"We Have Not yet begun to Fight!"

Some Hard Thoughts about the War

We’d like to direct you to “The American Thinker”. The title of the post is: "Hard Thoughts about the War”. It is a “Must Read”. This post is “spot on”. Until America decides to fight this war we will continue to just spin our wheels, marching in place, as more American service personnel, and Americans citizens all over the world, die.

So far, in the words of John Paul Jones, “I (WE) have not yet begun to fight!” Until we do, things will get no better.

Go here for an incisive view on this subject:

http://americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=5752

Northern States' Complicity in Slavery !!!

It gives me great pleasure to , once again, present a piece written by a friend, and a fellow compatiot of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, NC Division, Mr. Bill Ward of Salisbury, NC.

Bill, and I, share a deep interest in the country's past, especially the Civil War years. As members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, we have taken an oath to see that the Confederate Soldier is not forgotten and... in order to do that... it is vital that we study the period... and facts of the period. We have found that so much of what is offered as history today is simply flawed, or untrue, or both.

The Northern state's "complicity" in Slavery in the US has been greatly downplayed and even hidden. As a result, the South has been unjustly tarred as the villian of the Civil War.

Last summer, I had the good fortune to speak before a group about this same topic. So, I was delighted when Bill's article arrived in my inbox.

After reading Bill's review of this book, I would add my endorsement. Americans NEED to know the true history of this country, the good, the bad, and the ugly. It is who were are. It is what made us who we are today.

So, please take the few minutes necessary to read Bill's piece below. Northerner, or Southerner, you'll be glad you did!

Longstreet
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"Complicity: How the North Promoted,Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery," by Anne Farrow, Joel Lang andJennifer Frank. Ballantine Books. 2005. 269 pp. with index. $25.95.

By Bill Ward, For Salisbury Post

Popular history typically has presented the anti-bellum North as the great liberator and defender of humanity. Conversely, the same history depicts the Southern states as the bastion of enslavers and oppressors of rights.

However, "Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, andProfited from Slavery," shows what serious investigators of U.S. history have known for years: the extensive complicity of the Northern states in the slave trade.

Those states not only made enormous profits importing slaves on Northern ships through New England seaports, they enjoyed the fruits of slave labor on northern farms and reaped profits from textile manufacturing with cotton, the leading cash crop in early America, grown mostly in the Southern states by more slave labor.

The authors, Anne Farrow, Joel Lang and Jennifer Frank, are reporters for the Hartford Courant newspaper at Hartford, Conn. It appears that history books, written mostly by Northern historians, have been as universally derelict in providing the whole truth in Northern schools about our country's growing pains as they have in the South.

"Complicity" contains a few minor historic slips, not unexpected from journalists as opposed to historians delving into history.

However, instead of dwelling on minor faults, much solid information, perhaps little-known to the average history reader, makes this book worthwhile.

For example, in the 18th century, black slaves made up nearly one-fifth of New York City's population. Two major slave revolts in the city in the mid-18th century resulted in 31 slaves and four whites being either hanged or burned alive at the stake, a favored form of punishment for blacks in several Northern states.

And who would have thought there had been plantations with slaves in Rhode Island and Connecticut? But in the Narragansett area of Rhode Island in the mid-18th century, a plantation system was in place using slave labor to raise horses, cattle and dairy cows. In acreage and numbers of slaves, they rivaled the plantations of Virginia's Tidewater region.

Rhode Island also led America's transatlantic slave trade,originating nearly 1,000 voyages to Africa and carrying at least 100,000 captives back across the Atlantic. The captains and crews were virtually all veteran New England seamen.

And in the decades before the Civil War, the port of New York became the hub of an enormously profitable illegal slave trade. Manhattan shipyards built vessels that held between 600 and 1,000 captive Africans. A conservative estimate is that during the peak years of the illegal trade, 1859 and 1860, at least two such slave ships left lower Manhattan every month.

