Alaska's eggs are all in the oil basket, like Norway, we have screwed up

Alaska’s Legislature and Governor like to point to Norway’s success with its savings account from Norway’s oil development. Over the last 50 years, Norway has managed to sock away $740 billion in the Norwegian Oil Fund (NOF), Norway’s savings account from oil development royalties. Is Norway’s fund truly the outstanding example of sound fiscal management pointed to by our politicians?

Jerome Vitenburg, an international political analyst, citing a 2011 study by Michael Hudson of the University of Missori, in the Washington Times says no, Norway has not been a good steward of the incredible wealth afforded by the oil boom. Bad investments, a rapidly expanding welfare state, and the failure to invest in Norway’s industry and infrastructure raise serious doubts about Norway’s financial future. Like Alaska, Norway has failed to invest wisely in itself.

Norway has failed to improve its non-oil related industrial infrastructure. Norway has invested heavily outside of Norway. Alaska has done the same.

There is no requirement under Alaska statutes for a percentage of Alaska’s Permanent Fund to be invested into Alaska. (AS 37.13)

Increased production threatens Norway’s oil revenues as oil prices are expected to fall with new production coming on-line in the U.S. and elsewhere from shale deposits and new technologies improving recovery. Alaska faces the same potentially draconian economic future.

Alaska is also particularly vulnerable to such a decrease in oil revenue. This year is expected to be the first year of deficits between spending and revenue, by -$500,000,000, since the precipitous drop in the price of oil in the 1980s and in 1999, when oil dropped to $20 per barrel. Delays in building a natural gas pipeline to tidewater further accelerates Alaska’s coming fiscal collapse, because of the failure of the Legislature to understand the LNG market and Governor Sean Parnell’s insistence in adhering to Sarah Palin’s failed AGIA policy until very recently.

Governor Parnell has finally closed the Alaska Gasline Incentive Act (AGIA) office. Prior to his Natural Resources Commissioner recently announcing that the State would consider a direct investment to secure 20% of the project ownership, Parnell steadfastly stood by Sarah Palin’s Alaska Gas Inducement Act (AGIA) guidelines. Now, it looks as if the Parnell Administration has realized that Bill Walker was correct in his promoting the State’s involvement in a major natural gas infrastructure investment.

Unfortunately for Alaska, Parnell has yet to ask the Legislature to provide the legislative authority to make such an investment and to set a time table for construction. Governor Parnell continues to wait for the oil companies to make that decision. Something that they have been extremely reluctant to do, as they do not want Alaska’s North Slope gas doing other than pressurizing the North Slope oil fields until technology can allow the recovery of most of the 20 billion barrels of oil from oil sands deposits under the surface of the North Slope. The "money" for the oil companies is in oil production, not natural gas production. They have plenty of natural gas from foreign sources and shale plays in the lower-48. They do not need nor want Alaska’s natural gas in the world market competing with these other interests.

There are serious conflicts of interest on the part of the oil companies with their foreign developments, which would compete with Alaska LNG for market share in Asia. TransCanda also has a conflict of interest with its contract with Shell for a natural gas pipeline to Kitmat, B.C., Alaska’s competition as an LNG export terminus. Unfortunately, the AGIA legislation and subsequent contract with TransCanada never required "conflict of interest" as a condition to justify cancellation by the State of Alaska. Only economic conditions are stated as a basis for cancellation by the State. An example of poor business judgement on the part of former Governor Sarah Palin.

Meanwhile, Japanese LNG customers are paying $16 per million British thermal units (MMbtus) for delivered LNG. In 2010, a study by Woodward MacKenzie demonstrated delivery of Alaska LNG to Japan could be done for approximately $8.50/MMbtus. Yet, in the intervening time period since the 2010 elections, the Parnell Administration failed to move any natural gas pipeline proposal forward, preferring instead to seemingly ignore the natural gas issues altogether, putting any lack of progress into the lap of the oil companies. The Legislature was given free reign by this governor to establish policy and direction. Parnell did manage to reduce the oil companies’ production taxes in a modification of Sarah Palin’s Alaska Clear and Equitable Share Act (ACES) of 2007.

What progress has been made on a pipeline proposal has been in favor of the Alaska Stand Alone Pipeline (ASAP), which is the former bullet line. In late 2012, Congress authorized a 7 mile right of way through Denali National Park using the Parks Highway right of way. This surprise on the part of the Obama Administration coincided with the oil companies (Exxon, Conoco and British Petroleum) decision to "study" a pipeline terminus at Nikkiski, rather than use the established TAPS corridor to Valdez for any natural gas pipeline to move North Slope natural gas to tidewater. The economic viability of the ASAP line has been debated since first proposed as the bullet line under then pipeline coordinator Harry Noah appointed by then Governor Sarah Palin. AGIA limits the volume to no more than 500 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/da), making the ASAP pipeline, like the bullet line, uneconomical. The interesting aspect is that the State would have to fully finance the construction.

Bill Walker was heavily criticized during the 2010 gubernatorial primary for suggesting even a partial State buy-in as part of his all-Alaska natural gas pipeline plan. Such a buy-in to control management and to set time lines was termed "socialism", even by Ralph Samuels who was a proponent of the to be 100% State financed bullet line scheme concocted under then Gov. Sarah Palin.

By contrast to Alaska’s lack of measurable new oil and gas exploration/development since the 2010 elections, Texas is now back up to 2 million barrels a day of oil production from shale deposits, doubling its production of two years ago. Texas expects to exceed that production and to see production rise to the levels of the 1960s and 1970s when oil production was well over 2 million barrels per day. As of December, 2012, oil production in North Dakota reached 770,000 barrels per day. North Dakota’s oil production now exceeds Alaska’s oil production. Alaska’s oil production is declining rapidly and is presently at 549,936 barrels of oil and natural gas liquids per day.

Improvements in production technology is resulting in the ability to recover more and more oil from shale plays and oil sands deposits. New technology is also allowing recovery from wells where production was reduced to the point of being uneconomical, because of paraffin impeding the oil flow. Increasing domestic U.S. oil production has led to demands by the oil companies for legislation allowing the export of crude oil from domestic U.S. production for the first time since the 1960s. For the first time in decades, energy independence is being spoken of with certainty in the U.S. The increasing supply should lead to a decline in oil prices.

Norway’s oil fund is limited to investing no more than 4% of its NOF in Norway. The bankers and accountants who consulted to the Norwegian government applied a model of immediate return. Ignored by this economic investment model are the major government-level investments that are designed to facilitate growth in industry, to insure an educated and motivated work force, and to provide the transportation infrastructure needed to support commercial growth. However, the bankers and accountants won out with the argument that to invest in Norway’s small economy beyond 4% would cause inflation that would eventually devastate the local economy. The Alaska Permanent Fund was set up using a similar, shortsighted philosophy.

This same mentality of a quick turn around for money, investment in financial schemes rather than creation of equity through manufacturing and building, resulted in the ponzi schemes of the 80s and 90s of the ".com" stock failures and the sub-prime mortgage disaster, leading to the current recession with the bailouts, quantitative easing by the Fed, and the incredible spending of our Congress and President to no good end.

Europe was doing its own version, and the economic fall out is continuing there like it is here, with high unemployment, currency inflation, and an ongoing recession. Asia, mainly the PRC, is feeling the pinch as well, as the West is the primary beneficiary of its cheap labor and communist controlled economy.

Yet, the historical precedent for the growth of the Western economies was based upon the idea that government facilitated such growth by investing in the public sectors of utilities, transportation, and education to give the private sector the tools necessary to grow the country’s economy. The Tennessee Valley Power Authority is a prime example of a national initiative to increase power production in the U.S. in the 30s.

Instead of growing Alaska, Alaska’s leaders of the time, as had Norway’s leaders previously, decided to grow government as the means of giving the greatest benefit to the people of Alaska. A government that soon tired of public projects, and devoted itself to keeping the ‘hands out’ crowd happy and complacent by increasing welfare gratuities and growing government to do so, thereby directly benefitting fewer and fewer people, largely government employees. "Can’t" has become the new Alaska State Government policy to excuse the continuing lack of infrastructure. The only thing created these days is more welfare spending programs and a bigger bureaucracy at every level of government.

