Dubya failed to take warnings of terrorist attacks seriously in 2001

Catherine Salgado addressed the news of George W. Bush not taking the threat of 911 seriously prior to the tragedy:

Don't forget that jihadis who would become 9/11 hijackers were approved to enter our country, and even trained at U.S. flight schools. You'd think a bunch of Arabs interested only in controlling planes in flight and not in landings would set off alarm bells. But that would have required American politicians from both political parties and flight instructors to overcome their delusion of a century or more that Islam is a religion of peace, and that flagging suspicious behavior from Muslims is racist. Was that why the memo below didn't result in a contingency plan for if a hijack attack occurred? Something obviously got dropped, because in September 2001, when the hijackings did occur, there was no U.S. military response that went into prompt action.

BREAKING: George W. Bush was personally warned in May of 2001–via a top secret memorandum marked “For the President Only”—that Osama Bin Laden was planning spectacular attacks against the U.S. using hijacked aircraft.

The May 22, 2001 memo, prepared exclusively for President… pic.twitter.com/4MJxZN94O2

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) September 11, 2026

President William J. Clinton was also personally warned in a PDB that Osama Bin Laden was planning to attack the U.S. with hijacked aircraft pic.twitter.com/kqPHVGSR0U

— Billy Pandos (@billyp258) September 11, 2026

Westerners keep forgetting that Muslims pass down their goals of conquest from generation to generation and from country to country. We are not fighting isolated terrorist groups or radicalized individuals. We are fighting a global religious and political cult. Read more here: Ex-Muslim Warns Islam’s Threat Is Much More Than Terrorism. That is precisely the point that Bush ignored after 9/11, and that has caused Americans so much trial and trouble since then.

Also note the info on X telling that Bill Clinton ignored warnings of al Qaeda threats, and that too tells something. Since that time, there have been people who've come to depise Dubya for his failings, based on what he said at least 5 years ago. No doubt, there are plenty of 911 Families members who're outraged at him too, with reason.

Interestingly, at this year's 9-11 Memorial, former secretary of state Condoleeza Rice, who also caused damage to Israel based on how she carried out Dubya's demand for Israel to exit Gaza, had the following to say:

Condoleezza Rice, who served as White House national security adviser at the time of the attacks, provided another unusual moment by accepting a measure of responsibility for the failure to prevent them. Rice said she continued to feel profound pain that "those of us in authority on that day did not see the nature of the danger in time to prevent the attack of 9/11."

"We did what we knew how to do, but it was not enough," she said. Rice added: "I will always carry deep personal remorse for the pain that you, the families of the fallen, still feel, and for the trauma that our country endured."

Forget it, if she hasn't apologized for hers and Dubya's role in what led to October 7, 2023, then her alleged "take of responsibility" for September 11, 2001 remains unconvincing. There've been so many failures to be vigilant over the years on serious issues like these, and some would-be conservatives certainly have a lot of explaining to do.

America before the dhimmitude propaganda took hold

Tim Rice tells about how the USA got to where it is now with Islam having taken hold in the quarter century since September 11, 2001:

It’s popular among a certain sort to point out that Islam has always been a fact of American life — Thomas Jefferson owned a Koran, don’t you know — but that’s not really true. Before 9/11, Islam was only tangentially relevant in American life. As recently as 1993, the journalist Robert Kaplan was still using the term “Moslems,” which feels like “Boer” or “Hottentot” or something else we left in the 19th century.

But on September 11, 2001, Islam and America collided, and the former has been on a speedrun in our country ever since.

It’s fascinating but not entirely surprising that an Islamic terror attack on the United States somehow led to the rapid mainstreaming of radical Islam in this country. Countries tend to import bits of former enemies’ cultures, like how we all drive Hondas and the Japanese love baseball. But the acceptance of even the most vile and un-American forms of Islam was hastened by the liberal obsession with fighting “Islamophobia” during the War on Terror, an arguably good intention that paved the road down which folks like Abdul El-Sayed now trod.

Our problem is not a lack of awareness necessarily — consumers of conservative media at least are familiar with things like the footwashing station in the Dallas-Fort Worth airport and the semi-autonomous Muslim town in Texas. The problem is that even those of us paying attention don’t appreciate how quickly we got here.

