Obama -vs- The US Constitution ... J. D. Longstreet

Obama -vs- The US Constitution
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
******************

I'm so old I can remember when anyone who did not agree with the government of Soviet Socialist Russia (or the Soviet Union) would be arrested by the government and placed in Soviet mental institutions because, the Soviet government had determined, you see, that anyone NOT agreeing with them was obviously INSANE.  Ofttimes the mentally challenged prisoner disappeared into the Gulag system never to be heard from again.

So -- where am I going with this?

I'm just trying to give you a heads-up, 'cause it's happening right here in America -- TODAY.

Consider this from The New American.com:
"Readers also may remember the recent shocking case of Brandon Raub. The New American’s Jack Kenny reported on the story last August. Kenny wrote that Raub was:
... held involuntarily as a psychiatric patient at the Salem Veterans Affairs hospital in Virginia over anti-government postings on his Face book page. Raub, a Marine combat veteran who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, was visited by FBI and Secret Service agents at his North Chesterfield home on August 16, then taken by police under an emergency custody order to John Randolph Medical Center in Hopewell. He was transferred to the veterans hospital on August 20. A medical assessment of his condition at John Randolph described him as paranoid and delusional, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. But after an hour-long hearing in Hopewell Circuit Court August 23, Judge W. Allan Sharrett dismissed an involuntary commitment petition as invalid.

"The petition is so devoid of any factual allegations that it could not be reasonably expected to give rise to a case or controversy," said the release order signed by Sharrett, vacating the order of Special Justice Walter Douglas Stokes to detain Raub for 30 days. Stokes, who presides over commitment hearings, also ordered Raub's transfer to the VA hospital in Salem, about 180 miles from his home. Judge Sharrett said he was shocked to find the commitment order contained no grounds for holding Raub.

The irrefutable fact is that, had the Rutherford Institute not stepped in and defended Raub, the young man would likely still be unconscionably held in a government mental hospital at the mercy of Obama administration bureaucrats."
SOURCE:  http://thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/14629-why-is-the-federal-government-disarming-veterans

It would seem the Obama Administration simply does not recognize the Constitution of the United States.  This type of action by the government just blows the Fifth Amendment right out of the water.

This is the 5th Amendment, for heaven's sake.  It has ties all the way back to the Magna Carta in 1215!  It protects Americans  against abuse of government authority in a legal procedure. It is fundamental to our freedom. 
Just read the text of the 5th Amendment: 

"No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."

Look.  Either the Bill of Rights stands as our protection from the government or, it doesn't.  There is no in between.  And, I must tell you, I am very concerned that the current administration has decided the Bill of Rights is an impediment to their drive to transform America into a socialist dung heap, therefore they have deliberately decided to ignore the amendments and do as they darn well please, making up laws on the fly, and decreeing said laws by way of the Presidential Executive Order.

And it's going to get progressively worse over the next four years. The America of 2016 will bear little resemblance to the America of today.  Count on it. 

America has become a police state right before our eyes. Americans are now monitored around the clock by our government. 

A few of us old mossback conservatives have been screaming at the top of our lungs for somebody to pay attention to our loss of freedom. To no avail.

Little by little, the freedom and liberty Americans have fought and died for is being systematically taken away and America has been, already, transformed into a socialist/communist state.

I wonder, sometimes, whether the conservatives in the US House of Representatives will be able to continue fighting their "holding action" until the elections in 2014 and 2016?  (Even King Leonidas and the 300 Spartans were only able to hold the pass at Thermopylae for three days until they were overrun and wiped out by Xerxes and his Persians.)

One by one we are losing our guaranteed freedoms under the constitution.  The Obama Administration just tramples all over the constitution with very little, if any, resistance.

The left is taking away our freedom in exactly the same way they have foisted socialism on America -- incrementally -- a tiny bit at a time.  Like the frog placed in pot of slowly heating water, we are about to be boiled without ever even TRYING to hop out of the pot.

"A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges.”  Ben Franklin said that -- and it was and remains true.  The political left has been diminishing America little by little at the edges.  Now the great cake is nearly eaten away by socialism and that portion of the original cake remaining is so small as to offer only miniscule resistance --or none -- to the threatening forces encircling it. 

When I was a high school student, I presented a speech at the University of South Carolina in which I noted how proud I was that here in America we didn't have to dread the loud knock on our door at three in the morning and have one of our parents, or even ourselves, dragged away from our families and marched off to a prison, a gulag, or a mental institution by government authorities.

That was then

This is NOW.

I could not make that statement today.  Since I stood on that stage at Russell House, some 60 odd years ago, America has, indeed, become the nation I described in my speech that night that rules its people by fear and intimidation.  Had I known then that America would have the rogue government we have today, I would have warned those in the audience of what was in store for them, their children, and their grandchildren.

But I did not know, could not know, how far and how fast America would fall.
A friend mentioned, half jokingly, recently how he eyed with suspicion any black SUV or panel truck parked overly long near his office or home.  He told me how he fearfully looked up at the sound of helicopters overhead, and how the tiny hairs on the back of his neck began to tremble every time he uses an ATM machine because he said,  he knows those ubiquitous cameras that never grow tired, that never sleep, are everywhere watching, and watching.  My friend remarked as to how he pauses every time he is about to tap the "send" button on an e-mail or a blog comment, and, too, every time he produces his credit card to pay for a purchase of any kind.

One word describes the state of being my friend recounted to me above.  It is raw, naked, FEAR. It is something Americans have not known - until NOW. 

Terrorists did not instill THIS fear in Americans. NO. America's leaders USED the actions and the threats of terrorists to instill this particular fear in their fellow Americans.  That fear has been magnified by executive actions creating government agencies with heretofore unheard of powers over the American people.

Little by little, bit by bit, incrementally, America has been fundamentally transformed from a constitutional representative republic to some sort of hybrid socialist society with a government decidedly leaning toward the Marxist principles of governing.

What a mess!

Ben Franklin is given credit for saying the following:  “As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence.”  Isn't it time to forsake "idle silence" in favor of actively rattling the cages of our elected government in Washington, DC?  Of course, we COULD just wait for the knock on our door at three in the morning.  

Or -- have we waited too long?  As John Adams reminded us centuries ago -- freedom, once lost, is almost impossible to regain.

Americans have done the impossible since the nation was founded.   But it requires enormous amounts of WILL to do whatever is necessary to accomplish the Herculean task of saving a nation.

Do we have that will?  Or, will we simply remain silent and allow the lights to be put out in the once "shining city on a hill?"

© J. D. Longstreet

Read More

We Didn't STEAL IT! We BOUGHT It! ... J. D. Longstreet

            We Didn't STEAL IT!  We BOUGHT It!
                            ... All  Six-Hundred BILLION Dollars Worth!
                                 A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
*************************************************
To say that the US stole the land that now comprises the southwestern United States is a bald-faced lie!

It is a lie the political left is using to their advantage.  The "citizens of the world bunch,"  the globalists, the world without borders nuts, (and the like) have spread this lie so thickly that it is now accepted as truth.  It is NOT truth.  It is a damnable lie! It is propaganda intended to soften up US citizen's sentiments toward amnesty for illegal aliens.

Obama is about to mount an all out push for amnesty for illegal aliens, very soon now, and it WILL pass the Congress this time.    

Do you understand now why no one is correcting the lies that the US stole all that land in the Southwest from Mexico???  Do you understand WHY  they want you to remain "dumb" on the subject?

It is all a part of their Deconstruction of America Project. It is a project, I might add, that appears to be well ahead of schedule and coming to fruition at a pace I would not have believed had I not experienced it since Election Day 2008.  

OK, so -- let’s set 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. 

Second: 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 Purchase" a few years later.  It’s all there.  It’s a part of history.  It is, apparently, a part of history students in the American government schools never hear about. (Sometimes referred to as The American "Fool" System)

Of course, the claims that we stole the land from Mexico are 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 (and Americans) today.

Actually, as I view the relationship between the US and Mexico today, I almost ... ALMOST ... agree with those who feel we ought to annex the entire country of Mexico and run it as an American territory.   I mean, it’s not like we are not supporting the country of Mexico, anyway.  The billions of US dollars a year pouring into Mexico, from Mexican citizens who have burglarized the US, by "breaking and entering," is absolutely staggering.

So, as the leftist's propaganda mills continue to crank this unmitigated bovine scatology and pure horse hockey out inundating Americans with all the lies and distortions about how badly Americans treat Mexicans, illegal and otherwise, just keep in mind that all they are attempting to do is prod Americans into supporting Obama's AMNESTY FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS endeavor.  

Comprehensive Immigration Reform (or whatever they are calling it THIS time!!!), is an abomination and should never see the light of day. I’ll be leaning on my Senators from North Carolina to vote against that bill -- and any other bills that will aid in the left's efforts to destroy America -- at every opportunity. May I suggest you do the same?

© J. D. Longstreet

Read More

Breaking News: A new Washington blockbuster is set to debut Friday

By James H. Shott

From the people who raised your moral outrage with "Fast and Furious," drove your anger to fever pitch with "Negligence in Benghazi," and left you scratching your head with "Wasting Billions Again in Green Energyville," comes a new, even-bigger blockbuster that threatens to unleash mass chaos across the land: "The Attack of Sequestration!"

Sequestration is a predetermined set of mandatory cuts to defense and domestic spending totaling $965 billion over the next 10 years. The first round of $85 billon automatically takes effect March 1, unless our elected leaders, the stewards of our government, get busy this week.

There is a great deal of political Tomfoolery associated with this looming event, such as the myth that sequestration represents actual cuts to federal spending — it doesn't. The $965 billion total and the $85 billion for this year represent reductions only in budget increases, not cuts in spending. And even if Congress does not stop sequestration, the federal government will spend $2.14 trillion more in 2022 than it does today.

