So this is the 'elite' SWAT team that murdered Jose Guerena

First, Mr. Guerena’s weapon, contrary to initial accounts by the SWAT team, was never taken off of safety. The team took no shots from him. Second, the team mills around for a while before breaching the home. Third, they don’t form into a stack. Fourth, absurdly, they knock and allow only four seconds for a response. Fifth, one of the members falls in the doorway. Sixth, upon shots being fired (by the SWAT team), more than one team member begins backing away from the incident. Seventh, one of the team members who initially backed away moves forward to fire shots over the heads of other team members who are in the home (it’s a wonder that SWAT team members didn’t get shot by their own team). All the while, several team members are standing aimlessly outside the home, doing nothing. Then to top it all off, even though medical responders arrived within minutes, they weren’t allowed into the home for one hour and fourteen minutes.

The Sheriff may as well have sent the Keystone Cops to raid the home. These clowns shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near weapons.
Further commentary at Captain's Journal; be sure to read Update #2.

Due to circumstances within my control

I'm busy; go play with yours- ah, go do something else for a day or two. I may or may not post anything

The question is, did Obama know what Biden was going to say?

Or did Biden just have another episode?
“We have a leader with a backbone like a ramrod and now – now – the real Barack Obama, the president who inherited the most god-awful circumstance any president has inherited, is coming into sharp focus.”
Yes, he really did say this. Among other things. I'm just going to point you to Correia; he's dealt with this very well.

I think Sen. Grassley is a mite peeved

at the Justice Department:
A Grassley aide told FoxNews.com on Wednesday that three Justice nominees recently sent to the floor could be the first to get caught up in the dispute.

They are Donald Verrilli, nominee for solicitor general; Virginia Seitz, nominee to head the Office of Legal Counsel; and Lisa Monaco, nominee to head the National Security Division.

"Those would be possibilities," Grassley spokeswoman Beth Levine said, adding that her boss could put a hold on virtually anybody in line for a job at Justice over his concerns. The three nominees she named just happened to be voted recently out of committee.

"He's reserving the right to hold up nominees," Levine said.

'Chap Hop'?

New to me, too

You see, it's not a conflict of interest if

A: "Everybody knew about it", and
B: you're a Democrat named Frank.
U.S. Rep. Barney Frank admitted he helped his ex-lover land a lucrative post with Fannie Mae in the early 1990s while the Newton Democrat was on a committee that regulated the lending giant — but he called questions of a potential ethical conflict “nonsense.”

“If it is (a conflict of interest), then much of Washington is involved (in conflicts),” Frank told the Herald last night. “It is a common thing in Washington for members of Congress to have spouses work for the federal government. There is no rule against it at all.”
Frank, it may be a surprise to you but claiming 'everybody does it' doesn't make it any less crooked.

In an interview Tuesday on WBUR’s “Fresh Air,” Morgensen said Frank “was very aggressive and really tough on those who were testifying in Congress about reining in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac” during hearings after Moses was hired. She said Fannie Mae “rolled out the red carpet” for Moses as part of a strategy to curry favor with Frank and other members of the Financial Services Committee.

Morgensen also noted that members of the committee raked in tens of thousands in campaign donations from Fannie and Freddie execs, including Frank, who received $42,000 in contributions from 1989 through 2008.
Morgensen being a NYEffin'Times reporter, I doubt he can call her a right-wing homophobe, but I'm sure he'll come up with something.

You want to see a scary map?

that shows why so many people are upset about ninja-suited cops kicking in doors?
Map with all the details here.

Every time I hear something about the murder of Jose Guereña

I get more pissed. Especially when another lie from the SWAT team is pointed out. Like
Dupnik’s SWAT team initially claimed that Guereña fired at them while they were serving a warrant — as he slept. They claimed that his bullets hit the bulletproof shield that the entry team hid behind, and that the barrage of bullets they fired back was in self-defense.
What I heard earlier was they claimed they saw muzzle flash; now I find out they told this lie?

Worse and worse:
Call records from Drexel Heights Fire rescue say an ambulance was on the way at 9:43am. It arrived just two minutes later. But the ambulance crew was told to wait outside.

