Dear President Obama: Taxing Charity? Is nothing sacred?

President Barack Obama signaled last week that he wouldn't back down in seeking to raise the taxes of the wealthiest Americans in order to pay for his colossal domestic policy agenda. He believes a proposal included in his budget request to reduce the tax deductions for charitable donations of the wealthiest Americans, thus raising their taxes, was the right thing to do.

"This provision would affect about one percent of the American people," Obama said. They would still be allowed to claim deductions, he noted, they would just not be able to claim as much as they currently do.

Some in Congress have expressed doubts about the tax increase, worrying that it could lead to lower charitable donations by the wealthy. Mr. Obama rejected this claim, saying there was "very little evidence" to suggest there would be a significant drop in donations as a result of the tax increase, and he then chastised the wealthy just in case they might use the deductibility factor in deciding how much to give to charity. After all, he stated, tax deductions aren’t supposed to be the reason that someone contributes to charity in the first place.

Just how much does the targeted group contribute each year? The Indiana University Center on Philanthropy released the following data in the summer of 2007 for charitable giving in seven categories. The data for two of those are:

Basic Needs giving: Of households with an annual income between $200,000 and $1,000,000, 74.5 percent give an average household gift of $3,076, cumulatively making up 27.9 percent ($5.30 billion) of the funds raised to help meet basic human needs.

Of households with an annual income equal to or above $1,000,000, 76.4 percent give an average household gift of $12,673, cumulatively making up 10.2 percent ($1.93 billion) of the funds raised to help meet basic human needs causes.

Health Related giving: Households with an annual income between $200,000 and $1,000,000, 74.1 percent give an average household gift of $2,805, cumulatively making up 21.9 percent ($4.81 billion) of the funds raised by health organizations.

Of households with an annual income equal to or above $1,000,000, 70.4 percent give an average household gift of $92,289, cumulatively making up 59.1 percent ($12.97 billion) of the funds raised by health organizations.

In summary, those in the two highest earning quartiles give 38 percent of all charitable giving for Basic Needs, a total of $7.23 billion, and 81 percent of all charitable giving to Health Related needs, totaling $16.78 billion. And, when it comes to charitable giving in all seven categories the wealthiest 2.3 percent of Americans are responsible for 56 percent of the total.

Why would the President of the United States want taxes raised on the charitable contributions of the wealthy, or of anybody? Wealthy people are the ones whose charitable giving comprises a majority of charitable donations year after year; they are the ones with the most to give.

Mr. Obama says that putting a limit on the amount of these donations that can be deducted won’t make that much difference. But why wouldn’t the President want to encourage everyone to give as much as possible to charity, so that those in need will have as much private sector money to assist them as possible, particularly at a time when the economy is under stress and more Americans are out of work than at any time in the last 30 years? And, more to the point, why shouldn’t every dollar of charitable giving be deductable?

So, what is behind Mr. Obama’s desire to make giving to charities less attractive for the people who are the greatest supporters of charities?

Does he dislike wealthy people, and seek to punish them at the expense of America’s neediest citizens?

Is he so hungry for money to fund his plans to increase the size and scope of government to gargantuan proportions that he would jeopardize private funding for the nation’s charities?

Barack Obama is a statist who believes in a centralized government in control of economic planning and policy, who believes that government is the answer to all questions, the solution to all problems. History teaches, however, that central planning always fails.

Statism is the opposite of capitalism, which in contrast to statism supports the principle of individual rights, the very foundation of the American ideal. Capitalism, not statism, observes the rights of the individual to live his own life as he chooses, without needing government permission to do so. This includes giving to charity, which supports a long-standing tradition of our great country for people to take care of each other. Our Founders believed government's sole responsibility is to protect those unalienable rights, and never violate them.

However, Mr. Obama is determined to achieve his statist goals, and if in doing so he must cripple private charities, take control of private businesses, and impose government’s judgment over that of the people, well, that’s just the way it has to be.

And so he is working to engineer the most ambitious and dangerous seizing of power by government in our history, and using an economic crisis to cover his tracks.

Cross-posted from Observations

We Can’t Win In Afghanistan!

We Can’t Win In Afghanistan!

By: J. D. Longstreet

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

I don't think a war is winnable in Afghanistan. Even if we won... how would we know???? Hamid Karzai is a joke! President of WHAT, exactly? A city block, perhaps?

Don't you know our top brass are pulling their hair out about now? How many, do you suppose, are lusting after retirement? How many are embarrassed to be serving under the boy Commander-in-Chief? How many are looking for the door to the Pentagon? Look. Let’s get this straight: Obama isn’t Alexander the Great! He may think of himself as Obama the Great! The man is not even a decent armchair general!

When I see our national treasure, our young men (and now young women), being used for cannon fodder in a misguided attempt to elevate nothing more than leftist/socialist ideals, it just makes me sick!

The war in Afghanistan is now Obama’s war. Like it, or not, that is the way it is and it will be forever thought as such… especially by the men and women who have to fight it.

The Afghanis have been fighting, since, well, FOREVER! As far back as Afghan history goes there is the parallel story of an Afghan insurgency. Look it up! For the last 30 years Afghanistan has been fighting a civil war. Now, recall the trepidation our Congress had over US troops becoming involved in a civil war in Iraq. Remember? Now, however, with one of their own in the White House, it is perfectly OK to involve American troops in a civil war in Afghanistan? How do they figure that?

I learned recently that we have dropped more bombs on Afghanistan that we have dropped on Iraq! I also learned that the Afghanistan police force we have been training... well, it seems they are being killed off faster than we can get them trained, in uniform, and out on the streets! Afghanistan is a wild and wooly place.

Now, I am not one of those gung-ho armchair generals who is all for inserting US troops into a fight and when the going gets rough raise cries to Congress to get them out! No, that is not my way. BUT, having said that, I understand there is a time and a place to fight and a time and a place to not get involved. Problem is… we are already involved.

There is the story, and I cannot confirm it, that among the brave men in the Alamo, so outnumbered by Santa Anna’s Mexican Army and facing certain defeat and death, the commanding officer Travis brought them together and explained the situation and invited those who wanted to leave to do so. The story goes that one Frenchman, a former solider in Napoleon’s army, elected to leave. When asked why an obviously brave man would choose to leave, he answered that if there was even a slim chance of winning he would stay and fight to the death. But no such chance existed. Therefore to stay, and die, would be a waste. So he went over the wall and away to safety.

We cannot win in Afghanistan. Not ever. The best we can hope for is to be able to manage the fighting. But an outright victory is unattainable. It ain’t gonna happen. Unfortunately, we may even wind up with a “meat grinder” situation, much like Vietnam, with a steady stream of American bodies being flown back to the states for burial.