There are people who worked in Alaska for a city government, vested, then vested with a borough government, then did the same with the State, as some local subdivisions required vestments of only five years. Once they retired from the State, they left the State with multiple retirement vestments from three levels of government, full life-time medical, and great retirement benefits. In other words, they raped us, and they are still doing this today.

Former Governor Jay Hammond, the father of Alaska’s Permanent Fund and Permanent Fund Dividend program, never intended that the PFD become an entitlement. It was always intended that either the PFD would be offset by an income tax, or discontinued when the oil production declined beyond a sustainable level for government to justify the payment to the people. The PF was to be used as a ‘rainy day’ fund, similar to the intent for the Norwegian Oil Fund. This flawed strategy is now coming home to Alaska’s current Legislature and Governor Sean Parnell. Neither is doing anything to prepare this State for a post oil economy.

In a 2011 analysis "What Does Norway Get Out of its Oil Fund, if Not More Strategic Infrastructure Investment", economist Michael Hudson warned of impending problems with the Norwegian Oil Fund investment strategy. Norway has been investing its National Oil Fund in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and in questionable real estate in Europe and the U.S. The investments in China, Brazil and India being used to create industry and infrastructure that will compete with Norway’s indigenous industries.

In the current world economic recession, such investments are questionable in the long term, given the economic uncertainties and the current penchant for currency inflation to make products more competitive by the aforementioned countries. The infrastructure investments that are the responsibility of government to keep Norway competitive in a changing global economy remain underdeveloped and ignored, while the social welfare burden continues to increase in the face of declining oil revenues. Even in the face of $740 billion in its NOF, Norway has managed to accrue $657 billion in foreign debt. Norway has borrowed money even with the NOF.

The United States became the economic power house that it did, because the government invested in the infrastructure to facilitate the growth of business and to access natural resources through roads, airports, harbors, schools, utilities, and regulatory oversight. Regulatory oversight at the time was designed to facilitate, not to impede growth. Part of the infrastructure created being necessary to the national defense. The U.S. interstate highway system is a good example of military necessity also serving the needs of commerce.

Mr. Hudson opined that 60% of the Norwegian Oil Fund should have been invested in Norway to build non-oil industry infrastructure to hedge against the competing oil production increases resulting from the U.S. and other foreign shale and normal production and improvements in recovery technologies. With the increased supply in the market, oil prices should decline. Norway’s investment in foreign growth is now paying a negative dividend to the future of the Norwegian economy.

Hudson gave the following example of the shortsightedness of the use of Norway’s oil fund money by comparing how those countries that benefitted from Norway’s investments are using their funds:

"While investing at home to improve their quality of life, China, Singapore and other nations manage their Sovereign Wealth Funds with an eye to shaping their economies for the next twenty, thirty or even fifty years. They are buying control of the key foreign technologies and raw materials deemed most critical to their long-term growth. This broad scope invests export earnings directly to make their economies more competitive while raising living standards."

Norway’s oil wealth has gone to the benefit of other countries through investment in business and in direct investment in infrastructure projects, all of which serves to build their economies at no direct benefit to Norway’s economic future. Foreign investment makes it easier for those governments to make the needed investments in their infrastructure, and to procure foreign raw materials sources for future growth, because the Western investor is paying for the growth of their companies, both private and state owned enterprises, without consideration of the long term impact upon their home countries’ economies.

Unfortunately, for Alaska and Alaskans, our Permanent Fund is largely doing the same: investing outside of Alaska without benefit other than a check once year to each Alaskan, the continued expansion of a bloated self-serving government, and an increasingly demanding welfare state that will collapse with the decrease in oil production in the very near future.

Alaska’s Regional Native Corporations follow the same strategy, which benefits a few, and pays off the many to keep them quiet with respect to seeing any benefit locally. However, they can sell their losses to solvent companies as a tax break to that company.

Norway, like Alaska is a literal one-trick pony, almost completely reliant upon oil for its revenue to run its government, and to meet its growing social welfare state obligations.

Alaska’s Permanent Fund (PF) does not invest in Alaska. Anywhere but Alaska seems to be the strategy. The PF investment goal is an increase of Fund assets by 5% per annum. Our Legislature and Governors have concluded that Alaska is a bad investment: do not use the PF to build roads into the Bush, to improve harbors and airstrips in Alaska to reduce the cost of living and to provide for the defense of Alaska, or to access our natural resources for development, to increase the exploration and development of our hydrocarbon resources, or to provide for the basic services that government is charged to do for all Alaskans. Our budget, State and Federal funds last year was over $10B. Yet, not one mile of new road was built, nor were the current roads improved or repaired. Meanwhile, the PF continues to invest in the stock market, which is literally gambling with Alaska’s oil wealth. As of this year, Alaska’s public indebtedness was $8.2 billion.

Norway is not the standard to be followed. The debt structure alone is enough to dissuade the prudent man from believing that Norway’s government has been a good steward of the benefits of its oil reserves. Norway’s debt of $657 billion is foreign held debt. Meaning, Norway has borrowed money in the face of their oil fund’s wealth.

Alaska is again issuing bonds to finance purchases.

Without diversification of Norway’s economy by government investment to build the infrastructure to support non-oil related industry, Norway is ill prepared to compete in a world market once the oil is gone. Norway will have to compete with those very economies in which Norway’s oil wealth has been invested. China, Russia, India and Brazil continue to garner more and more world market share across industry sectors, while Norway is frozen in the belief that it can continue to expand its welfare state without investing in its economic future.

Sadly, Alaska follows this shortsighted course by our Governors’ (primarily Palin and Parnell) and the Legislature’s refusal to recognize the hydrocarbon market trends and act accordingly to invest in the infrastructure necessary to access and to support development of the tremendous resource wealth of this State. Instead of investing in Alaska, we have invested in our competitors’ economies, and in policies and regulations by a distant federal government through federal bonds that serve only to further restrict Alaska’s ability of self-determination. Alaska’s debt structure is not as far along as Norway’s, but our lack of a viable transportation infrastructure makes much of Alaska as remote and our resources as unreachable as in most of the third world. Only there, they do not have a hostile and interfering federal oversight that serves other interests to deny Alaska its rightful self-determination as a State in the Union of States.

Given Alaska’s $10B budgets of late, $8.2B in indebtedness, how long will our $50B in the PF last? The trend is ever larger State budgets in the face of an average 6% loss of North Slope oil production each year. If there is a drop in the price of oil below $80 a barrel, Alaska will be in serious financial straits. Further, it is doubtful that the TAPS can deliver oil when production reaches 300,000 barrels per day or less. That day is not long off, given the 549,936 barrel per day level of production at present.

The Parnell Administration has continued to ignore the construction of a natural gas pipeline to tidewater that would, with the right governor at the helm, increase State revenues slightly, but have the potential to do much more. The long term benefit of such a project would be to provide any remaining gas liquids for use in Alaska to create a petrochemical industry for the Interior, and use part of the gas transported with the export volume to provide cheap heat and power for Alaska’s communities in the Interior and in South Central Alaska. Such in-state use of North Slope natural gas would impact industry across the board, and enable kilns for timber, refridgeration for agriculture, and the creation of jobs across industry to provide opportunity beyond just building and maintaining a pipeline. There is the true benefit of our resources, not in a mere export scheme to feed a bloated and inefficient State government that benefits a few, and not the many.

Such an in-state energy infrastructure project would further enable increasing the available gas in Cook Inlet, until exploration and development could catch up with increasing demand. The LNG terminal at Nikkiski would continue to export Cook Inlet LNG to Japan, as is still being done after 43+ years, without concerns about shortfalls in supplies for home heating.

A good indication that increasing natural gas supplies will positively impact the State is the December, 2012 air quality permit by Agrium to restart the fertilizer plant at Nikkiski on the Kenai Penninsula. Agrium shut down its Nikkiski plant in November, 2005 resulting in the loss of 230 local jobs.

