Kerfuffles

Pirates have commandeered an American-flagged (NOT Liberian) container ship off the coast of Somalia. This story is true (you are NOT reading “The Onion”) as it has been reported by Al Jazeera News. The 21st century swash-bucklers have kidnapped the ship’s captain, an American, and are holding him hostage, just in case the U.S. Navy contemplates any of those Cowboy tactics left over from the George W. Bush reign.

President Barack Obama has once again referred to this latest national disaster as one that he inherited. However, Obama did not blame the pirates’ uprising on his usual scapegoat, George W. Bush. Obama explained to fawning American news outlets that these Swashbucklers of the High Seas were inherited directly from former President Thomas Jefferson, who obviously failed to quell the piracy problem during “Jefferson’s War on Terror.”

For more than 200 years, that dead white President, Thomas Jefferson, has been given credit for successfully swashbuckling the Barbary Pirates, giving birth to the United States Navy for that mission, and creating a pep song for the US Marines about “the Shores of Tripoli,” President Obama revealed. He continued: “those dead white historians got it all wrong! The swashbuckling evil buccaneers continue to cruise high on the high seas, and Thomas Jefferson’s failure has been dropped at my doorstep on Pennsylvania Avenue more than 200 years later.” The adoring White House Press Corps swooned.

The United States Marines performed with honor at the first war proclaimed by our new nation. In 1801, when Thomas Jefferson became president, he refused to accede to the Barbary pirates of Tripoli’s demands for an immediate payment of $225,000 and an annual payment of $25,000. This refusal brought about the first ‘war’ the U.S. would fight as a country. The first line of the Marine hymn, ‘from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli’, references the 600-mile march across the Libyan Desert of a group of Navy men and others to capture the port city of Derna, Tripoli. It took a concerted effort by England, France, Spain, and the United States to end over 400 years of Muslim piracy on the Barbary Coast.” (”Happy Birthday Marines” by Edna Barney)

Obama continued his explanation. “Thomas Jefferson had his chance to contain piracy when this nation was young, and he failed miserably, as seen by these man-made disasters now terrorizing shipping lanes on the high seas. Jefferson even instigated a war with those North African Islamic potentates whose modern lands are known today as Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia, which is more proof for America and the world, that gains won by force do not endure. It was up to America’s Founding Fathers to secure free navigation of the seas for the new United States of America, and their posterity, which is ME, and they punted” complained Obama. “This is one more ‘inherited’ problem that the country is now depending on me to solve, which I will as soon as I can escape the glow of the glory of my European tour.”

“I’ve had my historians researching ancient history to find the root problem of today’s Somalian piracy. They discovered that these “man-made disasters” we are experiencing today all stem directly from a meeting in London in March of 1785, between American founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams and Ambassador Abd Al-Rahman of Tripoli. The Founding Fathers inquired of the ‘Mussulman’ Ambassador for the reason that the Barbary states were impeding American ships, pirating their cargo and enslaving their crews and passengers. Ambassador Abd Al-Rahman gave the answer to America’s illustrious Founders, but they were absolutely tone-deaf to the ‘Mussulman’s’ words:”

“It was written in the Koran, that all Nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon whoever they could find and to make Slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Mussulman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.” ~Ambassador Abd Al-Rahman of Tripoli to John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, London, 1785.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, has expressed concern and called upon the world to “come together to end the scourge of piracy.” (Good Luck on that one, Hillary.) President Barack Obama reassured Americans that with his new leadership skills the country will be able to resolve this historic first time boarding by pirates of an American ship. He has already promised that, unlike his predecessor Thomas Jefferson, America under Barack Obama will never wage war on any Muslim nation. We are a nation of laws, and if our lawyers find that these man-made pirates have broken any international laws, we will prosecute them to the fullest extent in whatever world court they find agreeable to their cultural mores. In addition, Barack Obama has dispatched a special communique to the Somalian Pirate King reminding him that America’s president is now a “brother.” All those dead white American presidents and founding fathers, are just that - dead white men!

Yes - It’s Satire, but it’s still true!

Virginian Veterans of Yesteryear:

“I saw the swastika come down and the Stars and Stripes go up” ~~A World War Two POW from Virginia, from “Virginians at War.”

On The Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, Virginia, there are 11,600 names of Virginians who have lost their lives fighting for their nation, the United States of America.

Virginian Veterans of Today:

Today, almost one million (800,000) veterans live in Virginia. In November of 2008, almost 54% of Virginia’s voters rejected a veteran and former POW for President of the United States, and elected a man with little experience and absolutely no military experience, a man who described the flag pin that his fellow countrymen were wearing as “a substitute for … true patriotism,” and added “I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest.” He is a man who does not salute the flag in public, who never supported the War in Iraq and wants to end it before victory, and who believes in “spreading the wealth around.” It makes one wonder about those Virginia soldiers of yesteryear who bled and died for America, as they now watch from their Heavenly Homes as their descendants turn radically left to embrace the old political ideologies that they had fought against. According to Virginia’s U.S. Congressional Representative, James Moran, Virginia Has Gone Communist.

The image, The Boarding Party, is subject to copyright by barneykin. It is posted here with permission via the Flickr API by barneykin.

VOTE for John McCain! America needs John McCain to win this election. John McCain needs you to vote. Do not be intimidated by the corrupt American media’s claims that the race is over. Do not be demoralized by the hundreds of polls showing Obama 10-15 points ahead. There is good reason to believe they are flawed. Do not be frightened by charges of racism because you choose to vote for John McCain, as that is an American right granted to you by the blood of American patriots, 1775-2008, including the blood of John McCain.

John McCain has a chance. Tonight he is even or within one point in all the battleground states. In the primaries against Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama always polled six or seven points higher than he actually won in votes. If this scenario repeats itself, John McCain can win the battlegroup states and 270 electoral votes for the presidency. Do not let John McCain down. Vote for him tomorrow. You know him. You do not know this new guy Barack Obama. Do not gamble on America’s future.

Only John McCain stands between the traditional American values of hard work and self-sufficiency, and the radical liberalism of spreading the wealth by redistribution espoused by Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank. Only John McCain can stand up to the evil-doers who would kill us and destroy our American way of life. Only John McCain will win the War on Terror and fight to save Israel and the entire Middle East from being overrun by the Taliban and Islamofascists. All of our hopes for America and the Free World rest upon the success of the man who long ago catapulted from an aircraft carrier to fly into harm’s way and fight for America against the scourge of Communism. We need John McCain to continue to fight for America and keep America free. We need John McCain to win this election.

The McCain Video

A Floating City
The USS Ronald Reagan is the Navy's newest Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, ported at San Diego since its commissioning in 2004. The 1,096-foot “floating city” carries more than 80 combat aircraft, can house up to 6,000 sailors, and carries enough food and supplies to operate for about 120 days.

I made this photograph while visiting the Ronald Reagan Library last year in Simi Valley, California. The image, USS Ronald Reagan, was originally uploaded by Kerfuffles. It is posted here from

Perhaps hearing the news or reading the blogs, such as “Wizbang”, you just may be thinking that our own United States Navy fighting pirates upon today’s high seas is a new twist. Think again. President TJ - Thomas Jefferson had his own “War on Terror” and he birthed the American Navy for just such a mission - swashbuckling the Barbary Pirates. There’s really nothing new - it has been a long, long sludge of a war, and the days of America’s Naval forces swashbuckling the evil buccaneers has not yet ended. Go Navy!

Happy Birthday Marines: “The Marines performed with honor at the first war proclaimed by our new nation. In 1801, when Thomas Jefferson became president, he refused to accede to the Barbary pirates of Tripoli’s demands for an immediate payment of $225,000 and an annual payment of $25,000. This refusal brought about the first ‘war’ the U.S. would fight as a country. The first line of the Marine hymn, ‘from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli’, references the 600-mile march across the Libyan Desert of a group of Navy men and others to capture the port city of Derna, Tripoli. It took a concerted effort by England, France, Spain, and the United States to end over 400 years of Muslim piracy on the Barbary Coast.”

“Arrrhhh and Avast!” The blogging pirate at “Pirate’s Cove” longing for the bygone days of the now beloved Carolina pirates, is bemoaning that the Somalian johnny-come-lately horde of black-hearts is diluting the pirate gene pool with stupidity DNA. Consider this from “The Virginian Pilot”:

The incident occurred in international waters, about 25 nautical miles off the central eastern coast of the troubled east African nation. Why the men opened fire is unclear, but their decision to take on Navy ships in a 30-foot fishing boat was “not too smart at all,” said Cmdr. Jeff Breslau, a Fifth Fleet spokesman in Bahrain. “If somebody shoots at us, they can pretty much expect to die because we will return fire,” Breslau said by telephone. Breslau could recall no other instance in which pirates had fired on Navy ships in that area.

USS Reagan Ships Out On 1st Deployment

On Wednesday, the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan departed from the Naval Air Station North Island at Coronado, California on its maiden deployment. According to NBC News San Diego, the majority of the sailors on board have never deployed and, in fact, it will be the executive officer’s first deployment as a commanding officer.

NBC San Diego: “Just before 10 a.m., the $4.5 billion carrier cruised past Point Loma and out of San Diego Bay. The Reagan is leading a strike group that includes the guided-missile destroyers McCampbell and Decatur and guided-missile cruiser Lake Champlain, all based in San Diego, according to Navy public affairs. It will be joined later by a supply ship from Bremerton, Wash., and a submarine from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Rear Adm. Michael H. Miller is commanding the strike group.”