Clarence Page and Republic Insult Irish

Bravo to the Arizona Republic for telling off people who hold onto belief in the canard that President Barak Obama wasn't born in the United States.

On the 150th anniversary of the Irish Brigade's fatal assualt on the stonewall at Fredericksburg on the Eve of Emancipation, isn't it about time Arizona Republic apologized for publishing the canard that Irish immigrants were responsible for pushing African slaves off America's ladder of social mobility. Did the Irish write the US Constitution that permitted slavery? Were Washington, Jefferson, Madision, Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee Irish? Does Eric Foner's Pulitzer-Prize-winning Fiery Trial claim that Abraham Lincoln, who at first was ambivalent about Emancipation and wanted to resettle freed slaves in the Caribbean, was Irish.

On the other hand all of the North's top generals in the Civil War had an Irish connection: Sheridan, Meade, Reynolds, and Sherman. Even Grant belonged to New York City's Ancient Order of Hibernians.

In the years since celebrating St. Patrick's Day by publishing this canard authored by Clarence Page, neither Page nor The Republic has singled out any other ethnic group and blamed it for America's sin of slavery.   Quite remarkable since not only were the Southern leaders not Irish, but neither were those who led the North's "loyal" opposition:  Clement Vallandigham, Fernando Wood and certainly not August Belmont, leader of the Democrats, who was a German immigrant who came to the Americas as an agent for the Rothschilds.

Chimera: Arizona Jaguar Boondoggle

The idea that the federal government should devote time and money to re-establish the jaguar in Arizona is a colossal, preposterous waste of money, a self-serving, activist driven boondoggle.  There were never very many jaguar in Arizona in the first place and none now. The fearsome predator was so rare even before Europeans arrived that it isn't even a part of Native American folklore in Arizona or New Mexico as it is in Latin America. The riparian habitat along the Salt, Gila and other Arizona rivers that's best for supporting the jaguar is long gone, a victim of humans, starting with Native Americans and then Europeans, diverting the waters for agricultural, industrial and residential purposes. Instead of indulging the fantasies of self-styled environmental activists and wasting money on this chimera, the money needs to be spent on our children or devoted to protecting the jaguar where there are viable jaguar populations and habitats in Central and South America.

Censoring the California Ballot Mess: the Rabidly Dishonest Left

While it merrily prints letters denouncing Secretary of State Ken Bennett for an alleged ballot counting mess, the Arizona Republic has censored reporting on the "ballot counting mess" in other West Coast states. Washington like Arizona had about 50,000 votes to count as of last night (11/20). California is the big story with 1.5 million ballots left to count. San Diego County has more votes left to count than the entire State of Arizona. 758,857 of the uncounted California votes are provisional ballots, as of 5 pm, 11/20.

Being a lot better than California and as good as Washington State may be nothing to brag about, but we aren't going to improve much on ballot counting as long as we allow people who order vote-by-mail ballots to show up on election day and say they need to vote in person, "because the dog ate my ballot."

It is ironic that one letter writer denouncing the Secretary of State invokes Mr. Bennett's unfortunate involvement in the President Obama birth certificate controversy. The fuss over ballot counting in Arizona proves that the "progressive" left is every bit as rabidly dishonest and unreasonable as the "birthers" who bullied Mr. Bennett into asking Hawai'i about the President's birth certificate. Lets hope Mr. Bennett shows more spine this time and vigorously defends himself and Helen Purcell, a decent civic minded woman, who has been most unfairly maligned during this controversy

Moreover The Republican isn't alone in its "unique" approach to the issue.   On 11/21 The Los Angeles Times ran story on Arizona:

"Arizona ballots finally counted -- Latinos ask, Why so long?"  

The Times story by Cindy Carcamo said not a word about the California ballot mess:  1.5 uncounted California ballots, including  758,857 uncounted provisional ballots, as of 5 pm, 11/21.  Nor did it mention that Washington State, which had been running neck and neck with Arizona, still had 25,000 uncounted ballots to count as of 11/21 and was still counting ballots as of 11/22.  The ballot counting issue is only of interest if the "progressive" left can use it to advantage against a so-called Red state.   Nevermind that five of the nine people elected to the House of Representatives for Arizona this year are Democrats.

Ed Montini 's Snotty Secession Column

Dear Ed,

You owe a lot of Arizonans a big apology for a remark you reprinted in you column today about Arizona already having seceded.

The Tea Party crowd and their equivalent on the "Progressive Left" can insult each other as much as they want. It's a free country, but you don't need to endorse it.

There are those among our "Progressive Left" who are are every bit as bigoted and rabidly dishonest, notably Jeff Biggers and your contributor, as Donald Trump and the Birthers. It's time people started acknowledging that fact about the "Progressive Left" instead of endorsing them, "aren't they cute." This morning you should be defending poor Helen Purcell: who's been viciously maligned by the "Progressive Left."

It's intellectual bankruptcy simply to denounce as unpatriotic anyone who disagrees with you. If someone was able to get enough signatures to put a secession proposition on the Arizona ballot, and that's highly doubtful, the "No" vote would be over 99%.

Speaking as someone who's served this great country thanks for spitting my in face on Sunday morning. Things haven't changed much for the "Progressive Left" since the Vietnam war.

----------------------

They walked the rounds in on us
methodically adjusting the range
just like we'd been trained to do.
TANKS! Sweet Mary, Mother of God!
They have TANKS.
-- Battle for the Dong Ha Bridge, 1972

Kiplings Arizona: Carmona This, an' Carmona That!

You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires, an' all:
We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow's Uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace.
For it's Carmona this, an' Carmona that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Carmona this, an' Carmona that, an' anything you please;
An' Richie ain't a bloomin' fool -- you bet that Richie sees!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The Republic and Republican love veterans, as long as they vote and run Republican.  Cross the party line and they'll get trashed you in the blink of an eye. 

More Cocktail Courage and Dinner-table Heroism

It is a complete and total embarassment to journalism and the Arizona Republic that Doug MacEachern's partisan "analysis" of the incident in Libya got published. We have known for a day or two now thanks to the New York Times and Associated Press that America responded immediately to the attacks in Libya. In addition to the fog of war, the Obama administration's response to this incident has been muddled by CIA Director David Patraeus trying to keep it secret that there is a CIA combat force in Libya. The CIA combat force responded within 25 minutes to the attack on the Benghazi consulate. The Americans at the consulate were already dead when they arrived. The two Americans killed later weren't State Department security personnel. They were CIA combat team members who were killed by a hit and run mortar attack. The CIA took command of a predator drone from the Air Force immediately when the consulate was attacked and had it over Benghazi in a hour, but the attack was over and there was nothing to shoot at. A very large CIA combat commando force, not State Department security as MacEachern calls it, arrived from Tripoli in six hours and evacuted the surviving Americans and the Benghazi CIA combat team. Now that the political opportunists in the Cocktail Courage and Dinner-table Heroism crowd have forced the CIA to reveal the presence of its combat force in Libya, American servicemen are in danger more than ever. Thanks a lot, guys.

Dances with Wolves

Congratulations to the Arizona Republic on a remarkable, if not astounding, endorsement of Mitt Romney. Will they elaborate on what in the world they mean by job-creating "animal spirits" that Mitt Romney would encourage? Do they know something the rest of us don't? Is Mitt Romney a shaman. Maybe they the editorial should have been titled "Dances with Wolves."

I am surprised Senator McCain has been aggressive toward the current president in the matter of the attack on the diplomats in LIbya. There is some similarity between this controversy and the attack on the USS Liberty many years ago: was the attack deliberate, why didn't we protect our people, what's being covered up. Senator McCain's father, a great Navy hero, was in command of the fleet to which the Liberty belonged. For years Senator McCain and his father have been unfairly abused by those unhappy with the answers the Navy and the government have tried to provide.  Yet McCain rushes to give President Obama the same treatment.

Forget the Irish!

Leave it to the Arizona Republic, the newspaper that celebrated St. Patrick's Day by publishing the vile canard that Irish immigrants pushed Blacks off America's ladder of social mobility, as if an Irish minority made the Constitution's 13th and 14th Amendments necessary to end slavery. Covering the Al Smith Dinner, Linda Valdez provides the progressive America's regulation list of outsiders and leaves out the subject of the story and the quintessential outsider, Al Smith. He got trounced when he ran for President because he was Irish and Catholic, an alter boy at my great-grandfather's church. Italians got left off the Valdez list, too. They were once so outside that Valdez doesn't know they were outside. They were so outside that Smith wouldn't even tell people he was part Italian. The moral of this story for our Latino community is that if you want to stop being outsiders and have the quintessential insider dinner in America named after you: VOTE. Don't blame people like Helen Purcell for stopping you, she's a decent public servant who's devoted herself to the community: all of it. Get out and vote. Don't let anyone stop you, especially your own apathy. One of the most important offices on the fast track to the inside is the US Senate. It's a very powerful job, in part because the Senators have a lot of say about who gets to be a federal judge. You'll be amazed at how friendly big shot CEOs and lawyers become when the Senator's name is Carmona. Most of the big shots aren't any brighter than a pet dog. They'll sit and beg for whoever has the bone.

Note:  years after The Republic defamed Irish Americans, neither The Republic nor the canard's author Clarence Page have apologized for the politically incorrect remarks.

Who Won the Korean War?

A letterwriter from Scottsdale (10/30/12) claims his regiment of 4,500 defeated an enemy force of 60,000 in Korea, that American forces know how to win, and that they are being held back by people in Washington who don't. I am old enough to remember the Korean War. We did not win it (regardless of what the AZ Republican would lead you to believe). A Republican President Dwight Eisenhower signed the armistice that ended the fighting, leaving us with an undefeated North Korea that still threatens us today. If the great Eisenhower could not win in Korean, what makes the writer from Scottsdale think a presidential candidate who has never so much as led a platoon in combat, although there was ample opportunity during the Vietnam War, is going to do any better than the current administration. Would Romeny bring back Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates who left us with the unwon war in Afghanistan.

cocktail courage and dinner-table heroism

This October 26 The Republic published a rather lengthy opinion by Charles Krauthammer taking President Obama to task over a shrinking United States military. I am surprised to learn about Mr. Krauthammer's concern for the US military. Although raised in Canada, Mr. Krauthammer was born and frequently resident in New York City and its suburbs. Though eligible and able at the time, he took no interest whatsoever in the United States military or serving in it during the Vietnam War.

I am pretty fed up with hearing from people, the cocktail courage and dinner-table heroism crowd, who think war and preparing for war are wonderful ideas, as long as someone else or someone else's children do the fighting.

---------------

With age you should fail to remember what it was that was long in the past
the men in their boats
the shock and despair in their eyes as they watched us
and the smouldering City of Vinh
their smouldering City of Vinh.

Do Veterans Think Romney Like Kennedys?

A letter in the AZ Republic claimed Mitt Romney is wealthy and that makes him no different from the Kennedys who were prominent in Democratic politcs and whose son became president and then was assassinated. The Kennedys were different from Romney in one major respect that bound them closely to working class Boston. Their father's political influence could have kept them far from danger during World War II, but Joe Kennedy Jr. volunteered to be a Naval Aviator and was killed during the war. John Kennedy volunteered for combat duty and skippered the Navy's PT 109 during the desperate fighting in the South Pacific. Without that on his resume John Kennedy would never have been elected to represent working class Boston Democrats. It's not as though Mitt didn't have his chance. During the Vietnam War he opted for defending France.

Boycott Arizona! And buy all your appliances and Internet gadgets from companies that make them in third-world dictatorships (China), where slave labor is still a reality, and the governments provide political cover for even worse third-world dictatorships (North Korea and Iran)  intent on building weapons of mass destruction for use on... guess who.

Sorry, I can't help myself. I believe in global warming... created by methane from all the high priced manure being shovelled in this country.

They walked the rounds in on us
methodically adjusting the range
just like we'd been trained to do
TANKS! Sweet Mary! Mother of God!
They have TANKS!
-- Battle for the Dong Ha Bridge, South Vietnam, 1972

A Arizona Republci letter writer blames LBJ, McNamara and America for the debacle in Vietnam that took so many lives, omitting Richard Nixon for some reason. It would be great consolation after all these years, not simply to be thanked as veterans for our service, but also at long last to have someone admit that America alone should not shoulder the blame for the war. Ask yourselves where the North Vietnamese got 200 tanks supported by large numbers of artillery guns for the attack on the Dong Ha Bridge in South Vietnam, for example. The war lasted so long and to such devastating effect because of material support from the Soviet Union and Communist Chinese. North Vietnam's total intransigence and complete disregard for Vietnamese lives in pursuing its political aims was beyond the Pale of human decency, surpassed only by the fascists in World War II. Although portrayed as the forces of light by America's left, the North Vietnamese Communists have after all these years yet to hold a free election. Shame on Intel for building manufacturing plants in countries that refused to embrace democracy. Shame on those who mouth platitudes about freedom while demanding boycotts of Arizona, when companies who make America's Internet gadgets locate manufacturing plants in dictatorships like Vietnam.

Is the Jewish Bible Orange or Green?

I understand some in the Arizona legislature plan to authorize teaching the Bible in Arizona public schools. Bravo! The Bible is not only a revered book, but also a great contribution to human literature. Small problem, though,  whose version of the Bible will be authorized for use in Arizona schools? The Protestant King James version, or the Catholic version? My ancestors were still telling stories about the great Bible fight when I was a boy. When Catholics objected to using the King James version in the public schools, there was rioting in Philadelphia, blood in the streets, Catholic churches were burned. In New York, Archbishop "Dagger John" Hughes threatened the authorities: "If a single Catholic church is burned here, we will turn all of New York into a second Moscow (as in the Russians burning their own capital to spite Napoleon)." So let's repeat history and raise high the Orange and Green banners that so recently flew in Northern Ireland. By the way the Bible is also revered by Muslims and Jews. I wonder if their versions are Orange or Green?