Remembering JFK 50-Years Later

Everyone who was alive the day of the Kennedy assassination knows exactly where they were the moment they heard the news that JFK was shot.  The days of coverage are permanently imprinted on their minds… from Jackie crawling out onto the trunk of the limousine to recover the top of her husband’s head, to her blood stained suit worn at LBJ’s swearing-in on Air Force One, to the single black rider-less horse, to the vision of young John John saluting his father’s casket.

Here is a story of a woman who has made a lifetime hobby of researching the possibilities of what really happened that day and who was behind it.

"Kennedy Slain by CIA, Mafia, Castro, LBJ, Teamsters, Freemasons: President shot 129 times from 43 different angles."

Seeking the truth behind the tragedy of Kennedy's assassination

Barb Junkkarinen, a self-described JFK conspiracy theorist and self-taught scholar, has immersed herself in the grittiest details of an assassination that continues to fascinate Americans half a century later. (John M. Glionna / Los Angeles Times)

LA Times: Like most Americans, Barb Junkkarinen thinks there's more to the Kennedy assassination story. She uses hands-on research to bring reason to a debate rife with conspiracy theories.

By John M. Glionna - Reporting from Hillsboro, Ore. - Nov. 22, 2013

Barb Junkkarinen emerges from the bedroom with the gift her husband and son gave her one Christmas.

It's a 1940 Italian-made rifle, like the one Lee Harvey Oswald fired from a sixth-floor window at the Texas School Book Depository, killing President Kennedy on an autumn afternoon in Dallas. He'd spirited the weapon into the building by disguising it as a curtain rod.

"This is how Oswald carried his package," she says, holding the butt of the rifle low, the way witnesses described. "He had it cupped in his hand, like this."

Junkkarinen's husband, Juha, and son, Jason, nod at the demonstration they've seen again and again. They help adjust the unloaded weapon just so. They point out there's also a scope and ammunition.

Over more than half her lifetime, Barb Junkkarinen has made a hobby of delving into rumors, theories and contradictory facts that swirl around a killing that continues to titillate — and divide — Americans on the 50th anniversary of the events of Nov. 22, 1963.

In the world of online Kennedy discussion groups, she learned "lurkers" tune in but never post; "fringies" attribute a political motive to every turn; false witnesses claim to have been places they haven't. Those who believe Oswald acted alone are "lone-nutters."

And people like Junkkarinen are CTs, for conspiracy theorists.

She has amassed a trove of artifacts: autopsy reports, investigation documents, shelves of books and photos, and a model of the Lincoln Continental limousine Kennedy rode in when he was shot in Dealey Plaza. There's also a life-sized plastic model of a human skull she uses to make detailed arguments about bullet entry and exit.

Inside her Portland-area home office, she avidly dissects the latest theories of the paranoid and the emotionally unstable.

They include those who believe Kennedy was first hit in the throat with a bullet made of ice; that a man in Dealey Plaza fatally wounded the president with a dart fired from an umbrella; and that J. Edgar Hoover attended a party the night before the assassination celebrating JFK's imminent demise.

Junkkarinen rejects those theories. She blames gangsters and spies.

Junkkarinen, 62, can still picture where she heard the news: She was 12 years old, a seventh-grader sitting in the second seat in the row by the window at a Catholic school in San Diego. A superior whispered into the ear of her teacher, whose freckled face instantly turned red.

The nuns instructed students to say Hail Marys on Kennedy's behalf. Later, after Oswald was shot by Jack Ruby, Junkkarinen heard her father say, "Something's just not right here."

She recalls thinking: "Nothing's right about any of it, Dad."

By age 15, she'd read the lengthy report published by the Warren Commission, which had conducted the investigation of the killing. She graduated high school and studied to become a medical laboratory technician. She married Juha and moved to Oregon. She would read each new book that purported to solve the Kennedy assassination.

Seconds after the fatal shot, a Secret Service agent climbs aboard the president's limousine as the first lady, her husband slumped over in the backseat, crawls onto the trunk lid. (Ike Altgens / Associated Press)

The year 1980 brought a turning point: "Best Evidence: Disguise and Deception in the Assassination of John F. Kennedy" by David Lifton, which focused on medical evidence she understood, with descriptions from attending doctors on the locations of JFK's wounds. Junkkarinen checked it out of the library and read it three times.

She eventually dismissed Lifton's central premise — that the president's body had been altered to suggest gunshots fired from the rear, as a way to help prove the government's argument that Oswald alone killed JFK. But the book led her to pursue theories of her own.

Junkkarinen came to believe JFK's death was not the result of a lone killer, a view shared by many. A nationwide Associated Press-GfK poll of 1,004 adults in April found that 59% thought multiple people participated in a conspiracy to kill Kennedy, while 24% thought Oswald acted alone. About 16% were unsure.

Junkkarinen argues there were two conspiracies.

The point is not to say 'I got it!' We simply want to know the truth." 

— Barb Junkkarinen

The first, she says, involved a network of gangsters or spies who executed the killing. The second was a coverup by Cold War-era government officials convinced that Americans were incapable of understanding how such a network could assassinate the president.

A lawyer who has written a book about conspiracies says such theories apply a sensible narrative to troubling historical puzzles like the Kennedy killing, which was the first to mesmerize the entire nation on television.

"There's the suggestion everything changed after the JFK assassination," says Mark Fenster, author of "Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture."

And the hero in any conspiracy narrative, says Fenster: "The person who solves the puzzle."

Junkkarinen says she's not trying to be a hero. "We work quietly and diligently," she says. "The point is not to say 'I got it!' We simply want to know the truth."

Junkkarinen's research has taken her to Kennedy archives and to Dealey Plaza. She speaks at conferences and advises fellow conspiracy theorists on their theories.

"In a field known for hysterics, Barb is grounded," said Josiah Thompson, a fellow conspiracy theorist and author of the 1967 book "Six Seconds in Dallas." Thompson is a former Yale philosophy professor who became a private investigator.  

TIMELINE: THE JFK ASSASSINATION

Timeline: A look at the events following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Above, Lee Harvey Oswald, accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, is shot at point-blank range by nightclub owner Jack Ruby. (Bob Jackson / Dallas Times-Herald / Associated Press)

"She patrols down the center of the freeway of reasoned debate on this topic," he said, "pointing out all the nuttiness along the way."

