the 9/11 Manhattan Boat Lift

“I believe somebody has a little hero in them. you gotta look in. and it’s in there.and it’ll come out. if need to be.”

we don't need fancy organizations or leaders to tell us what needs to be done. WE'RE AMERICANS. we roll up our sleeves and we do it. for each other. for freedom. because that's who we are.

RIP Mike Vanderboegh

RIP Mike Vanderboegh

the world is a duller place without your shining wit. you will be missed.

you have shown us the path, and although our guide has fallen, we know the way now. we will battle on. because that's the way you would have wanted it.

every time I say "no".

JS:"You know it's funny. I was thinking about what you said. The preeminent truth of our age is that you cannot fight the system. But if, as you say, the truth is fluid that the truth is subjective then maybe you can fight the system.As long as just one person refuses to be broken refuses to bow down."

I:"But can you win?"

JS:"Every time I say no."

Loki: [to crowd] Kneel before me. I said... KNEEL! Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power. For identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.
 
German Old Man: [Stands] Not to men like you.
 
Loki: There are no men like me.
 
German Old Man: There are always men like you.  
 


 Donut Thing?

the botany problem

there has been a longstanding issue in the patriot community, which some have called "the botany problem"...mostly composed of Fruits, Nuts, or Plants. sometimes, the three are hard to tell apart. not that it matters much, you don't want any of them in your group.

the easiest way to tell a plant is the guy who wants things to get "active" and has ideas that, on the surface, are borderline legal but if viewed in the wrong light will look really, really bad. or they outright want the shooting to start and are perfectly happy to help...so long as someone else goes first.

ANYONE WHO WANTS A WAR IS A BOTANY PROBLEM. they're either crazy or want a reason to get someone thrown in jail.

there are people online who openly beg people to "get the party started". I don't need to name them. I'm sure you've heard them.

one person you may not have heard of is Hal Turner. he was part of a government program to place people in the white supremacy movement, teach them how to go to the edge of the law but not cross it, then help the FBI bust people who crossed it. funny thing is, we seem to treat him and his training as though it were an anomaly, and one-off and they never did it before him or after him, or to any other movements..

let's face facts people..the government doesn't come up with a PROGRAM for this sort of thing for ONE GUY.  not when it gives them the arrests they need to justify the budget. otherwise, why call it a "program" at all?

take a close look at who you're letting lead you.  do they lead you up to the edge of something, only to suddenly stop and let you carry on? do they feed you just the information you need to draw the conclusion they want you to come to, or do they give you all the facts? do they demand you accept the intel they give you, and get offended when you dig on your own or find anything contrary to what they give? do they seem to magically have access to equipment that is just too good or too plentiful for the day job they say they have? do they have WAY too much interest in getting people's contact information to the point of DEMANDING it? do they sell or give things that are somehow branded or identifiable when low profile is more appropriate? do they have a background that would deny them legal access to firearms, yet they seem to have no issues with being on camera with firearms? and when those pictures/videos are posted online nothing ever seems to come of it? do they somehow want to isolate the group from the general population even after reviewing the tactics of past sieges and how static defenses DON'T WORK they just give the other side plenty of time to build up and get you? are they VERY quick to call someone else a plant/saboteur/FBI agent?

we are being led in circles, the same way you get a stampeding herd of cows to go in circles to tire them out (at least, that's what they did in the movies). this is why we don't win. this is why the militia/patriot movements before us and the 912/TEA party movements now, remain marginalized.

it's on purpose. and we're partly to blame.

"when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana, The Life Of Reason, 1905

each time we make the same mistakes....and each time a new set of people step up to lead, not knowing what has come before them. sometimes not even knowing that something even came before them, as though they are pioneers in a land long explored and mapped but only recently forgotten.

"Who sees further a dwarf or a giant? Surely a giant for his eyes are situated at a higher level than those of the dwarf. But if the dwarf is placed on the shoulders of the giant who sees further? ... So too we are dwarfs astride the shoulders of giants. We master their wisdom and move beyond it. Due to their wisdom we grow wise and are able to say all that we say, but not because we are greater than they." Isaiah di Trani ben Mal

mike vanderboegh in CT 4/20/2013

I can't say it any better than mr. vanderboegh, ( http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com ) so I'll just let him speak. go over there to his blog and say thank you for coming all the way up here to shake his fist in the face of tyranny.

My name is Mike Vanderboegh and I'm a smuggler. I am from the great free state of Alabama and I am a Three Percenter.

If you need to pigeonhole my politics I consider myself a Christian libertarian. I believe in free men, free markets, the rule of law under the Founder's Republic and that the Constitution extends to everyone regardless of race, creed, color or religion.

I most especially believe in the right of the people to keep and bear arms as the ultimate guarantor of liberty.

