28 April 2009

Washington National Airport 1941


"Skycaps" at the entrance to the administration building. Municipal airport, Washington, D.C.. Delano, Jack, photographer. 1941 July. LC-USF34- 045049-D Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division Washington, DC 20540 hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8c06392 **This series appears to be misidentified as Washington Municipal Airport. Looking at the series, it's clearly National Airport.

22 April 2009

Democrats to censure or shut down internet?

The gentleman in charge of Majority America sent me the article below. It is scary.

The government wants to regulate the Internet which power in the wrong hands for the wrong reasons. And, more importantly, it is ominous power for all. As the Internet grows and blogs and independent news services ensure that the truth known, the Internet has become the counter balance to the government and the "free" press. This bill could shut down that flow of information at the whim of the government as well as shut down communications in a time of emergency.

Senate Proposal Could Put Heavy Restrictions on Internet Freedoms
The days of an open, largely unregulated Internet may soon come to an end.
A bill making its way through Congress proposes to give the U.S. government authority over all networks considered part of the nation's critical infrastructure. Under the proposed Cybersecurity Act of 2009, the president would have the authority to shut down Internet traffic to protect national security.


The government also would have access to digital data from a vast array of industries including banking, telecommunications and energy. A second bill, meanwhile, would create a national cybersecurity adviser -- commonly referred to as the cybersecurity czar -- within the White House to coordinate strategy with a wide range of federal agencies involved.

I absolutely hate the use of "czar" in our government. It is wrong and absurd to use a title of monarchy in this, our country founded on the freedom from kings, queens, despots, dictators and czars. Unfortunately, as our government gathers more power over our personal lives these types of terms become more prevalent by those in power. As well, they gather more power to regulate all parts of our lives such as deciding how and when we will use a medium that they know little of, but are anxious to control for their own purpose.

"I know the threats we face." Rockefeller said in a prepared statement when the legislation was introduced. "Our enemies are real. They are sophisticated, they are determined and they will not rest."

The bill would allow the government to create a detailed set of standards for cybersecurity, as well as take over the process of certifying IT technicians. But many in the technology sector say the government is simply ill-equipped to get involved at the technical level, said Franck Journoud, a policy analyst with the Business Software Alliance.

"Simply put, who has the expertise?" he said. "It's the industry, not the government. We have a responsibility to increase and improve security. That responsibility cannot be captured in a government standard."

A spokeswoman from Rockefeller's office said neither he nor the two senators who co-sponsored the bill, Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Bill Nelson, D-Fla., will answer questions on cybersecurity until a later date.

Wonderful, 3 of our Princes of Paranoia will not answer any more questions until they deign to do so. They are grabbing mammoth power, but will not answer to it or about it.

It is obvious why members of Congress, especially those such as Rockefeller, want to control that which they cannot control. Senator Chris Dodd, a pal of Rockefeller, is reeling from the power of the Internet since his financial improprieties were widely reported by the very people Rockefeller wants to control. The main stream media tried to ignore the Dodd story until they were embarrassed by mere citizen-journalist bloggers. If royalty like Dodd can be brought low, who might be next?

So, they say they will protect our security by taking it away even as they cripple our economy by attempting to nationalize our banks and business in the name of their faux security. In the world they have created, black is white and up is down, but just who in Hell do they think they are?

We'd be safer putting books of matches in the hands of children and pointing to a can of gasoline.

Pirates in Congress


21 April 2009

Trinity Episcopal Church


Trinity Episcopal church was located at 3rd, Indiana, and C Streets, NW. Designed by James Renwick, the church, built in 1849, was torn down in 1936.

How the corrupt in Congress pad their nests

*PAPER: Senator's husband cashes in on crisis;Feinstein sought $25B for agency...
*TARP INSPECTOR GENERAL WARNS OF 'CATASTROPHIC FRAUD' POTENTIAL...

The nation has heard about Diane Feinstein and her husband, Pelosi and her husband and Harry Reid and his entire family, but they are only the ugly tip of the iceberg. The iceberg gets uglier and much bigger under the surface.

