Irons in the Fire

Issa to Holder & Co.: "You're liars, and we're about to hold you in contempt."

2012-01-31T18:44:00.000-08:00

Legally, as well as morally. Letter here(pdf document). Pretty flatly says "You're stonewalling, you've lied repeatedly, get the documents to us or else." We'll see if it's actually followed through.(found at Sipsey)

More at Examiner here and here, the second on the Democrats' current attempt to say "It's all the responsibility of those idiots in Phoenix. And besides, Bush started it!"

So the University of Chicago Crime Lab is a Joyce foundation-connected 'gun violence' group that had connections to Newell at ATF; incestuous groups, aren't they? Another big borrow from Sipsey here for those who can't go there:

And who is Roseanna Ander?

Why she is Executive Director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab, which has nothing to do with forensics or CSI and everything to do with laying the "scientific" predicate for more gun control. From the UCCL website:

Each year around the world, roughly 500,000 people are murdered. Millions more are the victims of other crimes, and billions of dollars worth of property are stolen. Unfortunately, relatively little is known about how best to address this major social problem. For example, a 2005 report from the National Academy of Sciences argued there is surprisingly little good evidence about effective ways to reduce gun violence in America. This is true despite the fact that countless new programs have been launched all over the world the past several decades to try to reduce violence. Yet programs are almost never implemented in a way that facilitates rigorous evaluation; this lack of feedback makes it difficult for policymakers to learn from experience.

The University of Chicago Crime Lab seeks to improve our understanding of how to reduce crime and violence by helping government agencies and non-profit organizations rigorously evaluate new pilot programs. . . . The Crime Lab began in April 2008 in partnership with the City of Chicago, and has been made possible by generous seed funding from the Joyce Foundation, the University of Chicago Office of the Provost, and the School of Social Service Administration through the Center for Health Administration Studies.

Among the Crime Lab’s ongoing projects is the Chicago Initiative to Reduce Gun Violence Among School Age Youth. Our recent "design competition" identified one promising project, out of more than 30 applications, that has the potential to reduce youth gun violence in Chicago.

The UCCL describes her bio thusly:

Prior to joining the Crime Lab, Ander served for 10 years as Program Officer for the Gun Violence program at the Joyce Foundation in Chicago, responsible for the foundation's $3 million in grant-making each year for research and other activities to understand and reduce gun violence. In addition she developed and implemented the Foundation's $6 million, three year Early Childhood Education initiative. Ander spear-headed a number of new Joyce Foundation initiatives to reduce youth gun violence including working with the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) to convene a national summit of law enforcement leaders around gun violence prevention. In addition, she oversaw the Foundation's work to promote the development and implementation of the National Violent Death Reporting System, which is now housed at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and being implemented in 17 states. Prior to joining the Joyce Foundation, she served as the Public Health Liaison for Attorney General Scott Harshbarger of Massachusetts. She holds a Master of Science degree in health policy from Harvard School of Public Health.

Ah, yes, the Joyce Foundation. From Wikipedia:

Since 2003, the Joyce Foundation has paid grants totaling over $12 million to gun control organizations. The largest single grantee has been the Violence Policy Center, which received $4,154,970 between 1996 and 2006, and calls for an outright ban on handguns, semi-automatic and other firearms, and substantial restrictions on gun owners. The Joyce Foundation's position on gun control has led to frequent opposition and criticism from gun rights groups, particularly the National Rifle Association, which calls the Joyce Foundation an activist foundation whose "shadowy web of huge donations" leads "straight to puppet strings that control the agenda of gun ban groups".

But the Executive Director of the University of Chicago "Crime Lab" is only one of the hats Ander wears. She was appointed to the Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission by Governor Pat Quinn and just two months after this email exchange she was named to Rahm Emanuel's Chicago mayor transition team's Committee on Public Safety, along with Father Michael *Snuffy" Pfleger, dubbed Snuffy by David Codrea for having infamously called for a Chicago gun store owner to be "snuffed out." Hey, Jake, as David routinely asks, "Whaddaya expect, it's Chi-town."

So Ander is a long-time, highly placed anti-gun zealot, a critical cog in the efforts of the citizen disarmament lobby. Yet ATF senior manager Hayes has apparently more than a passing acquaintance with Ms. Ander. And she, it seems, expects to be queried out of the blue by Hayes. Her reply:

From: Ander, Roseanna

Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 03:25 PM (Eastern)

To: Benjamin.R.Hayes (REDACTED)

Subject: Re: Gun Running Operation Uncovered in Arizona

Are the names in the indictment public? I want to pull up the actual indictments and can't with first and last names.

Roseanna Ander, Executive Director

University of Chicago Crime Lab

55 East Monroe, 30th Floor

Chicago, IL 60603

(LARGE BLOCK REDACTED)

Two minutes later, in a move that bespeaks remarkable inside knowledge of and familiarity with the ATF chain of command, an impatient Ander goes straight to the horse's mouth -- William "Gunwalker Bill" Newell, then ATF SAC of the Phoenix office, responsible for Fast and Furious.

From: Ander, Roseanna (REDACTED)

Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 2:27 PM (Central)

To: Newell, William D.

Subject: Fw: Gun Running Operation Uncovered in Arizona

Do you have this info?

Roseanna Ander, Executive Director

University of Chicago Crime Lab

55 East Monroe, 30th Floor

Chicago, IL 60603

(LARGE BLOCK REDACTED)

Gunwalker Bill responds, and seems to know Ms. Ander quite well also:

From: Newell, William D. (REDACTED)

Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 03:30 PM

To: Ander, Roseanna

Cc: Hayes, Benjamin R. (REDACTED)

Subject: Re: Gun Running Operation Uncovered in Arizona

They were all just posted on the site below. There are several indictments, the main one being the "Avila" one.

http://www.justice.gov/usao/az/index.html

Bill Newell

Special Agent in Charge

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)

Phoenix Field Division (Arizona and New Mexico) (REDACTED)

(LARGE BLOCK REDACTED)

Ms. Anders seems appreciative as well as very knowledgeable about the arc of Gunwalker Bill's career, for she seems to know about his then expected reward of the promotion to to ATF Attache in Mexico City, a job which Newell had long coveted, and which was vacated by the forcing out of Darren Gil, who had objected to being kept out of the loop of Fast and Furious (after the scandal blew up a few days later with Senator Grassley's first letter on the subject, Newell's promotion was first put on hold, and then withdrawn).

From: Ander, Roseanna

To: Newell, William D.

Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 4:38:40 PM

Subject: Re: Gun Running Operation Uncovered in Arizona

Thank you. I guess you are leaving town on a high note!

Roseanna Ander, Executive Director

University of Chicago Crime Lab

55 East Monroe, 30th Floor

Chicago, IL 60603

(LARGE BLOCK REDACTED)

That celebratory high-five prediction would turn out to be premature.

The central point of this email exchange is this. The ATF has always denied that it plays one side of the policy debate or the other, claiming that it is only "enforcing the laws passed by Congress" without bias or favor. Here we see, in the easy familiarity between two high-ranking ATF senior managers and one of the most energetic anti-firearm zealots in the United States, the real truth -- that any pretense of impartiality is just that, a lie. The ATF senior management has a symbiotic relationship with the citizen disarmament lobby and evidently has had for many years. They are, in fact, joined at the hip. More scandalous grist for the upcoming ATF oversight hearing mill, no doubt.

Last, not related to Gunwalker(that we KNOW of...) but very important, Linoge notes the 'National Gun Victims Action Council' letting the cat out:
Any sane gun law will lead to the government being able to take your guns away.
...

But the second italicized line… well, that is the money quote, so to speak. "Any sane gun law will lead to the government being able to take your guns away." The NGVAC seems big on "sane gun laws", with the phrase, along with "insane gun laws" (referring, of course, to anything the big, bad NRA proposes), occurring somewhere around once every two sentences on their webpage – can you say, "SEO-whoring"? I knew you could. But Google-bombing or not, that single sentence, right there, is a seven-inch, ivory-handled KA-BAR shoved between the third and fourth ribs of the dorsal side of "gun control".

Why? Simple: one of the favorite talking points of "gun control" extremists – especially when someone accurately observes that registration leads to confiscation – is that no modern "gun control" organization wants to take your guns away.

ORLY?

Well, then, thank you Elliot and thank you Andrew and thank you to the rest of the National Gun Victims Action Council for providing us such an easy counterpoint to that claim – after all, why would people so viciously obsessed with firearms and the demonization of them want the government to have the ability to take our firearms away if they did not actually want the government to do exactly that?

And look at the phrasing of the sentence – note how they simply say "take your guns"; not "take criminals’ guns", not "take convicted persons’ guns", not "take some people’s guns". Nope, take your guns – as in every single firearm-owning person who happened upon their webpage and happened to read that sentence. Nevermind the "why" of the situation (especially because it boils down to nothing more complicated than their deep-seated, pathological, uncontrollable fear of an inanimate object) – these people want to empower the government to whimsically and capriciously confiscate your private property… ironically, at the point of a gun.

Loose translation: "Screw you infantry clowns,

2012-01-31T18:23:00.000-08:00

we never liked that ugly airplane." And this gives the AF a reason to get rid of it, in favor of a more sexy airplane that's not even available as yet.

"Give your proper name to the minion, peasant! Or else!" Yeah, I'll bet that educated the hell out of people.

Ah, those "We sit at God's right hand and give advice" professionals of the EffingBI: investigate for two years, then attack the wrong address.
With a chainsaw.
Just how many levels of 'Fail' can you find in this story?

Zombie thinks the current string of 'It's not warming after all' is in part due to the greenies and socialists cycling back to the 'global cooling' I grew up with. But with the same "Change everything!" 'solutions'.

It appears a bunch of Catholics(in particular) who believed Obama are rather pissed off right now. With reason. Here's an example:
Consider Catholicism’s highest-ranking elected official, Vice President Biden. Biden had encouraged engagement with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on conscience rights. Now he will be remembered as the Catholic cover for the violation of Catholic conscience. Betrayal is always an inside job.
I wonder if Biden'll threaten to punch them out?

Yeah, I imagine this educated the hell out of people.

And a bunch of people in Mexico are tired of being preyed on by the dirtbags and left unprotected by the government.

Added after I saw this at Ace: Juan Williams basically says EVERYTHING Republicans and conservatives say is racially-based. You know, for someone who was canned and slandered at NPR for saying something non-PC, you'd think he'd be a little more careful about throwing this kind of bullshit around.

In local news, we had a city councilman named Skip Kelly who got busted

2012-01-31T14:28:00.000-08:00

for drunk driving for the second time.
A: He's not resigning, 'I work very hard', etc.
B: The rest of the coucil is being 'very supportive', including this from Ed Shadid:
“Much of the public does not understand the magnitude or the nature of these problems, (and people) do not understand how commonplace this is (and), how it is affecting all of us,” Shadid said. “I have seen exceptional courage and bravery on Skip Kelly's part in the last few days. I'm very proud to call him my friend, and I'm very proud of him. ... He's been very high-functioning, in my opinion, with one arm tied behind his back. I'd like to see what happens in the future when he has an even playing field.”
Awww, isn't that sweet and sensitive? I wonder if he thinks the same way about people not council-members or friends caught driving drunk? Twice?

Effing politicians.

True: according to the gun bigots it only counts as 'self-defense'

2012-01-31T12:16:00.001-08:00

if
The criminal isn't badly hurt,
No guns are involved,
And the defender is worried about going to jail for his self-defense.
Otherwise it's settling their own scores with criminals and extreme self-defense tactics and vigilante-minded.

The thing this 'award-winning writer' does get right: if people know the police aren't going to be there, CANNOT be there, they'll damn well act to protect themselves.

As they have the right to do.

Remember Liz Warren?

2012-01-30T16:07:00.001-08:00

This Liz Warren? The "Nobody got rich without owing everybody else" clown? Turns out she's worth something like $14 million, but insists SHE'S not rich, not one of those evil 1%...

Some overview of the 'Holder lied' e-mails, including this:
Holder’s expected appearance before the House Oversight Committee on Thursday, February 2, is further complicated by the actions of Patrick Cunningham, the chief of the Phoenix office’s criminal division within the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona. Cunningham invoked his Fifth Amendment rights in an effort to avoid testifying in front of the Oversight Committee — you can only invoke the Fifth to avoid self-incrimination. The invocation makes it even less plausible for Holder to claim that DOJ was acting lawfully with the Operation. Cunningham resigned from the U.S. Attorney’s Office on Friday, January 27.

Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa reserved the right to call Cunningham before the committee, and also indicated that he has informed Holder that he will seek a new witness to testify, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Morrissey. Morrissey directly reported to Cunningham.

Previously, the Department of Justice had refused to allow Morrissey or Assistant U.S. Attorney Emory Hurley (who reported to Morrissey) to testify.
Like that 'refused to allow' bit? I do, too.
Also a whack at the Mexican Gun Lie:
Their former boss, Dennis Burke, is also undergoing renewed scrutiny. Burke’s 23-year career as the architect of anti-gun legislation lends credence to theories that Operation Fast and Furious and other alleged gun-walking operations were imposed by the Obama administration to help support the 90 percent lie. The 90 percent lie was a manipulation of gun trace data restated on numerous occasions by President Obama, Attorney General Holder, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, and other administration officials as they argued for more restrictions on gun sales. The claims seem particularly vicious and deceptive at this time, as we now know that the ATF was forcing gun dealers to supply cartel straw purchases with weapons.

Watts Up With That looks at the "Yes, we've been lying to you" release from the CRU and Met. And I got curious and looked around a bit; yes, the major media(if MSNBC counts) is now covering it. To borrow:
"If temperatures continue to stay flat or start to cool again," Scafetta said, "the divergence between the models and recorded data will eventually become so great that the whole scientific community will question the current theories."
Except the True Believers will still be claiming the cooling proves their theory.
Professor Judith Curry agrees. She is one of America’s most eminent climate experts and works at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She argued it is becoming evident that factors other than CO2 play an important role in rising or falling warmth, such as the 60-year water temperature cycles in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
Which has been pointed out by scientists before; they were attacked, slandered and called names for doing so.
"The responsible thing to do would be to accept the fact that the models may have severe shortcomings," Curry said. As for the lack of warmer in the last 15 years, she said that many scientists "are not surprised."
But accepting the models are so flawed would mean admitting they've been lying about them being wonderful, for years.
"When both oceans were cold in the past, such as from 1940 to 1970, the climate cooled," Curry said. "The Pacific cycle ‘flipped’ back from warm to cold mode in 2008 and the Atlantic is also thought likely to flip in the next few years."

Pal Brekke, senior adviser at the Norwegian Space Centre, said some scientists underestimate the importance of water cycles when considering global temperature trends.
'Underestimated' often meaning 'dismissed' by the Believers. And the politicians using them to grab more power.
"Doing so means admitting that the oceans - not CO2 - caused much of the global warming between 1970 and 1997," Brekke said.
Heresy! Denier!!
"We’re now well into the second decade of the pause,’ said Benny Peiser, director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation. "If we don’t see convincing evidence of global warming by 2015, it will start to become clear whether the models are bunk. And, if they are, the implications for some scientists could be very serious."
They damn well should be serious. These people have been lying and threatening and trying to destroy the careers of people who asked inconvenient questions; there BETTER be 'implications'.

