Know A Tree By It’s Fruit 

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

I am genuinely surprised when people approach me and ask my thoughts on Mitt Romney.  I invariably ask why they want to know and the reply they offer most often is that they really don’t know the man.

That is when I really want to grab them by both shoulders, shake them, and declare:  “PAY ATTENTION!”

The scriptures tell us:  “You shall know a tree by the fruit it bears.” In Matthew 7:16 it is said:  “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?”

In the New Testament book of James, the third chapter and the twelfth verse, we are informed thusly:  “My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.”

In other words a man is what he is – period.  If you want to know WHAT he is, what he believes, then pay attention to what he does. His accomplishments are the “fruits of his labors.”  Those fruits will define him completely.

Remember George W. Bush's “Compassionate Conservatism?”  Well, that was, in fact, code for “moderate.”  G.W. was a moderate AT BEST.

Mitt Romney is a liberal … moderate on some things … but at the core he is a liberal.  It is something the conservative base of the GOP knows instinctually and that is why they are avoiding support of Romney at all costs, even if that cost is the loss of the election to Obama in November.

I am old enough to remember the “Me Too” republicans.  Ever hear of them?  You’d have to harken back to the days of Nelson Rockefeller and the Rockefeller wing of the Republican Party in the 1960’s. (There is an excellent article on this HERE.)

Even then, the liberal wing of the GOP was based in America’s northeastern states.  It still is today.

Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts a liberal state if there ever has been one.  There is no way under the sun a conservative can be elected governor of Massachusetts. Yet, Mitt Romney was -- and he would have us believe he is a conservative.  This fact alone should be enough evidence to convinced anyone that Mr. Romney is no conservative. He is a solid member of the Rockefeller wing of the Republican Party.  In 1964 we called them the “Me Too” republicans.  Today we call them RINO’s. (Republican In Name Only)

Ever since conservatives began to grow in power within the Republican Party there has been an internal war raging for control of the party.  In 1960, Richard Nixon managed to merge the two factions of the GOP into one concentrated effort.  But -- just four years afterwards Nelson Rockefeller could not.  And he was furious.  He led an unprecedented attack on the GOP conservatives that failed but left massive scars on the GOP base that are still swollen and sensitive today.

Like Rockefeller, Romney is where he is because he was “next in line.”  It is “his turn” in accordance with the way the northeastern liberals ran the party. (They have yet to learn that they no longer control the Republican Party.)  GOP voters were simple told that Romney is the “frontrunner”  … no matter that Romney did not have the strength that comes from the support of the party faithful – including the conservative base of the party today. 

The so-called “republican establishment,” somehow, missed the fact that the power in the GOP switched from the northeastern states to the southern states years ago.  They also seem to have been oblivious of the inherent distrust of northeastern politicians in the south, which is left over from “Reconstruction” of the South immediately following the American Civil War a hundred and fifty years ago.  (Painful memories tend to last much longer than pleasant memories.)

Michael Gerson is an op-ed columnist for The Washington Post, a Policy Fellow with the ONE Campaign, and a former senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He served as President George W. Bush’s chief speechwriter from 2001 until June 2006, as a senior policy advisor from 2000 through June 2006.  Mr. Gerson once described Romney this way:  "Romney's main political vulnerability is a serious one. Running for Massachusetts' governor in 2002, he was a pro-choice, economically centrist, and culturally liberal, business oriented Republican."

You DID see “pro-choice,” “centrist,” and “liberal” in Mr. Gerson’s description of Mitt Romney above, didn’t you?

Yes, as a conservative I want to deprive Obama of a second term as President.  But I do not want to swap one liberal for another.  Besides, we have the likelihood of two vacancies on the US Supreme Court coming up in the next four to five years and it is vital that there be a conservative in the White House to appoint two conservative justices.

Romney cannot pull the two factions of the GOP together.  He may win the nomination but he will not win the election against Obama. The GOP’s “Anybody But Obama” strategy will not work. It is doomed to failure. It is as simple – AND -- as sad as that.  And yes, it IS depressing.

J. D. Longstreet   

Global Mischief Caused By A Weak US President

Global Mischief Caused By A Weak US President
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

North Korea artillery firing on South Korea is just the sort of global mischief we can expect when the Chief of the Global Police is weak, and has a worldwide reputation for being an international “pushover.”

Why would North Korea fire on South Korea? They did it because they could – and because they were, and remain, confident the Obama Regime will do nothing more than posture in public, issue a “stern” warning, and … well … THAT’S IT!

All the behind-the-hand-snickering we have heard from the world’s rogue state leaders was an indication that they understood Obama had loosened their leash.

First there is a missile launched off the coast of California a few days ago. (You may choose to believe it was the contrail of an aircraft if you wish. I do not.) I happen to believe that was a Chinese missile and it served its purpose, which, I believe, was to say to Obama: “Hey, we’ve got you by the cajones ... and don’t you forget it! Now – about Taiwan … “

Oh, this is just the beginning. Things are going to get rowdy around the globe until we get a new sheriff in town or, if you will, a new Chief of the Global Police.

For Instance: When Jimmy Carter was President we had the Iran Hostage situation. Within minutes of Ronald Reagan being sworn in as President, those hostages were freed.

They may be rogues, but they understand power and they understand and respect the application of power, and they understand when a US President decides to bring the hammer down, they are going to be smashed.

There is Syria, North Korea, Iran, Russia, China, Yemen, Pakistan, Sudan, Somalia, Venezuela, the Palestinians, and Hezbollah in Lebanon, not to mention Al Qaeda or The Balkans, all capable of creating trouble at a moment’s notice. Of course, I did not mention Iraq or Afghanistan because we already have boots on the ground in both countries.

It is a fact that man is basically evil. We humans are capable of anything including appalling cruelty to our fellow human beings. As a conservative I understand that, so I expect my fellow man do such unthinkable things as initiating a war on a whim.

Man is a rebel. As people of faith the world over understand, man rebelled first against his own Creator. As punishment, man received the gift, or curse, of free will. The mixture of free will and a rebellious nature is explosive. We have been at each other’s throats since the children of the first couple became a murderer and the victim of murderer.

Nothing much has changed since that fateful day. Now, we murder in much greater volume and with much greater efficiency.

Over time our tribes became klans and then countries. Countries initiated governments and governments initiated laws in an attempt to control man’s rebelliousness and conduct all that energy into productive channels that would benefit the population of the various countries.

