Things to watch for November......

Hunger Games American style.....Nov 1

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-11-01/today-americas-foodstamps-program-gets-6-haircut-what-happens-next

Today, America's Foodstamps Program Gets A 6% Haircut: What Happens Next?

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/01/2013 11:03 -0400

Capital Markets

Federal Reserve

Florida

Gross Domestic Product

Today, one of America's best-known welfare programs with 47.6 million participants or 15% of the total population, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program also known as "foodstamps" or EBT, is due for a substantial haircut: beginning Friday, there will be a phased in $5 billion reduction (6% of the program) for the 12 month period starting November 1st 2013. So what happens next?

Nick Colas of Convergex explains.

The U.S. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (a.k.a. Food Stamps) is the largest means-tested social support program in the country, with $6.3 billion in direct monthly cash transfers to individuals for the purchase of food. Some 47.6 million people (15% of the total population) are in the SNAP program as of the most recent data (July 2013) and these individuals receive an average of $132 per month. This support is set for a cut on Friday, with a $5 billion reduction (6% of the program) for the 12 month period starting November 1st 2013. From a Wall Street perspective, these numbers may seem small at 0.0003% of GDP. From the perspective of Main Street, however, is means a cut of $36/month for a family of four receiving full SNAP benefits. Record levels for stocks, record level for SNAP participants… An odd societal disconnect, to be sure.

We’ve written about the U.S. Supplemental Assistance Program (SNAP, also known as food stamps) in these pages over the years even though the topic bears no direct relationship to corporate earnings, interest rates, the Federal Reserve, or any other recognized business topic. The reason for this focus is threefold:

It is a very large visible government program with monthly data updates. There are, for example, 47,637,407 Americans in the SNAP program as of the most recent update (July 2013) from U.S. Department of Agriculture. A total of 23,074,914 households receive an average monthly benefit of $272.51. This amounts to $6.3 billion in monthly support. As a percent of the population, this is 15% of all Americans and +20% of all households in the program.
It is a good measure of how deeply the economic recovery in the U.S. is reaching through the socioeconomic strata. Qualifying for SNAP means you make no more than 130% of the poverty line and generally have limited assets. Those 47.6 million people in the SNAP program are, for all intents and purposes, a record high for food stamp participation once you exclude months where the program includes disaster assistance.
It generates a large amount of hate email direct to my inbox and voicemail from both ends of the political spectrum. From the right comes criticisms over certain parts of the US population using EBT cards (the debit cards used to distribute the program’s payments) to buy beer and potato chips. This, yes, does occasionally happen. From the left, we get missives that feel a lot like that guy who told the world to “Leave Britney alone!” Food stamps, these folks argue, are part of living in a just society, which doesn’t allow anyone to go hungry. Half of all the people enrolled in SNAP are children, so it is pretty easy to see their point of view as well.

In the spirit of bringing our two warring readerships together, I would propose the following statement: “Something has changed about America since the Financial Crisis, and the still widespread popularity of the SNAP program is emblematic of that shift.” Or, in the words of Bill Parcells, “You are what your record says you are.” The American economic record, based on the Food Stamp data, is still pretty lousy:

Before the Great Recession of 2009, enrollment in the SNAP program ebbed and flowed with the state of the U.S. economy. There are links to the data after this note, with the high water marks in 1976, 1981, 1992-4 and cyclical lows in the late 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
From 2004 to the present day, SNAP enrollment has doubled from 23 million people to more than 46 million. The cost of the program over that period has moved from $25 billion annually to $75 billion in 2012.
The notional economic “Recovery” which has helped domestic equities more than double from their March 2009 lows is entirely absent from the U.S. food stamp data. As mentioned, enrollments are still essentially at record highs.
Sometimes big numbers are hard to visualize, so here’s a few ways to think about the size of the SNAP program. For example, if every SNAP participant lived in one state, it would be 20% more populous than California. If every person in the program linked hands, human chain style, they could circle the Earth (assuming a 3 foot reach per person).

We’ll sidestep the inevitable political discussion for a moment longer, and point out that things are about to change in the food stamp program. On November 1st, everyone in the SNAP program will see lower payments. Here’s the hows and whys:

Monthly payments increased because of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, but these increases expire on Friday. The jumps were substantial – the average benefit per person increased to $125 in 2010 from $102 in 2009 and topped out at $133/person in 2010 – 2012.
The change cuts $5 billion out of the program for the November 2013 – 2014 period, on a base of $75 billion (based on the latest run rate of $6.3 billion/month). The USDA estimates that this will be a $36/month reduction in benefits for a family of four.
The Center for Budget Policy Priorities, using USDA data, stated in a recent note that 80% of SNAP households live below the Federal poverty line ($19,500 for a family of three) and 40% live in households making less than half that amount. The SNAP program helps feed 25% of all US children and over 9 million seniors.