I have also been called a "seditionist" by members of the current regime. If faithfully fulfilling my oath to the Founders' Republic and unrelenting hostility to those who would undermine and overthrow it makes me a "seditionist" then I cheerfully plead guilty.

The Three Percent movement I founded has been denounced by that paragon of moral virtue Bill Clinton and I am a perennial "honorable mention" on the Southern Poverty Law Center's list of dangerous folks. I have even been the subject of an eighteen and a half minute rant by Rachel Madcow on MSNBC and the current Attorney General of the United States knows -- and despises -- me by name because of the Fast and Furious scandal that, with my friend David Codrea, I broke the news of on the Internet. Eric Holder would not be surprised to know that the feeling is mutual.

The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence calls me an "insurrectionist" because I don't believe, as they do, in a government monopoly of violence, but rather in a literal interpretation of the 2nd Amendment as a bulwark against tyranny. Well, as my friend Kurt Hofmann says, "It is better to be despised by the despicable than admired by the admirable" and I suppose my remarks here today will only reinforce my enemies' opinions of me. I think I can bear the burden.

Yesterday was the anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775, but also of the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto in 1943 and that of the Branch Davidians at Waco fifty years later to the day -- two examples of what happens when governments exercise a monopoly of violence.

It is proper, then, to contemplate the lessons of the date in history -- April 19th -- then, now and in the near future. What I say now I say with reluctance, sadness and not a little bit of dread, but say it I must.

FOR SILENCE IN THE FACE OF TYRANNY IMPLIES CONSENT -- AND I DO NOT CONSENT!

Neither do I believe that you consent, for you would not be here today if you did. But what I say is not easy to say nor easy to hear and many of you will not like it.

"An unconstitutional law is void." So says the standard legal text American Jurisprudence. That is certainly true. The tricky part is how we are to make that point when the local, state and federal executive and legislative branches as well as the courts are in the hands of the domestic enemies of the Constitution. Every one who is currently trying to take away your right to arms starts out by saying "I support the 2nd Amendment." Let me tell you a home truth from Alabama -- Barack Obama supports the 2nd Amendment about as much as Adolf Hitler appreciated Jewish culture, or Joe Stalin believed in individual liberty. Believe what politicians do, not what they say.

So what shall we do about this current spate of tyranny breaking out all over?

The facsimile of a semi-automatic pistol that some of you hold in your hands was smuggled into your state from the South. Manufactured in Georgia, trans-shipped to Alabama, it came across your state line in the trunk of a car. The fact that the authorities of your state have not yet banned "sponge guns" is immaterial. It could as easily been a whole trunk full of real pistols. Indeed, before this year no one thought that other firearms and related items would ever be banned -- but they have been. No one thought that the authorities of your state would pass laws making criminals out of the previously law-abiding -- but they did. If they catch you violating their unconstitutional laws, they will -- when they please -- send armed men to work their will upon you. And people -- innocent of any crime save the one these tyrants created -- will die resisting them.

Yet despite the cost, these unconstitutional laws MUST be resisted. For if not now, when? And if not us, who? This is no longer a "slippery slope" leading to firearm registration and eventual confiscation -- it is a precipice that some states have already plunged over and that the federal government threatens to follow. Arrests are happening NOW. When, if not now, shall we resist? Will we allow ourselves to be shoved back once again, from the free exercise of our God-given, natural and inalienable rights to liberty? -- Shoved back once more, muttering but compliant?

THAT IS HOW WE GOT TO THIS PLACE --- WE NEVER SHOVED BACK WHEN WE COULD DO SO WITHOUT VIOLENCE. Where does it stop? When we are all disarmed slaves?

The Founders knew how to answer such tyranny. When Captain John Parker -- one of the three percent of American colonists who actively took the field against the King during the Revolution -- mustered his Minutemen on Lexington Green, it was in a demonstration of ARMED civil disobedience. He might have retreated at the British approach, but he didn't. He might have ordered his men to lay down their arms, but he didn't. His defiance was silent but plainly stated. A veteran of the French and Indian War, he did not want a war. He knew intimately the horrors of war. BUT HE ALSO KNEW THAT SOME THINGS ARE WORSE THAN WAR. The British could not tolerate his silent defiance -- and someone fired a shot.

But even before the shot heard 'round the world, the colonists understood their weaknesses and their military needs and did something about it. They smuggled. They smuggled Dutch gunpowder and French flints. They smuggled tents and uniform cloth and artillery and ammunition. Boston was the high headquarters of anti-British smuggling and John Hancock was its prime minister. Connecticut was a small empire built on patriotic smuggling. The colonists knew what to do and they did it, regardless of the risk -- regardless of all the King's ministers and the King's soldiery.

They defied the King. They resisted his edicts. They evaded his laws and they smuggled. Lord above, did they smuggle.

Now we find ourselves in a similar situation. The new King Barack and his minions have determined to disarm us. We must determine to resist them.

No one wants a new civil war (except, apparently, the anti-constitional tyrants who passed these laws and the media toadies who cheer them on) but one is staring us in the face. Yes, a civil war is staring us in the face. To think otherwise is to whistle past the graveyard of our own history. We must, if we wish to avoid armed conflict, get this message across to the collectivists who have declared their appetites for our liberty, our property and our lives --

WHEN DEMOCRACY TURNS TO TYRANNY, THE ARMED CITIZEN STILL GETS TO VOTE.

Just like King George, such people will not care, nor modify their behavior, by what you say, no matter how loudly or in what numbers you say it. They will only pay attention to what you DO.

So defy them. Resist their laws. Evade them. Smuggle in what they command you not to have. Only by our ACTS will they be impressed. Then, if they mean to have a civil war, they will at least have been informed of the unintended consequences of their tyrannical actions. Again I say --

Defy. Resist. Evade. Smuggle. If you wish to stay free and to pass down that freedom to your children's children you can do no less than to become the lawbreakers that they have unconstitutionally made of you. Accept that fact. Embrace it. And resolve to be the very best, most successful lawbreakers you can be.

One last thing before I go. On Thursday I smuggled a half-dozen 30 round AR-15 standard capacity magazines into Connecticut in deliberate disobedience of the new state diktat.

So to Martin Looney, Mike Williams, Larry Cafarro and John McKinney I'd like to say this:

I JUST COMMITTED A "D" CLASS FELONY, YOU TYRANNICAL MORONS -- PROVE IT -- WHICH YOU CAN'T -- AND CATCH ME IF YOU CAN.

And I'll tell you something else. When the new ammo restrictions go into effect the first week of July, I'll be back -- with two full crates of 7.62x39 ball ammunition and I will transfer said ammunition into the hands of a Connecticut citizen without the state's permission or paperwork.

And after I break their unconstitutional laws again, I'll be sitting in Frank Pepe's Pizza down in New Haven waiting for Looney and Company to come arrest me --

ANY TIME THEY THINK THEY CAN MAKE IT STICK AND FEEL FROGGY ENOUGH TO TRY.

Thank you.

intellectual honesty, projection, and the numbers game.

"the government can regulate weapons because it's illegal for you to own nuclear weapons, rocket launchers, howitzers, and attack aircraft!"

people like this probably know the difference between artillery and arms. they're using it to justify their fears. they're afraid. afraid of what they might do with such equipment. and as such, to think of themselves as "normal", they projects that onto others. and since "normal people would go wild and just start destroying things for no reason", well..we all have to suffer for their lack of self control. at least, that's how they rationalizes it.

well, understand this..you're not normal. if that were normal human behavior, we'd be living in the middle of a perpetual war zone. we are one of the most heavily armed nations on the planet. and yet any violent shooting is national news BECAUSE it's so unusual. if you don't trust yourself with guns..don't buy guns. same way if you don't trust yourself with a multi-thousand pound gas-burning projectile with 4 wheels that kills more people than guns do..that would be a CAR,...don't buy one.

right now they're playing a dangerous game. you want to take away guns from people who mean you no harm, and in fact would probably help you if you were in trouble. many of those people have military training. all of those people have shown near-infinite levels of patience with being accused of being the worst sorts of people on the planet.

how long do you think that patience will last? how long can you poke a sleeping wolverine with a stick, before you will need surgical assistance removing it from parts of your anatomy?

run the numbers. if only 3% of gun owners stand up and say no, we outnumber all of local, state, and federal law enforcement AND the entire department of defense. that's an awful small percentage of gun owners. do you think we can come up with just 3% who are more interested in leaving a future to their children and grandchildren that is free of fascist ideas than they are in their own short-term safety and comfort? walk into any VFW or American Legion hall and announce that they're rounding up gun owners, and see how many old men stand up and tell you "not on my watch, they're not".

"You should never hand someone a gun unless you are sure where they will point it"

"Babylon 5" By Any Means Necessary (1994) " You should never hand someone
a gun unless you are sure where they will point it. Your mistake."

WAY to many people, of both sides of the political persuasions, are too eager to
give POWER to the government when their guy is in charge.

they don't seem to understand that POWER is a like handing government a gun..
which then gets passed on to the next office holder. who more than likely is
someone you wouldn't want to have that power.

you never know who the next guy will be. do democrats understand that what Obama
is doing RIGHT NOW (ruling by executive orders and regulations) is NOT something
they'd be happy about if the next guy has an (R) next to his name, and used those
same powers to HIS agenda?

neither side looks to the future. both sides are about "what can I grab for ME right
now?"..instead of thinking "is this a power that government should have?".

 I think Washington was right about political parties. they have ceased to represent the
people and their best interests and now exist simply to perpetuate themselves and gain
more power at the expense of anyone in their way.

"However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the
course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and
unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for
themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have
lifted them to unjust dominion."

GEORGE WASHINGTON, Farewell Address, Sep. 17, 1796

"organized" vs "unorganized" and "what do we do until then?"

organization is not as big of a problem as people realize. individual preparedness is far more important, and unfortunately less common.

does anyone else remember the "starfish vs spider" model? this was how the tea parties confounded the left for so long. we had no leader to attack. no central group to demonize, infiltrate, or scandalize.

organization like this HAPPENS. it happened with the tea parties. it happened with the 912 project. I fully believe that if mr.beck had not started the 912 idea, it would have manifested out of the tea parties organically.

all this takes is one brave soul to stand and say "NO MORE" . the rest will happen, so long as the individuals have prepared. it happened at concord bridge. it happened at the Battle of Athens,TN in 1946

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Athens_%281946%29
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5ut6yPrObw

someone will lead. we will not pick this person. fate will pick them. odds are they won't want the title...which is good, because this process is the same way that dictators arise. any man who would willingly seek out that sort of power over other men is someone to be watched closely..more closely that you'd watch a thief. a thief steals THINGS. a leader like that steals EVERYTHING.

now, on to "what to do while we wait"

don't have a gun yet? time to get one. you don't need a fancy uber-"assault"-rifle with all the bells and whistles.a WW1 bolt-action rifle will do just fine. as will a winchester .30-30 or any other hunting rifle. and then practice practice practice.

the hard part will not be rifles. we have plenty of those to go around (at least, many of us do) it will be AMMO. figure out what arms will be available to you and get AMMO for them. 200 rounds minimum, more as you can afford it. common calibers are preferable if you don't know what will be available. .30-06, .308/7.62 NATO, .223/5.56 NATO, .45 ACP, 9mm, 12GA. choking the ammo supply will be how they beat us into submission. they can't directly cut off food, power, internet, gas, water, ect because that means more recruits for us. but they CAN cut off our ammo without waking the mass of couch potatoes out of their slumber.

I'm sure people are thinking "what good can my little rifle do against a tank? or a bomber?"

http://westernrifleshooters.blogspot.com/2008/07/vanderboegh-handgun-against-army-ten.html

(I will pull out one important quote. from of all places, "a bug's life"..which was loosely based on "the magnificent seven"..which in turn was loosely based on "the seven samurai")

Hopper: You let one ant stand up to us,then they all might stand up! Those puny little ants outnumber us a hundred to one and if they ever figure that out there goes our way of life! It's not about food, it's about keeping those ants in line. That's why we're going back! Does anybody else wanna stay?

remember that this isn't all about riflecraft. some elements of the french resistance were preparing YEARS before the german invasion, storing the needed equipment and conducting training, and they were successful partly because they had all of that to draw on when the time came. these elements had outside help and funding..which we will never get..so we must prepare even more. learn first aid (or more, if you can), get out and exercise in the wild. practice walking up on people in ordinary situations without them noticing your approach. get and learn how to use a radio, even if it's just an old CB. think of what will be needed when this whole mess solidifies into something more tangible.

progressivism, scorpions, and crossing the rubicon

like all scorpions, progressives cannot divorce themselves from their stings. they simply tell you, as we all drown, that it's "in their nature" and how "this is for the good of everyone".

the rank-and-file WANT to be touchy-feel-good about themselves types... but they're being led by people that don't have a problem with exterminating large parts of the population to obtain their goals.

we've seen this before. every time progressivisim has been tried it has ended in the mass extermination of the opposition.

so, progressives...how many of us are you prepared to kill for your socialist utopia?

we won't quietly go to "re-education camps" that turn into death camps. there will be a lot of loud sounds and blood. mostly yours.

which brings to mind a better question... how many of you progressives are personally prepared to die for your socialist utopia?

high time to re-think where your leaders plan to place that stinger. if you try to take us down, we will make damn sure you go down too.

Washington knew..BE PREPARED TO FIGHT OR BE SLAVES!

"unhappy it is, though, to reflect that a brother's sword has been sheathed in a brother's breast and that the once-happy and peaceful plains of America are either to be drenched with blood or inhabited by a race of slaves. sad alternative! but can a virtuous man hesitate in his choice?"

