Well, that was interesting

Just had an earthquake. USGS just said 5.2

Except for lasting longer, felt a lot like when the redlegs at Fort Sill fired an 8" gun.

This take the 'light rifle' idea

to a whole new level

Mikey Moore: Lying Hypocrite Extraordinaire

But you knew that already. Of course, it's good to keep pointing it out, lest someone forget

Yeah, that's a good question: just what is the FOP

getting for kissing Holder's ass?

Hey, cops out there: considering all the LE personnel, in Mexico and here, dead due to a project that Holder is involved in up to his eyebrows, what do you think of the FOP selling itself to him and Obama?

A response to White House Spokesweasel Lanny Davis

Mr. Davis claimed that there are four “facts” that Republicans making “personal attacks” on Attorney General Holder should know: (1) gunwalking at ATF began “under the George W. Bush administration,” (2) the Attorney General meant only to deny knowing about the “faulty tactics,” (3) the Attorney General can’t be expected to read all of his memos, and (4) law enforcement needs bi-partisan support rather than “political cheap shots.”



Perhaps his search for a distraction is understandable. The facts are so clear that there isn’t much the Department and its defenders can say, other than to lash out and blame the messengers. The fact is that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) encouraged gun dealers to sell assault rifles to known straw purchasers illegally buying on behalf of others.

The fact is that the Justice Department oversaw the operation as ATF literally watched bad guys collect hundreds of guns—week after week—for nearly a year.
And that's just part of it.

Well, yeah, I've had days that felt like that

Sto- borrowed from here

I never heard them called that before

Learn something every day

Never tried a leafblower, but I know what happens when you drop a couple of ferrets into the box

So Breuer is apparently fine with being thrown off the sled

to try to protect Holder; I wonder if that'll continue if felony charges come calling?

I wonder how much the unions pay for Pelosi?

She's really trying to earn it, however much it is.
“Do you think it’s right that Boeing has to close down that plant in South Carolina because it’s non union?” asked host Maria Bartiromo. Pelosi’s reply: “Yes.”

The minority leader quickly added that she would rather it simply unionize and stay open. But barring unionization, by Pelosi’s reasoning, it should simply shut down.
"If you're not in a union, screw you, you should lose your job."

"I always wondered how Dad got

that stationary..."

Something else Congress is spending time on

to suck up money and votes:
As drafted, the legislation would grant the government and private parties unprecedented power to interfere with the Internet's domain name system (DNS). The government would be able to force ISPs and search engines to redirect or dump users' attempts to reach certain websites' URLs. In response, third parties will woo average users to alternative servers that offer access to the entire Internet (not just the newly censored U.S. version), which will create new computer security vulnerabilities as the reliability and universality of the DNS evaporates.

It gets worse: Under SOPA's provisions, service providers (including hosting services) would be under new pressure to monitor and police their users’ activities. While PROTECT-IP targeted sites “dedicated to infringing activities,” SOPA targets websites that simply don’t do enough to track and police infringement (and it is not at all clear what would be enough). And it creates new powers to shut down folks who provide tools to help users get access to the Internet the rest of the world sees (not just the “U.S. authorized version”).

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) has placed a hold on the Senate version of the bill, taking a principled stand against a very dangerous bill. But every Senator and Representative should be opposing the PROTECT IP Act and SOPA. Contact your members of Congress today to speak out!

On Gunwalker today,

I think I'll start with this:
Gowdy’s questioning of Napolitano began with a not-so-surprising inquiry. After recalling that Napolitano had been both a state and federal prosecutor (prior to being Arizona governor and taking the appointment as DHS secretary), he simply asked:

“Did you ever approve or sanction investigations that allowed gunwalking?”

After a noticeable pause of several seconds, her response was:

“No, not to my knowledge.”

The exchange went downhill from there. Napolitano answered some questions about procedures as a federal prosecutor with candor, but then insisted that she would not “second-guess” about Fast and Furious because it is currently under investigation. However, she did have this observation:

“What I would say is obviously there were problems with Fast and Furious.”—DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano

Gee, ya think maybe? Was it all the dead bodies that clued you in, or the "You will testify under oath" part?


Sen. Feinstein is trying to run interference for BATFEIEIO and FBI and Obama and every other jerk involved in this, for all she's worth. The whole article covers a lot, here's part of Feinstein's work:
FEINSTEIN: Do you believe that if there were some form of registration when you purchase these firearms that that would make a difference?

BREUER: I do, Senator. Senator, we’re talking today about trans-national organized crime and your leadership and the chairman’s…show that information is the tool we need to challenge and defeat organized crime.