Then the idea that something so tiny in a federal budget so bloated as ours will be calamitous is just silly. The spending for 2013 is estimated at $3.55 trillion — which is $3,550 billion — and $85 billion is just pocket change. In fact, since the fiscal year is already nearly half over, the damage will be less than that.

And then there's President Obama's idiotic scare tactic that teachers, first responders and other important workers will be laid off. As all informed Americans know, school teachers, fire fighters and police officers are state and local employees, not federal workers, so their jobs won't be directly affected by the sequestration, although cutbacks in programs sending money to the states might have an impact.

Over a 10-year period sequestration would reduce proposed spending increases by about 2.5 percent. In practical terms, that means instead of having $100 to spend, government would only have $97.50, a tough situation, perhaps, but certainly not a catastrophe. And given the enormous and dangerous national debt facing us, it's a sacrifice our public servants will just have to cope with.

The president would have us believe that not only was sequestration the idea of Congressional Republicans, but that he was totally against its development. Both assertions are false. According to author Bob Woodward in his recent book "The Price of Politics," the origins of sequestration rest comfortably with then-White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew (he’s the guy Mr. Obama has nominated to run the economy at the Treasury Department) assisted by then-White House congressional relations chief Rob Nabors, and was approved for presentation to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid by President Obama on July 27, 2011. Mr. Woodward referred to Lew and Nabors as "probably the foremost experts on budget issues in the senior ranks of the federal government," which explains a lot about why we are where we are.

This is no small point. The president has a penchant for laying the blame for his failures on the Bush administration and Republicans in Congress. He cannot run away from this one.

As for the president's strong opposition to the immensely flawed concept, here is what he said on the subject in November of 2011: “Already, some in Congress are trying to undo these automatic spending cuts. My message to them is simple: No. I will veto any effort to get rid of those automatic spending cuts – domestic and defense spending. There will be no easy off-ramps on this one.”

President Obama either has one of the worst memories of anyone to inhabit the office, or simply does not like the truth.

Clearly, even though the "cuts" the Obama sequestration imposes are too small, given the scope of our fiscal crisis, it is a clumsy tool that cuts spending indiscriminately. Typical of the administration's planning, it was poorly thought out, and was designed as a mechanism to bludgeon Republicans to agreeing to even more tax increases than they agreed to last year.

Because it is a rip saw where a surgical laser is needed, sequestration can do serious damage, but it does not have to. Department heads and military service chiefs should have full discretion to apply cuts where they will do the least harm, something that should not be difficult to accomplish by people dedicated to working to sensibly reduce over-spending.

Vast areas of waste and duplication have been well documented, and total at least twice the amount of this year's cuts. And there are truckloads of failed government programs and projects – like Head Start, putting a muzzle on the Environmental Protection Agency, and doing away with SWAT teams carrying out the work of the Department of Education, the Food and Drug Administration and other agencies that have no business using that kind of force.

Of course, this solution assumes that the elected leaders of our government start doing what is good for the country instead of what benefits them politically. And now is the time for the President of the United States to stop campaigning and finally show some real leadership.

 Cross-posted from Observations

Read More

The Curse Of The LO/INFO Voter ... J. D. Longstreet

The Curse Of The LO/INFO Voter
A Commentary b J. D. Longstreet
******************

The LO/INFO voter -- sometimes referred to as LIV's -- are a curse on America.  It is they who are driving America's "post constitution" government.  They, however, are SO low-information they have no idea their influence may lie at the root of the problems America faces today.

Now.  Who are these LO/Info voters?  What is a Lo/Info voter?  Let's take a closer look. 

I will guarantee when we finish here you will KNOW who a Lo/Info voter is -- and -- you might be surprised to learn that YOU fall within their ranks.  Not to worry.  Most of us have been, at one time in our lives, card carrying members of the Lo/Info voter classification.

Let's begin with the obvious.  Lo/Info voters are people who may vote, but who are, generally speaking, poorly (or badly) informed about politics.  That fact alone speaks volumes concerning the inherent weakness of a democracy.  It can certainly be considered an important reason the Founders of America decided that a Representative Republic was the way to go for this fledgling country and it's government.

The LIV's could not define their political ideology if their lives depended upon it.  As a rule, with some exceptions, of course, they have no political ideology of their own.  Instead, they choose candidates that are, for whatever reason, appealing to them.  It could be as simple as the physical appearance of the candidate. In fact, it often IS the visage of the candidate.  For instance, America's last balding President was Dwight Eisenhower.

Having no coherent political ideology the LIV's are more likely to be swing voters, and they will split a ticket in a heartbeat.

Some years ago, I was conversing with a young man about an upcoming Presidential Election.  He volunteered that he probably would not vote because his vote didn't really make a difference anyway.  I tried to convince him, as best I could, that he was wrong.  But as the conversation went on I began to understand that this young man knew squat about America's political system. He was married, a high school graduate with possibly some college, a veteran, gainfully employed, and dumb as a post about politics in America. He was, and I suspect still is, a LIV. 

I have a friend, a middle-aged government employee, very intelligent, with more than one college degree, married, very successful in his chosen field, who, when asked his opinion on something or other the government is proposing in Congress, responds with:  "I don't worry about stuff like that.  There's nothing I can do about it. So why worry?"

Do either of these examples remind you of some of your friends and acquaintances?

These are LO/INFO voters ... and they are dangerous to America.

America was very carefully designed for  people who were educated, moral, and involved in the politics of the country. Over the two and a half centuries America has been on the scene we have seen what can happen to her and her government as fewer and fewer Americans deign to take part in the governing process.

By taking part, I mean not just voting, but following, closely, the goings on in the Congress and the Oval Office and writing letters, e-mails and telephoning or faxing their representative in Congress over their concerns about proposed legislation, etc. It means attending City Council meetings, at least occasionally,  and County Commissioner meetings, too.  All these politicians need to see you and hear you and KNOW hey are being held accountable to and by the voters who selected them as their representatives.

It is frighteningly easy to see what happens to a government when the electorate does not  stay involved.  We get exactly what we have today in Washington -- a Congress that is so out of touch with their constituents as to seem almost rogue in nature. 

The current government of the US is a product of the lo/info voter.  Who else but lo/info voters would vote for a man for President based simply on the color of his skin?  How do we get so many worthless, corrupt, politicians returned term after term to the Congress except by the votes of lo/info voters? 

So now, we are paying the price.  We're broke, under water, quickly becoming a third-world country, and we're scratching our collective heads wondering how we ever got into this mess.

I submit that wondering how we got into this mess is not the real question.  We already know the answer to that.

 The real question is:  "How do we get out of this mess?"

© J. D. Longstreet

Read More

Overcoming Their Own Worst Enemy ... J. D. Longstreet

Overcoming Their Own Worst Enemy
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
****************

Liberal guilt created a permanent underclass of citizens in America about one hundred and fifty years ago and still there is no light at the end of the tunnel for that underclass to claw their way towards IF they ever hope to crawl out of the societal hole liberals tossed them into at the end of America's "War Between the States."  

There is another entirely different commentary to be written about the way liberals have suckered the black race in America and taken credit for any and all advances American blacks have made since the Civil War.  Most of the left's claims are pure bovine scatology but their willing accomplices in the intellectual community, the halls of academia, and the Mainstream Media have taken those lies and transformed them them into what is recognized today as history.  Never mind that that so-called "history" is mostly lies.  It IS the official record.  And that, dear reader, is THAT.

It is the national leadership of the black community in America where, I think, the problem lies.

But there is a crying need for leadership at a much more critical level.  In the home, in the family, and in the black neighborhoods.

The black family desperately needs two parents at the head of the family unit ... a mother and a FATHER.  That young black male can learn much from his mother --  but -- how to be a responsible, disciplined, self-respecting man, a masculine contributor to society,  can be learned ONLY from a father.  The home is where real leadership begins, where it is born, and where respect for leadership is taught.  It is also where accountability is learned and where one learns to take responsibility for one's own actions or inactions.

It is jaw-dropping to realize that an entire race of people in America were given freedom over 150 years ago and so little progress has been made as a race, as a class, in bettering themselves, taking advantage of the blessings of this country,  seizing the guilt offerings from white America and using all of it to make their way up the ladder of progress  until they truly stand on a level societal field. It just has not happened. 

If anything, with exceptions, of course, the vast majority of American blacks seem to take pride in their victimhood, assumed or real.  See, little is expected of victims.  It is SAFE to play the part of the victim. And besides, white America loves to "rescue" victims by lavishing all sorts of goodies on them if only to assuage the guilt they (white America) feel for having victimized the poor "victim" in the first place.

Then along comes someone like Dr. Ben Carson and blows a hole the size of the moon through all the BS the leaders of the black community have thrown up the past 150 years -- and what happens?  Well, of course, he is attacked for it.  He's not "down" with the "cause."

See, Ben Carson is an embarrassment to the black community.  That alone should tell you just how convoluted the thinking within that hapless community of people really is.

Here's a man who made the most of every opportunity he found, or came his way, or that he himself could create. Ambitious?  HELL, Yes!  But ambition is a necessary element in striving to better your lot in life.

"Black people created their own stereotype. Now its hard for me to be a educated young black man without being labeled as 'acting white." (Quote from "unknown.")

Nobody seems to know who actually created or verbalized the quote above but it is unarguably true.

Mychal Massie, in an Article for WND entitled: "Blacks: Their own worst enemy" said the following: "If you are black, when was the last time you applauded the accomplishment of another black who didn’t play victim or have an edge of militancy earmarking said accomplishment?