In one paper published by a group devoted to Kennedy assassination followers, Junkkarinen explains that the small gadgets found in Dealey Plaza today are not government eavesdropping devices, as an online poster claimed, but water sprinkler sensors.

Junkkarinen's family and friends have supported her work. Both husband and son have served as presidential stand-ins, lying atop a gurney with a taped-on plastic wound, when she needed a model for presentations with titles such as "The Back of Kennedy's Head."

During one talk at her home, friends flinched when she produced the autopsy photos. A psychologist had trouble sleeping for weeks.

"I guess she didn't realize all that goes into an autopsy," Junkkarinen says.

Sitting at her desk, Junkkarinen surveys half a dozen storage boxes of Kennedy materials spread across the floor.

"Now, where is that skull?" she says of the item she ordered from a medical supply company. She says it provides context, like the carbine.

When Junkkarinen got the Oswald rifle, her mother asked, "What do you want with that? Let the man be dead."

View map on latimes.com

Junkkarinen took the rifle, widely known as a Mannlicher-Carcano, to a shooting range and fired it. The weapon "kicks like a mule," she says. While she believes Oswald carried the gun into the book depository, she calls him a pawn and theorizes he never fired the weapon that day.

She says shooting the rifle has bolstered her contention that it could not have been fired three times in just seconds, as the government claims. "That's my approach," she says. "I want to see and hold things for myself."

She never finds the skull but shows off a gift from Jason — a mock front page from the satirical publication the Onion with the headline: "Kennedy Slain by CIA, Mafia, Castro, LBJ, Teamsters, Freemasons: President shot 129 times from 43 different angles."

Junkkarinen smiles. She gets the humor.

Like the late-night phone call from a woman with a cigarette-tinged voice: "I just want you to know you're right," she whispered, "and I can prove it." Or the day Jason, now 26, came home from school with a question from his teacher, Sister Mary Ann:

"Why would a second-grader be able to spell the word 'assassination'?"

Still so many questions and no real answers…

Related: 

JACKIE KENNEDY: LYNDON JOHNSON KILLED JFK

PBS Whitewashes Oswald’s KGB Connections 

Facts about JFK

Who Killed the Kennedys?  – Some Great Links and Resources  

For Those Looking To Do Some of Their Own Research:

Who Really Killed Kennedy?: 50 Years Later: Stunning New Revelations About the JFK Assassination (Kindle)

JFK's Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President (Kindle)

The Hidden History of the JFK Assassination (Kindle)

Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot (Kindle)

JFK, Conservative (Kindle)

Killing JFK: 50 Years, 50 Lies: From the Warren Commission to Bill O'Reilly, A History of Deceit in the Kennedy Assassination

JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy

The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ (Kindle)

We Were There: Revelations from the Dallas Doctors Who Attended to JFK on November 22, 1963 (Kindle)

They Killed Our President: 63 Reasons to Believe There Was a Conspiracy to Assassinate JFK

Mortal Error: The Shot That Killed JFK (Kindle)

JFK: The Smoking Gun (Kindle)

Survivor's Guilt: The Secret Service and the Failure to Protect President Kennedy (Kindle)

Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy (Kindle)

SPECIAL: Jacqueline Kennedy - In Her Own Words: 9/13/11 – Video

The Kennedys [Blu-ray] – Mini-Series Video

JFK [Blu-ray] - Video

Remembering Neil Armstrong… When Men Walked on the Moon

Almost everyone in the baby-boomer generation and older knows exactly where they were when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.  I was a junior in high school at the time and my father gathered up the whole family plus any additional kids that were over visiting to watch the event on our black and white TV.  “This is a moment you will remember forever!” he said, “even when we have sent a man to Mars or left our solar system”; both things that people of our generation expected would happen in our lifetime.  Every one of us chanted the phrase: “One Small step for man; One giant step for mankind”

Video: Neil Armstrong One Small Step

Now at Neil Armstrong’s death the United States of America no longer even has a space program and we have to pay for and hitch a ride with the Russians or the Chinese if we want to go out into space.  John F. Kennedy must be spinning in his grave along with my father.  And Neil Armstrong certainly never thought he’d see the day we didn’t have a space program in 1969 as he was the first man to walk on the moon.

Neil Armstrong left us today and travelled farther than the moon… Perhaps he will shine his good graces back onto us?!?  Ask Marion~

Judson Phillips - Tea Party Nation:

Like so many Americans, I took a moment to remember Neil Armstrong today. He was a hero to so many in my generation.

I was ten years old when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Like all of my friends, that July I wanted to be an astronaut. For three years we watched with incredible pride as America put a total of twelve men on the moon.

Then we gave up.

We walked away.

For forty years, the moon has not seen a visitor from earth. In the next few years, man will probably return to the moon. But it will not be an American who returns to the moon.

History might record 1969 as America’s high water mark. We were the undisputed world power. We put men on the moon. We had the highest standard of living. People wanted to be Americans.

America has lost its greatness. Children today are not taught this nation is great. In some areas, it is controversial to have children recite the pledge of allegiance.

When Neil Armstrong returned to the Earth in 1969, he was the most famous man in the world. He could have done anything he wanted to do. He chose to leave the space program and ultimately teach engineering at the University of Cincinnati.

Starting in the 70’s America began its retreat from greatness. Instead of continuing space exploration, politicians decided to take that money and spend it on programs that exist only to assure their reelection.

One of the greatest Americans from the 20^th century passed today. Today we look back at the day Neil Armstrong became the most famous man in the world. Then America was a great nation, committed to being the best in the world.

Today America is fading. We have only a short time left to turn the nation around and try to regain the greatness America once had.

Astronaut Neil Armstrong Dies at 82

First moonwalker Neil Armstrong's death at the age of 82 marks the passing of a "reluctant American hero," as well as the dimming of the Space Age's brightest moment.

His death followed complications from heart-bypass surgery he underwent this month, Armstrong's family said today in a statement released by NASA. The first public report of Armstrong's death came via NBC News' Cape Canaveral correspondent, Jay Barbree, a longtime friend.

