January 1,1959, at the stroke of midnight, Castro brought his “change” to Cuba with a loud bang. My grandfather was a police officer in Havana and for that he was considered an enemy of the state. Within hours he was snatched from his wife and 3 children. He was unfairly sentenced to death by firing squad. My great aunt and my great grandmother pleaded for his life. So those revolutionary guerrillas sentenced him to 30 years in prison of which he served 21 and a half years. He was freed in 1979 due to a treaty that was signed between Cuba and the United states to free the oldest political prisoners. My grandpa was in that category. We were living in Miami at the time. We listened to the radio as they were announcing the political prisoner’s names and we heard my grandpa’s name, Jose Antonio Gonzalez-Fernandez! We drove from South Miami to the Opa-Locka airport. We were excited and yet nervous. I met my grandfather when I was 7 years old. My mother had her father until she was nine years old so at least she had some recollection of him. My uncle too. To my aunt however he was really non-existent she did know him at all until she was 24 years old and ready to be married. I always heard my family’s stories with great fascination. One story my mother tells is when she was a little girl in school…
She was 9-10 years old at the beginning of the revolution. One day the teacher told the children in her classroom to close their eyes. The children did so as they were told. Then, the teacher said, “now pray to God for a piece of candy.” The teacher then commanded the children to open their eyes and they found no candy on their desks. So then the teacher again instructed the children to close their eyes and ‘pray to Fidel for a piece of candy.’ Then the teacher commanded the children to open their eyes and each child found a piece of candy on their desk. “See,” she said “God doesn’t exist. Fidel will give you what you want.” So much was told to me. You can see a pain that still runs deep. These stories were passed on to me so that I and others may not fall into the same trap. It is what made me go out into the streets hand in hand with my grandmother and my great-aunt to protest the return of Elian Gonzalez to Cuba. It is what made me realize what a mistake I made in having believed in the Liberal promise and vote for Bill Clinton only to have him turn his back on the Cuban exiles like his fellow Democrat John F. Kennedy did so many years ago. This is why I do not believe the promises that are made by Barrack Hussein Obama. It is not about the color of skin black, brown, yellow, white; or political party Republican or Democrat. It is about defending our country’s very principle of freedom for all and family values. The core values that make our nation great. To me it is the reason why my family escaped Cuba….Freedom! My brother, Staff Sergeant James Joseph Breslin, Jr., is defending our freedom right now in Afghanistan. The fact that we have communists advising the President of this country and the fact that the President himself is a socialist defiles what my brother and so many others are fighting for and have fought for. Don’t let them fight and die in vain! Wake up America!! Do not let our children be indoctrinated the way they tried with my mother years ago. Don’t let our businesses that we sweat and work hard for be taken over like my grandmother’s business was years ago. This is why my family shares these stories. They are lessons that are very deeply engraved in my soul forever.
What is the truth in a “civilian army” as described briefly by President Obama?
Does anyone recall the significance of Kent State as regards protests and military action?
Recently the term brownshirts, has been thrown around in conversations, and I have myself written about the use of propaganda on our children and young adults as some kind of recruitment tool.
But the term “brownshirt” doesn’t just hearken back to the start of Hitler’s Nazi Party. The word, “brownshirt,” was used by Vice President Spiro Agnew to describe student demonstrators in the 1970s and the setting for that use was Richard Nixon’s illegal invasion of Cambodia. The whole resulting incident was perhaps set to develop into something terrible when the late Gov. James Rhodes (R-Ohio), sent troops to Kent State University to help quell growing disturbances.
Rhodes had been heard calling the demonstrators, “the strongest, well-trained militant revolutionary group that has ever assembled in America … They’re worse than the brownshirts and the Communist element and the night riders and the vigilantes. They are the worst type of people that we harbor in America….” Interesting how these words seem to match in tenor, the ways current-day, regular Americans are being derided at public meetings and described by congressional leadership.
In the 70s, four students died at Kent State after being fired upon by National Guardsmen. Two days later, the number was upped to six as police fired into a college dormitory without provocation. No officers or government leadership were ever brought to trial for these killings, although eight low-ranking guardsmen were put on trial and acquitted. In an amplified version of the tape, a Guard officer is can be heard shouting, “Right here! Get Set! Point! Fire!”
