In response, Werfel produced two charts

outlining the various “adverse actions” federal agencies can take against senior officials. The documents, though, have not shed light on the issue: “We’re still not clear on Lerner’s status,” a Grassley spokeswoman tells National Review Online.
Translation: Lerner's still drawing a federal paycheck, not crap has been done about her, and Werfel doesn't have the balls to say it outright.

It's a fine cool morning in late July,

and the dew was so heavy it might as well have rained; I'm going to get some garage cleaning and such done before it gets back to hot in a couple of days.

Amazing what sensitive and delicate flowers

these politicians are. When
We are often told that the terrorists "hate us for our freedoms." One might argue, though, that if that is what defines a terrorist, perhaps it is people like Rep. Lowey who should be taken down by Seal Team Six.
is whined about as a 'death threat'.

Heidi Yewman is even more of a flake

than previously realized.  Sebastian takes note of some of her idiocies.

(I started to comment on this; however, he covers it well and after reading the piece I'm ready to fall back on "And you think WE have problems?  You're such a farging moron you should be in the Guinness Book.")

Remember the First National Bank of Wellston, OH?

Remember their dirtbaggery?
The CEO is Anthony S. Thorne.
Popehat has his contact information here.
He also has the contact info for the McArthur Police Department, which refuses to do anything about what seems to me to be the B&E, and grand theft and such the bank committed.  And is trying to get out of dealing with.

"We must be more Green(and screw the poor bastards who pay for it)!"

More wonders from the politicians in uniform.  This time on ammunition:

The report states that the gas exhausted from the rifles contained high levels of copper and zinc which account for all the symptoms suffered by the riflemen. A few, quite comical, short term solutions have been recommended. These include only shooting outside, slower rate of fire and spacing the shooters out more when at the range!

Because those are always choices that you can get when engaged in a real fire fight. Guns and Ammo takes a critical look at the M855A1;
[T]he reason it shoots flatter is because they’ve juiced the round up so that it will fly at 3,100 fps. This would be a great achievement except for the fact that they did it by increasing the chamber pressure from 55,000 psi to 63,000 psi. That’s a number closely approaching proof-load pressures.
[...]
This means that not only are parts going to wear out at a much higher rate (which is already is an issue with the M4), but if, God forbid, there is any bullet set-back, the number of M4s reportedly going “high order” (i.e., blowing up) should increase exponentially.
[...]
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the new round cuts barrel life by almost 50 percent…
"But it's GREEN!"  Etc. ad Bullshit.
Much like the Navy paying about 5x the price of oil fuels for 'biofuel'.  At a time when their budgets are in the toilet.
Except this stands the distinct possibility of getting troops killed(as if that mattered to this administration and the politicians in uniform).

Wirecutter has a post from Sara on a proposal to expand a law

over here: short excerpt:
They realized that they bit off more than they could chew. People like their fish tanks. Kids love their hamsters and gerbils and cute little fluffy pets. But snakes? Snakes are an easy way to get your foot in the door. Snakes are scary, and there’s not a large enough group to fight for them. Introduce HR 996. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hr996/text This is “To establish an improved regulatory process for injurious wildlife to prevent the introduction and establishment in the United States of nonnative wildlife and wild animal pathogens and parasites that are likely to cause harm.” Shouldn’t get anywhere… It’s the same damn thing! But wait! They DID get to pretty much out of nowhere get burmese pythons, african rocks, and yellow anacondas added to the Lacey Act. Remember all those tv blurbs about how burmese pythons were everywhere? They made it look like you couldn’t step outside your door without being attacked by a “GIANT KILLER SNAKE”! Shock and gasp! Yup, boom. US Fish and Wildlife used bad science and got them added. They lied. (again, shock, right?) The pets that people have had for years are no longer allowed across state lines. Get a job somewhere else and move? If you bring your pet that you have had for 15 years, you are breaking a federal law. You’ve got literally thousands of dollars invested in a breeding project? Too bad.

And now they want to make it even easier to add more.

Ever read this one?

Lacey and His Friends. David Drake's look at a 'surveillance at all times/all places' society.

Now it looks like a friggin' NSA/FBI guidebook.


"Screw the Constitution(and our oath); we're the TSA, and we can do what we want."
Speaking of which, they can feel you up at the airport in ways forbidden to use on inmates at Gitmo.


Chris Christie can kiss my ass.  And if the Stupid Party actually pushes him for President, then it can, too.