Some say we CAN win the war in Afghanistan, but first we must win the hearts and minds of the Afghanis. That is pure bovine scatology. Again, for those of you too young to remember, that was the policy in Vietnam. Winning the hearts and minds of the ordinary people. The problem is, you see, the ordinary Afghani does not think or exist as the ordinary American does. Where that policy might work on the people of a western culture, it has a snowball’s chance in hell of working on an eastern culture. It is not even worth consideration.

And there is the dope. The national economy is founded on the growing of Opium/Heroin poppies in Afghanistan. If we destroy the dope fields, and if, somehow, we make it impossible for them to grow the dope, what will they replace it with? Have you seriously looked at the land there?

“U.N. drug control officers said the Taliban religious militia has nearly wiped out opium production in Afghanistan -- once the world's largest producer -- since banning poppy cultivation last summer.Last year, Afghanistan produced nearly 4,000 tons of opium, about 75 percent of the world's supply, U.N. officials said. Opium -- the milky substance drained from the poppy plant -- is converted into heroin and sold in Europe and North America. The 1999 output was a world record for opium production, the United Nations said -- more than all other countries combined, including the "Golden Triangle," where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet.” SOURCE.

The State Department counter narcotics official said the department would make its own estimate of the poppy crop. Information received so far suggests there will be a decrease, but how much is not yet clear, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity."We do not think by any stretch of the imagination that poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has been eliminated. But we, like the rest of the world, welcome positive news."The Drug Enforcement Administration declined to comment.” SOURCE. (Note: This story dates from 1999) Did the DEA know something the others didn’t? My guess is that they did and they do.)

There has never been a successful invasion and occupation of Afghanistan by a military force of any size. Alexander the Great took Afghanistan. But it took him three years to “conquer” it as opposed to the six months it took him to conquer Iran. But he didn’t occupy it.

Even today the flow of arms, coming into Afghanistan from Pakistan, remains unabated. Some say Iran is behind the arms smuggling. There is the suspicion that Russia is actually aiding the insurgency as a way to retaliate against the US and NATO. Some reports have Iran assisting the illicit opium and heroin trade as a way to weaken the western efforts in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is most likely the most lawless place on the planet today. To bring any semblance of peace to that country will take far and away more troops than we have committed to the effort today and far more troops than we have to commit.

But, it is now Obama’s War. Regardless of what the liberal press tells you Obama’s stamp IS on the Afghan War. He cannot duck this one.

It will be most interesting over the next year or two to see how the Obama press will handle the reports coming out of Afghanistan as they try to put a successful face on a hopeless cause. And try they will. Never doubt it.

J. D. Longstreet
****************
Conservative+Afghanistan+War+Unwinnable+Obama

Warning: Don’t Google Conficker!

by Barbara Sowell @

Digital Journal

Symantec is warning Web users not to search for Conficker because there are a number of hoax websites that could infect your computer. Additionally, it is set to go off on April 1 by generating 50,000 URLS daily.

Microsoft is releasing emergency critical software today for users of Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

According to PC World:

Symantec is warning Web users that searching for information on computer viruses such as Conficker could put them at risk of unintentionally downloading the virus on to their PC. . .

According to the security vendor, searching for 'conficker' in a number of the Web's most popular search engines brings up a number of hoax Websites that actually host the virus and infect any users that navigate to the site.

Symantec warns Web users the best course of action is to use software that will block Web pages such as these from being visited. . .

A third version of the virus was also discovered this month and security researchers believe it may cause problems on April Fools Day.

According to PC Advisor:

The update will be released at 10am US Pacific Time (6pm tonight for UK users), according to Microsoft spokesman Christopher Budd, in a blog posting published late last night.

 
The flaw is considered to be a less serious risk for users of the Windows Vista and Server 2008 operating systems, Microsoft said in an advisory on the issue.

Technorati Tags: Conficker,Virus,worms,malware,Symantec,Microsoft,search engines

Fort Worth, Texas Tax Day Tea Party

Fort Worth, Texas Tax Day Tea Party

April 15, 2009

6:00pm - 8:00pm

La Grave Field

301 NE 6th Street

Fort Worth, TX

Parking is a $5

This is on the northern outskirts of downtown Ft. Worth. It is the stadium where the Fort Worth Cats play baseball.

This is an outdoor event- Tentative rain date is April 18^th. Updates will be published on the Facebook event page.

Mapquest link:

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?formtype=address&address=301+NE+6th+Street&city=Fort+Worth&state=TX&country=US

Facebook Event link http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=56178096157&ref=ts

For more information: fortworthteaparty (at) gmail (dot) com

Technorati Tags: Fort Worth,Texas,Star-Telegram,Tax,April 15,Tax day,Tea Party

Conservative “Talkers” Will Soon Be Gone! ... J. D. Longstreet

Conservative “Talkers” Will Soon Be Gone!
Democrat/Socialists going after “Talk Radio” with a vengeance!
By: J. D. Longstreet

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

Speaking as an old, veteran, broadcaster, I can tell you, I see the handwriting on the wall. Forget what the socialists in Congress are telling you as well as the press. The Socialists intend to pass a law that will force radio stations to get those conservatives talkers off the air, or lose their licenses to operate their stations… and, if I am correct, those stations licenses will be up for grabs. The truth is, as I see it, minorities filing for those licenses will get preferential treatment by the FCC and eventually be awarded those same licenses.

Look, for those who don’t know …the Federal Communications Commission is GOD in the broadcasting Industry. They have the power of life and death for a broadcast station in America. You probably don’t know this (unless you are a broadcaster) but broadcasting is one of the most highly regulated industries in the country. The government has its nose into every cussed thing you do as a broadcaster. Oh, the FCC will play humble and swear they don’t involve themselves in the daily grind of broadcast stations but that is unadulterated bovine scatology! Every broadcaster knows they do.

Back in my day, FCC field agents would come into a town, 35 miles away, rent a motel room, and set up their receiving and recording devices in a motel room and tape record and listen to hours, and even days, of broadcast stations in that and other nearby towns. Then, they would send out letters reprimanding stations for errors committed while they were listening and recording what was broadcast.

Some of the broadcasters became fed up and set up a network of their own to watch for, observe, and report to all the stations in the area when the FCC was anywhere in their neck of the woods. They created a telephone network to make sure that all the stations received word when the FCC field agents checked into to any motel or hotel in their area. Those dreaded agents would make that visit about every three months.

Every hour, minute, and second of every broadcast day had to be accounted for… in writing. In my day, we were required to keep on-air program logs of everything we did. And we had to be able to produce those logs when the FCC came calling. Stations were fined for nearly every infraction of rules and regulations that had the force of law because Congress gave that power to the FCC.

Other than selling commercial time to support ourselves and, hopefully, make a profit for the owners and stockholders, the biggest headache we had was Public Affairs programming. Local broadcasters, you see, are in touch with their public. Unlike the bigwigs in Washington, in the Congress and on the FCC, broadcasters know what their listeners want to hear. They live among them. Their kids go to the same schools as the kids of their listeners and sponsors, they go to the same churches, they belong to the same civic clubs, heck, the LOCAL BROADCASTER IS THE PUBLIC! They know, far better than the fat cats in DC, what their listeners want to hear. And believe me, when I tell you, Public Affairs programs is NOT WHAT THE AVERAGE RADIO LISTENER WANTS TO HEAR! You can almost HEAR the dials being turned, en masse, when a public affairs program begins on a local radio station. And yet, under the old Fairness Doctrine a certain percentage of your weekly airtime HAD to be Public Affairs. In a small market, in the Bible Belt, 90% of everything going on has some connection to the church, or churches. But that is “religious” and does not count as Public Affairs. Nobody, including the government, seemed to know exactly WHAT public affairs really was. It was ambiguous as heck, to say the least!

When the Reagan administration canned the Fairness Doctrine, it was akin to being let out of prison. AM radio stations were for sale all over the country. Nobody wanted them. Many AM station owners simply went out of business and turned their license back to the FCC, shut their doors, and walked away taking a huge financial hit. A family member took a near $100,000 dollar loss on his AM Station gamble. In some case stockholders owned combos (AM/FM stations combined) would sell the FM station and GIVE THE AM STATION TO THE BUYER! THAT’S how bad it really was.

When the old Fairness Doctrine was lifted AM Stations could then put on the air what their listeners wanted to hear… and… they wanted to hear conservative talkers. BOY, did they want to hear conservatives! When a conservative talker went on the air telephones began ringing among listeners informing each other of the frequency of the stations carrying the conservative talkers. Listeners flocked to the stations with conservative talkers and, in weeks, so did sponsors who wanted to reach those listeners.

Station income soared, then profits soared, and stockholders were happy, listeners were happy, sponsors were happy, and station managers were ecstatic! The AM broadcast spectrum had been saved!

The plain truth is Americans really like to listen to conservative talkers on the radio. That is a fact. You can argue the whys and the wherefores forever and it won’t matter. The American public, for whatever reason, loves to listen to Rush, and Imus, and Hannity, and Beck and all the other conservative talkers. Personally, I think it has something to do with the upbeat way conservatives tend to address life and the daily trials of living and, yes, politics in America. Conservatives don’t hang a guilt trip on the listener, they don’t whine and they don’t talk down to their listeners. The naiveté of the liberals and their childish approach to life and politics is a real turn off to Americans who, generally speaking, are adult enough to find the liberal approach anathema to their way of thinking and their way of life. Thus, listeners turn away from liberal pubic affairs shows and turn to conservative talk shows. Honestly, I think it is just that simple.

But now we have the enemies of talk radio, more precisely… conservative talk radio, firmly in control of the White House and Congress. Their socialist schemes cannot work if conservative talk radio is allowed to shine the light of truth on their machinations in the nations capital. So, they are planning a full, all out attack on conservative talk radio.

They intend to use federal regulations to shut up Rush and his ilk. They intend to revive the Fairness Doctrine, which would demand that stations air … uh… “diverse” points of view. Broadcast station owners will be scared witless to do this because it could easily cause them all sorts of woe including a host of lawsuits and fines from federal agencies in Washington. So, what will station owners do? They will simply take the conservative talk shows off their stations and they won’t have to worry about those lawsuits and fines from DC. That’s the way it works. The Socialists in Congress and the White House will be pleased because they will have gotten the in thorn in their flesh, the conservative talk shows, out.

For our part, we think it is time for the old “Pirate Radio Stations” to spring up once again. For those of you too young to remember…these were stations, offshore, outside US territorial waters, beaming their broadcasting back into the US. The FCC can’t touch them. Then, there were the stations across the southern border in Mexico, big, powerful, radio stations blasting their signals northward into the US. The FCC couldn’t touch them, either. There is satellite radio already. But, satellite radio, if not already under the control of the government, soon will be.

Of course there is the Internet… and that is where the talkers will go, immediately, I expect. But it is not the same thing.

If the Socialist in Congress and the White House have their way, Americans will be huddled around their radios in the dark of night, much like the folks in Nazi occupied Europe, listening for the voice of reason and conservatism on little crystal radio sets, made from wire, razor blades, and a block of wood. This is what America is becoming, dear reader, a police state. And those loving, tolerant, liberals, turned socialist, will have brought it to you.

Now… aren’t you proud you voted for Obama?

J. D. Longstreet

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

Conservative+Radio+TV+ Talkers+Commentators+Fairness+Doctrine

American Democracy Is Being Replaced By Socialism… and Quickly!

American Democracy Is Being Replaced By Socialism… and Quickly!
J. D. Longstreet

*************************
The story is told that a Chemistry professor in a large college had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the Prof noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back, and stretching as if his back hurt.

The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist government.

In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, 'Do you know how to catch wild pigs?'

The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said this was no joke. 'You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come every day to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat, you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd.

Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.

The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America. The government keeps pushing us toward socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, etc. while we continually lose our freedoms - just a little at a time.

One should always remember: There is no such thing as a free lunch! Also, a politician will never provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself.

Also, if you see that all of this wonderful government 'help' is a problem confronting the future of democracy in America, you might want to tell this to your friends. If you think the free ride is essential to our way of life then you will probably disregard this, but God help you when the gate slams shut!

American citizens need, desperately, to listen and observe what is going on today in Washington, DC. Bailouts, nationalization of businesses, and US government take-overs of banks, and other financial institutions are the opening gambits of a socialist regime currently in power in our nation’s capital.

We need to listen closely to what the Congress and the President are saying and doing and promising us. SOME of us warned this would happen. We were sneered at, and made fun of, and, in some cases, ostracized. Now the painful truth is coming out as Americans slowly wake up and learn they have given their country away to a socialist regime. Now, just maybe, Americans will be able to tell who is about to slam the gate on America!

Think about this very carefully because: 'A government that is big enough to give you everything you want, is also big enough to take away everything you have.' - Thomas Jefferson

Maybe this "Make Believe"logo (for a yet to be organized “NEW” political party in America?) is not as… er… funny as it may first have appeared to you. If it angered you, think about the implications and look about you and observe what is happening in the USA today. Then, think about what you can do as a citizen of the USA to save your country… the country our forefather left in our keeping. Then, think about how badly we have let them down, as well as all the men and women who have given their lives in the fight to preserve this democratic representative republic.

These are, indeed, the “times that try men’s souls.”

J. D. Longstreet

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

Conservative+America+Socialist+Takeover+Communism

Militia Report by MIAC Rejected by Missouri State Patrol

This is a welcome update to last week's article Conservative Bloggers Now Labeled “Domestic Terrorists”? Some conservative bloggers were so outraged that as a spoof they formed the Domestic Terrorist Bloggers Network.

World Net Daily article

The chief of the Missouri highway patrol is blasting a report issued by the Missouri Information Analysis Center that linked conservative groups to domestic terrorism, assuring that such reports no longer will be issued.

The report warned law enforcement agencies to watch for suspicious individuals who may have bumper stickers for third-party political candidates such as Ron Paul, Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin.

It further warned law enforcement to watch out for individuals with "radical" ideologies based on Christian views, such as opposing illegal immigration, abortion and federal taxes.

Chief James Keathley of the Missouri State Patrol issued a statement that the release of the report, which outraged conservatives nationwide, prompted him to "take a hard look" at the procedures through which the report was released by the MIAC.

"My review of the procedures used by the MIAC in the three years since its inception indicates that the mechanism in place for oversight of reports needs improvement," he wrote. "Until two weeks ago, the process for release of reports from the MIAC to law enforcement officers around the state required no review by leaders of the Missouri State Highway Patrol or the Department of Public Safety."

He said the militia report was "created by a MIAC employee, reviewed by the MIAC director, and sent immediately to law enforcement agencies across Missouri. The militia report was never reviewed by me or by the Director of Public Safety, John Britt, at any point prior to its issuance. Had that report been reviewed by either my office or by leaders of the Department of Public Safety, it would never have been released to law enforcement agencies," wrote Keathley

The report simply "does not meet" the needed standard for "intelligence," he said.

"For that reason, I have ordered the MIAC to permanently cease distribution of the militia report. Further, I am creating a new process for oversight of reports drafted by the MIAC that will require leaders of the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Department of Public Safety to review the content of these reports before they are shared with law enforcement. My office will also undertake a review of the origin of the report by MIAC," he ordered.

The warning earlier prompted Americans for Legal Immigration to issue a "national advisory" against relying on any such reports.

The Missouri document, it said, "attempted to politicize police and cast suspicion on millions of Americans. The 'Missouri Documents,' as they came to be called, listed over 32 characteristics police should watch for as signs or links to domestic terrorists, which could threaten police officers, court officials, and infrastructure targets.

"Police were instructed to look for Americans who were concerned about unemployment, taxes, illegal immigration, gangs, border security, abortion, high costs of living, gun restrictions, FEMA, the IRS, The Federal Reserve, and the North American Union/SPP/North American Community. The 'Missouri Documents' also said potential domestic terrorists might like gun shows, short wave radios, combat movies, movies with white male heroes, Tom Clancey Novels, and Presidential Candidates Ron Paul, Bob Barr, and Chuck Baldwin!" ALIPAC wrote.

It said the report cited the Southern Poverty Law Center as a resource.

"When many of us read these Missouri Documents we felt that the false connections, pseudo research, and political attacks found in these documents could have been penned by the SPLC and ADL," said William Gheen of ALIPAC. "We were shocked to see credible law enforcement agencies disseminating the same kind of over the top political propaganda distributed by these groups."

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=93067

Technorati Tags: Glenn Beck,Missouri Information Analysis Center,Missouri highway patrol,The Modern Militia Movement,domestic terrorist,watch list,KGB,Ron Paul,Chuck Baldwin,Bob Barr,public safety partnership,Homeland Security,Jeff Foxworthy,Prison Planet

Black rage at the heart of anti-police demonstrations in Oakland

In Oakland, California the other day, a violent young punk who was being sought for breaking provisions of his parole on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon killed four police officers and wounded two others in separate shootings that began with a traffic stop and ended with a gun battle.

Lovelle Mixon was killed in a shoot-out with police after he ran from the scene of the first shooting and holed up in a building.

Mixon was a black man, who was thought to have raped four women, and was upset that he couldn’t find a job because he was a convicted felon, and feared going back to jail.

Of course, that’s a good enough reason to shoot and kill the two police officers who stopped your car because it had expired tags, and then kill two more who were then going to arrest you for killing the first two.

If you believe the militant blacks who defended Mixon and vilified the police who were shot and killed for doing their job, the other “Africans” like Mixon who live in that “African” neighborhood are oppressed by police, and are therefore fair game for their misplaced rage at their circumstances.

Such idiotic protestations are perhaps what some predicted would result if Barack Obama was elected President, as that event would embolden some radical blacks to believe they can now do pretty much what they want, since one of their own is President of the United States.

Question: Will President Obama speak out specifically against this militant behavior and provide needed leadership to like-thinking black people in America?

Cross-posted from Observations

Does No "Freedom Tower" Name Symbolize What We Have Become?

by Barbara Sowell at Digital Journal

The symbol, at its most basic level, transcends the rational mind because it contains the most ancient of meanings and codes, lost to modern awareness, yet still acting upon the collective consciousness.

Throughout history those who have wielded power successfully, have always harnessed symbols to act covertly into their service.

A symbol acts as a very real trigger that can releases powerful group reactions which emerge from the imagery we are all carrying in our collective unconscious. It’s no surprise, then, that those barons of commerce and politics always downplay the importance of the symbol.

According to a CNN story last evening, the owners of Freedom Tower have decided to drop the name “Freedom Tower.”

The agency that owns the space where the World Trade Center towers stood is freeing itself of the term "freedom" to describe the signature skyscraper replacing the buildings destroyed on September 11, 2001.

The change from Freedom Tower was revealed Thursday at a news conference where the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced the signing of the first commercial lease in the building to a Chinese company. The building is expected to be completed in late 2013. . .

Ten of the building's planned 108 above-ground floors have been built.

“One World Trade Center” is its legal name and street address but according to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who wasn’t going to criticize the decision because he wants to see the space rented,

If they name this One World Trade Center, people will still call it the Freedom Tower."

The first commercial lease is from a gigantic Chinese company. I’m sure that had NOTHING to do with dropping the name “Freedom Tower!”

. . .Beijing Vantone Industrial is one of the first private corporations established in China. Today, the company is one of China's largest private real estate investment companies with 13 subsidiaries, including one publicly traded company, Beijing Vantone Real Estate Co.

Stephen Sigmund, a spokesman for the Port Authority said:

"The fact is, more than $3 billion of public money is invested in that building and, as a public agency, we have the responsibility to make sure it is completed and that we utilize the best strategy to make certain it is fully occupied. . ."

Really, is that the only responsibility the New York Port Authority has to the public? Has anyone asked the public what we want??? Does the New York Port Authority actually believe that a name change will “make certain” that the building is fully occupied?

Well apparently Sigmund does believe that the words “Freedom Tower” just might bring unwanted attention to this “strictly commercial” venture. Many other decision makers appear to agree with him.
What about the symbolic importance of the Freedom Tower to Americans?

. . .The building was named the Freedom Tower in the first "ground zero" master plan. Officials said at the time that the tallest, most symbolic of five planned towers at the site would demonstrate the country's triumph over terrorism.

But have we really triumphed over terrorism? Or have we just submitted to a new kind of world-wide economic terrorism? After all, we now owe our collective souls, and the souls of our children and grandchildren, to those countries who will buy up our notes. They will call the shots and we will dance to their tunes. Perhaps now we can better understand why President Obama has banished the phrase, “War on Terrorism.”

We haven’t won the War on Terrorism, and our political and economic leaders don‘t want us to focus on the many freedoms we’ve already lost and will continue to lose.

The name “Freedom Tower” is a painful reminder of what we were, of what we have lost, and of what we have yet to win.

So they say “Let’s just remove that name.”

What better way to sweep 9/11 away from our collective memory banks, right?

Or might they all be quite wrong? It’s really up to us.

To Remember!

Technorati Tags: Freedom Tower,Twin Towers,New York,World Trade Center,One World Trade Center,symbols,symbolism,freedom,free,liberty,9/11,War on Terror,Chinese,New York Port Authority,Mayor,Michael Bloomberg,Beijing Vantone Industrial,Beijing Vantone Real Estate Co.

Trackposted to Rosemary's Thoughts, Woman Honor Thyself, The World According to Carl and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

UNRWA, Rockets and DePaul University

by Findalis


From the Sderot Media Center

3 stories, 3 different tales.

UNRWA, where is the money going?

by Anav Silverman

In recent years, billions of dollars have poured into Gaza from hundreds of countries and international organizations. How much of that money has actually reached Palestinian civilians, effectively improving their quality of life and economy, has yet to be completely determined thanks to vague audits and on-line information.

Only recently, with a relatively silent international press, have there been questions from top political leaders, primarily from US, about the way in which the donor money will be transferred into Gaza.

At an Egyptian donor’s conference organized by Norway and Egypt in early March, more than 75 international donors and organizations met to announce their financial support of the reconstruction in Gaza. Over $5.2 billion were pledged at the conference, surprising the Palestinian Authority who originally called for $2.8 billion needed to build-up Gaza.

In light of the US pledge of $900 million, the second largest following Saudi Arabia‘s $1 billion at the conference, US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton stated that no US funds earmarked for Gaza would end up in the “wrong hands.”

By wrong hands, Clinton meant Hamas, the militant Islamist Palestinian party in complete control of the Gaza Strip. Over $300 million dollars of the US pledge money will be going to Gaza reconstruction, while the rest of the $600 million has been earmarked to Palestinian Authority‘s Mahmoud Abbas.

However, there is another set of “wrong hands” in this scenario through which the transfer of funds may very well pass through, hands that are not considered a neutral player in the Arab-Israeli conflict. US State department spokesman, Gordon Duguid stated that Gaza support would be provided through USAID, in coordination with UN agencies that will most likely include UNRWA.

UNRWA, the United Nations Relief Works Agency, established in 1949 to aid Palestinian refugees, has shown dangerous partiality to Hamas terrorists.

In 2004, former UNRWA commissioner-General Peter Hansen revealed to the Canadian Broadcasting Company that UNRWA may very well employ Hamas members. “I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll and I don’t see that as crime,” Hansen infamously stated. He further added, that “We do not do political vetting and exclude people from one persuasion as against another.”

UNRWA has employed several high profile terrorists which include top Islamic Jihad rocket maker, Awad Al-Qiq who was killed in an Israeli air strike last May 2008. Al-Qiq was the headmaster and science instructor at an UNRWA school in Rafah, Gaza. Another terrorist, Hamas’s interior minister and head of the Executive Force, Said Siyam, was a teacher for over two decades in UNRWA schools.

Fox News recently reported that UNRWA does not ask its employees whether they are members of, or affiliated with, a terrorist organization such as Hamas or Islamic Jihad. UNRWA also offers no formal screening to ensure that its employees are not affiliated with terrorist organizations.

During Operation Cast Lead, UNRWA officials accused Israel of firing into an UNRWA school, killing dozens of Palestinian civilians seeking refuge. Israel maintained that Palestinian rocket launchers locate next to the school had fired mortars on IDF soldiers, which prompted the army's response. Later, UN official Maxwell Gaylord, reversed the UN’s stance stating that the shelling and fatalities had actually taken place outside of the school. But the media damage to Israel had already been done.

Mortar Bombs Shot from UN School in Gaza 29 Oct. 2007




View at YouTube

Continue reading here.

Have you ever wondered where all the money is ending up? Billions of dollars and Euros. Some
of it from US taxpayers. The United Nations is to be supporting peace not war.

Over 180 Palestinian rockets strike Israel since ceasefire

by Anav Silverman

Over 180 Palestinian rockets have been fired at Israel since the unilateral ceasefire began on January 18, according to the IDF Spokeperson's Unit. The latest Qassam rocket attack targeted Ashkelon on Tuesday, March 24 after a 10 day lull. A Qassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit the Ashkelon are on Tuesday afternoon. No injuries or damage were reported.

Between March 17-24, three Palestinian mortar shells were fired at IDF forces operating along the border security fence. Hamas's Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades claimed responsibility for the mortar shells fired on March 22.

The last rocket attacks on Israel took place a week ago, on March 14, when Palestinian rockets slammed into the western Negev. The last rocket attack on Sderot took place on March 5, when a Qassam slammed into an open area in Sderot.



Although Hamas recently condemned the Qassam rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, the rocket attacks have continued throughout March. Hamas stated that although it has fired thousands of rockets in the past, its military wing was not behind recent attacks. The militant Islamic group in control of Gaza also stated that it was actively investigating who was responsible for the rocket fire.

On the day on which Israeli PM Ehud Olmert declared the ceasefire effective, January 18, Palestinian terror networks fired a total of 19 rockets at Israeli civilians in the south. Three of the rockets were fired after Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other Palestinian networks declared a truce on the afternoon of January 18.

A week into the ceasefire, one IDF soldier was killed and three wounded in a roadside bombing on January 27.

Qassams, mortar shells, and Grad rockets have continued slam into Israel sporadically since the truce, with Sderot and western Negev residents entering bomb shelters between one to two times a week.

On February 1, the first grad-Katyusha was fired at Israel since Operation Cast Lead, following two more Grad rockets fired at southern Israel on February 13 and February 21 respectively.