George Washington, upon hearing of the battle of lexington and concord 1775

open letter to glenn beck

(sent to glenn yesterday. my guess is that it will be ignored. but it is important and I thought I should share it.)

mcveigh was definitely NOT a constitutionalist. no matter what he said he was. have your researchers look into the links between him and Elohim City Oklahoma..a "christian identity"/nazi settlement. he spent a few weeks there before heading to oklahoma city.

the only "constitutional" group he attended he was thrown out. bodily. like, 5 guys grabbed him and he caught some air as he went out the door. he wanted to blow stuff up and no one wanted anything to do with him..they knew he was a "fruit or a plant" (a crazy person, or a spy sent by or employed by the FBI or ATF) and no group worth a damn wants either.

the "huttaree milita" you have been talking about does not fit the definition of "militia" as anyone else knows it. they were a private religious-based paramilitary group. you had to have a certain set of religious beliefs to belong. the militia is not a religious organization beyond the religions of the communities they represent. the militia, in it's truest form IS the community itself. any group calling itself a "militia" that is not part of the community is misnamed.

this sort of misnaming happens because the word "militia" has been sensationalized. suddenly everyone who wants to sound more "bad" adds the word "militia" to the name of their group. it's sort of like the words "liberation front" from the '60's.

militias are not anti-police...we treat them like every other government official. when they are within the boundaries set by the constitution, we have no problem. when they step outside those boundaries, we have a problem. again, the same as any other government official. and this is not a problem we solve with force unless force is brought to us first. we reserve the God-given right, enumerated under the 1st amendment, to call a jack-booted thug a jack-booted thug. we understand that police are more likely to be our allies than enemies, and they are human and make mistakes or get bad training/advice. we would like to see them get the opportunity to correct those mistakes, but they don't get to wipe thier boots on the constitution or bill of rights just because they are somehow a special class of citizen.

oh and glenn...you should define the moment that George Washington decided to use violence against what was then the recognized government of the american colonies. was he anti-government? a terrorist? if we had LOST the revolution you can be sure he would have been defined as both.

there IS a point where you have been backed against a wall. where all your other options have been removed. where nonviolence brings one of two things..slavery or death.

"If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves. " Sir Winston Churchill.

I will not live as a slave. I will not fire the first shot. I will not start a fight. but when a fight is brought to me, I will follow god's law.

Habah l'hargecha hashkem l'hargo -- "If someone is coming to kill you, rise against him and kill him first. However, it should never be done with glee." the Talmud

Allen Tanner
III%

Justice Breyer on 2nd Amendment: If You Live in DC & Like Shooting Guns You Can Go to Maryland

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWxRnK751MM&feature=player_embedded

so, according to justice breyer, rights are GEOGRAPHIC. so long as they exist somewhere else, they can't be violated.

eventually there will be a 10X10ft area somewhere near washington DC that will be a "free rights zone" where you can publish what you want, say what you want, own a gun, require a warrant for a search, ect. but everywhere else these things will be banned.

why near washington? because tyrants can't stand freedom they don't control. justice breyer is ok with that. in his mind, so long as there is someplace you can exercise your rights, it's all constitutional.

will someone please take a generator to mt.vernon? George Washington is spinning so fast, we may as well get some electricity from it.

for the record....

we are NOT "copycats" of the sipsey street irregulars.

we've been the granite state irregulars since 1995.

I don't personally know mr.Vanderboegh, though I'd like to shake the man's hand.

I do respond to posts over there when the mood strikes. but as far as who came up with "irregulars" first..

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079639/

ok I haven't seen it in years and it wasn't a GREAT movie but it did have the "stand up to the bad guys however you can" message.

allen

cranky old man complains lack of attention

Carl Bussjaeger...whom I had never heard of before yesterday...claims he sent a request to Jack Kimball to fill out his survey.

first he says he used the "contact form" on the website twice. then he says he used the "contact form" once and e-mail once. then he complains when I ask him to clarify which is the actual method he used, and says I am accusing him of malice or incompetence.

I can't help you unless you get your story straight, sir. I can't diagnose the problem until I know the circumstances surrounding it. I AM accusing him of not really trying, and then laying the blame on anyone but himself. jack is VERY accessible. I contact him via his e-mail and he contacts me back usually in less than a day, and I barely know the man.

in all carl's acting like a cranky old man who isn't getting the attention he likes. and throwing a fit that the well-funded, well-connected GO-NH gets jack to fill out THEIR survey and not his...which is almost the same as the GO-NH survey.

membership of GO-NH = 100,000+
readership of crankyguy's blog = who knows.

pretty simple math there.

64th anniversary of the battle of athens,TN

today is the 64th anniversary of the battle of Athens,TN...

where a bunch of vets who came back from WW2 only to have to fight tyranny right
here at home.

remember, when democracy becomes tyranny, the 2nd amendment ensures you still get
a vote.

http://www.jpfo.org/filegen-a-m/athens.htm

Published in Guns & Ammo October 1995, pp. 50-51

On August 1-2, 1946, some Americans, brutalized by their county government, used
armed force as a last resort to overturn it. These Americans wanted honest open
elections. For years they had asked for state or federal election monitors to
prevent vote fraud (forged ballots, secret ballot counts and intimidation by armed
sheriff's deputies) by the local political boss. They got no help.