Blacks are inculcated from the womb to believe that whites, especially conservatives, are out to get them. Living under that onus creates a debilitating vestige of rage, resentment and inferiority. In reality, whites, apart from liberals who trade on black immiseration, are not interested in holding blacks down or treating them unfairly. And in no way do they reference blacks in the same disparaging ways blacks do them." SOURCE:  http://www.wnd.com/2007/10/43800/#zqvc6ysDx2m6RJvd.99

(Mr. Massie is, himself, black. He is the former chairman of the National Leadership Network of Black Conservatives-Project 21 – a conservative black think tank located in Washington, D.C. He was recognized as the 2008 Conservative Man of the Year by the Conservative Party of Suffolk County, N.Y. He is a nationally recognized political activist, pundit and columnist. He has appeared on Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, C-SPAN, NBC, Comcast Cable and talk-radio programming nationwide. A former self-employed business owner of more than 30 years, Massie's website is mychal-massie.com.)

In the very same article Mr. Massie goes on to say: "Many blacks may not like it, but all too often, when they’re not being their own worst enemies, they are giving their tacit stamp of approval for others to portray them that way."  SOURCE:  http://www.wnd.com/2007/10/43800/#zqvc6ysDx2m6RJvd.99

For evidence of the truthfulness of Mr. Massie's statement above simply look at the leaders the American black community has chosen to represent it and consider how those very same leaders embellish the victim-hood label.

I agree with Mr. Massie who says in the same article:  "It is time to stop feigning insult over nothing, and over that which could be avoided by appropriate behavior, and start promoting positive stories of blacks, regardless of their party affiliation. It is time to stop honoring malevolent anti-social behavior and victimology."  Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2007/10/43800/#zqvc6ysDx2m6RJvd.99
  
The self-appointed leaders of America's black community continue to play the "blame game" and continue to preach hatred and divisiveness when they ought to be preaching a message of repentance and turning away from immorality.   As a result, American blacks have simply traded one enslavement for another.

At some point, blacks are going to have to relinquish their death grip on the battles of the past, accept that most of those battles have actually been won, and join with the rest of us battling today's problems and preparing as best we can to face the unknown problems about to assail us from the future.

Look. Bigots and racists are EVER with us,  have always BEEN with us,  and will always BE with us.  Unfortunately, it is a part of the human condition.  It is a part we can choose to allow influence us -- or -- we can choose to ignore it/them and move forward.   I hope we as a people, both black and white, choose the latter.

America is facing an uncertain future in which she will need all her children, black, white, brown, whatever,  dedicated to her survival.

WE can do this, but we can do it so much better TOGETHER.

© J. D. Longstreet

Read More

Proposed "Green Annex" to the US Army Operations Order

Now that West Point has created Energy and Environmental Officers (or "E2Os"), it is time to introduce an Annex to the US Army Operations Order that addresses climate change, sustainable development, and other green issues during the conduct of military operations.  Here is my proposed "Annex W: Sustainable Development" to be completed by the Green Officer on the unit's staff (this is satire):

This is a hypothetical document and not an approved change to FM 5-0. It is being used to demonstrate the potential future of military operations under United Nations’ Agenda 21 and Sustainable Development related policies.

Cross-posted from Against All Enemies

Connect to AAE
   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AgainstAllEnemies (Click "Like")
   Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/@AAEnemies ("Follow")
   YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/AAEnemies ("Subscribe")
Disclaimer: These opinions are solely my own, and do not reflect the opinions or official positions of any United States Government agency, organization or department.

Read More

West Point's "Green" Officer

Our military is rapidly losing its way.  Somehow it believes that celebrating sodomy in the ranks will be beneficial to good order and discipline and that war is an equal opportunity employer.  How is going against the Law of Nature as established by our Creator a good thing?

Now we have the introduction of "green" officers at the United States Military Academy with the addition of "Brigade Energy and Environmental" officers and non-commissioned officers to cadet staffs:

"Cadets on the Brigade Energy and Environmental staff will introduce a new insignia to the Corps when they don their cadet uniforms this week. These cadet energy and environmental officers and noncommissioned officers, or E2Os, are tasked with leading the charge on initiatives related to recycling, energy and water conservation at the academy. 

The insignia has the chevrons customary to cadet rank. The three rockers below are designed as waves to signify energy and water. It has been decades since the last insignia has been approved for a cadet staff position, and the process took nearly a year before the rank received approval from the Brigade Tactical Department and the Commandant of Cadets." (from West Point Facebook page)

Here is their shoulder sleeve insignia:

This has the potential to become the new political officer who seeks sustainable development, fights climate change, and introduces United Nations' Agenda 21 to our military formations.  Agenda 21 can be described as "a mechanism by which nations can 'legitimately' centralize control of all resources (including people) in their nations in the name of combatting 'man-made climate change'" (source) and is a direct threat to the American form of government and the liberties of its citizenry.  We do not need the military actively supporting or enforcing it.

Frankly, any sort of conservation effort needs to be restricted to an additional duty for an officer and not elevated to an official staff position.  Perhaps our units can now have the S-21 (or G-21) added to their staffs and call him or her the "Agenda 21 Officer."

