RUTHFULLY YOURS

Americans actually began celebrating July 4th as an official national holiday only after Franklin Delano Roosevelt made it so in 1941.

In his radio address to the nation on July 4 of that year, FDR acknowledged a worldwide threat to civilization and to democracy, the American democracy included. His remarks were clearly meant to prepare Americans for entry into WWII, an idea that was not popular at that time. FDR stood on American principles and not on political convenience.

Here are some excerpts from the radio address:

“In 1776, on the Fourth day of July, the representatives of the several States in Congress assembled, declaring our independence, asserted that a decent respect for the opinion of mankind required that they should declare the reasons for their action. In this new crisis, we have a like duty.

“In 1776 we waged war in behalf of the great principle that government should derive its just powers from the consent of the governed. In other words, representation chosen in free election. In the century and a half that followed, this cause of human freedom swept across the world.

“If we deny any connection between terrorism and religion, then we are saying there is no problem in any of the mosques; that there is nothing in the religious texts that is capable of being twisted or misunderstood; that there are no religious leaders whipping up hatred of the West, no perverting of religious belief for political ends.” — Boris Johnson, Mayor of London.

“O Muslims, Islam was never for a day the religion of peace. Islam is the religion of war… Mohammed was ordered to wage war until Allah is worshipped alone… He himself left to fight and took part in dozens of battles. He never for a day grew tired of war. — Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State.

While Western politicians claim that the Islamic State is not Islamic, millions of Muslims around the world — referring to what is approved in the Islamic texts — believe that it is.

The BBC has rejected demands by British lawmakers to stop using the term “Islamic State” when referring to the jihadist group that is carving out a self-declared Caliphate in the Middle East.

Lord Hall of Birkenhead, the BBC’s director general, said that the proposed alternative, “Daesh,” is pejorative and using it would be unfair to the Islamic State, thereby casting doubt upon the BBC’s impartiality.

Prime Minister David Cameron recently joined the growing chorus of British politicians who argue that the name “Islamic State” is offensive to Muslims and should be banned from the English vocabulary.

The deadline for a nuclear deal between the P5+1 powers and Iran was extended on Tuesday, when too many bones of contention remained unresolved on June 30. The new date set by the parties to finalize the “framework for an agreement” reached in Lausanne three months ago is July 7.

This means that there are four days to go before the current talks in Vienna bear fruit in the form of an official document. If such a piece of paper is signed, two leaders will feel particularly vindicated: U.S. President Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani — the former for playing out his fantasy of peace through diplomacy and the latter for delivering the goods to his boss, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The rest of the world, however, will be in mortal peril. And Israel will be forced to act fas

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb announced his candidacy Thursday for the 2016 Democratic nomination for president. Here’s a look at where he stands on some issues:
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ECONOMY
Webb speaks about the need for economic “fairness” and ways of addressing the disparity between the wealthy and the poor. He has said he would pursue a tax overhaul if elected president and suggested he would reduce the corporate tax rate in exchange for eliminating numerous loopholes. Webb has said he would examine shifting tax policies away from income and more toward consumption. He has cited the need to repair crumbling roads and bridges and advocated for federal programs to fix the nation’s infrastructure.
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FOREIGN POLICY
In his presidential announcement, Webb noted that he wrote about the potential problems of going to war in Iraq five months before the 2003 invasion by the U.S. He has said the invasion of Iraq strengthened Iran and he’s criticized President Barack Obama’s use of force in Libya, saying it set a bad precedent in the region. He has called for the creation of a “new strategic doctrine” for foreign policy that would lay out the circumstances in which the U.S. would use military force. Webb has been wary of nuclear talks with Iran, saying the Obama administration and Congress “should be looking very hard at the actual terms of this agreement, which we on the outside cannot yet see or evaluate.”

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Former Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., speaks at the National Sheriffs’ Association presidential forum, Tuesday, June 30, 2015, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
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VETERANS
Webb was central in the passage of the post-Sept. 11 GI Bill for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan seeking to attend college. He has said it “shows that you can get things done in the United States government; you can get over the paralysis and work across the aisle.” He also pushed for ensuring that service members have enough time in the U.S. before being deployed overseas for another mission. He has also criticized the backlog of claims in the Veterans Administration system.
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CRIMINAL JUSTICE
In the Senate, Webb championed ways to overhaul the nation’s criminal justice system, pointing to the swollen prison population and the influx of incarcerated drug offenders since the 1980s. He held Senate hearings to address the matter, arguing the country was spending billions on non-violent offenders. In his announcement, he said: “It’s wasting lives, often beginning at a very early age, creating career criminals rather than curing them. It’s not making our neighborhoods safer.”
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GAY MARRIAGE
Webb welcomed the Supreme Court decision allowing gay marriage in all 50 states. He said it ensures the government no longer discriminates yet clearly defines the separation of church and state. He said the decision gives religious groups “proper protection” under the First Amendment to continue to advocate their beliefs regarding traditional marriage. He said the decision would allow Americans to “respect the private lives and personal decisions of others.”

According to the Hebrew Bible, the Jebusites were a Canaanite tribe who built and inhabited Jerusalem prior to its conquest by King David. The Books of Kings state that Jerusalem was known as Jebus prior to this event.

And according to the GOP Jebushites….we are absolutely destined to have another Bush in the White House….Well, it is still a crowded field of legislators and governors who are distinguished, capable, articulate, and conservative. Anointing anyone this early is a big mistake. The Bushes have inhabited the White House for twelve years…It may yet be conquered by a younger, more dynamic, more articulate, more conservative man.

For those who say Rubio is too young…..King David was only thirty years old when he conquered the Jebusites.

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,Let my right hand forget her cunning.Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth,If I remember thee not; If I set not Jerusalem above my chiefest joy.
Psalm 137:5-7

I am a Jew. I am a man of faith. I believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I believe in the Five Books of Moses, called by Jews “the Torah,” called by others the “Hebrew Bible” and by still others the “Old Testament.” I believe in my heart that G-d granted the land of Israel to the Jewish nation to be held for eternity. Finally, I believe that Jerusalem is and will always be the absolute and undivided capital of the state of Israel.

Every nation in the world is given the right to name its own capital … that is, every nation except Israel. The United States refuses to recognize Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the independent state of Israel. Instead, the American embassy is located in Tel Aviv, despite the enactment by Congress of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, which states that “Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of the state of Israel and the … embassy in Israel should be established in Jerusalem no later than May 31, 1999.” Unfortunately, the act permits the president to waive the requirement every six months and the requirement has been repeatedly waived by Clinton, Bush and Obama.

A radical anti-capitalist and an anti-population growth zealot are welcomed to the Vatican.

If there is any doubt about the Pope’s total adherence to an anti-capitalist, anti-growth, and eco-hysterical agenda, you only need to look at his closest science advisors. The most recent “advisor” to the Vatican this week is Canadian journalist Naomi Klein.

A self-described “secular Jewish feminist,” Klein is delighted to advise the Holy Father. “Given the attacks that are coming from the Republican Party around this and also the fossil fuel interests in the United States, it was a particularly courageous decision to invite me here,” she said.

The Pope’s latest encyclical, Laudato Si, claimed that the Earth was becoming a huge “pile of filth,” inveighed against air conditioning (except, presumably, the AC in the hotel where the Pope lives), called for a global transfer of wealth from the rich nations to the poor, called for the creation of a planetary, “public Authority with universal jurisdiction,” and demanded a “cultural revolution” to fix the “perverse” global economic system that has, incidentally, lifted millions out of poverty.

In 1958, former FBI Special Agent W Cleon Skousen published The Naked Communist in which he listed the then current communist goals for infiltrating, transforming, and ultimately taking over America. A hero to some, fringe writer to others, Skousen had a perspective both fascinating and shocking to reexamine today in light of recent events including those concerning the Iranian nuclear “negotiation,” gay marriage, Obamacare, power grabs of both Presidents Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin, the advance of Islam, the support for illegal immigration, the ubiquitous charge of “racism,” the endless expansion of “civil rights,” and the dismantling of our Constitution.

Given Barack Obama’s success in executing the “fundamental transformation” of America, Skousen’s list gives profound insight into what might truly motivate the nation’s “smartest president ever.” While Obama cleverly attempts to sell his many efforts as just small steps here or there in simply “deliverin’ to the folks a little something extra” as we slowly progress toward “a more perfect union,” his whack-a-mole shotgun assault upon all aspects of American life more perfectly models a systematic and well-orchestrated march toward many of these very goals.

The noose tightens as investigators move closer to seizing her illegal personal email server. July 3, 2015

Federal investigators may be closer to seizing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s illicit off-site email server as evidence emerges that she transmitted classified information through it and that key Obama White House officials knew about her clandestine email account for years.

On Tuesday the Department of State made available on its website 3,000 pages of Clinton’s emails. Clinton emphatically declared months ago that none of the thousands of emails she sent using her hacker-friendly dedicated server contained classified information.

As it turns out the State Department had to redact 25 of the newly unveiled emails because they contained the very same classified information Hillary said she didn’t send. This is but a fraction of the 55,000 pages of email the former secretary of state gave to the diplomatic agency for processing. Under federal court order, the State Department is conducting monthly Clinton document dumps after screening and redacting the emails.

The Vision of the Founding Fathers What kind of nation did the Founders aim to create?
Men, not vast, impersonal forces — economic, technological, class struggle, what have you — make history, and they make it out of the ideals that they cherish in their hearts and the ideas they have in their minds. So what were the ideas and ideals that drove the Founding Fathers to take up arms and fashion a new kind of government, one formed by reflection and choice, as Alexander Hamilton said, rather than by accident and force?

The worldview out of which America was born centered on three revolutionary ideas, of which the most powerful was a thirst for liberty. For the Founders, liberty was not some vague abstraction. They understood it concretely, as people do who have a keen knowledge of its opposite. They understood it in the same way as Eastern Europeans who have lived under Communist tyranny, for instance, or Jews who escaped the Holocaust.