On February 28, nine rockets including two newly advanced Grad-type rockets slammed into Ashkelon. In what was the worst attack since the ceasefire, a Grad rocket slammed into an Ashkelon school, causing heavy damages. The Grad rocket tore through the school, after the air raid siren sounded in the morning, with shrapnel destroying several classrooms. Seven people living nearby the school suffered from stress-related trauma.

The Ashkelon municipality was forced to shut down the school for sometime until repairs could be made. The Grad rocket that hit the school had a range of about 14 km or 8.6 miles, and was designed to cause massive damage.

*Ha'aretz.com, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and YNet News contributed to this report.

For the people of Southern Israel, there is no cease-fire, no truce. Yet the liberals moonbats cry that Israel must honor the cease-fire, the truce. Why aren't they screaming for Hamas to do the same?

Attacking Sderot at DePaul University

by Jacob Shrybman

One week ago I shared the human side of the conflict in southern Israel and told my personal stories from Sderot in a presentation at Depaul University in Chicago sponsored by StandWithUs, Hillel, and the university’s Political Science department. As a representative of Sderot Media Center, I traveled from Israel to explain the daily reality of rocket fire that has been plaguing the country for the past eight years. Still one week after I told personal stories of having 15 seconds to run for my life, because of the overshadowing anti-Semitic harassment and disruption caused by pro-Hamas student and non-student organizations my message of understanding and empathy for the people of southern Israel has not yet permeated peoples’ minds.

Tolerating Intolerance - Trailer



View at YouTube

I wasn’t 30 hours off the plane from Israel before I was greeted with more direct anti-Semitism than qassam rockets fired at Sderot. Several anti-Israel posters draped the entrance to the building in which I was to tell my personal stories. I began my presentation with a small audience of around 20 people and as my presentation went on the room began filling with people not merely against Israel’s political policies and action but people in clear support of the terrorist organization Hamas.

When I welcomed the custom of a question and answer period following my presentation the very right of free speech that I welcomed to the audience of now over 100 people was thrown in my face and denied to me. To start the question and answer period, an audience member verbally attacked me, stated his support for the firing of rockets into Israel, and ended his anti-Semitic rhetoric filled rant with a question irrelevant to anything in my presentation. I then pointed out to the audience the same fact I want to point out in this article, that this person was not simply criticizing Israel but was clearly expressing his support for the terrorist organization Hamas. Before I could finish answering the question that was underneath all the threatening hate filled propaganda in this audience member’s statement I was interrupted and silenced by the overwhelming Hamas supporters. Next another audience member rose up in the front of the room and screamed out calling me a “dirty whore” in Arabic and proceeded to grab his crotch and scream “Here’s your qassam!” in Arabic.

Continue reading here.

I am not surprised at the reaction from DePaul University. It is an established fact that the majority of US Collages and Universities openly support anti-Semitism and this rhetoric. In fact a student who is Jewish will get lower grades by the majority of their professors if it is brought to the professor' s attention that the student is a Jew. It is chic to be an anti-Semite now on 99% of the campuses today.

Documentation of this has become a goal of Gary Fouse of Fousequawk.

I ask you, my reader to remember the people of Sderot and Southern Israel in your prayers. I am going to ask you to consider carefully what school you are planning to attend (or your child) and whether that school allows hate speech such as is seen in the video above and others that can be found on the internet. Do you want your child indoctrinated into Nazi rhetoric? Do you want your hard earned dollars supporting Nazi ideology disguised as sympathy for Palastinians? If you are an allumni of such a school and a supporter of Israel, why are you sending the school money to continue these activities?

And like I always do, I will ask you to donate to the Sderot Media Center. Just click on the logo at the top or bottom of this post. It will take you right to the donation page.

Now is not the time for people to be silence.

Evil flourishes when good men do nothing!

Because of Obama I’m Inspired

Yes! I’m inspired to point out to our historically challenged sound bite generations the striking similarity of Obama’s militant youth to Hitler’s Youth movement and the Brown Shirts.

This video of youth indoctrination into a cult of the latest Messiah should send chills up your spine:

The film is Distributed by www.ChristianWorldviewNetwork.com

Here Comes Obama's Red Shirts. The Bill, "Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education" (GIVE). Has passed the House and Senate It forms what some are calling "Obama's Youth Brigade. Sound Familiar to Germany?

H/T to my good friend, Jim, who asked me to forward this message:

Topic: House and Senate Pass Service Bill Very Similar to Hitler's Youth? Is this the private, well-funded, civilian military Obama promised during the campaign? Brannon Howse reveals the largely unknown story of how the Obama's are taking national their radical, socialist, and anti-Christian worldview training that was birthed through their organization "Public Allies". The training will include "social justice" training which is code word for Communism, socialism and Marxism. Obama's friend, and self-declared Communist, Bill Ayers is now one of the leading social justice authors of textbooks being used nationally.

Much of this began years ago with the help of socialist John Dewey and William James. James wrote "The Moral Equivalent of War" in which he called for compulsory youth service that used the military model of discipline, drilling and training. While he was anti-military he knew the value of the techniques that teach military members to follow orders, work for the common good of the group, and reject individuality and self-interest for collectivism. James even acknowledges the need for some criminal cruelty to win their war on capitalism and traditional virtues.

The newly passed legislation calls for a committee to study making this youth service mandatory. The Obama/Biden website called for 50 hours of yearly volunteerism for middle school and high school. Sounds harmless enough right? Not until you realize the volunteerism is for liberal leftist, inner-city organizations that are seeking to indoctrinate young minds with the acceptance of the growth of the welfare-state by emotionally manipulating them with the need for redistribution of wealth. The war is the haves against the have nots just as Saul Alinsky called for in his book, Rules for Radicals.

The New York Times reports that this legislation will cost $5.7 billion from 2010 to 2014 and will engage 7 million in this indoctrination. The paper also reports that the majority of Republicans and Democrats voted for this legislation and Rick Warren was an "enthusiastic supporter of this effort". The legislation also forbids students that are going through this government brainwashing to be involved in “engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship.”

This bill goes back to the House and then to the Senate after conference. You must demand your two U.S. Senators and your U.S. Representative vote against this bill when it comes back to them in the coming days.

Click here to listen now:
http://www.worldviewradio.com/episode.php?EpisodeID=11281

Chilling video of Obama’s Militant Youth

See also A.C.O.R.N. BEHIND PROTESTS AT AIG HOMES

Technorati Tags: Christian,Christianity,Jewish,Obama,service,mandatory,indoctrination,Rick Warren,legislation,John Dewey,William James,Bill,House,Senate,volunteerism,volunteers,voluntary,militant,youth,social justice,socialism,Marxism,collectivism,liberal,leftist,anti-Christian,worldview,community organizers,inner-city,organizations,redistribution of wealth,Hitler,Brown Shirts,Public Allies,Saul Alinsky,Rules for Radicals,religious instruction,Senators,Representatives,Congress

Now They Are Coming For Your Kids!

