I remember the Civil Rights Movement, George Wallace, the Vietnam War, Camelot, and shaking ex-President Lyndon B. Johnson’s hand, after a speech at his Texas Ranch. It seemed huge.

I remember the Beatles,the Monkees, the Rolling Stones, Woodstock, Haight Asbury, the Peace Movement, Love-ins, and Campus sit-ins. I remember Kent State.

I remember Mrs. Elliott, Mrs. Willette, Mrs. Holder, Mrs. Archer, Principal F.A Farino, and some of the things that happened to me at Snowden Elementary.

I also remember the day that it was announced over the school intercom that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. I remember writing in my Big Chief Tablet

President Kennedy is dead. Vice-President Johnson is now President.

I remember that fateful night in April of 1968, watching TV in our den in Midtown Memphis, TN, as the Civil Defense Warning popped up on the screen, and an authoritative voice said,

Would all National Guard members, please report to the Armory.

Shortly, after that, President Johnson interrupted programming, coming from the White House, and announced,

I come to you tonight with a heavy heart…

And, nothing was ever the same again.

In yesterday’s Blog, I posed the question,

What in the Sam Hill is going on in this country?

I then wrote about how screwed up our leadership is, and how disheartening it is to see this Shining City on the Hill being turned into a Third World Barrio, right in front of our very eyes.

What could be the cause? Have the Pod People from the Invasion of the Body Snatchers taken over America’s Leadership?

Actually, in a way…they have.

Today’s Senior leadership is comprised of that volatile generation from the 1960s. That generation in which there was seemingly, widespread rebellion against their faith, their families, and…their country.

For all their bragging about Free Love, dropping out, and tuning in…a lot of them were actually very selfish. (History is actually repeating itself with our younger generation of today, but that’s best left for another post.)

That is the generation that is presently in charge of our nation.

What’s bad is, our Junior Leadership is comprised of their children, Americans with names like Sunshine and River, whose raising was left to Dr. Spock, PBS, and MTV.

So, basically, we have a bunch of elected representatives whose life philosophy is

If it feels good, do it.

The Bible tells us that you will know someone by their fruits.

Let’s look at “the fruits” put forth by this bunch of leaders…

1.  Horrible Financial Stewardship – We’re in hock to the Chinese so badly, they’re probably going to start adopting OUR babies. We have a President who is cutting essential services, like hot meals for our soldiers, while his mooch of a wife is joking about visiting her “Homeland” in Ireland. Now, I’ve been told by an Irishman that my heritage is “Black Irish”, but, that’s ridiculous. Congress hasn’t passed a budget in years now, but nobody seems to care. Hey, it’s only money. OUR money.

2. Attempts to take away Americans’ Constitutional Rights - This is actually very ironic, when you think about it. These “Flower Children”, who used to holler about their Constitutional Rights as they were being busted by the police, now could care less about them.  A little power is a dangerous thing. They’re “The Man” now.

3.  Debasing and Redefining of the American Family - Now, in this amoral utopia they are creating, Johnny has 2 Daddies, or 2 Mommas, or a Momma and another Momma who used to be their Daddy….or just a Momma…or just a Daddy…or, they’re being raised by Grandma and Grandpa. And, then, the “pundits” wonder why kids are joining Gangs, seeking “love and acceptance”.

4. Attempting to eliminate Christianity from Americans’ day-to-day lives - From complaining about prayer before high school football games to lawsuits about the Ten Commandments being in Courthouses, the miserable selfish little cretins, who seem content to serve the Darkness, are relentless in their quest to remove the public worship of the One who made us, from Americans’ daily lives. They want to pigeon-hole Christians and force us to worship Our Creator on Sunday Mornings, only, and only then, in government-approved services, where preachers will not be allowed to condemn homosexuality as a sin.

In America today, we are experiencing the Tyranny of the Minority. Average Americans, who love God, their families, and their country, still exist. They are trying desperately to try to make things better for their families. That is the reason that a recent study showed that Americans are leaving the Liberal stronghold of the Northeast and the Left Coast, seeking like minds in America’s Heartland.

There are still plenty of Americans who believe in Traditional American Values. They go to work, they attend church, and they spend time with their families. Despite the enormous pressure put upon them by an increasingly selfish, amoral culture, an anti-American President, and his enablers and minions in Congress and the Main Stream Media, they still “bitterly cling” to their Bibles and guns, remembering those who have gone before, and the sacrifices at home and abroad they made to keep them free.

Can you feel it? There is a stirring in the heart of this nation. The Sleeping Giant is wide awake. Americans have had enough.

The great American Frontiersman, Congressman, and Freedom Fighter, Davy Crockett, once said,

Be sure you are right. Then, go ahead.

We are right, Americans. It’s time to go ahead.

Until He Comes,

KJ.

We’ve got “leaders”…and I use the world loosely…that seemingly could not care less what the American Citizens who elected them want to happen in our nation.

For example, we have a President of the United States, who won’t allow us inside OUR White House, which we bought and paid for. Meanwhile, he, his crass bigot of a wife, and their kids, as I reported yesterday, are about to go on a trip to Africa, which will cost us, the American Taxpayers, up to 100,000,000 dollars.

Hey, Scooter…while you’re over there…visiting the land of your bir…err…ancestors…say hello to your brother for us. You know…the one who lives in a hut.

Additionally, he and members of Congress…on both sides of the aisle…want to jump in the middle of a Civil War in Syria…on the side of the “noble” rebels.  Some nobility. Those “rebels” are supported by, and support in return, the bloody Muslim Terrorist Organization known as al-Qaeda. Are all of you “Beltway Boys (and girls)” blooming idiots?

There are no “Good Guys” in this scufflin’ match. Why don’t we just sit this one out and let “the last man standing” win?

I thought that we were supposed to have a system of checks and balances in this country.  Between Obama signing Executive Orders and ruling like an emperor on his throne and the spineless Republican Leadership basically giving him carte blanche to do whatever the heck he wants, average citizens, like me, are experiencing a feeling of moral outrage and a feeling of helplessness.

We have elected Senators and Representatives who have seemingly forgotten who pays their salaries and who put them in office.

Look at what is facing us, right now.

These Congresscritters seem to be dead set on betraying the very country that they are supposed to be serving. They want to reward the illegal behavior of millions of “undocumented immigrants’, who sneaked into our sovereign nation, to have the monetary and Social advantages of being an American, without any of the responsibilities.

While claiming an altruistic motive behind their  drive for Amnesty, these Congresscitters’ actual motivation is more self-serving than anything else. They want to create more voters for their political party.

And, that is where the Democrats are playing Sen. Marco Rubio, and the rest of his new-found friends in the GOP Elite for fools.

If the Moderate Republicans believe that any of these illegal aliens are going to vote for them, when they can vote for the Party of Baracky Claus, instead…they’re dumber than Jim Carrey’s Anti-gun Video.

While I’m on a rant…Sen. Rubio is another subject which I would like to address. Did he fall victim to a Space Pod, or what? I remember this guy from the Mid-terms, speaking out about our Constitutional Rights, in front of Tea Party Rallies, with great Conservatives like Sarah Palin and Lt. Col. Allen West.

