First car...

This got started, and a bunch of folks have chimed in; here's mine:
The first car that was actually mine was a '76 Ford Courier pickup. If you're not familiar with them, they were one of the first mini-trucks and looked like this
Mine was red. Four-speed manual, no a/c, good mileage, 1800cc engine(more on that in a bit). No amenities whatever unless you paid for options, and being nineteen... the only option I paid for was a heavy steel safety bumper in back, and it saved the rear end three times over the years.

I drove that thing from new off the lot to 1990. I carried everything from people to topsoil and gravel to trees to whatever else you can think of in it. Over those years I discovered that
The rustproofing on the body panels sucked; that became evident when my foot went through the floorboard about 1987.
They put two different engines in it that year, 1800 and 2000cc; guess which one they made fewer of?
The good thing was you could get to just about anything on it without needing ramps or a jack. Which was really good the time I had to replace the clutch slave cylinder while lying on the patch of driveway I'd cleared of snow.
The last repair I did on it was the little electronic box for the windshield wipers. Ford had NO parts for it, and I finally found one wrecked Courier in a salvage yard that still had that little piece in it. People drove the things until they either fell apart or were wrecked to badly that repair was hopeless, which made parts even worse to find; the big reason I moved on in 1990(with compounding personal factors). It badly needed a carb rebuild by that time, too. Part of the trouble was simply
Wife
Kids
No money left after bills
Maintenance I couldn't do myself didn't get done unless it wouldn't run; and it just kept running(with problems, sure, but it kept running). Yeah, it deserved better.

Let's see, total, in my life I've owned five four-wheel vehicles total and five motorcycles; until I thought about it didn't realize there'd been that many bikes.

Still busy, but when a White House aide gets a subpoena over Gunwalker,

that needs noticing:
Last week, CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson revealed that an Obama administration spokesman screamed and cursed at her in an attempt to get her to back off of the Operation Fast and Furious scandal. Roll Call’s Jonathan Strong reports this morning that Schultz just found a subpoena on his doorstep along with Eric Holder and host of other figures, but Schultz’ position in the White House itself makes him unique:

House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) made headlines this week byissuing a subpoena for documents from Attorney General Eric Holderabout a botched weapons investigation, but Holder is apparently not Issa’s only target.

A little-noticed provision of the subpoena targets the White House, specifically naming Eric Schultz, a communications aide who was hired in May to respond to media inquiries on oversight matters. …

The subpoena also requires Holder to produce “all communications between and among Department of Justice (DOJ) employees and Executive Office of the President employees, including but not limited to Associate Communications Director Eric Schultz, referring or relating to Operation Fast and Furious or any other firearms trafficking cases.”

And don't forget the clowns in DC were also helping frikkin' grenades and parts get to Mexico:
CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson, who has reported on this story from the beginning, said on “The Early Show” that the investigation into the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)’s so-called “Fast and Furious” operation branches out to a case involving grenades. Sources tell her a suspect was left to traffic and manufacture them for Mexican drug cartels.

Police say Jean Baptiste Kingery, a U.S. citizen, was a veritable grenade machine. He’s accused of smuggling parts for as many as 2,000 grenades into Mexico for killer drug cartels — sometimes under the direct watch of U.S. law enforcement.

Law enforcement sources say Kingery could have been prosecuted in the U.S. twice for violating export control laws, but that, each time, prosecutors in Arizona refused to make a case.

And last, for now, turns out Holder's "I only found out recently" denial has even more problems:
“CNN's John King discovers an interview with President Barack Obama that directly refutes Attorney General Eric Holder's testimony before congress,” the caption for a video posted on BreitbartTV claims.

The reason for this claim is because Obama spoke about “Fast and Furious” in March. Holder declared in May that he had only heard about the gunwalking program “for the first time over the last few weeks.”

“I'm ashamed I didn't pick up on this before,” Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars admits. “Sheesh, it was hiding in plain sight.”

Vanderboegh is not the only one who missed the obvious. Even more embarrassing, Gun Rights Examiner reported “Holder revelations contradict Obama’s ‘Gunwalker’ assertions” on October 4, referencing the same video King “discovered,” but failed to notice and note the date of the president’s interview.

Busy, so only a few things right now

Like Westlake Hardware with a Zombie center?
(found at Uncles')


From Weer'd, an opinion on Romney:
I lived in Massachusetts under Romney, as well as Deval Patrick who is more-or-less a Barack Obama clone. The difference between the two logistically is that Deval Patrick has been too incompetent in 5 years as Governor to manage to pass any relevant laws to hurt me….Mitt Romney on the other hand managed to raise taxes, pass Romneycare, and outlaw “Assault Weapons” indefinitely.

Let’s put it this way, do you think the Leftists think things are any better for themselves now with Barack Obama in the white house, vs. George Bush?

Obama is just a Brown George Bush, and Romney is a Mormon Obama.

Authoritarians suck no matter what party they belong to, and I’m concerned that Romney might actually ACCOMPLISH something…and if you ever find yourself nodding your head to this blog, whatever Romney manages to do, you’re likely going to hate just as much as you hated the Bush shit, and the Obama shit.


More hypocrisy from the CSGV clowns.


How useless are the TSA molesters and the 'Terrorist Watch List' clowns? Read #5


And that's it. More later. Maybe much later.

Considering how little the FBI probably wanted to catch the guy

you have to wonder if she'd be more endangered from them...
Yes, that's a nasty statement; if you're not familiar with this mess, here's a book that covers it; you'll understand why I wrote it. I think it was Chris at Anarchangel who wrote that the Feebs were probably hoping he'd quietly die somewhere so they'd never have to have all this stirred up again.
You know, just on general principles you'd think a media outlet would be damned careful about letting a name like this slip out; they KNOW it could get someone killed.



Some thoughts over here on the possibly Iranian-backed attack plan. He's wondering if this is being misrepresented as an Iranian government plan when actually more of a freelance operation. And he doubts it's a puffed-up thing to try and distract from Gunwalker;
No, it wouldn’t dare since such behavior would eventually be easily exposed and backfire big-time. And besides, if it were going to do such a thing it would invent a free-lance terror plot, not drag the United States into a potential confrontation with Iran, a country that it’s been trying to avoid confrontation with.
You'd think so; considering the reaction to Gunwalker being opened up bit by bit has been to lie over and over and plant faked-up stories about Issa with friendly media people, I admit to wondering if 'wouldn't dare' is in any way accurate about these people.
Might This Blow Up in the Obama’s Administration’s Face?

Absolutely yes. If they were fooled by a fabricator, if revealing the case too soon (to stave off criticism of Attorney General Holder over the gun-smuggling case) damaged the chance of success in uncovering the terrorist network, or if the government’s response is not equal to the crisis they’ve developed, then the Obama administration will look worse.
No kidding.


Speaking of Gunwalker, I'm going to borrow a big piece- well, most of it- from Sipsey here:
Sources familiar with the congressional investigation into the Gunwalker Plot say that investigators are homing in on early conversations -- and meetings -- between ATF Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix Field Division William Newell and his self-described "long-time friend," Kevin O'Reilly, a State Department employee then on the National Security Council. This is reflected, say the sources, in the subpoena issued this week by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee seeking, among other things, "All communications to or from William Newell, former Special agent in Charge for ATF's Phoenix Field Division, between . . . March 16, 2009 to March 19, 2009."

The sources also say that Newell met personally with O'Reilly during this early period in the Obama administration and they believe that Newell may have "weaponized" the desire for more better statistics on the part of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others to support the "90 Percent" meme -- that 90% of weapons seized in Mexico from the drug cartels actually came from American civilian market sources.

Newell, who the sources say was familiar with the tactic of "gun walking" from the previous failed Operation Wide Receiver in Tuscon where Newell had participated in it, probably provided the germ of the idea that "walked" weapons could be used to "boost the statistics" of weapons found at crime scenes in Mexico, in the words of an early whiistleblower in this case.

