic definition: turn around and go the other way. That's what the press has done the past few days. And , yes, it IS remarkable!

It is nigh on to laughable to observe the MSM in high angst going after the Obama administration after learning about the "monitoring" of AP reporters phone calls, both personal and business. It really does depend, I suppose, upon whose ox is being gored.

As long as the Obama White House was persecuting conservatives, and backing and filling the Benghazi cover-up, everything was hunky-dory with the Mainstream Media.

But the moment they (the MsM) become the target of the Obama administration the MsM went ballistic!

You may recall the Fox News Channel was out there, all by itself, on the Benghazi affair for months and months. The MsM just yawned and looked the other way. The IRS harassment of the Tea Party and other conservative groups received only cursory and lukewarm interest amongst the denizens of the press.

But WAIT! The inviolate MsM has been violated by none other than their messiah! Suddenly they feel betrayed -- and with good reason. They HAVE been betrayed.

But -- HEY! Countless times we have warned the leftist press that under a tyrannical government the press would be among the very first targets for censoring, and for ultimate control by the government. Now they have had a taste, just a taste, mind you, of what we have been warning them about for years now. And they seem blind-sided by it all. It is just unbelievable.

As of this writing vast holes have appeared in the circle of wagons around Mr. Obama. And Obama is -- suddenly -- vulnerable.

Hours before this writing the dems were scrambling to find a way -- some way, ANYWAY, to bribe the MsM back into their corner. They began by suggesting that now might be a good time to revisit the proposed reporter/press shield law that made its way ignominiously into the "round file" the last time it reared its head on Capitol Hill.

Judging by the reception of Obama's suggestion, the shield law bribe is not working.

It is gratifying to actually witness the MsM rediscover their purpose. They were to be the people's watchdog over the government. Instead they became the Obama Administration lapdogs. Suddenly they were transformed from reporters to stenographers reporting the White House's -- AND -- the Democratic Party's "talking points" as news.

This loss of their mission not only affected the national media it reached all the way down to community news organizations, as well. As a result, Americans have only seen a white wash of the Obama Administration -- and the Democratic Party -- for the past four and a half years.

What little esteem for the MsM held by those few Americans who actually derived their news from those sources must now feel themselves betrayed, as well. Unarguably they have been deluged by a tsunami of left wing propaganda employed by the west wing f the White House, and various executive departments under the direct or indirect control of the Obama Administration.

Now "the chickens have come home to roost" as a famous religious leader said a number of years ago.

I have no idea where all these scandals will lead, eventually. But understand -- even if an impeachment proceeding is begun, and Obama is impeached in the House of Representatives, it will take a vote by the Democratic Party controlled US Senate to convict Obama and that is about as likely to be successful, as rolling a snowball clear across Hell in the middle of August. It ain't gonna happen.

We're asking ourselves today, if Obama's protective bubble has finally burst, if his Teflon coating as developed a scratch, will we actually get to see Obama for what he truly is before some sort of makeshift barrier is erected to insure that the real Obama is never exposed to the scrutiny of the "low info voters" who put him in office -- not once-- but twice.

This could be a pivotal moment in American history.

"Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely" -- The historian and moralist, who was otherwise known simply as Lord Acton, expressed this opinion in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887:

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."

We Americans must continually guard against the encroachment of tyranny.

© J.D. Longstreet

A North American Union? Really? ... J. D. Longstreet

noreply@blogger.com (Longstreet) — Thu, 16 May 2013 04:10:00 +0000

A North American Union? Really?
Why the government won't seal the southern border
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

**************
Recently, I heard more false claims that the US stole much of the land that is now the southwestern states from Mexico. It’s TOTAL BUNK!

The mainstream media continues to publish those claims without counterbalancing them with the truth. That does two things. It emboldens those perpetrating those false claims against the US – and -- it is accepted as truth by our woefully undereducated citizenry.

Over three years ago we attempted to bring truth to the discussion by explaining that the US did, in fact, purchase that land. It is a matter of historical fact.

As the months have gone by, I have seen no attempt to set the record straight. This, dear reader, is how revisionist history becomes so successful. No one refutes it. It is the first rule of propaganda: tell the lie long enough and loud enough and it will eventually be accepted as truth.

It would seem that is what those groups in the United States, whose aim it is to push AMNESTY for Illegal Aliens legislation through the Congress and onto Obama’s desk for his signature, are endeavoring to do.  We refer, of course, to the new Immigration Reform Bill.   I mean, how can we insist that those people abide by the law and apply for citizenship in the US legally, because, after all, IT IS THEIR LAND.

OK, let’s take another shot at setting the record straight and look at some facts.

First, The Mexican War:

The Mexican War between the United States and Mexico began with a Mexican attack on American troops along the southern border of Texas on Apr. 25, 1846. Fighting ended when U.S. Gen. Winfield Scott occupied Mexico City on Sept. 14, 1847; a few months later a peace treaty was signed (Feb. 2, 1848) at Guadalupe Hidalgo. In addition to recognizing the U.S. annexation of Texas defeated Mexico ceded California and, New Mexico (including all the present-day states of the Southwest) to the United States.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the Mexican War, was signed on February 2, 1848, by Nicholas P. Trist, for the United States, and by a special commission representing the collapsed government of Mexico.

Under the treaty, Mexico ceded to the United States Upper California and New Mexico (including Arizona) and recognized U.S. claims over Texas, with the Rio Grande as its southern boundary. The United States in turn paid Mexico $15,000,000, assumed the claims of American citizens against Mexico, ($3.25 Million) recognized prior land grants in the Southwest, and offered citizenship to any Mexicans residing in the area. Then a few years later, the US bought the land that is now Arizona and New Mexico from Mexico for another 6 million dollars.

Why did we need that additional land?

After the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848, border disputes between the United States and Mexico remained unsettled. Land that now comprises lower Arizona and New Mexico was part of a proposed southern route for a transcontinental railroad. US President Franklin Pierce was convinced by Jefferson Davis, (Later the First President of the Confederate States of America) then the US Secretary of War, to send James Gadsden (who had personal interests in the rail route) to negotiate the Gadsden Purchase with Mexico. Under the resulting agreement, the U.S. paid Mexico $10 million. There was a problem with the money, however: Even though the agreement specified $10 million, the US Congress only agreed to pay $7 million. When the money finally arrived, in Mexico City, $1 million was found to be lost, thus making $6 million the amount Mexico actually got for the sale of that land. Hey, they set the price… we paid it!

Run the numbers and you will find that the US paid Mexico $24,250,000.00 (24 million, two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand) US dollars for the land in the Southwest US which many claim, today, we (The US) stole!

You know, I get a bit tired, and even short-tempered, with folks who attempt to perpetuate an untruth by the act of sheer omission. As a Southerner, I know how that can hurt. To say the US stole all that land in the Southwest is a flat-out lie. So, 24 and-a-quarter-million isn’t much money? Not by today’s standards perhaps, but back in the mid 1800’s we’re talking about somewhere in the area of $600,000,000.00! Now that IS big bucks!

So, next time you hear someone prattling on about how the US stole all the southwestern United States from Mexico, set them straight. Tell them we bought it and paid for it. If they refuse to believe you refer them to the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty and the Gadsden’s Purchase a few years later. It’s all there. It’s a part of history -- a part of history students in the American government schools apparently never hear about.

Of course, the claims that we stole the land from Mexico is all a part of the propaganda being employed to saddle Americans with more undeserved guilt. People who feel guilty will ofttimes respond in the way those prodding them wish them to respond. That is what is hoped for with all the unmitigated garbage heaped on America today.

Actually, as I view the relationship between the US and Mexico today, I have to wonder if there really is a move afoot to combine the three nations of the North American Continent into one nation, or one entity as in, say, the European Union.

Some form of union of America, Mexico, and Canada has been discussed or proposed in academic, business, and political circles for decades now. The NAU (North American Union) is a theoretical economic and political union of Canada, Mexico, and the United States. The concept is loosely based, as we said, on the European Union, occasionally including a common currency called the "Amero" or the North American Dollar. You may read more about this NAU at: SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Union

Before you brush this aside (As I did years ago!), ask yourself why, exactly, is the US government refusing to seal the southern border with Mexico? Why?

I'm tired of supporting the country of Mexico with the billions of US dollars a year pouring into Mexico from Mexican citizens who have burglarized the US. The total amount is staggering.

The US has a huge number of problems these days that must be dealt with. But we must not let our guard down for one minute else an amnesty bill for illegal aliens (The New Immigration Reform Bill) will be passed by the Congress and signed by the President into law.

Eternal vigilance truly is the price of freedom.

© J. D. Longstreet

Obama: unfit for duty

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Davis) — Thu, 16 May 2013 01:17:00 +0000

Obama: unfit for duty

Obama’s Presidency is disintegrating under the weight of numerous scandals that are now plaguing his Administration. As the ringleader of a fanatical group of people, who concocted a sophisticated cover up for the Benghazi massacre, Obama and his minions are now under assault by a Congress that is finally doing its job. New lies and deceitful statements emanate daily from a White House that has no conscience concerning the actions that took place in Benghazi on September 11, 2012. Obama placed the safety of Muslim extremists ahead of four Americans, who could have been saved had he acted appropriately at the time. Our best of the best were told to stand down as bullets and rockets inundated their poorly fortified compound, which became the tomb of the Ambassador and three others. A flood of misrepresentations followed claiming a video was the main reason for the assault, when the World knew otherwise. Recent Congressional hearings have added substance to most of our suspicions that Obama’s position on Benghazi was a fabrication to prevent the truth from becoming known before the 2012 Presidential Election. Information Americans should have had within days of the carnage surfaced when several so-called whistleblowers came forward recently. On fear of reprisal, they provided testimony that was both shocking and tragic which directly contradicted the Administration’s account of the massacre. Inaction by the President on 9/11 and the subsequent cover up should be sufficient to draw an impeachment panel to investigate the potential to bring the President to trial before the Senate. Adding fuel to the proverbial fire, in the last several weeks numerous other scandals have surfaced with equal potential to bring charges against President Obama. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officials targeted conservative groups, religious organizations and other right wing associations in an attempt to suppress their activities. Daily, more groups are coming forward with stories of intimidation from the IRS, which are reminiscent of activities instigated by the Nixon Administration. These activities come with one caveat, this time they are more widespread. The ultimate reason for hammering conservative groups was to assure an Obama win last year. In the event the latter two scandals were not sufficient, staff from the Department of Justice (DOJ) secretly obtained two months of phone records from various reporters and editors at the Associated Press. This is an unheard of intrusion into the privacy of the media, which will generate more Congressional hearings. Obama’s inability to manage day-to-day operations of the government has been apparent since he took office. Media, blinded by their left wing egos, gave the President a pass on each screw up, by him, that came to light. Worse, a population dependent on Obama for their weekly and month checks looked the other way as the nation sunk further into economic oblivion. How much more depravity and dishonesty will the sensible portion of the population absorb before they demand his removal? Rumblings of impeachment have been reported around the not so quiet halls of Congress. Since recall is not option in the law, then only impeachment can resolve the ultimate problem of removing a wayward President. From this perch I believe these scandals will be whitewashed. Let us hope the latter does not come to pass. Mark Davis MD, President of Healthnets Review Services, www.healthnetsreviewservices.com, platomd@gmail.com. Author of the book Demons of Democracy and the forthcoming book, Obamacare: Dead on Arrival, A Prescription for Disaster. Manager of the group on LinkedIn, Government in Transition.