Now, ol’ Marco spends his days at the G.O.P. Elite Country Club, sipping Apple Martinis with Juan McAmnesty and his pet dog, “Toodie” Graham.

Evidently,

Absolute Power corrupts Absolutely.

Our Founding Fathers were afraid of that. They viewed national service, as just that. A farmer or a merchant would be elected to the Senate or the House, he would spend his term, in the service of his country, and then he would rejoin his follow American Citizens, and allow fresh ideas to be heard.

Not now. Now, Congresscritters make a career out of it, often dying in office, like Frank Lautenberg, who was 89.

Why? Is the reason that they stay past their usefulness in office, because they truly wish to serve their constituencies? I don’t think so.

I believe it’s a combination of Power, Perks, and Privilege.

Why should they leave…if we are dumb enough to keep electing them?

Thank you, sir. May I have another?

What can average Americans, like you and I, do about this?

I mean, it’s become dang near impossible to tell the Republicans from the Democrats. In fact, the Moderate Republican Leadership acts as if they want to be Democrats, bending over so far in “compromise” with the opposition party, that they can see their own hindquarters.

It is almost as if we have become two countries…the tiny area of blue, which we saw in electoral maps, concentrated around the Northeast and the coasts, and the red areas, which basically comprise 90% of America, including the area referred to as “The Heartland”.

Out here in “The Heartland”, the majority of Americans still “bitterly cling” to our Bibles and guns…and try hard to live up to and uphold the Traditional American Values taught to us by our parents and grandparents, in spite of being bombarded daily by an out-of-touch leadership in Washington and their sycophants in the Main Stream Media.

The strength of America lies in its people…not an ever-expanding, nanny state, all-powerful Federal Government.

At the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Dr. Benjamin Franklin, 81 years old, was approached by a lady, as he left Independence Hall on the final day of deliberation.

The lady asked him,

Well, Doctor…What have we got? A Republic or a Monarchy?

Dr. Franklin answered,

A Republic, madam. If, you can keep it.

Today, almost 235 years later, we still have a Republic. If, we can keep it.

Until He Comes,

KJ

According to the Liberals’ favorite website, Huffington Post…

Budget cuts are stealing meals from elderly Americans all across the country, according to a new survey by the Meals On Wheels Association of America.

The association represents about 5,000 local senior nutrition groups in every state, coordinating volunteers who deliver a million meals a day to poor senior citizens. Since 1972, the federal government has helped pay for the meals through the Administration on Aging, which did not escape the 5.1 percent cut to non-defense discretionary spending this year, also called sequestration.

Meals On Wheels surveyed 640 of its local member organizations on how they’ve coped since the cuts took effect in March. Forty percent of programs have eliminated staff positions. Seventy percent are putting more people on waiting lists, increasing the number of those on waiting lists by an average of 58 seniors per list. And programs have cut an average of 364 meals per week.

“Every day, Meals on Wheels programs provide a lifeline by serving meals to our nation’s most vulnerable, frail, and isolated seniors,” association president Ellie Hollander said in a statement. “The real impact of sequester is that our programs don’t have the ability to expand to meet the growing need. We should be investing in these programs to ensure our seniors have the nutritious meals they need to remain healthy and independent.”

The association previously estimated sequestration would result in 19 million fewer meals, while the White House put the loss at 4 million. The estimates will be difficult to verify; the federal government generally covers only a portion of each meal’s cost and other funding streams for local Meals On Wheels operations vary widely. Meals On Wheels officials said local offices already were coping with reduced federal funding before sequestration.

I guess Obama is just getting America’s Elderly ready for Obamacare. Assignment of ice floes comes next.

Meanwhile, the Obamas (Scooter, Mooch, and the girls) are preparing to go on a Family Vacation to Sub-Sahara Africa…a trip which is estimated to cost between 60 to 100 million dollars…OF AMERICAN TAXPAYER MONEY.

The Washington Post Reports…

When President Obama goes to sub-Saharan Africa this month, the federal agencies charged with keeping him safe won’t be taking any chances.

Hundreds of U.S. Secret Service agents will be dispatched to secure facilities in Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania. A Navy aircraft carrier or amphibious ship, with a fully staffed medical trauma center, will be stationed offshore in case of an emergency.

Military cargo planes will airlift in 56 support vehicles, including 14 limousines and three trucks loaded with sheets of bullet­proof glass to cover the windows of the hotels where the first family will stay. Fighter jets will fly in shifts, giving 24-hour coverage over the president’s airspace, so they can intervene quickly if an errant plane gets too close.

The elaborate security provisions — which will cost the government tens of millions of dollars — are outlined in a confidential internal planning document obtained by The Washington Post. While the preparations appear to be in line with similar travels in the past, the document offers an unusual glimpse into the colossal efforts to protect the U.S. commander in chief on trips abroad.

Any journey by the president, such as one scheduled this week for Northern Ireland and Germany, is an immense and costly logistical challenge. But the trip to Africa is complicated by a confluence of factors that could make it one of the most expensive of Obama’s tenure, according to people familiar with the planning.

The first family is making back-to-back stops from June 26 to July 3 in three countries where U.S. officials are providing nearly all the resources, rather than depending heavily on local police forces, military authorities or hospitals for assistance.

The president and first lady had also planned to take a Tanzanian safari as part of the trip, which would have required the president’s special counterassault team to carry sniper rifles with high-caliber rounds that could neutralize cheetahs, lions or other animals if they became a threat, according to the planning document.

But officials said Thursday that the safari had been canceled in favor of a trip to Robben Island off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, where Nelson Mandela was held as a political prisoner.

In honor of Obama’s “Working Vacation”, I have composed a little ditty to the tune of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”. Please, feel free to sing along…

Obama Sleeps Tonight

Weee-eeee-eeee-eeee all have more tax to pay.

Weee-eeee-eeee-eeee all have more tax to pay.

(A Sequester’s on, Sequester’s on, Sequester’s on, Sequester’s on)

(Sequester’s on, Sequester’s on, Sequester’s on, Sequester’s on)

In the jungle, the mighty jungle

Obama sleeps tonight

In the jungle the quiet jungle

Obama sleeps tonight.

Weee-eeee-eeee-eeee all have more tax to pay.

Weee-eeee-eeee-eeee all have more tax to pay.

(A Sequester’s on, Sequester’s on, Sequester’s on, Sequester’s on)

(Sequester’s on, Sequester’s on, Sequester’s on, Sequester’s on)

Near Mandela, Nelson Mandela,

Obama sleeps tonight.

Near Mandela, Nelson Mandela,

the lion sleeps tonight. 

Weee-eeee-eeee-eeee all have more tax to pay.

Weee-eeee-eeee-eeee all have more tax to pay.

(A Sequester’s on, Sequester’s on, Sequester’s on, Sequester’s on)

(Sequester’s on, Sequester’s on, Sequester’s on, Sequester’s on)

Sequester for thee, none for me,

Obama sleeps tonight

Sequester for thee, none for me,

Obama sleeps tonight

Weee-eeee-eeee-eeee all have more tax to pay.

