July 3, 1863

From Perfect Frames

"For every southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it's still not yet two o'clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it's all in the balance, it hasn't happened yet, it hasn't even begun yet, it not only hasn't begun yet but there is still time for it not to begin against that position and those circumstances . . . that moment doesn't need even a fourteen year-old boy to think This time. Maybe this time with all this much to lose and all this much to gain: Pennsylvania, Maryland, the world, the gold dome of Washington itself . . ." William Faulkner, Intruder in the Dust

Lincoln and the Declaration

Bill Bennett's a gambling man, so he's betting Americans are so historically ignorant they'll believe Abe Lincoln embodies the real meaning of the Fourth of July.

No, really:

'I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence." This statement from Abraham Lincoln in Philadelphia in 1861 was no staff-manufactured line. It was an expression from a man filled with deep emotion at finding himself standing in the hall where a courageous band of rebels pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to a high and dangerous purpose -- American independence. We celebrate them on July Fourth.

Lincoln revered the Declaration and its ideals of liberty and equality. In an 1858 speech in Chicago, he said it was "the father of all moral principle" in the American republic, and its spirit "the electric cord . . . that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together."

Lincoln understood that if the American experiment of self-government were to succeed, the country must be saved on the basis of the Declaration of Independence. It was no accident that in the first sentence of the Gettysburg Address, he quoted the Declaration, reminding Americans that from the beginning the nation had been dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

In fact, Lincoln shamelessly misused the Declaration to suit his political goals.

The Declaration is NOT a statement of radical egalitarianism, nor did it create a new nation, as he asserted in his Gettysburg Address.

Instead, the Declaration proclaimed that all peoples have the right to self-determination -- that is, the right of secession. Further, it proclaimed the 13 former British colonies were 13 free and independent states, which was further validated by the Treaty of Paris and the Articles of Confederation.

And thanks to Lincoln, we no longer have government by the consent of the governed, but a kleptocracy enforced by force and fraud.

But notice how Bennett and his co-conspirator equate the principles of the Declaration with DC's insane and illegal wars of conquest in Afghanistan and Iraq. It's the resistance in those countries that embody the principles of government by consent and the right of self-determination, not the occupiers.

And Bill's betting you won't notice.

Banks own the US government

Notice how DC doesn't even try to keep up the pretense that it represents "the people"?

Last month, when the US Congress failed to pass a bankruptcy reform measure that would have allowed home mortgages to be modified in bankruptcy, senator Dick Durbin succinctly commented: "The banks own the place." That seems pretty clear.

After all, it was the banks' greed that fed the housing bubble with loony loans that were guaranteed to go bad. Of course the finance guys also made a fortune guaranteeing the loans that were guaranteed to go bad (ie AIG), and when everything went bust, the taxpayers got handed the bill. The cost of the bailout will certainly be in the hundreds of billions, if not more than $1tn when it is all over. ...

In this political environment, the poor might get empathy, but Wall Street gets money, and lots of it. Even when the issue is global warming Wall Street has its hand out. The fees on trading carbon permits could run into the hundreds of billions of dollars in coming decades. A simple carbon tax would have been far more efficient, but efficiency is not the most important value when it comes to making Wall Street richer.

Not only do the banks own the government, they pay for it with OUR money!

Capture the Flag

Flags display our loyalties. And now that a liberal runs DC, the Stars and Stripes is an emblem of empowered liberals:

Among the offerings of street vendors in Harlem and outdoor stalls near the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the flag is often fused with the image of President Obama, a burst of color against a bleak wall, sometimes with a Superman motif. In California, I saw Old Glory on bicycles in the Bay Area, on backpacks in Yosemite and at campgrounds under the redwoods.

But the article notes that conservatives have their own standard to rally around:

At the same time, in deep red states like Texas, where secession talk heated up in the first months of the Obama presidency, there has been a passionate public embrace of the vaunted Lone Star flag, symbol of independence dating to the days of the Republic of Texas.

Which flag are you flying these days?

Obamacare rally in West Virginia

The multitudes came. And He was there:

In the stage-managed event, questions for Obama came from a live audience selected by the White House and the college, and from Internet questions chosen by the administration's new-media team. ...

The most dramatic moment came from Debby Smith, 53, of Appalachia, Va., who was near tears as she described for Obama her fragile health, including a recently discovered tumor for which she cannot get treatment.

Obama waved her over and hugged her, saying, "I don't want you to feel like you're all alone." He promised to "find out what we can do within existing law" and called Smith the "perfect example" of the kind of person his health plan is intended to help.

