In 2012, on this day celebrated writer and former Congressman Eugene Louis "Gore" Vidal, Jr. died in Hollywood Hills, CA. He was eighty-six years old.

Death of Congressman Gore Vidal
An alternate obituaryHe dropped his first two names and adopted his given name in association with his grandfather Thomas Gore, the Democrat Senator from Oklahoma. And like many artists, he turned from expression of political thought towards activitism and in 1960 ran for office on a popular slogan of "You'll get more with Gore". With the support of Eleanor Roosevelt, Paul Newman, and Joanne Woodward, he successfully campaigned for New York's 29th congressional district receiving more votes in that traditionally Republican district than any Democrat in half a century.

Although he personally considered himself a conservative, his radical opinions were a source of continuing controversy in the party. Nevertheless, in later years, he was considered something of an elder statesman, in no small part because of impeccable family connections to first lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy and of course his cousins, Presidents Al Gore and Jimmy Carter.

In 1974, on this day the Euro Arab Dialogue (EAD) began with a ministerial level meeting between representatives of the Arab League and the European Communities in Paris.

Birth of Eurabia
Ed, Scott Palter & Jared MAlthough historians point to this collaborative meeting as the birth of Eurabia, in reality the critical event was a decision by the Syria Government to take on French staff advisers at regimental and divisional levels to respond to the faster Israeli "observe, orient, decide, and act" loops that they saw in the Six Day War in 1967. The inevitable result was the Arab Victory in 1973 which led to the destruction of the State of Israel.

Angered by the failed American support for Israel, OPEC ministers punished the US by quadrupling the price of oil but as a result of EAD waived this increase for members of the European Community.

Contemporary observes saw the dismantling of the transatlantic alliance unfold, but larger changes were afoot. Not only would a powerful rival emerge to confront the United States in the early twenty-first century, but Europe itself would change through a slow transformative process of Islamization and Arabization.

In 1934, the conviction for treason and subsequent hanging of Ernst Röhm provided those senior Nazi Party Officials who had survived the "Night of the Long Knives" with bitter satisfaction because the Government of Adolf Hitler had been fatally weakened by the SA Commander's pre-emptive counterstrike.

Night of the Long KnivesAfter Hitler's takeover had failed to deliver radical change the Sturmabteilung began to regard themselves as the vanguard of the National Socialist revolution. But in fact, Hitler's use of the SA as storm troopers was a political weapon he no longer needed and he had planned his own move against them for July 2nd. And so the time for a violent confrontation had finally arrived.

But an execution list drawn up by Schutzstaffel leaders Himmler and Heydrich had somehow found its way into Röhm's possession¹. And when Hitler telephoned him on June 28th inviting him to gather the SA leaders at Bad Wiessee he decided to pre-emptively counterstrike rather than fall into a trap.

Cloaked in popularism, Röhm had gained the support of disorganized Socialist, and Communists. Problem was that the ultimate goal of the SA was to become the future army of Germany, replacing the Reichswehr and its professional officers who needed little encouragement to crush the rebellion. And so the Government survived, but at a terrible cost, because the Regular Army would never cow to Hitler and his expansionist plans for Germany.

In 1953, on this day President Robert Taft (pictured) dies of cancer in Washington, DC. Taft had correctly calculated America's mood after World War II and the Korean War and had campaigned on an isolationist platform, beating his Democratic opponent, noted General Dwight Eisenhower, who was seen as a man likely to keep America entangled in world affairs.

President Taft Dies Taft's withdrawal of America from the greater world community had barely begun when he grew ill, though, and his vice-president, Joe McCarthy, found himself in the big chair completely unprepared for the job; the ceasefire in Korea was only 4 days old, and tensions around the world were high.

McCarthy proved everyone right about him - he had been chosen as VP just to make Taft look good. A week after taking office, ill-chosen tactics of his reignited the Korean conflict, and his push for the screening of communists from all government jobs caused a resurgence in what had been a dying political movement in America. Please purchase my novel Before/After for the Kindle on Amazon, in Print at Lulu or for the Book at Barnes & Noble or Smashwords.Robert La Follette Jr, an old foe of McCarthy's from Wisconsin, switched from the Republican Party to the Socialist Party and was elected governor of Wisconsin, sparking a wave of left-leaning politicians to join him. McCarthy denounced them all as traitors, which only seemed to fuel America's desire to elect them.

In the mid-term elections of 1954, Republicans became an endangered species as Democrats and Socialists won more elective offices than ever before, and the GOP was reduced to a handful of seats in the House and Senate. When President McCarthy drunkenly threatened to launch nuclear weapons against North Korea, his opposition in the Congress drew up impeachment papers; they were aided by McCarthy's vice-president, former Senator Richard Nixon of California, who saw McCarthy's troubles as the means to propel himself into the White House. McCarthy was impeached and removed from the presidency in August of 1955, and Richard Nixon took the oath of office that same day.

Dealing with a fractious Congress composed of Democrats, Socialists and a few embittered Republicans seemed to bring out the best in Nixon - he renegotiated a cease-fire in Korea and proved far less incendiary in world politics than either of his predecessors. Still, America didn't trust him enough to elect him to the office in his own right, and Adlai Stevenson of Illinois beat him in the 1956 election to become America's 37th president.

In 1919, on this day in the city of Weimar concerns over the problem of extremism caused the National Assembly to vote for a final review in committee of the otherwise greatly progressive document for its new constitution.

Weimar Constitution Reexamined After the fall of the German Emperor in the Great War, the revolution in Germany led to a greatly progressive document for its new constitution in the city of Weimar. It called for sweeping checks and proportional representative government, ideas evolved during the strong years of Germany before the war.

However, throughout the nation, there were a growing number of "political parties", a democratic ideal that had not yet affected Germany. Historical reflection on parties from the first republic of neighboring France showed a time of strife that would follow as extremists fought for their own mad notions. They needed strong leadership initially to avoid this, or else they might end up with a bloody revolution, a Reign of Terror, or even fall to a Napoleonic tyrant of their own.

A new story by Jeff ProvineJust before final approval, the National Assembly voted to take a final review in committee of this problem of extremism. After much discussion, they decided to postpone truly proportional representative government until the finances of the country were balanced and the war reparations paid. Until then, Germany would have tiered elections aimed toward moderate, unified leadership. To hold back single-handed power from another kaiser, Article 48 (giving the president power to "take all necessary steps" in the case that "public order and security are seriously disturbed or endangered") was more carefully defined and limited to true moments of panic or war.

The new constitution was ratified and came into affect in August of 1919. When elections came around, it was seen that the radicals on both the left and the right were taking wild stands. Fortunately, the follow-up elections allowed for control over different angles and solid centrists to take command. Many former low-level leaders before the war were returned to office, and they set about to restore the strength of Germany despite the odds.

Initial problems broke out as violence challenged the strength of the new republic. The communist Red Guards and the right-wing Freikorps both instigated attacks on each other as well as civilians. Rather than simply arresting whomever they could to try to bottle up a torrent, the German government set about on a program of "Rationalization" where disagreeing parties were drawn together to discuss their differences. While that served as the cover, many times the plan was used to pit the extremists against each other, such as the Freikorps paramilitary being used to bring down an attempted communist coup in Bavaria. Whenever possible, the government would then arrest leaders and exile them, sending many to Soviet Russia or increasingly conservative Italy.

With balance vaguely achieved (though the process was continual... a young artist named Adolph Hitler was arrested in Bavaria a number of times and exiled to Austria in 1923, for example), the government focused on its economic policies. Hyperinflation was controlled by freezing prices and continually discussing reparation treaties with other countries, gradually talking down the amount rather than paying fully as international tempers cooled.

In the 1920s, elections would broaden as the Goldene Zwanziger was in swing. Few were interested in extremism while the country grew prosperous. As the markets crashed and the Great Depression set in, however, the political climate changed. Still, with even its short tradition of leadership, the dark age only strengthened the German peoples' faith in its government. A gradual system of social nets began to grow, mirroring the public works projects put up in the United States by their president FDR.

The world economy would gradually pick itself back into place in the 1940s, helped a good deal by the international demands for food, steel, and cloth in the Italian campaigns in Africa (to which many German right-wing expatriates would go, alleviating unemployment) and the Pacific War. Fought by the Japanese against the Americans, British, and French, the financial and material needs of their countries would give Germany a boost back into solvency. In fact, the war would even prove the shortcomings of the League of Nations, which would be strengthened by the Treaty of Kyoto in 1944.

When the Soviet Wars of the 1950s broke out, Germany found itself on the front lines after the conquest of Poland. The armies of Stalin and later Khrushchev, began marching west and south, conquering and even entering the Mediterranean. Joining with former enemies France, England, and the United States, Germans fought for their nationhood, holding out for long years against sieges and bombings by Soviet forces. With the defeat of Soviet Russia and the fall of communism in 1971, Germany and the Allies set to rebuilding the world.

In 1863, President Jefferson Davis delivered the Gettysburg Prayer soon after the Army of Northern Virginia's colossal victory on that Pennsylvania battlefield.

Gettysburg Prayer Part One by Raymond SpeerExcerpt from Jefferson F. Davis' Commentary, 1870;

Matters reached a cresendo in the summer of 1863. Generals Lee and Jackson performed a miracle at Chancellorsville but that hardly helped the sad state of affairs in my home State, Mississippi. There, Southern generals were barely moving and Yankee generals Grant and Sherman had subjected Vicksburg to an unbreakable seige that could not be endured past the middle of the year.

My fear was that Lee and Jackson would continue to win but that continued defeats far off in western States would eventually doom Confederate independence.

Is Patrick Ronayne Clebourne the Savior of the Confederacy? Some people call him that because he was admittedly the first responsible party to state aloud that we were fighting the War with one arm tied behind our backs. Free the Negroes and arm them to fight beside us. As early as January 1863, he was saying that to his peers over the campfire and in March 1863 he wrote me a long letter on the theme that we should free Negroes and recruit them as soldiers.

When I got General Clebourne's letter, I felt so ill that I had to seek rest in my darkened bed chamber for a week before I could return to my office desk. Clebourne had made such a good case that I could not pretend he was wrong. Yes, arming our Negroes and sending them out to fight would rescue our independence. But was independence worth such a change?

When Generals Lee and Jackson came to Richmond to confer about their 1863 offensive into Pennsylvania, I shared with them General Cleburne's letter. I was surprised when Jackson wept profusely and told us that he had long been oppressed by the thought that he was prolonging the existance of slavery. Jackson had long awaited Richmond to announce that the peculiar institution would soon end.

General Lee told me that he was very reluctant to overstep his boundaries, but when I insisted on his thoughts on emancipation, Lee said that the Negroes were as many as a third of the men in the South, and our armies certainly had need for many recruits.

I was conscious of my lack of a strong organization in either House of Congress. Also, I had never asked the Legislators what they made of the possibility of emancipation and my innate gloom made me think Congress might take up my impeachment and removal from office if I endorsed emancipation.

Once I knew that Jackson and Lee were with Varina and me. the conspiracy got underway. The generals would lead their Army into the North and hopefully meet and destroy the Army of the Potomac. Meanwhile, I would prepare the people of the South for a surprising revelation that would be announced if and when great news came from the Army of Northern Virginia.

Of course, it is a matter of history what Lee and Jackson did during the Four Days of Gettysburg. The dual movements on both ends of the enemy line on the second day lead to the dissolution and capture of the Army of the Potomac by the Fourth of July, 1863. Less favorable was the telegram I received from Joseph Johnston telling me that Vicksburg had fallen to the Yankees and that the whole Mississippi was now controlled by our enemies.

After the drama of the deaths of Union generals Reynolds, Sickles, Hooker and Hancock at Gettysburg, the noncaptured survivors of the Yankee Army abandoned rural Pennsylvania and Harrisburg, and crowded into Philadelphia as a garrison. For the moment, we owned that Yankee State and that fit in well with our plans.

On the last day of July 1863, in front of a crowd that made up the mass of the Army of Northern Virgnia, Imade the most important speech of my life, and for a generally good result. They yelled very loudly and cheered me for about an hour!

"Citizens and Soldiers, picked by God and His Son, Jesus Christ, to inhabit the most beautiful and bounteous country anywhere,
we Confederates are all born with God's greatest gift,
citizens in a republic where all of us are greater than monarchs or dictators.
As we separate from mammon worship and the political domination of the tyrannical majority,
We Confederates profess for others
the freedoms that we claim for ourselves,
and so we ask God for the wisdom and determination to free all members of our people
so that Slavery may end and we may all proceed to a new era of abundence".

I was excited at the close of my address, so I ended with a Rebel Yell, whereupon the Earth shook as my audience returned the sound of celebration.

In 1957, Sir Winston Churchill died in his London home at Hyde Park Gate at the age of 82. His wife Lady Clementine Churchill and other members of the family were at his bedside.The Death of Churchill
His political career began as a Conservative MP for Oldham in 1900 - but he became disaffected and joined the Liberals in 1906.
He was First Lord of the Admiralty during World War I - but shortly afterwards switched sides again, to rejoin the Conservatives in 1924. Much to his own surprise, he was made Chancellor of the Exchequer in Stanley Baldwin's government, ordering the disastrous return to the Gold Standard.
He came into his own during World War II. He became prime minister in May 1940. His ceaseless energy, unflinching determination to beat the enemy and an ability to make great speeches, inspired the entire nation and eventually helped win the war.
He retained power in 1945 after a surprise general election result brought the Conservatives Party to government. During the election, Churchill pledged that he would "not preside over the dissolution of His Majesty's Empire". Shortly thereafter, Churchill announced that it time was to put a stop to all the nonsense spread by that half-naked fakir and followers, dissolving the Indian Congress and gaoling Gandhi, Nehru, Vinoba and many others. Indians were then expelled from positions in the Civil Service and critical industries.
The expense of these draconian measures caused a run on the pound and an economic crisis that forced the British to quit the Raj. Unable to accept that Gandhi could defeat him where Hitler failed he retreated into alcohol. Failing health forced Churchill to step down as Prime Minister in 1955. He continued as a backbencher until his death, an increasingly isolated figure speaking out against Harold Macmillan's Winds of Change policy.

In 1787, agreement is finally reached at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on the issue of presidential terms.

Heavily influenced by the expectation that General George Washington will be the first to occupy the office under the new constitution, Congress agrees to make it a lifetime appointment, with a vice-president to serve as acting President until a new election is held following the death or retirement of the incumbent.

Lifetime Term by Eric LippsCongress will also have the power to remove the president from office for "high crimes and misdemeanors"; In a concession to those at the convention who fear a lifetime presidency will become an elective monarchy, Congress retains the power to elect the president through a vote of the House of Representatives, although with the stipulation that no one actively serving in that body or in the Senate can be chosen. Congress will also have the power to remove the president from office for "high crimes and misdemeanors"; upon the president's removal, again, the Vice-President will serve in his place until a permanent successor is chosen by Congress.

In 1980, on this day commercial discussions with the little parts supplier Microsoft collapsed over IBM's boneheaded demand for an exclusive license to their disk operating system.

Talks between IBM and Microsoft collapseBut the broader issue was really one of vision because the long-haired visionary programmers Paul Allen and Bill Gates were pretty outspoken in their advocacy of an IBM PC powered by a Motorola 68000 chipset and running Xenix, a Microsoft implementation of Unix.

And the problem was that the IBM Executives were just thinking about the numbers, long-term profitability and how to compete favourably with rival products such as the Apple Computer and the Radio Shack's TRS-80. In fact they had only sought out little parts suppliers such as Microsoft and Intel for the sole purpose of reaching a sub-$3,000 price point. Reluctant to change course and embrace an open commercial and technical partnership, IBM reverted to the trusted in-house model, re-designing the PC architecture on the IBM 801 CPU and its own Unix.

IBM regretted their obstinate decision because they were unable to squeeze their in-house design under the sub-$3,000 price point (a task requiring small company agility not available at the Entry Systems Division in Boca Raton, Florida). And while the IBM project went no where fast, Allen and Gates banged their head against the same wall with Hewlett Packard before seeking out same-sized start-up companies that shared a common mindset.

In 1940, on this day the Sparticist Government in Berlin dispatched Commissar Leon Trotsky to Geneva where the League of Nations were debating St Petersburg's request for military assistance to defend Republican Russia's territorial integrity from German Communist aggression.

War of Western Intervention by Ed, Scott Palter & Jeff ProvineIronically, during the Bolshevik Uprising of October 1917 Republican Russia had itself been on the verge of a descent into Communism. Most shockingly of all, many of the agitators had been funded by the Imperial Germany Government who attempted to covertly overthrow Kerensky's Administration which had chosen to keep Russia in the Great War after the fall of the Tsar. Unable to return to New York City, Trotsky had fled to Berlin where he founded common cause with Sparticist ring-leaders Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Leibnicht. By 1939 he occupied a prominent place on the Central Committee.

And so the rise of world communism had centered in Germany not Russia. But other threats to European Security were also emerging and fast. A resurgent Poland began to threaten Russia out of isolationism. At least until the Depression Years brought a fresh militancy to the German Government, and once again, a desire to conquer the East.

Left with a monster of their own malformed creation, the Western Powers began to contemplate the option of unilateral action outside the auspices of the League of Nations. First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill was ordered to prepare plans for the landing of a substantial allied force at Arcangel. And a war of intervention to support White Forces in Russia began to take an inevitable and insidious shape.

Anticipating this development, the Spartacists had deployed their most eloquent diplomatic weapon, by sending a Russian Emigre to Geneva to assure the League of Nations that Germany only desired "peace in our time" with her Eastern neighbour.

In 1975, on this day Jimmy Hoffa met with New Jersey Mafia bosses to present a plan to bring down the Republican Party.

Jimmy Hoffa Meets Mafia Heads James Hoffa, once president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, had been through dire straights in the past ten years. He had been born to the working class and risen to fight for labor rights. After being fired as a teenager trying to unionize his fellow grocery workers to fight for fair wages and job security, he joined Local 299 of the Teamsters in Detroit, MI, and rose to the presidency in 1957.

A new story by Jeff ProvineIn 1964, his luck changed. He was convicted of attempted bribery of a grand juror and, later, fraud. Gaining a commuted sentence from President Richard Nixon, Hoffa was free on the condition that he not participate in union business until 1980. Resistance in several spheres held back his ability to appeal, and so Hoffa settled to rebuilding his career writing autobiographies and planning his comeback starting again at Local 299.

In 1975, he met at a diner with Anthony Giacolone of Detroit and Anthony Provenzano of New Jersey, both Mafia bosses who had connections with the unions. Provenzano had served as vice-president for the IBT during Hoffa's second term. While the topics discussed remain a mystery, it is believed that Hoffa had a major plan to bring down the Republican Party as vengeance for the betrayal Hoffa felt being kept from union work despite having endorsed Nixon.

Through underground networks, and more openly after 1980, Hoffa began building a massive political machine. Though Reagan would handily win his reelection against Mondale in 1984 (despite the latter carrying Michigan and New Jersey), his Vice-President Bush would narrowly lose out to Michael Dukakis in 1988. Many commentators would say Hoffa's push gave Dukakis the few extra million votes he needed. Hoffa would die of a heart attack the next year at age 76.

The next sixteen years would be a golden age for the Democratic Party. Through two terms of Dukakis (often credited with presiding over the fall of Soviet Russia), a term of Bill Clinton of Arkansas (who would choose not to run in 2000 following a tarnished ), and four years of Al Gore of Tennessee, many progressive Democratic policies would become realities: a nation-wide ban on capital punishment, National Health Insurance, guaranteed housing, an increase of human welfare, and environmental protection.

In 2001, terrorism struck New York City, and President Gore would find himself at the head of a vindictive populace. Pouring resources into international policing and covert operations with the aid of NATO and the UN, Gore would declare a "War on Terrorism". When Afghanistan repeatedly refused to cooperate in search of Osama Bin Laden, an invasion begins. While the Taliban are quickly knocked out of power, the war grinds to a halt with constant insurgency.

War weariness and a growing national debt would beset the American populace, and the Democratic era would in in 2004 with the election of President John McCain, a Vietnam war hero.

In 2003, on this day an unmarked gunman shot and killed John Lennon at a Peace Rally in New York City. His companion at the rally, former Vice President Al Gore said that protests to end the war in Iraq would continue unabated. And the new documentary movie An Inconvienent Truth would be released on schedule across America.
Watch the Youtube Clip of Let It Be

Shine on until tomorrow, let it beThe fatal shooting of Lennon (believed to have been on the orders of the CIA), was neither the first assassination attempt on the former Beatle, nor even the first successful one.

On the night of 8 December 1980, at around 10:49 p.m., Mark David Chapman shot Lennon in the back four times in the entrance of the Dakota apartment building. "And when the broken hearted people Living in the world agree, There will be an answer, let it be. " Earlier that evening, Lennon had autographed a copy of Double Fantasy for Chapman who had been stalking Lennon since October.

Just forty years old, many people felt that Lennon had the potential to have a profound impact on the world. Certainly his lyrics promoted a deep level of positive thinking. Because in 1972, the Nixon Administration tried to have Lennon deported from the US, as the President believed that Lennon's proactive anti-war activities and support for George McGovern could cost him re-election.

And yet Lennon had survived, choosing to withdraw into a private world of music and meditation. But in 2002, an undergraduate film student, Tim Bennett discovered Lennon, alive and well, living in a small northern Ontario town.

In 1947, T.E. Lawrence was murdered by the underground Jewish group Lehi. Lawrence and Count Folke Bernadotte who also died, had been appointed United Nations Security Council mediators in the Arab-Israeli conflict and were making considerable progress which now appears to have been scuppered by extremists. Death of Lawrence

Lawrence was born in North Wales in 1888 and educated at Oxford High School and Jesus College, Oxford. From 1911 to 1914 Lawrence worked as an archaeologist in the Middle East for the British Museum excavations team in Northern Syria. On 1st November 1914 the Ottoman Empire declared war on Great Britain. In 1915 he was posted as an intelligence officer to Cairo and subsequently travelled to Hejaz to assess the leadership and prospects of the Arab revolt. Seven Pillars of Wisdom is a description of his liaison role between British and Arab forces.

Lawrence was determined that the wartime promises of self government made to the Arabs by the British government would be honoured. He helped achieve settlements he considered honourable in Iraq and Jordan. Lawrence returned to England in 1918 and subsequently advised Faisal I, then King of Syria (1918-1920), at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 and worked in the Middle East Department of the Colonial Office in 1921.

In 1922 he enlisted in the ranks of the RAF as John Hume Ross to avoid public attention. He adopted the name T.E. Shaw by deed poll in 1927. Lawrence served for 12 years, latterly working to develop RAF rescue launches which saved thousands of lives in World War II. In 1935, aged 46, he narrowly escaped death in a motorcycle accident.

Desperately needing an inspirational leader for the North Africa campaign, in 1940 Churchill re-appointed Lawrence of Arabia as Commander of the British Eighth Army where he defeated Rommel's Afrika Corps and Italian allies. Less publicly, he also executed a cadre of Egyptian officers who had been attempting to rid North Africa of Britain's presence. Gamal Abdul Nassar, Anwar el-Sadat and Hosni Said Mubarak were just three of the many 'traitors' who were found mysteriously floating face down in the River Nile.

After the war, Lawrence was instrumental in the creation of the state of Israel, and the key decision to hand the Canal Zone and the British bases over to David Ben-Gurion. Lawrence remained a powerful agent of change in the region until his tragic death.

In 1795, needing more time to suppress the four-year long Whiskey Rebellion and having waited a respectful amount of time since the Fourth of July to avoid drawing cynicism from libertarians George Washington confirmed his intention to serve a full third term of office as President of the United States.

FirebrandBut the politician causing the General most trouble was a dead man called Albert Gallatin whose firebrand leadership had sparked a violent insurrection that was threatening to develop into a Second American Revolution. Having personally commanded the army that defeated the Pennsylvanians, Washington compounded his error of over involvement by hanging Gallatin for treason.

Two national politicians who had succeeded in remaining above the fray were Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Their strategic focus now shifted to the 1800 election and the forthcoming battle with Washington's favoured successor, the man whose overbold revenuers had started the revolt, Alexander Hamilton.

In 1848, on this day in the village of Ballingarry, police and military troops clashed with "Young Irelanders", the nationalist forces led by a member of parliament named William Smith O'Brien.

Irish Rebellion Gains Momentum into Revolution1848 was a year of revolt all around Europe. France's King Louis-Philippe had fallen to the Second Republic, Germans overthrew many of their local lords, and even the stalwart Austrians gained a constitution to balance the power of an absolute monarch. In Ireland, times were especially hard. The Potato Blight, beginning in 1845, had caused famine to last for years. The British government did very little to aid them, and now was the time for them to aid themselves.

Under the Union Act of 1800, Ireland had been joined with Britain into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Since its passing by Parliament, there had been men working against it in Ireland known as the Repeal Association. The political movement remained marginal before stepping up to fame as the Young Ireland movement in 1839. Along with new powers granted to the Catholics in the 1832, the movement gained force all over the country. A splinter group, the Irish Confederation, began the push for all-out independence and a wholly Irish parliament.

After the success of the French revolution in February, the Irish began to make their moves. While leader William Smith O'Brien hoped for a bloodless revolution, the government was more fearful and suspended habeas corpus on July 22. O'Brien and his followers decided to act to oppose this force of politics. Battles erupted around County Tipperary, culminating on July 29 in the village of Ballingarry.

O'Brien and other Young Irelanders had fortified The Commons and awaited the approach of police and military troops. A group of 46 under Sub-Inspector Trant had been spotted, and the rebels pursued them into a two-story farmhouse where the police set up defense and took the family hostage. O'Brien approached the house and explained to the police that if they were to surrender their arms, they would be allowed to return home as fellow Irishmen. After a long moment of thought, Trant surrendered.

A new story by Jeff ProvineA few hours later, a band of one hundred more police under Sub-Inspector Cox appeared, being met by the surrendering police as well as a crowd of hundreds of pike-wielding, jubilant rebels. In shock, these police surrendered, too. All through the night, word spread of the victory, and O'Brien worked to harangue his people to never give up the fight for independence.

On July 30, the British army approached the fortified Young Irelanders. The commanders were slow to assault such a massive, poorly armed but publicly acclaimed band, but at last the battle ensued. Tactically, the battle became a draw, and the army retreated for the night. O'Brien, however, called the battle a great victory and spread word of the success of the revolution in more-than-literal terms. All over Ireland through August, revolts would begin, and the British landowners and Loyalists would be chased from the island. On August 23, O'Brien and his followers of men, women, and children would take Dublin and call for elections to an Irish Parliament. O'Brien was named Prime Minister, a position he would hold for fifteen years until his death in 1864.

In September, while the Royal Family retired to Balmoral in Scotland, Prince Albert would come to Ireland with a massive force of British troops. He suggested an armistice, to which O'Brien agreed, and the two would begin to mastermind a fair treaty that would grant Ireland its own parliament, but still keep the emerald isle as part of the British Empire. Seeing the forces willing to fight to maintain conquest, O'Brien agreed. The Act of Irish Parliament passed narrowly in 1849, with many Loyalists crying out against it. With renewed Irish loyalty, however, the empire would blossom.

Loyalists and English would gradually leave Ireland while the Catholic Irish stayed and worked to improve their country with O'Brien's reforms over the rest of the nineteenth century. Industry, especially manufacturing, grew with economic incentives from the Irish Parliament and a workforce of millions (many scholars predict these men may have emigrated to America). The Irish would be instrumental troops in World War I as well as the counter-invasion of the Continent against Hitler's soldiers in 1941, leading to the downfall of Germany in early 1944.

Moreover, the Irish Parliament would give Britain a model for treatment of its colonies and creating productive home-rule. Fending off the Communist incursions of the 1950s and '60s, the British Empire would continue to dominate the world along with its ally and former colony, the United States of America. With the fall of their competitor the Soviet Union in 1992, Britain would lead the world into its next millennium as an empire upon which the sun would never set.

Ireland, meanwhile, would be a land of marginal success. Its industrial heyday was long over, with crime and unemployment rampant, though the 1990s would cause a renewed surge of economics in technology as the Silicon Isle of Europe.

In 2010, on this day U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton in Phoenix issued an injunction blocking Arizona from implementing the heart of its new immigration law Wednesday, less than 24 hours before it was to have taken effect, and endorsed the administration's argument that the state would be interfering with the federal government's enforcement of immigration laws.

Anti-Nullification CrisisGov. Jan Brewer said she would ignore the ruling in the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. She said the law, SB1070, was needed "to address a crisis we did not create and the federal government has actively refused to fix. If the federal government will not support the state of Arizona by embracing laws that they created and we as a state are going to do it our selves with or without the support of the US".

New story by David CryanWhen asked by a reporter if that included seccession from the united states the governor said all options are on the table when it comes to protecting our border.

Gov. Rick Perry of Texas said that he supports everything that is being done by Jan Brewer and Texas will support them in anyway that is needed.

In 1976, on this day the 41st Vice President of the United States Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (pictured) suffered a fatal heart attack in his 13 West 54th Street Manhattan townhouse.¹

Ruthless DecisionsRockefeller health had entered a sharp decline since the Halloween massacre, a political coup de grace executed by his chief adversary, Donald Henry Rumsfeld. Described by no less a fiend than President Nixon as "a ruthless little bastard", "Rummy" and Rockefeller "simply loathed each other". Relations were not helped by Rockefeller's habit of poking his head around Rumsfeld's office door and saying "Don, you know you will never be president".

"Rummy" was of course executing dastardly self-promotional plans from inside the White House" to ensure he did enter the Oval Office - as the boss. Realising that he needed the Vice Presidency as a platform, "Rummy" had played a long-game since accepting a cabinet posting by Richard Nixon in 1970. And by 31st October 1975, these plans ripened when President Gerald Ford, renowned for unswerving loyalty, unexpectedly dropped Rockefeller from the 1976 Vice Presidential Ticket. George W. Bush, who - alongside Barry Goldwater - was seriously considered for VP by Ford when he assumed the Presidency in 1974, was dispatched to the political no-mans land of Langley to run the CIA. To put the seal on this political emasculation, Bush was required to pledge that he would not politicize the CIA by running for office in 1976.

Of course the 1976 campaign presented a number of challenges for "Rummy" that would require some deft footwork. Political observers have speculated that Rockefeller² would have threatened to withdraw New York's 154 delegate bloc of votes had he been alive at the time of the Convention. Since he was not, the real threat was the former Governor of California Ronald Reagan who was emerging as a creditable alternative candidate from the right wing. Accordingly, "Rummy" insisted upon his appointment as Secretary of Defence, replacing James Schlesinger who was also fired in the "Halloween massacre".

Once in office, "Rummy" pursued the hawkish agenda that was being urged by Reagan's supporters, effectively to reverse detente by undermining the Salt II negotiations and also accelerating military spending³. As a precursor, "Rummy" had played a key supporter of the decision to dispatch US Marines to relieve the SS Mayaguez. The ship was seized by the Khymer Rouge just a month after the fall of Saigon and in order to restore American prestige, military intervention was advocated by then Chief of Staff Rumsfeld.

The majority of political observers believe that Ford's re-election in 1976 was mainly due to his ruthless decision to double cross Richard Nixon, by going back on his promise to pardon the disgraced President⁴. Fortunately, the new Ford-Rumsfeld administration (pictured here with incoming Chief of Staff Dick Cheney) would inherit a $123 billion defense budget and a re-invigorated military. Thanks to Rumsfeld, in 1979, America would be ready to confront the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan with full force.

In 1967, the New York Times reported the tragic death of Lieutenant John Sidney McCain III following an explosion and fire on U.S. navy carrier Forrestall in Tonkin bay which left 134 US servicemen dead. USS Forrestal fire
A Zuni rocket was accidentally fired from an F4 Phantom parked on the starboard side of the flight deck aft of the island. The missile streaked across the deck into a 400 gallon belly fuel tank on a parked A4D Skyhawk. The pilot of the Skyhawk was McCain, who was killed instantly.
Both McCain's grandfather and father were admirals in the United States Navy. McCain graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1958 and became a naval aviator, flying ground-attack aircraft from aircraft carriers until he lost his life in the 1967 USS Forrestal fire. ~ New York Times, October 30th 1967.