Sunday, May 30, 2010

Joseph McCarthy got what pompous demagogue Woodrow Wilson deserved

I bought a copy of “The Great Influenza” Penguin Books 2004 by John M. Barry, to get the inside story of “The Deadliest Plague in History”. I got that. Frightening. Overwhelming. Singular. Sobering. A dance of deadly microbes, rampant strangulation, courageous researchers, helpless victims by the millions.

There was an unexpected bonus. The lavishly descriptive historic document, describing the scientific and social upheaval which surrounded the global 1917-18 mega-event, exposed the political scandal of the Democrats’ own Joseph McCarthy – one Woodrow Wilson, president of the United States.

What a joy it was to read the insane (read “insane”) demagoguery of this strange, callous human being, whose ventures into censorship, fanaticism, domestic spying, scandal-mongering, and intimidation of American citizens, are enough to absolve the patriotic Joseph McCarthy of his so-called “excesses” (so-called by Democrats of the liberal persuasion) in flushing out communists and pseudo-communists during the 1950s.

All of those accused of selling out America during the McCarthyite “witch hunts” were, needless to say, not Communists. But, for me, just lighting a fire on the tail feathers of U.S. intellectuals, Hollywood cynics, left-wing radicals, and Communist sympathizers of the time, was cathartic, rewarding, satisfying.

I don’t hate Joseph McCarthy. I never did. While he might have thrown a few wild pitches, he also threw a hell of a lot of strikes, and for that I give him a whole chorus of atta-boys.

What I did hate, and do yet, is treacherous, lying, deceitful, America-hating God-awful communism – scourge of freedom everywhere, and murderer of the masses in the millions. The only thing that stopped its excesses at our shores were the so-called “excesses” of patriots like Joe McCarthy. And there were none like him.

Senator McCarthy had a lot going against him before he even launched his bid to thwart communist leanings in the United States. For one thing, the man looked evil. That was not his own failing.

Everyone is answerable to one’s own DNA, which apportions appearance, temperament, talent, intelligence (or lack thereof), longevity, vulnerability to one disease or another, and preference of a political party. (No, strike that last. It is suspected but not proven.)

Want to spread out the wings of this little flight of fantasy? Many look evil. Maybe I do as well. Dark eyes, black hair (okay, that was 30 years ago), scowling, but with a certain beguiling devil-may-care expression one might even call handsome. Hey, where did all this go off the rails?

But Joe McCarthy? He was easy to dislike. Especially if you were a little sensitive about someone flaring off about communists to begin with. So the intellectuals, “las artistas favoritas”, the union shills, the darlings of Hollywood, the Woody Guthries, the Walter Reuthers, they really got their butts in a snit over anyone who in the press even suggested that communists weren’t good for Amerika. Me? I was lonely back then, and am even more lonely today. From an idealogical perspective, anyway.

But let’s turn back the clock to the days of Woodrow Wilson’s smothering attack on freedom in the United States, when no excuse could make up for his insufferable assaults on the rights of the average citizens of this country.

You must ask yourself – have you ever read about these despotic campaigns put in motion by President Woodrow Wilson? Not me. I was ignorant of this whole revolting period of executive excesses until I undertook to learn about influenza. Thank God I did. Because I intend to use this chance encounter with truth to hold the heads of the great Democratic liberals of the World War I era underwater until Nancy Pelosi cries, “Will you dammit quit waterboarding already?”

I don’t know all there is to know about this strange interlude of U.S. history, which is buried beneath the shame and treachery of liberal America when the media (as they do now) give a pass to leftist causes.

But I will learn. In the meantime, I will share with you information exposed by John M. Barry of the rampant, rabid despotism of the dour Mr. Woody Wilson, president of the United States 1913-21, who held his own nation captive in his steely, top-hatted, frosty grip for years, then ducked into the history books with not a whimper about his disgraceful antics for which to apologize.