Weee-eeee-eeee-eeee all have more tax to pay.

(A Sequester’s on, Sequester’s on, Sequester’s on, Sequester’s on)

(Sequester’s on, Sequester’s on, Sequester’s on, Sequester’s on)

Weee-eeee-eeee-eeee all have more tax to pay.

Weee-eeee-eeee-eeee all have more tax to pay. 

Great to have a president who cares about American Citizens, huh? 

Unbelievable.

Until He Comes,

KJ

There are two stories which are attributed as being the origin of Father’s Day.

According to the first tale, it all began in 1910, when Sonora Smart-Dodd of Spokane, Washington, tried to figure out a way in which to honor her dad, a remarkable man, who had single handedly raised six children. Sonora, naturally, loved her dad with all her heart, and wanted everyone to recognize him for what he had done for her entire family. She made the decision to declare day of tribute, a Father’s Day, if you will, on her father’s birthday – June 19.

The next year, Sonora contacted the local churches in an attempt to get them to throw their support behind the celebration, but they simply laughed her off. After that setback, it took a while before Sonora’s proposal once again started gaining attention.

A bill in support of a national remembrance of Father’s Day was introduced in 1913. The bill was approved by US President Woodrow Wilson three years later. The bill received further support from President Calvin Coolidge in 1924.

This brought about the formation of a National Father’s Day Committee in New York within the next two years. However, our Federal Government, not exactly being strong in the pursuit alacrity, took another 30 years before a Joint Resolution of Congress officially recognized Father’s Day. Then, implementation of the bill was postponed another 16 years until President Richard Nixon declared third Sunday of June as Father’s Day in 1972.

The second story of the origin of Father’s Day involves Dr. Robert Webb of West Virginia. According to this version, the first Father’s Day service was conducted by Webb at the Central Church of Fairmont in 1908.

Around my house, we always thought that Hallmark and Walmart invented it.

I have written before about my Father. At the time, I focused on his service in World War II.  However, there was more to my Daddy than that. He was an American Hero at home, as well.

Daddy married my mother in 1948. They were both working at Sears and Roebuck at the time, and they were both divorced. My mother had a young daughter from her first marriage, whom Daddy raised as his own.

My beloved sister came along shortly thereafter, and, nine years later, I was born. To this day, I swear that they were going to name me “Oops”.

My earliest memories of my Daddy were of him making me breakfast, while singing hymns around the kitchen. My Daddy sang in church choirs, and had a glorious tenor voice.

My Daddy is the one who made sure that I was in Sunday School every Sabbath morning, and in his own, gentle way, he led me to the Savior.

My father, uprooted us to Florida when I was a toddler, and ran a Pure Oil Station with my uncle Mallory, a Pensacola cop, for a short while. When we returned to my hometown of Memphis, he and my mother went back to work at Sears, where they stayed until their retirement in the early 80s.

My sister used to take me with her to pick up our Daddy, and I would have a big time sitting on the tractors and go karts there in the Farm Store, which he managed.

The great thing about Sears back in those days, was the fact that they had a candy counter. Every payday, he brought home to me “a prize”, of either malted milk balls, chocolate-covered raisins, or fresh, warm cashews.

On the days when Daddy didn’t work, he spent time with me. We would go to Court Square in Downtown Memphis, and feed the squirrels, or he would take me to the Memphis Zoo, and walk me around while I was sitting on top of a pony.

As I got older, he ferried me back and forth to school and school events.

He also was there for me, during all those hours spent in the Doctor’s Office and the Hospital, as I struggled to breathe with severe asthma.

My Daddy’s name for me was “Brother”, as in “Baby Brother”

He loved to say,with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye,

Hold on to something, Brother. I’m taking the garbage out.

On Saturdays that he was off, our ritual included Saturday Morning Wrestling, at 11:00 a.m., starring the Fabulous Jackie Fargo, Tojo Yamamoto, Don and Al Greene, and some  smart-aleck kid named Jerry Lawler.

That was usually followed by a Tarzan or Jungle Jim movie starring Johnny Weissmuller.

I got my love of music and comedy from my Daddy, spending hours watching The Three Stooges, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Jackie Gleason Show, and The Lawrence Welk Show.

If there was one thing, in this life, I was certain of, from the day I was born, until he went to be with God on December 29, 1997, was that my Daddy loved me.

Right now, in America, it is harder than ever to be a Dad.  Any male, who is not impotent, can sire a child…as is being proven daily across our country.

However, it takes a man to be a Daddy, a Papa, a Pop, a Pops, somebody’s Old Man, or, simply, Dad.

I’ve had the privilege of having a hand in raising three step-sons, one nephew, and one very special daughter.  I would not give back one moment of those experiences for anything that this world can offer.

I was not a perfect role model.  I made mistakes.  But, looking back, I know, in my heart, that I’ve made a difference in their lives. And I thank the One who made me for that opportunity.

I pray that I was able to pass along at least some of my Daddy’s legacy of Christian Love to those I have had a hand in raising. I now have a 5 year old grandson, whom I get to spoil, every now and then.

Dads…it costs nothing to pay attention….and give love.

Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it. – Proverbs 22:6

Happy Father’s Day!

On August 15, 1996, Ted Galen Carpenter, Vice-President for Defense and Foreign Policy Studies at the Cato Institute and the author of Beyond NATO: Staying Out of Europe’s Wars. wrote a Foreign Policy Brief titled “The Domino Theory Reborn:  Clinton’s Bosnia Intervention and the “Wider War” Thesis.”

Here is an excerpt.

President Clinton’s assertion that the U.S.-led NATO mission in Bosnia is essential to prevent a wider European war is erroneous. Two of the wider war scenarios–Serbia as a runaway expansionist power like Nazi Germany and the prospect that the Bosnian conflict could ignite a continental conflagration just as a Balkan incident sparked World War I–are so far-fetched that they should be dismissed out of hand.

The other two scenarios–that copycat aggressors elsewhere in Europe would be emboldened by a NATO failure in Bosnia and that a Bosnia-style war could erupt in the southern Balkans, especially in Kosovo and Macedonia–have greater validity. But the success or failure of the Bosnia mission will have little impact on such dangers. Conflicts in other parts of Europe arise from local conditions and historical factors, and the belligerents will continue to pursue their unique agendas. War in the southern Balkans would not be a matter of the Bosnian conflict’s “spreading.” The disputes over Kosovo and Macedonia involve different grievances and, largely, a different set of potential adversaries.

The wider war thesis is merely a refurbished domino theory. Not every armed conflict in Europe is destined to lead to a massive war that would affect important American security interests.

…President Clinton repeatedly defended his decision to send American troops to Bosnia by insisting that if the United States and its NATO allies did not take steps to solidify the fragile peace in that country, they would risk the outbreak of a “wider war.” Such a conflict would threaten overall European stability, which is deemed important to America’s own security and well-being. Thus, in addition to any moral imperative to stop the carnage in Bosnia, the United States had no choice but to assume a leadership role to suppress the fighting, lest Europe descend into chaos for the third time this century.

The president used that reasoning in a November 1995 letter to House Speaker Newt Gingrich shortly before the signing of the Dayton accord.

This Administration, and that of previous Democratic and Republican Presidents, have been firmly committed to the principle that the security and stability of Europe is of fundamental interest to the United States. The conflict in Bosnia is the most dangerous threat to European security since the end of World War II. If the negotiations fail and the war resumes, as it in all probability would, there is the very real risk that it could spread beyond Bosnia, and involve Europe’s new democracies as well as our NATO allies. Twice this century, we paid a heavy price for turning our backs to conflict in Europe.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher had made a similar argument earlier, contending, “Twice in this century we have had to send our soldiers to fight in wars that began in Central Europe.” On another occasion he insisted that unless the Dayton peace accord succeeded, the Bosnian conflict could someday involve “the rest of Europe.” James Steinberg, director of policy planning at the State Department, was equally apocalyptic. “Without U.S. leadership in Bosnia, we would face the imminent danger of a widening war that could embroil our allies, undermine NATO’s credibility, destabilize nearby democracies, and drive a wedge between the United States and Russia.”

The president and his advisers tend to be vague, how-ever, about how the bloodletting in Bosnia could lead to a wider European war. Proponents of the U.S.-led peace enforcement mission act as though that danger were self-evident, but a careful examination suggests that most of the wider war scenarios are implausible.

That conclusion has important implications beyond the administration’s Bosnia policy, for the assumption that small conflicts will usually lead to larger ones is a crucial premise underlying Washington’s global network of security commitments. A proactive U.S. policy (including a military presence) in such regions as Europe, East Asia, and the Persian Gulf is supposedly essential because it preserves stability and makes any armed disruption less likely. Without that stabilizing U.S. role, the argument goes, there will be a proliferation of minor conflicts, any one of which may ignite a regional war that will entangle the United States. But if the wider war thesis is invalid with regard to Bosnia, serious questions ought to be raised about its validity elsewhere–indeed, about the intellectual foundation of America’s overall security strategy.

Current United States President Barack Hussein Obama, already made history repeat itself, by getting us involved in the civil war in Libya, which led to a Radical Muslim government being installed, and eventually, 4 brave Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, being savagely murdered.

Now…it appears that Obama is about to double down…

The Daily Caller’s Ariel Cohen reported yesterday that…

The White House said Friday it does not plan to send U.S. troops into Syria, despite offering aid to rebel groups fighting President Bashar al-Assad.

“Nobody has asked us to [go into Syria]. The Syrian opposition does not think that it’s a good idea,” Ben Rhodes, current Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communication, said during a White House press conference Thursday evening. ”We certainly don’t think it’s in our national interest to send U.S. troops.”

The White House distinguished their actions in the Middle East from those of the previous administration’s, expressing a reluctance to enter a scenario similar to the 2003 Iraq War.

“We need to be humble here about our ability to solve the problem in Syria,” Rhodes said. “I think recent history teaches us that even when you have U.S. troops on the ground, you’re not necessarily going to be able to prevent violence amongst civilian populations. We saw that in Iraq, for instance. And at the same time, when U.S. troops are on the ground, that involves us in a much more dramatic way of making us the issue instead of the interest of the country where we are.”

Instead of sending U.S. troops into Syria, Obama plans to help opposition groups on the ground.

“Our stated national policy is for Bashar Al-Assad leave power,” Rhodes said. “It is our preference that this be done politically, but we are going to continue supporting those in Syria who are working for a post-Assad future.”

Rhodes said that the best course of action in Syria is to strengthen a “moderate opposition that would be able to represent the broader Syrian public” by providing aid to the rebel groups, but the administration has yet to comment on the specifics of the aid.

“While I understand the interests, we’re just not going to be able to get into that level of detail about the type of resistance that we provide,” Rhodes said.

“I’m not going to be able to inventory the types of support that we’re going to provide to the [Syrian Military Council], but I’d point to my previous answers — suffice it to say that a decision has been made about providing additional direct support to the SMC to strengthen their effectiveness,” Rhodes said. “This is more a situation where we’re just not going to be able to lay out an inventory of what exactly falls under the scope of that assistance, other than to communicate that we have made that decision.”

Critics opposing U.S. involvement in Syria claim that the White House can never be completely sure who receives American aid within the rebel groups — or how they will use it.

“It is unclear what national security interests we have in the civil war in Syria,” Kentucky Republicans Sen. Rand Paul wrote in a CNN.com piece warning against American intervention in the Middle East. “It is very clear that any attempt to aid the Syrian rebels would be complicated and dangerous, precisely because we don’t know who these people are.”

As I first reported in May, there is just one problem with arming these “Freedom Fighters”. It’s the same “problem” that we faced in Libya.

BBC.co.uk reported the following on April 10th…

The leader of the al-Nusra Front, a jihadist group fighting in Syria, has pledged allegiance to the leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani said the group’s behaviour in Syria would not change as a result.

Al-Nusra claims to be have carried out many suicide bombings and guerrilla attacks against state targets.

On Tuesday, al-Qaeda in Iraq announced a merger with al-Nusra, but Mr Jawlani said he had not been consulted on this.

Al-Nusra has been designated as a terrorist organisation by the US.

Debates among Western leaders over whether to arm Syria’s rebels have often raised the concern of weapons ending up in the hands of groups such as al-Nusra.

“The sons of al-Nusra Front pledge allegiance to Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri,” Mr Jawlani said in a recording released on Wednesday.

But Mr Jawlani said al-Nusra had not been consulted on the merger with al-Qaeda in Iraq and insisted his group would not change its stance in Syria.

The al-Nusra statement assured Syrians that the “good behaviour” they had experienced from the front on the ground would continue unchanged, the BBC’s Jim Muir reports from neighbouring Lebanon.

Mr Jawlani said that the oath of allegiance to Zawahiri “will not change anything in its policies”, our correspondent adds.

In his biography, “The Audacity of Hope”, written by Bomber Bill Ayers, Obama says that,

I will stand with them [Muslims] should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.

That ugly direction is the Middle East…again.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Big mistake.

Since then, the number one cable news channel in America has seen their expressive numbers diminish, as, editorially, they began an ideological swing to Left of Center.

So, what do you do, when your ship is traveling off-course? You make a course correction.

In announcing her return to Fox News, Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes said,

I have great confidence in her and am pleased that she will once again add her commentary to our programming. I hope she continues to speak her mind.

Governor Palin will make her triumphant return on the morning show “Fox & Friends,” on Monday. In addition to appearing on the Fox News Channel, Governor Palin will also contribute to Fox Business Network.

It was a smart move.

Sarah connects with those of us in America’s Heartland. She was the bright spot for the Republicans during the Presidential Campaign of 2008, when she almost dragged ol’ Juan McAmnesty’s wrinkled rear across the goal line.

During that campaign, the legend of Sarah Palin began to grow, as stories of her jumping off the campaign buss to run into Walmart to buy Trig some diapers started circulating in Americans’ e-mails. Her leadership ability, along with her homespun honesty and forth-righteousness, are refreshing, causing her to standing apart for the G.O.P. Moderate Elite.

Sarah Palin tells it like it is, as theblaze.com reports

Comedian Bill Maher brought the wrath of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin upon himself when he reportedly referred to her special needs son as “retarded” during a comedy show at the Palms in Las Vegas on Saturday.

Former Las Vegas TV personality Ron Futrell claims he was escorted out of the event after he confronted Maher several times during the show at some point after the tasteless joke about Trig Palin.

“I’ve got a son with special needs,” Futrell told the Review-Journal. “It didn’t surprise me that Maher said it. It surprised me that a lot of people laughed at that joke.”

After learning about Maher’s so-called “joke,” Palin went after Maher on Twitter.

“Hey bully, on behalf of all kids whom you hatefully mock in order to make yourself feel big, I hope one flattens your lily white wimpy a#*,” Palin wrote.

“I’m in your neck of the woods this weekend, little Bill. Care to meet so I can tell you how I really feel?” she added.

Something tells us Maher won’t accept Palin’s invitation.

I enjoy hanging out on the internet chat boards, reading the messages of Liberals and Moderates alike, as their heads explode over the Former Alaskan Governor.

The great thing is, that doesn’t phase her at all.

Back in March, she spoke to the annual CPAC Convention, her speech was wonderful, and sounded like it came straight from the Heartland of America.

At the time, I wrote,

… it struck me, while at lunch with friends, after church on Sunday, just how disconnected the professional politicians, pundits, and prevaricators (but, I repeat myself) up in the Beltway are from all of us average citizens out here in America’s Heartland.

I guess what really triggered this revelation was remembering Sarah Palin’s speech from CPAC’s Saturday Session, in which she spoke just like you or me, having a political discussion with our friends and family. She was bringing up some spot-on political points, when, all of the sudden, she got a mischievous smile on her face and began telling the audience how Todd gave her a wonderful gift the Christmas before last: a gun rack for her ATV. She talked about how cool it was, and then told the crowd that, for this Christmas, she gave Todd a new hunting rifle. She quipped,

Yep, Todd got the rifle and I got the rack.

As the stunned audience quickly broke out in thunderous laughter and applause, Sarah stood there, grinning like the Cheshire Cat, while, at the same time, reaching under the podium to retrieve a 44-ounce Super Big Gulp Diet Coke, which she slowly sipped from, still grinning, then holding it over her head , imitating Lady Liberty holding her torch. The picture of this seminal moment has since gone viral, much to the chagrin of Liberals, on both sides of the political aisle, whose heads have been exploding, like balloons which have blown up beyond their usefulness.

Beltway politicians and Pundits live in a bubble.  They have disassociated themselves from the common people.  The only time the Beltway Elite Republicans seem to pay attention to the wishes of Americans in the Heartland is when we melt the Congressional Phone Lines down and threaten their well-paying jobs. 

That’s why the rise of the Tea Party movement and America’s return to Conservatism, which resulted in the political massacre known as the Midterm Elections, was such a surprise to them.  In their self-imposed isolation, they actually thought that the America people wanted them to continue their deal-making, soul-selling, business-as-usual politics.

That is why voices like Governor Palin’s are needed…to let the stale, stodgy Beltway Dwellers know that they are out-of-touch with Americans in the Heartland…you and me.

Sarah Palin reminds the leeches of us…the people whom they are supposed to be serving.

And, that is why her voice is important.

Welcome back, Sarah. We’ve missed you.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Representative Jim Sensenbrenner, who introduced the PATRIOT Act on the House floor in 2001, has declared that lawmakers’ and the executive branch’s excuses about recent revelations of NSA activity are “a bunch of bunk.”

In an interview on Laura Ingraham’s radio show Wednesday morning, the Republican congressman from Wisconsin reiterated his concerns that the administration and the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court have gone far beyond what the PATRIOT Act intended. Specifically, he said that Section 215 of the act “was originally drafted to prevent data mining” on the scale that’s occurred.

Sensenbrenner, the current chairman on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations, suggested that the secret nature of the FISA court has prevented appropriate congressional oversight over the NSA’s activities.

Several years ago, Obama felt differently about this subject.

On December 15, 2005, Senator Barack Hussein Obama (D-IL) gave the following Senate Floor Speech on the subject of the Patriot Act:

Four years ago, following the most devastating attack in our history, this body passed the USA PATRIOT Act in order to give our nation’s law enforcement the tools they need to track down terrorists who plot and lurk within our own borders and all over the world – terrorists who, right now, are looking to exploit weaknesses in our laws and our security to carry out even deadlier attacks than we saw on September 11th.

We all agree that we needed legislation to make it harder for suspected terrorists to go undetected in this country. And we all agree we needed to make it harder for them to organize and strategize and get flight licenses and sneak across our borders. Americans everywhere wanted that.

But soon after the PATRIOT Act passed, a few years before I ever arrived in the Senate, I began hearing concerns from people of every background and political leaning that this law – the very purpose of which was to protect us – was also threatening to violate our rights and freedoms as Americans. That it didn’t just provide law enforcement the powers it needed to keep us safe, but powers it didn’t need to invade our privacy without cause or suspicion.

In Washington, this issue has tended degenerate into an “either-or” type debate. Either we protect our people from terror or we protect our most cherished principles. But that is a false choice. It asks too little of us and assumes too little about America.

That’s why as it’s come time to reauthorize this law, we’ve been working in a bipartisan way to do both – to show the American people that we can track down terrorists without trampling on our civil liberties. To show the American people that the federal government will only issue warrants and execute searches because it needs to, not because it can. What we have been trying to achieve, under the leadership of a bipartisan group of Senators, is some accountability in this process – to get answers and see evidence where there is suspicion.

Uh huh. 

That was then. This is now.

Fast forward to 2013…

RawStory.com reports that

The FBI’s use of a controversial Patriot Act provision to demand business records has skyrocketed more than 1,000 percent under President Barack Obama versus his Republican predecessor George W. Bush, according to a report by NBC News.

The so-called business records provision of the Patriot Act, titled Section 215, is the justification used for the NSA’s massive PRISM intercept program that sucks up nearly all domestic communications and stores them for future reference. A single Section 215 order was behind last week’s revelation that Verizon is cooperating with the NSA and handing over millions of phone call records daily.

Altogether, the FBI approached the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) court to approve business records requests 212 times in 2012, reporter Michael Isikoff learned. He notes that figure also represents a 1,000 percent increase from the number of requests filed just four years earlier by members of the Bush administration.

Companies that receive demands for business records under Section 215 of the Patriot Act are also subject to a secret gag order, forbidding them from even disclosing that records were divulged. Isikof noted that FBI Director Robert Muller told Congress in 2011 the bureau began relying more heavily on Section 215 requests in 2010, when certain telecommunications firms started refusing to honor the bureau’s National Security Letters (NSLs), another provision of the Patriot Act that carries a gag order similar to Section 215.

Wow. I was going to quote the old saying, “Total power corrupts totally.” however, Obama was a master at “Chicago Politics” before he became president. Here’s a cute little story from my bio of Obama, “The Great Disconnect: The Whole, Ugly Truth about Barack Hussein Obama”:

n 2004, Illinois State Senator Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) decided to run for The United States Senate.

In order to have a successful Senatorial campaign, Scooter  had to secure tremendous financial backing and be the recipient of astute political mentoring.  No problem.

It is now very well-known that George Soros, evil genius, major Democratic Party donor and anti-Israel crusader, has been a generous contributor to Barack Obama. However, not too many people know that a loophole in McCain-Feingold allowed Soros and his family members to be extremely generous in their support of Obama’s 2004 Senatorial campaign.

Obama had to run against Blair Hull in the primary and then Jack Ryan in the general (both multi-millionaires). Obama received huge donations from individuals, to so-called “millionaires exception.”  Usually,  individuals are limited to giving $2300 to candidates in federal elections, but if the candidates are running against millionaires, these limits do not apply and candidates are allowed to receive up to $12,000 from a single individual. Soros and his family gave Barack Obama $60,000. This does not count the money that Soros was funneled to so-called 527 groups (Moveon.org, for example) that have also been politically active; nor does it include money that Soros raised from tapping a network of friends, business associates, and employees.

Besides garnering unlimited campaign funds, as the campaigns entered their closing rounds, the news ”happened to be” leaked to media outlets that both Hull and Ryan had “personal scandals” in their past. The timely release of this news wiped out both of their campaigns, leading to an easy victory for Obama in the primary and then in the general election.

The New York Times Magazine revealed that David Axelrod, Obama’s chief political and media adviser, may well have been behind the leak of the story that doomed the Hull candidacy as the primary reached its home stretch.  I’m shocked.

As he has shown over the years, Axelrod was right at home operating in this gray area, part idealist, part hired muscle. One can not bring up Axelrod’s name  in certain circles in Chicago without the matter of the Blair Hull divorce papers coming up. Approaching the 2004 Senate primary, it was clear that it was a two-man race: the millionaire liberal, Hull, leading in the polls, and Obama, who was the figurehead of an impressive grass-roots campaign. One month before the vote, The Chicago Tribune “just happened” to reveal, at the end of a long profile of Hull, that during a divorce proceeding, Hull’s second wife filed for an order of protection. This revelation proceeded to erupt into a full-fledged scandal.  This scandal destroyed Hull’s campaign and handed Obama an easy primary victory.

The Tribune reporter who wrote the story later admitted in print that the Obama camp had “worked aggressively behind the scenes” to push the story. However, a lot of folks in Chicago believe that Axelrod leaked the initial story. They will tell you that before signing on with Obama, Axelrod interviewed with Hull. They also point out that Obama’s TV ad campaign just happened to start at almost the same time. Axelrod swears up and down that “we had nothing to do with it” and that the campaign’s television ad schedule was in the works for a long time.

Axlerod’s explanation?

An aura grows up around you, and people assume everything emanates from you.

Obama has a history of Machiavellian political machinations, doing whatever it took at the time, to achieve the goal of his “laser-like focus”.

Just like Obama’s Promises, all of his Political Ideological Stances come with expiration dates.

If you do not believe that he knew about each and every one of the current scandals, which are threatening to topple his Regime, and have brought his second term to a standstill, and they all had, at least, Obama’s tacit approval, then you’ve been oblivious since January 21, 2009.

…or…you believe that MSNBC is an unbiased cable news channel.

Until He Comes,

KJ

According to proponents, it will do everything that’s needed, including slicing, dicing, and creating julienned fries.

Yesterday, ol’ Chuckie Schumer said that “illegal immigration will be a thing of the past” , while dismissing border security as “not a major concern”.

Rancher Robert Krentz, of Arizona, would disagree…if he were still with us.

Back on April 24, 2010, in a post titled “For Mr. Krentz”, I told the story of te murdered Arizona Rancher…

Police say Robert Krentz, whose family has been ranching in southern Arizona since 1907, was gunned down early Saturday morning, March 27th, 2010, by an illegal immigrant while out on his ATV tending to fences and water lines on the family’s 34,000-acre cattle ranch.

Reached by phone early Tuesday at his family’s ranch, Andy Krentz, Krentz’s oldest son, said his father was a churchgoing man who routinely went out of his way to help those in need.

“My father was a very good family man,” Krentz told FoxNews.com. “He supported his kids, supported his family. He went out of his way to help anybody we could without regarding to who they were.  It didn’t matter who they were.”

Sue Krentz, Krentz’s wife, said she was “pretty overwhelmed” by her husband’s death, which coincided with her parents’ deteriorating health.

“This is icing on the cake,” Krentz said.

And, now here we are, on the precipice of adding millions of new Democratic Voters onto the rolls, with Leaders of both political parties falling over each other in their mutal efforts to show how open-minded they are toward those who are in our sovereign nation illegally, doing illegal things.

My feelings concerning these “undocumented individuals” can be summed up in the following allegorical story, which went viral, a few years ago.  You may have seen this already, but it explains illegal immigration as succinctly as anything I’ve come across:

Let’s pretend I broke into your house.  When you discover me there, you insist I leave.  But I say, “I’ve made all the beds, washed the dishes, did the laundry, and cleaned the floors; I’ve done all the work you don’t like to do. I’m hardworking and honest (except for breaking into your house). Not only must you let me stay, you must also add me to your insurance plan, educate my kids, and provide these benefits to my husband, too (he will do your yard work, he’s honest and hardworking too–except for that breaking in part). If you try to force me out, I will call my friends who will picket your house and proclaim my right to be there! It’s only fair, because you have a nicer house than I do, and I’m trying to better myself. I’m hardworking and honest…except for, well, you know. I will live in your house, contributing only a fraction of the cost of my keep, and there is nothing you can do about it without being accused of selfishness and prejudice.

Oh yeah, I want you to learn my language so you can communicate with me.

Good plan..don’t you think?

Why are our representatives so intent on rewarding those who have broken our laws with impunity?

Back on May 20th, 2010, I wrote a post titled Illegality, Not Civil Rights.  In it, I included an answer to a comment from the previous day’s post by a young man named Benito, who claimed to be a member of a pro-illegal immigration group, perhaps here illegally himself:

What makes the current influx of illegal immigrants exempt from the rules and regulations that every other generation of immigrants to this country had to abide by in order to become legal citizens of the greatest nation in the world?

By being here illegally, they are not entitled to the same rights as natural-born or naturalized American citizens. (As I related earlier) They are like someone who breaks into someone’s home, does their dishes, cuts their yard, cleans their house, and then helps themselves to their food and drives their car without asking.  This is in no way a human rights issue. Freedom is God-given. And, with freedom comes responsibility. With citizenship comes responsibility, like paying taxes and making your own way.

I understand that people want a better life for themselves and their children.  We are all immigrants in this land, expect for American Indians, and they got here by crossing the Bering Straight.  But there is a huge difference between immigrating here legally and sneaking in illegally, between assimilating into an existing culture, and insisting on replacing a country’s existing culture with that of the country you left.

I’m all for assisting anyone in becoming a legal citizen of the United States, if that is their wish.  But, it must be done the right way, and they must accept responsibility for their illegal entry, show a willingness to learn our language, and embrace our American way of life, including respecting the American Flag.

