Honduras

There had not been a military coup in Latin America for 20 years until this past June when the Honduran President-Jose Manuel Zelaya-was forced into exile in Costa Rica. The Washington Spectator claims "...a small group of (US) extremist republicans..." had a hand in the coup and did so while the Obama admin was occupied with Iraq and Afghanistan. Zeleya was moving too close to leftists in the region-Venezuela's Chavez for one-and had "...refused to privitize the state-owned phone company Hondutel". This source claims that GOP senator Jim DeMint had held up an Obama appointment to Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs for five months, causing a void in US leadership in the region. DeMint and three Florida Cuban American congressmen were thus able to "...conduct their own foreign policy..." while "...Obama (was) boxed in...". As of September, Zeleya was back in Honduras under refuge in the Brazilian Embassy. Obama is working for his return to office.

(Source: "Banana Republicans: A New Cold War in a Small Tropical Country" by Lou Dubose. The Washington Spectator Dec. 1, 2009)

John Adams Presidency

During his term in office, Adams was faced with a growing war threat from France. He believed that agents of the French Directory were operating in the US in a plot to "...force American 'wives and daughters' into 'legal prostitution'..." and that these agents would attack the east coast and try to kill him. Adams referred to this threat as "terrorism", making this one of the first, if not the first, use of the term to define a national security threat to the US.

Adams friend and advisor, Elbridge Gerry, provided an interesting description of the danger poised by a "...large standing army...": it was like a "...swollen penis, providing '...an excellent assurance of domestic tranquility, but dangerous temptation to foreign adventure".

(Source: Presidential Courage by Michael Beschloss. Simon and Schuster Publishing 2007. Page 35.)

Counterinsurgency or Counterterrorism

The Washington Spectator gives a brief description of the two strategies. Counterinsurgency is the commitment of "...a large troop commitment to protect the Afghan people, defend cities, roads, and bridges, and pursue al-Qaeda". Counterterrorism would involve the use of fewer American troops but use "...intelligence, special forces and drones to degrade al-Qaeda". This last strategy is favored by VP Joe Biden.

(Source: "The Afghan dilemma" by Lou Dubose. The Washington Spectator, Nov 15, 2009)

Paul Samuelson

The author of what many consider the foremost text on economics has died at the age of 94. His text called Economics has been in use for decades. Samuelson was also involved as an economic advisor to JFK. The obit I read said the following: "...was a liberal, and like many of his generation a follower of British economist John Maynard Keynes, who proposed that a nation needs an activist government that could foster low unemployment by steering tax and monetary policies, even if it meant deficit spending at times". The federal income tax cut of the Kennedy years-actually passed after his death-has been noted often by those wanting to cut income taxes. The obit stated what Samuelson said on this issue in 1961 . "A temporary reduction in tax rates on individual incomes can be a powerful weapon against recession" (my emphasis).

(Source: "A Widely Influential Economist" by Polly Anderson of The AP. The Record on 12/14/09)

Confederates in Brazil-Update

This post is an update on a 10/21/09 post on this same topic. This emigration was "one of the few organized emigrations out of the US" (I don't know the others) and consisted on southerners who were too poor to own slaves, even thou some did bring their slaves with them. The emperor of Brazil-Don Pedro-wanted to recruit farmers who could grow cotton. Many of the emigrants died on disease and about 60 % returned to the US. Today there are about 200,000 Brazilians who claim American ancestry. These Brazilians will flag the Confederate "stars and bars" flag, not the battle flag.

(Google: "Confederates in Brazil")

SDI and UFO

In a Time Magazine article from 1997 about the UFO "incident" at Roswell, NW, the author notes a book by Philip J. Corso. Corso says that the real stimulus behind President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative was to fight the "real Cold War" against EBES or "extraterrestial biological entities". The article states that the SDI "...tipped the balance of power...the US and USSR both knew who the real targets of SDI were...when we deployed our advanced particle-beam weapon and tested it in orbit for all to see, the EBES knew and we knew that they knew that we had our defense of the planet in place". (Did we really spend all that money to protect ourselves from UFO's? Sounds unlikely to me.) The book is The Day After Roswell by Philip J. Corso, with a forward by Senator Strom Thurmond. Date of book unknown.

(Source: "Roswell or Bust" by Bruce Hardy. Time Magazine June 23, 1997.)

Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed"

US Gun Laws

The FBI is required to conduct a background check on a person buying a gun. However, the record of that background check is not to be kept more than 24 hours after completion of the check. Senator Frank Lautenberg-Democrat of NJ-is proposing legislation-S 2820-that would require the FBI to maintain those records (the source does not say for how long). It is noted by this source that senators are "more inclined to roll back existing laws that advocates for gun owners consider restrictive, rather than pass new laws".

(Source: "Keeping tabs on gun sales" in Capital Games column by Herb Jackson. The Record on 12/6/09)

WWI Christmas Truce

On the night of December 24th, 1914, the singing of Christmas carols by German soldiers in the trenches of Ypres, Belgium was answered by British soldiers singing carols. This led to soldiers from both sides exchanging greetings and gifts-whiskey, cigars and chocolate-and allowing for the removal of dead from the battlefield. There are stories about German and British soldiers meeting for drinks and football games. On Christmas Eve of 1915 French and German soldiers called a similiar truce to enjoy Christmas. Officers of both sides disapproved; they ordered "bombardments on Christmas Eve, to nip any detente in the bud". These events are the subject of a play in NYC showing this week thru January 2nd at the Hudson Guild Theatre on 26th Street.

(Source: "Play pays Christmas more than lip service" by Jim Beckerman of The Record. Dec 6, 2009).

Birmingham, Alabama

The city has offered a pardon to those charged with misdemeanor crimes during the civil rights protests of the 1960's. One protestor-a pastor now-was 14 at the time and held for a "week in custody at the city fairgrounds charged with demonstrating without a permit". The state has had the offer ongoing for three years and "officials have not received a single pardon application from anyone arrested in the Montgomery bus boycott of the mid-1950's, the Birmingham demostrations of 1963 or the Selma voting rights marches of 1965". The "charges" are carried like a "badge of honor" by protestors who believe they did nothing to be pardoned for.

(Source: "Civil rights protestors pardoned of charges" by The AP. The Record on 8/12/09).