BUNCOMBE COUNTY NC NEWS -- The following video from Sound Off Buncombe, "On the Record With RL Clark" is an exclusive interview with Former NC Senator RL Clark discussing the issue of Metering Private Wells in North Carolina. The former Senator served five counties in the North Carolina Senate, Buncombe, Madison, Yancey, McDowell, and Burke counties. The second part of this two-part show will air this Thursday night March 27, 2008, at 8:00 p.m. on URTV Channel 20. In addition, RL Clark is also again campaigning for the Senate to represent those aforementioned counties.
Israel is a nation of free people living in a sea of nations living under tyranny.
Israel embodies democracy, rule of law, anti-racism, religious freedom, rights for women, gays and Arab and Muslim minorities - Israel is one of the most gender integrated regimes in the world, and has had a female prime minister, a female chief justice, a female foreign minister and leading female military officers.
Israel seeks peaceful coexistence while Arabs and Iranians seeks to eliminate Israel, as evidenced by their violent actions including terrorism, voting patterns, replies to polls, political rhetoric, media messages, school textbooks, mosque sermons, wall graffiti, and much else. The debate regarding the solution to the conflict with the Arab Palestinians is an exercise in futility as long they do not end their civil war, choose democracy over tyranny and terror and stop seeking Israel's destruction and Islamic global supremacy. Israel is not the root cause of many problems in the Middle East but is a front line in the Islamo-fascist war against all non-Muslims.
Now comes a project for friends of Israel to help that nation combat biased reporting in the Legacy Media. That project is called Israel@60. From the website:
The Israel Project (TIP) is an international non-profit organization devoted to educating the press and the public about Israel while promoting security, freedom and peace. The Israel Project provides journalists, leaders and opinion-makers accurate information about Israel. The Israel Project is not related to any government or government agency.
Our team of trusted Middle East experts and former reporters provides journalists with fact sheets, backgrounders and sources. TIP regularly hosts press briefings featuring leading Israeli spokespeople and analysts that give journalists an opportunity to get information and answers to their questions face-to-face. By providing journalists with the facts, context and visuals they need, TIP causes hundreds of millions of people around the world to see a more positive public face of Israel. This helps protect Israel, reduce anti-Semitism and increase pride in Israel.
The Israel Project has launched a contest to celebrate Israel's 60th Birthday, and you are invited to participate:
As popular Internet social networks and other Web sites provide dangerous new outlets to glorify murder, ‘martyrdom’ and Iran-backed terrorist agendas, The Israel Project (TIP) is fighting back with an online contest that showcases Israel’s constant commitments to freedom, democratic values and peace.
As part of its new “Israel@60” contest TIP invites all filmmakers, writers and other artists worldwide with a passion for showing the real Israel, to submit entries commemorating Israel’s founding in May 1948.
TIP will award a total of $20,000 to the winning submissions in each of the following formats:
* Television Advertisement (30 Seconds) * Video (30 seconds - 7 minutes * Printable Flyer (8 ½ x 11 inches)
Winning entries in the TV and video categories will be posted on youtube.com, allowing viewers worldwide to see and hear Israel’s 60-year struggle to serve as a model for democratic values and a safe haven for minorities persecuted by its neighbors in the Middle East.
TIP’s newly refurbished Web site provides information in six languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Arabic and Russian. Contest entries will be accepted in all of those languages and must be submitted March 31 – June 30. They must be factually accurate and focus on any topic in The Israel Project’s Israel@60 press kit.
This has been the Blogs For Borders Video Blogburst. The Blogs For Borders Blogroll is dedicated to American sovereignty, border security and a sane immigration policy. If you’d like to join find out how right here.
Susan Pons is running against NC Senator John Snow, and this is the speech she gave detailing why she chose to run and what she wants to accomplish. I will let you know when she gets her website up and running.
Also, Richard Bernier of Sound Off Buncombe (a URTV show) was there, and he took a video as well:
Dodie Allen is a thoroughly enjoyable person to speak with and I had an opportunity at yesterday's Macon County GOP Convention to video her speech at the convention.
Please visit her website for more details on getting in touch with her during her campaign to replace Phil Haire in the NC House.
She wouldn't stay in one spot for the camera, so I got out my spare camera and took a few photos of her to use as a slideshow during her speech.
Tom Fredriksen of Old Glory Radio has started a live call-in video show on his blog every Friday night at 9pm Eastern Time. If you thought his radio stuff was good, wait until you see his video humor.
Check it out at Old Glory Radio, progressives need not apply, and those who might be harmed by the sight (and sound) of a polar bear using motorized hair clippers will need to stay away as well.
I attended the Macon County GOP Convention today, and took lots of video and lots of photos. I was amazed at the spirited debate among the three Congressional candidates, and wowed by the state level candidates, who all spoke eloquently.
I also found out my video editing software doesn't like large files. So, after three hours of processing, the hour long video of the debate was unusable. So, I am chopping the debate into You Tube sized chunks. THis is the first, then I am going to bed, and will process the rest tomorrow.
Note: Posting will be very light today. I will be at the Macon GOP Convention to film the event, interview people, and distribute DVD's of Fitna for people to watch.
Let me also tell the jihadis out there that it is too late. The video is in the wild, and millions of us have copies of it, and we will continue to upload in ways you cannot imagine. This fight is just beginning!!!
Efforts are being co-ordinated over at The Gates of Vienna, and here is a post with some of the links available to download your very own copy of Fitna. I also have a copy, and will make it available (for free) for the asking as long as I have breath in me. I will be distributing some copies at my County GOP Convention today, and may schedule a public screening of the movie if there is interest.
