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Perhaps it is a good thing GE has sold NBC to Comcast because it will finally get GE out of the habit of cutting off news show guests on MSNBC who take positions opposed to the GE/NBC party line. For the second time in the past few weeks a guest on MSNBC Morning Joe Show was cut off mid-sentence while making a powerful point that was contrary to GE financial interests.
This time it was energy advocate T. Boone Pickens who has devoted millions of his own dollars and two and a half years to trying to get Congress to wake up to using natural gas to lead the nation on a responsible path to energy independence. GE is the powerful lobby for alternative energy because they want to own the infrastructure for electric autos.
The minute Pickens said natural gas could replace our 18 wheeler fleet of 8 million trucks in just 7 years, and eliminate 50% of the OPEC oil dependence of the US, he was opposing the GE electric view of the future. Pickens gave a very sound argument for the conversion pointing out that in terms of comparable cost for fuel, just $4 of natural gas equaled $22 of oil. At the same time gas was 40% cleaner and there was no refining of natural gas like there is oil.
All of these arguments show that electric cars are still not going to compete on a large scale until well into the future when GE has bet on lobbying congress for huge short term electric infrastructure money. So as Pickens was rattling off a list of short term benefits of natural gas over electric he suddenly was cut off at 7:55 am and when the broadcast returned there was Senator Kerry replacing Pickens and arguing for the carbon tax, investment in infrastructure for electric, and saying the American public must stop looking at huge energy tax increases as tax increases? What in the world is he saying other than spend and tax more and buy GE stock?
Just last November 4 we wrote a story titled "Was Queen Noor Al-Hussein of Jordan Censured by NBC over Middle East Views during MSNBC Morning Joe Appearance?" In her case she was just explaining how the Israelis were undermining the peace process in the Middle East and was cut off by NBC.
Since GE and NBC operate the television networks over publicly licensed airways it would seem NBC and GE might very well be using unfair business practices to censor guests who do not pitch the company party line. When private corporations involved in business heavily dependent on government regulation and control attempt to influence public opinion by cutting off opposition views in mid-sentence, there is a serious problem in our system.
It seems the FCC or FTC should look into these cases of potential censorship to see if the public airways are being unfairly used to promote the special interests of the owners. As for the Morning Joe Show, they should be a lot more courteous to the guests that oppose the GE and NBC party line rather than being used by the corporate interests as a de facto lobbying arm.
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If politicians did not have to campaign all the time and if the news media did not have to sell advertising there would be a lot less tension in our nation. Then they would be free to tell us just the truth and we would have a far more honest and hopeful picture of America.
For example, the headlines scream of the battle over extending the Bush tax cuts. What disagreement? They will be extended for all Americans for probably two years. End of controversy. What about the new START treaty with Russia that has been stuck in the Senate? Today the headlines said the GOP Whip declared the treaty dead. Nonsense!
All the politicians know reducing nuclear arms with Russia is a good thing, duh. Insiders also know our nuclear weapons are older than our Space Shuttles which have now flown their last mission because they are obsolete. Our current nuclear weapons need to be replaced with modern weapons using the most advanced technology. Add some money to modernize some of our weapons and the treaty will pass, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will be a hero, and Prime Minister and soon to be President again Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin will have to wait to become the super-hero of the super-power.
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Iowa native does good!
Born in Clinton, Iowa, on January 21, 1985, in a family of Italian descent, Giunta grew up in Cedar Rapids and Hiawatha. His parents, Steven, a medical equipment technician, and Rosemary, a preschool teacher, live in Hiawatha. He has two younger siblings, Mario and Katie. Giunta attended John F. Kennedy High School in Cedar Rapids and enlisted in the Army in November 2003. He married Jennifer Lynn Mueller, a native of Dubuque, in October 2009 after several years of dating.
THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon, everybody. Please be seated. On behalf of Michelle and myself, welcome to the White House. Thank you, Chaplain Carver, for that beautiful invocation.
Of all the privileges that come with serving as President of the United States, I have none greater than serving as Commander-in-Chief of the finest military that the world has ever known. And of all the military decorations that a President and a nation can bestow, there is none higher than the Medal of Honor.
Today is particularly special. Since the end of the Vietnam War, the Medal of Honor has been awarded nine times for conspicuous gallantry in an ongoing or recent conflict. Sadly, our nation has been unable to present this decoration to the recipients themselves, because each gave his life -- his last full measure of devotion -- for our country. Indeed, as President, I have presented the Medal of Honor three times -- and each time to the families of a fallen hero.
Today, therefore, marks the first time in nearly 40 years that the recipient of the Medal of Honor for an ongoing conflict has been able to come to the White House and accept this recognition in person. It is my privilege to present our nation’s highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, to a soldier as humble as he is heroic: Staff Sergeant Salvatore A. Giunta.
Now, I’m going to go off-script here for a second and just say I really like this guy. (Laughter and applause.) I think anybody -- we all just get a sense of people and who they are, and when you meet Sal and you meet his family, you are just absolutely convinced that this is what America is all about. And it just makes you proud. And so this is a joyous occasion for me -- something that I have been looking forward to.