Let’s see if we can dodge the political bullet for one more paragraph, with a few more fact-based points:

The SNAP program is explicitly NOT designed to provide the only income available to economically distressed Americans for the purpose of purchasing food. There’s been a raft of celebrity and CEO ‘Live on SNAP benefits’ challenges, where these economically fortunate individuals chose to live on $133/month in food purchases. This ignores the fact that the program is intended to be “Assistance” rather than 100% support.
There are further cuts in the program coming in 2014 – 2016, to the tune of $11 billion over the period. It is an odd quirk of the SNAP program that its funding is part of the annual Farm Bill in Congress. That means these future cuts could be overturned as House and Senate consider this legislation. For right now, however, these proposed reductions would take the SNAP program down to $60 billion from the current $75 billion run rate. Truth be told, the pressure within Congress is to cut these payments further, rather than to increase them.
If you are looking for a capital markets impact, retailers in southern and western states are one place to look. There are 13 states with over 1 million SNAP participants: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington. The economic “multiplier” on food stamp purchases is about 2:1, so the $5 billion reduction in 2013-2014 looks more like $10 billion in the real economy.

To sum up (apolitically, of course)… The amount of money 15% of the U.S. population uses to purchase food is about to go down, and by enough so this group will notice its absence. It may not matter to the economic data on which Wall Street hangs its fedora, but it is certainly enough to spark a political response. How this plays out, I honestly have no idea. We are in uncharted waters here, as the historical record clearly shows.

and......

http://www.infowars.com/food-banks-panicking-over-demand-following-welfare-cut/

Food Banks “Panicking” Over Demand Following Welfare Cut

“We’re telling everyone to make sure that you are prepared for longer lines”

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
November 1, 2013

Volunteers working for food banks are “panicking” over the demand they are likely to face later this month from Americans on food stamps who have seen their benefits slashed.

From today, $5 billion will be wiped off the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as a result of a planned stimulus withdrawal. Almost 50 million Americans who are supported by the program, 21 million of them added to the rolls since 2008, will suffer an average loss of $36 dollars a month, which equates to a deficit of about one week of meals per month.

The impact of the cut won’t really begin to be felt until three weeks into the month of November since that’s when most people have typically exhausted their food stamp credit.

According to Margaret Purvis, the CEO of the largest food bank in America, members of her Food Bank for New York City organization, are “panicking” over the decrease in benefits, fearing a rush of hungry Americans

“We’re telling everyone to make sure that you are prepared for longer lines,” Purvis told NBC News.

Purvis invoked the threat of the food stamp cut causing unrest earlier this week when she told Salon.com, “If you look across the world, riots always begin typically the same way: when people cannot afford to eat food.”

Her comments were echoed by Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, who stated, “It’s going to send people into a charitable system that’s already overwhelmed and screaming for help itself.”

A bipartisan group of Democrats and Republicans voted to end the stimulus program that paid for the temporary food stamp increase, preferring to spend the money on education and school nutrition programs.

The cut won’t just affect those who are unemployed since over half of food stamp recipients have jobs but don’t make enough money to be able to pay all their bills and cover groceries.

“It’s always, ‘I’ve got to get something for my kids.’ They’re not coming in and asking for snacks or this or that. They’re asking for things like milk and cereal,” said Purvis, adding that parents are struggling to feed their children breakfast.

The cuts “will be close to catastrophic for many people,” Ross Fraser, a spokesman for Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief charity, told CBS News.

As we saw earlier this month, a glitch in the system which temporarily halted EBT purchases for just a few hours led to looting and mini-riots at several Walmart stores.

Reacting to the downtime, food stamp recipients warned that if the glitch was to re-occur it would lead to Rodney King-style riots, a reference to the 1992 L.A. riots which resulted in 53 deaths, 2,000 injuries and over $1 billion dollars in property damages.

Fox News’ Neil Cavuto suggested that the Department of Homeland Security’s recent $80 million dollar outlay on armed guards to protect government buildings in upstate New York was related to potential food stamp riots.

As we reported on Wednesday, the DHS has also purchased half a million dollars worth of fully automatic pepper spray launchers and projectiles that are designed to be used during riot control situations.

Fukushima - fuel rods removal commences Nov 8 ..