Let the Islamofascists or their lefty allies stop that!
Here is the Google Version again for those that missed it the first time:
Here is my playlist of the debate on Wednesday. The videos should advance automatically. If the player hangs up, click on the right arrow symbol on the player to advance, or the symbol on the left to go back to the previous video.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Richard Bernier for letting me borrow his laptop so I could videostream the debate to my blogs, and other websites who embedded the video player.
Tell your friends about the movie, and get them to watch it.
And to all you who would attempt to flag this movie as unsuitable...there are thousands of us in the counterjihad networks who have copies, and will upload it as many times as it takes to keep it online!
God Bless Geert Wilder, and Long Live the Counterjihad!
This is the version uploaded to youtube by NewsGuy2005. I made it into a playlist so you can watch this version if Live Leak is blocked on your provider.
And, here is the Google Version uploaded by the Jawa Report.
**update** 10.44pm
Lefties and other allies of Islamofascism have already taken down the wikipedia page referenced in the film, and have corrupted a second one set up as a news item. His party's website was taken down, but they have since been able to get it back up. Hopefully, the cyberjihaids won't knock it back off.
I'll have a full round up tomorrow morning. Things are going a bit too fast to keep up.
Here are just a few of the people tracking the events:
The Gathering Storm Radio Show, which will have Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch (if the big boys don't pre-empt) will have coverage Friday afternoon.
The government recently posted three videos showing images from the terror attack at Jerusalem's Mercaz Harav Yeshiva earlier this month in which eight students were killed.
The three videos were posted under the titles "Stop the Terror, Stop the Bloodshed," "Act NOW: Stop The Bloodshed - Stop the Terror," and "Emergency call, March 7, Jerusalem."
While the person named as poster, AtiyaRachel, was not identified as having any connection to the government, TheMarker has learned that the Prime Minister's Office was actually behind the uploads to the popular video site.
This is the first time that a government body has used the site in response to a terror attack.
The first film features graphic and bloody footage shot inside the yeshiva in the wake of the attack, as English subtitles document an emergency call made by a yeshiva student during the attack.
The one-minute video attracted over 5,300 viewings and 88 responses as of Wednesday night. You can view the footage below. Please note that this footage contains images of a graphic nature.
And the terrorist was quickly dispatched by an armed student who was down the street from the attack. Imagine how differently things might have been had someone in the yeshiva had been armed.
Yesterday, during the Hendersonville debate, a question was raised about allowing the carrying of weapons on government property and on schools. I believe all the candidates answered that students should not be allowed to carry. (I will post a video of that question and the responses here when I process it). **update** 11.26 am The Times-News has video of the question and the responses.
(Their audio level sucks, I'll still post my video later).
**update** 7.07 pm Here's my version of the above video.
The only candidate who gave something close to the correct answer was Fred Smith. He is still wrong about not allowing people to carry concealed in public schools. There is not one policy that can be written that will prevent anyone from entering a school, and blowing away children, unarmed teachers and school employees. Not one. Only physical acts, such as Metal Detectors will screen out most of the firearms. Not all.
My belief is that if eligible students, faculty members, or passers through, are not allowed to carry...then who ever is responsible for the law that prevent it should be held criminally liable, financially liable, and blood liable.
This is one law I do not feel compelled to obey. One day, there will come a situation where a person, or (if we are lucky) people will be present who have disregarded such laws and regulations and they will save lives of the people around them and put down a mad dog masquerading as a human being. I dare any D.A. to attempt a prosecution of the life-saver. God help any D.A. if that person were me. I'd take the case to jury trial and set a precedent.
When it comes to the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, I am a purist. A law-abiding citizen is guaranteed the ability to carry weapons unregulated by the federal, state or local government.
Our friend, and budding superstar of providing video coverage of local political events, Richard Bernier has provided another video event. Last night, he recorded Fred Smith and Lee Greenwood in Henderson County (17 min 30 sec):
Richard Bernier co-hosts "Sound Off Buncome" with Randy Thomas on URTV channel 20 in Asheville, NC.
(Flat Rock) Charlotte Mayor Pat McCory scored big in the Hendersonville Tribune / West Wins straw poll at Wednesday̢۪s gubernatorial debate at Blue Ridge Community College. The poll measured those in attendance on their feelings before and after the debate. Roughly half of the crowd of about 250 participated. The results were:
Before the Debate Fred Smith 47 votes - 50% Bob Orr 23 votes - 25% Pat McCrory 12 votes - 13% Bill Graham 11 votes - 12% Elbie Powers No votes - 0%
After the Debate Pat McCrory 54 votes 44% Fred Smith 41 votes 33% Bob Orr 18 votes 14% Bill Graham 11 votes 9% Elbie Powers No votes 0%
Some were undecided before the debate. Some voted one way before the debate and another way after the debate.
West Wins Financial Director, Clifton Philbeck, said that Smith did very well before the debate because, "He's been out here a lot. People know him. They are familiar with him." He also said, "For some people this is the first time they've heard (McCory) speak and he connected well with them." The straw poll was conducted by West Wins Political Action and Education Committee for the Hendersonville Tribune. West Wins is a Republican organization dedicated to bringing attention to the needs of Western North Carolina. West Wins Executive Director Larry Ford noted,"These are very interesting results. We really didn't expect to see minds changed like they evidently were. The turnout, at 8:00 AM indicates that Western North Carolina is looking for somebody to represent us." In addition to heading West Wins, Ford is also Vice Chairman of the Henderson County GOP and Vice President of the Henderson County Republican Men's Club, the two sponsoring organizations. The debate held at Blue Ridge Community College, was sponsored by the Henderson County Republican Men's Club and the Henderson County Republican Party. There was no attempt to determine if everyone was likely to vote in the Republican primary. West Wins Website
(The live-feed has now been replaced with a recording of the landing) (And you may have to press the refresh button next to the play button) (in order to get the video to start playing [TP 2008 0327 11.45 am])
Watch the live coverage here of the landing of the Shuttle Endeavour as STS-123 comes to a close. Or, if you wanna chat with other people while watching, head on over to Space Vidcast and join the group.
The first attempt was waved off, so we'll have to see what happens the next go around.
**update** 6.15pm I made it back home after several wrong turns. I am downloading the streamed coverage so I can edit that material into my own coverage, and I'll start cranking them out in the morning, with a long version for google, and shorter versions for youtube and other video sharing sites. I will also prepare a few snippets from a Bill Graham Interview for the URTV program "Sound Off Buncombe" hosted by Richard Bernier, and a few snippets from the Fred Smith Rally at the Asheville Ballroom.
I'll be covering the NC GOP debate in Hendersonville at 8 am this morning at WNC Citizens Blog, then I'll be covering the Fred Smith Rally at the Asheville Ballroom around noon.
I hope to broadcast the first event live, and I'll be recording the second event. Then, I'll return home and hopefully have everything processed by 6 am tomorrow, if not before.
WNC Citizens Blog. Or here: [TP] I apologize for the frequent dropouts and hope I am still broadcasting. My screen here shows that I still am.
Let's hope I don't get pulled over for speeding...
Lefties across America are celebrating the latest round number of the American death toll in Operation Iraqi Freedom with renewed calls for us to cut and run, so that they might snatch Defeat from the Jaws of Victory.
I'll start with the local lefty site, Scrutiny Hooligans, which just posted a HuffPo pic with photos of some of the dead making up a photo-mosaic of the President and John McCain. The attempt there is to use the blood shed by our troops to make a political point, and create a modern blood libel to demonize the President, and the GOP nominee to take his place, much like their philosophical brethren in the Arab world.
Another local lefty, Errington Thompson, also joins in the macabre celebration. He substituted for his fellow lefty, Matt Mitan yesterday on the radio. [podcast link] Be patient, it may take up to a week or two before the audio gets posted. I have the first hour recorded, but the BS got so high I bailed after the first hour.
And on MoonbatNC, I mean BlueNC, we get this crap:
This week, as we enter the 6th year of this war, the U.S. death toll rises to a startling 4,000. I think about the mortars and car bombs that are bombarding the Green Zone in Baghdad, the men and women serving our country in uniform and in the U.S. embassy answering to harrowing cries of, “duck and cover”. I am reminded of the great need we have to create a responsible, reasonable way to bring our men and women home. My resolve for the need to heighten our diplomatic efforts is strengthened when I read stories of gunmen opening fire on passengers waiting for busses killing 7 people and wounding 16 others including women and children. My resolve is strengthened when I hear reports of police finding the bullet-riddled bodies of 12 people- six in Baghdad, four in Mosul and two in Kut, scenes of clashes between government troops and Shiite militiamen.
Here is what local lefty Tim Peck said on his blog. I'll take the opportunity to respond here to him, since he allows no comments on his blog. (Probably wise given how so utterly wrong he is).
When a proud and capable American citizen enlists in the United States Armed Forces, it is to preserve his nation and its values against foreign threats.
I, (name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. (So help me God.)
So, you see, Tim does not understand the purpose of military service outside his own narrow view, and the idea of service to a higher cause is perhaps foreign to him. He will never understand being a Marine. Perhaps he'll never understand how a German could volunteer to serve in our Armed Forces. Perhaps he'll never understand how a 61 yr-old could join up. As an Objectivist, he can see nothing beyond that which affects his own nose.
When, instead, he is sent to a foreign country to preserve and extend an expansive and perpetual empire of aggression and interventionism, his unsought death should be viewed not as some kind of bizarre sacrificial offering but as a grotesque and horrible purchase in a fool's bargain.
Yes, you read him right. According to him, we are expanding an empire in Iraq. I sure have appreciated the fruits of empire, all that oil and resources we have stolen from Iraq. I guess he considers all those who re-up as even greater fools, and those who struggle to return to Iraq, despite serious wounds, as the greatest fools of all. Methinks the only fool here is the anti-American war protesting supporter of Ron Paul known as Tim Peck.
But wait, there's more:
4,000 dead is nothing to a gargantuan, bloodthirsty nation bent on policing the world, crushing self-determination, and forcing its own myopic will down the throats of unwilling multitudes.
Tim Peck has absolutely no clue of what he speaks. He calls America, the freest nation in the history of mankind a "gargantuan, bloodthirsty nation bent on policing the world, crushing self-determination, and forcing its own myopic will down the throats of unwilling multitudes."
That statement alone tells you why Ron Paul could not garner anything approaching 15% of popular support in the GOP primaries. The sheer, unadulterated hatred of America is palpable, and people wisely stayed away. He says we have "crushed self-determination". That is a bald-faced lie. Before we invaded Iraq, and liberated her people, there was a one-party rule by the Ba'ath Party. Now, Iraq has an elected government and an interim constitution. Saddam Hussein was the one who crushed the self-determination of the Iraqi people. Left to people like Tim, Saddam Hussein would still be murdering people and burying them en masse. Would he have gone to Iraq to act as a human shield, or condemn those who went?
U.S. State Department spokesman Noel Clay said 5,171 polling centers -- 98.8 percent of the 5,232 that were expected to open -- actually did so.
Vote counting started in polling centers and is expected to continue into Monday, when the International Election Commission of Iraq is planning to take all ballots to its headquarters in Baghdad for recounting.
The IECI has promised to announce official results within 10 days.
Clay said the elections "were very transparent" and that representatives of nongovernmental organizations, political organizations and parties observed the process.
Insurgents had vowed to wash the streets with "voters' blood," and more than a dozen attacks killed at least 28 people and wounded 71 others.
Tim may believe some crackpot conspiracy theory that we somehow rigged the elections in Iraq...or he may not pay attention to the news. Tim has traversed the political spectrum from a patriotic supporter of this war in Iraq to an opponent, and he now locks arms with the traitors in the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition. His is a sad journey indeed.
To die in an unjust war not only is not a sacrifice -- as our high commander so blithely claims, with his crocodile tears -- it is an eternal and unremitting shame that no shallow politician, present or future, will redeem with such a disgusting rhetorical flourish.
This is a time of turmoil within all fields of climate science--although you would never know it from the public front as reflected by the popular media. The orthodoxy is circling the wagons, with the unquestioning assistance of global media and national governments, inter-governments, and non-governmental lobbyist organisations.
Under a Stalinist world government, the climate orthodoxy might have a chance of pulling the wool over the global public's eyes long enough to put an irrevocable "climate change economic regime" into place. Under such an economic regime, market mechanisms would be so painfully and dysfunctionally distorted that even in the case of a significant climate cooling--equivalent to a Maunder Minimum--the ability of human science and technology to respond in a timely or effective fashion will have been hamstrung.
Fifty-one percent (51%) of North Carolina voters say the U.S. and its allies are winning the War on Terror. Just 22% believe the terrorists are winning. Forty percent (40%) believe the situation in Iraq will get better over the next six months. Thirty-three percent (33%) expect things to get worse. Those figures are similar to the national average.
This has been the Blogs For Borders Video Blogburst. The Blogs For Borders Blogroll is dedicated to American sovereignty, border security and a sane immigration policy. If you’d like to join find out how right here.
My lefty readers (especially Gordon) claim their philosophy is a peaceful one. I know better.
CHICAGO — Six Iraq war protesters disrupted an Easter Mass on Sunday, shouting and squirting fake blood on themselves and parishioners in a packed auditorium.
Three men and three women startled the crowd during Cardinal Francis George's homily, yelling "Even the Pope calls for peace" as they were removed from the Mass by security guards and ushers.
--SNIP--
The protesters were all charged with felony criminal damage to property and two counts of simple battery for squirting the blood around the auditorium and onto worshipers' clothes, authorities said. Chicago police identified the six arrested as Donte D. Smith, 18; Ephran Ramirez Jr., 22; Ryane Ziemba, 25; Mercedes Phinaih, 18; Regan Maher, 25; and Angela Haban, 20.
This follows a disturbing trend towards violence and domestic terrorist acts by the left as they attempt to relive their "glory days" of the 1960's.
**update** Photo of the Hippie Slapper of Women.Here is the blog of the young girl he slapped. I understand that there is video of the incident, and will post it when I get it.
The 1960's are gone, lefties. Patriots are now on the scene, and we have been building our communication networks, and we will not stand idly by while anti-Americans commit acts of terror, and vandalism against our great Republic.
Remember Berkeley?
Well, we are responding, and we will not yield the streets to the stalinist lefty tactics.
We will not yield our streets to a 5th column of the enemy:
These are from Saturday, March 22nd, at the USMC Officer Selection Office in Berkeley. There was a massive pro-troop rally. Eagles Up paid for the permit (code pink has one for free from the city council), but there were members from a variety of organizations including Move America Forward, and the Patriot Guard Riders. There were also regulars, like a group of Berkeley High School students who come by regularly to support the troops, and local folks active on conservative forums like Free Republic.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the very heart of Christianity. In 1 Corinthians 15 St. Paul reasoned, "If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. . . .We are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead." In that same chapter he says "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen sleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men." But then Paul triumphantly declares, "But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Cor. 15:14-20).
The State Department investigation of improper computer access to passport records of three presidential candidates is focusing on one remaining employee — a contract worker with a company headed by an adviser to the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama.
The probe by State's inspector general will include polygraph tests for supervisors in the passport section to find out whether the three contract employees who accessed the records had a political motive or were part of a political operation to obtain personal data on Mr. Obama, Sen. John McCain or Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Two of the three contract employees had been fired before The Washington Times first reported Thursday on security breaches involving Mr. Obama's passport records. The furor expanded yesterday to incidents involving the passport records of Mr. McCain and Mrs. Clinton.
The third employee, who has not been fired, worked for The Analysis Corporation (TAC), which is headed by John O. Brennan, a former CIA agent who is an adviser to Mr. Obama's presidential campaign on intelligence and foreign policy.
Holy. Freaking. Cow. We've been told that Obama is a disciple of Saul Alinsky....
It's a good thing she will destroy him rather than see him become President so she can have a shot in 4 years. Can you imagine what this General Election season will be like? George Soros and Friends throwing $350 million worth of attack ads at McCain, and Hillary's Machine focused on undermining Obama from every conceivable angle! Will Algore ride to the rescue?
On this day, we commemorate the Crucifixion of Christ. On this day, Christ told a thief, "Today (Present tense) you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43). On this day, Christ died that we might live.
