Alaska State Representative refuses T&A patdown, has to return to AK via sea

SEATTLE -- "An Alaskan state lawmaker is returning home by sea after refusing a pat-down search at a Seattle airport, a spokeswoman said..

Rep. Sharon Cissna underwent a body scan as she was preparing to leave Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Sunday and was then required to undergo the pat-down by Transportation Safety Administration officials, said Michelle Scannell, her chief of staff.

Scannell said that TSA called for the pat-down because the scan showed Cissna had had a mastectomy. But it wasn't immediately clear from statements by the lawmaker's office and TSA why that would necessitate the further search."

Link

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She already went through the pornoscanner, but that wasnt enough for the ever-alert Federal employees.  

Everyone knows if a woman has had a mastectomy, she definitely needs a pat-down...I mean feel-up.  

Remember well:  Federal T&A employees are the first line of defense in the detection of breast cancer recurrence, and recognizing the use of C4 in breast implants.  Also, statistically speaking, the most common type of suicide bomber in the United States are older white women who serve in State Legislatures. 

Fits the profile: 68 year old white female from Alaska, serving in her State Legislature;  frisk her, boys!

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Update: Rep. Cissna's statement on the incident:

“The evening of the 20th of February 2011 started with relief, as I was anxious to get back to the important work of the Alaskan Legislature.  Heading into security after time with the line of passengers, I felt upbeat.  I’d blocked out the horror of three months earlier, but after the pleasant TSA agent checked the ticket and ID, I suddenly found myself directed into scanning by the Seattle Airport’s full-body imaging scan.  The horror began again.  A female agent placed herself blocking my passage.  Scan results would again display that my breast cancer and the resulting scars pointed a TSA finger of irregularity at my chest.  I would require invasive, probing hands of a stranger over my body. Memories of violation would consume my thoughts again.”

“Being a public servant and elected representative momentarily disappeared. Facing the agent I began to remember what my husband and I’d decided after the previous intensive physical search.  That I never had to submit to that horror again!  It would be difficult, we agreed, but I had the choice to say no, this twisted policy did not have to be the price of flying to Juneau!”

“So last night, as more and more TSA, airline, airport and police gathered, I became stronger in remembering to fight the submission to a physical hand exam. I repeatedly said that I would not allow the feeling-up and I would not use the transportation mode that required it.”

“For nearly fifty years I’ve fought for the rights of assault victims, population in which my wonderful Alaska sadly ranks number one, both for men and women who have been abused.  The very last thing an assault victim or molested person can deal with is yet more trauma and the groping of strangers, the hands of government ‘safety’ policy.”

“For these people, as well as myself, I refused to submit.”

“The trip to Juneau is one of adventure in working to restore dignity to government policies designed to build the well-being of our people. All of them. The trip to the Capitol has been by car, small plane and the Alaska Marine Highway.  It feels like a trip of pride as well.”

“The TSA threat of “Do you want to fly?” means something very different to Alaskans. Flying in Alaska is not a choice, but a necessity.  The freedom to travel should never come at the price of basic human dignity and pride.”

Alaska governor exercises direct executive nullification of Obamacare

While 11 state consider versions of the Health Care Nullification Act (recently passed in the Idaho House and the North Dakota Senate) and other states are looking at rejecting health care mandates alone, Alaska might bypass the entire legislative process – and still nullify the law.

Citing Judge Roger Vinson’s decision voiding the whole of last year’s health care overhaul after finding the law’s health insurance mandate unconstitutional, Alaska’s Republican Governor Sean Parnell has said that the state will not pursue the development of health insurance exchanges. From Bloomberg:

Alaska Governor Sean Parnell, saying he’s bound by law, won’t apply for federal grants needed to implement President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul after a federal judge in Florida ruled it unconstitutional.