The depths of the scandalous Benghazi episode are becoming clear

noreply@blogger.com (James Shott) — Tue, 14 May 2013 15:04:00 +0000

The following timeline of events is what we know about the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya:

• April 5, 2011: Christopher Stevens arrives in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi to forge ties with the forces battling Moammar Gadhafi. President Obama appoints him as ambassador to Libya on May 22, 2012.

• February: The U.S. embassy requests and is granted a four-month extension, until August, of a Tripoli-based “site security team” composed of 16 special forces soldiers who provide security, medical and communications support to the embassy.

• March: State Department Regional Security Officer Eric Nordstrom sends a cable to Washington asking for additional diplomatic security agents for Benghazi, and later says he received no response. He repeats his request in July and again gets no response.

• April 6: Two fired Libyan security guards throw an IED over the consulate fence.

• May 22: An Islamist attack on the Red Cross office in Benghazi is followed by a Facebook post that warns “now we are preparing a message for the Americans,” and another a month later highlights Ambassador Stevens’ daily jogs in Tripoli in an apparent threat. The Red Cross closed the office.

• June 6: Unknown assailants blow a hole in the consulate’s north gate described by a witness as “big enough for 40 men to go through,” and four days later, the British ambassador’s car is ambushed by militants with a rocket-propelled grenade. The British close the consulate soon thereafter.

• July: The anti-Islam video “Innocence of Muslims” is posted on You Tube.

• Aug. 14: The US security team leaves Libya, despite Ambassador Steven’s desire that they remain, according to team leader Lt. Col. Andy Wood.

• In the weeks before Sept. 11, Libyan security guards are reportedly warned by family members of an impending attack. On Sept. 8, the Libyan militia tasked with protecting the consulate warns U.S. diplomats that the security situation is “frightening.”

• Sept. 10: Al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri calls on Libyans to avenge the death of his Libyan deputy, Abu Yahya al Libi, killed in a June drone strike in Pakistan.

The next night, Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans, including two who disobeyed orders and came to help defend the consulate, are murdered in an attack that was unquestionably not the result of an obscure anti-Islam video.

Even dedicated Obama apologists cannot ignore the evident rising danger leading up to Sept. 11 that included violence serious enough to close the Red Cross office and the British consulate, and the direct violent attacks on the US consulate, and yet the needed and requested security enhancements were not provided.

It gets worse. From The Hill: "High-level staffers removed vital pieces of information tying terrorist organizations to attacks. They knew early on that radical Islamic terrorists participated in the attack. The former Deputy Chief of Mission to Libya, Gregory Hicks, said in the [Congressional] hearing, 'none of us should ever again experience what we went through in Tripoli and Benghazi on 9/11/2012.' He went on to say he had personally told former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at 2 a.m. the night of the attack that it was a terrorist attack. Gregory Hicks also testified that Secretary Clinton's claiming the attack was incited by a YouTube video caused Libyan officials to hinder the FBI's arrival to the scene." For his forthrightness Mr. Hicks was demoted by the State Department.

Some question the veracity of the three witnesses who testified at the Oversight & Government Reform Committee. This is a predictable, if foolish, effort to discredit these witnesses. But these people are not bystanders; they are not people who are going to report on hearsay; they are not political operatives. In fact, Gregory Hicks is a registered Democrat who supported Hillary Clinton in the 2008 primary. These people were directly involved in different capacities before, during and after the attack. They are totally credible, and deserve not only our respect and appreciation, but our attention to their message.

So what went wrong? There are three possibilities: massive bureaucratic incompetence; the administration was asleep at the wheel; or the administration put political considerations ahead of doing the right thing. Negative repercussions of an Islamist terrorist attack on a US facility on the iconic date of Sept. 11, right before a presidential election, drove the administration to concoct an implausible scenario to try to deflect attention from the reality that al-Qaeda had indeed not been vanquished, contrary to Barack Obama's boasting to the contrary.

In answer to Hillary Clinton's asinine question: "What difference ... does it make?" It makes a huge difference. Four people died as a result of your and/or the administration's mishandling of this event, Ms. Clinton, and the people you worked for deserve to know who screwed up, and why.

We hired Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and every other public servant to act in the best interest of the American people and the nation, and expect them to put their personal political considerations aside. That clearly did not happen in Benghazi. There is no greater disservice.

Drone Attacks Dishonorable ... J. D. Longstreet

noreply@blogger.com (Longstreet) — Tue, 14 May 2013 05:28:00 +0000

Drone Attacks Dishonorable
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
**************

Allow me to state, up front, I expect to catch a lot of flack for these comments. But I have a burr under my saddle and I'm going to pluck it out.

America's use of drones to kill her enemies does not sit well with me. It's distasteful to me and most of all -- it strikes me as being dishonorable.

OK. I have been accused of being a "throwback" to an earlier age, and I won't argue that, at all. I'll go a step farther and tell you that I find little to admire about the current age and still farther to say that -- yes, I remember when America acted with honor both at home and abroad, with her citizens as well as with her enemies.

So far as I am concerned killing a terrorist with a drone is equal to placing a bomb beneath his vehicle or shooting him in the back. I don't like either.

I understand that chivalry is dead, long dead. But do we have to shed what little honor we have remaining, as well? And I understand, too, that looking the enemy in the eye as he slips his blade between the hapless opponent's ribs is pretty much the work of our Special Forces these days. Old school? You bet. Effective? Heck, yes! And ... it is honorable.

I have not been able to get past the belief that we are choosing to kill our terrorist enemies rather than capture them and then have to imprison them. Prisoners cost money, lots of money. Dead men in the desert cost nothing -- once the ordinance is dropped on them.

But -- we can LEARN NOTHING from a dead terrorist, either.   No intelligence is gleaned from a dead terrorist. I have to ask -- what might we have learned from the stack of dead bodies littering the Middle East? Maybe nothing. But now we will never know. Heck, we don't even know what we DON'T know!

Consider this from an article by David Bell in the New Republic entitled: "In Defense of Drones: A Historical Argument" Mr. Bell writes: "With its explicit embrace of advanced technology over traditional methods of combat, the strategy seems designed to provoke the increasingly vocal critics who doubt the morality, effectiveness, and political implications of “remote control warfare.” Notre Dame law professor Mary Ellen O’Connell, making the inevitable comparison to video games, has argued that “to accept killing far from the situation of battlefields where there is an understanding of necessity is really ethically troubling.” The Economist, hardly a bastion of radicalism, has similarly asked: “if war can be waged by one side without any risk to the life and limb of its combatants, has a vital form of restraint been removed?” And just last week in The New York Times, Peter W. Singer of the Brookings Institution called unmanned systems “a technology that removes the last political barriers to war”—and thereby undermines democracy—because it allows politicians to take aggressive military action without having to face the electoral consequences of young Americans coming home in coffins." SOURCE: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/100113/obama-military-foreign-policy-technology-drones#

The article goes on to say: "There is nothing new about military leaders exploiting technology for this purpose. And, for that matter, there is nothing new about criticizing such technology as potentially immoral or dishonorable. In fact, both remote control warfare, and the queasy feelings it arouses in many observers, are best seen as parts of a classic, and very old history." SOURCE:   http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/100113/obama-military-foreign-policy-technology-drones#

Mr. Bell goes on to say: " ... Drones are not cruise missiles, or shells fired by Big Bertha. They are controllable, and are explicitly designed to allow the military to target opposing forces as carefully as possible. Of course, targeting raises its own set of questions: War that takes the form of a campaign of assassination is both morally problematic and politically counter-productive." (Emphasis by underlining is mine.) SOURCE: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/100113/obama-military-foreign-policy-technology-drones#

In an article by Akbar Ahmed and Lawrence Wilkerson in "The Guardian" entitled "Dealing remote-control drone death, the US has lost its moral compass," the authors state: "The warrior ethos may be largely a myth but, like most myths, it protects something very important: the psychology of killing in the name of the state. That killing becomes nothing less than murder when the soldier doing it is utterly invulnerable. Most US citizens, so long divorced from any responsibility to take up arms and fight and kill, do not understand this. Soldiers – good ones – do. (Emphasis by underlining is mine.)Such understanding was behind the recent cancellation by Secretary of Defense Hagel of the valor award for drone operators."
SOURCE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/04/drone-death-us-moral-compass

The authors go on to state that the use of drones is making war into murder and creating more problems than it is solving.

Let me be clear here. I am not pleading a case for the terrorists. I am pleading a case for America.

I, too, want the terrorists dead and gone, or at the very least imprisoned. My concern is for the damage we MAY be doing to the soul of America.

In the final analysis, maybe it's just me, as my wife would surely say. Maybe I'm just an old veteran who has grown soft in my waning years. Whatever the answer, I can tell you, without hesitation, that I do not like what America is becoming.

The use of drones instead of living, breathing, soldiers does not sit well, with me. I still prefer the exclamation "Send in the Marines" over "Launch a drone."

But understand this, America. As long as politicians can wage war without having to face an angry electorate when those silver coffins begin arriving at Dover Air Force base, you can bet they will continue to do it, even increasing the frequency of attacks around the globe. And, too, as long as the Obama administration's policy is to "lead from the rear" those drones will continue to wreak death and destruction all over the world.

But -- there WILL be "blow back." At some time -- and at some place -- a reckoning will be exacted. We may find that we are saving American lives through drone usage only to lose them to the enemy's asymmetrical warfare on our own shores.

No matter what I think, drone technology, and its usage, is here to stay. I, and those who agree with me, will just have to learn to live with it.

I think I'll go take a shower.