Under Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code, a political organization can get tax-exempt status and spend unlimited money if it champions causes rather than specific candidates. You can't use money to promote a "Vote for Hillary" theme; however, you can buy TV time saying Hillary is a bad woman, you can opine that McCain and the Iraq war are evil, and you can put forth that Obama hangs out with a nasty preacher.
Get the ruse? The money cannot be used to tell the folks whom to vote for, but it can be spent to demonize a candidate on the "issues."
So now we learn that Soros and his merry band have put together a number of 527's that will pony up an astounding $350 million for "issue" ads in the upcoming presidential campaign. That means much of that money will be used to pound John McCain into pudding.
So karma has visited Senator McCain. His vision of the folks controlling election funding is in tatters. Now, radical guys like Soros hold a tremendous amount of power, while regular Americans are limited in what they can contribute. Back in 2001, some astute political people warned John McCain that the zealots would reap the rewards of his legislation, but he didn't listen.
This is funny. I think it will backfire, though...which will be even funnier when the left immolates itself when Obama and/or Clinton loses to McCain this November.
I predict that 527's will be formed to defend McCain by attacking the Democrat nominee "on the issues" and that Republicans will give money hand over fist to them rather than to McCain...even though McCain has Bush's mailing list. I have received over a dozen mailers asking for money for McCain, and I have sent everyone back admonishing McCain's past support for Amnesty, Carbon Taxes, and his opposition to the Bush Tax Cuts, and with "McCain-Feingold Is Unconstitutional" written in magic marker across the top.
Next time I get one, I'm going to put a piece of wood with my message burned into it in the return envelope so his campaign will have to pay the extra freight for the weight, and still get my point across.
**update** 5.39pm
According to the FEC, Barack Obama raised a staggering $55.4 million in February, while Hillary Clinton brought in roughly $35 million. As for McCain … well, the Arizona senator raised just over $11 million--slightly less than what he raised in January, the month he won New Hampshire and regained his political mojo.
Source: Newsweek Stumper Blog I know of that which I speak. Conservatives are with holding their money until John McCain makes peace with our movement. He needs to remember what we did in 2006.
Responding to mounting pressures from within his own party to change his position on proposed additional immunity for telecommunications companies, 11th District Republican Congressional Candidate Carl Mumpower proclaimed, "I am not for sale," in a Good Friday press release.
"Voters who want someone willing to abandon his principles to artificially support the Republican party need to look elsewhere," said Mumpower. "I am an authentic conservative - I'm not a party hack willing to fall into the line when I'm told to - especially considering how often my party has betrayed its core values in recent years."
"The additional retroactive immunity provisions found in FISA are a con job," said Mumpower. "Yet, normally 'right-thinking' Republicans are sadly just falling 'right-into-line' and in the process, sacrificing their integrity, liberty, and the Constitution for fear-based arguments and the good graces of party leaders."
"This is one of the reasons I will accept only personal campaign contributions and none from unions, PACs, business groups, or even the Republican National Congressional Committee," said Mumpower. "I will serve independently, from a principled position that it is clear and up-front or I will not serve at all. I will not be beholden to special interests or the Republican party structure. I am not for sale."
Back in the late 1980s I was on a plane flying out of New Orleans and sitting next to me was a rather interesting and, according to Barack Obama, unusual black man. Friendly, gregarious, and wise beyond his years, we immediately hit it off. I had been working on Vietnamese commercial fishing boats for a few years based in southern Louisiana. The boats were owned by the recent wave of Vietnamese refugees who flooded into the familiar tropical environment after the war. Floating in calm seas out in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, I would hear tearful songs and tales from ex-paratroopers about losing brothers, sisters, parents, children, lovers, and beautiful Vietnam itself to the communists.
In Bayou country I lived on boats and in doublewide trailers, and like the rest of the Vietnamese refugees, I shopped at Wal-Mart and ate a lot of rice. When they arrived in Louisiana the refugees had no money (the money that they had was used to bribe their way out of Vietnam and into refugee camps in Thailand), few friends, and a mostly unfriendly and suspicious local population.
They did however have strong families, a strong work ethic, and the "Audacity of Hope." Within a generation, with little or no knowledge of English, the Vietnamese had achieved dominance in the fishing industry there and their children were already achieving the top SAT scores in the state.
While I had been fishing my new black friend had been working as a prison psychologist in Missouri, and he was pursuing a higher degree in psychology. He was interested in my story, and after about an hour getting to know each other I asked him point blank why these Vietnamese refugees, with no money, friends, or knowledge of the language could be, within a generation, so successful. I also asked him why it was so difficult to convince young black men to abandon the streets and take advantage of the same kinds of opportunities that the Vietnamese had recently embraced.
His answer, only a few words, not only floored me but became sort of a razor that has allowed me ever since to slice through all of the rhetoric regarding race relations that Democrats shovel our way during election season:
"We're owed and they aren't."
In short, he concluded, "they're hungry and we think we're owed. It's crushing us, and as long as we think we're owed we're going nowhere."
And as long as you stay in the Democrat Party, all you will be fed are greed, hatred, envy, entitlement, and class warfare. It is a diet that will enslave you and your posterity.
That is why people who have come to this country can achieve wealth in a generation while your people continue in mental and spiritual bondage to the Democrat Party.
That is why even a successful black man like this guy is still in bondage, and eager to place blame, and encourage hatred of others as the source of all problems. His heart will fill with hate until one day, his heart will explode, and his body will follow his soul in death. It is so sad.
In yet another blow to the climate orthodoxy dogma of "warmer, ever warmer", an arctic freeze is descending over much of England and Scotland for Easter this year.
