Jesters mace | Christian, Constitutionalist & Patriot WP.com site.
Category: Constitutional Issues
Cudos to Godfather Politics:
It has been repeatedly reported on some of our websites that President Barack Hussein Obama is guilty of multiple accounts of treason against the people and Constitution of the United States. He has not been charged with any of his many crimes because he controls the US Attorney General Eric Holder and the Department of Justice (Holder is just as guilty of treason as is Obama). The rest of Congress seems too spineless or fearful to say or do anything about it.
But let someone else try to stand up against Obama’s crime syndicate and he’s the first one to start hollering treason.
It seems that a growing number of state governors are re-establishing State Defense Forces, also known as State Guards, State Military Reserves and State Militias. These forces are under the direct authority of the governor of the state and are not subject to federal control. They can be readily deployed in the case of any natural or man-made disasters.
As of 2010, 23 states and territories have organized State Defense Forces (SDFs) with approximately 14,000 people serving in them. SDFs were established by federal and state law at the very beginning of our country’s history. They have played important roles over the years in helping to defend our nation, however, due to many state budget deficits, SDFs are becoming a thing of the past.
The Heritage Foundation did a report on State Defense Forces back in 2010 and if you want to read more about their history, please click here.
According to a recent report, 14 governors have been working to reinstate SDFs in their states. Governors Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Rick Perry of Texas have been fronting the drive to get more states to re-establish their STFs.
The report goes on to say that each of the 14 governors have now supposedly received National Security Letters from the Obama administration demanding that they halt the formation of their SDFs or face possible charges of treason. It seems that since Obama has drastically reduced the size of the military and their forces are stretched thin with troops still in Afghanistan and Iraq, that he is fearing rebellion from the states. Further evidence of his fear of a rebellion or revolution is the fact that he has nationalized all of the state National Guard units.
Perhaps this is the reason that he has had the Department of Homeland Security purchase over 2 billion rounds of ammunition and thousands of fully automatic assault rifles.
It is typical of Obama to bully everyone who stands up to him and does not bow down and kiss their bottoms goodbye for him. He’s tried this with many states when they passed voter ID laws. He bullied and harassed Sheriff Joe Arpaio because he dared to defy Obama and investigate Obama’s birth certificate.
President Obama is the most corrupt and despicable president our country has ever had. He considers himself to be above the law, above Congress and above the Constitution. He is still actively engaged in giving aide and support to our enemies (Egypt for one) which are the definable terms for the charge of treason according to the US Constitution. He is not acting as our president but rather our dictator. He’s not any different than Fidel Castro or any other dictator in history.
If the report on the governors receiving National Security Letters is true, then America could well be on verge of a national showdown between state governors and the federal government. What better way is it for Obama to rid himself of some of his most ardent state opposition leaders than to start charging them with treason, the very crime that he is guilty of several times over?
DOMA, Homosexual “Marriage”, and the Second Amendment
By Pat Henry / 11 May 2013
The Obama administration is doing all it can to bring about the “change” it promised in 2008. If you consider the continued economic and social devastation that it is wreaking “change”, it is doing a very good job. We had grown pretty complacent having jobs, a stable currency, world leadership, and safety so I guess people were bored and decided to try unemployment, food stamps, poverty, and fear as more exciting alternatives.
Obama did not just promise change, he promised to “fundamentally transform the United States of America”. Poverty, crime, and insecurity are not fundamental changes; they are simply the result of a complete lack of leadership and applying wrongheaded policies.
Fundamental change is something else again – a complete restructuring of the most basic foundation of American law – the Constitution.
The Constitution embodies the wisdom of the Founders, and has been a hugely successful basis for law that has created more wealth and freedom for more people than any other document in history.
But, like all documents, even the Bible, it cannot answer questions about itself and what it means, so it must be interpreted. Its authors understood this, so they provided the Supreme Court to answer these questions.