The Medal of Honor reflects the gratitude of an entire nation. So we are also joined here today by several members of Congress, including both senators and several representatives from Staff Sergeant Giunta’s home state of Iowa. We are also joined by leaders from across my administration and the Department of Defense, including the Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen. Where’s Mike? There he is, right there. Army Secretary John McHugh; and Chief of Staff of the Army, General George Casey.
We are especially honored to be joined by Staff Sergeant Giunta’s fellow soldiers, his teammates and brothers from Battle Company, 2d of the 503d of the 173d Airborne Brigade; and several members of that rarest of fraternities that now welcomes him into its ranks -- the Medal of Honor Society. Please give them a big round of applause. (Applause.)
We also welcome the friends and family who made Staff Sergeant Giunta into the man that he is, including his lovely wife, Jenny; and his parents, Steven and Rosemary; as well as his siblings, who are here. It was his mother, after all, who apparently taught him as a young boy in small-town Iowa how to remove the screen from his bedroom window in case of fire. (Laughter.) What she didn’t know was that by teaching Sal how to jump from his bedroom and sneaking off in the dead of night, she was unleashing a future paratrooper -- (laughter) -- who would one day fight in the rugged mountains of Afghanistan 7,000 miles away.
During the first of his two tours of duty in Afghanistan, Staff Sergeant Giunta was forced early on to come to terms with the loss of comrades and friends. His team leader at the time gave him a piece of advice: “You just try -- you just got to try to do everything you can when it’s your time to do it.” You’ve just got to try to do everything you can when it’s your time to do it.
Salvatore Giunta’s time came on October 25, 2007. He was a Specialist then, just 22 years old.
Sal and his platoon were several days into a mission in the Korengal Valley -- the most.... ....dangerous valley in northeast Afghanistan. The moon was full. The light it cast was enough to travel by without using their night-vision goggles. With heavy gear on their backs, and air support overhead, they made their way single file down a rocky ridge crest, along terrain so steep that sliding was sometimes easier than walking.
They hadn’t traveled a quarter mile before the silence was shattered. It was an ambush, so close that the cracks of the guns and the whizz of the bullets were simultaneous. Tracer fire hammered the ridge at hundreds of rounds per minute -- “more,” Sal said later, “than the stars in the sky.”
The Apache gunships above saw it all, but couldn’t engage with the enemy so close to our soldiers. The next platoon heard the shooting, but were too far away to join the fight in time.
And the two lead men were hit by enemy fire and knocked down instantly. When the third was struck in the helmet and fell to the ground, Sal charged headlong into the wall of bullets to pull him to safety behind what little cover there was. As he did, Sal was hit twice -- one round slamming into his body armor, the other shattering a weapon slung across his back.
They were pinned down, and two wounded Americans still lay up ahead. So Sal and his comrades regrouped and counterattacked. They threw grenades, using the explosions as cover to run forward, shooting at the muzzle flashes still erupting from the trees. Then they did it again. And again. Throwing grenades, charging ahead. Finally, they reached one of their men. He’d been shot twice in the leg, but he had kept returning fire until his gun jammed.
As another soldier tended to his wounds, Sal sprinted ahead, at every step meeting relentless enemy fire with his own. He crested a hill alone, with no cover but the dust kicked up by the storm of bullets still biting into the ground. There, he saw a chilling sight: the silhouettes of two insurgents carrying the other wounded American away -- who happened to be one of Sal’s best friends. Sal never broke stride. He leapt forward. He took aim. He killed one of the insurgents and wounded the other, who ran off.
Sal found his friend alive, but badly wounded. Sal had saved him from the enemy -- now he had to try to save his life. Even as bullets impacted all around him, Sal grabbed his friend by the vest and dragged him to cover. For nearly half an hour, Sal worked to stop the bleeding and help his friend breathe until the MEDEVAC arrived to lift the wounded from the ridge. American gunships worked to clear the enemy from the hills. And with the battle over, First Platoon picked up their gear and resumed their march through the valley. They continued their mission.
It had been as intense and violent a firefight as any soldier will experience. By the time it was finished, every member of First Platoon had shrapnel or a bullet hole in their gear. Five were wounded. And two gave their lives: Sal’s friend, Sergeant Joshua C. Brennan, and the platoon medic, Specialist Hugo V. Mendoza.
Now, the parents of Joshua and Hugo are here today. And I know that there are no words that, even three years later, can ease the ache in your hearts or repay the debt that America owes to you. But on behalf of a grateful nation, let me express profound thanks to your sons’ service and their sacrifice. And could the parents of Joshua and Hugo please stand briefly? (Applause.)
Now, I already mentioned I like this guy, Sal. And as I found out myself when I first spoke with him on the phone and when we met in the Oval Office today, he is a low-key guy, a humble guy, and he doesn’t seek the limelight. And he’ll tell you that he didn’t do anything special; that he was just doing his job; that any of his brothers in the unit would do the same thing. In fact, he just lived up to what his team leader instructed him to do years before: “You do everything you can.”
