149 Years ago: The Battle of Fredericksburg, Va. (BAD LINKS REPLACED)

The Battle of Fredericksburg : "The Battle of Fredericksburg, fought December 11-15, 1862, was one of the largest and deadliest of the Civil War. It featured the first major opposed river crossing in American military history. Union and Confederate troops fought in the streets of Fredericksburg, the Civil War’s first urban combat. And with nearly 200,000 combatants, no other Civil War battle featured a larger concentration of soldiers."

 Below, the stone wall that no Yankee ever reached until 2nd Fredericksburg the following year. Beyond this wall the field was carpeted with the prone blue forms of Union dead and wounded .

http://usa-civil-war.com/Fredericksburg/fdksbg_2.html

TD regrets the links formerly in this spot are no longer active. Let's hope these will be sufficient for you:

NPS: Sunken Road/Stone Wall Sector of Fredericksburg Battlefield

Sunken Road Walking Trail

Tourist's account of the battlefield tour

From "God's and Generals": The 20th Maine charges the stone wall You may want your speakers turned down-it's kind of a rock video. I'm just sayin'. 

 Here's a scene featuring the Irish Brigade in "Gods and Generals".

The Angel of the Battlefield;   

Cycling through Civil War history ,

Then and now photos of the Union approaches to the stone wall:  Sad to see how so much hallowed ground was covered by development.

Go here for a more detailed Battle account; Maps of the theater here.

Many NPS links here:  Virtual Tour of Fredericksburg Battlefield

"The Fredericksburg Battlefield driving tour consists of six stops. There are also links to battle sites not on the tour route as well as additional information on touring Fredericksburg Battlefield and learning about the battle."

Dramatic and excellent: Animated timeline map of the battle
Turn your speakers on. Civil war enthusiasts, turn 'em way, way up and also notice the controls at the bottom of the map frame that you can use. Keep your eye on the narrative at the bottom center describing each event of the battle as it occurs.  (Requires Adobe Shockwave)

Updates follow:

The Union Commander, General Ambrose Burnside "Burnside took part in the battle at Antietam (September, 1862) and afterwards President Abraham Lincoln asked him to replace George McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac. After the complaints that had been made by President Abraham Lincoln and the Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, about the inaction of the Union Army, Burnside was determined to immediately launch an attack on the Confederate Army.....

 "After the disastrous battle at Fredericksburg Burnside was replaced by Joseph Hooker. Burnside was put in charge of the Army of Ohio in March, 1863 and succeeded in capturing Morgan's Raiders and performed well at the siege of Knoxville."



Hooker



Burnside's replacement: Gen. Joe Hooker and another disaster.  "After three months of Burnside, Lincoln decided to give overall command to Hooker. Aware of behind the scenes maneuvering while Burnside was in command and statements made by Hooker about the "country needing a dictator," the President wrote a famous letter  to Hooker"... "in which he stated which candidly discusses Hooker's strengths and weaknesses. Although Hooker failed to deliver the results Lincoln expected he was touched by the letter's tone. He told reporter Noah Brooks "That is just such a letter as a father might write to his son. It is a beautiful letter, and, although I think he was harder on me than I deserved, I will say that I love the man who wrote it."
 Lincoln said of Hooker's bombast and promises, "The hen is the wisest of all the animal creation because she never cackles until after the egg has been laid."

Newt: Speak Bombastically and Carry a Tiny Stick



DonkeyHotey



Ann Coulter  "Fellow right-wingers: Is our objective to taunt Obama by accusing him of "Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior," of being "authentically dishonest" and a "wonderful con" -- and then lose the election -- or is it to defeat Obama, repeal ObamaCare, secure the borders, enforce e-verify, reform entitlement programs, reduce the size of government and save the country?

"If all you want is to lob rhetorical bombs at Obama and then lose, Newt Gingrich -- like recent favorite Donald Trump -- is your candidate. But if you want to save the country, Newt's not your guy."

....


"It's true that Newt has had some good ideas -- but also boatloads of bad ones, such as his support for experimentation on human embryos, cap and trade, policies to combat imaginary man-made global warming, an individual health insurance mandate, Dede Scozzafava (Romney supported the tea party candidate), amnesty for illegal aliens, Al Gore​'s bill to establish an "Office of Critical Trends Analysis" to prepare government reports on "alternative futures" (co-sponsored by Gingrich), and thinking he could get away with taking $1.6 million from Freddie Mac without anyone noticing."

Our free, unfettered journalistic watchdogs

Atlas Shrugs: More on Muslim Gunmen in Belgium   "Herman Van Rompuy, a former Belgian prime minister who is now president of the European Council, said he was badly shaken by the attack. “There is no explanation whatsoever,” Van Rompuy said. “It leaves me perplexed and shocked.”

"Of course there is an explanation. Amrani was a Muslim and he was waging his personal Jihad against the infidels. After over 18,000 terrorist attacks by the followers of the religion of peace sincer 9/11, the only thing that is inexplicable and indeed shocking is the surprise of the politicians to connect the dots and that these terrorists are Muslims and they are practicing the many teachings of their prophet.

"Two days earlier, another Muslim, calmly pointed his handgun and opened fire on passing cars near Vine Street and Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood while shouting Allahu Akbar. He injured one passerby before being killed by the police. In both cases the media refused to identify the killer as Muslim terrorist."

"The Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo said the attack was the act of a “lone assailant,” a man known to police who had “no links to terrorism.” “The whole country shares in the pain. This is an isolated case. This is not about terrorism,” he stressed."

Mendacious Media Manipulation  "After the recent shootings in Belgium and Hollywood, most media outlets adamantly refuse to identify the shooters as Muslims, as Pamela Geller notes.

"Now a gunman has killed several vendors in Florence. But, as we see in this HuffPo article, the MSM is wasting no time identifying the shooter as a “right-wing racist terrorist.” "

The LA Times: ALWAYS in Barack’s Corner  "I don’t think Obama’s a Muslim. I don’t think he’s anything. He’s more than likely an agnostic who attends church when he has to for political expediency. America is a largely religious country, after all. He certainly is not a regular church-goer, unless three times a year constitutes regular.

"Of course, this is all quite obvious and the folks at the LAT know it as well as I do. So they lie or gild the lily or prevaricate or whatever you want to call it to protect their man, even in relatively monitor situations like this. It is engrained(sic) in them. They are probably not capable of writing or even seeing the truth.

"To do something as significant as producing the Khalidi Tapes would probably cause the institution to have a breakdown."

Civility: A Compilation of 'the GOP is Insane/Terrorists/Extremists' Articles   "The most heavy-- and even obscene terms are being thrown at the GOP. Below are just some examples from this month alone."There are some legitimately non-hyperbolic editorials coming out from the Left. However-- a disproportionate amount coming from actual establishment news organizations and writers should be cause for alarm. Yes, there is the regular alarm-pulling at the Nation and the Daily Kos-- but there is a troubling trend. The most heavy-- and even obscene terms are being thrown at the GOP. Below are just some examples from this month alone.":  Links active in the article.

- William Yeomans, Politico: Tea Party's Terrorist Tactics
- Paul Waldman, American Prospect: Underestimating Right Wing Insanity
- Nicholas Kristof, NY Times: GOP Zealots Threatening America's Security
- Andrew Leonard, Salon: New GOP Hostage Demand: Kill ObamaCare
- E.J. Dionne, Washington Post: Tea Party Extremism Endangering Nation
- Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA): "Cult Fringe" Holding Up Debt Ceiling Increase
- Gene Lyons, Salon: A Republican Party Divorced From Sanity
- Gary Younge, The Guardian: Debt Ceiling Crisis Exposing GOP Madness
- Bill Maher: Maher: Where Were The "Teabaggers" Before "Blackie McBlackman?"
- Senator John Kerry (D-MA): Kerry: Tea Party Republicans a "Group of Absolutists, Extremists"
- Robert Kuttner, American Prospect: The Joys of Fanaticism
- Paul Krugman, New York Times: The GOP Went Insane Long Ago
- Robert Reich, Huffington Post: The Wrecking Ball Right
- Joan Walsh, Salon: GOP's Extremist 2012 Field Helps Obama
- Jonathan Chait, The New Republic: The Republican Crazy Is Not an Act
- Mike Littwin, Denver Post: Tea Partier Crazies Want U.S. to Default
- Tina Brown, MSNBC: GOP Are Suicide Bombers in Debt Negotiations
- Martin Frost, Politico: The tea party Taliban
- Politico Cartoon: Norquist as the Mad Hatter
- Fmr Governor Ted Strickland (D-OH): 'Crazy'-sounding candidates can't beat Obama
-George Zornick, the Nation: The 'Right-Wing Nutters' Who Are Pushing the Country to the Brink
- Katrina vanden Heuvel, the Nation: The GOP Wants to Sabotage the Economy
- Andrew Leonard, Salon: The House GOP's debt ceiling hara-kiri
- Morning Joe, MSNBC: Is GOP Extremism the Problem in Politics Today?
- Steve Benen / Washington Monthly: How big is the House GOP's sane contingent?

"And this is without delving into Kos, TPM, FireDogLake, Democratic Underground and others. Does anyone else see a meme or is it just me?"

Obama, the guardian of our nation

Dick Cheney: Why didn’t Obama just destroy the drone when he had the chance? "That’s a good question — and according to former VP Dick Cheney’s contacts, Barack Obama didn’t lack for options to keep the highly-classified drone from falling into the Iranian military’s hands. In an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett, Cheney wonders why Obama didn’t order an air strike on the downed aircraft while he still had the chance:"...
"...“was told the president had three options on his desk and he rejected all of them.” The options all involved destroying the drone on the ground.
" “You can do that from the air,” he said. “And, in effect, make it impossible for them to benefit from having captured that drone.” "

Romney: Obama’s A Wimp For Not Destroying That Drone

He (Obama) was extraordinarily weak and timid in a time of … a critical moment. This will have severe implications for us, long term, and it was a terrible mistake on his part. I find it incomprehensible that he didn’t destroy it, or go get it. I think destroying it would have been a good deal easier. Destroy it immediately, or go get it. But the idea of letting it fall into the hands of people who will use it against us, use the intelligence capacity against us, is an extremely enormous mistake on the part of this president.

DEBKAfile: Iran propositions Saudis, seeks anti-US pact, offers nuclear cooperation "This TV item informed Tehran exactly how high the Saudis rate Iran's regional standing and the stability of its government."
Also this: Iran to practice Strait of Hormuz closure while unlocking US drone secrets

Via Iranian.com: US asks Iran to return captured drone

Newt's Romney Argument is Classic Left-Wing Critique of Capitalism

Krauthammer: Newt's Romney Argument is Classic Left-Wing Critique of Capitalism   "Charles Krauthammer says Newt Gingrich is facing some serious problems when it comes to the Presidential race. Besides the fact that the Republican establishment thinks he is erratic, Newt's argument that Romney should give money back to the people he fired when he ran Bain Capital is a classic left-wing critique of capitalism."

In this spot, we would imbed the video, but Youtube requires an Adobe update that I and a few thousand others cannot get to download and install. Even HP forums have not been of any help, but we will trudge on. TD

Regulation for Dummies ; The White House says its rule-making isn't costly or unusual. The evidence shows otherwise..

The Wall Street Journal  "To answer the most basic question—has regulation increased?—we'll focus on what the government defines as "economically significant" regulations. Those are rules that impose more than $100 million in annual costs on the economy, though there are hundreds if not thousands of new rules every year that fall well short of that."
....
"The evidence is overwhelming that the Obama regulatory surge is one reason the current economic recovery has been so lackluster by historical standards. Rather than nurture an economy trying to rebuild confidence after a financial heart attack, the Administration pushed through its now-famous blitz of liberal policies on health care, financial services, energy, housing, education and student loans, telecom, labor relations, transportation and probably some other industries we've forgotten. Anyone who thinks this has only minimal impact on business has never been in business.

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2011/12/12/94498

John Stossel: Job Creators Fighting Back    "Tom Stemberg, founder of Staples, got involved with the Job Creators Alliance  because he's annoyed that the government makes a tough job much tougher.

"He complains that government mostly creates jobs -- that kill jobs.

" "They're creating $300 million worth of jobs in the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau," Stemberg said, "which I don't think is going to do much for productivity in America. We're creating all kinds of jobs trying to live up to Dodd-Frank ... and those jobs don't create much productivity.

....