Oh, for... speaking of the Stupid Party,
The three should also be angry with the Republican National Committee. PJ Tatler has learned that staff at the RNC have been spending RNC donations plotting to do exactly what Eric Holder is seeking to do – return Texas and other states to federal oversight.


Blearg.  It's still rainy outside(cooler at least) and I woke up way too early.  I think I'll try to get some cleaning done.

Awww, isn't this cute?

National Taxpayer Employee Union officials are urging members to write their congressional representatives in opposition to receiving coverage through President Obama’s health care law.

The union leaders are providing members with a form letter to send to the congressmen that says “I am very concerned about legislation that has been introduced by Congressman Dave Camp to push federal employees out of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and into the insurance exchanges established under the Affordable Care Act.”
Let's see, that's how many unions- government and private- wanting out?  But they damn sure want everyone ELSE stuck in it...


Mrs. Smith, it's a 'phony scandal' because The Lightbringer & Co. screwed up, and it's causing them problems.

And another critter post

Two things:
First, would this be considered cannibalism?
Eight-ton orca leaps 15ft into the air to finally capture dolphin he wanted for dinner after two-hour chase


And if you're jumpy about bugs, you might not want to read this one.  Think maggots and, ah, orifices.

A noise project

Any guesses?

Have a friend who does cowboy gunfights, who has an old .32 Short breaktop revolver he carries in a chest rig.  Looks very nice, but the amount of powder that would fit didn't give much of a bang, and he wondered if you could take a .32 Long case(which is about the length of a loaded Short cartridge) and neck it down so it'd fit in the Short chambers.

Well, let's see.

He'd thought a .30 Carbine sizing die might do it; nope, not nearly small enough.  I'd thought maybe a .25acp die, but don't have one, or know anyone who does.  Finally decided to try something:
Take the cylinder out of a .32 Short.
Anneal the front half of the case(that Tempilstik is coming in handy).
Run the cases into a .32 seating/crimp die to put as much crimp as possible in the mouth.
That turned out to be the real key: it made the mouth small enough(barely) that you could put the case(lubed) in the chamber and tap it in with a mallet.  In about halfway, pull out and turn a bit, then tap in the rest of the way, then pop out.

I tried the first one without annealing; trust me, it's much easier with.  And they pop right out by pushing the extractor rod, no sticking.

He's got a half-dozen to try; I'll let you know what he says.

No, we don't need to worry about NSA snooping,

noooooo....
And, of course, those defending the mass collection of data say the federal government is hardly getting anything at all! Nothing truly private! They aren’t reading our e-mail!
If they’re not, apparently it’s not from lack of trying. Tech privacy journalist Declan McCullagh over at CNet reports today that feds are asking Internet companies to divulge users’ passwords:

The U.S. government has demanded that major Internet companies divulge users' stored passwords, according to two industry sources familiar with these orders, which represent an escalation in surveillance techniques that has not previously been disclosed.

Remember the feathered visitor at the birthday party?

Finally remembered to put up a few more shots of him

And here's one with the falconer:

If you're thinking of buying The Law of Self Defense, go here

and use the discount.

I will now bitch and scream because I ordered a copy a week ago.  Before knowing about this.

The First National Bank of Wellston, OH, is apparently run by incompetents

Who also cannot correct their errors.
'Trying to come to terms' my ass.  If you idiots had three working brain cells you'd pay for her property, pay for the damages you did and pay for any costs she's incurred because of your idiocy.

As it is now, I hope she sues your sorry ass off.

And let it be known the local cops don't seem to be worth a crap, either.


They now think the problem with bees may be a combination of pesticides, fungicides and natural diseases.  Damn.


I don't think it's much of a mystery(damned sure not hostage-related) why Abedin is playing 'the good wife', just a matter of choosing:
She's a Hillary-style "I've got too much tied up in you to just let you sink like you deserve!" political wife, or
Considering her family connection with the Muslim Brotherhood, and the way she was probably raised, she might think her husband can do what he wants; in which case the "He's gotten better" crap is just window-dressing to try to protect him.

Although, thinking about it, it's possible she's doing it at direction of someone in/connected to the MB; "We have too much invested in this fool to abandon him now, so try to save him from himself.  You being the wife of the Mayor of New York City is too great a prize to give up on!"


If you replace the word “Church” with “Democratic party” and the word “Jesus” with “Anthony Weiner,” it’s actually a pretty sound analysis.