Of the interesting history it covers, "Complicity" reveals that the illegal Northern slave trade continued on up into the time of the Civil War. The treatment of slaves aboard Northern slave ships surpassed harsh; it was absolutely brutal, resulting in the deaths of large numbers of the slave cargo, including children.

Nathaniel Gordon, a ship's captain from Portland, Maine, was probably the first and only American tried and executed for crimes resulting in the illegal slave trade. He was hanged on Feb. 21, 1862, some 10 months after Fort Sumter was fired on.

By 1860, New England contained 472 cotton mills using hundreds of millions of pounds of Southern grown cotton. Hundreds of other textile mills were scattered around the North, including New York state and New Jersey. Huge manufacturing profits were invested in banks, insurance companies and railroads. But the engines that drove those enterprises were the mammoth textile mills in Massachusetts, southern Maine and New Hampshire.

Only the large banks in Manhattan or London had the capacity to extend credit to the owners of the 75,000 large Southern cotton plantations between planting and selling their crop.

Northerners also enjoyed excellent livings catering to wealthy Southern planters in the importation of fine china, silver, soaps, wines, jewelry and entertainment — anything to enhance their quality of life.

In the summer, large numbers of wealthy Southerners came from the Deep South to escape the sultry climate. Southern dollars were more than welcome at businesses, from the finest hotels and restaurants to theaters,advertised in publications directed to prospective Southern clientele. Wealthy Northerners and Southerners, socially and economically, were linked by the common threads spun from cotton.

The social and economic relationships between the North and South seemed almost enough to have prevented the Civil War. Any Southern planter who wanted his daughter to have "a solid education of the highest order"could send her to New York to the Rutgers Female Institute "in one of the most healthful, quiet, and moral neighborhoods in the city," while the traditionally liberal Harvard College academically supported white supremacy.

Louis Agassiz, a renowned Swiss zoologist and geologist, served a 20-year career as a Harvard professor. Mentored by Samuel George Morton, one of the most eminent physicians in Philadelphia, Agassiz did research to prove the inferiority of blacks. He supposedly showed that blacks were not even of the same species as whites, helping to justify slavery.

In Chapter 10 of "Complicity," the seldom-mentioned ivory industry — such as in piano keys and billiard balls — and the two small Connecticut towns of Ivoryton and Deep River, where ivory manufacturing thrived, are discussed under the title of "Plunder for Pianos."

To produce music for the middle class, as many as 2 million African lives were sacrificed to harvest elephant ivory.

Every history and social studies teacher today should make"Complicity" a part of their reading for their own continuing education. And it should be required reading for every middle and high schoolstudent.

Bill Ward is a historian and writer who lives in Salisbury, NC.

Dems Make Present of November Elections to GOP!!!

Dems Give November Election Back to GOP!

Tuesday’s defeat of Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut Democrat primary by forces of the far left loonies, kook fringe of the Democrat party has proved, beyond doubt, that the Democrat Party has been taken over by that crowd and the rank and file Democrats want no part of them!

Lieberman will now run as an Independent and wipe the floor up with the winner of Tuesday’s primary and the Republican challenger. It is a given.

Tuesdays win by the Democrat left wing kooks has given more ammunition to the GOP than we could have dreamed of or hoped for in our wildest dreams. The democrats have managed to seize defeat from the jaws of victory!

The left wing kooks can choose winners in local elections, but when they graduate to the national stage they go down in flames like the McGovern crowd. And this is shaping up to be another defeat for the Democrats, in November, to equal the McGovern boondoggle.

To the GOP, Joe Lieberman was, and is, a “worthy adversary”. He was and is tough and takes stands on issues that we differ on. But the GOP respects Lieberman.

So, if we on the right respect Joe so much, how come we are so happy over his defeat on Tuesday? Uh?

OK, it’s simply, really. We know Joe will comeback in November and win. We aren’t particularly happy that he will trounce our GOP candidate, but he will absolutely stomp his Democrat opponent, Lamont.

