Remembering Neil Armstrong… When Men Walked on the Moon

Almost everyone in the baby-boomer generation and older knows exactly where they were when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.  I was a junior in high school at the time and my father gathered up the whole family plus any additional kids that were over visiting to watch the event on our black and white TV.  “This is a moment you will remember forever!” he said, “even when we have sent a man to Mars or left our solar system”; both things that people of our generation expected would happen in our lifetime.  Every one of us chanted the phrase: “One Small step for man; One giant step for mankind”

Video: Neil Armstrong One Small Step

Now at Neil Armstrong’s death the United States of America no longer even has a space program and we have to pay for and hitch a ride with the Russians or the Chinese if we want to go out into space.  John F. Kennedy must be spinning in his grave along with my father.  And Neil Armstrong certainly never thought he’d see the day we didn’t have a space program in 1969 as he was the first man to walk on the moon.

Neil Armstrong left us today and travelled farther than the moon… Perhaps he will shine his good graces back onto us?!?  Ask Marion~

Judson Phillips - Tea Party Nation:

Like so many Americans, I took a moment to remember Neil Armstrong today. He was a hero to so many in my generation.

I was ten years old when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Like all of my friends, that July I wanted to be an astronaut. For three years we watched with incredible pride as America put a total of twelve men on the moon.

Then we gave up.

We walked away.

For forty years, the moon has not seen a visitor from earth. In the next few years, man will probably return to the moon. But it will not be an American who returns to the moon.

History might record 1969 as America’s high water mark. We were the undisputed world power. We put men on the moon. We had the highest standard of living. People wanted to be Americans.

America has lost its greatness. Children today are not taught this nation is great. In some areas, it is controversial to have children recite the pledge of allegiance.

When Neil Armstrong returned to the Earth in 1969, he was the most famous man in the world. He could have done anything he wanted to do. He chose to leave the space program and ultimately teach engineering at the University of Cincinnati.

Starting in the 70’s America began its retreat from greatness. Instead of continuing space exploration, politicians decided to take that money and spend it on programs that exist only to assure their reelection.

One of the greatest Americans from the 20^th century passed today. Today we look back at the day Neil Armstrong became the most famous man in the world. Then America was a great nation, committed to being the best in the world.

Today America is fading. We have only a short time left to turn the nation around and try to regain the greatness America once had.

Astronaut Neil Armstrong Dies at 82

First moonwalker Neil Armstrong's death at the age of 82 marks the passing of a "reluctant American hero," as well as the dimming of the Space Age's brightest moment.

His death followed complications from heart-bypass surgery he underwent this month, Armstrong's family said today in a statement released by NASA. The first public report of Armstrong's death came via NBC News' Cape Canaveral correspondent, Jay Barbree, a longtime friend.

Armstrong has been immortalized in human history as the first human to set foot on a celestial body beyond Earth. "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind," he radioed back to Earth from the moon on July 20, 1969.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said that "as long as there are history books, Neil Armstrong will be included in them."

Armstrong's fellow moonwalker on the Apollo 11 mission, Buzz Aldrin, was among the legions mourning his passage. "We are missing a great spokesman and leader in the space program," Aldrin said in a BBC interview. He said he'd remember Armstrong "as being a very capable commander and leader of an achievement that will be recognized until man sets foot on the planet Mars."

Michael Collins, the crewmate who circled the moon in the Apollo 11 command module while Armstrong and Aldrin took that first trip to the lunar surface, also paid tribute to his commander in a NASA statement: "He was the best, and I will miss him terribly."

President Barack Obama said that Armstrong and his crew "carried with them the aspirations of an entire nation," and that the first steps on the moon "delivered a moment of human achievement that will never be forgotten."

"Today, Neil's spirit of discovery lives on in all the men and women who have devoted their lives to exploring the unknown — including those who are ensuring that we reach higher and go further in space," Obama said in a White House statement. "That legacy will endure — sparked by a man who taught us the enormous power of one small step."

The "one small step" served as the climax of a superpower space race with the Soviet Union, and arguably established the United States' primacy in outer space for decades to come. But Apollo 11 also set a precedent for peaceful cooperation in space. "We came in peace for all mankind," the plaque left behind on the moon read. At one point during Armstrong's first moonwalk, he stopped for what he called a "tender moment" and set down a patch to commemorate NASA astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts who died in the course of their duties.

Before and after the moon
The Ohio-born Armstrong began his career in aerospace as a Navy fighter pilot who served with distinction in the Korean War. During the 1950s, he was a test pilot with experience flying more than 200 kinds of aircraft. He was accepted into NASA's second astronaut class in 1962, and during his mission as Gemini 8 commander in 1966, he tamed his wildly spinning capsule and brought it in for an emergency landing.

That quiet cool served him well during Apollo 11, when he had to take manual control of the lunar module, nicknamed Eagle, during the landing. When the craft touched down in the moon's Sea of Tranquility, about 30 seconds' worth of fuel remained.

"Houston, Tranquility Base here," Armstrong reported to Mission Control. "The Eagle has landed."

Armstrong and Aldrin spent more than 21 hours on the lunar surface, including two and a half hours' worth of moonwalking. They were amazed to come back to Earth and see how millions of people across the planet had followed their exploits. "Neil, look up there," Aldrin told him as he pointed at a TV screen. "We missed the whole thing."

After his moon mission, Armstrong took a low profile, becoming what his family called a "reluctant American hero who always believed he was just doing his job." He left NASA in 1971, and took on executive positions in the aerospace industry as well as a teaching position in the University of Cincinnati's engineering department. Armstrong served on several policy commissions, including the presidential panel that investigated the 1986 Challenger explosion.

Concerned about future spaceflight
In his latter years, Armstrong became increasingly concerned about America's continuing leadership in space. He was a strong proponent of efforts to send American astronauts back to the moon, and feared that NASA's cancellation of its return-to-the-moon program would cede America's position as a leader in space exploration to other nations.

"Some question why America should return to the moon," Armstrong told a House committee in 2010. "'After all,' they say, 'we have already been there.' I find that mystifying. It would be as if 16th-century monarchs proclaimed that 'we need not go to the New World, we have already been there.'"

When NBC's Jay Barbree asked Armstrong last month to reflect on the future of spaceflight, for the 43rd anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, the former astronaut pointed to remarks in which he said the lunar environment was "an exceptional location to learn about traveling to more distant places."

"I am persuaded that a return to the moon would be the most productive path to expanding the human presence in the solar system," he wrote.

Armstrong was famous for staying out of fame's spotlight as much as he could. Some outsiders may have faulted him for his reticence, but not his fellow astronauts.

"Most of our group in those days could have accomplished the challenge of the mission," Apollo 7 astronaut Walt Cunningham told NBC News' James Oberg in an email, "but I do not know a one that could have handled the resulting notoriety as well as Neil did."

Over the past year, Armstrong was a bit more in the public eye. Last November, he and other space pioneers — including Aldrin, Collins and John Glenn, the first American in orbit — were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal during a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol.