Long term, well paying jobs would be the benefit of the correct application of governmental responsibility and involvement in large scale infrastructure projects, the natural gas pipeline being such an example of potential State participation. 30% of Alaska’s private sector jobs are oil industry related. Such State support would increase the size of the private sector beyond just the oil/gas industry support and services. The all-Alaska natural gas pipeline proposed by the Alaska Gas Port Authority during Sarah Palin’s campaign of 2006, and again in 2010 during Bill Walker’s run for governor in the Republican Primary was such a project.

High oil prices have kept the wolves of recession away. This keeps a private sector that largely serves government from facing the reality of the current world recession. However, the fires of growth are cooling, contrary to our federal government’s protestations to the contrary. Like Norway, the prospect of lower oil prices, declining production, and an indifferent Governor and Legislature point to uncertain and turbulent times for Alaska’s economy.

In 1999, the price of oil hit $20 a barrel. Today, that would mean the Permanent Fund would have to be used to defray the costs of government until the price of oil returned to sustainable levels. Something that could take longer than the PF would last.

Alaska First must be the only policy on the part of our Legislature and Governor, or Alaska will be the last to the world LNG market party and the loser by virtue of a retiring, reluctant and recalcitrant State government that has failed to see the need to invest in Alaska First. Vision, courage, commitment and leadership must replace the "can’t" in the Governor’s vocabulary. That means a change in governor.

Norway’s example as a steward of its oil wealth for the benefit of its people is not a good example for Alaska. Once again, our leaders have been short sighted in their consideration of Alaska’s future.

For more information:

Alaska Statutes:

AS 37.13.020

http://www.apfc.org/home/Media/investments/20130523InvestmentPolicyD.pdf

Alaska Division of Oil and Gas, Dept. of Natural Resources, SOA

http://dog.dnr.alaska.gov/

Norway’s Sovereign Wealth Risk Vortex:

http://michael-hudson.com/2011/03/norways-sovereign-wealth-risk-vortex/

Alaska Public Debt 2012-2013

http://treasury.dor.alaska.gov/Portals/0/docs/debt_management/debt_book_2013.pdf



Michael Hudson is the President of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), Wall Street Financial analyst, Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the U. of MO. http://michael-hudson.com/about/

http://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/on-numbers/scott-thomas/2012/05/governments-employ-20-percent-of.html

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/may/15/north-dakota-now-no-2-oil-production/

http://homernews.com/stories/010605/news_0106new005.shtml

http://search.peninsulaclarion.com/fast-elements.php?querystring=%22FERTILIZER+PLANT%22&offset=0&hits=10&hc=y&type=standard&profile=kenai&tags=FERTILIZER+PLANT&addListings=true

http://peninsulaclarion.com/news/2013-06-27/agrium-inspecting-equipment-at-its-closed-plant-work-to-continue-through-fall

http://www.alaskajournal.com/Alaska-Journal-of-Commerce/December-Issue-3-2013/Agrium-Inc-applies-for-key-permit-to-allow-plant-restart/

TSA and Islam, the end of the West . . .

I attended a family reunion this last summer and encountered something that absolutely demonstrates the paradoxical outlook of the federal government with respect to security.

The TSA seeks to expand its presence in all facets of the American transportation system, including intrastate travel, and not just interstate travel. Its personnel are now termed agents or officers . . . not just perverts and bullies and people who willingly violate the 4^th, 5^th and 9^th Amendment rights of their fellow Americans continually wherever they have checkpoints set up. The TSA is now a feature of political events, which has nothing to do with the FAA’s air safety responsibilities.

At SEATAC, going through security to return to Anchorage, I saw something that I still do not comprehend as a viable expression of good policy. I saw a Muslim woman wearing a hijab in a TSA uniform working security motioning people forward. She did not participate in the abuses of our Constitutional rights the federal government calls a security screening. Nonetheless, her presence was another indication that this government will go to any length to avoid any allegations of discrimination . . . or to do its job.

To see this woman in the uniform of the federal TSA was disturbing. Were it not for the hijab, she was no different from any other TSA female employee. However, the hijab said it all.

Islam is a harsh master. Islam is a jealous master. Islam is an intolerant master. Islam does not allow a Muslim to swear fealty to anything not Islam. Where there is Islam, there is war.

The Muslim cannot swear and mean, as in has to lie, when they swear the oath to support and to defend the Constitution of the United States. In other words, for a Muslim to wear the uniform of the United States military, to be federal anything, that person commits perjury. Islam does not allow them to swear any oath to a land that is dar al-harb, a land of war, a land under assault by Islam before submission to Islam.

Islam is not here to co-exist, and Farrakhan and his boys are not Muslims in the vein of Sunni or Shiite. They are, like scientology, made up. In which case, one day Islam will deal with them as they do any who stray from the tenets of Islam.

The TSA continually fails security testing. They have cleared through security federal agents tasked with carrying simulated bombs, firearms, and knives. They have failed to pass any of these tests, yet, we, the flying public must submit and must endure the violation of privacy and person that is the incredibly idiotic TSA screening process.

One has to wonder just how serious is the federal government in its mission of keeping the flying public safe when the shops and flight line of some of our major airports resemble Beirut more so than Minneapolis-St. Paul. There–at Minneapolis-St. Paul, the concessions are run by Muslims, and the flight line is a Somali immigrant success story with virtually no other group or ethnicity represented in any numbers. The flight line. They have access to the baggage compartments, to the cabins, to any exposed interior section of an airliner.

What group tries to blow up airplanes or to use airliners as guided missiles? Muslims do so in such an astronomically greater percentage so as to make any other identifiable non-Muslim threat statistically insignificant.

Yet, during the Cold War, we watched Russians and Soviet Bloc citizens in this country, who were usually here to spy on us. We did not sanction the groping of our populace at large, the seizure of their personal items at random for inane reasons, or the public embarrassing of our elderly and disabled, or the sick probing of our children during what was an undeclared period of hostility with world communism that resulted in the loss of American servicemen and aircraft on a too regular basis without any response from the U.S.

Now, we see Muslims in TSA uniforms, when all that is needed is profiling of those who actually constitute a threat to the U.S. Muslim males and females of military age, who comprise about 5% of the flying public. Instead, the TSA applies draconian actions against the elderly, the infirm, infants, and the disabled, as long as they are anything but Muslim. The Muslims are allowed to go through security without so much as a howdy do.

What is even more paradoxical than the TSA employing Muslims, is the recent revelation of the widespread involvement of the Saudi government in the 9-11 attack on the U.S. An involvement that for any other government would have meant suffering a Declaration of War by Congress.

Now, Muslims are on the flight lines, in the concessions, in the security apparatus, in our military, in the FBI, everywhere in the federal government. Does that make any sense whatsoever?

We are going down the road that Europe has gone by emulating the European decline in birth rate through abortion, politically correctness to the exclusion of any recognition of the internal threat to the country and its people by Islam, the destruction of the family through divorce and the decline in faith in God, and the self-destruction of Europe through conquest by migration of illiterate Muslims in such numbers so as to now constitute a recognized security threat and a threat to the stability continuity of the nation.

Here, our liberal ‘European-me toos’ in Congress, the Obama Administration, and those at the State and local levels are trying their best to destroy this country by emulating and ignoring what has successfully been shown to work in the destruction of Europe. The handwriting is on the proverbial wall, one has to be blind not to see the portent of these insane immigrant and politically correct policies.

Now, the TSA has become a tool in the tool box of Islam to undermine the land of dar al-harb to give Islam a victory in this land of war.

We are our own worst enemies.

We have the opportunity to change this insanity on the part of our leaders in DC and at the state and local level in the elections of 2014 and 2016.

Nelson Mandela is dead . . . so what?

Nelson Mandela has been hailed as the epitome of the suffering martyr who sacrificed mightily for his cause. And, what was that cause? To end Apartheid? Or, to gain power and control of South Africa for the communist cause?

Historian Professor Steven Ellis wrote "External Mission: The ANC in Exile 1960-1990", Hurst & Co. Professor Ellis proves that Nelson Mandela was a communist. Mandela was a senior leader in the South African Communist Party (SACP). He joined SACP to garner support for the coming revolution against white rule in South Africa. Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1944.

After the Sharpesville massacre by police in March, 1960, who fired upon rioting black demonstrators that killed 69, Mandela asked for help from the communist powers to support an armed revolution against the government of South Africa, allegedly to end Apartheid. Apartheid was a repressive political system that segregated South Africa. As a long term solution to maintain control, Apartheid was not viable.

