Saturday, June 11, 2011

So, once again, we find two classes of Only Ones:

cops and politicians:
The California state Senate voted 28-8 Wednesday to exempt itself from the pointless gun-control laws that apply to the rest of the populace. Legislators apparently think they alone are worthy to pack heat on the streets for personal protection, and the masses ought to wait until the police arrive.
I’m following up on this claim, because the bill text I’ve been able to locate has the elected official exemption language stricken. Still, what crust to even propose such a thing, especially since some of the same members who want guns to defend their own precious hindquarters insist on disarming their constituents.

Ah, the next step in "I'm not really responsible":

Weiner has decided to seek treatment "to focus on becoming a better husband and healthier person," his spokeswoman said Saturday.

Also Pelosi- after saying "He should stay"- now says "He should go." Apparently finding out about his contact with an underage female generated a little too much heat for Pelosi to be able to continue trying to protect him.

This kind of idiocy is a fine example of why

so many don't trust the police anymore: Follow a bad tip without investigating first, raid the wrong place, damn near get various people killed?
A sour note for the family in the aftermath of the raid was a decision by the department to award medals of valor to the eight officers who participated in it. Mayor R.T. Rybak later criticized that decision.
I have to ask, what effing moron decided this was a good idea? And why?

Friday, June 10, 2011

Oh yah, this makes a LOT of sense

The lawmakers, led by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), also say that, following last week’s weak job report, they are concerned that certain decreases in federal spending could hurt the economy’s recovery. “At this point, both government and private-sector economists agree that sharp immediate cuts in government spending risk plunging our economy into a double-dip recession that will cost further jobs and ultimately worsen our fiscal situation,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter obtained by The Hill.
Really? They do? Why does my bullshit detector start screaming when I read that?

'Course, this includes people who think raising taxes on 'the rich' will work wonders.


More federal agencies winding up with arms. But you can't be trusted to own them, oh no. And I'd really like to see the justifications for this shit.


The DoE:
Let your liberal friends know how their great idea -- the Department of Education -- appears to be run by agents with the sort of morality you would expect from your less patient loan sharks. The loan shark may break down your door to harass you over a debt, but he doesn't do it hiding behind a badge.


Speaking of idiots hiding behind official status,
The family was going through security when two TSA agents singled Drew Mandy out for a special pat down. Drew is severely mentally disabled. He's 29, but his parents said he has the mental capacity of a two-year-old, which made the experience that followed at metro Detroit's McNamera Terminal that much harder to deal with.

"You have got to be kidding me. I honestly felt that those two agents did not know what they were doing," Mandy told us.

Dr. Mandy claimed they asked Drew to place his feet on the yellow shoe line, something he didn't understand. They proceeded to pat his pants down, questioning the padding which was his adult diapers. When the agents asked Drew to take his hand and rub the front and back of his pants so they could swab it for explosives, his dad stepped in and tried to explain that Drew was mentally challenged.

"They said, 'Please, sir, we know what we're doing,'" Mandy said.
(apparently not)
The TSA agents saw Drew holding a six-inch plastic hammer.

"My son carries his ball and his hammer for security. He goes everywhere with (them)," said Mandy.

The TSA it seems saw the toy as a weapon.

"He took the hammer and he tapped the wall. 'See, it's hard. It could be used as a weapon,'" Mandy explained. "So, Drew's also holding the ball, and I said, 'Well, how about the ball?' He (said), 'Oh, he can keep that."
...
We also spoke to a federal security director who said this incident is still under investigation, but as far as they can tell right now, better judgment was needed.

Gee, ya think MAYBE?
And what makes this utter stupidity stand out even more as an example of idiots performing security theater?
The TSA took away one toy hammer, but they were still able to take another toy hammer on board the airplane. How did that happen?

Drew's mother, always prepared, had another one in her backpack and that already passed through security with no problem
.