Arctic winds are forecast to sweep across Britain and bring widespread frosts over the Easter weekend, with snow in eastern regions....Conditions will be worst in Scotland and northern England but below-freezing temperatures and a sprinkling of snow are possible even in the South East – alongside strong winds and driving rain.....Helen Chivers, of the Met Office, said that weather conditions would deteriorate across the country this week. “It looks as though we are going to have a white Easter. We’ve got northerly winds sweeping in from Thursday,” she said. “We will be looking at nighttime temperatures of minus 2C (28F) or minus 3C in quite a lot of rural areas.”
I notice that lefties are trying to place blame on their favorite enemy, George W. Bush. I say to them, "You had better focus your attentions on Hillary, because if you do not go after her with everything in your arsenal, she'll have the nomination. And if Obama gets the nomination, you can count on her to work to undermine him with more vigor than McCain. After all, he has suspended an aide who made a youtube video attacking Obama. What would he do to one of his people digging through Obama's passport info? Or to a Bush Admin effort to assist him? He'd run, not walk to a camera to denounce the effort.
You had better find a way to utterly destroy Hillary as a viable candidate, or make peace with her, for she will eat you alive. Never underestimate a Clinton. There are many who did, and have had their careers destroyed, lives destroyed, or have assumed room temperature. Just watch the Clinton Chronicles. And if the video gets taken down again, I have a copy of it I am willing to upload.
In my considered judgment as a race and civil rights specialist, I would say that Barack Obama's "momentous" speech on race settled on merely "explaining" so-called racial differences between blacks and whites -- and in so doing amplified deep-seated racial tensions and divisions. Instead of giving us a polarizing treatise on the "black experience," Obama should have reiterated the theme that has brought so many to his campaign: That race ain't what it used to be in America.
He should have presented us a pathway out of our racial boxes and a road map for new thinking about race. He should have depicted his minister, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., as a symbol of the dysfunctional angry men who are stuck in the past and who must yield to a new generation of color-blind, hopeful Americans and to a new global economy in which we will look on our neighbors' skin color no differently than how we look on their eye color.
In fact, I'd say that considering the nation's undivided attention to this all-important speech, which gave him an unrivaled opportunity to lift us out of racial and racist thinking, Obama blew it.
I especially agree with his concluding paragraph...I'll steal a couple of sentences from it here:
We can't be united as a nation if we continue to think racially and give credence to racial experiences and differences based on ethnicity, past victim status and stereotypical categories. All of these prejudices surrounding tribe-against-tribe are old-hat and dysfunctional -- especially the rants of ministers, of whatever skin color or religion, who appeal to our base prejudices and to superstitions about our supposed racial differences.
The spread of Islamofascism continues, when will we notice?
A 25-year-old Israeli rabbinical assistant was assaulted by a group of Arab teenagers screaming "Allah akbar" in Brooklyn on Tuesday evening.
Uria Ohana, originally from Kfar Chabad, entered a subway station in the affluent Park Slope neighborhood in Brooklyn Tuesday evening, on his way to a lecture in Manhattan, when he noticed a group of Arab teenagers congregated on a bench in the station.
Ohana did not exchange words or make eye contact with the group, but proceeded upstairs to his train.
On his way, he felt someone grab his kippa from his head and then heard laughter. Ohana decided to chase the boys to retrieve his kippa.
The 18-year-old boy who grabbed the kippa left the subway station and ran into the street, where he was hit by a car, breaking his leg.
While Ohana chased the boy, the other teenagers began chasing him, screaming "Allah akbar."
"They screamed at me, 'Did you see what happened to him because of you?'" said Ohana, a Chabad-Lubavitch rabbinical assistant who works in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
Two of the Arab boys then started kicking and punching Ohana in the face.
"As soon as they started screaming, I understood [the attack] was racial," said Ohana.
The crime is being investigated as aggravated harassment and a possible bias crime, according to a New York Police Department spokeswoman. "I am almost sure it will be charged as a hate crime," said the spokeswoman.
Once we reach a certain critical population mass, you can expect this type of crime to increase. Already, there are "no-go" areas in many urban centers in Europe, Britain, Detroit, and scattered cities in the USA.
Reverend Wright reprinted a Hamas Manifesto in his church bulletin in July of 2007. He renamed it A Fresh View of the Palestinian Struggle. The piece was written by Mousa Abu Marzook, a known terrorist who created a Hamas Terror Cell Network in the United States.
Here is the latest volley in the NC-11 GOP primary from Dr. Carl Mumpower:
--PRESS RELEASE--
FISA Discussion Reveals Sharp Republican Contrast Armor, Campbell and Shuler in political lockstep
Recent heated communications from each of the 11th District congressional campaigns have illuminated a key policy difference among Republicans vying for that seat, finding both John Armor and Spence Campbell in support of legislation that would, in effect, cover-up illegal wiretapping.
Carl Mumpower, a self-proclaimed "independent Republican," opposes a controversial component of the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) which would grant additional retroactive immunity to large telecommunications companies (such as Verizon and AT&T). It has been recently revealed that - without warrants or legal authority - these "telecoms" bugged phone calls, intercepted e-mails, and monitored the internet traffic of untold numbers of American citizens.
"The Democrats - with the exception of Heath and a few others - are right on this one, plain and simple," commented Mumpower. Incumbent Heath Shuler (D-11) is one of only a handful of Democrats to agree with Armor and Campbell in his support of the additional immunity.
Mumpower has held firm in his stand that providing additional immunity to big companies for spying on Americans "dangerously sidesteps the Constitution," even the face of his opponents' various characterizations of his position as "garbage," "irresponsible," and "foolhardy".
"If Congress wants to do something real, they should start by doing financial and performance audits on our intelligence agenies and by securing our porous borders," said Mumpower. "The greatest problem the intelligence community faces is effectively processing and acting on the information they already have. Any additional telecom immunity beyond what they enjoy already is not only a blank check, but a decoy issue that lock-step politicians use to pander to voters' fears."
An excerpt from testimony before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee on October 31, 2007 by Edward Black, President of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, offers information in support of Mumpower's position:
"...Retroactive immunity for participation in the recent secret government surveillance program is premature at best, since this Congress has yet to become well-informed enough to determine whether in fact the NSA surveillance program exceeded legal boundaries established under FISA. If immunity for past activities is granted prior to full disclosure and accountability from the Executive Branch, Congress and the public may never understand the nature of the NSA warrantless wiretapping program."
"If the rule-of-law, limited government, and the truth are not your priorities, then I'm not the guy to vote for," cautioned Mumpower. "I try hard to land on the right thing and hold the line...until the right thing wins or new information helps me to reconsider. This is not a time to surrender to pressure...from my own party or my own supporters."
He continued: "Armchair patriots" who support these new FISA immunities and who are willing to sacrifice the Constitution for illusionary security initiatives are, in fact, enabling our enemies. I will not join the herd just for the sake of doing so, no matter what the personal price."
(For the full transcript of Edward Black's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, click here.)
I guess that puts me in the armchair general category. It is my opinion that we cannot allow an openly hostile 5th column in our country to openly practice lawfare in pursuit of our defeat in World War IV. Go read the testimony of Edward Black and form your own opinion.
Moonbats flocked to DC, and This Ain't Hell was there to record the traitors in action:
Another day, another protest. Today is ANSWER’s “Day of Action”. Since the Iraq War started five years ago today, all of the organizations that have sprung up to cash in on the war decided to have an eight-ring circus in downtown Washington DC, because as one IVAW member told me, the war is about money - apparently for the moonbats, too. My coverage was abruptly ended when I was ID’d as “one of those Milblog guys at Winter Soldier”, so excuse me for not getting all I should have.
I was there bright and early for the festivities. It must’ve been a little too early because the Code Pink gals were looking especially raggedy...
A new blog, called Common Cents, has written Barack McDaddy Obama's next speech for him, and since I can't link to individual posts, I'll reproduce it in full below:
COMMON CENTS WRITES BARACK OBAMA'S NEXT SPEECH
"Good evening my friends! I come to you today as an agent of the future. Now for far far too long now politicians have feared the future - they have dreaded the future. I come to you with a new message "Do not fear the future"! I can say this because I humbly believe that the FUTURE LIES IN OUR FUTURE NOT IN OUR PAST. The cynic may say the future is not in our future but I can say to you without equivocation and with complete confidence that the future lies not in our past - not in the present but in the future. The past is clearly past and the present is clear in the present but the future is what lies ahead not as the cynics say in the past. Now as the future comes it slowly becomes the present and then eventually becomes the past. But the future will not come before the past but after it thus we look forward to the future, not the past, because the past has passed and the future lies before us, until it becomes the present and eventually the past (LOUD APPLAUSE). So I ask you to join with me as we look forward to the future and with great anticipation because the future is what we all will have to face! The cynics may say that we fear the future and dread the present but this campaign is rooted in the philosophy that the future is the only thing that exists beyond the present.
- Now I also come to you as an agent of Hope. Hope is what we hope for not what is not hoped for. Although in the past hope was based on things not hoped for I say to you in our campaign we will only hope for hopeful things. Without hope is hopelessness which is defined by the absence of hope. Those unfortunate souls without hope need only hope to attain hope and become hopeful. So if we only hope we can replace hopelessness with hope and become filled with hope. Is it this simple - I believe so - if only the hopeless begin to hope they will become hopeful once the hopelessness leaves. Hope implies a certain amount of despair, wanting, wishing and anguish. But in this campaign I pledge to you to replace all absence of hope with hope and to work tirelessly, night and day to bring hope to those without hope so that the hopeless can become transformed, even transfigured, to hopeful without leaving their hope behind. How can they leave their hope behind if they have no hope and thus are hopeful. I believe that every human being in God's creation has hope even those who the cynics and the critics say are hopeless have some vestige of hope innate in them and we will lift up that hope, we will nourish and nuture that hope until they become hopeful and filled with hope! (LOUD APPLAUSE) Some may say this has been tried in the past, to lift up those without hope, to to install hope to those without hope but this campaign is different. This campaign is founded on hope and literally injecting hope into the hopeless, to root out all vestiges of hopeless until all are hopeful and full of hope - because those without hope are the ones most in need of hope. The hopeful already have hope, my friend it is the hopeless who need the hope that we so clearly bring!
- And additionally this grass roots campaign is about the future and obviously about hope but ultimately this campaign is routed in change. Now change is not possible without changing, without changing we have not changed and we are unchanged. (APPLAUSE> The change may or may not be easy but more likely than not it is hard because the easy change may have already occurred. Thus if we are left with a choice between easy and hard change in the past only the easy change occurred but I pledge to you - I make a solemn vow to be an agent not only of easy change but also of hard change. If we only change the easy and neglect to change the hard what good is that because the hard change remains unchanged until we change it. Now if we change the hard but do not change the easy we fall into that trap where the hard change becomes the easy and the easy change becomes hard and visa-versa. Now in the past the cynics and critics have said that the hard change is hard to change while the easy change is easy to change. Now that may sound good until you dig deep and really examine what that means, now everyone here is smart enough to realize that if we do not change the hard change it will be unchanged until we change it. (LOUD APPLAUSE) Now my friends, I pledge to you on this day to not rest - to work tirelessly - to change both the easy change and the hard change, unless the hard change is too hard to change!!