© J. D. Longstreet

Rubio's immigration legislation is Obamacare on steroids

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Davis) — Tue, 14 May 2013 02:11:00 +0000

Rubio’s immigration legislation is Obamacare on steroids

Americans should get ready for the newest affliction from Washington D.C. This time it is in the form of immigration legislation. As porous as our borders are presently, this monstrous legislation will enable a deluge of immigrants to flow into this country. Marco Rubio, a Republican Senator from the Great State of Florida, is spearheading the push to move this legislation forward. Commercials have already appeared noting this legislation as a cure-all to all the prior failed immigration laws and policies that preceded it. Three decades ago one of our best presidents, Ronald Reagan, made a concerted effort to stem the flow of illegals from south of the border, it failed. Since then a hodge-podge of remedies have been attempted to bring sanity to the immigration process. They also failed. Senator Rubio has been all over the media touting the virtues of his program that disadvantages American citizens over their illegal counterparts. A version of this pending legislation is revised weekly to keep current with its critics’ analysis. Volumetrically, this bill contains 867 pages with references to more waivers, exemptions and exceptions per page than its big brother, Obamacare. For complexity it contains a dazzling array of tenets that could baffle the most rational mind. With such a variety of paths to by-pass the restrictions in the core bill, one can only extrapolate that it was deviously prepared this way for a reason. According to reports, Rubio claims border control will improve, more sensible approaches to the illegals already on our soil will come into being and future arrivals will be given an easier path to citizenship. From closer inspection of this newest offering from Congress, the antithesis will occur. Illegals will be able to bring their families here with much less effort than before, potentially doubling and or tripling their present numbers. Management of the borders are taken out of the hands of those who perform these heroic actions, and given over to government lackeys to do as they choose. We are told by Rubio that; entitlements will not be available to illegals, that fines will be paid by those who have trespassed on our soil and this illicit populous will be able to stay in this nation with multiple conditions of their heads. Once you absorb this surrealistic presentation, a normal mind would come to the same conclusion as his or her brethren, that Rubio is full of chicken feathers. This monster should not pass either house of Congress or anywhere near yours. Trillions is the price tag for a legislation that is doomed to fail like its predecessors. Conservative media voices are already lining up to support this egregious bill without understanding its true nature. In the event there is any sensibility left in Congress, this legislation, in its present form, should be defeated and buried in the landfill from which it originated. Rubio is being disingenuous with the American Public concerning the contents of his legislative initiative. As a result, his political career will suffer tremedously. His elementary approach to this complex issue displays he is not ready for primetime. Mark Davis, MD, President of Healthnets Review Services, www.healthnetsreviewservices.com. platomd@gmail.com. Author of Demons of Democracy and the forthcoming book, Obamacare: Dead on Arrival, A Prescription for Disaster. Manager of the group on LikedIn, Government in Transition: join, comment and debate some of the finest minds.

Beware the Dictators of Virtue

noreply@blogger.com (Findalis) — Mon, 13 May 2013 13:39:00 +0000

Stolen (With permission) from Patriot's Corner

This article was so good, that I had to share it here in its entirety. Credit goes to Daniel Greenfield (AKA Sultan Knish), and the original can be found on Daniel Greenfield (AKA Sultan Knish), and the original can be found here.

************************************************************

America is becoming a more tolerant nation, we are told. Each new thing that we learn to tolerate makes us more progressive. But tolerance is a relative thing. For every new thing we learn to tolerate, there is a thing that we must stop tolerating.

Tolerance can only be allocated to so many places. The balance of tolerance and intolerance remains the same no matter how progressive a society becomes. A tolerant society only allocates its intolerance differently.

America today tolerates different things. It tolerates little boys dressing up as little girls at school, but not little boys pointing pencils and making machine gun noises on the playground.

The little boy whose mother dressed him up in girlish clothes once used to be a figure of contempt while the little boy pretending to be a marine was the future of the nation. Now the boy in the dress is the future of the nation having joined an identity group while the aspiring little marine is suspected of one day trading in his sharpened pencil for an assault rifle as soon as the next gun show comes to town.

The Duke of Wellington once said that the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton. What battles will the boys playing on the playgrounds where dodgeball is banned and finger guns are a crime win and what sort of nation will they be fighting to protect? The trouble with tolerance is that there is always someone deciding what to tolerate. A free society does not tolerate people; it allows them to live their own values. And a tolerant society is not free. It is a dictatorship of virtue that is intolerant toward established values in order to better tolerate formerly intolerable values.

A free society does not tell people of any religion or no religion what to believe. A tolerant society forces them all to pay for abortions because its dictators of virtue have decided that the time has come to teach this lesson in tolerance. An open society finds wisdom in its own uncertainty. A tolerant society, like a teenager, is certain that it already knows all the answers and lacks only the means of imposing them on others. It confuses its destruction of the past with progress and its sense of insecurity with righteousness.

To the tolerant, intolerance is the most powerful act possible. They solve problems by refusing to tolerate them. School shootings are carried out with guns and so the administrative denizens of the gun-free zones run campaigns of intolerance toward the physical existence of guns, the owners of guns, the manufacturers of guns, the civil rights groups that defend gun ownership and eventually toward John Puckle, Samuel Colt, John Moses Browning and the 82nd element in the periodic table.

None of this accomplishes a single practical thing, but it is an assertion of values. The paranoid mindset that cracks down on little boys who chew pop tarts into deadly shapes, little boys who point pencils and fingers at each other, is not out to stop school shootings, but is struggling to assert the intolerance of its tolerant value system over the reality of violence. It’s not about preventing school shootings, but about asserting a value system in which there is no place for the aspiring marine, unless he’s handing out food to starving children in Africa in a relief operation or serving as a model of gay marriage to rural America.

To understand the NRA’s argument about the moral value of a gun deriving from the moral value of the wielder would require a worldview that is more willing to accept a continuum of shades, rather than criminalizing pencils and pop tarts for guilt by geometric association. A free society could do that, but a tolerant society, in which everything must be assigned an unchanging value to determine whether it will be tolerated and enforced or not tolerated and outlawed, cannot.

That is as true of Newtown as it is of Boston. The same tolerant liberalism that can see deadly menace in a pencil or a pop tart is blind to the lethal threat of a Chechen Islamist. If a gun is innately evil, then a member of a minority group, especially a persecuted one, is innately good. In the real world, it may take bad guns to stop good Muslims, but the system just doubles down on encouraging students to recite the Islamic declaration of faith while suspending them for chewing their pop tarts the wrong way. Liberal values are at odds with reality and they are not about to let reality win. In their more tolerant nation, there is more room than ever for little boys who dream of one day setting off pressure cooker bombs at public events in the name of their religion, but very little room for little boys dreaming of being the ones to stop them.

The little boy in a dress has put on the uniform of tolerance while the little boy making rat tat noises with a pencil is showing strong signs of playing for the wrong team. The wrong team is the one that solves problems by shooting people, rather than writing denunciations of them to the tolerance department of diversity.

The complainer is the hero and the doer is the villain. Reporters and lawyers are the heroes because they are the arbiters of tolerance. Soldiers and police officers are the gun-happy villains because they respond to realities, rather than identities. They unthinkingly shoot without understanding the subtext.

A free society is practical. It acts in its own defense. A tolerant society acts to assert its values. The former fights terrorists and murderers, while the latter lets them go to show off its tolerant values.

This is the clash of values that holds true on the playground and on the battlefield of war. On the playground, little boys are suspended for waving around pencils and on the battlefield, soldiers are ordered not to defend themselves so that their country can win the hearts and minds of the locals in the endless Afghan Valentine’s Day that has stacked up a horrifying toll of bodies. In their cities, men and women are told to be tolerant, to extend every courtesy and to suspect nothing of the friendly Islamists in their neighborhoods. It is better to be blown up as a tolerant society, they are told, than to point the pop tart of intolerance on the great playground of the nanny state.

Painful Possibilities of Obamacare ... J. D. Longstreet

noreply@blogger.com (Longstreet) — Mon, 13 May 2013 07:08:00 +0000

Painful Possibilities of Obamacare
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
******************************

In an article at http://www.express.co.uk we learn the following:

"THOUSANDS of Britons are carrying out DIY (Do It Yourself) dentistry, pulling their own teeth with pliers and using household glue to stick down fillings.

Unable to afford soaring charges, almost a fifth of people have all but given up going to their dentist, the Sunday Express has discovered.

There has been a surge in sales of dental kits at pharmacies including chemicals to whiten teeth.

Experts say that up to 200,000 DIY dentists risk injuring themselves and missing out on potentially life-saving check-ups.

Up to a third of adults no longer have an NHS (National Health Service) dentist, according to the latest figures.

Gulf War veteran Ian Boynton, 46, from Woodmansey, East Yorkshire, pulled out 13 of his teeth with pliers because he was in agony and could not find an NHS (National Health Service) dentist to treat him.

In another case a 46-year-old man from Wandsworth, south London, needed major surgery after he stuck a crown into his mouth with super glue which rotted the bone in his gum.

Other DIY dentists have whitened teeth with household cleaning products and popped ulcers with pins." SOURCE: http://www.express.co.uk/news/health/399032/Now-we-pull-out-our-own-teeth-Boom-in-DIY-dental-kits-as-patients-cannot-afford-NHS-fees

Is this where Obamacare will eventually take American health care? I believe it is.

I am asked, occasionally, why I still harp on Obamacare so much. The answer is simple. America was sold a bill of goods. I should probably qualify that last statement. Only those Americans who bought into the idea of Obamacare, as Obama and the liberal-socialists who make up the modern Democratic Party presented it, were hoodwinked. Most clear-thinking adult human beings saw through the scam from the beginning and warned and warned and WARNED against it. We TOLD you what it was -- and is -- and we told you what it would do to America, as a whole, and to you and I as individuals.

Obamacare is a lie, dear reader, one of the biggest lies ever told the American people and one of the biggest lies/hoaxes ever perpetrated upon any nation on the globe. It was -- and is -- a grand “CON.” It is founded on Marxism and is, in fact, Socialism. But it is more than that – much more. It brings America to the threshold of becoming a police state.

Oh, uh, gun owners... you're not going to like Obamacare. Here's why. Under Obamacare there is a strong likelihood that if you own a gun you will not get healthcare insurance.

Far-fetched, you say? Maybe. Before you decide definitively for yourself, check out this article at the Washington Times entitled "U.S. quietly begins to study gun safety." You'll find it here: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/19/nih-funds-study-of-teen-firearms/?page=all

And then read this article entitled: "Stealth Agencies for Gun Control" at: http://karendecoster.com/stealth-agencies-for-gun-control.html

Why would the national HEALTH agency (NIH) be studying gun control issues or any issue having to do with guns? I mean, after all -- it is a HEALTH agency, right? Their intention, I believe, is to fix solidly in the collective mind of the public that guns (and gun control) is actually, a HEALTH issue. It's a lie, of course. But tell a lie long enough and people begin to believe it.

With the extension of government control into the everyday lives of American citizens, which Obamacare will certainly do, it will provide the perfect vehicle for gun control.
By establishing gun violence as a health issue it will fall within the purview of the universal health care laws. Once that is done, it is a very simple step, indeed, to declare that an Obamacare Policy holder who owns guns, even for self-protection in the home, does not qualify for national healthcare. Turn in your guns and get your healthcare, or keep your guns and don’t get healthcare.

