Bob McCarty Writes

Though some might judge me a conspiracy nut for even posting this piece, I care little about what others think when I know something is right and just.  After all, a majority of Americans voted for Barack Obama, proving anything is possible.

Anyway, someone visited Bob McCarty Writes today and, while here, posted a link to Oath Keepers.org in a comment below an NRA-related post.  Normally, I delete comments that consist entirely of a link directing people away from this blog and to another site.  Today, however, I checked out the linked-to site and decided to share a portion of what it offers on this Independence Day Eve.

On the “About” page, I read the following:

Oath Keepers is association of currently serving military, veterans, and peace officers who will fulfill the oath we swore to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, so help us God.

As a former Air Force officer, I found myself “qualified” for membership and in agreement with the group’s statement of “ORDERS WE WILL NOT OBEY”, especially in light of the times in which we find ourselves.  Rather than share the long-winded version of that statement (which appears here), however, I’ve opted instead to share the numbered bullet-point version which appears below instead:

OATH KEEPERS: ORDERS WE WILL NOT OBEY

1. We will NOT obey orders to disarm the American people.

2. We will NOT obey orders to conduct warrantless searches of the American people

3. We will NOT obey orders to detain American citizens as “unlawful enemy combatants” or to subject them to military tribunal.

4. We will NOT obey orders to impose martial law or a “state of emergency” on a state.

5. We will NOT obey orders to invade and subjugate any state that asserts its sovereignty.

6. We will NOT obey any order to blockade American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps.

7. We will NOT obey any order to force American citizens into any form of detention camps under any pretext.

8. We will NOT obey orders to assist or support the use of any foreign troops on U.S. soil against the American people to “keep the peace” or to “maintain control.”

9. We will NOT obey any orders to confiscate the property of the American people, including food and other essential supplies.

10.We will NOT obey any orders which infringe on the right of the people to free speech, to peaceably assemble, and to petition their government for a redress of grievances.

Click here to read full length version.

Editor’s Note: I rarely join organizations of any sort, so don’t get upset when I tell you I won’t be joining Oath Keepers.  If you’re the type that likes to belong to organizations like this one, check it out and make sure it meets your standards. As for me, please know that I will be upholding the oath I took upon joining the U.S. Air Force and earning a commission as a second lieutenant almost 24 years ago, and I agree with the “We will NOTs” above.

My wife is a flight attendant who works for a major airline, so I pay a lot of attention to airline-related subject matter. One interesting item I came across today is a “Bare Essentials” safety video below from Air New Zealand.  Thankfully, none of the Kiwis who appeared on camera in the piece appear to have required more than a quart of body paint.  Hilarious and well done!

Hat tip:  Offsetting Behaviour

With Independence Day less than 12 hours away, fireworks safety is a big deal.  As a public service, I recommend you view the fireworks safety video below before you set out to light the night on fire with bottle rockets and Roman candles.

Featuring Joel Berry of Sweet Tea Films fame as “Tavin Dillard”, this video will help you get your weekend off to a good start.  Enjoy!

Thanks, Joel Berry!

I rarely buy bottled water, especially not Evian®, but I do enjoy a well-made television spot when I see one. The effort falls into that category.  Watch it, and see if you enjoy it as much as I did.

File this one under: “Thanks, Google.”

Yes, thanks to the capabilities of this well-known search engine, I was able to pinpoint the reason which New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo might be so interested in helping the Amazon Defense Coalition in its lawsuit against Chevron Corporation.

BACKGROUND

On June 2, I published a post in which I explained how I was putting the state of New York’s Freedom of Information Law to the test in an attempt to find out whether New York Attorney Andrew Cuomo (right) had less-than-pure motives when he penned an inflammatory and provocative letter (pdf) to Chevron Corporation’s David J. O’Reilly.

In his letter, Cuomo basically pronounced the chairman and chief executive officer of the nation’s second-largest oil company “guilty” for his part in contesting a $27 billion class-action  lawsuit filed against his company some 16 years by the Amazon Defense Coalition.

On June 5, I reported that I had received a reply to my FOIL request.  You can guess what the reply was by looking at the headline under which I explained the reply: “NY AG Cuomo Tries to ‘FOIL’ Blogger’s Efforts.”

Still not satisfied, I submitted another FOIL request the following day and received an answer virtually identical to the one I had received before (See my June 13 post, “Is Andrew Cuomo Liar, Incompetent or Both?” for details.)

TODAY

Today, however, a little bird whispered in my ear, advising me to run a Google Search for the terms, “Karen Hinton” and “Andrew Cuomo”.  When I did, I found out that Hinton, the ADC’s hired-gun PR hack, had worked as Cuomo’s director of public affairs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development while Cuomo was serving as HUD secretary under President Bill Clinton.  A May 17, 1999, article at The Weekly Standard — page 2, specifically — corroborates this tidbit of information.

In the aforementioned June 13 post, I wrote, “I, for one, don’t believe a power-hungry liberal Democrat like Cuomo would write a letter to O’Reilly without first having had some kind of contact with representatives of ADC…” and concluded that statement by listing the names of a Philadelphia law firm (Kohn Swift & Graf, P.C.) and the ADC’s lead attorney (Steven R. Donziger).  In reality, I probably should have filed a FOIL request to see what kind of contact Cuomo has had with his former mouthpiece, Hinton.  Now, maybe I will.

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See also: To learn more about the ADC’s spurious lawsuit against Chevron in Ecuador, read these BMW posts.