Staff Sergeant Giunta, repeatedly and without hesitation, you charged forward through extreme enemy fire, embodying the warrior ethos that says, “I will never leave a fallen comrade.” Your actions disrupted a devastating ambush before it could claim more lives. Your courage prevented the capture of an American soldier and brought that soldier back to his family. You may believe that you don’t deserve this honor, but it was your fellow soldiers who recommended you for it. In fact, your commander specifically said in his recommendation that you lived up to the standards of the most decorated American soldier of World War II, Audie Murphy, who famously repelled an overwhelming enemy attack by himself for one simple reason: “They were killing my friends.”
That’s why Salvatore Giunta risked his life for his fellow soldiers -- because they would risk their lives for him. That’s what fueled his bravery -- not just the urgent impulse to have their backs, but the absolute confidence that they had his. One of them, Sal has said -- of these young men that he was with, he said, “They are just as much of me as I am.” They are just as much of me as I am.
So I would ask Sal’s team, all of Battle Company who were with him that day, to please stand and be recognized as well. (Applause.) Gentlemen, thank you for your service. We’re all in your debt. And I’m proud to be your Commander-in-Chief.
These are the soldiers of our Armed Forces. Highly trained. Battle-hardened. Each with specialized roles and responsibilities, but all with one thing in common -- they volunteered. In an era when it’s never been more tempting to chase personal ambition or narrow self-interest, they chose the opposite. They felt a tug; they answered a call; they said, “I’ll go.” And for the better part of a decade, they have endured tour after tour in distant and difficult places; they have protected us from danger; they have given others the opportunity to earn a better and more secure life.
They are the courageous men and women serving in Afghanistan even as we speak. They keep clear focus on their mission: to deny safe haven for terrorists who would attack our country, to break the back of the Taliban insurgency, to build the Afghans’ capacity to defend themselves.
They possess the steely resolve to see their mission through. They are made of the same strong stuff as the troops in this room, and I am absolutely confident that they will continue to succeed in the missions that we give them, in Afghanistan and beyond.
After all, our brave servicemen and women and their families have done everything they’ve been asked to do. They have been everything that we have asked them to be. “If I am a hero,” Sal has said, “then every man who stands around me, every woman in the military, every person who defends this country is.” And he’s right.
This medal today is a testament to his uncommon valor, but also to the parents and the community that raised him; the military that trained him; and all the men and women who served by his side.
All of them deserve our enduring thanks and gratitude. They represent a small fraction of the American population, but they and the families who await their safe return carry far more than their fair share of our burden. They fight halfway around the globe, but they do it in hopes that our children and our grandchildren won’t have to.
They are the very best part of us. They are our friends, our family, our neighbors, our classmates, our coworkers. They are why our banner still waves, our founding principles still shine, and our country -- the United States of America -- still stands as a force for good all over the world. So, please join me in welcoming Staff Sergeant Salvatore A. Giunta for the reading of the citation.
MILITARY AIDE: The President of the United States of America, authorized by act of Congress, March 3, 1863, has awarded, in the name of Congress, the Medal of Honor to then Specialist Salvatore A. Giunta, United States Army.
Specialist Salvatore A. Giunta distinguished himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity, at the risk of his life, above and beyond the call of duty, in action, with an armed enemy in the Korengal Valley, Afghanistan, on October 25, 2007.
While conducting a patrol as team leader, with Company B, 2d Battalion Airborne, 503d Infantry Regiment, Specialist Giunta and his team were navigating through harsh terrain when they were ambushed by a well-armed and well-coordinated insurgent force.
While under heavy enemy fire, Specialist Giunta immediately sprinted towards cover and engaged the enemy. Seeing that his squad leader had fallen, and believing that he had been injured, Specialist Giunta exposed himself to withering enemy fire and raced towards his squad leader, helped him to cover and administered medical aid.
While administering first aid, enemy fire struck Special Giunta’s body armor and his secondary weapon. Without regard to the ongoing fire, Specialist Giunta engaged the enemy before prepping and throwing grenades, using the explosions for cover in order to conceal his position.
Attempting to reach additional wounded fellow soldiers who were separated from the squad, Specialist Giunta and his team encountered a barrage of enemy fire that forced them to the ground. The team continued forward, and upon reaching the wounded soldiers, Specialist Giunta realized that another soldier was still separated from the element. Specialist Giunta then advanced forward on his own initiative.
As he crested the top of a hill, he observed two insurgents carrying away an American soldier. He immediately engaged the enemy, killing one and wounding the other. Upon reaching the wounded soldier, he began to provide medical aid, as his squad caught up and provided security.
Specialist Giunta’s unwavering courage, selflessness and decisive leadership while under extreme enemy fire were integral to his platoon’s ability to defeat an enemy ambush and recover a fellow American soldier from the enemy.
Specialist Salvatore A. Giunta’s extraordinary heroism and selflessness above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, Company B, 2d Battalion Airborne, 503d Infantry Regiment and the United States Army. [The medal is awarded.] (Applause.)