Today, Senator, we are not even permitted to have ATF receive reports about multiple sales of long guns. Of any kind of semi-automatic weapon or the like, so the ATF is unable to get that. Very few hunters in the United States or sports people and law abiding people really need to have semiautomatic weapons or long guns, so today by going to a dealership and I want to buy 50 or 60 semiautomatic weapons there’s nothing that requires that to be in any way notified to ATF. Without that kind of a notification we lose track and can lose track of these kinds of potent weapons…

FEINSTEIN: My concern…is that there has been a lot said about Fast and Furious, and perhaps mistakes were made but I think this hunt for blame doesn’t really speak about the problem, and the problem is anybody can walk in and buy anything, .50 caliber weapons, sniper weapons, buy them in large amounts, and send them down to Mexico. So the question really comes ‘What do we do about this?’

I’ve been here for 18 years and I’ve watched the ATF get beaten up at every turn of the road and candidly, it’s just not right. I mean, we have more guns in this country than we have people and somebody’s got to come to the realization that when these guns go to the wrong places, scores of deaths result, and that’s exactly the case with the cartels.
So, ATF and the other agencies MAKE dealers illegally sell to straw buyers and then pretty much HELP the bad guys smuggle the stuff to Mexico, and making honest people in the US register their guns it would make it all better... I know she's not actually that stupid(I hope), which means she's that corrupt, that she hates armed citizens so much that she'll use lies and dead bodies to try to get rid of our right to arms.
I'm going to post a looong except from the Sipsey Street post on this for those who can't go over there, and I'm going to bold something about Feinstein:

"Very few hunters in the United States or sports people and law-abiding people really need to have semiautomatic weapons or long guns." -- Lanny Breuer, 1 November 2011, testimony before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism Holds Hearing on Combating International Organized Crime.

Testimony from today's hearing. What Grassley is trying to do here is get Breuer on the record under oath, knowing that he's committing perjury. That's why the back and forth is so "collegial." What is more revealing is the enthusiastic swapping of spit over more gun control between Feinstein and Breuer. (Here's Dave Workman's take.)

"See, my concern, Mr. Chairman, is there has been a lot said about Fast and Furious, and perhaps mistakes were made. But I think this hunt for blame doesn't really speak about the problem. And the problem is anybody can walk in and buy anything, .50 caliber weapons, sniper weapons, buy them in large amounts."

There is one thing that is always fascinating to me about Feinstein. She can't mention gun control without mentioning fifty caliber rifles. I mean she is a monomaniac on the subject. It is obvious that the thought of a projectile which can be fired from a mile away that can penetrate her limousine's armor in some nominal green zone "safe envelope" is the stuff of her nightmares.(Me: I do have to wonder if that's why she's so phobic on the subject? Or is it general "Peasants should not be allowed to own such things!"?)

And you know what? If she keeps on soliciting civil war with her firearm registration and confiscation schemes, she's right to fear them.

In the meantime, however, here is Senator Grassley, setting up Darth Breuer for his future perjury charge.

GRASSLEY: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Breuer, yesterday, you made a public statement saying that ATF and the U.S. Attorney's Office officials, quote, unquote, repeatedly assured officials in the criminal division and the leadership of the Department of Justice the allegations about walking guns in Fast and Furious were not true. Please be more specific. Who exactly at ATF said that the gun walking allegations were untrue? And who exactly at the U.S. Attorney's Office said the allegations were untrue?

BREUER: Senator Grassley, as I said yesterday, of course, it was my office that ultimately prosecuted the Wide Receiver case. And I want to be very clear to you, senator, that when I learned of this in April of 2010, and -- I learned about it and we decided to prosecute this case from 2006 and 2007. I regret that, at that point, that I -- knowing then -- knowing now what -- knowing now -- I wish that at that time that I had said clearly to the deputy attorney general and the attorney general that in this case Wide Receiver, we had determined that in 2006 and 2007, guns had walked. I did not do that. And I regret not doing that.

GRASSLEY: Thank you for that statement. Not who told you at ATF and the Attorney General's Office that these allegations were untrue?

BREUER: Well, Mr. Senator, at the time, as I recall, my -- we first spoke to the -- to the ATF back in April of 2010. My front office did. And based on what I understood, we had an understanding from the ATF that this practice of 2006 and 2007, that the ATF understood the seriousness of that.

GRASSLEY: What is that individual's name?

BREUER: Well, there's clearly, as far as I know, Senator Grassley, at the time, Mr. Hoover, who was the deputy, was one of the people who would have been involved in that discussion. Of course, I wasn't there for it. So I can only tell you my understanding.

