United States of America
One of the BEST reactions! Jun 12, 2010 Welcome Home [Video]
I'm uploading this for family. This was the day I came back from Kandahar in Sept. 2005. Life has changed since then. But Gracie is still a good dog.
[From 2008. Over 9 million views, and deservedly so. Video]
Ralph Nader inteviewing Judge Napolitano about Abraham Lincoln [video]
…chief of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center for the past six years, he has functioned in a funereal capacity for al-Qaeda. Roger, which is the first name of his cover identity, may be the most consequential but least visible national security official in Washington — the principal architect of the CIA’s drone campaign and the leader of the hunt for Osama bin Laden. In many ways, he has also been the driving force of the Obama administration’s embrace of targeted killing as a centerpiece of its counterterrorism efforts.
Colleagues describe Roger as a collection of contradictions. A chain-smoker who spends countless hours on a treadmill. Notoriously surly yet able to win over enough support from subordinates and bosses to hold on to his job. He presides over a campaign that has killed thousands of Islamist militants and angered millions of Muslims, but he is himself a convert to Islam.
Here’s a little civics lesson from the Founding Fathers for the insufferable Madame Pelousy and the Manchurian Moonbat (hint, they would be tried for treason in those saner times):
“On every question of construction [of the Constitution], let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.”
— Thomas Jefferson
With respect to the words general welfare, I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.
- James Madison
“Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.”
— Daniel Webster
“It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.”
- James Madison
“Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpation”
- James Madison
“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny”
- James Madison
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
- Benjamin Franklin
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of Liberty.
- Thomas Jefferson
“In questions of power then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”
- Thomas Jefferson
If we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.
- Thomas Jefferson
To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
-Thomas Jefferson
“The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”
-Thomas Jefferson
“The Tenth Amendment is the foundation of the Constitution.”
- Thomas Jefferson
If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare… they may appoint teachers in every state… The powers of Congress would subvert the very foundation, the very nature of the limited government established by the people of America.
- James Madison
“When governments fear the people there is liberty. When the people fear the government there is tyranny.”
— Thomas Jefferson
I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.
-Thomas Jefferson
Besides waiting nearly a week before identifying the Army staff sergeant who's accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers, the U.S. military scrubbed its websites of references to his combat service. ... Several former military officers said they were perplexed that the Army would try to remove information that already had been public. One called it "unusual." Experts agreed that the effort was futile. ... [h/t War News Update]
“It’s not shocking to me,” said Kevin Baker, a former staff sergeant with Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. “There are hundreds, if not thousands, of soldiers who are screaming for help, but they aren’t getting it. And this was what, his fourth deployment? That’s pretty ridiculous.”
David Boaz, executive vice president of the Cato Institute: Being philosophically minded, what scares me most about Rick Santorum is not his specific policy mistakes but his fundamental objection to the American idea of freedom. He criticizes the pursuit of happiness! He says, “This is the mantra of the left: I have a right to do what I want to do” and “We have a whole culture that is focused on immediate gratification and the pursuit of happiness . . . and it is harming America.” And then he says that what the Founders meant by happiness was “to do the morally right thing.” He really doesn’t like the idea of America as a free society, where adults make their own decisions and sometimes make choices that Santorum disapproves. In practice, I worry that he would continue and intensify Bush’s big-government conservatism, a federal government committed to reshaping individuals according to a religious-conservative blueprint.
[h/t Matt Welch, Reason]
Last year marked the 150th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War... these [48] photographs [were] taken 150 years ago -- providing a glimpse of a United States that was only 85 years old at the time.
America was the first country to attempt a Constitutional Republic. The founders greatly distrusted a Democracy and made sure we did not have one. To quote Mel Gibson (who I am sure was quoting someone else) "Why should I trade one tyrant 3000 miles away for 3000 tyrants one mile away"?
The founders set up the federal government with a limited set of powers and even added the bill of rights after to assure that those powers could not grow. But it lasted only until Adams cooked up his scheme to have the Supreme Court determine what it meant and usurp all the power to the feds.
So, no we didn't lose it in the 1920, we lost it in the early 1800s shortly after it was written.