So the kitties are spreading out again

There has been a wild animal alert issued in the northern suburbs. A mountain lion, yes, a mountain lion, is on the loose, reports CBS 2’s Lou Young.
In Greenwich, CT.
Greenwich Conservation director Denise Savageau said that if anyone happens upon a suspected mountain lion, they should, “Act large, stand up tall, wave your arms and make noises. Don’t freeze. You don’t want to act like a bunny.”

By doing so, the animal more than likely will not view a human as prey, Savageau said.
"Hey, Clyde, they make it easy, don't they? They actually show us where they are!"

'Suspected mountain lion'. Snerk. The possibilities are endless.

I was eating lunch

on the 20th of February with my 5-year-old granddaughter and I asked her, "What day is tomorrow?"

She said, "It's President's Day!"

She is a smart kid. I asked "What does President's Day mean?" I was waiting for something about Washington or Lincoln... etc.

She replied, "President's Day is when President Obama steps out of the White House, and if he sees his shadow we have one more year of unemployment."

You know, it hurts when coffee spurts out your nose
.

Thursday, June 09, 2011

Next Gunwalker hearing

June 15. Which is liable to get real interesting, with stuff like this out there:
HH: . . . But Darrell Issa, this Fast and Furious program run by the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is just stunning. Would you explain to people what it is and what your committee is looking into? DI: Well, Hugh, this is often called Project Gunrunner, because it was really about knowingly, deliberately letting guns be sold to straw purchasers who were going to supply them to the narco-terrorist groups on both sides of the border, and they did. And even at our discovery, our investigation, which is now, you know, 20 subpoenas, incredible amount of depositions, leading up to the office of the Attorney General, has shown us that this was authorized at the highest level. They regret that it went badly, that two American agents are now dead, and countless Mexicans are dead, and 2,000 weapons, 1,600 of them are still unaccounted for. They regret it, but they’re probably still doing similar programs. And that’s why this is such a big thing. If you think you can let guns walk in order to “lead to the bad guys”, you’re missing the whole point of law enforcement. You don’t let drugs walk, you don’t let the money walk, you don’t let guns walk. You do that, you’re part of the crime. . .

And this:
Officials at the Department of Justice are in "panic mode," according to multiple sources, as word spreads that congressional testimony next week will paint a bleak and humiliating picture of Operation Fast and Furious, the botched undercover operation that left a trail of blood from Mexico to Washington, D.C. The operation was supposed to stem the flow of weapons from the U.S. to Mexico by allowing so-called straw buyers to purchase guns legally in the U.S. and later sell them in Mexico, usually to drug cartels.
Side note: read that above again: does that make any friggin' sense at all? To me, not if you're actually trying to STOP the bad guys illegally buying guns.


Instead, ATF documents show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms knowingly and deliberately flooded Mexico with assault rifles. Their intent was to expose the entire smuggling organization, from top to bottom, but the operation spun out of control and supervisors refused pleas from field agents to stop it. Only after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry died did ATF Agent John Dodson blow the whistle and expose the scandal.

Found at Sipsey Street: if you can, just go and start scrolling down, there's a LOT there.

Ref the Guerena killing

I was looking at Ayoobs' column at Backwoods where he goes over the video, and I've got to throw something in:
I've worked 12-hour shifts(though not in a place as strenuous as a copper mine). When I'd get home I'd want to maybe eat a bite, clean up and go to bed. Where I'd lay down and pass out. And I've got news for Mr. Ayoob: I would probably have slept through that 'high-decibel siren wail that lasted for several seconds'; if it DID wake me up, I'd have been half-conscious wondering when that asshole would shut his car alarm off.

I've had people knock on the front door and I never heard it; other times I did but had no idea what it was, if it was an actual noise or something from a dream, I'd never have heard some guy saying 'Police' outside.

One other thing: some cop blog, a couple of years ago, had a thread on a effed-up SWAT raid and a couple of the cops were bitching because the guys behind the lead hadn't thrown down covering fire. My response was "Believe it or not, you are NOT in Easy Company in Kraut territory; 'covering' or 'suppressing' fire is NOT supposed to be a law enforcement technique." I have to wonder if the number of shots fired might not be only some guys panicking, but if one or two of them might have thought 'covering fire' was a good idea? If so, the training of this team was execrable beyond what we already thought.