With the introduction of this "green" officer, our military can start forming the "First Earth Battalion" to fight for the future of our planet as envisioned by Lieutenant Colonel Jim Channon of "The Men Who Stare at Goats" fame:

"The earth battalion declares its primary allegiance to people and planet." (First Earth Battalion manual) 

"The First Earth Battalion is a banner under which the forces of good in the world can unite and find strength in spirit with others who share a common goal.  Warrior Monks are guardians of the good, guardians of humanity, nature and the planet..." (First Earth Battalion manual)

Perhaps one of the cadets who serve as a cadet energy and environmental officer (E2O) can be the unit's first commander.  They can utilize the proposed Green Annex to the US Army Operations Order to better carry out their mission.

Cross-posted from Against All Enemies

Connect to AAE
   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AgainstAllEnemies (Click "Like")
   Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/@AAEnemies ("Follow")
   YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/AAEnemies ("Subscribe")
Disclaimer: These opinions are solely my own, and do not reflect the opinions or official positions of any United States Government agency, organization or department.

Read More

Obama's Speeches Chilling ... J. D. Longstreet

Obama's Speeches Chilling
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
****************

The crowd was roaring.  The lone man, ramrod straight, in his impeccable brown uniform would step forward toward the lectern, then pause and let his eyes wander over the thousands of up turned faces -- all staring at him, waiting for him to speak. And they waited -- and they waited. 

The man at the lectern made no effort to speak.  He just stood there, almost motionless, and didn't say a word.

A wave of anxiety, nervousness, began to sweep through the crowd of expectant listeners. The noise level began to recede.  Soon the roar of the crowd was gone completely.  The crowd became quiet and motionless, a reflection of the man they had come expecting to hear speak.

A full sixty seconds would expire before that man would take the one remaining step to the lectern,  and begin speaking. 

At first he spoke softly forcing his audience to strain to hear his words. Then little by little he would increase the volume of his voice until finally he was shouting and gesticulating in a near maniacal manner.  His audience was worked up to a fever pitch ready and willing to do his bidding, no matter the consequences.

Those of you reading this now, if you are near my age, know exactly of whom I speak -- Adolf Hitler.   He was a master at oratory.  He was a master actor. He was a master at manipulating his fellowman.  He was a master at dealing death and destruction. He was a master at destroying nations and nearly destroyed the world. 

Watching a film clip of one of his speeches today sends chills racing up and down my spine.  It is as though just the sound of his voice invokes evil.

He was, quite likely, the greatest orator of the 20th century.

Here in the 21st century, we have another great orator.  He, too has to power to move his listeners to act while disregarding consequences.  He, too, has worshipers -- some who even refer to him as "Lord and Master."

His Name is Barack Hussein Obama.  And he is President of the United States of America.  And he scares the hell out of me!      

If you look at the faces in one of Hitler's crowds and compare them to the faces in Obama's crowds, you will see the same worship of their speaker.  But look closely.  Look at the eyes.  Do you see it?  Do you see the vacant, "the lights are on, but nobody's home" look reflected in those eyes?  It's the look that makes those tiny little hairs on the back of your neck tingle and stand up.  That's primal fear, honed to perfection by our ancestors while they still lived in caves. 

Trust it. It is telling you:  "Something is dreadfully wrong."

If you could look BEHIND those blank stares, I feel certain to you would see something else, too. Raw fear.  It's the sane part of the human mind fighting to regain control.  Worshipers always fear -- and eventually begin to question.

Given a choice, I will not listen to an Obama speech.   I get the same feeling I would get if told the Battle of Armageddon had begun. Bells and whistles begin going off in the Amygdala of my brain, the part of the brain that controls one's "flight or fight" reaction.  That's our caveman ancestors banging on our door in the middle of the night yelling "FIRE!"

Be afraid.  Be very afraid.  No mere mortal should have that kind of power over his fellow human beings.  It is too easily misused.  It is raw power -- and it is corruptible.

Obama's speeches are chilling to me ... almost malevolent.  It's as though he is using his voice, his tsunami of words, to misdirect the gaze of his worshipers away from all that is not right with America toward a utopian facade of an America that, in reality, does not exist -- and never will.

Encouraging worshipers is never a good idea for mere mortals.  As we said above worshipers will eventually begin to ask questions.  Sooner or later they will ask the right question and receive the true answer.  At which point the "worshipee" is in deep trouble.  That mindless crowd can turn on a dime and produce pitchforks and torches that light the night in hate and violence all directed at the one who deceived them. History is replete with records of just such behavior played out time and again.  The fate of Benito Mussolini springs instantly to mind.

Often less is, indeed, more.  My father was a man of few words.  As a result, when he spoke, the family listened. We knew that even though he did not speak often, when he did -- it was important -- and usually well thought out.  When he had finished, he had finished.  No force on earth could change his mind.  I admired that, growing up as a lad, and I still do.

As I have grown older I have noticed that my world has been slowing down while the world around me has shifted into hyper drive.  The voices I hear from the hyper drive world now are loud, reverberating, penetrating, harsh, crude, insistent, and aggravating. And I am continuing to learn how to shut them out and listen for that "still, small, voice" of authority (1 Kings 19:11-13 -- The Old Testament) asking:  "What are YOU doing here, J. D.?"