But what we are really happy about is that the Democrat Party’s slide into left wing idiocy has been accomplished. They have now made themselves a non-entity on the American “national” political scene. Now they should change the name of the party to the Anarchist Socialist Party. They cannot win in a national election because their candidates are so far to the left as to appear un-American. Neither Democrats, nor Republicans, will vote for them so they will lose to Republicans every time.

That secures the White House, for the GOP, as well as both houses of the Congress. So, please, we ask your patience be with Republicans... if we giggle a lot today. We are trying HARD to keep a lid on our joy.

This is a happy day in GOP circles today!

Yesiree!

Longstreet

Exploiting Oil for Votes ... By Alan Caruba

Exploiting Oil for Votes
By Alan Caruba

Despite the U.S. Senate's August vote to end the quarter century ban on offshore drilling, the Democrats could not resist recklessly exploiting the current price at the pumps and oil company profits for political gain while ignoring the most fundamental economics of our national dependence on this energy source.

The bill now goes back to the House, which already passed it where a committee will work out an agreement on the separate versions.

On June 29th, House Democrat Leader, Nancy Pelosi, attacked the bill to permit offshore drilling. “This bill is bad for the environment of coastal states. By revoking the ban on drilling for oil and natural gas, it will subject many sensitive coastal areas to harm. As proof, she cited an oil spill that had occurred decades ago in California off of Santa Barbara. There is no evidence of any long-term damage. The same holds true for the famed accident in Alaska. In the real world, accidents happen. In the real world, Nature makes the necessary corrections.

Instead, Rep. Pelosi said, Democrats have a New Direction for America. We will energize America with farmers fueling our energy independence. This is so stupid as to defy belief. This suggests that somehow American farmers can grow enough corn without using a lot of oil and gas in the process to reduce our use of gasoline.

The populist rant that this (oil prices) is the fault of rapacious oil companies is a glib and false response, wrote Mortimer B. Zuckerman, the Editor-in-Chief of U.S. News & World Report, in the August 7th edition, and it's especially unattractive when it comes from Democrats, who have systematically blocked attempts to increase domestic oil productions. Oil prices, in fact, are determined by a complex, and increasingly competitive, global market.

The roots of our predicament, wrote Zuckerman, don't lie in the boardrooms of Big Oil but at our own back door. He noted that, Two thirds of our petroleum consumption is for transportation. While 3 out of 4 Americans commute to work via their automobiles, part of the price factor reflects the fact that last year, for the first time ever, Asia consumed more oil than North America. China is already the second-largest importer of oil.

Part of the answer to gas prices is the simple equation of supply and demand, and America has the potential to increase domestic production by more than two million barrels a day, but only if we permit oil companies to drill for it and to expand and build new refineries.

Democrats, however, continue to demagogue the issue of oil. After ExxonMobil Corporation announced its profits in late July, the Senate Minority Leader, Harry Reid, called the company's profits shocking and part of the Republican Party's backhand to the American people.

Sen. Reid, like his colleague, Rep. Pelosi, is pushing the Democrat plan, the Clean Edge Act which is filled with notions of alternative sources of energy and the reduction of U.S. consumption of oil to six million barrels a day by 2020. I call it the Corn Edge Act. It is bunk. It is worse than bunk. It is a refusal to deal with the every day realities of oil consumption by Americans and, increasingly, but nations coming out of their Third World status to join the rest of the world in the consumption of oil.

The environmentalists have been blathering about global warming for decades now for the sole purpose of forcing America and other industrialized nations to reduce energy consumption in anticipation of a climate change that is not happening. I do not care how many phony computer models they produce, there is solid science that demonstrates global warming is not occurring.

Yet Rep. Pelosi has joined with some thirty House Democrats to sponsor the Safe Climate Act of 2006 charging that, for decades, Big Oil and other polluting industries have undermined and obstructed the voices of scientists on global warming. The Bush Administration and the Republican leadership in Congress are willing partners in this dance of lies, muzzling government scientists or attacking their credibility when they refuse to remain silent. In short, this is legislation that throws out the First Amendment protection of free speech in order to insure there is no real scientific debate over the validity of global warming occurs.