So, when we use the term “civilian army,” does that give anyone else pause?
The funding is already available, provided by our bailouts, and stimulus money, which is being filtered here and there. There’s literally trillions of dollars, and no one has any real idea what it will all be used for in the next ten years, as no one is really reading the bills they are passing. But if they carry through with the development of some kind of civilian army where will these people for this group come from?
I believe this will be our younger generation – today’s children – our children. And what will be their task? Will they be some kind of new federal uniformed force, their presence felt on our streets and in our day-to-day lives? How will their jobs overlap with local police forces? Will they be allowed to carry weapons? What will be the basis of their authority? Will their authority override that of city or state governments? What regulations will they be required to follow? Who will they answer to? Will they have their own detention centers – their own intel-gatherering network and their own interrogators? How will they be accepted by members of the actual active duty, reserve and guard military and by veterans?
This “civilian army” idea does seem on the surface to re-invent the real “brown shirts.” But direct details are scarce. The only way to get a grasp on what is meant by the term is to look at the things which are currently being done by the administration in our school system and elsewhere – and what was originally touted as Obama’s plans during his campaign. In making a judgment on all this, the reader should factor-in the recruitment programs underway to press those in college and with college loans, into volunteer programs funded, organized and administered by the federal government to assist in “furthering Barrack Obama’s agenda.”
So, we may soon face this new political police force – this American KGB. And does that mean our country will still be the United States of America, or will it mean that it would be more accurately be called the United Socialist States of America?
And what of freedom? Well, that ideal is already so thin it’s nearly intangible. In fact, it’s becoming more of an illusion with every passing action the current administration takes, and it will be merely a memory, the day this new “army” takes to the streets.
But the saddest thing of all, is that it will once again be children, who are pulled into the vortex of out-of-control government and political ideology. It’s an ideology, which has been proven to be a failure and the foundation for true horror and inhumanity throughout history.
I can’t sleep – usually it is because of the bad dreams, which have been with me since my time in Somalia. Tonight it’s less heavy.
I’m worried about the Brown Shirt squads.
I just don’t know what to do about them. When they come knocking on my door offering a nice big, framed photo of Big Brother (with its’ embedded wireless camera and microphone) do I just smile and invite them in? Do we all sit around the tiny suburban home with the smell from the bad city sewer lines ( also a potentially shovel-ready project) – or do I yell them down and loose the dogs and see who makes it to the fence-line faster; an overweight Obamanator or an overweight English Bulldog.
I’m betting on the dog. That’s because the Bulldog doesn’t care about the re-education programs. He doesn’t care if 2+2=4 or if it equals 5.
And should I join the “mobs” at the town hall meetings? Should I go and picket, yell down a few senators or other useless functionaries and assorted pieces of inanimate office furniture? Should I write angry notes, make angrier phone calls to congressmen, which will all go unanswered? Should I get the H1N1 virus immunization as soon as it is offered – so as to avoid the huge lines in front of the new government-run clinics? Or should I hope the Pig flu takes me out and spares me a world without Twinkies and potato chips and all the other stuff THEY want to take away from us?
And that last one is an interesting question, isn’t it? As I get older, I can appreciate the siren call of the brightly colored chip bags in the grocery store. I can appreciate the smell of pipe smoke and the taste of good rum, but it’s all going to be legislated away – so we can all be healthier. The president will continue to smoke and drink, but that behavior will be re-educated out of us. They’ll sign Richard Simmons on as the new aerobics czar, next. We’ll all be jiggling the sad remains of those sweets away in the park – endless rows of Orwellian Citizens, dancing to some old Lionel Richie songs or something. Yeah, we will be all “dancing on the ceiling,” because we will be so light, we will float there, like some forgotten helium balloons.
Yeah, we’ll be lighter, but we won’t be free. Big Brother will be watching from that painting on your wall. He will look suspiciously like President Obama. Weird, huh?
I’m no different from anyone else. I don’t like people screwing with our nation – I don’t like dumb congressmen – I don’t like dumber union people – and heavies who attack people exercising their rights at these rallies. I don’t like the tenets of organizations like the Black Panthers. I think haters are among the most lost in our society. I don’t like smears against our regular citizens, I don’t like environmental legislation, which does nothing more than line the pockets of the rich and powerful – the buddies of those same Congressmen – while it forces unionization on contractors who do not want to be unionized (this is basically another form of money and power grab – and it’s legal!)
