Very busy with various stuff,

and it's still damn hot outside. But there's a front coming and a chance of rain tonight.

Which, with this weather, usually means 'chance of toad-floater storms'.

We'll see

It should be noted that birds are sneaky little bastards

who find their way under netting so they can attack my damned tomatoes.

I may borrow that suppressor-equipped rifle and convert some of them to mulch.

That is all.

Gee, the EPA studies pushing Cap & Tax were biases?

Whoda thunk it?
In March, Alan Carlin, a senior research analyst at the Environmental Protection Agency, asked agency officials to distribute his analysis on the health effects of greenhouse gases. EPA has proposed a public health “endangerment finding” covering CO2 and five other gases that would trigger costly, extensive new regulations of motor vehicles. The open comment period on the ruling ended this week. But Carlin’s study didn’t fit the blame-human-activity narrative, so it didn’t make the cut.

On March 12, Carlin’s director, Al McGartland, forbade him from having “any direct communication” with anyone outside his office about his study. “There should be no meetings, emails, written statements, phone calls, etc.” On March 16, Carlin urged his superiors to forward his work to EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, which runs the agency’s climate change program. A day later, McGartland dismissed Carlin and showed his true, politicized colors:

“The time for such discussion of fundamental issues has passed for this round. The administrator and the administration has decided to move forward on endangerment, and your comments do not help the legal or policy case for this decision… I can only see one impact of your comments given where we are in the process, and that would be a very negative impact on our office.”
"Because the science is SETTLED! The Goreacle says so!"
The EPA now justifies the suppression of the study because economist Carlin (a 35-year veteran of the agency who also holds a B.S. in physics) “is an individual who is not a scientist.” Neither is Al Gore. Nor is environmental czar Carol Browner. Nor is cap-and-trade shepherd Nancy Pelosi. Carlin’s analysis incorporated peer-reviewed studies and, as he informed his colleagues, “significant new research” related to the proposed endangerment finding. According to those who have seen his study, it spotlights EPA’s reliance on out-of-date research, uncritical recycling of United Nations data, and omission of new developments, including a continued decline in global temperatures and a new consensus that future hurricane behavior won’t be different than in the past.

But the message from his superiors was clear: La-la-la, we can’t hear you.
And Waxman and Obama are using the very flawed EPA mess to try to shove Cap & Tax down our throats. With energy-hog Gore cheering them on.

Call or write your congresscritter, as I think they're voting on this mess today.

It should be noted that it's not just the Israelis that Obama is selling out;

In a lawsuit by 9/11 families, new evidence has surfaced that Saudi Arabia funds terrorism worldwide—and paid two of the hijackers—yet the Obama Justice Department wants these documents destroyed.

Documents gathered by lawyers for the families of 9/11 victims reveal new evidence of extensive Saudi financial support for al Qaeda and other extremist Muslim groups. So reports today’s New York Times. But that evidence may never see the light of day because of legal and diplomatic hurdles.
...
Incredibly, Obama’s Justice Department has sided with the Saudis rather than the 9/11 families. Government lawyers are urging the courts to stop any further investigation of the Saudis under the doctrine of “sovereign immunity” whereby a foreign government can’t be sued in an American court. Yet surely there should be exceptions—for example, if that government is financing some of the major terror cells around the globe. Not according to Justice’s lawyers.

Moreover, when the Justice Department learned that classified U.S. intelligence documents about Saudi financing had been leaked to the lawyers of victims' families, it demanded that these attorneys destroy the documents, and has been working hard to prevent the judge from even looking at the damning material.
Yeah. "Just trust us, your honor, you don't need to actually look at the documents." Pull the other one, guys, it's got bells on.

The Bush administration failed the 9/11 families when it came to possible Saudi involvement. President Obama has talked a better game, but he has failed to deliver. In February, a month after taking office, Obama met personally with some of the victims’ families at the White House and heard their request to release a 28-page, classified section of a 2003 joint congressional inquiry into the September 11 attacks that discussed Saudi connections to the two hijackers. President Bush, at the Saudi government's request, had refused to release the pages. President Obama, according to the family representatives at the meeting, agreed to reverse that decision, but four months later they are still classified.

This past Monday, senior administration officials had a private meeting with some 9/11 family members, and repeatedly avoided answering questions about the lawsuit that has uncovered the new evidence about Saudi financing of international terror. Isn’t it time for the American president to stand with the victims of the attack rather than the House of Saud? Only by becoming an advocate for those who died in 9/11, can President Obama help reveal the truth.

There's one problem with that 'help reveal the truth' bit; I don't think President Obama wants the truth revealed. At all. It would cause problems for the king he bowed to.

It's currently 2030 hours,

8:30pm if you're not still stuck on 24-hour time, and it's now down to 93 outside. Yuck.

Part of the back yard needs mowing. In the morning.

Or maybe in a couple of days, when the temp is supposed to ease a bit.

"If ObamaCare isn’t good enough for Sasha, Malia, or Michelle,

then it’s not good enough for America."
Dr. Orrin Devinsky, a neurologist and researcher at the New York University Langone Medical Center, said that elites often propose health care solutions that limit options for the general public, secure in the knowledge that if they or their loves ones get sick, they will be able to afford the best care available, even if it’s not provided by insurance.

Devinsky asked the president pointedly if he would be willing to promise that he wouldn’t seek such extraordinary help for his wife or daughters if they became sick and the public plan he’s proposing limited the tests or treatment they can get.

The president refused to make such a pledge, though he allowed that if “it’s my family member, if it’s my wife, if it’s my children, if it’s my grandmother, I always want them to get the very best care.["]
Yep, there's a good little elite progressive; "This is the care you'll be allowed to have, but don't expect ME to stay with that!"

Transparency! Open Administration!!

Yes, a Justice Department lawyer actually argued to a federal district court judge that there should be an exemption from Freedom of Information Act disclosure rules for documents that would subject senior administration officials to embarrassment -- as in on late-night television.

This is not just wrong, it's perversely wrong. By contrast, a good rule of thumb would be: The more embarrassing, the more we need to know. The Justice Department and the White House should be forced to renounce this assertion immediately.

And if this wasn't bizarre enough, consider the irony that in the case at hand, the Obama Justice Department is fighting the release of a transcript of former vice president Dick Cheney's testimony to special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald about his role in the outing of Valerie Plame as a CIA agent.

Last night a friend of mine said the 'world would have to act

on Iran'. Which sounds good. Except the UN won't do crap except- maybe- make a 'strongly-worded statement- and ask to send an observer or two. Who'll have to stay in the best hotel in Tehran, of course. And the EU?
In an interview with Reuters, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt also said the EU should not consider sanctions against Iran at this stage and he urged the swift confirmation of a second term for the president of the European Commission.