Afterward, Smith seemed less than satisfied with Obama's reassurances, telling reporters that it was still unclear how she would get the treatment she needs before she becomes eligible for government aid in nine years.

She believed that if she could just touch the hem of his Hartmarx suit, she would be healed ...

Obey Obama

The Imperial Presidency rocks on. Check out this comment about a representative who failed to vote the "right" way:

It's "stunning that he would ignore the wishes not just of his president, but of his constituents and the country,” said an administration official.

As Glenn Greenwald observes:

This has become an emerging theme among both the White House and House leadership: that progressive members of Congress have an obligation to carry out "the wishes of the President" even when they disagree (now, apparently, it's "stunning" when they defy his dictates). That was the same subservient mentality that led House Democrats who admitted they opposed the war supplemental spending and/or the foreign bank bailout to nonetheless vote for the bill: because they President favored it. The duty of Congress is not to obey the wishes of the President.

Sounds like W's still in the saddle, riding herd over Congress. Whoopee ti yi ya.

Neocon, Interrupted

We love the Iranians so much, we want them to have Democracy!

Now's the time to bomb, bomb Iran!

Cold War Without End

America never had its post-communist revolution. But guess what? It's coming.

Constitutionalist? Secessionist? Or just Curious?

If you're concerned about the growing tyrannical menace of the ruling elite in the District of Corruption, here's something you don't want to miss. Check out the great "Secession Week" series sponsored by Let a Thousand Nations Bloom. What better way to commemmorate the 4th of July?

Welcome to our third post for Secession Week, celebrating July 4th and America’s secession from the UK. Today’s theme is secession vs. revolution. Both are ways of changing governments, which is important, but they are very different in many ways. While we think this is an important topic, it is a more philosophical area than yesterday’s Secession In America. So what we have to offer is a small number of essays, often written specifically for this event, rather than a large number of links. Quality over quantity, so we recommend you read them all.

Educational! Fun! Subversive!

Some militias are more equal than others

I understand these folk's concerns. After all, DC is importing thousands of Muslims who have demonstrated their willingness in the past to continue their Old-World feuds. So a Jewish militia makes sense:

Yonatan Stern, the "Sgan Mefaked Hakita" (deputy squad commander) of Kitat Konenut New York, insists his "paramilitary emergency armed response team" is no "group of vigilantes or a JDL [Jewish Defense League]."

"The goal of the organization is to have a competent and professional group of armed volunteers ready to respond to a threat at a moment's notice in any area where Jews reside," explains the Israeli combat veteran.

"We do not carry out demonstrations or political activity of any kind as we have no political agenda. Our agenda is to protect Jews wherever and whenever necessary and by any means needed."

On Friday, the third session of the group's training camp will begin in the Catskills woodlands of upstate New York, on land belonging to a Jewish supporter of the organization. With tuition at $400, the group expects 15 participants and five instructors for the 10 days of training. Participation has doubled since the group began three years ago.

However, I wonder how the SPLC would react to the formation of a Southern Christian Defense Team?

Shorter Brian Levin

Congress must pass the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act because a homicidal maniac will think twice before committing mass murder when he knows the bias that motivated him will add 10 years to his sentence.

And silly notions about the Federal government using this law to suppress free speech are totally unfounded because the Federal government says so. Case closed.

Iraqi government declares "National Sovereignty Day"

Good for them. So when do we get ours?

Lynndie England jobless, hounded

It's not easy being a scapegoat:

More than two years since leaving her prison cell, the woman who became the grinning face of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal spends most of her days confined to the four walls of her home.

Former Army reservist Lynndie England hasn't landed a job in numerous tries: When one restaurant manager considered hiring her, other employees threatened to quit.

It should have been W, Rumsfeld, Rice, and Gonzalez imprisoned and made destitute for launching a war of aggression and authorizing torture. Should have been.

Victory in Iraq?

Sure -- just read the headlines:

4 US soldiers killed during Iraq cities pullout

Bomb in Iraq's Kirkuk kills 30 as U.S. troops leave

Iraq Braces for More Violence

90,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed, 4.5 million Iraqis are now refugees, and we've pumped nearly a trillion dollars down the Iraqi rathole, with future costs expected to bring the total to three trillion. Over 4,300 American troops have lost their lives, and 31,000 have been wounded. This is victory?

Bernanke Threatens Economic Collapse If Fed Audited

Gee -- what's this man hiding?