Wait a minute! It will be against the law not to have healthcare, so you must turn in your guns or be fined, and not have healthcare, or heavens forbid, go to jail and not have healthcare… or simply turn in your guns and have healthcare and all is well. See? Is it clear now?

OK. So maybe not. But I think you begin to understand why it has gun owners across the nation, and a few in Congress worried.

Here's a snippet from the article by Karen De Coster we mentioned above: “But in the end, even the CDC couldn’t make its research work in favor of its agenda. Its own studies could not link gun control laws to the reduction of crime. Nevertheless, any time the government studies “gun safety,” you know that in spite of the fact that all the research in the world will not support its end goal of the necessity of disarmament, the aim is to produce enough information, studies, and opinions to influence the public against gun ownership and persuade them to internalize the emotional aspect of the issue, thereby leading them to despise guns, distrust gun owners, and desire more government intervention to make gun ownership more difficult.

The anti-gun movement is built on pure emotion – hating guns and being afraid of guns – so building perception among the masses through fear mongering and emotional coercion is much more essential, and uncomplicated, than actually proving a hard case through a mishmash of statistics.”

Obamacare is the law of the land. Until we have a veto proof conservative Congress, or a conservative controlled Congress AND President, we have no hope of riding ourselves of this plague. The best we can hope for is that the Republican House of Representatives will "starve" Obamacare by cutting off funds for various elements of the law, or at least decreasing funding for it.

Obamacare is ALL about POWER for the government and SERFDOM for the American people. It always has been.

In the past few weeks and months we have seen State legislatures reassert themselves as sovereign states and begin to nullify federal laws within their states as my native state of South Carolina did just days ago. It won't work, of course, because of the "Supremacy Clause" of the US Constitution, but it allows the states to state publicly -- and for the record -- where they stand on Obamacare. And another thing: It demonstrates to the world, just exactly where those states stand in the fight for the preservation of freedom in America.

It is going to get a lot uglier, dear reader, when the federal government decides it must use force to motivate the states to obey those laws the states say are unconstitutional. But, just as we warned way back in 2007 and 2008, THIS is what a nation gets when it opts for socialism and elects a socialist as President and hands over the reins of the Congress to socialists as well.

Ready to do something about it? Keep the pressure on your Congressperson and your Senators. Hold their feet to the fire. There's an election coming in November of 2014 a little over a year and a half from right now. Let them know you will be voting for the candidate supporting the repeal of Obamacare. Be ready.

© J. D. Longstreet

The Gray Riders Remain ... J. D. Longstreet

noreply@blogger.com (Longstreet) — Sat, 11 May 2013 07:21:00 +0000

The Gray Riders Remain
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
***********************

The Confederate Soldier has been slandered and libeled for 150 years. Those who would drag his name through the muck and mire are still at it… full throttle.

Organizations who claim roots to slavery in this country (whether their ancestors arrived before, or after, 1865, it doesn’t seem to matter) deride the SCV and that beautiful old battlefield emblem the Confederate Battle Flag.

It would seem that the truth doesn’t matter. Their hatred for all things Confederate even includes some of their own ancestors, as it is a fact that African-Americans served in the armed forces of the Confederacy. We know this. We can prove this. But try to convince the campus elite who gain favor with minorities for lambasting all things Southern. The fact that blacks served in the Confederate armed forces can be documented… means nothing. They have made up their minds and we have been unable to dent their armor of ignorance.

There is hardly a day that goes by that we don’t hear of, or read of, an incident involving a Confederate symbol of some kind, which has offended somebody.   Our limp wristed, jello-spined, politicians come down on the side of the complainant rather than on the side of truth. That leaves the southerner, the direct ancestors of the brave men of the Confederacy, to slowly twist in the wind, as we become targets for the real bigots and the real racists in America today.

When I was a boy there was a popular song with these lyrics: “Save your Confederate money boys, the South’s gonna rise, again!” Well, the South has risen again. Today the South is arguably the most prosperous part of the country. Very much as it was in the 1850’s the South has come under fire again, as a result of envy. Other Americans are jealous of our prosperity, even of our mild climate, of our tenacious hold on our history and our honor.

We have thousands of visitors to this fair part of the USA from “other” parts of the country. Unfortunately, they do not return the courtesy, nor the hospitality, offered them, here, by the native Southerners.

Look, down here, if you go… to visit another man… in his house… you don’t criticize the furnishings of that home. You don’t complain when he says grace over his food and invokes the blessings of God on his family and the guests in his home. You don’t complain about the way he does things, or doesn’t do things. We Southerners understand that a person’s home is his, well, his HOME. We keep any complaints we have to ourselves.

Unfortunately, the influx of “others” into our fair homeland has brought clash after clash as the visitors complain about nearly everything Southern. The question immediately comes to mind; if they are so dissatisfied with the way we do things here… why did they come down here to begin with?

The thing that really burns me up is that a good number of Southerners who have been indoctrinated in our schools and universities will agree with them. These mis-led Southerners don’t know their history. They don’t know who they are.   They have no appreciation for the trials and tribulations the South has met, head on, and triumphed over.

All they know about the so-called “Civil War” is that the North was good and the South was bad because the South had slaves. Nobody bothered to tell them, during that expensive education their Southern parents paid for, that Slavery was LEGAL… that the North had slaves, too. Nobody bothered to tell them that the north controlled the slave industry out of the New England states with their fleets of slave ships and their hundreds of rum distilleries which produced the rum with which they purchased the slaves from other Africans, and Arabs, in Africa. They don’t know how the South was bled nearly dry, by the Federal government, to keep the US afloat economically.

The story is told that when a politician asked Lincoln why he didn’t just let the South go, he replied: “but who would pay for the government!”

As the years go by and we become more distant from the great War for Southern Independence, as the intellectuals on our college campuses re-write history to suit themselves, and as the Politically Correct crowd continues to push their agenda to trivialize all things Southern, we are losing sight of our Southern heroes. Their historic deeds are being buried. Our Southern icons, such as the Confederate Battle Flag, are being hidden from public sight. The old song Dixie can no longer be sung in public.

Things have surely changed. I can remember that as a lad in High school, on Friday nights, when the community gathered at the local High School for the weekly football game, the crowd would stand as the Star Spangled Banner was played by the school band   and the crowd would remain standing as the wonderful song “Dixie” was followed hot on the heels of the first national anthem. Then a great round of applause would roll through the stadium and the game would begin.

Many Southern schools, today, forbid the wearing of any piece of clothing with a Confederate icon -- of any kind -- on it.

Just a few hundred yards from one such Southern high school is a mass grave of American Revolutionary soldiers massacred by the British Cavalry Commander Banastre Tarleton as they dared to fight the British Crown for our right to free speech. It is a right those men, who were the grandfathers of the Confederate soldiers, were willing to die for. It is a right denied us, as ancestors of the Confederate soldier, today -- AND -- a right those kids, (just down the road from that huge mound which holds the remains of the men who were willing to fight and die for that freedom) are not allowed in order to express their pride in their heritage.

Please remember THAT when you open your news papers and see that another southern child has been sent home from school for wearing a piece of apparel with a Confederate flag on it. Remember THAT when your see the Confederate Battle Flag removed from State House domes. Remember it when you see Confederate Battle Flags flying over the graves of Confederate Veterans ordered taken down. I beg you… do not turn away when these things happen. Let your voice be heard. It is our Southern Heroes whose honor is being denigrated. It is our family they are calling traitors. It is our great grandfather, or great, great grandfather, they slander in this way.

On behalf of all those men lying in forgotten graves, in small family cemeteries, all over the Southland and those buried in the finest cemeteries in the South, I thank the SCV for not forgetting. I thank the SCV for not allowing our heritage to be taken away from us. I thank the SCV for demonstrating, to the world, that the Southern spirit still lives in our hearts. For we will not bend, and we will not bow, but we will hold our heads high as proud Sons of the South, as Sons of Confederate Veterans, as proud descendents of those men who wore the gray.    Remember them always, for they are our family.

The unknown poet has said:

“The Gray Riders are gone, yet they remain
asleep in our soil, and alive in our veins!
Untouched by the fire, untouched by the frost,
they whisper within us…. OUR CAUSE IS NOT LOST!”

© J. D. Longstreet

Today is Confederate Memorial Day in the Carolinas ... J. D. Longstreet

noreply@blogger.com (Longstreet) — Fri, 10 May 2013 07:20:00 +0000

Today is Confederate Memorial Day in the Carolinas
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
********************************

Today, May 10th, in North Carolina and South Carolina, is Confederate Memorial Day.

I am reminded of the local “Sons of Confederate Veterans” Confederate Memorial Day celebration, which I attend every year. When last I spoke to the gathering I spoke of the Confederate Soldier, or as I sometimes refer to them, the “Southern Knights.”

As it was a celebration of the southern warrior, I spoke on the attributes of the Confederate soldier… who he was, what he was like, what he did, what he felt, why he did what he did, and why he felt he MUST do what he did, and so on, and so forth.

When one studies the Confederate soldier, one quickly comes to understand that there has never been, before or after the American “War Between the States”, a warrior quite like the “Southern Knights”. As a combat soldier, he was more akin to the various “special forces” of numerous militaries around the world than he was to the “regular” soldiers we are acquainted with today. He was a killing machine… with good manners.

It is impossible to overlook the fact that 800,000 badly equipped, badly clothed, badly fed, but wonderfully led Confederate soldiers managed to hold at bay 2-1/2 million federal troops of the US military for four of the longest, bloodiest, years in American history. They were masterful at the art of war.

It is absolutely shameful that political correctness has driven its talons so deeply into American consciousness that to speak of the Confederate soldier in anyway other than as a defender of slavery is totally unacceptable. Modern day ancestors of the Confederate soldier are taught that their great, great, great, great grandfathers were traitors! There is no other way to address that accusation but to say it is a bald-faced lie.

The Confederate soldier was a citizen of another country. He was a citizen of the Confederate States of America, not the United States of America. One cannot betray a country of which one is not a citizen. Plus, there is this fact: Something like 97% of the citizens of the Confederacy owned NO slaves. Common sense says men do not put their lives on the line, in a war, to preserve another man’s right to hold other human beings in bondage!

An article I recently read persistently nags at me. It is an article by Paul Gottfried entitled: “On Loving To Hate The South.”

Referring to my compatriots in the “Sons of Confederate Veterans” Mr. Gottfried said: “You may take pride in those whom you honor as your linear ancestors but equally in the anger of those who would begrudge you the right to honor them. What your critics find inexcusable is that you are celebrating your people’s past, which was a profoundly conservative one based on family and community, and those who created and defended it. For your conspicuous indiscretions, I salute you; and I trust that generations to come will take note of your willingness to defy the spirit of what is both a cowardly and tyrannical age.” Mr. Gottfried nailed it! You can read Mr. Gottfried’s entire article at: http://takimag.com/article/on_loving_to_hate_the_south/print#axzz2SnoHOm6E

Mr. Gottfried had said earlier in his article that we “Southern traditionalists are still celebrating a pre-bourgeois, agrarian, and communally structured world. It appealed to hierarchy, place, and family; and its members displayed no special interest in reaching out to alien cultures. Such ideals and attitudes and the landed, manorial society out of which they came, point back to a nineteenth century conservative configuration.”