Nelson Mandela wrote a book on "how to be a good communist" that is sold as an e-book by Barnes and Noble today.

In the 1970s, the ANC was trained by the IRA, which considerably improved the ANC’s success in its bombing against civilian targets in South Africa.

Nelson Mandela was sentenced to prison for 157 acts of terrorism, shedding the blood of innocents rather than use the system to gain power. Further, Nelson Mandela did so as an avowed communist using the African National Congress as the vehicle for the violent overthrow of the government of South Africa. Mandela was offered his freedom by the South African government on several occasions on the condition that he renounced violence. He refused to do so. Mandela’s case was never supported by Amnesty International or any human rights organization, because of his conviction as a communist terrorist and his refusal to renounce violence.

South Africa’s agony began with the attack on Rhodesia from communist inspired and supported movements using neighboring communist controlled Angola as a safe haven. Great Britain, or what was left of the ‘great’ sold out Rhodesia instead of backing the white regime and supporting them militarily until a reasonable political settlement could be reached with Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo. Nkomo was the leader of the ZAPU party, and Mugabe was the leader of the ZANU-PF. In 1976, they joined forces as the Political Front. After the 1980 independence, Mugabe turned against Nkomo and his ZAPU faction. The Ndebele who supported Nkomo and the white Rhodesian government were persecuted and slaughtered by Mugabe’s Shona in post war Zimbabwe. The ANC supported Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF). The only group more persecuted than the Ndebele were the white Rhodesians.

Who were the protagonists of the Rhodesian civil war? ZAPU and ZANU-PF were communist along with the African National Congress (ANC) receiving training and indoctrination from the Peoples Liberation Army advisors in Angola. The Red Chinese was a major player in Africa’s civil wars, as was Russia.

Prior to the war (1964-1979), Rhodesia was the literal bread basket of Africa. After the war, the Rhodesian white farmer suffered virtual genocide under Mugabe, with lands confiscated, families brutalized, women and children raped and killed in front of husbands, all to drive the white farmers from their lands. The slaughter of whites and Ndebele in communist controlled Zimbabwe continues today.

Great Britain the west, including the United States, refused to support Rhodesia placing embargoes on the country’s military supplies and replacement parts for helicopters. You see, the Rhodesians were winning the war and that was unacceptable to the liberals in Westminster Palace and the White House. Africa, after all, is for black Africans, the white interlopers were not part of Africa. Just as the U.S. turned its back upon the Republic of Vietnam by ceasing supply of ammunition for weapons and spare parts for vehicles and aircraft, so did Great Britain turn its back on its former colony of Rhodesia and left it to the communists, thereby insuring the destruction of a vibrant, thriving economy that impacted Africa far beyond its borders through the export of food.

Now, Zimbabwe, the successor to Rhodesia, exports . . . misery.

Nelson Mandela’s ANC is moving forward with the same discriminatory, violent, criminal expunging of the white South African farmer from farmland that has been in some families for hundred’s of years. The Dutch first settled the Cape of Africa in 1652. The only black Africans in the area were the Khoisans, or Bushmen. The larger tribes that became the Zulu after being pushed south into present day South Africa by northern tribes came long after the Dutch had settled Cape of Africa.

Over 3,000 South African white farmers and their families have been killed, beaten, raped and driven off their lands with the ANC’s blessings. The current ANC leadership in South Africa has made it very clear that it supports Mugabe’s purge and wants the same for South Africa. The crime wave against the whites South Africa is one of the dirty secrets of the ANC, with daily home invasions that result in the slaughter of innocents, rape and, if lucky, only rape and severe beatings. Usually, family members are killed in front of each other, with the women and female children raped in front of husbands and brothers before they are all killed. There is a war in South Africa, and Nelson and Winnie Mandela were in on its planning and execution.

Bigotry, violence, death and deprivation, and the misery to come from the elimination of South Africa’s ability to feed itself are the legacies of Nelson Mandela and the ANC.

The guilt of the white liberal has allowed this monster to become a cause celebre, instead of his being recognized as the communist monster with the blood of innocents on his hands.

For more information:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/nelson-mandela/9731522/Nelson-Mandela-proven-to-be-a-member-of-the-Communist-Party-after-decades-of-denial.html

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2013/08/03/4-Aug-13-World-View-Zimbabwe-s-90-year-old-Liberation-Hero-Robert-Mugabe-wins-another-election

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYL6aTK3k6Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7YV_0XEY8U

http://www.theindependent.co.zw/2013/07/05/nkomos-legacy-who-is-he-to-you-me/

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/how-to-be-a-good-communist-nelson-mandela/1026101351

http://www.rhodesia.nl/goodcom.html

CANCELLED!: Meet Bill Walker and Craig Fleener, Wasilla this Friday 4pm to 7pm at Re/Max in Wasilla!

CANCELLED DUE TO ROAD CONDITIONS!

Please join us, 4pm -7pm, Wasilla Re/MAX building to meet Bill Walker and Chris Fleener, candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor.

Bill Walker will not hesitate, but Parnell just sits and waits for . . . ?

With the oil and gas conversation in Alaska politics focusing on the upcoming referendum on HB21, the Governor’s recently passed reduction in oil taxes, there has been little news on the natural gas pipeline front since the Producers promised further "studies". The last news from the producers was that they had made a preliminary decision with respect to the port of export. They chose Nikkiski, but were again studying the situation further, meaning no decisions to actually build a pipeline until a time uncertain into the future.

The Producers’ had to know of the impending legislation in Congress that would give a right of way through Denlai National Park. S.157 and H.R. 586 were introduced in June, 2013. This legislation allowed a natural gas pipeline to be built along the 7 miles of existing highway right of way that runs through Denali National Park lands. A take-off to the park facilities through an existing utility corridor would extend from the park entrance to the park facilities to allow the Park Service access to the gas. The Secretary of Interior would be required to issue a permit for the line crossing federal park lands if it meets environmental reviews and meets ANILCA requirements. Per Eric Elam of Young’s office, the legislation passed the House and Senate and was signed into law on September 18, 2013. The bill also provided funding for the Kantishna Micro-Hydro Project, a 50kw hydro-power project to provide power to the Kantishna Roadhouse owned by Doyon RNC.

With the signing of the legislation into law, a major hurdle in the construction of any natural gas pipeline down the Parks corridor using either the Alaska Railroad right of way or the highway right of way has been eliminated. This does not mean that litigation will not ensue on the part of the anti-development forces aligned against any development of Alaska’s resources. These forces have had two major victories to date.

The Pebble Mine project is all but history with Anglo Mining pulling out. Usibelli Coal has not been able to move forward on the Jonesville Coal Mine in the Matanuska Valley for the same reason. Therefore, the likelihood that the greenies will let any natural gas pipeline construction move through Denali, even using the highway right of way, without litigation to extract blood money is unlikely. Alaska’s history is rife with opposition to major resource development by Outside groups who have no other vested interest other than using the courts and Alaska as a revenue source.

The only pipeline corridor that is free of any litigation is the TAPS corridor, which is the choice of Bill Walker in both his 2010 and current gubernatorial campaigns.

Legislatively, the way is now clear for a pipeline down the Parks or a pipeline down the Richardson highways. The choice is which way, and most importantly when?

Japan is facing a shortfall in LNG due to interruptions from some LNG suppliers, such as Nigeria. Japan will be facing higher gas prices over the winter, because of the necessity of purchasing LNG spot cargoes rather than receiving LNG as part of a long term contract supply. The situation is rife for potential for Alaska’s North Slope gas. December deliveries to Japan is $17/MMbtus. Last year, the average was $13.25/MMbtus. Qattar will not be able to supply additional LNG to Japan over the winter, with supplies contracted to other buyers. Qatter supplied gas to Japan helping to keep the price down to $13.25/MMbtus.

The Wood-MacKenzie Report demonstrated a delivery to Japan of Alaska LNG North Slope gas of approximately $8.50/MMbtus. Using a 10% inflation per annum figure since the report’s release in 2010, gives an estimated delivered cost of approximately $11.31/MMbtus today, without respect to market considerations, and depending upon whether or not one believes the government’s inflation figures or what is experienced in the rising prices of other commodities. 