This is the way law works. There is salutatory law, the written law, and case law, the body of decisions that past courts have made about how the statutory law is to be applied in specific cases. When a question comes up, courts rely upon the law itself and what past courts have said in similar cases to reach a decision.
Although that sounds pretty simple, it is not, particularly in 2013. Many of us look at the results of court decisions, like the famous elderly lady who successfully sued McDonalds for serving her hot coffee, and say, “Huh?” How could the court come up with a nonsensical decision like that? But then, do you always agree with your family or friends?
The same is true with Supreme Court Justices. You would think that a group of people who are highly educated in a particular field would all agree, but unfortunately that is not usually the case. Even doctors often do not agree, which is why you get a second, and maybe third, opinion. With lawyers it is even less likely that they will agree. Although it is not possible to predict how a Justice will vote, as Chief Justice Roberts recently proved, we can loosely lump them into one of two camps.
The first can be called constructionists, or originalists, a term some prefer. These justices try to understand what the original intent of the Founders was when they wrote the Constitution, and use that interpretation to reach a decision. They view their role as to merely apply that intent, not to create or repeal parts of the Constitution. Justice Scalia has written on what he calls the “original meaning” theory, which is simply what any reasonable person at the time of the writing of the Constitution would have thought it meant. Sounds simple, no?
Strangely enough, however, the concept taught in the overwhelming majority of law schools and embraced by a huge number of judges, and all judges that Obama would consider appointing, as well as the majority of the current Court, is the so-called Living Constitution theory. The notion is that the Constitution is analogous to a person, which is constantly growing and changing, along with society. These justices believe that the Founders actually intended for the Constitution to be “flexible” and deliberately wrote it in broad and flexible terms so that the Supreme Court would have the flexibility to change its interpretation with time, to avoid supporting “outdated views.”
I think you can see the logical conclusion of the “Living Constitution” theory – the words mean nothing, and only the opinion of the Court matters. Indeed, case law means nothing, because it simply reflects “outdated views” and is no longer relevant. We are seeing this at the moment, as the Supreme Court considers DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act. Since time immemorial, marriage has been between one man and one woman. Yes, there have been societies where polygamy or other heterosexual variants have been allowed, but there has never been a society where homosexual unions were called “marriage” and equated with heterosexual unions. The Congress codified that in the DOMA passed in 1996 and signed into law by Bill Clinton, who said, “I have long opposed governmental recognition of same-gender marriages, and this legislation is consistent with that position.”
In 2011, however, Mr. Clinton had a change of heart, as many Americans have under the relentless pressure of the Left, and now thinks that the Supreme Court should declare this act unconstitutional. So what? Who cares? Let them have their weddings. How does that affect me?
If in 1996 DOMA was Constitutional legislation, then under the originalist or constructionist theory it would STILL be Constitutional. What has changed between 1996 and 2013? A lot has changed. Mr. Clinton, ever the “populist”, was notorious for changing his views, and his governing style, to fit the mood of the people, which was the secret of his successful presidency. His public positions are a good indicator of the mood of the country, and DOMA is now considered by many as an example of an “outdated view”.
The Living Constitution justices, therefore, would not consider themselves inconsistent if they decide that what was OK less than 20 years ago is no longer OK. The 900 pound gorilla in the room is that this sort of thinking means that none of the rights that we were guaranteed by the Founders embodied in the Constitution mean anything. Under the “Living Constitution” theory, we no longer have rule of law, we have rule of judicial fiat, based upon pressure by whatever elements of society are most successful in making their views heard. Since the 1960’s we know what part of society that is – the Left.
So, keep your eye on the Court’s decision on DOMA and homosexual “marriage”. If the Court decides that thousands of years of human history, not to mention hundreds of years of American history, can be overridden with the stroke of a pen, you can expect all your freedoms, religion, assembly, speech, and your right to bear arms, to fall like so many dominoes behind it.
http://girlsjustwannahaveguns.com/2013/05/doma-homosexual-marriage-and-the-second-amendment/
Gold font my emphasis – “X”
Alabama Supreme Court to Hear Sheriff Joe Evidence Against Obama Birth Certificate
Posted on May 7, 2013 by Dave Jolly
Most people believe that all of the challenges to Barack Obama’s eligibility to be President of the United States ended on January 20, 2013 when he was sworn into office for the second time.
But they haven’t, and although most people watching what is happening say it will have little if any effect on Obama’s presidency, I beg to disagree.
In December 2012, it was reported that a lawsuit challenging Obama’s eligibility in Alabama was being appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court. The lawsuit claims that Alabama Secretary of State Beth Chapman had failed to verify the eligibility of everyone appearing on the November ballot. Had she done so, the suit claims that Obama would not have appeared on the ballot.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Hugh McInnish and others and is being handled by Larry Klayman, founder of Judicial Watch and the Klayman Law Firm of Washington.
What makes this case different than most of the other cases is who the case is being heard in front of. Roy Moore, was re-elected as the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. Moore is very much a constitutional attorney and judge and has not fallen to the liberal misinterpretations of the Constitution that so many other judges have succumbed to. It is no secret that Moore has made previous statements that indicate his doubt of Obama’s eligibility.
Democrats and Obama’s attorneys have been trying to make this case go away. Last week they stated:
“In order for one to accept the claim that President Obama’s birth certificate is a forgery [and that he is ineligible], one has to buy into a conspiracy theory so vast and byzantine that it sincerely taxes the imagination of reasonable minds.”
The statement from the Democrats also quoted a renowned constitutional authority, late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel who said:
“These people could have personally witnessed Obama being born out of an apple pie, in the middle of a Kansas wheat field, while Toby Keith sang the National Anthem – and they’d still think he was a Kenyan Muslim.”
According to WND, Klayman plans on providing what he believes to be definitive proof that the birth certificate produced by the White House is a forgery and that the parties who put the document out committed fraud. To refresh your memory, here is what Sheriff Joe said last year:
According to the WND report, Mike Zullo was quoted as saying:
“We recently discovered new irrefutable evidence, which confirms, hands down, the document is a fraud.”
They also report that Sheriff Joe has been actively pursuing the case and advancing it towards federal prosecution. The report stated:
“As Carl Gallups (PPSIMMONS founder and host of Freedom Friday With Carl Gallups) and Mike Zullo (lead investigator of the Sheriff Joe Arpaio Cold Case Posse) have been telling us, things are moving closer to bringing the fraudulent Obama birth certificate case to a level of federal prosecution.”
“According to Zullo, there are increasing numbers of people … that will not only bring the case to the public light, but also to a high level of legal prosecution.”
“Mike Zullo has confirmed … that the Maricopa County Cold Case Posse will assist in the Alabama Supreme Court Case. … Sheriff Arpraio wants us to fully cooperate with Alabama and Justice Moore in this case…”
Like a stated earlier, most experts say that even if the Alabama Supreme Court rules that Obama is not eligible to be president that it won’t change the outcome, but I beg to differ. Obama won with 332 Electoral College votes to Mitt Romney’s 206. Romney carried Alabama so it would not change the results.
However, if similar lawsuits are filed in states that Obama won, using the Alabama case as the precedent, that 126 vote lead could dwindle. What if similar suits were filed and won in Florida (29 votes), Ohio (18 votes), and Pennsylvania (20 votes) and you suddenly find that the results would be 265 Electoral votes for Obama and Romney would have 273 votes and the White House. It doesn’t have to be those states, but any combination of states that would take away 64 Electoral votes from Obama and give them to Romney. If challenges were made in 26 states that Obama won, using the Alabama precedent, it would only take a few victories to change the election and American history. Although the odds are against it, we can still hope for a miracle, can’t we?
Read more: http://godfatherpolitics.com/10716/alabama-supreme-court-to-hear-sheriff-joe-evidence-against-obama-birth-certificate/#ixzz2SnwJsKkR
Charles Payne [Why this is under Townhall Finance...]