These Americans' absolute refusal to knuckle under had been hardened by service in
World War II. Having fought to free other countries from murderous regimes, they
rejected vicious abuse by their county government.

These Americans had a choice. Their state's Constitution -- Article 1, Section 26 --
recorded their right to keep and bear arms for the common defense. Few "gun control"
laws had been enacted.

These Americans were residents of McMinn County, which is located between Chattanooga
and Knoxville in Eastern Tennessee. The two main towns were Athens and Etowah. McMinn
County residents had long been independent political thinkers. For a long time they
also had: accepted bribe-taking by politicians and/or the sheriff to overlook illicit
whiskey-making and gambling; financed the sheriff's department from fines-usually for
speeding or public drunkenness which promoted false arrests; and put up with voting
fraud by both Democrats and Republicans.

The wealthy Cantrell family, of Etowah, backed Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1932
election, hoping New Deal programs would revive the local economy and help Democrats
to replace Republicans in the county government. So it proved.

Paul Cantrell was elected sheriff in the 1936,1938 and 1940 elections, but by slim
margins. The sheriff was the key county official. Cantrell was elected to the state
senate in 1942 and 1944; his chief deputy, Pat Mansfield, was elected sheriff. In
1946 Paul Cantrell again sought the sheriff's office.

At the end of 1945, some 3,000 battle-hardened veterans returned to McMinn County;
the GIs held Cantrell politically responsible for Mansfield's doings. Early in 1946,
some newly returned ex-GIs decided to challenge Cantrell politically by offering an
all-ex-GI, non-partisan ticket. They promised a fraud-free election, stating in ads
and speeches that there would be an honest ballot count and reform of county
government.

At a rally, a GI speaker said, "The principles that we fought for in this past war do
not exist in McMinn County. We fought for democracy because we believe in democracy
but not the form we live under in this county" (Daily Post-Athenian, 17 June 1946,
p.1 ). At the end of July 1946, 159 McMinn County GIs petitioned the FBI to send
election monitors. There was no response. The Department of Justice had not responded
to McMinn County residents' complaints of election fraud in 1940, 1942 and 1944.

FROM BALLOTS TO BULLETS

The primary election was held on August 1. To intimidate voters, Mansfield brought in
some 200 armed "deputies." GI poll-watchers were beaten almost at once. At about
3p.m., Tom Gillespie, an African- American voter was told by a sheriff's deputy that
he could not vote. Despite being beaten, Gillespie persisted. The enraged deputy shot
him. The gunshot drew a crowd. Rumors spread that Gillespie had been shot in the back;
he later recovered (C. Stephen Byrum, The Battle of Athens, Paidia Productions,
Chattanooga, TN, 1987; pp. 155-57).

Other deputies detained ex-GI poll-watchers in a polling place, as that made the
ballot counting "Public" A crowd gathered. Sheriff Mansfield told his deputies to
disperse the crowd. When the two ex-GIs smashed a big window and escaped, the crowd
surged forward. The deputies, with guns drawn, formed a tight half-circle around the
front of the polling place. One deputy, "his gun raised high...shouted: 'If you sons
of bitches cross this street I'll kill you!'" (Byrum, p.165).

Mansfield took the ballot boxes to the jail for counting. The deputies seemed to fear
immediate attack by the "people who had just liberated Europe and the South Pacific
from two of the most powerful war machines in human history" (Byrum, pp. 168-69).

Short of firearms and ammunition, the GIs scoured the county to find them. By
borrowing keys to the National Guard and State Guard armories, they got three M-1
rifles, five .45 semi-automatic pistols and 24 British Enfield rifles. The armories
were nearly empty after the war's end. By 8 p.m. a group of GIs and "local boys"
headed for the jail but left the back door unguarded to give the jail's defenders an
easy way out.

Three GIs alerting passersby to danger were fired on from the jail. Two GIs were
wounded. Other GIs returned fire.

Firing subsided after 30 minutes; ammunition ran low and night had fallen. Thick
brick walls shielded those inside the jail. Absent radios, the GIs' rifle fire was
uncoordinated. "From the hillside fire rose and fell in disorganized cascades. More
than anything else, people were simply shooting at the jail" (Byrum, p.189).

Several who ventured into the street in front of the jail were wounded. One man
inside the jail was badly hurt; he recovered. Most sheriff's deputies wanted to
hunker down and await rescue. Governor McCord mobilized the State Guard, perhaps to
scare the GIs into withdrawing. The State Guard never went to Athens. McCord may have
feared that Guard units filled with ex-GIs might not fire on other ex-GIs.