In February, Armstrong spoke at Ohio State University during a February event honoring the 50th anniversary of Glenn's history-making spaceflight. In May, Armstrong joined Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, at Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida to support the opening of the National Flight Academy, which aims to teach math and science to kids through an aviation-oriented camp.

On Aug. 7, just two days after his 82nd birthday, Armstrong underwent quadruple-bypass heart surgery after flunking a medical stress test. At the time, his wife, Carol, reported that her husband was "doing great" — but today the family said complications from that surgery led to his death.

Concerned about future spaceflight
In his latter years, Armstrong became increasingly concerned about America's continuing leadership in space. He was a strong proponent of efforts to send American astronauts back to the moon, and feared that NASA's cancellation of its return-to-the-moon program would cede America's position as a leader in space exploration to other nations.

"Some question why America should return to the moon," Armstrong told a House committee in 2010. "'After all,' they say, 'we have already been there.' I find that mystifying. It would be as if 16th-century monarchs proclaimed that 'we need not go to the New World, we have already been there.'"

When NBC's Jay Barbree asked Armstrong last month to reflect on the future of spaceflight, for the 43rd anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, the former astronaut pointed to remarks in which he said the lunar environment was "an exceptional location to learn about traveling to more distant places."

"I am persuaded that a return to the moon would be the most productive path to expanding the human presence in the solar system," he wrote.

Armstrong was famous for staying out of fame's spotlight as much as he could. Some outsiders may have faulted him for his reticence, but not his fellow astronauts.

"Most of our group in those days could have accomplished the challenge of the mission," Apollo 7 astronaut Walt Cunningham told NBC News' James Oberg in an email, "but I do not know a one that could have handled the resulting notoriety as well as Neil did."

Over the past year, Armstrong was a bit more in the public eye. Last November, he and other space pioneers — including Aldrin, Collins and John Glenn, the first American in orbit — were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal during a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol.

In February, Armstrong spoke at Ohio State University during a February event honoring the 50th anniversary of Glenn's history-making spaceflight. In May, Armstrong joined Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, at Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida to support the opening of the National Flight Academy, which aims to teach math and science to kids through an aviation-oriented camp.

On Aug. 7, just two days after his 82nd birthday, Armstrong underwent quadruple-bypass heart surgery after flunking a medical stress test. At the time, his wife, Carol, reported that her husband was "doing great" — but today the family said complications from that surgery led to his death.

Slideshow: Neil Armstrong: 1930 - 2012

Technorati Tags: US Space Program,NASA,obituary,moon,astronauts,outer space,American greatness,Neil Armstrong,first man to walk on the moon,One Small step for man,One giant step for mankind,Gene Cernan,Obamaland,Congressional Gold Medal winner,John Glenn,Buzz Aldrin,JFK,John F. Kennedy,American heros,American pioneers,baby-boomers,space,remembering,history,the Final Frontier,Camelot

Democrats’ History of Racism

by B. Christopher Agee   -   Western Journalism

Here's a bit of American history guaranteed not to appear in any government-approved history book. The Democrat party has, throughout its existence, represented the bigotry and racism they seek to project onto Republicans.

The informed readers of this article are likely familiar with the racist roots of the political party aptly portrayed by a jackass, but much of the general population, especially outspoken Democrats, are woefully ignorant of any such facts.

Ask the nearest Democrat about Republicans and race and even the mayor of a substantial American city might just respond with, "They are racist."

In reference to their own party, Dems will likely say they led the fight for civil rights throughout the years, though a cursory review of the party will prove this assertion wrong. For instance, this was the party that established the Ku Klux Klan as its enforcement arm. Powerful Democrat politicians have appointed klansmen to high-ranking positions in American government for a century, yet have somehow convinced the vast majority of blacks that Republicans are the bad guys!

The KKK was used to intimidate voters, black and white, into voting Democrat - or not voting at all.

Through violence, property damage, rape, and murder, Democrats were able to secure a huge majority of the black vote comprised of those afraid to cast an alternate ballot. Disgustingly, they have somehow been able to maintain that death-grip on the African-American community to this day.

When these reprehensible strategies, though unquestionably effective, did not satiate their need to keep the black population down, Democrat-supported legislation such as Jim Crow laws made sure these minorities would remain second-class citizens even after the ratification of the 13th Amendment. There are plenty of examples of heralded Democrats, including Presidents LBJ and Truman, expressing disdain for blacks in their own words.

Republicans, thankfully, emerged as the pro-freedom, anti-slavery alternative to the juggernaut that was the Democrat party. Despite the fact that significantly more Republicans supported the 1964 Civil Rights Act than did Democrats (and the fact that Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first to initiate the legislation which finally passed and was enacted under Democrat Presidents JFK and LBJ), the party of the left has somehow hoodwinked much of the black community into thinking they are its savior. In fact until the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Martin Luther King was a Republican, re-registering as a Democrat as part of the negotiations, and so were most blacks Republicans (the party of Abraham Lincoln) until that time. Facts like these are part of the reason the Progressives consistently fight to re-write and edit the history that is taught and skew media productions.

Of course, today's Democrats will say, if they concede these points at all, that this is all ancient history, but I respectfully disagree. In much the same way that it did in the late 1800s, the Democrat party needs the black vote and, increasingly, the Hispanic vote to pull heavily for their side in order to win elections.

While paying them mere lip service, liberals pass legislation such as a broken welfare system rewarding poor mothers for having out-of-wedlock children and punishing them for getting married, thus keeping minorities at the mercy of government handouts. This makes them beholden to a party that represents views, such as support for abortion and gay marriage, that are diametrically opposed to those of many in the black community.

Democrats know they cannot intellectually compete with a party that, at its core, simply wants to provide individual liberty, encourage strong families and reduce abortions (which equal approximately the death toll of the 9/11 attack every two days in the black community alone), so they continue to repeat the old diatribe that Republicans are the real racists.

The GOP, which was the first to name a black Supreme Court Justice and Secretary of State, must defend itself against accusations based purely in the imagination of Democrats, often with figurative or literal blood on their own hands.

Each February, Democrats promote Black History Month with a vengeance, hoping to stoke the race war embers and elicit even more loyalty from the black community. I would promote a the study of accurate black history, not just during the shortest month but year round, and it's relationship with a Democrat party that has been patronizing at its best and deadly at its worst.

Unfortunately, I feel that would be the only chance Republicans have of attracting a voting bloc that has continually been misled into hating the wrong political party.

NAACP Furthers Mission of KKK

Black Pastors’ ‘Amen; Turning to ‘Oh My!’

Black Pastors Launch Anti-Obama Campaign to Convince African Americans to Withdraw Support for the President

Republicans: Black America's true friend

The Left’s Race Card

Race and Religion in Obamaland…

MLK’s Niece, Dr. Alveda King to Stand (Stood) With Glenn Beck at ‘Restore Honor’ Event in DC and Against Hate and Racism

GB: Liberation Theology… And How It Affects You – Important to Read and Watch!

Beck’s Founders Friday: African-American Founders

A black man: the progressives' perfect Trojan Horse

Is Obama Socially Rigging 2012?

Political Correctness…

Related Reading:

Uncle Sam's Plantation: How Big Government Enslaves America's Poor and What We Can Do About It, Revised and Updated Edition

Bamboozled: How Americans are being Exploited by the Lies of the Liberal Agenda

Liberating Black Theology: The Bible and the Black Experience in America

Negrophilia: From Slave Block to Pedestal - America's Racial Obsession

White Guilt

Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln

Technorati Tags: accurate black history,black history,knowledge is Power,racism,truth,rewriting history,liberal media bias,educate yourself,Star Parker,Lloyd Marcus,KKK,Democrat history,political correctness,Left's race card,Obamaland,JFK,LBJ,MLK,Dwight Eisenhower,Glenn Beck,Black Pastors,Christianity under attack,black conservatives,black Republicans,Abraham Lincoln,Frederick Douglass,control,politics of division of hate. politics of control,Democrat lies,Alveda King,Black History Month

Occupy: What Can Your Country Do For You??

People have no shame anymore.

This is another one of those intelligent people that think the government has a magical money tree, just for them...

Can we say get a JOB!?!

Pictures are worth a 1000 words…. This one says it all and is exactly why we should be afraid.  This is the OWS mentality, but look at this guy. He is not a college student or a misguided twenty something.  He is part of an ever growing nanny state subculture made up of all ages on the dole.

What happened to Camelot?  To Reagan’s Shining City on a Hill to American ingenuity and hard-working patriotism?  What happened to “Ask not what your country can do for you!  Ask what you can do for your country!” from President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration speech?

This sign and the mentality behind it is exactly why Obama and his Progressive New World Order Marxist friends will win the next election unless every American with common sense who fears for future generations, gets active today, speaks out, volunteers for campaigns of their choice and votes against Obama and Progressivism and for candidates who believe in America’s found values and  fiscal responsibility.

We only have to look to Europe to see again that socialism, by any name doesn’t work and can’t long endure. Time to go back to teaching our kids American Exceptionalism and hard-work. America and capitalism promises everyone an equal playing field, not guaranteed or equal success.

JACKIE KENNEDY: LYNDON JOHNSON KILLED JFK

NEW YORK – Tapes released by Caroline Kennedy reveal that Jackie Kennedy believed Lyndon B Johnson was the  mastermind behind JFK’s assassination.

Tapes recorded by the First Lady months after the President’s death are to be released ahead of schedule by her daughter Caroline.

In the tapes, to be broadcast by ABC, Kennedy reveals her belief that Johnson and a cabal of Texas tycoons orchestrated the murder of her husband by gunman Lee Harvey Oswald.

Kennedy, who later became Jackie Onassis, claims on the tapes that the Dallas murder was part of a larger conspiracy to allow Johnson to become American President in his own right.

Johnson, who served as state governor and senator for Texas, completed Kennedy’s term after the assassination and went on to be elected president.

Leading historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. recorded the tapes with Jackie Kennedy within months of her husband’s death.

They have been stored in a sealed vault at the Kennedy Library in Boston after orders from Mrs Kennedy that they would remain secret for 50 years after her death.

Now, 17 years after her mother died from cancer, daughter Caroline has opted to release the tapes early.

She has entered an agreement with the ABC network in the States who will air the tapes after agreeing to cancel their Kennedys drama series which upset Caroline and the Kennedy family.

The $10 million series starred Tom Cruise’s wife Kate Holmes as Jackie Kennedy and critically charted the family’s political and personal trials and tribulations since the 1930s. It has now been dropped in a deal with Caroline concerning these tapes.

ABC executives have confirmed that the revelations in the tapes are ‘explosive’ with Jackie Kennedy allegedly blaming President Lyndon Johnson for the death of JFK.

It is believed the tapes also include the suggestion that President Kennedy was having an affair with a 19-year-old White House intern with his wife even claiming that she found underwear in their bedroom.

Jackie Kennedy also admits to several affairs of her own in the tapes – one with Hollywood star William Holden and another with Fiat founder Gianni Agnelli – in  retaliation for the President’s indiscretions.

Yet there are also claims that the couple had discussed having more children in the weeks before his death and that their marriage was at a high point.

Noted Kennedy family historian and author Edward Klein said: “Jackie regarded the pretty young things in the White House as superficial flings for Jack. She did retaliate by having her own affairs.

“There was a period during which she was delighted to be able to annoy her husband with her own illicit romances.” It was reported that more than once JFK sent out the Secret Service to bring Jackie home, including off her future husband, Ari Onassis’, boat.

Source:  Weekly World News and Mail Online

The Kennedy Assassination was probably the first time that the people of America really took a good hard look at things that just didn’t make sense.  It was the first modern day conspiracy that played itself out on television and woke a few people up!  Just because something is a conspiracy does not mean that it is a theory or that it isn’t true!!  Who was behind the assassination of John F. Kennedy followed by Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King have been speculation and secrets for 50 years now…  Will “they” ever let the truth be known?

There is more than one theory as to who is responsible for the murder of JFK… Lyndon Johnson, the Cabal of International Bankers who control the Federal Reserve and the monetary system worldwide, the Mossad (Israeli Intelligence), the Mob plus a few others.  But pretty much everyone who knows the story or lived through it knows it wasn’t Lee Harvey Oswald.  But if Jackie felt it was their VP Lyndon Johnson there must something to that!

The amazing thing is that there have been conspiracies since and are conspiracies even bigger being played out in front of our faces right now before our eyes… that we just continue to ignore.  Why?  That is the million… er uh the $16 trillion dollar question, now isn’t it?!?

Related:

Who Killed the Kennedys?  – Some Great Links and Resources

Kevin Costner’s JFK – Director’s Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition)

The Kennedys miniseries

Ask Marion~

Happy Birthday Mr. President - WH (Valerie Jarrett): Americans Want Us To Move Forward…To Plan Obama’s B-Day Fundraiser!

So… Is it on or is it off?  U.S. media is keeping it all very hush hush, but the bets are that since the Grand Compromise bill has been signed that it is on!!  Guess we will find out~

Marilyn Monroe embarrassed President John F. Kennedy in front of the American people for his birthday in 1962.

Video:  Marilyn Monroe -  Happy Birthday Mr. President

For is 50th… Obama plans to insult the American people by having this lavish party for his 50th that will cost U.S. taxpayers (guesstimated) around $1.9 million when all is said and done… so after saddling us with another $2.5Trillion in debt he can simultaneously raise money, on our nickel) to be re-elected and do it to us again. What you didn’t get your invitation?  Well. you can take pride in the fact that you helped pay for it…

As Washington races to the finish line to solve the debt ceiling deadline, the president is still busy planning his birthday big money fundraising bash in Chicago on Wednesday. When asked if the president should postpone the party/fundraiser due to the country’s economic realities, WH advisor Valerie Jarrett said the American people want “us” to “move forward.” Advice to the White House, Americans may want to move forward, but with 9.2 percent unemployment that might be the next thing to tackle…not a fundraiser.