Charles V. Payne is a regular contributor to the Fox Business and Fox News Networks. In addition, he continually provides opinions on the market to scores of prestigious news organizations such as Reuters, Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times and has been the keynote speaker at many investment conferences worldwide. Charles is also the Chief Executive Officer and Principle Analyst of Wall Street Strategies, Inc. (WSSI), which he founded in 1991. With less than $10,000.00 in start up capital and working from his apartment, he launched WSSI to provide a unique brand of stock market advice. Through this service, subscribers (money managers and individual investors) began to reap sizeable profits and the firm developed a national reputation as provider of timely and effective equity analysis. Today, WSSI provides information to over 30,000 subscribers, in more than 60 countries as well as several of the largest bank/brokerage firms. Charles Payne oversees a team of stock analysts who cover specific industry groups, in addition to monitoring the entire market and individual sectors on his own.
There is a serious push to junk the US Constitution, and it’s not going away anytime soon. It’s scary to think, but the same approach for legalizing pot and for pushing immigration is being used. Chip away with a subtle approach aided by some folks on the fringe, then make the circle tighter and tighter. I saw an ad for a new television show that teased something about the Constitution keeping up with the times. This is a favorite approach, the notion the Founding Fathers couldn’t fathom cell phones and machine guns, so this “old piece of paper” is a relic.
The one thing we know has never changed and never will is human behavior. The Constitution provides checks and balances that protect against the worst instincts of checks and balances. And while key players were also slave-owners, it doesn’t make the document void or less valid, it just means these men had flaws. The point is that over the next three years you will witness that all the surface battles will really be proxies for an even bigger prize-a new constitution based on universal laws (read United Nations) coupled with natural laws (read pagan)- that focuses on a Voltaire-like nation of fairness.
Typically, when there is an attempt to junk something as vital and important as the Constitution is to the United States, opponents look for that major event to drive home change.
Many thought it would be Newtown but that didn’t work, although now inner city politicians can blame gun owners in the suburbs or different states for young people in their own districts slaughtering each other. Hollywood can tweet about the evils of guns even as violence has not taken a week break in their world. The critics have their platforms but missed badly on their attempts to use a senseless slaughter of innocents, and now they want to claim blood is on everyone’s hands who believe in the Second Amendment.
New Battle Ground
There have been few people as excited about 3-D printing as I have been. I simply think it’s the most revolutionary thing in more than a decade. But, what if this burgeoning technology gets caught in the crosshairs (pun intended) of the battle to destroy the Constitution? Apparently, there’s an outfit that claims it’s perfected the 3-D printed plastic handgun and will release instructions over the internet this week. They’re calling the gun “The Liberator” and it could up-end a lot of things and make the fight over so-called gun control moot.
It certainly bears watching for all its implications. I must say there is hype that one day an entire airplane could be printed, so a handgun would be child’s play. Of course, that’s a frightening thought, but it might happen even if those rights, now guaranteed in the Constitution, are stripped or the entire document is junked or rewritten.
Here’s the website for more information: http://defdist.org/
WND EXCLUSIVE
Parents told to pay to see school curriculum
Controversy over Texas program that described Tea Party as terror escalates
Published: 12 hours ago
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A controversial school curriculum management system in Texas that once included a description of the Boston Tea Party as terror, and has referenced Islamic terrorists as freedom fighters, now has been found to be trying to charge parents hundreds of dollars to see the instructional materials being used by their own children, officials said.
However, under Texas Education Code Chapter 26, all parents have the undisputed right to see any and all instructional materials used in state classrooms.
The program is CSCOPE, and Amy Zimmerman, a mother in the Collinsville Independent School District, asked to see the 7th grade CSCOPE science lessons used between September 2012 and May 2013, citing her “parental right” under state law.
However, instead of the materials, what she got was a letter from an attorney for the district requiring the payment of $770 so see the materials.
Gerry Miller, an attorney with expertise in education law, said that doesn’t appear to align with the law.
