Those who make peaceful protest impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
About
Welcome to Licentia Loquendi, founded January 2009. L2 is a team blog that focuses primarily on political, military and Constitutional issues with a Conservative Christian slant. We are two college students, a Navy corpsman, an Army sniper and a Vietnam era Army veteran.
Each writer has free reign over postings. One writer's views are not necessarily the views of all writers.
I understand that the spill may have finally been stopped, but that doesn't change the fact that it went unstopped for three months. That doesn't change the fact that the livelihoods of those living along the Gulf Coast have been forever changed.
"As the end of a critical 48-hour testing window to monitor the success of BP's capped oil well approaches, a company executive now says tests could last beyond the original deadline of 48 hours, and that pressure is slowly rising. . . . Saturday afternoon will mark two full days since BP stopped the oil from leaking into the Gulf . . . at that point if engineers don't offer more definitive evidence that the cap is working, testing may continue. At any time before then, they could also reopen the cap and allow some oil to spill into the sea again. . . ." (FNC)
NAACP Poised to Vote on Resolution Calling Tea Party "Racist" Seriously? Considering the fact that I consider myself a member of the Tea Party, I would hardly consider it racist. And about pushing "'the country back to the pre-civil rights era?'" Try being yellow and figuring out whether you should go into the white restroom or the colored one! In all seriousness, no sound incidents in the article portrayed the Tea Party as being racist. The only incident was "alleged" with no evidence found. In my experiences with tea partiers, they have all been courteous and no one has ever discriminated against me due to my skin color or other apparent ethnic features.
In other news, 60% of Americans are losing faith in Obama.
Oh, D.C. I can't believe you've shut down. Just what does the Kremlin think of us now?
Media History on Tuesday was interesting (I won't have class tomorrow, as the snowpocalypse has cancelled classes both today and tomorrow). First, there was my seeming inability to shut up, which started when my professor said that families with loved ones in the military/deployed watch CNN for their news, and I said that they watch Fox, and then continued when she mentioned that the military and government have hid the number of casualties in war, and I proceeded to enlighten her about Honor the Fallen. But the highlight of my life occurred when we were discussing Saddam's lack of weapons of mass destruction and suddenly she said something to the effect of: When Obama was building his arsenal. . . . At which point a round of "OOOOOH!" sounded throughout the room and my jaw dropped as I started laughing. And then she looked up at the ceiling, shook her head, placed her hand on her chin and said, "Freudian slip." Is she aware of what a Freudian slip is? If so, I must admit that she just rose a few notches on my Opinion Pole.
Last night while chatting with my best friend about: Ranger Up, Obama bowing to Tampa mayor Pam Iorio (60% who voted in NYDailyNews.com's poll believes he was merely photographed in an awkward position), and "the 10 U.S. Baptists who tried to take 33 Haitian children out of the quake-ravaged country" (FNC) . . . without proper documentation from the Haitian government (regardless of whether or not their intentions were pure, it was reckless and imbecilic for them to simply scoop up a bunch of kids and try to rush them to the Dominican Republic. Since they claimed they haven't been following the news, they clearly must not have noticed that the government has already organized the rescue of several orphans,
The Warrior Legacy Foundation is an organization (filing for 501C4 status) that is steadfastly committed to changing the perception of the America’s Warrior Class. WLF passionately defends the dignity of this noble profession regardless of the era of service. Across every generation, at war and at peace, America has asked her citizens to protect liberty and defend freedom at all costs. No matter the terrain or political climate, America’s Warriors have met every challenge, sacrificed everything that was asked in order to defeat their enemies and protect our shared way of life. WLF advocates for the everlastingly preservation of the hallowed legacy of the American Warrior and the limitless support of their success.
Welcome to our ranks. Join us and stand firmly in defense of the heritage of those brave souls who have preserved and protected our sovereignty throughout our great nation’s history.
They have asked for nothing and have given us everything.
About 1/3 of the way down the page, there's "The Warrior Song," which I've been listening to all morning while waiting for my 11:00 class.