The Republican’s decision means the state will skip today’s deadline to apply for a grant that federal officials say is needed to develop exchanges where residents would be able to buy medical insurance under the new health-care law.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act signed by Obama in March requires citizens over 18 to obtain health coverage beginning in 2014. U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson in Pensacola, Florida, ruled that requiring such coverage exceeded Congress’s power and invalidated the law last month. The decision came in a challenge brought by 26 states, including Alaska.

“We will not proceed down an unlawful course to implement this law,” Parnell said yesterday in Juneau, the capital. “The court’s declaratory judgment that the federal health-care law is unconstitutional is the law of the land as it applies to Alaska.”

It will certainly be interesting to see if other governors will do the same, effectively stopping the federal act dead in its tracks. What they really need to do, though, is the same thing even if the federal courts don’t give them permission to do so.

Michael Boldin, blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com, 2/20/2011

Quote of the Day 2/21

"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people and I expect the same from them." 

John Wayne as John Bernard Books, The Shootist

What is a Yankee? Why are Yankees the enemy of Liberty?

The Yankee Problem in America...

"...one of the most important and most neglected subjects in United States history — the Yankee problem.

By Yankee I do not mean everybody from north of the Potomac and Ohio. Lots of them have always been good folks. 

The firemen who died in the World Trade Center on September 11 were Americans. 


The politicians and TV personalities who stood around telling us what we are to think about it are Yankees. 


I am using the term historically to designate that peculiar ethnic group descended from New Englanders, who can be easily recognized by their arrogance, hypocrisy, greed, lack of congeniality, and penchant for ordering other people around. Puritans long ago abandoned anything that might be good in their religion but have never given up the notion that they are the chosen saints whose mission is to make America, and the world, into the perfection of their own image.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, raised a Northern Methodist in Chicago, is a museum-quality specimen of the Yankee — self-righteous, ruthless, and self-aggrandizing. Northern Methodism and Chicago were both, in their formative periods, hotbeds of abolitionist, high tariff Black Republicanism. The Yankee temperament, it should be noted, makes a neat fit with the Stalinism that was brought into the Deep North by later immigrants.

The ethnic division between Yankees and other Americans goes back to earliest colonial times. Up until the War for Southern Independence, Southerners were considered to be the American mainstream and Yankees were considered to be the "peculiar" people. [No different today -- HM] 

Because of a long campaign of cultural imperialism and the successful military imperialism engineered by the Yankees, the South, since the war, has been considered the problem, the deviation from the true American norm. Historians have made an industry of explaining why the South is different (and evil, for that which defies the "American" as now established, is by definition evil). Is the South different because of slavery? white supremacy? the climate? pellagra? illiteracy? poverty? guilt? defeat? Celtic wildness rather than Anglo-Saxon sobriety?"


-------------------------------

The great defender of Southern heritage and biographer of John C. Calhoun, Dr. Clyde Wilson, wrote this essay in 2003.


Like bedbugs, Yankees insinuate themselves into every nook and cranny of your existence.  While you are asleep, they suck your blood.


Careful.  You are getting more and more anemic for lack of blood...

Quote of the Day 2/20

"If the provisions of the Constitution can be set aside by an Act of Congress, where is the course of usurpation to end? 


The present assault upon capital is but the beginning. 


It will be but the stepping-stone to others, larger and more sweeping, till our political contests will become a war of the poor against the rich; a war growing in intensity and bitterness."


Justice Stephen J. Field, majority opinion, Pollack v. Farmers Loan and Trust Co., 1898

Cool -- Earl Scruggs jams with The Byrds in '69

CS Lewis' Review of "The Fellowship of the Ring" by JRR Tolkien

Actually, I came across this quote while reading Breitbart, an article in Big Hollywood section called: "Sanity and Sanctity: The ennobling fantasies of JRR Tolkien Part I"

CS Lewis is the author of The seven volume Chronicles of Narnia (emphasis added in quote below):

"[The Fellowship of the Ring] is like lightning from a clear sky. . . To say that in it heroic romance, gorgeous, eloquent, and unashamed, has suddenly returned at a period almost pathological in its anti-romanticism, is inadequate. . . Here are beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron; here is a book that will break your heart. . . .