“Suffice it to say the statute is mandatory because of the use of the word ‘shall,’ it is therefore incumbent on the school to comply with the parent’s request. No provision is made for payment by a parent as a ‘condition precedent’ to obtaining the teaching material,” Miller said.
“If a school district demands fees, especially exorbitant fees, to review teaching material, such action has the effect of invalidating the statute’s intent,” he said. “I would fully expect a judge to apply the statute as written and order the school to provide the information without charge.”
Miller also explained an added complication would be that property taxes have been used to support CSCOPE, which has faced heavy criticism by parents, teachers and legislators, culminating in hearings that revealed serious academic deficiencies in the areas of math, science and English, as well as what many critics believe is an agenda-driven bias in social studies content that promotes a negative view of America.
WND has reported on lessons claiming the Boston Tea Party was a terrorist act, and lessons requiring students to design flags for a new communist country.
Teachers also have told WND:
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Lessons are not matched to grade level; a ninth-grade lesson asks students to circle capital letters in a sentence.
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One social studies lesson teaches that capitalism is obsolete and communism is the best economic system, using a diagram that shows a man climbing a ladder towards communism.
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A third-grade lesson defines American “equality” as “fair share.” Competing definitions that include “equality under the law” or “equal opportunity” are not discussed.
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Muhammad is portrayed as a social justice crusader. There is no mention of his marriage to a young girl or his beheading of indigenous population groups.
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Political parties are taught from what critics claim is a subjective and left-leaning perspective, e.g. Democrats “benefit each individual” while Republicans “favor big business.”
WND has also recently acquired lessons covering the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, teaching students that “medicine” and “food” are “rights,” and not a matter of personal responsibility.
Students who do not answer that “medicine” and “food” are “rights” have their answers marked as incorrect, sources report.
Other controversial lesson content includes a science lesson that instructs students to set things on fire in the middle of class and also lessons that promote anorexia and mercy death, according to Mary Bowen, a curriculum expert and teacher of 30 years who corresponds with WND.
CSCOPE also has come under fire for its secrecy and lack of transparency, forcing teachers and districts to sign “user agreements” – what whistleblowers say amount to “gag orders.” Teachers are exposed to legal liability if they share lesson content or other class materials with the general public, and threats of termination have been reported by teachers who attempt to engage parents about controversial CSCOPE content.
One result of legislative hearings was the suggestion for changes in user agreements, but sources have told WND that existing users are not included in any changes; they are only for new groups who want to sign up.
A CSCOPE program advising on the privacy requirements for the content notes users are required to not allow “unauthorized users to have online access … or gain permanent possession of … content.”
On Feb 7th, 2012 I posted CONGRESS IS TRYING TO ELIMINATE THE REQUIREMENT OF BEING A NATURAL BORN CITIZEN TO BE PRESIDENT!
Although I’ve made many references to the Constitutional requirement that both parents be U.S. citizens, at this juncture, I wasn’t able to locate that exact statement in the Constitution showing this in my postings. I know it’s there…somewhere. In any event I felt the need to repost the video on this subject before anymore damage is done to our gravely ill Republic:
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When the Senate returns to session next week, some of the most important battles of the Obama presidency will take place.
Gun control, immigration reform, and national internet sales tax are three big battles.
Sadly, it seems as though Republicans aren’t committed to the fight and could allow Obama to get everything he wants.
But I know YOU can help turn the tide.
These are fights we can’t afford to lose.
They were there to prepare for the liberation of Europe, a make or break moment in World War II. The talk was mostly about back home though: the old spots, the old games, the old girlfriends; and the new ones, too. Lots of, “if I don’t make it back, tell her I loved her.” Only part of the time was focused on what was to come.
D-Day. Normandy. Hell.
Tommy Niland Jr. was there among the group. So too were three of his cousins: Fritz, Bobby and Preston Niland. They’d all grown up together. Tommy was one of 13 kids raised in a crowded home on Adam Street. The others part of a clan of six children a couple blocks away on Elmwood Park. All lived close enough to the steel furnace that their fathers walked to work. The kids all circled through each other’s homes, one close-knit family.