It was completely gone by the end of the FDR regime
Dewey [Okla] dedicated its Fallen Heroes Memorial at a ceremony this morning in Don Tyler Park. The memorial, which was 5 months in the making, is dedicated to the members of the armed services who have given the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our country.... The memorial has six flag poles, one each for the Army, Marines, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard and one for the American flag... close to the road so they would be visible to people as they pass by.... built without the use of any public funding....
One devout libertarian told me recently that candidate Paul "believes in all the things I do about the menace of government control, and he's a defender of the Constitution—I just intend to take what I like about him." The speaker, educated and highly accomplished in his field (music), is a committed internationalist whose views on American power are polar opposites of those his candidate espouses. No matter. Having tuned out all else that candidate has said—with, yes, perfect consistency—it was enough for him that Dr. Paul upheld libertarian values. This admirer is representative of a fair number of people now flocking to the Paul campaign or thinking of doing so.
Border Patrol officials are investigating an incursion by Mexican federal police into the United State on Thursday morning. U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Doug Mosier said armed officers with Mexico's Secretaria de Seguridad Publica federal police were in the incursion, which took place in El Paso, near the Border Patrol's Ysleta station. ... armed men fired weapons and stole hunters' chairs and drove back into Mexico
"As Chairman of the CBC, I believe it is incumbent on you to both condemn these types of hate-filled comments, and to disassociate the Congressional Black Caucus from these types of remarks. Otherwise, I will have to seriously reconsider my membership within the organization," West wrote
"A lone Tomb Sentinel, 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), walks his tour in humble reverence during Hurricane Irene in Arlington National Cemetery, Va., Aug 27. Members of The Old Guard have guarded the Tomb every second, of every day regardless of weather or holidays since April 6, 1948."
After some much needed rest at home, an Oklahoman traveling across the country on horseback will resume his journey Thursday. Luke Nowlin is going through Vinita, Nowata, Bartlesville and Pawhuska over the next few days. He's riding a horse nearly 4,000 miles, from sea to shining sea, to rediscover what makes America great. Nowlin and his horse Pirate are winding their way through the Ozarks in Missouri, 1,400 miles in the saddle so far.
Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have been indicted on separate charges related to alleged prisoner abuse in federal detention centers, Willacy County, Texas, District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra told CNN Tuesday. ... The indictment stems from Cheney's investment in the Vanguard Group -- an investment management company that reportedly has interests in the prison companies in charge of the detention centers, according to The Associated Press. It also charges Gonzales halted an investigation into abuse at the detention centers while he was attorney general.
A last-minute Bush administration plan to grant sweeping new protections to health care providers who oppose abortion and other procedures on religious or moral grounds has provoked a torrent of objections, including a strenuous protest from the government agency that enforces job-discrimination laws. The proposed rule would prohibit recipients of federal money from discriminating against doctors, nurses and other health care workers who refuse to perform or to assist in the performance of abortions or sterilization procedures because of their "religious beliefs or moral convictions."
Because it has abandoned moral absolutes and its historic Christian faith, the U.S. is moving closer to a Nazi-style totalitarianism, warns a former German member of the Hitler Youth in a new book.
Two weeks after a Texas congressman tried force a House vote on his bill mandating that servicemembers be paid first in the event of a government shutdown, only nine representatives have signed on. The so-called discharge petition requires 218 signatures.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspectors returned 33 Mexican soldiers on Tuesday who inadvertently crossed over the Rio Grande river into Texas, authorities said. The soldiers, packed into four Humvees, crossed over the Donna-Rio Bravo International Bridge into south Texas ... In a statement late Tuesday, the Mexican military said the troops "unintentionally" crossed over the bridge while they were carrying out reconnaissance on the border. After clarifying the error with U.S. authorities, they returned to Mexico and continued their "routine activities," it said. ...
Big Government never really was a part of the American ethos and culture. The proper role of government...now that is a story that needs retelling in every generation, and it seems that it is going to happen again very shortly.
A certain lieutenant colonel at Luke AFB deserves a big pat on the back. Apparently, an individual who lives somewhere near Luke AFB wrote the local paper complaining about a group of F-16s that disturbed his/her day at the mall. When that individual read the response from a Luke AFB officer, it must have stung quite a bit.