It is sane and vigilant invention, revealing at point after point the integration of the author’s mind. . . Anguish is, for me, almost the prevailing note. But not, as in the literature most typical of our age, the anguish of abnormal or contorted souls; rather that anguish of those who were happy before a certain darkness came up and will be happy if they live to see it gone. . . . But with the anguish comes also a strange exaltation. . . when we have finished, we return to our own life not relaxed but fortified….

Even now I have left out almost everything — the silvan leafiness, the passions, the high virtues, the remote horizons. Even if I had space I could hardly convey them. And after all the most obvious appeal of the book is perhaps also its deepest: “there was sorrow then too, and gathering dark, but great valour, and great deeds that were not wholly vain.” Not wholly vain — it is the cool middle point between illusion and disillusionment."

Hurin, wearing the Dragon helm of Dor-Lomin

I posted this here for a few reasons:

1. I love Tolkien and CS Lewis, and find their works "ennobling", inspiring, and spiritually uplifting.

2. I celebrate individual works of great achievment:  Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Silmarillion constitute one man's "lifeblood" -- the sum total of a massive synthesis of imagination and scholarship sustained and created over (literally) 60 years of effort.  His books: The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, the Return of the King, and The Silmarillion are the most impressive work of fiction of which I am aware (includes Frank Herbert's Dune; I'm sure you can think of others).  

He succeeded in what he consciously set out to do: 

“set myself a task, the arrogance of which I fully recognized and trembled at: being precisely to restore to the English an epic tradition and present them with a mythology of their own.”

He started writing the original tales or notes for tales in the trenches of France during the First World War, and the Silmarillion was published in 1977, four years after his death.

Tolkien in 1916

3.  There have been setbacks and ups and downs in the patriot blogosphere of late.  

One very big up is the excellent job that David Codrea and Mike Vanderbeogh have done on the Project Gunwalker scandal.  

On the other hand, some posts lately have spoken of burnout or frustration at our apparent lack of numbers, or the apparent futility of our efforts.

What Tolkien described in his works about the end of the Third Age of Middle-Earth applies to our era as well:

“there was sorrow then too, and gathering dark, but great valour, and great deeds that were not wholly vain.”

Somehow, I feel that the efforts of the patriot blogosphere are like what Lewis said of the quests and efforts of the heroes of the Tolkien story: 

"Not wholly vain -- it is the cool middle point between illusion and disillusionment."

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The Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion are not for everyone.  Conventional reading of a book of that size page by page is daunting.

The best way to both get through the books and to understand and visualize the story is to listen to the unabridged audiobook.  I cannot recommend the book or the unabridged audio version highly enough.

Registration is the precursor to confiscation

You might've thought I was talking about gun registration and potential confiscation, but not this time.


This would be a horrible law, setting a very dangerous precedent, harkening back to 1933 and FDR's huge theft from the people.


In a predictable turn, Washington State has a new law proposed to record a person's biometrics and demographics on anyone purchasing more than $100 in gold (!!):


"A week ago, when we reported on a move by the Dutch central bank that ordered a pension fund to forcibly reduce its gold holdings, we speculated that "this latest gold confiscation equivalent event is most certainly coming to a banana republic near you." 


And while we got the Banana republic right, the event that we are about to describe is not necessarily identical. It is much worse. 


A bill proposed in the State of Washington (House Bill 1716), by representatives Asay, Hurst, Klippert, Pearson, and Miloscia, whose alleged purpose is to regulate secondhand gold dealers, seeks to capture "the name, date of birth, sex, height, weight, race, and address and telephone number of the person with whom the transaction is made" or said otherwise, of every purchaser of gold in the state of Washington. Furthermore, if passed, Bill 1716 will record "a complete description of the property pledged, bought, or consigned, including the brand name, serial number, model number or name, any initials or engraving, size, pattern, and color or stone or stones" and of course price. But the kicker: if a transaction is mode for an amount over $100, which means one tenth of an ounce of golds, also required will be a "signature, photo, and fingerprint of the person with whom the transaction is made." 