I was born in 1937. Not a year eliciting universal excitement and ardor for its historic importance, would you say? But I can hardly be blamed for that. I couldn’t talk intelligibly at the time, have made some tenuous improvement in that department since, didn’t have a clue about how to write, and political parties were as strange to me as pasteurized milk. But the war to end all wars, while it was kaput, was only a precursor to the wars to end all worlds. So in some sense this was a pivotal time – if not for mankind, at least for me.

Here are some of the thunderclap revelations that John M. Barry, brilliant author of “The Great Influenza”, gives us based on his research into the life and times of Woodrow, who went in a chameleonic transformation from isolationist to liberal internationalist to global interventionalist, forging swords from ploughshares and inserting the United States into the bloody, ravenous, unforgiving trenches of Europe.

In his zeal, Wilson portrayed his fellow Americans as traitors, protestors as enemies, and bewildered citizens as onerous miscreants. In his transformation from spineless caterpillar to flitting butterfly, he left no doubt that he wanted war, and proclaimed that those who disagreed would be ground under his heel.

Author John Barry writes:

“The hard line was designed to intimidate those reluctant to support the war into doing so, and to crush or eliminate those would not. Even before entering the war, Wilson had warned Congress, 'There are citizens of the United States, I blush to admit . . . who have poured the poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our national life . . . Such creatures of passion, disloyalty and anarchy must be crushed out.’”

Mr. Barry’s stunning revelations continue:

“The government compelled conformity, controlled speech in ways, frightening ways, not known in America before or since. Soon after the declaration of war, Wilson pushed the Espionage Act through a cooperative Congress, which balked only at legalizing outright press censorship – despite Wilson’s calling it 'an imperative necessity.'"

And this – an outrageous, in-your-face capitulation to federal government thuggery “justified” by presidential fiat:

“Thousands of government posters and advertisements urged people to report to the Justice Department anyone ‘who spreads pessimistic stories, divulges – or seeks – confidential military information, cries for peace, or belittles our effort to win the war.’ Wilson himself began speaking of the ‘sinister intrigue’ in America carried on ‘high and low’ by agents and dupes.”

There’s more – much more. Not Hitler, not Stalin not Mussolini exceeded the iron grip of our own homegrown despot, President Woodrow Wilson, in wresting the will of the nation from its own citizens. But this shameful chapter is purged from the history books, hid from prying eyes, and left to fester in the archives of the Democratic Party of yesteryear.

McCarthyism? An instant, iconic catchphrase, capable of evoking visions of sinister clandestine warfare against – what? Innocent, decent Americans? Or scurrilous cells of Communist conspirators? And Wilsonism? Why what is that? Sounds vaguely familiar, yet benign, and totally innocuous. The difference is that the president, the press and the denizens of the left conspired to demonize the one and market the other.

The story presented here, from the pages of author John M. Barry’s “The Great Influenza”: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plaque in History – A New York Times Bestseller—reveals itself to be not only a fearsome tale of pandemic ferocity, but an expose as well of the untold story of the Democratic Party’s scandalous precursor to McCarthyism, which would not emerge on the American scene until almost 40 years later. Truth is stranger than fiction. And sometimes late in arriving. But thank God – here it is.

This, then, is what history tells us about the despotic, even demonic tyrant Woodrow Wilson.

Then along came Barack Hussein Obama.

FOR MORE ARTICLES BY VERNE STRICKLAND, VISIT:
http://www.examiner.com/x-42565-NC-7th-Elections-2010-Examiner