"My worry is that talk of sanctions, talk of a tougher line might just be the start of an excuse for the Iranian leadership not to listen in to what is now being said by the Iranian people," Reinfeldt said.
Mr. Reinfeldt, that is one of the most chickenshit, and/or idiot, things I've heard in a while. In case you haven't bothered to check it out, the Iranian leadership is beating and maiming and murdering the Iranian people for daring to speak out. Just what the hell makes you think they need you for an excuse?

There's a reason for the category 'EUnuchs'.

You have GOT to see this

Pictures taken of an erupting volcano from the International Space Station

Just absolutely freakin' cool

So Pelosi will profit from cap & tax...

Anybody surprised?
Pelosi, of course, is not the only member of Congress to own significant shares of energy companies. Senators and representatives from all over the country do, not just the "oilies" from energy states like Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana.

But as House Speaker, Pelosi's ownership of an unknown number of shares in the Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (CLNE) valued at between $15,000 and $50,000, may deserve particular attention.
...
Pelosi will profit because OWM will boost the price of natural gas on the market. This is because natural gas burns with significantly less carbon emissions than other fossil fuels. For companies trying to get under OWM limits for greenhouse gases emissions, burning more natural gas instead of, say coal, will be a no-brainer. That will drive up demand for natural gas, which in turn will create upward price pressures.

Link found at Instapundit

Ref Gov. Sanford,

I made my opinion clear the other day. He screwed up bigtime.

I will add this: from what I've heard, he didn't make excuses, he said he screwed up. He's paying the price for it, and will continue to do so for some time.

What pisses me? People who tied themselves in knots to defend Bill Clinton are dancing in glee and crapping on Sanford. Wonderful, aren't they?

It appears that the troll who got mad because I moderated comments

is now going around posting as me on blog comments. And started a blog named as close to mine as possible, etc.

The gentleman at Keyboard and a .45 thinks it may be JadeGold, pulling his crap again.

Amazing, isn't it? I didn't say he couldn't make comments here; just that I wouldn't allow them if they were insulting, and if he kept putting long conspiracy crap in. And for that the bitter little whatever starts all this up.

I am getting God-damned tired of hearing of police doing crap like this

and being defended by their agency. And idiot judges and prosecutors who don't do their damned job.

Exhibit A, from Chicago:
At the center of the case was security video from Jesse's Short Stop Inn on Feb. 19, 2007, that showed the hulking officer throw Obrycka against a wall, then slam her to the floor, where he aimed a series of frenzied punches and kicks at her.

Abbate had walked behind the bar after she refused to serve him more alcohol. Obrycka, who is half Abbate's size, shouted at him, but he did not leave her work area. When she tried to push him out, the assault started, with other patrons looking on.
Just an isolated incident, no big deal, beating up the female bartender was just an aberration, right?
At the sentencing hearing, prosecutors presented a second, previously unreleased video that they said showed Abbate beating a man in the same Northwest Side bar six hours before he attacked Obrycka. It was one of two other fights they say he got into that day -- proof, they said, that he was a "brutal, dangerous" man. No charges were filed in the second taped attack because the victim, a patron, declined to press charges, prosecutors said.
Here is the miserable excuse for a lawman walking out of the courthouse
What did he get for these attacks? Probation.

Effing PROBATION. And he's suspended, but he's still a Chicago cop.

"I haven't worked anywhere. I'm afraid something else will happen," she told the Tribune. "If I ever go back to bartending, the owners would have to be there all the time. I'm not comfortable working by myself."

She says it's not quite rational to fear the police, but she can't help feeling anxious when she's out and about with her husband and child. She is afraid they'll get pulled over for something. Afraid the cops will recognize her. Afraid they'll be friends of Abbate's.
Damn, I wonder why?
"I have a fear of the police. I know they don't want to hurt me, but I have a fear," she said. "I can't explain it."

Obrycka hoped Abbate would do some time for his conviction, she said, but she wasn't pointing any fingers Tuesday. "I was disappointed that he didn't get a sentence to go to jail," she said. "But I can't criticize the judge."
Yes, madam, you can. That jerk should be criticized, left, right and vertically.
But Fleming, who found Abbate guilty of aggravated battery this month in a two-day bench trial, chose 2 years of probation instead of any jail time. He said the law requires that he consider a host of factors -- such as prior criminal history, severity of the injury to the victim and whether a stiff sentence would serve as a deterrent to others -- in deciding whether to send the officer to prison.

"If I believed sending Anthony Abbate to prison would stop people from getting drunk and hitting other people, I'd sentence him to the maximum," Fleming said. "But I don't believe that is the case."
What about PUNISHMENT, you moron? Punishment for what he did? If a plain citizen had done that, they'd already be in jail, or prison. And you give this piece of crap probation...

And, of course you have the dirtbag's slimy lawyer speaking up:
Hickey argued that his client had already been punished for his "act of unbelievable stupidity." "He went out and got himself so drunk that he got into this position and ruined his life," Hickey said. "Tony Abbate recognizes that. He's not a bad person; he did something bad."
For which he should be in jail, you disgrace to the legal profession. ...In fact, his lawyer, Peter Hickey, continued blaming her for the incident during the sentencing hearing Tuesday.
Oh, of COURSE it was her fault, right. You bastard.

And yes, I am blaming the damned Chicago Police Department in large part for this.
The Chicago Police Department's handling of the case drew criticism because police first tried to charge Abbate with a misdemeanor before the video became public. Just weeks later, video of a second barroom beating involving off-duty officers at the Jefferson Tap and Grille emerged, heaping more outrage on a police department already under fire in the Special Operations Section scandal, in which officers allegedly kidnapped and robbed people in dozens of incidents over several years.

With allegations of cover-ups to protect accused officers in all three incidents, then-Supt. Philip Cline was forced into retirement by Mayor Richard Daley.
And now, there's a hearing set to try to fire this clown. Let's hope they actually do.

Second City Cop has this in a post on this mess:
And any civilians or media types looking to start shit, just about every single reader here deplored Abbate's actions and called for his firing. We also uncovered numerous instances where Abbate should have been fired before or never even hired. It was the political structure that permitted this aberration to occur, not the men and women who serve and protect honorably day in and day out.
Sounds good. Except the 'political structure' includes officers who probably covered up for him before. Just about every time something like this comes out, it turns out the clown had a history of bad acts, all too often glossed over or covered up by other cops because 'he's one of us'. Unfortunately, I'll bet that's part of the 'political structure' that let this jerk keep wearing a badge. I may be wrong; I hope so.