It would seem that we have not yet learned that the answer is not carried upon the waves of loud flowery oratory regaling us,  and misdirecting us, with all the right "answers" to all our problems.  Instead, it is within moments of quiet introspection when the still small voice is heard -- just above a whisper -- but with the gravitas of endless universes.

© J. D. Longstreet

Read More

The Making of a Paper Tiger ... J. D. Longstreet

The Making of a Paper Tiger
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
********************Obama is about to "transform" America's military -- and by extension -- America, herself, into a "paper tiger."   The definition of a paper tiger is:  "The nature of a person or organization that appears powerful but is actually powerless and ineffectual."  Remember that. You're going to hear it often in the years ahead as our enemies refer to us in public.

Obama's "sequestration" is going to leave America's throat bare to her enemies.  He is cutting our last line of defense, our nuclear arsenal, by roughly one-third,  all to appease the Russians.  (Mr. Putin's Cheshire Cat grin just got even wider!)

THIS is what happens when an amateur goes up against a pro. 

Obama just had his lunch eaten by Putin.

Obama actually appears AFRAID of Putin!
I have noted many times in this column, how the relationship between America and the Russians swings hot and cold on a regular basis.  Ever since we invited them to leave the North American continent, especially the great northwest of what is now the lower forty-eight states of America, there have been periods when Russia appeared to "love" America and periods when Russia appeared to "hate" America. Like a pendulum, these contrived diplomatic seasons of love and hate could -- and can -- be counted upon to swing regularly.

Until Obama.

Obama is Russia's dream for an American leader.  He stumbles all over himself to be first on his knees before whomever the Russian leader is at the time, offering concessions yet uncalled for by the Russians.  How could it get any better than this from the Russian perspective?

Sequestration, which WAS, indeed, Obama's idea (or at least the idea of someone on his staff, which Obama adopted)  is going to absolutely GUT the US military.  Heck, we may find ourselves leasing another country's military to defend America.  During the decline of Rome, even they had to fill their ranks with barbarian soldiers in an attempt to defend Rome.  As America is tracking Rome's decline to a tee, I see no reason why we won't find ourselves considering the same thing  -- and soon.

OK.  So I'm reaching.  But NOT BY MUCH.

Look, when a single successful EMP missile shot  exploding high in the atmosphere over middle America can shut us down and send us -- instantly -- back into the pre-Civil War period, well, I'd say we are already a paper tiger just waiting for someone to rip our flimsy paper mask off.

Great nations don’t quaver when a threat to their security is made -- by anyone.  If they do, believe me, they will not be a great nation for long.  Once that chink in a nation’s armor is made visible, it is the open door through which all that nation’s enemies will seek entry.

America's current leadership is rightly seen by America's enemies as a gift from whichever god they worship.

Here in America, our weak link, our chink in the national armor, is the political left.  Their quavering has caused more deaths of American civilians, and American servicemen, and servicewomen, than any other single cause.

Look. A country cannot hesitate when confronted with danger. It must reply to that threat immediately and with irresistible force. Half-hearted military forays into to the homelands of our enemies only leads to unnecessary American deaths.  The sooner America attacks, with overwhelming force, the sooner the battles, and the war, are over and battle deaths are minimized.
Forget "Nation Building!"  It only sucks our treasury dry, weakens our military by turning soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines into diplomats rather than killers. 

Forget "winning the hearts and minds" of the enemy.  As President Richard Nixon is credited with having said:  "Forget winning their hearts and minds.  Get 'em by the testicles and you can take them anywhere you want."  Crude -- but true!

With America's new Secretary of State, John Kerry, dispatched out into the world with what we are told is essentially a mission to "win hearts and minds" on the orders of his boss, Mr. Obama, we're about to see just how childish a diplomatic plan THAT really is.

This a  particularly dangerous time for America as a result of the depthless naivete of our President.  Obama's lack of sophistication and worldliness is readily apparent on the world stage. The first years of his presidency had much of the world "off kilter" when trying to negotiate with the Obama Administration.  Some of their less than sophisticated diplomats came to believe the Obama people were running a "con" on them. They simply could not grasp that an American leader could be that, well, dumb.  So, they concluded Obama's  apparent lack of knowledge about how the REAL world works was all a ruse by the Obama Administration.  Now, however, they know better and they can -- and will -- use  their understanding of Obama's naivete to their advantage and to the advantage of their governments and their militaries.
 
Only an extremely naive person -- a person afflicted with limited understanding -- would adopt a "Lead from Behind" policy for America.  It has been described as a limp-wristed form of isolationism.  Isolationism for America has been disproved at least since the so-called "Spanish-American War" in 1898.  No nation with a global footprint the size of America's can effectively isolate itself from the myriad of nations sharing this same mud ball speeding around the sun.

The plain truth is that as long as America submits to paternalistic collectivism under a paternalistic ruling elite, our brave new masters will most assuredly continue to have America lurching from a catastrophe to a crisis to some other unstable situation of extreme danger for the country and its citizens.   