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

A North Carolinian recalls China three years after Mao's death

China. 1979. I walked across the Beijing airport’s dusty tarmac in the Autumn dusk, my heart pounding with excitement.
It had taken me two years to get here. Not because I had taken the trip on foot, but because the Chinese Communist government did not trust me – because I was a foreigner, because I was an American, because I was a Western journalist, and possibly because of my close ties to U.S Senator Jesse Helms.
The implacable conservative from North Carolina was hated with a vengeance by communists everywhere, and equally by U.S. liberals, who called him “Senator No” for his refusal to go along with every piece of legislation they held dear. Their fury and frustration were palpable
Jesse Helms’ influence was considerable. With Republicans in the majority in Washington, Helms had ascended to the post of Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and later to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (his main goal all along.)
In earlier years, I had been hired by Helms to ghost write some of his conservative editorials aired as “Viewpoint”on WRAL-TV in Raleigh, and to report agricultural news, a post which at the time dealt largely with North Carolina’s tobacco-rich heritage.
There were delays, excuses, rebuffs, letters of inquiry, mostly through the Chinese consulate in Canada. The U.S. at the time had no diplomatic relations with the Peoples Republic of China. This made it tougher, but heightened the appeal and challenge for me, a North Carolina television journalist.
If agriculture seems a tame beat, it wasn’t in my case. I was able to satiate my yearning for travel, visiting over 30 countries during my fifteen-year tenure at the Raleigh station. But, for me, the plum was always China. Mysterious, forbidding, elusive China.
I sought help wherever it was available, creating friendships with many old China hands who were quick to encourage me. One was Herbert Hitch, now deceased, who as a U.S. Navy second lieutenant, became one of America’s key links to the Communist forces, befriending Mao Tse Tung along the way.
Hitch, also a U.S. intelligence agent, was entrusted by Mao to deliver a letter to the U.S. Joint Chiefs in Washington, asking for American support to defeat both the Japanese and Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist armies.
When the Joint Chiefs refused to help Mao, the gritty old warrior determined to never seek U.S. cooperation again, and China skidded inexorably into Communist hands.
Introduced to Hitch in Charlotte, I told him about my plan – perhaps better described as a slim hope – suggesting that he try to return to China, and meet again with his old pal Mao, who was still alive at the time.
“If you can get in, I want you to take me along,” I pleaded. “If you can see Mao, I will be on hand to report the story. It will be a great coup for you as well as for me.”
Hitch had contacts. Good ones. He went to Juanita Kreps, former Duke University vice president who was then U.S. Secretary of Commerce. Kreps agreed to intercede with the PRC bigwigs in Herbert’s behalf.
He also took his case to Mrs. Seymour Topping, wife of the managing editor of The New York Times, who had her own circle of friends within the Communist hierarchy. She knew Hitch and was impressed with his idea. Things were looking promising.
But finally, the Chinese dashed Herbert Hitch’s hopes, as well as mine.
“They won’t let me in,” he said, “presumably because I was in foreign intelligence. They still see me as an American agent.”
What a story that would have been. I hated to see the opportunity slip by. It would be gone forever. Mao passed away in 1976.
The months dragged on. A friend with the U.S. Foreign Agricultural Service tipped me off that the PRC rarely allowed entrance by individuals, but were more receptive to “educational” groups with the right agenda.
I saw an opening. North Carolina had been a leading exporter of U.S flue-cured tobacco to China, but the trade had dropped precipitously in the wake of the Communist takeover and a growing distrust of America.
I started anew, appointing a tobacco trade “committee” from among my farm and university friends, and pitching this possibility to the PRC through their consulate in Canada. Things warmed up, then stalled again.
Finally, I was on a plane with Gov. Jim Hunt and a North Carolina export group in Europe. Seated alone with the Governor for a few minutes away from the rest of the group, I unveiled my hopes and as well as my frustration..
“I don’t have the clout to bring this off on my own,” I said. “Will you pick up the initiative, contact the Chinese as Governor of the leading U.S. tobacco-producing state, and ask to bring my group with you? If you can get the invitation, I’d like you take over as head of the mission, and we all get in.”
A politician with a keen eye for publicity and promotion, Hunt took the lure. He would be the first North Carolina governor in history to visit China, with the prospect of reopening what once was a lucrative tobacco export business.
Within a couple of months, we were on our way. Our group spent three weeks in China, entering at Beijing, then heading south to Shanghai, a city which displayed striking Western influences from its days as a haven for British and American businessmen.
Shanghai had become gray and drab under the austere influence of the Chinese Communist Party, but it still had the feel of a thoroughbred straining against the reins to break into a run.
The morning that we were scheduled to leave Shanghai to head into the interior, I was awakened by the sound of music blaring from loudspeakers across the city. I pushed open the old leaded window to listen more closely.
Below me, on the roof of every building in sight, hundreds of people moved through the slow, graceful choreography of a Tai Chi workout. It was thrilling to see.
But my greatest surprise came as I recognized the strains of “On Top of Old Smoky” rolling across this Chinese city on the other side of the world. The tune is a traditional folk song about life and love in the North Carolina mountains. I chuckled aloud, realizing that the music director surely had no idea of the capitalist origins of his selection.
In Beijing and Shanghai, our white faces at times seemed to shock people on the street. They were curious, but never hostile. Communist fervor rarely infects the dominated masses.
We rode a steam train deep into the Eastern provinces to visit China’s tobacco production and manufacturing centers. There the U.S. tobacco mission made the trade contacts it had sought.
But for me, perhaps the most memorable and touching moment came in a port city whose bay opened onto the South China Sea.
As I walked alone on the sand near our hotel, a young man approached. As we closed to within a few feet of one another, he stopped, and asked, “Are you English?”
“American,” I replied.
He looked at me almost with relief.
“One day I hope to go there,” he said.
He was an English teacher in the local schools. This accounted for the ease with which he spoke the language.
After we talked for a few moments, he asked if I had any U.S. newspapers or magazines that he could read.
“Back in the hotel,” I answered.
He begged me to share some with him, as he never saw English news publications, and desperately wanted this chance to read them. I agreed to bring a magazine to him.
Then, speaking almost fearfully, he said he would hide by a small boathouse on the beach until I returned.
Furtively, I brought back a “Time” magazine. He was still there, almost beside himself with excitement as he flipped through the pages.
“America,” he said, smiling while tears welled in his eyes, “the land of the free.”
This moment was my China trip. I saw America then through different eyes. My country. Blessed by God. Taken for granted by many of us so fortunate to live there.
I prayed that my Chinese friend would someday realize his dream.
N.C. Election Law Thwarts Breazeale's Election Plans After Bitter Primary Loss


Will Breazeale will not be eligible to run in the General Election for U.S. Congress in the Seventh District of the State of North Carolina.

This exclusive report was confirmed at 1:15 pm by Examiner.com via an interview with Ms. Johnnie McLean, Assistant Director of the N.C. Board of Elections, Raleigh, NC.

Breazeale, who failed to win the GOP primary in the 7th District, but vowed that he would find a way to run in the Nov. 2 general election, has thus had his bid stopped cold.

Examiner.com will have more details and an update later this afternoon.

UPDATE 2:05 PM, MAY 11, 2010

Will Breazeale’s solo effort to get into the General Election in 2010 for the U.S. 7th Congressional District has fizzled.

This reporter at 1:15 pm today broke the story after an exclusive interview with Ms. Johnnie McLean, assistant director of the N.C. Board of Elections in Raleigh.

She said: “I can tell you what the law states, and it says that candidates cannot run as a write-in or as an unaffiliated candidate for the same office in which they have been defeated in the primary in the same year. In fact, when the candidates file a notice of candidacy, they are actually signing an oath that that will not run for the office described in the next General Election.”

Case closed.

Mr. Breazeale, who was criticized for actions that might weaken GOP chances to unseat 14-year Democratic incumbent Mike McIntyre, will not be able to proceed as a spoiler – at least in this election in 2010.

“What this means is any candidate defeated in the primary on May 4, is not qualified to run as a write-in or unaffiliated candidate. It’s just that simple,” the Board of Elections assistant director stated. “It’s the law, passed by the General Assembly.”

She was asked if someone inquired about the law as it affects Mr. Breazeale’s continued quest for office.

“This law has been in place for a number of years. And the ruling was not done today. We just stated what the law says. I don’t think we have announced anything about this. I think there was an e-mail about this. I can’t say for certain, and I know what that can sound like, but I understand there was also a caller, and I didn’t take that call, but my impression is he was acting on behalf of Mr. Breazeale,” she concluded.

