Yet Again, Tennessee U.S. House Rep. John J. Duncan in "Chronicles" magazine.

July 2006, page6, Chronicles magazine, is Republican U.S. House Rep. John J. Duncan with another article.

http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/

The article is not likely to be available online.

John J. Dwyer's Civil War History for Homeschoolers promoted by "Southern Partisan."

Southern Partisan, Vol. 25 No. 1, Jan. 2006, released much later, has a review by Egon Tausch on page 28-29, of John J. Dwyer's book "The War Between the States: America's Uncivil War." This is a thoroughly Neo-Confederate view of the Civil War.

I think this is the start of the Neo-Confederates promoting their ideology through the homeschooling movement.

John J. Dwyers website is http://www.johnjdwyer.com/.

My article on the Neo-Confederate Christians is online at:

http://www.utpjournals.com/product/cras/323/sebesta.html

Federal Judge Richard Bender Abell speaks at Neo-Confederate event

In the Southern Partisan, Vol. 25 No. 1, Jan. 2006, released recently, page 9, is a short item on a Lee - Jackson ceremony in the Capitol Hall of Staturary, and one of the participants is Federal Judge Richard Bender Abell, who praises Robert E. Lee.

Neo-Confederate group at the Citadel, Military school in South Carolina

The Southern Partisan, Vol. 25 No. 1, Jan. 2006 issue, recently released has an article about a group at The Citadel in South Carolina, on page 9, in a boxed article.

The Southern Partisan explains that Citadel Men, (www.CitadelMen.com) "was started by Jon Rawl (Class of '93), a contributor to this publication, ..." That is, Jon Rawl has written for Southern Partisan.

The following is my article on the Neo-Confederate subculture in the U.S. Military.

http://www.rtis.com/touchstone/april2005/p14.html

BLACK LIBERTARIAN AT LEW ROCKWELL

For today, Lew Rockwell has a blog by Neo-Confederate Christian leader, John J. Dwyer, with his entry at:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig3/dwyer8.html

This is his website http://www.johnjdwyer.com/ .

And an African American who gives a Libertarian spin on American history and slavery at:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig7/wicks2.html

Lew Rockwell is one of the leading Neo-Confederate websites.

George Wallace Jr. Defeated

George Wallace Jr., had a long history of working with the Council of Conservative Citizens (www.cofcc.org) and more disgracefully John McCain campaigned for him. He has been defeated in the Republican primary and his public life may well be over.

Click for article here.

GIULIANI added to Presidential Candidates webpage.

GIULIANI added to Presidential Candidates webpage.

http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/presidentialcandidates2008.htm

Voting Rights Act Update- Neo-Confederates defeated, for now

My blogging on the Neo-Confederate opposition to the Voting Rights Act is at this link:

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2006/06/neo-confederate-opposition-to-voting.html

One of the two founding books of the Neo-Confederate movement, "The South Was Right!" by the Kennedy Brothers specifically denounced the Voting Rights Act. http://www.kennedytwins.com/ http://www.kennedytwins.com/oped.htm
http://www.kennedytwins.com/publications.htm

The House renewed the Voting Rights Act for another 25 years. The efforts of the Neo-Confederates for 20 years have come to nothing. The following is a link to the "Washington Post" article.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/13/AR2006071300369.html


The votes can be looked at and some of the house history at this link.

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/109/house/2/votes/374/

You can look at it by region and state and by party at the above link. There seems to be a combined anti-immigration opposition and the more classic anti-civil rights opposition, so the opposition is concentrated in the Southwest and South. I should say that the majority of representatives in the South did vote for it. However, if you read the article, there were very large votes to weaken the Voting Rights Act. I suspect that many thought that they could hamstring the voting rights act with amendments, and then vote for a crippled voting rights act, but portray themselves as a supporter for voting rights acts. Some of those votes, for the amendments were not close, but too close for comfort.

But after the efforts to cripple the voting rights act failed, almost everyone voted for it, rather than being revealed for their opposition for it.

This is the link to the online Congressional Record. http://thomas.loc.gov/

These are the amendments attempts for the Voting Rights Act. Notice the votes were not so lopsided as the final vote for the Voting Rights Act. If you follow the link to the amendment, you can see the roll call votes for each attempt to cripple the voting rights act.


Amendments For H.R.9
1. H.AMDT.1182 to H.R.9 Sponsor: House Rules (introduced 7/13/2006) Cosponsors (None) Committees: House Rules Latest Major Action: 7/13/2006 House amendment offered

2. H.AMDT.1183 to H.R.9 An amendment numbered 1 printed in House Report 109-554 to update the formula in section 4 of the Voting Rights Act that determines which states and jurisdictions will be covered under Section 5 of the act. This updated formula would be a rolling test based off of the last three presidential elections. Any state would be subject to Section 5 if it currently has a discriminatory test in place or voter turnout of less than 50% in any of the three most recent presidential elections. Sponsor: Rep Norwood, Charlie [GA-9] (introduced 7/13/2006) Cosponsors (None) Latest Major Action: 7/13/2006 House amendment not agreed to. Status: On agreeing to the Norwood amendment (A002) Failed by recorded vote: 96 - 318 (Roll no. 370). http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll370.xml

3. H.AMDT.1184 to H.R.9 An amendment numbered 2 printed in House Report 109-554 to make the reauthorization period 10 years, rather than the 25 years proposed in the act. Sponsor: Rep Gohmert, Louie [TX-1] (introduced 7/13/2006) Cosponsors (None) Latest Major Action: 7/13/2006 House amendment not agreed to. Status: On agreeing to the Gohmert amendment (A003) Failed by recorded vote: 134 - 288 (Roll no. 371). http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll371.xml

4. H.AMDT.1185 to H.R.9 An amendment numbered 3 printed in House Report 109-554 which seeks to strike sections 7 and 8 from the bill. Sections 7 and 8 relate to multilingual ballots and use of American Community Survey census data, and they would automatically expire in 2007. Sponsor: Rep King, Steve [IA-5] (introduced 7/13/2006) Cosponsors (None) Latest Major Action: 7/13/2006 House amendment not agreed to. Status: On agreeing to the King (IA) amendment (A004) Failed by recorded vote: 185 - 238 (Roll no. 372). http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll372.xml

5. H.AMDT.1186 to H.R.9 An amendment numbered 4 printed in House Report 109-554 which seeks to provide for an expedited, proactive procedure to bail out from coverage under the preclearance portions of the Voting Rights Act, by requiring the Department of Justice to assemble a list of all jurisdictions eligible for bailout and to notify the jurisdictions. The Department of Justice is then required to consent to the entry of a declaratory judgment allowing bailout if a jurisdiction appears on the list. Adds a three-year initial time period (and annually thereafter) for assembly of the bailout list by the Department of Justice. Sponsor: Rep Westmoreland, Lynn A. [GA-8] (introduced 7/13/2006) Cosponsors (None) Latest Major Action: 7/13/2006 House amendment not agreed to. Status: On agreeing to the Westmoreland amendment (A005) Failed by recorded vote: 118 - 302 (Roll no. 373). http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll373.xml

Wayne Madsen, John Edward Hurley, and Richard T. Hines

A person named Wayne Marsden runs an expose' web site and has been mentioning Richard T. Hines, Jonathan Edward Hurley, and the Bush administration. I have gotten some inquiries about his writing.

The Wayne Madsen report for July 7/8, 2006 is the lead article at his webpage at http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/ .

I have some concerns about what Marsden is reporting and I will tell you what I know briefly.

Richard T. Hines is a major Neo-Confederate and involved with Neo-Confederate affairs in D.C. George W. Bush owes his win in the South Carolina Primary in 2000 to him. This article reviews the connections. ( http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050829/blumenthal) I provided the Neo-Confederate information on Richard T. Hines for the article. Hines is also involved in the ultra-reactionary, Monarchist TFP society which I blogged on earlier. http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2006/05/american-society-for-defense-of.html

However, I have problems with John Edward Hurley as a source. Some of his data may well be accurate. However, John Edward Hurley didn't seem to have a problem with racism until his falling out with some of the local reactionaries. Hurley had a column in the "Southern Partisan" and he endorsed at least one rabid Neo-Confederate book. (I think it was "Southern By the Grace of God" by Michael Andrew Grissom). I have his newsletter for the Confederate Embassy packed away. Suddenly he is shocked, shocked, shocked by racism in the Neo-Confederate movement.

I do think that there is a story in D.C. about Neo-Confederate racism. Someone should attend the Neo-Confederate speeches at the U.S. Capitol in statuary hall on Jefferson Davis' and Robert E. Lee's birthday and find out what is being said. Attendance at the Arlington cemetery when they present the wreath might be very revealing, but I am not going to be there and no one has picked up on this project. The "Southern Partisan" did seem to have contacts in D.C. and did get officials to interview. The editor of the "Washington Times," Pruden interviewed in the "Southern Partisan" and he had one of his editorials contributed as an article to the magazine. He has and may well still be active with the United Daughters of the Confederacy and has some other connections. http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=57 is one article on the "Washington Times" and Neo-Confederacy, and this is about some other racist business at the paper http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=526.

But there is a difference between thinking that there could be some connections, and speculation about such connections, and knowing it for a fact. I don't think Wayne Marsden has the info beyond Richard T. Hines. I would not rely on Hurley.

George W. Bush does have a Confederate history, this is an article I have on his past prior to the 2000 election.
Click here for the story.