The notion of polluting industries is a lie and the worst kind of political bombast. The Earth itself is a polluter, emitting tons of gases every minute and not just from its hundreds of active volcanoes. Ever since the passage of the Clean Air Act, America has had decades of increasingly clean air, but the Democrats are not interested in science or facts.

Every time you hear the words alternative energy you should keep in mind that they come with a price too. One of those prices is their failure to produce a sufficient amount of energy to be viable without government subsidies. Remove those subsidies from ethanol and it would cease to be manufactured. Ethanol produces less energy per gallon than gasoline. While Democrats cry out against Republicans for their support of Big Oil, ethanol is a big, political gift to the farm states where corn is grown. I like corn, but I don't want to waste it to fill my gas tank and pay extra for the privilege.

The only alternative energy I like is nuclear energy and it does not emit any pollutants! America is decades behind other industrialized nations in authorizing the building of nuclear plants to produce the increasing amount of electricity we need. Or would you prefer acres and acres of wind farms which are highly dependent on whether the wind is blowing. While environmentalists decry offshore drilling rigs no one will ever see, they love the notion of filling up these same shores with these monstrous machines.

We have national elections coming in November. If you vote to put Democrats in control of the House and Senate, you are voting to increase the price of gasoline and natural gas. It's just that simple.

Alan Caruba writes a weekly column, "Warning Signs", posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center, http://www.anxietycenter.com/. In September, Merril Press will publish his new book, "Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy".

© Alan Caruba, 2006

Democrats will Open the Gates to the Barbarians!

I must tell you, having French troops in the vanguard of the UN “Peace-Keeping” troops, soon to be sent to Lebanon, (if the UN has it's way) just gives me all kinds of confidence they will do a “smashing” job.

If this were not so serious, it would be utterly laughably. Those “blue helmets” are going to scare the living daylights out of Hizbollah! Yeah, I can see it now!

Those Hizbollah fighters will eat those “blue helmets” for lunch.

I have yet to hear what the rules of engagement, or non-engagement, the blue helmets will be getting killed under… I mean… keeping the peace under. But, unless they are given carte blanche to fire… without waiting to be fired upon… they are dead men even before they get off the plane, or ship, in Lebanon.

Another concern is that with the obvious bias of the UN for the Hizbollah, how will the UN troops act towards Israel? My suspicion is they will come down on the side of the Hizbollah… and Israel will wind up having to fight, Hizbollah, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and the UN… all at the same time. I sincerely hope there are no US forces integrated in that UN Force. (Oh, I forgot… UN Force is an oxymoron!)

I have thought, for many years, that eventually, the US would be at war with the UN and would meet blue helmeted troops on the battlefield in open warfare. This move by the UN to send French-led UN troops to Lebanon may well be the precursor for just such a meeting.

Every conservative in the US, Republican or Democrat, knows the UN is the enemy of the United States. Why the US is still a member of the UN is mystifying, to say the least. I can only mark it up to the old adage: “Keep your friends close… your enemies even closer!” It is the only reasonable answer I can find.

With the November Congressional Elections only weeks away, Americans have to ask themselves whether they wish to live free… or… live as slaves to the Islamofacist terrorists of the world. There is no “middle ground” here. Either we win this war… or the US is no more. And IF you survive… you will be a slave for the remainder of your life.

Americans should ponder their up-coming decision in November. The choice is crystal clear: A Republican victory means continued war and freedom for Americans. A Democrat victory means surrender, defeat, and slavery for the American people.

Americans will never have a clearer choice than this November. It’s freedom or slavery.

The Israel vs. Hizbollah, Syria, and Iran war is drawing Americans attention to the carnage wrought by the “Islamo Terrorists”. The death and destruction they cause in Israel, on a daily basis, awaits the United States… if Conservatives lose control of the US government.