Exhibit B, from Spokane:
A Spokane police officer should stand trial on charges of violating the civil rights of mentally ill janitor Otto Zehm and lying about the confrontation that resulted in Zehm’s death, a grand jury has decided.
...
Zehm died March 20, 2006, two days after he was beaten with a baton, shocked multiple times with a Taser and hogtied. The case sparked a cry for more citizen oversight of law enforcement.
...
Police officials initially said Zehm attacked Thompson, but they recanted that claim months later when surveillance video clearly showed Zehm retreating, holding a 2-liter plastic soda bottle in front of his face while Thompson struck him with a baton.
...
Thompson was the first to respond and found Zehm in the store. Surveillance video shows that Thompson immediately engaged Zehm from behind.

Thompson began striking Zehm with his police baton and shocked him with his Taser as Zehm held the soda bottle in front of his face. The struggle continued and eventually included six more officers who arrived to help Thompson restrain Zehm.

Zehm stopped breathing about three minutes after one of the officers obtained a plastic mask from a paramedic and placed it on Zehm’s face. The mask was never attached to the oxygen tank for which it was designed, according to police reports. At the time, Zehm was lying on his stomach while officers kept his ankles and wrists bound with nylon straps.

After Zehm stopped breathing, paramedics rushed him to Deaconess Medical Center. He never regained consciousness, and he died two days later.

On May 30, 2006, Medical Examiner Dr. Sally Aiken ruled that Zehm died as a result of homicide.
From the sound of this, some other officers contributed, and at the least need a... hell, I don't know. This is just...

Found both at War on Guns. Who just ruined my evening.

In the reports from Iran, have you noticed

that most of the people killed by gunfire, it's from a distance? Very little 'up-close-&-personal' involving firearms, it seems. My first thought is the government does NOT want to give the people they're stomping on the chance to obtain arms if they can avoid it; so we have thugs with axes and pipes and batons and such killing and maiming people with the firearm-equipped troops/police staying back. Or so it seems, from what I've read.

When a populace starts off disarmed, it's awful hard to play catch-up.

Well, it looks like the Iranian government finally got the massacre

it wanted.
Iran has executed its Tiananmen Square. Baharestan Square has become synonymous with barbarity, cruelty, massacre and inhumanity.

An Iranian blogger (whose URL I will not publish) live blogging from Baharestan Square in central Tehran today captures but brief glimpses of the unimaginable horror that took place today. Bus loads of protesters were stopped and unloaded from their buses by "black-clad police" and literally herded. When the massing was sufficient, as the barely controllably distraught Tehran caller to CNN described first hand, hundreds of the regime's Basij thugs poured out of an adjoining mosque and commenced a massacre with axes, clubs, guns and gas.

I'm sure Obama will be 'saddened' or something by this; but hey, he already called off the invitations to the weenie roast, so what else can he do?(yes, getting a bunch of rifles and ammo, maybe some shotguns, to the people would make things a bit more even, but don't count on it)

I'm with the bear;

it IS damn hot out there.

Since I'm currently inside cleaning(awright, taking a break from, ok?), let's see what's out there.

The administration finally decided that inviting officials of a government currently involved in beating and murdering protesters to the 4th of July celebration was a Bad Idea, and has rescinded the invites. As Sondra says, "What took you so long?"


Rustmeister notes that a couple of congresscritters have decided to let DHS know they don't like the "Let's ban 80% of the knives out there" attempt:
Representatives Bob Latta (R-Ohio) and Walt Minnick (D-Idaho) have co-sponsored an amendment to the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill to restrict funds to the proposed CBP rule on switchblades.


Back to Iran the Republican Guard weenies seem to have a liking for zooming into crowds on motorcycles, jumping off and beating people. Which works fine, until the people decide to beat back. Of course, we are talking about people who'll murder a woman, and then screw her family around:
The Iranian authorities have ordered the family of Neda Agha Soltan out of their Tehran home after shocking images of her death were circulated around the world.

Neighbours said that her family no longer lives in the four-floor apartment building on Meshkini Street, in eastern Tehran, having been forced to move since she was killed. The police did not hand the body back to her family, her funeral was cancelled, she was buried without letting her family know and the government banned mourning ceremonies at mosques, the neighbours said.

"We just know that they [the family] were forced to leave their flat," a neighbour said. The Guardian was unable to contact the family directly to confirm if they had been forced to leave.


Governor Sanford, you're an asshole.


The MArooned gentleman has a list of dumb gunnie tricks. One of my picks: the guy who tells a friend buying a Mosin Nagant "Don't buy that surplus ammo, it'll rust the barrel out!" Never mind that if you actually, y'know, clean it soon after shooting it'll be fine...


Jay also notes a problem with the current "You MUST be interested in them!" crap. About a month ago, while getting ready to play a DVD, I heard a few minutes of Jay Leno. He was saying "I was in the store, and saw all these headlines about Kate's heartbreak, and Jon cheating, and I thought "Really... who the hell are these people? And why do I care?" Yup.


Despite the promise of baking, I hit the range this morning. And yes, I did bake. But A: I like shooting outside when I can, especially with rifles and B: I was going to bake doing ANYTHING outside, so... While there, guy let me take a look at, and some shots with, one of these
It's a EMF copy of the Model 92 Winchester, this one in .357 Mag. 20" barrel, blue steel. Very slick action, nice handling, nice trigger. It has one of those idiot 'make the lawyers happy' safeties on top of the bolt, otherwise looks just like the 92. He was feeding it .357 loads with (I think he said) 162-grain semi-wadcutters, and it fed them flawlessly. The only gripe I'd have with it? The sights; just like the original, and my eyes have trouble with that style anymore, especially at 100 yards(at 50 was just fine, or as fine as could be for me). I wonder if anyone makes a peep sight for these? If they did... As is, I liked it; short, handy, light and reliable. Man, one of these with a loop lever, that'd be fun to play with.


Speaking of the range, anyone know why some rifles, with cast loads, hit from 3" to 6" right of point of aim at 100 yards? I've seen this with Enfields in .303, K31 and the P14. My 1903A3 Springfield just needs the elevation raised, but the others group quite nicely, but way to the right.


Considering how things seem to be deteriorating in Iran, I wonder if the protesters are taking arms from the security boobs they grab? Or are the authorities worried about that and mostly sending goons with clubs and axes and such in close and having the shooters keep distance?


I'd better get back to cleaning.

That pretty much covers it

Found at Theo's place

I'd heard Ed McMahon died,

but I'd never heard this about him:
During World War II, McMahon was a fighter pilot in the United States Marine Corps serving as a flight instructor and test pilot. He was a decorated pilot and was discharged in 1946, remaining in the reserves.