Be it noted: lightning

will mess you up. Even a bunch of you.

Pistol-caliber vs. rifle-caliber carbines

Been thinking about this since I read Tam's review of shooting the KRISS guns, in particular this part:
There's only one problem: Most of the people who used machine pistols have gone to rifle-caliber "shorty" carbines over the last few years; any agency still using the MP5 is probably going to replace them with M4s or shorty G36's or the like, rather than another pistol-caliber weapon.
My question is 'Why?' I understand a rifle cartridge has more power, but- with everything being a tradeoff- what's the big advantage for a LE organization switching something like a tactical team from a subgun to something like a very short-barreled M4?

Yeah, a .223 is more powerful than a 9mm or .40S&W or .45acp or 10mm; enough so to make up for the increased muzzle blast(for one thing)? I haven't seen a M4 firing up close with a 14" barrel, I have seen a couple of AR15 pistols fired indoors, and the blast and- with some ammo- flash was fairly awful; I can't imagine a M4 with a shorter barrel(don't they make variants with 10" or 10.5" barrels?) would be much better.

I have no personal knowledge to make a statement from, I'm just wondering here.

By the way, just out of curiosity I looked at the Colt site: in their 'law enforcement' and 'M4' section it says
Colt M4 Carbine is the weapon of choice according to today's law enforcement concepts of rapid deployment, mobility and increased firepower. etc. Then, down below,
- M203 40mm Grenade Launcher mounts directly to the Carbine without modification
Hmmm. Is that generally a selling point for LE?

Wednesday, June 08, 2011

Remember that mess in Miami the other day?

The obvious question after viewing this video is why did police wish to destroy evidence, which is a crime. Benoit said that police had destroyed other people’s cameras as well but nobody else has come forwarded with that claim.

However, Local 10 is reporting that police confiscated one of their cameras as well, which is illegal because the law requires them to obtain a subpoena to do this.
Confiscating a camera from a news crew? Dumb move, guys.

Under the heading of 'dumb move', we also have this from Baltimore:
On May 29, 2011, the Baltimore Police Criminal Intelligence Section issued an “Intelligence Bulletin” warning officers about persons displaying the 2nd Amendment decal pictured here. The bulletin contains the following caption in bold red letters:

“….while the individual who is displaying the symbol may not be armed, the presence of the symbol provides an early warning indicator that you MAY be about to encounter an armed individual.”

Reminds me of the Fusion Center that advised cops that people with Gadsden flags, or with conservative views, or who talk about government following the Constitution, should be considered terrorism suspects.


Hey, the DoE SWAT team story? The original link's no good, now you get a 'we can't find the story' page. However, a commenter at Tam's place had this link, which works.

It's whipping post and tar & feathers time for the Department of Education (updated)

The U.S. Department of Education issued the search and called in the S.W.A.T for his wife's defaulted student loans.

"They busted down my door for this," Wright said. "It wasn't even me."

According to the Department of Education's Office of the Inspector General, the case can't be discussed publicly until it is closed, but a spokesperson did confirm that the department did issue the search warrant at Wright's home.

The Office of the Inspector General has a law enforcement branch of federal agents that carry out search warrants and investigations.
Go read the whole thing, for full breakables-warning impact.
A: EVERYONE in the Dept. of 'Education' involved in such things should be fired. Immediately. And then sued for everything they've got.
B: Any so-called lawman who'd agree to take part in a dynamic-entry(i.e. 'Put on your ninja suits and let's go kick doors and abuse people!') raid for such bullshit should be immediately fired AND forbidden from ever wearing a badge again. And sued. If for nothing else than "How effing stupid do you have to be to agree to take part in such a thing?"