In other words, very soon Washington state will know more about you than you know about yourself, if you dare to buy any gold object worth more than a C-note. How this proposal is supposed to protect consumers against vulture gold dealers we don't quite get. Hopefully someone will explain it to us. We do, however, get how Americans will part with any and all privacy if they were to exchange fiat for physical. And in a police state like America, this will likely not be taken lightly, thereby killing the gold trade should the proposed Bill pass, and be adopted elsewhere.

While we are confident that representatives Asay, Hurst, Klippert, Pearson, and Miloscia have no clue why they are even proposing this bill, we would also be delighted to find out which moneyed interests they represent, and what happens to precious metal trading in America should Bill 1716 become a legal precedent which is effectively the first step before the final implementation of Executive Order 6102 version 2.

From ZeroHedge

Obama, the epitome of a sycophantic politician

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2011

Oh, The Irony of It All

A friend sends along a link to this picture of President Obama's dinner last night with the Silicon Valley elite. Seated to the right of the Prez is Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to the left is Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

My anti-union friend notes:

Yesterday President Obama literally phoned in his support to the union-organized up Melee in Madison and then jetted to SV to sup with the friendly tech CEOs, including Steve Jobs. (I’m a big fan of AAPL, in full disclosure.)

High Irony? Yes, the US tech industry falls into two camps regarding unions: 1) non-union and 2) anti-union.

This is easy to understand. Obama falls into two camps, the "I seek votes" camp and the "I seek campaign money" camp. The union members will provide him with votes and the geeks will provide the campaign money (for a price of course).

latest post on economicpolicyjournal.com

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We assume these things of politicians, and its nice to see that our assumptions are well grounded by practical examples...

Well, we can hope for the old saying to come true in this case:  He who sits on fence gets picket up ass...

The great State of Montana continues to defy the District of Confiscation

From the Tenth Amendment Center Blog:

More Nullification in Montana

Montana, already defying Washington DC on Real ID and Medical Marijuana. Montana, first state to pass a firearms freedom act, now considering a new version to add fines and jail time for federal agents. Montana, standing up to the feds once again. This time, the issues is wolves – a very contentious one in the Northwest.

Yesterday, from Governor Brian Schweitzer:

“We will take action in Montana on our own,” he said. “We’ve had it with Washington, D.C., with Congress just yipping about it, with (the Department of) Interior just vacillating about it.”

from the AP report:

Defying federal authority over gray wolves, Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer on Wednesday encouraged ranchers to kill wolves that prey on their livestock – even in areas where that is not currently allowed – and said the state will start shooting packs that hurt elk herds.
Schweitzer said he no longer would wait for federal officials to resolve the tangle of lawsuits over wolves, which has kept the animals on the endangered species list for a decade since recovery goals were first met.

.204, .223, or .243?  What do you use?

It was just a few years ago that the same Governor Schweitzer had this to say about pressure from the Bush administration to comply on Real ID:

we found that it’s best to just tell them to go to hell and run the state the way you want to run your state.

developing…

Nutnfancy: Gun and Knife reviews, tactical gear, training, and philosophy on YouTube

I have been a big fan of this guy on YouTube for 2 years or so.  I don't know how many of you know about him, but I highly recommend him.  Each of his video postings gets 30,000 to 50,000 hits.

He gives an honest opinion about affordable products.  He is ex military and a father.  

His site has his videos arranged by Playlists like: Fixed blade reviews, folding knife reviews, handgun reviews, best EDC (every day carry) knives, folding tactical knives, large survival knives, long gun reviews, life philosophy etc., etc.,.

