We Can't Win In Afghanistan!

We Can’t Win In Afghanistan!

By: J. D. Longstreet
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I don't think a war is winnable in Afghanistan. Even if we won... how would we know???? I mean… Hamid Karzai is President of WHAT, exactly? A city block, perhaps? We KNOW he cannot speak for the entire country. So who does? Who will come to the surrender table and sign the surrender documents? Who?

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.

Look, 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.

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

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Conservative+Afghanistan+War+Unwinnable+Obama

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

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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 town and other towns nearby. Then, they would send out letters reprimanding stations for errors committed while they were listening and recording their broadcasts.

I have heard the story that some of 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 that 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 are 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

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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

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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 we Americans DO need another political party. I, myself, as a conservative, am finding it difficult to remain in the GOP as the party realigns itself in a more harmonious position with the Democratic Party, which is becoming more the socialist party every day. Think about the implications of what this means to ALL Americans, 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, to rescue your country… the country our forefathers 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

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Conservative+America+Socialist+Takeover+ Communism

Keep Your Lights On Tonight! ... by Alan Caruba

Keep Your Lights On Tonight
By Alan Caruba
March 28, 2009

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Does it sometimes seem like everything you read, see or do has the word “Green” attached to it?

We have a Green President and a Green Congress. More and more products and services tout themselves as Green. We are paying more and more with greenbacks—dollars—that are in danger of losing what value they once had.

Green was not always the great, amorphous dream of achieving oneness with Mother Earth. People still talk about being “Green with envy” or “Turning Green” just before a projectile vomit attack.

We have reached this nauseating time in our society as the result of a vast environmental movement, truly worldwide, that are masters of propaganda and possessed of the millions necessary to brainwash a lot of people into accepting an endless assault on all the advancements in science, engineering, and technology we accept as part of our everyday lives.

So, naturally, the World Wildlife Fund has come up with “Earth Hour”, an event in which at 8:30PM, Saturday night, in everyone’s respective time zone, people will be asked to turn off their lights and, presumably, the use of all electricity to increase awareness of “energy conservation.”

Two questions: What does this have to do with wildlife? And why should anyone bother?

What need is there to “conserve energy?” One either uses it or does not. You can’t “conserve” it. You can use more or less of it, but you cannot save it up for later. Electricity is always “now.”

Is the Earth running out of coal? Hardly, the Chinese can’t build coal-fired plants fast enough to generate the electricity to grow their economy. In India, they’re launched on a huge program to build nuclear plants for the same reason. A nation without adequate electricity is strictly Third World.

Nor is the Earth running out of oil? The rumor is that there’s vast amounts in the Arctic and both the U.S. and Russia are making nasty noises at one another to ensure that neither one or the other gains control of it. Brazil just struck oil way offshore of its beautiful beaches and you don’t hear them complaining about it.

The U.S., of course, has vast untapped reserves of oil offshore and an estimated 3 to 4.3 BILLION barrels of it in the Bakken Formation under North Dakota and Montana. There’s oil under Utah as well. We’re not running out of oil in the United States. We just can’t drill for it thanks to Congress and the White House.

We can’t build coal-fired plants either because the Greens keep telling us that coal is “dirty.” The electricity it provides—just over half of all that’s used nationwide—isn’t dirty. Soon, though, they’re won’t be enough of it because our Green President thinks that solar and wind can provide it. It can’t and it won’t. Ever.

There’s just one way to “conserve” energy. Don’t use it. Don’t turn on the light. Don’t turn on the computer. Don’t turn on the television. Unplug your refrigerator, your heating and cooling system. Don’t wash and dry your clothes in a machine. Don’t use it.

Otherwise, the next moron that talks about conserving energy should be stuffed in a barrel and allowed to float over the Niagara Falls which, during Earth Hour, will not be lighted.

We will all be treated to the idiotic sight of a darkened Empire State Building and other similar structures around the world such as the Eiffel Tower, the Golden Gate Bridge, Las Vegas strip, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the London Eye Ferris wheel, and the Pyramids of Egypt.

For a whole hour they will go dark to remind us to “conserve energy” that does not need conserving. It needs to be expanded into parts of the world where there is no electricity and, as a result, there is no economy which is another way of saying there is a lot of poverty, sickness, and early death.

