Category Archives: World War II

D Day June 7, 2018, Never forget, 1944 the greatest invasion ever seen landed on the Normandy beach, Story our children and their children should know, Let us never forget D-Day

D Day June 7, 2018, Never forget, 1944 the greatest invasion ever seen landed on the Normandy beach, Story our children and their children should know, Let us never forget D-Day

“If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed,
If you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly,
You may come to the moment when you will have to fight
with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival.”…Winston Churchill

“We owe the World War II generation more than we can ever repay them. We must not let them and their sacrifices be forgotten.” …Citizen Wells

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”…Winston Churchill

 

They truly were the greatest generation.

From the Greensboro News Record.

“Our Opinion: D-Day: Never forget

It was a victory of strategy and a superior military force.

On June 6, 1944, the greatest invasion ever seen at that point landed on the Normandy shore in France as the U.S. and its allies — some 156,000 strong, supported by more than 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft — fought against a legion of German machine-gun nests planted in the hills above the beach.

Sheer numbers empowered the Allies to win the battle.

The invasion, “Operation Overlord,” had been meticulously planned. It called for a high degree of cooperation and secrecy among Allied commanders.

A massive deception led the Germans to think an invasion would take place elsewhere so that the German troops at Normandy were taken by surprise.

And when the military vessels arrived at the Normandy beaches on June 6, our troops surged forward courageously, knowing that many among them would not survive. They sacrificed their lives in battle in hopes of turning the tide in the world-wide conflict.

Despite its successful execution, the operation demanded a deadly price that will forever underscore the cost of war and its inhumanity.

Though there was no official count, according to some estimates, more than 4,000 U.S. troops were killed by enemy fire as they fought across the beach to reach the German enclaves. Thousands more were wounded or missing.

But the U.S. and its allies succeeded, capturing the beach and gaining a foothold in the struggle against German occupation and oppression. By late August, all of northern France was liberated and by the following spring, the Germans were defeated.

D-Day was the beginning of the end.”

“This is a story that our children and their children should know. It speaks of sacrifice and liberation. It speaks of an international force, united for the worthy cause of defeating one of the greatest evils of history.

 

More here:

https://citizenwells.com/

http://citizenwells.net/

 

 

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World War II battle for Aleutian Attu Island forgotten but still haunts soldiers, Japanese surprise attack off Alaska coast, Only WWII battle on US soil, Mostly hand to hand combat

World War II battle for Aleutian Attu Island forgotten but still haunts soldiers, Japanese surprise attack off Alaska coast, Only WWII battle on US soil, Mostly hand to hand combat

“If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed,
If you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly,
You may come to the moment when you will have to fight
with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival.”…Winston Churchill

“We owe the World War II generation more than we can ever repay them. We must not let them and their sacrifices be forgotten.” …Citizen Wells

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”…Winston Churchill

 

From the Greensboro News Record.

“Bloody but forgotten WWII battle still haunts soldiers

William Roy Dover’s memory of the World War II battle is as sharp as it was 75 years ago, even though it’s been long forgotten by most everyone else.

His first sergeant rousted him from his pup tent around 2 a.m. when word came the Japanese were attacking and had maybe even gotten behind the American front line, on a desolate, unforgiving slab of an occupied island in the North Pacific.

“He was shouting, ‘Get up! Get out!'” Dover said.

Dover and most of the American soldiers rushed to an embankment on what became known as Engineer Hill, the last gasp of the Japanese during the Battle of Attu , fought 75 years ago this month on Attu Island in Alaska’s Aleutian chain.

“I had two friends that were too slow to get out,” the 95-year-old Alabama farmer recalled. “They both got bayonetted in their pup tents.”

Joseph Sasser, then a skinny 20-year-old from Cartharge, Mississippi, also found himself perched against the berm on Engineer Hill when a captain with a rifle took up a position about 10 feet (3 meters) away.

“I noticed about after 30 minutes or so, he was awfully quiet,” Sasser said. “We checked to see if he had a pulse and if he was alive, and he was not.

“We didn’t even know he had been shot,” said Sasser, also 95.

American forces reclaimed remote Attu Island on May 30, 1943, after a 19-day campaign that is known as World War II’s forgotten battle. Much of the fighting was hand-to-hand, waged in dense fog and winds of up to 120 mph (193 kph).

The battle for the Aleutian island was one of the deadliest in the Pacific in terms of the percentage of troops killed. Nearly all the Japanese forces, estimated at about 2,500 soldiers, died with only 28 survivors. About 550 or so U.S. soldiers were killed.

American forces, many poorly outfitted for Alaska weather and trained in California for desert combat, recaptured Attu 11 months after the Japanese took it and a nearby island, Kiska. It was the only WWII battle fought on North American soil.

The Japanese staged a last-ditch, desperate offensive May 29 at Engineer Hill.

“Japanese soldiers surprise American forces on Attu with a fanatical charge out of the mountains,” recounts an Associated Press chronology of WWII events in 1943. “Savage fighting rages throughout the day and into the following night.”

Read more:

http://www.greensboro.com/ap/us_world/bloody-but-forgotten-wwii-battle-still-haunts-soldiers/article_11df2173-bfad-556f-9dae-6575b8c84aed.html

God bless those who fought and died for our country and their families.

 

 

More here:

https://citizenwells.com/

http://citizenwells.net/

 

Memorial Day Monday May 26, 2014, World War hero Pastor Gerald C. Primm obituary, P-38 Lightning fighter pilot, Greensboro News Record obituary, Distinguished Flying Cross

Memorial Day Monday May 26, 2014, World War hero Pastor Gerald C. Primm obituary, P-38 Lightning fighter pilot, Greensboro News Record obituary, Distinguished Flying Cross

“But they that wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint”….Isaiah 40:31
“If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed,
If you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly,
You may come to the moment when you will have to fight
with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival.”…Winston Churchill

 

 

From Citizen Wells May 29, 2011.

“I have read many obituaries. I always look for the ones of Word War II veterans. It is my way of thanking them for their sacrifices. Today I was presented an obituary that left me in awe and with respect for a shining example from the Greatest Generation. It is fitting that the world celebrate and give thanks for the life of Pastor Gerald C. Primm, a war hero and man of God.

From the Greensboro News and Record Obituaries, Sunday, May 29, 2011, Memorial Day Weekend.

“Gerald joined the Army Air Force during WWII to fight for his country. He became a Fighter Pilot flying the P-38 Lightning. During the war years he flew 56 combat missions (Note: only had to fly 50 but volunteered for 6 more). His exploits as a fighter pilot ranged from starting his European service in Casablanca, to starting his combat missions in Mateur, Tunisia in Northern Africa and in escorting bombers to Sardinia. After Sardinia was liberated by the Allies, he was stationed at Sardinia where he suffered from a bout of yellow jaundice. From Sardinia Gerald was stationed at Gioia del Colle on Italy proper.