After college, McMahon returned to active duty. He was sent to Korea in February 1953. He flew unarmed O-1E Bird Dogs on 85 tactical air control and artillery spotting missions. He remained in the Marine Corps Reserve, retiring with the rank of Colonel in 1966 and was then commissioned as a Brigadier General in the California Air National Guard.

First, that Obama is still planning on having the current tyrants of Iran

over for the 4th of July is effing disgusting.
The only thing I can think to say is, how dare you?

How dare the representatives of a country founded on freedom from tyranny and the principles of inalienable rights not give any thought — no thought whatsoever — to reexamining its invitation to theocratic sponsors of terrorism who violently deny their own people access to any say in how their lives are governed?

How dare the supposed leader of the free world not ponder, even for a moment, that perhaps treating thuggish dictators as legitimate state actors, on our nation’s birthday no less, might be sending the wrong signal?

How dare the supreme ambassadors of everything we hold dear as a country extend anything more than a single, firmly-flexed digit in the direction of a bully state that clearly has no business pretending to represent the interests of its citizens?

President Obama, how dare you slap your own countrymen in the face with such a rude and thoughtless gesture?

The second is, trying to claim 'credit' for the uprising while doing nothing to support it but a few words that are far too late and too little, is just another example of a dirtbag politician who'll deny responsibility for anything that's not just right, and claim credit for anything he thinks will put a shine on his record:
But privately Obama advisers are crediting his Cairo speech for inspiring the protesters, especially the young ones, who are now posing the most direct challenge to the republic’s Islamic authority in its 30-year history.

Reference my comment on one of the new dogs yesterday,

I have been corrected:

As to how the weather's been the last few days,

Speaking of 'Law Enforcement- Sorry Excuse For',

A father and son are furious after surviving a terrifying experience. They face criminal charges after police responded to their home by mistake.

Murfreesboro officers responded to a 911 emergency call and somehow ended up at the wrong apartment.

Roger and Justin Chilton woke to a pounding on their door at 3 a.m. Sunday. Justin - a decorated military policeman who had just returned from Iraq - answered the door holding his gun.

The officers then arrested Justin and his father.

"They held us at gunpoint, slammed us to the ground, stomped my hands and butted me in the back of the head with a shotgun," said Justin.

The officers charged the Chilton's with resisting arrest and aggravated assault for the incident.

Police did not drop the charges even after learning they responded to the wrong house.
Morons. Wrong place, wrong people, so you charge them. For, I guess, not arriving at the door on their knees to make it easy to knock them to the floor.
Murfreesboro police chief Glenn Chrisman has opened an internal investigation.
Well, isn't that nice? I wonder if it was another "They were following procedures" excuse-type investigation? I say 'was' because this is dated back in February.

Ok, searched and found this:
A police officer and an emergency dispatcher face suspension in Rutherford County after a bizarre mistake and claims of unprofessional conduct.

NewsChannel 5 reporter Nick Beres obtained police video and audio of the incident that all began with a prank 911 call.

The problem is police were dispatched to the wrong address. What happened next has become an embarrassment to the Murfreesboro Police Department.
Well, yeah.
Police arrested Roger Chilton and his son Justin. The arrest came after a frightened Justin, a military police officer who just returned from Iraq, answered the door with a gun.

"I thought someone was breaking into the house. Nobody identified themselves," said Roger.
Because, I guess, you're just supposed to KNOW it's a cop beating on the door.
"We had some issues with the language and the behavior of one of our officers on the scene that night," said police spokesperson Kyle Evans.

Evans said Officer Carl Watts faces suspension for his conduct.

Watts could be heard during an audio recording of the incident yelling at Justin's pregnant girlfriend to get on the floor.

"Roll over on your back," he told her. After she said she was pregnant, she said Watts had no sympathy.

An official complaint quotes the officer as saying, "I don't give a ----. You've already ----- up your life by being a pregnant teenager."

Remember, this all happened after police were sent to the wrong address - a bad dispatcher mistake made worse by Officer Watts' conduct.
So far, so good, right? Except
That's great for the future, but the Chilton's wonder about the past. Both still face criminal prosecution for answering the door and pointing a gun at an officer - some one they originally thought was an intruder.

The district attorney won't drop the resisting arrest and aggravated assault charges, even though police admit they went to the wrong home.

General Whitsell said that mistake alone does not clear the Chilton's of their conduct when the police arrived.
Whitsell should have his ass kicked out of that office. Someone beating on your door in the wee hours, NOT identifying themselves as a cop(I'm assuming that's accurate; since the whole thing was recorded, if he had, I'm sure they'd have trumpeted it) gets treated as an aggressive drunk or an attacker until proven otherwise.

I checked and couldn't find anything on whether or not the charges were finally dropped; hopefully so. But with idiots like Whitsell, I just don't know.

Found through Uncle.

Speaking of

The Senate made an apology for slavery the other day,

thus continuing the tradition of useless gestures that make various people feel good. Best of the Web Today had a post on it, including criticizing someone named Carol Swain who insisted that the Republicans should have initiated the apology because it "would have [helped] shed that racist scab on the party."

That crap was appropriately criticized,
The Republican Party came into existence in the 1850s as an antislavery party. It was the first GOP president, Abraham Lincoln, who signed the Emancipation Proclamation, ordering slaves in Confederate states freed. Republican Congresses proposed the 13th Amendment, along with the 14th (granting former slaves citizenship and equal protection under the law) and the 15th (giving them the right to vote). Republicans pushed for Reconstruction only to be thwarted by Democrats.

Segregationists remained a core component of the Democratic coalition well into the 20th century. No Democratic president before Harry S. Truman made any significant moves to expand civil rights for blacks; and although President Lyndon B. Johnson was instrumental in pushing the Civil Rights Act through Congress, a greater proportion of Republicans than Democrats supported it.
which lead to her to respond. Among the rest,
Despite a barrage of criticisms, I stand firmly behind my Washington Post comments. It is the Republican Party that has alienated minorities in recent decades by a series of high profile racist incidents. By not taking the leadership role in crafting a national apology when it was in power, the Republican Party missed an important opportunity to help heal America. It also missed an opportunity to reclaim its faded legacy as the party of civil rights and the party of Lincoln.
Uh huh. Let's see, primarily Democrats voted against the Voting Rights Bill, most of the KKK and such boobs were Democrats, it was the Democrat Party that held power in the south during Jim Crow... And it's the current Evil Party that's used minorities, primarily blacks, like counters on a board. I seem to remember some static a while back because a lot of blacks were realizing that, since latinos were becoming a big minority, the Evil Party was making large moves to court them and kind of dumping on blacks. Not like they hadn't for a long time, but it was being openly acknowledged, finally. But the Republican Party(generally known as the Stupid Party for other reasons) should have 'led the charge for an apology to make up for its racist past'.

