America has always been a nation of tinkerers. Our Founding Fathers, notes author Alec Foege, were innovators in areas ranging from agriculture (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson) and electricity (Benjamin Franklin) to the swivel chair (Jefferson). …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Via Teleconference
9:40 A.M. EDT
MS. TROTTER: Thanks, everyone, for joining today’s call. Sorry for the delay. Our hope is to provide you with a more detailed sense of the Vice President and Dr. Biden’s schedules and goals during their trip next week to India and Singapore.
This call will be on background and our speakers are happy to take questions after they give some brief opening statements at the top.
We’d like to keep this call as focused on the trip as much as possible and remind everyone that there’s one question per person.
And with that, I’ll turn it over to our first speaker whom you can quote as a senior administration official.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Thank you, Kingsley. What I’m going to do just for a couple of minutes is lay out top-line goals, the agenda items and schedule for the visit. And then myself and my colleagues would be happy to take your questions.
The Vice President gave a speech yesterday at George Washington in which he laid out our vision for moving forward with the Asia-Pacific rebalance policy that the President has announced and that the entire national security team is invested in. And the trip to India and Singapore comes in the context of that strategy.
The goal — the overarching goal being to tie together the nations of the Asia-Pacific from India to the western shores of the Americas through strong partnerships, institutions, alliances, and rules of the road; and part of the message that the Vice President is sending in going on this trip is that we remain all in on the rebalance.
India is obviously a key player and increasingly so in the Asia-Pacific region. And the United States and India have an increasingly important bilateral relationship as our countries grow and deepen the ties across an incredibly broad range of areas.
Four areas in particular are going to be at the top of the agenda when the Vice President visits India. The first will be our economic cooperation where the Vice President will focus on issues from investment policy to intellectual property and speak to how we can work together to close the gap between where we are today and where we can be in our bilateral trade and investment and in our cooperation in multilateral trade and investment fora.
The second area is energy and climate where the Vice President will speak to the work that we need to do together to realize the promise of the civil nuclear agreement, and the work that we should be doing together to lead — to be leaders on addressing the global challenge of climate change, building on the climate change dialogue that Secretary Kerry announced with the Indian Foreign Minister at the strategic dialogue (inaudible) month.
The third area is defense cooperation. We’ve built a strong foundation in defense cooperation and defense sales over the past few years, and the Vice President will come to talk about how we can …read more
Carl Gallups has asked it before. He has asked it on his radio program heard on 1330 WEBY Northwest Florida’s Talk Radio – Freedom Friday With Carl Gallups.
To date – Carl has never received an answer to the question…not from an Obamabot, not from a staunch Obama birth supporter – not from the people in Carl’s question who are the subject of the question. No one can answer the question.
The QUESTION? Simple – If Obama is really America’s first black president and if he really is the historical and iconic figure that so many claim that he is – then why can we find not a single hospital in the world that claims this Noble Prize winning, first black president of the United States was born in their facility? Not a single hospital in a single state ANYWHERE in the United States of America has even erected a plaque in his honor. Why is there not a monument to his birth? Why is there not a single magazine or news article outlining the details of his famous birth at what should be the world’s most famous hospital?
Additionally, we know that two different hospitalshave been claimed as Obama’s birth place. The most recent place claimed by Obama and his fraudulent long form birth certificate is Kapi’olani Medical Center in Honolulu. Yet, Kapi’olani refuses, WILL NOT, verify the birth or erect a single monument to signify the fact of the first black president’s birth there. Strange? Odd? You bet! We know the birth place, birth home, birth town of every other president – going back to George Washington. Most are signified by monuments, plaques, etc. – but not Obama.
Since the Obamabots INSIST that those of us who question Obama’s birth are “nuts,” we submit that Kapi’olani Medical Center must be nuts as well. They won’t put their reputation on the line and CONFIRM that Obama was indeed born there. Not only that – but consider that Obama’s BC proclaims that Kapi’olani is the hospital of his birth. The name is in the birth certificate for all the world to behold. Yet Kapi’olani will NOT verify it or indicate it with a plaque or monument. Apparently even they do not take the word of the fake birth certificate. One can only assume that their own records do not match the information on the fraudulent birth certificate.