Members of the U.S. military and their families who were stationed overseas during the 2010 elections were disfranchised at an alarmingly high rate, according to a new report released today by the Military Voter Protection Project. MVPP surveyed 24 states. Of the 2 million military voters covered by the report, 15.8 percent requested absentee ballots, but only 4.6 percent cast absentee ballots that were counted. This is at least partly due to the difficulty and uncertainty of the process. Both numbers were below the 2006 midterm election figures, when 5.5 percent of military and overseas voters cast absentee ballots that were counted. MVPP also found that local election officials in 14 states and the District of Columbia failed to comply with the federal requirement that all absentee ballots must be mailed at least 45 days prior to the election.
Staff Sergeant Leroy A. Petry United States Army For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty: Staff Sergeant Leroy A. Petry distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty in action with an armed enemy in the vicinity of Paktya Province, Afghanistan, on May 26, 2008.
It's William Whipple's turn to be recognized. The New Hampshire merchant is one of the lesser-known signers of the Declaration of Independence. This year, there are plans for Whipple and 11 others to be honored for their place in history with a small bronze plaque at their gravesites or homes, thanks to a group of descendants of the Founding Fathers.
in many respects, we Jews found our promised land when we first stepped foot on American soil (Boston, 1649, Solomon Franco), and later when we came in larger numbers during the 1800s (250,000 Jews by 1880). For the first time, Jews had a home country devoid of a history of Jewish expulsion or systematic Jewish bloodshed. For the first time in history, Jews had a country that — from the beginning — gave de jure acknowledgement to the right to practice to Judaism and the right to be an equal citizen as a Jew. One Jew — Haym Solomon — quickly recognized the opportunities that the liberal values of the American Revolutionaries might afford future Jews. Solomon put his money where his thoughts were and gave $20,000 to George Washington's army, making him the largest financier of the American Revolution.
As Mexico and other foreign countries sue the state of Georgia for its new illegal immigration law and Pres. Obama is attempting to ram through the DREAM Act, all sorts of chaos is ensuing at the southern U.S. border.
Seriously, this piece in Time Magazine is either utter bullsh-t, or he is literally incapable of reading and understanding the words of the Constitution and other related laws. I was so stunned to read this drivel in Time Magazine that I then looked up who the hell Richard Stengel is, and apparently he is their Managing Editor! And by the time you are done reading this post you will be stunned with the cluelessness on display.
Glamour girl Abedin accesses our most sensitive national secrets through her longtime, joined-at-the-hip relationship with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. This jihadist penetration into our government's innermost sanctums is A-OK with Bill Clinton, who risibly presided over Abedin's wedding to proud pervert Anthony Weiner. And then there's Clinton's former chief of staff, CIA chief Leon Panetta, who we now discover may be hiding a colorful past of Communist entanglements. Naturally, Panetta's odd choice of friends proved no impediment to his confirmation as Secretary of Defense; the Senate just unanimously approved him. This Unholy Trinity in the news -- Weiner, Abedin, and Panetta -- brings back memories of the many splendored treacheries of the Clinton years. It seems just yesterday that Bill and Hill were guzzling down illegal campaign contributions from China and handing them advanced military technology in exchange for cash. And who can forget the Clintons' most heinous betrayal of all, which was...what, exactly? We'll probably never know because Sandy Berger took care of that. ... When pathetic Anthony Weiner committed a complete Twitter-ectomy of his career, the spotlight suddenly turned on his most curious marriage. A devout Muslim married to a Jew, with no repercussions from the excitable elements back home. An elegant sylph with expensive tastes married to a dorky jerk on government pay. And a rushed romance that seemed oddly timed to suggest a deal: the Clintons' support for Weiner's New York mayoral ambitions, in exchange for him dousing the growing scrutiny of Hillary's unusual relationship with her closest aide. The Muslim Brotherhood's charter explicitly states its plan to infiltrate the infidels' highest ranks. The sad thing is, I don't think our betters are putting up much of a fight; do you? Oh well. Maybe President Palin can order an investigation into how the Muslim Brotherhood penetrated our government. First witnesses: Bill and Hillary Clinton.
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