Frederick “Fritz” Niland served in the Army. (Getty)Fritz, Bobby and Preston had another brother, Ed, who was a pilot in the Pacific theater. The guys in England didn’t know it that night, but Ed’s plane had gone down just weeks before and the military presumed he was dead. At that moment they were focused on themselves. They drank to the past and hoped for a future, and in the wee hours of the morning split up, back to their regiments and units.
Two weeks later, on June 6, the invasion began. Tommy and Fritz were dropped behind enemy lines, part of 327th glider regiment of the 101st Airborne. Bobby and Preston were sent to storm the beach, where both men were soon killed in action, two of an estimated 29,000 Americans lost in the invasion.
That very day, back in Tonawanda, their mother received a message from the military that Ed was lost in the Pacific. Suddenly three of her four sons in the war were presumed gone.
Only Fritz remained, somewhere within the chaos and killing of Normandy.
Earlier in the war, in 1942, five brothers from the Sullivan family of Waterloo, Iowa perished during the sinking of the USS Juneau. From that point on, the military decided it wasn’t proper for one mother, in this case Alleta Sullivan, to lose that much, to lose all her sons in combat.
So Fritz Niland was soon identified and sent home, eventually to Tonawanda. He later became an oral surgeon and lived until 1983.
In 1992, author Stephen Ambrose featured the story of the Nilands in his best selling book, “Band of Brothers.”
In 1998, filmmaker Steven Spielberg released a movie that while fictionalized, was based on the Nilands. It was called “Saving Private Ryan.” Matt Damon played Private James Ryan, aka Fritz Niland. The movie won five Oscars.
In 1953, the former Josephine Niland, sister of Tommy, cousin of Bobby, Preston, Ed and Fritz, gave birth in Western New York to the eighth of her nine children.
His name is John Beilein. He is currently the men’s basketball coach of the University of Michigan.
On Saturday, his team plays in the Final Four against Syracuse.
[Related: Reason to root for Michigan | Syracuse]
“It’s quite a story,” Beilein, 60, told Yahoo! Sports Tuesday morning. “I say to my children all the time, ‘we all know we came from very strong stock, we realize the sacrifices they made and we need to try to carry it on.’
“Because that is one courageous generation.”
Growing up, John Beilein’s generation of Nilands knew just bits and pieces of the story.
There were scrapbooks that featured pictures of Bobby and Preston, but never the full story. There were war wounds but an unwillingness to share much about how they came about. There were conversations about specific battles cut short when details were sought.
John Beilein reacts after Michigan punched its ticket to the Final Four. (AP)
Beilein himself admits the war was just rarely discussed. Even in a family of such remarkable sacrifice, it wasn’t a driving part of everyday life.
”I didn’t know a whole lot about the situation until I saw the movie,” he said. It was then, during a scene when a messenger went to the fictional house that it hit home. These were his people, his family.
”Even though the house was put in Iowa, it was really Tonawanda, New York,” he said. “I know the house they would have gone to. I can almost see the situation. And now I’m seeing it as a parent. It’s an incredible blow to a family.”
Tragedy wasn’t discussed much back in those days though. Grief therapy wasn’t much of a concept. Life happened and you plugged on. Silently. Especially in working class Western New York.
Beilein’s own grandfather worked 50 years at Buffalo Steel, from age 20 to 70, six days a week, raising all those kids, through all kinds of stuff. The same week Tommy returned from the war, seemingly a time for grateful celebration, another brother was killed in an accident at the mill.
”That generation, they all went through it,” Beilein said. “Death and pain was something they dealt with. There wasn’t time for anybody to feel sorry for anybody else.”
There was the unexpected joy too. Long after he was thought lost and mourned dead, Ed Niland was discovered in a Japanese POW camp in Burma. He was sent back to Tonawanda and lived to the age of 72.