Andrea Mitchell: Do you think the president should go forward with his birthday celebration which is basically a fundraiser… Or should that be postponed given the economic realities?

Valerie Jarrett: I think what the American people want to see is for us to move this debate behind us and move forward.

Video:  Valarie Jarrett: American People Want The President To Fundraise

Source:  GOP.com 

Party Details from the UK…

Last updated at 11:27 AM on 1st August 2011

It was supposed to be the mother of all parties, now it may not happen at all.

President Obama's big 50th birthday is scheduled for August 3, the day after the debt talks deadline and the date that the U.S. had risked defaulting on its good faith and credit.

Despite the announcement of a deal on Sunday night, the champagne corks may not be popping in Chicago as doubts remain if the deal will actually make it through both houses of Congress.

Singing for the President? Jennifer Hudson was scheduled to join the bash at Chicago's Aragon Ballroom (Bummer she was one of my favorites!)

The party was planned for the Aragon Ballroom, which costs $40,000 to rent.

There is supposed to be a concert featuring jazz pianist Herbie Hancock and Jennifer Hudson, the star of Dreamgirls.

The entertainment was to be followed by a lavish dinner for couples giving $35,800 to Obama's campaign.

With the government scheduled to run out of money on Tuesday, an extravagant bash would hardly look good.

The plans are currently on hold, but senior White House officials are still saying the party would go forward only if the deficit negotiations and deadline to raise the debt limit ceiling have been resolved.

Booked to appear: Famed jazz pianist was said to providing some of the entertainment at the party

Glum: The President has said the birthday present he wants more than anything else is 'a debt-ceiling deal' (wrapped in special hidden goodies that we are already finding… only hours after the bill was passed by the Senate and signed by Obama)

An official said: 'The President will not attend the event in Chicago if negotiations are ongoing.'

Mr. Obama has already cancelled a series of campaign fundraisers to stay in Washington for the tense negotiations that have angered the U.S. public, worried financial markets and raised fears of a first-ever U.S. debt default.

The fundraisers would have brought in millions of dollars for the re-election war chest, the campaign official said.

The President cancelled a planned trip to California and Seattle, put off a fundraiser in New York

Mr. Obama's last campaign fundraiser was on June 30 in Pennsylvania.

He reported raising $86 million in the quarter ended on June 30, far eclipsing the money raised by any of the Republicans vying for their party's nomination to compete against him in the 2012 president election.

Asked what he most wanted for his birthday, Mr. Obama said 'a debt-ceiling deal.'

Obama’s Lavish Birthday Plans

Happy Birthday, Mr. President

Originally posted: July 16th, 2011

If America defaults on its debts come Aug. 2 -- as the Obama folks warn, absent a deal by then -- what will President Obama do on Aug. 3? Why, host a big birthday bash for himself, of course, to raise cash for his re-election.

That's his plan right now, anyway. (He turns 50 on Aug. 4.) Tickets for a private birthday dinner with the prez will go for as much as $35,800 a couple.

We, too, want to wish the president a joyous birthday. But how can anyone take seriously his threats of default -- and those of underlings like Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner -- when Obama himself doesn't seem terribly concerned?

We, too, want to wish the president a joyous birthday. But how can anyone take seriously his threats of default -- and those of underlings like Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner -- when Obama himself doesn't seem terribly concerned?

Indeed, the president and his fellow Democrats haven't seemed particularly worried about the nation's fiscal state for some time now:

* Obama has yet to produce any detailed proposal for a debt-ceiling deal, including what budget cuts he'd make. So what is it, exactly, that negotiators are supposed to agree on before Aug. 2?

* Since the president's $3.7 trillion baloney budget -- with its monstrous $9.5 trillion in deficits over 10 years -- was nixed in May by every voting Democrat and Republican in the Senate, he's yet to offer a new one.

* In 2010, House Dems failed their most basic responsibility: to pass a budget. It was Congress' first such failure in 36 years.

* House Republicans, by contrast, passed a long-range budget this year, addressing both short-term spending and long-term woes like Medicare. But the Democratic-controlled Senate voted that down -- without offering an alternative.

No wonder the warnings from Obama and Geithner have become more ominous: This week they said even Grandma might not get her Social Security check if no deal is reached by Aug. 2.

Their credibility is shot -- forcing them to heighten their threats.

Meanwhile, though, the prez has big plans for Default Day +1.

Enjoy your birthday, Mr. President.

Source:  NY Post  -  AFP/GETTY IMAGES  - Barack Obama

But Seniors… he might not be able to send out your social security checks.

• Obama not as old as he thinks
  POSTED JULY 15, 2011 AT 8:46 PM BY EDDIE SCARRY

  President Obama seems to have a little trouble keeping track of birthdays, even his own. During a press conference in late June he incorrectly identified his daughter Maliaas being 13 years old. She was 12 at the time and her birthday wasn’t for another five days.

  Then in another presser on Friday, Obama said he would be turning 50 “in a week.” Actually, he won’t hit his half-a-century mark for almost another three weeks, according to USA Today. His birthday is on Aug. 4.

  We hope, for his sake, his memory doesn’t fail him when it comes to his and Mrs. Obama’s anniversary. Just in case, it’s Oct. 3. 

• h/t Politico and Daily Thought Pad

Well… we didn’t default, but most people are very unhappy with ‘the deal’ still not resolved this morning… the day before Obama’s party most people feel that this extravagant party and fundraiser are a bit of slap in the face of the American people…. most of whom, now, plan not to vote for him.

At a time when many Americans can barely afford Burger King and a movie, Obama boasts of spending a billion dollars on his re-election campaign and a bundle (whatever the exact figure is) on a birthday party for himself.

Related:

When Will Obama Crack in Public?

NASA Kennedy Obama Connection to 2012 - Richard C. Hoagland

 

Video:  NASA Kennedy Obama Connection to 2012 - Richard C. Hoagland

A presentation by Richard C. Hoagland at the Secrets Conference. Including, finally - Who Really Killed Kennedy...and Why? On November 8, 2009, the SyFy television network (in association with NBC News) broadcast a major two-hour television Special, On November 21 -- Special to the Secrets Conference -- Hoagland presented "the rest of the 2012 story ...."

What If…

2012 the Movie... Fiction or Warning?

I was giving myself a mental break from the never ending barrage of news, events and negativity that we are living with these days… at least those of us who are paying attention.  As I was flicking through the channels, I came across the Movie 2012, beginning in 5-minutes. I had missed seeing it at the movies and only caught the tail end on television once before.

I watched it a little more intently than last time and before I was long into the movie, I found my mind racing.  Was this supposed to be pure entertainment or was this a warning? As we have moved into the Perfect Storm era I have become the ultimate ‘out of the box possibility thinker’, both for good and bad.  Then when I went online and found that several trailers had been disabled in reviews on the 2012 movie, my thoughts went into over-drive.