At about 2 a.m. on August 2, the GIs forced the issue. Men from Meigs County threw
dynamite sticks and damaged the jail's porch. The panicked deputies surrendered. GIs
quickly secured the building. Paul Cantrell faded into the night, having almost been
shot by a GI who knew him, but whose .45 pistol had jammed. Mansfield's deputies were
kept overnight in jail for their own safety. Calm soon returned. The GIs posted
guards. The rifles borrowed from the armory were cleaned and returned before sunup.

THE AFTERMATH: RESTORING DEMOCRACY

In five precincts free of vote fraud, the GI candidate for sheriff, Knox Henry, won
1,168 votes to Cantrell's 789. Other GI candidates won by similar margins.

The GI's did not hate Cantrell. They only wanted honest government. On August 2, a
town meeting set up a three-man governing committee. The regular police having fled,
six men were chosen to police Etowah. In addition, "Individual citizens were called
upon to form patrols or guard groups, often led by a GI... To their credit, however,
there is not a single mention of an abuse of power on their behalf" (Byrum, p. 220).

Once the GI candidates' victory had been certified, they cleaned up county government,
the jail was fixed, newly elected officials accepted a $5,000 pay limit and Mansfield
supporters who resigned were replaced.

The general election on November 5 passed quietly. McMinn County residents, having
restored the rule of law, returned to their daily lives. Pat Mansfield moved back to
Georgia. Paul Cantrell set up an auto dealership in Etowah. "Almost everyone who knew
Cantrell in the years after the Battle' agree that he was not bitter about what had
happened" (Byrum pp. 232-33; see also New York Times, 9 August 1946, p. 8).

The 79th Congress adjourned on August 2, 1946, when the Battle of Athens ended.
However, Representative John Jennings Jr. from Tennessee decried McMinn County's
sorry situation under Cantrell and Mansfield and the Justice Department's repeated
failures to help the McMinn County residents. Jennings was delighted that "...at long
last, decency and honesty, liberty and law have returned to the fine county of
McMinn.. " (Congressional Record, House; U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington,
D.C., 1946; Appendix, Volume 92, Part 13, p. A4870).

THE LESSONS OF ATHENS

Those who took up arms in Athens, Tennessee, wanted honest elections, a cornerstone
of our constitutional order. They had repeatedly tried to get federal or state
election monitors and had used armed force so as to minimize harm to the law-breakers,
showing little malice to the defeated law-breakers. They restored lawful government.

The Battle of Athens clearly shows how Americans can and should lawfully use armed
force and also shows why the rule of law requires unrestricted access to firearms and
how civilians with military-type firearms can beat the forces of government gone bad.

Dictators believe that public order is more important than the rule of law. However,
Americans reject this idea. Brutal political repression is lethal to many. An
individual criminal can harm a handful of people. Governments alone can brutalize
thousands, or millions.

Law-abiding McMinn County residents won the Battle of Athens because they were not
hamstrung by "gun control " They showed us when citizens can and should use armed
force to support the rule of law.

SoL vs Militia..the confusion continues.

the pre-revolutionary anti-British forces here in America..the Sons of Liberty, among others...
did not represent the Militia in their actions or politics.

many of them were MEMBERS of the local militias..as were most able-bodied men of the time. but that is not the same thing as saying the SoL WERE the militia. the militia were EVERYONE. the SoL and other such groups were only a small percentage of that.

why do I bring this up?

because individuals, and even groups of individuals, can have whatever political or religious beliefs they like. but they do not represent the militia in those beliefs.

the unorganized militia should never have been used as part of any political or religious cause. it's members, acting on their own, certainly can. but there should be a boundary between the two.

remember..the MILITIA is not a rebel organization until AFTER it starts getting shot at.

the Sons of Liberty...well..they have no such restrictions.

the "army model" and why it's bad news

the current model that is being put forth for a "legal militia" here in NH is flawed. this is the US Army model. which I from what I can tell was designed for draftees in the 1960's and hasn't really been revised.

I don't think they have used this system on purpose. honestly I don't think the organizers know any other way (being ex-career army). which is part of the problem. we are NOT the army.

the regular (non-special forces) army model is based on the assumption that backups exist and will, for the most part, be available. this is the flaw in using the army system. the militia has no backups. no supply chain. no artillery. no air support. no evac helicopters, medical or otherwise. no ANYTHING. we will be forced to improvise everything..because "comshaw" and "junkyard wars"-style supply will be the only way we will get what we need, when we need it.

for this, we do not need an ARMY mindset. we need a SEABEE mindset. which is....get the job done. I don't care how. you don't have to be "pretty" just effective. improvise or comshaw what's needed. just GET IT DONE. unit structure, discipline, and training should reflect this. an army model reflects an inherent resistance to adapt quickly, or adopt local standards and customs.

throw out the army model. I understand some of you are going to it like an old security blanket. but you need to look at what's needed and available, and structure accordingly.