As we approach the 25th anniversary of 9/11, consider the scandal that rocked the 10th: the planned construction of an Islamic community center blocks away from the site of the terrorist attack. Dubbed the “Ground Zero Mosque,” the project was almost universally derided. Howard Dean said the project was “a real affront to people who lost their lives” on 9/11, while then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called for the builders to pick a different site.

It’s hard to imagine Democrats reacting that way now, and that’s a problem. But even in 2011, things had gotten away from us. Reid and Dean broke with President Barack Obama, who defended the project. Obama may not be a secret Kenyan Muslim, but he sure did his best to make criticizing Islam socially unacceptable.

Even years before, both Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan were already enabling footholds, and there were alleged conservatives who were just as hostile as some leftists to the whole notion of daring to speak negatively about the Religion of Peace. Tucker Carlson's quite possibly one of those. Many of these same people are more than utterly willing to call even 911 Families "bigots and xenophobes", and in the past quarter century, I remember a man from Titusville, PA, claiming to be a teacher, who said that while he may not call a kid whose firefighting father died in the WTC tragedy a bigot, he would be perfectly willing to say he was wrong to come within even miles of saying anything negative about the Religion of Peace. Its makes no difference whether somebody's willing to employ crude language or not, what's offensive there is that somebody in a position of "education" is basically saying survivors of 911 and their families have no moral authority and are systematically forbidden to address serious issues like these in any way, shape or form. And it should be noted the man I speak of later embraced a book laced with anti-American metaphors that minimized sexual violence. That man, to my knowledge, died 4 years ago at just 57 years old, of an illness, but the damage people like him did to morale and unity is stunning. And that people like him were willing to support books with repulsive viewpoints speaks volumes.

I've thought at times about what Rice says on the high liklihood the Democrats today wouldn't say a word against building a mosque near Ground Zero. And the election of Zohran Mamdani to mayoral office in NYC is additionally chilling, because it speaks volumes about what kind of electorate now resides in the Big Apple, and not just Muslims themselves. It also makes clear how many non-Muslim leftists now reside in a burg I myself never felt much attachment to, and that spells serious trouble going forward. Especially if they reelect Mamdani in the next few years.

911 Families do not want Zohran Mamdani at memorial service

911 Families are speaking out, and rightfully objecting to having NYC's Muslim mayor Zohran Mamdani at the upcoming 911 Memorial service:

Families of 9/11 victims are demanding NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani be banned from the 25th anniversary of the attacks at Ground Zero, branding him an apologist for Islamic terror whose presence would be an insult to the memories of nearly 3,000 people murdered.

“Our objection is based on his public record — his failure to meaningfully acknowledge the horror of that day, and his employment of, support for, or association with individuals who have minimized 9/11, defended terrorists, or even suggested America ‘deserved’ the attacks,” said Giovanni Galante – whose 29-year-old wife Grace Catherine Galante was among 2,977 innocents killed by al-Qaeda terrorists.

Galante, 55, is one of the organizers of a petition drive that has collected over 1,100 signatures in a little over a week, including from at least 300 victims’ families.

Here's a link to the petition, which everybody who recognizes what's wrong with Mamdani should sign. And it's not just him who shouldn't be allowed at the 911 Memorial site and service. It's also anybody who blatantly voted for him to start with. All who voted for Mamdani did a terrible disservice to the victims of al Qaeda, should be ashamed of themselves, and have no business being anywhere near the site.

As Catherine Salgado says:

Some families of 9/11 victims don’t want commie Mayor Zohran Mamdani to attend the annual memorial for the New York City victims of the devastating Islamic jihad attack. And they have very good reasons for their opinion.

The 2026 memorial for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks is of particular importance, because it will mark exactly 25 years. Naturally, some family members of those who died as a result of Islamic terrorism exactly a quarter century ago do not want an apologist for Islamic terrorism as a featured speaker at the memorial. Mamdani has defended jihadis, publicly joined prayers for killing infidels, appeared at events and mosques with pro-terror radicals, and fueled violent antisemitism. He represents the evil ideology that caused the al-Qaida 9/11 attacks.

That's precisely why he should be shunned. Here's more:

The petition catalogues a series of concerns about Mayor Mamdani, the city's first Muslim mayor, who has been in office since January.

Among them is his refusal to condemn the "globalise the intifada" rallying cry, and his association during last year's mayoral campaign with Imam Siraj Wahhaj - a Brooklyn cleric who was an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Petitioners also take issue with his appointment of Ramzi Kassem as the city's chief counsel, noting Kassem previously defended al-Qaeda terrorist Ahmed al-Darbi - who admitted involvement in a 2002 plot to bomb a French oil tanker.