Tab clearing

Starting with
Bank that closed Defense Distributed account linked to ATF, 'Project Gunwalker'


More of the joys of illegal aliens


Could be closer to the day of "Achmed, we don't need any of your oil; so piss off."


Another dirtbag is Obama's pick for another agency bigshot.

It's so convenient, isn't it?

Delaware state officials have told Congress that they likely destroyed the computer records that would show when and how often they accessed Christine O'Donnell’s personal tax records and acknowledged that a newspaper article was used as the sole justification for snooping into the former GOP Senate candidate’s tax history.
Sounds like some people in Delaware need to become unemployed.  And 'the defendant'.

Specifically, Mr. Grassley’s staff was told that a Delaware state investigator asked for and received permission from his boss on a Saturday to access Ms. O'Donnell’s tax records based on a local newspaper article about a civil lien. The lien, it turned, out was issued erroneously.
Really?  He just happened to see this and considered it SO important that he got hold of the boss ON THE WEEKEND to get the ok to go snooping?  Illegally, from what I understand?

Time for firings and prosecutions.

A good little progressive Updated twice

who made this sign and showed up at a pro-Zimmerman rally and acted like she was one of them.

Which, of course, the media just ate up.
Slight problem: people actually part of the rally knew it was bullshit, took her picture and looked around; her name is Renee Vaughan and she works for Texas Campaign For The Environment.

After it came out who/what she is, she said she's sorry: I didn't think before I acted, etc.
Apparently not when she had the idea, not while she was making the sign, or travelling to the rally...  TCFE is sorry, too.

She's really sorry about doing it, or sorry about getting caught?


Added:
Ace says she wasn't trying to act like one of the crowd, she was trying to insult them.  And the media just assumed she was a pro-Zimmerman type.
So what is she apologizing for?


Update 2:
Thehoax began with vague and ambiguous reporting from the Houston Chronicle in regards to a picture of a protester holding a sign that during a Justice-for-Trayvon/New Black Panther Party protest. The New York Daily News’ Philip Caulfield then distorted the Chronicle’s reporting and spun a narrative portraying the Houston paper’s report as directly identifying the sign bearer as a “Zimmerman supporter.”

A Democratic strategist, Tara Dowdell, then took to FOX News and asserted the false narrative as fact. Soon, the UK’s Daily Mail repeated the false reporting from the New York Daily News as fact to an international community.

The New York Daily News retracted the false claims after outcry resulting from the Breitbart video. Tara Dowdell initially tried to argue the issue via Twitter, but once the video of the interview was made available to her, she simply went silent. She did not acknowledge her error, nor did she apologize to Zimmerman supporters for the smear she presented to millions of viewers on national television.

Kindly Ma Nature; trying to kill you

24/7, and eventually she'll succeed.

Sometimes in nasty ways.

I put in my renewal on my carry permit in April,

80 days ahead of expiration.  When I handed it in the lady said "We're running about 60 days on renewals", causing me to congratulate myself for putting mine in that far ahead.

I just got it today.  103 days later.

It seems they're a bit backed up over there.

Trying to keep a cat on a vegan diet;

takes a real farging moron to try that.
Lort Smith Animal Hospital veterinarian Leanne Pinfold said the kitten was brought in this month by its owners, who were believed to be vegan.

She said the kitten's diet of potatoes, rice milk and pasta had caused it to become critically ill.

"It was extremely weak and collapsed when it came in. It was almost non-responsive," Dr Pinfold said.
Much like the owners' brains, then.

Hey, West Virginia, look who Manchin (updated)

is still hanging out with.  And taking money from.
Bloomberg will host a July 22 fundraiser at his upper East Side home for Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), sources said. Tickets for the event start at $1,000.


It appears the ACLU couldn't make up its collective mind(yeah, I know, shut up); first they wanted the feds to go after Zimmerman, then enough people finally yelled about "Hey, we're supposed to be AGAINST double-jeopardy crap, remember?" that they reversed course.
And the writer takes not of one of the effects this 'Get Zimmerman' crap has on people not lost to the perpetual grievance-mongers:
...Thousands may turn out to march, but millions will close their ears because of what they see as the unfair connection to George Zimmerman, a man with no history of racial animus, who a jury determined was not guilty of any crime at a trial at which no one alleged he acted out of racial animosity, and the connection to Trayvon Martin, whom they do not view as an innocent, but as someone who committed an unprovoked physical assault and unfortunately lost his life because the person he assaulted lawfully defended himself.
Others who will be turned off: Those who know that stand your ground laws had nothing to do with Zimmerman being found not guilty. He would have been found to have acted in self defense with or without the duty to retreat language, because the testimony and evidence at trial showed he had no place to retreat to once attacked by Martin. A duty to retreat presupposes a means of escape is available.
Nice to know a lot of people understand that.


How John Boehner sucks, Example #53:
“It’s not about me,” Boehner said. “It’s not about what I want. What I’m — what I’ve committed to when I became speaker was to a more open and fair process. And as difficult as this issue is, me taking a hard position for or against some of these issues will make it harder for us to get a bill.”

“If I come out and say I’m for this and I’m for that, all I’m doing is making my job harder,” Boehner told Schieffer. “My job is to — as the leader of the House, is to facilitate this conversation and this process that involves members on both sides of the aisle, involves the American people and where they can see us moving in a deliberative, step-by-step, commonsense way.”
Well, crap, I thought being Speaker meant LEADING YOUR PARTY, not 'Screw principle, I have to get a bill.  No matter how bad it sucks.'


Man, those banks REALLY didn't want Mythbusters doing that show on RFID tags, did they?

Update: this in comments from Phelps:
So how is that hackable? Easy. You walk around with your own xmitter/reader. You light up every RFID around you, and read its number. You end up with a ton of numbers (or maybe just a few.) You find the ones that are the right format to be bank cards. You take your own RFID tag, and program it with that number. Boom. Clone card. It's like if you could see every credit card in someone's wallet from 20 ft away, on a glance, as you walked by them in the mall, from inside a backpack.
About what I thought.
You know, you'd think the banks would like the idea of people knowing that they need to be careful with things; apparently not.




Ah, the left; if they don't find anyone being what they want, they'll fake it.  And faking people being racist is their favorite slander.

Of course the stupid hurts;

problem is, the ones most stupid usually don't realize the pain.


Also from Miguel: "We just won't call it 'confiscation".

Never heard lf Jelani Cobb before;

Now I know the name, and that he's either a liar or a fool parroting lies.
This narrative has perpetuated the lie that Zimmerman’s history of calls to the police indicates obsessive racial paranoia. Thus, discussing the verdict on the PBS NewsHour, University of Connecticut professor and New Yorker contributor Jelani Cobb asserted that “Zimmerman had called the police 46 times in previous six years, only for African-Americans, only for African-American men.” Actually, only six calls—two of them about Trayvon Martin—had to do with African-American men. At least three involved complaints about whites; others were about such issues as a fire alarm going off, a reckless driver of unknown race, or an aggressive dog.


 'Where Is Gun Control?'
Bozo won't like the answer.

Mr. Correia has some thoughts(naturally) on Obama's speech (link fixed)

and profiling and SYG laws.  Anything that includes
There are very few African American men who haven’t had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me — at least before I was a senator.
Don’t flatter yourself. Nobody has ever been physically intimidated by somebody wearing mom jeans. Now Vlad Putin on the other hand, he shows up, hide your wife, hide your kids.
you know you've got to see all of.

By the way; is he saying he became such a Noble Personage that everybody knew him, or that being a Senator conferred some air* about him that all knew him for what he was**?



*Stench?
**Naw; if they'd known that they'd have pulled the gates down AND locked the doors.

"A few low-level employees in Cleveland" my ass, parts 37

and 38:
Confidential tax records of several political candidates and campaign donors were improperly accessed by government officials, but the Justice Department declined to prosecute any of the officials involved, even in one “willful” violation of the law, an IRS watchdog reported.
...
TIGTA announced in response to a letter from six Republican senators it was launching an investigation into Goolsbee’s comments and whether he violated the law. However, the report was never released to the senators or the public. 

The Washington Examiner obtained an Aug. 10, 2011, email from Treasury Special Agent Daniel K. Carney, in which he wrote, “The final report relative to the investigation of Austan Goolsbee’s press conference remark is completed, has gone through all the approval processes.” 

The Free Beacon filed a FOIA request seeking the report, but TIGTA denied the request, saying it could neither confirm nor deny its existence of the report.
Note to TIGTA: doesn't make much sense to play "There is no report" when it's already known THERE IS ONE; no matter how much you want kiss up to somebody and try to hide things.

For 38,
On March 9, 2010, Christine O'Donnell's personal income tax records were illegally accessed by a Delaware public official. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) reports that a previously-undisclosed "back door" to the IRS computer system was used to invade the privacy of Christine O'Donnell's tax records.