Armstrong has been immortalized in human history as the first human to set foot on a celestial body beyond Earth. "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind," he radioed back to Earth from the moon on July 20, 1969.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said that "as long as there are history books, Neil Armstrong will be included in them."

Armstrong's fellow moonwalker on the Apollo 11 mission, Buzz Aldrin, was among the legions mourning his passage. "We are missing a great spokesman and leader in the space program," Aldrin said in a BBC interview. He said he'd remember Armstrong "as being a very capable commander and leader of an achievement that will be recognized until man sets foot on the planet Mars."

Michael Collins, the crewmate who circled the moon in the Apollo 11 command module while Armstrong and Aldrin took that first trip to the lunar surface, also paid tribute to his commander in a NASA statement: "He was the best, and I will miss him terribly."

President Barack Obama said that Armstrong and his crew "carried with them the aspirations of an entire nation," and that the first steps on the moon "delivered a moment of human achievement that will never be forgotten."

"Today, Neil's spirit of discovery lives on in all the men and women who have devoted their lives to exploring the unknown — including those who are ensuring that we reach higher and go further in space," Obama said in a White House statement. "That legacy will endure — sparked by a man who taught us the enormous power of one small step."

The "one small step" served as the climax of a superpower space race with the Soviet Union, and arguably established the United States' primacy in outer space for decades to come. But Apollo 11 also set a precedent for peaceful cooperation in space. "We came in peace for all mankind," the plaque left behind on the moon read. At one point during Armstrong's first moonwalk, he stopped for what he called a "tender moment" and set down a patch to commemorate NASA astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts who died in the course of their duties.

Before and after the moon
The Ohio-born Armstrong began his career in aerospace as a Navy fighter pilot who served with distinction in the Korean War. During the 1950s, he was a test pilot with experience flying more than 200 kinds of aircraft. He was accepted into NASA's second astronaut class in 1962, and during his mission as Gemini 8 commander in 1966, he tamed his wildly spinning capsule and brought it in for an emergency landing.

That quiet cool served him well during Apollo 11, when he had to take manual control of the lunar module, nicknamed Eagle, during the landing. When the craft touched down in the moon's Sea of Tranquility, about 30 seconds' worth of fuel remained.

"Houston, Tranquility Base here," Armstrong reported to Mission Control. "The Eagle has landed."

Armstrong and Aldrin spent more than 21 hours on the lunar surface, including two and a half hours' worth of moonwalking. They were amazed to come back to Earth and see how millions of people across the planet had followed their exploits. "Neil, look up there," Aldrin told him as he pointed at a TV screen. "We missed the whole thing."

After his moon mission, Armstrong took a low profile, becoming what his family called a "reluctant American hero who always believed he was just doing his job." He left NASA in 1971, and took on executive positions in the aerospace industry as well as a teaching position in the University of Cincinnati's engineering department. Armstrong served on several policy commissions, including the presidential panel that investigated the 1986 Challenger explosion.

Concerned about future spaceflight
In his latter years, Armstrong became increasingly concerned about America's continuing leadership in space. He was a strong proponent of efforts to send American astronauts back to the moon, and feared that NASA's cancellation of its return-to-the-moon program would cede America's position as a leader in space exploration to other nations.

"Some question why America should return to the moon," Armstrong told a House committee in 2010. "'After all,' they say, 'we have already been there.' I find that mystifying. It would be as if 16th-century monarchs proclaimed that 'we need not go to the New World, we have already been there.'"

When NBC's Jay Barbree asked Armstrong last month to reflect on the future of spaceflight, for the 43rd anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, the former astronaut pointed to remarks in which he said the lunar environment was "an exceptional location to learn about traveling to more distant places."

"I am persuaded that a return to the moon would be the most productive path to expanding the human presence in the solar system," he wrote.

Armstrong was famous for staying out of fame's spotlight as much as he could. Some outsiders may have faulted him for his reticence, but not his fellow astronauts.

"Most of our group in those days could have accomplished the challenge of the mission," Apollo 7 astronaut Walt Cunningham told NBC News' James Oberg in an email, "but I do not know a one that could have handled the resulting notoriety as well as Neil did."

Over the past year, Armstrong was a bit more in the public eye. Last November, he and other space pioneers — including Aldrin, Collins and John Glenn, the first American in orbit — were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal during a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol.

In February, Armstrong spoke at Ohio State University during a February event honoring the 50th anniversary of Glenn's history-making spaceflight. In May, Armstrong joined Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, at Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida to support the opening of the National Flight Academy, which aims to teach math and science to kids through an aviation-oriented camp.

On Aug. 7, just two days after his 82nd birthday, Armstrong underwent quadruple-bypass heart surgery after flunking a medical stress test. At the time, his wife, Carol, reported that her husband was "doing great" — but today the family said complications from that surgery led to his death.

Concerned about future spaceflight
In his latter years, Armstrong became increasingly concerned about America's continuing leadership in space. He was a strong proponent of efforts to send American astronauts back to the moon, and feared that NASA's cancellation of its return-to-the-moon program would cede America's position as a leader in space exploration to other nations.

"Some question why America should return to the moon," Armstrong told a House committee in 2010. "'After all,' they say, 'we have already been there.' I find that mystifying. It would be as if 16th-century monarchs proclaimed that 'we need not go to the New World, we have already been there.'"

When NBC's Jay Barbree asked Armstrong last month to reflect on the future of spaceflight, for the 43rd anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, the former astronaut pointed to remarks in which he said the lunar environment was "an exceptional location to learn about traveling to more distant places."

"I am persuaded that a return to the moon would be the most productive path to expanding the human presence in the solar system," he wrote.

Armstrong was famous for staying out of fame's spotlight as much as he could. Some outsiders may have faulted him for his reticence, but not his fellow astronauts.

"Most of our group in those days could have accomplished the challenge of the mission," Apollo 7 astronaut Walt Cunningham told NBC News' James Oberg in an email, "but I do not know a one that could have handled the resulting notoriety as well as Neil did."

Over the past year, Armstrong was a bit more in the public eye. Last November, he and other space pioneers — including Aldrin, Collins and John Glenn, the first American in orbit — were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal during a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol.

In February, Armstrong spoke at Ohio State University during a February event honoring the 50th anniversary of Glenn's history-making spaceflight. In May, Armstrong joined Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, at Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida to support the opening of the National Flight Academy, which aims to teach math and science to kids through an aviation-oriented camp.

On Aug. 7, just two days after his 82nd birthday, Armstrong underwent quadruple-bypass heart surgery after flunking a medical stress test. At the time, his wife, Carol, reported that her husband was "doing great" — but today the family said complications from that surgery led to his death.

Slideshow: Neil Armstrong: 1930 - 2012

Technorati Tags: US Space Program,NASA,obituary,moon,astronauts,outer space,American greatness,Neil Armstrong,first man to walk on the moon,One Small step for man,One giant step for mankind,Gene Cernan,Obamaland,Congressional Gold Medal winner,John Glenn,Buzz Aldrin,JFK,John F. Kennedy,American heros,American pioneers,baby-boomers,space,remembering,history,the Final Frontier,Camelot

Democrats’ History of Racism

by B. Christopher Agee   -   Western Journalism

Here's a bit of American history guaranteed not to appear in any government-approved history book. The Democrat party has, throughout its existence, represented the bigotry and racism they seek to project onto Republicans.

The informed readers of this article are likely familiar with the racist roots of the political party aptly portrayed by a jackass, but much of the general population, especially outspoken Democrats, are woefully ignorant of any such facts.

Ask the nearest Democrat about Republicans and race and even the mayor of a substantial American city might just respond with, "They are racist."

In reference to their own party, Dems will likely say they led the fight for civil rights throughout the years, though a cursory review of the party will prove this assertion wrong. For instance, this was the party that established the Ku Klux Klan as its enforcement arm. Powerful Democrat politicians have appointed klansmen to high-ranking positions in American government for a century, yet have somehow convinced the vast majority of blacks that Republicans are the bad guys!

The KKK was used to intimidate voters, black and white, into voting Democrat - or not voting at all.

Through violence, property damage, rape, and murder, Democrats were able to secure a huge majority of the black vote comprised of those afraid to cast an alternate ballot. Disgustingly, they have somehow been able to maintain that death-grip on the African-American community to this day.

When these reprehensible strategies, though unquestionably effective, did not satiate their need to keep the black population down, Democrat-supported legislation such as Jim Crow laws made sure these minorities would remain second-class citizens even after the ratification of the 13th Amendment. There are plenty of examples of heralded Democrats, including Presidents LBJ and Truman, expressing disdain for blacks in their own words.

Republicans, thankfully, emerged as the pro-freedom, anti-slavery alternative to the juggernaut that was the Democrat party. Despite the fact that significantly more Republicans supported the 1964 Civil Rights Act than did Democrats (and the fact that Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first to initiate the legislation which finally passed and was enacted under Democrat Presidents JFK and LBJ), the party of the left has somehow hoodwinked much of the black community into thinking they are its savior. In fact until the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Martin Luther King was a Republican, re-registering as a Democrat as part of the negotiations, and so were most blacks Republicans (the party of Abraham Lincoln) until that time. Facts like these are part of the reason the Progressives consistently fight to re-write and edit the history that is taught and skew media productions.

Of course, today's Democrats will say, if they concede these points at all, that this is all ancient history, but I respectfully disagree. In much the same way that it did in the late 1800s, the Democrat party needs the black vote and, increasingly, the Hispanic vote to pull heavily for their side in order to win elections.

While paying them mere lip service, liberals pass legislation such as a broken welfare system rewarding poor mothers for having out-of-wedlock children and punishing them for getting married, thus keeping minorities at the mercy of government handouts. This makes them beholden to a party that represents views, such as support for abortion and gay marriage, that are diametrically opposed to those of many in the black community.

Democrats know they cannot intellectually compete with a party that, at its core, simply wants to provide individual liberty, encourage strong families and reduce abortions (which equal approximately the death toll of the 9/11 attack every two days in the black community alone), so they continue to repeat the old diatribe that Republicans are the real racists.

The GOP, which was the first to name a black Supreme Court Justice and Secretary of State, must defend itself against accusations based purely in the imagination of Democrats, often with figurative or literal blood on their own hands.

Each February, Democrats promote Black History Month with a vengeance, hoping to stoke the race war embers and elicit even more loyalty from the black community. I would promote a the study of accurate black history, not just during the shortest month but year round, and it's relationship with a Democrat party that has been patronizing at its best and deadly at its worst.

Unfortunately, I feel that would be the only chance Republicans have of attracting a voting bloc that has continually been misled into hating the wrong political party.

NAACP Furthers Mission of KKK

Black Pastors’ ‘Amen; Turning to ‘Oh My!’

Black Pastors Launch Anti-Obama Campaign to Convince African Americans to Withdraw Support for the President

Republicans: Black America's true friend

The Left’s Race Card

Race and Religion in Obamaland…

MLK’s Niece, Dr. Alveda King to Stand (Stood) With Glenn Beck at ‘Restore Honor’ Event in DC and Against Hate and Racism

GB: Liberation Theology… And How It Affects You – Important to Read and Watch!

Beck’s Founders Friday: African-American Founders

A black man: the progressives' perfect Trojan Horse

Is Obama Socially Rigging 2012?

Political Correctness…

Related Reading:

Uncle Sam's Plantation: How Big Government Enslaves America's Poor and What We Can Do About It, Revised and Updated Edition

Bamboozled: How Americans are being Exploited by the Lies of the Liberal Agenda

Liberating Black Theology: The Bible and the Black Experience in America

Negrophilia: From Slave Block to Pedestal - America's Racial Obsession

White Guilt

Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln

Technorati Tags: accurate black history,black history,knowledge is Power,racism,truth,rewriting history,liberal media bias,educate yourself,Star Parker,Lloyd Marcus,KKK,Democrat history,political correctness,Left's race card,Obamaland,JFK,LBJ,MLK,Dwight Eisenhower,Glenn Beck,Black Pastors,Christianity under attack,black conservatives,black Republicans,Abraham Lincoln,Frederick Douglass,control,politics of division of hate. politics of control,Democrat lies,Alveda King,Black History Month

JACKIE KENNEDY: LYNDON JOHNSON KILLED JFK

NEW YORK – Tapes released by Caroline Kennedy reveal that Jackie Kennedy believed Lyndon B Johnson was the  mastermind behind JFK’s assassination.