A wide-open Southern Border is as big a threat to the sovereignty of the United States as anything that our enemies can throw at us right now.  

Senators, Congressmen…please quit playing political one-up-manship in an effort to seduce those who are here illegally into becoming members of your political party, by bribing them with citizenship. You do a great disservice and hurl an even larger insult to those generations of immigrants who came here legally, and willingly became Americans, embracing our culture and way of life as their own, pledging their loyalty to our flag, and sacrificing their lives for our freedom, as members of our Armed Forces.

SECURE THE BORDER NOW.

DEAL WITH THE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS THEMSELVES, LATER.

Here’s an idea…how about actually enforcing our existing laws?

Until He Comes,

KJ

Snowden said he turned over the documents to The Washington Post and the Guardian in order to expose the NSA’s vast surveillance of phone and Internet data.

The former technical assistant at the CIA, who had been working at the NSA as an employee of contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, said he became disenchanted with Obama for continuing the surveillance policies of George W. Bush, Obama’s predecessor.

“I don’t want to live in a society that does these sort of things … I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded,” Snowden told the Guardian, which published the video interview with him, dated June 6, on its website.

In Washington, several members of Congress and intelligence officials showed little sympathy for Snowden’s argument. The U.S. Justice Department already is in the initial stages of a criminal investigation.

“Anyone responsible for leaking classified information should be punished to the fullest extent of the law,” said Republican Mike Rogers, chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee.

So, is Edward Snowden an American Traitor…or a Hero?

The case for Snowden being a Traitor is quite simple: He leaked classified material to the American Press.

The problem is….that’s too simple an explanation.

By leaking the classified material, he exposed an egregious limiting of Americans’ Freedom by our own government, utilizing a system that was meant to assist in the prevention of Terrorist Acts against our country, not spy on innocent citizens, or to be used as a political tool.

Quite frankly, I have always considered Ron Paul a crazy old man, who, while making some good points about the economy, was a Father Conklin wannabe isolationist concerning America’s Foreign Policy.

His most ardent followers, the Paulnuts, were always pictured in my mind’s eye, as being around 25 years old, living in their Mom’s Basement, spouting conspiracy theories to anyone on the internet who would listen, reminiscent of the character “Warlock” from the movie “Live Free or Die Hard”.

Little did I realize, at the time, that those paranoid nutjobs weren’t so far out in left field, after all.

And, the thing is, surveillance is a lucrative business, in which a whole lot of non-government employees have high-level access to our nation’s secrets.

A 2010 Washington Post report found “close to 30 percent of the workforce in the intelligence agencies is contractors.”

Some 5 million people hold a government security clearance, according to a 2012 report by the Director of National Intelligence. About 1.4 million people have top-secret clearance, and half of those are the employees of private businesses.

Some 480,000 contractors held top-secret credentials as of last year, and 2,000 companies supply contractors to the intelligence agencies.

Among the largest of those companies is Booz Allen Hamilton, a privately owned consulting company located in Virginia.

The company has deep roots and many connections to the intelligence community.

The current director of national intelligence James Clapper is a former Booz Allen executive. The company’s current vice chairman Mike McConnell, was the DNI in the George W Bush administration.

According to the Washington Post, as of 2010, the company contracted more than 23,000 people to the government to do intelligence work at 23 agencies in 15 areas of expertise including technological intelligence, intelligence analysis, and counter intelligence.

The company is estimated to be worth $5 billion annually.

Edward Snowden, a former Booz Allen employee himself, may not be the last “whistleblower” to come forward.

So, the question remains…Traitor or Hero?

Does the urge to let American citizens know that their everyday lives are no longer solely their own business, trump loyalty to your job and any confidentiality agreement you may have signed while on that job?

Rush Limbaugh remarked on his radio program yesterday, that…

…This country is being run by people who do not appreciate the way it was founded. They do not appreciate the Constitution as written, and they are in the process of implementing and behaving as they wish the Constitution existed. They wish a Constitution existed which invests in government all power. They want all power. And they’re in the process of behaving as though they have it.

Nobody’s really pushing back to stop it. And that’s what all of these data mining scandals really focus on. We’re looking now at this Edward Snowden, the 29-year-old young man who has gone public with the PRISM program. And the real danger here — and look, John Bolton is out. Snerdley’s livid at this guy. A lot of people are. John Bolton is out saying, “This guy is a traitor and he needs to be charged and tried as a traitor.” And there are some people that think that if we’d have dealt with Bradley Manning when he gave up all those documents to Julian Assange, that this wouldn’t have happened.

Other people are sympathetic because this guy admitted he had all kinds of high hopes for Obama to stop this stuff, and Obama’s only exacerbated it and made it worse, which is one of the reasons he’s stated that he’s come forward. The real danger to me, though, is not one or two rogue employees at the IRS or the NSA or the CIA. The real danger is having a rogue administration. And we do, I think. This is the primary challenge that we face.

…I  don’t want to nitpick here, but he really didn’t whistle blow.  He should have –  technically — it’s complicated, but he — he’s actually didn’t engage in whistleblowing.  Now, the LA Times is saying that Edward Snowden is gone from his Hong Kong hotel, whereabouts unknown.  How anybody knows that, I don’t know.  I mean, how do you know he’s gone if you don’t know where he is?

But look at what we’re talking about here.  You just agreed, “Oh, the likelihood, yeah, he’s dead, somebody’s gonna kill him.”  We’re talking about our country?  Are we talking about our government?  Listen to this.  Listen.  How acceptable it is.  That’s right.  We can kill American, all we gotta do is find this guy with a drone, and “poof,” as Lanny Davis says, “poof,” he’s gone.  If we got a drone anywhere near where the dude is, Obama’s got his finger on the trigger, they keep telling us that.  I’ll bet you if they find this guy, we’ll know where Obama is every second of the day as they’re tracking him.  Be totally unlike Benghazi.

So…it’s complicated.  

I love my country. I hate this Administration. 

Snowden is being bankrolled by somebody, there’s no doubt about that. But, self serving or not, if he had not come forward, we would not know how badly Obama has expanded the surveillance on American citizens begun by passage of the Patriot Act. 

On the other hand, he has leaked our country’s secrets, causing a national conversation on the wisdom of allowing our government leaders to limit our freedom “to ensure our safety”.

And, that’s a national conservation this country must have.

A Traitor? He’s not Bradley Manning, that’s for sure.  A Hero? Possibly. This story is far from over.

And, our National Conversation is just beginning.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder in 17-year-old Trayvon Martin’s killing and has pleaded not guilty, saying he acted in self-defense. Circuit Judge Debra Nelson has previously denied a defense motion to delay the trial.

What actually happened that fateful night?  Orlandosentinel.com reported at the time, that

With a single punch, Trayvon Martin decked the Neighborhood Watch volunteer who eventually shot and killed the unarmed 17-year-old, then Trayvon climbed on top of George Zimmerman and slammed his head into the sidewalk, leaving him bloody and battered, law-enforcement authorities told the Orlando Sentinel.