Photo Credit: marcn Creative Commons
By Kate Seamons
Pretty cool: George Washington is finally getting what so many other presidents already have —a presidential library. The 45,000-square-foot library, which will be erected at a cost of $106.4 million that was ponied up by 7,000 donors, is slated to open Sept. 27 at Mount Vernon . But… …read more
What happened to the crisis predicted by President Barack Obama as a result of the $85 billion sequester cut in government spending? Well, it turns out there was none: the food inspectors, the Yellowstone rangers, the border police, the military tuition granters, the Coast Guard, the airport screeners—none of them were laid off. The Pentagon has “delayed” the furlough notices planned for 800,000 civilian defense workers, probably forever. The air controllers are still threatening furloughs and consequent delays, but it will not happen. The president did not even carry out his threat to eliminate the Easter Egg Roll or the White House tours.
However, The Standard & Poors 500 stock average went up 9 percent, and the economy added 356,000 jobs since the sequester passed. Some crisis! A few more sequesters and the economy might even rise from its slumber. But do not count on it. The president promises no more domestic spending cuts.
What, you noticed there really were no cuts as a result of the sequester? The mainstream media kept it pretty quiet, but last year’s Washington spending was $3,538 billion; and after the sequester’s supposed cuts, the government will spend $3,553 billion. A little subtraction shows that is a $15 billion increase in government spending. Rack it up to creative accounting. Only in Washington D.C. would spending $15 billion more than in the previous year be called a cut.
The bad news is that the sequester will be the end of even paper cuts for the next four years. Even the Republican budget is not about real spending reductions. The Paul Ryan plan has no chance of passing the Senate, much less surviving a veto. It ignores the biggest program (Social Security) and defers reform in the program that is most in debt (Medicare). Most of the Ryan cuts come from the elimination of Obamacare, which will not happen as long as Obama is president. The Ryan budget is important to make a political case, but it is not serious cost cutting. His caution actually makes political sense. The entitlements are the Democrats’ programs, and it is their responsibility to reform them.
The whole idea of the bureaucracy not being able to handle a five to eight percent “cut” is ludicrous. During the first Reagan year, we cut domestic discretionary spending ten percent in real money with no one noticing a thing. While the White House originally claimed cuts had to be made in the relatively small “projects, program, and activities” categories, the law actually required cuts in Budget Authority categories. There are 1,200 of these with very roughly 1,500 employees each. Any government manager who cannot assign the critical people to the essential work should be fired for incompetence, especially with all of the contracts, supplies, training, and perks that can be delayed first. His boss should be fired too, right up to the very top.
We might as well stop abusing George Washington’s name and re-label the nation’s capital “Sequester D.C.” One dictionary definition of sequester is to “withdraw …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism
By hnn
In the fall of 1799, George Washington wrote to his nephew: “Two hundred gallons of Whiskey will be ready this day for your call, and the sooner it is taken the better, as the demand for this article (in these parts) is brisk.”
The whiskey Washington spoke of was produced in his own distillery, at Mount Vernon, and the popularity of the spirit (in these parts) remains. Mount Vernon historians-turned-distillers have been busy making Washington’s unaged rye whiskey, following his recipe and manual methods, since early this month and will put 1,100 bottles up for sale in April.
The team, led by former Maker’s Mark master distiller Dave Pickerell, has perfected the craft since they began distilling at the old mill twice a year beginning in 2009. (A $2.1 million grant from the distilled spirits industry helped fund the project.) And the demand for their product has grown: The waiting list is more than 4,000 for this year’s batch….
…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at History News Network – George Mason University
By John Johnson 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Great Finds
By The Huffington Post News Editors
If you’re in a state where cousins can legally marry each other, but home brewers are forbidden to practice their craft, you must be in Alabama.
Indeed, Alabama now stands out as the only state where home brewing is illegal. Mississippi voted this week to legalize the hobby lager lovers and hopheads in America have enjoyed, even before George Washington and Sam Adams boiled up their first brews.
Alabamans don’t just get slapped with a ticket if they start mixing up a batch. It’s a felony.
But to a feisty band of Yellowhammer State tipplers, it’s ridiculous for the government to meddle with their malt. They won’t be satisfied until Alabama has the same rights enjoyed everywhere else in the country.
“This is not about alcohol. This is about civil liberties,” said Kraig Torres, owner of Hop City Craft Beer and Wine in Birmingham. “If I went around in Alabama and said, ‘you can’t have a gun in your house,’ I’m pretty sure people would be upset.”
Residents who want to buy shotguns, rifles or handguns don’t need permits, licenses or registrations. However, it’s unclear how regulations apply to gunsmiths who forge firearms in their residences.
Torres lives in Georgia and operates his flagship store there. While he’d like to sell beer-making ingredients and cookbooks in his Birmingham venture, he has gotten into trouble with the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.
In September, before he opened Hop City, state agents inspected the store. Torres said they confiscated $7,000 worth of beer-making kits and cookbooks on a follow-up visit. A lawyer for the beverage control board told HuffPost that Torres removed them from the store after he was told they were contraband.
Alabama maintains a fervent temperance movement. It’s been 80 years since Prohibition’s demise, but there are 25 dry counties in the so-called “Heart of Dixie.” Some teetotalers there wish the libations had never started flowing again.
“We’re talking about a mind-altering, addictive drug,” said Joe Godfrey, a pastor and executive director of ALCAP, a group that opposes loosening any restrictions on alcohol. “This isn’t barbecue. People are killed on the highways. You hear all the time about people being killed under the influence of alcohol. You never hear about people getting killed by barbecue.”
Torres’ experience was a rare instance of the state enforcing the home-brewing ban, according to interviews with home brewers and an Alcoholic Beverage Control Board lawyer. Just this month, however, a prosecutor in Mobile County was disciplined for flouting the home brew restrictions, Al.com reported.
Home-brewing advocates said the felony status scares away some and forces others into the shadows even though the chance of punishment looks slim.
“Home brewers would like to be able to practice their hobby in the open. They have to be fairly secretive,” said American Homebrewers Association Director Gary Glass. “It just doesn’t make sense that it would be prohibited. Many of the Founding Fathers were home brewers including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.”
Bills to legalize home brewing sit in both houses of the Alabama legislature awaiting a vote. It’s the third straight year legislators have proposed changes to the home brew law.
Partisan squabbling on unrelated issues may derail it again, according to observers and local media reports.
“We hope it passes so we can move onto more important business,” said Bob Martin, an ABC board lawyer. “We really don’t care. It’s a hobby. It’s not our real concern unless we found out someone was making it and selling it illegally. Generally, we’re not going to go into their homes.”
If passed, the bills would allow Alabamians to whip up limited quantities of intoxicating drinks like beer and wine. Liquor would remain off-limits. It would also pave the way for tasting events and competitions, advocates told HuffPost.
Home brewing was for outlaws and scofflaws throughout the country as a result of Prohibition until then- President Jimmy Carter signed a federal law decriminalizing the pastime in 1978.
Hobbyists cheered Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant for ending the state’s ban this week.
“I’m going to have a pint with friends at our local bar in town and then open a bottle of home brew at home” to celebrate, said Craig Hendry, president of Raise Your Pints, a group that hired lobbyists to overturn the ban.
“We want to be talked about in a positive light, not as another state that was the last to do something.”
Editor’s note: To be fair to Alabama, 19 other states allow first cousins to get hitched too, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
By BronxKnight
Archaeologists at Tudor Place, an historic Georgetown estate with ties to George Washington, have unearthed artifacts that suggest the former existence of a dwelling for both enslaved and free workers on the site.