Now They're Coming For Your KIDS!

Obama's Mandatory Volunteers!

By: J. D. Longstreet

'Mandatory youth service' bill advances

The 13^th amendment to the US Constitution specifically states:

Amendment XIII

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

I begin this commentary with the 13^th amendment because, in my opinion, the folks in charge of the government of the United States are shredding the US Constitution. The GIVE ACT is just another example of how they are doing it.

Look, volunteering is NOT VOLUNTEERING when YOU ARE ORDERED TO VOLUNTEER! This abomination called the GIVE ACT is nothing more than involuntary servitude. That’s SLAVERY, FOLKS! SLAVERY!

We warned America that an Obama administration would be a socialist administration and we warned America that socialism would bring slavery. Well, here it is!

There is nothing quite like volunteering when you are ordered to do so, now is there?

The so-called Mandatory Youth Service Bill, or GIVE ACT, is nothing more than Obama’s troops ordering your children to go into training to become good little socialist boys and girls. For those of us who got an education even in the public education system in America… before the unions took over… the very thought of a mandatory youth service act, of any kind, sends shivers up our spines. We remember, all too well, the youth movements in Germany, especially the Hitler Youth and the Brownshirts.

I am convinced this bill is all about the indoctrination of America’s youth in the ways of socialism and the march toward the socialists dream of Utopia. Why, just look at the grandiose name the folks in the US Senate have hung on it: The “Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act’ or the ‘GIVE Act.” You really need to read this thing. It is frightening. Take a look at it yourself HERE.

The US House of Representatives has already passed this bill by a vote of 321 – 105. It is on the way to passage in the US Senate, as well. If you haven’t contacted your Senators about this bill, you’d better get a move on.

This “GIVE ACT” is only another of the socialist schemes the “Obama cult” is racing through the Congress while his administration keeps the attention of the people of the country away from their real agenda. How are they doing this? They are quickly moving their plans for a completely socialist America at breakneck speed by keeping the attention of Mr. and Mrs. America elsewhere. They are USING the national economic fiasco… the recession. What you are seeing, dear reader, is a little slight of hand here. See, while you and I are busy worrying about our 401K’s, and our mortgages, and just keeping our jobs and putting food on the table for the family, Obama’s minions are stealing our country right out from under us and changing America forever into a second world, or as the international bankers and financiers would refer to us… as a country which is currently in “Developing Country” status.

The America we used to know is GONE! Now, they are coming after the children. If you want to save your kids, you’d better start burning the fax machines, the telephones, and the e-mail inboxes, in Washington DC down with your faxes, phone calls, and e-mails demanding that your Senators vote against this bill which will draft your kids into Obama’s Socialist Army. Remind them of the 13^th Amendment to the constitution, which outlaws involuntary servitude. If you have children or grandchildren you should be absolutely livid at the very thought that YOUR kids can be drafted into a government program which has the earmarks of an indoctrination program.

This bill must be stopped and it is halfway home already!

There are OUR CHILDREN! The Socialists CANNOT HAVE THEM!

J. D. Longstreet

Conservative+GIVE+ACT+DRAFTING+Children+SLAVERY

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

A.C.O.R.N. BEHIND PROTESTS AT AIG HOMES

TSUNAMI RELEASE as featured today in W.A.M. News Room

Breaking News: A.C.O.R.N. Ties to S.E.I.U. Exposed Post follows this introduction

It's no news to those who participate in TSUNAMI MEDIA that Obama's community organizers and Mobama's favorite Socialist Union are co-operative cornerstones in his Regime's GAME PLAN to take over the U.S. - via social re-engineering, immigrant union intrusions plus no-volunteer National Service - all to establish the permanent rule of his Administration and the no-longer-democratic party. The use of these sleazy team players to disrupt the business world and break down the already weakened economy has been at the core of the Obama/Alexrod/Emanuel strategy all along. But, until now, the MainStreamMedia has ignored and buried this under-belly of collusion.

Note to Bloggers:

SEND QUICK REPLY to this address with the PERMA-LINK of your related POST and your site will be HIGHLIGHTED on W.A.M. News Room with a link for readers to come to your site for more on this critical topic!

Please do include the ACTION LINK here, within your post, encouraging your readers & contacts to get ACTION TOOLS (FREE PREPARED FAX and ALL CONTACT INFORMATION to their SENATORS will be provided as soon as they sign in here:                    

LINK TO: http://www.wam08.org/GetInvolved.html ACTION PAGE FEATURES ORIGINAL BECK EXPOSE

 

EXPOSE! A.C.O.R.N. BEHIND PROTESTS AT AIG HOMES - Under S.E.I.U. RENT-A-MOB CONTRACT

A Glenn Beck interview with an election attorney has exposed the fact that the SEIU (Service Employees INTERNATIONAL

Union) contracted the angry mob which intimidated AIG employees at their own homes this past week. According to this report,

the "Muscle for Money" program, revealed by a former A.C.O.R.N.employee at hearings held last October, involves formal

work contracts between the SEIU & A.C.O.R.N. in which poor persons are paid to make targeted, aggressive protests.

These "protests" are then covered by the MainStreamMedia with the appearance of spontaneous events led by "everyday

citizens."

Beck followed up on the mobs which terrorized AIG executives homes when he noticed the protesters were arriving in

organized buses, which were rented by A.C.O.R.N. Referencing A.C.O.R.N.'s shady history, the reporter referred back

to A.C.O.R.N.'s arrangements of voting booths in Nevada casinos as their instrument for assuring Obama's "win"

of last year's Primary caucus in the state. A.C.O.R.N is also being investigated on criminal vote fraud complaints

in several other states for related misconduct.

The "bus tour" attack on AIG families was, specifically, arranged by Connetticcut's (sp) Working Families Party

as one of A.C.O.R.N. & S.E.I.U.'s many public faces. Cleta Mitchell, an attorney who has followed the underlying

connections of these groups explained that the S.E.I.U. has spent tens of millions of dollars on all kinds of

organizations over the last five years. Federally funded in part, and also supported by George Soros, one of

A.C.O.R.N.'s multifold "campaigns" for change includes the legalization of drugs in the U.S.

As Beck noted, former A.C.O.R.N. employees repulsed by the organization's methods and associations have

contributed to exposing their tactics but avoid public statements. One such witness invited on air declined,

expressing fear for her two year old daughter's safety.