The doggy gentleman takes a shot at the SOTU address:

For the first time in nine years, there are no Americans fighting in Iraq.

CLAUDIUS: What’s that s-s-strange thing he’s d-doing up th-there?

EMPEROR MISHA I: It’s called an “end zone dance”, but usually it is only done by the person who actually accomplished the thing being celebrated.

For the first time in two decades, Osama bin Laden is not a threat to this country.

CALIGULA: Drink!

TIBERIUS: It’s going to be a looong night. Do you have enough of those wondrous pills you call “aspirins” for all of us, Emperor?

Most of Al Qaida’s top lieutenants have been defeated. The Taliban’s momentum has been broken. And some troops in Afghanistan have begun to come home.

AUGUSTUS: And you’re negotiating the best terms of surrender with the rest of the Taliban and al Qaeda even as we speak. Only it’s not their surrender you’re talking about.

TIBERIUS: “Remember: The Germanic tribes are not our enemies per se!”

AUGUSTUS: If only somebody had told Publius Quinctilius Varus.

History geek points if you know who Varus was.

Speaking of backstabbing, jealous politicians, heard about this yet?
Just in case anybody is still believing that the RINO Gentry Club is any less of a fanatical enemy than the NSDWP, we learn that the RINOcracy is pretty much done with an effort to redistrict LTC Allen West right out of Congress (h/t Bill Quick).

This has not received a lot of national attention, but the Republican legislature in Florida is about to push through a plan which puts Allen West at serious risk, and the person leading the effort is one of Mitt Romney’s spokemen.

More and more, I think 'Get Obama out of office; and the day after the election the Third Party begins.' Because the upper reaches of the Stupid Party suck diseased donkey dick, and cannot be trusted. At all. In ANYTHING.

You've got your choice here: the clowns either don't know what the hell they're doing, or this worked just fine: because they want people to get the idea that the Touching Special Areas molesters can screw with you anytime, anywhere. Or a bit of both, which I tend to go with.

Yeah, who is paying the gun bigots bill on this?
Of course, they're probably so busy trying to ban guns and get rid of dealers that they need some help.
Financial as well as mental

First: since the CDC has so much free time and money

2012-01-30T06:52:00.001-08:00

they can afford to play games with this, I'll say the same thing when they were funding studies pushing personal disarmament laws: next time they whine that they need more funding to do their job, tell them to drop the social-engineering crap and use that money the way it was supposed to be done; if they don't cut their budget.

Gee, so Buffett is another very rich dirtbag wanting taxes raised 'for the public good' while he's making sure he'll avoid them; isn't that just wonderful?

Ok, Californicated, you can demand that and screw people over all you want, but I still have the question: WHERE THE HELL IS THE ELECTRICITY TO CHARGE THEM GOING TO COME FROM? Especially with The Lightworkers' EPA minions working to cut electrical generation capacity in the holy name of Saving Gaia?

A fine argument for concealed carry; anybody think these racist thugs would've continue the attack if they'd been faced with an armed opponent?

This doesn't surprise me. Second wife worked at a federal agency here in OKC, and one day told me there were signs posted in the office that "Just because you work for the federal government doesn't mean you don't have to file your taxes." One guy she worked with hadn't filed his for four or five years at that time.

When your protesters are burning American flags,

2012-01-29T17:58:00.000-08:00

fuck 'em. They're not on my side.

If Brandeis said this today, Napolitano would launch

2012-01-29T17:09:00.000-08:00

an investigation. And stick him on that terrorist watch list.
Brandeis told Sir Ronald “that it was wholly contrary to any conception of civil rights with which I was familiar, through study of the Anglo-Saxon institutions and the American experience, that when a government found itself unable to afford protection, citizens should not be permitted to protect themselves.”
...
It is not good for us that we should ever lose the fighting quality, the stamina, and the courage to battle for what we want when we are convinced that we are entitled to it, and other means fail. There is something better than peace, and that is peace that is won by struggle. We shall have lost something vital and beyond price on the day when the State denies us the right to resort to force in defense of a just cause.
I get the feeling that this is an 'early 19-century American progressive' Hillary Clinton would not really like.

AG Eric Holder: Lying bastard and perjuror

2012-01-29T16:56:00.000-08:00

That email was sent at 2:31 a.m. on the day Terry was shot. One hour later, a follow-up email read: “Our agent has passed away.”

Burke forwarded those two emails to Holder’s then-deputy chief of staff Monty Wilkinson later that morning, adding that the incident was “not good” because it happened “18 miles w/in” the border.

Wilkinson responded to Burke shortly thereafter and said the incident was “tragic.” “I’ve alerted the AG [Holder], the Acting DAG, Lisa, etc.”

Then, later that day, Burke followed up with Wilkinson after Burke discovered from officials whose names are redacted that the guns used to kill Terry were from Fast and Furious. “The guns found in the desert near the murder BP officer connect back to the investigation we were going to talk about – they were AK-47s purchased at a Phoenix gun store,” Burke wrote to Wilkinson.

“I’ll call tomorrow,” Wilkinson responded.
Wilkinson, Holder's Chief of Staff.
Take note of this at the bottom:
This article was updated after publication. A previous version reported Holder was informed that the weapons used to kill Terry were linked to Operation Fast & Furious. But a letter to Congress provided by the DOJ suggests only that Monty Wilkinson was made aware. That letter states Wilkinson does not recall telling Holder. Reached Sunday, a spokesperson for Holder relied only on that letter, and declined to confirm that Holder himself was not informed.
So; we're supposed to believe that Holder's CoS DID NOT tell him about this? That the bastard 'cannot recall if he told Holder'? Really?

Please take note of that 'declined to confirm'; can you think of a more lawyerly-weasel way of saying "You can charge us for 'Yes', you can charge us for 'No', but you can't charge us for "We don't remember"?

If this information is correct, even more reason

2012-01-29T07:29:00.000-08:00

to home-school your kids if you can.

A 'sexual battery' charge? In his school records? From a game on the playground?

If I were them I'd go back later and get his records; make sure they didn't put it back in.

Some things just don't ring true in this story

2012-01-29T07:28:00.000-08:00

Go take a look.

From the same people who've been screaming "GLOBAL WARMING!!

2012-01-29T07:20:00.000-08:00

DENIERS!!!", we get this:
The supposed ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years.

The figures suggest that we could even be heading for a mini ice age to rival the 70-year temperature drop that saw frost fairs held on the Thames in the 17th Century.

Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997.
The same people who've been trying to destroy the career of anyone casting doubt, or even asking questions about the 'global warming' religion.

If I were a Jew and lived in Europe,

2012-01-28T20:08:00.000-08:00

and looked around and saw crap like this all around me, I'd be liquidating assets and finding someplace else to go.
Van Heusden’s article, published in the Dutch Christian daily Trouw, portrays Israeli prenatal care as a military operation by a state obsessed with producing perfect babies. Her imagery is meant to conjure images of a cold Spartan state that breeds healthy children for military service. And of course, her carefully chosen language evokes memories of Nazi superbabies bred by pliant frauleins.

As van Heusden writes: “The chosen people have to be perfect.”

Ilse van Heusden’s Israeli doctors discovered that she carried the CMV virus, the reason she had to undergo multiple tests. In her article she admits that CMV can cause severe damage to the fetus. Yet van Heusden chooses to interpret the exquisite care she received—a non-Jew and a non-resident of the Jewish State—in the most negative light possible.

Well, it would explain some things

2012-01-28T19:51:00.000-08:00

Just finished reading The New Vichy Syndrome; interesting book. Found a lot of 'This requires thought' stuff in it, but- especially with the way Obama and the leftists have been working overtime to crap on this country- this passage from the end especially caught my attention:
A combination of loss of power and historiographical miserabilism leave a society in poor condition to maintain its social fabric. On the face of it, the history of the United States is less susceptible to a miserabilist interpretation than that of most countries. But miserabilism is never compelled by the evidence alone, and intellectual ingenuity can always descry the cloudy in any silver lining. America could be described as a state founded first on genocide and then on slave-owning hypocrisy, that subsequently appropriated half of Mexico, etc., etc. Grievance-mongers can project their current discontents backwards and easily demonstrate that America has been a paradise for racists, exists, persecutors of homosexuals, etc. Corruption has always been rife in it, jobbing politicians have always led the population by the nose. Even the disillusionment that will inevitably follow the euphoria of Mr. Obama's election will be grist to the miserabilist mill.

This is not, of course, to call for an equal and opposite historiography, in which there is nothing but a glorious upward ascent and everything American is best. One of the dangers of this kind of historiography is that, when disillusionment comes, it is total. And such a disillusionment is particularly strong when the pride in power, with which it is often associated, receives the unpleasant shock that the power has evaporated.

Rather, a defense of all that is best, and of all the achievement, in American history is necessary. That is why the outcome of the so-called culture wars in America is so important to its future. A healthy modern society must know how to remain the same as well as change, to conserve as well as to reform. Europe has changed without knowing how to conserve: that is its tragedy.
As to the disillusionment mentioned: I've listened to/read the various comments of people dealing with that; "He's not as good on civil rights as I'd hoped/didn't end the war/didn't hang bankers/didn't go far enough left" and so on. And you probably know just what their claimed 'reasons' for these problems are: it's America's fault. 'The Republicans wouldn't let him/the staff let the bankers buy them/he couldn't overcome the racism of this country' and on and fucking on. Point out that you said, way back when, that he was exactly the kind of politician he's shown himself to be, and you're either ignored or called stupid and/or bigoted. They've got so much tied up in believing in him, in what they wanted/believed him to be, that many- maybe most- are not capable of saying "He conned us, he's not The Lightworker after all!" Some have so much tied up in him it might actually destroy them to do so.

Which is what comes of worshiping politicians.

This kid has a future;

2012-01-28T19:50:00.001-08:00

he can say "Sergeant, I already eat snakes!"

You know, I wouldn't get so pissed at leftists and 'progressives'

2012-01-28T19:35:00.000-08:00

if they were somewhat consistent on rights; they bitched and screamed bloody murder at intelligence tapping in on phone calls going OUT of the country to KNOWN numbers for terrorists/contacts(violation of speech, privacy, etc.), but when it comes to gun owners just being on a secret list, should be enough to remove that right from you forever.

Every time I hear some damned politician/gun bigot yelling "You want terrorists to be able to buy guns!" I very much want to ask "You mean that being on a list
You don't know if you're on,
They won't tell you if you ask if you're on,
If you are on it they won't tell you why, and
They won't tell you how to get off it
is enough to take away one of your basic rights?"

I really am effing sick of these people.

Let me add in, flat-out damned liars:
...This is funny:

6.To the people who categorized us as “gun grabbers” I suspect that you did not see the following on the home page of our website:

Sane gun laws will simultaneously protect the Second Amendment right of the legal gun owner and the non-gun owner’s rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as written in the Declaration of Independence.

Well this is also on their site:

Any sane gun law will lead to the government being able to take your guns away.

But they're not 'gun grabbers'. No, not at all. What they also are is nuts.

So I'd say 'Conservative my ass' pretty much covers it

2012-01-28T17:21:00.001-08:00

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi who’s fighting to repeal ObamaCare appeared on Greta, tonight, defending RomneyCare. She says Romney’s health care plan is not the same as ObamaCare and, in fact, Romney’s plan reduces costs. She goes on to say that Romney wants all states to impose similar laws (including mandates) and that she and is all for it.

Does make you think Holder is supposed to take the fall

2012-01-27T20:03:00.001-08:00

to protect Obama and others:

Sipsey Street Irregulars has learned that the Department of Justice, at the direction of the White House, has dumped more than 500 pages of documents including emails on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chaired by Darrell Issa tonight. Sources say that among these are at least one email on 15 December 2010 from then US Attorney Dennis K. Burke to Monty Wilkinson, aide to Eric Holder, informing the Attorney General office of the murder of Brian Terry and, later that day, of the seizure at the scene of Fast and Furious weapons. More shortly.

LATER: NPR was apparently the preferred outlet for the dump. Go here -- http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/01/27/146010135/emails-show-how-fast-and-furious-ambush-news-unfolded-at-justice-dept

They also have the emails posted. Holder is screwed. Of course the only reason they're doing this is to further the modified limited hangout, which now apparently includes Eric Holder. Remember, these are the emails that the WH WANTED to release. What does that tell us? That they're protecting the White House and are willing to dispose of Holder to do it.

This morning, found that at Examiner:

The emails are heavily redacted shielding not just information, but the identities of certain senders and recipients. Stipulating a possibly legitimate need to withhold facts pertaining to ongoing criminal investigations, the question of why the names of key individuals, including those in the US Attorney’s office are also withheld must be explored.

Also, any discussion of “controlled deliveries” and coordination with Mexican officials does not occur in the disclosed communications threads until February 4, 2011—Gun Rights Examiner’s “Journalists’ Guide to Project Gunwalker” chronicles reporting and revelations made in this column and on Sipsey Street Irregulars prior to that action—reporters and interested individuals should consult that document to see for themselves how much of this story was already documented by that time, including revelations made on Jan. 6 in this column that the Mexican government had been intentionally left uninformed up until ATF and DOJ officials decided it was in their interests almost a month later to contact them.

Of particular interest from the Dec. 15, 2010 email from Holder aide Monty Wilkinson to then-US Attorney Dennis Burke:

I’ve alerted the AG…

When did Holder say he first became aware of it?

HOLDER: I’m not sure of the exact date but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks.

That was on May 3, 2011 (see sidebar video player).

The other day I said something of what I think of Lt. Col. Folsom

2012-01-27T19:57:00.000-08:00

and every asshole behind these idiot rules; and who enforces them and screws their own troops over.

I shouldn't be surprised; they're also behind letting wounded troops die and putting the medics and flights in danger. All in the name of blindly following idiot rules.

More and more I lean toward the 'lamppost-rope-politician' formula, with the corollary 'lamppost-rope-fucking idiots in uniform and politicians in uniform'.

Wouldn't surprise me that Obama wants commissars

2012-01-27T17:37:00.000-08:00

in the military; fits so well with the communist model he so loves

'The science is settled, all real scientists agree!" my ass.

Oh, Robb, you had to start that... Ok, in no order of importance:
Holland & Holland double in .470NE
S&W K32 Target Masterpiece
Barrett M82A1
AR15 with a piston upper in 7.62x39
on the last, I'm split between a Lahti 20mm, a Dragunov, and that shotgun(assuming it actually works and holds up)
Dammit, Owens had to remind me of the BAR and DeLisle...

The Fredericton, New Brunswick, PD should be ashamed of themselves. But then, if they were capable of shame they would not have committed this idiocy.
Actually, that would be 'multiple idiocies'.
And Fredericton PD? You find this and don't like it because it hurts your feelings? Fuck you, you sorry excuses for lawmen.

So the gun bigot gets bit in the ass by the laws he's been pushing; hope the bastard enjoys it.

And now, if you'll excuse me, a small slice of the banana nut bread that just came out of the oven beckons.