Update: this at Reason: DoE now claims it wasn't over a loan:
While it was reported in local media that the search was related to a defaulted student loan, that is incorrect. This is related to a criminal investigation. The Inspector General's Office does not execute search warrants for late loan payments.

Because this is an ongoing criminal investigation, we can't comment on the specifics of the case. We can say that the OIG's office conducts about 30-35 search warrants a year on issues such as bribery, fraud, and embezzlement of federal student aid funds
.
Well, doesn't that make it all better?
No.
As someone asked, if the IG of the DoE actually needs an arrest made, why can't they go to the EffingBI, the US Marshall's Office, or the local cops? Why does the IG need a friggin' SWAT team?
Unless and until we hear that this "criminal investigation" involves some kind of imminent threat of violence, there will be no margin of excuse for it, only new opportunities for bureaucrats and commentators to demonstrate that they are perfectly content living in and even contributing to a police state.

So is Hazel Dukes just plain effing stupid,

or has she been protected so long she thinks she can say and do anything?
Dukes made the stunning attack in response to a Hispanic woman who wrote a heartfelt letter urging the civil-rights leader to pull the NAACP out of a lawsuit aimed at blocking the expansion or co-location of 19 charters in city school buildings.

"If you and the NAACP continue on this horrible lawsuit against my daughter's school and the fellow 18 charter schools," Janette Ramos said, "it will not be the best legacy to leave behind."But hey, why listen to the urgent pleas of parents when you can sink into the gutter so casually?
Dukes issued a terse response.

"You are not a member of the NAACP and don't understand that you are doing the business of slave masters," Dukes said in a June 1 response.
Charters school as tools of slave masters. Yeah. Sure.

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

2nd piece of analysis on the Guerena killing

over at Confederate Yankee. Interesting reading; if correct, these people either didn't really know what the hell they were doing, or didn't care what danger they put the neighbors in.

Apparently some of the older Afghans are gaining ground

- unfortunately- in lessons to the younger ones. As in 'aimed fire' vs. 'spray'n'pray'.

My only mention of Weiner

A: He admitted to repeatedly lying. To everybody. Considering his past, this was a surprise?
B:Let's put it this way: Any offenses that result in a press conference in which a member of Congress can relevantly be asked "Were you fully erect?" are offenses that disqualify that congressman from public service.

It's that simple.Link
"My constituents have to make the determination," he said.

Which is technically true.

But if Tony Weiner had a shred of personal honor, he'd relieve them of that responsibility.
Personal honor? To borrow from Blinky Pelosi, are you kidding?
C: I heard part of the confession/apology/now leave me alone conference yesterday; Weiner is even more of a slimy bastard than I'd thought. Damn.
D: When ABC is playing "We're sorry we didn't actually act like reporters, but he lied to us!" and that absolute clown Behar is telling Barbara Walters she's acting like an idiot, you know these people realize they went WAY over the line into coverup-for-our-friends.

Weiner doesn't have any real sense of honor; the only way he'll resign is if the pressure on him- from voters in his district and/or other democrats- gets heavy enough. We'll see.

Monday, June 06, 2011

Sunday, June 05, 2011

Ever have days when you just didn't want

to write about anything? It's been like that lately, but ran across some things I'd like to point to.
First, Miami Beach PD seems to need to do some remedial training of its officers. After it fires some of the worst. And from the description of this shooting, if accurate, some of them need to be prosecuted.
First, police pointed their guns at the man who shot the video, according to a Miami Herald interview with the videographer.

Then they ordered the man and his girlfriend out the car and threw them down to the ground, yelling “you want to be fucking paparazzi?”

Then they snatched the cell phone from his hand and slammed it to the ground before stomping on it. Then they placed the smashed phone in the videographer's back pocket as he was laying down on the ground.

And finally, they took him to a mobile command center where they snapped his photo and demanded the phone again, then took him to police headquarters where they conducted a recorded interview with him before releasing him.