Further grievances include Mayor Mamdani's endorsement of Democratic Socialist of America member Aber Kawas for a state Senate seat, despite her having once characterised the September 11 attacks as something "a couple of people did."

Cheri Sparacio, another organiser whose husband Thomas died in the attacks, said there were "so many other examples" of why his attendance would be "disrespectful" that "we couldn't fit them on the list."

The Staten Island resident pointed to the mayor's longstanding ties to left-wing influencer Hasan Piker, who once said America "deserved" the 2001 attacks.

Mamdani should be denaturalized and deported too, as should all the offenders he associated with. And any 911 Families who speak at the service should publicly condemn him in the sternest terms possible. Mamdani's colleagues, appointees and other associates who uphold evil like he does should also not be allowed at the 911 Memorial service.

What took place at the NY Jewish Comics Experience

The JTA/New York Jewish Week covered the new Jewish Comics Experience convention at Manhattan's Jewish History Center:

More than 400 comic book lovers flocked to Manhattan’s Center for Jewish History on Sunday for the first-ever Jewish Comics Experience, a pop culture convention that was billed as the “ultimate comics and pop culture event.”

Some 35 comics creators participated in the inaugural JewCE, including “Sin City” creator Frank Miller and underground comics legend Barbara “Willy” Mendes. Others participating were artists who specialize in depicting Torah stories, creators of Jewish superheroes, autobiographical writers who just happen to be Jewish and non-Jewish authors and artists who create Jewish content.

Seeing that Miller attended this convention, it raises some important and relevant queries: does this mean he's willing to own and defend Holy Terror once again, recalling how 5 years ago, he kowtowed to the far-left by not only expressing regret for conceiving Holy Terror in the first place, he even apologized for condemning the Occupy movement, and added insult to injury by attacking Donald Trump, all in the pages of a paper as anti-Israel as the UK Guardian. And despite the incredibly stupid apology, he was still disinvited from a British convention. It remains to be seen if he's sorry he acted so stupidly now. Otherwise, what's the use of his attending this convention? Lack of courage is exactly what leads to all these tragedies, including 9-11, and even the terrorist attacks in France back in 2015. Similarly, if the convention doesn't have the courage to raise the issue of Islamofascism itself, that'll be a serious weakness.

“It’s high time that Jewish creators are recognized for their contribution to comic culture, a culture that was for the most part created by Jewish people,” JewCE co-founder Fabrice Sapolsky told the New York Jewish Week.

Though the event was planned long before Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the subsequent war, the continued violence in the Middle East and its reverberating effects was resonant across the convention. In myriad panel conversations and in one-on-one discussions, the situation in Israel, increased antisemitism across the globe and the acute need for Jewish joy were frequent themes. For many creators and attendees, “showing up” and supporting the Jewish community was at the top of mind, while others noted the camaraderie among individuals who all shared a a love of Jewish culture.

According to Miriam Mora, the co-founder of JewCE and the director of programming at the Center for Jewish History, the difficult moment made a Jewish comic convention more relevant than ever. “Comics are worth paying attention to because there’s no better way to lift up our community and to fight antisemitism than to educate people about Jewish contributions, Jewish identities, Jewish stories than to celebrate them,” she said.

Indie “comix” icon Mendes, best known for the classic comic “It Ain’t Me, Babe,” agreed. “We just need people to know how wonderful we are because there’s a lot of propaganda out there that we’re terrible,” she told the New York Jewish Week. “We need to counteract that with proof that Jews are wonderful, and that’s what this is all about — and that’s why I’m so happy to be part of the convention.”

On this, those attending did the right thing. After such a horrifying bloodbath that the Hamas jihadists committed, it's vital to convey a message of solidarity with the Jewish people, and uphold the memories of famous creators like Siegel/Shuster/Lee/Kirby. However, this convention, unfortunately, has traces of PC to be found in the coverage, if anything:

The history of Jews and comics is a long and rich one, beginning with the earliest comic book creators — nearly all Jews — to the continued presence of Jewish stories in both popular comics and more esoteric ones. For example, Marvel briefly had a Jewish Black Panther character, while, more recently, author Yehudi Mercato drew upon his Mexican-Jewish family for his middle-grade graphic memoir, “Chunky.” Meanwhile, some traditional Jewish texts have gotten the graphic novel treatment, including Mendes’ recent takes on the weekly Torah portion. [...]

