California History Lesson

158 years ago, California became a state. The State had no electricity. The State had no money. Almost everyone spoke Spanish. There were gunfights in the streets. So basically it was just like it is today, except the women had real tits and the men didn't hold hands.

Land of the free...

Happy Indipendence Day

MSNBC

Homegrown hate groups increase in number

Watchdog group blames recession, election of first black president

The face of homegrown hate June 10: With hate groups on the rise, watchdog organizations are looking at the recession, anti-immigration and the election of the nation's first black president as key factors. NBC's Mara Schiavocampo reports. Nightly News

By Mara Schiavocampo

Correspondent

NBC News

updated 7:21 p.m. ET, Wed., June 10, 2009

Mara Schiavocampo Correspondent

ST. LOUIS, Mo. - On a recent Saturday afternoon, hate was on the march in St. Louis. About 85 members of the National Socialist Movement (NSM), the nation’s largest neo-Nazi group, gathered in the shadow of the famed Gateway Arch for a march and rally celebrating its 35th anniversary. Clad in all black, with their pants tucked into tightly laced combat boots, the group carried swastika flags and signs urging immigrants to leave the country. They chanted “Sieg Heil,”  a popular rallying cry in World War II Germany, accompanied by a Nazi salute: one arm outstretched, fingers tightly joined, palms facing down.
Their critics say that groups like NSM are the faces of homegrown hate, something the NSM denies. They instead call themselves a “white civil rights organization.” Its ultimate goal is to whitewash America. If they had their way, U.S. citizenship would be limited to “those of pure white blood”; minorities would live in the country as guests. All Jewish people and gays would be forced to leave and immigration would be prohibited.

---

As shocking as those views are, groups like this are more popular than ever.
“Right across the board, extremist groups are thriving right now,” says Mark Potok, Director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project.
The SPLC has been tracking hate groups for almost 30 years. In its spring 2009 Intelligence Report, they found that 926 hate groups are currently operating in the U.S., an all-time high. These groups include the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, racist skinheads and Black separatists.
Potok attributes this rise in hate groups to the recession, the election of the nation’s first black president, and the immigration debate.
“We’re looking at a kind of perfect storm of factors that really favor the continued growth of these groups,” he says.

Entry for June 06, 2009

OMAHA BEACH, France - - A silent moment on France's most evocative shore, a thoughtful stroll over once-bloodied Normandy cliffs, a mug of cider with a Frenchman who remembers hearing the D-Day bombers as a scrawny child, hiding in his cellar.

Keeping the memory of the D-Day invasion alive doesn't have to be about costly tours and pricey museums with mock exhibits. Simply being there, on the wide beaches still rimmed with ruined pillboxes and among the gravestones, may make a more lasting impression.

President Barack Obama will pay homage to D-Day's heroes and its fallen next month, 65 years after their epochal military undertaking helped lead to the Nazis' demise.

The operation was the largest single-day amphibious invasion of all time, with 160000 troops landing on June 6, 1944.

Canada

Free France

Norway

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Bernard Law Montgomery
Omar Bradley
Trafford Leigh-Mallory
Arthur Tedder
Miles Dempsey
Bertram Ramsay

Erwin Rommel
Gerd von Rundstedt
Friedrich Dollmann

Arlington

Military burials

• Creighton Abrams (1914-1974), United States Army General who commanded U.S. military operations in the Vietnam War from 1968-1972

• "Hap" Arnold (1886-1950), first General of the Air Force

• Ray Barker (1889-1974), United States Army Major General was Deputy Chief of Staff for Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, and commanded the 78th Infantry Division after World War II (1945-1946).

• Gordon Beecher (1904-1973), United States Navy Vice Admiral and composer

• Jeremy Michael Boorda (1939-1996), US Navy Admiral and Chief of Naval Operations

• Gregory "Pappy" Boyington (1912-1988), World War II Marine Corps fighter ace, Medal of Honor recipient, and commander of VMF-214, the "Black Sheep Squadron" (basis for the 1970s TV series Baa Baa Black Sheep)

• Omar N. Bradley (1893-1981), commanded the 12th Army Group in Europe during World War II, first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

• Ruby G. Bradley (1907-2002), Colonel and, with 34 medals, one of the most decorated women in U.S. military history

• Miles Browning (1897-1954), World War I and World War II Navy officer and hero of the Battle of Midway

• Omar Bundy (1861-1940), World War I Major General who commanded the 1st Brigade, 1st Expeditionary Division in France, awarded the French Legion of Honor and the Croix de Guerre.

• Roger Chaffee (1935-1967) and Gus Grissom (1926-1967), astronauts killed in the Apollo 1 fire (Edward White was buried at West Point)

• Claire Lee Chennault (1893–1958), was a United States military aviator who commanded the "Flying Tigers" during World War II.

• Bertram Tracy Clayton (1862-1918), Congressman from New York, killed in action in 1918

• Louis Cukela (1888-1956), Marine Corps Major, awarded two Medals of Honor for same act in World War I

• Jane Delano (1862-1919), Director, Army Nursing Corps

• Sir John Dill (1881-1944) United Kingdom, British Diplomat and Field Marshal

• William J. Donovan (1883-1959), Major General and Chief of the OSS during World War II

• Abner Doubleday (1819-1893), Civil War general erroneously credited with inventing baseball

• Clarence Ransom Edwards (1860-1931), commanded the 26th "Yankee" Division in World War I

• Frank J. Fletcher (1885-1973), Admiral, U.S. Navy, World War II; operational commander at Coral Sea and Midway; awarded Medal of Honor.

• Nathan Bedford Forrest III (1905-1943) Brigadier General of the United States Army Air Forces, and a great-grandson of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest. First American general to be killed in action during World War II

• Rene Gagnon, Ira Hayes and Michael Strank: three of the six servicemen immortalized in Joe Rosenthal's iconic photo Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima (Strank was killed in action just days after the photo was taken)

• John Gibbon (1827-1896), Brigadier General, Union Army, Civil War, most notably commander of 2nd Division, US II Corps that repelled Pickett's Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg.

• David Haskell Hackworth (1930–2005), Colonel and most decorated American soldier

• William "Bull" Halsey (1882-1959), World War II Navy five-star Fleet Admiral

• Kara Spears Hultgreen (1965–1994), the first female naval carrier-based fighter pilot

• James Jabara (1923-1966), the first American jet ace in history. He's credited with shooting down 15 enemy aircraft during aerial combat.

• Daniel "Chappie" James, Jr. (1920-1978), USAF, first African American four-star General in the U.S. Armed Forces

• Philip Kearny (1815-1862), "fearless" one-armed cavalry general killed at Chantilly during the Civil War

• Włodzimierz B. Krzyżanowski (1824-1887), Polish military leader and Civil War Union general

• Mark Matthews (1894-2005), last surviving Buffalo Soldier

• Francis Lupo (1895-1918), Private killed in France during World War I; holds the distinction of possibly being the longest U.S. service member missing in action to be found (1918-2003)

• David McCampbell (1910-1996), Captain, the US Navy's top World War II Ace with 34 kills

• Montgomery Cunningham Meigs (1816-1892), Brigadier General. Arlington National Cemetery was established by Brig. Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs, who commanded the garrison at Arlington House and appropriated the grounds on June 15, 1864 for use as a military cemetery. His intention was to render the house uninhabitable should the Lee family ever attempt to return. A stone and masonry burial vault in the rose garden, 20 feet (6.1 m) wide and 10 feet (3.0 m) deep, and containing the remains of 2,111 Civil War dead, was among the first monuments to Union dead erected under Meigs' orders. Meigs himself was later buried within 100 yards (91 m) of Arlington House with his wife, father and son.

• Glenn Miller (1904-1944), Major and well known band leader who disappeared over the English Channel while flying to Paris. His body was never found, but he has a memorial headstone.

• Audie Murphy (1924-1971), U.S. Army, America's most decorated combat soldier of World War II and popular movie actor

• George S. Patton IV (1923-2004), Major General of the Army and son of famed WWII General, George S. Patton

• John J. Pershing (1860-1948), America's first General of the Armies, commanded American forces in World War I

• David Dixon Porter (1813-1891), Admiral, Union Navy, Civil War, most notable as the Union naval commander during the Vicksburg Campaign, a turning point of the war which split the Confederacy in two.

• Francis Gary Powers (1929-1977), American U-2 pilot shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960

• John Aaron Rawlins (1831-1869), Civil War general, chief of staff and later Secretary of War to Ulysses S. Grant

• Alfred C. Richmond (1902-1984), Commandant of the United States Coast Guard

• Hyman G. Rickover (1900-1986), father of the Nuclear Navy

• Matthew Ridgway (1895-1993), WWII and Korea General, Chief of Staff of the Army

• William S. Rosecrans (1819-1898), Major General, Army of the Cumberland, Union Army, Civil War

• Thomas Selfridge (1882-1908), First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army and the first person to die in a crash of a powered airplane

• Philip Sheridan (1831-1888), commanding general, Union Army, Civil War

• Daniel E. Sickles (1819-1914), Major General, III Corps, Army of the Potomac, Union Army, Civil War. Also served as U.S. Minister to Spain and as U.S. Representative from New York

• Walter Bedell Smith (1895-1961), General, U.S. Army, World War II, Dwight D. Eisenhower's Chief of Staff during Eisenhower's tenure at SHAEF and Director of the CIA from 1950 to 1953. Also served as U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1946 to 1948.

• Larry Thorne (1919-1965) Finland, Finnish soldier who served in the US special forces and was a World War II veteran; called "soldier who fought under three flags (Finland, Germany and USA)"

• Matt Urban (1919-1995), Colonel, U.S Army, most highly decorated soldier for valor in the history of the US Military

• Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV (1883-1953), Major General, hero of Bataan and Corregidor; highest ranking POW in World War II

• Robert Webb (1922-2002), B-17 Flying Fortress pilot

• Joseph Wheeler (1836–1906), served as a Major General for two opposing forces: the Confederate Army during the Civil War, and the U.S. Army during the Spanish-American War and Philippine-American War

• Orde Charles Wingate (1903–1944) United Kingdom, British major general, creator and commander of the Chindits

• Clark H. Woodward (1877-1968), Vice Admiral, served in five wars: the Spanish-American War, Philippine-American War, Boxer Rebellion and both World Wars

• Charles Young (1864-1922), first African-American Lieutenant colonel in the US Army

As of May 2006, there were 367 Medal of Honor recipients buried in Arlington National Cemetery,[1] nine of whom are Canadians.

Wartime service members with other distinguished careers

• Hugo Black, Justice U.S. Supreme Court.

• William Brennan, Justice U.S. Supreme Court.

• Ron Brown, Secretary of Commerce.

• William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State, three time Presidential Candidate and popular orator.

• Bill Buckley, CIA Station Chief murdered in Beirut.

• Clark Clifford, Secretary of Defense and advisor to four Presidents.

• Charles "Pete" Conrad, Jr. was an American astronaut and the third man to walk on the Moon.

• Dwight F. Davis, Secretary of War, established the Davis Cup.

• John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State.

• Medgar Evers, Civil Rights activist.

• Dashiell Hammett, author.

• Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr, Justice U.S. Supreme Court, wounded three times during the Civil War, "The Great Dissenter."[2]

• Grace Hopper, Rear Admiral and pioneer computer scientist.

• Robert G. Ingersoll, political leader and popular orator, noted for his agnosticism.

• John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963), Served U.S. Navy during World War II, Member of Congress (1947-1953), United States Senator from Massachusetts (1953-1961), President of the United States (1961-1963).

• Frank Kowalski, United States Representative from Connecticut and World War II Army veteran.

• Pierre Charles L'Enfant France, military engineer, architect and urban planner who designed the city of Washington, D.C.

• Robert Todd Lincoln, Secretary of War.

• Joe Louis, world heavyweight boxing champion.

• Allard Lowenstein, U.S. Congressman from New York. [1]

• John Roy Lynch, former Slave, Major US Army and Member of Congress.

• Mike Mansfield, longest serving Senate Majority Leader and Ambassador to Japan.

• Lee Marvin, former US Marine and actor.

• Ilona Massey, Hollywood actress, Donald Dawson's wife

• Bill Mauldin, political cartoonist.

• George B. McClellan, Jr. (1865-1940) Mayor of New York (1904-1909), son of Union Army Major General George B. McClellan

• John C. Metzler, Sergeant in World War II and former superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery from 1951-1972. His son, John C. Metzler, Jr. is the current superintendent (1991-present).

• Daniel Patrick Moynihan, U.S. Senator from New York.

• Spottswood Poles, perhaps the greatest outfielder of the Negro Leagues.

• William H. Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the United States.

• Earl W. Renfroe, orthodontist who helped originate the concept of preventive and interceptive orthodontics.

• Frank Reynolds, television news anchorman.

• Johnny Micheal Spann, CIA officer killed in Afghanistan.

• Samuel S. Stratton, fifteen-term U.S. Representative from New York.

• William Howard Taft, (1857–1930) Secretary of War (1904-1908), President (1909-1913) and Chief Justice of the United States (1921-1930).

• George Westinghouse, Civil War veteran and founder of Westinghouse Electric.

• Harvey W. Wiley, first Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and "Father" of the Pure Food and Drug Act.

• Charles Willeford, World War II veteran and author.

Notable civilians

• Julian Bartley, Sr. (54) and his son Jay Bartley (20), killed together in the U.S. Embassy at Nairobi terrorist attack.

• Harry Blackmun, Thurgood Marshall, William O. Douglas and Potter Stewart, four U.S. Supreme Court Justices.

• Leslie Coffelt, US Secret Service member killed fighting off would-be-assassins of President Harry S. Truman.

• Robert Francis Kennedy (1925-1968), United States Attorney General (1961-1964) and United States Senator from New York (1965-1968).

• Phyllis Kirk, famous TV and film actress, alongside her husband.

• Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (1929-1994), wife of President John F. Kennedy and First Lady (1961-1963).

• James Parks, the only person buried at Arlington Cemetery who was born on the grounds.

• Marie Teresa Rios, author of Fifteenth Pelican, basis for The Flying Nun television show.

• United States Capitol Police Officers John Gibson and Jacob Chestnut were killed in the line of duty and granted burials at the cemetery.

• Leslie Sherman, Virginia Tech student killed in mass shooting, April 16, 2007. [2]

Entry for May 25th 2009

Pittance of Time


Cannada

Entry for May 05, 2009

Many years ago, on the good ship lollipop a shipment of Mayonnaise was sent to Mexico as a gift. As you well know mayonnaise is "One of the sauces which serve the French in place of a state religion." Had the delivery been successful, salsa may have been put on the back burner. It was not, the ship went down in sight of land on 5-5-1291. The Mexican peoples have a long memory and to this very day they hold an annual celebration called

"THE SINKO de MAYO!"

Happy Fifth of May Mexico!

Leon Edward Panetta

Leon Edward Panetta (born June 28, 1938) is the current Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. An American Democratic politician, lawyer, and professor, Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993. He is the founder and director of the Panetta Institute, served as Distinguished Scholar to Chancellor Charles B. Reed of the California State University System and professor of public policy at Santa Clara University. In January 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Panetta for the post of CIA Director; he was confirmed by the full Senate on February 12, 2009, and assumed the office the next day.


Early life and schooling

Leon Panetta was born in Monterey, California, the son of Carmelina Maria (née Prochilo) and Carmelo Frank Panetta, Italian immigrants from Siderno in Calabria[3] who owned a restaurant in Monterey. He was raised in the Monterey area, and attended Catholic schools St. Carlos Grammar School and Carmel Mission School. He continued his education at Monterey High School, a public school where he became involved in student politics. As a junior he was Vice President of the Student Body, and became President of the Student Body as a senior.

In 1956, he entered Santa Clara University, and in 1960 he graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. He also received a Juris Doctor in 1963 from the Santa Clara University School of Law, and soon after began practicing law. In 1964, he joined the United States Army as a Second Lieutenant. There he received the Army Commendation Medal, and was discharged in 1966 as a First Lieutenant.

Political career

Panetta started in politics in 1966 as a legislative assistant to Republican Senator Thomas Kuchel, the United States Senate Minority Whip from California, whom Panetta has called "a tremendous role model"[4].

In 1969 he became the assistant to Robert H. Finch, Secretary of the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare under the Nixon administration. Soon thereafter he was appointed Director of the Office for Civil Rights.

Panetta chose to enforce civil rights and equal education laws, even under alleged political pressure not to from then-president Nixon. Robert Mardian said of Panetta: "Doesn't he understand Nixon promised the Southern delegates he would stop enforcing the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts?"[5]. Secretary Robert Finch and Assistant Secretary John Veneman refused to fire Panetta, threatening to resign if forced to do so. A few weeks later in 1970, Panetta resigned and left Washington to work as Executive Assistant for John Lindsay, the Republican Mayor of New York City. He wrote about this experience in his 1971 book Bring Us Together: The Nixon Team and the Civil Rights Retreat.

He moved back to Monterey to practice law at Panetta, Thompson & Panetta from 1971 through to 1976.

Congressional work

Panetta switched to the Democratic Party in 1971, because he thought that the Republican Party was moving away from the political center. In 1976, Panetta was elected to the U.S. Congress to represent California's 16th congressional district, unseating incumbent Republican Burt Talcott with 53% of the vote (the 17th district after the 1990 census), and was reelected for nine terms.

During his time in Congress, his work concentrated mostly on budget issues, civil rights, education, health, and environmental issues, particularly preventing oil drilling off the California coast. He wrote the Hunger Prevention Act (Public Law 100-435) of 1988 and the Fair Employment Practices Resolution. He was a major factor in establishing the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

His positions included:

* Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on the Budget
* Chairman of the Agriculture Committee's Subcommittee on Domestic Marketing, Consumer Relations, and Nutrition
* Chairman of the Administration Committee's Subcommittee on Personnel and Police
* Chairman of the Task Force on Domestic Hunger created by the U.S. House Select Committee on Hunger
* Vice Chairman of the Caucus of Vietnam-Era Veterans in Congress
* Member of the President's Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies.

Budget work

A member of the U.S. House Committee on the Budget from 1979 to 1985—and its chairman from 1989 to 1993—he played a key role in the 1990 Budget Summit.

Though elected to a ninth term, he left the House in 1993 after then-President Bill Clinton selected him to be Director of the United States Office of Management and Budget. He is credited with developing the budget package that would eventually result in the balanced budget of 1998. On July 17, 1994, he was appointed White House Chief of Staff by Clinton, a position he held until January 20, 1997. He was an important negotiator of the 1996 budget, which was another important step towards balancing the budget.

Nomination as CIA Director

Panetta (right) meets with National Security Advisor Anthony Lake and President Clinton in 1994.

President Barack Obama nominated him as the next Director of the Central Intelligence Agency on January 5, 2009.[1]

After his selection, journalists and politicians raised concerns about his lack of intelligence experience.

David Ignatius, a reporter, said that Panetta did have tangential exposure to intelligence operations as Director of the OMB and as Chief of Staff for President Clinton, where he "sat in on the daily intelligence briefings as chief of staff, and he reviewed the nation's most secret intelligence-collection and covert-action programs in his previous post as director of the Office of Management and Budget."[6] Senator Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, wasn't happy with the Leon Panetta selection:

“I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta to be the CIA Director. I know nothing about this, other than what I’ve read. My position has consistently been that I believe the Agency is best-served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time.”[7]

On February 12, 2009, Panetta was confirmed in the full Senate by voice vote.[8]

On February 19, 2009, Leon Panetta was sworn in as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency by Vice President Joe Biden before an audience of CIA employees. Panetta reportedly received a "rock star welcome" from his new subordinates.[9]

In March 2009, Panetta visited India, a crucial ally in the war on terrorism, to discuss a host of issues including common strategy on dealing with Islamic extremism and Taliban. This was his first international visit since he assumed office.[10]

Beyond politics

Panetta and his wife founded the Leon & Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy' in December 1998, where they serve as the Institute's directors. The Institute is located at California State University, Monterey Bay. Panetta was instrumental in creating CSU Monterey Bay by converting Fort Ord, where he was chief of operations and planning of the intelligence section when he was in the army, into the university. Panetta served as Distinguished Scholar to the Chancellor of California State University[11] and as Presidential Professor at Santa Clara University. He was urged to consider running for Governor of California during the recall election in 2003 but declined in part because of the short time available to raise money.

Panetta has long been an advocate for the health of the world's oceans. As a member of Congress from California’s 16th District, he wrote numerous successful acts of Congress to protect the California coast, including legislation creating the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.[11][12][13] In 2003, Panetta was named chairman and commissioner of the Pew Oceans Commission, which in 2005 combined with the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy to establish the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative. Panetta now co-chairs the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative with Admiral James D. Watkins, U.S. Navy (Ret.).[14] Panetta continues to pursue his commitment to ocean and marine life issues, serving as a resource for legislators and the media, advocating for ocean reform on behalf of the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative as well as other ocean organizations, including the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation[15] and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.[16]

In 2006 he was part of the Iraq Study Group, also known as the Baker Commission.

Entry for April 17, 2009

The Mahican sachem Etow Oh Koam, or Nicholas, who went to London with 3 Mohawks in 1710. He holds a ball-headed club and the turtle at his feet indicates his clan. Painting by John Verelst, 1710.

In April 1710, four “Indian Kings” representing the Five Nations Confederacy of the Iroquois (Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga, and Mohawk) traveled across the Great Water to visit the court of Her Majesty Queen Anne in London. These Iroquois sachems, or civil chiefs, hoped to secure British military support against the marauding French and their Indian allies (Algonquin, Montagnais, and Huron) in Canada, and to ask for missionaries to come to New York State and instruct their people. Although Native Americans had visited England before (e.g., Pocahontas in 1616), none had ever been treated as royalty on a state visit!

The “Four Indian Kings,” as they were known in England, caused a real sensation in old London town. They were celebrated and honored everywhere they went, and as foreign dignitaries of state the Indian Kings were given a Grand Tour of London, including a performance of Shakespeare’s MacBeth and a visit to the Royal Opera. They also attended a “trial of skill with sword” between two fighting Englishmen and visited the Cockpit Royal, where they witnessed the “Royal Sport” of cockfighting firsthand.