Who knew? It turns out that state government criminal investigators can directly -- though illegally -- access IRS records through a "back door." Along with O'Donnell, at least four other political candidates and four conservative donors have been identified so far as victims of this abuse.
Haven't heard of anyone being prosecuted on this either, have you?
But wait!  There's MORE!!
Next, also on that same March 9, 2010, the IRS unlawfully issued a tax lien upon a house which Christine O'Donnell did not own. This lien was absolutely illegal because the IRS was not finished yet with its highly-suspicious audit of O'Donnell's 2005 tax return. No tax was legally due because no final decision had been made yet. Imagine collecting money when maybe no money is owed! The IRS cannot legally issue a tax lien without first finalizing the amount owed. Yet they did.


Furthermore, on March 9, a copy of that tax lien was illegally leaked to the news media -- before it reached O'Donnell herself. At O'Donnell's March 10, 2010, campaign kickoff news conference, reporters already had a copy of the March 9, 2010, tax lien in their hands.Remember, this is not a 'violation of IRS policy', IT'S BREAKING FRIGGIN' LAWS.  But, just like Fast & Furious nobody has even been CHARGED, let alone tried.

And if bastards like Cummings have their way, nobody will be.

Bob reminded me of another new one

from Chiappa; the Double Badger.

It's a .22 top, .410 under.  And folds up same as the Little Badger for packing.

And this kind of thing is why atheists get the reputation

of being !)#** assholes.
The Freedom from Religion Foundation wants the proposed Statehouse Holocaust memorial changed by removing what it sees as the Jewish religious symbolism of the Star of David.

That garlic in the bottom of the pickle jar...

"I'll give it a try" thinks I.

I don't think the mosquitoes will bother me for a couple of days.

Tried the second jar today.  I think I'll use the apple cider vinegar for the next, and a bit less salt; otherwise, they good.

I need more cucumbers.  And those on the vines are all about 3" long.  Store tomorrow.

Oh, that put the weasel in the henhouse!

Egypt's new 34-member cabinet has "prominent figures from the country's liberal and secular forces," including three women and three Christians, but zero Islamists nor any "ministers from [Mohammed] Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood."
A: Looks like they're serious about trying to get Egypt back on its feet.
B: The forces of darkness are seriously going to lose their shit over this.  And it's likely to get bloody.
And they may not like whose blood is spilled the most.
C: I'll bet our Dear Leader is pissed; his favorites have been blocked out.


Just a reminder of why the Nobel Peace Prize is such a joke anymore: they passed over this lady in order to give it to Algore for enriching himself with globular warmening bullshit.

One of those cute things you just want

for some reason.

Chiappa Little Badger survival/backpacking rifle.  .22 caliber, break-action, actual good sights(look like they were copied from the M1 Carbine).  And it folds up to a touch over 16" long and weighs just over three pounds.

That's four sides of rail on the barrel, and a short section right behind the trigger guard(pistol grip, maybe?), and the muzzle is threaded.

I actually have no need for one, I just want the damn thing.

To every jackass out there who insists Zimmerman was at no real risk:

While Molina was talking, Gonzalez "struck the victim on the face and then grabbed his legs and threw him to the concrete. (Gonzalez) then got on top of the victim and continued to punch him in the face," the document states.
...
According to court documents, Molina suffered a fractured skull, internal head injuries and multiple facial fractures. 
He died nine days later.  After this beating from another 17-year-old 'child'.


Found over at Tam's.

Why do we want to tar & feather most of the Senate?

Report: Senate immigration bill includes nearly $300 million in slush funds for immigrants' rights groups, in language drafted by the former policy chief for one such organization

The National Council of La Raza is likely to benefit from grant money set aside in an immigration bill drafted by its former policy director

Legislation passed in the Senate would exclude three-time DUI offenders from a path to citizenship, but two-time drunk drivers would be acceptable


In a separate little-noticed section of the legislation, senators propose to rewrite the laws against counterfeiting passports and the materials used to obtain them. Those new laws would set a legal threshold of 10 phony passports before a fraudster could be prosecuted for buying, selling or using counterfeit materials used to produce such fake documents.

Another section would exclude serial drunk-drivers from gaining a path to citizenship, but only after they rack up a third DUI offense.
Every bastard who voted for this should be removed from office and introduced to a roofing trailer.