He flew six combat missions out of Gioia del Colle – the most harrowing was the mission to escort bombers to bomb a ball-bearing plant in Wiener-Neustadt, Austria. When the bombers arrived at Wiener-Neustadt they had to abort their mission due to weather, but this just started the travails of Gerald as bandits (enemy) were spotted and Gerald counted about 25 of them and then another 35 were spotted for a total of 60. Outnumbered by 60 to 16, Gerald’s plane was fixed upon and a bullet knocked out his hydraulic system and one engine, thus his wing flaps were not maneuverable and his landing gear would not deploy. Gerald dismissed bailing out over Yugoslavia and decided to skim the mountain tops and glide over the Adriatic Sea. To compound Gerald’s problems a German plane was coming in for the kill and one of Gerald’s fellow pilots, Jim Advey, came to the rescue and drove the enemy fighter away. They remained life-long friends after the war. Gerald’s Wiener-Neustadt escapade ended as he spotted an airfield north of Foggia, Italy and Gerald crash landed at 130 miles an hour without the plane somersaulting down the runway.
The remaining number of his 50 missions would be flown out of Foggia airfields which included escorting bombers to bomb the infamous Ploesti oil refineries in Rumania. Other exploits included flying from England to Algiers and having to emergency land on Gibraltar because one engine had failed. But the most noteworthy assignment of the war came about after Gerald had received the promotion to captain and volunteered for more missions (6) beyond his obligatory requirement of 50. At this time he was called into the office of Lt. General Ira Eaker, Mediterranean Commander, USAAF at King Victor Emmanuel’s Palace where he was asked if he knew about the upcoming invasion of Southern France. Once Gerald said no, Eaker informed him that he had been selected to fly Lt. General Jacob Devers, Supreme Allied Commander of the Mediterranean, in a specially modified P-38 to view the invasion on August 15, 1944, called Operation Dragoon. This Gerald did as he and the General, as well as 7 other Generals flew out of Corsica to view the invasion of Southern France by the Allies.

For his exploits in WWII Gerald received the Distinguished Flying Cross awarded for “Heroism or Extraordinary Achievement” and the Air Medal with nine oak leaf clusters. In addition he received the Asian-Pacific Theatre Ribbon, Europe-Africa-Mediterranean Theater Ribbon with three battle stars and Distinguished Unit Citation.

After the war Gerald attempted to pick up his college education that had been interrupted by the war years by attending the UNC-Chapel Hill and moving to Texas to attend Baylor University. But a higher calling was in the offing for Gerald as he felt led to enter the Christian ministry as a Southern Baptist Preacher/Pastor. At about the same time he met the love of his life Ethel Brown at the First Baptist Church in Sanford where Ethel was Educational Director. Their marriage on December 28, 1948 formed a magnificent partnership in serving their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ until Ethel’s death on January 10, 2006. “

“Gerald also took a stand for Civil Rights as evidenced by his bold and heroic actions in the 1950′s at his church in Raleigh which was located beside Shaw University, a black college. Some of the leaders of the church told Gerald that four Shaw University Students (African American) were attempting to enter the church to worship and these officials would not let them. Gerald rebuked them and told the officials to let them come in to worship. The next week Gerald, from the pulpit, resigned as pastor saying the courageous and truthful words to some members of the congregation that “their hearts were blacker than the faces of the students they barred from the place of worship”. This incident made statewide, national, and international news and brought Gerald great admiration from the African-American communities in Raleigh and threats from others. To the church’s credit they received the rebuke from their pastor and voted to rescind his resignation.
Gerald Primm was a war hero and a hero of the faith, but to the ones who loved him and knew him the most he was a loving friend, pastor, mentor, husband, brother, son and father. “

Thank God for the life of Pastor Gerald C. Primm

 

Bob Schieffer Nazi comment, Schieffer CBS owe Americans and Nazi victims apology, Nazis confiscated guns herded Jews, Edward R Murrow reported truth

Bob Schieffer Nazi comment, Schieffer CBS owe Americans and Nazi victims apology, Nazis confiscated guns herded Jews, Edward R Murrow reported truth

“surely, defeating the Nazis, was a much more formidable task than taking on the gun lobby.”…Bob Schieffer

“While my father was hunted, Schieffer lived comfortably in Texas, where private citizens had guns and children were safe. There is no need to denigrate Schieffer, but he and his ilk need to be educated before invoking the worst evils of mankind.

The NAZIs were nothing like the National Rifle Association. They were the exact opposite. The Nazis were anti-gun. They confiscated guns, starting with those owned by Jews. Like many liberal American Jews today, German Jews were told everything would be fine. The government would protect them.”…Eric Golub

“A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.”…Edward R. Murrow

There was a time when I had respect for Bob Schieffer and CBS News. That respect and trust has eroded for years. Recently, any respect I had for Scheiffer completely evaporated.

Recently Bob Schieffer referred to the struggle against gun proponents in the context of defeating the Nazis. At CBS, the home of Edward R. Murrow, who knew first hand the tyranny and terror of the Nazis, who took guns away from the Jews, herded them up and destroyed them. Murrow did his best to inform America and the world of these atrocities.

Bob Schieffer and CBS owe the American public and victims of Nazi atrocities an apology.

From Last Resistance January 18, 2013.

“I desperately tried to find a great quote that would summarize my thoughts on what I’m about to write. I searched all over the web, and could find not a single quote that encapsulated the preposterousness of what Bob Schieffer said on Wednesday. So rather than blather on with platitudes, like I usually do, I’m gonna get right to it.

According to Bob Schieffer, President Obama’s battle against the NRA is comparable to both Lyndon Johnson’s civil rights battles, and the defeat of the Nazis in World War II. Here’s the exact quote for your perusal and general amusement:

“Let’s remember: there was considerable opposition when Lyndon Johnson went to the Congress and…presented some of the most comprehensive civil rights legislation in the history of this country. Most people told him he couldn’t get it done, but he figured out a way to do it. And that’s what Barack Obama is going to have to do…what happened in Newtown was probably the worst day in this country’s history since 9/11. We found Osama bin Laden. We tracked him down. We changed the way that we dealt with that problem. Surely, finding Osama bin Laden; surely, passing civil rights legislation, as Lyndon Johnson was able to do; and before that, surely, defeating the Nazis, was a much more formidable task than taking on the gun lobby.””

“Now onto the second part of Schieffer’s diatribe. In his rant, he equates going up against the NRA with defeating the Nazis. Seems a bit extreme. Bob Schieffer is exaggerating to such an extent, that it goes beyond simple hyperbole; it moves toward irresponsibility.

So, when actually analyzed, the information in Schieffer’s quote is nothing more than simple lies through omission, and grotesque exaggerations. It is really disturbing to me that this man is regarded as a national treasure in the news industry. He distorts the truth, and propagates gross misrepresentations; which is the exact opposite of what a journalist should do.

I would admonish Schieffer; tell him that he’s better than this garbage; but I know he’s not. Schieffer is just one of a million “journalists” who are propping this President up. Don’t believe a word he says, because he is a snake.”

Read more:

http://lastresistance.com/1064/bob-schieffer-obama-taking-on-nra-defeating-the-nazis/

From  Eric Golub and the Washington Times January 17, 2013.

“Liberals like Schieffer cannot stop. Maybe they are pro-Adolf Hitler, given their insistence in injecting him into every conversation about conservative policies from tax cuts to gun control to foreign policy. Hitler, Brown-shirts, Nazis, Goose-Steppers, and similar analogies flow from their lips as casually as others say “nice day” and “lovely weather.”

This is deeply personal for me. My father is a Holocaust survivor. So were his parents. They lived in the woods, constantly on the run. Like animals, they survived through luck and instinct. My father was a baby, spending his first four years hunted like a dog. My grandmother would keep him under her shirt to muffle his cries. Christians (those people the left keeps demonizing) risked their own lives and smuggled my grandfather food and clothing. There was no shelter. After four years on the run, World War II ended. Four years after that, my father and his parents came to America. They were lucky. His grandparents, my great-grandparents were all murdered.”

Read more:

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/tygrrrr-express/2013/jan/17/bob-schieffer-nra-and-nazis-never-again/

Edward R. Murrow

RTNDA Convention October 15, 1958

“Believing that potentially the commercial system of broadcasting as practiced in this country is the best and freest yet devised, I have decided to express my concern about what I believe to be happening to radio and television. These instruments have been good to me beyond my due. There exists in mind no reasonable grounds for personal complaint. I have no feud, either with my employers, any sponsors, or with the professional critics of radio and television. But I am seized with an abiding fear regarding what these two instruments are doing to our society, our culture and our heritage.

Our history will be what we make it. And if there are any historians about fifty or a hundred years from now, and there should be preserved the kinescopes for one week of all three networks, they will there find recorded in black and white, or color, evidence of decadence, escapism and insulation from the realities of the world in which we live. I invite your attention to the television schedules of all networks between the hours of 8 and 11 p.m., Eastern Time. Here you will find only fleeting and spasmodic reference to the fact that this nation is in mortal danger. There are, it is true, occasional informative programs presented in that intellectual ghetto on Sunday afternoons. But during the daily peak viewing periods, television in the main insulates us from the realities of the world in which we live. If this state of affairs continues, we may alter an advertising slogan to read: LOOK NOW, PAY LATER.

For surely we shall pay for using this most powerful instrument of communication to insulate the citizenry from the hard and demanding realities which must be faced if we are to survive. I mean the word survive literally. If there were to be a competition in indifference, or perhaps in insulation from reality, then Nero and his fiddle, Chamberlain and his umbrella, could not find a place on an early afternoon sustaining show. If Hollywood were to run out of Indians, the program schedules would be mangled beyond all recognition. Then some courageous soul with a small budget might be able to do a documentary telling what, in fact, we have done–and are still doing–to the Indians in this country. But that would be unpleasant. And we must at all costs shield the sensitive citizens from anything that is unpleasant.”

“One of the basic troubles with radio and television news is that both instruments have grown up as an incompatible combination of show business, advertising and news. Each of the three is a rather bizarre and demanding profession. And when you get all three under one roof, the dust never settles. The top management of the networks with a few notable exceptions, has been trained in advertising, research, sales or show business. But by the nature of the coporate structure, they also make the final and crucial decisions having to do with news and public affairs. Frequently they have neither the time nor the competence to do this.”

“Sometimes there is a clash between the public interest and the corporate interest. A telephone call or a letter from the proper quarter in Washington is treated rather more seriously than a communication from an irate but not politically potent viewer. It is tempting enough to give away a little air time for frequently irresponsible and unwarranted utterances in an effort to temper the wind of criticism.”

And this brings us to the nub of the question. In one sense it rather revolves around the phrase heard frequently along Madison Avenue: The Corporate Image. I am not precisely sure what this phrase means, but I would imagine that it reflects a desire on the part of the corporations who pay the advertising bills to have the public image, or believe that they are not merely bodies with no souls, panting in pursuit of elusive dollars. They would like us to believe that they can distinguish between the public good and the private or corporate gain. So the question is this: Are the big corporations who pay the freight for radio and television programs wise to use that time exclusively for the sale of goods and services? Is it in their own interest and that of the stockholders so to do? The sponsor of an hour’s television program is not buying merely the six minutes devoted to commercial message. He is determining, within broad limits, the sum total of the impact of the entire hour. If he always, invariably, reaches for the largest possible audience, then this process of insulation, of escape from reality, will continue to be massively financed, and its apologist will continue to make winsome speeches about giving the public what it wants, or “letting the public decide.”

“I refuse to believe that the presidents and chairmen of the boards of these big corporations want their corporate image to consist exclusively of a solemn voice in an echo chamber, or a pretty girl opening the door of a refrigerator, or a horse that talks. They want something better, and on occasion some of them have demonstrated it. But most of the men whose legal and moral responsibility it is to spend the stockholders’ money for advertising are removed from the realities of the mass media by five, six, or a dozen contraceptive layers of vice-presidents, public relations counsel and advertising agencies. Their business is to sell goods, and the competition is pretty tough.

But this nation is now in competition with malignant forces of evil who are using every instrument at their command to empty the minds of their subjects and fill those minds with slogans, determination and faith in the future. If we go on as we are, we are protecting the mind of the American public from any real contact with the menacing world that squeezes in upon us. We are engaged in a great experiment to discover whether a free public opinion can devise and direct methods of managing the affairs of the nation. We may fail. But we are handicapping ourselves needlessly.”

“But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.”

This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful.

Stonewall Jackson, who knew something about the use of weapons, is reported to have said, “When war comes, you must draw the sword and throw away the scabbard.” The trouble with television is that it is rusting in the scabbard during a battle for survival.”

http://futurewewant.org/2012/an-inspiring-quote-from-edward-r-murrow/

“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men – not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular”

Edward R. Murrow

World War II veteran Warren C. Bodeker being thrown off his land, Army Airborne combat veteran needs our help, Wife recently deceased, Bodeker prostate cancer

World War II veteran Warren C. Bodeker being thrown off his land, Army Airborne combat veteran needs our help, Wife recently deceased, Bodeker prostate cancer

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”…Thomas Paine

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”…Winston Churchill

I have nothing but respect for Warren C. Bodeker and his fellow soldiers who saved the US and world from destruction in World War II. We gotta help this man.

From Oath Keepers June 15, 2012.

“WWII Veteran Being Forced Out of Home and Forced to Exhume Wife’s Body: Needs Your Help”

“Warren C. Bodeker is an 89 year old World War II Army Airborne combat veteran and war hero, living in Montana, who is being thrown off of his own land and thrown out of his own house, by Montana Federal Bankruptcy Trustee, Christy Brandon, with the approval of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Montana. And to make matters worse, Warren’s wife Lorna just died of cancer this past year, and is buried there on their land, right next to the house.Warren had planned to live there till he died and then be buried right next to his wife, there on their property at 11 Freedom Lane, in the town of Plains, Montana, but now, not only is he being forced off his land, he is being forced to exhume his wife’s body and take her with him.

