Suing the President

According to CNN, a bipartisan group of members of Congress will file a lawsuit challenging the American military role in Libya. It is interesting to see Congress assert itself and its authority. The presidency has steadily grown in power and influence. Hopefully, this is a sign that executive power will be reigned in during the next few years.

On Tuesday, Speaker of the House John Boehner sent a letter to President Obama warning him about the situation.

“The Constitution requires the president to ‘take care that the laws be faithfully executed,’ and one of those laws is the War Powers Resolution, which requires an approving action by Congress or withdrawal within 90 days from the notification of a military operation,” Boehner wrote.

Personally, I don’t mind using American resources in the Libya operation. But I do want any action to go through the proper channels, including Congressional authorization. I wish presidents had the guts to ask for official declarations of war, whether in Afghanistan, Iraq, or elsewhere.

AJH

Flag Day and the Army

Gotta note from my mother that not only is it Flag Day, but also the birthday of the U.S. Army.

Happy Flag Day & Happy 236th Birthday to the US Army. So many have sacrificed and fought under the stars & stripes for our freedoms.

Blessings to all….

Audrey and Les

Meanwhile, the black beret has been retired for most soldiers because it was so unpopular. It was like “wearing a wet sock on my head,” one complained.

AJH

A Second Maunder Minimum? 70 Years of Cold Coming?

Weather is one of those things that are often overlooked when studying history. For the common man, however, weather was a critical element of life. In 1645 most were farmers when scarce sunspot activity, known as the Maunder Minimum, coincided with the peak of the Little Ice Age.

[R]ecent findings indicate that the activity in the next 11-year solar cycle, Cycle 25, could be greatly reduced. In fact, some scientists are questioning whether this drop in activity could lead to a second Maunder Minimum, which was a 70-year period from 1645 to 1715 when the sun showed virtually no sunspots.

Spring in Oregon this year, and actually the entire West, has been anemic, sometimes downright cold, so news of global cooling rather than the conventional wisdom of warming¹ doesn’t surprise me.

The Maunder Minimum coincided with the middle – and coldest part – of the Little Ice Age, during which Europe and North America were subjected to bitterly cold winters. Whether there is a causal connection between low sunspot activity and cold winters has not been proven; however, lower earth temperatures have been observed during low sunspot activity. The winter of 1708-09 was extremely cold.

1. The phrase global warming has mostly been replaced by the more generic climate change, but I don’t buy into the hype.

ajh

1953 in Nevada, Iowa

Film celebrating the first 100 years of Nevada, Iowa and Story County is available online. Just gotta love these old films. Meet the mayor. Tour the town. Enjoy the organ music. The good ol’ days.

ajh

A ‘Wikipedian’ at the National Archives

The first one was at the British Museum; he invented the whole concept.”

I’ve been meaning to write about this story for awhile now, but didn’t have the time. The National Archives has hired someone to focus on making documents accessible to the public via a Wiki-style site.

The National Archives . . . announced the hiring of its first “Wikipedian in Residence,” following a fledgling trend at cultural institutions that want to bring access to their collections to a wider audience on the Internet.

This project should prove intersting and beneficial, especially for someone like me who enjoys researching and writing on a wide range of subjects.

His job this summer is to “foster collaboration between the Wikipedia community and the National Archives for their mutual benefit,” as Archivist of the United States David Ferriero put it, making the permanent records of the Archives available to the public through Wikipedia to reach a broader audience than ever before.

ajh

117th Sanitary Train Officers in France, 1918

Yesterday I unearthed this photo of the officers of the 117th Sanitary Train. It’s part of an online project at the Office of Medical History, within the U.S. Army Medical Department.

ajh

The Convoy

While poking around on Google for items related to the 117th Sanitary Train, which was attached to the 42nd Rainbow Division during World War I, I found some details on the convoy that my great uncle shipped out with. He was part of the 168th Infantry, which was on board the USS President Grant. The six troop transports — the USS Henry R. Mallory, USS Covington, USS Tenadores, USS Pastores, USS President Lincoln and USS President Grant — were guarded by one cruiser and several destroyers.