About what you'd expect from a jackass academic. Anyone who spends this kind of time on an issue 'dear to my heart' that insists people who had nothing to do with it should apologize for something that happened a long time ago... I'm sure she thinks the race warlord poverty pimps like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton & Co. are just wonderful.

Past results of firearms registration

Joe Huffman had a link to this. I'm going to post a piece of it. It's by Neal Knox, a man who made an enormous pain in the ass of himself to those who don't like commoners owning guns:
In the summer of 1955, I was a young Texas National Guard sergeant on active duty at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. A corporal in my squad was a Belgian-American named Charles DeNaer. An old man as far as most of us were concerned, being well over thirty, Charley commanded a certain amount of our respect, for not only was he older than the rest of us, he had lived in Belgium when the Germans rolled across the low countries by-passing the Maginot Line on their way into France. He had seen war.

One soft Oklahoma afternoon, sitting on a bunk in the half-light of an old wooden barracks, he told me his story.

In Charley's little town in Belgium, there lived an old man, a gunsmith. The old man was friendly with the kids and welcomed them to his shop. He had once been an armorer to the king of Belgium, according to Charley. He told us of the wonderful guns the old man had crafted, using only hand tools. There were double shotguns and fine rifles with beautiful hardwood stocks and gorgeous engraving and inlay work. Charley liked the old man and enjoyed looking at the guns. He often did chores around the shop.

One day the gunsmith sent for Charley. Arriving at the shop, Charley found the old man carefully oiling and wrapping guns in oilcloth and paper. Charley asked what he was doing. The old smith gestured to a piece of paper on the workbench and said that an order had come to him to register all of his guns. He was to list every gun with a description on a piece of paper and then to send the paper to the government. The old man had no intention of complying with the registration law and had summoned Charley to help him bury the guns at a railroad crossing. Charley asked why he didn't simply comply with the order and keep the guns. The old man, with tears in his eyes, replied to the boy, "If I register them, they will be taken away. "

A year or two later, the blitzkrieg rolled across the Low Countries. One day not long after, the war arrived in Charley's town. A squad of German SS troops banged on the door of a house that Charley knew well. The family had twin sons about Charley's age. The twins were his best friends. The officer displayed a paper describing a Luger pistol, a relic of the Great War, and ordered the father to produce it. That old gun had been lost, stolen, or misplaced sometime after it had been registered, the father explained. He did not know where it was.

The officer told the father that he had exactly fifteen minutes to produce the weapon. The family turned their home upside down. No pistol. They returned to the SS officer empty-handed.

The officer gave an order and soldiers herded the family outside while other troops called the entire town out into the square. There on the town square the SS machine-gunned the entire family-father, mother, Charley's two friends, their older brother and a baby sister.

I will never forget the moment. We were sitting on the bunk on a Saturday afternoon and Charley was crying, huge tears rolling down his cheeks, making silver dollar size splotches on the dusty barracks floor. That was my conversion from a casual gun owner to one who was determined to prevent such a thing from ever happening in America.

And, because it speaks of people abusing power, the security theater of the TSA and ignoring of little things like the Constitution that far too many LE people go with, I'm also throwing in this from the Advice Goddess:
There are no restrictions on carrying large sums of cash on flights within the United States, but the TSA allegedly took Bierfeldt to a windowless room and, along with other law enforcement agencies, questioned him for almost half an hour about the money.

An excerpt:

Officer: Why do you have this money? That's the question, that's the major question.

Bierfeldt: Yes, sir, and I'm asking whether I'm legally required to answer that question.

Officer: Answer that question first, why do you have this money.

Bierfeldt: Am I legally required to answer that question?

Officer: So you refuse to answer that question?

Bierfeldt: No, sir, I am not refusing.

Officer: Well, you're not answering.

Bierfeldt: I'm simply asking my rights under the law.
...
"You're in a locked room with no windows. You've got TSA agent. You've got police officers with loaded guns. They're in your face. A few of them were swearing at me."

But the officers did not follow through on their threats. Near the end of the recording an additional officer enters the situation and realizes the origins of the money.

Officer: So these are campaign contributions for Ron Paul?

Bierfeldt: Yes, sir.

Officer: You're free to go.

... Bierfeldt contends he never refused to answer a question, he only sought to clarify his constitutional rights.
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"I asked them, 'Am I required by law to tell you what you're asking me? Am I required to tell you where I am working? Am I required to tell you how I got the cash? Nothing I've done is suspicious. I'm not breaking any laws. I just want to go to my flight. Please advise me as to my rights.' And they didn't."
We have, unfortunately, come to expect this kind of crap from TSA; that a bunch of other LE officers went along with this, apparently just because they could and wanted an answer(even though it was none of their damn business).

Apparently the Iranian government is studying the People's Republic of China

for ideas; the PRC murders dissidents and then charges the family for the cartridge, though I don't think they overcharge on this level:
On Saturday, amid the most violent clashes between security forces and protesters, Mr. Alipour was shot in the head as he stood at an intersection in downtown Tehran. He was returning from acting class and a week shy of becoming a groom, his family said.
...
At the crack of dawn, his father began searching at police stations, then hospitals and then the morgue.

Upon learning of his son's death, the elder Mr. Alipour was told the family had to pay an equivalent of $3,000 as a "bullet fee"—a fee for the bullet used by security forces—before taking the body back, relatives said.
And, just to make it even better,
Mr. Alipour told officials that his entire possessions wouldn't amount to $3,000, arguing they should waive the fee because he is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war. According to relatives, morgue officials finally agreed, but demanded that the family do no funeral or burial in Tehran. Kaveh Alipour's body was quietly transported to the city of Rasht, where there is family.

Quote of the day, which connects to more ACORN news

From Mikey in comments:
From little ACORNs, mighty hoax do grow.

And the update:
The White House is on a witch hunt against inspectors general who blow the whistle on waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars.

And now, taxpayer-subsidized ACORN affiliate Project Vote — where President Obama cut his teeth as a community organizer and learned Leftist intimidation tactics up close and personal — is going after whistleblower Anita MonCrief and an anonymous “John Doe” defendant for posting invaluable documents that reveal the money-shuffling racket.

Obama. ACORN. Project Vote. Corrupt birds of a feather bully together.

The scoop: Project Vote has filed a federal lawsuit against MonCrief for blogging about her experience and knowledge of the non-profit 501(c)(3) organization’s partisan and political activities, including coordination with the Obama campaign. Project Vote seeks compensatory damages and exemplary damages “of at least $5 million” and all costs and attorney’s fees on trumped-up charges of “trademark infringement” and publication of “trade secrets.”

