No Lock and Load on DC

Washingtonpost.com:

The activist who threatened to lead an armed march on Washington on July 4 has canceled the event but is urging people to converge on the 50 state capitols to protest gun regulations, according to his recent appearance on an Internet talk show.

“Please don’t come to Washington, D.C. Appeal on a state level,” Adam Kokesh, an Iraq war veteran, said in an interview Tuesday on “The Pete Santilli Show.” “We shouldn’t be begging the government to change. We should be hoping they respect our rights.”

I guess plans for mass arrests will be stopped.  What an incredibly foolish event to plan.  So much for the idea of law-abiding citizens.   Once again shock-jock Pete Santilli is lurking around the distasteful and in this case, the illegal.

What is Adam Kokesh the leader of?  Is he self appointed?  What gun regulations is he protesting?  Did I miss something that passed?

Beck Blubbers over Bachmann

Who is this THEY people keep talking about? I keep hearing about this evil THEY wherever I go.

Did Beck just call Senator McCain a dirt-bag? tak tsk. How rude. Even if you don’t like Senator McCain, and sometimes I don’t, I wouldn’t publicly call him a dirt-bag.

Washington doesn’t take away anyone’s honor. Only you yourself can destroy your honor. Some people aren’t up to the task of defending their own honor. Michele Bachmann knew what she was getting into. She campaigned on it as a matter of fact, when she ran for president. She didn’t catch the big fish and now she is going home. Nothing wrong with that. She capitalized on the outrageous, make up lies about others and now goes back home. Safe landing, Ms Bachmann.

McDonnell to restore voting rights for non-violent felons

mcleanpatch.com:

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) announced Wednesday that he will automatically restore on a individual basis civil rights to nonviolent felons as long as they have done their time, paid their court costs and don’t have any pending felony charges on their record.

The change, which takes effect July 15, will eliminate the two-year period a released felon must wait to submit an application for restoration of his or her rights, giving them the opportunity to vote as soon as possible.

Good for Governor McDonnell to waive the waiting period for applications.  On paper it sounds like he capitulated quite a bit.  Actually he just shortened the time a released felon had to wait to reapply for voting rights.  What about those involved in violent felony?  For example, would those convicted of man-slaughter from drunk driving be considered ‘violent?’  Will those people ever be able to get their voting rights back?

If a person has a violent past and keeps his  or her nose clean for x number of years, can they ever apply for voting rights?

It seems to me that good behavior for a certain period of time (maybe 3 to 5 years) should restore all rights of citizenship.

What rights to convicted felons lose?  Should these rights ever be restored regardless?

 

Conquering Everest

60 years ago Sir Edmund Hillary reached the top of Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain in the world. (May 28, 1953) At the time they didn’t know if it was even humanly possible to reach the summit. Even though the crew used oxygen, they weren’t sure something else wasn’t going to kill them on the spot.

Below is a view of the world from the top of Mt. Everest.

“Nobody climbs mountains for scientific reasons. Science is used to raise money for the expeditions, but you really climb for the hell of it.” Sir Edmund Hillary

Bob Dole: GOP Closed for Repairs

By now, everyone is familiar with the video (see above) of Bob Dole telling Chris Wallace that he would put up a sign over the national GOP headquarters saying “Closed for Repairs.” (TPM.com)

Bob Dole, Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon wouldn’t be welcome in today’s Republican Party because they all had ideas and positive agendas, Bob Dole said Sunday.

“Reagan couldn’t have made it,” Dole said. “Certainly Nixon couldn’t have made it, because he had ideas. We might have made it, but I doubt it.”

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, the former Republican presidential candidate and Senate majority leader offered a brutal indictment of what his own party has become.

“I think they ought to put a sign on the national committee doors,” Dole said of the GOP, “that says closed for repairs until New Year’s Day next year and spend that time going over ideas and positive agendas.”

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Secretary of Defense Hagel sails rather than flails

Politico.com:

Just three months ago, Chuck Hagel was flailing under fire on Capitol Hill,  trying to convince his former colleagues in the Senate that he was the right man  to run the Pentagon.

Since then, the newly minted defense secretary has been dealing with massive  budget cuts, tense flare-ups in Syria and North Korea and a widening sexual  assault scandal that threatens to corrode the ranks. In spite of it all, he’s  getting high marks — even from those who opposed him from the start.

“I’m very pleased,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, the South  Carolina Republican who during his confirmation hearing grilled Hagel on  controversial remarks he made about Israel. Graham voted against Hagel but now  says he’s happy with the way Hagel has tackled a flurry of national security  challenges in his first three months on the job.

“He’s been a good advocate that sequestration is going to be a real death  blow to our military readiness. He’s reached out to Congress. He’s been  forthcoming in his remarks, trying to take the chain of command out of military  justice decisions and various sexual harassment [cases]. I don’t agree with  that, but generally speaking, I think he’s done a good job,” Graham told  POLITICO.