Through WLF, I also came across the When They Come Back Campaign. When They Come Back doesn't want money, "We want your pictures and your stories about what you have done to give back. Even if it is something as small as saying 'thank you' or 'sharing a hug' with the military men/women in your life, we want to hear about it! . . . We want you to know that giving back to the military is THE thing to do!" You can follow them on Twitter.
[EDIT 9:58AM] "The Warrior Song" can be purchased on iTunes. The song/video can be purchased at thewarriorsong.com. Members of the U.S. military can download it for free.
In Obama's Foreign Policy today, we discussed the fact that Switzerland has placed a ban on the building of more minarets. Don't ask me what that has to do with Obama's foreign policy. However, did spend some time talking about the 30,000 troops Obama plans to send to Afghanistan. My professor thinks General McChrystal is one of the least qualified men Obama should take advice from regarding the war, because has no experience in the area. Experts on the region, those who speak the native languages and know the history of the area, are better suited to make a decision about the war (which, by the way, is just like Vietnam -- it's an issue of not whether we'll lose the war, but under whose administration). I know I would definitely take the advice of a desk jockey with book smarts over that of a man with his boots on the ground. That's clearly the logical choice.
On another note of the same level of happiness, the semester ends in sixteen days and I have a rather large amount of work and studying to do between now and the start of finals on the 15th. Therefore, I will once again be intermittently posting, at least until the 18th, when finals end and I return home for six weeks.
By urging other news outlets to side with the administration, Obama aides officials dramatically upped the ante in the war of words that began earlier this month, when White House communications director Anita Dunn branded Fox "opinion journalism masquerading as news."
On Sunday, Fox's Chris Wallace retorted: "We wanted to ask Dunn about her criticism, but, as they've done every week since August, the White House refused to make any administration officials available to 'FOX News Sunday' to talk about this or anything else."
The White House stopped providing guests to 'Fox News Sunday' after Wallace fact-checked controversial assertions made by Tammy Duckworth, assistant secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, in August. Dunn said fact-checking an administration official was "something I've never seen a Sunday show do."
"She criticized 'FOX News Sunday' last week for fact-checking -- fact-checking -- an administration official," Wallace said Sunday. "They didn't say that our fact-checking was wrong. They just said that we had dared to fact-check."
The last time I checked, we were fighting a war abroad. And I somehow, oddly enough, found that war to be far more important than stifling news networks.
My grandparents have this dog, his name is Gershwin. He is a peekapoo or however it is spelled. He is half Pekinese and half poodle. Now they don’t run around saying that he is a poodle because, he isn’t a poodle, he is only half poodle. So what if he is a poodle, at the same time in order to be 100% correct we have to say that he is Pekinese too. Now maybe you see where I’m going with this. So on what ground do they have to stand on when they declare that El Duce or der Furher, messiah or whatever you want to call him, is the first African American president? He is not, he is just as white as black. This was a simple plot that continues to be in the news with this regime, the race card. First we push the fact that his dad was born and raised in Africa, and we can forget his mother is from little Wichita. This was to capture the minority vote. And if you were against him, you are racist, you’re not voting for him because he is black! Well if we didn’t vote for him because he is black, we could vote for him because he is white. Or we could put on our blinders and not care if he is black, white, chartreuse, mango, mauve, or vermillion. Voting for someone because of their heritage is just as ignorant as voting against them for the same reason. Now they know why I didn’t vote for him. I remember in Chicago being accused of being racist because I didn’t vote for Obama. Wow, so I’m supposed to feel guilty because I didn’t vote for someone because his daddyo was from Africa? Now is a good time to get a billion bumper stickers and tee shirts printed up that say don’t blame me, I voted for McCain. Under this current logic they are trying to manipulate the American people into adopting the socialized medicine crap by calling anyone against it racist. Just give it up, the sixties have been over for, at the last time I checked at least; forty years. Get over it, I don’t think it matters if you ride on the front of the bus, and as long as I’m not paying for it, you can have your forty acres and a mule, but I doubt if you’d even know what to do with it. They claim that racism is a big problem in America; boy is that ever news to me. People are scared, they moan and groan about all of the injustice, and say that they didn’t get hired because of their race, gender, sexuality, or something. Well did you ever think that there is somebody that is actually qualified, or better qualified for the job? The L.A. Times just published a headline entitled Obama’s Fast Losing White Voters, why does it really matter? So that someday I might become president, I am going to try and get on even footing and claim that I am Jewish since I have Jewish relatives somewhere in the distant family. That will help me, because I’ll be a minority, and we can just forget that I’m only 3.1457932247215452153111484858524847885215514148506548551484854627241515154184825288485418515187459148451481518451845926458451544855185651825154756589452882154158452654825216515465184515825184651454524655364618475178545178565185815252583638525421418525252562515252% Jewish and the rest whatever else I am. So if you don’t vote for me you are no better than Hitler, you anti- Semitic pig dog! Or maybe I will claim to be a Melungeon and I won’t have to prove the fact or show that I ‘m a U.S. citizen. Give it up! Forget about it, stop calling him the first African American president when he is just as much white. Forget the race card, don’t feel bad for doing what is right. Remember, every time they point the finger at us, they have four more going back to them.