Tapes recorded by the First Lady months after the President’s death are to be released ahead of schedule by her daughter Caroline.

In the tapes, to be broadcast by ABC, Kennedy reveals her belief that Johnson and a cabal of Texas tycoons orchestrated the murder of her husband by gunman Lee Harvey Oswald.

Kennedy, who later became Jackie Onassis, claims on the tapes that the Dallas murder was part of a larger conspiracy to allow Johnson to become American President in his own right.

Johnson, who served as state governor and senator for Texas, completed Kennedy’s term after the assassination and went on to be elected president.

Leading historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. recorded the tapes with Jackie Kennedy within months of her husband’s death.

They have been stored in a sealed vault at the Kennedy Library in Boston after orders from Mrs Kennedy that they would remain secret for 50 years after her death.

Now, 17 years after her mother died from cancer, daughter Caroline has opted to release the tapes early.

She has entered an agreement with the ABC network in the States who will air the tapes after agreeing to cancel their Kennedys drama series which upset Caroline and the Kennedy family.

The $10 million series starred Tom Cruise’s wife Kate Holmes as Jackie Kennedy and critically charted the family’s political and personal trials and tribulations since the 1930s. It has now been dropped in a deal with Caroline concerning these tapes.

ABC executives have confirmed that the revelations in the tapes are ‘explosive’ with Jackie Kennedy allegedly blaming President Lyndon Johnson for the death of JFK.

It is believed the tapes also include the suggestion that President Kennedy was having an affair with a 19-year-old White House intern with his wife even claiming that she found underwear in their bedroom.

Jackie Kennedy also admits to several affairs of her own in the tapes – one with Hollywood star William Holden and another with Fiat founder Gianni Agnelli – in  retaliation for the President’s indiscretions.

Yet there are also claims that the couple had discussed having more children in the weeks before his death and that their marriage was at a high point.

Noted Kennedy family historian and author Edward Klein said: “Jackie regarded the pretty young things in the White House as superficial flings for Jack. She did retaliate by having her own affairs.

“There was a period during which she was delighted to be able to annoy her husband with her own illicit romances.” It was reported that more than once JFK sent out the Secret Service to bring Jackie home, including off her future husband, Ari Onassis’, boat.

Source:  Weekly World News and Mail Online

The Kennedy Assassination was probably the first time that the people of America really took a good hard look at things that just didn’t make sense.  It was the first modern day conspiracy that played itself out on television and woke a few people up!  Just because something is a conspiracy does not mean that it is a theory or that it isn’t true!!  Who was behind the assassination of John F. Kennedy followed by Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King have been speculation and secrets for 50 years now…  Will “they” ever let the truth be known?

There is more than one theory as to who is responsible for the murder of JFK… Lyndon Johnson, the Cabal of International Bankers who control the Federal Reserve and the monetary system worldwide, the Mossad (Israeli Intelligence), the Mob plus a few others.  But pretty much everyone who knows the story or lived through it knows it wasn’t Lee Harvey Oswald.  But if Jackie felt it was their VP Lyndon Johnson there must something to that!

The amazing thing is that there have been conspiracies since and are conspiracies even bigger being played out in front of our faces right now before our eyes… that we just continue to ignore.  Why?  That is the million… er uh the $16 trillion dollar question, now isn’t it?!?

Related:

Who Killed the Kennedys?  - Some Great Links and Resources

Kevin Costner’s JFK – Director’s Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition)

The Kennedys miniseries

Ask Marion~

Happy Birthday Mr. President - WH (Valerie Jarrett): Americans Want Us To Move Forward…To Plan Obama’s B-Day Fundraiser!

So… Is it on or is it off?  U.S. media is keeping it all very hush hush, but the bets are that since the Grand Compromise bill has been signed that it is on!!  Guess we will find out~

Marilyn Monroe embarrassed President John F. Kennedy in front of the American people for his birthday in 1962.

Video:  Marilyn Monroe -  Happy Birthday Mr. President

For is 50th… Obama plans to insult the American people by having this lavish party for his 50th that will cost U.S. taxpayers (guesstimated) around $1.9 million when all is said and done… so after saddling us with another $2.5Trillion in debt he can simultaneously raise money, on our nickel) to be re-elected and do it to us again. What you didn’t get your invitation?  Well. you can take pride in the fact that you helped pay for it…

As Washington races to the finish line to solve the debt ceiling deadline, the president is still busy planning his birthday big money fundraising bash in Chicago on Wednesday. When asked if the president should postpone the party/fundraiser due to the country’s economic realities, WH advisor Valerie Jarrett said the American people want “us” to “move forward.” Advice to the White House, Americans may want to move forward, but with 9.2 percent unemployment that might be the next thing to tackle…not a fundraiser.

Andrea Mitchell: Do you think the president should go forward with his birthday celebration which is basically a fundraiser… Or should that be postponed given the economic realities?

Valerie Jarrett: I think what the American people want to see is for us to move this debate behind us and move forward.

Video:  Valarie Jarrett: American People Want The President To Fundraise

Source:  GOP.com 

Party Details From the UK…

Last updated at 11:27 AM on 1st August 2011

It was supposed to be the mother of all parties, now it may not happen at all.

President Obama's big 50th birthday is scheduled for August 3, the day after the debt talks deadline and the date that the U.S. had risked defaulting on its good faith and credit.

Despite the announcement of a deal on Sunday night, the champagne corks may not be popping in Chicago as doubts remain if the deal will actually make it through both houses of Congress.

Singing for the President? Jennifer Hudson was scheduled to join the bash at Chicago's Aragon Ballroom (Bummer she was one of my favorites!)

The party was planned for the Aragon Ballroom, which costs $40,000 to rent.

There is supposed to be a concert featuring jazz pianist Herbie Hancock and Jennifer Hudson, the star of Dreamgirls.

The entertainment was to be followed by a lavish dinner for couples giving $35,800 to Obama's campaign.

With the government scheduled to run out of money on Tuesday, an extravagant bash would hardly look good.

The plans are currently on hold, but senior White House officials are still saying the party would go forward only if the deficit negotiations and deadline to raise the debt limit ceiling have been resolved.