I’m not saying that the world is ending in 2012 but I’m not saying it isn’t either; that is for the man upstairs to know.  What I am saying is that much of what was interjected into the movie is true, is already happening or could happen.  And one of the main themes of the movie that sprung out at me was ‘the elite’ who were (and are) running the U.S. government as well as the governments of the world not warning their people, keeping the news about possible upcoming disasters hidden and in the end saving themselves.  Is there anyone out there who doesn’t think that would be the way it would go?

What in the World is Happening?  - Yosemite Caldera, earthquakes, tsunamis, New Madrid Fault, etc.

The Yosemite Caldera  -  Why are there news blackouts in the U.S. about the Caldera?

HAARP  -  Why has the government site been closed down?

HAARP, Chemtrails and Other Manmade Disasters

Think it isn’t possible?:  NatGeo - Scientists Make Dozens of Storms in the Abu Dhabi Desert

The New Madrid Earthquake Fault and Other Earthquakes

White House Posts  - Why would the White House Be Posting warnings about understanding earthquakes if this was completely far-fetched?:

Understanding Earthquakes and Their Impacts: Part 1

Understanding Earthquakes and Their Impacts: Part 11

US Navy’s Earth Changes USA Flood Map, New Madrid Earthquake ZoneNLE 2011: What Does the Navy Know?

Video: New Madrid Fault Line Mega Quake Has Started Sink HOLES IN CANADA

Video: Future Map of North America By Gordon Michael Scallion

Comet or Asteroids to hit in 2012

Video:  Planet X Nibiru - NASA 2012 Doomsday Info Leaked

Opposite View:  2012: No Comet

NASA Cannot Keep up With Killer Asteroids

Solar alignment  -  2012 Alignment of Planets  -  Galactic Realignment… Is it the End?

Shifting of the Poles  -  Causing bird and other deaths

Following the unexplained deaths of several thousand birds over the last two weeks, several months ago, events are now emerging that may offer a physics-based explanation for the mysterious deaths. It all begins on a runway in Tampa, where airport officials recently closed that runway in order to change the numeric designators painted there. Why are those numeric designators being changed? Because the Earth's magnetic poles are shifting and the numbers previously painted on the runway no longer match up with the magnetic measurements of sensitive airplane instruments (http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-01...).

National Geographic: Edgar Cayce on Shifting of the Poles

Video:  Magnetic Poles Have Shifted by 10%  & Leaks Found in Earth’s Magnetic Field  -  Our magnetic field flips every 11-years.

NASA Warns of Super Solar Storm 2012  &    Fox News: 2012 Alert!

And then I started wondering about an article I saw the other day on Collectivists and China being the first globalist experiment. 

My mind took me to a whole different realm.  All of a sudden the picture of President George W. Bush and a whole lot of other world leaders, who had ignored every Chinese civil rights, animal rights (sorry about the missing photos), and IOC violation as well as festering political and economic problems with China to award them the games, sitting together at the Chinese Olympics, popped into my head.

And then as I was watching the chosen people filing into the arcs I had a strange thought… what if there aren’t arcs, but cities built in areas that might not be affected or reached by massive amounts of water and the devastation, like on the Earth’s highest peaks… like the Himalayas, as I remembered the story of China’s ghost cities… What if??

There are amazing satellite images that show sprawling cities built in remote parts of China that have been left completely abandoned, sometimes years after their construction, or basically never lived in.

Elaborate public buildings and open spaces are completely unused, with the exception of a few government vehicles near Communist authority offices.

Some estimates put the number of empty homes at as many as 64 million, with up to 20 new cities being built every year in the country's vast swathes of free land, some high up in the mountains.

As photographs have emerged a Chinese government think tank warns that the country's real estate bubble is getting worse, with property prices in major cities overvalued by as much as 70 per cent.  Does that make any sense?  No more than perhaps they are getting ready for something?  The only question is what?

 

 

This $19 billion development is packed with blocks of empty houses

This giant new development doesn't even have a name yet.

Ordos, China: A Modern Ghost Town

ELITE TSUNAMI BUNKERS! "WHAT ARE THE ODDS… ROCKEFELLERS RETREAT TO HIGHEST PLACE IN THE WORLD (HIMALAYAS) WEEKS BEFORE RUMORED POLE SHIFT"… ROTHCHILD FAMILY ALREADY THERE.

Think this is crazy?  Perhaps? But word has it that the Rothchilds, the richest and most powerful family in the world, are already held up in the Himalayas and that the Rockefellers and other elites are headed there too!  Other big names have been seen there including Warren Buffet and Bill Gates with their families.  Tom Cruise and Oprah are also names I’ve seen.  And remember the Obama’s recent extravagant trip there?  All just a coincidence that all these people are going to India… and China? Perhaps?!? You be the judge!

Think this guy in the video below looks or sounds a bit crazy?  So did John Cusack when he first saw Woody Harrelson’s character in 2012… didn’t he?

Video:  The World’s Wealthiest are Running for Cover!!!

2012  or 2012 blue-ray version

The Mystery of 2012: Predictions, Prophecies, and Possibilities  - Interesting Read

Video:  Illuminati 2012 New World Order Antichrist Conspiracy

I am not saying I do or don’t believe any of this, but what if?  And why do we see things like: BREAKING NEWS: Iceland to apply for super-injunction to stop media reporting on the new ash cloud from last weekend’s volcano… while volcano eruption disrupts Air Force One’s travels, for a second time.  And why would you hide stuff like that?

Have we reached the era of the Perfect Storm?  Where all and every crisis, worry, emergency and chaos have come together at the same time: 2012 Prophecies; Bible Prophecies; manmade chaos and political unrest created by globalists, progressives, a United Nations coalition, radical Islam and worse; natural and weather disasters which will in turn create food, water and monetary shortage disasters; political and economic disasters in the U.S. and worldwide; and end times or a worldwide crisis of faith?  Or is all this nonsense and coincidence?  (Wall Street Bankers and elites are buying up farm land with water and water rights as quickly as they can!)

Are you prepared for an emergency, any emergency whether it is a natural disaster predicted or a complete surprise; a manmade disaster: HAARP, political, or unexpected; prophecy; shortages; or even just a local or personal emergency?  Most of us are not… at any level.

Only you can answer whether you believe the questions and information above, but not without information.  And what if only part is true or even one event occurs?  It never hurts to be prepared and aware.

Massive twister hits Joplin, Missouri

Most of the town, some reports say up to 75% of the town, has been destroyed after being hit by a massive tornado. A caller from the area describes the horrific scene, likening it to what the Kosovo bombings looked like on TV. Thankfully, the good people in the area have stepped to the plate and flocked the area to do whatever they can to help. An emotional account of a devastating event in Missouri -- listen to it HERE.

weatherchannel:  Northwest Ohio -  Severe Weather Alert: TORNADO WARNING 

Just got WORSE. NOAA 45% in Several States - http://bit.ly/jdciYN

Already 8 watch areas, including a tornado watch. Track the severe weather from our tracker page: http://wxch.nl/imvf7Y

Federal Government Helps Nature Destroy 1M+ Acres Farmland; Storms Destroy Entire Towns, Kill Hundreds  or how about the Federally Created Dust Bowl in California, that many feel was a test to see how the Sheeple, as they consider us, would react.