It is here we find the root cause of the virulent hatred for the ensign of the Southern soldier, the Confederate Battle Flag, and for the hatred of the people of the Southern region of the United States. It is our conservatism. It is our unyielding determination to hold on to the conservative values of our Southern ancestors.

Every year, as I attend Confederate Memorial Day events, I watch my fellow Southerners stand in silent reverence as the troops bearing the US flag pass and I watch as we all stand and recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the US flag, and then the NC state flag, and then to the Confederate flag. I see no contradiction. These are gatherings of conservative people who love and honor their country, the USA, just as their Southern Ancestors loved and honored THEIR country, the Confederate States of America. We were remembering THEM and honoring THEM and the commonality of that conservative philosophy which is STILL alive and well in their off-spring today.

Many of us in the South today worry that we see many of the same causes of the conflict of the 1860’s reflected in the political conflicts between liberal and conservative Americans today. Having yet not fully recovered from the so-called “Reconstruction” of the South after that bitter war, we are concerned that, as remote as it may seem, to those not versed in the history of this country, we may be headed for another conflict in which Americans will square-off with fellow Americans.

These are dangerous times for America. Standing in silence and watching those two red, white, and blue flags that once flew over the two nations that briefly occupied this land is always a sobering moment. To realize that only the people living below those flags can prevent a repetition of history is equally as sobering. It is a jolting moment for this scribe when I think that it could happen all over again!

Never has America been as divided since the War Between the States. We are, today, two countries living beneath a single flag, as a gentleman from South Carolina reminded me a few years ago. As he spoke his eyes were downcast gazing at the sacred soil of that old cemetery and his head was slowly shaking from side to side as if to say “NO” to the unthinkable. But I could not escape the thought that it obviously wasn’t unthinkable as we stood just six feet, or so, above the earthly remains of a Confederate soldier screaming in silence a warning that history says will go unheeded.

© J.D. Longstreet

A Speech Every American High School Principal Should Give

noreply@blogger.com (Findalis) — Thu, 09 May 2013 13:21:00 +0000

By Findalis
Monkey in the Middle

America has lost its decency, manners, politeness……………soon without quick changes character!

Listen to the young people, F-this, F-that, and nary anyone will step up and correct them- even with wife and kids in tow!

New high school principal

We watched high school principal Dennis Prager of Colorado , along with Sara Palin and Tom Brokaw on TV a couple of weeks ago….what a dynamic, down to earth speaker. Even though Palin and Brokaw were also guest speakers they did little but nod and agree with him.

A Speech Every American High School Principal Should Give.
By Dennis Prager.

To the students and faculty of our high school:

I am your new principal, and honored to be so.
There is no greater calling than to teach young people.

I would like to apprise you of some important changes coming to our school. I am making these changes because I am convinced that some ideas that have dominated public education in America have worked against you, against your teachers and against our country.

First, this school will no longer honor race or ethnicity.
I could not care less if your racial makeup is black, brown, red, yellow or white. I could not care less if your origins are African, Latin American, Asian or European, or if your ancestors arrived here on the Mayflower or on slave ships. The only identity I care about, the only one this school will recognize, is your individual identity — your character, your scholarship, your humanity. And the only national identity this school will care about is American.

This is an American public school, and American public schools were created to make better Americans. If you wish to affirm an ethnic, racial or religious identity through school, you will have to go elsewhere. We will end all ethnicity, race and non-American nationality-based celebrations. They undermine the motto of America , one of its three central values — epluribus Unum, “from many, one.” And this school will be guided by America ‘s values. This includes all after-school clubs. I will not authorize clubs that divide students based on any identities. This includes race, language, religion, sexual orientation or whatever else may become in vogue in a society divided by political correctness.

Your clubs will be based on interests and passions, not blood, ethnic, racial or other physically defined ties. Those clubs just cultivate narcissism — an unhealthy preoccupation with the self — while the purpose of education is to get you to think beyond yourself. So we will have clubs that transport you to the wonders and glories of art, music, astronomy, languages you do not already speak, carpentry and more. If the only extracurricular activities you can imagine being interested in are those based on ethnic, racial or sexual identity, that means that little outside of yourself really interests you.

Second, I am uninterested in whether English is your native language. My only interest in terms of language is that you leave this school speaking and writing English as fluently as possible. The English language has united America ‘s citizens for over 200 years, and it will unite us at this school. It is one of the indispensable reasons this country of immigrants has always come to be one country. And if you leave this school without excellent English language skills, I would be remiss in my duty to ensure that you will be prepared to successfully compete in the American job market. We will learn other languages here — it is deplorable that most Americans only speak English — but if you want classes taught in your native language rather than in English, this is not your school.

Third, because I regard learning as a sacred endeavor , everything in this school will reflect learning’s elevated status. This means, among other things, that you and your teachers will dress accordingly. Many people in our society dress more formally for Hollywood events than for church or school. These people have their priorities backward. Therefore, there will be a formal dress code at this school.

Fourth, no obscene language will be tolerated anywhere on this school’s property — whether in class, in the hallways or at athletic events. If you can’t speak without using the f -word, you can’t speak. By obscene language I mean the words banned by the Federal Communications Commission, plus epithets such as “Nigger,” even when used by one black student to address another black, or “bitch,” even when addressed by a girl to a girlfriend. It is my intent that by the time you leave this school, you will be among the few your age to instinctively distinguish between the elevated and the degraded, the holy and the obscene.

Fifth, we will end all self-esteem programs. In this school, self-esteem will be attained in only one way — the way people attained it until decided otherwise a generation ago — by earning it. One immediate consequence is that there will be one valedictorian, not eight.

Sixth, and last, I am reorienting the school toward academics and away from politics and propaganda. No more time will be devoted to scaring you about smoking and caffeine, or terrifying you about sexual harassment or global warming. No more semesters will be devoted to condom wearing and teaching you to regard sexual relations as only or primarily a health issue… There will be no more attempts to convince you that you are a victim because you are not white, or not male, or not heterosexual or not Christian. We will have failed if any one of you graduates this school and does not consider him or herself inordinately fortunate — to be alive and to be an American.

Now, please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of our country. As many of you do not know the words, your teachers will hand them out to you.

If all schools nationwide adopted this ideology for their schools, I know we would all be better off!

Pass this along if you agree. . . . If not delete …. .and later regret it !

Seal the Border! ... J. D. Longstreet

noreply@blogger.com (Longstreet) — Thu, 09 May 2013 07:07:00 +0000

Seal the Border!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

Now, I’m not going to sit here and say to the President, my US Senators, and my Congressmen that if they want me to support the new Immigration Reform Bill, first build a fence along the border. No, I’m not going to say that.

What I AM going to say is… We don’t NEED the new Immigration Reform Bill! Not at all. We don’t even NEED a guest worker program! Americans will gladly pay more for their produce if it means that can continue to maintain America as an English-speaking nation. Heck, the money we save on the welfare services we now give, free, to the illegal immigrants would off-set the higher prices for produce at the market! No, we don’t need either of those things.

What we DO NEED is enforcement of the immigration laws we have on the books today!

To secure the border we need a fence… a physical fence. Not some piss-ant virtual fence with sensors and cameras and fly-overs by unarmed drone aircraft. All that does is complicate the process. When the illegals cross over they still have to be hunted down and sent back. So, stop them from ever crossing that border with an honest to goodness double fence with a patrol road between the fences.

Harsh? I don't think so.   But -- when national security is at stake, harshness may be the way to go!

Again, the new Immigration Reform Bill soon to be before the US Senate is an Amnesty Bill. No matter how you slice it, no matter how much perfume they sprinkle over it, it still stinks to high heavens. And you know what??? They’re going to pass that abomination of a bill over our protests if we don’t rattle the cages of the Senators in Washington, but good! Actually, I am satisfied that if there is any way, by hook or by crook, the two parties, in cahoots with each other, will see that this bill is passed.

We have the closest thing to a rogue government in Washington today as this nation has ever had. They are totally unresponsive to the citizens of the nation. I don’t believe they cannot hear us, or that they have misinterpreted what we are telling them about this immigration bill. I believe they hear us, loud and clear, and simply don’t give a damn what you and I want. They intend to do what they want instead. That behavior, dear reader, is the definition of a rogue government.

As an American citizen I am frustrated beyond all measure at what passes for a government in Washington, DC today! It is a pathetic bunch of political hacks unfit to run for dogcatcher, let alone an office representing my interests in the nation’s seat of government.

Alas, this is the government we get when that form of Marxism we call Political Correctness takes over a country. The truth is shown the door for fear of offending someone… anyone! So, our Congresspersons, our Senators, and even our President will lie to us and tell themselves they are “protecting” us. They’ll convince themselves that they know best what is good for us and they will simply tune us out! That is what this government has done. Tuned us out!

Now you know what Southerners from 1828 up to April of 1861 felt like! Their government (the US government) had tuned them out, too. We all know how that ended.   We Southerners LOST OUR COUNTRY! And, guess what??? If this continues we are going to lose our country AGAIN, this time along with the rest of America! That’s how serious this is.

Not content to lie down and rollover, I intend to rattle cages in DC. At least, if we lose and the "Amnesty Bill" passes, I will know that I DID make an effort to contribute to the forces trying to stop it. That’s not much consolation, I know, but it is all I, WE, have these days.

© J. D. Longstreet

Jerusalem!!

noreply@blogger.com (Findalis) — Wed, 08 May 2013 13:45:00 +0000

46 years ago today the City of David, Jerusalem was reunited after being cut into 2 by the Jordanians and the United Nation. For 19 years no Jew, no Christian was allowed to worship at their holy places. In fact, the tombstones on the Mount of Olives Cemetery (One of the oldest Jewish Cemeteries in the world.) were used by the Jordanians as paving stones, building stones, even to make latrines. And the world said nothing. Not a peep.

On an almost daily basis, snipers on the walls of the Old City would open fire on Israeli civilians. And the world said nothing. Not a peep.

To solve this issue and stop the gunfire, orders were given to liberate the Old City. And the IDF came through with skill. The City of David was unified. All people were free to worship at their holy places.

Click here if the video doesn't load.

Today as Israel and Jews around the world celebrate 46 years of a unified Jerusalem, President Barack Hussein Obama is demanding that the city be split into 2 again. And the world is cheering him on.