That creativity was on full display Sunday as creators spoke at panels such as “Jewish Folklore in Comics,” “Queering Jewish Comics” and “Getting Past Ashkenormativity and Secularism in Comics.” Jewish publishers sold a variety of books and individual creators signed their work and mingled with fans. One table was run by the mother of a writer of a Holocaust education comic who couldn’t make the trip from Los Angeles.

It's regrettable they've continued sugarcoating BP material that builds on some atrocious storytelling, right down to Ta-Nehisi Coates' own propaganda. And Coates is one of the worst far-leftists to ever be welcomed into the entertainment industry. If he could speak as abusively as he did about 9-11, there's no telling what he could say about Jews. I wouldn't want to own any of his comics based on what a far-left ideologue he happens to be. And that part about "queering" is quite telling on its own. It echoes what only so many far-leftists have been pushing and indoctrinating at schools, even going so far as to distort the Bible with it. Does that sit well with them?

Now since we're on the subject, The Forward followed up on the news about Arnon Shorr and Joshua Edelglass's Brother's Keeper. I hope this GN's been highlighted at the convention, because, as noted again by the Forward:

“One of my friends pointed at the screen and he said, ‘We need this. We need this now. We need this yesterday,’” Shorr recalled. “I was too close to it, I think, to see it or to recognize it,” he said. But his friend helped him realize that “this is a reminder that we’ve been here before and we’ve survived this before.”

As Edelglass kept pace with the drawings and Tomić with the colors, Shorr tried to figure out how to make the book widely available sooner rather than later. They’d bring copies to JewCE as planned, but they also made the comic available to order in hard copy online and to purchase as an e-book. Shorr is also working with his parents to translate the story into Hebrew and is looking into options for sharing Brother’s Keeper in Israel. [...]

But sitting down to draw night after night in the days and weeks following Oct. 7 was therapeutic for Edelglass. “The story moves from battle and turmoil to great hope,” Edelglass said. And he and Shorr hope it can be a source of comfort and hope for readers as well.

Let's hope it'll be translated into Hebrew, and practically as many other languages as possible; everyone and anyone the world over who's a realist needs to know this kind of history. And again, let's hope the convention at Manhattan's History Center stands solidly by it. That said, it's still a shame said convention is pushing leftist propaganda, and the JTA once again sugarcoated how the Jewish Black Panther was crafted.

For Independence Day 2022

The inimitable Paul Harvey (1918-2009) and worth your time:

Truly, we stand upon the shoulders of giants.  

Oh, the sacrifices those men made for liberty! 

May we be worthy to have received that liberty!

Voices From The Past

Please take a few minutes to watch the two short videos below:





Below is the most-watched YouTube documentary on the topic of the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic — if you have time to watch (over 4 million views):


Now for my family's own stories.......


My father's younger sister, about age 7, died of "the aftereffects of the flu." Something like the 1990 film Awakenings? Full movie HERE at YouTube, albeit poor quality.  I highly recommend the film! It is available via Amazon Prime Video.

Dad occasionally spoke of what happened when his sister died: "The undertaker embalmed Chrissie at the house — and dumped the blood behind the barn."  The funeral service and burial were private.  The influenza didn't stop until everything was shut down: schools, funerals, churches, etc.  And the government refused to believe that something terrible was happening with Americans' health.  Until, that is, bodies began piling up on the sidewalks and in the streets of Washington, D.C.

My maternal grandmother (1898-1981) had a robust immune system. It fell to her to take care of her brother Walter, who brought influenza to their remote location in the mountains of East Tennessee when he was discharged from the US Army, fell ill himself, and gave the flu to his brother-in-law Fred, my grandmother's husband.  My grandmother sent her two children, one born in 1916 and the other in 1918 to her parents' farm and took care of Walter and Fred.

My grandmother related the story of those days in this way: "I got almost no sleep.  I went back and forth between the river for cold water and the menfolks' foreheads.  They were out of their heads with fever.  My sister brought food, called to me, and set the food down about 25 feet from the house; I fetched the food from there.  I don't remember how long all this went on.  Seemed like forever.  But Walter and Fred got well, and life went back to normal."  I asked Wawa how she stood those weeks of hard work as a nurse.  Her response: "Life isn't about what you want to do.  Life is about what you have to do."