October Japan LNG market prices are $15.15/MMbtu. By December, the Japan LNG market prices are already contracted at $17.20/MMbtu. China is competing with Japan for LNG, causing increasing prices for existing supplies.

The specter of Alaska LNG competing with LNG from Kitimat is very real with Shell’s planned LNG terminal. Shell let a $4 billion contract to TransCanada to build a 2 bcf-2.5 bcf natural gas pipeline to 700 kilometers from B.C. shale fields Kitimat. (Yes, the TransCanada partnered with Exxon . . . ) Shell has partnered with Korea Gas, Mitsubishi and PetroChina to build its Kitimat LNG terminal.

Meanwhile, Governor Parnell waits, the oil companies study, and Alaska faces an increasingly uncertain fiscal future.

Either Governor Sean Parnell does not want to remain governor, or he is getting some bad advice with respect to his failure to move aggressively into the Japanese market.

His competition for the governor’s job will not be so hesitant. Bill Walker has been a relentless advocate of moving Alaska’s North Slope to market as LNG before the LNG market in Asia is diminished by other suppliers. Japan has been a primary focal point in his marketing of Alaska LNG. Walker and the Alaska Gas Port Authority have been tireless in their promotion of Alaska’s natural gas to Asian markets. Remember, the all-Alaska natural gas pipeline being promoted by AGPA and Bill Walker was the basis for Sarah Palin’s campaign for governor. If Governor Sean Parnell will not make a decision, Bill Walker and his Lt. Gov. candidate Chris Fleener will.

For more information:

LNG Insight: Utility buyers change buying strategy for winter
http://www.platts.com/videos/2013/october/lng-buyers?video_uuid=ngt147ob

http://www.platts.com/podcasts-detail/spotlight/2013/october/lng-prices

http://business.financialpost.com/2013/08/15/shells-kitimat-lng-project-gets-boost-from-asian-partners/?__lsa=128e-8da1

Congressman Young’s press release

http://donyoung.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=348902

NOV 7 MEET AND GREET FOR BILL WALKER AND CRAIG FLEENER

If you cannot read the details in the above graphic, the link below will take you to the website with the announcement.

http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=qiugaddab&v=001dXbC6UqaAI5fRUYGv57teBrwJ7cG9Z1nZrcgSMSgNh_gBde_5g0YO56KOq2nr6WjMe8yfwBH1o4VnGRjFryVwvF6T6P1xFeq4otpRkZLd218yGCEqC6niSjqxLc_g88HyS8vReTEWZ5zQ78WgMOudxEkq5dhDBaIGHD3rI6CwfZO1ypSqm9seH3D0sIgfY1oyAfXGcBZZaJSEW1ZiUEGkin6KOs1WnhzRLfzoKMN0hOFstCN5U0xXyiwrHckbZe9VCMSGr8bZLU4Y-mVbn349XVYMQYYnPJdGCPPjdIlBLc%3D

Campaign website:  http://www.billwalkerforgovernor.com/

Bill Walker Valley greet and meet and fundraiser Oct 23, 2013 at Jalapenos in Wasilla

 

Join us for a meet & greet/fundraiser for Bill Walker on October 23rd.  See invitation with details below.  Please forward this on to family and friends.  If you are unable to attend but would like to support Bill, you can donate here.      billwalkerforgovernor.com                                                                 (907) 332-2455                 Paid for by Bill Walker for Governor Campaign 731 N St., Anchorage, Alaska 99501

Bill Walker for Governor announces Chris Fleener as LT GOV running mate

Bill Walker's independent campaign moves forward with announcement of Chris Fleener as LT Gov candidate running mate.

 Fairbanks, AK, October 14, 2013 -- Independent candidate for governor, Bill Walker, announced today his running mate and candidate for Lt. Governor, Craig L. Fleener of Fort Yukon, Alaska.  Fleener is a lifelong Alaskan, military veteran and former Deputy Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish & Game.  He is Gwich’in Athabascan and is a descendent of the Doyon Limited region.  Each candidate will gather 3,017 signatures and appear on the November 2014, ballot.

 

EXPERIENCE: as the Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Fish & Game, Mr. Fleener provided policy and administrative guidance on wildlife and subsistence management, and worked closely with the divisions of Wildlife Conservation, Subsistence, and Habitat on policy, regulatory, management and funding issues.  He also served on the Alaska Board of Game, and also as the Director for the Division of Subsistence.

Prior to joining the Department of Fish & Game, Mr. Fleener served in several capacities for the Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments (“CATG”) in Fort Yukon, including service as Executive Director of that organization. While at CATG, Mr. Fleener served for a number of years as the only U.S. representative on the Gwich’in Council International, a permanent observer organization of the Arctic Council, an international body made up of eight arctic nations which identified problems and created solutions for pollution, international shipping, natural resource development, human dimensions issues and indigenous peoples’ concerns for the arctic region on a global level.

MILITARY: In 1986, Mr. Fleener joined the military and served in the United States Marine Corps.  He is currently a Major in the US Air Force Alaska Air National Guard, where he has served since 1991, and is a senior intelligence officer and recently served a tour of duty in Afghanistan as part of ongoing US operations in the region.  He volunteers as a board member for HAVE Alaska (Helping American Veterans Experience Alaska) providing psychological and physical rehabilitation for wounded veterans.

EDUCATION: Mr. Fleener received his Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Resources Management from the University of Alaska – Fairbanks in 1999, and in 2013 graduated with Honors from American Public University with a Master of Arts in Intelligence Studies.  He completed substantial work on a Masters of Science in Resources & Environment from the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada in 2001, but was unable to complete the degree because of military activations.

"I am in this race to help bring all Alaskan voices together," Craig Fleener stated. "I am working to unite Alaskans and my ultimate goal is to bring us together to solve the problems that we face in order to build a stronger Alaska."

Bill Walker stated, "Craig Fleener brings to this Alaska ticket a depth and wealth of experience in fish and game management, military and veterans' affairs, circum-Arctic policy experience and his proud Alaska Native heritage."

 

 

In a press release dated September 5, 2013, No. 13-145, Alaska Governor Sean Parnell demonstrated his outrage over the EPA’s raid on mining operations near Chicken, Alaska in late August. Governor Parnell has called for a special counsel to investigate the EPA’s raid. Governor Parnell’s statement was the strongest of any governor seen by this 59 year resident.

The EPA and one Alaska DEC agent conducted an armed raid in full body armor with POLICE signs in white bold letters velcroed to their black body armor to collect . . . water samples. The raid was to check compliance with water turbidity standards (the amount of particulate--silt in the water column) at the discharge point back into the stream. No citations were issued or arrests made for non-compliance.

In a phone conference with State officials and members of the Alaska congressional delegation, the EPA gave the excuse that the Alaska State Troopers had provided information that Chicken, Alaska was a "hotbed" of drugs and human trafficking.

Senator Lisa Murkowski believes that the EPA "concocted the story as an excuse for the outrageous overreaching.

The full text of the governor’s press release:

"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 13-145

Governor Outraged at Needless Show of Force by EPA, BLM, DEC Agents

Calls for Special Counsel

September 5, 2013, Juneau, Alaska – After a week of internal review into reports of intimidation and needless show of force by federal and state officials, Governor Sean Parnell has ordered an investigation into the practices of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) Environmental Crimes Unit and the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Criminal Investigations Division. The review comes after the governor learned that a state DEC investigator joined seven enforcement officers from the EPA and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to investigate placer miners in the Fortymile River area near Chicken. The agents, armed and wearing body armor, claimed they were looking for violations of Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. No arrests were made and no citations were issued.

"With a mere last minute notification to our DEC commissioner, Alaska’s attorney general, and the Department of Public Safety, the EPA, BLM and a DEC investigator took it upon themselves to swoop in on unsuspecting miners in remote Alaska," Governor Parnell said. "This level of intrusion and intimidation of Alaskans is absolutely unacceptable. I will not tolerate any state agency’s participation in this sort of reckless conduct. There are many unanswered questions and I will seek a special counsel to get to the bottom of this matter and work to ensure it never happens again."