From his YouTube homepage:

MY INTENDED AUDIENCE FOR TNP: Targeted towards Law Enforcement and Military, my reviews are also intended for responsible civilians too and I fully support the concept of an armed, free people. I also acknowledge and thank my audiences around the world that sadly do not enjoy our freedoms in the US.
WHO IS NUTNFANCY?: Lt Col USAF with 20 yrs of experience in all theaters of war. Other associations too.

I give you his review of my EDC knife, the Kershaw Packrat:



And a video about his philosophy about guns and children:

Quote of the Day 2/17

The right to life is the source of all rights—and the right to property is their only implementation. Without property rights, no other rights are possible. Since man has to sustain his life by his own effort, the man who has no right to the product of his effort has no means to sustain his life. The man who produces while others dispose of his product, is a slave.

Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness

Operation Falcon op in Savannah--what ever happened to Posse Comitatus?

Operation FALCON is a nationwide fugitive apprehension operation coordinated by the United States Marshals Service (USMS).  The resources of federal, state, city and county law enforcement agencies are combined to locate and apprehend criminals wanted for crimes of violence.
Since its inception in 2005, Operation FALCON has made 91,086 arrests and cleared 117,874 warrants and is the single most successful initiative aimed at apprehending violent fugitives in U.S. law enforcement history.
The original FALCON I proved the efficacy of the cooperative law enforcement model, which seeks to multiply the positive impact of law enforcement at all jurisdictional levels.  The emphasis centered on gang related crimes, homicides, crimes involving use of a weapon, crimes against children and the elderly, crimes involving sexual assaults, organized crime and drug related fugitives, and other crimes of violence.

http://www.usmarshals.gov/falcon/index.html

Coming soon to your neighborhood?

"SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) - U.S. Marshals swarmed a Savannah neighborhood and arrested Antonio Heyward for aggravated assault.

Police say Heyward shot a man back in December. They consider him violent and have been trying to track him down for the past couple of months.

The arrest happened on 53rd Street near Waters Avenue.

Heyward's sister watched the entire event unfold across the street.

"Anybody who sees their brother scream when there are 20 police officers would be upset," Shakira Heyward said.

The U.S. Marshals say because Heyward is considered dangerous it was necessary to have so many marshals.

Gunshots were also heard in the area around the same time, but the U.S. Marshals say they don't appear to be related.

A new U.S. Marshal Task Force is in Savannah that will help partner agencies arrest violent offenders."

link to article

Does anyone know if an agency founded for enforcing Federal laws now employed (indefinitely) in enforcing local and state laws as in Operation Falcon, is a violation of Posse Comitatus Act, originally directed at the US Army?

Police State, Police State, Police State, Police State....

Is this what our guys are fighting for in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Are we still sovereign over our lives, or now subjects?

If the current United States cannot be politically reformed within the current system, as the Tea Party hopes, can the South, or the South and West (red states), separate and form a new Confederation of States, leaving the current forced National entity?  

Your school teachers, college professors, journalists, and "mainstream" politicians will tell you: "No! The Civil War ended all of that.  It is dead and buried.  Get over it..." or words to that effect.


Does that make sense when the reasons to nullify, and when necessary, secede, are compelling and even urgent?  Of course not.

If the winning side in a war said the Moon was made of cheese instead of rock and dust, it wouldn't alter the facts.  Eventually, the truth will cause someone to stand up and declare that the moon is made of rock and dust.   

Since 1865, our public schools have been teaching us that the moon is made of cheese. 

A government that was oppressive and heavy handed to white Southerners since 1865 has now become oppressive and heavy handed to all tax payers (and the left should be very pleased with how equal we all have become:  we are all being economically raped by the federal government regardless of race, sex, creed, religion, or sexual orientation).  Every year our salaries remain the same, our dollar purchases less, and the government obligates us to more collective debt.

My ancestors came here to be left alone and take care of themselves.  They came because there was no lord or master to limit their opportunities.

