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Almost completely forgotten by average Americans today, Commodore Dewey's smashing victory at the Battle of Manila Bay was, for a short time, a sensation which commanded the attention of the entire nation. It transformed Dewey from an unknown naval officer into one of the all-time American heroes, elevating to legendary status his famous command, "You may fire when ready, Gridley." In another previous post, we looked at some of the events leading up to the battle from a sailor's point of view aboard the USS Olympia taken from the classic memoir, Three Years Behind the Guns by John Tisdale. Now,...

Almost completely forgotten by average Americans today, Commodore Dewey's smashing victory at the Battle of Manila Bay was, for a short time, a sensation which commanded the attention of the entire nation. It transformed Dewey from an unknown naval officer into one of the all-time American heroes, elevating to legendary status his famous command, "You may fire when ready, Gridley." In another previous post, we looked at some of the events leading up to the battle from a sailor's point of view aboard the USS Olympia taken from the classic memoir, Three Years Behind the Guns by John Tisdale. Now,...

On February 15, 1898, the battleship USS Maine exploded in Havana Harbor, touching off the Spanish-American War shortly thereafter. Here is an account written by Charles D. Sigsbee, the captain of the Maine who survived the destruction of his ship and later went on to become an Admiral in the United States Navy. About an hour before the explosion I had completed a report called for by Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, on the advisability of continuing to place torpedo-tubes on board cruisers and battleships. I then wrote a letter home, in which I struggled to apologize...

(English-language translation) San Juan, Sept. 1 - Starting today, the Puerto Rico Reunification with Spain Movement (MRE) is an officially-constituted group after its first assembly was attended by less than 40 people whose common interest is to make the Caribbean island a Spanish province. "Reunificationists, 116 years ago, the Spanish province of Puerto Rico was invaded and militarily occupied by the United States, causing the separation from the mother country Spain against its will," said José Nieves, the driving force behind this initiative, during the assembly held on Sunday during the long weekend in Puerto Rico and the United States...

Rare pictures of the U.S. Navy taken during the Spanish-American war have been unearthed after being found hidden away in storage by military archivists. A box, containing about 150 original glass plate photographs, was uncovered at the Naval History and Heritage Command in Washington DC, featuring images of all aspects of the war from logistics to diplomacy. They were only brought to light again when the photo archive team was preparing for a major renovation and archivists Dave Colamaria and Jon Roscoe stumbled across the pictures.

Veterans' Benefits Live On Long After Bullets Stop Each month, Irene Triplett collects $73.13 from the Department of Veterans Affairs, a pension payment for her father's military service—in the Civil War. More than 3 million men fought and 530,000 men died in the conflict between North and South. Pvt. Mose Triplett joined the rebels, deserted on the road to Gettysburg, defected to the Union and married so late in life to a woman so young that their daughter Irene is today 84 years old—and the last child of any Civil War veteran still on the VA benefits rolls. Ms. Triplett's...

Americans are resistant to the very idea of an “American empire.” It’s understandable. Our nation’s birth came through revolution against the British Crown and, by extension, the British empire. World War II and our battles against Nazi Germany’s Third Reich (or empire) and Imperial Japan remain in living memory. We still think of ourselves as the New World, and we associate words like monarch and holy war and empire with the Old World. Despite all of our problems, we still see the United States as the “city on a hill,” the shining example of liberty, virtue, and prosperity for the...

Bound, masked and surrounded by heavily armed U.S. Marines, 20 of the most dangerous al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners arrived for indefinite incarceration at this remote Caribbean naval base. The prisoners' arrival Friday came four months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The prisoners face intense interrogation, especially concerning the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, accused by the United States of orchestrating the attacks. "These are people who would gnaw through hydraulic lines in the back of a C-17 to bring it down," Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, ...

We are told by careful pollsters that half of the American people believe that American troops should be brought home from Iraq immediately. This news discourages supporters of our efforts there. Not me, though: I am relieved. Given press coverage of our efforts in Iraq, I am surprised that 90 percent of the public do not want us out right now. Between January 1 and September 30, 2005, nearly 1,400 stories appeared on the ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news. More than half focused on the costs and problems of the war, four times as many as those that discussed...

ZAMBOANGA, PHILIPPINES U.S. troops in the southern Philippines face the prospect of battle with descendants of the Muslim insurgents that brought U.S. General John "Black Jack" Pershing to the country more than a century ago. Before deploying to Basilan on the weekend, the Green Berets took seminars on the roots of Muslim rebellion in the poverty-wracked south as they brought Washington's war on terrorism to one of the most remote parts of the former U.S. colony. "It's an old war," said Datu Amil Jumaani, a Muslim professor who lectured the U.S. troops. Arab missionaries brought Islam to the Philippines in ...

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Lake Jackson) is co-sponsoring the Telephone Excise Tax Repeal Act of 2009, a bill that would do away with a tax that was originally enacted to help fund the Spanish-American War of 1898. The 110-year-old tax was initially enacted as a “temporary” tax to provide military funding during a time when a telephone was considered a luxury item. Paul said the legislation was outdated and repealing the tax would help people keep more money in their pockets at a time when they sorely need the extra cash. “In these tough economic times, every little bit of tax...

(English-language translation) Understanding that Spain has "a moral debt" to Puerto Rico after ceding the island [to the United States] following the Spanish-American War, Popular Democratic Party (PPD) Senator Eudaldo Báez Galib asked the government of Spain to intervene to help solve the problem of the [island's political] status. Báez sent a letter to Spain's Consul-General in Puerto Rico Carlos Vinuesa Salto asking him to go before the International Court of Justice to present Puerto Rico's case. "The historical moment has come for Spain to tend to its affairs with Puerto Rico. Among these, the mere fact that Puerto Rico...

A memorial service marking the 109th anniversary of the sinking of the battleship Maine will be held today on the State House grounds. Members of the Sons of Spanish-American War Veterans will host the 1 p.m. service at the Spanish War Memorial. Two South Carolinians were among the 266 sailors who died Feb. 15, 1898, when the Maine sank in Havana harbor after an explosion, said Kenneth Robison, head of the local organization. It triggered the Spanish-American War.

I am proud of the legislation I have co-sponsored and voted for to help families keep more of the money they earn. One of the bills that lessened the burden of taxation on American families, which I was excited to co-sponsor this year, repealed the excise tax on telephones and other communications services (H.R. 1898). For over 108 years, the federal government has turned just about every phone call into a bad prank. You may or may not have noticed an item on your bill known as the federal excise tax (FET) or “telephone tax.” The telephone tax has been...

Hiram Iddings Bearss--born on 13 April 1875 at Peru, Ind.--attended local public schools before attending the University of Notre Dame and Purdue and DePauw Universities in Indiana. Between 1894 and 1896, Bearss was a student at Norwich University in Northfield, Vt. On 26 May 1898, he was temporarily commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps, by special act of Congress, for service in the Spanish-American War. Bearss served in the old side-wheel steamer Michigan, operating in the Great Lakes, until his honorable discharge on 21 February 1899. Four months later, on 26 May 1899, he was appointed a first...

The Spanish-American War was fought in 1898 and lasted less than eight months, but Americans still pay an excise tax on phone service that was imposed to finance it. Last week, a mere 108 years after the end of that conflict, the Bush Administration moved to terminate the levy. Its duration is something to keep in mind the next time you hear a politician call for a "temporary" tax. Treasury Secretary John Snow said the Internal Revenue Service will no longer collect the 3% federal excise tax on long-distance phone calls and will offer refunds for the past three years....

ADIOS TO A PHONE TAX The Spanish-American War was fought in 1898 and lasted less than eight months, but Americans still pay an excise tax on phone service that was imposed to finance it. Last week, a mere 108 years after the end of that conflict, the Bush Administration moved to terminate the levy, says the Wall Street Journal. Treasury Secretary John Snow said the Internal Revenue Service will no longer collect the 3 percent federal excise tax on long-distance phone calls and will offer refunds for the past three years. The courts have forced its hand with repeated rulings...

Did you know that the Spanish-American war ended in 1898? No? Apparently, neither did the US Government. Over a hundred years ago, the government enacted a 3% tax on long distance phone calls to help finance the war. And they didn't repeal the tax until now. What the hell was all that money going to: keeping Teddy Roosevelt cryogenically preserved? As of June 30, 2006, your phone bill may decrease. Not only that, but on next year's taxes you'll be able to claim for a refund on the past three years of your phone bill. Granted, we're talking about reclaiming...

Shortly, the 2,000th death of an American serviceman or woman will occur in Iraq. That will generate an orgy of coverage in the American press on how “deadly” the war is. Sidebars will suggest that citizens are becoming “increasingly doubtful” about the conduct of the war. This Newsbusters article denounces that coverage as dishonest, in advance. I wrote on 24 April, 2004, that the War on Terror is the LEAST bloody war in the history of the United States, measured by deaths per month. This is true going back to the Revolutionary War, even though the nation’s population then was...

Grover Norquist and his Americans for Tax Reform are backing an effort to abolish a "temporary" tax on telephones imposed to help fund the Spanish-American War. "Repealing the Spanish-American War tax is long overdue," said Norquist, president of the anti-tax advocacy group. "We've been stealing money from telephone users for 107 years to fund a war it took us four months to win. Getting rid of this relic is a major priority of the taxpayer movement." The Congress passed a law in 1898 imposing a 3 percent tax on every telephone in the country. At the time there were only...