Alan Caruba writes a daily blog at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/. Every week, he posts a column on the website of The National Anxiety Center, http://www.anxietycenter.com/.

© Alan Caruba, March 2009

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Global+Warming+Religion+Pagan+Socialism+Ethanol+carbon+Tax+hoax

NOW THEY'RE COMING FOR YOUR KIDS!

Now They’re Coming For Your KIDS!

Obama’s Mandatory Volunteers!

By: J. D. Longstreet

‘Mandatory youth service' bill advances

http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=92902

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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!

They are OUR CHILDREN! The Socialists CANNOT HAVE THEM!

J. D. Longstreet

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href="http://technorati.com/tag/Conservative+GIVE+ACT+DRAFTING+Children+SLAVERY" rel="tag">Conservative+GIVE+ACT+DRAFTING+Children+SLAVERY

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

America’s Crossing of the Rubicon.

By J. D. Longstreet

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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

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Conservative+America+Socialism+Freedom+Loss+Rubicon

Today is "National Medal of Honor Day" in America!

Today is “National Medal of Honor” Day.
By: J. D. Longstreet

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Did you know that today, March 25th, is Medal of Honor Day? I’ll beg you didn’t. It is only two years old. Yes March 25th was set aside just two years ago to honor those who have earned the Congressional medal of Honor the highest honor the United States can bestow on a member of the US Armed Forces.

Did you know: The United States Congress designated March 25th of each year as NATIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR DAY, a day dedicated to Medal of Honor recipients. (Public Law 101-564) Conceived in the State of Washington, this holiday should be one of our most revered. Unfortunately all too many Americans are not even aware of its existence.

The date of March 25th was chosen to highlight this special day because it was on March 25 (1863) that the first Medals of Honor were presented

Some Americans believe the Top Brass in the Pentagon are deliberately refusing to award the Medal of Honor these days while they award other medals by the bushel baskets full. Excuses of every kind come from the aforementioned Top Brass as to why they are refusing to award the highest of honors to today’s US military heroes and those excuses range from the sublime to the ridiculous.

There is an article in the current issue of The Fayetteville Observer entitled “Let’s Not Forget Our Heroes” written by Joseph A. Kenny about this very thing and you’ll find it HERE. Pleas… go over and read this article. Mr. Kinney raise some interesting questions about why the Pentagon is passing over our current crop of heroes.

So… now that you DO know that today is National Medal of Honor Day… what can you do? Good question.

You can: Fly your US Flag and fly it high today! Thank a current serviceman or servicewoman for serving their country today. Be sure to call your Radio and TV stations and remind them about National Medal of Honor Day. (Sad to say… they probably don’t even know about it!) And you could also place some flowers on the grave, or graves, of deceased servicemen and women in a cemetery near you. And may we be so bold as to suggest one more thing? Why not call you Congressman and Senator and ask them to inquire of the Pentagon… why EXACTLY, they are not awarding the Medal of Honor to current service personnel?

America NEEDS heroes and we need them badly. I will venture to say our military is literally brimming with heroes and they need to be recognized. Lord knows… they have earned it!

J. D. Longstreet

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Conservative+Heroes+Medal+Congress+Pentagon

Obama's War ... by Alan Caruba

Obama’s War
By Alan Caruba

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“I’m retired from the United States Air Force and couldn’t stand being away from the wars, so I signed up to become a defense contractor/military advisor here in Helmand Province—home to some of the fiercest fighting in this theatre.” From far-off Afghanistan, I heard from a gentleman who typifies the kind of warrior spirit that can be found in the U.S. military.

He is busy helping to train members of the Afghan National Army on matters of military human resources as part of the International Security Assistance Force, the NATO mission in Afghanistan. He was responding to a commentary I had written about the insurgency in Afghanistan.

I did not and still do not favor putting U.S. troops in harm’s way in Afghanistan and had pointed out that both a British and a French general had concluded the same. To put things in perspective, I wanted the troops that former President Bush had sent to be withdrawn and I now heartily disagree with President Obama’s plan to transfer some 14,000 more troops there.

In all candor I was among the many who grew disenchanted with the lengthening war in Iraq prior to the “surge” there and I was wrong. Moreover, I am not a military strategist, so I draw my conclusions from analysis by those who are and, better still, from people who have served or are serving there.