If this is true, it places Kevin O'Reilly, a State Department employee responsible to Hillary Clinton, as the critical potential witness in the early history of the Gunwalker Scandal. Sources also say that there is a "not unfounded" fear that O'Reilly, who was suddenly transferred to Iraq "to keep him from being interviewed by the committee" according to one, "will not survive the deployment.
Well, Iraq's not a D.C. park, but it'd do, I suppose.
Snarky? Sure; but I do wonder how well O'Reilly's sleeping lately.

"Why am I not enthusiastic about the OWS clowns?"

Because far too many of them are like this:
Occupy L.A. Speaker: “One of the speakers said the solution is nonviolent movement. No, my friend. I’ll give you two examples: French Revolution, and Indian so-called Revolution.

Gandhi, Gandhi today is, with respect to all of you, Gandhi today is a tumor that the ruling class is using constantly to mislead us. French Revolution made fundamental transformation. But it was bloody.

India, the result of Gandhi, is 600 million people living in maximum poverty.

So, ultimately, the bourgeosie won’t go without violent means. Revolution! Yes, revolution that is led by the working class.

Long live revolution! Long live socialism!”

Crowd: [Cheers.]

The only thing this kind of crap gives me enthusiasm for is a large stock of ammo. Because if they're PLANNING to come after me...

Issa says there's proof that DEA was more involved

than may have been previously thought. AND there's more evidence of the State Department, which means Hillary Clinton, being more involved.

This is going to get hugely messy; I think there's going to be some things come out that even Tingles Matthews can't gloss over.

Termination report

Fuzzy-tail birdfeeder raider: assuming ambient temperature.

Security Staff(Sr.) completed said operation.

Thatisall

Now we see two things:

A: how desperate Holder is to not go under oath again,
CBS News has learned a Congressional subpoena directed to Attorney General Eric Holder could go out as early as Tuesday, ordering him to appear before lawmakers and testify about when he was aware of a controversial gun smuggling operation known as Fast and Furious.
and, if he ignores/refuses it, B: if the Stupid Party people actually have the balls to act.

They'd better.

Ah, Halloween prep

Issa responds to Holder's letter

And basically says "You're either incompetent or a liar, and we're going to prove which it is." Two of the good bits:
To that end, just last month, you claimed that Fast and Furious did not reach the upper levels of the Justice Department. Documents discovered through the course of the investigation, however, have proved each and every one of these claims advanced by the Department to be untrue. It appears your latest defense has reached a new low. Incredibly, in your letter from Friday you now claim that you were unaware of Fast and Furious because your staff failed to inform you of information contained in memos that were specifically addressed to you. At best, this indicates negligence and incompetence in your duties as Attorney General. At worst, it places your credibility into serious doubt.

And

Following this briefing, it is clear that Grindler did one of two things. Either, he alerted you to the name and operational details of Fast and Furious, in which case your May 3, 2011 testimony in front of Congress was false; or, he failed to inform you of the name and the operational details of Fast and Furious, in which case Grindler engaged in gross dereliction of his duties as Acting Deputy Attorney General. It is fair to infer from the fact that Grindler remains as your Chief of Staff that he did not engage in gross dereliction of his duties and told you about the program as far back as March of 2010.

This is about as blunt as it gets in Sodom on the Potomac to saying "You and your associates are lying bastards, and we know it. And we can prove it."

Something makes me think that Holder's next under-oath appearance before the committee is likely to be interesting.

Now THAT is a

water hazard.


Know what struck me about Rep. Lewis being treated this way?
A: He threw away his integrity when, after shoving Obamacare down our throats, he lied about the tea party people calling him names and spitting on him , and
B: This is who you allied yourself with, Lewis; how do you like them?


So they see a market for toys to teach the kids
"Just stand still and be molested, they do have uniforms!"
Go check out the comments.


"What's wrong in this picture" ? Hell, you can make a list!
For that matter, from the story, "Rifle butts pointing through the street railings, gunmen shot in the direction of the sniper fire.” Well, yeah, you can point with the butt...


The officer is an incompetent; and the department should also be held liable for the idiocy of having the Taser carried this way.