Forget about what happened the last time the city was divided to appease the Arabs. Forget that for 46 years the city has been whole, united. Forget that under the Arabs only Muslims could pray at in the city, Jews and Christians were forbidden. That means nothing to those who have been appeasing the Arabs in the hope that they finish the job Hitler started.

But you can help:

Keep Jerusalem United - Sign the Declaration!

Click here if the video doesn't load.

Sign the Declaration!

I declare that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish People and strongly support all efforts to maintain and strengthen a united Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the State of Israel.

Just click here.

Land for peace with Palestinians doesn't work. They have taught Israel that. In 2005 Israel gave up Gaza in the hope of peace. And was subjected to over 10,000 rockets. And the horror that became the city of Sderot.

For 46 years Jerusalem has been united. Let us work to keep it that way!

Click here if the video doesn't load.

Jerusalem United Forever!

US negligence in securing the southern border puts us all in danger

noreply@blogger.com (James Shott) — Tue, 07 May 2013 14:50:00 +0000

Do you have locks on the doors to your home and/or business, and do you lock them? Do you lock your car when you park it at work, at the mall, and other places? Do you insist that people who come to your home knock on the door or ring the bell and be invited in before entering? Would you be offended or angered if people set up housekeeping in your basement or outbuilding without your permission? Would you order them to leave and call the police to have them removed if they refused?

If so, you are among the scores of millions of sensible Americans who understand why we must strengthen border security and revamp our dysfunctional immigration system. And that must be done before taking any sort of action to give illegal immigrants legal status of any description.

The administration wants us to believe that the border is really not so bad: "I can tell you having worked that border for 20 years, it is more secure now than it has ever been. Illegal apprehensions are at 40-year lows," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said. Please forgive some cynicism, but that could be achieved by ordering the Border Patrol to apprehend fewer illegals.

But as it turns out, she's just wrong. Customs and Border Protection released data showing that arrests are actually up 13 percent compared with the same time last year when the number was 170,223. It is 192,298 this year.

This begs the question of where Ms. Napolitano -- who "worked the border" as U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, the state's Attorney General, and its Governor -- gets her information. But perhaps it’s not the source of information that is Madam Secretary's problem; instead it is her perverse perspective. In 2009 she said on CNN's "State of the Union" that entering the country illegally is not a crime. No, really. That's what she said. That statement should have sunk her as Homeland Security secretary.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said her state’s border with Mexico is still not secure and called for additional resources to improve border security. Following what she termed an "extensive" aerial tour, she said the border with Mexico continues to be “a gateway” for drug smuggling and unlawful crossings. She called for more fences, drones, Border Patrol agents and National Guard troops.

“The ranchers will tell you, if you sit down and talk to them, that they’re fearful, that the Border Patrol is too far north,” Gov. Brewer said. “They need to get closer to the border because they let [illegal immigrants] go so far [into the state], and then they just sort of blend in." "They’re destroying their land and destroying their cattle, they’re destroying their water. They’re frustrated.”

Texas Senator John Cornyn agrees: "People are coming from around the world through what they know is a porous border to come to the United States without us knowing who they are, what their motives are," he said. "This is a national security problem."

The Boston Marathon bombing reminded us that the threat of terrorism is very real. And the negligence of the federal government in handling border security provides no assurance that along with people looking for work and a better life, and the drug cartels and thugs looking for markets and victims, there are not also terrorists slithering across the border while the government is busy not paying attention.

About the only people who do not acknowledge the disgraceful state of border security are those in Washington like Secretary Napolitano whose responsibility it is to secure it. A March poll of 1,014 adults by ABC News and The Washington Post reflects that eight-in-ten Americans support stronger border security.

But of course the "everybody who disagrees with me is stupid" crowd demurs. They not only think lax border security is a good thing, but also believe that those who think we should actually control who comes into the US are racists. A recent Rasmussen Reports poll found that 22 percent of liberal participants hold that view.

These folks believe that it is racist to control who gets into the US, and that the country would be better off if we just opened the borders and let anyone in who wants to come in. They may also believe that if you disagree with Barack Obama about anything, you are also a racist. It has been found that these beliefs were arrived at using a very high level of third grade playground logic.

Perhaps since the feds won't block illegal immigrants from crossing the border we should round them up and send them to live with those 22 percent who hate secure borders and love lawbreakers.

The feds get a big fat F in "paying attention to important things." They've allowed millions to expend minimal effort to illegally enter our country; they designed and carried out the deadly "gun walking" fiasco known as Fast and Furious; they ignored numerous warnings about rising danger in Benghazi that ultimately killed four brave Americans; and did not pick up on clear indications of radicalization of the accused Boston Marathon bombers. And next year Obamacare takes effect.

Russia Probes US Air Defenses AGAIN! ... J. D. Longstreet

noreply@blogger.com (Longstreet) — Tue, 07 May 2013 06:21:00 +0000

Russia Probes US Air Defenses AGAIN!
A Not So Subtle Reminder
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
*******************

According to the Washington Free Beacon -- "Two Bear H nuclear-capable bombers were detected flying into the military’s Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) near the Aleutians, where a strategic missile defense radar is located, and Alaska’s North Slope region by the Arctic and Chukchi Seas on April 28 and 29, military officials told the Washington Free Beacon." SOURCE: http://freebeacon.com/bears-buzz-alaska-again/

It would appear "ole Vlad" is turning up the pressure on Obama to show some of that "flexibility" he promised Putin he would have after he was elected to a second term.

Those of us who remember the "Cold War," and even served in the US Military during the Cold War, recognize this behavior by the Russians as a form of bullying at which they are past masters. It was fairly common to see Russian Bear bombers cruising just off North Carolina's coast.

Now that Putin is feeling his oats and endeavoring to reconstitute the old Soviet Union, he has begun showing off Russia's military power and his ability to project same around the world.

"It was the fifth incident of Russian strategic bombers flying against the United States since June, when Bear bombers were intercepted near Alaska during a large-scale Russian strategic nuclear exercise that Russian military officials said involved practice strikes against U.S. missile defense sites in Alaska.
Less than a month later, on July 4, two more Bears flew the closest to the northern California coast that Russian aircraft have flown since the days of the Soviet Union.

Then in February two Bears circled Guam, a key U.S. military hub in the Pacific.

Additionally, Backfire strategic bombers flew simulated strikes against U.S. missile defenses and bases in Japan last month." SOURCE: http://freebeacon.com/bears-buzz-alaska-again/

Russia continues to rebuild their armed forces while the US -- under Obama -- continues to, basically, disarm its military.

The US can expect more of these probes by Russia, and soon, we expect, from China, as well.

Obama projects weakness. Maybe that is because he IS a weak leader. NOTHING invites trouble more than the the appearance of weakness.

Now that Obama has announced the US will focus on the Pacific region, the US is squared -off with Russia and China. Problem is -- we don't have the wherewithal to go toe to toe with those two arch enemies of the US -- not any longer.

There is an expression used in the popular HBO series Game of Thrones -- "The night is dark, and full of terrors." This descriptive phrase could easily be adapted to read: "The WORLD is dark and filled with terrors" and be accurate and applicable to the world we live in today.

Those of us who live in the real world know and understand this and we attempt to take every precaution available to us to protect against such terrors.

The folks on the political left, however, (at least in America) don't live in the same world as the rest of us. The world in which they live is a fairy-tale land where everyone sits around in a circle and sings "kumbaya."

Theirs is a world in which all danger can be neutralized by talking out differences and negotiating. It is a land of group hugs where everyone is equal, everyone is a part of the collective, and the world and life is always "fair."

In their world war does not exist. In their world there are no terrorists. They don't even use the word "terrorist."

Their world is a utopia. In other words, it doesn't exist. It is a true "pipe" (as in opium pipe!) dream. "Utopia" is a book of fiction written by Sir Thomas More (1516) describing the perfect society on an imaginary island. It isn't REAL!

But they don't dare give up their pharmaceutically induced visions of Utopia. For the moment they do, they will have to face the real world and THAT they cannot do. They are as children in a grownup's world.

One of the less pleasant tasks of the political right, is taking care of the political left. Left on their own they would soon be extinct. The bullies of the world would have them for lunch. If you question this, I invite you to observe how Mr. Putin will play Mr. Obama like a Stradivarius.

The Bear bomber fly-bys, the probes of our air defenses, all are a part of Putin's reminding Mr. Obama of his promise of more flexibility. And Putin WILL get it.

Any negotiations with Russia will see the US get the short end of the stick -- or no stick at all. Expect Putin to make no concessions. If Obama's record in negotiating with Russia is any indicator, we can expect Obama to make concessions as a form of appeasement. Appeasement never works, at least not for long. All it does is move your day in the barrel back a few days.

Ronald Reagan knew and understood that you only negotiate with Russia from a position of strength. Even if Obama understood that, he couldn't do it. It just isn't in him. He is weak and indecisive. He is often referred to as "Hamlet on the Potomac."

None of this has gone unnoticed by the Russians. So, we can expect to receive more of these not so subtle reminders from Putin through out the remainder of the Obama administration.

© J. D. Longstreet

Obama Brokering Deal To Contain Nuclear Iran? ... J. D. Longstreet

noreply@blogger.com (Longstreet) — Mon, 06 May 2013 07:14:00 +0000

Obama Brokering Deal To Contain Nuclear Iran?
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
**************************

Just a few days ago, we published a piece entitled: "Get Ready for a Nuclear Iran." The thrust of the piece was that Obama will not make any attempt to stop Iran from developing an atomic bomb or a missile delivery system for nuclear warheads, but will, in fact, allow Iran to continue their endeavor for nuclear weapons. We hypothesized in that commentary that Obama was developing a strategy of "containment" of a nuclear Iran -- because he knows he is not going to make an attempt to stop them and indeed, doesn't want Israel to stop them, either.

Here is just a snippet of what we said in that writing: "... it provides no comfort knowing that Iran is closing on its desire to have its very own nuclear bomb, which it intends to drop on Israel and the United States at the earliest opportunity.

It should come as no surprise when the Obama administration rolls out their plans for "containment of a nuclear Iran." Many have felt for some time that was Obama's ultimate goal all the while.

Understand: The Arab nations are scared witless of the Persian nation. If Iran is allowed to possess a nuclear bomb, expect all the Arab nations in the region to go nuclear almost overnight -- in self defense. They won't waste time with developing their own nuclear programs, they will simply purchase nuclear bombs and missiles and be done with it.

Now -- allow me to ask you -- how much safer will YOU feel if and when the entire Middle East is armed to the teeth with nuclear bombs and missiles?" We encourage you to read the entire article at: http://insightonfreedom.blogspot.com/2013/04/get-ready-for-nuclear-iran-j-d_25.html

Today, Sunday May 5th, 2013, at Israelnationalnews.com there is an article by Gil Ronen entitled: "Israel 'Opting to Contain' Nuclear Iran?" Report in Sunday Times says U.S. is brokering a deal between Israel, Saudis, Jordan, Turkey and UAE."