There are stories on Jenkins Hill, it can't be Capitol Hill until cleansed, of members of Congress, administration officials and bureaucrats that have side businesses selling their power to alter, add, delete and influence legislation, appointments and existing law.

They are the unseen and unknown lobbyists with the ultimate inside track as they seek the help of unaware fellow members in quid pro quo legislative support.

Here is a quick sampling:

Congress: The Harman bombshell
A quid pro quo on card check bill?
Computer Spies Infiltrate the Pentagon
Is the House Swamp Drained Yet?

A young man in Akron, Ohio was a numbers runner in the 1920's and was often beaten because the unions didn't like competition. He turned against the unions because, as he said, "at least I'm honest about my crime" and got a job as a security man in Youngstown at a steel plant. In the 1930's he was savagely beaten again by strikers during the "Little Steel" strike. The doctor trying to sew him up made a comment about stupid "Micks" and the man spoke up, "Son, shut up and do your work." The doctor was the first in his family to attend college and the man gave everything he had to make that possible. They were my father and grandfather.

Why is this relevant? They both believed that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I don't know that either read Lord Acton, but they knew the truth whatever their attained level of education.

Just as unions, at their beginning, were necessary in business, government can be a good in its necessity. At its height of power unions had become corrupt. In government it is an ongoing battle, especially as the size of government grows beyond all rational thinking and engorges itself with ever more power.

In 1792 Alexander Hamilton couldn't stop government officials from profiting from insider information concerning the purchase of government debt and Hamilton was speaking of political and bureaucratic corruption when he stated, "Corruption is the enemy of good government." Hamilton's nemesis, Thomas Jefferson, is attributed with saying, "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." Our vigilance is what allows us to see through the smoke of lies into the dark corners and closed doors of power.

As then, now politicians seek to divert attention away from their corruption. Unlike then, the media, knowing full well the tales of corruption, now look the other way. The sense of decency and honor in the halls of Congress and the bureaucracy has turned to cynicism.

The ultimate cynicism is a Pelosi playing the part of the centuries old Br'er Rabbit stating, as she feeds the swamp, that she will drain, or clean, the GOP swamp, knowing she and her compatriots are right at home in their well self-feathered nest right smack dab in the middle of our governmental swamp of profligate spending.

Pull the plug.

20 April 2009

AU to Barney - We don't love you

Barney Frank shouldn't be addressing "public affairs" at any time.

AU students protest Barney speech
About 130 American University students have signed an online petition of sorts asking the school's administration to withdraw an invitation to Barney Frank, who is slated to deliver a commencement address at AU's School of Public Affairs in a few weeks.

The students blame the fiery House Financial Services chairman for the financial meltdown, singling out his longtime support of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae as contributing to the severity of the crisis and magnitude of bailouts.

"Many of us are having trouble finding a job and are finding our ability to get into grad schools hindered by the economy, so it's seems inappropriate for Rep. Frank to deliver the commencement," says Sarah DeStefano, a senior from upstate New York who describes herself as a moderate Repubican.

"I would never expect American, which is a left-leaning school, to invite a Repubplican to the commencement, but this speaker of all speakers seems wrong," she added.

Many of the signees are members of the campus Young Republicans chapter but a handful are Dems or independents -- and one of the protesters is the vice-president of the campus Democrats, she said.

DeStefano has set up a Facebook "AU Students & Alumni Against Barney Frank @ SPA Commencement '09" page that has 128 signees.

On it, she claims Frank "helped lead us and the world into a global economic meltdown," and describes the Massachusetts Democrat as "excessively partisan and notoriously divisive during times when compromise and bipartisanship is needed the most."

Frank didn't immediately respond.

10 April 2009

The original Adas Israel Synagogue




The original Adas Israel Synagogue in Washington, D.C. being relocated to avoid its demolition. It had been located at 6th & G Streets, NW since 1876, but was moved to 3rd & G Streets, NW in December 1968. The building is now known as the Lillian & Albert Small Jewish Museum (owned by the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington) and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.