Teddy Roosevelt's 1902 Colt

I'll add one thing to my Gunwalker post yesterday:

From Holder's letter:
While failing to interdict weapons is an unacceptable tactic to stop the flow of illegal weapons, it seems clear that some in Congress are more interested in using this regrettable incident to score political points than in addressing the underlying problem.
'Regrettable incident'. Two US cops- that we know of- dead, God only knows how many Mexicans total- so far- and Holder calls Fast & Furious a 'regrettable incident'.

Think about the mindset of someone who defends this horrendous mess with those words. And then uses it to claim "If you'd give us more laws and restrictions WE wouldn't have done what we did!" to try to shift blame.

Mr. Holder, the big 'underlying problem' is that bastards like you thought ALLOWING guns to be bought illegally and then smuggled into Mexico- sometimes with your help, you corrupt sack of crap- was a good thing because you could use it for political capital to try to push your political views on the country. You've got two choices: come clean and resign, or have all this dragged out a bit at a time. Either way you may well face charges, so it would be nice if you showed the integrity to own up to what you did.

But that would require integrity and honor, so I doubt you'll do it.

Ah, it appears AG Holder is feeling the heat

and griping about it in the "How dare you accuse me of having a hand in this? Stop looking at the blood under my nails" kind of way.
Much has been made in the past few days about my congressional testimony earlier this year regarding Fast and Furious. My testimony was truthful and accurate and I have been consistent on this point throughout. I have no recollection of knowing about Fast and Furious or of hearing its name prior to the public controversy about it.
Ok, think like a lawyer: how many ways can you spot, in that last sentence, that you can say "This is a way of getting around that lie, and this is..." ?(link to the full letter)

From the look of it he realizes they've got some kind of documentation- BESIDES what's already been revealed- showing he was informed about it, and he figures he has to lie even bigger to try and cover up as much as possible.
Also, like Ace, I consider this to be important for a couple of reasons:
As I have said, the fact that even a single gun was not interdicted in this operation and found a way to Mexico is unacceptable. Equally unacceptable however, is the fact that too many in Congress are opposed to any discussion of fixing loopholes in the laws that facilitate the staggering flow of guns each year across our border to the South.
The only 'loopholes' in this mess was A: the coverup and B: that it was the bloody DoJ and ATF that were helping these clowns evade the laws AND smuggle the things into Mexico. Yeah, he and his die-hard(or too tied to him to cut him adrift) defenders will try to claim something like "You in Congress wouldn't give use the laws we wanted so we HAD to do this!" or "Things are so bad we had to do SOMETHING, and it turned out to be a bit flawed, so it's not our fault! You forced us to do it!" when they simply cannot claim anymore- with any kind of straight face, anyway- "We didn't know".
Ok, speaking of 'more proof', looked around at Sipsey and found this:
Documents recently turned over by the Justice Department to Congressional investigators indicate that then-Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler received a detailed briefing on Fast and Furious more than a year and a half ago.

"Deputy Attorney General" is the Justice Department's No. 2 figure, directly under Attorney General Eric Holder.

Grindler moved from Deputy Attorney General to a spot as Holder's chief of staff last January.(here's the link to CBS)
So, supposedly Holder's #2 knew all about this and never mentioned it to Holder? At all?


Sipsey also notes that Issa stated Holder is going to get another subpoena.


And, to close, something guaranteed to offend and piss off a LOT of the left:

Mr. Vanderbough suggests passing this around as much as possible; not a bad idea.


And, stolen from Towhhall.com, Top Ten Signs Holder is Lying:
10. His greyhound dog is named “Fast” and his Chihuahua is named “Furious.”

9. His voice cracks like Justin Bieber’s whenever he discusses the topic.

8. When he’s constipated, Fast & Furious is his go-to laxative.

7. Every Halloween he dresses like Paul Walker.

6. His right eye violently twitches every time Darrell Issa walks into the room or his name gets mentioned.

5. Roger Clemens tweeted, “Holder’s good. Real good …”

4. His nose grew 19 inches when he claimed no prior knowledge.

3. When he said he didn’t know about F&F his pants burst into flames. It’s true.

2. He keeps trying to change the subject to Solyndra.

1. King Samir Shabazz just stated on his blog, “Of course he knew, you stupid white cracker b*tches!”