His time in that camp, presumed dead by the military, led to Fritz being taken out of harm’s way. Ed Niland may have unwittingly saved his little brother’s life.
Tommy Niland was Josephine’s brother and he was an excellent basketball player. He was on the varsity at Canisius in December 1941 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. He, along with another cousin, Joe Niland, finished out the school year and enlisted.
Their war stories, now documented by others in books and articles, are legendary – heroic acts and selfless, dramatic stands. Tommy Niland, however, never forgot a Major Stubblefield, who, he said, saved his life before being killed in Normandy. Those are the razor thin margins of war.
The life of Tommy Niland was a full one. He returned to Canisius and even with one arm wrecked by German shrapnel, simply adapted his game and played two more seasons anyway. Then he got into coaching.
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In 1983 he was the athletic director at Le Moyne College, a Division II program in Syracuse. He needed a basketball coach. His nephew, John Beilein, wanted the job and boasted years of experience coaching high school, junior college and NAIA ball.
Tommy Niland saw a young coach with talent, ambition and the competitive fire of his own kid sister, Josephine.
“My mother was one of 13,” Beilein said. “She competed for food on the table, who was going to eat. There were three or four in a room, three in a double bed. They were Irish/French families who came to dig the canal. Yeah, she was a tough cookie.”
So too was he, at least until his second season he found himself without a quality point guard. Beilein had a handful of guards – including Dave Niland, another cousin – but none could do the job.
“We were not very athletic and teams were jumping up in passing lanes,” Beilein said.
“That was probably me,” Dave Niland, now the head coach at Division III Penn State Behrend, laughed. “I don’t want to take all the blame, but I was in the mix.”
Tom Hanks (front) was one of the stars of “Saving Private Ryan.” (AP)
Beilein said he went and complained about his terrible team to Tommy Niland, who in the sarcastic, man-up style of WWII veteran, mocked his nephew by asking if he wanted to just shut the team down. Beilein got the hint and asked for help. Tommy pulled out some wooden pieces and the two sat down at a table.
At the time, positions in basketball were strict. Your point guard handled the ball. Your shooting guard shot the ball. Your forward … Tommy decided to switch it all up, why not play with two point guards and go small.
“He took out little pieces of wood and said, why don’t you run this, that way if one guy gets in trouble he can flat pass to the other,” Beilein said. “I looked at it and said, ‘nobody plays like that.’ But it made sense.”
Le Moyne tried it. Turnovers dropped. Beilein is quick to point out he soon saw a Washington Huskies game where coach Andy Russo employed a similar strategy. And he points to the input of Tom Cooney, then Le Moyne’s women’s basketball coach and Dick Rockwell, who led the baseball team.
It may have been a group effort but a new twist to the game was added – a two-guard offense, mostly the brainchild of one of those Nilands from Normandy.
“We’ve run the same thing for the last 25-26 years,” Beilein said. That will include Saturday against Syracuse, this time with Trey Burke rather than Dave Niland.
Would the now late Tommy Niland – all those Nilands really – love to see that? Love to see one of their own coach a team in Final Four this weekend?
“Tommy thought John was just the best coach in the country,” Dave Niland said. “But I don’t think he ever told John that. He’d tell me, but those guys would never praise someone to their face. They’d tell someone else you were doing well, but never you directly.
“That’s just the way that generation and that family was.”
It’s perhaps the most lasting regret for the kids of this branch of the Greatest Generation. How is it possible it took books by outsiders, movies from Hollywood, old stories by others, to cut through the silence in their own homes?
They’ve recently been passing around another book – “Glider Infantryman: Behind Enemy Lines in World War II,” by Donald Rich, a member of the 101st Airborne that day in Normandy and writer Kevin Brooks.
It’s full of stories about those days – the tragedy and tension, the heroes and horrors. It features a bunch of the Niland boys. Their kids and nephews and cousin’s sons are continuing to learn more and more about what happened.
“It’s a phenomenal book,” Beilein said.