The opening paragraph of Mr. Ronen's pieces says the following: "Israel is considering partnering with several Sunni-Muslim Arab states in a U.S.-brokered defense alliance that would be aimed at containing a nuclear Iran, the Sunday Times reported, citing an unnamed Israeli official." (Emphasis by underlining is mine.) SOURCE: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/167735#.UYZ4-0qcNIx

If the Obama administration is seriously thinking they can be successful at containing a nuclear Iran, they are kidding themselves. And it is a dangerous joke.

Look. The US has been attempting to "contain" Iran since the Carter administration and we see where that has gotten us. Even today we have an iron wall of naval warships stationed just off shore of Iran. We have forward deployed troops in neighboring countries on continuous alert. We have satellites, drones, recon aircraft of every kind, plus electronic surveillance 24-7, all aimed at containing a NON-nuclear Iran. Plus, all the sanctions on Iran by the UN. It hasn't phased them, at all.

In an article at the Heritage Foundation website they plainly state the following: "While the Obama Administration maintains that the military option is on the table, it has done little to convince Tehran that it is serious. If this trend continues, containment of a nuclear Iran will become the default option for the United States. Before this happens, the Administration should carefully weigh the costs, risks, benefits, and feasibility of such a policy." (Emphasis by underlining is mine.) SOURCE: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/02/containing-a-nuclear-iran-difficult-costly-and-dangerous

The very same article goes on to say: "The manifest failure of U.S. efforts to contain Iranian influence and deter attacks on Americans in the past 30 years should raise alarms about the much greater difficulty inherent in containing and deterring Tehran after it acquires nuclear weapons. To argue the merits of containment now that Iran is on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons is to argue for a policy that has been tried for decades— a policy that is now close to an enormous defeat because of the progress of Iran’s nuclear program." SOURCE: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/02/containing-a-nuclear-iran-difficult-costly-and-dangerous

Obama continues to promise, publicly anyway, that "all options are on the table." That phrase is SUPPOSED to mean a military strike is an option. The problem is -- nobody believes Obama anymore -- especially the mullahs in Iran. Heck, I don't even believe him -- as you can plainly see from this commentary.

President Theodore Roosevelt is credited with saying: "Walk softly -- and carry a BIG stick." Mr. Obama would do well to heed Teddy's advice. It is not helpful when the President publicly threatens to act when certain degrees of hostility have been reached by the offending force ... as in Obama's recent back-down when the Syrians boldly crossed the "red line" Obama, himself, imposed.

A Commander-in-Chief should never threaten unless he intends to act to back up his threat. Unfortunately, Mr. Obama has now told the world that America's word cannot be trusted, that America issues empty threats, and Obama has underscored the belief by many nations around the globe today that America, today, is a nation of lions led by a sheep.

This bad, very bad.

© J. D. Longstreet

The Heresy of Universal Reconciliation ... J. D. Longstreet

noreply@blogger.com (Longstreet) — Sun, 05 May 2013 07:03:00 +0000

The Heresy of Universal Reconciliation
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
**************

You probably already know what universal reconciliation is, but have never heard it's proper nomenclature.

Allow me to define universal reconciliation. Simply put, it is -- "every soul eventually winds up in heaven."    That's the definition. It is also a lie, but it is the current lie some modern religionists are promulgating these days.

Oh, it's not new. This "feel good work around" to actually having to face the fact of eternal punishment for one's sins has been around since before the American Revolution.

“It’s a heresy that goes back all the way to the third century of the Church. It came to America in 1740 and was propagated among the churches of New England, where it found fertile ground and has been never totally eradicated.” SOURCE: http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2013/April26/263.html

Universalism, as universal reconciliation is sometimes called, was brought to the American colonies by the English-born physician George de Benneville. (Just so you know.)

Here of late, some of America's more, uh, "modern" denominations have accepted this heresy as truth. See, it FEELS good. and after all, isn't religion supposed to make us feel good?

Actually, the answer is no -- not exactly. Religion should not make us feel good. In my opinion, religion should comforted the afflicted and afflict the comfortable to be effective. That's my opinion, of course.

" ... no traditional Christian doctrine has been so widely abandoned as that of eternal punishment." SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_reconciliation

I bring the subject up today because in nearly every TV drama and Hollywood movie we see some reference to universal reconciliation. No matter how bad the bad guy -- or the GOOD guy -- was, inevitably his final destination, we are assured, is (you've got it!) Heaven.

You'd think red flags would go up the instant the promotion of some supposed article of faith comes from the political left. But -- it is reinforced from the pulpits of some of the most prestigious religious denominations in America.

They are both wrong.

OK. So, I'm an old fuddy-duddy, an old moss-back, who won't "get with the program." I'll admit to that. I'll even tell you I didn't "get with the program" when I was a child OR a young man. It ain't in my nature.

I'm not into moral relativism and that, so far as I am concerned, is the root of universal reconciliation. Moral relativism is the belief that there is no black and white. No absolutely right and no absolutely wrong. Everything is relative. Everything is in a state of "gray."

Moral relativism should be filed under "Bovine Scatology."

Allow me to inquire: What was the purpose of Christ's visit to earth, his death, burial, and resurrection, if all human souls will eventually get to heaven anyway? Makes absolutely no sense to this ole country boy.

Something else troubles me about universal reconciliation: What is the point in living a good, decent, law-abiding life? Why not live like the devil -- raise hell, and be a "Good-time Charlie" for your life span on this earth IF- you're are going to heaven anyway.

Where's the incentive for good morals?

Here's the thing, as I see it. I believe not in the basic "goodness" of man but the basic "evil" of mankind. In my view, man is a creation of God that went rogue.

We are a sorry lot, we humans. We rebelled against our Creator -- and you don't get much lower than that.   We burned our bridges to God and He set us loose with the burden of free will. We were shown to the gates of the Garden of Eden and tossed out on our derrieres and forbidden to ever return.

From that point things went from bad to worse for man. It became so bad, that God repented that he had ever made man in the first place. He sent a global flood and wiped all humans from the earth -- save for a single eight person family.

It was time to start over.

And WE screwed it up again, and again, and again.

So the Creator offered us a way to clean the slate, begin again, and reconnect with our Creator, our God -- now and forever. That was through the sacrifice of his on Son Jesus, the Christ.

The down side? As always, and in all things, there are those who just refuse to (as I said earlier) get with the program. Humans like to play the odds, to hedge their bets, etc.. It is a form of thinking and behavior that is born of arrogance. (Man is nothing if he is not arrogant.)

The scriptures make it extraordinarily plain that God created TWO places of eternal residence for human souls after life on this earth. The good news is -- we get to choose where we will spend eternity -- in Heaven or in Hell.

See, I know Hell exists as surely as I know evil exists. We saw evil at work just a few days ago in Boston, at the school in Connecticut, and numerous other places where Satanic inspired deeds bring pain, death, destruction, horror, and terror to our world.

I ask you -- what's the purpose of a place of punishment IF no one is to be punished?

Then there is the prospect of living for eternity in a heaven along side Hitler, Stalin, John Dillinger, Osama bin Laden, and, well, the list of evil-doers just goes on and on.

I must tell you, I have serious reservations about coexisting with the aforementioned crowd of evil doers in the same city, behind those Pearly Gates -- golden streets, or not!

No. I am not buying universal reconciliation, at all. I believe it is a lie ranking right up there with the lie that "there is no Devil" -- Satan's greatest trick!

Old Nick must be truly proud of the universal reconciliation crowd.

© J. D. Longstreet

Worse Than Watergate! ... J. D. Longstreet

noreply@blogger.com (Longstreet) — Sat, 04 May 2013 07:09:00 +0000

Worse Than Watergate!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
******************

Four Americans are dead and the American people are being lied to as to how and why they got that way.

Either the President is lying - and needs to be impeached, or he's NOT lying -- and needs to be impeached -- because he DIDN'T know what was happening!

Repeat: Four Americans are DEAD. And as much as it pains me to say it -- it doesn't look as if our government made a genuine effort to save them.

I have watched, listened, and read as much as we have been allowed to know -- plus -- information gleaned by non-mainstream media sources, and I concluded -- long ago -- that there is a major cover-up at the top levels of the US government over the incident in Benghazi.

Now, let me be clear: I am not an investigative reporter. That is not what I do. I am a commentator -- an opinion writer ... nothing more.   I have deliberately "hung back" on any in-depth comments on the Benghazi affair simply because there always seemed to me to be more THERE there. In other words, it was obvious, at least to me, that we were only getting drips and drabs of what really happened and, I felt (and still do) that we have been told nothing of WHY it happened.   But, dear reader, even Helen Keller could see there is a major cover-up surrounding the incident in Benghazi!

That CIA "safe-house" has troubled me from the very beginning of this horrible story. What was the CIA doing there? There was no embassy in Benghazi. In fact, the building attacked was not even a consulate. If anything, it was a "mission."   Had it been an embassy, I'd not question a CIA presence. They are practically a part of the furniture in any US Embassy. But, as I said, this was NOT an embassy.

Remember too, the last person our ambassador met with the evening of the attack was a Turkish diplomat. What was a Turkish diplomat doing in Benghazi, Libya, meeting with Ambassador Stevens at an unprotected site? Why not meet in the embassy in Tripoli?

It now seems that the ex-SEALS were not attached to the consulate, but were assigned to the CIA "safe-house." They (laudably) went against orders and made a rescue attempt of the US officials and staff at the consulate/mission -- and lost their lives in the attempt.

There was quickly a fog of misinformation spewed up and out by the Obama Administration in what -- in my opinion -- is an attempt to cover-up an on-going scheme/operation to smuggle weapons into Syria through Turkey.

A few weeks ago, there was a report that Libyan militia members had been ordered to turn-in the weapons that had been supplied them in their struggle to overthrow Qaddafi. That report confirmed that many of those weapons had been turned in. Where did those weapons go? Perhaps, to the Syrian rebels?

It has been suspected for some time now that the US has been supplying small arms to the rebels in Syria for a while -- even though the Obama Administration denies it.

It is the kind of operation the CIA would be up-to-their-necks in and it would explain their presence on the ground in Libya in a safe-house just a mile away from the consulate/mission.

For the sake of argument, suppose the guns gathered from the Libyan militia were being covertly sent to Turkey and then smuggled across the Turkey/Syrian border to the Syrian rebels.

I continue to cycle back to the question -- WHY was the Ambassador THERE , alone, without a security detail, at that particular time, meeting with a high Turkish diplomat. Remember, this was on September 11th. If there was going to be an attack by terrorists -- September 11th would be the day for it.

Now, I'm just hypothesizing here. I have no idea, at this point, what was really going on. But, I am confident there was a covert operation underway -- one so black that sacrificing the lives of four Americans was deemed "worth it" by our leaders in Washington.