Ilario Pantano and his campaign team can now focus on Mike McIntyre, free of distractions such as the Breazeale effort – which one observer described as “arrogant and selfish” -- to stay in the congressional contest at any cost.


UPDATE 3:20 PM

Frank Williams, Chairman of the N.C. 7th Congressional District Republican Executive Committee, indicated that he was made aware of the fact that Breazeale's divisive attempt to run has been thwarted, and said that he is pleased with the news. "I believe the vast majority of Republicans are already rallying around Ilario Pantano. Now we can focus our efforts on defeating the Pelosi machine, said Mr. Williams."



UPDATE 3:35 PM May 11, 2010

This is an excerpt of a news release sent from the Breazeale office today at 2:50 PM:

"Over the past week there has been a lot of speculation as to my political future. I remain amazed at the innuendo people have been able to invent between their ears. Rumors in politics are like peanut butter and jelly. They just go together. Perhaps it is because our party's nominee and leadership spends so much time focusing on how to keep others from running and not on their own candidacy, that this seat has not gone Republican in more than 100 years?

"Buyers remorse is a tough pill to swallow. I cannot help but think that perhaps many who voted for Ilario Pantano are now realizing their nominee's claim to fame is the execution of two unarmed Iraqis? In turn, they are already attempting to set up a scapegoat (me) in order to justify his inevitable, massive failure in November.

"With that in mind, allow me to set the record straight: I will formally announce my future political intentions on Tuesday, May 18th, at 10 a.m. I will hold a press conference at the New Hanover County Government Center, 230 Government Center Drive in Wilmington. Members of the public and press are invited to attend. I am pleased to announce that I will be joined at that time by my fellow primary opponent, Randy Crow. I look forward to seeing you all then."

info@awilltowin.net


Verne Strickland, Wilmington, NC.

SEE ORIGINAL STORY & OTHER NC 7th ELECTIONS HAPPENEINGS AT THIS WEB SITE:

http://www.examiner.com/x-42565-NC-7th-Elections-2010-Examiner

Monday, May 10, 2010

Museum of Communism reveals this scourge of humanity is all of its twisted and sadistic "glory"

Adolf Hitler and the Nazis have for decades been paraded about as the unchallenged ogres of history. But now Der Fuehrer has some stiff competition – an online “museum” that compares Communism to Nazism, and does a very creditable job of knocking the SS out of first place in the international Hall of Shame. The gloves are off. The party is over. It is about time.

Many years ago – let’s call it 1960 or so – socialism, communism, Marxism and their ilk, began to break on U.S. shores like a tsunami. We didn’t know what a tsunami was. Worse, we had little understanding of the philosophical cancer that was about to attack the vitals of American society.


This sorry scourge, masquerading as a “workers’ paradise”, had its latent beginnings in Russia, China, Latin America and elsewhere. It was a product of unrest, jealousies as big as nations, atheism, and misguided theories which held that men could abide by “rules” providing for equal division and allotment of land, wealth, resources, capital and power.


There were several fatal flaws – it couldn’t work, and it didn’t. Liberties could not be equally shared except in a free society. The Communist system devoured the masses it was supposed to help. It favored egomaniacs, murderers, schemers and empty, merciless monsters devoid of conscience, honesty and mercy.


But, you say, this is fascism, Nazism, and radical rightist beliefs run rampant. Surely these are the misguided, immoral, insidious systems we describe, and which we are obligated to despise. What else could take the place of these warped philosophies that honorable and reasonable men prefer to hate?


What, indeed? Communism perhaps? Hasn’t communism been given short shrift? Haven’t a generation or two of U.S. liberals suffered near fatal injury to their collective backbones ducking and weaving to avoid a general admission of the dark side of communism and other radical left-wing philosophies? Hasn’t Hitler, monster that he was, been given too much publicity to the exclusion of other demented despots? Why do we neglect to expose the mass of evidence that a politically inspired death is a life taken wrongfully, despicably, whether committed by heathens of right or left?


