Daily Archives: July 26, 2012

07/26/12

Gillian Welch, Annabelle, A Study Of American Sharecroppers

Hat Tip: Citizen Scribe

Using Gillian Welch and David Rawlings – Annabelle – this is a study of American Tenant Farmers in the 1930’s-40’s and one particular family and the mother’s heartbreak due to the death of her daughter, Annabelle.

Where we’ve been as Americans. We made it through this as a nation; we should remember where we’ve been, lest we wind up going back there.

07/26/12

Assault Weapons Belong on the Battlefield

By: T F Stern
T F Stern’s Rantings

This past November, as recorded by countless news briefs, talk radio and internet forums, the Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act, (S.1867). President Obama demanded a provision be included which would “permit the federal government to indefinitely detain American citizens on American soil, without charge or trial, at the discretion of the President.”

In support of this harmful bill, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) explained that the bill will “basically say in law for the first time that the homeland is part of the battlefield” and people can be imprisoned without charge or trial “American citizen or not.” Another supporter, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) also declared that the bill is needed because “America is part of the battlefield.”

In other words Obama and the Senate have designated the land within our borders a battlefield and included American citizens as possible enemy combatants who have no constitutional rights; pretty slick, sounds like a third world dictator’s dream. (If you’re keeping track all 57 states Obama visited while running for the presidency are affected by this new law.) This is old “news” to anyone paying attention; let’s move the clock up to the present.

Real Clear Politics ran a story on their website this morning, Obama: AK-47s Belong In The Hands Of Soldiers, Not Citizens. President Obama, speaking to the National Urban League convention in New Orleans, “I think we recognize the traditions of gun ownership that passed on from generation to generation. That hunting and shooting are a cherished national heritage.”

Notice how progressives marginalize ownership and use of weapons as if rifles, shotguns and pistols were reserved for hunting or sporting purposes as part of “our national heritage”. If you read between the lines “our national heritage” is the same as a government entitlement, not exactly what the founders said about the purpose for an individual’s God given right to own and bear arms.

“A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined; but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government.” George Washington

Obama didn’t stop there as he continued to move his anti-gun agenda forward.

“But I also believe that a lot of gun owners would agree that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not in the hands of criminals. That they belong on the battlefield of war, not on the streets of our cities.”

Obama thinks, and would have us believe, citizens who own AK-47’s, AR-15s or any number of military style weapons are criminals; in essence that’s what he said. Obama then added, these assault type weapons belong on the battlefield of war.

This past November Obama pushed to have the Democrat controlled Senate pass the National Defense Authorization Act and together they did just that. Obama demanded the bill include a provision giving the president broad powers for dealing with citizens who stand up to authorities making them enemy combatants. America has been declared a battleground which suggests having an AK-47 or AR type weapon is a good investment for defending personal liberties.

Mr. President, you signed the National Defense Authorization Act into law proclaiming the streets in our cities battlegrounds open to your interpretation of which citizens might be enemy combatants so you could remove them from society without formal charges, without legal council, without a trial and keep them locked away indefinitely.

You can’t have it both ways; either we are American citizens with a God given right to protect ourselves from a tyrannical government with battlefield grade weapons of equal or superior strength to those who would lord over us or we have already become subjects to a totalitarian régime. The spirit of America lives within the rule of law and is protected by the Constitution; Mr. President, you are the enemy!

This article has been cross-posted to The Moral Liberal, a publication whose banner reads, “Defending The Judeo-Christian Ethic, Limited Government & The American Constitution.”

07/26/12

Romney to retrieve mantle of ‘American Exceptionalism’ during his European tour

By: Jeffrey Klein
Political Buzz Examiner

Gov. Mitt Romney is beginning a seven day, three country tour, to meet with the heads of state in England, Israel and Poland–similar to the eight countries in eight days whistle-stop tour taken by then Senator Barack Obama in 2008.

However, Romney is packing far more substance, experience and a surprising 40 year pre-existing relationship into the mix–and, he intends to retrieve the mantle of ‘American Exceptionalism’ that Barack Obama discarded during his trip.

Romney’s itinerary is focused on strong U.S. allies, beginning with meetings today in England with Prime Minister David Cameron, Labour Party Leader Ed Miliband and Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, according to Kimberly Schwandt’s FOXNews article yesterday.

The United States had maintained a very close bond with the United Kingdom since World War II, which was perhaps best defined by the genuine friendship shared between Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

And perhaps their greatest accomplishment was having collaborated with their NATO allies to convince the last Head of State of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to bring an end to the “Cold War,” memorialized by Reagan’s call for Gorbachev to … “tear down that wall!”

Gorbachev’s capitulation in the matter ignited the destruction of the famous Berlin Wall, then leading to the “reunification” of East and West Germany and the beginning of the end of Communism in the U.S.S.R and Eastern Europe.

While in England, Romney will also attend the opening ceremony of the Olympics and meet with athletes, which political observers expect to be a moment to highlight his leadership and work in taking the helm and rescuing the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, which was mired in a $380 million budget deficit and “bidding scandal.”

Next it’s off to sunny Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres, the leader of the opposition party, and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

A little known fact is that Romney has been friends with Netanyahu since the 1970s, when both were in Boston and being recruited by the same consulting firm.

Obviously, Iran is anticipated to be the central topic of discussion, but Romney has said that he will make no public comments in that regard. However, he has repeatedly said in the past that he doesn’t believe Obama has done enough to back Israel’s right to defend itself. In fact, during a December GOP debate, Romney stated … “I’d get on the phone to my friend Bibi Netanyahu and say, ‘Would it help if I say this? What would you like me to do’?”