I want no different for myself and my family.  

If the government, by their laws, wants to confiscate property and give it to other people who didn't earn it, the government is unjust.  If they consciously or unconsciously destroy any chance I have to be prosperous, are they not as bad, or worse than George III and Lord North?

I want my Natural rights to life, liberty, and property protected by my government.  That is the only proper mandate that government has, if the government is truly "of the people, by the people, and for the people." (Lying bastard Lincoln) 

If the government doesn't protect those rights, of what purpose is government?

Are we free or aren't we? Do we rule, as per our Founders rhetoric, or have we become slaves of an oligarchy?
 

The cynical would contend that the people have always been subjects in this country, and that our so-called sovereignty has always been an illusion.  

This may be true, but in addressing the situation that confronts our generation, I hold that we have become slaves.  

We are slaves to those who tax us, 

We are slaves to those individuals in this country to whom the nanny state caters (Giving charity is voluntary individual choice vs. supporting welfare by confiscated wealth) 

We are slaves to those industries and private businesses subsidized by government funds and financial slight of hand.  

We are slaves to the whims of a nonrepresentative unconstitutional national legislature ("Are you serious? Are you serious?").

We are slaves to the Federal Reserve, that steals and counterfeits our wealth and our children's inheritance with impunity.

We are slaves to unimaginable unauthorized collective debt incurred by our National government.

So now must fall back on the words of Thomas Jefferson, for we have no other choice:

"...whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

Quote of the Day 2/16

All rational action is in the first place individual action. Only the individual thinks. Only the individual reasons. Only the individual acts.

Ludwig von Mises

Your taxes will pay for TSA Union dues

...and every TSA worker, once in this union, will be dis-incentivized to improve performance on the job.

So let me get this straight...They dont improve security, they violate our 4th amendment rights, they touch our wives and children inappropriately, we pay their salary involuntarily, and now we will pay for their Unionization (so that they can be even more surly than before)?

WTF?

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"On Feb. 4, the [Obama] administration gave TSA officials the right to unionize the agency’s work force, which previously had been waived “in light of their critical national security responsibilities.” This means that if TSA officers vote for it, up to 50,000 new union members will be paying hefty union dues - possibly $30 million annually, with the bill paid by taxpayers - for on-the-job conveniences and greater job security.

For travelers, that likely will lead to longer lines and even less responsive officials, who will feel secure in the knowledge that it’s ridiculously difficult to fire a unionized government employee. For taxpayers, it will mean paying more for the annoying status quo as the TSA employees become subject to union contracts that impose politicized, escalating pay scales that rely more on seniority and bureaucratic job-title classifications than on performance."

Commentary from the Washington Times

So, which is it, Israel? Get your story straight

Netanyahu and his new Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces quoted today:

AFP - The Israeli military is "ready for all eventualities" as the Arab and Muslim world undergoes "an earthquake," Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday just days after Egypt's regime collapsed.

"An earthquake is shaking the whole Arab world and a large part of the Muslim world and we don't yet know how these things will turn out," the premier said at a swearing-in ceremony for new army chief Major General Benny Gantz.

Tsk, Tsk...politicians...

------------------------------------------------

Another Israeli website known for behind the scenes military analysis, debka.com:

"Friday night, Feb. 11, as Cairo's Tahrir Square rejoiced over Hosni Mubarak exit, Israel counted the cost of losing its most important strategic partner in the region.
Thirty-two years of peace with Egypt leave Israel militarily unprepared for the unknown and unexpected on their 270-kilometer long southern border: the current generation of Israeli combatants and commanders has no experience of desert combat, its armor is tailored for operation on its most hostile fronts: Iran, Lebanon's Hizballah and Syria; it is short of  intelligence on the Egyptian army and its commanders and, above all, no clue to the new rulers' intentions regarding Cairo's future relations with Israel and security on their Sinai border."