11:03 AM EST on October 30th, 2013 | 102 comments

Why are they ‘speeding up’ at Unit 4? — Expert in 2010: Megathrust quake to hit Fukushima ~Nov. 2013… Recurrence interval of 75 years with last rupture Nov. 1938 — Planet’s most powerful type of seismic event — WSJ: Top official concerned quake to destabilize fuel pool

07:04 AM EST on October 30th, 2013 | 53 comments

Warning from Japan’s Top Nuclear Official: I am “much more worried” about fuel in Fukushima Unit 4 — Rods may break open and release highly radioactive material — Beware risks from debris, a disaster if damaged — Removal may start Nov. 8

http://enenews.com/nuclear-engineer-question-all-sudden-urgency-fukushima-plant-theyre-feeling-pressure-like-one-move-away-checkmate-audio

Title: Interview with Chris Harris
Source: Nutrimedical Report
Date: Oct. 31, 2013

At 34:30 in

Tim Alexander: Chris, we were talking on the break about they seem to be in a hurry now to move these rods… My question to you was if the No. 4 unit… goes critical, can it spread to the other ones — it can right?

Chris Harris, former licensed Senior Reactor Operator and engineer: Yeah, if you raise the neutron flux to extend out through Unit 3 let’s say, there will be an effect on there — I’m not sure what the state of their neutron absorbers in those pools. Can you imagine that, one pool going critical and then all of a sudden, elements in another pool going critical also? […]

The question is, why all of a sudden the urgency — what do they know? They had an earthquake there. But we know that even from North Anna’s earthquake that happened here a year and a half ago, was that it took weeks to assess the damage there. And that plant was actually fixable […]

They’re obviously feeling pressure, like they’re one move away from checkmate.

Full broadcast here

Iran nuclear talks with P 5 + ! .... November 7 -8

Iran, IAEA in 'very productive' nuclear talks

October 30, 2013 - Updated 357 PKT
From Web Edition

154 0 5 0

Iran, IAEA in 'very productive' nuclear talks

VIENNA: The UN atomic watchdog and Iran hailed Tuesday "productive" and "constructive" talks, in the latest possible sign of Tehran's willingness to ease international concerns about its nuclear work.

Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency said he presented a new proposal -- aimed at clearing up allegations of past nuclear weapons research -- that he hopes will "open a new chapter of cooperation".

The two sides will meet again in Tehran on November 11, a few days after parallel talks with the P5+1 group of six world powers -- the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany -- in Geneva on November 7-8.

The two-day meeting in Vienna was one of a series of gatherings in the Austrian capital this week meant to prepare the groundwork for that Geneva meeting.

"Iran presented a new proposal on practical measures as a constructive contribution to strengthen cooperation and dialogue with a view to future resolution of all outstanding issues," the IAEA's new chief inspector Tero Varjoranta said.

No details of the new proposal were given but Varjoranta called the talks "very productive". Iran's envoy Reza Najafi said they were "constructive".

The IAEA conducts regular inspections of Iran's nuclear activities but it also wants to probe evidence suggesting that prior to 2003, and possibly since, Iranian scientists conducted experiments aimed at developing a nuclear arsenal.

Iran has consistently denied this, saying the IAEA's claims are based on faulty foreign intelligence from the likes of the CIA and Israel's Mossad that it complains it has not even been allowed to see.

Ten meetings between Iran and the IAEA since a major report from the UN body in November 2011 have failed to make any progress, but Hassan Rouhani's election as Iranian president in August has precipitated a change in tone.

Rouhani has also created optimism for progress in Iran's parallel talks with world powers, which are focused more on Iran's current activities, most notably uranium enrichment.

Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif held a landmark meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry during the UN General Assembly in September, when US President Barack Obama and Rouhani also shared a historic phone call.

Iran denies seeking or ever having sought to build the atomic bomb while steadily expanding its nuclear programme over the years in defiance of multiple UN Security Council resolutions and sanctions.

Some experts warn that Iran may next year reach "critical capacity" -- the point at which it could, in theory, process sufficient weapons-grade uranium for a bomb before being detected.

In Geneva on October 15-16, Iran presented to the P5+1 a new proposal that chief negotiator Abbas Araqchi said could settle the dispute "within a year".

But after many false dawns in the long-running standoff, it remains to be seen whether a deal that satisfies both sides is possible.

Western countries want Iran to scale back its nuclear activities and to grant the IAEA greater inspection rights, while Tehran, insisting on its "right" to uranium enrichment, wants sanctions relief.

Watching closely is Israel, which is widely believed to have its own nuclear arsenal and has refused to rule out bombing its arch-rival, while warning against what it sees as an empty "charm offensive" by the Islamic republic.

Mark Hibbs, analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said before this week's talks that Iran cooperating with the IAEA would "add confidence and momentum" to the Geneva talks.

"Until now a lack of agreement between the IAEA and Iran has been an obstacle in negotiations between Iran and the P5+1," Hibbs told AFP.

http://thecommonsenseshow.com/2013/10/15/personal-preparation-for-grid-ex-ii/

November 13 -14..... Grid Ex 2

*****

It is impossible to predict what the false flag event will be. However, there are some good candidates, and none better than the Grid Ex II drill coming up next month.

Many have written to me asking what they should do to prepare for a potential false flag attack, such as the Grid Ex II “simulated” blackout drill scheduled to begin on November 13th.

There are no foolproof approaches to the coming disaster, but I am going to cover what I am going to do in preparation for possible negative outcomes from events such as the Grid Ex II “simulated” power grid take-down drill.

What If Grid Ex II Is A Designed False Flag?

Since the dawn of the electrification of the American society, we have we never been faced with a complete shutdown of the power grid. However, as I have discovered, the government has indeed planned for such an eventuality.

In August of 2009, I attended a Congressman Trent Franks Town Hall Meeting at the Community Church of Joy in Glendale, AZ. Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ) produced a video which hypothesized that if terrorists were to detonate two nuclear weapons above the mid-continent United States, the resulting EMP attack would wipe out all electronics. The resulting projections estimate that 90% of the American people would be dead within two years. From this presentation, I created a hypothetical simulation game which recreates a major catastrophe and then poses critical questions, based upon several scenarios to the immediate threats to individual survival. In the four years that I have used this game as a teaching tool, which illustrates the fragility of society, I have formed some conclusions about some of the principles which can serve to enhance survival following a disaster, particularly in the critical first 72 hours.

Much of what I am going to present is derived from this simulation which examined the impact of a major event upon 15 key areas (e.g. medical, education, military, law enforcement, etc) and how people can best respond to the challenges.

What If the Economy Is Collapsed in the Midst of a Blackout?

Congressman Frank’s Congressional military appropriations video also estimated that a 50% mortality rate would occur in the event of a total economic breakdown without an EMP attack. If civil war accompanies an economic breakdown, the casualty estimates would be impossible to gauge. Either way, the odds are stacked against survival. Preparation does not guarantee survival, but if one does not prepare, one is sealing their own fate. And most of all, do not forget your spirituality, you may need a miracle in the days ahead. If society experiences a meltdown, the odds for survival are not good for the masses.

Foretelling

NBC Hit Show, Revolution

Isn’t it interesting that the TV series, Revolution, has so accurately depicted the bedlam that would follow a catastrophic loss of power. The biggest threats to survival will be a lack of food and water, roving gangsters in search of resources, disease resulting from a lack of sanitation, trying to escape the war zones of America’s inner cities, having enough life-saving medication, surviving disease resulting from a lack of sanitation and on and on and on.

Water

Most people can survive for a number of weeks without food, but without water you will die in just a few days. Subsequently, where would you procure water if your taps run dry?

If you do not have a plan, this would most likely be the probable cause of your death. Do you have an abundant supply of clean water near your home? Do you have the ability to boil water if you needed to purify it (i.e. a supply of matches, the ability to make fire to boil water)? Gathering water is your number one concern. Do you have a swimming pool? If you are one of the few that has a swimming pool, you need to be able to defend the water because your house will be a target.

Water purification tablets are also critical because the water you have access to in a crisis, may not be suitable for drinking. So you may find that water purification tablets and a water filter will prove immeasurably important.

Food

Most families could not last longer than a month on what they have in their house right now. When the economic collapse comes, how long could you survive on what you have?

You need to start growing food right now. Having your own garden, both in and out of your house is critically important, for if you don’t, when your family runs out of food, you will suddenly find yourselves competing with the desperate mobs of hungry people who are looting the stores in the first 24 hours and then roaming the streets, within the first 72 hours, looking for victims in order to steal their food.

Begin to store food, now! Store seeds and plants, now. Seeds will be the first item to disappear. So, begin to gather them, right now. Of course, if you are hungry, the government would be happy to take you to a safe refuge, a detention camp. The question is, will you come out alive?

Sanitation

On individual’s personal preparation list, sanitation is often a forgotten item. However, it could quickly become one of you most immediate and deadly threats.

In the third world, the leading cause of death is typically dysentery as water mixes with sewage. In cities, sewers and subsequently toilets will be backing up. If one does not bury excrement properly this too can lead to serious diseases. You will need portable toilets, lots of toilet paper, and bleach to scrub clean the messes.

In major cities, trash disposal will become a major problem as well. It will attract dangerous animals. The disease component will expand exponentially after a week. In these cases, trash should be burned. A pit needs to be prepared and you must have a large supply of wood and matches.

Medicines and Medical Supplies

This may be the most difficult aspect of preparation because a lot of life-saving medication (e.g. diabetes, heart pills, asthma inhalers, etc.) are controlled by prescription. First, one should immediately learn about natural remedies and stock up on these products. Secondly, if you can take a tiny bit less of your meds today, without endangering yourself, begin doing so. Ignore the expiration on your medication labels. Medications far outlast the posted dates as Big Pharma wants you to keep coming back. Finally, consider a series of smuggling shopping sprees to Mexico or to Canada. Empty out old pill bottles and fill them with over the counter medications that you can purchase with medication that matches the labels on the pill boxes.

I do not believe that most immigration officials are not going to challenge something so trivial that appears to be legitimate. Of course, you will have to be judicious in the amount you smuggle back. Keep in mind it is a crime to bring back foreign medication to our country. Oh, I forgot to mention that America is the only country in the world which does not allow its citizens to purchase foreign drugs. Isn’t it nice that your government does such a good job of protecting Big Pharma’s monopoly while endangering your health?

Bugging Out

If you are convinced as I am that the collapse is on the near horizon, you should have a bug out location outside of a major metropolitan area and once you see the signs, don’t wait to act, go right away. You will not have 72 hours to get where you are going. And your bug out location must be well within a tank of gas.

Before you go, you better have a bug out bag. It is possible that you may have to flee your home in order to stay alive. Surviving the first three days in these cases is the first critical challenge. Prepare a bug out bag for each family member and store it in an accessible place.

Some of the items in the bug out bag should contain are sleeping bags, night vision binoculars (available online for $200) flashlights with extra batteries, guns and ammo, knives, forks, spoons, weather appropriate clothing, toiletries, change of underwear and other clothes, bottled water, snacks, water purification device and tablets, small pot for boiling water, backpacker mini-cook stove with fuel, towel, ability to make fire, flashlight with extra batteries, a first aid kit and medication, small long-range walkie-talkies, fishing lines, small fishing hooks, a compass, and your critical papers (ID, birth certificates and bank account books and bank statements.

If you cannot get out of the city, you need to give your home a ransacked look and feel. Throw old clothes and wrappers along with dresser drawers out on the front lawn. Barricade your doors. If you can afford it, by special awnings, now, to go over your windows to prevent easy access. Install security doors. Make your place unattractive to the quick score.

If you are departing the city, stay off of the main roads as much as possible. Try and network and travel in a caravan if possible. Highways will become death traps as they will be targeted by bad guys, many of whom will don military and police uniforms in order lure in unsuspecting people. To a starving and thirsty gang, there is not a better target than a passenger vehicle, a truck or better yet, and RV loaded down with stored food and ammunition and stopped in gridlock on a highway trying to exit the city.

Military strategy documents all advise that when governments fail, roads are to be avoided at all costs.

If you are in your normal 8-5 work routine, have a preset place to meet your family. Make sure you coach your children, that under no circumstances, are they get on a school bus that will take them to “safety.” Schools across America annually practice bus evacuation drills. The problem that I have with these drills is that they never tell the public, or even school authorities what kind of places they will take your children. In a major 2011 Denver disaster drill, called Operation Mountain Guardian, the minions of FEMA took busloads of children, without proper parental notification, to Sports Authority Field field, where the Denver Broncos play football. Does anyone remember the Louisiana Superdome after Hurricane Katrina? And of course, the bus could always head to a detention camp as well.

Coach your children on how to drop out of the line to the bus and where to hide until you can come and get your child. You should practice reuniting both in a vehicle and on foot. Keep a bug out survival bag in your car. Paranoid? Look at the economic numbers that I listed at the top of this article and ask yourself, paranoid, or prepared?

Conclusion

Have you heard about the rumor which says that the globalists must first tell humanity before they are ready to do something nefarious to humanity? Maybe that rumor is true. On October 27 at 8pm, the National Geographic Channel is running a two hour documentary on what would happen if the lights out for 10 days.

This article, by no means, is meant to represent an exhaustive list for survival needs. This article only represents what I would do and I am hoping to prompt some much needed discussion in this critical area of self-sufficiency because Americans are woefully unprepared. The contents listed here are intended to get the reader to reflect on their own preparation and what they could do when disaster strikes.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/31/obama-no-show-gettysburg-150th-anniversary-fete/?page=all#pagebreak

November 19 - why isn't he speaking here ?

It may be little more than a blip on Washington’s radar screen, but President Obama’s decision to be a no-show at an upcoming ceremony to mark the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address has touched off a firestorm in Pennsylvania.

Local newspapers Thursday excoriated the president, a noted admirer of the 16th president, for skipping the historic occasion.

A journalist at Harrisburg’s Patriot News said Mr. Obama doesn’t have “the stones” to attend; York’s Daily Record newspaper called the decision “unacceptable” and said “Mr. Obama’s retreat from Gettysburg will linger long and bitter.”

The Gettysburg Times reported that local officials in and around the town have spent months preparing — in vain — for a potential visit from Mr. Obama, who twice carried Pennsylvania in the presidential election (by 11 percentage points in 2008 and five in 2012).

Instead, the White House will send Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to the Nov. 19 event, which will be held at the Soldiers' National Cemetery.

She will be joined as keynote speaker by renowned historian James McPherson.

The Gettysburg National Military Park seemed disappointed with the choice of Ms. Jewell rather than the president.

“President Obama will not attend and the Secretary of the Interior will represent the administration,” the park pointed out in the second sentence of its release.

White House press secretary Jay Carney wouldn’t give an explanation Thursday for why Mr. Obama declined the request.

“I think that is an enormously significant event in our history, and I think Americans will take the appropriate time to consider the speech that was delivered there. I would simply say that I have no updates on the president’s schedule,” Mr. Carney said. “I think all Americans will share and marvel in the remembrance of that important date in our history.”

Twenty-four presidents have visited Gettysburg since the summer of 1863, when the town gained its notoriety after the bloody three-day battle that turned the tide of the Civil War.

President Kennedy was invited to speak at the 1963 ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the speech, but opted to travel to Dallas instead, where he was fatally shot a few days later.

Although Kennedy’s presence 50 years ago would have been significant, a visit by Mr. Obama would carry extra weight for several reasons.

Numerous Pennsylvania publications have pointed out how important it would be to have Mr. Obama, the nation’s first black commander in chief, speak in Gettysburg and remind Americans how far the nation has come since the dark days of the Civil War.

For Mr. Obama personally, the invitation seemingly would have been too good to pass up.

It would have offered the president an opportunity to give a triumphant speech celebrating American values — the type of speech that rallied voters during his presidential

run — and would have allowed Mr. Obama to pay personal tribute to fellow Illinoisan Abraham Lincoln.

Mr. Obama speaks often about his admiration for the 16th president

. He even used the Lincoln Bible for both of his inauguration ceremonies, in 2009 and early this year.

By rejecting the invitation, the president has personally offended some in the Keystone State.

Writing for the Patriot News

, journalist Donald Gilliland called Mr. Obama’s decision “nothing less than a profile in cowardice.”

“In the end, Barack Obama simply didn’t have the stones. It’s sad. And telling. History will note that Lincoln’s legacy

did not live up to the challenge,” he wrote.

In an editorial, the York Daily Record said the president clearly “is uninterested or unwilling” to visit and called that “deeply disappointing.”

“Symbolism matters,” the paper wrote Thursday. “President Obama could have used this occasion to offer words of healing and reconciliation — as his Illinois forefather once did. Instead, he is sending us a little-known Cabinet member to do the job

of a president, of a statesman, of an orator. Unacceptable. President Obama’s retreat from Gettysburg will linger long and bitter. We beg him to reconsider.”

and.....

Historian: Americans Don’t Understand Meaning Behind Gettysburg Address

150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address this month

Wikimedia Commons

BY: Daniel Wiser
November 2, 2013 12:00 pm

A historian said Friday that Americans often fail to recognize the meaning behind President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address ahead of the speech’s 150th anniversary this month.

Allen Guelzo, director of Civil War era studies at Gettysburg College and a renowned Lincoln scholar, said at the Heritage Foundation that Americans typically remember the address for its brevity orphrases like “four score and seven years ago” and “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

Lincoln delivered the remarks—comprising just 272 words in 10 sentences—on Nov. 19, 1863, four-and-a-half months after the pivotal battle of Gettysburg left more than 50,000 soldiers dead or wounded. Only a third of the expected bodies had been buried at the cemetery at the time.

Guelzo said Lincoln was “a man of no verbal wastage,” providing the thousands gathered at the dedication with a past, present, and future vision of America. The Founding Fathers “brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty” in 1776; the present crowd assembled to honor those “who here gave their lives that that nation might live”; and Lincoln urged the attendees to “highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain.”

The last part, given the historical context of the speech, is the most important, Guelzo said.

“We do not see Lincoln’s subject, the survival of democracy, as Lincoln saw it,” he said. “For Lincoln, democracy was an isolated and beleaguered island in a world dominated by monarchies and tyrants.”

Lincoln studied the terror of the French Revolution and the military dictatorship of Napoleon, followed by the 19th century revolutions across Europe that were “crushed and subverted by nascent monarchies and romantic philosophers,” Guelzo said. Democratic government “lay discredited and disgraced,” he added.

Guelzo noted a comment from the time period by Otto von Bismarck, the Prussianruler who rose to power after Germany’s failed 1848 revolution.

“When you have governed men for several years, you will become a Monarchist,” Bismarck said. “Believe me, one cannot lead or bring to prosperity a great nation without the principle of authority—that is, the Monarchy.”

Lincoln was determined to prevent the same fate from befalling the United States, Guelzo said.

“The greatness we have not suspected in the [Gettysburg] address lies in its humility, its reminder that the question of democratic survival rested ultimately in the hands, not of czars, but in those of citizens who saw something in democracy worth dying for,” he said, adding that this meaning is not well understood by modern government officials or at “Georgetown cocktail parties.”

“What we got from Lincoln was that reminder. We could use it again today.”

Guelzo said myths still pervade remembrances of the address such as the suggestion that Lincoln hastily composed the address on a back of an envelope and that it was not well received.

However, records suggest that Lincoln had a full draft in hand before he boarded the train for Pennsylvania. The three-minute remarks elicited “astonishment and admiration” from the crowd at the dedication and later the American public as a whole, he said.

Lincoln’s speech marked a break from the oratorical conventions of the time both in length and language, exemplified by the “two and a half hour, 1,300-word doozy of an address” by famed orator Edward Everett that preceded it, he added.

Lincoln, an expert raconteur and avid reciter of Shakespeare himself, used rhythmictriplets throughout the address akin to a drumbeat—”we have come”; “that from these honored dead”; “government of the people.”

The result was a “middling” form of speech that would be hugely influential, Guelzo said: not too folksy but not too pretentious either.

“It used slang as Lincoln sometimes did to the dismay of the prissy, but it was also rational enough to sustain an argument,” he said.

Although 16 presidents have visited the Gettysburg cemetery to commemorate the battle and Lincoln’s words—most recently George W. Bush in 2008—the Gettysburg National Military Park announced Thursday that President Barack Obama will not attend the 150th anniversary dedication. He will be represented by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell.

The White House press office did not respond to a request for comment.

James McPherson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Civil War historian who will be a keynote speaker at the event, told the Associated Press that he was surprised by Obama’s decision. Obama has compared himself to Lincoln and took the oath of office on Lincoln’s Bible.

“I thought he would probably come. He identifies with Lincoln and knows a great deal about him,” McPherson said. “It might have been an opportunity for him to say something important, maybe enhance a tarnished image. He’s going through a rough patch right now.”

and...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2483662/Obama-refuses-speak-150th-anniversary-Gettysburg.html

( Rest assured this has already been noticed overseas and not just the UK .... Maybe you have to be American to understand the significance of the speech ? And maybe a certain someone doen't get it ..... )

President Barack Obama's affinity for Abraham Lincoln was on display through his political rise, but he won't be on hand to mark one of the 16th president's signature moments.

Obama has refused to attend the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address in Pennsylvania on November 19.

His decision, which has not been explained, has infuriated local media.

No show: U.S. President Barack Obama President has snubbed the historic Gettysburg 150th anniversary ceremony on November 19

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell will represent the administration, sharing keynote speaker status with historian James McPherson.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett also plans to attend the ceremony.

Newspapers in the Keystone State, which Obama carried in both the 2008 and 2012 elections, have taken the president to task, according to News Max.

Local officials had planned for a possible presidential visit for months.

'For a president who has so demonstrably associated himself with Lincoln — the heir of Lincoln's policies who announced his candidacy from the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield and used the Lincoln Bible (twice) at his inauguration — this is nothing less than a profile in cowardice,' Donald Gilliland of Patriot News in the state capital of Harrisburg wrote.

'How could he not pay his respects to those whose ultimate sacrifices that made his presidency possible?' read an editorial in the York Daily Record.

'How could he not visit and acknowledge the new birth of freedom that is his — and our nation's inheritance of that battle?

'Symbolism matters. President Obama could have used this occasion to offer words of healing and reconciliation — as his Illinois forefather once did. Instead he is sending us a little-known Cabinet member to do the job of a president, of a statesman, of an orator. Unacceptable.'

Like Lincoln, Obama came to national prominence through the politics of Illinois, where they both once served in the Legislature.

Obama began his presidential campaign in Springfield, Illinois, a town with deep ties to Lincoln; traced Lincoln's 1861 train route in coming to Washington and even took the oath of office on Lincoln's Bible.

For months, planners had held out hope that Obama would be at Soldier's National Cemetery for the reading of the famous oration, first delivered on November 19, 1863, more than four months after the Civil War's pivotal battle.

More than 3,500 Union soldiers killed in the Battle of Gettysburg are buried there.

McPherson, a top Civil War historian who won the Pulitzer for 'Battle Cry of Freedom', said he was surprised by Obama's decision.

'I thought he would probably come. He identifies with Lincoln and knows a great deal about him,' McPherson said.

'It might have been an opportunity for him to say something important, maybe enhance a tarnished image. He's going through a rough patch right now.'

Obama, the nation's first black president, has said he feels a 'special gratitude' to Lincoln, who led the fight to end slavery in the United States.

White House press secretary Jay Carney refused to comment on Obama's decision.

'I think that is an enormously significant event in our history, and I think Americans will take the appropriate time to consider the speech that was delivered there. I would simply say that I have no updates on the president’s schedule,' he said, according to The Washington Times.

'I think all Americans will share and marvel in the remembrance of that important date in our history.'

Just what about these words have the President shying away like a vampire from sunlight ?

Photograph of the Gettysburg National Cemetery

The Gettysburg Address

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
November 19, 1863On June 1, 1865, Senator Charles Sumner commented on what is now considered the most famous speech by President Abraham Lincoln. In his eulogy on the slain president, he called it a "monumental act." He said Lincoln was mistaken that "the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here." Rather, the Bostonian remarked, "The world noted at once what he said, and will never cease to remember it. The battle itself was less important than the speech."

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Might be this bloodlust - inconsistent with principles of " The Address " ?

http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-said-hes-really-good-at-killing-people-2013-11

Last Year President Obama Reportedly Told His Aides That He's 'Really Good At Killing People'

MICHAEL KELLEY NOV. 2, 2013, 10:44 PM 10,731 40

This will not go over well for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner.

According to the new book “Double Down,” in which journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann chronicle the 2012 presidential election, President Barack Obama told his aides that he’s “really good at killing people” while discussing drone strikes.

Peter Hamby of The Washington Post reported the moment in his review of the book.

The claim by the commander-in-chief is as indisputable as it is grim.

Obama oversaw the 2009 surge in Afghanistan, 145 Predator drone strikes in NATO’s 2011 Libya operations, the May 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden, and drone strikes that killed the Pakistani Taliban leader and a senior member of the Somali-based militant group al-Shabab this week.

His administration also expanded the drone war: There have been 326 drone strikes in Pakistan, 93 in Yemen, and several in Somalia, compared to a total of 52 under George Bush.

In 2011 two of those strikes killed American-born al-Qaeda propagandist Anwar al-Awlaki and his American-born, 16-year-old son within two weeks.

Under Obama U.S. drone operators began practicing “signature strikes,” a tactic in which targets are chosen based on patterns of suspicious behavior and the identities of those to be killed aren't necessarily known. (The administration counts all “military-age males” in a strike zone as combatants.)

Furthermore, the disturbing trend of the “double tap” — bombing the same place in quick succession and often hitting first responders — has become common practice.

Needless to say, a lot of innocent people have been killed along with combatants.

Obama has also embraced the expansion of capture/kill missions by Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) after it developed into the primary counterterrorism tool of the Bush administration.

One JSOC operator told investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill, author of “Dirty Wars: The World Is A Battlefield,” that operations under Obama became “harder, faster, quicker — with the full support of the White House.”

Scahill, who also made a “Dirty Wars” documentary, told NBC News that Obama will “go down in history as the president who legitimized and systematized a process by which the United States asserts the right to conduct assassination operations around the world.”

So although President Obama has proven to be “really good at killing people,” the demonstration has not necessarily been noble.

Catharsis Ours

Friday, November 1, 2013