This is the most disgusting, callous, brutal, and unjust treatment of a WWII veteran by the “justice” system we have ever heard of. Here is a man who stepped up and went to war at the age of 19 to fight against the Japanese in the Pacific. When we say he is a war hero, we are not exaggerating. Serving in Co. B, 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 11thAirborne Division (see discharge papers below), Warren earned two bronze starts while making three combat jumps in the Philippine Islands in 1945.

One of those combat jumps was the daring rescue of prisoners of war at the Los Banos Internment Camp on the Island of Luzon, Philippines, February 23, 1945, where Warren and his brother paratroopers of Co. B, 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment parachuted in at dawn’s early light, 40 kilometers behind enemy lines, and rescued over 2,000 prisoners of war – men, women, and children – from their brutal Imperial Japanese guards, before those guards could slaughter them (as they had planned). Not one prisoner was killed in the raid (though many of the Japanese guards were). Private Warren Bodeker was there.He was one of those brave young paratroopers who the grateful prisoners truly considered heaven sent from above. As one of the prisoners, a missionary, described it in his diary:

“at 7:00 a.m. sharp, we heard and saw nine large transport planes flying low, and passing close to the camp; perhaps one mile to the east. Even as we all watched, we saw doors open and paratroopers came tumbling out. OH WHAT A SIGHT! With a tropical sunrise for a background, we saw about 150 parachutes open one after another and settle slowly earth-ward out of our sight behind the distant trees. We knew help had come.” From the book,Deliverance! It Has Come! By John S. Beaber.

(http://ithascome.bravehost.com/index.html)

The Los Banos Raid is of the most celebrated textbook examples of a perfect rescue operation in military history. Read about it here: http://www.rememberlosbanos1945.com/

and here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_at_Los_Ba%C3%B1os

and here: http://www.historynet.com/world-war-ii-liberating-los-banos-internment-camp.htm

Go here to watch some film footage of the camp and rescued prisoners:

http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675040427_Los-Banos-Internment-Camp_internees_burning-barracks_internment-camps

Warren Bodeker and his surviving Airborne brothers came home to a grateful nation and settled down to a peaceful life. Warren lived happily as a law-abiding citizen on Freedom Lane in Montana, until he had to endure the great loss of his beloved wife Lorna this past year, after her five year battle against cancer, but Warren was still looking forward to being buried next to her on their property when he died, knowing that their land and home (which he and his wife built together) would be kept in the family.

But Warren had a pile of medical and credit card bills to deal with and filed for bankruptcy, and that is when his nightmare began. According to Warren and several witnesses, though Warren had utterly no intention of ever selling his land and home, and planned to die there and be buried next to his wife at 11 Freedom Lane,  he was pressured and coerced into entering into a “stipulation” denying his bankruptcy discharge and waiving his homestead exemption, and thus coerced into selling his home, because he had failed to disclose some silver and gold he and his wife had set aside for their old age – which he considered a retirement fund that he did not have to disclose. Once that failure to disclose was discovered by the Trustee, Christy Brandon (a lawyer in Bigfork Montana who also works as a trustee for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court), Warren was pressured into signing the stipulation under threat of prosecution and under threat of having his home and land taken by means of adversarial proceedings with any left-over proceeds being consumed by lawyers fees and costs (with Christy Brandon serving as both the trustee for the estate and also as the lawyer for the estate, and also as the attorney for herself, as trustee).  According to Warren and several witnesses, he was essentially told that the Trustee would take his land and home anyway, and if he resisted, he would wind up penniless. Unfortunately, his own lawyer at the time went along with the stipulation, and did not fight hard to keep Warren in his home. Watch the above video interview to learn the details.

Warren really did not understand what was going on in the complex legal world of bankruptcy, and did not understand his rights. In addition to the diminished mental capacity that so often occurs in someone nearly 90 years old, Warren is also hard of hearing and needs an assistant to help him keep track of what is being said during hearings. Much of the time, he just does not understand what is going on.

And even if Warren was wrong in not disclosing the silver and gold coins, the just and proper way to handle it would have been, at most, to deny him the discharge and require him to use the coins to pay off his creditors. The trustee didn’t  have to pressure Warren into waiving his homestead exemption, by threatening to void it through an adversarial proceeding which would eat up the estate through legal fees and costs, and thus force him to sell his home and land. Forcing him off his land, and forcing him to exhume his wife’s body, in the last years of his life – kicking him homeless to the curb with his wife’s casket – is an egregious, unnecessary, gross act of tyranny and injustice, in our opinion.

This is a callous act of brutality, devoid of human compassion, devoid of all sense of proportionality, devoid of any sense of decency, charity, justice or well-deserved respect of an elder veteran – much more like something the brutal Imperial Japanese internment camp guards would have done to Warren if they could than what his own country should do to a winner of two Bronze Stars who risked all, in combat, for this nation.

Warren’s lawyer withdrew from his case last month, and he has been trying to find a new bankruptcy lawyer, but then Warren was hospitalized with what was thought to be kidney stones, but which has now been discovered to be advanced prostate cancer, which is spreading throughout his body. There was a hearing held this past Tuesday, June 12, 2012, on Trustee Christy Brandon’s motion to have Warren removed from his home.Warren had been flown to the VA Hospital in Helena, Montana last week and was still hospitalized on the 12th and could not attend the hearing. From his hospital bed, Warren sent in a pro se motion for a continuance, telling the court that he was hospitalized and could not attend the hearing. He asked the court to continue the hearing until after he was discharged from the hospital. Warren also informed the court that his friend Roxsanna Ryan (whom Warren gave power of attorney) had scheduled an appointment for him with a psychologist so a competency exam could be done, and that he intended to challenge the validity of the stipulation based on his a lack of capacity to understand what he was agreeing to.

But despite the well established fact that Mr. Bodeker was in the hospital, the trustee, Christy Brandon, opposed the motion to continue the hearing. And even after knowing that Warren Bodeker was in the hospital and that he was set to undergo a competency examination which could show that he lacked the capacity to enter into the stipulation, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge, the Honorable Ralph B. Kirscher, denied Warren’s motion to continue the hearing and granted the Trustee’s motion for an order for Warren to vacate the property. The trustee, Christy Brandon,   then emailed Warren to tell him that she would be there at the home on Monday, June 18, 2012, accompanied by a Sheriff’s deputy, to kick him out of his home and have the locks changed.”

Read more and help here:

http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2012/06/15/wwii-veteran-forced-out-of-home-and-forced-to-exhume-wifes-body-needs-your-help/

Thanks to commenter JayJay.

April 25, 2012, Edward R Murrow birthday, Unrelenting search for truth, Greensboro NC native, Murrow needed now

April 25, 2012, Edward R Murrow birthday, Unrelenting search for truth, Greensboro NC native, Murrow needed now

“dedicated his life as a newsman and as a public official to the unrelenting search for truth.”…Lyndon B. Johnson

“To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful.” ….Edward R. Murrow

“The function of the press is very high. It is almost Holy.
It ought to serve as a forum for the people, through which
the people may know freely what is going on. To misstate or
suppress the news is a breach of trust.”…. Louis D. Brandeis

The sad state of journalism, media bias and our entertainment culture highlight the significance of a true journalist, Edward R. Murrow, whose birthday we celebrate today, April 25, 2012.

From Citizen Wells April 25, 2011.

Today is the birthday of Edward R. Murrow, an icon, a beacon, a shining example of what journalism once was, and can be. He was born just outside of Greensboro, NC.

From the NC Historical Marker website:

““O. Henry” is not the only famous North Carolinian born on Polecat Creek in Guilford County. Egbert (he changed it to Edward during college) Roscoe Murrow (April 25, 1908-April 27, 1965) achieved international recognition as a broadcaster for CBS Radio during World War II and set the standard against which television journalists have been judged since.

Murrow’s ancestors were members of the local Society of Friends and staunch Republicans. His father, who took the name Roscoe from New York Senator Roscoe Conkling, moved his young family in 1913 to Blanchard, Washington, where he worked in logging. Egbert enrolled at Washington State College and subsequently went to D.C. as president of the National Student Federation. In 1935 he became “director of talks” for CBS Radio and in 1937 was dispatched to Europe. Hitler’s annexation of Austria in 1938 began Murrow’s rise to fame. His broadcasts during the Battle of Britain, beginning with “This is London,” are legendary.

In 1951 Murrow began the series See It Now, the most noted episode of which on March 9, 1954, included his dissection of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy. His signature on that series was “Good night and good luck.” From 1953 to 1959 he interviewed celebrities and names in the news on Person to Person. In 1961 he left CBS to serve as head of the United States Information Agency in the Kennedy administration. Murrow, rarely photographed without a cigarette, died of lung cancer four years later. His birthplace burned in 1985. Guilford County readily claims Murrow as a native son. A major route in downtown Greensboro is named Murrow Boulevard.”

http://www.ncmarkers.com

From the PBS American Masters TV show, Edward R. Murrow, This Reporter.

““This . . . is London.” With those trademark words, crackling over the airwaves from a city in the midst of blitzkrieg, Edward R. Murrow began a journalistic career that has had no equal. From the opening days of World War II through his death in 1965, Murrow had an unparalleled influence on broadcast journalism. His voice was universally recognized, and a generation of radio and television newsmen emulated his style. Murrow’s pioneering television documentaries have more than once been credited with changing history, and to this day his name is synonymous with courage and perseverance in the search for truth.

In 1937, Edward R. Murrow was sent by CBS to set up a network of correspondents to report on the gathering storm in Europe. He assembled a group of young reporters whose names soon became household words in wartime America, among whom were William Shirer, Charles Collingwood, Bill Shael, and Howard K. Smith. The group, which came to be known collectively as “Murrow’s Boys,” reported the whole of World War II from the front lines with a courage and loyalty inspired by Murrow’s own fearlessness. During the war Murrow flew in more than twenty bombing missions over Berlin, and along with Bill Shadel was the first Allied correspondent to report the horrors from the Nazi death camps.

Returning to America after the war, Murrow was surprised to find that his overseas reports had made him a star at home. With the advent of television, Murrow was approached to host a weekly program. Along with his associate, Fred Friendly, Murrow had been producing a popular radio show, Hear It Now. The television show was to be called See It Now. Joe Wershba, a reporter who worked closely with Murrow, remembers, “Neither of them knew anything about film making or television. All they knew was they wanted to do stories. Important stories.” Television was in its infancy and Murrow and Friendly had to learn the process of filmmaking and the primitive television equipment on the job.

Murrow’s love of common America led him to seek out stories of ordinary people. He presented their stories in such a way that they often became powerful commentaries on political or social issues. See It Now consistently broke new ground in the burgeoning field of television journalism. In 1953, Murrow made the decision to investigate the case of Milo Radulovich. Radulovich had been discharged from the Air Force on the grounds that his mother and sister were communist sympathizers. The program outlined the elements of the case, casting doubt on the Air Force’s decision, and within a short while, Milo Radulovich had been reinstated. This one edition of See It Now marked a change in the face of American journalism and a new age in American politics.”

Read more:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/edward-r-murrow/this-reporter/513/

Pastor Gerald C. Primm Memorial Day Hero Obituary, WWII Air Force Fighter pilot, Man of God

Pastor Gerald C. Primm Memorial Day Hero Obituary, WWII Air Force Fighter pilot, Man of God

“But they that wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint”….Isaiah 40:31

I have read many obituaries. I always look for the ones of Word War II veterans. It is my way of thanking them for their sacrifices. Today I was presented an obituary that left me in awe and with respect for a shining example from the Greatest Generation. It is fitting that the world celebrate and give thanks for the life of Pastor Gerald C. Primm, a war hero and man of God.

From the Greensboro News and Record Obituaries, Sunday, May 29, 2011, Memorial Day Weekend.

“Gerald joined the Army Air Force during WWII to fight for his country. He became a Fighter Pilot flying the P-38 Lightning. During the war years he flew 56 combat missions (Note: only had to fly 50 but volunteered for 6 more). His exploits as a fighter pilot ranged from starting his European service in Casablanca, to starting his combat missions in Mateur, Tunisia in Northern Africa and in escorting bombers to Sardinia. After Sardinia was liberated by the Allies, he was stationed at Sardinia where he suffered from a bout of yellow jaundice. From Sardinia Gerald was stationed at Gioia del Colle on Italy proper.

He flew six combat missions out of Gioia del Colle – the most harrowing was the mission to escort bombers to bomb a ball-bearing plant in Wiener-Neustadt, Austria. When the bombers arrived at Wiener-Neustadt they had to abort their mission due to weather, but this just started the travails of Gerald as bandits (enemy) were spotted and Gerald counted about 25 of them and then another 35 were spotted for a total of 60. Outnumbered by 60 to 16, Gerald’s plane was fixed upon and a bullet knocked out his hydraulic system and one engine, thus his wing flaps were not maneuverable and his landing gear would not deploy. Gerald dismissed bailing out over Yugoslavia and decided to skim the mountain tops and glide over the Adriatic Sea. To compound Gerald’s problems a German plane was coming in for the kill and one of Gerald’s fellow pilots, Jim Advey, came to the rescue and drove the enemy fighter away. They remained life-long friends after the war. Gerald’s Wiener-Neustadt escapade ended as he spotted an airfield north of Foggia, Italy and Gerald crash landed at 130 miles an hour without the plane somersaulting down the runway.
he remaining number of his 50 missions would be flown out of Foggia airfields which included escorting bombers to bomb the infamous Ploesti oil refineries in Rumania. Other exploits included flying from England to Algiers and having to emergency land on Gibraltar because one engine had failed. But the most noteworthy assignment of the war came about after Gerald had received the promotion to captain and volunteered for more missions (6) beyond his obligatory requirement of 50. At this time he was called into the office of Lt. General Ira Eaker, Mediterranean Commander, USAAF at King Victor Emmanuel’s Palace where he was asked if he knew about the upcoming invasion of Southern France. Once Gerald said no, Eaker informed him that he had been selected to fly Lt. General Jacob Devers, Supreme Allied Commander of the Mediterranean, in a specially modified P-38 to view the invasion on August 15, 1944, called Operation Dragoon. This Gerald did as he and the General, as well as 7 other Generals flew out of Corsica to view the invasion of Southern France by the Allies.

For his exploits in WWII Gerald received the Distinguished Flying Cross awarded for “Heroism or Extraordinary Achievement” and the Air Medal with nine oak leaf clusters. In addition he received the Asian-Pacific Theatre Ribbon, Europe-Africa-Mediterranean Theater Ribbon with three battle stars and Distinguished Unit Citation.

After the war Gerald attempted to pick up his college education that had been interrupted by the war years by attending the UNC-Chapel Hill and moving to Texas to attend Baylor University. But a higher calling was in the offing for Gerald as he felt led to enter the Christian ministry as a Southern Baptist Preacher/Pastor. At about the same time he met the love of his life Ethel Brown at the First Baptist Church in Sanford where Ethel was Educational Director. Their marriage on December 28, 1948 formed a magnificent partnership in serving their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ until Ethel’s death on January 10, 2006. ”

“Gerald also took a stand for Civil Rights as evidenced by his bold and heroic actions in the 1950’s at his church in Raleigh which was located beside Shaw University, a black college. Some of the leaders of the church told Gerald that four Shaw University Students (African American) were attempting to enter the church to worship and these officials would not let them. Gerald rebuked them and told the officials to let them come in to worship. The next week Gerald, from the pulpit, resigned as pastor saying the courageous and truthful words to some members of the congregation that “their hearts were blacker than the faces of the students they barred from the place of worship”. This incident made statewide, national, and international news and brought Gerald great admiration from the African-American communities in Raleigh and threats from others. To the church’s credit they received the rebuke from their pastor and voted to rescind his resignation.
Gerald Primm was a war hero and a hero of the faith, but to the ones who loved him and knew him the most he was a loving friend, pastor, mentor, husband, brother, son and father. ”

Read more:

http://obituaries.news-record.com/obituaries/news-record/obituary.aspx?n=gerald-c-primm&pid=151343746

Thank God for the life of Pastor Gerald C. Primm

Obama executes prisoner of war enemy combatant criminal, John McCain criticizes waterboarding, Long term consequences

Obama executes prisoner of war enemy combatant criminal, John McCain criticizes waterboarding, Long term consequences

From John Hammer of the Rhinoceros Times, May 12, 2011, in print in NC.

“President Barack Hussein Obama has been out campaigning this week. The 2012 presidential election is well underway and the president has been out making campaign speeches and raising money, as he will be for the next 18 months.

Whenever a president gets out on the campaign trail there is criticism because people don’t think their president should be political. But that is how they got to be president, by being politicians. We are now in the stage of the political process where the campaign staff starts having more and more say about the president’s actions.

In light of that, consider the current situation that Obama finds himself in. His approval ratings continue to trend downward. The approval ratings are the difference between those who “strongly approve” and “strongly disapprove” of the president’s actions.

There are bumps, but right now it appears the longer he remains in office the less he is liked by the American people. In January of 2009 his approval ratings were as high as plus 30; by March of 2011 his approval ratings had fallen to a low of minus 22. In April Obama’s approval ratings hovered between minus 15 and minus 20. It makes sense for a candidate to try to do something to get those ratings up.

Two things have happened recently that should have improved his poor approval ratings and have had some effect, but it appears that it is temporary.

First was the release of his birth certificate. There is no doubt that this was an event completely orchestrated by his staff. Obama could have released his birth certificate at any point in the past three years. He could have produced it, like Sen. John McCain did early in the campaign in 2008. Instead, Obama spent as much as $2 million in legal fees to keep from releasing it. But then came a constant barrage of demands to release it from a celebrity who can wave his hand and be surrounded by a sea of cameras – Donald Trump.

The Donald, as seems to have already been forgotten, was leading the polls as the Republican presidential opponent and was beating Obama every day with the birth certificate stick. So it made political sense for Obama to take the stick away from Trump and force Trump to find something else to beat him with. As a political move it made a lot of sense, but it didn’t provide Obama with a sustainable improvement in his approval numbers.

If you look at it as a campaign move, going after Osama bin Laden also makes sense. The reports say that they knew where Bin Laden was hiding out since August 2010. The raid took time to plan, but it didn’t take nine months. They had certainly established that Bin Laden wasn’t going anywhere and, no doubt, for a pacifist like Obama, it was not easy to order a raid where the goal was to assassinate a terrorist.

It sounds harsh to imply that the death of Bin Laden was orchestrated in an attempt to get Obama’s approval ratings up, but it makes sense from a political point of view. And in the coming months the political point of view is going to become not just the dominant point of view in the White House but very nearly the only point of view. The main job that Obama has for the next 18 months is to get reelected. If he doesn’t, not only is he out of a job but all the people who work for him are out of jobs as well, and his wife loses her Air Force jet.

The military and intelligence community had no doubt been pushing for the attack, with the hold up being the president.

Looking at it from a political standpoint also explains some things like the staged photo of Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Vice President Joe Biden and others on the national security team watching television in the White House situation room. According to the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon Panetta, they could have been watching a lot of different things, but they weren’t watching live footage of the raid on the Bin Laden compound because it wasn’t available. It’s a great photo and would have remained great if Panetta hadn’t spilled the beans.

The most interesting question about that photo, aside from what they were really watching on the screen, concerns that woman who is trying to squeeze in between a couple of men in the back. It turns out she is the director for counterterrorism, Audrey Tomason. She happens to be the only woman in the room other than Clinton, and appears to be the youngest person in the room as well.”

Read more:

http://greensboro.rhinotimes.com/Articles-c-2011-05-11-208317.112113-Under-the-Hammer.html

John McCain, who was held prisoner and tortured by the Viet Cong, has referred to waterboarding as torture and stated that it played no part in finding Osama Bin Laden.

From the LA Times  May 12, 2011.

“Former Atty. Gen. Michael Mukasey is taking issue with Sen. John McCain’s characterization of his account of whether information from detainees who were subjected to harsh techniques helped lead to Osama bin Laden.

“Sen. McCain described as ‘false’ my statement that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed broke under harsh interrogation that included waterboarding and disclosed a torrent of information that included the nickname of Osama bin Laden’s courier” — Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti — Mukasey said in a statement. “He strongly implied … that this harsh interrogation was not only useless but also illegal. He is simply incorrect on all three counts.”