This professor needs either a kick in the ass

2012-01-27T17:36:00.000-08:00

or to be fired:
Students at the University of Wisconsin Law School were surprised at the end of the Fall 2011 semester when they received an e-mail from their Professor propositioning them. The e-mail asked students for their help in a private political project, while final grades in their classes had yet to be posted.
The professor, of course, sees no problem with this.

Well, my first thought would be

2012-01-27T14:43:00.000-08:00

You're Screwed.

Sgt. Chilson, saying "I salute you"

2012-01-26T18:25:00.001-08:00

just doesn't cover it.

Damn.

You can't even call this incestuous or cloned, this is

2012-01-26T15:06:00.000-08:00

this is one group of people changing names around. And they don't just want people to do what they say anymore:
What’s interesting is that their boycott is not based on the idea that they don’t want to be around gun owners while they enjoy their scones and frappuccinos, it’s actual goal is to force Starbucks to donate to NGAC. To end the boycott will require Starbucks ban all guns from its stores—and become a major supporter of policies to reduce gun violence. In other words, banning guns isn’t enough. They will demand that corporations line the pockets of the leaders of this group in order to end the boycott.
I don't even drink coffee, but on Feb. 14th I'll be at the Starbucks they built about a half-mile away, buying a drink.

General firearms news, starting with Rep. Hank Johnson

2012-01-26T12:53:00.001-08:00

being called out and called a number of unpleasant things(all of which fit).
I won’t begin this with letter with the salutation “Dear,” because I only have contempt for you, and the disgusting responses you gave to The Daily Caller when they asked you about the Congressional investigation into the Fast and Furious “gunwalking” international criminal conspiracy (see article for video--Examiner.com does not accomodate the html code to embed it here).
And it continues from there.

Second,
Blocked funding for ATF's planned shotgun import ban already paying dividends
Last November, the "Fiscal Year 2012 Agriculture, Commerce/Justice/Science and Transportation/Housing/Urban Development Appropriations bills" omnnibus was signed into law. One provision of that law blocks funding for a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) plan to ban the importation of certain shotguns, based on their not being sufficiently suited to "sporting purposes."
And I want to see that AKDAL shotgun; that looks really interesting.

On Gunwalker and media:
In re new media, I believe Gunwalker is a milestone of sorts, because it truly is a major story that had to be brought to the networks and newspapers, and they still resist reporting on it at all, let alone not embedding their reporting with their own agenda. I believe it shows the monolith press is no longer the sole gatekeeper for information, as the internet has given us a way to bypass them. I've documented time and again how Mike and I have beaten them, with all their resources, to the punch, and also how they have acted more like collaborators than journalists.

That they still are trying to be the ones to set memes in motion is evident by the APs list of top ten stories for 2011: Fast and Furious didn't make the cut. That led me to observe:

There’s another big story the Fourth Estate Fifth Columnists missed for 2011: Their growing, self-created irrelevance, and how in spite of their deliberate indifference, coupled with agenda-driven manipulation, they are no longer the sole gatekeepers of information.

So leave it to them to put a positive spin on the fact that they’re overwhelmingly distrusted. And welcome to the dawning of the age of the “unauthorized journalist.”

Issa has some words for Holder & Co.:
House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa told The Daily Caller that Attorney General Eric Holder owes an apology to the Mexican government and to the families of Operation Fast and Furious victims south of the border.

“Justice has blood on their hands,” Issa said Wednesday during an exclusive interview with TheDC, referring to the U.S. Department of Justice.

“The attorney general, as the head of Justice, has to explain that to the families of survivors,” Issa said. “Yes, he should find a way to make it very clear to our neighbors to the south — at least to the government and at least publicly — that there needs to be deep regret for what happened and there needs to be reassurances that it never happens again.”
Something I'll add: the article notes At least 300 people in Mexico were killed with Fast and Furious weapons, as was U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. I'd change that 'were killed' to 'have been killed so far, that we know of'.

Oh boy, just found this:
“Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa demanded in [a] letter to Attorney General Holder that the Justice Department make Arizona U.S. Attorney’s Office Assistant United States Attorney Michael Morrissey available to speak with Committee investigators about his role in and knowledge of Operation Fast and Furious,” a release issued moments ago by the committee reveals:

His supervisor, Patrick Cunningham, has stated he will exercise his Fifth Amendment and refuse to answer any questions pertaining to Operation Fast and Furious – such an assertion is extremely rare and suggests possible criminal culpability on the part of a high ranking Justice Department official. Morrissey, who reported directly to Cunningham’s and was intimately involved with Operation Fast and Furious.

“Since August, the Department has identified Patrick Cunningham as the best person in the U.S. Attorney’s Office to provide information about Fast and Furious to the Committee,” Issa said in his letter to Holder. “The Department has refused to make Michael Morrissey and Emory Hurley, both Assistant United States Attorneys supervised by Mr. Cunningham, available to speak with the Committee, citing a policy of not making “line attorneys” available for congressional scrutiny. Mr. Morrissey, however, was Mr. Hurley’s direct supervisor, and an integral part of Fast and Furious. Importantly, both Morrissey and Hurley are unique in their possession of key factual knowledge about Fast and Furious not readily available from any other source.”

The Chairman also reiterated that the Justice Department still has not complied with the subpoenas issued to date, including subpoenaed documents from Cunningham, Morrissey and Hurley.

...

Further, Cunningham’s decision to invoke a self-incrimination refusal was the subject of a letter sent by Issa to Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday, in which he wrote:

The implication that Mr. Cunningham may have engaged in criminal conduct with respect to Fast and Furious is a major escalation of the Department’s culpability. The significance of these developments cannot be overstated, and this assertion raises many questions about ongoing criminal cases currently pending in federal court in Arizona—including prosecutions related to Fast and Furious.

As to the "We never let guns walk!" lie,
Witnesses have reported that AUSA Hurley may have stifled ATF agents’ attempts to interdict weapons on numerous occasions. Many ATF agents working on Operation Fast and Furious were under the impressions that even some of the most basic law enforcement techniques typically used to interdict weapons required the explicit approval of your office, specifically from AUSA Hurley. It is our understanding that this approval was withheld on numerous occasions...We have further been informed that AUSA Hurley improperly instructed ATF agents that they need to meet unnecessarily strict evidentiary standards merely in order to temporarily detain or speak with suspects.

More at the link. LOTS more.

A post at Sipsey on the subject of what calls for confiscation actually mean:

Three Death Penalties for Prohibited Arms Possession.

A special German court in Zamość [near Krakow] sentenced to death 19 year-old Franciszek Pokrywka of Powieki, 27 year-old Iwan Zilnyk and 35 year-old Paweł Huzar, both of Ułazów, for prohibited possession of firearms as well as for violating the duty to report possession of firearms.

Pokrywka had an automatic pistol with six cartridges and, despite the universally-known order about surrendering the arms, he did not give it up. Sometime later he sold the pistol to Zilnyk, who a few days after that offered the firearm for sale to Huzar, who, though he did not buy it, still failed to fulfill his duty to report it to the proper authorities.

The above-mentioned death sentences have already been carried out. -- Nowy Kurjer Warszawski [New Warsaw Courier], Jan. 22, 1941, quoted in Stephen Halbrook's Citizens in Arms.

I've been scanning a lot of Stephen Halbrook's work lately, trying to find the right chapter heading quotes for Absolved. Particularly impressive is his The Swiss & The Nazis: How the Alpine Republic Survived in the Shadow of the Third Reich.

In the process I encountered the dry newspaper announcement above. You know, I have been criticized mightily across the political spectrum for my response to an an impatient gun grabber, "If you try to take our firearms, we will kill you." But the thing is, those who propose to take our liberty and our property have already decided -- in their ignorance of the unintended consequences -- that it is worth it to them (or, at least, inconsequential) if we are killed in the process.

As I observed in my call to break Democrat Party headquarters windows in advance of the passage of the tyrannical Obamacare mandate:

Nancy Pelosi's Intolerable Act is within days of passage by devious means so corrupt and twisted that even members of her own party recoil in disgust.

This act will order all of us to play or pay, and if we do not wish to, we will be fined.

If we refuse to pay the fine out of principle, we will be jailed.

If we resist arrest, we will be killed.

They will send the Internal Revenue Service and other federal police to do this in thousands of small Wacos, if that is what it takes to force us to submit.

This arrogant elite pretends that this oppression is for our own good, while everyone else understands that this is about their selfish, insatiable appetite for control over our liberty, our money, our property and our lives.

All gun confiscation proposals come from the same motivation. Thus, if we say, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you," it is important to remember that this is a threat of defensive violence to counter their original threat of offensive violence.

Properly formulated, shorn of all bushwah and pretense, what these people are saying to us first is this:

"We will take your firearms if we have to get the government to kill you to do it."

Such people will be insulted if you call them National Socialists, but is there a functional difference in the exercise of their demands?

You could ask Franciszek Pokrywka, Iwan Zilnyk and Paweł Huzar -- three human beings executed for the knowledge and possession of just one pistol -- if they thought so. Oh, that's right, they're long dead, killed by the exercise of that "government monopoly of force" that the gun grabbers of CSGV are so proud to advocate.

And last,
The shooting happened about 7:45 a.m. at 301 Kendra Drive where an armed man kicked in a door of the home. Inside, a growling dog alerted the homeowner who grabbed a gun and fired one shot after confronting the burglar. Police say the suspect was rushed to the Midwest City hospital where he died.

As Insty put it, "Because paying taxes is for

2012-01-26T06:47:00.002-08:00

little people."
A new report just out from the Internal Revenue Service reveals that 36 of President Obama's executive office staff owe the country $833,970 in back taxes. These people working for Mr. Fair Share apparently haven't paid any share, let alone their fair share.
...
The Treasury Department, where Obama nominee Tim Geithner had to pay up $42,000 in his own back taxes before being confirmed as secretary, has 1,181 other employees with delinquent taxes totaling $9.3 million.

So is obeying the same insider-trading laws everyone else has to follow.

And while the above is going on, the military is getting cut. Last time I talked to him son sounded bitter; not only this, but there's word running around that the clowns in DC are talking again about screwing with military medical benefits.

Speaking of how the .mil is being treated by the clowns,

Keep your eyes open in the parking lot

I've made (usually)joking references to flogging;

2012-01-25T19:59:00.001-08:00

right now I'm not fucking joking:
Stephen Slevin was arrested in August of 2005 for driving while intoxicated, according to NBC station KOB.com. He said he never got a trial and spent the entire time languishing in solitary, even pulling his own tooth when he was denied dental care.
Every miserable bastard involved in this should be strung up in the town square and flogged. And then have to pay the judgement out of their own pockets(screw qualified immunity, there's no excuse for them receiving that protection).

I can't really think of a line of swearing that would do justice to this.

The result was a .22revolver cartridge

2012-01-25T19:16:00.000-08:00

that produced a mere 56 ft/lbs of muzzle energy.
Damn, I think my blowgun has more than that

We're supposed to get enthusiastic for either one of these clowns?

2012-01-25T14:36:00.001-08:00

So, to recap: Gingrich supports the individual mandate and he thinks other candidates don't show sufficient "concern" for the "humanity" of illegal immigrants, and we should get on board with this crazy train because he's the Hope of True Conservatism.

Former Senator Norm Coleman joined the Mitt Romney campaign in September, but hasn’t made an impact until now — and Romney may have wished he hadn’t. In an interview Sunday for BioCentury, a health-industry roundtable forum, Coleman said that ObamaCare won’t ever be repealed “in its entirety,” and that “you can’t whole cloth throw it out.” Truth telling, bad messaging, or both?
So: both these bastards have no problem with government control of health care, both have a history of being quite willing to trash the 2nd Amendment, and on, and on... And people of conservative/libertarian bent are supposed to go to the polls for either of them? Really?

Among the reasons the EffingBI gets very little respect

2012-01-25T14:15:00.000-08:00

from so many: "Screw the dead people and lives destroyed, we have to protect Whitey!"

And this isn't the only case where the EffingBI did something similar; for instance
The FBI later used Barboza as a witness to frame four men for the 1965 murder of small-time criminal Edward "Teddy" Deegan. Two of those men died in prison, while the other two, Joseph Salvati and Peter Limone, have been released in recent years after spending more than 30 years in prison. Part of the reason they were framed, the report concluded, was to protect other FBI informants.
A bit more on that:
As TalkLeft noted in 2002, Joseph Salvati had good reason to sue the FBI. The nation's premier law enforcement agency encouraged false testimony against Salvati at his state court murder trial because it knew the murder had actually been committed by FBI informants. Protecting its informants became a higher FBI priority than protecting the liberty of innocent people.

In its defense of Salvati's lawsuit, the Justice Department attempted to convince District Court Judge Nancy Gertner that the FBI didn't know Salvati's accuser would commit perjury, and that even if it did it had no duty to disclose evidence of Salvati's innocence because Salvati was being prosecuted in a state court. As TalkLeft noted in 2007, Judge Gertner rejected those arguments and awarded $101.7 million to Salvati and three others who were wrongly convicted of the murder.

Salvati is still waiting to collect. He's 76 years old, living with his wife in a one bedroom apartment. They get by on Salvati's social security benefit and his wife's small pension. The FBI should have apologized and written a check years ago. Instead, the Justice Department continues to insist that the FBI did nothing wrong. [more ...]

Just not feeling it today

2012-01-25T09:51:00.000-08:00

but still a couple of things to note:
Weasel crap beer? Damn.

A nasty anniversary a few days back.
Also, some argument about 'could/should Roosevelt have bombed Auschwitz?'

On the issue of impounding cars driven by unlicensed drivers, Beck gave the game away during an unguarded, open microphone conversation he had during a break in the Dec. 13 police commission meeting. Expressing his dismay at the resistance to his proposed change, he asked the person seated next to him on the dais, “Why is it so hard to do the right thing?” In other words, this debate is not one with reasonable arguments on both sides, but rather one in which he is trying to do the “right thing” while those who oppose the change, including the great majority of his own police officers, are of course wrong if not utterly evil.

One might argue that the right thing for the chief of police to do is to follow the law. Why is that so hard?
Probably because that doesn't leave openings for the social-engineering crap the Chief and Mayor are so fond of.

The British are stuck in the same groove: blame things, not the criminals. Y'know, if they spent the time they use harassing people for having a pocket knife instead on actually putting criminals- as in 'People who stab/rob/rape/murder'- in prison...

And now, I'm off. To do things, leave the other possibility off for now

CMP will not be getting any of the Korean Garands

2012-01-25T06:25:00.001-08:00

GARANDS FROM KOREA: Once again our phone lines and email boxes are flooded with requests for information on the purchase of M1 Garands from Korea. The Korea Times reported last week that the U.S. Government had approved Korea's request to sell 86,000 M1 Garands to U.S. importers. CMP is not a firearms importer and if these rifles are sold to U.S. importers, they will not come to the CMP or be sold by the CMP. We will not have any information on the sale of these rifles.

Once again, I'm going to go to bad language:

2012-01-24T13:16:00.000-08:00

God damn the stupid fucking politicians in uniform responsible for this shit. Every damned one of them. ANOTHER fine troop screwed over by idiot ROE and assholes with rank. Only God knows how many troops have been killed, crippled and wounded due to this garbage.