[But other than that, Israel's military is "ready for all eventualities"...-HM]

"The Israeli Defense Forces are trained and equipped to confront Iran and fight on the mountainous terrain of Lebanon and Syria. After signing peace with Egypt in 1979, Israel scrapped the combat brigades trained for desert warfare, whose last battle was fought in the 1973 war, and stopped treating the Egyptian army as a target of military intelligence. Israel's high command consequently knows little or nothing about any field commanders who might lead units if they were to be deployed in Sinai."

Si vis pacem para bellum, General Gantz...

Quote of the Day 2/15

"The people of Carolina believe that the Union is a union of States, and not of individuals; 


that it was formed by the States, and that the citizens of the several States were bound to it through the acts of their several States; 


that each State ratified the Constitution for itself, and that it was only by such ratification of a State that any obligation was imposed upon its citizens. 


Thus believing, it is the opinion of the people of Carolina that it belongs to the State which has imposed the obligation to declare, in the last resort, the extent of this obligation, as far as her citizens are concerned; and this upon the plain principles which exist in all analogous cases of compact between sovereign bodies."

  John C. Calhoun,
  "On Nullification and the Force Bill."
  U.S. Senate,
  15 February 1833

WMD in San Diego?

Real slip of the tongue or premeditated false flag to spread fear among the sheeple?  You decide.

This date in history: Virginia convened it's State Convention to consider secession

Gov. Henry A. Wise of Virginia, favored secession

"The hall of Mechanics’ Institute in Richmond, the largest available venue in the city, was jammed. Delegates from around a state that then included Appalachian counties to the west assembled. Public galleries, one for women, one for men. were packed.

There was a hum of excitement, but also an air of dread as, 150 years ago today, delegates to the Virginia State Convention gathered to consider whether or not to break away from the United States of America.

At first, there was every reason to believe they would not. 

... [Governor Wise] and the other radicals called for a vote and on April 4 were soundly whipped. The first secession attempt was defeated 90 to 45.

But that was to change only eight days later. On April 12, Confederate batteries in Charleston opened fire on Fort Sumter, forcing the evacuation of federal forces. Though no one was killed, the country was suddenly at war.

Still desperate for peace, the convention on April 15 sent a three-member delegation to meet with Lincoln. He was curt with them, and no wonder. He was about to call up 75,000 troops to put down the rebellion, including recruits from still-loyal border states.

That did it. White southerners against white southerners? The delegates to the convention – still in session – stampeded to the secessionist side."

http://hamptonroads.com/2011/02/first-virginians-had-been-reluctant-secede

Quote of the Day 2/14

"Until today nothing was ever thought of sacrificing to our country's wrongs. For six months we had worked to capture, but our cause being almost lost, something decisive and great must be done. But its failure was owing to others, who did not strike for their country with a heart. I struck boldly, and not as the papers say. I walked with a firm step through a thousand of his friends, was stopped, but pushed on. A colonel was at his side. I shouted Sic semper before I fired. In jumping broke my leg. I passed all his pickets, rode sixty miles that night with the bone of my leg tearing the flesh at every jump. I can never repent it, though we hated to kill. Our country owed all her troubles to him, and God simply made me the instrument of his punishment. The country is not what it was. This forced Union is not what I have loved. I care not what becomes of me. I have no desire to outlive my country. The night before the deed I wrote a long article and left it for one of the editors of the National Intelligencer, in which I fully set forth our reasons for our proceedings. He or the gov'r-