About a dozen people carrying guns, including one with a military-style [AR-15] rifle, milled among protesters outside the convention center where President Barack Obama was giving a speech Monday -- the latest incident in which protesters have openly displayed firearms near the president.
Gun-rights advocates say they're exercising their constitutional right to bear arms and protest, while those who argue for more gun control say it could be a disaster waiting to happen.
Phoenix police said the gun-toters . . . didn't need permits. No crimes were committed, and no one was arrested.
The man with the [AR-15] . . . told The Arizona Republic that he was carrying the assault weapon because he could. "In Arizona, I still have some freedoms," he said.
In spite of the fact that I completely support the Second Amendment and firmly believe that Americans should exercise their rights (or otherwise lose them), the fact that people are bringing guns (loaded or otherwise) to a presidential event is slightly disconcerting. Considering the pre-existing tensions and disputes over the current administration, throwing guns into the mix would not, in my opinion, calm the situation. On the other hand, props to those gun-toters for fearlessly exercising their rights. I also highly suggest reading the article in its entirety.
I heard about this story from Gateway Pundit. Wanda Sykes "accused Limbaugh of treason, compared him to Usama bin Laden and wished for his physical collapse as she roasted the favorite target of liberals Saturday night at the Washington Hilton" (FNC).
"Rush Limbaugh said he hopes this administration fails, so you're saying, 'I hope America fails,' you're like, 'I don't care about people losing their homes, their jobs, our soldiers in Iraq.' He just wants the country to fail. To me, that's treason. . . . He's not saying anything differently than what Usama bin Laden is saying," she continued, before addressing the guest of honor, President Obama. "You know, you might want to look into this, sir, because I think maybe Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker. But he was just so strung out on OxyContin he missed his flight."
The crowd groaned, Obama smiled and Sykes may have noticed a little discomfort in the room.
"Too much?" she asked.
But then she piled it on:
"Rush Limbaugh, 'I hope the country fails' -- I hope his kidneys fail, how about that? ... He needs a good waterboarding, that's what he needs."
According to MSNBC, "former Vice President Dick Cheney was also a monologue target."
"Dick Cheney, oh my God, he's a scary man, scares me to death. I tell my kids, I says, 'Look, if two cars pull up, and one has a stranger, and the other car has Dick Cheney, you get in the car with the stranger.'"
Sykes also had former GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin in her cross hairs. The Alaska governor canceled her dinner appearance after severe flooding hit her state.
She sent her husband, Todd, instead, but that didn't prevent a few jokes about her teenage daughter's out-of-wedlock pregnancy.
Wanda Sykes can say that to laughter, and yet golf analyst David Feherty apologized for his morbid joke:
"From my own experience visiting the troops in the Middle East, I can tell you this though. . . . Despite how the conflict has been portrayed by our glorious media, if you gave any U.S. soldier a gun with two bullets in it, and he found himself in an elevator with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Osama bin Laden, there's a good chance that Nancy Pelosi would get shot twice, and Harry Reid and bin Laden would be strangled to death" (FNC).