You don’t have to be a lawyer to see that this is a blatant act of retaliation. MonCrief has always been open and honest about her firing from Project Vote. The ObamACORN mob used the credit card incident as a pretext then and they are using it as a pretext now. The real reason they are going after her is because she poses a fundamental threat to ACORN’s criminal racket.
Malkin has the whole complaint, as well as a post from MonCrief's blog.

The tale of Rafferty is happily ended,

with his now being in the new digs. And reportedly very happy about it. And the other day when I went by to get a Father's Day gift from daughter, I met Rhapsody
and this space-alien-looking thing named Xoco(pronounced Shoko, they said)
Yes, it really is as small as it looks. You'd swear that if it could lay them back right, in a really strong wind, it could fly.

"Where did THAT come from?" when I saw the first one was answered with "They needed us to take them!" So now Itzl has new friends. Which he's a little frazzled at. Who'd had their shots that day, and were dragging a bit. Dropped by today to drop something off, and they were running around playing and chasing one of the cats and generally having fun. My first thought was "You know, that little one runs and plays just like a real dog!", but I didn't say that(yes, sometimes I can keep my mouth shut).

ACORN wants to silence critics, and is changing its name

Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) leaders are using the threat of a law suit to silence and intimidate critics, according to current and former members of the liberal activist group.

In a letter dated June 11 an attorney for ACORN advised top whistleblowers that their unauthorized use of the organization’s name could make them liable for monetary damages and injunctive relief.

ACORN executives have also changed their organization’s name, which was tarnished by investigations in at least 14 states of allegations of voter registration fraud during the 2008 presidential campaign, and charges by current and former members of financial mismanagement and misrepresentation.
A rose by any other name still smells bad when it's been soaked in sewage. And Community Organizations International, formerly known as ACORN, is still going to be the same group. Vote fraud, Etc., Inc.

I'm going to have to call Sheriff Michael Jackson a disgrace

to that badge he wears.
The Prince George's County sheriff's office has concluded that deputies did nothing wrong when they charged into the home of the mayor of Berwyn Heights during a drug investigation last summer and fatally shot his family's two dogs.

The findings of the internal review "are consistent with what I've felt all along: My deputies did their job to the fullest extent of their abilities," Sheriff Michael Jackson said at a news conference.
Yup. And how much you want to bet, if one of those shots had killed or crippled one of the people in that house, Sheriff Jackson would be trying to blame them for it? And saying the same damn excuses?
"It's outrageous," he said. "Not only is he not admitting any wrongdoing, but he's saying this went down the way it was supposed to and he's actually commending his police officers for what they did."
Because breaking into a house for no good reason and killing dogs is apparently excusable as 'part of the job'.
Members of the SWAT team killed Calvo's black Labrador retrievers after deputies broke down his door and raided his home in search of a drug-filled package that had been addressed to Calvo's wife.

Law enforcement officials have since acknowledged that Calvo and his wife, Trinity Tomsic, were victims of a smuggling scheme that used a FedEx driver to ship drugs. They said the couple knew nothing about the box. County police, who were leading the drug investigation, have said they were unaware it was the mayor's house.
Two things: one, this is a raid that should never have happened. Two, that "We didn't know it was the mayor's house!" is interesting; like if it was, they'd have done it differently for a politician that for some stupid citizen without 'official' standing?
In an interview, Jackson reiterated his explanation that a scream by Calvo's mother-in-law, Georgia Porter, who saw officers in SWAT gear running toward the house, justified the shooting.

Porter "corroborated that she did scream out 'SWAT.' She admitted to that, and [Calvo] admitted to hearing that upstairs in the house," Jackson said. "That threw out the procedure of knocking and announcing, because now [officers were] compromised."
Three: notice how they keep saying 'admitted', like they were admitting guilt for something? Four, yeah, that sure justifies shooting the dogs, doesn't it? "...knocking and announcing..." my ass.

As I recall, at first they denied that the one dog was running away; now?
One dog was shot four times by the front door. Calvo has said his younger dog was running away from officers when it was shot twice, including once in a hind leg. Jackson said deputies thought the dog was running toward another deputy in the home.
Awww, isn't that a convenient excuse?
"I'm sorry for the loss of their family pets," Jackson said. "But this is the unfortunate result of the scourge of drugs in our community. Lost in this whole incident was the criminal element. . . . In the sense that we kept these drugs from reaching our streets, this operation was a success."
Not sorry apparently for an unnecessary raid that could have gotten innocent people killed, not sorry for scaring hell out of everybody but "this operation was a success." Except that they could have knocked on the damned door and acted like peace officers instead of strapping on their ninja gear and getting to shoot someone's dogs.

No, I'm not feeling charitable. I'm sick of LE officials excusing bullcrap actions because "They were following procedure" or "They thought the dogs were a threat" and all the other crap used to prevent the officers involved from facing any real penalty for what they do.

Must be nice to just 'reject criticism', especially when you're a nanny-state

politician who has to change his pants at the thought of "highly undesirable" handgun use.
The proposed legislation would ban new handgun licences, except for those used in Olympic sports.

Some 1,800 handguns have been licensed in the State since 2004.
Gasp! 1,800 in five years!! The HORROR!!!
Mr Ahern said he was determined to stamp out a practice known as “practical shooting”. His department had monitored with concern “competitions in which people shoot their way through multi-stage target courses based on real life combat scenarios, such as a home invasion or a hostage rescue”.

He said: “This activity is one that seeks to glorify and normalise attitudes to high-powered handguns and promote their use and ownership,” he said. Mr Ahern said “practical shooting” was a “highly undesirable” recent development in Irish shooting sports.
'Glorify and normalise', new scare words for the GFWs in (formerly)Great Britain. And 'highly undesirable' according to who, other than you, you nasty little politician?
The Garda authorities had recommended that it be prohibited, and it was not endorsed by the Firearms Consultative Panel, he said.
Lesson: give government boards and agencies 'approval' powers, and they'll restrict anything they don't like. Or makes them go weewee.
“It’s simply not in the public interest(or "For the CHILDREEENNNN!) to tolerate the development of a subculture predicated on a shooting activity which by the liberal standards of the US is regarded as an extreme shooting activity.”
It is? Really? Outside of the Brady Ban the Guns Group, that is? Of course, they think plinking a can with a .22 is 'extreme', so they're not exactly a good standard-giver, Mr. Ahern.
He said any cursory research on the internet showed that these activities were marketed as being at the “extreme end” of handgun ownership and were “anathema to the tradition of Irish sporting clubs”.
Again, marketed that way by who? I repeat, nasty little nanny-state politician.