A view of the front lines of this grim war against Coronavirus (dated March 23, 2020): The Growing Chaos Inside New York’s Hospitals.

And one more thing...in the immortal words of Gilda Radner:

Happy Birthday, Land That I Love!

Never forget why we celebrate this day:

The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a resolution earlier in the year which made a formal declaration inevitable. A committee was assembled to draft the formal declaration, to be ready when congress voted on independence. Adams persuaded the committee to select Thomas Jefferson to compose the original draft of the document, which congress would edit to produce the final version. The Declaration was ultimately a formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. The Independence Day of the United States of America is celebrated on July 4, the day Congress approved the wording of the Declaration.

Quotes from signers:

"Believe me, dear Sir: there is not in the British empire a man who more cordially loves a union with Great Britain than I do. But, by the God that made me, I will cease to exist before I yield to a connection on such terms as the British Parliament propose; and in this, I think I speak the sentiments of America."
Thomas Jefferson

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin

"I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth."
John Adams

"There, I guess King George will be able to read that."
John Hancock

"Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right...and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean of the characters and conduct of their rulers."
John Adam

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
Thomas Jefferson

"I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure it will cost us to maintain this declaration, and support and defend these states. Yet through all the gloom I see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is worth all the means. This is our day of deliverance."
John Adams

"Equal and exact justice to all men...freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected,these principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us."
Thomas Jefferson

"We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately."
Benjamin Franklin

How brave our Founders were! They risked all so that we could enjoy their legacy.

May we today, in the 21st Century, stand up and support the principles declared in our Declaration of Independence!

A POTUS Dad Defends His Daughter (1950)

From the blog Geeez:

Ivanka’s insulted and Dad steps in…..And it’s been done BEFORE!

When President Harry Truman picked up his “Washington Post” early on December 6, 1950, to read a review of his daughter Margaret Truman’s singing performance, he was livid. Though conceding that Miss Truman was “extremely attractive,” Paul Hume, the “Post’s” music critic, stated bluntly that “Miss Truman cannot sing very well” and “has not improved” over the years. The president wrote the following letter to the 34-year old Hume, whom he compared to the columnist Westbrook Pegler (“a rat,” in Truman’s view).

THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON

Mr Hume:

I’ve just read your lousy review of Margaret’s concert. I’ve come to the conclusion that you are an “eight ulcer man on four ulcer pay.”

It seems to me that you are a frustrated old man who wishes he could have been successful. When you write such poppy-cock as was in the back section of the paper you work for it shows conclusively that you’re off the beam and at least four of your ulcers are at work.

Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens you’ll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below!

Pegler, a gutter snipe, is a gentleman alongside you. I hope you’ll accept that statement as a worse insult than a reflection on your ancestry.

H.S.T.

Read the rest HERE.

Truman's defense of his daughter makes Trump's defense of Ivanka look mild, IMO.

Independence Day Reading

Excerpt from Our Once Sacred Honor by Mustang of A Texas View:

...These men [who signed the Declaration of Independence] knew full well what they were doing was dangerous to themselves, to their families, and to their wealth and property. They had everything to lose, and little to gain by signing this instrument of the American Revolution. If the revolution should fail, these men would forfeit their lives. If these men were to succeed, then they faced years of struggling to establish a new government, a new country. Had anyone done such a thing before? No.

These men did suffer.

[...]

More than half of these fifty-six men suffered during the American Revolution. Five were taken into custody by the British and died in captivity; 12 lost their homes and property, two lost their sons in the war, one had both of his sons captured by the British, nine of the signers died in the war of disease or a merciful bullet. They pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. Every man fulfilled this pledge; every man kept the faith. Every man paid the price exacted of him. If only these leftists who condemn the founding fathers had even a modicum of similar devotion … but no, they’ve chosen a different path for themselves —and for us, as well.

Read it all HERE. Worth your time.

The Story Of Our Declaration Of Independence

From Conservative Hideout 2.0:

[The Declaration of Independence] was penned by the great Thomas Jefferson when he was but thirty three-years old. He was one of a committee of five that were formed to bring forth the reasons for our separation from Great Britain. The committee members were (in no particular order):

Thomas Jefferson
John Adams
Benjamin Franklin
Robert R. Livingston
Roger Sherman

A vote was taken by the committee as to who would draft the statement and Jefferson came in first followed by Adams. An interesting footnote is that Adams presented Jefferson with his reasons as to why he ought to be the one to pen the document.