Because this awareness has been obscured by a conspiracy of “news” organizations whose main objective seems to be to whitewash the track record and failures of Communism. We will not have an excuse any longer – an excuse not to know. Now there is a Museum of Communism. This column will explore the long-hidden facts exposed in this exciting, unique information base, connecting all the dots about Communism, a sordid system of efficient ways to enslave, deprive, torture and kill masses of innocents. This is only the first installment drawn from an inside look at this remarkable study by Prof. Bryan Caplan:


The Museum of Communism is an online, "virtual" museum that provides historical, economic and philosophical analysis of the political movement know as Communism. The Museum of Communism is an online, "virtual" museum that provides historical, economic, and philosophical analysis of the political movement known as Communism.


An overwhelming consensus of historians from a wide range of political viewpoints concludes that the human rights violations of Communist regimes have been enormous - often greater, in fact, than those of the infamous Nazi Germany. Yet public awareness of the major crimes of Communist regimes remains minimal. The purpose of the Museum of Communism is to disseminate this information, combining high scholarly standards with an entertaining format.


The founder and curator of the museum is Prof. Bryan Caplan, who recently received his Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University, and has just joined the economics department of George Mason University. The study of Communism and webpage design have been two of his long-time avocations; unless otherwise stated, he is the sole author of all material in the Museum of Communism.


This is a breakthrough work – an unvarnished and unapologetic portrait of the evil we call Communism. Prof. Caplan has drawn together in one place a definitive body of information about Communism, and the mass media conspiracy in America’s “free press” to hide and ignore the truths about it.

The fortunate thing is that this information has not been filtered through the cunning and deceptive mind of the so-called “mainstream” media in this, the world’s greatest bastion of freedom.

Read it, learn, and be aware. Communism is the enemy of all – those who are its victims, those who do not learn to recognize it, and those who do understand and work proactively to expose it for what it is.

Communism can effectively compete with Nazism by every measure – misery, deceit, displacement, imprisonment, starvation, torture, death. This study does not attempt in any way to minimize the atrocities of the Holocaust. But Nazism should not hold center stage anymore. This new informational chamber of horrors constructed by Prof. Caplan may ensure that it will not.

Visit the "Museum of Communism": http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/bcaplan

Of course, there's now a "new kid" on the block. Radical Islam. It's manic, muderous, heinous, hateful. We'll take a closer look at this scourge in another column soon.

More About: Communism · Museum of Communism · Nazism · Hitler

Friday, May 7, 2010

Pantano win is national news; Iraq Vets approve

By winning the NC GOP 7th congressional primary and topping 14-year incumbent Mike McIntyre at fund raising, Ilario Pantano has boosted his chances of also prevailing in the November general election against the entrenched Democrat from Lumberton, NC. A race that 100 days ago was considered “safely democratic” is now called a 50-50 toss-up.

Despite being a blue dog seat for 140 years, this recent shift in vulnerability puts U.S. Congressional district NC-7 on par with other competitive North Carolina seats (NC-11 Shuler, NC-8 Kissell) that have been Republican as recently as two years ago.Jim Geraghty of The National Review Online noted, "Mike McIntyre, North Carolina: This seven-term Democrat would be safe in an ordinary year, but he felt enough pressure back in his district to vote against the health-care bill.

GOP challenger Ilario Pantano, a [former] police officer, raised $103,000, which is more than McIntyre did; the district rates an R+8 on the Cook PVI."The "R+8" Cook rating that Geraghty mentions is an insider’s way of accounting for voting trends and projected likelihood of going Republican.

The good news for conservatives here is that NC-7’s Republican rating has nearly doubled in the last month, jumping from R+5 to R+8.National Review Online’s Geraghty ranked 99 House races by degree of difficulty for GOP challengers.

"Here are my 99 races, grouped into five levels of difficulty. I’ve used three different measurements: A) the Department of Homeland Security’s old color-code alert system, B) a comparable degree of difficulty to beating NFL teams, and C) a quick assessment," stated Geraghty.