Obviously, some countries became better at it than others. Some thrived while others did not prosper as well. We became a planet of “have” and “have-not” countries or nations. It wasn’t long until the “have-nots” decided to take what they wanted from the “haves.” Or the “haves’ decided to simply take the “have-not” country and make it a part of its greater self in order to make better use of the natural resources of the aforementioned “have-not” nation.

In the case of the former, it never worked – at least not for long. In the case of the latter, it did work often enough that great empires were born such as the empire of Alexander the Great and the Roman Empire.

But man is a rebel – remember? Tell him he cannot have something and that is the thing he wants most. Call it covetousness, or whatever; the plain truth is that man is never satisfied. He hungers for that which he cannot have.

There are two primary hungers, which have eaten at man since the Garden of Eden: freedom and power. Even today, in the twenty-first century, the desire for freedom and power burns within the heart of man with the fiery brilliance of an atom bomb explosion. And that gift, or curse, of freewill is the lit fuse on that volatile mixture.

I explain all this, as best I can, to try to explain that one must understand these basic facts of human nature before one can understand all the strife between nations of our modern world.

And it is here that conservatives and liberals disagree, fundamentally, on how a powerful nation, such as the United States, must approach its enemies and the nations that continue to create, cause, and even fund worldwide mischief.

Conservatives understand that you cannot negotiate with someone who will not negotiate. You cannot talk to someone who will not talk. You cannot take the word of a liar whether that liar is an individual or a government.

Conservatives, unlike liberals, also understand that war can, and often does, solve a host of problems. It is also true that war sometimes creates a host of new and unexpected problems. Conservatives, who do not seek an unobtainable Utopia on earth, understand this and accept that it is a part of the human condition. We do not accept the delusion that man is basically good and kind. We know that wishing it so does not make it so.

The US has been the leader of the free world, on planet earth, since it was granted that position by, well, default. However, we have often made mistakes. But they have been mistakes we have quickly corrected or we have made amends. Making a “pilgrimage of apology,” bowing and scraping before the leaders of other countries, does nothing but demonstrate a nation’s weakness. When the leader of the United States makes a point of doing just that, America must expect mischief to be forthcoming.

The current President of the US, unfortunately, is seen around the globe as a weak leader. As a result America, and the free world, are just beginning to see emboldened enemies probing, trying, and testing his fortitude.

So far, in his tenure in office, President Obama has acted more as a politician than a leader. He is a great orator, a great politician, but a poor leader, especially on the international stage. The world knows this, even if his own political party does not.

There will be more incidents such as the North Korean shelling of a South Korean Island in the months ahead. “While the cat is away, the mice will play” is an old axiom with a great deal of truth attached to it. Until the US elects a new cat -- there will be much more activity among the mice. Count on it.

J. D. Longstreet

The Triumvirate of DUMB!

The Triumvirate of DUMB!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
***********************************

Where are the “Grown-ups” in the Obama Regime? I look around and I see emotionally immature people traipsing about in the West Wing of the White House with the blessing of the uno numero socialist in America, President Obama. Then I look up the Hill to the Congress and I see Harry Reid over in the Senate, and I see Nancy Pelosi over in the House of Representatives -- and I shudder. I fear I am looking at “Dumb” and “Dumber.” It is frightening to realize that our country is in the hands of those three people: Obama, Reid, and Pelosi. You know what is even scarier? Pelosi is third in line for the Presidency should something, God forbid, happen to the President and the Vice-President.

There is a great deal of angst in the US these days. One can almost feel the tension in the air. Each day we awaken to another day of wondering what exactly the Obama regime is going to do today to strip more of our precious freedom away.

Already we have a Cap and Trade bill hanging over our heads. That bill alone is going to cost every American family mucho deniro in the years ahead as the government attempts to fight an enemy that doesn’t even exist. I am referring to global warming, or as the “environuts” are wont to say -- “Climate Change.” The “Bailouts” have strapped a generation, or so, of

Americans, even those yet unborn, with thousands of dollars of debt they must pay off in their lifetimes on this earth. I have read that the Obama Regime has saddled America with more debt in his ten months, or so, in office than all the previous US Presidents combined! Unemployment in America is now over nine percent and climbing. With fewer jobs there is less disposable income, less money in the marketplace, and that has affected Wall Street and stocks are all over the map. Investors are as nervous as a lady of ill repute in church!

Now, comes socialized medicine. The added cost to Americans is expected to be well over a trillion dollars in the first decade, and, frankly, we have serous doubts it will turn out to be that cheap. And regardless of what our esteemed senators and congresspersons are telling us it WILL affect the nations deficit and wreak even more havoc with what is left of our economy.

If there is any silver-lining, at all, to the dark clouds gathered over America these days, it is the very real possibility that in one year, if we can hang on, there is likely to be a political massacre of democrat politicians at the ballot box.

Even the liberal voters who flocked to the polls in 2008 to elect Obama are now having serious doubts about him and his policies.

I have noticed some of the more liberal journalists are bemoaning Obama’s failure to stand by his campaign promises, those promises especially favored by ultra-liberals, and, in fact, has continued a number of Bush’s policies and programs with what appears to be total disregard for the leftist dreams he has shattered along the way over the past ten months, or so.

Now, we are told, some in the White House are experiencing some trembling in the knees as Tuesday’s elections approach and their candidates are not making the “showing” they were expected to make against the more conservative candidates. In fact, The Obama Regime is admitting that at least a couple of races, they deem especially important to them, are likely to go to the opposition as their candidates go down in flames. One must ask: is this a precursor to coming attractions in 2012? Could be. But, 2012 is still a long way off and things change at a remarkable velocity in politics, especially national politics.

Dumb, dumber, and dumbest. Taking on Fox News was, probably the dumbest move yet. But, hey, that is what happens when people with power get cocky. They open themselves up to return fire.

I was in the US Army Artillery during my service in the military. One of the important lessons we learned -- and it is a lesson readily applied to one’s life -- is to always remember when the enemy is in range of your guns – YOU are in range of THEIRS! Somebody apparently forgot to tell the folks in the Obama Regime.

Americans have, at a minimum, three more years of wondering what we are going to be hit with next. Are we worried? You are “durn tootin” we’re worried -- and with good reason. We still do not see a viable presidential candidate being groomed by the Republicans to run against Obama in 2012. Oh, yes! It is truly worrisome.

J. D. Longstreet
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Conservative+Obama-Regime+Pelosi+Reid+Dumb

Obama’s Chicago-Style Politics

Obama’s Chicago-Style Politics
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

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Ah, Chicago! It is mythologized as the land of the mobster, the gangster, Al Capone, etc, etc. Many politicians, and even some journalists, are adding the name of Obama to that list of supposed infamy.

Do you remember back during the campaign for President when Obama promised to re-introduce “bipartanship” into Washington politics if he was elected? I do. As a matter of fact I wrote at least once piece in which I blasted bipartanship as a bad thing, a VERY bad thing for the country if Obama was elected. Well, as it turned out he WAS elected and it also turns out, I needn’t have worried about bipartanship being re-introduced, by Obama, into politics in our capital city! It didn’t happen -- and it isn’t likely to happen -- as long as Obama is President. (As for my part, I hope it NEVER happens because that is not the way a democratic republic works!) As a matter of fact, Obama has introduced Chicago style politics into Washington politics.

Strong arms and brass knuckles are now the order of the day. No velvet gloves for the Obama Regime. Nope. It is Obama’s way, or the kneecaps are mush! See, Obama and his minions run everything, I MEAN EVERY THING! His Czars will see to it. THEY decide how you and I will live. If you are inside Obama’s orbit you get pretty much what you want. If you are outside Obama’s orbit you get what they let you have and no more. THAT is what Americans; especially the business community in America, is living with today.

Michael Barone has an excellent article on this very thing entitled: “Obama Hits Opponents With Chicago Brass Knuckles.” You’ll find it HERE. In his commentary Mr. Barone says: “It's not the worst way to run a city… But it's not the optimal way to run a national administration, at least if you've promised to bring in a new era of bipartisanship and mutual respect. Even so, it appears to be the way that Barack Obama, who once aspired to be mayor of Chicago, has decided to run his administration.” Mr. Barone goes on to say: “…Maybe Obama thought everyone in Washington would be his great friend. Having encountered un-Chicago-like dissent and disagreement, he has responded with classic Chicago brass knuckles. We'll see how far this kind of thuggery gets him.”

“In the American Mafia Family everyone has a job to do. Some people are bosses and some are workers. However you can always work your way up the ladder of power, and respect. Below is the hierarchy of an American Mafia family.

The Boss of the family. He controls everything that goes on in the mafia family. Every worker and lower ranking boss works for him. It is the boss who decides if someone should be killed or if someone should be initiated. The boss gets money from all of his workers and therefore is usually the richest person in the family.

The Underboss. The underboss is the person who actually runs the family. He is boss over all the other members except the actual boss. He will often become the boss of the family if something happens to the boss. The boss will choose who his underboss is. A family will usually have only one underboss.

The Consigliere. Consigliere is an Italian term meaning someone who gives advise. The consigliere in a mafia family is the "right hand man" to the boss. It is his job to help the boss make important decisions. The consigliere is as important as the underboss but is not the boss of anyone in the family. A family will usually have only one consigliere. Acts as a middle man in personle vendetas. He is supposed to make impartial descions which are best for everybody.
Caporegimes.

The next position of the family is caporegime (or captain). Families will have different numbers of caporegimes. A caporegime is in charge of a group of workers (see below; Soldiers). The underboss of the family is in charge of the caporegimes. The job of the caporegime is to collect money from the workers to give to the boss, underboss and consigliere as well as keeping money for himself. A family can have anywhere from 2 to 20 caporegimes.

Soldiers. The workers of a family are called "soldiers" or in Italian "soldati". There job is to earn money to give to their captain (caporegime). They will do any job asked of them by their captain or the boss or underboss. A family can have anywhere from 10 to 300 soldiers.
Each family will have a number of associates. These are people that work with them or for them but are not official members.” (Courtesy of Wikipedia. You can read the full article HERE.)

As you observe the Obama Regime in action keep this article (HERE.) in mind. It might help you sort through the smoke and mirrors and gain some insight into how the current regime occupying the White House operates.

Lest you conclude we are dubbing the President a gangster, allow me to disabuse you of such an idea. What we are saying is simply that his STYLE of politics resembles, greatly, the style of politics infamously attriubuted to the style of politics in Chicago, which is famous, or infamous, (as you will) for it’s history of gangsters.

A recent example of the Obama Regime’s Chicago style politics is their attempt to freeze Fox News out of an interview with White House pay czar Kenneth Feinberg. Plus, some of the President’s aides have recently referred to Fox News as an arm of the Republican Party, as the opposition, and as a non-credible news operation. Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), at his weekly press briefing last week, said the following: “When you can’t win an argument based on the facts, launch vicious political attacks. This Chicago-style politics is shutting the American people out and demonizing their opponents.”

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), a former Nixon White House aide, said: “An 'enemies list' only denigrates the Presidency and the Republic itself." (You will find an excellent article on this at CNSNEWS.com HERE.)

In our view, the President needs to “grow-up.” Petulance does not become a President of the United States.

Thinking back over the long months of the presidential campaign we recall that we were warned on more than one occasion that the President has a strong bent toward narcissism. His actions, and those of his staff, in the past few months have done absolutely nothing to ease our concern over those warnings. Self-importance, self-absorption, self-centeredness, all these shortcomings are more than a little evident in the Obama Regime. And they all point to narcissism. Narcissists tend to strike out, to flail, viciously when they perceive opposition.

If anything has become clear, in the past nine months or so, it is that America has made a monstrous mistake in choosing a leader. As the remaining years of the Obama Regime go by, we can only pray that the damage to The Republic can be held to a minimum until the next presidential election in 2012 and the nation can begin the process of healing.

J. D. Longstreet

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Liberal+Socialist+Chicago+Politics+Obama

ObamaCare will Nullify Much of the Bill of Rights!

ObamaCare will Nullify Much of the Bill of Rights!
The Largest Transfer of Power from the American People to the Government in America’s History!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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Over the past few months we have attempted to warn you about the freedom Americans will lose if the Healthcare bills, which have come to known as ObamaCare, are passed into law by the US Congress. Yet, some of the latest polls show the American people are split almost fifty-fifty in favor of and against the bills now making their way through the Congress.

It is sad beyond measure how little modern day Americans treasure the freedom so many thousands, yea millions, of their fellow Americans have given their blood, their treasure, and even their lives to secure and to preserve just for them!

But, sadly, that is where we are in today’s America. We are but a shell of the America I grew up in. Taken as a whole, the modern day American nation is a pathetic 100th generation copy of the American nation of the 1940’s and 1950’s. Weak, apprehensive, apathetic, ignorant, fat, lazy, and just little frightened is a good description of America today. And that is a shame.

If you have ever observed a big, strong, strapping, young man killing himself with self-destructive behavior such as alcoholism or drug addiction while those who care for him warn him time and again about his destructive conduct and the certainty of his end, and you have watched as he deteriorates and crumbles in upon himself until he is a husk of the man he used to be, then you know how many of my generation view America today. Worse yet, we love her as did the friends of the hypothetical young man we mentioned above. It is painful to watch. But, that is where we are in America today.

America is bent on self-destruction and nothing, it seems, will save her.

For months now, we have warned that the ObamaCare bills are not about healthcare for Americans. They are about power for the government – power taken from the people and placed in the hands of government bureaucrats and apparatchiks, and czars, and administrators, and yes, even presidents.

While you are sitting at your computer pull up the Bill of Rights. Read the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 9th and 10th amendments to the US Constitution. If ObamaCare passes, America will, for all intents and purposes LOSE the freedoms granted under those amendments! That is how sinister ObamaCare really is.

America is looking at one of the largest transfers of power from the people of the country to the government in the history of democracy -- certainly in the history of America! And Americans are doing it willingly!

If ObamaCare passes into law, the US government will run your life! THAT is the bottom line.

There is an article by Michael Connelly titled: “The Truth about the Health Care Bills” which is a MUST READ. Mr. Connelly says he HAS READ the ENTIRE proposed House Bill 3200: “The Affordable Health Care Choices Act of 2009.” In his article, Mr. Connelly says he has studied HB3200 with particular emphasis from his area of expertise, which is constitutional law. He says he was concerned that parts of the proposed law that were being discussed might be unconstitutional. What he found was far worse than what he had heard or expected. Mr. Connelly goes on to say: “The law does provide for rationing of health care, particularly where senior citizens and other classes of citizens are involved, free health care for illegal immigrants, free abortion services, and probably forced participation in abortions by members of the medical profession.” Mr. Connelly continues: “The Bill will also eventually force private insurance companies out of business and put everyone into a government run system. All decisions about personal health care will ultimately be made by federal bureaucrats and most of them will not be health care professionals. Hospital admissions, payments to physicians, and allocations of necessary medical devices will be strictly controlled.” As if that isn’t enough, Mr. Connelly says: “However, as scary as all of that it, it just scratches the surface.” (Emphasis mine.) You can read the entire article -- and we strongly encourage you do so --
HERE.

(Please don’t skip over Mr. Connelly’s article. It is extremely important that you know and understand what so many of us have been warning America about concerning ObamaCare. You NEED to arm yourself with the information in Mr. Connelly’s article.)

Now, understand this: The Congress has the power, right now, to pass this bill into law. The only thing, in my opinion, holding them back, temporarily, is the fact that they lack “cover” which would be provided them by votes of key members of the Republican delegations to both houses of the Congress. The democrats do not want to have ONLY their names signed to this bill when the American people discover, down the road a bit, that they have been had and are the serfs of a socialist government in Washington, DC. But they are catching what can only be described as “pure hell” from the Far Left in America to pass it without Republican support and, in my opinion, at sometime before Christmas of 2009 they Will PASS THIS BILL -- unless Americans rise up, in righteous anger, and demand they pull the proposed bill and back down.

America is in perilous times. She stands at the threshold of becoming a dictatorial, socialist, country. And all it will take is as the philosopher said: “… for good men to do nothing.”

The push to pass ObamaCare is far more dangerous to America than Osama bin Laden and his band of terrorists. This proposed bill will effective strip Americans of their birthright of freedom.

In the Scriptures Esau sells his birthright to Jacob, his twin brother, for a bowl of lentil stew. America’s birthright is being given to a government in exchange for a promise to provide healthcare for all – a promise that could be easily forgotten by the government with no fear of retaliation from a people who will then have no power to do a thing about it

It is ALL about POWER for the government and SERFDOM for the American people.

If there is any spine left in the American people, at all, they will rise up and demand that ObamaCare be completely squashed and all those power hungry men and women who are relentlessly pressing for this transfer of power into their hands will be turned out of the Congress in the election of 2010 and our current President will be asked for his immediate resignation. It is the only way to save our country.

J. D. Longstreet
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Bill-of-rights+Liberal+Socialists+Obama+Lies+Healthcare

Afghanistan: Obama’s War!

Afghanistan: Obama’s War!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

As much as I dislike doing this, I am going to offer President Obama some sound advice, which I fully expect him to totally ignore. That advice is: “Get the hell out of Afghanistan!”

Just recently I published a piece, on my own blog, by my friend, Alan Caruba, calling for the same thing. Getting US troops out of Afghanistan is just another thing Alan and I agree on.

Maybe it is a generational thing. Both Alan and myself were in the military during the Vietnam War and both of us experienced what the wrong war in the wrong place can do to a military and to a country and we don’t want to see our country go through that again.

Having said all of the above, I fully expect President Obama to maintain US troops in Afghanistan and stand-by as they are chewed-up by twos and threes until, we have a death toll of Americans rivaling that of the Vietnam debacle.

Here’s the thing. We cannot win in Afghanistan.

I am a realist. I look at the facts and choose my position on a subject based upon those facts. I do not interject optimism into my decision-making in so far as taking a position or forming an opinion. When one does that and applies that process to the war effort in Afghanistan one can come up with only one inescapable truth -- and that is, we cannot win in Afghanistan.

This is not defeatism. Understand that. Of COURSE, the American military could, fairly easily, wipe that country off the map in short order. But, what would we have gained? As far as I can see, nothing of value to the US would be gained. Occupation of the country would, it seems to me, be nothing short of another decades long shooting war with our military bases becoming “Fort Apaches” in enemy territory. None of this takes into consideration the cost in dollars to the American economy.

The question, then, for our current President and Commander - in - Chief, is: why continue to feed our young men into a sausage grinder, such as Afghanistan, knowing full well that at some point, down the road from now, the Commander- in- Chief, in 2013, or beyond, will be ordering their withdrawal from that hell-hole? Saving face for Mr. Obama, or any President, is certainly not enough reason to spill the precious blood of American soldiers.

Afghanistan is not really a country. Not REALLY. Frankly, I’m not sure WHAT it is, but a country - it ain’t. It is sort of a no-man’s land with a conglomeration of tribes and/or clans usually at each other’s throat over some sort of “slight.” Their major industry is dope. Yep! “DOPE.” They grow beautiful fields of opium poppies -- and they sell it on the world market -- both the legal market and the black market. Get between them and their dope money and you are asking for serious trouble.

Afghanistan’s next-door neighbor, Pakistan, is where the serious threat to America lies. Pakistan already has nuclear weapons. Pakistan's Nuclear Weapons Program was established as far back as1974. Earlier this year, some American officials expressed concern that Pakistan is enlarging its nuclear weapons facilities. They fear that Pakistan is moving to increase its stockpile of fissile material. That would allow them to develop more destructive atomic weapons. Some experts are concerned that Pakistan may be in the early stages of creating thermonuclear weapons. Thermonuclear weapons are far more destructive and could be more easily developed to fit inside warheads.

As much as I hate the thought, it is entirely possible, and highly probable, that we will awaken one morning, in the not too distant future, to the news that Pakistan has been overrun by some terrorist organization, and those terrorists are in possession of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. In fact, this is the ONLY reason, I can conceive of, for American troops to remain in Afghanistan. At least, America would have forward deployed troops -- just in case this very scenario became a reality.

If Obama is determined to keep America’s military engaged in Afghanistan, then he needs to huddle with the Pentagon and actually listen to the “fighting generals” and follow their advice. America has had more than enough of bureaucrats in Washington directing US troops in battle with an enemy. Mr. Obama should immediately drop any thought of “winning the hearts and minds” of the Afghans. It isn’t going to happen. Forget “nation building, too.

I am aware that I will earn the title of “Armchair General” by making this observation, but here goes, anyway. It seems to me that America has only two real choices in Afghanistan. Get out – or -- “fort-up” as near the Pakistan border as we can and with the use of electronic eavesdropping (otherwise known as “spying”) and “humint” or “human intelligence” gathering sources (That simply means spies on the ground in Pakistan) stay as well informed as is humanly possible so that threats to Pakistan’s’ nuclear weapons and their development program can be thwarted as quickly and efficiently as possible. Even that won’t be one hundred percent effective, but, at least, our efforts in Afghanistan will not be a total waste, as they certainly appear to be today.

Hard choices? You bet they are. But that is the reason the President gets the “big bucks,” the nice house, the nice cars, and even a primo aircraft to fly about the globe. And, we would go so far as to suggest that Mr. Obama kiss and make up with Israel, our only REAL friend in the Middle East. He may not like it, but, from the looks of the diplomatic struggles with Israel these days, there remains the very real chance we will need to use Israel’s military facilities in the event the war in that region becomes even hotter and even wider.

So now it is “Obama’s War.” It will make his administration -- or -- break his administration. If Mr. Obama has any doubts about that, at all, we suggest he pluck a few history books from the White House library and look up the Jimmy Carter Administration. Many of the problems America is trying to deal with today, in the Middle East, were inherited directly from the hapless Carter Administration. It will be a very long time, indeed, before the American electorate entrusts the lives of their young military assets to the likes of the Carter Administration ever again. Unfortunately for the America people, Mr. Obama exhibits a host of the Carter foibles and will cost the US, over time, an abundance of time, money, and American blood.

This is, admittedly, not an easy problem to deal with. But deal with it Obama must. We Americans and, indeed, the remainder of the world, both friend and foe alike, will have their eyes upon Obama observing, trying his metal, and looking for that single weakness Obama may display. They will be searching for a weakness they can exploit to bring even more death and destruction to America’s shores. We can only pray that Divine Providence will look mercifully upon America and extend his arm of protection around the US as He has so lovingly done in the past.

J. D. Longstreet

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Conservative+Liberal+Progressive+Afghanistan+War+Obama+Pakistan

Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.

Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
**********************************

“I cannot accept, your canon that we are to judge pope and king unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they do no wrong. If there is any presumption, it is the other way against holders of power ... Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”… Lord Acton

What will it take to convince Americans that the people we place in office ought to be of high moral character? I no longer think it is even possible. I no longer think Americans even care… as evidenced by the results of the presidential election, and numerous congressional elections, and even state and local elections around the country just last year.

We have become so accustomed to self serving, double-dealing, dishonest, greedy, callous, crafty, deceitful, duplicitous politicians that we now accept it as “normal”. What that says about Americans, as a people, is absolutely shameful. What it says about the future of America is terrifying!

I dare say ancient Rome was not as corrupt as America is today. We have managed to dumb down our populace, the voter base, the electorate, concerning what is expected of public servants, until we think nothing of electing to public office people of such low morals they ought not be allowed IN public, let alone serve in a public office. Nowadays, the use of the phrase “choosing the lesser of two evils,” when describing our choice of candidates, is in regular use… and we don’t even raise an eyebrow. Why? Because it is true!

James L. Buckley once said: ” What people fail to appreciate is that the currency of corruption in elective office is, not money, but votes.” He was spot on!

I am not surprised at the corruption of our politicians. How could I be? How could YOU be? It is we who elected them. It is we, the people of America, who bear the shame and the guilt for placing these people of low repute in offices that good men fought, bled, and died for on foreign and domestic battlefields to secure for us. Do we not understand that we have disgraced our heritage? Do we not understand that we have brought shame upon our ancestors, upon our forefathers, upon the Founders of this nation, and… upon ourselves for not being good citizens and good stewards of this priceless jewel of a country?

Too long have we abrogated our singular duty to study the foundations of this country, the constitution of this country, the legal/judiciary system of this country, and, just as important, the government of this country, and… the way that government was intended to operate. We haven’t done any of this.

Our public education system has failed, utterly, in educating our young about their heritage as Americans. It has failed at instilling pride in our young as Americans. The angry cries of “nationalism” have drowned out “patriotism” until one is frowned upon for any public display of pride in America. There is something intrinsically wrong about that! In modern day America education has been devalued while ignorance is celebrated… even unto the voting booth! It is revolting!

Yes, I am angry. It is an anger born of frustration. I am frustrated with my fellow Americans who absolutely refused to see that substance does trump style every time. The percentage of the electorate who voted to place a man in office, primarily because of the color of his skin and, secondly, his eloquent way with words, have done America a huge disservice. The cost is going to be monumental, biblical, even.

One of the great men of the American Revolution, Samuel Adams, said this: “The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men.”

I would draw your attention to the last portion of the last sentence above: “… or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men.” THAT is precisely where we find ourselves in America today. And we have no one, no one, to blame… but ourselves.

Are you ready for the years, immediately ahead, with tailgating scandals and stories of corruption and graft and the peccadilloes of powerful men unable to restrain themselves when let lose on an ignorant populace? You’d better be - for I am mighty afraid that is exactly where we are heading. The political shenanigans in Washington, to which we have, unfortunately, become accustomed, are, I’m afraid, only the tip of a vastly underestimated iceberg of such conduct. America’s ship of state is sailing directly into that iceberg.

J. D. Longstreet

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Conservative Liberal+Progressive+Socialist+Obama+Absolute-Power+Corruption

Who Do You Trust More, Obama, or the CIA?

Who Do You Trust More, Obama, or the CIA?

A commentary by J. D. Longstreet

It is beginning to look as if those who warned the Obama Administration would be nothing more than a Chicago mob were correct in their assessment.

Frankly, I thought, at the time, that was stretching a little, but I have to say, their actions of late, especially their decision to go after the CIA for doing a superb job against terrorists after 9/11, speaks more of Obama’s insecurity than it does anything else.

Obama’s attack on the CIA is reminiscent of the actions of Caligula, the nutty, paranoid, Roman emperor who went after his own Praetorian Guard. Obama might do well to remember that Caligula brought about his own destruction, at the hands of that elite group of Roman security specialists, by making charges and threats against them.

When one steps back and takes the broad view of Obama’s actions and the actions of those within his cadre of “Czars” and “Secretaries” one can see a pattern emerging in which Obama is wrapping himself in his own security blanket because he does not trust anyone in a position of power not beholden to him, and to him alone, for that position and the power they wield.

These are the actions, dear reader, of a man deeply troubled, deeply flawed.

We, the American electorate, cannot say we were not warned for we most certainly were. Before the election we were warned that Obama presented as a narcissist. And the actions he is taking now are certainly those of a narcissist. His attack on the CUA will desfroy the American intelligence community while this nation is at war. For make no mistake about it, America is at war, and we will be at war, whether we want to be or not, for many decades into the future.

Intelligence is the way wars are won. Yes, our combat forces put their lives on the line in the heat of combat but the intelligence services provide the information upon which the war plans are based. Without intelligence our combat forces would not know where the enemy is and what the enemy’s strengths and weaknesses are, where his supplies and war making material is coming from, etc., etc. Intelligence is vital to winning any war. Plus, intelligence agencies are vital to the security of the homeland. According to published reports this is the agency that “produced life-saving intelligence that disrupted numerous terrorist plots.” In other published reports it was CIA that aborted terrorists attacks in the US that included al-Qaida “plots to fly airliners into buildings on the West Coast, setting off bombs in U.S. cities and planning to employ a network of Pakistanis to target gas stations, railroad tracks and even the Brooklyn Bridge.”

The bottom line is – now is definitely not the time to hamper the CIA and their brother and sister agencies as the toil to keep the American public safe. There are Americans alive today who otherwise would be dead had not the CIA been successful in their operations against al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations in the War on Terror.

There is only one reason I can see for Obama allowing the Attorney General to go forward with his investigation and that is raw fear on the part of Obama. It certainly appears as though he fears the CIA, personally, and is out to hamstring them in order to protect himself for some reason yet unknown to the American public. In doing so, it also demonstrates his lack of interest in the safety of his fellow Americans just as long as he, himself, can feel safe.

The Left’s vendetta against former President Bush and Vice President Dick Chaney smacks of a gang vendetta, as well. Their constant attempts to have the two former leaders of the US branded as “war criminals” will backfire on them, big time.

Look, the US is as divided as I have ever seen it - and that includes during the Vietnam War. If Obama and the socialist left in power in Congress want to tear the country to pieces and bring the ire of the American people down on their heads for decades to come then the course they have chosen will certainly accomplish that.

Slowly, but surely Obama’s true colors are beginning to show and the American people do not like what they are seeing. That explains his huge drop in the polls. It is unfortunate that it has taken this long and is very troubling that the American electorate ignored all the warnings from those of us who saw through the smokescreen so carefully laid by the mainstream media in the US and even worldwide that was meant to shield Obama from the prying eyes of those, like myself, who saw him for what he was and what he is.

The bill is coming due. It will take America generations to pay for the harm and the damage to this country caused by the Obama regime and the socialists in the Congress and those Obama brought with him into the Administration.

It didn’t have to happen.

J. D. Longstreet

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Liberal+Obama+CIA

“ … I Come Not to Praise Kennedy, But To Bury Him”

“ … I Come Not to Praise Kennedy, But To Bury Him”
A commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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Up to now, I have maintained my silence about the late Senator Ted Kennedy. I have been torn between my “sainted” mother’s advice that if you cannot say something nice about someone, say nothing at all.

I also remember a quote from Abraham Lincoln who reportedly said, “The wise man speaks because he has something to say. The fool speaks because he has to say something.”

So, you see my quandary.

But, as I listened to the praises being sung about some senator I have never heard of - and do not know, it has become impossible to maintain my silence.

Count me among the fools, if you will, but down here, in the south land of America, the senator from Massachusetts was not well thought of - except by a handful of ultra-leftists and those transplanted northeasterners who have recently invaded our holy land, Dixie.

I was, and remain, a great fan of the late Senator Jesse Helms. Many years ago, when we were both broadcasters, I knew the senator and grew to admire him as someone who, when asked a question, told you the truth as he believed the truth to be, and never wavered. You might not like the answer he gave to your question, but it was an honest answer, nevertheless. I grew to admire Senator Helms long before he became the senator from my state of North Carolina.

The Kennedy family, on the other hand, was an altogether different animal, if you will. I began to investigate that family when Jack was a candidate for President. I did not like what I learned. After Chappaquiddick and the absolute mess Ted made of that incident, and the efforts his family made to save his behind, told me everything I ever needed to know about Ted, himself, and the family.

True, I hail from a long line of proud southern bootleggers, but I never ran for Congress, either.

To this scribe, Ted Kennedy never got past the drunken, slovenly, not very bright, court jester image that he seemed to polish continually. Frankly, I never trusted him to do, well, anything, very well, at all. Except one thing, that is. That one thing was to push his favorite socialist program, as best he could, through the Senate. That he seemed to do with great gusto.

Ted Kennedy had as much to do with Jesse Helms going back to the Senate for all those years as the voters in North Carolina had. Jesse was our answer to Ted. Jesse was the counter-weight, if you please.

So, forgive me if I do not join in the left’s deifying of Ted Kennedy. For unlike my friends on the left, I am unable to suspend my disbelief for the few days it will take for the left to bury the man.

As I predicted, it only took hours for the Democratic Party to take advantage of his death and attach his name to the ObamaCare bill before Congress. As we have come to know, such tasteless behavior is certainly not beneath the left when their power is being challenged by the conservative movement in this country.

ObamaCare began “for the children.” It will end “for Teddy.”

If one really wanted to remember someone at this funereal time, I would suggest we all take a few moments to remember a young lady named Mary Jo Kopechne and the date July 18th, 1969.

J. D. Longstreet

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Conservative+Liberal+Kennedy+Kopechne

Darwin Vs. Liberals

To celebrate Darwin's 200th birthday, Molotov points out a few of the conundrums liberals face concerning natural selection.

Two quick notes: 1) As a "Christian Supremacist", Molotov believes that there are only 2 types of people, those who believe the Bible and liberals. 2) "For The Record" is now a bi-weekly video column at Worldnet Daily (www.wnd.com). You can catch it every other Wednesday.

"For The Record" is brought to you by the Domestic Emergency Network (DEN), the free market response to FEMA. To apply for membership, visit www.joinden.com.

Does the US have a REAL President --- or Not?

Does the US have a REAL President --- or Not?

By: J. D. Longstreet
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The story continues to bubble just below the surface of the consciousness of the American electorate primarily because the Mainstream Media is so deep in the tank for Obama that they refuse to cover it. But it is there, nevertheless, and eventually it is going to break through and chances are very good that it will create chaos when it does.

The question of whether or not Obama is legally qualified to even be President of the US has never been answered. Many lawsuits have been filed in an attempt to answer the question. Many have been dismissed, for one reason or the other, but many are still in the queue waiting for a ruling and eventually that ruling will come.

The Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, states, "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President."

The question that really troubles many of us is why the President doesn’t just present the evidence that he is a natural born American citizen and put it all to rest? It seems so simple. Yet, reports have it that the President has legal teams, all over the country, fighting all attempts by citizens to get to the bottom of what could turn out to be a constitutional crisis for the country. Some reports say that huge sums of money have been spent, already, just to stop the release of that birth certificate from the state of Hawaii. Why not release that certificate and put this whole thing to rest?

Obama’s reluctance to produce proof of his American citizenship certainly leads one to question a lot of things about the President. For instance: What is his real name? Was his father an African, an Arab, or a Muslim? (Find more on this
HERE.)

See, the problem here, over and above the obvious, is… this may happen again. We need to have laws that clearly describe what it means to be a natural born citizen of the US and laws that clearly delineate the steps one MUST go through in order to prove one’s eligibility to be President of the US.

Unknown to a great many Americans is the fact there is just such a movement in Congress that would require presidential candidates to verify their eligibility to hold the highest elected office in the United States --- not to mention the office of Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the US. Congressman Bill Posey, a Republican of Florida, filed the bill --- HR 1503 --- an amendment to the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971. H.R. 1503 would "require the principal campaign committee of a candidate for election to the office of president to include with the committee's statement of organization a copy of the candidate's birth certificate, together with such other documentation as may be necessary to establish that the candidate meets the qualifications for eligibility to the Office of President under the Constitution." You can read up on the story HERE.

Last week, Congressman Bob Goodlatte, a Republican of Virginia, signed onto the bill. You can read the story on this HERE. The bill was referred to the US House of Representatives’ “Committee on House Administration,” where it remains. I would urge my congressman to get behind this bill and get it passed.

As we mentioned above there are numerous lawsuits still pending on this issue. At least one of those suits asked the question of whether or not the President was, indeed, born in the state of Hawaii, as he insists, or rather some place outside the United States. If it turns out he was born outside the US, Obama's American mother, would have been too young (at the time of his birth) to confer American citizenship on her son under the law at the time. (Confusing enough for you?) Still other lawsuits are looking at the possibility of conferring citizenship through Obama’s father, a Kenyan, and a British subject. That would confer dual citizenship on Obama, and, constitutional experts say the constitution does not allow anyone holding dual citizenship to be eligible to stand as a candidate for President of the United States.

There is no need for this confusion. Obama can clear the air, once and for all, by producing proof of HIS birth within the United States, in particular, the state of Hawaii. The Congress can stop this from ever happening again by passing HR 1503 and tacking it onto the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 as an amendment.

Do I think it will happen? No, I do not. Why? That’s simple enough to answer. It won’t happen because those same groups of people who form the infamous “Shadow Government” do not want it to happen.

Like many Americans, I thought the “Shadow Government” was only a creation of the conspiracy nuts. But, such stunts as this have certainly pushed me much closer to believing in the existence of a group of powerful, wealthy, families who pull the strings of governments all over the globe for their mutual benefit. Their supreme goal is Global Governance… or as we used to say: “One World Government.” The current President of the United States is a Global Governance adherent. That fact makes him one of them and, as such, his continued occupancy of the Oval Office must be assured.

J. D. Longstreet

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America Less Safe

Bill to include money for relocating Gitmo inmates

A war funding bill headed to the floor next week would provide the $50 million sought by the Pentagon to relocate prisoners from the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the top Democrat in the Senate said Monday.

The administration would be denied the money until it came up with a detailed plan on how to close the Guantanamo detention facility and how to deal with the 240 or so detainees being held there, said Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Reid said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, has told him that the measure would not allow money to be spent to bring accused terrorists to the U.S. before the end of the budget year on Oct. 1.

Wait a minute. Haven't just about every single 'representative' in Washington, D.C. said "not in my back yard"? In case they haven't figure it out up there in the swamp, this whole country is their 'back yard'! We have an administration that talked real big to get elected, but has no clue how to implement all his hopey/changey nonsense, and would put American citizens at risk.

"Closing this facility by an arbitrary deadline without any alternative is irresponsible and dangerous," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "It is unacceptable to the American people and it is unacceptable to an increasing number of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle."

When it comes right down to it, everything this Cheat in Chief has done, and is wanting to do, is a detriment to this country. Allowing dangerous terrorists within our shores is just one more indication we have a fool in the White House, and all those who blindly follow along are even bigger fools.

Confederate Memorial Day in North and South Carolina and the Lesson to be Learned.

As I scribbled this commentary, last night, it occurred to me that there is a lesson to be learned from what happened in, and to, the United States in the two decades, or so, which led up to what is erroneously called the "Civil War" in America.

Contrary to what you have probably been taught, slavery was NOT, I repeat, NOT the cause of the War Between the States (The WBTS is the name for that conflict that the US Congress finally settled on.) The primary reasons for the bloodest war ever to be fought by Americans was... taxes/tarriffs, an overbearing federal government, a government that simply refused to obey the US Constitution, a government that crushed "states rights" as set forth in the US Constitution. Sound familiar? It ought to!

It is said that those who do not pay heed to history are doomed to repeat it. And that brings me to the commentary below.

The US government is making many of the same kinds of mistakes the US government made in the 1840's and 1850's. Americans are chaffing under the heavy yoke Washington has placed, and continues to place, around our necks. That is why many Americans are focusing on the creation of a third political party in America... because... they are convinced the Republican and the Democratic parties, together, are not doing nearly enough to see to it that the government hews to the lines created by the original constitution.

In the commentary below, I share some thoughts and some experiences I had yesterday, as I stood in that old cemetery surrounded by the graves of men who felt much the same as so many Americans feel today.

I invite you to read the comments below, and if you feel so moved, leave some of your own in the section provided for your comments.

May God Bless and Save the South!

JDL
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Confederate Memorial Day
J. D. Longstreet
********************************

Today, May 10th, in North Carolina and South Carolina, is Confederate Memorial Day.

Yesterday, I attended the local “Sons of Confederate Veterans” Confederate Memorial Day celebration as I do every year, and, as I have done for several years, I presented a few remarks concerning the Confederate Soldier, or as I sometimes refer to them, the “Southern Knights.”

As this was a celebration of the southern warrior, I spoke on the attributes of the Confederate soldier… who he was, what he was like, what he did, what he felt, why he did what he did, and why he felt he MUST do what he did, and so on and so forth.

When one studies the Confederate soldier, one quickly comes to understand that there has never been, before or after, the American “War Between the States”, a warrior quite like that “Southern Knight”. As a combat soldier, he was more akin to the various “special forces” of numerous militaries around the world than he was to the “regular” soldiers we are acquainted with today. He was a killing machine… with good manners. It is impossible to overlook the fact that 800,000 badly equipped, badly clothed, badly fed, but wonderfully led Confederate soldiers managed to hold at bay 2-1/2 million federal troops of the US military for four of the longest, bloodiest, years in American history. They were masterful at the art of war.

It is absolutely shameful that political correctness has driven its talons so deeply into American consciousness that to speak of the Confederate soldier in anyway other than a defender of slavery is totally unacceptable. Modern day ancestors of the Confederate soldier are taught that their great, great, great, great grandfathers were traitors! There is no other way to address that accusation but to say it is a bald-faced lie. The Confederate soldier was a citizen of another country. He was a citizen of the Confederate States of America, not the United States of America. One cannot betray a country of which one is not a citizen. Plus, there is this fact: Something like 97% of the citizens of the Confederacy owned NO slaves. Common sense says men do not put their lives on the line, in a war, to preserve another man’s right to hold another human being in bondage!

As I spoke to the gathering in one of our oldest, and most beautiful, cemeteries yesterday an article I had recently read persistently nagged at me. It was an article by Paul Gottfried entitled: “ On Loving To Hate The South.”

Referring to my cohorts in the “Sons of Confederate Veterans” Mr. Gottfried said: “You may take pride in those whom you honor as your linear ancestors but equally in the anger of those who would begrudge you the right to honor them. What your critics find inexcusable is that you are celebrating your people’s past, which was a profoundly conservative one based on family and community, and those who created and defended it. For your conspicuous indiscretions, I salute you; and I trust that generations to come will take note of your willingness to defy the spirit of what is both a cowardly and tyrannical age.” Mr. Gottfried nailed it! You can read Mr. Gottfried’s entire article HERE.

Mr. Gottfried had said earlier in his article that we “Southern traditionalists are still celebrating a pre-bourgeois, agrarian, and communally structured world. It appealed to hierarchy, place, and family; and its members displayed no special interest in reaching out to alien cultures. Such ideals and attitudes and the landed, manorial society out of which they came, point back to a nineteenth century conservative configuration.”

It is here we find the root cause of the virulent hatred for the ensign of the South, the Confederate Battle Flag, and for the hatred of the people of the Southern region of the United States. It is our conservatism. It is our unyielding determination to hold on to the conservative values of our Southern ancestors.

I watched my fellow Southerners stand in silent reverence as the troops bearing the US flag passed and I watched as we all stood and recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the US flag, and then the NC state flag, and to the Confederate flag. I saw no contradiction. This was a gathering of conservative people who love and honor their country, the USA, just as their Southern Ancestors loved and honored THEIR country, the Confederate States of America. We were remembering THEM and honoring THEM and the commonality of our conservative philosophy which is STILL alive and well in their off-spring today.

Many of us in the South today worry that we see many of the same causes of the conflict of the 1860’s reflected in the political conflicts between liberal and conservative Americans today. Having yet not fully recovered from the so-called “reconstruction” of the South after that bitter war, we are concerned that as remote as it may seem, to those not versed in the history of this country, we may be headed for another conflict in which Americans will square-off with fellow Americans.

These are dangerous times for America. Standing in silence and watching those two red, white, and blue flags that once flew over the two nations that briefly occupied this land was a sobering moment. To realize that only the people living below those flags can prevent a repetition of history was equally as sobering. It was a jolting moment for this scribe and for the others who approached me after the ceremony to express their similar fears.

Never has America been as divided since the War Between the States. We are, today, two countries living beneath a single flag, as a gentleman from South Carolina reminded me. As he spoke his eyes were gazing at the sacred soil of that old cemetery and his head was slowly shaking from side to side as if to say “NO” to the unthinkable. But, I could not escape the thought that it obviously wasn’t unthinkable as we stood just six feet, or so, above the evidence screaming in silence a warning that history says will go unheeded.

J.D. Longstreet
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