It is known that the 166th Ambulance Co. sailed aboard the USS President Grant on October 18th 1917 at 9:30 P.M. 1st Lt. John Drake would have been among the 5 officers and 138 enlisted men that sailed that day for Liverpool, England. The other troops on Board the USS President Grant were the Headquarters of the 84th Infantry, the 168th Infantry, 149th Machinegun Battalion, 117th Field Signal Battalion, Headquarters 117th Sanitary Train, Field Hospital No. 166, Ambulance Company 165 and several casual officers and enlisted men. When the USS President Grant sailed on the 18th she sailed in convoy with six other troop transports guarded by one cruiser and several destroyers. The transports in the convoy were the USS Henry R. Mallory, USS Covington, USS Tenadores, USS Pastores, USS President Lincoln and the USS President Grant. Of the six ships the Covington and President Lincoln would not survive 1918 being sunk by German U-boats. The Henry R. Mallory would survive the war but on February 7th, 1943, a U-boat with terrific loss of life would sink her in the icy North Atlantic.

ajh

Battery Park in 1917

Thirty years earlier, in 1887, my great grandparents had passed through the Battery after immigrating from Pomerania. The building housing the aquarium had been the primary emigrant depot, known as Castle Garden, for the United States. Ellis Island hadn’t been opened yet. In 1917, a great uncle from a different branch of the family would pass through New York City on his way to Camp Mills on Long Island for training and mobilization before heading to Europe to fight in World War I.

The straw hats the men are wearing give the season away. They’re strolling through Battery Park beside what was once Castle Garden Fort, now the home of the New York Aquarium, according to the back of the postcard.

AJH

Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Foghorn Leghorn, Yosemite Sam, Porky Pig, Sylvester Cat, Tweety Bird and Jack Benny’s Rickety Car

Mel Blanc — the man who was the voice of such iconic characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Foghorn Leghorn, Yosemite Sam, Porky Pig, Sylvester Cat, Tweety Bird and even Jack Benny’s rickety car — is being celebrated in the state where he lived as a child and young man before relocating to southern California and hitting it big.

From age 6 till 26 he lived in Oregon, Portland to be precise.

And Portland is now claiming its native son in a major way.

There’s the Mel Blanc Project and an exhibit and events at the Oregon Jewish Museum.

ajh

Education Nazis

I’ve had my own problems with nanny-state thugs at college, from some of the authoritarian freaks among the “public safety” employees¹ to the so-called diversity Gestapo who plague my alma mater. It was bad enough when the college paper became a propaganda arm of the college administrations and staff. But I never realized the feds within the Department of Education would resort to using such powers. The extent of the powers is shocking.

I had no idea had the authority to issue warrants and use SWAT teams. Yet, having the legal options to go Chuck Norris on someone is one thing. Actually using it is completely another.

A story out of Stockton, California is just plain bizarre. But based on my own experiences with some of these police staters, I know that there are some real creepy OCD control freaks in all levels of the bureaucracies. Naturally, these types flock to jobs among police departments and the military. (Most cops and service members are great people. It’s the cirminals masking as good guys that tarnishes them all.)

Whoever thought busting down a family’s door was a good idea really has some issues. Kenneth Wright, father of three, was the primary victim.

“I look out of my window and I see 15 police officers,” Wright said.

Wright came downstairs in his boxer shorts as the officers team barged through his front door. Wright said an officer grabbed him by the neck and led him outside on his front lawn.

“He had his knee on my back and I had no idea why they were there,” Wright said.

They were looking for Wright’s estranged wife, but she wasn’t there.

The U.S. Department of Education issued the search and called in the S.W.A.T for his wife’s defaulted student loans.

The mayor and Stockton Police Department apparently did not want to get involved, which was wise, in my view.

Stockton Police Department said it was asked by federal agents to provide one officer and one patrol car just for a police presence when carrying out the search warrant.

Stockton police did not participate in breaking Wright’s door, handcuffing him, or searching his home.

“They put me in handcuffs in that hot patrol car for six hours, traumatizing my kids,” Wright said. “All I want is an apology for me and my kids and for them to get me a new door.”

AJH

1. I refuse to call them officers.