“Reason first—You are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. Reason second—I am obnoxious, suspected and unpopular. You are very much otherwise. Reason third—You can write ten times better than I can.”

Jefferson wrote the document in his residence where he occupied the entire second floor of a three story house owned by a bricklayer named Graff. It was said that after Jefferson’s death the baby infant of Graff was consistently told that he had often sat on a great man’s knee.

The writing itself took place in the parlor of Jefferson’s domicile on a desk that contained a small writing box that was of Jefferson’s own design. He had previously rented from a cabinet maker who constructed it from drawings made by Jefferson. During the last year of his life, he gave it to the husband of his favorite granddaughter, Ellen Randolph. He was to have said about the box, “It claims no merit of particular beauty. It is plain, neat, convenient and, taking no more room on the writing table than a moderate quarto volume, it displays itself sufficiently for any writing.” (Quarto volume is what we recognize as a middle-sized hardbound book.)

Jefferson never claimed originality of the idea of governance, “of the people, by the people and for the people,” instead he remarked that he was only distilling “common sense” on the subject. True the idea of democracy dates back to the Romans and the Greeks, but in Jefferson’s time, it was a very hot topic. Jefferson expounded on the idea of natural law and the nature of government.

In the second paragraph, Jefferson articulated an entire system of philosophy with his theory on that natural law and governance issue. It stems from property rights and builds upon that. Jefferson did not separate property rights from political rights. For he felt that if one is denied property rights, then one cannot truly have political rights. Property is of course more than just what one owns, it goes to what one does to obtain property. Therefore property, as expressed by Jefferson is one’s individuality. If a government takes 40 or 50% (or more) of a person’s income (property), then that person is not truly free. For when half of one’s work goes to the government, it ceases to belong to that person.

This idea is expressed in what is possibly the most famous sentence in the American lexicon:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

But when presented to Congress, over twenty five percent of Jefferson’s original document was deleted. In what was at the time, a controversial move, Congress struck out what they viewed as a scathing indictment of the slave trade. Of course, Jefferson resented the changes and said that the passages were “struck out in complaisance to South Carolina and Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain the importation of slaves & who on the contrary still wished to continue it. Our northern brethren also, I believe, felt a little under those censures; for tho’ their people have very few slaves themselves, yet they have been pretty considerable carriers of them to others.” Congress also got rid of passages that conveyed a censure on the people of England. Jefferson’s reaction? “…the pusillanimous idea that we had friends in England worth keeping terms with still haunted the minds of many.”

At least Congress left the ideas of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. However, they did change it from “We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable…” to “We hold these truths to be self-evident…”

Lastly, Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence wasn’t really a declaration of independence at all. Rather it was an explanation of the actual declaration formally approved by Congress two days before, on July 2, 1776. That declaration was written by Richard Henry Lee, an active and respected patriot of Virginia’s congressional delegation.

It was titled: “A Declaration by the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA in General Congress assembled.” Therefore our actual Declaration of Independence wasn’t even called that. And ironically, John Adams was known to have said in a now-famous letter to his wife that future generations of Americans would celebrate America’s independence from England on July 2nd and it would become a great American holiday. Of course, as we all know and history has shown, we celebrate our independence on the date that Jefferson’s document explaining our reasoning behind our declaration of independence was announced, July 4th.

The Fate Of Dissidents

Let's take a look at the fate of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Remember that their cause succeeded.

Watch Founding Fathers: Who Were They and What Happened to Them? on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

Think about this:

[T]he methods of communication in the 18th century American life may have helped keep their identities secret. "It would have been very difficult for a member of the British troops to actually find out in any given place who in that community had something to do with the Declaration of Independence because of the complete lack of communication," co-author Denise Kiernan said. Their actions deemed treasonous, some were imprisoned and treated as "high value prisoners," while others, who enjoyed great wealth in their prime, died penniless. A few emerged from the revolution to live long and happy lives...

As we few embark upon the new role of this blog, we need to go into this with our eyes wide open.

I've made my decision to throw my lot in with what matters most: American principles, not "American" principles.

