Old Times There Are Not Forgotten ...
Impeach Haslam for following the law?
Investigators seek motive behind Tennessee shooting rampage
AP on Chattanooga shooting (Haslam, Obama comment)
A gunman unleashed a barrage of fire at a recruiting center and another U.S. military site a few miles apart in Chattanooga on Thursday, killing at least four Marines and sending service members scrambling for cover as bullets smashed through the windows. The attacker was also killed.Federal authorities said they were investigating the possibility it was an act of terrorism, and the FBI took charge of the case.
Authorities identified the gunman as Kuwait-born Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, 24, of Hixson, Tennessee, though the spelling of his first name was in dispute, with federal officials and records giving at least four variations.
A U.S. official said there was no indication Abdulazeez was on the radar of federal law enforcement before the shootings. The official was not authorized to discuss the case and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The shootings took place minutes apart, with the gunman stopping his car and spraying dozens of bullets first at a recruiting center for all branches of the military, then apparently driving to a Navy-Marine training center 7 miles away, authorities and witnesses said. The attacks were over within a half-hour.
In addition to the Marines killed, three people were reported wounded, including a sailor who was seriously hurt.
“Lives have been lost from some faithful people who have been serving our country, and I think I join all Tennesseans in being both sickened and saddened by this,” Gov. Bill Haslam said.
Authorities would not say how the gunman died. FBI agent Ed Reinhold said Abdulazeez had “numerous weapons” but would not give details. LINK
Investigators seek motive behind Tennessee shooting rampage
Investigators
on Friday sought to determine what led a 24-year-old gunman to open
fire at two military offices in Chattanooga, Tennessee, killing four
Marines in an attack officials said could be an act of domestic
terrorism.
Mohammod
Youssuf Abdulazeez, identified as the shooter by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, was shot to death in the rampage that also injured three
people, including a sailor who was critically wounded.The attack comes at a time when U.S. military and law enforcement authorities are increasingly concerned about the threat "lone wolves" pose to domestic targets.
The
suspect, seen driving an open-top Ford Mustang, first went to a joint
military recruiting center in a strip mall and sprayed it with gunfire,
riddling the glass facade with bullet holes.
"Everybody
was at a standstill and as soon as he pulled away everyone scrambled,
trying to make sure everyone was OK," said Erica Wright, who works two
doors down from the center.The gunman then drove off to a Naval Reserve
Center about 6 miles (10 km) away, fatally shooting the four Marines
before being shot and killed in a firefight with police LINKTennessee Community Pushes To Reopen 'Civil Rights Hero' Cold Case
A rural West Tennessee community is pushing the Justice Department to reopen a 75-year-old civil rights murder case.Elbert Williams is believed to be the first NAACP official killed for seeking to register black voters. Yet the mysterious story of his 1940 murder is not widely known.
Clues about Williams' murder are thought to be buried with him, here in the Taylor Cemetery just outside Brownsville, Tenn.
Local attorney Jim Emison walks to a corner of the cemetery, set off by two towering oaks.
"This is the area where we believe he lies," Emison says.
This African-American cemetery dates to the late 1800s. Some graves have traditional headstones; others, simple concrete slabs. Many are unmarked.
In the summer of 1940, Emison says, Williams' grave was marked with a churn, now gone, in a rushed burial.
"There was no funeral; there was no graveside family service," he says. "They just dug a hole and put him in the ground on the coroner's orders. And Elbert and all the evidence that his body contained was buried in that unmarked grave."
There was no postmortem and no arrest. LINK
Impeach Haslam for following the law?
On Jan. 17, Gov. Bill Haslam swore his oath of office:"I, William Edward Haslam, do solemnly swear that as Governor of the State of Tennessee, I will support the Constitution of the State of Tennessee and the Constitution of the United States, and that I will perform with fidelity and faithfully execute the duties of the office of Governor to which I have been elected and which I am about to assume, to the best of my skill and ability. So help me God."
Rep. Rick Womick, R-Murfreesboro, thinks the governor should be impeached for NOT breaking his oath.
Womick, who has had little nice to say about the governor anyway, thinks the governor should not have allowed same-sex marriages in the state after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that marriage is a right for all Americans.
Womick posted a video of a South Carolina lawmaker railing against the ruling from "Hardball with Chris Mathews," and commented on Facebook:
"And where is Tennessee's leadership...oh that's right...our Governor bowed down to the five self appointed gods in black robes just minutes after they issued their 'opinion!' He changed Tennessee state law and our State Constitution without ever consulting with the General Assembly. I think it's time to give serious consideration to impeachment hearings against Gov. Haslam and these five rogue SCOTUS justices!"Perhaps the legislator forgot that he swore a similar oath on Jan. 13 LINK
Old Times There Are Not Forgotten ...
The U.S. Civil War ended in 1865, but there are many who will tell you that we're still fighting it and will find evidence of such in Jackson Baker's cover story about the current battle over General Nathan Bedford Forrest's statue and gravesite in Memphis.But the truth is we're not really still fighting the Civil War of the 1860s; we're still fighting the "Civil Rights War" of the 1960s.
That's when all this passion for history and the "Southern way of life" really took off. That's when there was a huge surge in Confederate park-naming, Confederate hero statue-building, and Confederate flag-raisings over public buildings. The South wasn't rising again; the defense of racism was rising, under the guise of "heritage."
In 1964, as civil rights protests and marches were occurring all over the South, Memphis erected a statue of Jefferson Davis downtown. Coincidence? Sure, it was. Oddly, that same coincidence happened in all 11 former Confederate states in the 1960s, as white folks below the Mason-Dixon line rallied around the flag, so to speak, and erected dozens of new historical odes to the Confederacy on public property.
In Mississippi, Governor Ross Barnett famously said ending segregation would be to "drink from the cup of genocide," and at an Ole Miss football game in 1962 said, "I love Mississippi. I love her people, our customs. I love and respect our heritage." The crowd was a sea of waving Confederate battle flags. The following week saw riots on campus as whites attacked federal marshalls seeking to integrate the university. To protect Southern customs and heritage, of course.
There are more Civil War historical monuments in the South than monuments to all other wars in U.S. history combined. They dot the landscape like magnolias, populating our parks and city squares, persistent reminders of the ill-fated and bloody attempt to leave the United States and preserve the institution of slavery. Yes, many Confederate soldiers were brave and heroic. And yes, many Southern generals were brilliant tacticians and dashing warriors. But the cause was not noble or glorious. And we're still paying the price for it.
Still, this is a free country. No one will stop you from flying any flag you choose on your property. No one will begrudge you your right to dress up and reenact glorious — if bloodless — scenes of epic battle. If you want to put the Confederate flag on your bumper or wear it on your T-shirt, go for it. It says more about you than you think. LINK
Crockett Policy Institute
http://www.crockettpolicy.org/
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