Get you through the post dinner doldrums
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Good News! Military Members Finally Given Permission To Carry Concealed Guns To Protect Themselves (and Others)
weaselzippers
Finally, they will be able to protect themselves.
Via Washington Examiner:
In response to deadly shootings over the last several years, the Defense Department is reducing restrictions on U.S. military service members’ ability to carry concealed handguns for protection at government facilities.
The new directive, which went into effect Nov. 18, says service members, including military recruiters, can now request to carry their privately-owned firearms, Army Maj. Jamie Davis, a Defense Department spokesman, told the Military Times on Monday.
Keep reading…
Totalitarianism.
We can trust our military to risk and surrender life and limb to keep the rest of us safe, but we can't trust them to carry a gun in America because they might hurt someone.
Problems with this?
Yeah. It doesn't go far enough in removing restrictions but Rome wasn't built in a day.
Finally, they will be able to protect themselves.
Via Washington Examiner:
In response to deadly shootings over the last several years, the Defense Department is reducing restrictions on U.S. military service members’ ability to carry concealed handguns for protection at government facilities.
The new directive, which went into effect Nov. 18, says service members, including military recruiters, can now request to carry their privately-owned firearms, Army Maj. Jamie Davis, a Defense Department spokesman, told the Military Times on Monday.
Keep reading…
Totalitarianism.
We can trust our military to risk and surrender life and limb to keep the rest of us safe, but we can't trust them to carry a gun in America because they might hurt someone.
Problems with this?
Yeah. It doesn't go far enough in removing restrictions but Rome wasn't built in a day.
ISIS Steals Organs From Its Own Members In Iraq
Low on funds.
Via AMN:
ISIS steals human organs from its own members Nineveh province of Iraq according to Al-Sumaria News.
The report stated, “A medical unit belonging to ISIS stole human organs, including kidneys and other organs, from 85 militants in Nineveh hospitals, and transferred them to another hospital on the outskirt of the city.”
“The group lost the majority of its funds, especially crude oil that provided 80% of the total income to the terrorist group, so it started to trade in human organs to revive its finances,” the Al-Sumaria report explained.
“Dozens of human organs were stolen from civilians and bodies that were transferred to the forensic medicine department, and then transferred through mediators to Syria then to human organ traders,” Al-Sumaria added.
Thank You Zip.
Trump Outlines Goals
For every new regulation we must first eliminate 2 existing regulations?
If this happens, it will be a long cherished dream come true.
Thank You President Elect Trump.
If this happens, it will be a long cherished dream come true.
Thank You President Elect Trump.
Howard Stern Backs Trump Proposal To Interstate Reciprocity Right To Carry
weaselzippers
Do it!
Via Bearing Arms:
Radio talk show host and entertainment icon Howard Stern used the considerable reach of his SiriusXM platform on Tuesday to voice his support for a national interstate concealed carry reciprocity law.
This law has been NRA’s number one legislative agenda item for several years. And with the election of Donald Trump as president, as well as pro-gun majorities in both houses of the U.S. Congress, the prospects for such a law have never looked better.
Trump has formally endorsed the concept of interstate reciprocity in a position paper published on his campaign website and in a number of other public statements. According to his position paper:
The right of self-defense doesn’t stop at the end of your driveway. That’s why I have a concealed carry permit and why tens of millions of Americans do too. That permit should be valid in all 50 states. A driver’s license works in every state, so it’s common sense that a concealed carry permit should work in every state. If we can do that for driving – which is a privilege, not a right – then surely we can do that for concealed carry, which is a right, not a privilege.
Keep reading…
Thank You Howard Stern, Donald Trump, Zip, and Bearing Arms
Do it!
Via Bearing Arms:
Radio talk show host and entertainment icon Howard Stern used the considerable reach of his SiriusXM platform on Tuesday to voice his support for a national interstate concealed carry reciprocity law.
This law has been NRA’s number one legislative agenda item for several years. And with the election of Donald Trump as president, as well as pro-gun majorities in both houses of the U.S. Congress, the prospects for such a law have never looked better.
Trump has formally endorsed the concept of interstate reciprocity in a position paper published on his campaign website and in a number of other public statements. According to his position paper:
The right of self-defense doesn’t stop at the end of your driveway. That’s why I have a concealed carry permit and why tens of millions of Americans do too. That permit should be valid in all 50 states. A driver’s license works in every state, so it’s common sense that a concealed carry permit should work in every state. If we can do that for driving – which is a privilege, not a right – then surely we can do that for concealed carry, which is a right, not a privilege.
Keep reading…
Thank You Howard Stern, Donald Trump, Zip, and Bearing Arms
Monday, November 21, 2016
Minnesota Officials Kidnap Boy, Begin His Gender Transistion Without Parental Consent
redstate
Posted at 2:00 pm on November 21, 2016 by stridentconservative
After the Supreme Court ruling last year in Obergefell v. Hodges that unconstitutionally legalized same-sex marriage, the LGBT movement went right to work advancing the next phase of their radical agenda by focusing on the “T” portion of LGBT–the so-called transgendered. And just as they did with the marriage issue, LGBT groups are heavily relying on the partnership between the Gay Mafia and government to accomplish their goals.
I call them “so-called” transgendered because numerous studies have documented that there is no scientific evidence these individuals are genetically wired this way. Instead, their lives are actually the result of the sexually confused choices they make. But in a world where political-correctness becomes law; where science and common sense are criminalized; this fact is secondary to the LGBT goals of destroying Christianity in American society and redefining morality in order to normalize the abnormal.
Socialist dictators throughout history have always believed that “he alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.” LGBT radicals also believe these words as they have targeted children as young as three-years-old with propaganda designed to create a generation that not only accepts their sexually deviant lifestyle choices, but actively embraces them. Key to their indoctrination strategy is the public school system.
Despite the fact that the American College of Pediatricians recently stated that conditioning children to accept transgenderism as normal is essentially the same as child abuse, school districts across America have launched policies designed to advance the LGBT agenda. In almost every case, these policies specifically exclude parents and doctors from being notified, let alone consulted, whenever a child chooses to live contrary to their biological sex.
As the LGBT movement marches on, will the public school system be their primary tool? Perhaps this tidbit about a recent lawsuit filed in Minnesota gives us an answer to that question.
A mother in Minnesota has filed a federal lawsuit against state and county officials after her teenage son was granted emancipation without her knowledge or consent and was subsequently provided with hormonal treatment to begin a “gender transition” without her approval.
“Last year, without my knowledge or consent, without any court hearings or legal process, without any involvement on my part whatsoever, a legal aid group that gives free services to low-income people created a notice of emancipation for my 15-year-old son,” Anmarie Calgaro outlined at a press conference on Wednesday. “Suddenly, my son, without any notice to me, was no longer under my supervision.”
Calgaro was consequently prohibited from receiving any information about her son, who was treated as an adult by the Department of Human Services and provided with public services, including assistance with food, housing and medical services.
“It was then brought to my knowledge that my son had begun receiving hormone replacement treatments from Park Nicollet health services to transition from male to female with medical assistance paying for this,” she said. “I was not consulted or informed about this in any way. I had no way to give or receive any information about my son.”
LGBT issues aside, this is a clear violation of this mother’s constitutional rights as she was denied due process, not to mention that the emancipation wasn’t administered by the courts. But who cares about something as trivial as the Constitution when there are innocent lives to ruin, and a politically correct agenda to advance?
Vladimir Lenin once said, “Destroy the family, you destroy the country.” These words could actually be used as the mission statement of the LGBT movement. After all, it’s the primary motivation of the Gay Mafia.
Originally posted at The Strident Conservative
David Leach is the owner of The Strident Conservative, your source for opinion that’s politically-incorrect and always “right.” His articles can also be found on RedState.com.
His daily radio commentary is nationally syndicated with Salem Radio Network and can be heard on stations across America.
Thank You Strident Conservative and Redstate.
Posted at 2:00 pm on November 21, 2016 by stridentconservative
After the Supreme Court ruling last year in Obergefell v. Hodges that unconstitutionally legalized same-sex marriage, the LGBT movement went right to work advancing the next phase of their radical agenda by focusing on the “T” portion of LGBT–the so-called transgendered. And just as they did with the marriage issue, LGBT groups are heavily relying on the partnership between the Gay Mafia and government to accomplish their goals.
I call them “so-called” transgendered because numerous studies have documented that there is no scientific evidence these individuals are genetically wired this way. Instead, their lives are actually the result of the sexually confused choices they make. But in a world where political-correctness becomes law; where science and common sense are criminalized; this fact is secondary to the LGBT goals of destroying Christianity in American society and redefining morality in order to normalize the abnormal.
Socialist dictators throughout history have always believed that “he alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.” LGBT radicals also believe these words as they have targeted children as young as three-years-old with propaganda designed to create a generation that not only accepts their sexually deviant lifestyle choices, but actively embraces them. Key to their indoctrination strategy is the public school system.
Despite the fact that the American College of Pediatricians recently stated that conditioning children to accept transgenderism as normal is essentially the same as child abuse, school districts across America have launched policies designed to advance the LGBT agenda. In almost every case, these policies specifically exclude parents and doctors from being notified, let alone consulted, whenever a child chooses to live contrary to their biological sex.
As the LGBT movement marches on, will the public school system be their primary tool? Perhaps this tidbit about a recent lawsuit filed in Minnesota gives us an answer to that question.
A mother in Minnesota has filed a federal lawsuit against state and county officials after her teenage son was granted emancipation without her knowledge or consent and was subsequently provided with hormonal treatment to begin a “gender transition” without her approval.
“Last year, without my knowledge or consent, without any court hearings or legal process, without any involvement on my part whatsoever, a legal aid group that gives free services to low-income people created a notice of emancipation for my 15-year-old son,” Anmarie Calgaro outlined at a press conference on Wednesday. “Suddenly, my son, without any notice to me, was no longer under my supervision.”
Calgaro was consequently prohibited from receiving any information about her son, who was treated as an adult by the Department of Human Services and provided with public services, including assistance with food, housing and medical services.
“It was then brought to my knowledge that my son had begun receiving hormone replacement treatments from Park Nicollet health services to transition from male to female with medical assistance paying for this,” she said. “I was not consulted or informed about this in any way. I had no way to give or receive any information about my son.”
LGBT issues aside, this is a clear violation of this mother’s constitutional rights as she was denied due process, not to mention that the emancipation wasn’t administered by the courts. But who cares about something as trivial as the Constitution when there are innocent lives to ruin, and a politically correct agenda to advance?
Vladimir Lenin once said, “Destroy the family, you destroy the country.” These words could actually be used as the mission statement of the LGBT movement. After all, it’s the primary motivation of the Gay Mafia.
Originally posted at The Strident Conservative
David Leach is the owner of The Strident Conservative, your source for opinion that’s politically-incorrect and always “right.” His articles can also be found on RedState.com.
His daily radio commentary is nationally syndicated with Salem Radio Network and can be heard on stations across America.
Thank You Strident Conservative and Redstate.
Global Warming? IPCC Study Doesn't Account For 1 Billion Tons Of Co2 Absorbed Annually By . . . Concrete
cnsnews
By Barbara Hollingsworth | November 21, 2016 | 11:37 AM EST
(AP photo)
(CNSNews.com) – Cement, the ubiquitous material used to build roads, buildings and other infrastructure, absorbs about one billion tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) annually, according to a new study published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience.
But concrete carbonation is “not currently considered in emissions inventories” kept by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), according to the study’s co-authors, an international team of researchers led by Professor Dabo Guan of the U.K.’s University of East Anglia.
The study found that cement’s natural carbonation process not only offsets the fossil fuel emissions released during its production, it also “represents a large and growing net sink of CO2” that has not been taken into account by the IPCC.
“It is well known that the weathering of carbonate and silicate materials removes CO2 from the atmosphere on geologic timescales,” said the study, entitled Substantial Global Carbon Uptake by Cement Carbonation.
“However, the potential for removal by the weathering of cement materials has only been recently recognized. Our results indicate that such enhanced weathering is already occurring on a large scale; existing cement stocks worldwide sequester approximately one billion tons of atmospheric CO2 each year.”
The study, which was conducted in China by China Emission Accounts and Datasets (CEADs), explained that the physiochemical process of carbonation, which absorbs CO2 into the pores of cement materials such as concrete and mortar, is “a slow process that takes place throughout the entire life cycle of cement-based materials,” and even continues when a cement structure is demolished and the concrete is repurposed.
“Existing cement is a large and overlooked carbon sink and future emissions inventories and carbon budgets may be improved by including this,” said Prof. Guan.
The research team estimated that cement reabsorbed 4.5 gigatons of carbon (GtC) worldwide between 1930 and 2013, offsetting 43 per cent of the emissions from its production over the same period, not counting emissions associated with fossil fuel use.
About 44 per cent of cement process emissions produced each year between 1980 and 2013 were offset by the annual cement “sink”, the study found. And because demolition exposes new surfaces to atmospheric CO2, cement continues to absorb it even when a structure has been torn down.
We suggest that if carbon capture and storage technology were applied to cement process emissions, the produced cements might represent a source of negative CO2 emissions “We suggest that if carbon capture and storage technology were applied to cement process emissions, the produced cements might represent a source of negative CO2 emissions,” Guan stated.
“Policymakers might also investigate ways to increase the completeness and rate of carbonation of cement waste, for example as a part of an enhanced weathering scheme, to further reduce the climate impacts of cement emissions,” he added.
Since the study shows that cement sequesters about one billion tons of CO2 annually that the IPCC has not taken into consideration, wouldn't they have to adjust their numbers accordingly and decrease he amount of CO2 reductions necessary to prevent global warming? CNSNews asked Guan.
“Current emission inventory adopted by IPCC is territorial emissions approach, which does not account for all emissions sources/sinks,” Guan replied in an email.
“We (CEADs, China Emission Accounts and Datasets – a group of researchers from different countries globally,) have been attempting to further develop the emission accounting method, test robustness and improve emission estimation accuracy over past decades. Cement natural carbonation over life-time as carbon sink is a brand new research we present here,” he continued.
“IPCC and global climate change community have been advocated emission data accuracy and transparencies. The Paris Adoption (so-called Paris Agreement for Climate Change) formally wrote in the Article 4.1 as: ‘Parties shall account for their nationally determined contributions. In accounting for anthropogenic emissions and removals corresponding to their nationally determined contributions, Parties shall promote environmental integrity, transparency, accuracy, completeness, comparability and consistency, and ensure the avoidance of double counting, in accordance with guidance adopted by the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement.’
“I hope our studies will provide quantitative evidence for improving IPCC emission inventory method and data,” Guan added.
Thank You Ms Hollingsworth and CNS.
By Barbara Hollingsworth | November 21, 2016 | 11:37 AM EST
(AP photo)
(CNSNews.com) – Cement, the ubiquitous material used to build roads, buildings and other infrastructure, absorbs about one billion tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) annually, according to a new study published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience.
But concrete carbonation is “not currently considered in emissions inventories” kept by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), according to the study’s co-authors, an international team of researchers led by Professor Dabo Guan of the U.K.’s University of East Anglia.
The study found that cement’s natural carbonation process not only offsets the fossil fuel emissions released during its production, it also “represents a large and growing net sink of CO2” that has not been taken into account by the IPCC.
“It is well known that the weathering of carbonate and silicate materials removes CO2 from the atmosphere on geologic timescales,” said the study, entitled Substantial Global Carbon Uptake by Cement Carbonation.
“However, the potential for removal by the weathering of cement materials has only been recently recognized. Our results indicate that such enhanced weathering is already occurring on a large scale; existing cement stocks worldwide sequester approximately one billion tons of atmospheric CO2 each year.”
The study, which was conducted in China by China Emission Accounts and Datasets (CEADs), explained that the physiochemical process of carbonation, which absorbs CO2 into the pores of cement materials such as concrete and mortar, is “a slow process that takes place throughout the entire life cycle of cement-based materials,” and even continues when a cement structure is demolished and the concrete is repurposed.
“Existing cement is a large and overlooked carbon sink and future emissions inventories and carbon budgets may be improved by including this,” said Prof. Guan.
The research team estimated that cement reabsorbed 4.5 gigatons of carbon (GtC) worldwide between 1930 and 2013, offsetting 43 per cent of the emissions from its production over the same period, not counting emissions associated with fossil fuel use.
About 44 per cent of cement process emissions produced each year between 1980 and 2013 were offset by the annual cement “sink”, the study found. And because demolition exposes new surfaces to atmospheric CO2, cement continues to absorb it even when a structure has been torn down.
We suggest that if carbon capture and storage technology were applied to cement process emissions, the produced cements might represent a source of negative CO2 emissions “We suggest that if carbon capture and storage technology were applied to cement process emissions, the produced cements might represent a source of negative CO2 emissions,” Guan stated.
“Policymakers might also investigate ways to increase the completeness and rate of carbonation of cement waste, for example as a part of an enhanced weathering scheme, to further reduce the climate impacts of cement emissions,” he added.
Since the study shows that cement sequesters about one billion tons of CO2 annually that the IPCC has not taken into consideration, wouldn't they have to adjust their numbers accordingly and decrease he amount of CO2 reductions necessary to prevent global warming? CNSNews asked Guan.
“Current emission inventory adopted by IPCC is territorial emissions approach, which does not account for all emissions sources/sinks,” Guan replied in an email.
“We (CEADs, China Emission Accounts and Datasets – a group of researchers from different countries globally,) have been attempting to further develop the emission accounting method, test robustness and improve emission estimation accuracy over past decades. Cement natural carbonation over life-time as carbon sink is a brand new research we present here,” he continued.
“IPCC and global climate change community have been advocated emission data accuracy and transparencies. The Paris Adoption (so-called Paris Agreement for Climate Change) formally wrote in the Article 4.1 as: ‘Parties shall account for their nationally determined contributions. In accounting for anthropogenic emissions and removals corresponding to their nationally determined contributions, Parties shall promote environmental integrity, transparency, accuracy, completeness, comparability and consistency, and ensure the avoidance of double counting, in accordance with guidance adopted by the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement.’
“I hope our studies will provide quantitative evidence for improving IPCC emission inventory method and data,” Guan added.
Thank You Ms Hollingsworth and CNS.
Attorney General Sessions: Civil Rights Hero
frontpagemag
Leftist racists shamefully smear a public servant who has steadfastly fought for civil rights -- and against racist abuses.
November 21, 2016 Daniel Greenfield
The last lynching in the United States began when Michael Donald, a 19-year-old African-American man, was kidnapped by two Klansmen. They forced him into the car at gunpoint, beat him, tied a rope around his neck, cut his throat three times and left him hanging from a tree on Herndon Street in Mobile, Alabama.
The search for justice ended two years later when U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions announced that the killers had been arrested. Local authorities had botched the case badly. But Sessions was determined to see that justice would be done. Federal and State resources were combined for a successful outcome.
The case brought an end to lynching culture and broke the KKK. But the man whose office investigated the case, who helped send one of the killers to the electric chair, would be smeared as a racist despite his history of fighting for civil rights and against racist abuses in dozens of court cases.
And it was those radical activists smearing him as a racist who had been exploiting black people.
The man named by President-elect Trump as his nominee for Attorney General of the United States had always played fair. Unlike so many on the left, he didn’t come wielding a racial double standard.
And that made him enemies.
When black voters complained about voter fraud being perpetrated, Sessions stepped in. The voter fraud was being committed by black activists. Among them was an influential figure whose past made him a hero to some. Ballots had been altered after voting. The defendants were caught mailing hundreds of absentee ballots by FBI agents. Others had been searching hospitals and nursing homes for the names of patients whose names could be forged on absentee ballots.
The abuses were truly despicable. In one case an African-American resident complained that her blind husband’s ballot had been altered and when she complained, she was warned to change her testimony.
The last best defense for voter fraud by the exploiters and abusers of black people was to cry racism.
The White House was racist. The FBI was racist. Sessions was racist. But the despicable lie was quickly shot down by the African-American public officials who had fallen victim to the fraud.
African-American Perry County Commissioner Reese Billingslea said, "It's not a black-white issue -- race has nothing to do with it."
John Kennard, Alabama's first black tax assessor, was one of those complaining about the absentee ballot fraud. He laughed off the racism defense. "The only reason these people are hollering racism now is because they are in trouble for breaking the law."
But the African-American accusers were dismissed as confused elderly folks who had been browbeaten by the FBI and the African-American officials as race traitors who were conspiring with whites.
And once they were dismissed, it was easy to smear Jeff Sessions as a racist.
But those radical activists smearing Sessions as a racist had been the ones abusing and exploiting black people. As were the Senate Democrats who had revived and exploited the same shameful lies.
And as are the media outlets who are trying to smear Sessions all over again.
Sessions had vowed to respond to “any substantiated charge of vote fraud against whites or blacks.” He was doing his job by fighting for the civil rights and voting rights of all people regardless of race. But despite helping bring the murderers of Michael Donald to justice and his work on desegregating Alabama schools, when Sessions was nominated for a judgeship, the racism accusations returned.
The biggest source of the racism accusations against Sessions was Thomas Figures, a former assistant U.S. Attorney who would later be indicted on bribery charges for allegedly trying to bribe a drug dealer. One of Figures’ witnesses said that she had never heard Sessions make any racist remarks about him.
Sessions’ other accuser, J. Gerald Hebert, who is white, has said that he doesn’t believe Sessions is a racist. This is how weak and worthless the accusations of racism being circulated by the media are.
But the media harassed Sessions’ elderly parents and panned for character witnesses everywhere. An African-American mechanic who knew Sessions “since he was a baby" assured reporters that he wasn’t racist. Still the lie lived on and Ted Kennedy, Leahy and Biden got their way and blocked Sessions.
Then he became one of the U.S. Attorneys fired by Bill Clinton. Instead of becoming Judge Sessions, he ran for office and eventually became Senator Sessions. Despite the racism accusations, he sponsored legislation to give Rosa Parks a Congressional Gold Medal and obtained funds for the Rosa Parks Library.
In paying tribute to her, the man being denounced as a racist, stated firmly that, “Although the mantra was `separate but equal,'' the reality was separate and unequal.”
The shameful attacks on this civil rights hero have resurfaced every time he advanced forward. The left blocked Sessions from his judgeship using the racism smear. But they couldn’t stop him from becoming Senator Sessions. When he became the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, the same old lies were dragged out.
And now it’s happening all over again.
There has never been any shortage of African-American colleagues and friends to step up and shoot down the lies. Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson called Sessions “a good and honest man untainted by any form of prejudice.”
The latest is civil rights attorney Donald V. Watkins who desegregated public schools, universities and housing in Alabama and represented the last known surviving “Scottsboro Boy”. Watkins speaks of a 46-year relationship with Sessions from the time when he became the first white student to invite him to join a campus organization, the Young Republicans, to the present when he expresses his regrets for not having come forward as a character witness during the old judgeship hearings.
Watkins writes, “My personal connection with Jeff was genuine, deep and born out of ordinary acts of kindness.”
“If we truly believe in the promise of America, we must stand up for its ideals and principles when they matter the most. Integrity, accountability, transparency, decency and fairness are the hallmarks of good government, not race, gender, party affiliation, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, or one’s socio-economic status in life. If and when we stand up for America’s core principles, we are truly serving our nation.”
That is what civil rights truly mean. These are the principles that Jeff Sessions has fought for both in the court system and in the legislature. They are the principles that make him a civil rights hero.
As U.S. Attorney and in the United States Senate, Sessions refused to pander to racists or to maintain racial double standards. Instead he firmly believed that everyone must enjoy the same rights and responsibilities. But when he enforced the law against white defendants, he was praised as a hero and when the defendants were black, then he was suddenly being denounced as a racist.
That is the perverse way that the left has warped civil rights to suit its own political ends. And restoring equal justice to the Department of Justice will be Attorney General Sessions’ biggest challenge. It is a challenge that his career of principled stands has amply qualified him to meet. Sessions is a public servant who has paid the price for doing the right thing over and over again.
Now he will have the opportunity to do the right thing for America.
Thank You Mr Greenfield and FPM.
Leftist racists shamefully smear a public servant who has steadfastly fought for civil rights -- and against racist abuses.
November 21, 2016 Daniel Greenfield
The last lynching in the United States began when Michael Donald, a 19-year-old African-American man, was kidnapped by two Klansmen. They forced him into the car at gunpoint, beat him, tied a rope around his neck, cut his throat three times and left him hanging from a tree on Herndon Street in Mobile, Alabama.
The search for justice ended two years later when U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions announced that the killers had been arrested. Local authorities had botched the case badly. But Sessions was determined to see that justice would be done. Federal and State resources were combined for a successful outcome.
The case brought an end to lynching culture and broke the KKK. But the man whose office investigated the case, who helped send one of the killers to the electric chair, would be smeared as a racist despite his history of fighting for civil rights and against racist abuses in dozens of court cases.
And it was those radical activists smearing him as a racist who had been exploiting black people.
The man named by President-elect Trump as his nominee for Attorney General of the United States had always played fair. Unlike so many on the left, he didn’t come wielding a racial double standard.
And that made him enemies.
When black voters complained about voter fraud being perpetrated, Sessions stepped in. The voter fraud was being committed by black activists. Among them was an influential figure whose past made him a hero to some. Ballots had been altered after voting. The defendants were caught mailing hundreds of absentee ballots by FBI agents. Others had been searching hospitals and nursing homes for the names of patients whose names could be forged on absentee ballots.
The abuses were truly despicable. In one case an African-American resident complained that her blind husband’s ballot had been altered and when she complained, she was warned to change her testimony.
The last best defense for voter fraud by the exploiters and abusers of black people was to cry racism.
The White House was racist. The FBI was racist. Sessions was racist. But the despicable lie was quickly shot down by the African-American public officials who had fallen victim to the fraud.
African-American Perry County Commissioner Reese Billingslea said, "It's not a black-white issue -- race has nothing to do with it."
John Kennard, Alabama's first black tax assessor, was one of those complaining about the absentee ballot fraud. He laughed off the racism defense. "The only reason these people are hollering racism now is because they are in trouble for breaking the law."
But the African-American accusers were dismissed as confused elderly folks who had been browbeaten by the FBI and the African-American officials as race traitors who were conspiring with whites.
And once they were dismissed, it was easy to smear Jeff Sessions as a racist.
But those radical activists smearing Sessions as a racist had been the ones abusing and exploiting black people. As were the Senate Democrats who had revived and exploited the same shameful lies.
And as are the media outlets who are trying to smear Sessions all over again.
Sessions had vowed to respond to “any substantiated charge of vote fraud against whites or blacks.” He was doing his job by fighting for the civil rights and voting rights of all people regardless of race. But despite helping bring the murderers of Michael Donald to justice and his work on desegregating Alabama schools, when Sessions was nominated for a judgeship, the racism accusations returned.
The biggest source of the racism accusations against Sessions was Thomas Figures, a former assistant U.S. Attorney who would later be indicted on bribery charges for allegedly trying to bribe a drug dealer. One of Figures’ witnesses said that she had never heard Sessions make any racist remarks about him.
Sessions’ other accuser, J. Gerald Hebert, who is white, has said that he doesn’t believe Sessions is a racist. This is how weak and worthless the accusations of racism being circulated by the media are.
But the media harassed Sessions’ elderly parents and panned for character witnesses everywhere. An African-American mechanic who knew Sessions “since he was a baby" assured reporters that he wasn’t racist. Still the lie lived on and Ted Kennedy, Leahy and Biden got their way and blocked Sessions.
Then he became one of the U.S. Attorneys fired by Bill Clinton. Instead of becoming Judge Sessions, he ran for office and eventually became Senator Sessions. Despite the racism accusations, he sponsored legislation to give Rosa Parks a Congressional Gold Medal and obtained funds for the Rosa Parks Library.
In paying tribute to her, the man being denounced as a racist, stated firmly that, “Although the mantra was `separate but equal,'' the reality was separate and unequal.”
The shameful attacks on this civil rights hero have resurfaced every time he advanced forward. The left blocked Sessions from his judgeship using the racism smear. But they couldn’t stop him from becoming Senator Sessions. When he became the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, the same old lies were dragged out.
And now it’s happening all over again.
There has never been any shortage of African-American colleagues and friends to step up and shoot down the lies. Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson called Sessions “a good and honest man untainted by any form of prejudice.”
The latest is civil rights attorney Donald V. Watkins who desegregated public schools, universities and housing in Alabama and represented the last known surviving “Scottsboro Boy”. Watkins speaks of a 46-year relationship with Sessions from the time when he became the first white student to invite him to join a campus organization, the Young Republicans, to the present when he expresses his regrets for not having come forward as a character witness during the old judgeship hearings.
Watkins writes, “My personal connection with Jeff was genuine, deep and born out of ordinary acts of kindness.”
“If we truly believe in the promise of America, we must stand up for its ideals and principles when they matter the most. Integrity, accountability, transparency, decency and fairness are the hallmarks of good government, not race, gender, party affiliation, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, or one’s socio-economic status in life. If and when we stand up for America’s core principles, we are truly serving our nation.”
That is what civil rights truly mean. These are the principles that Jeff Sessions has fought for both in the court system and in the legislature. They are the principles that make him a civil rights hero.
As U.S. Attorney and in the United States Senate, Sessions refused to pander to racists or to maintain racial double standards. Instead he firmly believed that everyone must enjoy the same rights and responsibilities. But when he enforced the law against white defendants, he was praised as a hero and when the defendants were black, then he was suddenly being denounced as a racist.
That is the perverse way that the left has warped civil rights to suit its own political ends. And restoring equal justice to the Department of Justice will be Attorney General Sessions’ biggest challenge. It is a challenge that his career of principled stands has amply qualified him to meet. Sessions is a public servant who has paid the price for doing the right thing over and over again.
Now he will have the opportunity to do the right thing for America.
Thank You Mr Greenfield and FPM.
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