Independence Day Reading: Caesar Rodney

See this information at Political Tea Leaves. Excerpt:

...Rodney’s vote for independence was considered high treason and caused him to be branded a traitor to the Crown. As history records, Caesar Rodney gave up the possibility of receiving medical treatment in London because he voted and pledged his life, fortune and sacred honor for American Independence....

Read the whole thing.

Longfellow's Christmas

REMEMBERING PEARL HARBOR

Even though 70 years have passed since December 7, 1941, interment services continue in Honolulu:

Pearl Harbor:Final Wishes from Andrew Breese on Vimeo.

Today's Recommended Reading

See FLASHBACK 1972:…..Police Officer Executed in NY Mosque at Logan's Warning. Note the involvement of Louis Farrakhan and Charlie Rangel.

Too Late to Apologize: A Declaration

I believe that the following has been previously posted here at IBA. But it bears reposting on Independence Day:

A History Of Assassins And Would-Be Assassins

Check out this post by Beamish of The Crank Files.

Excerpt:

There’s been a lot of nonsense talk attempting to smear the right-wing for the murderous passions of Jared Lee Loughner, who was arrested on scene for a killing spree in Arizona which targeted Democratic Congresswoman Gabreille Giffords. Leftism, the field of inter-related political, social, and economic philosophies which have the collective historical distinction of being responsible for the violent deaths of over 300 million people and counting worldwide, would seem to be an easy profile to make in determining the political motivations of this assassin. Yet, the left has gone into overdrive attempting to portray Loughner as a right-winger and smear conservative groups as the catalyst for his abhorrent actions, snidely suggesting that it is somehow “obvious” that the right-wing is responsible for creating this cretin.

Does the left have any historical rationale for making the “political assassin must be a right-winger” case?

Let’s have a closer look at the infamous assassins and would-be assassins who have targeted politicians throughout US history, shall we?...

Read the rest HERE. Worth your time.

Lost Icon

MSNBC:

Geraldine Doyle, inspiration for 'Rosie the Riveter,' dies at 86

By Elizabeth Chuck

With a red and white bandana in her hair and factory worker uniform sleeves rolled up to reveal her bulging biceps, Rosie the Riveter was painted on a World War II recruitment poster in 1942. But for four decades, the real Rosie the Riveter had no idea she was the woman who inspired it.

Perhaps it was because Geraldine Doyle left her factory job after two weeks – or because she didn’t actually have bulging biceps – that Doyle, who died at 86 years old on Sunday in Lansing, Mich., didn’t know for so long that she was the model for what would became a symbol of women’s empowerment.

Doyle was 17 in 1942 and had been hired as a metal presser at a factory close to her home in Inkster, Mich., to help the war effort, her daughter Stephanie Gregg told the New York Times. One day, a United Press International photographer came to the steelworks factory and took a picture of Doyle leaning over machinery, a red and white polka-dot bandana covering her hair (see the original photo here). Later that year, the government commissioned artist J. Howard Miller to produce morale-boosting posters that would motivate workers and recruit women to join the war workforce. The UPI photo of Doyle, a slender brunette that her daughter calls “a glamour girl,” caught his eye.

Meanwhile, Doyle – a cellist – learned that a worker had injured her hands at the factory, and decided to get a safer job at a soda fountain and bookshop in Ann Arbor, according to the Washington Post.

In 1984, married to a dentist and a mother to five children, Doyle came across an article in former AARP publication Modern Maturity magazine that connected her photo with the wartime poster, which she hadn’t seen before.

“The arched eyebrows, the beautiful lips, the shape of the face – that’s her,” daughter Gregg told the Times. But, she said, “she didn’t have those big muscles. She was busy playing cello.”

Nonetheless, when she saw it, she said, “This is me!” Gregg told the Lansing State Journal.

Rosie the Riveter became a lasting emblem. In the early 1940s, Red Evans and John Jacob Loeb wrote a song named after her. In 1943, the Saturday Evening Post put a Norman Rockwell illustration of another female worker with the name “Rosie” painted on her lunch pail. In 1999, the U.S. Postal Service created a “We Can Do It!” stamp.

For years, Doyle signed Rosie the Riveter t-shirts, posters, and more. While many profited from her image, she never charged a penny to fans, her daughter said.

"She would say that she was the 'We Can Do It!' girl," Gregg told the Lansing State Journal. "She never wanted to take anything away from the other Rosies."

December 7, 1941

(Hat tip to Patriot's Corner):

How Is Such Ignorance Possible?

With a hat tip to Brooke: