Degree of Madness

Happy Independence Day...I love you America!

Alabama Independence Day Tea Parties

Let freedom ring!  Celebrate Independence Day with other freedom-loving, limited-government activists at a Tea Party near you. 

In the Birmingham area:

(Note, I read in the Birmingham News that's "doors" will open at 4:30PM)

Montgomery, from my friend Don:

The Montgomery Tea Party Patriots will host a 4th of July rally and celebration
Saturday, July 4th at Overlook Park between the Alabama River and Bell Street in downtown Montgomery, Alabama between 5:30 and 6:30 PM. This celebration of our nation's independence is open to everyone who loves America.

On the schedule:
WWII airplane formation fly-over
honor/color guard
patriotic music by sound man and disk jockey “Dr. Sam”

Speakers (all topics related to the U.S. Constitution) include:

talk show host and emcee Greg Budell
talk show host Kevin Elkins
Dr. Bart Cook-nationalized medicine
George Sullivan a WWII, Korea and Vietnam veteran
Becky Gerritson-cap and trade speaker
Tom Mullens-author of "Common Sense Revisited, Awakening the Spirit of Liberty in the Inhabitants of America"

Bring your chairs, WATER, flags, noisemakers, signs, family, friends, and enthusiasm for our country. We will celebrate and educate on how dear liberty is to our country. Let us raise our voices in peaceful assembly to let our "leaders" know this is the country of "WE THE PEOPLE" as we honor the sacrifices of Americans from the beginning of our republic. We will present current legislation that is damaging to our freedom and contact information for your elected officials.

There will be celebrations going on at the River Walk Amphitheater. The Biscuits have a baseball game. The Alleyway is open and will have dining and entertainment. The Brewpub is a staple of fine dining. Linger at Overlook Park to view the fireworks display or take part in the other activities downtown. Plan to spend the night at the new Renaissance Hotel or the Hampton Inn.

There is ample parking close to Overlook Park. American Legion Post 210 has offered its parking lot at 903 Bell Street about 3 blocks away from the park across I-65. There are parking decks nearby, and parking on Bell Street will be allowed.

Visit the Montgomery Tea Party Patriots website @ http://ddforliberty.blogspot.com/.

Limestone & Morgan County:

It will be 9am to 11 am

Gateway Shopping Center on Sixth Street in Decatur (right off Beltline or Point Mallard Blvd)

Also, from Tea Party Patriots:

Priceville/Decatur, Alabama
Saturday, July 4, 2009
6-7:30 p.m.
Celebration Arena
Highway 67

Mobile:

Saturday at Spanish Plaza on Governement St from 4-8pm

Fort Payne:

The TEA Party will be at Fort Payne City Park at noon July 4th. James Martin and Jay Hollland will be speaking. Payton Sells, Jill Burt and Hunter Wright will be singing patriotic music.

Huntsville:

Saturday, July 4, 2009
7:00pm - Fireworks
Jaycee Fairgrounds (on Airport Rd)
2180 Airport Rd

Marshall County:

Boaz, Alabama
Saturday, July 4, 2009
2:00-4:00
Boaz Fairgrounds
Us Highway 431 Boaz, AL

I  know there are other Tea Parties being planned in Alabama and I'm trying to get details.  I will update this post with any new information.

Update from the Mobile Press-Register on Mobile area tea parties:

* Mobile: 4-8 p.m. Saturday at Spanish Plaza, 401 Government St.
* Eight Mile: Starting at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Historic Magee Farm, 6222 U.S. 45.
* Robertsdale: 2-6 p.m. Saturday at the Baldwin County Coliseum, 19477 Fairground Road.

Birmingham/Shelby County Independence Day Tea Party

Climate Change Energy Bill Passes 219-212

Democrats narrowly passed historic climate and energy legislation Friday evening that would transform the country’s economy and industrial landscape:

After months of negotiations, 211 Democrats and eight Republicans voted for the bill of more than 1,200 pages, setting the legislation on a path towards the Senate. There, it faces a far more uncertain future given the opposition of key moderates and the already-heated battle over health care.

The eight Republicans are:

Mary Bono Mack (Calif.), Mike Castle, Mark Steven Kirk (Ill.), Leonard Lance (NJ), Frank LoBiondo (NJ), John McHugh (NY), Dave Reichert (Washington), Chris Smith (NJ).

Blood and death in the streets of Iran

The horror is beyond description.  The pictures and videos are hard to watch but The Anchoress is right, we mustn’t not look.  Unimaginable Horror In Tehran Today (Very Graphic, Very Real for Iranians):

An Iranian blogger (whose URL I will not publish) live blogging from Baharestan Square in central Tehran today captures but brief glimpses of the unimaginable horror that took place today. Bus loads of protesters were stopped and unloaded from their buses by “black-clad police” and literally herded. When the massing was sufficient, as the barely controllably distraught Tehran caller to CNN described first hand, hundreds of the regime’s Basij thugs poured out of an adjoining mosque and commenced a massacre with axes, clubs, guns and gas.

...

This is the Iranian regime, wading into its own unarmed people and axing them to death, bludgeoning women (seen as the greatest threat to the regime) and throwing them to their deaths from pedestrian bridges. The same Iranian regime whose embassy officials are invited to American embassies around the world to celebrate on July 4th, of all things, a successful revolution.

President Obama has at last come to his senses and rescinded his invitation to Iranian diplomats to "celebrate" Independence Day at U.S. embassies:

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who had authorized diplomatic posts earlier this month to invite Iranians to their Independence Day parties, sent out a cable rescinding the invitations.

“Unfortunately, circumstances have changed, and participation by Iranian diplomats would not be appropriate in light of the unjust actions that the president and I have condemned,” she said. Embassies that had already invited Iranian diplomats were instructed to disinvite them.

Not that any of them were going to show up anyway.  What a meaningless gesture at this point.  Ed Morrissey:

Besides, what Independence Day values would the Iranian regime want to celebrate with us?  Freedom of speech?  Freedom of religion?  The freedom to peaceably assemble or petition government for a redress of grievances?  Obama himself insists that he’s supporting these, while inviting the same regime that explicitly opposes them to celebrate our freedoms.

That’s not a choice that Iranians make, Mr. President, but a choice the oppressive regime makes for them.  We should be ashamed of ourselves for inviting them to celebrate those freedoms while they deny them to their own people.  The fact that it’s taken this long to just get it reconsidered is simply shameful.

Holy terror:  "It's beyond fear," said a woman who arrived at a U.S. airport from Iran but still did not want her name used for fear for her safety. "The situation is more like terror."

 

They are dying in the streets.   Dying for their votes.  Their voices.

Bert Bank, R.I.P.

Alabama war hero, Bert Bank, has died at 94:

Tuscaloosa radio pioneer and Bataan Death March survivor Bert Bank passed away Monday night...

Bank also served two terms in the Alabama House of Representatives and one term in the Alabama Senate.  He also founded two radio stations in Tuscaloosa and started the Alabama Football Network to produce Crimson Tide football games. He remained producer emeritus until his death. 

Paul Finebaum replayed parts of an interview with Bank on his radio show this afternoon where he discussed his time as a prisoner of war in Japan and the Bataan Death March.  Finebaum has links to the audio of three interviews with Bank on his website here.  Bank wrote a book, Back From the Living Dead: The Infamous Death March and 33 Months in a Japanese Prison, which can be downloaded here.  And here is a link to more about the Death March at Wikipedia.

After one of the interviews Finebaum continued to talk about Bank and said he was a hero.  A week or so later he ran into Bank and he (Bank) told him he was not a hero.  The heroes were the ones who didn't come home.  With all due respect, I believe Bank was a hero and the life he lead before, during, and after his "living death", by all accounts, shows him to be a remarkable human being.  What loss.  But what a Blessing as well.  He lived 94 years, surviving the Bataan Death March and 33 months in a Japanese prison.  He was not defeated.

Rest in Peace, Bert.  We will miss you.  Roll Tide.

(Photo courtesy of Rolltide.com)

Press release from the University of Alabama:

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Retired Major Bert Bank one of the state's most prominent figures as a radio pioneer, state senator and civic leader, died Monday night in Tuscaloosa. He was 94. Bank was a survivor of the Bataan Death March and 33 months captivity in a Japanese Prison Camp in the Philippines in 1942-45 during World War II.