W.A.M. ALERT The spider-web of socialist intrigue doesn't stop there. The recent TV network

attention on waves of AIG protests has been used to fuel public enmity toward corporations in order to

gain Congressional passage of CARD CHECK. This union-organizing legislation, spearheaded by the S.E.I.U,

abolishes the secret ballot and would open the door for this INTERNATIONAL union to propagate

intimidation tactics, similar to those above, on successful non-union companies and small businesses

across the nation.

If you, as an "ordinary citizen" (not paid by A.C.O.R.N. or the S.E.I.U.) and have not yet contacted Washington

to block passage of this "Employee Free Choice Act" (aka CARD CHECK) link here to sign in and send

your State's Senators a FREE FAX now:

http://www.wam08.org/GetInvolved.html

Technorati Tags: A.C.O.R.N.,Tsunami Media,S.E.I.U.,Service Employees INTERNATIONAL Union,Obama,community organizers,Senate,Glenn Beck,Fox,George Soros,socialist

America's Crossing of the Rubicon ... by J. D. Longstreet

America’s Crossing of the Rubicon.
By J. D. Longstreet
*******************************

A few months ago, weeks before the election in November of 2008, I scribbled the following words:

"And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand". (From the Bible, Matthew 12:25.)

”The schism that slices through America today has been widening since the 19th century. Little by little, decade-by-decade, year-by-year it has continued to get ever wider and ever deeper. It has nothing to do with geography. It has nothing to do with slavery… and, yet, it has everything to do with slavery.

What, you say? Didn't we put the slavery issue to rest with a war in the 1860's? The truthful answer is NO. We did not. We put to rest the issue of whether or not a man could hold another man in bondage in this country. What we did not put to rest, however, is the question of whether this country's government could hold its citizens in bondage.

The founders of this country intended to set up a government with very little power. They intended the government to have only the power the citizens allowed it to have. Almost instantly the power struggle began between those who wanted a strong central government and those who wanted strong states and a weak central government. After all, it was The States that created the Federal Government… as a utility of the states. Not the other way around. Look it up.

In 1860 there were 33 states in the so-called United States of America. I do mean "so-called" because they were anything but UNITED. By the spring of 1861 thirteen of those states had had enough of being "dictated-to" by a oligarchic federal government wielding powers the constitution did not grant it, and ... as the US Constitution did not forbid it (as had the Articles of Confederation)... they took their leave of the United States. They created a country of their own with a constitution (mostly copied from the original constitution of the US) and they became a separate country.

A few Americans today actually know what caused that split. A “mere handful” of Americans understand what the ensuing war was fought about.”

Even today, in 2009, a few Americans are uncomfortable with the sting of being forced, at the point of a government bayonet, to be a part of a country their ancestors had forsaken in order to set up a representative republic in the image of the government the Founding Fathers of America had given the United States. Those Americans are not comfortable with the revisionist history taught our young as they pass through the government/public education system, or, at least, what passes for an educational system in America these days.

A few million Americans who either live in, have lived in, or hail from, the only portion of this country to ever be invaded, conquered, and occupied by a foreign power, understand what is happening in America today, not because we learned it in school, no… because we learned it from the stories our families have handed down from generation to generation and from our own research into what happened to a country which had, less than a hundred years before, won it's independence from the Mother Country… Great Britain.

We are scattered all over America today... north, south, east, west, all over. We see where America is headed… and we fear for our fellow Americans because they/we are not ready for the cost to America. None of us are. What America is facing, in the next few years, will make the American Civil War seem like a Sunday School picnic.The cost? Freedom is the price we will be compelled to pay for the “security” the current socialist regime in America is demanding.Even today we see the government swallowing up great gobs of America’s business community. Our naïve, youthful, geographic either was not taught, or did not learn, that “business is the business of America.”The business community is an invaluable part of the foundation of this country. Business provides the goods and services needed to trade with our fellowman on this planet. Business provides the jobs Americans need to provide for their families and to keep the capital (the money) roiling through our national economy. Business makes America strong. Profits keep business healthy. When business is healthy… America is healthy. Freedom is necessary, is, in fact, required for business to operate in a healthy and profitable atmosphere.

Today, in America we are flirting with slavery, all over again. Yes, SLAVERY, voluntary slavery, to begin with… then involuntary slavery when it is then too late, after the Rubicon has been crossed. The socially accepted word for it these days is… SOCIALISM.

Back in November of 2008, Americans went to the polls to exercise a right granted them by their states… not the federal government. The issue they were voting for, or against, was slavery... whether America should stay free, or whether America should give up the freedom so many have fought, bled, and died for, and assume the yoke and chains of slavery under socialism.

Make no mistake. SOCIALISM IS SLAVERY. As Americans have just begun to understand, under socialism you will give up all your rights… all your freedom... in exchange for security, which is purportedly guaranteed by the Central Government. Believe me, if you think democracy is expensive; wait 'til you have to pay for all those FREE programs.

All my instincts told me, before last November’s election, that today's crop of Americans were willing to give up everything for that promise of security. Of all things "un-American"… that is the MOST un-American. But, that is what happened on Election Day, as we feared it would.

Do not expect the half of the country who stands solidly against socialism to go along, quietly; into the self-inflicted slavery of this hell-spawned form of government we call socialism.

Had the country voted totally in favor of socialism, last November 4th, all bets would be off. But the country didn’t. The facts are, the MsM would LIKE us to believe that Obama has a “mandate.” He doesn’t. They would like us to believe Obama won in a landslide. He didn’t. He won by a mere 5 percentage points. 5 percentage points is hardly a landslide. 5 percentage points hardly gives Obama a mandate for anything.

Even so, as a result of that election, the word "United" can be dropped from the country's name, for all intents and purposes, these days. The country is effectively torn in two.

There can be no compromise. America CAN be healed, BUT… the damage Obama and his socialist cohorts are doing to this country, to this government, to our business community, and to the American people, will leave lasting scars… scars that will never completely heal.

Yes, we are in dangerous times… extremely dangerous. As each day passes the façade of Obama and his socialist allies in the Congress, and the cabinet, slips a little. More and more Americans are coming to understand the immensity of the mistake America made last November. It is becoming clear that our current government is taking America down a path the founders of this country never intended America to take.

The Rubicon HAS been crossed. The bridges are not yet burned, however, and Americans can re-cross to the open arms of freedom. But, if, and (God willing) WHEN we do, we will have to live with the damage done to our constitution. Repairs will be required to that old “God inspired document” to insure that what is happening to our beloved America today can never happen again. It must be made a part of the law of this land that a democratic representative republic is the only form of government allowable… ever… in America.

J. D. Longstreet

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

Conservative+America+Socialism+Freedom+Loss+Rubicon