Fuck them. Every miserable, conniving damned one of them. In particular you, Lt. Col. Folsom; you're a disgrace to the men you command and the rank you wear.

Yeah, when you leave America for places like NYEffingCity or DC,

2012-01-24T10:49:00.001-08:00

you have problems. Among which is the Only Ones(political and badge-carrying) make it as difficult and expensive as possible to exercise one of your rights. If you want more of the background on this DC bullcrap, go here and look at the blog entries.

And, by the way, he was stopped for running a red light and they searched his truck? Why?(as if the clowns need an actual reason other than "We want to")

Speaking of bullshit from LE:
So they’re trying to justify using a slow-loading, single-shot weapon against a truck or car bomb, and the whole scenario for the justification for the purchase is that the police will:

know of the attack far enough in advance to call in the handful of SWAT personnel that have been trained on the weapon
deploy the shooter and weapon out into the county to the site of the expected attack
be able to know precisely which side of the building the attack is coming from, and then
be able to hit the target, with a single disabling shot while it is in motion.

Incredibly, that justification passed muster with the county auditor.
Absolute effing bullcrap.

So Obama & Co. have fingerprints all over

2012-01-23T17:45:00.001-08:00

the financial mess; and blaming Bush doesn't cut it. Bastards.

Speaking of bastards, WUWT noted an attempt to intimidate/threaten meteorologists to make them toe the Globular Warmering line; and it turns out Soros is behind the clowns.

Ah, Henigan, you can lie and try to coverup all you want, but the word is out.

I mentioned the arrival of Correia 2.4 the other day; well, I cannot pass on that picture:
seeing as most babies that size remind me of Churchill...

When burglar Kesler Dufrene became a twice-convicted felon in 2006, a Bradenton judge shipped him to prison for five years. And because of his convictions, an immigration judge ordered Dufrene deported to his native Haiti.

That never happened.

Instead, when Dufrene’s state prison term was up, Miami immigration authorities in October 2010 released him from custody. Two months later, North Miami police say, he slaughtered three people, including a 15-year-old girl in a murder case that remains as baffling today as it did the afternoon the bodies were discovered.
Damn every appeasing, sucking-for-votes piece of shit involved in keeping thugs like this in our country.

From Theo:
IRS sent my Tax Return back!
AGAIN!!!

I guess it was because of my response to the question:
"List all dependents."
I replied -
"12 million illegal immigrants;
"3 million crack heads;
"42 million unemployable people on food stamps
"2 million people in over 243 prisons;
"Half of Mexico
and
"535 fools in the U.S. House and Senate.”
Apparently, this was NOT an acceptable answer.

Nah, no chance of conflict of interest there, nooooo...

"I'm Sen. Al Franken, and I'm bought and paid for."

Yeah, I imagine Soros would love for this to happen.

What? LightSquared maybe trying to bribe a senator? You'd expect less from them?

One of those vehicle maintenance things Link fixed

2012-01-23T13:04:00.000-08:00

I wish I could say I'd thought of, but heard it from someone on a forum. Needed to change the transmission fluid, which on a manual you do by putting the fluid in the 'fill' hole in the side. There's several ways, but I tried using one of these, and it works quite well: stick the intake tube in the bottle, the output in the hole and start squeezing, switch to the next bottle when this one goes dry.

Right link this time; hate it when that happens

Flashlight blog: put your own together

2012-01-23T12:44:00.000-08:00

Friend dropped by with a new acquisition that just came in.
He'd been browsing at Lighthound and found some interesting things. Among all the others. They carry all kinds of flashlights, parts, batteries and so on, including these: complete bodies(they call it a 'host'), you pick your own LED or other lamp to install. In his case he picked this one, which has low, medium and high modes.

I looked the body over, and it appears very well-made: aluminum, no machining marks left, the knurling is clean. And the threads are cleanly-cut and finished, no bad spots or bits left behind. Put it together with no problems, the lamp drops right in; two batteries(CR123) and it works as advertised. If you push the switch just enough to light, you can bump it off & on to cycle through the three modes; and when you turn it off, if you leave it off more than a few seconds it has a memory that brings it back to the mode it was last in. Very bright white light, and I don't see any dark spots in the beam.

So that's $16 for the lamp, and $18 for the body: $34 bucks for what appears a very nice LED light. Not bad.

I'll add that they have these keychain lights, which have a very nice feature: squeeze on and they stay on, squeeze again for off. I've got one I've had for a couple of years, works very well. And if you order $20 or more of stuff, they throw one in free.

Dodd's pretty comfortable with public mention of bribery,

2012-01-23T06:19:00.001-08:00

isn't he? Also a link that should add to the fun:

We petition the Obama administration to: Investigate Chris Dodd and the MPAA for bribery after he publicly admited to bribing politicans to pass legislation.

(currently 7,312 signatures out of 25,000 needed for response)

It's up to 10,378 as I write this. Christopher Dodd has learned something in the last few weeks about how the internet works in a democracy. I suspect he's about to learn a whole lot more.
Mind you, the chances of the Obama DoJ actually doing anything are pretty small; but every bit of pressure possible on these people is a good thing.

Speaking of corrupt politicians,
Crony capitalism is alive and well and occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The latest billionaire donor to cash in on his connections to President Obama is Warren Buffett, who now joins billionaire George “Solyndra” Kaiser and George “Petrobras” Soros in cashing in on Obama’s pay-to-play energy policy. Warren Buffett is about to make a pile of money off the Bakken Oil Shale in North Dakota the old-fashioned way with a monopoly worthy of John D. Rockefeller.

Here is how it works, President Obama put the brakes on the Keystone Pipeline, which would have delivered oil from Canada. That delay means Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad will be shipping a lot of oil (10 times as much as it does today) not from Canada but from North Dakota — American oil for American cars and plastics — and Berkshire Hathaway owns 22% of said railroad and will scarf up the remainder of the company.

The spin in Washington is that President Obama is walking a thin line between his labor union bosses and environmentalists. Hogwash. Whatever he decides, unions and tree-huggers will accept. What’s their alternative? Mitt Romney?

This decision was made through the State Department, not the EPA or the Department of Energy and for good reason. President Obama just pissed off Canada.But if you run it through the EPA, you raise environmental questions that may keep you from green-lighting the project later.

No reporter in Washington seemed to find that odd.
It should be noted that most of them seem to have no problem with Obama & Co. arming the drug cartels, either.

Uncle linked to Pocket Artillery

Cop tries to save a life; "That's not part of your job, so if you have any problems from it, screw you" from the city. Wonderful, isn't it?

If the judge allows this suit, he should be

2012-01-22T07:43:00.002-08:00

stripped of that robe, then tarred and feathered. That he even has to THINK about it is amazing.

Occupiers maintain their sterling reputation. Hey, reverend, what did you expect from these clowns?

Should expect things like this:
Ms. Terrie, an 18-year-old activist originally from Florida, was treated at the hospital for a concussion just two nights ago, after being hit in the head with a chair at a meeting.

More peeing on the Taliban, please

Isn't this nice to have on our border?
According to the Mexican government, from January through September 2011 2,276 deaths were recorded in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, which borders Texas and New Mexico.

A Nov. 2011 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report states that over nearly the same period – January through October 2011 – 2,177 civilians were killed in Afghanistan, where a U.S.-led war against the Taliban is underway. It did not provide a breakdown of responsibility for that period, but said that in 2010, 75 percent of civilian deaths were attributed to the Taliban and other “anti-government elements.”

Per capita, a person was at least nine times more likely to be murdered in Chihuahua last year than in Afghanistan. (Chihuahua has 3,406,465 inhabitants, according to Mexico’s 2010 census; the CIA World Factbook reports that in July 2011 the estimated population of Afghanistan was 29,835,392.)
According to the reported numbers, the drug-related murder rate was about 67 for every 100,000 inhabitants in Chihuahua last year, while in Afghanistan the civilian killing rate was an estimated seven for every 100,000 people living there.

There were more drug-related killings in Chihuahua than in any other Mexican state, according to the government figures. Chihuahua, the largest state in Mexico, includes Ciudad Juarez, a border city located across from El Paso, Texas. It is the deadliest city in Mexico and is considered one of the most dangerous places in the world.
And that is an interesting question: spillover violence continues to come over the border, maybe use drones to whack cartel bigshots? Hit weapons dumps? Because if the pandering assholes and traitors in DC don't do- or get out of the way of states doing it- something to enforce our borders, we'll be seeing LOTS more of the crap listed in the story.
And you'll notice the NYEffingTimes is still pushing the Mexican Gun Lie; got to blame us and provide some cover for Holder & Obama, y'know.

An idea from Og that had wider applications

2012-01-21T20:04:00.000-08:00

A while back I'd mentioned the cruise control on my truck was acting up; Og suggested cleaning the connector and putting some dielectric grease on to keep it clean. Made a world of difference.

So, about two months ago I was having trouble with the MP3 player I'd picked up; the sound would sometimes break up if the earbud plug wasn't just right. Idea struck: cleaned the plug, wiped a thin coat of the grease on, worked it in & out a few times, then wiped the plug off; haven't had a problem since.

One more: I've got a couple of those inexpensive LED flashlights that use three AAA batteries in a cage, and every so often the damn things will start cutting out if you tilt them. Cleaning the contacts helped, but didn't last. So I opened them up, put a dab of the grease on the top & bottom contacts of the cage, and so far no more problems.

That little tube of grease is going a long ways.

"I want to be able to get a gun, BUT

2012-01-21T15:22:00.000-08:00

I want the Government to control IF I can, and how I'll be allowed. It's for the best." That's my translation, anyway.

Why, with Jewish history, he would want to government to control whether he'll be allowed to own arms, I do not know.

Which is a good time to point to these folks: Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership. If nothing else, if someone gives me crap for my hard-line thoughts on the 2nd, I can point them to this place; usually shocks hell out of them.

The weather gets downright hostile out there,

2012-01-21T15:15:00.000-08:00

what with the charged particles storming in.

As an aside, I recommend this book(which I saw recommended by I can't remember who); lots of good stuff, laid out for the layman to understand. Although is brief foray into "The sun doesn't have anything to do with Globular Warmering!" is annoying.

Well, that is how The Lightworker's mind works...

2012-01-20T19:43:00.000-08:00

His “shot” at Republicans should be played and repeated by every single Republican candidate this year, for it clearly and unequivocally states his guiding philosophy:

“However many jobs might be generated by a Keystone pipeline,” he said, “they’re going to be a lot fewer than the jobs that are created by extending the payroll tax cut and extending unemployment insurance.”

That’s right. In his mind the Government paying people unemployment insurance creates more jobs than private industry.

Good God.

Oh, the whiskey he ruined,

2012-01-20T13:55:00.001-08:00

the bastard!

A little more on Cunningham pleading the 5th

2012-01-20T13:42:00.000-08:00

from Bob Owen.
Recall that invoking the Fifth Amendment is only allowed to avoid self-incrimination.

And with more beheadings happening here, how long

2012-01-20T13:29:00.000-08:00

before this comes across the border, too?
This article was inspired by a concrete act: the burning alive of a police officer in Ciudad Juarez in December. Why was this done? Why commit such a grotesque act? What kind of sense does this killing make, and what can it tell us? According to the current logic of Mexican President Felipe Calderon, the spiral of violence that is hitting Mexico (by the end of 2011 46,000 had died as a result of the militarization of the battle against drug trafficking organizations) are desperate actions of people who are losing the war.

The truth is quite the reverse; after speaking with forensic scientists and journalists in local canteens, where “narco culture” has a strong presence, I believe the situation in Mexico is evolving. Narco-horror is transforming into a type of narco-snuff, because criminals enjoy the act of killing. A brief history of Mexican drug violence can help us understand this situation.

Well, well, well, Cunningham doesn't want tread marks

2012-01-20T10:33:00.001-08:00

across his face from that bus they're trying to throw him under:
Patrick J. Cunningham informed the House Oversight Committee late Thursday through his attorney that he will use the Fifth Amendment protection.
...
Cunningham is represented by Tobin Romero of Williams and Connolly who is a specialist in white collar crime. In the letter, he suggests witnesses from the Department of Justice in Washington, who have spoken in support of Attorney General Eric Holder, are wrong or lying.

“Department of Justice officials have reported to the Committee that my client relayed inaccurate information to the Department upon which it relied in preparing its initial response to Congress. If, as you claim, Department officials have blamed my client, they have blamed him unfairly,” the letter to Issa says.
(that 'claim' comes from Holder & Co. blaming him, so I find the use of 'as you claim' interesting. Of course, this is from a lawyer)
Romero claims Cunningham did nothing wrong and acted in good faith, but the Department of Justice in Washington is making him the fall guy, claiming he failed to accurately provide the Oversight Committee with information on the execution of Fast and Furious.
"Hey, don't blame me, I didn't do the crap they say I did!"
More and more interesting to come, I'd say.

Added: some people are worried Issa and the committee don't really want to dig all the way:

Another source familiar with the Issa investigation shared his fears about the direction and speed of the investigation. "They are afraid of the FBI" and are unwilling to really go after the Brian Terry murder cover-up and the use of FBI paid informants to buy weapons from the straw-buyers, he said. "They are afraid of the White House, too," indicating a reluctance to go after certain players in the early meetings such as that one held in March 2009 between ATF SAC Bill Newell and White House and DHS operatives, including, according to one report, Dennis Burke.

If it is true that Burke participated in the March 2009 meeting -- and I hasten to add that I have not confirmed it -- that predates his appointment as U.S. Attorney for Arizona when he was still Janet Napolitano's right-hand guy on terrorism and border issues. That is hugely significant, given Burke's predilection for gun control. (See "Personnel is Policy" Part One and Part Two.)

The Issa Committee investigators may indeed simply be playing a deep game here with the final goal of taking on all of the powerful players in the Gunwalker Conspiracy. Or, it could be that the fix is in for the "modified, limited hangout." Time, and the actions of the committee, will tell.

But for the moment at least, the committee isn't telling.

From Codrea:
“The assertion of the fifth amendment by a senior Justice official is a significant indictment of the Department’s integrity in Operation Fast and Furious. The former head of the ATF has previously told the committee that the Justice Department is managing its response to Operation Fast and Furious in a manner designed to protect its political appointees. This is the first time anyone has asserted their fifth amendment right in this investigation and heightens concerns that the Justice Department’s motivation for refusing to hand over subpoenaed materials is a desire to shield responsible officials from criminal charges and other embarrassment.
Gee, ya think maybe?

I don't know why the USPS bothers with tracking numbers

2012-01-20T09:57:00.000-08:00

when they can't figure out where anything is.

Item ordered. Tracking number inquiry shows in 'New York Sorting Facility'. On January 9.

Yesterday, after no change in ten days, contacted USPS, who searched and said "It's in our New York Sorting Facility".
"Still?!?"
"Yes."
So I sent a "Why is it still there?" through their contact form.

About three hours later comes knock on the door, and it's the mailman delivering it.

So they can't actually track it, from their own system? Jeez.