The big news for southeast North Carolina conservatives is that the congressional race has jumped from "safely blue" ninety days ago to a 50-50 toss-up according to Geraghty, who described our challenge to defeat the Pelosi majority and retake NC-7 as:A) YELLOW, B) AS HARD AS BEATING THE CAROLINA PANTHERS, and C) PROBABLY CLOSE TO 50/50 RIGHT NOW.

Geraghty says that in looking hard at the North Carolina races, among the GOP challengers to incumbent Democrats, "only Ilario Pantano stands out."

MEDIA@PANTANOFORCONGRESS.COM


NATIONAL VETERANS GROUP ENDORSES ILARIO PANTANO

Iraq Vets for Congress Political Action Committee (IVC) is proud to announce the endorsement of Ilario Pantano in North Carolina’s 7th Congressional District. Mr. Pantano is a Marine Corps veteran of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Desert Storm.

"Ilario Pantano is the personification of the American Dream" said D. Patrick Mahoney, President of IVC. "The son of an immigrant, he earned a scholarship to a prestigious high school then enlisted in the Marine Corps before earning a college degree from New York University and enjoying great success in business.

"When the nation was attacked on 9/11, Pantano sought and earned a Marine Corps commission and commanded a platoon of Marines in Iraq with distinction. After his military service, he authored a bestselling book and became a member of North Carolina’s law enforcement community.

"Given this remarkable pedigree of service and accomplishment we are confident Mr. Pantano is precisely the type of outstanding candidate we need to shake up the status quo in Washington."IVC looks for the best and strongest candidates in the most competitive and winnable races and has targeted NC-7 as a seat that the right Republican candidate can win.

"We believe that Pantano’s personal magnetism, unique life story, remarkable credentials and relentless work ethic are a recipe for victory in November," explained Mahoney.

"Voters understand that Ilario Pantano has already put service to country first at a time of war when there is no draft and when military service was the exception rather than the rule. While many of his peers got rich during the first decade of the 21st Century, Ilario Pantano got shot at. This fact will not be lost on the electorate."

Concluded Mahoney, "Those who have already stood up to al Qaeda terrorists and the Sunni insurgency are more than equipped to stand up to special interests, party bosses and the establishment in Washington."

Iraq Veterans for Congress PAC (IVC) is a federally registered political action committee supporting the congressional campaigns of conservative Republican Veterans.

http://search.aol.com/aol/search?query=iraq+veterans+for+congress&s_it=keyword_rollover

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Ilario Pantano posts decisive victory in GOP primary; Breazeale vows to deny his support to winner

“In the end,” said one of Ilario Pantano’s key campaign organizers, “it all came down to character.”

That’s the way Ed Gibson summed up the decisive win posted by Pantano in the GOP primary for North Carolina’s Seventh Congressional District.

With a wide margin of victory, Pantano should enter the general election against incumbent Mike McIntyre with momentum and confidence.

Gibson, one of a crowd of supporters and volunteers for the Pantano campaign, was on hand for what became a victory celebration at the Fox and Hound Pub and Restaurant in Wilmington’s Mayfaire complex.

Gibson was excited but philosophical as he sorted out what he saw as the key to the Pantano campaign.

“ I think the public and the voters are sick and tired of these personal attack type of campaigns. I really do. I think they want to see someone who is going to stand up, with the character that they want in a congressman,” he said.

Pantano, who celebrated with his family – wife Jill and their two young sons – was gracious in victory.

“We’ve been blessed. We have a very dedicated team of volunteers, young and old. You’ve seen children out here, teen-agers, seniors, working for our candidacy. We had a gentleman who rubbed the skin off of his fingers putting in over 40 yard signs in the span of two hours. So we’ve seen a level of dedication that’s exciting. That’s what it takes at the end of the day – men and women out there with one-to-one contact with voters, engaging them, delivering our message.”