After being hunted like a dog through swamps, woods, and last night being chased by gunboats till I was forced to return wet, cold, and starving, with every man's hand against me, I am here in despair. And why? For doing what Brutus was honored for. What made Tell a hero? And yet I, for striking down a greater tyrant than they ever knew, am looked upon as a common cutthroat. My action was purer than either of theirs. One hoped to be great himself. The other had not only his country's but his own, wrongs to avenge. I hoped for no gain. I knew no private wrong. I struck for my country and that alone. A country that groaned beneath this tyranny, and prayed for this end, and yet now behold the cold hands they extend to me. God cannot pardon me if I have done wrong. Yet I cannot see my wrong, except in serving a degenerate people. The little, the very little, I left behind to clear my name, the Government will not allow to be printed. So ends all. For my country I have given up all that makes life sweet and holy, brought misery upon my family, and am sure there is no pardon in the Heaven for me, since man condemns me so. I have only heard of what has been done (except what I did myself), and it fills me with horror. God, try and forgive me, and bless my mother. Tonight I will once more try the river with the intent to cross. Though I have a greater desire and almost a mind to return to Washington, and in a measure clear my name - which I feel I can do. I do not repent the blow I struck. I may before my God, but not to man. I think I have done well. Though I am abandoned, with the curse of Cain upon me, when, if the world knew my heart, that one blow would have made me great, though I did desire no greatness. Tonight I try to escape these bloodhounds once more. Who, who can read his fate? God's will be done. I have too great a soul to die like a criminal. Oh, may He, may He spare me that, and let me die bravely. I bless the entire world. Have never hated or wronged anyone. This last was not a wrong, unless God deems it so, and it's with Him to damn or bless me. As for this brave boy with me, who often prays (yes, before and since) with a true and sincere heart - was it crime in him? If so, why can he pray the same?

I do not wish to shed a drop of blood, but 'I must fight the course.' 'Tis all that's left to me."

Last diary entry of John Wilkes Booth, April 1865.

Constitutional Conservative on the National Stage

If there is to be any hope left by working within the current system, it will come from men like Rand Paul.  I pray he will not fall prey to the corrupting influences in the District of Confiscation.

Libertarianism burns at the core of most American souls--anyone who feels they deserve to keep what they earn, anyone who doesnt want a bunch of guys in black without a warrant breaking down their door at 4 am (getting the wrong house, of course), anyone who wants better for their kids than what they had.

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul at the CPAC conference:

Before you vote, pin down your state legislator -- where are they on the Tenth Amendment?

...and make sure they know your vote is awarded or denied based on their answer.

Recurring themes of this blog, just as relevant now as in the 1830's:

"At the core of the debate was the clash between two distinct theories of the Constitution:  the nationalists view of a single sovereign people, a modern unitary state were power comes from a central authority, or the compact theorists who believe the United States  had been formed when the thirteen original states each acting in its own sovereign capacity ratified the Constitution through STATE ratifying conventions rather than some single American people.

Senator Daniel Webster argued that upon entering the Union, states surrender certain powers to the general government and that the general government itself is the final arbiter of their power.  However, Senators Calhoun, Haynes and Rowan argued that the states never surrendered, but delegated power to the general government and one does not delegate to a greater authority, but to a lesser one.  And the general government is not the final arbiter of its own powers “since that would have made its discretion, and not the Constitution, the measure of its powers” and that “each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well as infractions, as of the make and measure of redress”. 

Tenth Amendment Center Blog

Do Egyptians want Democracy? No! They want Liberty!

"I keep hearing all the talking heads say that Egyptians want democracy. That is a load of crap. Egyptians want liberty. Big difference. But they want more than liberty. There are over 80 million people in Egypt. Over 50% of them are below 30 years of age. At least 75% of those people are unemployed, barely surviving. They want to move forward economically.


Unfortunately, prosperity is not in Egypt’s future any time soon. Egypt cannot feed its own population at this time, and has been the largest buyer of American wheat for decades. Although think about it. Is that because they do not have enough arable land, or because a corrupt government has mismanaged the Egyptian agriculture for 30-plus years? And with a weak manufacturing base, it’s going to be a long time before the economy begins to rise out of the pitiful Third-World status it presently holds. Tourism represents 8% of the Egyptian economy and tourism will be directly affected by ongoing political turmoil. And without free-market reforms, the Egyptian economy is slated for more of the same."

Read the rest at Secession University