And, just as bad, the people noting that Mr. Ahern is scaremongering and exaggerating have this to say:
“I just feel that there should be a mechanism for genuine sporting enthusiasts to have their licences . . . granted under the most stringent and strict conditions.”
Translation: "If we're willing to have your anal probes inserted and ONLY own what you allow and ONLY how much and what kind of ammo you allow and ONLY take it out of a lockbox when you allow, you should be willing to GRANT us a license."

And this crap is what Obama and Schumer and Boxer & Co. would like to force on us.


Thanks to Uncle for the link.

Damn, it's hot

About 98, and the weather service says humidity's down to about 37%. Makes a big difference; it's hot, but at least you don't poach while outside.

Yesterday I'd seen some tree limbs that had sneakily grown up to/around some lines while I wasn't looking, so today got the ladder and pruning pole and cut them, then through the chipper and into the compost heaps. Which I need to water more.

I think about this weather, or ten-to-twenty degrees hotter, with higher humidity, and wearing armor and all the other gear...

This does not strike me as good. It's basically telling the bad guys that if they have hostages, they're not going to be attacked. Which means time to prepare and make a later attack worse, or time to sneak away.

Here's a new bit from Iran. If true...
“My ears first perked up when word made it through the grapevines over the weekend that Rafsanjani had been meeting with other Ayatollahs and clerics in Qom, and had among them a representative of Iraq’s Ayatollah Ali Sistani.

Why? Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in 2007 made two very critical statements: that “I am a servant of all Iraqis, there is no difference between a Sunni, a Shiite or a Kurd or a Christian,” and that Islam can exist within a democracy without theological conflict. You will never hear such words slip past the lips of Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei. Ever.”
No, you won't. He's too busy threatening people with death for daring to do anything except bend over and say "Yes, Imam, may I have another?"

Ace notes The turning point in an uprising comes when many the regime relies upon begin fence-sitting, waiting for a victor to emerge. That is one thing; another is when people in positions of authority start deciding "I cannot carry out these orders." We may have both going on, from the sound of things.

Comment moderation has been enabled,

because the moron hiding behind Anonymous is getting annoying enough that I don't want to put up with him.

Hey, dumbass, maybe your grandfather really died as you say; but that doesn't buy you any slack to come into somebodys living room and crap on the floor. So screw you; putting up with your bullshit is something I don't have to do.

To those who use 'anonymous' simply because they don't have an ID or something, go ahead and comment; not something that bothers me. I'm using this to screen out the jackass. Or two, as the case may be.

Added: Anonyass dumped four comments in a few minutes, including some flat nasty insulting crap, just after I turned on moderation.

Dummy, I repeat: I don't mind being disagreed with; I do mind insults and bullcrap. You might note that I said I give John McCain the respect he damn well earned for his Navy service, but that doesn't buy him any slack for his political actions. If I'm not going to give him slack for that, why would I give you any for what you claim about a member of your family?

This doesn't look good for the people claiming socialized medicine

is successful in other countries; and they like to point to Canada.
For cancer patients, the study found that the median wait time for radiation therapy was almost seven weeks, exceeding the benchmark of four weeks.
...
Patients are also facing long delays when they go the emergency department, the WTA said, waiting an average of nine hours to be seen and treated and for patients who needed to be admitted, the average wait time was nearly 24 hours.
That is fairly bloody awful. When someone is diagnosed with cancer, time is critical in most cases; the longer it takes to get you started on therapy, the lower your chance of survival. And an average of nearly a full day to be admitted from the emergency room? Damn.

Like the man says, and people say OUR system is broken?

Confederate Yankee asks what if the Iranians are just trying

to put in a different face of the same tyranny? Good question.

I tend to think that, at least, what they're trying to bring about would ease some of the crap they've lived under, maybe pave the start to a more free society; but I've been wrong before.

Murdering girls in the street; this is the Iranian government

that President Obama just can't wait to 'negotiate' with.


It's not pretty; the actions of murdering dictators rarely are.

Jimmy Carter just can't stop helping islamist murderers

and dictators, can he?
Former President Jimmy Carter presented Hamas with a written initiative intended to open talks between the Islamist group and the U.S. without Hamas having to accept all conditions previously laid out for dialogue by the American government, top Hamas officials told WND.

Those conditions, expressed twice by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, are Hamas' renouncement of violence, recognition of Israel and agreement to abide by previous PLO commitments. The conditions were adopted by the Mideast Quartet, which consists of the U.S., United Nations, Russia and the European Union.
I tend to believe it, because it sounds just like the kind of crap Jimmy Carter would do.
Two top Hamas sources told WND Carter's initiative bypasses Clinton's conditions and instead asks Hamas to recognize the so-called two-state solution as well as the Arab Peace Initiative.

Al-Masri said Hamas was studying Carter's plan.

"In any response to Carter we will reject the conditions of the Quartet, specifically the recognition of Israel," al-Masri said. ...
Hey, it gives Carter a way in screw with Israel and suck up to terrorists(again), it gives Hamas a way to talk to The One without meeting the conditions 'officially' demanded of them, and it gives The One a way to screw with Israel. Again. Talk about a deal!

"In Border States, BATFE Asks: "May We See Your Guns?" "

NRA-ILA has recently received several calls from NRA members in border states who have been visited or called by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In some cases, agents have asked to enter these people's homes, and requested serial numbers of all firearms the members possess.

In each case, the agents were making inquiries based on the number of firearms these NRA members had recently bought, and in some cases the agents said they were asking because the members had bought types of guns that are frequently recovered in Mexico.
Read it all. And wonder, as the man says, just where the list came from?

Among the things the nuisance Anony said in a comment

were bitching about 'neocons' and how they 'want us to bomb Iran for Israel'; so apparently I've not only got a troll, he's a nasty little anti-Jew troll.

I also got a comment from someone else posting as Anony who informed me that I was getting paranoid and 'frantically searching all my old posts' for Anony comments to rave about. Apparently not being aware that
A: Blogger has this thing where they notify you of new comments, and
B: I haven't been 'frantic' about much of anything for a long time. Especially in regards to the blog.

Wonderful, isn't it?

So President Obama finally made a 'strong' statement

that's getting panned by damn near everybody as 'too little, too late'. Wonderful.
Anyway, Obama has a poker-tell that is visible from outer space. Whenever he opens a statement with: “Let me be perfectly clear...” you can be sure that he's about to launch into a black hole of a policy spin that is anything but clear. And in the process Obama will suck up all the oxygen in the room. Obama does not disappoint, his statement on Iran is one of those, on-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand rambles (the man is helpless without teleprompter) that ends up saying nothing except that America doesn't want to be a bad guy because we respect Iran and whatever Jew-hating regime they cram into office, yadda-yadda. Blowhard central.