Hope, Faith, Charity, ‘Knowledge’, Leadership, Strength and Sticking Together is the solution. God, Groceries which includes Water, Gold (or Silver) and Guns, which includes Ammo are needed for preparation.  Make sure you have physical addresses written down for your loved ones, on on electronic sources, and know where everyone plans to go in an emergency.  A short wave radio and or an emergency band radio isn’t such a bad idea either.  And if you can, prepare for more than just yourself and your immediate family and prepare to protect it.

What if nothing happens?  You are prepared with extra supplies.  But what if something, even one of the possibilities above, happens and you are not ready?

Interesting Video:  NASA Kennedy Obama Connection to 2012 – Richard C. Hoagland

By Marion Algier – Ask Marion with research contributions by Jean Stoner

My favorite line in the movie:  “Who would have thought that the guys on the corner with the cardboard signs had it right?!?”  What if?

Agenda 21 For Dummies

Agenda 21 explained very well. Including implications it will have on humanity. Opinions within the video come in some cases from those that were in on the negotiations. Truly an interesting watch.

"Today we need a nation of minute men; citizens who are not only prepared to take up arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as a basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom.

The cause of liberty, the cause of American, cannot succeed with any lesser effort."

- President John F. Kennedy, January 29, 1961  (h/t to A-HUMAN-RIGHT . com)

Video:  Agenda 21 For Dummies

Related Videos:

Video: Clinton Is Asked About Concentration Camps in the USA

Video: The Day After The Dollar Crashes - A Survival Guide for the Rise of the New World Order

 

Agenda 21 In One Easy Lesson

Awareness of Agenda 21 and Sustainable Development is racing across the nation as citizens in community after community are learning what their city planners are actually up to. As awareness grows, I am receiving more and more calls for tools to help activists fight back. Many complain that elected officials just won’t read detailed reports or watch long videos. “Can you give us something that is quick, and easy to read that we can hand out,” I’m asked.

So here it is. A one page, quick description of Agenda 21 that fits on one page. I’ve also included for the back side of your hand out a list of quotes for the perpetrators of Agenda 21 that should back up my brief descriptions.

Related Reports: Thorough Indepth Reports

A word of caution, use this as a started kit, but do not allow it to be your only knowledge of this very complex subject. To kill it you have to know the facts. Research, know your details; discover the NGO players in your community; identify who is victimized by the policies and recruit them to your fight; and then kill Agenda 21. That’s how it must be done. The information below is only your first step. Happy hunting.

What is Sustainable Development?

According to its authors, the objective of sustainable development is to integrate economic, social and environmental policies in order to achieve reduced consumption, social equity, and the preservation and restoration of biodiversity. Sustainablists insist that every societal decision be based on environmental impact, focusing on three components; global land use, global education, and global population control and reduction.

Social Equity (Social Justice)

Social justice is described as the right and opportunity of all people “to benefit equally from the resources afforded us by society and the environment.” Redistribution of wealth. Private property is a social injustice since not everyone can build wealth from it. National sovereignty is a social injustice. Universal health care is a social justice. All part of Agenda 21 policy.

Economic Prosperity

Public Private Partnerships (PPP). Special dealings between government and certain, chosen corporations which get tax breaks, grants and the government’s power of
Eminent Domain to implement sustainable policy. Government-sanctioned monopolies.

Local Sustainable Development policies

Smart Growth, Wildlands Project, Resilient Cities, Regional Visioning Projects, STAR Sustainable Communities, Green jobs, Green Building Codes, “Going Green,” Alternative Energy, Local Visioning, facilitators, regional planning, historic preservation, conservation easements, development rights, sustainable farming, comprehensive planning, growth management, consensus.

Who is behind it?

ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability (formally, International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives). Communities pay ICLEI dues to provide “local” community plans, software, training, etc. Addition groups include American Planning Council, The Renaissance Planning Group, International City/ County Management Group, aided by US Mayors Conference, National Governors Association, National League of Cities, National Association of County Administrators and many more private organizations and official government agencies. Foundation and government grants drive the process.

Where did it originate?

The term Sustainable Development was first introduced to the world in the pages a 1987 report (Our Common Future) produced by the United Nations World Commission on Environmental and Development, authored by Gro Harlem Brundtland, VP of the World Socialist Party. The term was first offered as official UN policy in 1992, in a document called UN Sustainable Development Agenda 21, issued at the UN’s Earth Summit, today referred to simply as Agenda 21.

What gives Agenda 21 Ruling Authority?

More than 178 nations adopted Agenda 21 as official policy during a signing ceremony at the Earth Summit. US president George H.W. Bush signed the document for the US. In signing, each nation pledge to adopt the goals of Agenda 21. In 1995, President Bill Clinton, in compliance with Agenda 21, signed Executive Order #12858 to create the President’s Council on Sustainable Development in order to “harmonize” US environmental policy with UN directives as outlined in Agenda 21. The EO directed all agencies of the Federal Government to work with state and local community governments in a joint effort “reinvent” government using the guidelines outlined in Agenda 21. As a result, with the assistance of groups like ICLEI, Sustainable Development is now emerging as government policy in every town, county and state in the nation.

Revealing Quotes From the Planners

“Agenda 21 proposes an array of actions which are intended to be implemented by EVERY person on Earth…it calls for specific changes in the activities of ALL people… Effective execution of Agenda 21 will REQUIRE a profound reorientation of ALL humans, unlike anything the world has ever experienced… ” Agenda 21: The Earth Summit Strategy to Save Our Planet (Earthpress, 1993). Emphases – DR

Urgent to implement – but we don’t know what it is!

“The realities of life on our planet dictate that continued economic development as we know it cannot be sustained…Sustainable development, therefore is a program of action for local and global economic reform – a program that has yet to be fully defined.” The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide, published by ICLEI, 1996.

“No one fully understands how or even, if, sustainable development can be achieved; however, there is growing consensus that it must be accomplished at the local level if it is ever to be achieved on a global basis.” The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide, published by ICLEI, 1996.

Agenda 21 and Private Property

“Land…cannot be treated as an ordinary asset, controlled by individuals and subject to the pressures and inefficiencies of the market. Private land ownership is also a principle instrument of accumulation and concentration of wealth, therefore contributes to social justice.” From the report from the 1976 UN’s Habitat I Conference.

“Private land use decisions are often driven by strong economic incentives that result in several ecological and aesthetic consequences…The key to overcoming it is through public policy…” Report from the President’s Council on Sustainable Development, page 112.

“Current lifestyles and consumption patterns of the affluent middle class – involving high meat intake, use of fossil fuels, appliances, home and work air conditioning, and suburban housing are not sustainable.” Maurice Strong, Secretary General of the UN’s Earth Summit, 1992.