I don’t like any of it.
But I do like the fact that America is coming alive. I like the fact that the Tea Parties are continuing to grow. I like the feeling I get when I see congressmen running for the door at some meeting, because they are becoming afraid of the people. They should be afraid – or maybe they should act like men instead of mice or worms – and stand their ground.
Got balls? Guess not.
It’s 3:15 a.m. This is a condition I came away with from my time in the service. But I would never trade it for a chance to have the slate wiped clean. I loved serving my country. I loved wearing the uniform. I loved the military – even on the hard days. And I don’t ever remember being released from my oath – “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”
So, while I am a civilian now and as such, some of this may no longer apply to me (the UCMJ, chain of command, etc), I will defend this country still, against all enemies foreign and domestic.
I don’t know about you, but it seems like we’ve taken a lot of the foreign enemies out of the equation, lately. Our troops have hammered the foreign killers into the dust – and continue to do so. But it’s the domestic versions – mostly those trying to turn a free nation into some kind of socialist experiment… those are the ones we need to keep our eyes on. Like the bulldog, we have to try to figure out whether they are really our leaders – or just a different kind of enemy – or maybe like the bulldog, we should just not try to add 2+2, and just chase them to the fence-line and bite them on the butt.
I’m looking at the bulldog now – he’s eyeing me dubiously.
So seriously, what do we do with those who would make this the USSA?
Vote ‘em out. Vote ‘em all out. In the meantime, keep yelling the maggots down at these town hall meetings. Verbally hammer them mercilessly. And for those who wish to meet us on a more personal footing – who wish to beat us down physically in the streets…
You are outnumbered. You are outclassed (way outclassed in this case). Remember this…
We are coming for you. We are coming for you all.
First of all, I am exceedingly grateful for the release of our two American journalists who have been held by the North Korean authorities. There are two very happy Immigrant-American Families today and that is a joy worth celebrating.
But then there’s the politics:
This visit of a former President is a very dangerous display of legitimacy to the North Korean regime. Remember they are in desperate need of fresh propaganda at a time when they are flexing their nuclear muscles.
The timing couldn’t be worse: A few short months after a round of nuclear weapons tests by the North Koreans, America responds by apologizing (seems to be a trend) and begging for the release of prisoners. When did we become such pansies? When did we as a country decide that we owed anyone an apology for being the most generous and wealth-producing country the world has ever known? Now release those prisoners!!!
But all that is really of little consequence. North Korea has been playing these games for decades. They have their ups and downs, flex their muscles and get some desperately needed economic aid from a former President (remember Carter) who agrees to some shit we will never know about but which our children are on-the-hook for. The economic stimulus will shut them up temporarily while they plan their next big power play.
No, what bothers me the most is the double speak we get from the White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs. The efforts to downplay the significance of this event are astounding. Obama can’t afford to be seen as weak on foreign policy therefore he has avoided this issue for months. Biden is now no where to be seen or heard of except for the occasional gaff-truth. But alas, Obama has the political cover to deal with the situation without being personally involved. Mr. President you have received a gift, and it’s not even your Birthday!
Did he approve this trip and the preceding negotiations? I think so, and here is way. Obama can’t have direct talks with N. Korea for foreign policy reasons. Having the Secretary of State’s husband and Ex-President extend-an-olive-branch gives Obama significant political cover. If things get ugly he can always through the Clintons under-the-bus. Something he’s wanted to do since the early days of the campaign.
Ask yourself this, is there anyway that a former President went halfway around the world to meet with the leader of a rogue nation without the knowledge of our security forces? No.
Further, don’t you think the Sitting-President would be made aware of such a trip out of professional courtesy? I’m thinking yes. If not, he should be pissed!!! I would be…
The 59-second video shows the 8-foot, 200-pound replica statue, which was stolen from a Brooklyn coffee shop last month, being decapitated and pulverized — accompanied by the words “We don’t want your freedom” and “Death to America.”
The video is sick and disturbing. The people behind it need to be captured and prosecuted. If you have any information please contact the New York Police Department 1-888-NYC-SAFE or The FBI
I have no idea if this was a childish hoax or was the work of radical Muslims – either way it’s disturbing and sick!