Law enforcement usually holds back medical crews to be sure they're not walking into danger.

The Drexel Heights crew waited until 10:59, then heard Code 900. The radio call that means they were no longer needed. The man was dead.

They had waited an hour and fourteen minutes.
God damn. Right now, the only think I can think of is the SWAT team wanted him dead; maybe because it's kind of hard for a corpse to testify against them?
And even more worse:
Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona is a Pima Sheriffs deputy. He helped develop medical training for Pima SWAT deputies that's become a national model.

Dr. Carmona can't comment on this specific case but says all Pima SWAT officers have military style first aid training and SWAT teams have unarmed, trained paramedics or EMTs who would be available to help anyone at the scene.
Has anyone heard ONE WORD where the SWAT team says they gave first-aid to this man? If so, please point me to it; otherwise I have to see it as this sorry bunch of 'lawmen' deliberately letting Guereña die.

Here's another case of either "I don't know the law"

or "I don't care about the law":
...Kemp refused to let them in, saying (correctly) that they needed a warrant. Together Lawyer and Firko kicked in the door, and Lawyer shot Kemp in the chest at close range. Later he claimed that "Kemp lifted and extended his arm upward as if he was pointing a gun at him," but no weapon was found anywhere near his body.
Over a POSSIBLE public drunk or DUI.

Hey, Indiana SC: does 'Your family can sue the officers who illegally entered your home and killed you' count as plenty of opportunities to protest the illegal entry through the court system ?

Oleg Volk pointed to a site

with some nice shirts. And some hats.


Added: speaking of shirts,

Lessons learned

On my part, anyway.
Specifically, 'get out of the way' prep in the event of, oh, some of those twirly windstorms that are dancing* around today and tonight.

I keep a 'get home' pack in the truck, and it also has the emergency stuff(first-aid kit, axe, rope, etc.); but watching the weather situation deteriorate and thinking about if needed to saddle up and go, some things came to mind: the Security Staff.
I knew where the leashes were, but it took a bit to find their collars(if I leave them on when they're in the yard, they pull them off each other and eat them. Literally.) And, just to be on the safe side, added a couple of bottles of water.

Food? Need to either have a large jug I can fill up, or a small bag to leave sealed(in the case of having to bug out on other matters I plan on taking the container with ALL their food).

Couple of other things came to mind, jtbotss, and I got them either loaded or ready to load. Having the lead time we did, I'd have been able to throw the last few in, grab the dogs and go. I'm making a list to do some thinking on. In the case of weather like this I'll either be able to come back later that day or- worst case- find new accomodations while rebuilding; I need a better prepared 'go' plan for the 'can come back later' situations.


*with spike-soled boots

Right now they're saying 7 dead at this point

from the stuff that went through earlier. The big one(so far) started out west and went a bit north of OKC; they're saying the damage track is about a half-mile wide in areas.

Ten years ago, probably would have been worse; twenty, I don't like to think about. The knowledge and equipment has improved so much that people generally get a lot of warning, time to get out or into shelter. Some of the weather weenies around here can be annoying as hell, but when things are actually happening/about to, they're generally pretty good.

Some video here,

Newton County Sheriff, Don Hartman Sr.: you're a disgrace *updated*

to the badge you wear and the oath you swore.
When asked three separate times due to the astounding callousness as it relates to trampling the inherent natural rights of Americans, he emphatically indicated that he would use random house to house checks, adding he felt people will welcome random searches if it means capturing a criminal.
Fuck you, Sheriff Hartman; you swore to uphold and protect the Constitution and now you piss on it. You should be thrown out of that office immediately.

*Update: Hartman is now saying "That's not what I said"; wonder if the reporter has audio/video of the interview? It'll be about the only way to sort this out.

This is interesting

One long-track twister that travelled something close to 100 miles(I think; subject to change when further info received, or I can find the damned map)*; one now going through south OKC/north Moore, one north Norman, and one south of Norman. At least that's the last I can untangle, it's downright nasty in places out there.


*Update: about 70-75 miles by current report(05/26)

I used to have a neighbor originally from New York

who was scared bleepless of the very idea of a tornado; if she were still here she'd be heading east fast. Or asking me to drive. Big tornado about 15 miles west of OKC moving mostly east.

"Where the wind come sweeping down the plain", all right, it's just generally easier to deal with when it's not rotating when it does.

Yeah, there go the sirens

This makes the actions by Tucson SWAT team look even worse

if that's really possible.
As reported by the Arizona Star, Storie insisted that if the Guerena family had permitted the armed intruders into their home, those inside “probably … wouldn’t have been arrested." This is because the "warrant was not directed at any particular person, and Guerena’s home was not mentioned, but it was targeting whoever might be inside the residence...."
What the HELL. And who the hell was the idiot judge who signed off on this? Or, just to cover it, what if the judge wasn't told exactly what was on the papers and he- being rushed- signed it; just what would he think of this?

This article brings up a good point: these people are claiming the deceased had 'part of a police uniform' in his possession: considering what all military gear the police are using, that could mean he had a BDU shirt or pants: "Oooooh, instant Police Uniform and Evidence of Wrongdoing, , so we were right to shoot him!"

I used to wonder about this from Cooper:
I have been criticized by referring to our federal masked men as "ninja,"
when in the view of the critic the traditional role of the ninja in Japan was to fight against oppression and tyranny. Let us note that almost no one ever resorts to force and violence unless he is convinced that his cause is right, but without going into that let us reflect upon the fact that a man who covers his face shows reason to be ashamed of what he is doing. A man who takes it upon himself to shed blood while concealing his identity is a revolting perversion of the warrior ethic.

It has long been my conviction that a masked man with a gun is a target. I see no reason to change that view.
I don't have much argument with it anymore. I can see someone who's been working undercover- and will again- who HAS, for some reason, to take part in a raid, wearing a mask, but everyone else? All the damned time? I'm rather tired of people who insist on hiding their faces while supposedly enforcing the law.

Some more over at Reason

He can catch fish, kid,

you're not gonna lose him:


Found at Weerd

Looks like OHP is trying out a new bike

Saw a Highway Patrolman out earlier on a bike I didn't recognize and stopped to talk. They're trying out the BMW 1200RT. Said that they're two weeks into a 8-week trial and he's finished: he wants one.

From what he said, especially on highway it beats the pants off the Harleys they've been using.

Needs some more work,

but it's coming along
Trim & pin the axles, pieces over the trunnions to hold them in place during the fierce recoil, maybe stain the carriage.

Since Obama's making such a big deal

of his Irish roots and talking like he's trying to get into the IRA, do we stop referring to him as the first African-American President?

Remind me not to go to Philadelphia: I don't like places

where the cops say "We don't care what the law is, here's what we'll do."

I'm sure they have the best of intentions, but

when a weather weenie says something is happening in the 'metro area', it ought to be in/very near the city, NOT twenty or thirty miles away and going some other direction.

Just because I like the Vorkosigan novels:

"You can ID Akabane for me. I wouldn't want to stun the wrong fellow, after all."

"You're pretty free with that thing."

"It's all right. I have a license to stun."

"I thought that was supposed to be a license to kill."

Roic grimaced. "That, too. But you would not believe all the forms that have to be filled out, afterward."

Haven't heard any details, but looks like this

was a straightforward ambush: he was carrying the receipts to the bank and instead of demanding the money they simply shot him in the head and took it.

Not much of a chance to 'give them what they want'.

The crying woman told a 911 operator she “shot him as much as I could”

and moments later police found her would-be attacker dead in the back yard of her Gwinnett County home.

As a friend would say about a bug on a windshield, "He won't do that again."

Something people like Peterson and Everitt will never understand

...Roic went through his instructions once more, prudently kneeling behind Mina and keeping a hand hovering to help steady her- she had to hold the thing up in both fists- and the drill was repeated.

Roic stood up, reset the code, and holstered the weapon. "Better?" he asked Jin.

"Yah," said Jin, in some wonder. "It's like a tool. It's just a tool."

"That's right."

from Cryoburn

I think Ben Stein blew it

in this article. Just to argue the points,
1. It seems it's been very well-known in France and the circles he travels in that Kahn is at the least extremely aggressive, at most a flat rapist; he's been protected from facing consequences because of his Socialist Party status, his class and his job.

2. Are you freakin' serious?

3. A: That's what the investigation is for, to find those things out. B: maybe, being here in the US, she knew that if she went to the police she wouldn't be dismissed?

4. As to flight risk, see 'France and Roman Polanski'. Also see 'Ira Einhorn'; given past French activities, yes, he should be considered a flight risk.

5. "Gee, he's a upper-class bigshot, shouldn't he get special considerations in jail? " NO, he shouldn't.

6. You don't think the NYEffin'PD actually investigated? Didn't check records, etc., before arresting him? Once more, are you effing kidding? If you think the investigators weren't aware of the noise that would be stirred up over this...

7. Legally he is innocent until proven guilty. No argument.

8. The price of the room(and other things) doesn't have a thing to do with the accused crime; that's interesting because you've got a rich socialist(should be a contradiction in terms) living high on OPM and screwing around with other peoples' lives.

As to the 'embarrassment', stuff it; he's been- by the legal authorities- treated pretty much like any other accused.

Yes, I'm going to harp some more on the French

Whatever the head of the IMF did or didn't do, the reaction of the French elites is most instructive. "We and the Americans do not belong to the same civilization," sniffed Jean Daniel, editor of Le Nouvel Observateur, insisting that the police should have known that Strauss-Kahn was "not like other men" and wondering why "this chambermaid was regarded as worthy and beyond any suspicion." Bernard-Henri Lévy, the open-shirted, hairy-chested Gallic intellectual who talked Sarkozy into talking Obama into launching the Libyan war, is furious at the lèse-majesté of this impertinent serving girl and the jackanapes of America's "absurd" justice system, not to mention this ghastly "American judge who, by delivering him to the crowd of photo hounds, pretended to take him for a subject of justice like any other."
Well, Froggy Daniel, the idea here is that people accused of crimes SHOULD be treated the same, whether rich or poor; doesn't always work out that way, but damned if we should make exceptions for sexual deviant socialists from France. And Lévy? He wasn't 'delivered to the crowd', he was taken from the court; just like any other suspect. Deal with it.

Notice how much of the upset by these clowns is because a mere maid is actually being taken seriously when she complains of being attacked? Interesting attitude from a bunch of socialist assholes, isn't it?

As is, we've got our own bunch of corrupt officials to worry about:
After Charlie Rangel, chair of the House committee that writes America's tax laws, was "censured" by Congress for multiple infractions of, er, America's tax laws, a Washington Times reporter invited him to imagine what punishment the "average American citizen" would have received had he done what the Congressman did. "Please," Rangel told her. "I don't deal in average American citizens."

Sheriff Dupnik need to be fired

And forbidden from ever wearing a badge again, if this report is correct. If for nothing else, for this:
A report by ABC News affiliate KGUN found that more than an hour had passed before the SWAT team let the paramedics work on Guerena. By then he was dead.
Isn't that just friggin' wonderful?


In a statement, the sheriff's office criticized the media, saying that while questions will inevitably be raised, "It is unacceptable and irresponsible to couch those questions with implications of secrecy and a coverup, not to mention questioning the legality of actions that could not have been taken without the approval of an impartial judge."
Let's see, the judge looks over what YOU give him and signs a search warrant; does that free you from responsibility for apparently effing up and murdering a man?

I shall now point you to Tam:
Assuming, for one moment, that this isn't a big fat stinking lie of a coverup, sheriff Dupnik, I want you to see if you can wrap your tiny mind around a simple piece of fact:

If your people weren't dressing up like masked thugs and kicking doors down and shooting people, then robbers wouldn't be able to impersonate your people by dressing up like masked thugs and kicking doors down and shooting people, in turn necessitating your people dressing up like masked thugs and kicking their doors down and shooting them.
...
The only people skulking in my bushes and forcing my locks in the middle of the night should be soon-to-be-shot bad guys, not cops with Clouseau-like map-reading skills; I shouldn't need a scorecard to tell the masked players apart.