Posted by Jeff Emanuel
Tuesday, November 16th
I’ve been afraid for some time now that none of us would ever again witness the Medal of Honor being awarded to a soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine who survived the actions which earned him or her our nation’s highest military honor. This is not, of course, due to a dearth of courage, valor, or heroism in those who wear our country’s uniform today.
Posthumous recipients of the Medal like Ross McGinnis, Michael Mansour, Michael Murphy, Paul Smith, Jason Dunham, Randy Shughart, Gary Gordon, and their fellows were more than deserving of this honor, as, in my opinion, were others who did not receive the Medal of Honor for actions which likely should have earned it. This could include such heroes as Jason Cunningham, Eric Moser, and Chris Corriveau.
Not since Commander William McGonagle of the USS Liberty received the Medal of Honor forty years ago has this honor been awarded in any other manner than posthumously…until now. Please join me in saluting Staff Sergeant Salvatore Giunta, Medal of Honor recipient, American soldier, and true hero.
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Katie Couric, CBS News anchor and self appointed leader of the Sarah Palin attack pack, has renewed her three year long mission to rid the world of the threat of Sarah Palin as president. Her latest attempt to poison the public perception of Palin was on her news show last night.
She had the current Senator, Lisa Murkowski, write in leader in the Alaska Senate race, as a guest. It did not take Katie long to turn the attention of Murkowski to fellow Alaskan Palin and her qualifications to be president. Since Palin backed the Tea Party candidate who upset Murkowski in the primary, there was no love lost between them.
Couric urged Murkowski to unload on Palin and she did, saying some pretty critical statements as if she and Palin had known each other quite well for a long time. Which of course they did, at least know each other.
First, Senator Murkowski told the Associated Press on Friday that she wouldn’t watch former Governor Sarah Palin’s reality-television show about the state of Alaska.
Then Monday night, she added that she also doesn’t think Ms. Palin would make a good president.
“I just do not think that she has those leadership qualities, that intellectual curiosity that allows for building good and great policies,” she told Katie Couric on CBS News. “You know, she was my governor for two years. And I don’t think that she enjoyed governing.”
In the CBS interview, Ms. Murkowski said “we really don’t have much of a relationship.” She added that Ms. Palin “is not really that keyed into the state anymore. She is looking, obviously at a bigger pond.”
The Alaska senator added that she prefers a candidate who "goes to bed at night and wakes up in the morning thinking about how we're going to deal with" important issues.
Couric: "What's up with your relationship with Sarah Palin? Can you explain it?"
Murkowski: I'm still her senator. I'm going work hard to represent her, too. We don't really have much of a relationship."
Couric: "You have said you would not support Sarah Palin for president because she is not worldly enough."
Murkowski: "I just do not think that she has those leadership qualities, that intellectual curiosity that allows for building good and great policies. You know, she was my governor for two years. And I don't think that she enjoyed governing."
No matter what Palin does, Murkowski says 2012 is still a long way off and she's certain of one name that won't be on the ballot.
But didn't Katie forget to mention that Lisa Murkowski holds the Senate seat given to her in 2002 by her own father when he became governor amid cries of nepotism from the public? And didn't her father, Governor Frank Murkowski, purchase a $2.7 million jet airplane for the exclusive use of the governor, himself, in 2005? Wasn't it the same jet he took on a $13,000 Asian trip after he lost the primary election just before he had to leave office?
It was that jet and other allegations of corruption that convinced a young mayor from Wasilla, Alaska, a certain Sarah Palin, to challenge the mighty Governor Murkowski in the 2006 Republican primary where he finished dead last to Palin and one other challenger. After Murkowski spent 22 years in the Senate and 4 years as governor, Sarah Palin had brought his career in public service to a crashing end.
With Palin governor the state prosecuted Frank's former chief of staff convicting him of felony fraud in arranging corporate bribes for Murkowski's re-election campaign. Is it any surprise Sarah Palin opposed the daughter of the Governor she beat and endorsed a Tea Party candidate who won the primary/? Then again, Katie forgot to mention that there was a lot of bad blood between Murkowski and Palin ever since Palin drove her dad out of office.
Why would CBS bother with the facts or let us know the background behind the hostility Murkowski exhibited when asked about Sarah Palin by Katie Couric? It should be the truth and the public who decide if Sarah Palin is to serve us in any capacity, not Couric and the left leaning media.
For three years people like her have presented a one sided view of Palin, seeking out any rumor or fiction and putting it under the media spotlight in hopes it might make her look bad to the public. The Lisa Murkowski interview is just the latest example of CBS reporting along with such stellar masterpieces in investigative journalism like exclusive bombshell revelations about the Palins from none other than Levi Johnston, resident Alaska goof ball.
Let the people decide if Sarah Palin is qualified to be president with their votes, it is the American way. Just like it is Sarah Palins right to run for president should she so choose in our system of democracy. The media should stick to reporting the news, and stop trying to manufacture the news. That is the American way as well.
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Leave it to Charles Rangel to use his long relationship with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and his well rehearsed theatrics to make a mockery of the Pelosi ethics crackdown on her fellow Congressmen. Once Pelosi's chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means tax writing committee, Rangel virtually assured his continued place in the House at taxpayer expense after fleecing the American taxpayer of hundreds of thousands in tax liability, an euphemism for being a tax cheat, on 13 counts.