Booked to appear: Famed jazz pianist was said to providing some of the entertainment at the party

Glum: The President has said the birthday present he wants more than anything else is 'a debt-ceiling deal' (wrapped in special hidden goodies that we are already finding… only hours after the bill was passed by the Senate and signed by Obama)

An official said: 'The President will not attend the event in Chicago if negotiations are ongoing.'

Mr. Obama has already cancelled a series of campaign fundraisers to stay in Washington for the tense negotiations that have angered the U.S. public, worried financial markets and raised fears of a first-ever U.S. debt default.

The fundraisers would have brought in millions of dollars for the re-election war chest, the campaign official said.

The President cancelled a planned trip to California and Seattle, put off a fundraiser in New York

Mr. Obama's last campaign fundraiser was on June 30 in Pennsylvania.

He reported raising $86 million in the quarter ended on June 30, far eclipsing the money raised by any of the Republicans vying for their party's nomination to compete against him in the 2012 president election.

Asked what he most wanted for his birthday, Mr. Obama said 'a debt-ceiling deal.'

Obama’s Lavish Birthday Plans

Happy Birthday, Mr. President

Originally posted: July 16th, 2011

If America defaults on its debts come Aug. 2 -- as the Obama folks warn, absent a deal by then -- what will President Obama do on Aug. 3? Why, host a big birthday bash for himself, of course, to raise cash for his re-election.

That's his plan right now, anyway. (He turns 50 on Aug. 4.) Tickets for a private birthday dinner with the prez will go for as much as $35,800 a couple.

We, too, want to wish the president a joyous birthday. But how can anyone take seriously his threats of default -- and those of underlings like Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner -- when Obama himself doesn't seem terribly concerned?

We, too, want to wish the president a joyous birthday. But how can anyone take seriously his threats of default -- and those of underlings like Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner -- when Obama himself doesn't seem terribly concerned?

Indeed, the president and his fellow Democrats haven't seemed particularly worried about the nation's fiscal state for some time now:

* Obama has yet to produce any detailed proposal for a debt-ceiling deal, including what budget cuts he'd make. So what is it, exactly, that negotiators are supposed to agree on before Aug. 2?

* Since the president's $3.7 trillion baloney budget -- with its monstrous $9.5 trillion in deficits over 10 years -- was nixed in May by every voting Democrat and Republican in the Senate, he's yet to offer a new one.

* In 2010, House Dems failed their most basic responsibility: to pass a budget. It was Congress' first such failure in 36 years.

* House Republicans, by contrast, passed a long-range budget this year, addressing both short-term spending and long-term woes like Medicare. But the Democratic-controlled Senate voted that down -- without offering an alternative.

No wonder the warnings from Obama and Geithner have become more ominous: This week they said even Grandma might not get her Social Security check if no deal is reached by Aug. 2.

Their credibility is shot -- forcing them to heighten their threats.

Meanwhile, though, the prez has big plans for Default Day +1.

Enjoy your birthday, Mr. President.

Source:  NY Post  -  AFP/GETTY IMAGES  - Barack Obama

But Seniors… he might not be able to send out your social security checks.

• Obama not as old as he thinks
  POSTED JULY 15, 2011 AT 8:46 PM BY EDDIE SCARRY

  President Obama seems to have a little trouble keeping track of birthdays, even his own. During a press conference in late June he incorrectly identified his daughter Maliaas being 13 years old. She was 12 at the time and her birthday wasn’t for another five days.

  Then in another presser on Friday, Obama said he would be turning 50 “in a week.” Actually, he won’t hit his half-a-century mark for almost another three weeks, according to USA Today. His birthday is on Aug. 4.

  We hope, for his sake, his memory doesn’t fail him when it comes to his and Mrs. Obama’s anniversary. Just in case, it’s Oct. 3. 

• h/t Politico and Daily Thought Pad

Well… we didn’t default, but most people are very unhappy with ‘the deal’ still not resolved this morning… the day before Obama’s party most people feel that this extravagant party and fundraiser are a bit of slap in the face of the American people…. most of whom, now, plan not to vote for him.

At a time when many Americans can barely afford Burger King and a movie, Obama boasts of spending a billion dollars on his re-election campaign and a bundle (whatever the exact figure is) on a birthday party for himself.

Related:

When Will Obama Crack in Public?

NASA Kennedy Obama Connection to 2012 - Richard C. Hoagland

Video:  NASA Kennedy Obama Connection to 2012 - Richard C. Hoagland 

Full Length Move – Somewhat technical but worth the watch

Fascinating information and presentation by Richard C. Hoagland, former NASA science advisor to Walter Cronkite on the Space Missions and author of: Dark Mission and The Monuments of Mars at the Secrets Conference. Including, finally - Who Really Killed Kennedy...and Why? On November 8, 2009, the SyFy television network (in association with NBC News) broadcast a major two-hour television Special, On November 21 -- Special to the Secrets Conference -- Hoagland presented "the rest of the 2012 story ...."

Related:

What If? - 2012 the Movie - Fiction of Warning?

Pole Shift

Who Killed The Kennedys?

Jack Kennedy was shot on my twentieth birthday.

I was a Dartmouth student, getting ready to drive down to Skidmore to celebrate with my girlfriend, when the news ricocheted around the dormitory. I went down to Skidmore anyway, spending the weekend in a Saratoga Springs motel room, watching the TV coverage, including that astonishing moment when Ruby shot Oswald in front of our eyes in living black and white.

Does this mean I have more insight than others into the Kennedy assassination? No. But that coincidence did give me an extra frisson when the date “November 22, 1963” was superimposed at the beginning of Episode 7 of the new The Kennedys miniseries.

I spent the last couple of days watching all eight episodes of the series, courtesy of the production company. It was certainly a trip down memory lane. Like so many of my generation, my life had intersected with the Kennedys in the world of political imagination and sometimes even in reality.

I had been in the audience, close enough to shake his hand, for an East L.A. speech of Bobby’s two days before he was shot, the largely Chicano and Mexican crowd yelling “Viva! Viva!” as if the California primary voters were about to elect him dictator, not president.