Governor Parnell also called on EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to review and reevaluate how her agency handles Clean Water Act investigations. He also encouraged her to join the State of Alaska in ensuring the use of needless show of force tactics never happens again in Alaska."

The governor’s reaction is refreshing and appropriate.

An Alaska Deptarment of Environmental Conservation (DEC) agent accompanied the EPA on the raids, and was also similarly armed and armored.

The only police agency that should have had any armed presence in a law enforcement action in the State of Alaska is the Alaska State Troopers (AST) or a State Military Police constabulary acting under AS 26.05.070. The AST and a State Military Police Constabulary acting under AS 26.05.070 have law enforcement jurisdiction statewide.

AS 01.10.060(a)(7)(A-F) defines a peace officer under Alaska Statutes:

"(a) In the laws of the state, unless the context otherwise requires,

(7) "peace officer" means

(A) an officer of the state troopers;

(B) a member of the police force of a municipality;

(C) a village public safety officer;

(D) a regional public safety officer;

(E) a United States marshal or deputy marshal; and

(F) an officer whose duty it is to enforce and preserve the public peace;"

An EPA water quality technician armed or not, is hardly charged to ‘enforce and preserve the public peace’. Same for the DEC. Only actual law enforcement agencies should be wearing "POLICE" signs on their uniforms or equipment.

Alaska’s DEC’s commissioner may be in hot water.

Under Alaska’s Statehood Compact, the State of Alaska is given full law enforcement jurisdication over all lands in Alaska, including federal lands. The raid by the EPA was an outrageous assault not only endangering needlessly the miners affected but violated the State’s 10^th Amendment rights and is a breach of Alaska’s Statehood Compact. A regulatory agency’s enforcement action does not comply with AS 01.10.060(a)(7)(A-F). Were law enforcement action required, an Alaska State Trooper should have accompanied the EPA and DEC water technicians to effect any arrest or to keep the peace.

Alaska’s Congressman Don Young issued the following statement regarding the EPA raid:


"I am deeply troubled by the aggressive show of force and tactics employed by the EPA and other agencies, whose agents descended on the Fortymile Mining District late last month to enforce provisions of the Clean Water Act.

Rather than focusing on compliance with common practices and assisting in education, this sweeping operation was heavy handed, cast a wide net, and brought intimidation to unsuspecting and many undeserving miners. Particularly concerning is the level of misinformation and lack of coordination with State law enforcement agencies, a detail that was illuminated earlier by Governor Parnell. As a result, I stand with him in support of his call for an investigation and I too demand that Administrator McCarthy review her agency’s actions.

Despite the creation of meddlesome federal agencies like the EPA, safe and responsible mining in this area of Alaska has occurred for well over 120 years, and it is my intention to see that activity continues as the time honored Alaskan tradition that it is. However, I’m afraid this latest incident is simply another example of a coordinated harassment strategy from federal agencies who don’t view placer activity as compatible in and around an area designated as a Wild and Scenic River.

Finally, I join the request of the Fortymile miners, and call on the EPA and other agencies involved in these recent actions to meet in Chicken, Alaska next week to discuss the operation."

This raid is a dangerous precedent and it is encouraging to have Governor Parnell act aggressively to stop this egregious affront by the federal government.

The federal government is arming its regulatory agencies and training them to conduct armed raids, as if taking a water sample to check compliance with the Clean Water Act rises to the level of a raid on an Al Qaeda cell in a combat zone. Federal "law enforcement", including strictly heretofore unarmed regulatory agencies, has increased from 60,000 to 180,000 to date under the Obama Administration. President Obama stated during the 2008 campaign that he wanted a civilian armed force equal to the U.S. military for domestic policing.


　

The EPA now takes water samples from Alaska mines with a SWAT Team

The EPA is now part of an Alaska Environmental Crimes Task Force that is armed to the hilt to investigate "environmental crimes" by Alaska miners. Apparently, a dirty water discharge has now risen to the level of the use of deadly force against the offending miner.

Miners in Chicken were surprised during late August by groups comprising four to eight armed EPA agents carrying Glock .40 S&W cal side arms in full battle rattle with signs in big letters loudly proclaiming POLICE who stormed into several mines near Chicken in a full out assault to . . . take water samples. The EPA gestapo, and that’s all one can term such a heavy handed goon squad were there to take water samples to see if the miners were in compliance with Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. Something in past years that was done by one or two unarmed State of Alaska DEC personnel along with a representative of the EPA without rancor.

If the situation were not so serious, and the threat to the miners so real, this could almost be laughed off as a joke. However, armed goons with .40 cal Glocks in full battle rattle are not a joke. This event marks a new level of federal oversight on Alaska’s federal lands. Lands which the management of were supposed to be the responsibility of the State of Alaska under the terms of Alaska’s Statehood Compact. This event is an outrage and sets an extremely dangerous precedent for future regulation activities by the various federal agencies in Alaska.

Why were they there?

In a conference call with State officials including members of Alaska’s congressional delegation, the EPA stated that they had received information from the Alaska State Troopers that there was rampant drug and human trafficking in . . . Chicken, Alaska. Now, that is funny.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski opined that the situation was made up to allow the EPA (and DEC) to act as they did.

The AST’s spokesperson Megan Peters basically denied the EPA’s allegations as to receiving any information from the Troopers regarding anything at Chicken.

Why was there no court involved to protect the miners, if the EPA felt armed force was justified?

A member of the Alaska DEC was along to intimidate the locals at Chicken. The DEC agent was also armed. Now, DEC personnel are armed?!

What is going on here, Governor Sean Parnell?

The only police agency that should have had any armed presence was the Alaska State Troopers. They have jurisdiction statewide. Why were no Troopers part of that armed affront to Alaska’s sovereignty?

Chicken, Alaska is a historic mining town off the Taylor Highway has a resident population of 17 that grows to several dozen seasonally with the mining season. The mines are accessible by road, making it easy for the federal wanna be cold stone killer infantry wanna be Gestapo goon squad. Had this been a "raid" conducted at off the road, remote mines, there is a likelihood that they would have been met with armed resistance, as many mines maintain arms for self-defense and predators–both two legged and four.

The Alaska Environmental Crimes Task Force is made up of members of the Alaska State Troopers, the EPA, the FBI, the Coast Guard, the Department of Defense, and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.

Only one mine checked had a water sample that "looked" over the particulate limit.

Where is Governor Parnell on this issue?

As with the Jim Wilde incident on the Yukon River in 2010, silent.

What next, armored personnel carriers and machine guns to make certain your garbage sack is tied?

Better watch out for the Apache gun ships and Predator drones with Hellfire missiles if your car is running a bit rich and there is any smoke out the tail pipe.

We need a governor who will stand up for Alaskans and Alaska against the heavy hand of the Obama Administration.

Sen. Begich certainly will certainly not act to curtail this danger to the citizens of Alaska.

Bill Walker is running for governor, and Mead Treadwell is running for the U.S. Senate. Maybe, they will work to protect Alaska’s sovereignty and Alaskans from a DC mentality that clearly believes in armed force rather than a rule of law and due process.

For more information:

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20130903/gold-miners-near-chicken-cry-foul-over-heavy-handed-epa-raids

Valerie Jarrett ordered the Benghazi stand down?

A new revelation in the Benghazi story.

Did Valerie Jarrett, President Obama's trusted top advisor, order the stand down of U.S. military assets to prevent them from stopping the attack on the U.S. Mission at Benghazi?

According to Conservative Report Online, the SECDEF Leon Panetta and GEN Martin Dempsey called the President to the Situation Room at approximately 5 pm to brief him on the attack of the U.S. Mission in Benghazi then underway in Libya.  The President then immediately left for dinner.

After eating, the President and Valerie Jarrett, the President's top advisor and Assistant to the President for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs, conducted a 2 hour telephone conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  Upon completing the call, Valerie Jarrett then proceeded to the Situation Room.  What the President did after the call is still a matter of speculation.  Our President, while Americans were fighting for their lives and some dying apparently went to bed.