A team of archaeologists spent several days in the past week painstakingly digging and sifting through layers of soil in the northeast corner of the Tudor Place garden, in an area called the tennis lot.
“We’ve been wanting to know about slave patterns at Tudor Place,” Jessica Zullinger, director of preservation at Tudor place, said in a phone interview with Patch….
…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at History News Network – George Mason University
They sure won’t be backing off the push for gun control in America anytime soon, but legislative efforts and proposals to curb gun use ignore the nonstop violence promoted by the entertainment industry.
A majority of American adults, 80%, agree with the statement that “violent games and films contribute to violence in society.” That’s according to a brand new Vanity Fair/60 Minutes nationwide poll. Of those respondents, 45% believe those media contribute a lot to societal violence, while 35% believe it contributes “some.”
Massive evidence is available, and countless studies prove the effects of simulated violence on all consumers, but especially on children. Why is Hollywood pardoned for the carnage its product constantly produces? It’s difficult to confront Hollywood decision-makers and hold them accountable when they’re helping get you reelected.
In a 2013 study, the Culture and Media Institute found that in the Top 5 movies – in just one weekend – the tally included 65 scenes depicting violence, 185 people killed, shot, stabbed, beaten, burned, blown up, etc. Hollywood supporters talk about gun control but are unwilling to address the issue with the entertainment industry.
Meanwhile, Hollywood continues producing the most violent, sadistic movies, television programs, and morbid video games that glorify graphic violence and mayhem. Our culture has been desensitized, similar to the blood-thirsty crowds in the Roman Coliseum thousands of years ago being entertained by human slaughter. One difference is we’re exposed to more violence and death than they could have imagined.
But if this was part of the problem, people would address it honestly – wouldn’t they?
Just a few days ago, California Senator Dianne Feinstein made another plea to ban assault weapons in one of her greatest hits as far as quotes go. Feinstein stated:
We have federal regulations and state laws that prohibit hunting ducks with more than three rounds. And yet it’s legal to hunt humans with 15-round, 30-round, even 150-round magazines. Limiting magazine capacity is critical, because it is when a criminal, a drug dealer, a deranged individual has to pause to change magazines and reload that, the police or brave bystanders have the opportunity to take that individual down.
The heart of the problem today doesn’t lie with the instruments and tools of violence. We can’t outlaw hammers, shovels, knives, and rope, for example. To ban them would not stop evil because evil always finds another method. The Bible teaches that the heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked, (Jer. 17:9), and America has all but abandoned God.
It’s no wonder we continue to fill Planned Parenthood dumpsters; too many Americans value choice (self) more than they value life.
George Washington, among others, emphasized religion and morality as primary foundations for a free, successful society. This is what the American way relies upon; and the more God is removed, the less morality we will have. Our Founding Fathers believed it would be unpatriotic to remove God from the public square.
In the 1960’s, the Left increased their efforts targeting American classrooms, courtrooms, newsrooms, Hollywood, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism
News stories are making their way around that newly sworn-in CIA Director John Brennan took the oath of office on the 1787 draft version of the Constitution.
“There’s one piece of this that I wanted to note for you,” spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters at their daily briefing. “Director Brennan was sworn in with his hand on an original draft of the Constitution that had George Washington’s personal handwriting and annotations on it, dating from 1787.”
Anyone familiar with constitutional history knows that the 1787 version of the Constitution does not contain the first Ten Amendments – the Bill of Rights. Several states would not ratify the Constitution as drafted. They wanted further assurance that the national government would be limited. The full-version of the Constitution that includes the first Ten Amendments (12 were proposed) was finally ratified on May 29, 1790.
Some people see the makings of a conspiracy because the Constitution on which Brennan took his oath did not include the Bill of Rights. Personally, I don’t see it, for three reasons. First, the original Bill of Rights-less Constitution is a document of enumerated powers. If there is no power granted in the Constitution, then the Federal government doesn’t have that power. Some have argued that adding the Bill of Rights was a mistake since it gave the national government the right to rule on the items listed, thus, giving it jurisdiction in decision making. A right given can be a right taken away.
Second, who pays attention to the Constitution these days? The Constitution is a prop. There are politicians who regularly speak against constitutional limitations and freedoms and vote that way as well. The Second Amendment debate is a good example.
Read More at Political Outcast . By Gary DeMar.
By hnn
Even with its glistening emerald-green glass, the boxy 1960s-era Zalco Building in downtown Silver Spring is hardly noticed by many passersby, let alone thought of as a historic structure.
The very idea makes John Cranston, the building’s engineer, chuckle. “I don’t think George Washington slept here or anything,” he said.
But to Clare Lise Kelly, a historic-preservation planner for Montgomery County, and to other architectural experts, the office building at Georgia Avenue and Cameron Street is a shining example of International style. It’s time, they say, for it and other “mid-century modern” buildings and homes — those with sleek, boxy designs from the 1950s and 1960s — to be considered for historic preservation….
…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at History News Network – George Mason University
By Bradlee Dean
“There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.”– John Adams
Here we go again …
The so-called “right” has been capitulating to anti-American socialists/communists who attempt to force their agendas on the American people. Rand Paul voted in favor of confirming Chuck Hagel AND John Kerry, 100 Republicans are petitioning to back homosexual marriage as the Supreme Court looks at the issue this month, and eight Republican governors have betrayed the people and have come out in support of Obamacare.
Nowadays, America’s “right” is as corrupt and destructive as the “left.”
Today’s conservatives are yesterday’s liberals; and as the un-American agenda goes forward, who loses?
The American people do.
No matter “what side of the aisle” a representative stands on, they all swear the same oath:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.
Those who serve in our military swear a similar oath.
Why is it that the American soldier fights, bleeds, and dies to uphold the Constitution while the representatives in American government are allowed to desecrate their honor by undoing the freedoms (under the laws of our constitutional republic) for which the soldier sacrificed?
We have one Constitution, not two – but the American people have been dumbed-down to believe that when the left is in power, they can trample the Constitution; and when the right is in power, they can trample the Constitution. They both act as if they are a law unto themselves.
The first president of the United States, George Washington, prophetically warned:
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissention, which in different ages & countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders & miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security & repose in the absolute power of an Individual: and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty.
Simply put, America would not have a “left” if the “right” had been doing the right thing all of the time.
It would do America well to go back and see the flags that were flying during the American Revolution.
“No king but King Jesus” and “Appeal to Heaven” were their rallying cries. They must be …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism
Philanthropist David Rubenstein is giving $10 million to George Washington‘s Mount Vernon estate in northern Virginia to build a library for the president’s books and papers.
Mount Vernon officials say the gift announced Sunday surpasses their fundraising goal of $100 million for the project. It also marks what would have been Washington’s 281st birthday Friday.
The National Library for the Study of George Washington is scheduled to open Sept. 27. It will be a center for scholarly research and leadership training for government, military, nonprofit and corporate officials, as well as students and educators.
Rubenstein says Washington’s character and qualities provide a timeless example of leadership.
The library’s largest meeting hall will be named for Rubenstein. His gift also funds a $4 million endowment for rare books and manuscripts.
Connor’s entire world has changed as George Washington seizes control of the United States. Where did this alternate reality come from? And what’s with those powers? Find out in this video interview. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at IGN Video Games
1. George Washington
2. Abraham Lincoln
3. Thomas Jefferson
4. John Adams
T-5. Theodore Roosevelt
T-5. Franklin D. Roosevelt
7. John F. Kennedy
…
By AK Fielding
In 1789, Americans unanimously elected George Washington as their first President. Since then, many presidents have come and gone; yet, Washington holds the honor of being the only president in the history of the United States to garner such loyalty and affection from the American public. Washington was an admirable man because of his excellent leadership qualities; but another outstanding quality of this great leader, often overlooked, was humility. Even at the pinnacle of his power, Washington maintained a humble stance towards his role as the President of the United States of America. As President, he never wavered from assuming the role of a public servant over that of a mighty ruler – a position that most modern presidents have often ignored.