If there is one shared regret of them all, it’s that they didn’t coax more stories out of the survivors while they could. Part of it was a failure of communication. Part, of course, was the sheer unwillingness of that generation to share war stories.
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Tommy Niland III was a Marine who served a tour in Vietnam, which allowed him to talk some with his dad, but he acknowledges, not enough.
There was a family trip back to Europe in 1999. Dave Niland’s team was playing a tournament in Germany, so a bunch of them plotted out a tour featuring basketball, the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium and later the beaches and fields of Normandy in France.
Tommy III recalls his father explaining the chaotic month after the invasion – so much uncertainty, so much unknown, so much danger and, of course, so many dead. Tommy said one day, four weeks after the invasion, he ran into Fritz and asked for news.
“Tommy,” Fritz said, “I’m going home because Bobby and Preston were both killed on the beaches and Ed is lost.”
They shook hands. One cousin left. Another stayed. Now Tommy was back in Normandy, with his son, trying, despite the early stages of dementia, to make sense of it. The entire thing was overwhelming.
“I remember we were standing on top of a bluff at Omaha Beach,” Tommy III said. “There are killing boxes still there and machine gun nests. And you look down at it all, where they charged up the beach, and I just kept asking, ‘how did these guys do this? How did they manage to survive?’ ”
It’s only then, through books and movies and eyewitness tours, John Beilein and all his cousins say, that this incredible family – and so many like them – has begun to be understood. Not just by outsiders, but, most importantly, from within.
The e-mail byline read “three ways we could lose” so let’s get ‘em! I find it strange that Republicans would refuse disaster relief, and the same tired argument about attacking seniors Social Security and Medicare is being used to encourage donations.: (links broken)
Since November, House Republicans have shown they’re as committed as ever to dragging us backwards — if we let them.
They’ve forced the sequester into effect, introduced a new version of the destructive Paul Ryan budget, and of course voted to repeal Obamacare… again.
None of their worst legislation will see the light of day as long as Democrats control the Senate. But with 55 Democratic seats, we can scarcely afford to lose one — let alone the three held by Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Mark Begich of Alaska, and Mark Pryor of Arkansas.
Early support for these red-state Democrats will go farther in preserving these Democratic seats and our Democratic Senate majority — and they each have a crucial public financial reporting deadline on March 31st.
Contribute $25 or more to Senator Landrieu, Senator Begich, and Senator Pryor today, before the end-of-quarter deadline on March 31st.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, many Republicans initially refused to provide the kind of disaster relief that has been routine in the past — including some from the gulf coast region.
That’s why the unwavering support of Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana was so important to the passage of the Sandy Relief bill. Senator Landrieu did as much as anyone to help Louisianans recover from Katrina, and she fought hard for those of us affected by Sandy, too. We need her voice in the Senate.
Senator Landrieu needs early support for her reelection. Contribute $25 or more before the deadline.
Senator Mark Begich has been so effective because he knows we need to defend and strengthen the programs seniors rely on, especially Social Security and Medicare.
That’s allowed him to take a smart, two-pronged approach to our economy that ignores the false choices on retirement programs. Instead, he’s focused on creating good jobs now and investing in critical basic facilities for future growth.
Senator Begich needs early support for his reelection. Contribute $25 or more before the deadline
Senator Mark Pryor has been doing terrific work as a Democratic senator from Arkansas — particularly when it comes to jobs.
The Building a Stronger America Act he helped introduce included bipartisan measures to move our economy forward and support American competitiveness based on: strengthening the U.S. manufacturing sector, leveling the playing field for American companies, and enhancing trade opportunities for American companies.
Senator Pryor needs early support for his reelection. Contribute $25 or more before the deadline.
After March 31st, each of these candidates will have to file a public financial report. Potential opponents — and the right-wing billionaires who fund them — will look at those reports to gauge each candidate’s strength and whether to make a challenge.
Strong reports out of these red states now could potentially save our Senate majority.
Thank you for your support,
Chuck Schumer
