constitutionalley.us

Today’s history lesson:

Politically, this is the most encouraging thing I’ve seen in a long, long time.

Here’s a link to the full video

America may not be disappearin’ after all.

Hat Tip: Judith M.

Ciao.

This past week I received an email from the Heritage Foundation inviting me to contribute and join incoming Heritage president Senator Emeritus Jim DeMint in his efforts to revitalize the American conservative movement:

Dear Dennis,

Our nation faces extreme peril.

Runaway government is threatening our individual freedoms. Government spending is driving our nation deeper into debt. Taxes and regulations are smothering our already-weakened economy.

And all too many Americans think more government is the only solution.

The Heritage Foundation is developing a plan to refine the conservative message in order to better communicate proven conservative ideas to the American people.

Find out more about the plan we’re developing with Heritage President-Elect Jim DeMint . . . and what we’re planning for this Tuesday, February 26.

A few days earlier I had been invited by Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, to vie for the “Liberty Prize“:

Plan the Takeover

Win the $10,000 Liberty Prize,
Plus Fame, Appreciation, and
the Opportunity to Save America

This struck me as an excellent opportunity to more widely disseminate my thoughts and earn a little extra cash to boot. During the process of gathering archived articles, reports, and outlining my contemplated masterpiece, I began to realize I was accumulating enough material for at least one book, let alone an essay suitable for contest submission.

But then, from Brigadier Rudy, I received a link to the following CBS Sunday Morning segment originally broadcast on June 10, 2012:

I was stunned. Stopped dead in my compositional tracks. I began to see more clearly and realized what we as a nation are losing, perhaps have already lost. I was humbled by the emotion that welled up in a French woman’s voice when she called out the name of an American fighter pilot who, shortly after D-Day, crashed nearby while valiantly avoiding her village. Sixty-eight years later the people of Les Ventes continue to remember and honor 1st Lt. Billie D. Harris.

On my desk I keep a small shrine of my own:

That’s Jim’s yearbook entry from pilot training. Jim and I graduated together at Williams AFB, class 67C. I went to Europe, he went to Vietnam. I came back, he didn’t. Jim’s Virtual Wall entry can be found here.

What troubles me is that Lt. Badley will never be remembered or honored by the Vietnamese as Lt. Harris is by the French. And it’s not because Lt. Badley was less brave than his WW II counterpart or his actions less honorable. Rather, it’s because his country broke its promise and abandoned the South Vietnamese people. Many of his countrymen dishonored, nay, vilified those who risked and gave their lives in the jungles and skies of Southeast Asia. Forty years after the return of American POWs from Hanoi and the prison they called the “Hilton,” that kind of cynically traitorous practice continues.

This past February 8th Bill Moyers used the following lead-in to the second segment of his PBS “Moyers & Company” program:

Nick Turse Describes the Real Vietnam War
February 8, 2013

Journalist Nick Turse describes his unprecedented efforts to compile a complete and compelling account of the Vietnam War’s horror.

BILL MOYERS: Just like Susan Crawford, my next guest has been driven to tell a story the powers-that-be would rather we forget. He found it by chance in documents buried deep in the recesses of the National Archives in our nation’s capital. The discovery led him on a journey of twelve years that has now concluded with this beautifully written account of ugly horrors, “Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam,” by Nick Turse.

There have been many memorable accounts of the terrible things done in Vietnam – memoirs, histories, documentaries and movies. But Nick Turse has given us a fresh holistic work that stands alone for its blending of history and journalism, for the integrity of research brought to life through the diligence of first-person interviews. Those interviews skillfully unlock the memories of American warriors and expose the wounds that to this day still scar the hearts and minds of villagers who survived the scorched earth of Vietnam. Here is a powerful message for us today, a reminder of what war really costs.

Ironically, Nick Turse wasn’t even around as the Vietnam War raged. He was born in 1975, the year it ended. Not until 25 years later, while pursuing his PhD in sociomedical sciences, did he discover the secret trove of documents that sent him on this long search. In addition to two earlier books and countless articles and essays, Nick Turse is managing editor of TomDispatch.com – the indispensable website if you want the news powerful people would prefer to keep hidden.

Nick Turse, welcome.