"Politicians rarely understand this. One who learned it too late was Sen. George McGovern. After he left office, he started a small bed-and-breakfast and hit the regulatory wall he helped create. Later, he wrote, "I wish during the years I was in public office I had this firsthand experience about the difficulties businesspeople face. ... We are choking off business opportunity." "

Why Would Obama Veto Job Creation?  "What’s so offensive that would cause the President to level a veto threat? A provision in H.R. 3630, the “Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2011,” that would provide for the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline project that would bring oil from Canada. Heritage’s Nicolas Loris explains that it would mean “access to easy imports from our northern neighbor, the creation of thousands of jobs, and the generation of revenue for the states where the pipeline passes. Montana, South Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Texas are collectively projected to collect $5.2 billion in property tax revenue as a result of building the pipeline.” "

http://conservativedailynews.com/2011/12/channeling-teddy/

Useful Idiots; the "#Occupiers"

NYC cafe impacted negatively by Occupy Wall Street goes out of business #OWS   "Epstein blamed the barricades that remained in front of his restaurant even after the Occupy Wall Street protestors were removed from Zuccotti Park.

" “This is now the 12th straight week of the barricades,” he said.

"The restaurant owner, who operates an eatery and catering business in Boston, said he pressed the city daily for their removal, but got nowhere.

"Milk Street Cafe’s closure will result in the layoff of 70 workers. That’s on top of the 21 let go in October."

Occupy Wall Street and the wolves among the sheep 

"Lenin used to refer to well intentioned and misguided middle class students who carried water for the Bolsheviks and later the Soviets in Russia and the west as “useful idiots”. The point being that these youths were so blinded by idealistic passion that they remained willfully ignorant to the danger posed by the wolves they were attempting to bring to power and support. The useful idiots were the sheep blissfully allowing the wolves to travel among them and blithely ignorant to the fact that they would be devoured once the wolves had killed the shepherds."

 Time Magazine 'Person of the Year.' The Protestor?  "If they Tea Party had boasted about closing the ports and then have the demonstrations flop as badly as OWS, it would have been headline news.
There were no "millions" of supporters and there never have been. Nobody knows what to support because the OWS crowd has yet to come up with any specifics to oppose - except hate the bankers and the rich. "
Also here: Two Years After Tea Party, Time Calls 'The Protester' Their Person of the Year  "The Tea Party emerges on the second page online, as merely a "foreshadowing" of the authentic protests that has "outlasted" its expected shelf life. (This, as the Occupy crowd is already being swept out of the parks.)"

Tim Tebow Sparks New Round of Non-Existent Hate Crime (Updated)

TheGatewayPundit  "But remember this: This many years into the War on Terror, the only anti-Muslim violence in the US has been a few sponsors pulling out from All-American Muslim, because it was a third-rate reality show. We’re a tolerant people. We welcome people who want to be here. That should include welcoming pretty darned good quarterbacks who are also Christians."

Below is a quote from a site that doesn't seem to abide Christians and considers them to be the enemy: 

If Tebow wins the Super Bowl, against all odds, it will buoy his faithful, and emboldened faithful can do insane things, like burning mosques, bashing gays and indiscriminately banishing immigrants. While America has become more inclusive since Jerry Falwell’s first political forays, a Tebow triumph could set those efforts back considerably.

(Update) Why Tebow? Why Now?  From American Thinker" Sex abuses on the young and innocent went on for years, in most cases ignored by those who could have put an end to it. When it comes to American athletes, their sins are largely tolerated and even glorified in our sick and hedonistic culture.
"For the past year, Tebow has been vilified for his displays of faith on the field and in interviews."
....
"Players from other teams have mocked his one-knee genuflection after a touchdown and his prayer circle with team members. Now, however, rival teammates are joining the circle in thanksgiving for a game well played. Let's face it: spoiled thugs have inundated the NBA and NFL, and perhaps it will take a miracle to bring some respect back to the games.
....
"Some, of course, are feverishly wishing for an end to Tebow's string of "miraculous" victories. To them, Tebow is dangerous because he represents the power of faith and good, clean living."


This following admonition is from the Matthew Henry commentary on Matthew 10:22:

...It appears plainly, that all who will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution; and we must expect to enter into the kingdom of God through many tribulations. With these predictions of trouble, are counsels and comforts for a time of trial. The disciples of Christ are hated and persecuted as serpents*, and their ruin is sought, and they need the serpent's wisdom. Be ye harmless as doves. Not only, do nobody any hurt, but bear nobody any ill-will. Prudent care there must be, but not an anxious, perplexing thought; let this care be cast upon God....    *And many commercial TV evangelists don't help.

Tim Tebow and the media  "A lot of major league athletes are Christians. A lot of them invoke God or make personal expressions of faith at some point in their games. That’s been the case for a long time. Why are the media obsessing on this quarterback and his particular witness to faith?"