As to why Obama said 'no' on the pipeline,

2012-01-20T07:03:00.000-08:00

Radosh thinks it's a combination:
Recall the article appearing a few weeks ago, noting that the Democratic Party has decided to write off the votes of the white working-class in the 2012 election, which it has judged is going to overwhelmingly go to the Republicans. Instead, it has decided to try and increase the vote of the suburban upper-middle class and coastal elites, as well as the vote of college students who had been so enthusiastic about Obama in 2008. Without such an increase to make up for the loss of working-class votes (once a Democratic mainstay), the Democratic policy wonks believe Obama will lose.
...
...The actor has not one word about the wide breadth of support for the pipeline, including from the AFL-CIO unions that support Obama on almost everything else. But Redford is precisely the kind of Obama supporter whose votes the administration is courting and that they deem as essential for a 2012 victory at the polls.

So if the unions supported the pipeline, as they did, why are they so silent now that the president has turned against a proposal they backed? The answer is that I suspect a private deal was made last week: The unions would downgrade their disappointment at the veto of Keystone XL, in return for the president unconstitutionally using his powers to override the Constitution and put in pro-labor recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the same board that tried to penalize Boeing for wanting to move its new facility to South Carolina from the state of Washington.
I think he's leaving out that Obama WANTS energy to cost as much as possible, which feeds right in with the other points. Either way, it means Obama's willing to screw the whole country to buy votes.

Which makes this the "Get Obama out of office WHOEVER we have to vote for" election, indeed.

Yeah, if Palin can be blamed for the AZ shooting, then we can damn well blame De Palma for these murders.

P.S. As the mighty Iowahawk puts it: “Wealthy donors to fete President Downgrade from skyboxes of taxpayer-built stadium named for bailed-out bank… When President Classy McWarfare gives his acceptance speech at the Bailout Bowl, this time he can use REAL Greek columns. #nomorestyrofoam”
Found at DC Trawler

On his Thursday show, Limbaugh asked that question and said that it was appropriate to do so since the media is no longer just reporting, but passing judgment as well.

“That’s another thing, this always gets me — are journalists monogamous?” Limbaugh asked. “Are journalists faithful? Are they as clean and pure as the wind-driven snow? This is what has always fascinated me. These people — the sportswriter guys, the news media guys — they all get to sit in judgment as though they live perfect lives. And then when you try to turn the focus on them, ‘Oh no, no, no, no, no. I’m just a reporter. It doesn’t matter.’ It certainly does because you’re not reporting. You’re passing judgment.”

Limbaugh suggested an investigation into ABC News’ Brian Ross, the reporter who interviewed Marianne Gingrich for the segment that is set to air tonight.
Be interesting, wouldn't it? "Well, Mr./Ms. Journalist, while you're bitching about 'X', guess what we found in your past? And your current involvement?"

Over at Tam's, she reminded me of this

which song has to annoy the hell out of a lot of people.

Ancient history, very ancient. More complicated the more it's looked at.

About that lard post: I remember both grandmas having a can on the stove marked 'Grease'. The one I mostly remember was on Dad's mom's stove, had a strainer in the top to get the big bits out of the bacon grease, which went into all kinds of things

Yeah, we're winning. So don't stop.

Yeah, let's all pretend it's only 'gun violence' that's bad...
Bet you that if Mr. Schaefer had pulled a pistol and defended himself, Nutter and the VPC clowns would be counting him as a violent, dangerous gun owner who should be locked up.

Speaking of idiot politicians/lawyers/gun bigots,
I just realized that, should I attempt to clean a firearm in an attempt to make it more reliable, some lawyer might nail me to the wall for ‘modifying’ my gun, making it more deadly.

It could happen dammit!
Wouldn't surprise me.

I needed tortillas

2012-01-19T19:54:00.000-08:00

which was a slight problem, as I've been trying to pass on stuff containing soy or soy oil, and every brand I looked at has the crap in it. Looked at shortening; every brand contained soy. Then what do my disgusted eyes did appear?

Lard.

Hmmm...

So a small tub of lard followed me home and was mixed up with the flour and salt and whatnot.

Damn.

Rolled out better, thinner, and cooked up as the best tortillas I've made yet. And it cost less than shortening, too.

I think next time I make biscuits, I'll try this. I'm low on bacon grease anyway.

Remember that piece on how Romney 'isn't all that bad'

2012-01-19T19:40:00.001-08:00

on 2A questions?
There are reasons I said I just don't trust him.

Gunwalker is heating up again

2012-01-19T19:27:00.000-08:00

I just received an email from Congressman Darrel Issa’s office, containing a copy of a letter that was just sent Patrick J. Cunningham, Chief of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona. The letter announces that Cunningham has just been subpoenaed for “repeated refusals to testify voluntarily” before the House Oversight Committee, concerning accusations that he relayed inaccurate and misleading information to the Justice Department in preparation for its initial response to Congress.
Translation: "Ok, so you don't want to come on your own? You'll be here or be charged." From the rest, almost get the feeling they're telling him "Your boss & Co. are setting you up to take as much of the blame as possible; are you going to go along with it? Under oath?"

By the way, who's Cunningham?
"District of Arizona Criminal Division Chief Patrick Cunningham will resign from the US Attorney’s office effective January 27. He was Burke’s #1 guy," this correspondent reported exclusively yesterday on The War on Guns blog.

"Burke" is Dennis Burke, the former United States Attorney for the District of Arizona who resigned in the wake of revelations concerning his role in the Fast and Furious gunwalking scandal.

From Workman,
Cunningham’s attorney apparently agreed to accept the subpoena on his behalf, Issa’s letter stated.

“It is of paramount importance that you appear before the Committee. Given your intimate knowledge of Fast and Furious, your counsel’s offer of an attorney proffer, akin to what a defense lawyer would offer for an indicted defendant, is wholly inadequate. As a result of your recalcitrance and inflexible position, the Committee is now forced to engage in compulsory process to obtain your testimony.”—Congressman Darrell Issa

If there had been any doubt that Issa could be ignored, that has disappeared with this move.
Isn't it nice that his attorney 'agreed to accept the subpoena'?
And I wonder how Cunningham will handle the thought of a couple of US Marshalls showing up at his door if he tries to refuse to attend?

Something else from Correia

2012-01-19T19:06:00.000-08:00

on SOPA:
As for all of the people out there on the internet having a massive freak out about the government potentially damaging something they love… WELCOME TO THE PARTY.

You think this is something new or unusual? Nope. This is just about a topic that you happen to be familiar with. If you fall into that camp, I want you to take a deep breath, step back, and examine all of the other issues in the past that you didn’t know jack squat about, but your knee jerk reaction was to say “there’s a problem, the governement has to do something!” Well guess what? The crap the federal government usually comes up with to fix these problems is similar to SOPA. In other words, the legislation addresses a perceived problem by instituting a bunch of stupid overregulation and taking away someone’s freedom.

You think people need access to affordable medical care and shouldn’t be denied coverage? Well, you got used and we got the bloated ridiculous mess that is Obamacare. You saw a news report about how big business defrauded people and said congress should do something? Well, everyone in the business world got screwed because of Enron by completely useless new arbitrary crap laws, and a few years later we got into an even bigger financial crisis which the arbitrary crap laws we spent billions conforming to did nothing to prevent. No, because that financial crisis was caused by people saying that there was this huge problem that needed to be fixed, so more people who couldn’t afford to pay mortgages could still buy houses, and the government simply had to do something to fix this problem!
RTWT, it's worth it

Favorite author has spawned!

2012-01-19T18:51:00.000-08:00

No, that's not the best way to put it; got your attention, I'll bet.

Correia Super Duty XXL has arrived, he says all doing well.

I just heard Perry say "Gingrich has the heart

2012-01-19T10:00:00.000-08:00

of a conservative."
My first thought was "Where do we find the rest of the body?"

What the hell is it with some cops and shooting dogs?

2012-01-19T09:47:00.000-08:00

Around 9 p.m., a DeKalb officer went to her home on Silva Court in response to a domestic dispute call with a possibly armed person. The officer said the family’s German shepherd lunged at him, so he killed the dog. The recently rescued animal was chained in the garage when the shooting happened.

Currie’s husband, Anthony, said the officer also pointed his gun at him and told him to put his hands up.

“I said, ‘Why [did] you shoot my dog?’ And he said, ‘Well, I'll blow your brains out.’ I said, ‘Hold on a minute, you just killed my dog. Why you want to blow my brains out? My hands are up.’ I said, ‘I don't have no gun,’” Anthony Currie said.
A: idiot with badge had gone to the WRONG ADDRESS.
B: THE DOG WAS CHAINED IN THE GARAGE.
C: The first officer faces no disciplinary action, but he will have to go before the shooting review board and face an internal investigation.
Go to the wrong place, shoot a chained dog and threaten to kill the owner, no disciplinary action. Tells you what DeKalb police think of the commoners.

"So we'll allow some of your dirty Garands,

2012-01-19T08:12:00.000-08:00

but those horrendous Carbines are a no-go!"

Screw the museums and whatnot,

2012-01-19T06:10:00.000-08:00

between the "We only tolerate unarmed peasants" attitude and social-control stupidity like this, screw the place.

Speaking LE Behaving Badly and Getting Away With It... the theft is bad, but that clown with a badge in Florida needs to be in a cell.

You've undoubtedly heard that Obama has decided to ensure high energy prices and dependance on hostile foreign governments. Gee, it's like he actually MEANT that his plans would make energy costs skyrocket...
Over at Drudge:
Dems dispute 22,000 jobs created by 1,700-mile oil pipeline...

SF Dems say 43,000 jobs created -- by 1.7-mile subway extension!

This guy did his job; for that matter there were people on the ship, crew and entertainers, who stepped up.
"But why is someone who does his job and sticks to the rules suddenly a hero in Italy?" one Internet commentator wondered.
Not that long ago, he and the crew members, the men who made sure women and kids got on the boats first, would've been hailed as being what they were supposed to be; and you can bet a lot of them would've been embarrassed, because "This is what you're supposed to do, to be".

Speaking of idiot energy ideas...

Michael McNally, who was visiting Dallas Tuesday, said an app shouldn’t have enough power to label a community.

“It may have a high crime problem but have some great cultural, social things you can do there,” McNally said.
Ok, so let's say the app tells you "If you go here, here are the crime stats"; would that be allowable, or would that be too much?

Well, this fits: tell Iran it has nothing to fear at the same time he says "No pipeline." That's a fine combination.

Pelosi now:
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday sought to distance Democrats from the left-leaning Occupy movement that’s swept the nation in recent months.

Pelosi argued that the movement is largely nonpartisan, unlike the conservative Tea Party camp, which she characterized as an extension of the GOP.

Pelosi then:
The comments are something of a departure from the Democrats’ message last year, when a number of liberal party members, including Reps. John Larson (Conn.), Louise Slaughter (N.Y.), Raúl Grijalva (Ariz.) and Keith Ellison (Minn.), went out of their way to embrace the Occupy movement in the face of GOP criticisms.

It's like smoke-bombing the White House and various other crimes make her want some distance, or something.

Back to energy 'necessarily skyrocketing':
An Associated Press analysis has found that more than 32 mostly coal-fired power plants in a dozen states will be forced to close because of the new, more stringent regulations. Another 36 plants are at risk of closing.

No lights will go dark. But the Environmental Protection Agency has estimated that 14.7 gigawatts — enough power for more than 11 million households — will be retired from the power grid in the 2014-15 period when the rules take effect. One rule curbs air pollution in states downwind from dirty power plants. Another sets first standards for mercury and other toxic pollutants from smokestacks.

The effect is greatest in the Midwest and in coal belt states such as Virginia and West Virginia, where dozens of units are likely to shut down.
I'd translate 'No lights will go dark NOW." Get a cold or hot spell where remaining generation is already at capacity...

Tam find a, ah, 'interesting' special edition from SIG. From the comments:
To bad, Greece couldn’t afford this if they sold the rest of their arsenal.
Also noted in comments, some people are not happy with QC at SIG; apparently things have slipped. Maybe a lot.

Also from Tam:
Anybody notice that the very same #OCCUPY_MOM'S_BASEMENT crowd that froths at the mouth over the dangers of "corporate speech" corrupting the political process was just tickled pink to see Google change it's logo for the SOPA/PIPA protests yesterday? I'm sure that once the HuffPosers and Kossacks were done patting Google on the back for its corporate citizenship, they went back to making fun of Romney for being a "flip-flopper".
Yeah, a number of people have noted this. What, you expect consistency from these clowns?

On the SOPA bullcrap,
And while you may have not paid much attention to this story, you need to know that the “muzzle the web” legislation these sites are protesting could also affect your ability to get gun-related information on websites like GOA’s.

The reason is that S. 968 could, in its final form, allow the Brady Campaign to partially shut down our GOA website and our organization (plus many other pro-gun websites) with a series of factually accurate, but legally frivolous complaints.

He's not kidding, turn the volume DOWN. And, along with everything else, you'll notice no protective gear. At all. 'Doofus' isn't even close.

And that's about all I can take for one morning.

Just like you, only better

2012-01-19T06:04:00.000-08:00

Now, a Denver police officer who got fired after getting caught driving 88 miles an hour over the speed limit while having a blood alcohol level above the legal limit is taking cops’ sense of entitlement to a new level. Calling his firing a violation of principles of fundamental fairness, he wants his job back and his public employee labor union, the Denver Police Protection Association, is backing him in his appeal.
...
This is not the first time that Saunders had to be disciplined. In 2009 in he was suspended from the force after he was charged in Aurora, CO, again, by a police force other than his own, with felony menacing, prohibited use of a weapon, reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct, after he dropped the race card, flew into a rage and brandished his police firearm when a McDonald’s restaurant apparently took too long serving his order. Saunders was eventually acquitted of those charges.

His current appeal of his firing over the DUI arrest and conviction was made to the Denver Civil Service Commission, filed by Police Protective Association lawyers. It argues that disciplinary action against Saunders was “unfounded and/or unsupported by the facts”. His firing, the appeal claims, was “disproportionate to the offenses alleged and/or is excessive so as to be punitive rather than corrective in nature.”
Well, excuse the hell out of me, but isn't the punishment for drunk driving SUPPOSED TO BE PUNITIVE, you miserable little bleep?

One bit of anti-gun crap blocked, hopefully

2012-01-18T12:24:00.001-08:00

in the omnibus bill:
One sentence in the 2,100-page spending bill stopped taxpayers’ money from being used for sham studies designed to make legal gun ownership seem like a public health hazard. The House GOP included a provision in the Health and Human Services appropriations bill preventing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from using any of its $30.7 billion funds to “advocate or promote gun control.”

If we don't start doing serious things on our borders,

2012-01-18T12:14:00.000-08:00

it's going to get phenomenally nasty.
Three beheadings in two different states and they happened here in the United States, not Mexico.

Former DEA supervisor Phil Jordan says all three beheadings have cartel written all over them. They happened in Arizona and Oklahoma in the past year.
...
More than 600 miles from the border, a 19-year-old human trafficking victim was found beheaded in Oklahoma. Carina Saunders was stuffed into a bag and left in a grocery store parking lot.

“People know if they get on the wrong side of the fence, they’ll be dealt with,” says Jordan.