And then, a few years later, I had a literary agent who, it turned out, was one of the six young women at that Chappaquiddick reunion party for RFK’s campaign the fateful night Ted Kennedy took his chauffeur’s car keys to drive the late Mary Jo Kopechne home himself. The agent never spoke of what happened. (This hugely dramatic incident does not appear in the series, nor is there even a mention of Ted Kennedy. More on this later.)

So what did I think of the miniseries? No one could mistake it for Citizen Kane — television political biopics tend to the humdrum and stilted, as most of us know — but it is nowhere near as bad as the fulminating critics would have us believe. Their major objection seems to be that the series emphasizes the soap opera aspects of the Kennedy lives — Jack’s parade of women that would make Bill Clinton envious, his and Jackie’s amphetamine cocktails from “Dr. Feelgood,” the Mafia connections via Giancana, Sinatra, and Judith Exner, Joe Sr.’s having his troubled daughter (Jack’s younger sister) lobotomized, not to mention the patriarch’s infamous flirtation with the Third Reich, etc.

Well, why not? These things are the stuff of drama (cf. the House of Atreus), not endless discussions of policy. The latter are much better handled in a book. But never mind. When the early drafts of the screenplay leaked out, JFK’s speechwriter, the late Ted Sorenson — among several others — joined a campaign organized by filmmaker Robert Greenwald aimed at preventing the film from being made and attacking it as a right-wing hit piece led by that known conservative attack dog Joel Surnow of 24 fame.

But here’s the surprising thing — and I should put this in bold because it is the linchpin of this article — The Kennedys (made by right-wingers though it may be) is tremendously respectful of JFK as a president. Indeed, the JFK it portrays is arguably one of the best presidents of the post-war period, if not of all time.

In the three key events dramatized in the series — his taking personal blame for the Bay of Pigs fiasco, his steadfastness in supporting racial integration at the University of Mississippi and, of course, his resolute behavior in confrontation with Khrushchev in the Cuban Missile Crisis — the Jack Kennedy of The Kennedys is a superlative and courageous decision maker.

This makes the miniseries — unlike the fuddy-duddy Greenwald site — oddly modern and heroic and pro-JFK.The Kennedys filmmakers have respected their audience and allowed them to reflect on the fascinating question of how someone so lacking in his personal life could achieve so much good in his public life. (Missing from this film is another positive action with a contemporary twist — JFK’s cutting of tax rates to stimulate the economy.)

That question — the relationship of doer and deed — is as old as drama. Shakespeare reveled in it. Nevertheless, as many of you know, the series was rejected by the channel for which it was originally made, the History Channel. It was eventually sold and is now showing on the lesser-known Reelz.

I had assumed the History Channel was to blame in this but, in an interview with Lionel Chetwynd and me, Joel Surnow said the rejection came from a higher corporate source. The History Channel is owned by AETN, A&E Television Networks, which is a joint venture of The Hearst Corporation, Disney-ABC Television Group and NBC Universal.

Some unknown person or persons in the upper reaches of these huge media companies apparently succumbed to pressure and suppressed The Kennedys. This pressure most likely came from the Kennedy family (Caroline?) and friends. The family has been quite successful over the years in their attempts to keep their detractors quiet.

I have no way of knowing, but they may have succeeded inside the making of The Kennedys as well as outside. Curiously, “The Lion of the Senate” and youngest son of Joe and Rose Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, is never seen or even mentioned in any of the eight episodes of the miniseries. What is the reason for this extraordinary omission?

The aforementioned Chappaquiddick incident is easily the most extreme case of Kennedy personal malfeasance. Jack may have been a serial adulterer, but he was never involved in death from his dalliances, nor did he leave the scene of a fatal accident. Teddy did and got away with it.

There has been some debate about the extent of his culpability, but how do you dramatize this event in any way without making him look really bad? And how do you tell the story of Ted Kennedy without Chappaquiddick? It becomes an almost comical whitewash. So Teddy is a non-person in The Kennedys, the man who was never there. I don’t know if this was true in earlier drafts, but it is in the series as it is being broadcast.

So whoever really killed The Kennedys is out hiding somewhere in an impenetrable corporate tower. I’m not into conspiracy theories, so I’m not going to pursue it further.

But I will say this. Whoever did this has conflated politics and religion. The Kennedys are not religious icons. They are highly fallible human beings. To show them as they were is the duty of the artist as well as the mission of America, that is freedom of speech. Surnow and company had their speech temporarily eclipsed. That was not good for them, but more than that, it is not good for our country.

Source:  Pajama’s Media

If you are not familiar with the history of the Kennedy’s this miniseries is a good place to start.  There are presidents and leaders, in general, who inspire us to become better and who are are larger than the office they hold.  In modern times, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan fill that place in American history, in spite of their personal flaws.  Even though they were of different parties and different in many ways, Kennedy and Reagan were also the same in many ways that matter!  They were both Irish descended Americans who loved America and the opportunities she gave to their families and to all legal immigrants; they loved the Constitution and knew it was their job to uphold the law and keep America safe; they were excellent inspiring speakers and they were strong in their convictions, ideals and leadership abilities.  They made the tough decisions and then took responsibility for the outcome of their decisions!  They both also had strong wives, Jackie and Nancy, who supported them and filled their roles as First Ladies with style and grace.

The re-writing of history and minimal focus on our true history, both good and bad, is what had made us weaker.

“He who does not learn from history is destined to repeat it!” and America has sadly done a poor job of teaching her children…

Related:

Camelot Fights Back: Who Killed ‘The Kennedy’s’ Miniseries?

–> JFK on Taxes and the Economy <–

–> The Assassination of John F. Kennedy and the Federal Reserve <–

Kennedy United States Notes actually circulated shortly

We Choose to go to the Moon

Resources on the Kennedys:

America's Queen: The Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Grace and Power: The Private World of the Kennedy White House

Four Days in November: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

Jackie, Ethel, Joan : Women of Camelot

The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy

The Sins of the Father: Joseph P. Kennedy and the Dynasty he Founded

Ted Kennedy: The Dream That Never Died

LBJ: The Mastermind of JFK's Assassination

American Legacy: The Story of John and Caroline Kennedy

JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters

The Kennedy Curse: Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years

A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House

Kennedy vs. Carter: The 1980 Battle for the Democratic Party's Soul

A Nation of Immigrants by JFK

Kevin Costner’s JFK - Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition)

The Kennedys miniseries

Federal Reserve: The Creature of Jekyll Island - A Must See and Read!