(side note..militia commanders should NOT be excited about the prospect of dress uniforms or parades. EVER. we're not here to be pretty. we're not here to go to the governor's ball and show off medals. we're here to get a job done and GO HOME.)

libertarianism...theory vs practice

libertarians, as much as I like them, are far more interested in the academics and theoretical side of liberty rather than it's practical application.

unfortunately there is such a thing as things that are too dangerous for society without certain regulation. that's what government is FOR.

(right now the pure libertarians are pointing, mouth agape, yelling at their computer monitors "STATIST!!!!!!!!")

for example, I'm all for regulating antibiotics.

a pure libertarian would allow anyone to get any antibiotics they want, at any time. the known result of that policy is drug-resistant forms of disease that eventually will kill a lot of people. we've already seen this in the drug-resistant forms of TB and staph that have been coming from countries that don't regulate.

theory is great...but theory doesn't always work once it's removed from the vacuum of academia.

in theory, a democracy works great. everyone votes on everything. but the founders knew that a democracy degenerates into mob rule pretty quickly. thus, we arrive at a republic. the founders split the difference between academic theory and human nature and gave us an imperfect, but free, government. and a lot of our freedom actually extends from those imperfections...things don't work well or quickly. it's hard to get steamrollered by a government that can't pick up speed.

once again, theory is great. but once placed in the world it doesn't always work.

trutherism = you have no power. surrender

truthers have been snowed by people that don't understand the facts..or are deliberately making stuff up.

besides...honestly..even if the stuff the truthers say is true..(it's not, just playing devils advocate here)

what, exactly, would you do about it? who would you go after? is it any different than what you're doing right now?

if the government REALLY had that kind of trained manpower to conduct that sort of operation and then somehow kept EVERYONE involved quiet for this long...wouldn't everything we'd be doing useless? like trying to hold back the tide with a spoon?

that may be the point. truthers spread bogus stories to make us feel helpless. like we can't do anything. nothing we do matters. everything is fixed. people in power do what they want, when they want, and we don't have any say in the matter.

well I call BULL on that one. we've proven that what we do is already effective. it's working. so, of course they will pull out the propaganda machines to try to derail us...call us racist stupid sexist homophobe flat earthers and anything else they can come up with...

because that's the only power they have.

and it only works if we give in to it. the closer you are to the target, the more flack you'll get. the more we win the more desperate the other side will get. they wrote the bible on underhanded tactics.

it may be a bumpy ride, but the destination is worth it.

Allen

take a stand on trutherism

I'm confused on how someone could not take a stand on the truthers, either way.

either the planes knocked the buildings down, or they didn't. either you think the government pulled off the largest conspiracy in the history of the world AND kept every single person involved quiet, or they didn't.

I have taken US navy crash-rescue and firefighting school. I know people that do controlled demolition for a living.

crash-rescue school taught me that materials (titanium and nickel-steel alloy, designed for heat resistance) far tougher than the steel used in the WTC will melt when subjected to sublimating jet fuel. I've seen it happen.

my friends who do controlled demolition tell me that it would have taken 6 months, minimum, working 3 shifts round the clock, to do a controlled demolition on the WTC. and that's if it were empty. yet no one in the building saw anything of the sort....and none of the hundreds of workers needed to pull that off have come forward.

conspiracy theories are a waste of resources and talent. they get good people so concentrated on chasing shadows and their own tails that they forget the enemy staring back in the mirror. the REAL conspiracy is how many people waste time on these sorts of things rather than fixing the obviously broken parts of government right under their noses.

if these people who claim to know the "secret truth" really KNEW anything, and the "shadow government" they claim to know about was as powerful as "they" say it is..how come they aren't dead or arrested? to an all-powerful secret organization "perfect accidents" or trumped up arrests are pretty easy, right?.

they're not dead or arrested because either a)they're loons. they don't know anything. or b)they're plants..meant to distract you with wild stories. usually to get you to spin your wheels on useless things or to get you to do something that will get you arrested. most are probably "b" or people who repeat stories from "b". the FBI got caught doing this already...and if the FBI is doing it you can be sure other agencies are copying it. the ATF has been doing it for YEARS.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/19/blogger-accused-of-threats/


"Hal Turner worked for the FBI from 2002 to 2007 as an "agent provocateur" and was taught by the agency "what he could say that wouldn't be crossing the line," defense attorney Michael Orozco said. "His job was basically to publish information, which would cause other parties to act in a manner which would lead to their arrest,"