- This campaign is about all the above The Future, Hope and Change. We can hope for change but we must do more than hope. As I stated hopelessness is the absence of hope and the future lies not in our past but in our future. This campaign began and continues as a campaign of hope and change so as not to avoid the future but to embrace the future. We can hope to change the change but we must remember to change both the easy and the hard change. Hopefully. So in conclusion, I give you my solemn vow, my solemn pledge to work day and night to work toward the future, to change both the hard and easy change not only in the future but in the present, until the present becomes the past at which time it will become impossible to change, as has happened in the past! For until we change the present it will be impossible to change the past because the present becomes the unchanged past if not changed. My fellow Americans - I have been very specific about the change and hope which I propose. The cynic will say it is to much to hope for all this change. I say we are Americans, One Country and the I will be there to enact this change and hope in the future, once it becomes the present and before it becomes the past!!! THUNDEROUS APPLAUSE - FEMALES FAINT
A Monday press release by Republican Congressional Carl Mumpower has stimulated strong reactions from 11th District challengers John Armor and Spence Campbell. "I am not in favor of the immunity found in recent FISA legislation for telecoms or anyone else and I continue to believe that the pervasive bureaucratic dysfunction of America's intelligence agencies offers few incentives for more hidden powers," said Mumpower. "Securing our borders, enforcing existing laws, and both financial and productivity audits of our intelligence agencies will do more than allowing the government to expand its veil of secrecy."
Campbell and Armor share a common ground with a majority of Republican legislators, the President, and even 11th District Representative Heath Shuler. Shuler has come out in support of immunity to telecom companies and made a request of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that future FISA legislation support that goal. Campbell has said that Congress should grant the telecoms immunity, while Armor stated, "I could not disagree with (Mumpower) more - this is garbage."
"As an Independent Republican, I support conservative principles with full heart and action," said Mumpower. "I am not, however, obligated to a Republican power structure that continues to betray those values and take short-cuts around the Constitution with actions like this. The rule of law, accountability, and liberty should not be for sale - especially to people who are quick to use the "terror card" to justify or conceal misbehavior."
"I am fond of Ben Franklin," said Mumpower. "He said that "Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." I'm sure it could be argued that there are practical justifications for immunity - one can always find a reason to take small steps away from the right thing. This is one of those times when a politician faces the temptation to fall into line with what's popular or take a principled position and the heat that results. I'll leave political conformity to others - and keep my eye on the Constitution."
Carl Mumpower 11th District Republican Congressional Candidate
CAMPBELL RELEASES STATEMENT ON FISA REAUTHORIZATION
Hendersonville—US Republican Congressional Candidate Spence Campbell released the following statement on the FISA Reauthorization bill:“As a former career U.S. Army intelligence officer, I know firsthand how important it is that we have solid, reliable intelligence in order to protect this great country and its citizens from harm. We must do all we can to ensure the safety of Americans and the citizens of western North Carolina.“We must not forget that we are a nation at war. There are people who actively seek to harm America, and we must ensure that our government has the tools and resources needed to ensure the safety of us all. “It is the height of irresponsibility for anyone to seek to undermine or try to prevent our government from doing all it can to protect its citizens, especially in a time of war. By criticizing portions of this bill, which allows companies to work together with our government to provide them with critical information and intelligence, is more than irresponsible. It is in fact, foolhardy, and dangerous. Anyone that seeks to put Americans in harm’s way should not be allowed the privilege of representing the citizens of western North Carolina in Congress.”
Mumpower Misunderstands FISA Issues, Misquotes Ben Franklin
Carl Mumpower, Republican candidate for Congress from the 11th District, has put out a press release saying that the efforts in the US House to extend the FISA Act “demonstrate sharp differences between him and the other candidates.” He is right, but has the wrong conclusion, based on a gross misunderstanding of the subject.
FISA stands for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The ACLU (the American Civil Liberties Union) is using American civil courts in an effort to gut-shoot the government’s efforts to stay ahead of the terrorists seeking to kill Americans in America. It seems that Carl Mumpower has not done his homework before taking a position on this subject.
The quote that Carl Mumpower uses in the name of Benjamin Franklin in his latest News Release is a false quote, although with an ancient pedigree. Mumpower quotes Franklin as writing: “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” This comes from the title page of An Historical Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania (1759).
However, anyone with a little skill in using an Internet search engine, like Google, can quickly find that the accurate Franklin quote is: “Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.” It is both better written, and has a different meaning, than the bad quote used by candidate Mumpower.
“More importantly, Carl Mumpower seems blissfully unaware of what brought about the immunity provisions in the original FISA Act,” said John Armor. He pointed out that lawyers for the ACLU had filed several damage claims against several telecom companies, seeking damages for their cooperation with international security searches as sought by the federal government.
Commentary
I am afraid that Mumpower has chosen the wrong side of this issue. My impression of the whole FISA argument is that the attempt to deny immunity to the telecoms is part of a lawfare technique used by the enemies of America to weaken, and ultimately destroy her ability to defend against attacks from Islamofascism and Progessivism.
I lump Progressives together with the Islamofascists because both would rather that America not participate in World War IV. They have become allies of convenience at this point.
In a different category, I place "the honest civil-libertarians": Mumpower, through good intentions (like the libertarians), has found himself trapped by applying a misunderstanding of the issue.
Both Spence Campbell and John Armor understand the necessity of immunity for the telecoms.
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