Scott Ott appeared with various conservative luminaries on a discussion panel about Finding Common Ground between social-fiscal and solely-fiscal conservatives. Watch the whole thing, or fast forward to the Scott Ott part by clicking the “Finding Common Ground” link under the video player. Start watching now.
UPDATE: Here’s a direct link to the Finding Common Ground session.
Scott Ott on Conservatism 2.0 Panel at CPAC [Video]
by Scott Ott for ScrappleFace · 38 Comments
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38 responses so far ↓
1 Newsman // Mar 1, 2009 at 8:04 pm
“What is so strange about being honest and saying I want Barack Obama to fail if his mission is to restructure and reform this country so that capitalism and individual liberty are not its foundation?” So says Rush Limbaugh
He obviously has not thought very far through his idea. If Obama fails this country could well fall into an unimaginable abyss.
Who is to say that any existing political party could save the US at such a time ?
We would be more likely to see some form of dictatorship sieze power or, believe it or not, maybe the military if the pols are powerless.
And then where is Rush and his followers .. nowhere !
And worse then that, where are we citizens in such a situation?
When wallets are empty and families starving and many homeless, democracy will be a meaningless philosophy.
Don’t snicker and think that it can’t happen here !
2 DrivebyMeteor // Mar 1, 2009 at 8:45 pm
“The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” — Chicken Little
3 Darthmeister // Mar 1, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Obama and the Democrat leadership are selling socialism, pure and simple. Here’s a little history lesson:
Norman Mattoon Thomas (Nov 20, 1884 to Dec 19, 1968) was a socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America said the following in a 1944 speech:
“The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of “liberalism,” they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.! ” He went on to say: “I no longer need to run as a Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party. The Democrat Party has adopted our platform.”
Margaret Thatcher correctly noted: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”
Thomas Jefferson presciently observed, “The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who are not.”
Liberals can say what they want, but given how they began authoring this economic tsunami beginning with their takeover of Congress in 2007 they have absolutely no leg to stand on blaming conservatives, Rush Limbaugh, or even your garden variety Republican. The liberal Democrats are the ones who expressly excluded Republicans from the 2009 budget which will eventually have the effect of quintupling whatever budget deficits were run up during eight years of the Bush Administration (with Congress being in the hands of Democrats the last two of those eight years!).
Now I don’t know about your average Obamabot steeped in their self-imposed blindness, but I find the present budget deficits just one month into an Obama Administraton quite shocking and unsettling.
4 camojack // Mar 2, 2009 at 3:45 am
I wonder if the Republicans can change their recent ways and get back to their conservative roots. I certainly hope so…
5 R.A.M. // Mar 2, 2009 at 7:14 am
newsboy proves once again what a hypocrite he, (as well as ALL left wing loonies), is/are!
His senerio about rooting for Obama to fail, and it hurting the Country is EXACTLY what he and his side did, (and STILL do), about Bush! It DID in fact hurt America, and is a real reason why the economy is percevied to be worse that it actually was, because of the CONSTANT drumbeat of doom and gloom coming from not only the left loons, but their 99% of ALL MSM minions! Worse than hurting the economy, (in my opinion), they actually cost us more soldiers lives in Iraq and Afghanistan with the constant drumbeat that we were losing!
Odd thing, if the economy is so bad, why have we not seen people cancelling their cable TV, or why are all the stores still so packed on weekends?
We WILL see these things start going down VERY soon under Obama. Only a fool who cannot do simple addition and subtraction would not see, there is NO WAY Americans can fund the TRILLIONS Obama has already put in his “Stimulus”.
Also only a FOOL would vote for a bill they have not read, and I don’t know what to call someone who would defend anyone who would cast such a vote!
I guess you could call them a FOOL’s PUPPET!
P.S.: Left wing fools think that the economy is the number one problem. I guess they forgot that after the 9/11 attack, THAT EVENT almost destroyed a “good” economy. What happens if we have one now with a “weak” economy?
GOD forbid!
6 Newsman // Mar 2, 2009 at 10:56 am
You may call me a ‘left wing fool’ and all that nonsense RAMBO, but Bush is at the root of the present economic disaster with his thrust towards deregulation and his failure to ensure that the SEC did their job under his administration.
Yes he did receive some assistance along the way from some Democrats. There is no denying that. Barney Frank being one for example.
As for Iraq and Iran-we definitely belonged in Afghanistan going after Bin Laden. It was totally unnecessary to go into Iraq. Saddam was in no way a threat to the Continental US or the US. He did not harbor WMDs at the time and he had no truck with Al Quaeda. He was easily containable !
Because we went into Iraq we were not able to devote 100% of our military resources to the mission in Afghanistan. Hence the situation in Afghanistan is going backwards and needs massive military resources, which are not available in either personnel or equipment.
That last situation is the result of Bush’s failure to correctly analyze and act accordingly.
As Gates just said in a recent TV interview, Bush was not known for his analytical abilities and did not go out of his way to solicit all the viewpoints of the top levels in his administration.
I will agree with the fact that a number of sensible ideas presented by Republicans, when it came to the stimulus, seemed to be ignored in their entirety by Obama. That was a big mistake on his part !
7 Laughing@You // Mar 2, 2009 at 11:41 am
Darthmeister,
You kinda remind me of mama’s toy poodle “Peppy”. That dog made more noise than any dog I have ever seen. He must have thought he was a Great Dane, but despite all his snarling, barking, and bad intentions he was just an ugly little dog.
Finally, it got too hard to keep Peppy off everybody’s leg and drapes, and we had to ask her to leave the little fella at home.
Now, sit any stay!
L@Y
8 Laughing@You // Mar 2, 2009 at 11:48 am
“Now, sit any stay!” Another typo!
RAM, fetch!
L@Y
9 Fred Sinclair // Mar 2, 2009 at 1:11 pm
Democracy sucks! At my somewhat advanced age I have seen and experienced, not as much as some but a lot more than most.
From Wiki I read:
The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy (1855-1931), a Baptist minister,
Bellamy’s original Pledge read, “I Pledge Allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all.”
After three amendments it read, “I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation under God, indivisible, With Liberty and Justice for all.”
I have never ever placed my hand over my heart and pledged, “I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Democracy for which it stands: one Nation under God, indivisible, With Liberty and Justice for all.” and I never will.
With the changes - the for my - of America added to United States - under God added to one Nation. Never was the word Republic (rule by law) changed to Democracy (majority rule).
The Republic is under attack! There are Socialist in our midst who if not stopped, have as their agenda the destruction of the Republic.
Often quoted is the phrase “All men are created equal” and while that is true, the facts are seriously distorted. Reality is “All men are created equal, with the right and potential to become unequal.”
Men who chose to become unequal, with capitalism, built this Republic into the greatest country in the history of the world. All too many people are in the chains of slavery, down on the liberal plantation waiting for their welfare check to come in the mail.
2Th. 3:10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
10 Laughing@You // Mar 2, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Fred says,
“Democracy sucks! At my somewhat advanced age I have seen and experienced, not as much as some but a lot more than most.”
Who am I to question such a grand self-appraisal, but let these also speak!
“The catholic principle of republicanism is that every people may establish what form of government they please and change it as they please, the will of the nation being the only thing essential.” -Thomas Jefferson: The Anas, 1792.
“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all others that have been tried.” Winston Churchill - House of Commons in 1947,
“Individual rights are not subject to a public vote: a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority.” -Ayn Rand, “Collectivized ‘Rights,’ ” The Virtue of Selfishness.
L@Y
11 gafisher // Mar 2, 2009 at 3:33 pm
“Individual rights are not subject to a public vote: a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority.” –Ayn Rand, “Collectivized ‘Rights,’ ” The Virtue of Selfishness.
I saw that quoted recently, it doesn’t matter where (probably by someone who didn’t understand it, come to think of it) and was reminded of how well Ayn Rand expressed some of the central tenets of conservatism. Too bad they didn’t have her books in the Madrasah where Obama got his training. He might have been a success.
12 gafisher // Mar 2, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Amen Re#9, Fred!
It’s interesting that the words “under God” were added to the American political discourse by none other than Abraham Lincoln who, as a Republican, espoused the rule of law, ultimately God’s, over the vicissitudes of fickle public opinion which had for so long excused and even defended slavery. While the word “Democracy” was once a fairly well understood shorthand term for the principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence — principles Lincoln famously called “the sheet anchor of American republicanism” — the word has since fallen to a low state which refers in the liberal mind to nothing better than mob rule.
13 gafisher // Mar 2, 2009 at 4:09 pm
14 mindknumbed kid // Mar 2, 2009 at 6:10 pm
The Star-Spangled Banner
—Francis Scott Key, 1814
O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro’ the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro’ the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen thro’ the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
O thus be it ever when free-men shall stand
Between their lov’d home and the war’s desolation;
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land
Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust!”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
On Sept. 13, 1814, Francis Scott Key visited the British fleet in Chesapeake Bay to secure the release of Dr. William Beanes, who had been captured after the burning of Washington, DC. The release was secured, but Key was detained on ship overnight during the shelling of Fort McHenry, one of the forts defending Baltimore. In the morning, he was so delighted to see the American flag still flying over the fort that he began a poem to commemorate the occasion. First published under the title “Defense of Fort M’Henry,” the poem soon attained wide popularity as sung to the tune “To Anacreon in Heaven.” The origin of this tune is obscure, but it may have been written by John Stafford Smith, a British composer born in 1750. “The Star-Spangled Banner” was officially made the national anthem by Congress in 1931, although it already had been adopted as such by the army and the navy.
15 Ms RightWing, Ink // Mar 2, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Scott
Thanks for making my Sunday evening chore a little easier. I baked up a batch of chocolate-sour cream swirl cookies. I didn’t feel up to it until I turned the volume up and went into the kitchen.
Conservative cookies! Ya know you just can’t beat them and best of all nobody argues when they have a plate full of cookies.
Not quite WFCCC’s, but they are still plenty good.
Now back to arguing
P.S. Talking about baking makes me think of upnorth. Howdy hello up thar.
16 mindknumbed kid // Mar 2, 2009 at 7:22 pm
Talking about baking makes me think of eating…chocolate cake is yummy!
17 mindknumbed kid // Mar 2, 2009 at 7:25 pm
“Conservative cookies! Ya know you just can’t beat them and best of all nobody argues when they have a plate full of cookies.”
I hope Ohblunder doesn’t get wind of this, or it will be goodbye soup kitchens - hello bakeries. Could the cause survive such devious tactics?
18 mindknumbed kid // Mar 2, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Work was just a gas for me today! The gas of choice was CO2 and it was built up inside the cooler of an unnamed local convenience store. Must have been plenty of it too, in 10 seconds or less I was gasping for breath. All I will say is that it is a pity that some employers tolerate idiots on their payrolls. The worst part is that the said idiotic employee was aware of the situation yet chose to stand by and let me go in and discover the problem for myself.
19 onlineanalyst // Mar 2, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Our friendly visitors must never have heard of Cloward-Pivens Strategy. Chaos, especially through a manufactured economic crises, is its aim. And, yes, a strongman dictator or oligarchy is its game.
Global “climate change” is another means of exerting control over individual lives. Ask Vaclev Havel, former president of the Czech Republic about what he thinks of this boondoggle and how it relates to repressive regimes.
The Obama cohort is determined to undermine our capitalist system and deprive us of affordable energy.
I hope he fails.
20 mindknumbed kid // Mar 2, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Actually the C-store does have a name…I just will allow them to remain anonymous!
Yesterday I decided to tackle our 2008 taxes. Earlier this year we had to sell some of my wife’s Walmart stocks to raise some funds. So I was entering the info from the form 1099-B and needed to enter the cost basis for the stock purchase (she has put a few $$ into stock from each paycheck for 8 years now), anyhow in the column for the cost basis it says “Insufficient History”. So I read the notes and discovered “If you have the message “Insufficient History” under the cost basis column, some or all of the shares sold were purchased or acquired prior to October 1, 2006, when we converted from an old record keeping system to our current system.”
So what do I do to determine the cost basis? Make up an amount that sounds good to me? Or do we just assume the shares were given to us at no cost and pay capital gains on the entire amount? We tried the 800 number on the 1099 but no one was home, perhaps they changed their phone system too…
21 Ms RightWing, Ink // Mar 2, 2009 at 8:00 pm
I am not one for watching or listening to television and or radio news, so I didn’t hear a lot about Paul Harvey’s death. Maybe you may have caught my memorial to him on the last page.
I thought is was neat when I was watching the Honeymooners on WGN last night (yes I am an old fuddy dud) that after each program they dedicated the show to him.
When I used to roam the great South West I always recall seeing Paul Harvey Blvd in Puelblo Colorado. As a matter of fact I usually stayed at the Comfort Inn there.
Mr Harvey always had a fondness for the city that stood up and removed the ashes of despair and rebuilt the town into a city of culture and industry. Maybe I should have moved there instead of the dirty old factory town.
Some conservatives disliked the “Good Day,” man because he disliked the Vietnam war, but we learned in Scott’s PJTV show that the the tent has to be a bit bigger (but not to big).
Numerous blogs have honored Paul today. I am glad. While traveling coast to coast for so may years, one thing I could always count on before the days of Rush was hearing his voice at noon somewhere, someplace.
Because of him I bought my first Bunn Coffee Maker which lasted well over 15 years. Compare that to a two year Mr Coffee!
Page Two
22 mindknumbed kid // Mar 2, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Another person hoping Obama fails… folks, if this disaster isn’t derailed it is the end of the line for this country. What, are we “too big to fail” like the “Big Three” and AIG? The current solutions, combined with the current admin’s desires add up to collapse. If and when we fail as a nation would require something “bigger and better” in order to maintain international stability, a universal or international government will be a necessity at that time. I have to speculate that the plans are nearly complete for it, or maybe a done deal.
23 Ms RightWing, Ink // Mar 2, 2009 at 8:09 pm
re:17
mindknumbed kid
On the day OB1 was sworn at, er I mean sworn in I made a batch of cookies with both milk chocolate chips and white chocolate chips. The cookies had plenty of nuts in them. I handed them out here at the bunker and they went like hot cakes.
I called the Mixed Race Cookies with nutty goodness. Can I say that here?
The recipe is a hit in Kenya and Hawaii, but so far I haven’t sold a cookie yet at the Cafe where the tent isn’t quite so big.
24 RedPepper // Mar 2, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Another day, another bailout.
AIG gets access to an additional $30 billion in T.A.R.P. funds, in addition to the $150 billion the U.S. government has already committed to the three previous attempts to prop up the insurance giant.
AIG’s stock closed flat at 42 cents a share.
The DJI closed down ~300 points at 6763, its lowest close since April of 1997.
Any minute now, this approach is going to start working - right?
The first law of holes : when you find yourself in one, stop digging !
25 Newsman // Mar 2, 2009 at 8:57 pm
“Can I say that here?”
Yes you can MsRightWing.Inc as long as all your batches have an “equal number of nuts”
Are you offering franchises ?
26 Newsman // Mar 2, 2009 at 9:03 pm
I’d just roughly average the cost per share Mindnumbed Kid or depending on the number of shares bought over a given period, you can spend the rest of the winter and spring and probably burn out your calculator.
Or, hire an accountant at some outrageous fee that may well exceed your profit ….
Forget that last idea.
27 Newsman // Mar 2, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Forgot a point - you need to put some kind of profit or loss in there as you don’t want to give the IRS any cause to closely look over your returns over a long period of time.
Not inferring that you are dishonest but why subject yourself to possible financial pain if they find an ‘honest error’ or two in the past. Then they get into interest over whats due, etc.
28 mindknumbed kid // Mar 2, 2009 at 9:13 pm
I ‘m considering that approach, but doesn’t that seem like making it up? Shall I make up a profit or a loss? I wonder if I can find an 8 or 10 year average on line somewhere. If the IRS were to question the figures I’d prefer to have a good explanation of my guess.
29 Fred Sinclair // Mar 2, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Perhaps someone could educate the current White House occupant along with his gang of thugs and their cult followers.
Prov. 16:25 There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
In his case he seemeth it to be right to remake America into “Cuba, North” and the result, if successful, will be the death of our Republic.
A Sheriff’s Posse of thirty deputized citizens track down and capture a ‘bad guy’. The Posse decides by a vote of thirty to zero to hang the ‘bad guy’ from a nearby tree. aka Democracy, aka “Majority Rule.
But the Sheriff comes riding up, gets the ‘drop’ on the gang (Posse) and says “No way, boys. we have him in custody and the law says we take him into town where he gets a trial by jury of his peers and they decide whether he hangs or not”. aka The Republic” aka “The rule of law”.
The rule of law trumps the rabid emotionalism of ‘Majority Rule’ 100% of the time. Unless, of course the gang (Posse) manages to shoot the Sheriff and mob rule then murders what might in a trial have proven to be an innocent man. Democracy sucks! The rule of law is precious and must at all costs be protected from the attacks of Social Democrats.
I, for one, do not like the idea of a ‘Cuba, North’ where once a great Republic stood.
Or, in the immortal words of Patrick Henry, “Give me liberty or give me death,”
Or more and to the point the immortal words of the great Davy Crockett, “Keep your powder dry!”
30 onlineanalyst // Mar 2, 2009 at 11:00 pm
Ackbar is well on his way to being the next Hoover. The banks and the markets are rejecting Obamanomics.
The boy king is also sending out feelers to Putin that we will dismantle the Eastern Europe missile shield if Russia helps us to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Duh! Russia has been assisting Iran lo these many years. And I’m sure that Poland and the Czech Republic, to say nothing of Western Europe, will just love their new vulnerability. Is this how America treats it allies?
31 onlineanalyst // Mar 2, 2009 at 11:09 pm
I couldn’t have said it better myself: “America didn’t elect a Founding Father, Obama.”
32 Laughing@You // Mar 2, 2009 at 11:16 pm
“A Sheriff’s Posse of thirty deputized citizens track down and capture a ‘bad guy’. The Posse decides by a vote of thirty to zero to hang the ‘bad guy’ from a nearby tree.”
Fred, I can’t tell you how great it is to have an old fella like you around to tell us young folks what it was like in the old days!
Gosh, the life you must have led! Did you ever shoot a “bad guy”, or was lynching your specialty?
I know how those fish stories are, but did you really know Patrick Henry too?
You are simply a wonderment to me.
L@Y
33 Fred Sinclair // Mar 2, 2009 at 11:47 pm
mkk #14 -
A local grade school teacher tells me that they are sternly cautioned (warned) they can never, ever allow children to sing any more than verse one of TSSB due to the unacceptable offensive wording in verses three and four. Verse two is blacklisted because it would give children the thought that there is more than one verse which could cause them to become curious about other possible verses.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave (word slave is blacklisted)
(words “heav’n rescued” - Praise the Pow’r that hath made… - “In God is our trust!”) Unconstitutional as contra “establishment” clause. Is this stupid, or what?
Now we know what Russians endured, in part, under Joseph Stalin. and the usurper is using his playbook! (and the playbooks of Marx, Engles, Lenin and Ayers!!!
btw - I read that the melody was from an old drinking song, common in most of the English pubs???
34 Fred Sinclair // Mar 3, 2009 at 5:47 am
Coverage you can’t count on
Why are some national media finally reporting on Obama’s eligibility?
OBAMA’S LACK OF ELIGIBILITY
Posted by The Rebel on Mar 02, 2009 14:47
I can’t believe so many Americas fell for Obama’s smooth talking, I’ll tell you what you want to hear lies. I can’t believe the authorities, FBI, CIA, didn’t investigate Obama with a fine tooth comb. The powers that be that made him President are very dangerous people. The communist have always said that they would take over the United States without firing a shot. They are well on their way to doing that now.
According to the Pakistan Daily, Obama’s birth certificate was found in Kenya. He’s IS a citizen of Kenya & was naturalized in Indonesia. He was born in Kenya at the Mombasa Maternity Hospital in 1961 to Stanley Ann Dunham, and a Kenyan man, Barack Hussein Obama Senior. No hospital birth certificate has been produced to show Obama was born in Hawaii, only a certificate of birth registry after the fact, which forensics experts have denounced as a forgery.
It’s time for the American people to call on congress to start impeachment proceedings against Obama. Obama will only destroy America’s economy & the American way of life. Our freedoms are at risk! The DOW has steadily declined since Obama took office. Destroy a country’s economy which will enable another country to take over. Wake up people!! It’s not too late to save our freedoms & our country from this maniacal commie terrorist! Who do you think bankrolled his campaign…Iran & other terrorist countries! Let’s take back America!!
35 Fred Sinclair // Mar 3, 2009 at 6:32 am
mkk #14 - I found this excerpt from a speech by Dr. Asimov; it supports your account with a few added details.
As an added detail from my schooling - The reason Fort McHenry was so difficult to breach was Citizens - warned of the coming attack took 33 private boats/ships and sank them at the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay, effectively blocking the British ships from entering the bay and getting within range to demolish the Fort with their cannons. Caught off guard by the artificial barrier, the British could only fire their cannons from outside the bay. Their cannonballs were mostly hollow concrete balls filled with gunpowder with a fuse cut to a proper length for the short range firing within the bay.
Fired from outside the bay at far longer distances than planned, the short fuses would explode before reaching the Fort “…bursting in air…” and so private citizens, acting on their own initiative (without a permit) were primarily responsible for saving Ft. McHenry.
NO REFUGE COULD SAVE : BY DR. ISAAC ASIMOV
In 1812, the United States went to war with Great Britain, primarily over freedom of the seas. We were in the right. For two years, we held off the British, even though we were still a rather weak country. Great Britain was in a life and death struggle with Napoleon. In fact, just as the United States declared war, Napoleon marched off to invade Russia. If he won, as everyone expected, he would control Europe, and Great Britain would be isolated. It was no time for her to be involved in an American war.
At first, our seamen proved better than the British. After we won a battle on Lake Erie in 1813, the American commander, Oliver Hazard Perry, sent the message, “We have met the enemy and they are ours.” However, the weight of the British navy beat down our ships eventually. New England, hard-hit by a tightening blockade, threatened secession. Meanwhile, Napoleon was beaten in Russia and in 1814 was forced to abdicate. Great Britain now turned its attention to the United States, launching a three-pronged attack.
The northern prong was to come down Lake Champlain toward New York and seize parts of New England. The southern prong was to go up the Mississippi, take New Orleans and paralyze the west. The central prong was to head for the mid-Atlantic states and then attack Baltimore, the greatest port south of New York. If Baltimore was taken, the nation, which still hugged the Atlantic coast, could be split in two. The fate of the United States, then, rested to a large extent on the success or failure of the central prong.
The British reached the American coast, and on August 24, 1814, took Washington, D.C. Then they moved up the Chesapeake Bay toward Baltimore. On September 12, they arrived and found 1,000 men in Fort McHenry, whose guns controlled the harbor. If the British wished to take Baltimore, they would have to take the fort. On one of the British ships was an aged physician, William Beanes, who had been arrested in Maryland and brought along as a prisoner. Francis Scott Key, a lawyer and friend of the physician, had come to the ship to negotiate his release. The British captain was willing, but the two Americans would have to wait. It was now the night of September 13, and the bombardment of Fort McHenry was about to start. As twilight deepened, Key and Beanes saw the American flag flying over Fort McHenry. Through the night, they heard bombs bursting and saw the red glare of rockets. They knew the fort was resisting and the American flag was still flying. But toward morning the bombardment ceased, and a dread silence fell. Either Fort McHenry had surrendered and the British flag flew above it, or the bombardment had failed and the American flag still flew. As dawn began to brighten the eastern sky, Key and Beanes stared out at the fort, trying to see which flag flew over it. He and the physician must have asked each other over and over, “Can you see the flag?”
After it was all finished, Key wrote a four stanza poem telling the events of the night. Called “The Defense of Fort McHenry,” it was published in newspapers and swept the nation. Someone noted that the words fit an old English tune called, “To Anacreon in Heaven” — a difficult melody with an uncomfortably large vocal range. For obvious reasons, Key’s work became known as “The Star Spangled Banner,” and in 1931 Congress declared it the official anthem of the United States.
I hope you will look at the national anthem with new eyes. Listen to it, the next time you have a chance, with new ears. Pay attention to the words. And don’t let them ever take it away … not even one word of it.
AND IT’S SUNG IN ENGLISH!
36 gafisher // Mar 3, 2009 at 7:34 am
It looks like another of Øbama’s nominees has been practicing the liberal version of “Fiscal Conservatism.” (That’s when you conserve your own finances while freely spending everyone else’s.) Trade-Rep-Select Ron Kirk, who lost a bid for the Senate after resigning as Mayor of Dallas, joins the long and growing list of Øbama nominees with tax problems, having underpaid some $10,000 in Federal taxes just in the past three years.
I hope Øbama continues to fail.
37 Deerslayer // Mar 3, 2009 at 10:52 am
If the liberals would just pay all of the taxes they actually owe, there would probably be a surplus and there would be no need to raise taxes on “the rich” which will cause many more lay-offs.
38 Laughing@You // Mar 3, 2009 at 11:09 am
“The powers that be that made him President are very dangerous people.”
I have never thought of myself as a power, but maybe you’re right! And I have never thought of myself as particularly dangerous either; but, if I am I would appreciate a little more respect around here!
I can’t get not respect I tell you!
L@Y
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