Here’s a snapshot of just how bad the situation in Afghanistan truly is. The day before President Obama’s special envoy, Richard Holbrooke, arrived in Kabul, eight suicide bombers and gunmen attacked the justice and education ministries, killing 26 and wounding 57, The ministries are just down the street from where Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, conducts business.

To suggest that a functioning government exists in Afghanistan is tenuous at best. From everything I have read, not only does it not control Kabul, it barely functions beyond the city limits of the capitol, although the Afghan army under U.S. training has gotten some good marks.

The primary “industry” in Afghanistan is the growing of poppy for the manufacture of heroin. It is a major source of funding for the Taliban, the Islamic fundamentalist group that provided hospitality to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda prior to 9/11 and likely still does. Here’s what you need to know about the poppy trade. Karzai’s government, such as it is, does not want to eradicate it. Neither does the U.S. The drug lords are allies because they do not want the Taliban to benefit and neither does the U.S.

“The irony of ironies here,” says a trusted source, “is that in flying over Helmand province you can see all the desired indicators of a devastated economy coming back to life; paved roads, small business shops, even electricity. Everything the U.S. is committed to achieving for the Afghans and seemingly a real role model of a successful counter-insurgency campaign and it all comes from opium profits!”

After 9/11, the U.S. retaliated by sending in the CIA and military to presumably chase the Taliban out of Afghanistan. It shares a long border with Pakistan and that’s where the survivors headed in 2001. It is Pakistan, not Afghanistan, that is the real hotspot in the Middle East these days.

Pakistan barely qualifies to be considered a nation. It was created when India declared its independence in 1947 as a place, along with Bangladesh, where Muslims could flee rather than become Indian citizens. Great numbers were slain and, although many remained in India, they are second-class citizens there. Wherever Muslims are not in the majority, they are heartily disliked by those who are. Bangladesh later broke with Pakistan to declare its own independence.

Simply put, Pakistan has almost always been ruled by its military, as was the case most recently of President Musharref, who also retained his rank as a general. The current president just agreed to a deal with the Taliban to relinquish control over a large portion of the nation. Even under Musharref it was never able to exercise any real control and it is the Taliban’s intention to take over all of Pakistan, imposing Sharia law.

Militarily, there is virtually no way the American military, even including NATO forces and the Afghan army, can effectively conduct a counterinsurgency there. The society and the terrain are not hospitable. Re-supply of our forces now comes through Uzbekistan and Tajikistan as routes through Pakistan are viable, but increasingly lethal.

Writing jointly in Small Wars Journal.com, officers from the United States Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps offered a lengthy analysis of what would be required to win out over the Taliban. The question they addressed was “How Should the U.S. Execute a Surge in Afghanistan?” The paper does not reflect official policy.

They noted that the failure to execute an effective counterinsurgency (COIN) to date has resulted in a security situation that “has steadily deteriorated since 2006 largely due to the lack of forces required.” Keep in mind, Afghanistan is not Iraq and the two cannot be compared in terms of the application of a military solution.

It is not that the U.S. does not know how to conduct a counterinsurgency. The principles involved were known to the Romans who conquered Gaul. Afghanistan differs from Iraq in that it has “a predominantly rural population with strong tribal loyalties, a historically weak central government, and (a) large, porous border (that) make the operational environment in Afghanistan much more challenging.” Or, in other words, damn near impossible.

“There are approximately 42 million Pashtuns spread throughout the region with 14 million living in Pakistan. These Afghan Pashtuns serve as the center of gravity for the Taliban” that are estimated to number between 10,000 and 15,000 “hardcore insurgents.” Two-thirds of the Pashtuns live in Western Pakistan along a 2,430 kilometer border with Afghanistan. They were the original source of the Taliban movement and are “unlike any operational problem faced in Iraq.”

Now do the math. For a successful counterinsurgency it will be necessary to have a 20- to-1,000 security force density in the Pashtun areas. This would require more than 280,000 military personnel. There is simply no way the U.S. alone could achieve this “for an Afghan population well over 32 million, even with the help of NATO and Afghan National Security Forces.

The latest report from Kabul is that the International Security Assistance Force, established by the United Nations in 2001, now numbers about 55,000 troops of which nearly half are U.S. military. If it cannot even secure Kabul, what are the odds it can have any success throughout some of the worst terrain for battle to be found anywhere in the world?

The British forces in poppy-rich Helmand province have been trying without success for three years to establish a measure of security there.

The decision by the new Commander-in-Chief, Barack Obama, to move more troops into this situation ignores the reality of waging war in Afghanistan. If he had no stomach for the war in Iraq, it is doubtful he will be willing to sustain the increased casualties that will result from simply putting more of our troops in harm’s way.

Islamic militancy throughout the Middle East and extending its deadly intensions worldwide is going to be a long fight. The U.S. would do well to pick somewhere other than Afghanistan to wage that war. If the Russians with some 100,000 troops were eventually defeated by the local tribes (with weapons assistance from the U.S.) it seems clear that the current mission has little hope for success. The Russians had 14,000 casualties by the time they left.

We should leave now. The Taliban are analogous to the street gangs that every city in America has had for decades and longer. Meanwhile, the U.S. needs to protect the Gulf States, Iraq, and Israel. The odds are that we will have to engage Iran at some point and tying up troops elsewhere is a bad strategy. It is now Obama’s war.

Alan Caruba writes a daily blog at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com. Every week, he posts a column on the website of The National Anxiety Center, www.anxietycenter.com.
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Conservative+Obama+War+Afghanistan+Iraq+Inexperience

America’s Military Dishonored By The Obama Administration

America’s Military Dishonored By The Obama Administration
By: J. D. Longstreet
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Someone once said: “A veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to his country for an amount of 'up to and including my life.' That is Honor, and there are way too many people who no longer understand it.” The author of this bit of wisdom is unknown to me. But it is a truism that fewer and fewer people understand as less and less Americans feel a need to “give something back to their country” by serving her in her military forces. There is no higher calling. And yet, some Americans seem to go out of their way to dishonor the very men and women who stand between them and death, or worse… slavery, 24 hours a day… EVERY day.

I thought about this recently when I learned that the government was going to allow photos of the flag-draped coffins of dead American service men and service women as they are off-loaded after being flown from the battlefield that claimed their lives to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

It makes me sick to even think that soon the leftist media, and by that I mean the Mainstream Media, will soon have us wallowing in photos and video of fallen American warriors. Of course, the government says it will allow the families of the deceased service personnel to decide if they wish to allow the photos or video of their loved ones coffins splayed across the TV screens of the nation, indeed, the world.

You know, there is something just flat-out vulgar, almost blasphemous, about using the bodies of dead heroes, who have given their lives to ensure your freedom. That includes freedom to advance your political plans, your political philosophy, and even your political crusade. It’s just wrong! In fact, few things in life are as wrong as that. But… that is what was happening when President George H. W. Bush shut it down by forbidding the press from filming the off-loading of the bodies of our dead soldiers. It was a move I applauded. I must tell you this change to allow it again just sickens me.

I waited a few days before even approaching this subject as a commentary because I wanted to be fair. But, over those few days I came to realize that I couldn’t ignore my own deep feelings about this practice. I think it is a mistake on the part of the President and the SecDef to allow this.

Having said this, and made clear my personal feelings about it, I must tell you that I also think we won’t be seeing those picture on the evening news for very long. Why? The answer is simple when you think about it. You see, the war in Iraq, which the President just conceded to the enemy, and the war in Afghanistan are now, both, Democrat wars. The war in Afghanistan will now, forever, be known as Obama’s War. The war in Afghanistan has vast potential to become our second Viet Nam. If that does, in fact, occur, those photos of dead American soldiers at Dover Air Force base will all be added to the list of Obama “screw-ups.” The liberal/socialists won’t allow that so those videos and photos will quietly disappear from the news shows.

The Mainstream Media on it’s own, being so completely “in the tank” for Obama will likely simply stop using the photos and film footage and nothing will be said. The TV viewers will not see them anymore, nobody will say a thing about it, and no one will be the wiser. Often that is the way sensitive things like this are handled when it causes harm to those in power.

For those of you too young to remember and too inexperienced to know, there was a time, not too long ago, when the press was the “watchdog of the people”. They felt it was their job to “watch” the government and report anything they felt would be detrimental to the citizens of America, or to the security of the country. All that is long past, however.

This is a new day in America. We are living in the “Post Capitalist” period in America. It is the “Socialist Period” in America. And the press is so deep “in the tank” for the new socialist government of America that they cannot see that the joke, if there is one, is on them.

At some point the media is going to be awakened to the fact that under a socialist regime freedom of the press is whatever the socialist government says it is and nothing more. Soon, they will have to sit up and take notice because freedom of the press is considered an eminent threat to any socialist regime and therefore freedom of the press must be drastically curtailed. In some socialist countries, in the past, the socialist government simply moved in and took over the press, entirely, rather than spend the time and effort in shepherding them in what they could report and what they couldn’t report. The socialist governments found it was much easier and far more efficient to simple BECOME the press. And they did.

Some Americans tried to convince their fellow Americans of the dangers presented by the socialists during the campaign of 2008. The press shouted us down. We also tried to make American voters aware of the left’s anti-military philosophy and their hatred for the American military. Again, we were shouted down. Conservatives attempted to bring reasonable arguments to the national conversation during that campaign but not only did the press shout us down but the liberals, in league with the MsM, shut the reasonable considerations down in favor of emotional issues the liberals wanted to pursue, and the socialists wanted to use, to secure their lock on the democrat left.

So, now, in recent days, we have learned that the Obama administration wants deep cuts in the budget for the Defense Department. Remember, now, we are at war. Plus, we learned, just a few days ago, that the Obama administration plans to force active military personnel to use their own private insurance to pay for medical treatment of wounds and injuries received in combat fighting for America!

It is obvious the left has NEVER understood that the US military is their protector. It is the US military that keeps the country safe so the left can pursue their wacky ideas about socialism and the promotion of their dreams of a socialist utopia that has never existed and never will exist because it goes against human nature and mankind’s inborn yearning for freedom.

Let’s sum up: The photos and video of the coffins of dead American warriors, cuts in the military’s budget, cuts in health services and medical treatment of wounded American service personnel, and to top it off… a draw down of US troops in Iraq, which is far too soon. In fact, it could be argued Obama’s draw down of troops is coming at a critical time in Iraq when US troops are attempting to pacify some large areas of the country and prepare as many Iraqi troops as possible to take over when US troops do eventually leave.

And for the “piece de resistance”… a build up of US troops in Afghanistan, a country where outright victory, in any war, is darn near impossible… and we have the recipe for a sharp uptick in flag-draped coffins being flown into Dover Air Force Base.

This, dear reader, is the hallmark of the left… emotion over reason. We are about to see the devastating results of the thinking and planning of an Obama administration, which is clearly “in over its head” and “ill prepared” for rapidly moving events in the Middle East. Rest assured that if this lowly commentator can see this, our enemies can see it as well. Do not think they will not take advantage of it.

J. D. Longstreet

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Conservative+Amereican+Military+Obama+Dishonor

Please Send Missionaries… And Lots Of Them… To The United States!

Please Send Missionaries… And Lots Of Them… To The United States!
Socialism Supplanting Christianity in America
By: J. D. Longstreet

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Sometime ago I was watching Mr. Bill Bennett on a TV talk show. He uttered a phrase that caused me a sharp intake of breath and a long moment of introspection. He said this: “America has become the kind of country we used to send missionaries to.”

Now, think about that for a moment. Is it not the truth? Of course, it is!

Maybe it is a generational thing, I don’t know. But I CAN tell you this. In the days of my youth funding missionaries was a big thing. Churches and civic organizations did it, practically unceasingly. The idea was to take civilization, along with food and clothing, education, and religion to the folks on this planet who needed civilizing and needed religion in their lives (as well as food and clothing). It worked, to one degree or another, all over the globe.

My childhood church was really BIG on funding missionaries. Several times a year “special” offerings were taken up, from the almost entirely “working class” membership of the church, and used to buy supplies needed by missionaries in remote parts of the planet. Our church even adopted a single missionary and provided her an automobile, and, if I recall correctly, in cooperation with another church (or churches) yet another missionary was provided with a small airplane to help with his/her ministry to the, uh, “heathens”.

I recall once, for a special offering, the church board (the deacons) met and decided to ask each household to give up one week’s paycheck, their entire pay for one week, to a special offering to go to a missionary, if memory serves, somewhere in Africa. They put it to a vote of the membership. It passed... and thousands of dollars was gathered in from folks who really could not afford to give that much money but felt it was necessary to take the gospel to the heathen population of that far away country.

Yes, this was back in the 1940’s and 1950’s. It was a time when America knew who she was and her mission on this earth was clear to all Americans.

Nowadays, America, herself, has sunk so low morally, spiritually, and in practically every other way, that it is time those countries we helped civilize, those countries we made sure were introduced to the christian religion, send missionaries here, to the US, to save us!

The awful truth is… we are worse, in many respects, than those countries to which we sent missionaries. See, before our missionaries arrived, most of those folks had never been exposed to civilization, or the christian faith. They had an excuse for living the way they did then. We don’t have an excuse! We know better… and yet… we still live our lives of depravity.

America is a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah! Except, of course, Sodom and Gomorrah were not as bad as we are today.

Even our mainline, so-called, christian churches have given up the fight and joined forces with evil. Those churches flaunt their allegiance to evil by accepting such anti-biblcal practices as homosexual marriages, going so far as to marry two people of the same gender… in the church… with a priest, or pastor, presiding. A sin so heinous the Bible calls for the death sentence for those who practice it is now celebrated in churches which bear the names of Christ and the Saints.

This country, which was, indeed, founded by a bunch of Christian zealots, has sunk so low as to remove prayer from the schools to which we send our children for an education. (Well, we used to send them to school for an education. Now we pray they will teach them to read and write! But, as is so often said, that is a topic for another day.) This country wants to punish men and women of faith for not committing what they believe is a heinous sin by aborting a baby, or filling a prescription for a drug, which will induce an abortion in the mother.

I’m told there is a movement afoot to change the name of “Saint Patrick’s Day” to “Shamrock Day” because the name of Saint Patrick is associated with the christian faith. We all know about the war on Christmas, the Ten Commandments, and all the other attacks, big and small, on the christian faith in America.

And christians are not fighting back!

A friend has produced an excellent article about christians not fighting back. Jefferson Weaver is a man of faith. It doesn’t bother him, in the slightest, that you know that. Jeff is a christian. He is “An Angry Christian,” too. (That makes, at least, two of us! And “The Scriptures” tell us “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I also!” So we are off to a good start! Just Jeff, yours truly, and… God! Some team, huh?!)

In any event, Jeff is a much better writer than this scribe. He sums up my feelings and, I suspect, the feelings of a lot of you reading this humble offering, too. “An Angry Christian” reflects so much of my own thoughts and feelings that I had to share it with you. You’ll find “An Angry Christian” HERE. Do yourself a favor and slip on over now and read it. I’ll be right here when you finish.

My generation of Americans has seen America rise to the pinnacle of success as a planet-leading nation. We even blazed the trail to the stars. Look carefully at the surface of earth’s only moon and you will see the footprints of Americans beside a flagstaff with an American flag outstretched in all its glory. But things have changed drastically.

It is incredibly difficult to blaze trails when you have lost your way.

A couple of generations of Americans, intent upon elevating the self-esteem of their fellow Americans, felt it necessary to lead America from reliance upon God to reliance upon one’s self… entirely. The christian faith has taken the brunt of the hit from those Americans convinced they need no help from a merciful, benevolent, God. They haven’t gone so far as to feed us to the lions yet, but parading us through the US Judicial System is nearly as bad.

We are witnessing “The Persecution of Christians, Part Two” in America these days. Unlike christians of the first century we do have the means to fight back. But modern Christians are far more frightened of the courts than the lions.

As socialism overtakes America we will find, I’m afraid, that Christianity will have no place in America. Socialism inevitably replaces God with The State. Then comes the end.

Yes, America does need an influx of missionaries. However, missionaries coming to America, these days, will find her less hospitable than those far away lands of wild animals, cannibals, and overgrown jungles. In America, you see, friends of God, intent upon spreading the Gospel, will find left-wing politics, far more ravenous than hungry lions, ready to dismember them and neutralize their message of REAL Hope and REAL Change.

But, not to worry! I read the book… and we WIN!