This is not the America I knew, neither as a boy, nor as a young man.  The America I knew bowed to no one.  We were a great nation. We were a great people.  We feared no man.  We had confidence in ourselves that we could do anything, go anywhere, and be anything we wanted.  Then the cancer of leftist politics took hold. And like the cancer, that it is, it has eaten away America’s soul and her will to live.  It has robbed us of a future as a great, free, people.  With the heavy introduction of Socialism, Marxism, and Communism into out national legislature, the Congress, in the elections of 2006 and 2008, and the election of a socialist President in 2008, any chance of America's survival as the world's lone superpower vanished.  America will do well simply to survive as a free nation.

Under Obama's leadership, we have changed America from a free democratic representative republic into some sort of American socialist monstrosity.  By gutting our military, we will have completed the creation of the paper tiger facade which will, in the end, hide nothing.

Obama's endeavor to create some sort of Americanized version of European style socialism for America will, in the end, prove as deadly to us as it has to all others foolish enough to try it.   Socialism is no respecter of nations.  It will kill its host every time.

For a brief period we will be able to take some solace in the paper "cut-out" of a tiger employed as out national guardian. Until it is tested.  And it WILL be tested.

Then -- what will we do?

© J. D. Longstreet

Read More

Bizarre ideas on the left do nothing to straighten out the country

By James H. Shott

Harry Belafonte is an African-American entertainer best known for the 1956 Calypso hit "The Banana Boat Song"; who in more recent years has been known for his civil rights activism, left-wing activism and his admiration of Third World dictators; and who has now voiced his opinion on gun control, claiming that “white Americans” who support the 2nd Amendment's protection of gun rights are ignoring the black “river of blood that washes the streets of our nation.”

"America has the largest prison population in the world," he noted. "And of the over 2 million men, women and children who make up the incarcerated, the overwhelming majority is black. We are the most unemployed, the most caught in the unjust systems of justice, and in the gun game, we are the most hunted.”

He continued: “The river of blood that washes the streets of our nation flows mostly from the bodies of our black children. Yet, as the great debate emerges on the question of the gun, white America discusses the constitutional issue of ownership, while no one speaks of the consequences of our racial carnage.”

Columnist Walter Williams notes that, "though blacks are 13 percent of the nation’s population, they account for more than 50 percent of homicide victims. Nationally, the black homicide victimization rate is six times that of whites, and in some cities, it’s 22 times that of whites. Each year, roughly 7,000 blacks are murdered. Ninety-four percent of the time, the murderer is another black person."

Mr. Belafonte tries to hang the responsibility for black-on-black murder around the necks of white America because they want to honor the U.S. Constitution, an argument that wildly misses the mark. Black youths dying in the streets is indeed a tragedy, but it is not because white people defend the Constitution.

Mr. Belafonte is also confused about the results of the 2012 election, believing that President Obama's thin victory in the popular vote constitutes a mandate from the people to do whatever he wants. But the margin of victory was only 3.84 percent. That constitutes a win, but it’s far from a mandate. This win was just over half the margin in 2008, which means that American voters are less in love with Mr. Obama and his agenda after seeing it in action for four years.

He also does not understand the American system of government, which in his mind enables President Obama to jail those that disagree with him. “The only thing left for Barack Obama to do is to work like a Third World dictator and just put all of these [white] guys in jail. You’re violating the American desire,” he said on the Al Sharpton TV program.

Perhaps Mr. Belafonte should review the founding principles of the country that was so good to him before he fell into the irrelevance that mediocrity brings. Maybe a better idea is for him to move on from what he believes is a horrible country to one of the paradises he so admires, like Cuba or Venezuela.

Harry Belafonte's racist and communist ideas are grossly un-American and are blessedly shared by only a small minority.  Others on the left, however, are also confused about what is going on.

Nancy Pelosi, the House Minority Leader from California, also harbors some nutty ideas. Despite consistent budget deficits exceeding a trillion dollars a year throughout Barack Obama's tenure and a $16 trillion national debt that has increased by about 50 percent over that same period, Ms. Pelosi not only says with a straight face that we don't have a spending problem, but she is miffed that the pay raise proposed for all federal employees seems destined for the trash heap.

"I think we should respect the work we do,” Ms. Pelosi told reporters. “I think it’s necessary for us to have the dignity of the job....” Just because the nation is drowning in red ink is no reason to fail to show due deference to our employees in the Congress, right?

Congressional Democrats twist themselves into knots trying to convince us that it's okay to spend 40 percent more than the revenue we collect every year. Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin commented that “We are now the richest nation in the world. We have the highest per capita income of any major nation. That kind of begs the question, doesn’t it? If we’re so rich, why are we so broke? Is it a spending problem? No.”

Sen. Harkin and Congresswoman Pelosi, and a whole gaggle of others see salvation in taking even more hard-earned money from the citizens, or at least some of them. However, a new poll shows 83 percent of Americans disagree. They have had it with fiscal irresponsibility and piling debt on future generations.

Here's a lesson in good government for public servants from someone who actually understood the concept: “A wise and frugal government … shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.” — Thomas Jefferson

Cross-posted from Observations

Read More