To help protect the tax cheater, the chief Democratic counsel prosecuting Rangel actually pre-empted the entire ethics proceeding by proclaiming that Rangel was not corrupt and did not personally benefit from ignoring IRS audits claiming he cheated on his taxes on low cost apartments in NYC and a vacation villa in the Caribbean. Since when do prosecutors pronounce the person they are prosecuting not guilty before the Judges have even heard the evidence?
Now how many Americans could do that and walk away with a $200,000 salary and a gold mine of a pension? If ever there was proof for the travesty our national government has become the Charles Rangel and Nancy Pelosi affair is it.
The theatrics were great as Rangel, poor Rangel, pleaded he was being denied the right to counsel and denied the right to raise a defense fund. He didn't mention he has known about the charges for years and was formally charged last summer. He claimed he already paid $2 million to lawyers and did not have another $1 million they demanded.
Of course his law firm, ex-law firm, denied they refused to help him. Rangel then walked out of the hearing and refused to be a part of the House rules he seems to have ignored during his 50 years of government service.
The joke ws already clear when they scheduled his trial just days after the election. Why let a guilty man win a seat in Congress before trial? It makes it that much harder to get rid of him. If he did nothing wrong then why did it already cost him $2 million in legal fees? Why will it cost $1 million more. Surely Nancy Pelosi is not going to force her committee chairmen to spend millions to defend themselves if they are innocent.
This is the joke congress has become!
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Today the English monarchy made official what the residents of Coltons Point knew six months ago, that the heir to the British throne was engaged to be married to Kate Middleton. Last June the people of Coltons Point threw the first official engagement party for the future king.
So close was Queen Elizabeth to making the announcement last June that the champagne had been ordered for the ceremony but Prince William, ever the stubborn one, cancelled the ceremony because of press leaks of the event. It took six more months before he relented and allowed the inevitable to take place.
As the following accounts tell you, this is historic as the future king will be the first member of British royalty with a bloodline that extends to America and Coltons Point, formerly known as St.Clements Manor, and the oldest continually chartered settlement in colonial America was home to Prince William's ancestors.
We are delighted to be the first to honor the future king's engagement and to be the first to have our bloodline on the British throne. Enjoy learning of this amazing development and of the connection between Prince William and Goerge Washington, the Father of our country, from the archives of the Coltons Point Times.
The Coltons Point Times
Monday, June 21, 2010
Southern Maryland holds first Prince William Engagement Party at the home of his colonial American Ancestors
Prince William, son of Princess Diana and now being groomed to be the next King of England, was honored this weekend at the first engagement party in the world for the future King of England at Coltons Point, Maryland in Southern Maryland. St. Clements Island, just off shore from Coltons Point, was the site of the first landing of English Catholics and others in America fleeing from religious persecution in England.
It was also the site of the first charter in the world to guarantee religious freedom for all residents and Coltons Point, formerly known as St. Clements Manor under Lord Thomas Gerard, is the oldest continuously settled chartered community in the original thirteen colonies.
What makes this story particularly interesting is that when Prince William becomes King he will be the first King of England in the long history of the UK with American blood, 1/16th according to The Ancestry of Diana, Princess of Wales, for Twelve Generations, by Richard K. Evans researcher of the ancestral bloodline of English royalty.
Prince William is a direct descendant of the very Lord Gerard who presided over the largest manor in America with over 20,000 acres in the 1600's. Southern Maryland was long a hotbed of support for the English starting with the settlement of the 300 English colonists in 1634. Many direct descendants of the original colonists were in attendance at the royal affair held in the East Windsor Gardens of Coltons Point.
The engagement of Prince William to Kate Middleton, the future Princess of Wales, yet to be confirmed by the Royal family, was announced in Coltons Point in the following invitation to the party.
On June 19th we celebrate the engagement of His Royal Highness Prince William Arthur Philip Louis of Wales, Royal Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter and Royal Chair of the Colony of St. Clement's Island, son of Diana and heir to the British throne, to Kate Middleton, the future Princess of Wales.
The ancestry relationship of Prince William to the first Lord of St. Clements Manor was first reported in the Coltons Point Times on January 13, 2010 in the following story.
The Coltons Point Times - Birthplace of Religious Freedom in America
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Histories Mysteries - Next King of England (Prince William) Shares St. Clements Manor, Maryland bloodline
When the late Princess Diana's son Prince William of Wales, heir apparent to the British throne and grandson to Queen Elizabeth II, becomes King, it will be the first time in history that an English monarch is 1/16th American. Ancestors of Prince William and his brother Harry, sons of Princess Diana and Prince Charles, are from Coltons Point, also know as St. Clements Manor, settled 375 years ago near the mouth of the Potomac River.
How could this be you might ask? Good question. Because we thought we had run the British out of America a couple of centuries ago. But alas, one of the enduring mysteries of St. Clements Island and Coltons Point is the very strange history that abounds in this quiet little place lost in time yet just an hour from our nation's capitol. The first colony in the world to guarantee religious freedom, at a time when Catholics were being persecuted in England, everything about this place is mysterious.