First of all, to even joke about 9/11 is completely reprehensible. It is tasteless and crude and completely ignorant. And accusing Limbaugh of treason . . . does anyone recall James Carville and Stanley Greenberg? Just minutes before news of the terrorist attacks disseminated the morning of September 11, 2001, Carville told Washington reporters, "'I certainly hope he doesn't succeed'" (FNC). Greenberg said, "'We rush into these focus groups with these doubts that people have about [Bush], and I'm wanting them to turn against him.'" Shortly thereafter, "as news of the terrorist attacks reached the hotel conference room where the Democrats were having breakfast with the reporters, Carville announced: 'Disregard everything we just said! This changes everything!' The press followed Carville's orders, never reporting his or Greenberg's desire for Bush to fail." Carville and Greenberg wanted Bush to fail, and yet when that information was finally belatedly released, they weren't deemed traitors. And yet Rush Limbaugh has been labeled treasonous and a terrorist. Second of all, if Wanda Sykes may say that and receive laughter from Obama -- an encouraging response -- then why cannot David Feherty write with impunity? This nation was founded upon freedom of speech. If Wanda Sykes may say what she likes on national television in front of the president, then David Feherty should most definitely be permitted to write what he likes in a magazine. Third of all, it seems to me that plenty of people have children out of wedlock -- Bristol Palin happened to be one of them. And doesn't having children out of wedlock imply pre-marital or extra-marital sex? And isn't chastity considered a more "conservative" value? Therefore, wasn't Sykes lambasting a more liberal way of life? Fourth of all, I have a lot more to say but name-calling is ridiculous and would serve no purpose, anyway.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Tuesday Obama was "furious" when he heard about the incident and has ordered a deputy chief of staff [to] find out "why that decision was made and to ensure that it never happens again."
Many New Yorkers, too, were asking why the administration would authorize an Air Force One backup plane to fly over the Manhattan skyline for photos capturing the presidential plane with the Statue of Liberty in the background -- without assuring the public in advance that there was no cause for alarm.
The 747 plane, with an F-16 escort following close behind, circled the Statue of Liberty and the skyline near the World Trade Center site for about a half-hour. Offices were evacuated. Emergency call centers were inundated. Witnesses reported that the planes were flying dangerously low. . . .
One White House official told FOX News that all future photo-ops with the Air Force One backup plane have been banned, but another White House official would not confirm to FOX News that a reported flyover of Washington, D.C., with the U.S. Capitol as a backdrop scheduled for May 5-6 had been scrubbed. . . .
Others in the White House say the flyover served as a dual photo-op and training hour, explaining the pilots needed flight hours and they wanted the pictures.
According to WCBSTV as quoted on GatewayPundit, "a memo obtained by CBS 2 HD the Federal Aviation Administration's James Johnston said the agency was aware of 'the possibility of public concern regarding DOD (Department of Defense) aircraft flying at low altitudes' in an around New York City. But they demanded total secrecy from the NYPD, the Secret Service, the FBI and even the mayor's office and threatened federal sanctions if the secret got out."
The sheer stupidity involved in approving the flyover is beyond my understanding. If the pilots need flight hours, let them log their hours somewhere else. The US has over 3.5 million square miles of land. Pick an area. To even consider repeating this over the White House is more than ridiculous. People in the administration may have forgotten what happened on September 11, 2001, but I assure you that New Yorkers have not.
Normally, I reserve the phrase "epic fail" for such things as taking the wrong notebook to class, tripping over flat surfaces, and running into walls or door frames. However, I do believe the above clip, originally found on HotAirPundit, is not only an epic fail, but also an example of a poor excuse for a leader. Despite the fact that George W. Bush was no great orator (or scholar of the English language), I believe that he was able to speak frankly with the people. I realize that Obama is more technically-savvy than many of his counterparts (remember Biden's question about the Internet number?) or competitors (I'll never forget the third debate between legal tablet-wielding McCain and Blackberry-brandishing Obama), but I feel that he tends to use TOTUS as more of a crutch than an assist. Maybe he'll have all of the technical difficulties worked out before everyone dies of swine flu (which is what he was addressing).