Reinvention of Government

“We need a new collaborative decision process that leads to better decisions, more rapid change, and more sensible use of human, natural and financial resources in achieving our goals.” Report from the President’s Council on Sustainable Development

“Individual rights will have to take a back seat to the collective.” Harvey Ruvin, Vice Chairman, ICLEI. The Wildlands Project

“We must make this place an insecure and inhospitable place for Capitalists and their projects – we must reclaim the roads and plowed lands, halt dam construction, tear down existing dams, free shackled rivers and return to wilderness millions of tens of millions of acres or presently settled land.” Dave Foreman, Earth First.

What is not sustainable?

Ski runs, grazing of livestock, plowing of soil, building fences, industry, single family homes, paves and tarred roads, logging activities, dams and reservoirs, power line construction, and economic systems that fail to set proper value on the environment.” UN’s Biodiversity Assessment Report.

Hide Agenda 21’s UN roots from the people

“Participating in a UN advocated planning process would very likely bring out many of the conspiracy- fixated groups and individuals in our society… This segment of our society who fear ‘one-world government’ and a UN invasion of the United States through which our individual freedom would be stripped away would actively work to defeat any elected official who joined ‘the conspiracy’ by undertaking LA21. So we call our process something else, such as comprehensive planning, growth management or smart growth.” J. Gary Lawrence, advisor to President Clinton’s Council on Sustainable Development.

Source:  Right Side News

UN Ordered Depopulation of 3-Billion People by Food Malnutrition Has Started – PBSpecial Report

Soros Moves to Control American Food and Grain Production… Created Price Increases and Shortages?

Eliminate Useless Eaters:  A Disease of the Elitist Mind

Alert: Soros and Friends Reorder Global Finance at New Bretton Woods

Our ‘Infected’ Planet

Don't forget about this from August of last year. Dems tried to pass the next step of Agenda 21…

Republicans Blast ‘Livable Communities’ Bill As Washington-Based Central Planning for Cities and Towns

The Senate Banking Committee passed the Livable Communities Act on Tuesday, moving the bill one step closer to final passage. The bill creates $4-billion in neighborhood planning grants for 'sustainable' living projects and a new federal office to oversee them.

Tuesday, August 03, 2010  By Matt Cover

Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut at a news conference on health care on Dec. 14, 2009. The five-term Democrat has decided not to run for re-election. (AP File Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

(CNSNews.com) – The Senate Banking Committee passed the Livable Communities Act on Tuesday, moving the bill one step closer to final passage. The bill creates $4 billion in neighborhood planning grants for “sustainable” living projects and a new federal office to oversee them.

Similar legislation in the House has been criticized by Republicans on the House Budget Committee, who charge that “the program’s aim is to impose a Washington-based, central planning model on localities across the country.”

In the Senate version, written by outgoing Chairman Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), the Livable Communities Act would designate $4 billion to aid local governments in planning high-density, walkable neighborhoods.

Premised on helping local governments to combat suburban sprawl and traffic congestion, the bill sets up two separate grant programs. One, known as Comprehensive Planning Grants, would go to cities and counties to assist them in carrying out such plans as the following:

-- “(1) coordinate land use, housing, transportation, and infrastructure planning processes across jurisdictions and agencies” and 
-- “(3) conduct or update housing, infrastructure, transportation, energy, and environmental assessments to determine regional needs and promote sustainable development; [and] 
-- “… (5) implement local zoning and other code changes necessary to implement a comprehensive regional plan and promote sustainable development.”  
The second grant type – Sustainability Challenge Grants – funds local efforts to:

--“(1) promote integrated transportation, housing, energy, and economic development activities carried out across policy and governmental jurisdictions; 
-- (2) promote sustainable and location-efficient development; and 
-- (3) implement projects identified in a comprehensive regional plan.”

To administer and regulate these new grants, the bill creates the Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities (OSHC) within the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

The legislation is designed to prod local communities toward high-density, public transit-oriented neighborhoods that concentrate large numbers of people into small geographic areas connected by train and bus networks.

These high-density neighborhoods would be combined with high-density commercial districts that – in theory – would reduce the need for daily driving and commuting.

In describing the Livable Communities Act, Dodd has said that “with sustainable development, our communities will cut traffic congestion; reduce greenhouse gas emissions and gasoline consumption; protect rural areas and green spaces; revitalize existing Main Streets and urban centers; and create more affordable housing.”

In his opening statement on Tuesday, Dodd said, “Over the past 50 years, poorly coordinated transportation, community development and housing policies led to growth away from urban areas and rural town centers. Between 1980 and 2000, the growth of the largest 99 metro areas in the United States consumed 16 million acres of rural land – about an acre for every new household.”

Dodd said that his bill would try to entice localities to move away from this model of suburban home- and land-ownership and toward a centrally planned model where local government officials make housing, business, and transportation decisions that steer residential and economic growth into designated high-density areas.

Dodd said that the new centralized development model would reduce traffic congestion, create jobs, and make residential and commercial development more environmentally friendly.

“This legislation provides for planning and capital grants so that regions can coordinate transportation, housing, and community development policies to reduce traffic congestion, generate economic growth, create and preserve affordable housing, and meet environmental and energy goals,” he explained.  

Dodd told CNSNews.com that the grants were available for the taking, saying that the program is voluntary and intended to let localities build planned communities without having to worry about changing economic conditions.

“The question is are the resources and the expertise available for people then to do the kind of planning – that’s all we’re talking about here – so they can plan better in these communities,” he said. “It’s not a radical idea. What’s radical is not doing anything about it.

“The problems aren’t going to go away, the demographics aren’t going to change because the economy’s down,” Dodd said.

“Some communities may be able to do it – this is not a mandate on anybody – but just merely saying we understand your needs, we understand the constraints you’re operating under, we understand your appetite to want to do something about this, and here’s an example where three levels of government – national, state, and local – can work with each other towards a common goal,” he added.

Dodd said the OSHC would not be making planning decisions for city and county governments. Instead, he said that the office – in addition to administering the grants – would function as a resource for localities seeking to do the planning themselves.

“That’s kind of the resource capacity for the communities,” Dodd said. “It’s not standards. We’re not going to apply standards. We’re going to stay far away from that. We’re not going to sit here and set [development] standards because you’ve got to let the flexibility – rural communities, suburban, large urban areas – they need to decide themselves what they want to do in terms of how they link together housing, transit, and energy needs in their communities.

“They ought to be given the total flexibility to decide how that responds,” said Dodd.

h/t to Chris Bowling, Laredo Tea Party
http://laredoteapartypatriots.ning.com/
http://www.facebook.com

Who Killed The Kennedys?

Jack Kennedy was shot on my twentieth birthday.

I was a Dartmouth student, getting ready to drive down to Skidmore to celebrate with my girlfriend, when the news ricocheted around the dormitory. I went down to Skidmore anyway, spending the weekend in a Saratoga Springs motel room, watching the TV coverage, including that astonishing moment when Ruby shot Oswald in front of our eyes in living black and white.