And nothing is more mysterious than the first proprietors of the original St. Clements Manor, the Gerard family of England. Two of the Gerards, a brother and sister, were on the Ark and Dove in 1634 listed on the manifest as investors and gentlemen or women.
Some history books indicate that in 1633 when the Charter was first granted for Mary Land by King Charles II to the Calverts, well before the ships left for America, the King and Calvert gave a grant to the Gerard family for any land they wanted in the New World north of the Potomac River. If they did it would be indicative of the power and respect for the family.
You see, according to English Heraldry the Gerards trace their English heritage back to the 1100's to William Fitzgerald, (the Gerard family name was shortened from Fitzgerald to Gerard and also spelled Gerrard and Girard). William traveled with Richard Strongbow and was part of the force that took control of Ireland for the King of England. After that there were a lot of Sirs in the family over the years.
By the time of King Henry VIII the Gerard family was one of the most powerful Catholic families in England and never seemed to be prosecuted for being Catholic under the reins of Henry and Elizabeth I. During the later years of Elizabeth Sir Thomas Gerard began making plans to set up a colony in America where Catholics would be free of persecution.
Thus with George Calvert, an investor in Queen Elizabeth's efforts to colonize foreign lands, he helped finance the Calvert Maryland colony. George Calvert had also become a Catholic just when England was banning Catholics. Whatever the agreement between Gerard, Calvert and King Charles, two of the Gerard family members were dispatched on the first ships.
But the real Gerard claim was the charter for St. Clements Manor because the Gerard family was entrusted with the most sacred site of the expedition to establish religious freedom in America, St. Clements Island. History conscious England would normally protect National Treasurers like the first landing site in the New World guaranteeing religious freedom. It was another sign of the trust of the British crown in the Gerard family. Though the area was finally certified by surveys in 1639, since the 1634 landing it had been occupied by those in the first expedition.
In Father Andrew White's historic journal of the colonization it talks of St. Clements Island, the first landing site in the New World. It was here the first fort was built, the first Catholic Mass performed and the first peaceful encounter with Native Americans established the long term peaceful relationship. It was also in the St. Clements Manor area that Father White, thanks to the Indians, set up the first Catholic chapel in the New World.
For the first five years after the landing the St. Clements Manor area was one of just five settlement sites in all of the Maryland area where the Jesuit priests could go and meet with the Native Americans. It was considered safe enough for such interaction with the Native Americans. The site of the St. Clements Manor House complex became Coltons Point and has been lived in ever since.
Historians know that places like Jamestown, Plymouth and St. Mary's City all ceased to exist in their original sites by the 1690's. Thus Coltons Point was settled in 1634, chartered in 1638 and surveyed in 1639. Because of these reasons the St. Clements Manor area, now Coltons Point, is the oldest continuously lived in chartered settlement in all of colonial America.
Dr. Thomas Gerard, whose brother and sister were on the first ships, was the family member designated to settle and develop the New World holdings and he arrived with his family in 1638, immediately settling at Coltons Point (St. Clements Manor). In time his manor grew to one of the largest in all of America including over 20,000 acres. He also owned land in Virginia and he was a partner owning Capitol Hill, the land where the US Congress, Supreme Court and much of our federal government was build.
Gerard was an unusual person, exactly what King Charles would prefer. While Charles was a Protestant King with a Catholic Queen, Henrietta Maria from the powerful Medici family of France no less, Gerard was a Catholic from a powerful English family with a Protestant wife. When he reached America he built the first chapel for Catholics and Protestants on the Manor.
His Manor House in Coltons Point sat on the riverbank and faced the little Island where the landing took place. St. Clements Manor House was burnt down by the Protestants around 1645, rebuilt, burnt down by the English in 1713 and rebuilt, and finally destroyed by a hurricane in 1933. One day maybe it will be rebuilt on it's original site.
Gerard was the first doctor in Maryland, a gentleman and successful businessman. He was often at odds with the Calverts, the Lords from England, over the rights of the people versus the rights of the crown. After the protestant revolt in England his lands were seized for a time and he moved to his Virginia land. He was the neighbor and friend of John Washington, George Washington's great grandfather. In time two of his daughters married John Washington thus were step great grandmothers of our first President.
For those of you who find it odd that two sisters would marry the same person, regardless of the fact it was George Washington's great grandfather, a note on the Colonial ways. Way back then women were a rather rare feature in the early colonial days. Also death came early for many of the men. So to protect those women who choose to help settle the New World the families would often have the next available male or female marry the widows.
This was an extension of the rules of the English monarchy, the same rules that proved to be King Henry VIII's undoing. You see, his brother was King and died at age 15 in 1502 when Henry was just 10. Henry was thus required to marry his brother's widow, Catherine of Aragon, the daughter of Queen Isabella I of Spain (the same Isabella who sent Columbus to discover America). Catherine was much older and Henry had to wait until he was 17 before the marriage took place.