Obama is addressing Congress tonight. It supposedly started at nine but he just recently started talking, so if you tune in now you won't have missed much (except for three standing ovations).
The current major topic on FNC at the moment is a conversation between Obama and Major Garrett, in which the latter asked the former to explain a rather ambiguous comment Biden made. Obama's response? OBAMA: You know, I don't remember exactly what Joe was referring to . . . (LAUGHTER) . . . not surprisingly. But let me try this out. (MORE LAUGHTER)
Yes, that makes me laugh, too. Very funny. He then proceeded to cover the economy in a rather broad statement. OBAMA: Now, those are big, complicated tasks. So I don't know whether Joe was referring to that, but I used that as a launching point to make a general point about these issues.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
OBAMA: I have no idea. I really don't.
Aren't we all thrilled that our President and Vice President communicate so well? And the press is laughing -- the sun shines far brighter over D.C. now, because the lack of communication between Obama and Biden isn't a concern, it's a reason to laugh. On the bright side, at least he admitted that he has no idea.
"President Obama warned Republicans on Capitol Hill today that they need to quit listening to radio king Rush Limbaugh if they want to get along with Democrats and the new administration," states a FOXNews article. Also, in "response to the objection by Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) to the president's proposal to increase benefits for low-income workers who don't owe federal taxes" Obama replied, "'I won . . . I will trump you on that.'" Quite frankly, I believe that Americans should be free to listen to whatever radio station they want to. Disagreeing with the Democrats and the new administration has nothing to do with Rush Limbaugh. Also, simply because Obama won the election does not mean that he immediately wins everything. His office does not give him supreme power. In my opinion, his statement was immature and totalitarian.
Said Ali al-Shihri was released from Guantanamo in November 2007. He "returned to his home in Saudi Arabia after his release . . . and from there went to Yemen" (FNC). He is now allegedly "second-in-command" (FNC) of Yemen's branch of Al Qaeda. According to the DoD, "more than 60 terrorists released from Guantanamo may have returned to the battlefield" (CNN). McCain agrees that Guantanamo should be closed, but his route would have been different. "'So, the easy part, in all due respect, is to say we're going to close Guantanamo . . . then I think I would have said where they were going to be taken. Because you're going to run into a NIMBY [not in my backyard] problem here in the United States of America'" (CNN). A NIMBY problem? Not in Pennsylvania! Rep. John Murtha told FOX that "suspected terrorists . . . are 'no more dangerous in [his] district than in Guantanamo'" (AP). And let's not just throw them into the same state as the site of a terrorist attack, but let's plop them just a short distance away!
Obama also skipped The Salute to Heroes Inaugural Ball, which "was the party without all of the celebrities." I can't believe he didn't attend. "There were 48 Medal of Honor recipients in attendance, who were undoubtedly disappointed by the Commander-in-Chief's failure to show. Over the past 56 years and 14 inaugurations, no President has skipped this event - until now." The attendees of that ball are the very ones who have given us our freedom to hold elections and choose our own president. "The very people who he sought to have support him during his candidacy and campaign, who have fought to protect this country, were snubbed in favor of publicity and the opportunity to rub shoulders - yet again - with the out-of-touch Hollywood elite."
According to an article on FoxNews.com, Obama is driving a surge in gun sales. While I admit that I am a bit worried about gun rights and the loss thereof, part of me wonders if gun owners and organizations are exacerbating the issue. According to the article, "in June [Obama] said he agreed with the Supreme Court when it overturned the District of Columbia handgun ban" and he also "stated during the final leg of the campaign that he believes in the Second Amendment, and 'I will not take your shotgun away. I will not take your rifle away. I won't take your handgun away.'" Then again, he -- like any other politician -- made promises, which he recently admitted to being unable to keep (though at the very least, he admitted it and he did so early). Perhaps Obama deserves the benefit of the doubt. Shortly prior to the election, Conservatives claimed that the huge mess regarding the economy was the doing of the Liberals, in order to shift attention to Obama and his economic plan, as opposed to the war. Perhaps now Conservatives are using the same tactic to raise suspicion of Obama.
Or maybe a little suspicion is healthy and perhaps a history lesson, as well.
