While waiting for the next snowfall,

predicted to arrive Tuesday night, I got all the pruned branches stacked out front for the big trash pickup; I know it won't be on time(Wednesday), but they'll do a makeup day a few days later, so got them out now.

Ok, looking around, Rep. Waxman(Socialist Jackass-CA) doesn't like the idea of oversight when it means looking at Obamacare:
"I am a strong supporter of congressional oversight, and I respect and support the Committee's right to seek information about the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. But I do not believe your oversight powers justify going on fishing expeditions or making extensive requests for internal e-mails and other communications where there is no evidence of waste, fraud, or abuse of any kind."
Response:
...As Upton noted in his response, the latest figures from HHS indicate that more than 700 such waivers have been issued. "Thus, HHS has apparently granted more than three times as many waivers as you cite in your letter," Upton said. "This fact alone underscores the dire need for oversight of the health care law, its effects, and its implementation by this Administration."


If this pans out, it'll be wonderful:
Scientists at Oxford University have successfully tested a universal flu vaccine that could work against all known strains of the illness, taking a significant step in the fight against a disease that affects billions of people each year.

The treatment – using a new technique and tested for the first time on humans infected with flu – targets a different part of the flu virus to traditional vaccines, meaning it does not need expensive reformulation every year to match the most prevalent virus that is circulating the world.
Of course, the idiots will be screaming because fewer people will be dying.


Want to have an idea why education in this state has been so effed up? The state Board of Education:
Among other things, the board voted to divert $18 million from the teachers’ retirement system last summer, violating an executive order from then-Governor Brad Henry. The board did not reverse course until former Democratic Attorney General Drew Edmondson issued a formal opinion declaring the fund shift illegal; violated guidelines over the use of federal stimulus funds and, after redirecting the funds for purposes authorized by the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, failed to provide correct reporting guidelines to schools using the money; and failed to approve a budget work program that complies with former Henry’s executive order 2010-26, issued last June.
Please note that crap like that first item, in the past, is a big part of how the teacher's retirement system got so badly screwed up, too.


In the investigation by Trentadue into the death of his brother after the April 19 OKC bombing, all kinds of things keep turning up:
The federal government attempted in 2005 to reach a deal with bomber Terry Nichols to take the death penalty off the table in his Oklahoma murder trial if he admitted to making a warning phone call to the FBI the day before the 1995 bombing, according to new documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.
...
They also corroborate Nichols' claims that the government tried to get him to admit to making an April 18, 1995 phone call to the FBI warning of the bombing. Nichols claimed he knew nothing of the call.
"What that indicates to me, there is a record somewhere of that phone call and the FBI needs to explain it," said Trentadue in an interview with KTOK News. "If the call was from one of their informants with McVeigh, clearly, they had knowledge of the bombing and didn't stop it."
I doubt we'll ever find out everything about this mess; too many people in Federal agencies have too much tied up in keeping things out of the public view. And some of it appears to be evidence of incompetence:
The explosives were discovered in 2005 in the crawl space of the Herington, Kansas home where Nichols had lived. The discovery came 10 years after Nichols' arrest and following a search of his home by federal agents in 1995. The explosives were not destroyed until 2008 by the FBI.


Well, isn't this just wonderful?
At the heart of the concern is intelligence indicating that Egypt has quietly carried out research and development on weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear, chemical, biological and missile technology.

The research and development has continued virtually without pause over the past three decades, according to interviews with U.S. officials and a review of intelligence and other government documents by NBC News.
And with the administration making kissy-faces with the Muslim Brotherhood, this is just extra-special wonderful.


Well, well, well, remember Holthouse? Guy who said he'd gotten a gun and silencer and planned a murder? Guess what else he's done?
Experienced readers of Sipsey Street will recall that I have dealt with the subject of this serial libeler before here: "Meet David Holthouse, premier paid liar at the Southern Preposterous Lie Center."

That article mentioned that Holthouse and SPLC were being sued for libel by historian Guenter Lewy.

Well, lo and behold, SPLC and Holthouse apologized to Lewy and paid him some money to go away.
Such a wonderful source for information...


Back to federal- well, do you call it incompetence? Idiocy? Self-service dirtbags acting without care for the harm they do as long as it makes them look good? And(they hope) gives them more money to play with?
Well the word from Phoenix is that the SAIC Newell wanted to be able to track where these guns were going in Mexico. As such, the analysts have made pretty charts with lines showing where these guns have turned up. I am not sure how that stems the flow of guns South, especially considering these guns usually get recovered alongside dead bodies.

Fox News about a year ago did a good report to disprove the myth that most of the crime guns recovered in Mexico came from the US. This report was based upon evidence they obtained in part from ATF trace reports. However, with the recent flooding of guns being “walked” to Mexico by ATF (intended to be future crime guns) there is statistical evidence to demonstrate an escalated flow of guns going South from the US. The solution…….(Part I) take “data” to Congress to get more money, Agents and stuff to battle the flow of guns to Mexico….but actually spend it “wherever” .

Further, at the conclusion of this post:
“Rio Rico 2”. What happened in Rio Rico where 2 firearms were recovered?

________________________

Mike Vanderboegh answers: The murder of Brian Terry. Note that the origins of the scandal begin at least back in 2009. Note also the Justice Department approval of wiretaps. Do you recall what Senator Grassley wrote in his first letter of 27 January to Acting Director Melson about if the ATF had prior contact with straw purchasers that it would raise a number of serious questions? The fact is that coupled with the decision (by Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer) to get rid of Attache Gil and keep the Mexicans in the dark, this is where the cover-up began. It explains why the FBI has been mum on the murder investigation. They CAN'T give us details without the whole sordid tale coming out.

And the latest from Codrea on this mess.


On a more local level, the Camden PD is apparently run by fascist clowns who don't care about that pesky oath involving the Constitution:
In the federal lawsuit filed last week, Davila claims officers are required to approach random residents and ask for personal information and, in some cases, take photographs of the individual or even run a warrant check without probable cause.

Officers are required to document the encounters and are then evaluated on how many reports they take during a shift, the lawsuit alleges.

Believing the practice to be a violation of citizens' rights, Davila objected to the initiative in a March 2009 roll call after Deputy Chief Michael Lynch allegedly stated "no resident of the City of Camden should be able to come out of their home and not expect to be engaged by a Camden Police Officer," the lawsuit claims.
One of the things that pops to mind: did the PD run these randomly-stopped people through the Interstate Identification Index as well as a general warrant search? If so, they violated both NCIC police and federal privacy law as well as the other violations you can think of in crap like this.


Yeek!
Over the past 10 years, city cops fired 4,702 bullets, accidentally pulled the trigger 323 times, and missed 78 percent of their intended targets, according to data The Post culled from a decade's worth of NYPD annual firearm-discharge reports.
Which connects right back to Tam's post:
NYPD's Emergency Services Unit (which, among other functions, serves as their SWAT team) has managed to rack up three NDs in the past three months, including a rooftop sniper sending one flying while pulling security at a Madison Square Garden event and a cop on a raid in the Bronx shooting the suspect's father in the stomach.
Sounds like they need a training upgrade in NYC. Badly.


Let's see, a corporation is made up of stockholders, runs businesses where people are employed and thus get a paycheck, and now Obama says “Corporate Profits “Have To Be Shared By American Workers”? Uh, no, they don't, you socialist clown; they have to pay their employees the wages and benefits that have been agreed upon, nothing more.


NC Gun Blog looks at the problems with 'safe storage' laws.


And finally, when the Justice Department can't even deal with bogus domestic violence information, why should we expect them to deal well with anything else?