Well Henry had difficulty adjusting to the older woman and was enamored by younger women like the Boleyn sisters, having an affair with one and marrying the second, Anne. Anne forced him to divorce Catherine. Thus began the religious wars that tore Britain apart for the next 150 years. For her part Anne got beheaded but her daughter with Henry, Elizabeth, became Elizabeth I, one of the most beloved Queens of England. She never married. Hummm.
Back in the colonies when he died Dr. Thomas Gerard was buried alongside his first wife at the St. Clements manor House overlooking St. Clements Island. We believe both grave sites have been located three centuries later and along with St. Clements Island they should become one of the most historical sites in Southern Maryland. Meanwhile, numerous smaller manors within St. Clements Manor were given as gifts or sold. Frances Scott Key, composer of our National Anthem, was even born on St. Clements Manor.
In England where the rest of the Gerard family remained their royal bloodlines continued and both Prince Charles of Wales and Princess Diana are blood relatives of the Gerards. When Prince William becomes King he will be the first British Monarch who is 1/16th American. He is also 1/16th German, 1/16th Hungarian, 1/32nd Irish and 1/64th French.
That means our Coltons Point bloodline (Gerards) will have a son of Princess Diana, Prince William, who becomes King of England who is related to King Henry VIII, a new King whose ancestors were step great grandmothers to George Washington who defeated the English, and who is the first British King who is 1/16 American. No wonder we always liked Princess Diana.
Prince William of Wales, heir to the English throne, can trace his family to St. Clements Island and Coltons Point. We even know the gravesite of his ancestors here in Coltons Point who first arrived 375 years ago. We really must celebrate when Prince William becomes King. Better yet, why not start now in honor of the future King of England whose ancestors were our founders.
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Sarah Palin continues her record setting blitz on television as the premiere of her Sarah Palin's Alaska shattered the record for viewers on the TLC cable network with about 5 million viewers for opening night. For comparison Conan O'Brien pulled about 2.7 million while Jay Leno, on a network, pulled about 3.6 million on the previous Friday night.
This comes on the heels of her election night contribution to Fox News channel which increased ratings 20% over the 2008 election and double the 2006 election as the Fox cable flagship stunned the network giants by beating all three national networks with Fox cable pulling 6.9 million, NBC 6.2 million, CBS 5.8 million and ABC 5.5 million during prime time.
Fox News with Sarah Palin continues to dominate cable news with average prime time viewers at 2.1 million while CNN has 575 thousand, MSNBC 820 thousand, CNBC 188 thousand and HLN 472 thousand. In all shows Fox continues to pull two or three times more than the nearest competitor.
Of course it took a Palin to beat a Palin as Bristol Palin on Dancing with the Stars drew 20 million viewers in the most recent show just as Sarah Palin predicted.
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On occasion we offer you glimpses of the world in hopes of broadening our understanding of the diversity of cultures and the character of people. In Asia there are few women prominent in fighting for freedom and opposing opressive rule. Aung San Sun Kyi of Burma is the exception to the rule and hearing her story should reassure you that people throughout the world share in our fierce determination to protect liberty and individual ights. The following is a particularly good article about her from the Guardian in the UK.
Aung San Suu Kyi: Burma's opposition leader is a new Mandela
Universal symbol of courage has endured years as a prisoner for heading the fight for democracy in her country
Jon Henley, guardian.co.uk, Friday 12 November 2010
In her own country she's an uncrowned queen; a slight, fragile but unbending figure glimpsed by few but known to all as The Lady. Beyond it, she has become an icon, a universal symbol of courage, endurance and peaceful resistance, a new Mandela.
The word's a commonplace but Aung San Suu Kyi really is a legend: daughter of the man who won Burma its independence from the British, but who was assassinated when she was barely two; a political leader herself who for the past 22 years has headed, with a delicate but compelling charisma and unimaginable determination, her nation's "second struggle for independence"; a prisoner of one kind or another for 15 of the past 20 years; and winner, in 1991, of the Nobel peace prize.
Those who have met her (which isn't many, recently) speak of a beauty every bit as striking as the photographs, a proud poise and a demure gentility acquired, certainly, at the Anglo-Indian finishing school she attended in New Delhi, where her mother was ambassador.
She apparently also has, though, a quick and by no means prim wit and an infectious giggle. Not, by all accounts – including her own – a born political strategist, she knows precisely the system her country needs, if not precisely how to get there. Her Nobel citation called her a shining example of "the power of the powerless".
Born on 19 June, 1945, two years before independence, Aung San Suu Kyi – the name means "a bright collection of strange victories" – left Burma with her mother in 1960. In 1964 she was at St Hugh's, Oxford, studying politics, philosophy and economics. A friend, Ann Pasternak Slater, recalls her "tight, trim lungi [Burmese sarong] and her upright carriage, her firm moral convictions and inherited social grace".
She worked as a research assistant at the University of London and then for the UN in New York. She got engaged to Michael Aris in 1971, and wrote to him every day before their marriage the following year: "I only ask one thing," she said: "That should my people need me, you would help me to do my duty by them." She added: "I am beset by fears that circumstances and national considerations might tear us apart."