J. D. Longstreet

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Conservative+Religion+Christian+Persecution+America

The Greens Hate Energy, America, and You! ... by: Alan Caruba

The Greens Hate Energy, America, and You!
By Alan Caruba

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I doubt that most Americans have a clue what the leading Green organizations like Friends of the Earth and the Sierra Club have as their agenda for 2009. They have already made it known their members, so I will share it with you.

There are literally dozens of these groups in the United States and each has their own particular focus of attention, but the largest among them play well together in the giant sandbox of Green utopian fantasies. That’s why both FOE and Sierra Club announced they are looking forward to “a clean slate” from the Obama administration.

“There’s nothing like a fresh start. On his first day in office, President Obama could make four decisions that would start 2009 with a ‘clean slate’ of energy policies,” said Friends of the Earth at the same time, the Sierra Club announced its own “Clean Slate Energy Agenda” that—surprise—was the same.

The focus of both is on energy use and accessibility. Both want a lot LESS energy use. Along with all other environmental organizations both use the bogy man of “global warming” to demand huge reductions in “emissions.”

The Sierra Club informed its members that it wants to “reduce global warming emissions quickly by making it possible for over a dozen states to implement their clean car requirements.” This is the objective of one of President Obama’s earliest executive orders. Driving up the cost of owning and operating a car directly strikes at the ability of Americans to be mobile and independent. Justifying it as necessary to reduce global warming is just a big fat lie. There is NO global warming.

Friends of the Earth are totally opposed to any economy stimulus that might include improving the nation’s infrastructure of highways. They warned the plan “is in danger of being hijacked by the road-building lobby, which wants billions of dollars for unnecessary new roads that would increase global warming pollution.”

Over the years I have come to marvel at the ability of environmental organizations to conjure up statistics faster than a magician can pull a rabbit out of a hat. “”Transportation is responsible for 30 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and 70 percent of our oil consumption” warned Friends of the Earth. What does it matter that carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) have no impact whatever on the Earth’s climate? And just what is wrong with oil consumption if it contributes to the success and growth of the nation’s economy?

“Just 10 miles of a new four-lane highway lead to emissions that are equivalent to the lifetime emissions of 46,700 new Hummers,” said Friends of the Earth. To which I reply, who cares? With oil prices plunging, those Hummers, particularly in parts of the nation hit by bad weather, look like a good idea. Bottom line: if you can afford a Hummer, where is it written you should not be allowed to own one?

Friends of the Earth, however, want to “shift the debate” in the environmental community to get the nation to avoid “car-centric highways and toward sustainable alternatives such as transit, biking, walking, and smart growth development, that will help fight global warming.”

What are these Green groups going to do when the vast population of the United States and elsewhere around the world concludes that there is no global warming? That day is not far off insofar as the Earth is now fully a decade into a cooling cycle that promises longer, harsher winters and a shift to generally cooler temperatures that will affect all northern hemisphere nations in particular and to an extent those in the southern hemisphere as well.

This explains why the United Nations environmental program has shifted into high gear to get the bogus Kyoto Protocols ratified. Not surprisingly, the U.S. has never signed on to it and even European nations that did are balking at emission reduction mandates. Meanwhile, neither China, nor India, nor many under-developed nations are subject to any of the restrictions. It’s a plan to undermine the economies of developed nations because greens hate humanity in general and successful economies in particular.

We’re not even halfway through the “clean slate” proposals. They include Sierra Club’s call to “require new and existing coal power plants to limit their global warming emissions” and to “end destructive mountaintop removal mining…” Finally, they want to “restore America’s international leadership in the fight to end global warming by publicly committing the U.S. to cut its CO2 emissions at least 35 percent by 2020.”

The Greens are so demented that the American Bird Conservancy released a statement in mid-December hailing the appointments of the new Obama administration. Its idea of stimulating the economy was to “invest $29 million dollars over the next four years in the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act” because “bird watching is now big business.” The Conservancy wants the U.S. to “invest “$540 million in America’s 543 national wildlife refuges” to create more “green jobs.” What a big help that will be to Americans who live primarily in America’s cities and suburbs.

The bird-lovers are a bit conflicted over another recommendation to “invest $30.5 million in the five year extension of the renewable energy production tax credit and making renewable energy tax incentives fully refundable. Wind energy is one of the alternative sources of energy” they recommend, but “if left unregulated, has the potential to kill large numbers of birds and bats and harm fragile habitats.” Well, which is it? Dead birds or more “alternative” energy? Both are extremely bad ideas.