But what they didn’t know was that Narces Benoit had removed the SIM card and hid it in his mouth, which means the video survived.
Take a look at the shooting he shot video of:
The three-minute video captured on Narces Benoit’s HTC EVO phone begins as officers crowd around the east side of Herisse’s car with guns drawn. Roughly 15 seconds into the video, officers open fire.

Benoit filmed the incident from the sidewalk on the northeast corner of 13th Street and Collins Avenue, close enough to see some officers’ faces and individual muzzle flashes.

Shortly after the gunfire ends, an officer points at Benoit and police can be heard yelling for him to turn off the camera. The voices are muffled at times. The 35-year-old car stereo technician drops his hand with the camera and hurries back to his Ford Expedition parked further east on 13th Street
.
This is bad; really, really bad. The shooting should(of course) be fully investigated; the actions these clowns took toward citizens who shot video should as well, and from the sound of this firing would be the least of consequences for some of them.


Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov says NATO is "one step" from sending troops into Libya in a bid to help rebels remove Moammar Gadhafi from power.
Well, isn't that just wonderful? And if American troops of any type are involved, will Obama still insist he doesn't have to follow the law because 'NATO said so'?


Well, well, this had to annoy hell out of The Lightworker:
Today, 31 U.S. House members -- all Democrats -- wrote to President Barack Obama, urging him to end Administration stonewalling on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' "Project Gunrunner," and the "Fast and Furious" program under which border state dealers were encouraged to sell thousands of guns to suspicious buyers.


Want to get fish off your flooded farm? Count on government to step in and make things more difficult and expensive.



Ramon Almonte, the Guerrero state police chief, said on Monday he will ask the federal congress to make it easier for common citizens to get permits for weapons to defend themselves.

Almonte’s brother was killed on Jan. 1 in a rural town in Guerrero by unidentified gunmen. The state has been plagued by such executions.

“When you fight someone and at least you have a ‘piece,’ the person who is attacking you might think twice,” Almonte said. “We cannot go on the way we are.”

It may not be intended that way, but that 'common citizens' wording seems important to me; as in "Stop letting the wealthy and connected do what average people aren't allowed to do."


I mentioned a while back that when son was in Basic he told me that while the issue cleaning kit was great for in the field, the issue CLP wasn't very good*; later experience has not changed that opinion. A while back, the day before going to the range for qualifications, he went into town and bought a big bottle of Hoppe's #9. Next day, after shooting, while everyone was scrubbing things he soaked the bolt & carrier with Hoppe's and let them sit while he worked on the rest, making sure they stayed wet with it. From other troops: "What are you doing?" "Just wait."

After finished all else let it sit a few minutes more, then picked them up and wiped offr all the fouling. General reaction: "Where'd you get that stuff? Did they have more?" Yeah, there's a reason Hoppe's is still around.


One of the damndest pieces of video you'll ever see from Africa: where EVERYTHING can bite, claw, gore and/or stomp you:

This first came out a while back, but it's worth watching again.


Well, we've got anti-circumcision clowns drawing comic books that'd make old Adoph proud, now we've got globular warminger true-believers saying anyone who doubts it(a 'denier') should have their belief tattooed on their body. He started with their forehead, then moved to the arm or chest(wonder if he thinks a star design or number is appropriate to add?), then notes that on the arm is a bit too 'Nazi-creepy' even for him. So then he moves on to how he wants the evil deniers either bankrupted or drowned. It's for the good of Mother Gaia, y'know.
Richard Glover, you're a fucking moron. And a bigoted fool to boot.


One more idiot two-faced celebrity: Taxes for thee, but not for me. I wonder if he's friends with our Treasury Secretary?


*When they were issued their rifles and cleaning stuff, he decided to take a chance:
"Drill Sergeant, do we have anything better?"
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN BETTER?"
"A one-piece rod, or some better cleaner?" He'd read up on the stuff before signing on, and knew about one-piece rods from long before.
"NO, YOU HAVE TO USE THIS STUFF!" Then, very quietly, "I keep my good shit at home."