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke unleashed an alarming veiled threat of financial terrorism when he was questioned by Rep. Duncan on Thursday about his response to the fact that a majority of Congress co-sponsoring Ron Paul’s H.R. 1207 bill to audit the Federal Reserve.

Bernanke clearly regarded the bill’s intent as hostile to the institution he represents:

“My concern about the legislation is that if the GAO is auditing not only the operational aspects of the programs and the details of the programs but making judgments about our policy decisions would effectively be a takeover of policy by the Congress and a repudiation of the Federal Reserve would be highly destructive to the stability of the financial system, the Dollar and our national economic situation.”

In other words:

Totalitarianism In One City: Shreveport's Gun-Grabbing Mayor

While the NAACP calls for martial law in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, an NAACP gauleiter in Shreveport, Louisiana is actually implementing something worse:

According to Glover, a police officer may properly disarm any civilian at any time, and the civilian's duty is to surrender his gun -- willingly, readily, cheerfully, without cavil or question.

From Glover's perspective, it is only when firearms are in the hands of people other than the state's uniformed enforcers/oppressors that they constitute a threat, not only to the public and those in charge of exercising official violence but also to the private gun owner himself.

NC LS Summer 2009 Conference

Nathaniel Macon Institute & LS Summer Institute Saturday. 22 August 2009, Burlington, NC

Admission $20 per person, $30 husband & wife (payable at the door)

Conference/Institute Schedule:

10:15AM-11AM: LS Institute Registration

11AM-11:15AM: Welcome & Introductions: Bernhard Thuersam, State Chair

11:15AM-12:15PM: Title TBA, Dr. Thomas Minsel, NMI Director

12:40PM-1:40PM: Dinner Break Presentation: Bernhard Thuersam, State Chair

2:00PM-3:00PM: "The New England Slave Trade," Dr. Michael Hill

3:15PM-4:15PM: "New England Imperialism in Literature," Dr. David Aiken

4:30PM-5:00PM: Conference Wrap-Up: Bernhard Thuersam, State Chair

Click here for more information.

Beware of this "conservative" identity thief

Donald "Doc" Douglas (AKA "Americaneocon") pushes a post-Trotskyite ideology using the language of conservatism as cover, convincing the gullible he's a conservative. But true to the Trotskyite foundations of his big-government, globalist philosphy, he sides with leftists on all the vital issues of the day.

Like any other leftist, he disparages true conservatives who want to preserve our culture and restrict the power of the Federal government. So Daniel Larison is dismissed as an "idiot," and Pat Buchanan is a "bigot."

To appreciate the extent that "Doc" Douglas promotes leftist ideology, we need to notice how closely he mirrors the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center. A traditional conservative who wins an argument with him will be blasted as a racist, and Douglas is quick to use the SPLC to back up his charge. Also like the SPLC, Douglas equates criticism of Neocons with "anti-Semitism," as he does in a post entitled, Anti-Semitic Neocon Derangement. Notice how similar Douglas' rhetoric is to this statement, from a video of an SPLC-sponored expose of opponents of amnesty for illegal aliens (1:40 in):

Eric Boehlert: "A lot of people on the far right don't like Neoconservatives. Pat Buchanan wrote a whole book about how he basically hates Neocons. So it's still in the realm of the right-wing mind set."

Heidi Beirich: "Neocons for the most part in white-supremacist circles are identified as Jews. So it's actually an expression of anti-Semitism when he has material like that about Neocons. It comes from his right-wing, crazy, anti-Semitic views."

While traditional conservatives oppose amnesty for illegal aliens, leftists support it. Again, Douglas sides with the left on this explosive issue. After the American people stopped the Bush-Kennedy-McCain-Lindsey amnesty package two years ago, Douglas wrote:

I've supported the reform legislation as a way to move forward on the issue. I hate the lawbreaking of illegal immigration, which will continue in the absence of the bill. I also hate the relegating of people to the shadows.

With a blog entitled "American Power," Douglas is clearly a government supremacist, always in favor of any increase in DC's authority over Americans. President Obama gets high marks from Douglas for displaying "Neoconservative Pragmatism" in pushing his big government/imperial programs. And when Obama continued Bush's war on habeas corpus, Douglas whooped with joy in a posting he entitled "Change! Obama Will Hold Terror Detainees Indefinitely! The concern that this socialist president will use his power to declare any American an enemy combatant without access to the Bill of Rights doesn't seem to occur to Douglas.

Speaking of a president illegally imprisoning political opponents, it's only natural that Douglas idolizes Abraham Lincoln:

Lincoln embodied "the nation's avowed core values," as do neoconservatives. ...

I love President Lincoln. My visit to the Lincoln Memorial in 2007 was one of the most important political experiences of my life. I look forward to making that pilgrimage again.

So beware, conservatives. Identity thieves are active on your computer.

A Credo for Authentic Conservatives and Other Sane People

Thomas Fleming of Chronicles offers this short introduction to conservative thought. Unlike socialists, libertarians, Objectivists, and Neocons, we paleoconservatives -- that is, real conservatives -- reject ideologies that seek to reconstruct mankind as sinful, arrogant, and inherently violent (as graphically illustrated by the rap sheets of both socialists and their Neocon progeny).

Morality and politics are a reflection of and extension of our nature which is not infinitely perfectible or subject to reinvention. This is not to say that social, cultural, and technical improvements are not valuable, only that they do not override the basic facts of life.

Human beings are not born as rootless individuals but as members of a network of relationships rooted in genetic kinship and marriage. Our natural responsibilities to other humans, while they may vary in degree and type from one society to another, are proportional to this relationship. Thus I owe more to a mother, sister, wife, daughter than to an aunt, cousin, sister-in-law, or niece, and owe more to an aunt, cousin, sister-in-law, or niece than to an unrelated person.

Fleming begins his introduction in just the right place, and that's the social nature of man. Modern ideologues from Marx to Kristol imagine a world populated by disconnected individuals, each pursuring his own self-interest. Unenlightened, primitive groups who cling to religion, community, and extended family loyalties must undergo the cleansing rigors of cultural revolution, of which government-enforced multiculturalism is just one type. The conservative worldview, on the other hand, celebrates tradition, local loyalties, and social bonds as the means of connecting people to the past and future, inspiring them to deeds of love and duty.

See you in the funny papers

Mother Goose and Grimm.

Secession is cool. Spread the word.

Harrisburg chapter of NAACP urges martial law

We've been arguing for some time that the Civil Rights Industry is a threat to liberty, so this is no surprise:

The Harrisburg Chapter of the NAACP is calling on Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell to suspend some civil liberties and impose martial law in the city to halt the wave of recent lawlessness.

Chapter President Stanley Lawson also called on Rendell to bring in the state National Guard for at least 30 days and to impose a curfew. In June, there have been at least 12 shootings, many of them in the daytime, including a man killed Wednesday at a busy city intersection during the lunch hour.

It's ironic that the supposed beneficiaries of the Civil Rights revolution are its immediate victims. As Tom Sowell has demonstrated, the foundations of natural social harmony, families and communities, have been crippled by programs that made blacks dependent on government handouts. Welfare to single mothers made fatherhood redundant, and urban renewal destroyed social cohesion. The resulting social chaos is inevitable, and martial law is the only hope.

Thanks, liberals.

Obama kills habeas corpus

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Cheney Predacted
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Jason Jones in Iran

Got hope? You're not getting any from DC, no matter what empty suit occupies the Oval Office. From the Washington Post:

Obama administration officials, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, are crafting language for an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations.

Such an order would embrace claims by former president George W. Bush that certain people can be detained without trial for long periods under the laws of war.

And remember -- DC, like Tehran, views protest as terrorism. Step out of line, and you're going to rot in jail forever.

Gun Control: What Is the Agenda?

Paul Craig Roberts examines the latest hysteria over guns:

So what is the real agenda? Why do gun control advocates want to override the Second Amendment. Why do they not acknowledge that if the Second Amendment can be over-ridden, so can every other protection of civil liberty?

When considering any proposed restriction of our freedom, we have to look not at what the proponents promise, but what the practical effect would be. The proponents know exactly what they're doing. We need to see it, too.

Latino colonist charged with voter fraud

Stories like this just don't get enough attention.

Lopez is a longtime Latino political-rights advocate in Orange County who served on the Santa Ana school board. Lopez has been a vocal advocate for Latino voting rights and supported immigrant amnesty and allowing undocumented workers to have driver's licenses. He could not immediately be reached for comment.

Just a peek at the larger fraud the Open Borders crowd is committing.

Washington "trampling state's rights" with nationalized health care

Another of DC's benevolent acts for its subjects exposed for what it really is:

Lawmakers in six states are considering legislation to "protect" citizens from a federal health care plan by creating statewide initiatives to vote on whether to opt out of the national program -- even before Congress has created the program. ...

Some state legislators say they worry that a government-mandated program will effectively eliminate their traditional role in regulating health insurers -- an important power base. Others raise constitutional concerns. "The real goal of national health insurance exchange isn't competition -- it's a federal power grab that flies in the face of the Tenth Amendment," says Wisconsin state Rep. Leah Vukmir, a Republican

.