The Greens for all their enthusiasm to spend tax dollars on their favorite notions remain opposed to any real energy generation by coal-fired or nuclear plants to meet current and future needs for electricity. They are utterly opposed to people driving around in cars for any reason and, one must assume, trucks that deliver the goods we require to live.

The longer one listens to what the Greens want, the more one becomes convinced that the members of these organizations must be utterly brain dead and that their objective is to render America a third-world nation by opposing the building of new power plants, along with the exploration and extraction of our natural resources of coal, natural gas, and oil.

Does this sound like a good plan to you?

Alan Caruba writes a daily blog at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com. Every week, he posts a column on the website of The National Anxiety Center, www.anxietycenter.com.

© Alan Caruba, March 2009

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Global+Warming+Religion+Pagan+Socialism+Ethanol+carbon+Tax+hoax

No Statehood For Washington, DC! EVER!

(From April of 2006)

Should the District of Columbia be given Statehood?

By: J. D. Longstreet

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The short answer is NO! The long answer is: NOOOOOOOOOO!

Washington is a city, a government compound, if you please; it is anything but a state! And it should never become a state… unless… the Nation’s Capitol is moved to a more centralized location in the US. Then, I would propose breaking the District up and returning those parts of the district which had formerly belonged to the neighboring states… if they will take it back, which, frankly, I doubt. That portion belonging to Virginia has already been returned. The remaining portion used to belong to Maryland.

George Washington, the nations first president, chose the spot, a swamp named “Foggy Bottom”, upon which to build the city. It was close to his home, don’t you see. Sadly, Washington never served as President in the city, which bears his name. Somehow, I suspect that given a look at what the city has become today, Washington would ask that his name be removed.

Not to worry, those pushing for statehood for the District already have a new name chosen: “New Columbia”. I’ve not heard whether the folks in the Old Columbia, which is the capitol city of South Carolina, would mind, or not. I dare say they haven’t been asked.

The city was created as a “municipal corporation” on February 21st, 1871. And it’s been nothing but trouble and a drain on the US Treasury ever since.

The rambling here is, hopefully, to establish a truth which seems to be very inconvenient for those who want statehood for DC. The truth is: Washington was conceived as a city within which to locate the seat of the US Government. It was not to be in a state, or any portion of a state. It was to be in a district… separate, and apart, from ANY state!

Another inconvenient fact is that statehood for DC would be unconstitutional. That’s right! Unconstitutional!

You see, The Constitution specifies “a federal district not exceeding ten miles square.” It is not to be a part of any state. Today the District is six times as large as the constitution stipulated at over 61 square miles

It is my personal belief that only a constitutional amendment can legally make a state of the District of Columbia.

Many disagree. A number believe that the government compound could be shrunk down to contain only those federal buildings, which are a part of the government and the remainder of that 61 square miles turned into a state.

The Democrats, especially, love the idea of statehood for DC. They know they would get three liberal democrat members of the Senate, and Congress, right off the bat. According to the 2000 census there are 343,312 Blacks in DC. Whites account for only 176,101. That’s 60% Black and 30% White. The median age is 34.6 years old.

Right now, when numbers mean so much for the Democrats, you can bet they are looking, and lusting after, the District of Columbia.

Why do I bring this up now? I refer you to the paragraph immediately preceding this one. You can bet that should the democrats manage to win the Congress, or just the US House, a new push for statehood for DC will be introduced, almost immediately. And, another thing you can bet on… if they can figure out a way to get the job done, short of a constitutional amendment, they will see that DC becomes the 51st state of New Columbia ASAP. I mean, 93% of the voters casting ballots in DC in the last election, voted democrat. That fact alone should tell you all you really need to know about the “Statehood for DC” push.

So, if the Congress wishes to diminish the size of the District say, down to the constitutionally mandated ten square miles, that’s fine by me. But, I would insist that the remainder of the current District be returned to Maryland and/or any other state from which the land was originally appropriated.

The final answer, so far as I am concerned, is no statehood for the District of Columbia, no matter its size and population… ever.

J. D. Longstreet

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Conservative+Statehood+Washington+DC+NO