It took 16 years for that need to arise. Michael and Aung San Suu Kyi's first son, Alexander, was born in London in 1973, followed by their second, Kim, in Oxford, where Michael had a junior fellowship. She resumed her own academic career, teaching Burmese studies and taking research assignments first in Japan, and then in India. One evening in Oxford in late March 1988, the boys in bed, Aung San Suu Kyi took the phone call that changed her life: her mother had suffered a severe stroke.
Back in Burma, the military dictatorship that had run the country since 1962 was suppressing a student-led protest movement. On 8 August 1988, soldiers fired into a peaceful demonstration, killing up to 5,000 protesters. Barely two weeks later, Aung Sun Suu Kyi addressed 500,000 people at the great Schwedagon pagoda in Rangoon. As her father's daughter, she said, she could not stand by. "True," she said, "I have lived abroad. It is also true that I am married to a foreigner. These facts have never lessened my love and my devotion for my country." She demanded freedom and democracy, a multi-party government, and free and fair elections.
The rest is as sad as it is familiar. The National League for Democracy was formed with Aung San Suu Kyi as its general secretary.
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"We listened to the voice of the people, that our policies might be in harmony with their legitimate needs and aspirations," Aung San Suu Kyi wrote. "We explained why, in spite of its inevitable flaws, we considered democracy to be better than other political systems. Most important, we sought to make them understand why we believed political change was best achieved through non-violent means."
Despite detentions and intimidation, the NLD won 82% of the seats in Burma's parliament in the 1990 elections, whose results the dictatorship have never recognised. Aung San Suu Kyi was held under house arrest until 1995, and then banned from travelling. In 1999 her husband died of cancer in London; had she left the country to visit him, she would never have been allowed back in. Detained again in 2000, released again in 2002, she was rearrested once more in May 2003. Her phone line cut, her post blocked and her NLD colleagues banned from visiting her, she has lived under house arrest at her home on University Avenue, Rangoon, ever since, writing, reading, exercising and meditating. Not even the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, was allowed to meet her on a visit in 2009.
Then John Yettaw, a confused American, swam across the lake by her house to see her, ensuring she was charged and convicted with breaking the terms of her house arrest and sentenced to 18 months further house arrest – until tomorrow, a convenient six days after Burma's recent elections. "It is not power that corrupts, but fear," Aung San Suu Kyi once wrote. "Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it, and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it." But even under the "most crushing state machinery, courage rises up again and again. For fear is not the natural state of man."
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In the first post-election polls since the Midterms Sarah Palin has once again defied the liberal media and elitists and surged ahead of President Barack Obama in favorability and is in a dead heat in unfavorable ratings with Obama to the total chagrin of the reporters and pundits.
So terrorized are the liberals that they hailed the newest polls as a sign Palin is the most polarizing name in politics which of course is a blatant lie. What is the truth? In the latest AP GfK nationwide poll Sarah Palin has climbed to a 46% favorable and her unfavorable is 49% as of November 13.
In contrast, President Obama, according to today's RealClearPolitics Poll, stands at 45.4% favorable and 49.6% unfavorable. Bet you didn't hear the media report that our polarizing Palin is less polarizing than Obama.
The real truth is polls are all about trends and here the trend is real clear. Obama has been sinking in the polls for two years running as witnessed by the public revolt against Democratic leadership and the shellacking Obama took in the elections this month.
More ominous for the liberal media, the latest RealClearPolitics poll show an amazing 63.8% of the public believe our nation is on the wrong track under Obama's leadership. If 49.6% have an unfavorable opinion of Obama and 63.8% believe his policies are on the wrong track just who is the real polarizing figure in American politics? The numbers don't lie, it is clearly Obama. Just ask the 70 newly elected Republicans who won House and Senate seats November 2.
So Palin is gaining favorable ratings as Obama continues to slip. Is that enough? Well there is more. After two years of Obama blaming George Bush for every problem he faces, George Bush has gained 10% in favorable ratings and now is 44% favorable, again according to RealClearPolitics, while Obama is only 45.4% favorable, barely a 1% difference. In other words Obama has dropped over 20% since being elected while Bush has gained over 10%, a swing in the polls of over 30%.
Still that does not reflect the true trends because Obama faces a continuing string of challenges by the new Congress over his domestic agenda, while his international problems have continued to mount with every passing day. It appears that nothing will slow the difficulties of our president with the dragging economy and loss of international influence.
As for Sarah Palin, she has just started an eight week travel documentary on Alaska sharing with her television audience her love of the northern wilderness and she follows that with a 14 state tour promoting her next book which is certain to be a blockbuster like the last one.
Those who count Palin out should check their math because the numbers don't lie and attempting to show she is more polarizing than Obama is quite a joke as the mood of the public has demonstrated.
In recent years our political pundits seem to have forgotten Richard Nixon (1968) and Bill Clinton (1992) both won the presidency with just 43% of the popular vote and in four of the last five elections the winner received 50% or less of the vote. Sarah Palin is far from out of it and the trends are much more in her favor.
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