The Conservative Report Online reports that a AC130U Specter gunship armed with two 20mm gatling guns, a 40mm Bofors automatic cannon, and a 105mm cannon was sitting on the tarmac at Tripoli, Libya.  This is allegedly the C130 referred to by Gregory Hicks, Chief of Mission, as the aircraft that would have taken LTC Gibson's security team to Benghazi.  However, just before departing to the airport for the flight to Benghazi, LTC Gibson's team was ordered to stand down pending further instructions.

It is now believed that the order to stand down came from Valerie Jarrett, an unelected and exempt from any confirmation process by Congress, advisor to the President of the United States.  Someone without the authority to make any such decision.

In 1981, then SECSTATE Alexander Haig, a retired Army general officer, appointed by then President Ronald Reagan, uttered the now famous words, "I'm in charge at the White House" during the confusion in the immediate aftermath of the attempted assassination on President Reagan.  The liberal media created a firestorm of accusations of Haig trying to usurp the President's authority over that simple answer by Haig to a phone call asking who was in charge.  Haig was a presidential cabinet appointee, confirmed by the Senate of the United of States.

If what is alleged about Jarrett is true, she should be thrown in jail for literally usurping the President's authority.  This revelation is just another example of the contempt held by the Obama Administration's officials for the Constitution of the United States and our rule of law.

If the allegation regarding the presence of an AC130U on the tarmac at Tripoli is confirmed, President Barack Hussein Obama, SECDEF Panetta, GEN Dempsey, SECSTATE Hillary Clinton, and Valerie Jarrett should all face Congressional scrutiny for their negligence in allowing American personnel to die by the judgment and opinion of an unelected, unconfirmed, presidential advisor usurping the authority of the President.

Congress needs to do its duty and uphold the Constitution and to give justice and honor to those who lost their lives and those who fought at Benghazi.  This President and his Administration should be investigated and impeached. 

JBER CO orders Chaplain to remove religious message

Tod Starnes of Fox News reported today that COL Brian P. Duffy, the base commander of Joint Base Elmendorf-Ft. Richardson, Alaska, ordered chaplain LTCOL Kenneth Reyes to remove a message titled "No Atheists in Foxholes: Chaplains gave all in WWII" in a column he had written for the "Chaplain’s Corner" on the base website. The reason: "out of respect for those who considered its title offensive . . . " The column was removed within five hours after publication.

As reported by Breitbart’s Ken Klukowski, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) had contacted COL Duffy about what they described as Reyes’ ". . . use of bigoted, religious supremacist phrase" meaning "no atheists in foxholes" attributed to Catholic Father William Cummings at Bataan during WWII.

In 1954, during a speech, then President Dwight D. Eisenhower confirmed Father Cumming’s comment: " "I am delighted that our veterans are sponsoring a movement to increase our awareness of God in our daily lives. In battle, they learned a great truth that there are no atheists in the foxholes."

Allegedly, 41 airmen at JBER complained about the title to Chaplain Reyes’s column, leading to the attack by the MRFF. COL Duffy has "profusely" apologized to the MRFF for what the MRFF described as LTCOL Reyes’s "anti-secular diatribe."

MRFF is now demanding that LTCOL be punished: "Faith based hate, is hate all the same . . . LTCOL Reyes must be appropriately punished."

MRFF is atheist activist Mikey Weinstein’s creation. Weinstein has been emphatic in his hatred of Christianity. He has deemed Christians "fundamentalist monsters" who seek to impose a reign of "theocratic terror" and the gospel as "spirtual rape". He has stated publically that Christians are enemies of the Constitution and their beliefs constitute sedition and treason. This is the man that SECDEF Hodges has met with and with whom the Obama DOD has consulted with over the last four years who has further stated that there is no legal bar to suppressing religious free speech in the military.

Congress has responded with a bill providing free practice of religion in the military. The Obama Administration is diametrically opposed to such legislation.

This is an incredible assault on the 1^st Amendment and upon the faith of the majority of the troops who serve this country. LTCOL Reyes column is accessed by all who served at JBER and any who may visit the site from anywhere in the world. To believe that the title is an affront when the title plainly states it is about chaplains, military religious leaders, is simply outrageous. Apparently, COL Duffy has little understanding of the 1^st Amendment.

The current Chaplain’s corner has a piece on keeping one’s financial house in order by Army CPT James Duran: http://www.jber.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123355549

COL Brian Duffy should be sacked and transferred to Shemya Is. where his primary duty should be to stand at attention each morning, noon, and at 1700 and to shout the Bill of Rights in his best command voice to the world. Then, he should be given a brush and a bucket and told to remove the sea gull excrement from the rocks. A sentence of six months of such duty would be appropriate. This man absolutely does not understand his soldiers nor his responsibilities as base commander. He is a puppet who puts his political masters above his oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Atheists and homosexuals are the root of this malignancy in our military. This is the outcome of the liberal experiment: "sit down and shut up, if you believe in God, are a patriot, are believe in heterosexual marriage and family, believe in the sanctity of life and of the unborn, and believe that our national borders should be inviolate, that our sovereignty and our culture are to be respected.

For more information:

http://www.jber.af.mil/index.asp

http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/chaplain-ordered-to-remove-religious-essay-from-military-website.html

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2013/07/24/Military-Censors-Christian-Chaplain-Atheists-Call-for-Punishment

http://www.frcblog.com/

The Zimmerman-Martin Debate: the 17year old as a child myth debunked

Michael Yon, a former U.S. Army Green Beret, is a writer.  He is noted for his combat dispatches from Iraq and Afghanistan where he was imbedded with OEF forces.  He has reported on U.S. and British troops and operations in country at the spear point with these troops.  Yon’s reporting has been accurate and has led to the removal of at least one general officer for incompetence.

 

In 2011 and 2012, Michael Yon’s reporting also highlighted the Army’s outdated and controversial medevac policy of requiring armed escort for unarmed Army MEDEVAC helos.  The U.S. Army is the only member of the NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) that operates unarmed casualty evacuation helicopters.  Yet, the USAF operates their armed HH60G Pedros for CASEVAC (casualty evacuation) missions and for MEDEVAC missions when the weather is too bad for the MEDEVAC UH60s to do the job.  On 18 September, 2011 Yon watched the unnecessary death of SPC Chazray Clark unfold as Clark was awaiting evacuation from a cold LZ.  Clark had been severely injured in an IED explosion.  Clark died just as the MEDEVAC helo reached Kandahar 69 minutes after the 9-line message requesting MEDEVAC for Clark was sent to the Bandit Tactical Operations Center (TOC). Yon was with 4th Battalion 4th Regiment 1st CAV (Bandit Troop) on an operation near Layadira Afghanistan that morning.  Since, a citizen’s advisory committee has been working to change this policy, suggesting arming the Army’s UH60s used for MEDEVAC missions, and removing the red cross denoting an unarmed helo.  BG Patrick Brady of RVN MEDEVAC fame has also given his criticism of the current Army MEDEVAC system.

Yon’s recent piece on his online dispatches points out that although 17 years of age, Trayvon Martin was eligible for military service.  Yon then goes on to point out the many examples of teens who joined the U.S. military at 17 and even younger.  Men who served their country with distinction and honor, including earning the nation’s highest award for valor in their teens.

PFC Milton Olive III, age 18, United States Army, B Company, 2 Battalion, 503 Infantry, 173 ABN Brigade, was awarded the Medal of Honor for sacrificing himself by falling on a grenade on an operation near Phu Cuong, RVN on 22 October, 1965 to prevent his fellow soldiers from being injured or killed.  PFC Olive III was a black American soldier.  Olive’s citation reads:
  “For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Pfc. Olive was a member of the 3d Platoon of Company B, as it moved through the jungle to find the Viet Cong operating in the area. Although the platoon was subjected to a heavy volume of enemy gunfire and pinned down temporarily, it retaliated by assaulting the Viet Cong positions, causing the enemy to flee. As the platoon pursued the insurgents, Pfc. Olive and four other soldiers were moving through the jungle together with a grenade was thrown into their midst. Pfc. Olive saw the grenade, and then saved the lives of his fellow soldiers at the sacrifice of his by grabbing the grenade in his hand and falling on it to absorb the blast with his body. Through his bravery, unhesitating actions, and complete disregard for his safety, he prevented additional loss of life or injury to the members of his platoon. Pfc. Olive's extraordinary heroism, at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty are in the highest traditions of the U.S. Army and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country. “

Instead of remembering heroes like PFC Olive III, there are acts of violence and destruction in the name of Trayvon Martin.  There are “knock out games” and “polar bear hunting” to encourage violence and disrespect in black youth.  Yet, there are so many who serve, so many who have families, who contribute and live law abiding and honorable lives.  No mention of them, just Trayvon Martin.