Click here for the rest of the article.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

NC 7th Elections 2010 Examiner

Verne Strickland


AN ESSAY ON THE IMPORTANCE OF YOUR VOTE IN THE NC 7th GOP DISTRICT PRIMARY

If you don’t have honesty and integrity before you go to Washington, you can be sure you won’t find it when you get there.

Some do have it but lose it quickly in the giddy, power-mad circus of favors, deals, eroded morals, unholy alliances, kickbacks, media fluff, short cuts and long shots.

These people are sometimes called incumbents.

They’ve been around. Learned the ropes. Won the perks. In their world a public servant is someone who opens the door to the limo.

Pride has turned to ingratitude and cynicism. Standards have been adjusted to suit the accepted level of incompetence on any particular day. Duty is an inconvenience. Honesty a catchword for losers.

This is the Washington that has to be changed. Entrenched incumbents made it what it is. Voters too apathetic to stop let it happn. And it is a disgrace.

Who would you most like your U.S. Congressman in the 7th District to resemble? Nancy Pelosi? Jesse Jackson Jr.? Barney Frank? Barney Fife?

(Click here for the rest of the article)

Saturday, May 1, 2010

NC GOP 7th Congressional District Primary set for May 4. Picked your horse yet? Well, analyze this!
April 30, 11:43
A CAMPAIGN COMMENTARY (Don't try this at home)

Four days and counting?

About time to pick a candidate, wouldn’t you say? Can’t seem to make up your mind? We’re here to help. Sort of like the Red Star-News, which always stands ready to influence your vote.

What you have to do is just ask yourself what you really want most in a candidate.

Is it your fondest dream that the candidate you vote for is somebody who trains generals for the U.S. Army during his annual two-weeks summer camp? Man, that’s got to be a piece of work.

This gentleman also has the distinction of being the only candidate endorsed exclusively by an important politician who then endorsed his competitor too. Talk about a fleeting moment of rapturous approval!

Court records of his scrapes with the law weigh in at five pounds, and make up a stack of paper 2 ½ inches thick. Somehow this steamy stuff is shrugged off by most of the lamestream media, including radio shows hosted by a former paid consultant in his campaign.

Maybe this candidate is the guy you want in Washington, where temptations are few and deals are there to be made. If you want him, you know how to get him.


How about someone who has a talent for making wonderful families from New York feel really tacky and unwelcome after moving to the Wilmington area?

That what you want? Well, isn’t that how we won our renowned reputation for Southern hospitality?
If that’s not enough to win you over, this dude also resorts to mockery of names that sound foreign, whatever that means.

Can’t recall which candidate’s name he thought was so amusing. Breazeale, maybe? No, it might have been some sort of bird name. Vulture? Pigeon? Bat? I think it was Crow. Actually, I’m not sure anymore. Could have even been Pantano. All of them sound pretty funny to me.

Okay, that covers two of the candidates. But there’s a third man in the race.

This candidate has almost everything one could care to dislike. He’s from New York. He likes spaghetti. He has a strange name. He can’t talk Southern. He even killed somebody.

But he seems a gentleman and a man of honor and courage

Did you know gentlemen of honor and courage could kill people? Well, they can. Sometimes they have to. It most often happens in a thing called combat.

This former Marine officer hung tough, did not try to cut a deal, and was exonerated of a charge of murder, totally clearing his name and his record --although the outcome of the case in his favor is rarely acknowledged in campaign debates.

He also has stuck to the issues, and held his tongue at public events while taking insults and innuendo lobbed by his “fellow” candidates. He has run a clean campaign, as he said he would.

What could we call that, pray tell? Class? Character? Restraint? Civility? Christian values? I really can’t say. How about you make the call?


Anyway, all three of these guys are bright, patriotic, motivated, Republican, and, you know, (gulp) honest, gracious, and beyond reproach.

Should make your job easy on May 4 when you duck into the voting booth. Just do your duty. Look before you leap. Then pull the lever that feels right.

You’ll know which one that is.


Do it for America.

(Click here for the Examiner.com article.)