That must have been painful to admit.  Too bad people have to be excoriated, their reputations besmirched  and their character impugned just to get nominated to serve.  What was done to Chuck Hagel was inexcusable.

Is it fair to say that anyone President Obama nominates will face the same uphill battles?

 

 

To be a Virginian….

Washingtonpost.com:

Ken Cuccinelli II’s campaign likes to portray Terry McAuliffe as a Syracuse native whose outsize political ambition drove him to eye gubernatorial races in Florida and New York before he decided to run in Virginia.

“Unlike McAuliffe,” the Republican’s spokeswoman said at one point, “Cuccinelli is a product of Virginia.” Cuccinelli has hammered the same theme, saying his Democratic opponent “ didn’t show any interest in Virginia until he wanted to run for governor.”

In a contentious campaign five months before the election, Republicans are questioning McAuliffe’s connection to the state even as seismic demographic shifts have made defining an authentic Virginian a near-herculean task.

If the transient bureaucrat has replaced the tobacco farmer as the face of the commonwealth, the state’s gubernatorial race has become a test of whether Republicans can effectively cast McAuliffe as “an undocumented Virginian,” as state political analyst Robert Holsworth puts it.

Over the past century, the percentage of native-born residents has dropped at a faster pace in Virginia than anywhere else in the country. Today, a little less than half of Virginian’s population was born in the Old Dominion.

“A case could be made that an authentic Virginian these days is someone born outside of Virginia,” said Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington. “Different parts of the state would have different ideas about what is authentic.”

From where I am sitting, I think both of them are carpet-baggers.   I can trace my Virginia ancesters back, by family name even, to the late 1600’s.  I can go back 7 or 8 generations in Albemarle County alone.  So can thousands of other Virginians.  Those old ancestors also would say I had turned Yankee, I am sure, for spending my life in Northern Virginia.  It’s all relative.   Then I have the other side of the family that no one knows much about.  (whispered voice:  they ARE Yankees)  My father was a Jersey boy who came to UVA back in the 30’s and worked his way through the University playing 3 sports per year.  (sort of like Cuccinelli came from NJ)

My husband is a Yankee who was born in Massachusetts and raised in Maryland.  He came to Virginia as a young adult.  No one is prouder of his Virginia ‘heritage’ than he is.  He probably wouldn’t like it that I just called him a Yankee.  Many years ago I gave him a set of cocktail napkins that said the following:

To be a Virginian either by Birth, Marriage, Adoption, or even on one’s Mother’s side, is an Introduction to any State in the Union, a Passport to any Foreign Country, and a Benediction from Above.”—Anonymous

Back to our governor wanna-bes–Cuccinelli was born in New Jersey.  I fail to see how he is a product of Virginia.  McAuliffe was born in New York.  Cuccinelli graduated from high school in Washington, D.C.  McAuliffe graduated in NY.  Both have lived in the state of Virginia over 20 years.  The question now becomes, who cares.  Both have legal residency.

The question should be, which candidate best represents the majority of Virginians.  The answer has yet to be determined.   Both need to stick to telling us what they will do for Virginia.  I have seen what Cuccinelli would do for Virginia and I did not like it.  I still don’t like it.  McAuliffe has to be a better choice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Open Thread……………………………………………….Monday, May 27

cicada4This red-eyed fellow is ready to join his brothers and sisters for a chorus of humming, sawing and chirping.  It’s sort of his swan song before his demise.  Bugs are strange beings.  What sort of DNA coding is in them that makes them awake after 17 years, crawl to the surface like zombies, to sing a song and then croak?

I like the cicada sound.  There is something soothing and predictable about their song.  It reminds me of the south.  Ordinarily I HATE bugs but the cicada is except from Howler hate.  (so far)

I hear that Round Elementary is literally crawling with the creatures.

Capt. George S. Harris: Memorial Day 2013

Our own poet laureate, Capt. George Harris has once again generously provided us with our Memorial Day Remembrance.  George served in the military from the Korean War until the late 1990’s.  He entered the Navy as a Seaman Recruit and rose to the rank of Captain over his 39 year career.   Ask him about his experiences next time he is online.

memorial day 2013

 

Once again, many Americans will take time from their hectic pace to remember and honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our Nation.   Some high ranking person, our president in many instances, will lay a wreath at that marble edifice in Arlington National Cemetery where an inscription declares:

 

HERE RESTS IN

HONORED GLORY

AN AMERICAN

SOLDIER

KNOWN BUT TO GOD

 

And somber words will be spoken in many places to veterans and their families across our Nation.  It is a time of reflection, a time to recall that millions of young Americans have answered the Nation’s call to duty and more than 848,000 have laid down their life answering this call.  It also is a time to remember those whose lives have been permanently altered by the acts of war.  Over the last 237 years, more than 1,350,000 young men and women have suffered the wounds of war.  And the price this Nation pays for their wounds carries on for decades.  For the next five or six decades we will see these young men and women grow old but the scars of their injuries will remain; absent arms and legs, blinded eyes and mental illness with its own set of horrors will serve to remind us of the price of war. 

 

I have often said that American must love war because we have been in so many.  We even fought among ourselves in our great Civil War where we managed to kill nearly 600 of America’s finest every day for four long years. 

 

This year, as Taps echoes across the land, and the “Flags In” ceremony is carried out for the thousands of graves at Arlington National Cemetery, let us take a moment to remember not just those who have paid the ultimate price but also those who answered the call to arms.  Let us remember the millions of American families who have been affected by the wars we have fought and, finally, let us remember those who were are enemies.  They also answered their nation’s call to arms, they also laid down their lives and their families also suffered the pains of war. 

 

God bless the men and women of our Armed Forces and God bless the United States of America.

 

Manassas, Virginia: The Sullivan Ballou Letter

Some of the pictures in this video will look very familiar.  The Sullivan Ballou letter of Ken Burns fame is probably one of the most poignant of all the war letters home.  Major Ballou was an educated man and he was able to speak of his longings for home in a way that perhaps wasn’t typical of the ordinary grunt.  His poetic descriptions of his conflicted feelings for his wife, family and country and his premonitions still send a chill both up and down my spine, knowing that this man died just a few miles from my house in the First Battle of Manassas.

How many of those who died are in unmarked graves, mostly somewhere in the South?  Most of those killed in the Civil War, both North and South,  never made it home at all.   Much has been made of how unprepared this country was to deal with its dead at the beginning of the Civil War.  They had to learn quickly.  More Americans died in the Civil War than in all of our other wars combined.
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America should take care of her own

What is wrong with this jerk? Hasn’t America always taken care of her own? The people of Moore, Oklahoma have lost everything they own. They need help and assistance. Yet their own senator thinks that the government should find cuts in the budget before these people, many who don’t have a roof over their heads, get any federal help.

I expect the people of Oklahoma will mete out their own punishment. What an self-centered, selfish idiot. We are a wealthy nation and when our people are in trouble, we need to come to their aid.

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Memorial Day 2013: Freedom Isn’t Free

A special tribute to those who didn’t come home from my parents’ generation in WWII, the Korean War, and my own generation, Vietnam.

The one thing that always hits me when I look at videos of America at war is just how young our troops are. Most of them are little more than boys.

Freedom certainly is not free. It’s also not for the faint of heart.

Will we ever go for more than 20 years without being involved in a war?

Memorial Day Weekend 2013: Some Gave All

Memorial Day, formerly known as Decoration Day, is the time for us to pay homage to those who have died defending our country. Not only did those brave souls give all, so did their families.

Over 7000 Americans have died in serving our country during the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars. Five times that many Americans have had life altering injuries.

A special tribute goes out to those local heroes who gave all and to their families.

Boy Scouts of America lift ban on gay scouts

 

NBCnews.com:

GRAPEVINE, Texas — The Boy Scouts of America voted Thursday to end its controversial policy banning gay kids and teens from joining one of the nation’s most popular youth organizations, ditching membership guidelines that had roiled the group in recent years.

Over 61 percent of Scouting’s National Council of 1,232 delegates from across the country voted to lift the ban, BSA officials said. The final tally was 757 yes votes, to 475 no (another 168 delegates did not cast a ballot since they were not present at the meeting). The ban on gay leaders was not voted on and will remain in place.

“This resolution today dealt with youth. We have not changed our adult membership standards. They have served us well for the last 100 years. Those were not on the table,” said Tico Perez, BSA national commissioner.

Some parents are happy. Some are furious and have talked about pulling their kids out. Other people say the BSA has not gone far enough and that the ban against gay adult leaders should be lifted. The ban is supposed to be lifted as of January 1, 2014.

Change isn’t easy. The 100 year old organization will suffer growing pains just like anyone else. I would commend them for the efforts they have made so far. While the organization hasn’t included gays and lesbians in its adult leadership, it has opened its doors to all boys straight or gay.

That is a starting place.  After all, its about the kids.

bsa

How about those first responders!

First responders and residents recover amid the aftermath of a deadly tornado in Moore, Okla. timephotographers

(Kenneth M. Ruggiano for TIME)

How about those first responders! “First Responder” has become the buzz word of the millennium. What we really mean are those brave souls who are first on the scene of any disaster, large or small. Those are the people who rush into burning buildings, who scrape us up off the highway or who dodge bullets running into schools when a another mad-man decides to go out in a blaze of glory, mowing down as many innocents in cold blood as possible.

Those are the folks who travel great distances to places like Boston or Moore, Oklahoma just because they are needed and have skills that might be needed in a time of crisis. Those are the folks you see pouring through the 17 miles of rubble that the residents of suburban Oklahoma City used to call home. Those are the folks who gaze  on the most horrific scenes in the aftermath of fires, tornadoes, earthquakes, shootings, and terrorism.

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