"Bert Bank was a great American war hero, a dedicated servant to his country and state, and a loyal fan and friend of the University of Alabama," Alabama athletics director Mal Moore said. "Few individuals have had the impact on the University like Bert. He knew every football coach, dating back to Wallace Wade, on a first name basis. He saw the first game ever played in Denny Stadium.

"His heroism during the Bataan Death March has been documented in books and movies. Not only has this country, state and University lost a magnificent leader but I've personally lost a close friend. My thoughts are with the entire Bank family during their time of mourning and I want to thank them for letting them share Bert with us for so many years."

Bank received his undergraduate degree from the University of Alabama and is also a graduate of the UA Law School. He received his commission as a Second Lieutenant through the ROTC program and was assigned to the 27th Bomb Group, arriving in the Philippines on Nov. 20, 1941.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, his unit was moved to the Bataan Peninsula on Dec. 24, 1941. After months of intense fighting, Bataan surrendered on April 9, 1942. Shortly thereafter the infamous Death March began during which approximately 20,000 prisoners died.

Bank was held in several locations including the Cabanatuan Prisoner of War Camp, in which 2,656 Americans died. It was from that camp that he and 512 other prisoners were liberated by the 6th Ranger Battalion on Jan. 30, 1945.

Bank received the Purple Heart and Bronze Star for his actions in World World II, and spending two years at Valley Forge (Pa.) General Hospital, Bank retired from the Air Force with a rank of Major and returned to Tuscaloosa.

"I bear no bitterness or rancor," Bank said. "It was a different time and the world has changed. I hope there will come a day when all the people in the world will live in peace and happiness."

His book, "Back From the Living Dead", recounts his experiences as a prisoner of war.

Bank was one of the subjects of the best seller, "Ghost Soldiers", by Hampton Sides that detailed the rescue of the prison camp by U. S. Rangers on Jan. 30, 1945.

In 2003, Bank received the National Veterans Award. The National Veterans Award each year honors a veteran who has made the greatest contribution to further the patriotic interest of veterans and veterans' organizations throughout the country.

Some of the previous award winners include General Omar Bradley, Lt. General James Doolittle, Charles A. Lindberg, astronaut Neil Armstrong, former Alabama Governor John Patterson, Senator Barry Goldwater and Senator Howell Heflin.

He entered the radio business, starting Tuscaloosa's second station (WTBC) and later added the area's first FM station (WUOA). He started the Alabama Football Radio Network in 1953 and handled the network well into the 1980s.

Although he sold the radio station in 1984, Bank still served as producer emeritus of Crimson Tide Sports Network.

Bank was a classmate of Paul W. (Bear) Bryant for one term at Tuscaloosa High School and during their college careers at Alabama. They were reunited when Bryant returned as coach of the Crimson Tide in 1958.

"How many stations do you have on the network?" Bryant asked Bank.

"Seven," Bank replied.

"Seven?" Bryant repeated in disbelief.

"You've got to win if you are going to get stations," Bank said.

"Well," Bryant replied, "you better crank it up because we are going to win."

Bank grew the network which today exceeds 60 stations throughout Alabama and the south. Bank's stations served as a training ground for many youngsters who later became notable newsmen. Among the WTBC products are ABC national news reporter John Cochran, Birmingham television personalities Dave Baird and James Spann, CTSN announcer Tom Roberts, current WTBC owner John Sisty and disc jockey Tiger Jack Garrett as well as the late Stan Siegal.

Bank was elected to the University of Alabama's College of Communications Hall of Fame in 2001. In 2008, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Alabama.

Bank served two terms in the Alabama House of Representatives and one term as State Senator. He authored many bills that became law in Montgomery including a bill that resulted in the naming of Bryant-Denny Stadium. He fostered the implementation of a bill that resulted in the overhaul of the state's mental health facilities.

Bank earned many honors during his lifetime including the Thad Holt Distinguished Broadcaster's Award in 1969 and the Tuscaloosa Advertising Club's Man of the Year. He was a past president of the Alabama Broadcasters Association, the Junior Chamber of Commerce and Tuscaloosa Quarterback Club.