Mukasey added: “KSM disclosed the nickname — Al-Kuwaiti — along with a wealth of other information, some of which was used to stop terror plots then in progress. He did so after refusing to answer questions and, when asked if further plots were afoot, that his interrogators would eventually find out. Another detainee, captured in Iraq, disclosed that al-Kuwaiti was a trusted operative of KSM’s successor, Abu Faraj al-Libbi. When Al-Libbi went so far as to deny even knowing the man, his importance became obvious.

“Both former CIA Director Michael Hayden and former Director of National Intelligence Adm. Michael McConnell have acknowledged repeatedly that up to 2006, many of the valuable leads pursued by the intelligence community came from the three prisoners who were subjected to harsh techniques that included waterboarding in order to secure their cooperation.”

Read more:
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-mukasey-osama-bin-laden-torture-20110512,0,6988211.story?track=rss

John McCain, knows what real torture is and yet believes waterboarding is torture. Does McCain believe that executing a prisoner is legal?

War criminals responsible for the deaths of millions in World War II were captured and tried. Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber was captured and tried.

I believe, as John Hammer has stated, that the execution of Bin Laden was done for political expediency.

I have concerns that the excution of an unarmed captured prisoner will set a dangerous precedent. What will stop our enemies from executing our captured soldiers? Yes, I know that it has already happened. But now they can point to our actions as justification.

Perhaps Bin Laden, already suffering from health issues, set us up for this.

Winston Churchill birthday, God bless Churchill, Never never never give up, Citizen Wells open thread, November 30, 2010

Winston Churchill birthday, God bless Churchill, Never never never give up

“Why has Obama, for over 2 years, employed numerous private and government attorneys to avoid presenting a legitimate birth certificate and college records?”…Citizen Wells and millions of concerned Americans

“Never, never , never give up.”…Winston Churchill

It is fitting that we celebrate the birthday of Sir Winston Spencer Churchill today, November 30, 2010, the day after the US Supreme Court abdicated it’s responsibility in Kerchner v Obama to interpret and clarify the US Constitution and perform it’s sacred duty to check usurped power.

If one man can be attributed with saving the world from Nazi domination, that one man would be Winston Churchill. Thank God for the life of Sir Winston Churchill.

From The  Churchill Centre and Museum at the Churchill War Rooms, London.
“Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (1874-1965) described himself as “an English-Speaking Union,” being the son of Lord Randolph Churchill and the American heiress Jennie Jerome. He was educated at Harrow and the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, and was sent to India with a cavalry commission in 1895. He won early fame as a war correspondent, covering the Cuban revolt against Spain (1895), and British campaigns in the Northwest Frontier of India (1897), the Sudan (1898) and South Africa during the Boer War (1899). Churchill had authored five books by the age of 26. His daring escape from a Boer prison camp in 1899 made him a national hero and ushered him into the House of Commons, where his career spanned 60 years.”

Read more:
http://www.winstonchurchill.org/

The lying, narcissistic, corrupt usurper of power, Obama, rejected the bust of Winston Churchill.

From The Telegraph February 14, 2009.

“A bust of the former prime minister once voted the greatest Briton in history, which was loaned to George W Bush from the Government’s art collection after the September 11 attacks, has now been formally handed back.

The bronze by Sir Jacob Epstein, worth hundreds of thousands of pounds if it were ever sold on the open market, enjoyed pride of place in the Oval Office during President Bush’s tenure.

But when British officials offered to let Mr Obama to hang onto the bust for a further four years, the White House said: “Thanks, but no thanks.””

Read more:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/4623148/Barack-Obama-sends-bust-of-Winston-Churchill-on-its-way-back-to-Britain.html

Think of the irony. Churchill and Obama were both born to British fathers and American mothers. The two men could not be more different.

If one institution can be attributed with saving the world from Nazi domination, that would be the US Military. Stay tuned for more.

November 2010 elections, Not the end, End of beginning, Winston Churchill, Change Congress, Clean up Justice Dept, Courts, State government

November 2010 elections, Not the end, End of beginning, Winston Churchill

“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”…Winston Churchill

I greatly admire Winston Churchill. His words, his actions preceding and during World War II were the glue that saved England and the world. His words still ring true.

We must change congress this November 2010. That, as Churchill stated, is not the end, but perhaps the end of beginning. Once we change congress we must forever remain vigilant and clean up the US Justice Dept., courts and state and local government. This is an ongoing duty.

Here is an example from my home state of NC. I received the following in an email this morning.

“The following is a condensed timeline created by NCGOP staff from Exhibit 1 of the SBOE report on gubernatorial candidates released June 25. This version focuses on the Perdue Campaign Committee. It is not intended to be a verbatim recreation of the SBOE timeline. It includes excerpts from the BOE timeline, but also includes content that is wholly the work of the NCGOP, not the SBOE. However, it is accurate in its description of events included in the SBOE timeline.”