I doubt it is accidental that this was broadcast a week after Sen. John Kerry ascended to his State Department throne. Kerry was, as I’m sure you recall, embroiled in a bitter dispute during his 2004 Presidential campaign with a group calling themselves the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. That organization is no longer active, but the basis for their objections to Kerry as Commander in Chief are nicely summarized in this video clip:

This evolved from Kerry’s testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in April of 1971 while the Vietnam war continued. This, as well as specific actions by Kerry during his tour in Vietnam, led to the formation of the Swift Vets organization and their campaign to prevent Kerry’s election to the Presidency. Following America’s departure from Southeast Asia, much has been discovered, documented and written that definitively discredits the actions and statements of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and their spokesman, John Kerry. If you’re unfamiliar with the origin and history of the left’s efforts to discredit and demonize American military men and their actions in SEA, you should find the following informative:

American Thinker
October 09, 2007
Investigate the Winter Soldier Investigation
By Denis Keohane

FrontPageMagazine.com
February 25, 2008
Newly Discovered Army Reports Discredit “Winter Soldier” Claims
By Scott Swett

NationalReview.com
March 31, 2008
Winter-Soldier Again
But maybe this time, the press will be less credulous
By Mackubin Thomas Owens

American Thinker
May 16, 2009
Winter Soldier Embarrasses Dems
By Rick Moran

But the left’s standard catechism defining the Vietnam war and everything associated must not be discredited. So, Messrs Moyers and Turse are called upon to update the progressive imprimatur.

Equally discrediting are the left’s failures to document events and disseminate information regarding the atrocities of the Vietnamese Communists. Particularly incriminating are the horrendous events surrounding the Tet Offensive of 1968. Here’s a description of the mass executions that took place in the ancient city of Hue during the days of Communist occupation as written by David Warren in the Ottawa Citizen:

The Tet Offensive was a desperate ploy by the Communist enemy in Vietnam. Tens of thousands of his troops were flung simultaneously at more than 100 South Vietnamese towns, and into the heart of Saigon. The Communists announced a general uprising, but that did not occur. The tide was actually turned within a few days by the U.S. and South Vietnamese armies. As they re-took town after town, they discovered massacres the Communists had committed while in possession. The enemy’s real object had been to decapitate a whole society.

My friend, Uwe Siemon-Netto, a German Lutheran pastor and also life-long journalist, was there as a reporter. Entering Hué as the smoke was clearing: “I made my way to university apartments to obtain news about friends of mine, German professors at the medical school. I learned that their names had been on lists containing some 1,800 Hué residents singled out for liquidation.

“Six weeks later the bodies of doctors Alois Altekoester, Raimund Discher, Horst-Guenther Krainick, and Krainick’s wife, Elisabeth, were found in shallow graves they had been made to dig for themselves.

“Then, enormous mass graves of women and children were found. Most had been clubbed to death, some buried alive; you could tell from the beautifully manicured hands of women who had tried to claw out of their burial place.

“As we stood at one such site, Washington Post correspondent Peter Braestrup asked an American TV cameraman, ‘Why don’t you film this?’ He answered, ‘I am not here to spread anti-communist propaganda’.”

After discovering, re-discovering and watching such as this, I am at a loss trying to understand how Messrs DeMint and Viguerie think they will be able to reverse past and current besmirching of American honor and purpose. For progressives, this is their bread and butter. They are very good at it, and they are very persistent. And this is only one drop in the sea of woes we find ourselves drowning in.

And so, I’ve come down with a bad case of the Disappearin’ America Blues. For some strange reason I find a resonance to this and some small comfort in the last stanza and final refrain of Arlo Guthrie’s “City of New Orleans”:

Ciao.

Update: America’s military on PC-ness

Wall Street Journal
Via Power Line
February 22, 2013
America’s Kinder, Gentler Department of Defense
Cutting the military to fuel the welfare state doesn’t instill fear in a nation’s enemies.
By Mackubin Thomas Owens

FrontPageMag.com
February 25, 2013
Michael Behenna: Imprisoned for Killing a Terrorist
By Michael Volpe

Senator Obama’s 2008 campaign promise to the American people [51s]:

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President Obama delivers on the “hair-trigger alert” promise:

The report of the yearlong Nuclear Posture Review changes how nuclear arms will be used against non-nuclear weapons states. Nuclear-missile forces will remain on alert to be fired within minutes to counter a nuclear strike, but the intercontinental ballistic missile warheads now are targeted on open oceans — not Russian or Chinese cities — in case of an accidental launch, senior administration officials said in releasing the report.

— Washington Times, April 7, 2010

President Obama’s 2012 campaign promise to the Russian People [11s]:

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President Obama takes a step in the direction of delivering on the “nuclear-free world” promise:

WARHEAD CUTS COMING

President Obama’s plan to carry out a new round of nuclear-warhead cuts will be announced soon, U.S. officials say.

The coming round of warhead-reduction talks with Russia was put on hold partly as a result of the Senate delay in confirming Defense Secretary-designate Chuck Hagel, an outspoken proponent of the Global Zero anti-nuclear weapons group that called in a report last year for radical denuclearization steps.