However, Neo-Confederates hate George W. Bush with a passion, that is those in the League of the South and Council of Conservative Citizens branch of the movement. However, there is the Richard T. Hines type branch, a faction that is pragmatic and works in Conservative movements which understands that Republicans have to work in the real world. "Southern Partisan" was very critical of George W. Bush prior to 2000, and had their complaints about him as a cover issue story for an issue.

There is a Neo-Confederate story in D.C., Wayne Madsen doesn't have it.

Neo-Confederate Elements in the Anti-Gay Episcopal faction

I had an article published in a South African gay website. It is online as a cache now at:

Click this link to the article.

I also have an article on Confederate Christian nationalist published in the "Canadian Review of Nationalism Studies"


http://www.utpjournals.com/product/cras/323/sebesta.html html

http://gis.depaul.edu/ehague/Articles/PUBLISHED%20CRAS%20ARTICLE.pdf PDF

4th of July Post

TOPICS, NEO-CONFEDERATE TAKE ON 4TH, BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC, THE FOUNDING OF AMERICA AS A SLAVE REPUBLIC

Lew Rockwell, www.lewrockwell.com is currently having their take on the 4th of July. Thomas DiLorenzo is emphasizing it is secession, http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo103.html and another contributor is very upset with the Battle Hymn of the Republic http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance84.html with an essay titled "Blasphemy in Song." Neo-Confederate really hate this song.

Interestingly enough, the expression "Old Glory" as a name for the American flag comes from the story of Capt. Driver, a unionist in Tennessee and an opponent of the Confederacy. This is one link http://www.usflag.org/history/oldglorystory.html.

The full story has some dramatic elements. Confederate soldiers and secessionists threaten Capt. Driver, he had to hide it in a quilt during the dead of night, and before an assemblage of American soldiers the quilt was opened up and the hidden flag revealed. It captured the imagination of the nation.

Prior to the Civil War the American flag was little thought of in national life, but when the Civil War started the interest in the American flag was widespread and intense. The various flag codes and rules on how to use the American flags comes from the 1920s. Prior to this time, Americans arranged the stars on the flag as they saw fit, and would think nothing of using the flag as an apron at a social function where they were serving food and wanted to be seen as patriotic. A good book on the American flag is "The American Flag, 1777 -- 1924: Cultural Shifts from Creation to codification," by Scot M. Guenter, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.

When Olympic athletics win a medal, often they will run across a field with the American flag in their hands or as a cape, and sure as the sun comes up some pious whiner will write in to the daily newspaper of their town rattling off what flag codes the athlete violated. However, this ridge flag cult is a product of the 1920s and the Red Scare and other social factors. In the 19th century the American flag was owned by the people and its use much more free.

BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC

I tried to purchase a good copy of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" at Tower Records. There is a store here in Dallas that is huge. However, the typical rendition of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" that you find on CDs is some weak watery thin version. If they sang it like that in the Civil War, the Confederacy would have succeeded. Neo-Confederates hate this song. I remember growing up that it was one of the few songs that we enjoyed singing in school, and we sang it with passion. We also had a burlesque version which I can't remember, but involved the word "tangerine" and "hit the teacher with a rula." Though the last thing in the world I would want to participate would be a real Civil War battle. They were simply horrible, modern technology had arrived, modern medicine hadn't, and neither had modern military tactics had arrived to handle the modern technology. So the casualties were high, the medicine had no painkillers or anesthesia and the common method to prevent death, was amputation. If the percentage of casualties of the Civil War period was applied to the current population, it would be like 5 or 6 or 7 million people that would die. Not surprisingly, the Civil War had more casualties than all other American wars combined.

It would be interesting how patriotic the current Republican party is about the "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

SLAVE REPUBLIC

A recent book, is "Slave Nation: How Slavery United the Colonies & Sparked the American Revolution," by Alfred W. Blumrosen & Ruth G. Blumrosen, which argues that the American colonies opted for independence to escape British anti-slavery sentiment, in particular the famous 1772 Somerset case decision that slavery was incompatible with English common law and was "odious."

It seems plausible, and I could certainly believe that information supporting this historical view would not be in high school American history books, or in that species of popular American history books which are little more than blaring trumpets. However, plausible, isn't enough, you need historical data to support your case. The Blumrosen's don't. I emailed them and they didn't have any additional references to support their case and they don't have evidence in their book. The Blumrosen's do show how slavery was incorporated in the Constitution and was present as an issue during the American Revolution, which was certainly true, but they don't have evidence as for it being a cause for Independence.

The book is good in documenting the issues of slavery in the American Revolution and the early period right after. The issue of slavery in the American Revolution and of the Founders is ignored or deflected with the insipid and stupid argument about presentism. We judge the Founders as great heroes by our present standards, but when the issue of slavery is brought up, then that is presentism. It is the the historical equivalent of "heads I win, tails you lose."

Actually, at the American Constitutional Convention the issue of slavery was brought up and it was judged as a great horror and crime, but the delegates from the southern states, said that if they didn't get their way on it, there would be no American nation involving them.

Another thing to think about is the American Constitution. It is touted as a brilliant piece of work. By what rational standard this is, I don't know, I think it is the blaring trumpets of patriotism standard of writing American history that says it is so.

An objective standard of history would say that it had great flaws. I think the Civil War can be traced back to the slave clauses in the Constitution, making it national, making the Constitution a compact over slavery. If slavery had just been a state issue, with no powers to pass a Fugitive slave act, no 3/5ths clause for representation, it is probably not as likely that there would have been a Civil War. Few Constitutions are marked by a disastrous Civil War shortly after their writing.

Also, one time I calculated the representation in the U.S. Senate some figures of representation of the American population there. 10% of the American population is represented by 40% of the Senate and 40% of the American population is represented by 10% of the Senate. (I type this from memory, to quote it, I would get out the Atlas and check these figures. New York, California, Texas, Illinois, and Pennsylvania have ten senators.)

Presidential Candidates page, send me information and suggestions.

If there is some information I have overlooked send it to me. It has to have some type of credible verification.

Also, if there is a candidate I have overlooked, let me know.

Also, what Confederate related questions should we ask. Would they permit U.S. Naval ships to be named after Confederate generals or admirals? What is their policy towards Confederate identified government? Would they permit postal stamps to honor Confederate leaders? Would they approve the minting coins to honor Confederate leaders? In site selection for Federal facilities would they incorporate as a negative factor in site scoring, the fact whether the state had a Confederate flag or not? Would they appoint a member of a Neo-Confederate group to national cultural groups? Would they celebrate Juneteenth or make an official pronouncement? Neo-Confederates have hated emancipation holidays for decades.

I am thinking of mailing out a questionnaire sometime early in 2007.

More George Allen material added.

More George Allen material added, mostly UDC magazine material.

More Presidential information online.

I have added extra metarials to the page. I decided to add the information about the states which have either Confederate or Confederate identified flags, Virginia and Arkansas respectively. Yes, Georgia and Mississippi aren't the only states with Confederate state flags.

George Allen was very involved with the Confederacy and I am going to put the information in the Presidential page and then maybe call it quites for today.

The link is on the right of this blog.

Pataki Information added to presidential campaign 2008 page.

Ironically, it is a Republican, not a Democratic candidate who has gotten the most attacks regarding the Confederacy from Neo-Confederate organizations.

U.S. House Rep. Tom Tancredo and the Council of Conservative Citizens

I have added Tom Tancredo to the presidential page.

http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/presidentialcandidates2008.htm

There is always a link to this page on the right hand side of my blog.

Tom Tancredo voted for the House Resolution which the Republicans in the House came up with to avoid condemning the Council of Conservative Citizens.

Updating Presidential Page

You will see to the right hand side of this blog a link to a web page about the 2008 Presidential candidates. I just updated it with a few minor items. I think I have most of the major candidates. I also added an introduction to make it easier to use.

In the next month or so I will be just adding small items for the time being. The campaign won't really get moving until after the 2006 elections. However, there is background information, on the votes on Ashcroft and the Southern Partisan controversy which I have gotten put in the guide. Then there is the view of the Southern Partisan towards some of the presidential candidates in the past which I haven't put in. None of them interviewed in the "Southern Partisan." I plan to get the background information done by the end of 2006, because afterwards I want to focus on getting the information as it develops.

I am also thinking of sending out a questionnaire. Which candidates are members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans or some other Neo-Confederate group, which candidates would nominate to a Federal Judgeship a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans or the United Daughters of the Confederacy, would they permit the American military to have activities with the Sons of Confederate Veterans, will they celebrate Jefferson Davis' birthday by placing a wreath at the Confederate memorial at the Arlington cemetery? The U.S. military academies each allow the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) to present awards to their graduates. For example the UDC gives a Robert E. Lee award each year at West Point.

I am going to strategize how to get a questionnaire answered. If I can get a response to one, I think others will follow.

Council of Conservative Citizens in New Hampshire

If you go to the Council of Conservative Citizens (www.cofcc.org) you can see that they are now organizing a chapter there. Though whether this chapter will get many people remains to be seen. (You may have to scroll down a ways.)

The CofCC has New York and Pennsylvania chapters.

The CofCC does get involved in Republican party politics outside the South. There was a Republican party candidate in Illinois who was a member.

It will be interesting to see in the upcoming Presidential Primary in New Hampshire who the CofCC people are supporting. My guess would be Tancredo. He clearly is a favorite at their website www.cofcc.org.