The police chief in the area says two men running the trafficking ring killed Saunders to send a message to the other victims. Jordan says the cartels’ calling card is all over this case. Trafficking and smuggling are their top moneymakers. Revenge is the price of doing business.

“Definitely a cartel hit,” says Jordan.

Here's where we need a real orbital-capable truck

2012-01-18T06:15:00.000-08:00

Go up with a bunch of small boosters, and set them to push problems either into reentry to burn up, or out to a 'go away' orbit. Smaller stuff you run across, either bundle together to dump, or maybe bring back.

It occurred to me last night that between Oklahoma and Germany, the son is probably better prepared for driving in this weather than an awful lot of the people who've lived up there a long time.*

Ok, here's my "Let's talk about the molesters and fools and liars at TSA" compilation for today. First
In an about-face, the feds have admitted wrongdoing in the cases of two elderly women who say they were strip-searched at Kennedy Airport by overzealous screeners.
They seem to be hedging their bets: "We did THIS wrong but not that." Yeah, after all the previous lies, we're ready to believe that...

Then we have this:
After recent published reports accused TSA officials of not maintaining their scanner equipment and questioning just how much radiation one receives when going through those machines, the question remains: to just how much radiation are you exposed before you board an airplane?
...
“There are two types of body scanners. There is millimeter wave and that does not emit any radiation at all. Some airports you have the scanner which emits a negligible amount equivalent to two minutes in flight.”
'not emit any'? Really? Here's the real kicker:
For that reason, Chao says there really is no cause for concern. As for testing the existing machines to make sure they are operating properly, Davis says the TSA is committed to doing that.
You'll notice it doesn't say 'IS doing that', oh no, it's 'committed to doing that'; and anymore, I do not give clowns like this ANY benefit of doubt about wording like that. Especially after I ran into this the other day:
One of the most important issues is that a "Worst Case Failure" mode has not been evaluated. Because these machines are scanning mechanical/software integrated devices, with very intense pencil-like beams of X-rays, if they were to stop in the middle of a scan, there is the significant probability of a radiation burn. What are the consequences, if there were a software glitch or power, even momentary, problems? This important issue, on a machine working 24 hours a day, year in and year out, has not been studied independently and merits major efforts and extensive analysis, not just tested for failure once or twice, given the extreme consequences of a failure.

The casual nature for maintenance of these devices is alarming to us. These machines are built with components from clinical X-ray machines and are capable of delivering large X-ray doses. The actual doses are undefined by any objective tests disclosed to us or to the public. Large doses also pertain if there are errors or maintenance problems. Hospitals usually check for problems on X-ray machines daily, but we understand that TSA will only check once a year, at best, in spite of the fact that these machines are being used 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
If you found out the machine the doctor was using on you hadn't been checked/tested/calibrated for almost a year, you'd have a fit. Rightly so. But TSA says it's not a problem, and they're 'committed' to making sure they're inspected...

Borepatch has an idea for Thursday

Check it out

I need some lunch, see you later

In today's Idiocy By Fed, we have

2012-01-17T13:34:00.000-08:00

this. Obviously these people are either missing things that actually need work, or need their budget cut because they've got so much free time to waste.

For those who like to play 'racist' games with gun rights advocates, remind them of the real racist background of the gun bigots.

Two old ones from Anarchangel: Why I carry a gun and the followup Superiority Complex

Some recently photos from Saipan.

Holy CRAP, look at that rock!

2012-01-17T12:02:00.000-08:00

Meanwhile, attention focused on the captain, who was spotted by Coast Guard officials and passengers fleeing the scene even as the chaotic and terrifying evacuation was under way.
. . .
A French couple who boarded the Concordia in Marseille, Ophelie Gondelle and David Du Pays, told the Associated Press they saw the captain in a lifeboat, covered by a blanket . . . .

Coast Guard officers later spotted Schettino on land as the evacuation unfolded. The officers urged him to return to his ship and honor his duty to stay aboard until everyone was safely off the vessel, but he ignored them, Coast Guard Cmdr. Francesco Paolillo said.
The other day I quoted from an expert As my former captain used to say, "Rule 1 of navigation is 'look out the fucking window.'" Apparently they were either too trusting of all the electronics, or nobody bothered to actually LOOK.

About that 'antiquated' revolver

2012-01-17T11:40:00.000-08:00

that didn't go bang:
I wrote I want to know what condition it was in. I'd bet either zero maintenance for a looong time, or really old ammo. Or both. After I wrote that I remembered something, and it turned out I still had the book. One of the chapters is 'the gun that wouldn't shoot'. Short version: old officer who'd decided "I'll never have to actually use this thing" so he didn't; no practice, maintenance, nothing. Until one night he needed it and it didn't go 'bang', and he died.
...It was very obvious it had not been fired for a long period of time.

The barrel was very dirty and clogged with lint and dust. Several flakes of rust were removed in a subsequent cleaning...

Dust, dirt and grime filled all spaces between the side plate and frame. Two of the side plate screws had to be chiseled out with a special tool.

It was very difficult to work the crane in order to open the cylinder. The extractor star was frozen to the cylinder and the extractor rod was freed only after considerable soaking in a gun solvent.

Of the six live rounds found in the gun, two were misfires. The firing pin had made a positive strike with the cartridge primer in both instances. The misfire was caused by either a faulty firing pin or old ammunition. Tests will be conducted and a supplemental report will follow. The ammunition had to be soaked and pried out in order to unload the gun.

Could be there was an actual mechanical fault in the S&W the detective carried; I tend to have doubts. I'd love to know what the investigation actually finds.

Which also reminds me, Dad told me about something that happened back when we were living in a little town in northern OK. The local sheriff had ordered himself a S&W Model 19. It came in, he picked it up, loaded it, dropped it into the holster and went to work.

Almost a month later he decided he really ought to set up a target and make sure the sights were sending the shots to the right place. Up went a target, cock, aim, squeeze,
click.
WTH?
Wait a minute, no bang, try again.
Click.
It went back to the factory, and as I recall it was some fault with the hammer block: it wasn't retracting as the action worked, preventing the firing pin from reaching the primer.
And he'd been carrying it for a month...

To pass on to AGW believers you may know:

2012-01-17T07:02:00.001-08:00

The Myth of Settled Science

Somebody with WAY too much time on his hands

I don't think the Captain lived up to his responsibilities. Or the expectations of the captain of a ship.

And the countdown to Dallas Co. SO being sued has begun.

Hadn't seen this site before; not comfortable at all. The level of contempt/disgust/anger toward 'civilians' displayed by far too many cops is, let's just go with 'bad'. Not to mention the flat corruption.

Just to add to the above, add one case of idiocy and one case of disgusting.

We've got a lot of these drivers in OK, too. I keep saying that if OCPD wants to earn some revenue and make things safer, start watching just about any medium/high-busy intersection and start ticketing every idiot who things "It just turned red a second or two ago, so I'm still clear to go!"

A look at Gunwalker from a LE perspective

2012-01-17T06:40:00.000-08:00

Summed up:
According to Mexico, the guns have already contributed in the deaths of over 200 Mexican citizens and also resulted in the death of one US LE Agent. As a retired law enforcement agent I can tell you that Fast & Furious makes no sense, I can tell you that for the Attorney General to testify that he didn’t approve the operation is unbelievable, if that’s true then somebody or someone’s needs to be prosecuted for violation of Mexico sovereignty and national laws, criminal malfeasance and conspiracy. If the AG didn’t know about the ATF operation, then he should resign for not knowing.
I'll add in that the 'one US LE Agent' leaves out the death of Jaime Zapata in Mexico.

Some background on the machinegun registry

2012-01-17T06:35:00.000-08:00

and the problems thereof, another long piece borrowed from Sipsey. I'm not using the whole thing, if you can it's well worth going there and RTWT.

The requirement to register machine guns was embodied in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record (known by the shorthand NFRTR). This list is the arbiter of legal machine gun ownership. If your weapon and name are on the list, you may play with your expensive toy to your heart's content. If not, you go to the graybar hotel for many years and pay an onerous fine. The errors in the NFRTR are legendary in the machine gun collecting community, which is represented, NRA-like, by the National Firearms Act Trade & Collectors Association (NFATCA). The current president of the NFATCA is John Brown. Other board members are Teresa Starnes, Jeff Folloder, Curt Wolf, Robert Landies, Dan Shea, Robert Segel and John Tibbetts. (Readers will recall that Dan Shea has appeared many times previously in the pages of Sipsey Street, most spectacularly in The True Story of the Life of "R.A. Bear": Inception & impregnation into the minds of the ATF via a highly placed snitch named Dan Shea of the NFATCA.)

These NFRTR errors were famously compounded by clerks who, over the years, would throw paperwork in the trash when their in-boxes overflowed. The ATF has previously been caught out as instructing its agents to testify that the NFRTR is "100 percent correct" even though they admit to each other within the agency that this is surely incorrect. Most recently, the Friesen case blew up in the ATF's face when it became evident that the accuracy of the NFRTR was going to be a central tenet of the defense's case. The DOJ folded and allowed Doug Friesen to essentially "pay fifty dollars and pick up the garbage" on a minor paperwork violation. The last thing the ATF/DOJ wanted was to have to defend the accuracy of the NFRTR in court, simply because it can't be done. And yet people are put in jail every week -- for long sentences with heavy fines -- based on the allegation that the weapons they are found in possession of are not listed on the NFRTR.

Such defendants can be found in the strange case of U.S. vs, Clark. Recall that U.S. vs. Clark is a Phoenix case, investigated and prosecuted by the same cast of tax-paid malefactors as Fast and Furious. An interesting motion was filed the other day in U.S. vs. Clark, with some relevant portions below:

Defendants Randolph B. Rodman, Hal Paul Goldstein, Lorren Marc Kalish and Idan C. Greenberg, by and through Counsel, respectfully move the Court for its Order authorizing disclosure of the minutes of the proceedings of the grand jury or juries returning the indictment in this case. As grounds for this motion, Counsel have a good faith belief that grand jurors were provided with erroneous and ambiguous guidance regarding the law of the case. Failure to provide accurate interpretations of the law eliminated the grand jury’s ability to return a true and fair indictment. Errors are found in the text of Count One and are set forth in more detail below. The transcripts will enable a review for context and the ability to assess the cumulative effect of the error.

Prior to indictment, this case was investigated as a conspiracy to violate Section 922(o) of Title 18. As part of the investigation and before an indictment, every machinegun identified in the indictment was submitted to the Firearms Technology Branch (FTB), the official Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) laboratory in West Virginia. There, the machineguns were examined and tested for the sole purpose of determining whether modifications made to 34 machineguns by Defendant Clark constituted new manufactures. No opinion as to the date of manufacture of any of the machineguns was rendered by any of the FTB experts who examined and tested the machineguns. The presence of substantive § 922(o) counts in the indictment means that the grand jury found probable cause without a single expert opinion.

Currently, a year and a half after indictment, there is good reason to believe that Count One will be prosecuted as a conspiracy to violate § 922(o) of Title 18. Count One is the keystone of this 106 count prosecution. Without conviction on Count One, very few of the remaining substantive counts survive. Access to the transcripts will permit timely and thoroughly briefed objections to the Conspiracy and substantive § 922(o) counts. Dismissal of an indictment is appropriate where violations of grand jury procedures “substantially influenced the grand jury’s decision to indict,” or raised a “grave doubt as to whether it had such an effect.”

What?!? Lying by omission or commission to a grand jury? Say it ain't so, Rick Vasquez! There is, according to my sources, an internal investigation of Mr. Vasquez and his relationships with confidential informants John Brown and Dan Shea. There is a larger investigation of the question of whether those two worthies transferred automatic weapons to employees of of the ATF in return for favors. Thus, I was more than a little interesting is this portion of the motion:

THE ATF CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION

The origin of the criminal investigation was unusual. In contrast to the opening of most investigations, it was ATF employees of the NFA Branch and the FTB lab (government employees not authorized to conduct criminal investigations) who first became suspicious of the existence of a possible violations of law. After the performance of several investigatory tasks (5), the matter was referred first to the Washington DC (Falls Church) Criminal Division and later to the Phoenix ATF Criminal Division for criminal investigation.

The matter was referred to the Phoenix Special Agent in Charge by way of a memorandum dated November 16, 2006 from an ATF Deputy Assistant Director at ATF Headquarters (The Office of Enforcement Programs and Services) (6). Prior thereto, faceless and nameless ATF employees of the NFA Branch and the Firearms Technology Branch had already interviewed ATF employees about the matter, had numerous contacts with the person in possession of SN A6042075, a suspected contraband machinegun; they had conducted an alleged laboratory test of the suspect gun; and had also returned the gun to the registrant after determining it was contraband and was illegal to possess. All this took place before the formal referral for criminal investigation on November 16, 2006.

The referral memo of the Deputy Assistant Director included the following points

_________________________________

5 The significance of this is that such conduct violates ATF internal procedures. When persons unfamiliar with criminal procedures conduct interviews or handle property in a criminal matter there is risk that evidence will contaminated. ATF employees other than Special Agents, are not authorized, trained or otherwise qualified to conduct criminal interviews of suspects, seize property, receive abandoned property, collect and preserve evidence, or submit property for a determination of its potential evidentiary value, etc.

6 This position, despite its title, is a regulatory function that oversees the programs and Services that support the main functions of ATF, including such service providers as the NFA Branch and the FTB Branch supra., and others. MOTION USGJ TRANSCRIPTS FINAL 011012.wpd Page 12 of 18

supporting the need for a criminal investigation in Phoenix:

1. George Clark, a Special Occupational Taxpayer in Arizona since 1993, converted MAC Models 10 and 11 machineguns into Browning Model 1919 machineguns;

2. Applications (7) to transfer the converted guns from Clark to various parties were found to have constant make and model designations but the caliber, barrel and overall lengths were at variance with descriptions in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record (NFRTR);

3. One of the suspected machineguns, SN A6042075, caliber 9mm/45 cal., barrel lengths 5.57 inches and overall length 11 inches was then registered to a Virginia FFL, John Brown, DBA Battlefield Sports and that Mr. Brown transported this machinegun to the FTB lab in West Virginia for examination;

4. Significantly, the memo failed to disclose that prior to being in possession of SN A6042075, Brown had bought and sold at least two other M1919 machineguns and was a party in eight (8) applications to transfer models 1919 that had been converted from MAC models by Clark. It was also learned in review of discovery material that Brown was an ATF Confidential Informant;

5. The examination and testing of SN A6042075 was alleged to have been performed on October 31, 2006 by Richard Vasquez, the Deputy Chief of FTB; and

6. Vasquez concluded that the MAC Model 10 machinegun had been destroyed in the conversion process and that the Model 1919 was a new manufacture which triggered a requirement for Clark to file a Form 2 (notice of manufacture of a new machinegun). Since the Model 1919 was not registered, it was a contraband unregistered machinegun.