GRASSLEY: That's all I want, is your understanding of it.

BREUER: That's my understanding, senator. Then, of course, senator, in early this year, when this matter came to life and the ATF agents made the claims that they did, I recall that both the leadership of ATF and the leadership of the United States Attorney's Offices in Arizona, those, of course, who were closest and were handling the matter, were adamant about the fact that this was not, in fact, a condoned practice. I'm sure you recall that as well.

GRASSLEY: The word leadership applies then to the people that were head of the U.S. Attorney's Office and the head of ATF? Even though you didn't give me their names, that's who you're talking about, right?

BREUER: That's exactly right, as I recall.

GRASSLEY: Let me go on then.

BREUER: Yes, senator.

GRASSLEY: On February 4th, 2011, the department sent me a letter also assuring me that allegations of gun walking were untrue. It reads, quote, "ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally, and prevent their transportation to Mexico," end of quote. That statement is absolutely false. And you admitted as much last night, that you knew by April, 2010, that ATF walked guns in Operation Wide Receiver. That is that correct, yes?

BREUER: Yes, senator. What I...

GRASSLEY: That's all I need to know, if that's correct. Did you review that letter before it was sent to me?

BREUER: Senator, again, I just want to be clear that, as I told you a moment ago, I regret that in April of 2010 that I did not draw the connection between Wide Receiver and Fast and Furious. Moreover, I regret that -- that even in earlier this year that I didn't draw that connection. In direct answer to your question, senator, I can say -- I cannot say for sure whether I saw a draft of the letter that as sent to you. What I can tell you, Senator, is at that time, I was in Mexico dealing with a very real issues that we are all so committed to. But I also regret, as I've said, that I didn't draw that connection earlier.

GRASSLEY: After learning of gun walking in Wide Receiver, did you ever inform the Attorney General Holder or deputy attorney general about it? And if so, when? And if not, why not?

BREUER: Senator, I can't be more clear. I've said to you, and I will continue to, I regret the fact that in April of 2010, I did not. At the time, I thought that we -- dealing with the leadership of ATF was sufficient and reasonable. And frankly, given the amount of work I do, at the time, I thought that that was the appropriate way of dealing with it. But I cannot be more clear that knowing now -- if I had known then what I know now, I, of course, would have told the deputy and the attorney general.

GRASSLEY: Did you ever tell anybody else in the Justice Department leadership the same thing? And if so, who and when?

BREUER: Senator, I thought we had dealt with it by talking to the ATF leadership.

GRASSLEY: OK. How many guns were walked in Wide Receiver?

BREUER: Senator, I can probably try to look at that. Of course, that was in 2006 and 2007. Just to be clear, if I may, senator, that was a case that had been abandoned and languished. It was my division that decided to take a case where guns had been permitted to go to Mexico years earlier, and at least make sure that the criminals who were responsible for purchasing those guns were held to account. As a result of that, senator, we prosecuted 11 different people. I think to answer your question, in total, probably about -- if my math is good, probably about 350 or so. But, senator, I will have to double check that number.

GRASSLEY: I think you are very close. So you don't have to check that number. According to my information, just five straw buyers -- I will refer to the chart here and then I'll quit and let you go on to another member. And I'll do some more on a second round. According to my information, just five of the straw buyers in Fast and Furious were allowed to buy nearly 1,000 weapons. When did you first know that guns were walked in Fast and Furious?

BREUER: Senator, I found out first when the public disclosure was made by the ATF agents early this year. When they started making those public statements, of course, at that point, as you know, both the leadership of ATF and the leadership of the U.S. Attorney's Offices adamantly said that those allegations were wrong. But as those allegations became clear, that is when I first learned that guns that could -- that ATF had both the ability to interdict and the legal authority to interdict, that they failed to do so. That is when I first learned that, senator.

GRASSLEY: Thank you, Mr. Breuer.

BREUER: Thank you, sir.

GRASSLEY: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

WHITEHOUSE: I will next call on Senator Feinstein, who not only brings to this concern her distinguished service on this committee, but her service as chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Senator Feinstein?

FEINSTEIN: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate that. Mr. Breuer, in June of this year, I received a letter from the ATF. This was in response to a letter I had asked them from Acting Director Melson, stating that 29,284 firearms recovered in Mexico in '09 and 2010, and submitted to the ATF tracing center. With those weapons, 20,504, or 70 percent, were United States sourced. A country of origin for the remaining firearms apparently could not be determined by ATF, meaning that the number could be much higher. What info -- what actually is the number? Now this was back in June. Is that the most current number? Is it fair to some that 70 percent of the firearms showing up in Mexico are from the United States?

BREUER: Thank you, Senator, for the question, and for your leadership on this issue. You have, of course, identified the paramount issue that we have to face as we deal with transnational organized crime from the Mexican cartels. From my understanding, 94,000 weapons have been recovered in the last five years in Mexico. Those are just the ones recovered, not the ones that are in Mexico. Of the 94,000 weapons that have been recovered in Mexico, 64,000 of those are traced to the United States. We have to do something to prevent criminals from getting those guns, Senator. That is my understanding of the most accurate numbers.

FEINSTEIN: Well, you see, this is a deep concern for me. And I know others disagree, but we have very lax laws when it comes to guns. I think this, to some extent, influences the ATF in how they approach the problem, as to whether they have political support or not. But I think these numbers are shocking. And I think when you know the number of deaths these guns have caused, used by cartels against victims, it's in -- literally up in the tens of thousands. So the question comes, what can we do? And I'd really rather concentrate on the constructive rather than other things. And so the question comes, do you believe that if there were some form of registration when you purchase these firearms that that would make a difference?

BREUER: I do, Senator. Senator, we're talking today about transnational organized crime, and your leadership and the chairman's and other senators shows that information -- information is the tool we need to challenge and defeat organized crime. Today, Senator, we are not even permitted to have ATF receive reports about multiple sales of long guns, of any kind of semiautomatic weapon or the like. So the ATF is unable to get that. Very few hunters in the United States or sports people and law-abiding people really need to have semiautomatic weapons or long guns. So today if I go into a dealership today and I want to buy 50 or 60 semiautomatic weapons, there is nothing that requires that to be in any way notified to ATF. Without that kind of a notification, we lose track and can lose track of these kinds of potent weapons. And that's just one example of the kind of tool that I think would empower ATF and law enforcement to help fight this scourge.

FEINSTEIN: See, my concern, Mr. Chairman, is there has been a lot said about Fast and Furious, and perhaps mistakes were made. But I think this hunt for blame doesn't really speak about the problem. And the problem is anybody can walk in and buy anything, .50 caliber weapons, a sniper weapons, buy them in large amounts, and send them down to Mexico. So the question really comes, what do we do about this? I've been here 18 years. I've watched the BATF get beaten up at every turn of the road. And, candidly, it's just not right. I mean, we have more guns in this country than we have people. And somebody has got to come to the realization that when these guns go to the wrong places scores of deaths result, and that's exactly the case with the cartels. So you are saying today that -- if I understand this -- over five years in recovered weapons, there were 94,000; 64,000 of those came from the United States.

BREUER: That's right.

FEINSTEIN: So clearly over two-thirds of the weapons used in Mexico by cartels are coming from the United States.

BREUER: That's correct, Senator. And just to make a point of that, in Wide Receiver, which was a matter where the guns were permitted to go to Mexico during the prior administration in years 2006 and 2007, when my team discovered that, we decided we had to prosecute that case because even though years and years earlier the guns had gone to Mexico, we had to hold the people who bought those guns responsible. And so we prosecuted those people, as Senator Grassley pointed out. But it is clear that we need more tools to get those people who are buying the guns and illegally transporting them to Mexico. We cannot permit the guns to go knowingly and we cannot permit the guns to go unknowingly. We need to stop the flow.

FEINSTEIN: Last question. What would be the number one tool that would be of help to you?

BREUER: Well, I think that the number one tool would be if ATF were given the ability to know when guns are purchased. And, frankly, as -- I don't know if it's the number one, but one of the -- one of the issues we're asking for in connection with the legislation we're talking about today is the ability to forfeit the weapons and the inventories of gun dealers who knowingly sell their guns to criminals. If we could -- if we could forfeit the guns of the dealers who we can prove knowingly are selling to criminals -- we don't want to do anything to people who are selling to law-abiding citizens but we have to stop these dealers from selling to criminals.

FEINSTEIN: Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. . .

WHITEHOUSE: Yes, first of all, Senator Feinstein, thank you very much for stepping in as chair for me. As I think the witnesses are aware, we are now in a voting sequence in the Senate, and so Senator Grassley and I have made the mad dash back and forth to vote in order to be here for a second round. I have to say he was quite something to keep up with. Senator Grassley?

GRASSLEY: Thank you. Mr. Breuer, I think this will be my last round of questioning. Were you aware at the time that Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler was briefed on Operation Fast and Furious in March of 2010?

BREUER: Senator, I don't believe that I was briefed on Operation Fast and Furious. And senator, I do not believe that I was aware of that briefing.

GRASSLEY: OK. In December, 2009, Director Melson asked you to assign a prosecutor to the case from headquarters. And in March, 2010, a prosecutor from the Gang Unit was assigned to Fast and Furious. Why did the number two official in the Justice Department get a briefing around the same time headquarters assigned a prosecutor to Fast and Furious?

BREUER: Senator, I can't answer that. What I can say to you is from the very beginning of my tenure as the assistant attorney general, I became very committed to doing everything we could to fighting the drug cartels and to doing what we can to stop the -- what they are doing. It was in that vein that I offered to southwest borders whatever help we in the criminal division could bring. That is how the very issues you are raising came about. But I cannot tell you anything about the briefing because I simply did not participate in it.

GRASSLEY: OK. You -- you said that when you first learned about gun walking in Wide Receiver, you instructed one of your deputies to schedule a meeting with the ATF acting director to, quote, "bring these issues to their attention," end of quote. When you first learned about gun walking in Fast and Furious, did you do the same thing? If not, why not?

BREUER: I did not, senator. That is what I regret.

GRASSLEY: OK. Was the deputy who you assigned to meet with ATF, Jason Weinstein, also responsible for authorizing any of the applications to the court for wiretaps in Fast and Furious?

BREUER: Senator, the answer is he and other deputies in my office, including the longest serving deputy in the United States' history, who has served for almost 60 years, did. If I may, senator, for a moment, I would like to explain what that role, is if you would permit me. The Congress made clear in law that wiretaps on telephones are an extraordinarily intrusive technique. They're a technique that I support fully, and that I think are essential in fighting organized crime and transnational organized crime. And they're why, senator, in my 2.5 years, I have over tripled the number of reviewers who do it. But as Congress made clear, the role of the reviewers and the role of the deputy in reviewing Title Three applications is only one. It is to insure that there is legal sufficiency to make an application to go up on a wire, and legal sufficiency to petition a federal judge somewhere in the United States that we believe it is a credible request. But we cannot -- those now 22 lawyers that I have who review this in Washington -- and it used to only be seven -- can not and should not replace their judgment, nor can they, with the thousands of prosecutors and agents all over the country. Theirs is a legal analysis; is there a sufficient basis to make this request. We must and have to rely on the prosecutors and their supervisors and the agents and their supervisors all over the country to determine that the tactics that are used are appropriate.

GRASSLEY: Thank you for that explanation. You said in your statement last night that you, quote," did not draw a connection," unquote, between gun walking in Wide Receiver and gun walking in Fast and Furious. You also said that you regret your failure to, quote, "alert others within the department leadership," end of quote, of similarities. What finally made the light bulb go on for you in the -- that the two cases had similar problems?

BREUER: Senator, thank you for that question. I mean, I hope you know, senator, that I have tried and my division has tried as comprehensibly as we can to deal with the plight of Mexico. I am proud to say, senator, that it is my division that is prosecuting the thugs and criminals who killed the three U.S. consulate officials in Juarez. It's my division that is responsible for the investigation right now of the murderers of ICE Agent Zapata and the shooting of Avila. And it is my division, working with law enforcement, that has brought 104 Mexican criminals, cartel leaders and the like, including Benjamin Arellano Felix, to justice this year into the United States. So every day, whether it is an organized crime or white-collar crime or cyber crime, we are working. There is absolutely no question, senator, that as I was involved in this exercise, and as all of this has come to light, that I, in thinking about it, realized that I should have back in April of 2010 drawn that connection. I have expressed that regret first personally to the attorney general of the United States. And then I determined that I should do it publicly as well.

GRASSLEY: I have just three short questions, Mr. Chairman. When did you finally alert others within the department leadership about the similarities that I just described? And who did you alert?

BREUER: Senator, I can't anymore recall, because, of course, by the time that the connection is drawn with me...

GRASSLEY: That's OK. How did you -- how did you first hear about Fast and Furious?

BREUER: Well, I first heard about the tactics, about guns being permitted to go to Mexico when ATF had both the legal authority to interdict them and the ability to interdict them -- I first heard of those allegations when the ATF agents went public.

GRASSLEY: OK. And then when and how did you first learn about the connection between Fast and Furious and U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry's murder.

BREUER: Senator, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry's murder is an absolute horrible tragedy, as are the tragedies of the other people who -- law enforcement and others have been killed. The only way I learned about any connection there was when these became -- when it became public. But, of course, as you know, senator, with respect to many of these tragedies, my division has done everything we can to hold the people liable. When CBP Agent Rosas was killed, I worked personally tirelessly to bring his murderer to the United States. I attended the funeral. I spent time with his family. And that is why we are working tirelessly to hold the murderers of Agent Zapata accountable and the murderers of the consulate officials accountable.

GRASSLEY: Mr. Chairman, I have a request to view. I released a report that I would like to ask be made a part of the record. It refutes the numbers referenced early that 70 percent of the guns in Mexico came from the U.S. The answer isn't to clamp down on law abiding citizens or gun dealers. Would you include that in the records?

WHITEHOUSE: Without objection, the report will be included in the record.

GRASSLEY: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you, Mr. Breuer, for your comments.

BREUER: Thank you, senator.

WHITEHOUSE: Thank you, Senator Grassley.

While we're at it, a little more on Breuer:
Yesterday Breuer came out publically to admit he had made a “mistake” by not telling Attorney General Eric Holder about gun walking that occurred under the Bush Administration through Operation Wide Receiver, saying essentially he should have sounded a warning about gun walking when it started to occur during Fast and Furious, but he remained silent. It is important to point out that under Wide Receiver, there was an effort to track 300 weapons in collaboration with the Mexican Government. Under Operation Fast and Furious, there was no effort to track 2,000 guns that were purposely walked in to Mexico and the Mexican Government was left in the dark about the operation. Today during testimony, Breuer said he, “Didn’t draw the connection,” between the tactics used in the two separate programs, which is hard to believe.

Breuer’s testimony and statements about “not making connections” between two separate but similar gunwalking programs and his claim he never told Attorney General Holder about his concerns or Fast and Furious at all, raise new questions.

Why is Breuer coming out with these revelations now? The House Oversight Committee Investigation into Fast and Furious has been going on for months, yet Breuer all the sudden regrets not sounding the alarm about the dangers of gunwalking when Operation Fast and Furious started in the Fall of 2009? While claiming he never told Attorney General Eric Holder about the program? Although Breuer claims he personally never told Holder about the tactics being used in Fast and Furious, five detailed memos about the lethal program dated July and August 2010 were addressed directly to Holder. Despite Breuer’s testimony, the question of “who authorized Fast and Furious,” remains unanswered.
To that last line I'd say "Well, sort of; we know, it's just not proven yet."


And, there's been more of them there e-mails thingies found, and they say "You people been lyin' to us 'bout this stuff!"

We're from the TSA, and we tell you this is safe!

(no matter what the medical people say)!

'Rage of the Almost-Elite'

Interesting read

Super Sekrit Lube test, take 2

And yes, I remembered all the parts this time, thank you for asking.

This morning, between various first-of-the-month stuff, I made it back to the range for a more proper test. In this case, using two testbeds:
The .22 conversion for the 1911, and
The Hi Standard Sport King.
These are the same primary guns I used to test the Lubriplate SFL-0 grease, so what better for this? Both were cleaned and degreased on all bearing surfaces, then lubed with Mr. C's Lube. To be specific: put a drop at the start of each frame rail and on the slide surfaces where the hammer and disconnector bear, then work the slide back & forth a few times to distribute the lube. On the conversion the surfaces at the front and rear of the barrel where it bears on the slide were wiped with a light coat, then worked back & forth in the slide a few times.

I'll note that, before firing, just working the slides felt very slick and smooth.

I started with the conversion and the Federal bulk-pack that- before the SFL-0- gave a number of failures to fully cycle in both guns. Put between 120 and 140 rounds through it with a grand total of ONE shot- the very first- that failed to cycle the slide fully. Not a single failure after that.

On to the Sport King. ONE failure to fully cycle, and that was it*.

I'm impressed. This lube seems to slick things up just as well as the Lubriplate, and that's saying something. Time will tell if it sticks on the rails well; as far as 'put it on the gun and go shooting' this stuff is slippery as Hillary Clinton asked about Gunwalker(but in a much more user-friendly way).
Added: here's where he sells the stuff

*In the interest of total disclosure, had a couple of FTF problems; however, those were from a mag that sometimes gives this problem, so no downcheck on the lube.

They found a guy dead in a tent at the OWS protest

in Oklahoma City the other day. I didn't catch many details, did see part of the news report. I will give a bit of advice:
If you want to be taken seriously as "We're just like you!" to all those dumb rednecks out there who don't know you have their higher interests in mind, it would help if
You weren't walking around in what looks halfway like lounging pajamas with necklaces,
You weren't wearing fantasy-type shoulder armor on one shoulder,
You didn't keep sticking your hand in front of the camera and saying 'No Comment' when asked a question.
Part of that makes you look like an idiot, the other makes it look like you want to hide something.

Thatisall

Vanderboegh has pointed to Lanny Breuer's involvement

in Gunwalker being more important that might have been thought; now we have this:
Update: Another new tidbit of information about Fast and Furious, via CBS reporter Sharyl Atkisson. Apparently, Lanny Breuer, head of the criminal division of the DOJ, definitely knew that the ATF had employed the gunwalking strategy during “Operation Wide Receiver,” a program started under the Bush administration. Why does that matter? Atkisson explains:

Today, Breuer issued a statement saying he “regrets” that he didn’t alert others in Justice Department leadership, apparently including his boss Attorney General Eric Holder.

In a separate ATF case reported by CBS News earlier this year, called “Fast and Furious” and started under the Obama Administration, Breuer says he likewise regrets not alerting leaders about the similarities in the cases. That, said Breuer, was a mistake.

Republican Congressional investigators say this new information contradicts the Justice Department’s original letter to them earlier this year insisting that gunwalking allegations were “false.”

You know, if the Stupid Party leadership actually had the balls to start charging people with perjury as they should be, it would be a very interesting list. And would probably bring out some more very interesting information, as some of these people- finding out they're about to be charged with the felonies they've committed- would probably find themselves remembering things that somehow slipped their mind in earlier testimony.

While back, Tam noted the book

This Will Kill You as an interesting piece of reading. Having found that the library has a copy, I can agree that it is; for a lot of people it would do nicely as pre-Halloween reading material to scare hell out of them.

However. I can wish he'd left out some of the personal comments at the end of a chapter, things like 'Semi-automatic military-type firearms have no use for hunting and people shouldn't oughta have them.' It's annoying to run into something like that.

Which reminds me: there's a series of Writer's Guide to- books, causes of death, poisons, crime scene investigation and so forth. I read the 'causes of death' one a few years back, and overall it was pretty good. Except for the section on firearms; instead of pretty much sticking to facts as he did on everything else, a fair chunk of that chapter was made up of lectures on how horrible guns are, how dangerous, etc. Otherwise the chapter had some good information for people not familiar with firearms, but all that space used for lecturing could have been used for more facts for writers to use..

Got a note from across the Atlantic

that explains why I tend to make either large excerpts or try to find the original articles for information from Sipsey Street to link to:
Thanks for keeping us (whose internet browsing gets recorded for a year) up to date with Mike's work.
Which is exactly the kind of crap the socialists and nannies want to pull here.

Remember Vanderderboeghs' Holder cartoon?

Remember the upset with JPFO being blamed for it? It gets even better, Media Matters has their collective knickers in a twist about it.


Also, from Sipsey Street, looks like the Democrats are going to try some preemptive tactics to limit damage:
By way of David Codrea, Sharyl Attkisson has just tweeted that the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing featuring Eric Holder on NOVEMBER 8th, next week. This will pre-empt the more un friendly house hearing scheduled for December 8.

These things don't happen by accident, so obviously the White House sees advantage in having Patrick Leahy arrange this.

Also, a little Waldo just told me that there will be a document dump from DOJ this afternoon, beginning with "friendly" journalists. Film at eleven, boys and girls. Film at eleven.
Leahy is a miserable bastard who'll do anything to try to limit damage to his party; no telling what kind of crap he and the other minions will come out with.


Unrelated to Gunwalker is another mess that Sipsey Street writes about; this could get real interesting because
The indictment was filed on 27 July 2010.

Yet the pre-trial wrangling continues.

Why has it taken so long? Because ATF employees and one very highly placed ATF snitch, named John Brown, are smack in the middle of it and it took that long to try to salvage the case while not revealing the ATF's dirty linen. Now, however, the case is coming apart and the dirty linen, for those who have access to the public source documents on PACER, is visible for all to see.

Generically, the Clark case is about the extent to which:

(1) a registered machine gun can be altered by changing its caliber, barrel length and other features, and

(2) ATF and particularly its Firearms Technology Branch can arbitrarily create regulations that have no basis in law, and which hapless defendants find out about only after they get indicted for violating rules that ATF created out of whole cloth and never publicized.
That bolded part all by itself could really blow things up: there are people sitting in prison, or who've had their lives ruined(or both) by ATF doing exactly that, and if ATF gets its collective ass handed to it in this case it opens up a lot of other cases to review.

He'll have to search India and Pakistan;

if he tried to properly train a successor in Britain, he'd wind up in jail.

Need to fit a tool handle?

Og has a trick I'd not heard before; well worth reading.

My one spooky story

About ten years ago I was visiting some friends in the Fort Worth area. It was winter, so a bit chilly, but as the guest 'room' was in the attic near the heater I was nice & comfortable. First night I got stretched out, and a few minutes later realized why I couldn't get to sleep: someone had a radio on or something. I sat up and listened a minute, and it was more like people in another room having a talk that you can just barely hear; no content, just the voices. The folks I was staying with had crashed a little earlier- I had sat up reading a bit- so it wasn't them. WTH?

I finally decided either something was stuck in my head, or somehow sound from a neighbors' house was bouncing in. Then, just for the hell of it, I quietly said "Excuse me, but I'm trying to get some sleep. Could you hold it down for a while?" And the voices stopped. I lay back down and was out a minute later, and never heard them again the time I was there.

Mentioned it to the friends next day, and they looked at each other and the wife said "They're back." Seems that shortly after they moved in they'd sometimes hear what sounded like a conversation in another room, barely audible, and investigating had never found anything coming from a neighbors' house, or a radio left on. And if you said something like "Who's there?" they'd stop.

Closest I've ever come to seeing a ghost, whatever it was.

A pretty good listing of why Fast & Furious only makes sense

as a setup to help push for further gun bans and restrictions. Including this part I'm going to borrow:

Mike Vanderboegh, one of the bloggers who first published the ATF whistleblower revelations of gunwalking, recently received new and disturbing information that builds an even stronger case that the Obama administration may have been dictating the actions of the straw purchasers through their FBI criminal informants:

In late September 2009, ATF Phoenix Group VII supervisor Hope MacAllister walked into the Lone Wolf Trading Company. She had a message for the owner Andre Howard, according to sources familiar with the investigation into Fast & Furious in both D.C. and Arizona, and the message was this: “The amount of weapons you sell is about to dramatically increase.” Howard, the sources say, was cautioned that “he might not have enough stock” to supply the straw buyers that MacAllister somehow knew were on the way and that “he should stock up on what they wanted.”

MacAllister seemed to know “exactly how many weapons (the straw buyers) wanted, how much cash they had and when they would be coming in,” said one of the sources.

Less than a week later, the straw buyers — all of modest means — began flocking to Andre Howard’s shop. Operation Fast and Furious was off to the races.

Vanderboegh goes on to comment that his sources — which include federal law enforcement agents involved in Fast and Furious that have gone on to testify in front of Congress — explain that there are essentially two ways that Agent McAllister and other Operation Fast and Furious task force members knew that straw purchase attempts were about to dramatically increase at Lone Wolf Trading, and what they were going to buy:

1. The multi-agency task force had obtained a warrant and was able to wiretap communications among the cartel members in Mexico and their straw purchases in the U.S., or;
2. Federal agents, acting through FBI criminal informants known to have been part of the conspiracy, were in fact telling the straw purchasers where to go and what to buy.

...

The latter, however distasteful to consider, is the most logical. An FBI criminal informant was operating at a level higher than that of the straw purchasers, and would have been in a position to dictate not only the stores in which to make purchases, but what to buy. Vanderboegh goes on to point out:

Much, if not all, of the “buy money” was coming from an FBI paid confidential informant, it could simply be that the ATF was being used as part of a deliberate plot to “let the guns walk” in order, as the early ATF whistleblowers related to us back in early January, “to boost the statistics” of American civilian market firearms found at Mexican crime scenes.

This “prior knowledge” information seems to answer the question of “why” behind the Obama administration’s gunwalking plots. Means, motive, and opportunity are all on display.

Part of the article details some of the ways Obama was pushing for bans, licensing, etc., long before he held elected office. Any of your friends insist "He doesn't want to ban guns, if he did why hasn't he tried?", point this information out to them.

A bit of history I wasn't aware of

When Churchill said ...we shall never surrender, he really meant it.

One of the relevant bits:
The men recruited for operational duties were selected chiefly for their knowledge of the local terrain – farmers, poachers and gamekeepers among them. Having signed the Official Secrets Act, they received intensive training in guerrilla-warfare techniques, including unarmed combat, sabotage and demolition, on weekend courses at Coleshill House, the Auxiliary Units’ HQ near Swindon.
Gee, local citizens who were already familiar with arms and moving through the woods...

Someday, I want to be invited to a party

like Doc and Rog throw

Remember Huffmans' Jews in the Attic test?

Tam has some thoughts on the current iteration of "It's for the Common Good, comra- ah, citizen, so pony up all your confidentials."

If you're not familiar with the JitA test, here 'tis.