For whatever reason, the Obama Administration has chosen to tell the world a bald-faced lie about what happened in Benghazi.

So politicians lie, right? Yeah, they do. But this time -- four Americans are dead and the country wants to know why that happened and why the Obama Administration chose to lie to us about it.

It is clear now, that all the warnings from the political right about the penchant of this President and his administration for lies was absolutely correct. If they are lying about the "Incident in Benghazi," what else are they lying about?

It is clear the Mainstream Media is NOT going to cover this story. They are not going to investigate what happened for fear that it will drive down support for Obama. They seem to have taken the attitude: the truth, the welfare of the country, be damned. Keeping their man, Obama, afloat is the most important thing, bar none. Nothing can be allowed to interfere -- not even the truth!

Look. The cover-up of "Benghazigate" is far more important that Watergate ever was!

We need a "Congressional Investigation" of the incident at Benghazi and we need it post haste! If ever an incident deserved investigating by the Congress this horrible event in Benghazi is it. Too, it is looking more and more as if grounds for impeachment proceedings are present.

Whistle blowers, witnesses who claim to know the truth, are standing by having already stated their willingness to testify before Congress, but they are enjoined from such as a result of having signed documents that prevent them from discussing the event(s) in Benghazi. They need to be released from those bonds so we can get to the truth. One phone call from the President would take care of it. Will he make the call? Don't hold your breath.

Yes, if only Obama was a republican, there would be no need for commentators to be begging the Congress to investigate or opining at the reluctance of the MsM to investigate.

It is what it is. The Mainstream Media in America is an organ of the political left -- as is President Obama. There is simply no way we are going to get anythng approaching impartial reporting or a REAL investigation of Benghazigate from the MsM.

For me, it is not just a matter of trust, it is a matter of honor -- NATIONAL HONOR.

America deserves better than we have gotten, or, are likely to get from Obama.

© J. D. Longstreet

Déjà vu All Over Again? The Audacity of Truth ... J. D. Longstreet

noreply@blogger.com (Longstreet) — Fri, 03 May 2013 06:48:00 +0000

Déjà vu All Over Again?

The Audacity of Truth
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

I recently had a “commenter” question my loyalty to America as a result of my hypothesizing that we, as a nation, may be headed for another civil war. It was an honest appraisal of our current situation, as I see it, and one at which I gingerly arrived with a great deal of uncertainty and tentativeness.

The commenter was from a northern state, which lies on the US/Canadian border. So far as I am able to determine, his state has never been invaded, conquered, and occupied by a foreign power. Mine has.

Now let’s be clear: We southerners still, to this day, bear the scars of that conflagration. A hundred and fifty years is but as a moment in time here in the South.

On May tenth, we Tar Heels will celebrate Confederate Memorial Day. The National Flag of the Confederacy will fly over our State Capitol Building. Celebrations will be held all over the state as well as memorial services to honor our Confederate ancestors.

We lost – yet – we celebrate the effort, the fight for “The Cause.”

Now, maybe it is because it is a part of who we are as southerners, that the past remains so alive, so vibrant here. Maybe it is because so many of us have bothered to look at what actually caused the break-up of the Union in the first place.

When one’s ancestors are referred to as “traitors” one is often compelled to investigate in an attempt to learn WHY.

We quickly learn the accusation is a lie. But -- we also learn of the circumstances in the United States in the 1800’s that practically insured the southern people would have to separate from the US in order to preserve the form of government given us by the Founding Fathers.

The result of the war would -- and did -- insure that the United States would have a STRONG CENTRAL GOVERNMENT and NOT a government answerable to the states and subject to the states as the Founders intended.

The original Constitution of the United States of America died at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, on the afternoon of April 9th, 1865 when Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia in the parlor of Wilmer McLean’s home.

When one lends oneself to a study of the period one cannot help but see the similarities of the relationship between the US government and the people of the US – especially the people of the southern states -- then and now. I must tell you it is chilling!

It was the study of the circumstances leading up to the "War for Southern Independence," as we southerners like to call it, that prompted me to point out that the US finds itself, today, in similar circumstances that might lead to another civil war in the country.

At CNSNEWS.COM on May 2nd, 2013, there is an article entitled: "Poll: 29% of Registered Voters Believe Armed Revolution Might Be Necessary in Next Few Years." The article was written by Gregory Gwyn-Williams, Jr. The lead-off paragraph says: "Twenty-nine percent of registered voters think that an armed revolution might be necessary in the next few years in order to protect liberties, according to a Public Mind poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University." SOURCE: http://cnsnews.com/blog/gregory-gwyn-williams-jr/poll-29-registered-voters-believe-armed-revolution-might-be-necessary

(Fairleigh Dickinson University is the largest (12000+ students) independent university in New Jersey. Source: http://www.fdu.edu/ )

So, it would seem this old scribe isn't alone in worrying about the possibility that the nation may go to war with itself in the near future.

Here in the southeast, it is likely we recognize the signs far more quickly that folks from other regions of this great country. If so, then it is simply because we have been there (here?) before.

In my home state of South Carolina cannon balls from Sherman's artillery can still be seen embedded in the walls of the State Capitol Building.

As I write, I sit a few minutes drive from the last Confederate fort to fall to the Union, Fort Fisher. It was the death knell for the Confederacy. Resupply for the Confederacy was ended. The Union siege of Fort Fisher, especially the ship to shore bombardment, was not equaled until the Second World War.

On a drive through the American Southeast you will see multiple flagpoles in the front yards of many homes flying Old Glory from high atop the pole. Granted, you may see a state flag, or even one or more of the Confederate national flags, or even the Confederate Battle Flag or the famous Gadsden Flag (The “Don’t Tread On me Flag) flying BELOW Old Glory… on the same pole. To a Southerner that is not the least bit confusing. We are proud Americans, Southern Americans, to be sure, proud of our heritage. But our allegiance, first and foremost, is to the United States.

Yes. We DO worry that it could all happen again. And I remain convinced that the possibility grows greater every time the federal government accrues more power to itself.

Sort of like the canary in the mine shaft, we southerners might be a bit more sensitive to overbearing government simply because our region has experienced it before. For instance, it can be argued that "Reconstruction" of the South, after the war, actually did MORE harm to the South than the war itself. (The US sucked at nation building even then!)

I'm not sure, exactly, what it says about a nation, when the direct descendent of a host of Confederate soldiers steps forward to warn America against making the same mistakes America made in the mid 1800's (which led to a civil war) and he is denigrated for having the audacity to draw attention to obvious preparations being made by both citizens and government for just such an horrendous event.

Seems to me, we should be able to analyze what went wrong then and, at least, make an attempt to avoid making the very same mistakes. We already know where that road leads. If we can't do that, then we are already lost.

© J. D. Longstreet

Christian Monsters

noreply@blogger.com (Chuck Connell) — Fri, 03 May 2013 01:01:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Longstreet) — Thu, 02 May 2013 07:01:00 +0000

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

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

Did you slip and fall into your garbage can? There’s a code for that!

noreply@blogger.com (James Shott) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:37:00 +0000

The Affordable Care Act has forced insurance costs higher, encouraged many employers to bail out of providing health plans for their employees or cut employees or reduce hours to below the full-time threshold to avoid the higher costs, and has unleashed thousands of pages of new regulations. But intrepid federal bureaucrats charge ahead with even more requirements for providers, one of which is a revamping of the codes used to identify the medical services that providers use to bill insurers.

Currently, there about 18,000 such codes and one might be fooled into believing that is enough. But the devoted folks who get paid to generate new codes have been hard at work revamping the code system and the new list contains nearly 8 times the former number, checking in at 140,000 medical codes. The feds reason that more specific information is needed to adequately communicate what doctors and hospitals do for their patients, as well as what patients may have done to require a visit to a provider.

New codes describe precisely what bone was broken, or which eye was blackened, and tell insurers whether your injury occurred in, for example, an opera house, an art gallery, on a squash court, or in one of nine locations in and around a mobile home.

Some of them push the limits of propriety. Code R46.1 is for "bizarre personal appearance," while code R46.0 is for "very low level of personal hygiene." Others tell insurers whether an injury caused by walking into a lamppost was the "initial encounter," or a "subsequent encounter."

There is a group of codes that clarify whether you were injured while sewing, ironing, crocheting, doing handcrafts, knitting, or my personal favorite, playing a brass instrument. (Brass players are now churning out imaginative scenarios for how these injuries might have occurred.) There is also a code indicating that a patient's injury occurred in a chicken coup.

Speaking of birds, there are 72 codes for patients who have run afoul of these creatures, and being bitten by a parrot has a different code than if said parrot flies into you, or if you are bitten or flown into by a macaw or a goose. There are nine different codes for each of the six different species of bird.

The folks that developed the system—generally known as ICD-10, for International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision—say "the codes will provide a more exact and up-to-date accounting of diagnoses and hospital inpatient procedures, which could improve payment strategies and care guidelines," and their use is scheduled to be required in two years. Pat Brooks, senior technical adviser at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services explains that "It's for accuracy of data and quality of care."

As a side note, healthcare reform, known more commonly as Obamacare, is deemed so important that the furloughs that befell air traffic controllers did not extend to Obamacare regulators and code generators, according to Gary Cohen, director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, who said that his office has not cut its workers’ hours and pay as a result of the automatic budget cuts that went into effect in March. This information should help convince doubters that the pain of the sequester is a conscious political choice of the administration, and not a requirement of the sequester.

While federal bureaucrats are busy, busy, busy improving the healthcare system with mountains of new regulations and charge codes, some of the people who actually provide care are taking different approaches, some of them good, and some not.

A recent Deloitte Center for Health Solutions survey of over 600 doctors reveals that 6 in 10 may retire earlier than they had planned, and will do so in the next three years, due to the effects of the Affordable Care Act on how they practice medicine.

Further, many providers will leave the private sector to work for hospitals or accountable care organizations, and others are fighting back against massive government interference in the doctor-patient relationship by reverting to an older direct primary care model that eschews health insurance in favor of fee-for-services, such as an office visit for $20 or a house call for $100. Some offer a membership plan where patients pay a set fee per month for physician services.

Getting away from health insurance, government regulations and other requirements reduces costs substantially, allowing doctors to provide services at affordable prices, and has the further advantage of allowing doctors to escape "assembly line medicine," all of which may benefit the relationship between providers and patients. In contrast to Obamacare, this is a real improvement in the system.

Finally, even supporters of this Rube Goldberg-like contrivance are starting to realize its boundless weaknesses. Senator Max Baucus, (D-Mon.), one of the Affordable Care Act’s designers and strong backers, told Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius during a Senate committee hearing that he sees "a huge train wreck coming down."

It's a shame Sen. Baucus and the other blind supporters didn't do their homework before the measure passed the Congress, and save the country much pain and suffering. But perhaps it’s not too late to reverse course.