Washington did not seek the presidency himself but accepted the honor as a service to his country. In his First Inaugural Address, Washington noted that, “I was summoned by my Country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love.” As such, the first President reflected a Statesman more than reflecting a Politician. Perhaps the most significant difference between a “statesman” and a politician is that the former wished to serve his country; the latter is more interested in serving himself at the expense of the country. Indeed, even when the opportunity presented itself, Washington was quick to decline from accepting “any share in the personal emoluments” or monetary gains for himself. For Washington, the opportunity to preside over the nation presented the chance to serve Americans instead of depriving them of their liberties.
To be sure, Washington had many flaws; but for the new Americans, his humbleness overshadowed any discrepancies he possessed. Indeed, his humility was as much, perhaps even more so, a part of his greatness. For example, he admitted that he had received “inferior endowments from nature” and was quite “unpracti[s]ed in the duties of civil administration.” Incredibly, even after winning the Revolutionary War against the greatest world power at the time, Britain, Washington remained “peculiarly conscious” of his many “deficiencies.”
Again, in his Second Inaugural Address, Washington maintained the same humility that was the hallmark of this great man. Instead of a flowery speech, he was succinct and stated that if he ever “violated willingly or knowingly the injunctions” of the Constitution during his term that “(besides incurring constitutional punishment)” he should “be subject[ed] to the upbraidings of all who are now witnesses of the present solemn ceremony.” Washington remained steadfastly faithful to the vision of the American Revolution throughout his presidency.
Of all American presidents, Washington most assuredly had the perfect opportunity to abuse his presidential authority. Yet, instead of getting intoxicated with power and destroying the nation, he maintained his humbleness throughout his term. Even when a deep political cleavage became apparent in his administration, Washington maintained a neutral position on most matters. His vision was always to keep Americans united in the principles of liberty. He managed to perform the arduous task of remaining above political factions by sheer …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism
Last month, President Obama began his second Inaugural Address by saying, “Each time we gather to inaugurate a President we bear witness to the enduring strength of our Constitution.” President Obama’s words resonate as the anniversary of George Washington’s birthday approaches on February 22, popularly known as Presidents’ Day.
Over two centuries ago, on April 30, 1789, George Washington delivered his first Inaugural Address knowing that he had little to guide him in the job that lay ahead but the principles stated in the Constitution. The Articles of the Constitution had been debated, discussed, and agreed upon just two summers earlier by the delegates of the Constitution Convention, and were still untested. Nevertheless, Washington was a strong supporter of the Constitution and would look to it for guidance in his unprecedented role as President.
During Washington’s first year in office, Congress ordered 600 copies of the Acts of Congress to be printed and distributed to federal and state government officials. The book compiled the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and other legislation passed by the first session of Congress.
By Eamon Murphy
Filed under: NYSE, Market News, NASDAQ, Stock Markets
The global economy is a perpetual motion machine, but U.S. stock markets do take breaks: In addition to the weekends, there are nine holidays on which the stock exchange is shuttered.
One of them is coming up this Monday: Presidents Day, a federal holiday that began in 1879 as an observance of George Washington‘s birthday, Feb. 22. The date was changed to the third Monday of the month by the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which went into effect on Jan. 1, 1971. When that law was being drafted, it…
U.S. Stock Markets Will Be Closed on Presidents Day originally appeared on DailyFinance.com on 2013-02-15T15:11:00Z.
By Gerald Swick Rep. Frank Wolf, R-VA, reintroduced legislation calling for George Washington’s birthday to be celebrated on Feb. 22, the actual date of birth of the man called the Father of our Our Country.