“Bev Perdue and the Perdue Campaign lied about reasons for non-disclosure of flights. On October 15, the NCGOP conducted a press conference outlining our suspicions that, like Mr. Easley, Gov. Perdue and her campaign had utilized private and corporate aircraft in violation of NC law by not disclosing properly or reimbursing properly the flights.
Subsequently, on two different dates, the Perdue campaign acknowledged a total of 41 flights it had failed to disclose. According to the Governor and her campaign staff, this long pattern of non compliance and non disclosure was the result of “computer software glitch.”
We now know this was a lie.
On page 6 of the Board of Elections report on campaign flights, there begins a lengthy discussion of $28,000 in corporate flights paid for by New Bern lawyer and good friend of the Governor, Buzzy Stubbs. This discussion consumes many paragraphs and several pages of the report.
John Wallace, the Perdue committee’s lawyer, who performed a similar function for Mike Easley, and therefore should have plenty of experience in these matters, initially explained “that flights were not disclosed and/or properly paid because the campaign was unaware that Mr. Stubbs was paying for flights.”
But according to what Mr. Stubbs told Kim Strach and Chairman Leake, he had on many occasions told the campaign that he was paying for the flights and inquired about how his payments for the flights had been handled, because he was aware that he had already given the maximum amount allowed by law to the Perdue campaign. Mr. Stubbs specifically identified Peter Reichard and John Wallace as individuals with whom he had discussed his concern about proper accounting for his payments. Mr. Stubbs stated that he had been told of a variety of ways the travel payments could be handled and he often was not comfortable with the information he was being provided.
Finally, on October 23, 2008, Mr. Stubbs sent a letter to the Perdue committee with copies to Wallace and Reichard.
In the letter, Mr. Stubbs states that he has personally reimbursed his law firm in the amount of $28,498.04 for “payment in kind in the form of airplane transportation for Bev Perdue.” He included a copy of his personal check to the law firm in that amount.
Despite this very tangible evidence from a donor of over $28,000 in flights, Gov. Perdue and her campaign failed to disclose the flights as required by law in their 48 hour reports. Nor did they disclose these flights in their 2008 year end report, filed over three months after they received Mr. Stubbs letter on October 23.
No, Gov. Perdue and her committee didn’t acknowledge the flights at all until their 2009 mid-year semi-annual report in July 2009. And only after the Easley investigation indicated to them they had better get busy.
It is pretty clear that, were it not for the ramifications of the Easley hearings, Gov. Perdue and her campaign would never have disclosed or paid for the flights. Keep in mind that the Stubbs flights represent only half of the flights that were ultimately disclosed.
In addition to the bogus excuse about the mysterious “computer software glitch” and Mr. Wallace laughably disingenuous claim that the campaign was unaware that Mr. Stubbs was paying for the flights, the Perdue committee has offered various other explanations as to why the flights were not disclosed.
My personal favorite, expressed by Mr. Reichard was that “the campaign had no process in place to track and disclose information regarding flights.” Not only does this fly in the face of Mr. Stubbs many conversations with Reichard and Wallace, it also does not align with documentation provided by the Perdue committee.
A quote from the report on page 5: “based on the documentation…completed.”
What we have here is the Gov. Perdue campaign first knowingly and willfully failing to disclose contributions as required by law, and then engaging in lies in an attempt to cover up.
Now might be an appropriate time to remind you of some public utterances from our Governor while all this was going on.
“In the 21st century we must conduct the business of government in ways that bring transparency and accountability to the people… I have set high expectations for myself and for everyone who works for North Carolina. We will be open, ethical, and put the public’s interest first.” March 9, 2009     State of the State Speech
“I’m the Governor who has thrown open the windows of the state government. I believe in hanging it out there to share. I don’t try to hide anything.” December 14, 2009
“I am really sick of all this, I’ve been very, very driven by the need for transparency and ethics in government…. I myself did an audit of my campaign. I paid people money to audit my campaign. I want to be sure every “i” is dotted and every “t” is crossed. I’ve been doing that relentlessly for a year.” February 18, 2010
“I’m the governor for 15 months who’s done anything possible to throw open the windows of state government, to have full transparency, to focus on ethics and how people set government straight,”    April 20, 2010
That brings me to the 2nd revelation and major conclusion.
That Gary Bartlett, Chairman Leake, and John Wallace colluded in an attempt to derail, distract, and obstruct the investigation by SBOE into the financial irregularities and illegalities of the Perdue for Gov. Campaign.
I now refer to the timeline that is an addendum to the SBOE report.
It documents that we first filed a complaint on October 15, 2009, asking the SBOE to investigate the Perdue Committee.
According to the timeline developed by SBOE staff, there is no mention of taking any action on the complaint until almost 3 months later, on January 12.
It is not until March 23, according to the timeline, before Bartlett authorizes Kim Strach to interview the first witness that same day, after waiting over 5 months to begin the investigation. Bartlett tells Strach that the board wants a resolution to the matter quickly so the interview needs to be wrapped up quickly.
By contrast, again according to the timeline, Mr. Bartlett received a letter from NC Democrat party Executive Director Andrew Whalen on February 15 requesting all correspondence between candidates Smith and Graham and SBOE office and any rules on advisory opinions on the subject.
The next day, Feb 16, Bartlett advises Strach to draft a letter for Whalen and compile all responsive documents. The letter is completed and the documents collected that same day.
The next day, two days after Whalen’s request, Bartlett directs Strach to hand-deliver letter and documents to Andrew Whalen at NCDP headquarters. It is delivered that day.
That same day, and only because I asked for a meeting with Bartlett, I received a one paragraph letter acknowledging an investigation of the Perdue campaign is underway, four months after we filed a complaint.
Later, on Feb 23, Whalen filed a complaint regarding Republican candidates. Bartlett and Strach meet the same day to discuss. It took three months before our complaint was even discussed at the SBOE.
As weeks go by, on repeated occasions, Chairman Leake and Mr. Bartlett direct Strach not to personally follow-up with campaign staff, but to restrict her contact to letter drafted by Mr. Bartlett.
Then, unbelievably, as detailed in several places in the timeline, Strach is told by both Bartlett and Leake that John Wallace and Zach Ambrose, Perdue COS as Lt. Governor, her campaign manager for Gov, and her COS as Governor, will determine who Strach will be allowed to interview.
It is unheard of for a law enforcement agency to allow attorneys with clients under investigation, or as in Mr. Ambrose’s case, targets of the investigation, to determine which witnesses will be allowed to testify. This is collusion and obstruction of justice.
Leake takes over the investigation on or about April 1, when Strach becomes aware of a notebook in John Wallace’s possession that has detailed information regarding flights that Perdue took.
Strach makes repeated attempts to obtain the notebook from Wallace. As before, with flight information at his disposal (see page 4 of the report, first two paragraphs) Wallace delays, and finally offers the assertion that the notebook is protected by “attorney-client privilege.”
Weeks go by and Strach has still not been granted access to the notebook and Bartlett is aware of this.
Then on April 27, Strach advises Bartlett that she will be in Wilmington the following day to deliver the Rusty Carter report to the New Hanover Assistant DA, Tom Old.
April 28 – Bartlett sends two SBOE staffers (McClean, Wright) who have had no involvement in the investigation henceforth to interview Wallace while Strach is out of town.
Strach finds out about this while she is in Wilmington and contacts Bartlett to make sure he tells McClean and Wright to copy the entire contents of the notebook. Bartlett tells Strach that Wallace will not allow that.
With the discovery of the notebook, Leake inserts himself into the investigation, apparently in collusion with John Wallace. Leake begins to schedule interviews, some of which Strach is excluded from. He and Bartlett prevent her from interview Wallace and Ambrose. Leake sits in on interviews with Strach and in some instances limited the length and breadth of the interviews.
This is highly inappropriate behavior and fraught with conflict. This is like a judge sitting in on witness depositions in a case he will be called on to judge impartially.
It is apparent that Bartlett, Leake and Wallace, acted, often consulting with each other on several occasions, to derail the investigation away from issues and witnesses they considered dangerous to Gov. Perdue and her committee.
And Mr. Bartletts’ conclusion in his memo the Board that there is no evidence that there is no intent of wrongdoing is an embarrassment to the people of North Carolina.
Accordingly, we call today for Executive Director Bartlett and Chairman Leake to resign their positions immediately. It would be the first honorable thing they’ve done in this matter. Failing that, Gov. Perdue should remove Chairman Leake, appoint a replacement, and ask the Board to immediately begin a search for a new Executive Director.
Because any of this is unlikely to happen, by letter today, we are asking Wake County District Attorney to launch an investigation into obstruction of justice at the NC BOE, particularly the actions of Mr. Bartlett and Chairman Leake.
Furthermore, we intend to press forward with our public records request. We want all documents, correspondence, email, records of phone conversations and drafts of reports leading up to the one released on Friday. We specifically want to see if Mr. Bartlett or Chairman Leake edited the request and the timeline submitted by the Kim Strach before releasing it on Friday.  We will press on until the people of North Carolina get the answers they deserve. “