There is a park at 500 N. Lake Shore Drive in Chicago named after Milton Olive III.

To President Barack Hussein Obama, Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Jesse Jackson: Where are the parades and marches in HONOR of PFC Milton Olive III?

The youngest Medal of Honor recipient was Willie Johnson, a Drummer Boy in the Union Army in the Civil war serving with Company D of the 3d Vermont Infantry.  Johnson enlisted at age 11 on 11 December, 1861.  He was 5ft tall.  His father was also a member of the same regiment.  Johnson was cited for bravery during the Seven Days of Retreat during the Penninsula Campaign from 25 June-1 July 1862.

2LT Audie Murphy enlisted in the U.S. Army at age 18 after being turned down the USMC and the Army paratroopers for being underweight and too small.  He had 5 years of schooling and was orphaned at age 16.  He was 5ft 5in tall and weighed 110 lbs upon enlistment.  Audie Murphy earned the Medal of Honor for a defensive action on 26 January, 1945 in the Bois de Riedwihr near Holzwihr, France.  He led the 18 survivors of B Company against vastly superior German forces.  Audie  Murphy was the most decorated U.S. soldier to come out of WWII.  Murphy wrote that “War is a nasty business, to be avoided if possible, and to be gotten over with as soon as possible.  It’s not the sort of job that deserves medals.”  Murphy went on to a film career after the war.

Yon gives many examples of young Americans who decided to serve their country at a young age.  Some, dying at a young age.  Many of those listed went on to become notables in this country’s history.

Michael Yon points that Scott Halverston became the youngest member the U.S. Navy Seals at age 17.   No one has since matched that feat.

How many black Americans remember much less honor PFC Milton Olive III’s sacrifice for his fellow soldiers and his country?

Contrast the heroes above who have served and sacrificed for this country with the protests over Trayvon Martin’s death.  The race baiters, liberal media and liberal politicians march in protest to a trial that was conducted under the most intense media and political scrutiny and still howl for a different outcome in the face of the facts.  They continually mischaracterize Martin as a mere “child” who was unfairly killed, instead of the 6ft 2in gansta wanna be of questionable character that he was.

The question the parents of Trayvon Martin need to ask themselves, given the number of black American soldiers who’ve sacrificed their lives in the service of their country and those former service members and those still serving, why did they not point Trayvon in that direction rather than the path to destruction that he was most certainly headed down the night of his encounter with George Zimmerman?

Martin was already bragging about his tendency towards violence, and his drug use is a fact.  His Skittles and tea the night of his death were not childish treats, as the media would like to proclaim, but part of the ingredients for a drug called “lean” or “purple drank”, popular with the hip hop culture.  All he needed to finish the concoction was Robitussin or another prescription cough syrup containing codeine and promethazine.

Yon’s piece paints a different picture for what Martin could have become.  He further shatters the media myth that a 17 year old is a ‘child’.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
MICHAEL YON’s Race Baiting and Lies in America
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/race-baiting-and-lies-in-america.htm
ARMY’s MEDEVAC POLICY:
http://medevacmatters.org
PFC MILTON OLIVE III:
Information about PFC Milton Olive can be found at:   http://corregidor.org/heritage_battalion/moh/olive.html
http://www.military.com/Content/MoreContent?file=ML_olive_bkp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_L._Olive,_III
http://aavw.org/served/homepage_olive.html
http://www.virtualwall.org/do/OliveML01a.htm
http://theirfinesthour.blogspot.com/2011/10/tfh-1022-pfc-milton-l-olive-iii-usa.html
Willie Johnson:
http://www.medalofhonornews.com/2011/02/columnist-doug-dickerson-recently.html
http://vermontcivilwar.org/museum/moh/bios.php?input=3349
http://www.civilwarnews.com/archive/articles/2012/may/moh-051206.htm
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs013/1102264498897/archive/1110285733162.html
2LT Audie Murphy:
http://www.audiemurphy.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Murphy
http://www.texastribune.org/2013/07/18/lawmakers-trying-again-award-medal-audie-murphy/
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/07/18/3506979/house-moves-to-honor-wwii-hero.html
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2011/06/audie-murphy-dies-in-plane-crash-june-1-1971.html
http://www.armystudyguide.com/content/audie_murphy_study_guide/audie_murphy_information/the-biography-of-audie-mu.shtml

Non-disclosure agreements for Benghazi survivors; COL George Bristol is not retired

The survivors of the attack on the U.S. Mission at Benghazi on September 11, 2012 have been required to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) regarding their knowledge of the events. Aside from withholding the location of these people so that they cannot be served with Congressional subpoenas, the NDAs place the State Department, CIA and private contractor employees in jeopardy of civil and criminal repercussions were any to testify and divulge what they know. Such extreme, and cynical measures to avoid obeying the law and to keep the facts of the attack secret is simply outrageous. However, this conduct has become the hallmark of the Obama Administration.

The conduct on the part of the Obama Administration cannot be interpreted as other than a blatant attempt to conceal, misdirect, and otherwise avoid Congressional oversight. This is a direct reflection upon the integrity of the President of the United States.

 President Barack Hussein Obama promised a transparent and open administration. Thus far, as with Obamacare, the economy, and his foreign policy, he has failed. His conduct with Benghazi, Fast and Furious, the IRS scandal, the seizure of reporters’ phone records just to mention a few of the many scandals uncovered regarding the conduct of this President’s Administration, certainly render him vulnerable to an impeachment move by the House after the 2014 elections.

In another interesting revelation, COL George Bristol who was the former Commander Joint Special Operations Task Force-Trans Sahara during the attack on the Benghazi Mission has not retired after all. The Pentagon had previously reported to Congress that COL Bristol had retired and that they did have any information regarding his whereabouts. "Col. Bristol was not invited by Congress to testify before he retired," stated Air Force Maj. Robert Firman, a DOD SECDEF spokesperson. "The DoD has cooperated fully with Congress and the Accountability Review Board since the beginning of this investigation, and we will continue to do so." COL Bristol’s retirement from the USMC is not effective until 1 August.

The lies of the Obama Administration continue to accumulate.

COL Bristol’s testimony before Congress might clarify the issue of whether or not the U.S. military was ordered to stand down rather than go to the aid of those under attack in Benghazi that night. Further, COL Bristol could certainly clarify what ground assets might have been available to send to Benghazi that night.

COL Bristol’s unit was involved in missions in 12 African countries. Regarding the rising threat in Africa from Islam during the change of command ceremony for his unit, COL Bristol stated " . . . an evil has descended on Africa and it is up to us to stomp it out . . . Africa is not the next ridgeline. It is where the enemy is now. And, we are going to do something about it."

COL Kenneth Sipperly, USAF, succeeded COL Bristol as commander of Joint Special Operations Task Force-Trans Sahara on 13 March, 2013.

COL Bristol has been a sniper and martial artist. He is credited with establishing the USMC martial arts training program. COL Bristol spent 38 years in the USMC with 18 years overseas in Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia and Serbia. He accumulated over 60 months of combat tours during this period.

Congress needs to continue its pursuit of the truth in the Benghazi affair, the dead Americans deserve better than the cover up undertaken by the Obama Administration to cover cynical treatment of this travesty.

For more information:

http://www.stripes.com/news/europe/special-operations-in-africa-task-force-changes-commanders-1.211699

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/article/20130717/NEWS05/307170039/Despite-Pentagon-claims-Marine-colonel-sought-Benghazi-investigation-not-yet-retired

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/congressman-benghazi-survivors-forced-sign-non-disclosure-agreements_739975.html

http://www.examiner.com/video/benghazi-attack-footage

http://www.examiner.com/article/benghazi-a-plot-to-exchange-prisoners