A must read if you haven’t:  The Creature from Jekyll Island : A Second Look at the Federal Reserve

Tonight: Due to the recent financial crisis, you've probably heard a lot about the Federal Reserve (a.k.a. "The Fed") in the news lately. But how much do you actually know about it? Most Americans don't know much, if anything about it. What exactly is it, where did it come from, who runs it, and more importantly- do we still need it? Tonight, we continue with the "E4" project and restore the true history of the Federal Reserve. Joining Glenn Beck and the studio audience for tonight's program are Mark Calabria of the CATO Institute and G. Edward Griffin, author of the book "Creature From Jekyll Island"

Video:  The History and Truth About the Federal Reserve (Part 1)

Video:  The History and Truth About the Federal Reserve (Part 2)

Video:  The History and Truth About the Federal Reserve (Part 3)

Video:  The History and Truth About the Federal Reserve (Part 4)

Video:  The History and Truth About the Federal Reserve (Part 5)

Related:

--> Video: Economic Terrorism  <--

-->  Video:  Economic Terrorism part 2  <--

Backup info for the above two segments below:

Could Stephen Lerner’s Mortgage Strike Plan Being down U.S. Economy Actually Work?  (With Bonus Stossel Investigation Clip!)

JP Morgan Responds to Radical  Leftist’s ‘Irresponsible’ Economic Plot

--> Blaze Exclusive:  Congressman Presses Holder to Investigate ‘Terrorist Plans’ in Bank Pl0t  <--

Do We Really Need the Federal Reserve?

The Sound of Silence:  Media Ignores Stephen Lerner’s Revolutionary Plan to Bring Down US Economy

More at:

Economics: Gerald Celente om 2012, Taleb on Federal Reserve  and China-Texas Deal

Ron Paul, Author of ‘End of the Fed’, to Lead Panel Overseeing Central Bank

Council on Foreign Relations

Ron Paul  -  H.R. 2755:  Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act

-->  JFK on Taxes and the Economy  <--

--> The Assassination of John F. Kennedy and the Federal Reserve <--

Kennedy United States Notes actually circulated shortly

There are some additional good resources online and books written about these groups.  Here are a few:  David Rockefeller, Council on Foreign Relations and Bilderberg Group by Heinz Duthel (1), The Shadows of Power: The Council on Foreign Relations and the American Decline, Foreign Affairs, Imperial Brain Trust: The Council on Foreign Relations and United States Foreign Policy, The True Story of the Bilderberg Group, The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton, and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party

"We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans ~" Bill Clinton (USATODAY, 11 March 1993, page 2A)

Censored TV Ad Banned from Airwaves for the Full Length Movie:  End of America available at:  www.EndofAmericaVideo.com by Stansberry and Assoc. Investor Research.

Japan Crisis Prompts First Joint Currency Intervention Since 2000 Amid Threat to Global Recovery

Anniversary of President John F. Kennedy and the Thanksgiving Countdown

“As we express our gratitude (on Thanksgiving), we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” …President John Fitzgerald Kennedy

(Let us remember President Kennedy today, the anniversary of his assassination on November 22^nd (1963), Dallas Texas)

I have been doing a bit of research for a related article, so will share this with you: Bush Link to Kennedy Assassination Alex Jones 911 Conspiracy - 90 min - Sep 1, 2004

I really had to look to find ‘one’ PBS Special on JFK’s Assassination today.  I think the greatest thing we can thankful for this year is the rich history and special Country we were given and in return we should spend some time discussing and sharing the real story of Thanksgiving with our families as well as traditions… and perhaps today or tomorrow talk about JFK and the challenging times and curious events surrounding his death.  (The story of Thanksgiving and JFK’s assassination that are taught these days in schools are quite different from the real events and what we were taught… all part of the purposeful dumbing down of America

The First Thanksgiving

The tradition of the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving is steeped in myth and legend.  Few people realize that the Pilgrims did not celebrate Thanksgiving the next year, or any year thereafter, though some of their descendants later made a "Forefather's Day" that usually occurred on December 21 or 22.  Several Presidents, including George Washington, made one-time Thanksgiving holidays.  In 1827, Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale began lobbying several Presidents for the instatement of Thanksgiving as a national holiday, but her lobbying was unsuccessful until 1863 when Abraham Lincoln finally made it a national holiday with his 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation.

Today, our Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of November.  This was set by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 (approved by Congress in 1941), who changed it from Abraham Lincoln's designation as the last Thursday in November (which could occasionally end up being the fifth Thursday and hence too close to Christmas for businesses).  But the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving began at some unknown date between September 21 and November 9, most likely in very early October.  The date of Thanksgiving was probably set by Lincoln to somewhat correlate with the anchoring of the Mayflower at Cape Cod, which occurred on November 21, 1620 (by our modern Gregorian calendar--it was November 11 to the Pilgrims who used the Julian calendar).  

There are only two contemporary accounts of the 1621 Thanksgiving:  First is Edward Winslow's account, which he wrote in a letter dated December 12, 1621.  The complete letter was first published in 1622, and is chapter 6 of Mourt's Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth.

Our corn [i.e. wheat] did prove well, and God be praised, we had a good increase of Indian corn, and our barley indifferent good, but our peas not worth the gathering, for we feared they were too late sown.  They came up very well, and blossomed, but the sun parched them in the blossom.  Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors.  They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week.  At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others.  And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.

The second description was written about twenty years after the fact by William Bradford in his History Of Plymouth Plantation.  Bradford's History was rediscovered in 1854 after having been taken by British looters during the Revolutionary War.  Its discovery prompted a greater American interest in the history of the Pilgrims, which eventually led to Lincoln's decision to make Thanksgiving a holiday.  It is also in this account that the Thanksgiving turkey tradition is founded.

They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty.  For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercising in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion.  All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees).  And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc.  Besides they had about a peck of meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion.  Which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports.

“Heap high the board with plenteous cheer and gather to the feast,

and toast the sturdy Pilgrim band whose courage never ceased.”

Alice W. Brotherton