Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation’s service. There are many stories as to its actual beginnings, with over two dozen cities and towns laying claim to being the birthplace of Memorial Day. There is also evidence that organized women’s groups in the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War: a hymn published in 1867, “Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping” by Nella L. Sweet carried the dedication “To The Ladies of the South who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead” (Source: Duke University’s Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920). While Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it’s difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day. It is more likely that it had many separate beginnings; each of those…
Congress is busy once again doing the two-step. Step one is to publicly vilify successful corporations for not paying enough taxes by exercising the very tax loopholes instituted by Congress. Step two is to laugh all the way to the bank with their crony-corporatism policies that make their fortunes while pretending to have the people’s back.
“I’m offended by the tone of these hearings,” he said, with some heat. “Tell me what Apple has done that’s illegal. If anyone should be on trial here it’s Congress. The Senate should apologize to Apple.”
You can be mad at G.E. for exploiting the system and retaining as much of their profits as they can. You would be better served to direct your anger at the taxation policies of our government.
Corporations have a fiduciary responsibility to MAXIMIZE profits for their shareholders. It is their obligation and duty. Any of this rhetoric we hear concerning a corporation having any type of moral obligation toward creating jobs or reducing profits as some sort of consumer benefit is just garbage. A company is in business for one reason and one reason only. To maximize profits and realize as great a return on their investor’s investment as possible. Period.
Getting mad at Apple or G.E. is simple ignorance to the facts. Congress makes their own bed and must lie in it.
Spellchek has posted many times on natural resources, energy access and distribution as being the reasons behind the bulk of global conflicts. Religion and land are usually cited as the top reasons for war, however, even those are sometimes merely a front for a natural resorces basis. The fight over natural resources goes back centuries and still sits at the top of the list for governments to consider when making policy.
The next two globally intertwined conflicts fit the bill. Syria, which is primarily over pipeline distribution routes, and the lesser known China-Japan dispute over the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands, which is over the massive Chunxiao gas field.
As a newly emergent power, Japan turned its attention toward Korea. In order to protect its own interests and security, Japan wanted to block another power from annexing Korea or maintaining dominance in Korea, or at least ensure Korea’s effective independence by developing its resources and reforming its administration
Interesting that is was U.S. intervention in 1854 that led Japan to become involved in global trade.
It is likely a common misunderstanding that nations intervene in foreign conflicts in an effort to secure assets for themselves. Iraq for oil as an example. Some would also suport the idea that to the victor goes the spoils as a form of repayment. The idea being that the U.S. nation built in Iraq and Afghanistan, so it’s OK to take their oil as repayment.
The problem is that you are painted a tyrant and occupier by most. If your agenda is global conquest, you would follow this logic as an aura of fear is preferable anyway.
History is replete with failed global tyrants and the governments of the world take notice, particularly the so-called superpowers. It is considered more efficient strategically to pursue what we see today. Proxy wars and interventions designed to ensure global access to natural resources as a way of denying opponents a strategic edge. Doesn’t matter if it’s water, land, gas, oil, precious minerals, whatever it may be, if it can be made available to a global market than no one country can control it.
It becomes clear when one studies the seemingly random and irrational pattern of interventions based upon issues such as human rights and third-world poverty. The way in which countries pick and choose their battles. The U.S. getting involved in Syria would qualify as Assad killing his own people is repeated daily in many other countries around the globe in which we don’t intervene.
This is not to say that natural resources are always the reason behind conflicts. The spread of Islam via the Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaeda is very much ideology based and fully supported by our President even if he’ll never declare it. His actions defy him. It may seem to be a conflict of interest with the President’s personal agenda and the nation’s agenda. Yet any good politican always finds a way to make their personal beliefs coincide with their professional role.
Many times multiple agendas come together at certain points. Obama and the democrat party are one. His agenda is much bigger than the party, yet they are often bedfellows where the agendas align.
Any hopes for global peace and a lessening of wars and conflicts is folly. Simply way too many fingers in the pie for that to ever happen.
Scandal-gate is in overdrive at the most transparent administration in history. It’s tough to keep up there are so many. Benghazi, the IRS, wiretapping reporters, the Saudi mysteriously cleared at the Boston Marathon, fast and furious, voter fraud, illegal immigration, and on and on and on.
With that in mind, Obama is meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan to discuss the U.S. getting more involved in Syria. From USA Today.
President Obama turns back to Middle East diplomacy on Thursday.
The president welcomes Turkish Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan to the White House for a series of talks.
A primary topic: The civil war in Syria.
Erdogan is pushing the United States to do more to resolve the conflict in Syria.
“The prime minister’s visit underscores the close friendship between the United States and Turkey and the strategic importance we place on broadening and deepening our relationship moving forward,” says the White House.