In short, Obama, as with all major policy decisions, is a rank amateur, a former community organizer whose world view remains narrow, parochial and deeply ill informed.
Hey, maybe he's too busy being outraged that Israel won't bow down to The One!
Netanyahu's speech was an eloquent, rational and at times impassioned defense of Israel. For Israeli ears, after years of former prime minister Ehud Olmert's and former foreign minister Tzipi Livni's continuous assaults on Israeli rights, and their strident defenses of capitulation to the Palestinians and the Syrians, Netanyahu's address was a breath of fresh air. But it is hard to see how it could have possibly had any lasting impact on Obama or his advisers.

To be moved by rational argument, a person has to be open to rational discourse. And what we have witnessed over the past week with the Obama administration's reactions to both North Korea's nuclear brinksmanship and Iran's sham elections is that its foreign policy is not informed by rationality but by the president's morally relative, post-modern ideology. In this anti-intellectual and anti-rational climate, Netanyahu's speech has little chance of making a lasting impact on the White House.

And, just because I like it,
Eyes darting about nervously because the Obama worship in this country has reached Stalin-like proportions and I really don't feel like getting into a smack down with some deranged Obamamaniac.

Karen goes: “This is still America and I'm free to speak to mind.”

I point to the electronic flight board and then gesture to the waiting passengers: “Um, Karen, this flight is to San Francisco. Most of these people are not too normal as it is, y'know.”

Speaking of 'what might happen',

what do you think happens to Hamas- and all the other murdering clowns of the type- if there's a real change in Iran? A lot of money and equipment just might go away, for one thing; for another:

Palestinian Hamas members are helping the Iranian authorities crush street protests in support of reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, two protesters told The Jerusalem Post On Tuesday.

They made their allegations as rioting on a scale unseen in Iran for nearly a decade continued in the wake of the elections and the allegations that the results were falsified. The protests have now spread from Teheran to other major cities.

Snip.

“The most important thing that I believe people outside of Iran should be aware of," the young man went on, "is the participation of Palestinian forces in these riots."

Another protester, who spoke as he carried a kitchen knife in one hand and a stone in the other, also cited the presence of Hamas in Teheran.

On Monday, he said, "my brother had his ribs beaten in by those Palestinian animals. Taking our people's money is not enough, they are thirsty for our blood too."

It was ironic, this man said, that the victorious Ahmadinejad "tells us to pray for the young Palestinians, suffering at the hands of Israel." His hope, he added, was that Israel would "come to its senses" and ruthlessly deal with the Palestinians.”

Complete story at The Jerusalem Post.

Things blow up bigtime, just how much 'restraint' are the Iranians going to show to these thugs in their country? And don't you know lots of Hamas and other murdering terrorist dirtbags are crapping bricks at the thought of their Iranian support stopping?

One of the things happening in Iran

reminded me of something. One of the standard claims of the gun-banners is "The idea that a bunch of people with guns can stand against the government if it decides to crush them is rediculous. The government has tanks and fighter planes and atomic bombs!", etc. Well, except for what they take from the police and other security forces(Residents of the area described firefights after protesters grabbed weapons from security forces.), they don't have guns; they're making do(Young men were breaking bricks and stones to a size for hurling.)

Chris and others have pointed out the problem government forces face when standing against lots and lots of honest citizens with a legitimate gripe: it's kind of difficult to use artillery and bombers on your own damn cities. Same for a full-out infantry/armor assault; if you succeed, you've destroyed a big part of your own city, killed a bunch of people and, for every bunch who're cowed into obedience, you've created some others who will live for nothing but your downfall.

And that leaves out a very important factor: will your troops and police fire on their own people?
The Iranian police commander, in green uniform, walked up Komak Hospital Alley with arms raised and his small unit at his side. “I swear to God,” he shouted at the protesters facing him, “I have children, I have a wife, I don’t want to beat people. Please go home.”

A man at my side threw a rock at him. The commander, unflinching, continued to plead. There were chants of “Join us! Join us!” The unit retreated toward Revolution Street, where vast crowds eddied back and forth confronted by baton-wielding Basij militia and black-clad riot police officers on motorbikes.
...
Garbage burned. Crowds bayed. Smoke from tear gas swirled. Hurled bricks sent phalanxes of police, some with automatic rifles, into retreat to the accompaniment of cheers.
It's one thing to face an outside invader or troublemaker; it's a whole 'nother thing to have orders to beat or kill people in your own hometown. Especially when, you can bet, a lot of the police aren't real fond of what's happened themselves. If the army is sent in, they'll likely do what the Chinese did at Tiananmen Square: bring in units composed of people from other parts of the country, some of whom probably see that protesters as a bunch of troublemakers who need to be stomped. Some will; what about the others?

What about the troops who think of themselves as Iranians(or Persians, not real sure of the mindset on that)? Who want their country to advance? Who might not be real fond of "We must destroy the Jews!" leaders when there are problems to fix at home? Who think nuclear reactors to generate power is a great idea, but don't see a real need for nuclear bombs? Who don't want to kill other Iranians? There's got to be a lot of concern about what happens if they tell the army to squash all dissent, and a bunch of units say "I don't think so." Especially when there are a lot of women in the front lines. I know the official position on women, but that's one thing; lots of police and troops are going to have a hard time killing and crippling women like their mothers and sisters and daughters(who just might be in a line somewhere).

Same thing here, with a big difference: arms. Iranians are breaking up rocks and bricks to throw, the Chinese at Tiananmen were unarmed; we've got guns. If it ever came to that it'd be bloody and nasty beyond belief, which is one reason I doubt it will. We've got real problems, but to all the things troubling the police and army in Iran add "You want us to go into town and arrest anybody who disagrees with you and kill anybody who resists? Do you have any freaking idea what will happen? You want to take units from Michigan and send them to Oklahoma to do it? What makes you think Americans from Michigan will be ok with killing Okies? Or Texans?"
Some would; and some of them would be whacked by other troops("You killed them because they called that fuckin' politician a crook?" Bang.) The oath all troops take is very specific: not to any individual or agency, but to the Constitution. And they get serious lectures about things like illegal orders. Some will simply accept orders and act, but the others?

I'm kind of wandering here, I know. Main point is this: a bunch of mostly unarmed people, with rocks to throw at most, have just about brought Iran to a standstill; if some politicians tried something similar here, do you not think Americans, many armed, couldn't do as well?

Unpleasant subject. That a lot of politicians damned well better consider.