There are major problems with statements in the referral memo:

1. The memo cites neither to a statute, a regulation, a ruling nor any case law for the principle that the conversion of an NFA registered machinegun to another model constitutes the manufacture of a new machinegun and therefore requires a new registration. The conversion process described in the memo is a zero sum game. The MAC Model 10 machinegun that was converted was one machinegun lawfully registered and possessed before the conversion. Following the conversion, it was the same one machinegun albeit in a different configuration but nevertheless still one machinegun. The NFA is a tax statute and assesses tax on “machineguns,” per se, not models. The tax assessed and collected on every make, model, design, configuration of machinegun is set at the same uniform rate – $200.00 to register and $200.00 to transfer;

2. The Report of an Official Examination and Testing of SN A6042075 on October 31, 2006 is a canard, a complete, from whole cloth fabrication. Like a unicorn,

__________________________

7 At the time, 11/16/06, Ms. Stucko reported that 22 such suspect applications to transfer had been identified from a search of the NFRTR. The actual number charged in the indictment is 34 as others were discovered through investigation.

because it is impossible to find, it does not exist. The ATF FTB Laboratory has no record of receiving SN A6042075 for testing and examination on or about October 31, 2006. There is no report of such an examination in the FTB official system of records. The non-existence of A6042075's receipt in the FTB evidence log on October 31 and the non-existence of an FTB lab report was concealed from defendants throughout the discovery period. It was discovered only after Counsel’s specific requests for disclosure of the report were ignored for over a year. Finally, in October, 2011, Defendants received definitive proof that FTB has no record of receipt of that machinegun on or about that date. That fact was made known in response to a request for collateral items, i.e., for the pages of FTB’s evidence logs for October 31, 2006 and for any other entries in the FTB’s system of records. An agency capable of persisting in such deceit, patently false statements in a criminal investigation by top level ATF Headquarters Executives, is capable of much worse. (8)

THE ATF TECHNICAL EXAMINATIONS AND LAB REPORTS

Every machinegun in the indictment (approximately 80) was sent to the FTB lab for testing. Each was found to be a machinegun. However, they had been submitted to the lab for a determination whether they were manufactured after May 19, 1986. Such a finding is the ultimate proof at issue for a violation of § 922(o). The state of the government’s scientific evidence at the time of indictment was that it did not possess a single expert opinion about any machinegun submitted to FTB for testing (approximately 400) as to the date of manufacture, the place of manufacture and the identity of the manufacturer.

After the Court ordered deadline for completion of discovery had passed, on October 13, 2011, the government disclosed an undated report labeled “Supplemental Report of FTB 2008-514-KEM/FTB 2009-114-KEM.” (Supplemental Report). This report was prepared by Richard Vasquez, the government’s designated Firearms Expert Witness and purports (9) to supplement the time, these statements support an inference that government attorneys and witnesses polluted the grand jury process by the entry of erroneous statements of law. Taken at best, these remarks represent a profound misunderstanding of the rights and privileges, duties and obligations of a person in the status of a licensed manufacturer of firearms and a Special Occupational Taxpayer.

_______________________________

8 For more than a year, Defendants have requested confirmation of the existence of an internal investigation of ATF employees and regulated persons involved in this case and/or disclosure of the report of that investigation.(the ATF Office of Internal Affairs or Office of Professional Responsibility) Unlike a unicorn, the report of such an investigation does exist and it can be found.

9 The timing, authenticity and certification of this Report has not yet been challenged nor has the government provided any reasoning or authority for shifting lab reports. This is a Mr. Vasquez’s third modification of the official reports of another and bears no indicia that it is an official record of the ATF Firearms Technology Branch. The earlier official versions of the two reports contain no opinion that the conversions constituted a new manufacture.firearms expert. (One of the supplemented reports had been amended in February of 2011). Further, the report is not dated and bears no indicia that it is an official record of the ATF Firearms Technology Branch. The earlier official versions of the two reports contain no opinion that the conversions constituted a new manufacture.

Vasquez is in "a heap o' trouble," according to our sources. So, too, is the ATF. Insiders predict that the Clark case will go the way of the Friesen case, with all serious charges dismissed, afters years of investigation time and millions of dollars spent. A member of the Coalition of Willing Lilliputians, Alvin Wombat, provides this analysis:

I did a bit of serious nosing and reliably determined the following:

There is, absolutely, a sub rosa agenda by SOME people at ATF (I am not using a broad brush here) to systematically remove all of the registered/existing machine guns from civilians. The interpretation by SOME at ATF, fostered equally by ATF Counsel and SOME ATF Special Agents, is that the law was not enacted to preserve ownership of these existing machine guns, but instead to forcibly reduce the existing supply of transferable machine guns until it reaches zero.

There is some genuine sympathy developing for what Len terms ATF's "enforcement by ambush," i.e., concocting interpretations of what constitute violations of law; not publishing them or otherwise making them known; and "announcing" them by arresting people for serious felony (there is no other kind) violations of the NFA. David T. Hardy's recent observation in a blog on his site that ATF ought to, at a minimum based on the Administrative Procedures Act, make all of its pertinent Letter Rulings available to the public, including putting copies of them in a public Reading Room. The fact that ATF has issued many contradictory Letter Rulings is raising troubling legal issues.

It would be worth thumping Congressional washtubs to get the Congressional Research Service to once again address the Letter Ruling issue, in context of H.R. 126 (Fairness in Firearms Testing Act), because that would constitute a legislative approach to the issue/problem. The key to getting THAT done, in addition to the washtub thumping, is (A) getting some action on H.R. 126, and (B) getting somebody on the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security to take an interest in these aspects of enforcement.

I recognize that an important agenda is for the Congress to address the serious mismanagement of ATF from the top down, particularly the jacking around of ATF personnel---the retaliation, the increasingly crazy/contradictory enforcement. The "enforcement by ambush" aspect is just another example of ATF Counsel and top management abuse and failure to professionally administer the law.

5. In reading some of the Clark materials, it is impossible to conclude that the U.S. Attorney understands the law, and that ATF (through ATF Counsel) is not deliberately misrepresenting the law. The fact that this involves machine guns makes it politically dicey.

6. An angle to mess with this may be to put the ATF Letter Rulings in context with the Fairness in Firearms Testing Act; in particular, the practice of ATF to concoct standards to bring certain firearms into NFA status; like the re-testing in the Olofson case; and the crazy prosecution of Friesen (which revolved around what amounted to a firearm description).

Alvin Wombat.

I read this about Sweden,

2012-01-16T15:07:00.000-08:00

and have a question:
Considering the problems Sweden is having with 'unassimilated immigrants of North African origin', I wonder if any of this leniency is due to "Let's not make them mad" concerns?

So Sen. Orrin Hatch is being primaried; good. Damn good. I hope they kick his ass out.

Insty points to some history of the Sullivan Act that Bloomberg so loves:
Sullivan knew the gangs would flout the law, but appearances were more important than results. Young toughs took to sewing the pockets of their coats shut, so that cops couldn’t plant firearms on them, and many gangsters stashed their weapons inside their girlfriends’ “bird cages” — wire-mesh fashion contraptions around which women would wind their hair.

Ordinary citizens, on the other hand, were disarmed, which solved another problem: Gangsters had been bitterly complaining to Tammany that their victims sometimes shot back at them.

Irish citizens get some of their right of self-defense back: gun bigots and socialists scandalized. In particular because it violates the EUnuch sensitivities:
“The law encourages people to use lethal force to defend their property and is at odds with Article 2 (right to life) of the European Convention on Human Rights which obliges the state to ensure that lethal force can only be used if absolutely necessary and strictly proportionate in all the circumstances.”
To be crude about it, fuck that, fuck the EU, and fuck the gun bigots who have hysterics at the idea of a subj- ah, citizen being able to use lethal force, if necessary, to protect their lives and homes.

My response would be "Why is Andrew Sullivan such a freaking nutcase? And has he stopped fixating on Sarah Palin's uterus?"

If you went to Trailers right now, and read 'Revisiting failure' and the four posts below it, you'd get an idea of what a bunch of clowns, liars and dirtbags are running the gun bigot groups.

PA Gunblog has a post on Romney & guns; not as bad as what I'd heard before. Problem is, I just don't really trust him.
Link found at Only Guns & Money. Who also pointed to a place I'd seen before, but had dropped off my radar: Black Man with a Gun

Denver PD needs to clean house. Badly. And, by the way, isn't lying on a sworn incident report something like, say, perjury?

Why yes, it IS a double standard. The bastards.

Well, considering what's happened to the ideals of chivalry, of courage and manners, what do you expect? Added: an alternate view, "It's the Italians"

Miss Wasson, I've got news for you: you look like crap in that outfit. Less is NOT always better.
And get something to eat.
And it's no surprise Morena Baccarin looks good enough to stop traffic.

A Californicated State Bank. Oh, there's a GREAT idea. If you're a socialist moron, at least.

So I came back to sit down and upload photos and video and check my e-mail, and there was an e-mail informing me that the Daily Beast has done a story about Mrs. Santorum’s ex-boyfriend from nearly 30 years ago, before she met her husband.
Maybe they should rename to the Daily Bestiality; it's closer to their mindset.

'Antiquated revolver' my ass; I want to know what condition it was in. I'd bet either zero maintenance for a looong time, or really old ammo. Or both.

Yeah, I've seen these people, too

2012-01-16T10:41:00.000-08:00

I ask because the ridership down here seems divided very sharply. People who seem to know what they're doing and riding defensively and people whose heads are so far up their asses they open their mouths to see. Gives new meaning to the term "eye tooth".

Some more responses to 'Only Gun Victims' Peterson

2012-01-16T06:33:00.000-08:00

Minuteman

McThag

Something else from Weer'd:
Joan is claiming certain victims as “her own” and other victims as not only the result of cynicism, but her words “Try to Find” when their names and stories are all there for everybody to see, claims that they are in themselves somehow invalid.

And this is where we get the term “Blood Dancing”, they only respect the lives lost that are useful to them. Also you’ll note that while Joan takes offense to me pointing out that she invokes the name of her dead sister for any number of irrelevant laws that played ZERO part in her sister’s death, but she makes no effort to refute it.

There were no “High Capacity Magazines” at the scene of her sister’s murder, but you have invoked Barbara’s name for magazine bans.

There were no “Assault Weapons” at the scene of her sister’s murder, but she has invoked Barbara’s name for “Assault Weapons” bans.

Conceal Carry was illegal in the state of Minnesota at the time of the murder, but she has invoked Barbara’s name for restrictions on Conceal carry.

None of the weapons found at the scene were bought through private sale, nor were any legally posessed because Russell Lund was the subject to a restraining order, but she has invoked Barbara’s name for the private sale of firearms, and universal background checks.

She has also claimed that Russell Lund was not a criminal until he pulled the trigger murdering her sister and her friend, but Mr. Lund was in and out of court, and in and out of mental facilities, as well as a known abusive man with a harsh temper.

She won’t refute these facts because they are true.
Yeah, true, but inconvenient.
She's got a habit of saying "They were not criminals until-" Someone could be a violent con(illegal to pick up a gun) and under a permanent restraining order(illegal to pick up a gun) and in possession of a firearm(worth a number of years in a federal prison, not counting state laws) and she still insists he's not a criminal until he kills/rapes/assaults someone. I really can't tell if she's just that dishonest, or that unwilling to understand.

UCV

One last thing for tonight, on Globular Warmering and nasty 'deniers'

2012-01-15T19:21:00.001-08:00

Robb had a post a while back and the comments got interesting. At the least.

Some of this reminds me of a friend I got into a disagreement with. Turned out she's a True Believer^tm and I made the mistake of tripping that switch. She'd said something about AGW, to which I replied 'Bullshit', or something equally polite, and went on to note that when I was 14 or so I was reading about how Globular Cooling was going to
cause crop failures,
spread diseases,
trash the oceans,
destroy developed countries and
"Cats and dogs LIVING TOGETHER!"
etc. And that an awful lot of the same people pushing that are now pushing Globular Warminering/Climate Change. Turned out that it shocked her immensely that I was a Denier(a word that truly pisses me off) and I got the whole routine: all REAL scientists believe, all denier scientists either aren't REAL scientists or are bought off, etc. ad nauseum ad fuckitall.

And another who, when I pointed to the flat scientific frauds, the character assassination, the lies revealed in the CRU e-mails, the response was "And all that will be found in them is that the world is warming up and the deniers are fools", and so on. Scientific fraud? Ignore it. Trying to destroy other scientists for asking questions? Unimportant. Lies? Don't count.

It's been kind of amazing.

Speaking of 'You suck', Joan Peterson and Ladd Everitt

2012-01-15T17:46:00.001-08:00

are definitely in the category. In multiple ways and cases
These clowns are just freakin' desperate to find something to call 'treason' about, aren't they?

Awright, dammit, where's my free stuff then?
More. Just scroll down a bit, you'll find it

Jennifer has words for Japete.
And some earlier ones.

Some words about Globular Warmering

There are some truly stupid people running public schools

Oh, for Bleep's sake,
The core of the response is this: the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, United States Special Operations Command, and the Department of the Navy all had their records searched. Nothing. Admiral Mike Mullen's email was scanned. Nothing. The Pentagon claims not a single person aboard the USS Carl Vinson, where Bin Laden's remains were disposed of, took a single picture. Not a single email from the ship makes reference to photo or video. Essentially: nobody in the military has evidence. So did these things ever exist?

Thoughts on the cruise ship mess from a mariner. I love this line:
As my former captain used to say, "Rule 1 of navigation is 'look out the fucking window.'"

And, thanks to the Irishman, I found two things. One reminds me of the 2nd wife:
And the other, well, wish I'd seen this in time for Christmas

Found here; much like Irish, often NSFW

Well, Brady Center, you really suck

2012-01-15T17:44:00.000-08:00

I mean, you can't even get your damned paperwork done on time?

Home remedies,

2012-01-15T17:40:00.000-08:00

but I don't think I'll try them.

AMAZINGLY SIMPLE HOME REMEDIES:

1. AVOID CUTTING YOURSELF WHEN SLICING VEGETABLES BY GETTING SOMEONE ELSE TO
HOLD THE VEGETABLES WHILE YOU CHOP.

2. AVOID ARGUMENTS WITH THE FEMALES ABOUT LIFTING THE TOILET SEAT BY USING THE SINK.

3. FOR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE SUFFERERS ~ SIMPLY CUT YOURSELF AND BLEED FOR A FEW MINUTES, THUS REDUCING THE PRESSURE ON YOUR VEINS. REMEMBER TO USE A TIMER.

4. A MOUSE TRAP PLACED ON TOP OF YOUR ALARM CLOCK WILL PREVENT YOU FROM ROLLING OVER AND GOING BACK TO SLEEP AFTER YOU HIT THE SNOOZE BUTTON.

5. IF YOU HAVE A BAD COUGH, TAKE A LARGE DOSE OF LAXATIVES. THEN YOU'LL BE AFRAID TO COUGH.

6. YOU ONLY NEED TWO TOOLS IN LIFE - WD-40 AND DUCT TAPE. IF IT DOESN'T MOVE AND SHOULD, USE THE WD-40. IF IT SHOULDN'T MOVE AND DOES, USE THE DUCT TAPE.

7. IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.

Damn. If you're in Denver, and have any contact with police,

2012-01-15T15:15:00.001-08:00

make sure you can make THEM sure who you are.

This is just friggin' bloody awful, and I hope the suit nails everyone involved to the wall.