After a bilateral meeting in the morning, Obama and Erdogan will host a brief news conference.
Thursday night, the president hosts a working dinner with Erdogan.
The news conference is likely to include questions about domestic disputes swirling around Obama, including Benghazi and the Internal Revenue Service admission that it targeted conservative groups over their tax-exempt status.
Hmmm, a White House begging for a distraction to get itself off the headlines of every newspaper in the country and an ally with a request for our involvement in yet another overseas conflict? Sure sounds like a recipe for another Libya. It’s not coincidental that it was Turkey that Obama used as a transit route in trafficking Libyan weapons and Jihadists to Syria under the false premise of a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi.
If I were Assad in Syria, this would be a good time to make sure my last will and testament was in order.
I wonder if the indian from the iconic 1970’s ‘Keep America Beautiful’ commercial would agree with Obama on his ‘green’ energy initiatives? It is estimated that in excess of half a million birds are killed each year by the windmills that are taking over our landscape.
I suppose it fits right in with the President’s agenda to crush the America we grew up with so why not allow one of its greatest symbols to die with impunity?
Wait, you say. The President is only trying to do what’s best for the country. It’s for the greater good akin to eminent domain. If millions of birds have to take one for the team to wean our country off of fossil fuels, than all is forgiven, right? Kind of like the countless Americans who have died due to the CAFE standards in which increasing miles per gallon at the expense of safer vehicles is warranted? Or perhaps the ethanol mandate which is killing people in third-world countries?
Sacrificing for the collective is fine if we’re talking about your family, but when it’s tyranny and an authoritarian statist empire hell bent on dictating how to run our lives? No thanks.
You can’t make this stuff up. Should you happen to reside in the liberal la-la land of Milwaukee, WI and your privately owned business decides to go out of business, you may need a license to do so. Really.
A Closing Out Sale is any sale conducted or advertised using such terms as “closing”, “bankruptcy”, or “liquidation”. Closing Out Sales are regulated, licensed and monitored by the City of Milwaukee Health Department to protect consumers from misleading or fraudulent practices. Business may make arrangements to apply for a “Closing Out Sale” License by calling (414) 286-3674.
The requirements for Closing Out Sales can be found in Chapter 88 of The Milwaukee Code of Ordinances
Don’t you feel better knowing this is done to protect you?
You can read the whole ugly regulation here-http://city.milwaukee.gov/ImageLibrary/Groups/ccClerk/Ordinances/Volume-1/CH88.pdf
In addition to your license fee, make sure you have the following:
-an affidavit from a CPA listing all the stock you plan to sell
-an affidavit listing names and addresses of the business owners, partners, officers, directors, principal stockholders and anyone else who aided in conducting the sale. Oh, by the way, if you haven’t been in business for at least 12 months your application will be denied. So say you wish to run a seasonal business and sell-off the remaining stock? Disapproved.
-applicants personal property tax returns for the previous 2 years
-Wisconsin dept. of taxation form 10 for the previous 2 years
-an affidavit proving you haven’t ordered stock for the previous 60 days. Order fresh product for your business? License rejected!
-an anything goes stipulation that allows the City Sealer to request any documentation they deem fit for the application
Regulatory burdens that don’t encourage entrepeneurs to go into business? Nah, not in Milwaukee.
Here are two accounts that claim only Obama could have issued a “stand-down” order. The implication being that we held back troops as our people were dying.
The Pentagon disputes the contention.
Could the U.S. military have done more to help? Not according to the Pentagon – and the hearing’s key witness. Aircraft that might have buzzed the compound where the second pair of Americans died – and scared the militants away — were 900 miles north in Italy. “Time and distance are a tyranny of their own,” Admiral James Stavridis, who responded to the attacks as the NATO commander, told Congress earlier this year. Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, estimated it would take as long as 20 hours to get the planes above Benghazi. Hicks testified that he asked the U.S. defense attaché in Tripoli if planes could be scrambled to help those under attack in the CIA annex in Benghazi, a battle that unfolded hours after the initial assault on the nearby U.S. consulate, which killed Stevens, and led to two more American deaths. “He said that it would take two to three hours for them to get on site, but that there also were no tankers available for them to refuel,” Hicks said Wednesday. “And I said, ‘Thank you very much,’ and we went on with our work.” Hicks also testified that a four man team of Green Berets in Tripoli were denied a request to deploy to Benghazi the morning after the attack began, though officials doubt they could have arrived early enough to save lives at the CIA annex. “We continue to believe there was nothing this team could have done to assist during the second attack in Benghazi,” Pentagon spokesman George Little told reporters.
Dempsey says as much as 20 hours to get planes to Benghazi. Panetta testifies in this video that it’s 9-12 hours. Dempsey states that the State Dept. never asked for help.
Panetta also testified that Obama directed both himself and Dempsey to do “everything we needed to do to try and protect lives there”. Maybe it’s just me but doing everything possible doesn’t require a State Dept. request for assistance now does it Gen. Dempsey?
Here is the Hick’s assertion that a stand-down order was given.
Let’s be honest about what this boils down to. Hicks testified that the denial to send in the 4 Green Berets was to secure the airport for securely transporting our personnel out of Benghazi. This would have taken place after both attacks had occurred and the 4 Americans were already dead. The Pentagon statement supports that timeline. The GOP is making hay with the potential “stand-down” order given to leave our people to die. That’s not what happened. Anyone who has ever read this blog knows that I don’t support Obama in the slightest, but we need to get the facts straight on Benghazi and this isn’t being portrayed accurately.
Sending in the 4 Green Berets wouldn’t have saved a single American life. One could make an argument that we had no way of knowing the attacks were over with and prudence would have merited sending them anyway to aid in what was still unknown at the time. That’s a valid point, however, it wouldn’t have saved any of the 4 lives being debated so the GOP needs to stop with the disinformation campaign in order to make political points. Securing an airport for personnel removal isn’t the same as holding back troops and allowing our people to die on the battlefield.
If they’re serious about holding the Administration to account for Benghazi, then they should focus on the testimony above. Panetta and Dempsey had been directed by Obama to do “everything” necessary which they did not do. This was approx. 5:15pm EST, about a half hour after the attacks had started at 9:40pm Benghazi time. Nothing Panetta or Dempsey would have done would have saved Chris Steven’s or Sean Smith’s lives as they died in the first attack. But they could have certainly done something to save the lives of Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods who died nearly 7 hours later in the CIA annex attack.
To think that it would take anywhere from 9 to 20 hours just to get a plane in the air over Benghazi is hard to believe. I’ll bet we could get a B-2 all the way from Missouri there in that time frame with air-to-air refueling. Now, does Hick’s contention that merely flying around the area with a fighter jet would be effective at scaring and dispersing the crowd? No one knows the answer to that. But clearly, if Panetta and Dempsey had taken steps at 5:15pm EST to reposition assets, something surely could have been done before the 2nd attack commenced. Let’s not forget our NATO allies with assets in the region as well since Dempsey would have us believe that it takes nearly a full day to scramble a jet to Benghazi. Garbage!
Bottom line is that the GOP is never going to “get” Obama on a stand-down charge. They know it. They are simply playing it up for political points. That’s what disgusts me about the whole thing. Both sides still just playing politics. They could make a legitimate charge that Panetta and Dempsey should be held accountable as they had direct orders from Obama to act and do everything possible. As well, Hillary Clinton is responsible for the security lapses leading up to the attacks. If they could secure proof that an order was given not to arm the surveillance drone overhead, than they would have something legitimate. Truth is, if they had it, we would know it by now.
Where is the GOP focused? Altering talking points. Who gave a “stand-down” order that wouldn’t have saved a single life anyway.
Where is the GOP not focused? The gun-running to al-Qaeda! The silenced survivors. The mission of Benghazi.
Seems to me that where they aren’t focused is far, far more damaging to the Obama Administration. Problem is that it’s also lethal to the CIA, the State Dept., our global standing concerning foreign policy and whatever else we don’t know about with other government agencies involvement. Boehner and Issa aren’t going anywhere near there in an attempt to tarnish Obama and Clinton.
If somehow it were to ever all come out, it would make Watergate look like a non-event. Neither Democrats or Republicans are going to allow that to happen.
God Bless the girls who escaped their unspeakable horror in the Cleveland abduction. Jaycee Dugard and Elizabeth Smart have shown us that even after such an incomprehensible trauma, they can recover and put it behind them. They will need all of our prayers.
While reading some stories online, I came across the Daily Mail’s version that claims to have “exclusive” photos from inside the house. Maybe they are, maybe not, I can’t say. But I can say that these two photos showing Ariel Castro in the kitchen look extremely photoshopped to me. Castro just doesn’t belong in either shot. What do you think?
I certainly hope that’s not the case and that they are just aged or poor quality. If the Daily Mail is posting hacked pics just to get an “exclusive” on photos from inside the house would be just despicable. But take notice of the food on top of the cabinet in both pics. Exactly the same. Look at Castro’s sweater and how clear and vivid it appears around her shoulder yet the rest looks cloudy. Just doesn’t add up.
If I’m wrong, then I apologize to the Daily Mail for even questioning it. But I don’t think I’m wrong. The Daily Mail is hardly held up as the bellwether for accurate journalism, but this is really, really low.