Bank enjoyed friendship with many of the South's most famous personalities including Charlie Finley, Adolph Rupp, Red Grange, Dizzy Dean, George Steinbrenner and coaching stars of the Southeastern Conference. He was a founding member of Indian Hills Country Club and in his prime played to an eight handicap. He continued to play up until his death and shot his age on several occasions.

He is survived by his two sons, Ralph Bank of Tuscaloosa and Jimmy Bank of Milwaukee, Wis., who serves as the traveling secretary for the Chicago Cubs and four grandchildren.

Bank's funeral services will be held Thursday, June 25 at the Moody Music Building on the UA campus. There will be a visitation from 8:30-10 a.m. (CDT) and the service will follow at 10 a.m. Bank will be buried alongside his parents, Sam and Bessie Bank, and his brother, Harold, at Evergreen Cemetery. Graveside services, with full military celebrations, will be held at 11 a.m. (CDT).

Waxman-Markey national energy tax

From higher energy costs to lost jobs to higher food prices, cap-and-trade promises to cap our incomes, our livelihoods, and our standard of living...:

On a recent stop in Illinois to explain the Department of Agriculture’s role in rural America, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told a group of 200 that when it comes to a cap-and-trade program “we ought not to be fearful of this future. We ought to embrace it.”

Perhaps Secretary Vilsack is reading a different piece of legislation than the Waxman-Markey climate change and national energy bill (H.R. 2454) that passed in the House Energy and Commerce Committee on May 22. Because even with slight modifications to the bill during the Energy and Commerce Committee’s markup, it still presents a grim future that will have a devastating economic impact on those living and working throughout rural America.

...A national energy tax will impact all of us. If you like being warm in the winter, you are going to be affected. If you like being cool in the summer, you are going to be affected. If you own a farm, if you like to eat, if you run a small business or work in one, you are going to be affected. If you want to go anywhere, this bill will affect you.

If anyone out there (Obama supporters in particular) doubts the truth of the above statements, here is what candidate Obama himself had to say about cap-and-trade:

You know, when I was asked earlier about the issue of coal, uh, you know — Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad. Because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, you know, natural gas, you name it — whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, uh, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers.

...Um, if you can’t persuade the American people that yes, there is going to be some increase in electricity rates on the front end, but that over the long term, because of combinations of more efficient energy usage, changing lightbulbs and more efficient appliance, but also technology improving how we can produce clean energy, the economy would benefit.

Unfortunately Americans don't live "in the long term".  We live in the present where it gets really hot in summer and really cold in winter.  Think we can convince the unility companies to wait until "the long term" to get paid? 

The devil is in the details but the Waxman-Markey bill will no doubt include much of what Obama wants and he will no doubt sign it if it passes. 

According to the Obama administration unemployment will be at 10 percent in the next couple of months:

The U.S. unemployment rate is likely rise from already high levels to 10 percent in the next couple of months, a White House spokesman said on Monday.

"I think the president has said this, and I would certainly say this, I think you're likely to see unemployment at 10 percent within the next couple of months," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.

It could get much worse if this irresponsible bill becomes law.  It could be the breaking point.

The Men of Normandy

President Ronald Reagan, June 6 1984:

The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge -- and pray God we have not lost it -- that there is a profound, moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt.

Here, in this place where the West held together, let us make a vow to our dead. Let us show them by our actions that we understand what they died for. Let our actions say to them the words for which Matthew Ridgway listened: ``I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.''

via Flopping Aces

Iowahawk presents the all new 2012 Pelosi GTxi

Obama's rules

Principles for Managing Ownership Stake:

Largely overlooked in the coverage of the historic bankruptcy filing by GM, President Barack Obama laid out his four principles for government ownership for financial firms. (my emphasis)

Chilling words.  Government ownership of formerly private enterprises. 

Rule number three:

After any up-front conditions are in place, the government will protect the taxpayers’ investment by managing its ownership stake in a hands-off, commercial manner. The government will not interfere with or exert control over day-to-day company operations. No government employees will serve on the boards or be employed by these companies.

After the up-front conditions are mandated no government employee will need to serve on the board.  The "rules" will be in place, the board will have no choice but to follow them.  This is no slippery slope.  This is a downhill slalom and once we hit bottom it will be a long, difficult climb to get back up.  If it's not too late by then.  If we're going to turn back this socialist clock, we'd better get started.