Obama says Texas will win in his energy plan

The timing of this just strikes me as -- odd:

Texas stands to gain far more than it loses if Congress approves his energy and climate-change proposals, President Barack Obama said Wednesday.

In an interview with the Houston Chronicle and five other newspapers, the president said the Lone Star State will benefit from the development of alternative energy sources, particularly wind energy.

“Texas has one of the strongest renewable energy standards in the country,” Obama said. “And its wind energy has just taken off and been a huge economic boon to the state.”

See what you'd be missing out on if you leave now?

Wall Street Begins Campaign to Thwart ‘Populist Overreaction’

Uh-oh! The little people are getting stirred up -- they're refusing to obey their betters on the issues of Open Borders (see immediate post), and now they're questioning taxpayer-financed bailouts. There's only one option left -- a public relations blitz!

Wall Street’s largest trade group has started a campaign to counter the “populist” backlash against bankers, enlisting two former aides to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to spearhead the effort.

Before you know it, we'll have to endure lectures telling us it's anti-Semitic to oppose corporate bailouts.

Here's another one -- if Wall Street executives don't get their bonuses, the terrorists have already won.

Mainstreaming censorship

Sometimes it's best to let the thing speak for itself:

Media Matters for America held a panel discussion on the growing culture of extremist, anti-government, and violent rhetoric in conservative media. Media Matters Senior Fellow Eric Boehlert, who has written extensively on the subject, hosted leaders from the Southern Poverty Law Center, America's Voice, NARAL Pro-Choice America, the National Council of La Raza, and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights to examine how the mainstreaming of extremism impacts our security, politics, and culture.

The video reveals grim ideologues who make the Poltiburo look like the Marx Brothers. Don't take my word for it -- watch the video, and see if you don't recoil from the morbid, suffocating attitude of these would-be Grand Inquisitors. Nancy M. Zirkin of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights appears as stiff and congealed as an embalmed corpse, and her denunciation of the "hounds of intolerance" (??@@!!) sounds as if it were voiced by one of those creepy Chuck E. Cheese animatronic critters on low batteries.

Listen in on Adam Luna of America's Voice as he equates dissent against Wall Street's Open Borders agenda with criminal violence (about 3:48 in):

"Lou Dobbs, Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, Lou Dobbs, Pat Buchanan -- they say the exact same things, so while there's a strong campaign to distance the organizational connections between people, the one thing that links them all is their speech -- what they say to incite a group of people to take action on Congress to stop progressive legislation from happening, but that climate, that language, is also seen in the folks who act out very violently."

In other words:

1 - There's a vast conservative conspiracy to hide the assumed connections between border security activists and murderers. (Unspoken: Pointing out the real connections between La Raza and the reconquista MEChA is an act of racism.)

2 - Anyone who works legally through the political system by petitioning their representatives in government to "stop progressive legislation" have been "incited" to do so. Meaning they're so pliable they're not worthy of participation in civic affairs.

3 - Murdering Latinos and opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants stem from the same rhetoric and are therefore morally equivalent.

But here's my favorite part -- Clarissa Martinez of La Raza denounces the "freedom" of anti-amnesty activists to air their opinions:

"I've been shocked to the extent that people are saying things unchecked because they're making money."

While Martinez demands censorship of those who dissent from the globalist agenda, Heidi Beirich slumps forward in her seat, stewing in outrage at those crazed right-wingers and murderous nativists. Yes, isn't it horrible people are allowed to make money from sensationalism?

Secessionist Movement Brewing Deep in Heart of Texas

Glenn Beck of Fox News checks in with the Texas Nationalist Movement, and the exchange is well worth watching:

GLENN BECK, HOST: People across the country are fed up. And it's not a Republican or Democrat issue. It is an American issue. Yesterday, we talked to a man from Vermont whose group wants to secede from the country and they're far, far left. Today we head to Texas. ...

Daniel, are you anti-government?

MILLER: No, not by any stretch of the imagination. It may put — our position may put us against what the federal government wants. But we are pro-good government, which apparently is something that is lacking in Washington, D.C. now.

Gee, wouldn't it be ironic if Ed Sebesta in Dallas gets to secede from the evil empire before I do?

Do as we say, not as we do

"... we deplore the violence against innocent civilians anywhere that it takes place." President Obama, in news conference yesterday, lecturing the Iranian government.

US admits to Afghan civilian deaths in May air strikes. President Obama, continuing his immoral war of conquest.