The battle of Gettysburg began 150 years ago today
Cemetery Ridge, Seminary Hill, Little Round Top, Culp’s Hill, the Peach Orchard, the Devils Den, the Slaughter Pit, Emmitsburg Road, and the copse of trees–those names are etched in the minds of Civil War buffs all across the nation for those are the names associated with the battle which is considered the turning point of the Civil War and the high water mark of the Confederacy.
150 years ago today the battle of Gettysburg began and the fate of the nation was held in the balance.
The Civil War had reached the North for just the second time when General Lee decided to travel along the Blue Ridge Mountains and surprise the Federals with a decisive battle which he felt would clear the road to Washington and force the North to sue for a peace which would include Southern independence, and in all likelihood a victory here would have achieved those results. His moves were discovered, the Federals advanced on his position, and both armies converged at the small town of Gettysburg. General Lee did not want to fight here, it was not a battlefield of his choosing, but the enemy was here and he would not retreat at this point so fight them he did.
After screwing over New Hampshire in 2010 Sarah Palin opens the door for a third party
Sarah Palin recently made news when she said she was open to either creating or joining a third party if the Republicans continue to sell the American people out. This is what she had to say:
“if the GOP continues to back away from the planks in our platform, from the principles that built this party of Lincoln
and Reagan, then yeah, more and more of us are going to start saying, ‘You know, what’s wrong with being independent,’ kind of with that libertarian streak that much of us have. In other words, we want government to back off and not infringe upon our rights. I think there will be a lot of us who start saying ‘GOP, if you abandon us, we have nowhere else to go except to become more independent and not enlisted in a one or the other private majority parties that rule in our nation, either a Democrat or a Republican.’ Remember these are private parties, and you know, no one forces us to be enlisted in either party.”
With the Republican leadership being more concerned with their own personal interests and political power, and less concerned with serving their constituents I could not agree more with this sentiment. The Republicans are taking their base for granted because they feel as if the voters have nowhere else to turn and in the end they feel we will hold our noses and vote once again for the lesser of two evils.
But many voters, myself included, are sick and tired of holding their noses and voting for the lesser of two evils because in the end the two parties are really indiscernible on too many issues. This is why myself and several others have been working for six months to create a real alternative called the New Federalist Party and I would suggest that if you are fed up with Washington DC you check out what we have been up to.
However I have a deep seated resentment towards Sarah Palin and I have held this resentment since the elections of 2010, and now it is time for me to vent.
Open thread for Sunday, June 30th: Do It Clean
Here is the open thread for Sunday, June 30th; please feel free to post links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues may arise during the course of the day.
As always you can follow America’s Watchtower on Facebook and Twitter by clicking on the links to the right or you can subscribe to America’s Watchtower by email and never miss a post again.
If you are disgusted with the state of politics in Washington today please check out the New Federalist Party and see what we are up to. Currently the first twenty articles of the platform have been released and we are working on the last thirteen. If you like what you see please feel free to make a donation, no matter how small, it will be greatly appreciated as we strive to reach our goals.
This week’s musical selection is an extended live version of a song called ‘Do It Clean’ by the band ‘Echo and the Bunnymen’ recorded sometime in the ’80’s. It is interesting to see a roadie run out to Ian McCulloch in the middle of the song and hand him a cigarette, you just don’t see that anymore.
Enjoy!
The Supreme Court declares DOMA unconstitutional
The big news of the day, which I am sure you have already heard, is the Supreme Court’s decision which ruled DOMA, the bill signed into law by President Clinton, unconstitutional based on the equal protection clause.
My take on this decision is not going to be popular with many conservatives, but here goes:
I firmly believe that the government should not be involving itself in the issue of marriage; what two or more consenting adults do in the privacy of their homes is their own business, it is not the business of the government. But the government has involved itself in marriage and until or unless the government removes itself from the issue of marriage–or the people remove the government from this issue–I think it is important that government involvement be contained to where it should be.
The Massachusetts special election proves once and for all why the Republicans should not support immigration reform
Earlier tonight Democrat Ed Markey beat Republican Gabriel Gomez in the Massachusetts special election to win the Sentate seat vacated by John Kerry when he became Secretary of State. Last week I wrote a post about this election and how it would be a test case for immigration reform.
Republicans in the Senate have made the political calculation that in order win future elections they would have to support immigration reform in order to prove they are also an inclusive party. Massachusetts primary voters apparently agreed with this calculation when they voted for a liberal, pro-choice, cap and trade supporting, amnesty supporting candidate over the more conservative candidate. While Gabriel Gomez claims he is a fiscal conservative it is hard to see how he justifies that position with his stand on both cap and trade and amnesty.
Does the immigration reform bill incentivize companies to fire Americans and hire immigrants?
Does the immigration reform bill incentivize companies to fire American workers and hire newly amnestied immigrant workers?
Because the immigration reform bill states that amnestied immigrants will not be eligible for Obamacare that is the claim being made in this article:
Beginning in January, businesses with 50 or more full-time employees, that do not currently offer healthcare benefits that are considered “acceptable” by the Obama administration, must pay a penalty if at least one of their workers obtains insurance on a new government-run “exchange.” The penalty can be as much as $3,000 per employee.
Many employers have been preparing to cope with the new regulations by slashing the hours of full-timers to part-time status. Since “full-time,” in the language of ObamaCare, is averaging 30 hours per week, employers will, in general, receive the penalty if they have 50 or more employees who are working an average of 30 hours per week.
If the immigration bill becomes law, many employers could receive incentives of hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire amnestied immigrants over American citizens. In addition, these newly legalized immigrants could work “full-time,” an advantage for companies and businesses as well, while employers could lay off or diminish to “part-time” status, American workers.
Many Americans have had their hours cut as employers seek to avoid Obamacare costs, and because of this the Obamacare penalties have been shifted from the employers to the employees. These employees–who now have less money coming in–will either have to find money for healthcare or face the wrath of the IRS come tax time.
After Syria supposedly used chemical weapons against the rebels (we still don’t know if it was the regime or the rebels who used the chemical weapons, all we really know at this point is that chemical weapons were used by someone in Syria) Barack Obama announced that the United States would begin active support of the rebels by supplying arms to the region.
Two Republicans and two Democrats have now filed a bill to defund the arming of these rebels. Here is what Rand Paul had to say:
The President’s unilateral decision to arm Syrian rebels is incredibly disturbing, considering what little we know about whom we are arming. Engaging in yet another conflict in the Middle East with no vote or Congressional oversight compounds the severity of this situation. The American people deserve real deliberation by their elected officials before we send arms to a region rife with extremists who seek to threaten the U.S. and her allies.
I could not agree with this statement any more than I already do but what can we actually expect to come from this? After all; this is the same Congress who took Barack Obama to task over supporting the Libyan and Egyptian rebels without Congressional approval but when push came to shove did nothing to stop it, and this is the same Congress who holds one symbolic vote on repealing Obamacare after another but refuses to defund the legislation, which is what they would do if they were serious about it.
So while I support this effort I am not expecting anything to come from it because it seems to me as if too many members of the Congress feel as if they can gain more support by opposing these issues than they can by actually acting on them. If the Congress were to repeal Obamacare or stop funding these wars it would take these wedge issues off the table in the next election and they want these issues alive and well when voters head to the polls next year. They feel they can gain more politically from continually opposing these issues than they can by actually doing something about them.
Don’t get me wrong, I feel this is a sincere effort by these four men, I just do not think that there is enough sincerity in the Congress to actually get anything done on this. Maybe I am wrong, we will have to wait and see how this plays out. I apologize for my cynicism but I simply no longer trust most of our elected officials to do the right thing because above all they are really only interested in protecting themselves and the power they crave.
Is border security really in the immigration reform bill? Janet Napolitano has the authority to cancel the fence
In an attempt to win over conservatives and Republicans (two very different entities) an amendment was added to the immigration reform bill which we were told would provide for border security.
But is that really the case? According to this article this might all just be smoke and mirrors because while paragraph 1 of the amendment requires 700 miles of fence to be built along the southern border the next paragraph puts discretion on the fence in the hands of Janet Napolitano: Read more…
Open thread for Sunday, June 23rd: Lay it on the line
Here is the open thread for Sunday, June 23rd; please feel free to post links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues arise during the course of the day.
As always you can follow America’s Watchtower on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the links to the right or you can subscribe to the blog via email and never miss a post again.
If you are tired of politics as usual please check out the New Federalist Party and if you like what you see we are currently accepting donations in our quest to register with the FEC. Any little bit helps.
Now on to this week’s musical selection: I was digging around in the corners of my mind trying to come up with something to use here and I delved back into my childhood a little bit and came up with the band Triumph playing ‘Lay it on the Line’ live in 1987.
Enjoy:
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