[snip]

Asked about the coming cuts, a White House official told Inside the Ring: “Nothing to announce.” The official then referred to Mr. Obama’s statements in Seoul in March. The president said at the nuclear summit there he thinks the United States can maintain a strong deterrent and “still pursue further reductions in our nuclear arsenal.”

In the months ahead, the president said he would “continue to seek discussions with Russia on a step we have never taken before — reducing not only our strategic nuclear warheads, but also tactical weapons and warheads in reserve.”

The summit was also the site of the now-famous conversation overheard on an open microphone when Mr. Obama told then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that, after his re-election, Moscow could expect more flexibility toward Russian demands to limit U.S. missile defenses. Russia has been demanding those limits as a precondition for further warhead cuts.

— Washington Times, February 20, 2013

That’s America’s defense posture on Obama. Any questions?

“Yeah, I’ve got one. Can we trust the Russians?”

Ciao.

We’re History
It took Rome a lot longer.
By Bill Croke
on 2.18.13 @ 6:07AM

“….the Roman government appeared everyday less formidable to its enemies, more odious and oppressive to its subjects. The taxes were multiplied with the public distress; economy was neglected in proportion as it became necessary…. If all the barbarian conquerors had been annihilated in the same hour, their total destruction would not have restored the empire of the West: and if Rome still survived, she survived the loss of freedom, of virtue, and of honour.”
— Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Cont’d. . .

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Recent press release from the Wussification-of-the-American-Military Department:

“Pentagon attorneys have assured me that the feminization and homofication of U.S. Armed Forces will in no way reduce America’s combat readiness or effectiveness.”
— Something outgoing SecDef Leon Panetta probably said sometime, somewhere — I would think.

“I suppose now they will award Purple Hearts for carpal tunnel syndrome.”
— Retired Green Beret who does contract work for the Pentagon. (This one’s real)

Also:

“It has been surreal to hear the response in the corridors of the Pentagon,” the officer said. “Everyone was floored by the sudden announcement. Many are still convinced it is a joke from The Onion that duped people.”
— Army colonel who fought in Afghanistan

The Russians, Chinese, Iranians, Arabs and whoever else must be rolling on the floor laughing their asses off. Our “allies,” if that’s what we may any longer presume to call them, must be disheartened. Can’t blame them.

From the Washington Times

Pentagon uproar over Panetta’s hero medals for drone operators,
cyber sleuths
By Rowan Scarborough
The Washington Times
Friday, February 15, 2013

Some warriors inside the Pentagon are reacting with amusement and anger over outgoing Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta’s decision to create a prestigious heroism medal for cyber and drone combatants who sit inside stations outside a war zone.

[snip]

Examples of those eligible for the new medal include service members who operate Predator drones over Afghanistan or Pakistan from the shelter of an air base, and military computer whizzes who defeat cyberattacks by China.

It is not only the award itself, but its placement above, in order of prestige, the Bronze Star, that baffles and rankles some. The Bronze Star is awarded for extraordinary service to combatants in an actual war zone. It is adorned with a “V” if it is earned in direct combat.

[snip]

An Army colonel who fought in Afghanistan and who admires Mr. Panetta told The Times he was taken aback by the “sudden” announcement.

“It has been surreal to hear the response in the corridors of the Pentagon,” the officer said. “Everyone was floored by the sudden announcement. Many are still convinced it is a joke from The Onion that duped people.”

He added: “I’ve had conversations with about a dozen people over the last couple of days here at the Pentagon and read the various rants from retired friends on Facebook. Attitude ranges from rage to a mix of anger and amusement. Everyone assumes it was an Air Force push, so there is anger towards both the medal and the Air Force over this.”

[snip]

The Pentagon said the Distinguished Warfare Medal will rank right below the Distinguished Flying Cross, which puts it above the Bronze Star.

Isn’t that special? The end isn’t nigh, folks, it’s already behind us.

For the Greeks, waiting for a god to show up and save the day was a dramatic device that today would be described as the suspension of disbelief. At least they weren’t looking to Mighty Mouse for rescue which seems nearly as probable as waiting for America’s Moses to magically appear and lead “conservatives” out of the desert and into a political promised land.

At the National Review Online, one Mr. Loyola suggests that we need to conjure up a “Great Leader”:

Will that be difficult? History suggests that nothing is more difficult than for a society to reverse the factors of its own decline. History also shows that where a nation has been able to do that, a transformative leader has been an indispensable part of the mix.

The model here may not be Reagan, who was only facing a few years of stagflation. The model may be a leader such as Margaret Thatcher and Charles de Gaulle, each of whom was able to reverse a national decline that was already well under way, and which had come to seem irreversible.

If conservatives are to meet the challenge that the dependency state poses to their political prospects, the first step is to find a leader who can unite the country behind a mission of national renewal.

What am I missing here? I thought that was Obama. And he be found. Or so believes an electorially effective number of American voters. Who then shall we seek? Super Dude’s already popped up out of the trap door and has parted the waters.

I won’t bother to review the litany of Republicans who have failed to pass muster as savior du jour. However, budget guru and Congressman Paul Ryan, speaking recently at the National Review Institute Summit, offered advice on what is required of us to navigate the treacherous waters that lay ahead. Over the course of the next four year we must be “prudent” for:

If we play into his hands, we will betray the voters who supported us—and the country we mean to serve. We can’t let that happen. We have to be smart. We have to show prudence.

What do I mean? Well, prudence is good judgment in the art of governing. Abraham Lincoln called it “one of the cardinal virtues.” And it’s our greatest obligation as public servants. We have to find the good in every situation—and choose the best means to achieve it. We have to make decisions anchored in reality—and take responsibility for the consequences. The prudent man is like a captain at sea. He doesn’t curse the wind. He uses it—to reach his destination.

I’m not saying we should be excessively cautious. When we see an opening—however small—we should take it. What I’m saying is, if we want to promote conservatism, we’ll need to use every tool at our disposal. Sometimes, we’ll have to reject the president’s proposals. And sometimes, we’ll have to make them better.

This is leadership? Who the hell is this guy trying to kid? I thought it was Obama leading from behind? With that kind of an approach, at the end of O-Savior’s second term the United Socialist States of America will be set in concrete. The GOP leadership is petrified. As George Will said prior to the election, if the Republicans can’t win in a depression-level economy, they’d better get into a business other than politics.

Gentlemen, unsheathe your swords and charge. This is a critical battle in a very long war. If you really believe in the Founders, try acting like them. Recall Aristotle’s observation: “Courage is first among the virtues. For without it, the others are not possible.”

As Michael Ledeen exhorts, “Faster, Please!”

Update: Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press, “Paul Ryan Heaps Praise On Hillary: If She Were President, ‘We’d Have Fixed This Fiscal Mess By Now’ ”

Any questions?

From a statistical fellow traveler:

Published on Dec 31, 2012
Crime stats they’d rather you not hear.

https://www.facebook.com/AmidstTheNoise
https://twitter.com/AmidstTheNoise

Sources:

FBI Uniform Crime Reports Table 1

FBI Uniform Crime Reports Table 16

FBI Uniform Crime Repots Table 8

Crimes Detected in England and Wales 2011/2012

Hat Tip: Frank S.

Given below are the stats for “illegal homicides” in the U.S. from 1995 through 2010 taken directly from the 2012 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report. Note that the rate has dropped by 40% over that fifteen year span. How can that be? With all these crazies running around shooting and killing people? Wonder where I can find the stats on bullet-proof vest sales. That must be the answer.

Ciao.

A couple of days ago I received an email from one of my correspondents, Shirley C. to be specific, and therein was a list of countries with murder rates greater than the U.S. Quite a few there were. But my curiosity was piqued, and I was sucked into another paroxysm of impulsive number crunching. Well, something to that effect. Here are the results.

First, there’s my reconstruction, reordering and summarizing of the murder rates from various regions of the world:

A couple of minutes’ scrutiny of the table makes it obvious that the highest murder rates are in sub-Sahara Africa and Latin America. If Mexico were not included in the North American stats, our rate, including the U.S., would be below 4.5 murders per 100,000 of population.

The ethnic/cultural implications veritably scream for consideration, but that would be, of course, racist. Perhaps this post will qualify me for consideration as such. But it does appear that guns, when it comes to murder, at least on a planetary basis, are much less of a factor than the civilizational advancement of a particular locale. I leave it to astute readers to decide for themselves how the variation of same within the conterminous United States and its population centers is a factor in local murder rates.

If you wish to see country-by-country details of the murder rate stats, the full spreadsheet is available here for downloading or perusal.

One more thing, if guns are such a defining factor in murder rates, why has the Obama Administration sent full-automatic assault weapons to Mexico, a country with a murder rate nearly five-times that of the U.S.?

Just asking.

Ciao.

Update: I’ve constructed a new world-wide murder rate spreadsheet directly from the UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) report for 2012. This is available here on SkyDrive. Note that the U.N. considers Mexico as part of Central America. That’s news to me. But who am I to argue with the U.N.?

All the spreasheets I’ve uploaded to SkyDrive are available here.

This is probably one of the reasons why Jim DeMint is leaving the Senate to head the Heritage Foundation:

Uploaded to YouTube on May 26, 2010, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) voices concern regarding the fact that the Senate passes over 90 percent of legislation without any debate, without amendment, and without a roll call vote (May 25, 2010).

What evil lurks in the fine print of legislation? Only The Harry knows.

Ciao.