That is the account Zimmerman gave police, and much of it has been corroborated by witnesses, authorities say. There have been no reports that a witness saw the initial punch Zimmerman told police about.

Zimmerman has not spoken publicly about what happened Feb. 26. But that night, and in later meetings, he described and re-enacted for police what he says took place.

In his version of events, Zimmerman had turned around and was walking back to his SUV when Trayvon approached him from behind, the two exchanged words and then Trayvon punched him in the nose, sending him to the ground, and began beating him. Zimmerman told police he shot the teenager in self-defense.

…This is what the Sentinel has learned about Zimmerman’s account to investigators:

He said he was on his way to the grocery store when he spotted Trayvon walking through his gated community.

Trayvon was visiting his father’s fiancée, who lived there. He had been suspended from school in Miami after being found with an empty marijuana baggie. Miami schools have a zero-tolerance policy for drug possession.

Police have been reluctant to provide details about their evidence.

…On Feb. 26, when Zimmerman first spotted Trayvon, he called police and reported a suspicious person, describing Trayvon as black, acting strangely and perhaps on drugs.

Zimmerman got out of his SUV to follow Trayvon on foot. When a dispatch employee asked Zimmerman if he was following the 17-year-old, Zimmerman said yes. The dispatcher told Zimmerman he did not need to do that.

There is about a one-minute gap during which police say they’re not sure what happened.

Zimmerman told them he lost sight of Trayvon and was walking back to his SUV when Trayvon approached him from the left rear, and they exchanged words.

Trayvon asked Zimmerman if he had a problem. Zimmerman said no and reached for his cell phone, he told police. Trayvon then said, “Well, you do now” or something similar and punched Zimmerman in the nose, according to the account he gave police.

Zimmerman fell to the ground and Trayvon got on top of him and began slamming his head into the sidewalk, he told police.

Zimmerman began yelling for help.

Several witnesses heard those cries, and there has been a dispute about whether they came from Zimmerman or Trayvon.

Lawyers for Trayvon’s family say it was Trayvon, but police say their evidence indicates it was Zimmerman.

One witness, who has since talked to local television news reporters, told police he saw Zimmerman on the ground with Trayvon on top, pounding him — and was unequivocal that it was Zimmerman who was crying for help.

Zimmerman then shot Trayvon once in the chest at very close range, according to authorities.

When police arrived less than two minutes later, Zimmerman was bleeding from the nose, had a swollen lip and had bloody lacerations to the back of his head.

Paramedics gave him first aid but he said he did not need to go to the hospital. He got medical care the next day.

The Daily Caller got access to the “Tweets”  of Trayvon.  They reveal a young man who was playing “Gangsta”, spewing vulgarities and talking tough.

Even though all the evidence seems to reveal that the young man was not as pure as the driven snow, it is still unfortunate that his young life ended that night.

Have those character flaws led to a re-writing of Trayvon’s life-story in an attempt to appease activists and convict George Zimmerman?

Just recently, a A court employee was placed on administrative leave for not turning text messages and photos from Tryvon’s phone, over to the defense. Former Prosecutor Wesley White said,

I was saddened by it, but I’m not surprised.

White had first learned about the evidence through the employee more than a month ago.

White led the Nassau County state attorney’s office before resigning in December, due to differences of opinion with the current prosecutor. He is now in private practice.

According to White, the photos Kruidbos got off the phone, were of a hand holding a gun and one depicted drugs. The content of the text messages wasn’t told to him.

I’m an officer of the court and I’m obliged to inform the court of any misconduct or any potential misconduct coming before the court. Whether it’s by the defense or prosecution.

This revelation led the Defense to release photos of a gun, marijuana plant and Martin’s text messages to the public. They announced that if prosecutors were going to label Zimmerman as the aggressor and Martin as the innocent bystander, they wanted the information to defend him.

However, the judge in the case, Judge Nelson,  has ruled that Defense Attorneys won’t be able to mention the teen’s drug use, suspension from school and past fighting during opening statements at the trial.

The thing is, since there were no eye witnesses as to what happened that night, shouldn’t Trayvon’s past behavior be taken into account?

The Miami Herald published the following on March 26th:

The Miami Gardens teen who has become a national symbol of racial injustice was suspended three times, and had a spotty school record that his family’s attorneys say is irrelevant to the facts that led up to his being gunned down on Feb. 26.

In October, a school police investigator said he saw Trayvon on the school surveillance camera in an unauthorized area “hiding and being suspicious.” Then he said he saw Trayvon mark up a door with “W.T.F” — an acronym for “what the f—.” The officer said he found Trayvon the next day and went through his book bag in search of the graffiti marker.

Instead the officer reported he found women’s jewelry and a screwdriver that he described as a “burglary tool,” according to a Miami-Dade Schools Police report obtained by The Miami Herald. Word of the incident came as the family’s lawyer acknowledged that the boy was suspended in February for getting caught with an empty bag with traces of marijuana, which he called “irrelevant” and an attempt to demonize a victim.

Trayvon’s backpack contained 12 pieces of jewelry, in addition to a watch and a large flathead screwdriver, according to the report, which described silver wedding bands and earrings with diamonds.

Trayvon was asked if the jewelry belonged to his family or a girlfriend.

“Martin replied it’s not mine. A friend gave it to me,” he responded, according to the report. Trayvon declined to name the friend.

Trayvon was not disciplined because of the discovery, but was instead suspended for graffiti, according to the report. School police impounded the jewelry and sent photos of the items to detectives at Miami-Dade Police for further investigation.

A lawyer for the dead teen’s family acknowledged Trayvon had been suspended for graffiti, but said the family knew nothing about the jewelry and the screwdriver.

I’ll bet they didn’t.

CiteHR.com, in a article titled “Why Does Character Matter?” states that

Character can be defined in a variety of ways. Mental images abound as to the true definition but perhaps they can be summed up as, the motivation to do what is right; or who you are when no one is watching. To be a person of character, one must posses certain character traits like patience, love, perseverance, self-control, humility, diligence, and so on.

…Personal character clarifies one’s value system and defines behavior in a most explicit manner. As we observe culture and human behavior, we can almost always trace backwards from behavior to find the meaning, values, and beliefs rooted in a person’s worldview that subsequently influences behavior. In other words, our behavior is often consistent with our values; the way we act has meaning based on what we believe about ourselves, other people, the world, and for many a higher power.

Potential evidence as to Zimmerman’s character comes from an attempt to meet with Trayvon’s parents, which they refused.  Of course, witnesses have come forth to testify on behalf of George Zimmerman, also.

The only evidence we have of Trayvon’s character are his spotty school record, and the bloody gashes on the back of Zimmerman’s head, where Trayvon repeatedly slammed it into the sidewalk.

Did Trayvon, as a witness has related he said to Zimmerman, lay an a@@ whuppin’ on Zimmerman or did the 6’1″ teenager slam Zimmerman’s head into the sidewalk because he was scared of the older, smaller, neighborhood watch volunteer?

An impartial jury will have to decide that….and if “content of character” matters.

Until He Comes, 

KJ