Does this mean I have more insight than others into the Kennedy assassination? No. But that coincidence did give me an extra frisson when the date “November 22, 1963” was superimposed at the beginning of Episode 7 of the new The Kennedys miniseries.

I spent the last couple of days watching all eight episodes of the series, courtesy of the production company. It was certainly a trip down memory lane. Like so many of my generation, my life had intersected with the Kennedys in the world of political imagination and sometimes even in reality.

I had been in the audience, close enough to shake his hand, for an East L.A. speech of Bobby’s two days before he was shot, the largely Chicano and Mexican crowd yelling “Viva! Viva!” as if the California primary voters were about to elect him dictator, not president.

And then, a few years later, I had a literary agent who, it turned out, was one of the six young women at that Chappaquiddick reunion party for RFK’s campaign the fateful night Ted Kennedy took his chauffeur’s car keys to drive the late Mary Jo Kopechne home himself. The agent never spoke of what happened. (This hugely dramatic incident does not appear in the series, nor is there even a mention of Ted Kennedy. More on this later.)

So what did I think of the miniseries? No one could mistake it for Citizen Kane — television political biopics tend to the humdrum and stilted, as most of us know — but it is nowhere near as bad as the fulminating critics would have us believe. Their major objection seems to be that the series emphasizes the soap opera aspects of the Kennedy lives — Jack’s parade of women that would make Bill Clinton envious, his and Jackie’s amphetamine cocktails from “Dr. Feelgood,” the Mafia connections via Giancana, Sinatra, and Judith Exner, Joe Sr.’s having his troubled daughter (Jack’s younger sister) lobotomized, not to mention the patriarch’s infamous flirtation with the Third Reich, etc.

Well, why not? These things are the stuff of drama (cf. the House of Atreus), not endless discussions of policy. The latter are much better handled in a book. But never mind. When the early drafts of the screenplay leaked out, JFK’s speechwriter, the late Ted Sorenson — among several others — joined a campaign organized by filmmaker Robert Greenwald aimed at preventing the film from being made and attacking it as a right-wing hit piece led by that known conservative attack dog Joel Surnow of 24 fame.

But here’s the surprising thing — and I should put this in bold because it is the linchpin of this article — The Kennedys (made by right-wingers though it may be) is tremendously respectful of JFK as a president. Indeed, the JFK it portrays is arguably one of the best presidents of the post-war period, if not of all time.

In the three key events dramatized in the series — his taking personal blame for the Bay of Pigs fiasco, his steadfastness in supporting racial integration at the University of Mississippi and, of course, his resolute behavior in confrontation with Khrushchev in the Cuban Missile Crisis — the Jack Kennedy of The Kennedys is a superlative and courageous decision maker.

This makes the miniseries — unlike the fuddy-duddy Greenwald site — oddly modern and heroic and pro-JFK.The Kennedys filmmakers have respected their audience and allowed them to reflect on the fascinating question of how someone so lacking in his personal life could achieve so much good in his public life. (Missing from this film is another positive action with a contemporary twist — JFK’s cutting of tax rates to stimulate the economy.)

That question — the relationship of doer and deed — is as old as drama. Shakespeare reveled in it. Nevertheless, as many of you know, the series was rejected by the channel for which it was originally made, the History Channel. It was eventually sold and is now showing on the lesser-known Reelz.

I had assumed the History Channel was to blame in this but, in an interview with Lionel Chetwynd and me, Joel Surnow said the rejection came from a higher corporate source. The History Channel is owned by AETN, A&E Television Networks, which is a joint venture of The Hearst Corporation, Disney-ABC Television Group and NBC Universal.

Some unknown person or persons in the upper reaches of these huge media companies apparently succumbed to pressure and suppressed The Kennedys. This pressure most likely came from the Kennedy family (Caroline?) and friends. The family has been quite successful over the years in their attempts to keep their detractors quiet.

I have no way of knowing, but they may have succeeded inside the making of The Kennedys as well as outside. Curiously, “The Lion of the Senate” and youngest son of Joe and Rose Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, is never seen or even mentioned in any of the eight episodes of the miniseries. What is the reason for this extraordinary omission?

The aforementioned Chappaquiddick incident is easily the most extreme case of Kennedy personal malfeasance. Jack may have been a serial adulterer, but he was never involved in death from his dalliances, nor did he leave the scene of a fatal accident. Teddy did and got away with it.

There has been some debate about the extent of his culpability, but how do you dramatize this event in any way without making him look really bad? And how do you tell the story of Ted Kennedy without Chappaquiddick? It becomes an almost comical whitewash. So Teddy is a non-person in The Kennedys, the man who was never there. I don’t know if this was true in earlier drafts, but it is in the series as it is being broadcast.

So whoever really killed The Kennedys is out hiding somewhere in an impenetrable corporate tower. I’m not into conspiracy theories, so I’m not going to pursue it further.

But I will say this. Whoever did this has conflated politics and religion. The Kennedys are not religious icons. They are highly fallible human beings. To show them as they were is the duty of the artist as well as the mission of America, that is freedom of speech. Surnow and company had their speech temporarily eclipsed. That was not good for them, but more than that, it is not good for our country.

Source:  Pajama’s Media

If you are not familiar with the history of the Kennedy’s this miniseries is a good place to start.  There are presidents and leaders, in general, who inspire us to become better and who are are larger than the office they hold.  In modern times, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan fill that place in American history, in spite of their personal flaws.  Even though they were of different parties and different in many ways, Kennedy and Reagan were also the same in many ways that matter!  They were both Irish descended Americans who loved America and the opportunities she gave to their families and to all legal immigrants; they loved the Constitution and knew it was their job to uphold the law and keep America safe; they were excellent inspiring speakers and they were strong in their convictions, ideals and leadership abilities.  They made the tough decisions and then took responsibility for the outcome of their decisions!  They both also had strong wives, Jackie and Nancy, who supported them and filled their roles as First Ladies with style and grace.

The re-writing of history and minimal focus on our true history, both good and bad, is what had made us weaker.

“He who does not learn from history is destined to repeat it!” and America has sadly done a poor job of teaching her children…

Related:

Camelot Fights Back: Who Killed ‘The Kennedy’s’ Miniseries?

–> JFK on Taxes and the Economy <–

–> The Assassination of John F. Kennedy and the Federal Reserve <–

Kennedy United States Notes actually circulated shortly

We Choose to go to the Moon

Resources on the Kennedys:

America's Queen: The Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Grace and Power: The Private World of the Kennedy White House

Four Days in November: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

Jackie, Ethel, Joan : Women of Camelot

The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy

The Sins of the Father: Joseph P. Kennedy and the Dynasty he Founded

Ted Kennedy: The Dream That Never Died

LBJ: The Mastermind of JFK's Assassination

American Legacy: The Story of John and Caroline Kennedy

JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters

The Kennedy Curse: Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years

A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House

Kennedy vs. Carter: The 1980 Battle for the Democratic Party's Soul

A Nation of Immigrants by JFK

Kevin Costner’s JFK - Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition)

The Kennedys miniseries