Romney will round out his trip in Poland, by visiting the historic port city of Gdansk and then on to the capital city of Warsaw, where his comments are expected to highlight Poland as an example of economic and Democratic values.

In contrast to Romney’s trip, Obama was criticized for the length of his trip, with some saying he was running for ‘president of the world’ instead of the United States, which sentiments were more than supported by the title of the speech he gave in Germany to 200,000 cheering people in front of the Victory Column in Berlin’s Tiergarten Park–“A World That Stands as One.”

Also notably missing from Romney’s trip are any [foreign] press conferences, and all three major broadcast networks, who flew anchors and production crews out to sit down with Obama on his ‘foreign swing,’ no doubt to give the impression that he was already the president.

It is very clear that Mitt Romney not only intends to project the image of a strong and respected world statesman like Ronald Reagan, but also to ‘retrieve’ the mantle of ‘American Exceptionalism’ that Barack Obama discarded, during his post-inauguration global ‘Apology Tour.’

07/26/12

Let’s Ban Doctors, Cars, and Knives before We Ban AK-47s

By: Snarky Basterd
Feed Your ADHD

Suddenly, Barack Obama wants to ban AK-47 “assault” weapons because they belong only on “the battlefield of war,” even though the LEGAL AK-47s in the U.S. are dressed-up 22-caliber semi-automatic rifles NOT used in war. New York’s Nanny Mayor Mike Bloomberg wants America’s police to go on strike until the federal government adopts stricter gun laws, although I would expect that if his own security police went on strike he’d become a little nervous. Lanny Davis, former special counsel to Bill Clinton, told Sean Hannity on the radio Tuesday that the federal government should be tracking the purchase of weapons and ammunition to identify “disturbing trends” … you know, like being prepared for the country to fall apart or Barack Obama to join the UN in trying to ban weapons.

Let’s look at some facts about gun deaths in this country, facts the left-wing gun-grabbing fascists among us don’t include in their narrative — because facts don’t fit what they hope to achieve.

Let’s start with James Holmes, who murdered 12 people and wounded 58 others during a shooting last Friday in Aurora, Colorado. James Holmes did not use an AK-47, Mr. President. He murdered and injured people using an AR-15 with a 100-round drum, a shotgun, and a semi-automatic pistol. The AR-15 Holmes used was legal; it was not an “assault” weapon because it was not fully automatic; it was a semi-automatic rifle. Obama would have Americans believe that any AK-47 or AR-15 stored at home in their gun cabinets is an illegal weapon; they’re not. The Clinton-era ban on “assault’ style weapons in this country sunset in 2004, but it is still illegal to own an AK-47 or AR-15 that has been modified to fully automatic fire. So any time Obama or anyone else on the left rants about “assault weapons” used on the “field of battle” roaming “the streets of this country” all by themselves, remember this: The semi-automatic weapons in this country are glorified .22s. You can fire off rounds from a semi-automatic “assault” style weapon just as quickly as you can a semi-automatic Glock handgun: BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO PULL THE TRIGGER EACH TIME YOU WANT THE WEAPON TO FIRE.

Here’s another fact the disingenuous left doesn’t want you to know about. Only about 1 percent, yes ONE PERCENT, of the gun deaths in this country can be attributed to the use of ALL TYPES of rifles and shotguns, let alone semi-automatic rifles, which the lapdog media and the fascist left will always refer to as “assault” weapons because the word gets stuck in your conscience.

You can see for yourself here among FBI statistics from 2006-2010.

While we’re on the subject of the numbers of gun deaths in this country. There were 12,996 homicides in 2010 that occurred when someone used a firearm to do the killing; 831 of those deaths occurred from the bullets fired from rifles and shotguns. Furthermore, murderers use “assault” style weapons so infrequently to kill people, the FBI doesn’t even track them in a category separate from “rifles.” In comparison, 1,704 people were killed in 2010 with knives, and 745 people were killed when someone beat them to death.

I guess that means that the police should go on strike until the federal government bans all kitchen knives, hands, fists, and feet. Can somebody please tell Mayor Nanny Bloomberg that the Supreme Court ruled 7 years ago that the police aren’t even required to protect people?

Let’s get further into the left’s hypocrisy. In 1976, Washington, D.C., passed a total ban on guns within the limits of the District of Criminals, presumably to protect Curroptocrats from American gun owners fed-up with their raping of this country; 14 years later, murders in D.C. had skyrocketed. Naturally, after the gun ban was lifted in 2008, murder rates dropped 25 percent.

You won’t hear that in the left’s narrative. And I don’t even need to go into the left ignoring murder rates in Obama’s Chicago backyard, where some of the strictest gun controls in the nation violate the 2nd Amendment. All you need to do is watch the nightly news.

I also won’t go into the number of illegal guns used to commit most murders (estimates indicated about 80 percent); all you need to do is read anything about Fast and Furious and the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Yes. The federal government did build that.

So let’s get to the heart of what really kills far more Americans every year than any nutcase wielding any type of gun. Numerous medical organizations estimate that medical mistakes kill nearly 300,000 people every year, though that figure may be closer to 500,000. Meanwhile, 32,310 people died on the highways last year (you know, the roads Obama built so your small business could become successful) in motorcycle and automobile accidents — almost 20,000 more people than those dying at the hands of a murderer firing a gun.

All of which means, I would be far safer if I never went to the doctor or drove to work. So, Mr. President, I’ll be keeping my AK-47 until you come for it. And Nanny Bloomberg? When you pry my weapon from cold dead hand, make sure you don’t spill the Big Gulp in my other hand.