I know, I know! The argument that Conservatives have no leadership in Washington is a valid argument. I subscribe to it. But, we conservatives can bring heat to bear, as we have done several times in the past two years, and get things our way. As a for instance: two Supreme Court judges. So, even though we lack day-to-day representation in Congress we at least have influence heavy enough to sway votes. We will lose that if Democrats gain control of either of the houses of Congress.

We live in perilous times. All free people are in danger of losing their freedom to a religious sect bent on nothing less than world domination. We cannot let our guard down for one second. A Democrat government would not only open the gates to the barbarians, but also invite them in.

Surely we Americans value our freedom more than that! Don’t we??????

Longstreet

Carter II ... Bill Moyers for President ???

Carter II… Bill Moyers for President???

Some on the American Left have put forward the name of Bill Moyers as a candidate for the Democrat nomination for President in 2008.

Still not over the absolutely awful administration of the sanctimonious leftist, Jimmy Carter, I was momentarily shocked and stunned that anyone, in their right mind, would even think of restoring the Carter Presidency, arguably the worse Presidency in the history of the United States, with the possible exception of the administration of William Jefferson Blythe Clinton. It has been said that Carter made the Presidency a "Joke". Clinton made it a "Dirty Joke"!!

Jimmy Carter is nearly as far left as Ho Chi Min, of North Vietnam, was. Bill Moyers? Well he’d make Carter look like a crazy-eyed Rightist!

Moyers, one time press secretary to LBJ, one time Baptist preacher, one time commentator on the Left wing PBS, is a walking disaster as a candidate for President.

I can see the bumper stickers now: “If You Liked Jimmy Carter… you’re gonna Love BILL!!!”

Heck, I was so hoping, when Jimmy Carter left office, that he’d get lost, somewhere on that peanut farm in Plains, and disappear from public life. No such luck. He laid low for a few years then crept back into the spotlight, on the world’s political stage, and now, as a result, we have three world threatening situations we can lay at the door of Jimmy Carter: North Korea, Hamas in Gaza, and Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Heck, I might as well add the crisis with Iran. Carter invited the Shah of Iran to the US, for medical treatment, in the 70’s, and that began the turmoil which led to the Iranian Hostage Crisis, which lasted 444 days, and cost the lives of a number of US service men in a badly bungled rescue attempt and… has led us, unerringly, to the situation we have today with Iran on the threshold of becoming a nuclear power.

For such a little fellow Carter got this nation into a world of trouble!

… And Moyers is more Leftist than Carter.

See, this is the kind of talk, which should remove any lingering doubt that the Democrat Party is anything but socialist.

… And they’re talking about MOYERS as a presidential candidate! Oh my GAWD!!!

I continue to say the election in November is about the security of this nation. It is!

Longstreet

LEBANON REJECTS UN CEASE FIRE RESOLUTION!!!

Already, Lebanon has rejected the UN Cease-fire Resolution hammered out by US and French Diplomats.

Surprized?

Hardly!

We have come to think Middle Easterners, with the exception of Israel, actually love war... and the murder, killing, and mayhem intrinsic in all wars.

Go here for the full story:

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2279155

One would think Lebanon, swamped by foreign armes at war in it's country, on it's soil, would be happy for any agreement, short of slavery, that would halt the killing of Lebanese long enough to allow Lebanon to institute some kind of control over it's own country. But, NO! The Lebanese have demands!

I wonder if the Lebanese government, such as it is, has taken a look out the window? Do they not see they are a war zone for foreign armies? Do they not see their country is being controlled from Damascus and Teheran? Are they not aware that a new Iranian commander has been dispatched from Iran to take over the Iranian/Hizbollah fighters in Lebanon?

Or... do they simply not care? Had they rather Israel be wiped from the map... even at the cost of the lives of their own people? One would have to decide the later is their choice.

It is difficult to fathom the bloodlust of the Islamic peoples for the death of Israel. It is even more difficult to fathom the depth of their hatred for their blood kin... the Jews.

Longstreet