Something to watch out for at the range or show

2012-01-15T09:34:00.000-08:00

POSTSCRIPT: I can't verify the veracity of the following, but yesterday I received a mass emailing from a good friend explaining how street gangs are 'tagging' cars in parking lots at gun stores, shooting ranges and gun shows. Then when the automobile, after tagging, is driven to another part of the area and left empty it is broken into and the weapons and gear stolen.

Supposedly, a number of expensive shotguns were stolen from vehicles this past summer at an event held near San Antonio, Texas and law enforcement feels this was the technique that identified the vehicles in each case. It also appears the same technique was used recently in Denver, Colorado.

A small adhesive dot is place on the bumper or the license plate to 'mark' the vehicle, when empty, as a target for thieves specializing in weapons theft.

So be aware and watch for anything 'strange' being put on your vehicle whenever you leave a 'Fun-Show' or shooting range...
Thanks to Farmer Frank for the warning. Hadn't heard of this before, but it doesn't surprise me.

That's all very nice, but WHERE ARE THE LASERS?

2012-01-14T17:06:00.001-08:00

I want dolphins with lasers, dammit!

Looked over at Insty and found this on the Marine

2012-01-14T15:11:00.000-08:00

pissing incident; pretty good. Hell, even that slimy little bastard Maher is in agreement.
But I'll comment on one thing:
What the Marines did was wrong–and possibly a symptom of problems in unit leadership–but let’s keep some perspective as punishment is weighed.
As to 'leadership', that would include a President negotiating with a Taliban bigshot for our virtual surrender, and some ROE that seem at times tailormade to get our guys killed; I guarantee that crap is not helping matters. Add into that hearing- while you're being shot at- that the President and a bunch of other clowns want to cut your numbers, and there are still 'can we cut their health care or pay?' questions being quietly passed around(heard that from the son), and, well...

So, I asked him, if I’m a crime victim

2012-01-13T19:24:00.000-08:00

trying to protect my property in Massachusetts, is the state on my side?

“Absolutely not.”
To those who live in the PROM, you have my sympathies. And I'm NEVER going to live there. For that matter, I don't even want to visit the damn place anymore.

Now, that dog knows whose side he's on.
“He got a bite out of the guy’s leg,” Elizabeth said of the burglar, who had already cut the phone and cable line to their house. “He ripped his pants and tried to tug him down. But the guy got away.”
Good dog, have a bone!

Another MAIG criminal
Violent one.

This is not a surprise. At all.
He must have known why I was calling.

Asked the same question again. This time the reply I got this time was different: “Senator Schumer is in favor of censoring the internet.”

….whhhhhhat? Up until now, most of the statements from congresspeople have done that neat thing politicians do where they say words but don’t actually answer the question. They do the “censorship” dance very well – never say it out loud, but vote for the bill nonetheless. From what I can tell “anti-piracy” and “pro-censorship” are actually the same thing here, though politicians usually argue the former so as not to seem anti-first-amendment. No one has been brazen enough to drop the C-word without hesitation. But this dude apparently had no problem with it. I said again: “So you’re saying Senator Schumer is in favor of censoring the internet?”

“Yes.” He then backpedaled a bit, and mentioned that Schumer is in favor of censoring illegal activities on the internet. But still, the C-word.

Yes, the assholes and haters of the military are in charge.
Just to pick on one: Karzai. Let's see, in his country
Little girls of 7 can be married to adult males and ~~the marriage consummated~~legally raped at 9,
Little boys are used as sex toys,
Raped women can be condemned to death for 'illegal sex', but may have the sentence commuted if they marry the rapist,
The Taliban teaches teenage boys to behead a live human being and considers it good parenting,
The routinely mutilate our troops bodies if they can, and booby-trap them,
and that miserable, corrupt little bastard calls us names? Fuck him. With a splintery shovel handle.

And Obama's official campaign vehicle

May have to change the name to 'Gunwalkers...

2012-01-13T18:50:00.000-08:00

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that yet another gun trafficking sting operation mounted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives called “White Gun” possibly allowed guns to “get away” into Mexico.
The Times notes that White Gun had been “previously unreported.” It appears to have been on a much smaller scale, and the newspaper says there were three arrests.

Reportedly mounted at the same time as Operation Fast and Furious, the White Gun investigation is on the radar screen of congressional investigators who have been working on the Fast & Furious scandal. Some familiar names surface right up front, according to the L.A. Times:

In the late summer of 2010, the ATF agent leading the failed Fast and Furious gun-smuggling operation in Arizona flew to Mexico City to help coordinate cross-border investigations of U.S. weapons used by Mexican drug cartels.
Hope A. MacAllister wanted access to police and military vaults for American weapons recovered by Mexican authorities in raids and at crime scenes. She especially was interested in firearms from another ATF investigation, code-named White Gun, that she was running…

… MacAllister was the lead agent. Her supervisor, David J. Voth, was head of the ATF's Group VII field office in Phoenix. His boss was William D. Newell, then the special agent in charge in Phoenix.-Los Angeles Times

'I don't want to take pictures with any more soldiers'

2012-01-13T05:10:00.001-08:00

You expect anything else from him?

When he made his little Presidential trip to Iraq, remember the basketball game? Son knew a guy there; said Obama played maybe five minutes to get pictures and left, never saying a word to any of the troops.

There's reasons why Kim used to call it New York Effing City

2012-01-13T05:01:00.000-08:00

and this kind of garbage is a big one:
Strangely, now that the case against me is over, the authorities refuse to return my firearm. There is no law that allows them to confiscate a weapon in this manner. They simply say “no” when you ask for your weapon back. This is apparently their “policy.” It is done regularly in New York. This is government robbery. Not only is New York City anti-Second Amendment rights, but they are depriving citizens of their legally owned property. My lawyer has advised me that I can attempt to pursue the return of my firearm, but that to do so would cost me more than the firearm is worth. I am not alone in facing this tyranny. It has happened to hundreds of people in the New York metro area. My lawyer, Brian Stapleton, has handled over 400 of these cases himself, so he is an expert on the subject.
"We're New York Effing City, and we don't have to obey laws we don't like. And we can steal your property and you can't afford to do anything about it." Theft under color of law- well, no, you can't call it that because there's no law for them to hide this theft behind; it's just theft because the thieves can get away with it.

What do do, when there are two protected species

2012-01-12T19:41:00.001-08:00

involved?

Hail to the King, baby

2012-01-12T17:36:00.000-08:00

Rodger, the RKOF, that is.

He had this recipe a while back.

I just took the roast out of the crock pot.

Oh, it made me regret the pepper poppers I ate earlier to hold me over. If I hadn't had them, I could eat another sandwich

Some good "If you have to draw, what happens after?"

2012-01-12T14:32:00.001-08:00

advice

The letters say nothing about compensating gun owners for the seizures

2012-01-12T11:21:00.001-08:00

Well, why should they? It's only your private property they're stealing under the excuse of "It looks scary"; so why should they give a damn about you?

Registration: it ALWAYS leads to at least some level of confiscation

A DGU that won't be on the 'official' records

2012-01-12T10:30:00.001-08:00

since he didn't have to pull the trigger. No matter where you are, keep your eyes open, all the way around.

On the subject of DGU and the gun bigot reaction to Weer'd's project. You know, that's about the most polite way of saying 'Piss off' I think I've ever read.

By the way, remember former Officer Harless?
Yes, 'former'.

Yeek! Stay OUT of the bleepin' water in

2012-01-11T19:28:00.001-08:00

New Guinea!

Also, from the Irishman,

Thanks to the True King of France
Note: both sites may be somewhat NSFW

I think that, especially with public money funding it, all this research SHOULD be available to the public.

Oh yeah, this is a GREAT idea...

But the tea party is full of 'terrorists'... yeah.

"Use a product that doesn't exist for you to buy, or you'll pay a fine!" Every politician and bureaucrat involved in pushing this should be horsewhipped. Which reminds me:
"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kinds of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted - and you create a nation of lawbreakers - and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Rearden, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."

And last, it appears that the Progressive Gun Bigots are all butthurt by Weer'd's candle idea. Ever notice that their 'thoughts' are much like the mess in Dr. Who? "Don't try to protect yourself, don't have a weapon, you must wait for The Power or Someone Official to save you." As Kevin says, Fuck That.

Rep. Schultz: with great feeling I must say

2012-01-11T17:43:00.000-08:00

fuck you, you lying little sack of crap.

Somebody with Photoshop or something needs to put a German helmet on her: between the name and her know-nothing mind, it would fit nicely.

The Turks blame The JOOOS! Which reminds me of something:
..."It seems if you are Vorkosigan enough, you can even get away with murder."
...Instead, he stared up unblinkingly, and breathed, "So if you truly believe that, why are you standing in my way?"*

Which reminds me of how, if the various slanderers had actually believed Bush was a dictator, murderer, etc., they'd have been in hiding because not one of them would've had the balls to pull the crap they did.

Heard something about this the other day, the Italians have declared that paying cash for anything of more than €1000 is illegal; I wonder when they'll propose making it illegal to pay for ANYTHING with cash? Or when someone else somewhere else will call for it?

I really don't want to hear some UN clown calling for us to be sanctioned for 'crimes against humanity' and such until the bastards do something about their raping 'peacekeepers'.

Yeah, we're supposed to trust these professional journalisters- er, journalists- to decide what we need to know...

*A Civil Campaign

Among the reasons the EPA should either be disbanded

2012-01-11T17:23:00.000-08:00

or- if left in existence- put on a VERY short leash.
At issue is the EPA’s enforcement of the Clean Water Act through so-called administrative compliance orders, which are government commands that allow the agency to control the use of private property without the annoyance of having to subject its actions to judicial review.

The Sacketts contend that the compliance order was issued erroneously and they would like the opportunity to make their case in court. Yet according to the terms of the Clean Water Act, they may not challenge the order until the EPA first seeks judicial enforcement of it, a process that could take years. In the meantime, the Sacketts risk $32,500 in fines per day if they fail to comply. And complying doesn’t just mean they have to stop building; they must also return the lot to its original condition at their own expense.
You'll love this:
For its part, the EPA argues that old-fashioned judicial review would simply get in the way. As the agency states in the brief it submitted to the Supreme Court, “A rule that broadly authorized immediate judicial review of such agency communications would ultimately disserve the interests of both the government and regulated parties, by discouraging interactive processes that can obviate the need for judicial action.”
Translation: "You want us to actually be answerable? In court? We don't want to!"

More on the hearing here: including
So far, all the lower courts that have reviewed such claims agree with the government that the agency’s compliance orders are not subject to judicial review. They have said that because the EPA must prove a violation to a judge for the court to levy fines, that is the proper time for the courts to get involved.

The Sacketts counter that the compliance order is mandatory; they say it requires action to avoid the potential of ruinous fines. Even the prospect of waiting to see whether the EPA will go to court — it has years to make the decision — deprives the couple of their land and leaves them “to the mercy and whim of EPA.”
So the lower court judges say "We shouldn't let judges get involved(we shouldn't let the peasants challenge EPA in court) until EPA actually 'proves a violation'. So it's just fine for EPA to ruin you with fines and fees and take your land away from you so long as they haven't actually gone to a judge themselves." Which is such a level of bullshit that if it were all piled in one place the EPA would order you to clean it up or be fined a million bucks a day.

A letter to gun bigots

2012-01-11T07:33:00.000-08:00

Damn.

Ultimak Garand mount, first test

2012-01-11T07:05:00.000-08:00

Took it to the range yesterday with 32 rounds of my cast-bullet loads to sight-in and generally try it out.

I like it. Even with the somewhat-high rings, no problem keeping a solid sight picture, and nothing shifted/twisted/loosened. True, these loads are lighter than ball; still, I don't foresee any problems with the mount not staying where it should. Looking forward to weather and time so I can take this to the 100-yard range for some more work. And everyone who saw it really liked the appearance, as well as the ability to put a optic right over the bore.

While I'm thinking about it, thought I'd pass this along on the Rock Island 1911 pistols. A while back son decided he wanted a .45, and he wanted a 1911. He and his sister both have really good research abilities: give them something they want/need to find out about and they'll find everything. Everything he found on these said 'they're solid, they work, and if you are one who has a problem they fix things fast'. Plus, he wanted something he could try his hand on a modification/tuning without worrying that he might screw up a expensive pistol, so he got one of their Officer's Model size. That was a year or so ago, and he's had zero problems, ball and hollowpoints both.

Sen. Schumer has found another aspect of other peoples' lives

2012-01-10T10:11:00.001-08:00

that he needs control over.

So, we need two things:
Meddling politicians thrown out of office, and
DEA canned for screwing with people with chronic pain.

Aussie gun bigots wet pants:

2012-01-09T14:37:00.000-08:00

film at (what time zone are they in?) whenever the hell.
The Australian media, being mostly urban and easily scared, is generally hopeless when reporting on firearms. This piece is a classic example. Note the seamless linkage between gang-related events in Melbourne’s northwest suburbs and legal gun ownership in such places as Harrow – a small rural town nearly 400 kilometres from the Victorian capital.

Note also the prominence given to the gun control lobby’s claim that more guns lead to more crime. This should be easy to verify. Simply review the crime statistics for those gun “hot spots” identified by the Herald Sun. At least the paper did some basic checking in Swifts Creek:

Welcome to Swifts Creek, home to about 278 people, 774 guns and a tank.

Firearms outnumber the local population more than two to one, but there has not been a single shooting - accidental or otherwise - in recent memory.

They’ll no doubt have found a similar situation in Harrow, had they inquired. According to these figures, the area is massively below state averages for homicide, rape, robbery, arson, burglary and theft.

Ultimak Garand mount

2012-01-09T09:06:00.000-08:00

I added these shots to the original post, thought I'd toss them up in an individual post as well.

Rifle with mount installed and scope mounted:

A closer look

Here's the underside, with the two clamps pointed to
The mount blends in very well, and nowhere does it come close to interfering with free movement of the oprod. On the forward end it butts against the rear ferrule, so it can't shift forward under recoil. The screws for the clamps go in from the top, and have large hex-key heads for adjusting. And there's plenty of clearance to put on a scope with a big objective, just pick suitable rings. These are high enough that I'll get some lower ones later on.

Really looking forward to sighting this in. Among other things, when I test those cast-bullet loads this will remove some of the 'load or my aim at fault?' question.

"The country must cut back, all of us!

2012-01-09T07:57:00.000-08:00

Except for my parties and vacations, of course."

Yeah, they probably are helping push for a ban; also probably trying to help distract from Gunwalker.

Some, ah, problems with the Obama Chop The Military plan. Aside from the fact that he and minions would rather just chop the forces up than actually try to get rid of waste or duplication.

I'm going to try to get some pictures of the Garand with mount today; good chance of rain later but the sun is pushing through the clouds right now.

So, I wonder if she can sue Bloomberg for lying

2012-01-09T07:56:00.001-08:00

about her?

Another lethal SWAT raid,

2012-01-08T12:17:00.000-08:00

this time lethal for a cop. And others wounded. Jeez, what a mess.

If nothing else were a problem with Santorum,

2012-01-08T12:09:00.000-08:00

this crap would be.

At this point I'm thinking 'Hold our noses and get Obama out of office, then it's third-party time.'