Daily history

Good morning,




Quote if the day:



“Johnny’s life passed him by like a warm summer day. On a quiet night you can still hear him say, ‘Don’t you know you are a shooting star, a shooting star.”

Paraphrase of a song by Bad Company



I guess all of the free world knows of Alvin Greene here in South Carolina that somehow captured the Democratic nomination for the Senate in this past primary. The embarrassed South Carolina Democrats are holding their breaths because this man was arrested for showing a University of South Carolina coed pornography in a computer lab and then asking her to take him to her dorm room. In spite of this embarrassment, he won the nomination. This past Friday he was indicted by a grand jury and will face a trial. If he is convicted, not only will the Democratic Party in South Carolina bury their heads in the sand, they will have to cough up another nominee because a convicted felon cannot hold office in the state of South Carolina. There is no need to worry because there is nobody alive today in either party that can beat the Republican incumbent nominee Jim DeMint.



To you residents of the area of Greenville, SC, there is a restaurant that has recently opened that has probably the best Italian cuisine that I have ever tasted. The name is “Lola’s” and it is located in the Pelham Commons Shopping Center. This shopping center is anchored by Justin’s Steakhouse on Pelham Road. As a matter of fact, Lola’s is located across the parking lot from Justin’s. Try it, you will like it.



Another entity has raised it head against illegal immigrants. The city of Summerville, South Carolina city council has a proposal before it stating that no illegal immigrant can reside in the city limits nor can any illegal be employed inside the city limits. They have already been notified by the local Fed that illegal immigrants are a Federal issue. They are going ahead with their plan anyhow. The baseline credo of this nation from the git-go is that the country can only be governed with the consent of the governed. It ain’t happening, y’all. All the polls agree that the great majority of this country is not in agreement with the direction we are going.



This Date in History August 17



1943    Earlier British General Sir Bernard Law Montgomery and his 8th army had landed in Syracuse, Sicily with the objective of driving up the east coast and capturing Messina which is the closest point to Italy (about 4 miles across the Straights of Messina) and cut off the retreat of the German army based in Sicily. The blowhard Montgomery was not comfortable not having his left flank protected, asked for and got US General Omar Bradley and his division to slug his way up the mountainous center of the island to protect Montgomery’s flank at a terrible cost to the Americans. This left the majority of US General George Patton’s 3rd Army without a job. The 3rd Army had landed in the Gulf of Gela about 200 miles west of Syracuse. Patton and Montgomery hated each other and Patton chose to take this opportunity to outrun Montgomery to Messina. This meant that the 3rd Army would have to travel 2/3rd of the island perimeter while Montgomery just had one side. On this date, The US 3rd Army arrived at Messina about six hours before Montgomery and had an American band welcome Montgomery and his 8th Army into Messina. By the way, they did not cut off the retreat of the Germans they made good their withdrawal in good shape. Patton was a gifted combat commander but his arrogance got in the way at times. He believed he was related to great military leaders of history through reincarnation. He was relieved of command at one time by Eisenhower and cooled his heels in London during the Normandy invasion on D-Day. But Eisenhower could not ignore Patton’s skill especially with armored divisions. Patton was given command of the 7th Army within weeks of D-Day and he was instrumental in turning back the German surprise attack known as The Battle of the Bulge in the winter of 1944. After the war he was overseeing the recovery of some of the German cities and was killed in a car crash near Mannheim, Germany and his body was taken to Luxembourg and buried with the thousands of American soldiers killed during the Battle of the Bulge. He was 60 years old. Sometimes I wonder if some people are put on this earth for a specific purpose and when that is accomplished their life ends, Patton for one, and “Bear” Bryant for another.



1862    Earlier the Dakota Indians had already been hustled onto several reservations in Minnesota. They were called the Sioux which was a dishonorable word originated by the French meaning “little snake: That’s right folks; the mighty Sioux had their beginnings in Minnesota. Anyway, the Federal Government, State Government and the settlers had abused them by taking their lands and failing to deliver supplies promised to them. They were starving and angry. That y’all, is a serious combination. On this date five Dakota braves were returning from a hunting expedition with no luck and stopped by a settler’s farm and went into the chicken coop and retrieved 4 or 5 eggs. The farmer came out raising hell with them and that proved to be the final straw. The braves killed the entire family and went on home. The Chief of that branch of the Dakota named Little Wolf knew that the shit had hit the fan and he and his braves began a slaughter of anyone they came across up and down the Minnesota River. President Lincoln sent General John Pope and a small army to put down this bloodletting. Keep in mind that Pope had just received a severe ass-kicking and rout at the Battle of 2nd Manassas administered by CSA General Robert E. Lee. Well, Pope was able to subdue a group of half-starved, under-armed and dismounted Indians. Pope oversaw the simultaneous hanging of 34 Indians which was the largest mass execution in American history. After this the Sioux moved into the Dakotas and Montana and became one of the fiercest Indian tribes in history. I don’t really blame them. They were betrayed time and time again and their wrath must have been up to their eyeballs.



1877    On this date William Bonney, better known as Billy the Kid, killed his first man at the age of 17. He had shot an Arizona blacksmith who died the next day from the wound. A few years later he was asked how many men he had killed and he said that he had killed one man for every year of his life, he was 21 years old. Most historians believed the correct number was nine that he had killed single handed but there may have been nine more that were killed in a gunfights with several men involved. What did Billy is he was arrested and put into the Fort Sumner, New Mexico jail awaiting trial. Billy escaped and killed two deputies and then remains in the area because his girlfriend lived there. As we all know he was killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett.



1998    LISTEN UP, YA’LL. On this date for the first time in American history, a sitting president testifies before a grand jury. That’s right it was Bill Clinton. He was under investigation by special prosecutor Kenneth Starr who was investigating Bill and Hillary’s involvement in suspect real estate deals, sexual harassment, and cronyism meaning firing people to make room for their friends and finally Starr discovered the illegitimate sexual relations with a white house intern named Monica Lewinsky. Clinton denied the relationship which forced Starr to charge Clinton with perjury and obstruction of justice. After testifying Clinton addressed the nation over TV and apologized for misleading his wife and the nation in his relationship with Lewinsky but swore that he had never told or encouraged anyone to lie for him and as far as the illegal real estate deals, he said there had never been anything proven against he and Hillary. The Democrats wanted censure but the Republicans wanted Clinton’s head on a platter meaning impeachment. Well some how or another, our crack House and Senate decided that the Clinton’s were indeed scumbags, but what they had done was not worthy of impeachment. What is this world coming to?



Born today:



1786    US Senator and hero of the Alamo Davy Crockett. After losing an election in Tennessee he said publicly “Since you have chosen to elect someone with a timber toe to replace me, you may go to hell and I am going to Texas.” Davy was brutally plain spoken.



1892    US actress and sex monger Mae West. After being introduced to an actor and told that he was 6’-7”. She said “Let’s forget about the 6 feet and talk about the 7 inches.” Mae was hell, ya’ll.



Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow