To the unspeakable effing moron in the black truck

driving west in the EASTBOUND lanes of I-44:
You, at the least, are a fucking moron. At the most you're going to be a murderer. I hope you either crash into the divider or otherwise get stopped before you kill someone other than yourself.

Why, if you have security cameras, off-site data storage

might be a good idea.

On the other hand...

Last Saturday afternoon, in Washington , D.C. , an aide to Nancy Pelosi visited the Bishop of the Catholic cathedral in D.C.. He told the Cardinal that Nancy Pelosi would be attending the next day's Mass, and he asked if the Cardinal would kindly point out Pelosi to the congregation and say a few words that would include calling Pelosi a "saint".

The Cardinal replied, "No. I don't really like the woman, and there are her issues of conflict with the Catholic Church over certain of Pelosi's views."
Pelosi's aide said, "Look, I'll write a check here and now for a donation of $100,000 to your church if you'll just tell the congregation you see Pelosi as a saint.”

The Cardinal then thought about it and said, "Well, the church can use the money, so I'll work your request into tomorrow's sermon."

As Pelosi's aide promised, Nancy Pelosi appeared for the Sunday worship and seated herself prominently at the forward left side of the center aisle.

As promised, and at the start of his sermon, the Cardinal pointed out that Ms.Pelosi was present. The Cardinal then went on to explain to the congregation, "While Ms. Pelosi's presence is probably an honor to some, the woman is not numbered among my personal favorite personages. Some of her most egregious views are contrary to tenets of the Church, and she tends to flip- flop on many other issues. Nancy Pelosi is a petty, self -absorbed hypocrite, a thumb sucker, and a nit-wit. Nancy Pelosi is also a serial liar, a cheat, and a thief. I must also say Nancy Pelosi is the worst example of a Catholic I have ever personally witnessed. She married for money and is using her wealth to lie to the American people. She also has a well known reputation for shirking her Representative obligations both in Washington, and in California. The woman is simply NOT to be trusted."

The Cardinal concluded, "But, when compared with President Obama, Ms. Pelosi is a saint."
Stolen from this guy

Couple of years old, but this Dumbass On Wheels

should be noted:
A Suzuki motorcyclist was riding so fast that he rammed into the back of a moving minivan.

He hit the van with such force that his body propelled into the vehicle like a missile.

And his body positioning was so fortunately precise that he shot straight between a husband and wife seated in the back in bucket seats.

"We were just cruising in the center lane when we heard a big ol' bang — and he's lying between us," Sammy Cannon said.

It's been pointed out to me that the Globular Warmening true believers

are yelling "GLOBAL WARMERING!! CLIMATE CHANGE!!!" in connection with our bloody-awful temperatures. I'll point something out:
On Friday, Oklahoma City tied its all-time record for the highest temperature ever recorded when the thermometer reached 113 Fahrenheit (45 Celsius), a mark last recorded in the Dust Bowl days in 1936, according to the National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma.
'Climate denier' my ass.

I see the fires made national news Updated

again; last time like this was a few years back, similar dry & hot conditions. This sucks.

To give you an idea, last night between 9 & 10pm, it was 98 degrees, after a daytime high of about 109 in my area, and it hasn't rained in quite a while. Any grass not heavily watered is brown, lots of trees are losing leaves, and there's not much left of my garden.

That time I mentioned a few years back, I remember video of a chopper trying to dip a water bucket in a lake: the lake was so low they couldn't find a spot deep enough to submerge the bucket. It's about at that point now


Update:
More than a dozen fires are burning across Oklahoma as temperatures continue to climb into Saturday afternoon.

A spokesman for Oklahoma Emergency Management Director said at least five major fires that burned overnight were joined Saturday with several new ones.
And, just to make it more fun, there are reports that one of the fires- one that ate a bunch of homes- may have been set.
I seem to remember that in Rome they burned arsonists... at times like this it doesn't seem such a bad idea

The EffingBI is so effed, that the only real question is

"How many more bodies because they don't have to balls to be honest and deal with what the bad guys really are?"
'Workplace violence' my ass. And the bastards know it.

First I've heard of this particular thumb in Obama's eye

Turkey's application to join the SIno-Russian Shanghai Cooperation Organization following Prime Minister Erdogan's July 19 pilgrimage to Russia is a diplomatic humiliation for the United States, and of the first order. Just when Washington is demanding that Russia withdraw support for the Assad regime in Syria, and when Turkey is the linch-pin for American logistics in support of the Syrian opposition, Erdogan has proposed in effect to joint the Russian-Chinese club (without being compelled to hand in his NATO credentials).
...
The fact is that the Muslim Brotherhood and its various offshoots represent a threat to everyone in the region:

The Saudi monarchy fears that the Brotherood will overthrow it (not an idle threat, since the Brotherhood doesn't look like a bad choice for Saudis who aren't one of the few thousand beneficaries of the royal family's largesse;

The Russians fear that Islamic radicalism will get out of control in the Caucasus and perhaps elsewhere as Russia evolves into a Muslim-majority country;

The Chinese fear the Uyghurs, a Turkic Muslim people who comprise half the population of China's western Xinjiang province.

But the Obama administration (and establishment Republicans like John McCain) insist that America must support democratically-elected Islamist governments. That is deeply misguided. The Muslim Brotherhood is about as democratic as the Nazi Party, which also won a plebiscite confirming Adolf Hitler as leader of Germany. Tribal countries with high illiteracy rates are not a benchmark for democratic decision-making.

That Fortune report excusing Fast & Furious?

When lots of federal agents say "Your report is a pile of crap", that ought to tell you something.

The dogs know!

Have you ever heard that a dog 'knows' when an earthquake is about to hit?

Have you ever heard that a dog can 'sense' when a tornado is stirring up, even 20 miles away?

Do you remember hearing that before the December tsunami struck Southeast Asia , dogs started running frantically away from the seashore, at breakneck speed?

Do you know that dogs can detect cancer and other serious illnesses and danger of fire?

Somehow they always know when they can 'go for a ride' before you even ask.
How do those dogs and cats get home from hundreds of miles away?

I'm a firm believer that animals - and especially cats and dogs - have keen insights into theTruth.

And you can't tell me that dogs can't sense a potentially terrible disaster well in advance.

Simply said, a dog just KNOWS when something isn't right... when impending doom is upon us.

They'll always try to warn us!

It'll be heavy, and I'm told somewhat awkward,

and I still want one.

“It’s not like you’re going to start voting Democrat over this”

No, they'll primary you and retire your dumb ass from that taxpayer-owned office.


The lying Gov. Quinn's 'AWB' ban is even worse than at first thought.
And note that the lying bastard was very quick with the "I support the Second Amendment!" crap to try and cover his lying ass.


Yeah, it's like that here, too. All but two of my tomatoes are dead, the peppers are barely hanging on, the only thing not looking too stressed is the beans; and they're not exactly thriving. I'm about to till over most of the garden because what used to be there is now dry sticks.


I've been assured that making guns requires the most modern and sophisticated of equipment, etc.; these folks in the Philippines apparently didn't get the word.

If you'll excuse me, I've got to go dig up most of what used to be the garden.

More Gunwalker,

also from Sipsey; this on the part 1 report that came out last week:

Long-time readers may recall this post from July 2011 when the name of Kevin O'Reilly first surfaced in the Gunwalker Scandal investigation. From an email I wrote to Issa committee staffers:

(S)ources told me this weekend that your joint investigation possesses e-mails between ATF Phoenix SAC William Newell and Dr. Kevin O'Reilly, Director of North American Affairs, National Security Council.

Dr. O'Reilly's professional background (attached, obtained on the Internet) states he has been a Foreign Service Officer for 22 years, whose most recent responsibilities include coordinating counter-terrorism issues in Latin America for the Department of State and the National Security Council. You will note there is a gap from 1989 to 1995 in his background, before he studied at the Naval War College in 1996-97, after which he embarked on a series of short-term assignments. One of these was as a Pearson Fellow in the office of one of your colleagues, Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois.

Different sources of my own within the U.S. intelligence community who have reviewed the foregoing, consider the e-mails between Mr. Newell and Dr. O'Reilly and their professional positions and duties to be reminiscent of the back-channel communications employed by then-Col. Oliver North, empowered by what was jokingly referred to as a "Fuhrer letter" from then-National Security Adviser John Poindexter. This authorized North to operate outside established channels to implement Iran-Contra mischief. In the opinion of my sources, the highly irregular direct communication between a senior advisor on the National Security Council and a lowly ATF Special Agent in Charge reeks of executive branch misconduct. It would be, if as true as my sources say it is, "felony stupid."

Since SAC Newell will be testifying under oath before the Committee on Tuesday, there is an opportunity for Mr. Newell to explain his own understanding of the communications between himself, Dr. O'Reilly, and the National Security Council; how they relate to Fast & Furious; and thus enable the Committee and the American people to better understand the genesis of Fast & Furious and the role of the White House. This opportunity also affords the Committee the chance to appropriately define the inquiry, and to illuminate the darker recesses of the Gunwalker Scandal debacle before the inevitable speculation that will arise in the press and on the Internet as this information becomes more fully understood.

After three staffers met with Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America and me the day before the hearing, the committee did in fact ask Newell about those emails and his relationship with O'Reilly and received vague answers about O'Reilly being a long-time friend. Subsequently the committee sought to interview O'Reilly, only to discover that he had been shipped off to Iraq to put him out of convenient reach. One of the subjects of great curiosity was a meeting between Newell, O'Reilly and other White House personnel very early in the Obama administration -- March 2009. Ultimately, the White House exerted a dubious claim of executive privilege and denied the committee access to O'Reilly. They also stiffed the committee on any other information having to do with the March 2009 meeting -- its purpose, attendees, notes, emails, etc.

The report presents some few emails between Newell and O'Reilly without hitting at all on the unusual nature of this back channel communication between a senior NSC staffer and a relatively lowly ATF Special Agent in Charge.

From Page 109:

On July 28, 2010, Kevin O’Reilly, the Director of North American Affairs on the White House’s National Security Staff, e-mailed his colleagues asking, “Have we gotten any readout on ATF’s GRIT surge in Phoenix & in Arizona?”319 O’Reilly forwarded the correspondence to Newell, asking: “Just an informal ‘how’s it going?’” Newell promptly responded:

[W]e are on target to . . . eliminate our backlog of “leads.” A ‘lead” [sic] is where we have solid information regarding firearms trafficking activity but not enough manpower to work it. The best part about the GRIT for me has been the influx, albeit temporary (100 days), of Special Agents, Inspectors, Support Staff, etc. They have allowed us to catch up on the backlog of leads as well as follow up on newer information. They have been instrumental in supplying much needed ground-level support to several large-scale firearms trafficking investigations with direct links to Mexican DTOs. As an example I have had 10 Special Agents working exclusively in support of a very large OCDETF case involving firearms trafficking by the Sinaloa DTO. These agents have been so busy that they have expressed a desire to extend past the GRIT deadline due to the amount of work still needed on this case, a very good thing. One agent on detail from Miami . . . told me recently . . . [h]e’s never seen this level of illegal firearms trafficking activity before and wants to stay another 30 days just to help out with this case.

When O’Reilly asked for permission to share the documents with other White House staff, Newell responded: “Sure, just don’t want ATF HQ to find out, especially since this is what they should be doing (briefing you)!”

From Page 117:

Newell was also updating the White House on the timeline. On August 9, 2010, he wrote to Director O’Reilly: “Got another one last week, a .50 caliber semi-auto. Headed for Sinaloa DTO. Part of the same ‘large OCDETF case’ I mentioned previously. We should be indicting in early October.” A few days later, in response to O’Reilly’s offer to involve Newell in an arms trafficking conference in Mexico City in late September or early October, Newell responded: “Timing would be good because we should indict our Phoenix case in late Sept/early Oct.”

From Page 118:

On August 17, 2010, Group Supervisor Voth briefed Burke, Cunningham, Morrissey, and Hurley for two hours at ATF’s Phoenix offices. Apparently frustrated as a result of that meeting, the next day Newell e-mailed Director O’Reilly at the White House:

We have some “straw” purchasers who had purchased several hundred “weapons of choice” and made good money doing it but in reality may never get prosecuted. In trying to satisfy the Arizona USAO’s request to have the firearms inspected in Mexico in order to be able to introduce that in US Federal court we need Mexico’s help but as you can guess it’s a major pain to get access to these guns. . . . As an example and regarding the August 4th seizure in Nogales, Sonora [sic]. Several of the firearms in that seizure are directly linked to a case we are ready to indict here in the Federal system. We had these guns entered into our “Suspect Guns” system so when they were traced in eTrace they “pinged” off this “Suspect Guns” list and our case agent was immediately notified.

When these e-mails became public, the White House claimed the communications were “not in relation to Fast and Furious.” Yet this e-mail illustrates the methods ATF used to benefit from recoveries in Mexico. Because ATF entered the serial numbers of firearms into the Suspect Gun Database as soon as they received the 4473s from FFLs, frequently at the same time the firearms were being purchased, recoveries in Mexico provided ATF with instant intelligence about where the guns were going.

On September 3, 2010, Newell e-mailed Kevin O’Reilly at the White House again . .

But the blockbuster revelation is a mere mention in passing in this passage from Page 198:

Perhaps Hoover’s biggest failure as Deputy Director of ATF was his lack of close supervision of SAC Newell. Several years before Fast and Furious began, dating back to 2006, Hoover knew that Bill Newell was willing to employ risky tactics in his investigations. SAC Newell oversaw multiple cases during his early days as Phoenix SAC that utilized either gunwalking or controlled deliveries across the border as investigative techniques.

Hoover knew about Newell’s prior operations, and he did not condone them. Upon learning about the Hernandez case in 2007, Hoover, then Assistant Director of Field Operations, demanded answers from Newell about the operation. Newell first reassured Hoover by stating that Newell had conducted similar operations “all the time in Colombia.” (Emphasis supplied, MBV.) Newell finally recognized that Hoover had serious concerns about the Hernandez operation. He wrote to Hoover in an e-mail:

OK, I know you have reservations but please rest assured that this will go down as planned, as allowed per MLAT (Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty) with Mexico, with full approval of the USAO (confirmed again late this afternoon), and will have big payoffs for us and the Department in addressing Mexico’s concerns that we (US) aren’t doing enough to address their concerns. Trust me, I’m with Gov’t.

Billy Hoover had asked Newell for more information on the Hernandez case, obviously concerned about the "lost load" whose interdiction had been muffed by Mexican authorities. The exact wording of the emails is found in Appendix I, 3 of 3, Exhibit 225:

I would like to discuss the following: Have we discussed the strategy with the US Attorney's Office re letting the guns walk? Do we have his approval in writing? Have we discussed and thought through the consequences of same? Are we tracking south of the border? Same re US Attorney's Office. Did we find out why they missed the hand off of the vehicle? What are our expected outcomes? What is the timeline?

Later that day, Hoover added more questions:

Also, did the Mexico Country Office speak to anyone in Field Op's prior to briefing the Ambassador? What exactly did we tell him? Why was this necessary at this time in the inv(estigation)?

Newell fired back:

Standard protocol and they (Amb and DCM) are very used to it. Used to do it all the time in Colombia. Davy tell me he was going to do it and he told me the Amb was not surprised that the Mexicans missed the load.

My sources told me last year that Newell met O'Reilly several years ago during what one of the sources called "drug spook operations in Colombia" when O'Reilly worked for State and Newell was with the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Bogota.

It is evident that someone needs to pursue the investigation into the Newell-O'Reilly relationship, although whether the Issa Committee can accomplish that in the face of White House tactics of cover-up and stonewall is a matter of great doubt.

The Issa-Grassley report makes it plain that it considers Newell was the "man with the gunwalking plan" on the ground in Phoenix. Who gave him the green light to proceed? Perhaps Parts Two and Three will address the question of whether or not it was O'Reilly through a back door channel, similar to Oliver North in Iran-Contra. Perhaps, but my sources in DC say that, at the moment, it is not the way to bet.

Yet the fingerprints of White House involvement are certainly all over Part One of the report, the Committee has at least done us that favor. The only question is will they be pursued back to the fingers of the plotters?

If you happen to wander by and are wondering why I copy & pasted the whole post, I've had a number of people mention that due to work or national circumstances they can't look at Sipsey directly; so for those folks I do this, giving credit that it is a copy of the gentleman's post.

About that 'only some border states' multiple-sales reporting

plan, slight problem:

Supplementary to the Issa-Grassley Report, Part One are more than 1800 pages of appendices. One that has come in for early attention is Appendix Three in which the Fortune Magazine Eban propaganda piece is thoroughly discredited. I mean demolished. John Richardson at No Lawyers -- Only Guns and Money has discovered another gem in Appendix Three: "Reporting Requirement For Semi-Auto Rifles Originally Intended For More States."

It will take days before anyone can digest everything that is contained in the report and appendices. That said, a quick browse turned up a very interesting letter Memorandum from then-Acting Director of ATF Kenneth Melson to Attorney General Eric Holder. (See Appendix III, page 173). The memo, received on March 26, 2010, was making the case to Holder for approval of a pilot project to use demand letters to Federal Firearms Licensees in certain states to force them to report multiple sales of semi-automatic rifles in a caliber greater than .22 and with the ability to accept detachable magazines.

This request was sent months before the Department of Justice Inspector General had released a report criticizing the effectiveness of ATF's Project Gunrunner. Among the recommendations of the OIG's reports was that reporting of multiple sales of long guns be explored. Melson concurred with this recommendation but said at the time "that this may require a change to the Gun Control Act which is beyond ATF's and the Department's authority."

As we now know, ATF did get permission to do their one year pilot program to require reporting of multiple sales of certain rifles. It went into effect on August 14, 2011 in the Southwest Border states of Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas.

What makes Melson's letter particularly interesting is that he was requesting authority from the Attorney General to not only request demand letters in the four border states but an additional eight more. These eight additional states included Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Washington State. The rationale given is that these (and the Southwest Border states) were the top 12 source states for firearms recovered and traced in Mexico in FY2009.

I think it has been assumed that the impetus for the multi-rifle reporting requirement was the Office of Inspector General's report. As the Melson memo makes clear, ATF was pushing for this almost nine months earlier. Moreover, it was not limited to just states that bordered Mexico but major Mid-Western states such as Illinois and Southeastern states such as Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina. When you add in a state like Washington which is as far from Mexico as you could get, it doesn't take too much of an imagination to assume that the so-called pilot program was meant to be a predecessor to rolling this out nationwide even though the Gun Control Act of 1968 did not give ATF this authority. Perhaps this is what Obama meant when he said to Sarah Brady that they were working "under the radar" on gun control.

Nicely done, John. He is also right that it will take days, if not weeks, to fully digest all the material in this report and its appendices. I will have the first of several analyses later tonight, and the first one is a humdinger. More later.

So, if you're a socialist control-freak fed and you want

to control a western state, what better way than to ...take over legal management of the state's water supply ?
And they'll want to repeat the same wonderful successes they've had in California.


A Marine officer's thoughts on women in combat; worth reading, especially since she's been there(found at Old NFO's place)


Did you know Romney went to Poland to appeal to racists?
Stop laughing, this idiot apparently means it.

Gov. Quinn of IL is a lying, corrupt, statist son of a bitch

...supporter of the Second Amendment... my ass.

I look at the history of people trying to make a perfect world

full of perfect people, and this scares hell out of me:
But what kept me going day in and day out was the same thing that has sustained the Urban League all these years. The same thing that sustains all of you. And that is the belief that in America, change is always possible. That our union may not be perfect, but it is perfectible."
How many have tried to make perfection, make Heaven on Earth, and produced hell?

To borrow from Mal,
...Sure as I know anything, I know this - they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better....

Apparently this bozo didn't remember The Parable of Zumbo

In a weaselly attempt to get business back from online ammunition dealers like Brownells or LuckyGunner, Texas gun store owner Jeremy Alcede goes on the radio supporting a ban on online ammunition sales.

Dear Jeremy Alcede of Tactical Firearms, Katy, TX: I hope you freeze in the dark, you gutless quisling punk.
In the comments someone says they hope he's enjoying his thirty pieces of silver; somehow, I don't think he's enjoying much of anything right now.

Some people with permits carried into a theater; somebody spotted one and whined;

when asked, they put their arms away. Opinion is expressed:
It never fails to amaze me how impossibly stupid someone can be and yet still somehow remember to breathe. Listen, you ignorant window-licking paste eater, the compliance ratio with the "No Guns" policy in Aurora was three times better than yours! They only had something like a .03% non-compliance rate; just one guy ignored their signs!

"Should Guns Be Allowed In Movie Theaters?" my ass. Guns weren't allowed in the theater! People who put their trust in your fairy dust and rainbows "No Guns" policy paid for that trust with their lives. I hope you're fricking happy, you ghoul.
I'm sure they are, they got those nasty 'nothing happened' guns out of the theater, and I'm sure they consider that worth, well, pretty much anything. After all, if some bad guy HAD done something, they could always sue the theater or something.
If they survived.

I'll throw in, I'll sit anywhere on this damned bus I want to, Senator Schumer, you loathsome Sméagol-looking little leech on the body politic, you. is a fine piece of wordsmithing, too.


I've got a bunch of gallon jugs, but it's been too damn hot to do any of the bullet testing. For that matter the indoor ranges at H&H are getting uncomfortable by 11am; must be fairly awful in the afternoon & evening(I doubt there's much they can do about it). I still try to shoot regularly, and last time had a chance to shoot a S&W M&P in 9mm; not bad at all. Much more comfortable than the last Glock I fired, and fits my hand better than a XD9(which felt much better than the Glock, too). Accurate, and the trigger wasn't any bother; yes, I like my 1911 better, but this was no problem to handle, and when doing fast doubles it gave me no difficulty(I say this after having read Robb's comments about putting Apex trigger parts in his M&P).


Sen. Reid is full of crap; that's been known for a long time, but this is even more disgusting than usual.


State Senator R.C. Soles of North Carolina: a first-class gun bigot.


I just went out to get something from the back of son's truck; leaned against the bed and damn near burned myself. And it's only 0930. Damn, this weather sucks

A letter to the nasty hypocritical little shit who's mayor of Chicago:

Recent comments by those who administer our city seem to assume that the city government can decide for everyone what are the “values” that must be held by citizens of Chicago. I was born and raised here, and my understanding of being a Chicagoan never included submitting my value system to the government for approval. Must those whose personal values do not conform to those of the government of the day move from the city? Is the City Council going to set up a “Council Committee on Un-Chicagoan Activities” and call those of us who are suspect to appear before it? I would have argued a few days ago that I believe such a move is, if I can borrow a phrase, “un-Chicagoan.” …
Read it all. Further,
Chicago, by the way, has the third-highest unemployment rate in the nation among major cities, so it seems odd that its mayor would tell Chick-fil-A to take a hike for having the exact same position on marriage that Emanuel’s former boss — President Barack Obama — held the entire time Emanuel worked at the White House. Even more odd, at the same time Emanuel declared Chick-fil-A fast-fooda non grata, he rolled out the red carpet for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan to have his acolytes patrol Chicago neighborhoods. Not only is Farrakhan a well-known anti-Semite, he also opposes same-sex marriage. In fact, Farrakhan publicly blasted Obama for flip-flopping on the issue in May.

Well, more evidence that Bush didn't like and a lot of the left

are lying bastards on the enemy's side:
Britain will help the Iraqi government dispose of what's left of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons, still stored in two bunkers in north of Baghdad, the British embassy in Baghdad announced Monday.

The British Defense Ministry will start training Iraqi technical and medical workers this year, an embassy statement said. The teams will work to safely destroy remnants of munitions and chemical warfare agents left over from Saddam's regime. He was overthrown in 2003 following an American-led invasion.

Saddam stored the chemical weapons near population centers so that he could access them quickly, despite the danger to his civilian population.
So, just like those 'tax cuts for the rich' turned out to have been for a whole lot of middle-class people, those chemical weapons the left and the enemy-assisters insisted didn't exist were there. ARE there.

And I still want to know how much machinery and how much chemicals in Syria have 'Made in Iraq' somewhere on them.

You don't go along, Mayors Against IllegalAll Guns will go after your church

to put pressure on you.

United Airlines: what the HELL is wrong with you?

And do you have any idea how much future business your morons have lost you?

Be it noted, a couple of UA people who had some working brain cells and compassion- or maybe just realized how badly they'd fucked up- gave him help:
Eventually two United Airlines employees noticed Stanek's stress and helped him get on a different airline.
'Eventually'. Interesting word, isn't it?

And, not surprisingly, United Airlines(Abusing the vets so nobody else has to!) doesn't want to talk about it.
Action 7 News spent the day Thursday emailing and calling United Airlines for a response and never got through to an actual person.

Lucky Gunner did some eye-protection testing

They've got it up here, pics and video

One of the things they found: good impact-rated protection should be replaced regularly if it's out in the sun a lot; looks like lots of UV exposure weakens them over time.

Some Gunwalker stuff

Republican congressional investigators have concluded that five senior ATF officials -- from the special agent-in-charge of the Phoenix field office to the top man in the bureau’s Washington headquarters -- are collectively responsible for the failed Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation that was “marred by missteps, poor judgments and inherently reckless strategy.”

The investigators, in a final report likely to be released later this week, also unearthed new evidence that agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Phoenix initially sought to hide from the Mexican government the crucial information that two Fast and Furious firearms were recovered after the brother of a Mexican state attorney general was killed there.
...
Two more final reports, they said, will deal with “the devastating failure of supervision and leadership” at the Department of Justice and an “unprecedented obstruction of the [congressional] investigation by the highest levels of the Justice Department, including the attorney general himself.”

The first report did allege some Justice Department involvement, however, notably that Kenneth E. Melson, then acting ATF director, was made into a “scapegoat” for Fast and Furious after he told congressional Republicans his Justice Department supervisors “were doing more damage control than anything” else once Fast and Furious became public.
Couple of possibilities here: one is that more is on the way, and Issa & Grassley aren't backing off on trying to get the documents Holder & Obama are hiding. The other is this is the Stupid Party backing down and letting this primarily be blamed on the scapegoats, who nothing will ever happen to.
We'll see which it is. And if it's the Stupid Party backing down, one more brick in the "After this election, start a third party" road.



Well, isn't this special?
On the morning of July 11, 2010, Ryan and others arrived at the hotel and began setting up Friends of the IDF banners, literature and piles of shirts for the event guests.

But the event was aborted after, according to one employee’s sworn testimony, the hotel’s owner told staff members, “Get the [expletive deleted] Jews out of my pool.” Then the hotel security and other employees began removing the materials and ordering the guests to leave.


On the attempts to bring back and expand the Clinton ban on 'magazines that make bigots wet their pants',
The free exercise of my rights is not contingent on the approval of some parasite government bureaucrat or their pathetic fan club.
More goodness involving some blunt words at the link(found thanks to Tam).




In short, the DEA here commandeered private property from a law-abiding businessman and ineptly deployed it in an operation that got a man killed and now endangers a family that had nothing to do with the case. There is a term for what the DEA did with that truck: grand theft auto.

The DEA is running neck-and-neck with the ATF for the title of most dangerous federal law-enforcement agency; in my view, both should be dissolved and their responsibilities handed over to some more responsible party, such as a group of drunken rodeo clowns or ADD-addled teen-agers.


Where Great Britian used to be:
A teenager has been arrested on suspicion of posting malicious Twitter messages directed at British Olympic diver Tom Daley, U.K. police said Tuesday.
Really? THIS is what you need to spend your time on?


I can sympathize; that's a lot more polite than what I've wanted to say to some media weenies at times.

Tam writes of lights, so I'll pile in(on?)

I’m a big fan of flashlights. Besides the ‘see what you might have to shoot/blind the bad guy’ options, I’ve been caught in the dark with no artificial means of light a few times, and it sucks. So I’ve got a bunch of them around. Here's the various 'carry around' stuff

Rundown, top to bottom:
My first high-performance light was a Surefire G2. Blinding-bright, tough, a good light. I would up buying one for each kid for Christmas that year so they’d have a good light. Of course, then came the LED lamps that produced actual white light, and I picked up one of those for the light. Which stayed in the truck, until a Surefire dealer at Dealer Days had a deal, and I got a yellow one(easier to find when I dropped it) for the truck and the green one went into the house.

Then, at a gun show, a guy had a sale on Fenix lights and I got a P3D: LED lamp, two CR123 batteries, four modes: low(9 lumens), medium, high(123 lumens) and SOS in extra-bright. Memory, so it stays in whatever mode you left it when last turned off. That one stays in the pocket of my winter jacket, generally.

A while after that, stopped at Cabela’s when in Texas visiting folks and they had a very nice LED light for twenty bucks: uses two AA batteries and about 60 lumens. Got one for a lady I was seeing, too, as her car had no flashlight. Next time I was down was going to pick up one for a lady I worked with, and the price had doubled(Yeah, she’s nice, but damn). No idea what they're running now.

Next one's a personal 'I just wanted' which I got from Lighthound. Company called Solar Force makes parts you can buy; I got this body and this lamp. So I had a tacticool light that’s held up very well.

At Tulsa the next year a light & water filter dealer had these little ITP lights on sale and I got one. Uses one AAA, low-medium-high modes. It stays in my bike jacket pocket. It hasn’t been used a lot, but it’s still on the original battery after three or four years.

And last, the actual keyring light. ‘Lights’ actually, as I’ve got one on the house keyring and the bike keyring, and I’ve given a couple of them as gifts. I like it because, like Tam’s Photon, you turn it on and it stays on until you squeeze again to turn it off. They're inexpensive, and if you get more than $20 of stuff, they throw one in.

I'll throw in this as well: The Larry worklight
Flashlight dealer at a show had these and I got one for the house. Now it's the light that stays on the bike in case of trouble. 60 lumens, three AAA batteries, lots of light and it'll run for hours. Damn good for finding things you dropped, as it's a floodlight instead of a narrow beam.

Yeah, there're more lights around the house, but these are the ones that get carried(keyring, pocket, jacket pocket, etc.)

And Lautenberg and McCarthy are off

The new legislation, dubbed the Stop Online Ammunition Sales Act, rests on four pillars, according to Lautenberg's office:

It requires anyone selling ammunition to be a licensed dealer.

It requires ammunition buyers who are not licensed dealers to present photo identification at the time of purchase, effectively banning the online or mail order purchase of ammo by regular civilians.

It requires licensed ammunition dealers to maintain records of the sale of ammunition.

It requires licensed ammunition dealers to report the sale of more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition to an unlicensed person within any five consecutive business days.
Buy two value packs of .22 ammo? You get reported. Get a deal on some 7.62x39 or .223 or 7.62x54 or whatever and grab the case? Get reported.

And don't forget, this will act as a backdoor registration system. "So, citizen, where's the gun you bought all that ammo for? " Etc.

Why are Democrats such bigots?

And can you imagine the Democrats and socialists screaming if some Republican or general conservative/libertarian said something about cheap, greedy Jews?

Oh, and that 'China will buy Canadian oil if we don't' argument

the Democrats said was nonsense?
It's not, and never was.

Bastards.

So the food police and Nanny Bloomberg are full of crap?

Whoda thunk it?


And please note at the end: the trans-fats they ordered everyone to eat instead of that nasty butter and lard and such:
Keep in mind, there is one type of fat that is implicated in high cholesterol, atherosclerosis, heart disease, and diabetes: Trans-fat. Trans-fats raise bad cholesterol, lower good cholesterol, and increase triglycerides, they also promotes inflammation and insulin resistance, according to a 2000 article in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.

ATF head says "Oh, NO, I wasn't

threatening whistleblowers! Perish the thought!"
Well, Mr. Jones, considering the agency past, there's damn well reason for people to think you were. We'll see if you actually carry through, or not.


From the only reporter who's really dug into Gunwalker,
Expecting some potential #FastandFurious news this coming week, but am travelling. Will try to get to it all.


"We're too busy kicking your door in to make sure we've got the right place."


Dammit, Betty, not you too!!


Codrea also thinks they're just trying to work under the radar again:
Regardless, new ways to advance citizen disarmament “under the radar” are still being explored, anticipating a time when it will be deemed safe to green light them. Among these could be moves that bypass the legislature altogether, such as executive orders designed to limit imports of “non-sporting” firearms and ammunition, and new and costly requirements for licensed gun dealers that could drive smaller ones out of business.

Additionally, anti-gun legislative measures are still advancing, buried in pending bills that would escape notice unless watchful eyes were ever present. A case in point, The Hill reported Thursday, is a cyber security bill sponsored by leading “safe” Senate anti-gunners, containing an amendment that “would make it illegal to transfer or possess large capacity feeding devices such as gun magazines, belts, feed stripes [sic] and drums of more than 10 rounds of ammunition with the exception of .22 caliber rim fire ammunition.” The bill is scheduled for debate and amendment votes next week, and while survival of that provision is questionable, it illustrates that the public liberty must be guarded with jealous attention, and that the devil is always lurking in the details.


Screw being 'cautioned' this judge should've been removed from the bench. And disbarred.

"Latinos may lead the way to gun control in the future."

Not so fast, say other Latinos.
Borrowed from Sipsey Street(red emphasis is mine):

The other day I was doing an interview with a Mexican journalist and pointed out that the Mexican Revolution would have been impossible without American firearms. I also postulated that the solution to Mexican violence, where only the government and criminals have firearms, is to arm the Mexican people with Kalashnikovs and 300 rounds per to start -- especially the women -- as a counterbalance to both. She was shocked at the proposal. There was a recent debate at NBCLatino that applies to this subject.

First, Raul A. Reyes argued that Latinos were the key to gun control in the future.

While our political leaders worry about getting on the wrong side of gun control debate, Latinos are very progressive on the issue. An April report by the Pew Center found that Latinos are more likely to favor strict gun control laws that either whites or African-Americans. Similarly, a 2011 poll done by the bipartisan Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition found that 86 percent of Hispanic voters support requiring background checks on all gun sales. Sixty-nine percent believe the laws governing the sale of guns should be stronger. Perhaps in the future, as our numbers continue to grow, Hispanics will demand laws to limit the possibility of senseless gun violence.

Yes, the Second Amendment guarantees all Americans the right to have and bear arms. But let’s take a look at its actual words: “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” The key words here are “well regulated.” Our founding fathers clearly recognized that there might be a need for regulation of citizens and their firearms.

A good starting point would be to revive the ban on assault weapons. No one needs a semi-automatic for hunting, self-defense, or to protect their home. These are weapons designed for war. They are the weapons of choice for drug cartels and traffickers throughout Latin America, and they come from the U.S. If Holmes had not had an AR-15 assault rifle, surely we would not have seen so many casualties in Aurora.

Right now, Americans must call upon Congress and our candidates to fully discuss gun control.

Stephen A. Nuňo answers effectively with "Gun control is people control, with racist implications."

Some think that Latinos may lead the way to gun control in the future because they are more likely to favor strict gun control than others. Well, let’s hope not. Or at least, before Latinos enter into this debate, let’s hope they enter it with as much information about gun control than what they are learning from their liberal counterparts.

Last week’s tragedy in Aurora, Colorado has reset the debate over gun control with renewed hope by anti-gun advocates that Latinos may give them the electoral heft they need to increase the power of the gun control lobby.

First, let’s get one thing out-of-the-way. The right to keep and bear arms has nothing to do with hunting, collecting or sporting. The sensibilities of liberals’ anti-gun attitudes do not need to be assuaged as a prerequisite to owning firearms. The right to own firearms is a fundamental right recognized by the Constitution. It is not a privilege. It is a right just as voting, free speech or, dare I say, privacy is.

Second, the right to keep and bear arms is an individual right, not a collective right. It is not a State right. To say that a State can regulate firearms under the pretense of regulating a militia ignores the fundamental reason the 2nd Amendment exists, the connection between an armed citizenry and a free society.

This does not mean there should be zero regulations on guns, but the political standoff over gun control is fundamentally about mistrust. Gun owners simply do not trust the government or anti-gun folks to impose any regulations on gun ownership, and when gun control advocates create false justifications for the ownership of guns, such as hunting, gun owners are justified in that distrust.

Third, we should understand the historical connection between gun control and racism. Simply put, gun control is people control, and this has had deeply racist implications in the past. The roots of gun control in California are tied to white anxiety over Mexican-Americans and Chinese-Americans at the beginning of the 20th century.

Gun control gained renewed vigor in California after the Black Panthers armed themselves against white police officers intent on keeping their boots on the neck of the black community. Gun control in the South was explicitly designed to keep guns out of the hands of black communities who used firearms to defend themselves against the Ku Klux Klan. . .

Finally, the idea that Latinos are more disposed to gun control for any cultural reason is patently false. Mexico, where a majority of U.S. Latinos come from, is one of the few countries besides the United States to have its own version of the 2nd Amendment. Article 10 of the Mexican Constitution recognized over one hundred and fifty years ago that “every man has a right to have and carry arms for his security and legitimate defense”.

Unfortunately, Mexico’s recognition of the right to keep and bear arms included a direct avenue for government suppression of that right, with tragic results we don’t need to rehash here.

Latinos should acknowledge the greater historical context and meaning of the right to keep and bear arms before making a decision about gun control. Most important is the relationship between the people and the government. The government may indeed desire a less armed citizenry, or fewer armed Latinos, but Latinos’ answer to the government should be, fine, you first.

There was a quote I read a while back, and now I can't find it

Something along the lines of 'When someone says "There ought to be a law!" they're saying they're willing to send to police to kill you, if necessary, to force you to do what they want.'
Anybody know it, or where to find it?

Updated: Bob pointed to this one:
Each and every time someone says “there ought to be a law” they are saying that men with guns should enforce their will on innocent others.

Because you're too stupid to do the right thing unless Nanny Bloomberg

requires it.

To NYEffing City: screw you. You elected this statist dirtbag, over and over. I wouldn't give a rats ass what happened to you, except for his using his position to try and shove his crap on the whole country.

Yeah, there are some slight problems with their 'support' for gays

Like President Obama, Imam Qaradawi’s position on gays is in a state of “evolution”: He can’t decide whether to burn them or toss ’em off a cliff. “Some say we should throw them from a high place,” he told Al Jazeera. “Some say we should burn them, and so on. There is disagreement. . . . The important thing is to treat this act as a crime.” Unlike the deplorable Mr. Cathy, Imam Qaradawi is admirably open-minded: There are so many ways to kill homosexuals, why restrict yourself to just one? In Mayor Menino’s Boston, if you take the same view of marriage as President Obama did from 2009 to 2012, he’ll run your homophobic ass out of town. But, if you want to toss those godless sodomites off the John Hancock Tower, he’ll officiate at your ribbon-cutting ceremony.
...
As an exercise in sheer political muscle, it’s impressive. But, if you’re a feminist or a gay or any of the other house pets in the Democrat menagerie, you might want to look at Rahm Emanuel’s pirouette, and Menino’s coziness with Islamic homophobia. These guys are about power, and right now your cause happens to coincide with their political advantage. But political winds shift. Once upon a time, Massachusetts burned witches. Now it grills chicken-sandwich homophobes. One day it’ll be something else. Already in Europe, in previously gay-friendly cities like Amsterdam, demographically surging Muslim populations have muted leftie politicians’ commitment to gay rights, feminism, and much else. It’s easy to cheer on the thugs when they’re thuggish in your name. What happens when Emanuel’s political needs change?