The two Sikhs who whacked on the armed thief?

Apparently there was enough outrage over the thought of them being prosecuted that the DA- who's running for office again- announced "Oh no, they won't be charged!"

I can't imagine why...

And have you noticed that almost none of the news stories have mention of the fact that, earlier in the video, the crook appears to show a knife to the clerks?  I also wonder why.

Translation from bureaucrat(which is the same language the world over):

"We'll gather information and decide if action is needed" = "We're not going to do squat."
Rampaging wild boars weighing more than 30 stone are attacking lambs and must be culled, Scottish farmers have said.

Steven MacKenzie, a Highland gamekeeper, said he had shot a boar double the normal size as it attacked one of his ewes. He believes extra protein from devouring farm animals explains why wild boars are increasing in size.
...
A Scottish government spokesman said: “We will continue to collate information on the distribution and impact of feral pigs in Scotland and consider whether any further action is required.”

The head of Cyber Command and the EffingBI say things like

...warned recently that a major cyber attack by nation-states against critical infrastructures poses a major security threat.
“It is only a matter of the ‘when,’ not the ‘if’—we’re going to see a nation-state, group, or actor engage in destructive behavior against critical infrastructure in the United States,” Rogers, who is also director of the National Security Agency, said in a speech March 2.
While DHS, the same people giving us lots of illegal aliens and "Yes, a few months ago we told you to have food, water and such prepared in case of disaster, but now we're telling you that anyone stockpiling those things should be reported", says
The majority of malicious cyber attacks against energy companies was downplayed as “low-level cybercrime that is likely opportunistic in nature rather than specifically aimed at the sector, [and] is financially or ideologically motivated, and is not meant to be destructive.”
I know which I'm more likely to believe.


No, the history of the minimum wage isn't one of compassion and caring; it's putting people out of work.  Especially the wrong kind of people.


Coming from you Fauxcahontas, that's rich.

Want

Sharp object, potentially quite shiny and useful.  With a fine pedigree.

So, we have the choice of the EffingBI Director either being mistaken, or lying...
Way things are, I know which way I'm leaning.


Further reason the IRS should be either done away with, or chopped by at least 2/3s and fitted with a very tight choke collar.
The Committee learned of allegations concerning a series of contracts, potentially worth more than $500 million, awarded by the IRS to Strong Castle. Witnesses who contacted the Committee alleged that Strong Castle engaged in fraud to win those IRS contracts. Documents and testimony obtained by the Committee showed that a cozy relationship between Strong Castle President and Chief Executive Officer Braulio Castillo and IRS Deputy Director for IT Acquisition Greg Roseman may have influenced the selection process.

Just like one of the other bigshots, he's taken the 5th, too.



Czech gun culture
And I've lost track of where I found the link; whoever it was, thank you


"Know your place, you peasant gun-nut!"


"I used to have a badge, so this law shouldn't apply to me!"
Golden, you're an idiot.  You've just told honest citizens that they're second-class citizens, and you expect them to be happy with that?

Sometimes you just run into a string of things at a blog

all of which should be spread around. So from a link Tam had to Popehat, we get in total
Idiocy from the Border Patrol, which should really be more worried about the AG and DHS and others trying to get BP agents killed;

The general rule for good health(it seems) when talking to law enforcement: "Shut up."

Various idiocy from LE organizations. Which seems to include "If you don't have something to hide, then you'll tell us whatever we ask. Like it or not." Quote from linked post:
A spokesman for the D.C. police, who had not seen the film, said the rules are good rules to follow. “However,” he said, “if you have nothing to hide and police are doing some kind of investigation, you should tell them whatever they need to know. Police are there to protect the society and the community in which we work.”
And who decides what they 'need to know'? You sure as hell don't.
Also, from Cato: Ten rules for dealing with police

If this is correct, the people running Boston Public Schools

are friggin' morons. First, if the other kid started it, he had every right to protect himself.

Second, sexual harassment? For a punch in a fight? I repeat, friggin' morons.

No wonder the bastards don't want to talk about the actual test

results on the machinery; and, as I recall, they've NEVER released the actual safety tests, have they?
The Transportation Security Administration announced Friday that it would retest every full-body X-ray scanner that emits ionizing radiation — 247 machines at 38 airports — after maintenance records on some of the devices showed radiation levels 10 times higher than expected.

The TSA says that the records reflect math mistakes and that all the machines are safe. Indeed, even the highest readings listed on some of the records — the numbers that the TSA says were mistakes — appear to be many times less than what the agency says a person absorbs through one day of natural background radiation.

Even so, the TSA has ordered the new tests out of "an abundance of caution to reassure the public," spokesman Nicholas Kimball says. The tests will be finished by the end of the month, and the results will be released "as they are completed," the agency said on its website.
A: Why should we trust them?
B: I wonder how long it will take for them to be 'completed'? And how they'll be edited before release?

So the 'wrong' kind of holster

makes your pistol a AOW. Which is effing rediculous. Tam in the comments:
I’d hate to set myself up for a “constructive possession” charge while waiting to find out what the BATFEIEIO’s official opinion is. I’m just sayin’…
Which is exactly the problem with this "We change our opinion and it changes the law" crap.

While waiting for the next snowfall,

predicted to arrive Tuesday night, I got all the pruned branches stacked out front for the big trash pickup; I know it won't be on time(Wednesday), but they'll do a makeup day a few days later, so got them out now.

Ok, looking around, Rep. Waxman(Socialist Jackass-CA) doesn't like the idea of oversight when it means looking at Obamacare:
"I am a strong supporter of congressional oversight, and I respect and support the Committee's right to seek information about the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. But I do not believe your oversight powers justify going on fishing expeditions or making extensive requests for internal e-mails and other communications where there is no evidence of waste, fraud, or abuse of any kind."
Response:
...As Upton noted in his response, the latest figures from HHS indicate that more than 700 such waivers have been issued. "Thus, HHS has apparently granted more than three times as many waivers as you cite in your letter," Upton said. "This fact alone underscores the dire need for oversight of the health care law, its effects, and its implementation by this Administration."


If this pans out, it'll be wonderful:
Scientists at Oxford University have successfully tested a universal flu vaccine that could work against all known strains of the illness, taking a significant step in the fight against a disease that affects billions of people each year.

The treatment – using a new technique and tested for the first time on humans infected with flu – targets a different part of the flu virus to traditional vaccines, meaning it does not need expensive reformulation every year to match the most prevalent virus that is circulating the world.
Of course, the idiots will be screaming because fewer people will be dying.


Want to have an idea why education in this state has been so effed up? The state Board of Education:
Among other things, the board voted to divert $18 million from the teachers’ retirement system last summer, violating an executive order from then-Governor Brad Henry. The board did not reverse course until former Democratic Attorney General Drew Edmondson issued a formal opinion declaring the fund shift illegal; violated guidelines over the use of federal stimulus funds and, after redirecting the funds for purposes authorized by the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, failed to provide correct reporting guidelines to schools using the money; and failed to approve a budget work program that complies with former Henry’s executive order 2010-26, issued last June.
Please note that crap like that first item, in the past, is a big part of how the teacher's retirement system got so badly screwed up, too.


In the investigation by Trentadue into the death of his brother after the April 19 OKC bombing, all kinds of things keep turning up:
The federal government attempted in 2005 to reach a deal with bomber Terry Nichols to take the death penalty off the table in his Oklahoma murder trial if he admitted to making a warning phone call to the FBI the day before the 1995 bombing, according to new documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.
...
They also corroborate Nichols' claims that the government tried to get him to admit to making an April 18, 1995 phone call to the FBI warning of the bombing. Nichols claimed he knew nothing of the call.
"What that indicates to me, there is a record somewhere of that phone call and the FBI needs to explain it," said Trentadue in an interview with KTOK News. "If the call was from one of their informants with McVeigh, clearly, they had knowledge of the bombing and didn't stop it."
I doubt we'll ever find out everything about this mess; too many people in Federal agencies have too much tied up in keeping things out of the public view. And some of it appears to be evidence of incompetence:
The explosives were discovered in 2005 in the crawl space of the Herington, Kansas home where Nichols had lived. The discovery came 10 years after Nichols' arrest and following a search of his home by federal agents in 1995. The explosives were not destroyed until 2008 by the FBI.


Well, isn't this just wonderful?
At the heart of the concern is intelligence indicating that Egypt has quietly carried out research and development on weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear, chemical, biological and missile technology.

The research and development has continued virtually without pause over the past three decades, according to interviews with U.S. officials and a review of intelligence and other government documents by NBC News.
And with the administration making kissy-faces with the Muslim Brotherhood, this is just extra-special wonderful.


Well, well, well, remember Holthouse? Guy who said he'd gotten a gun and silencer and planned a murder? Guess what else he's done?
Experienced readers of Sipsey Street will recall that I have dealt with the subject of this serial libeler before here: "Meet David Holthouse, premier paid liar at the Southern Preposterous Lie Center."

That article mentioned that Holthouse and SPLC were being sued for libel by historian Guenter Lewy.

Well, lo and behold, SPLC and Holthouse apologized to Lewy and paid him some money to go away.
Such a wonderful source for information...


Back to federal- well, do you call it incompetence? Idiocy? Self-service dirtbags acting without care for the harm they do as long as it makes them look good? And(they hope) gives them more money to play with?
Well the word from Phoenix is that the SAIC Newell wanted to be able to track where these guns were going in Mexico. As such, the analysts have made pretty charts with lines showing where these guns have turned up. I am not sure how that stems the flow of guns South, especially considering these guns usually get recovered alongside dead bodies.

Fox News about a year ago did a good report to disprove the myth that most of the crime guns recovered in Mexico came from the US. This report was based upon evidence they obtained in part from ATF trace reports. However, with the recent flooding of guns being “walked” to Mexico by ATF (intended to be future crime guns) there is statistical evidence to demonstrate an escalated flow of guns going South from the US. The solution…….(Part I) take “data” to Congress to get more money, Agents and stuff to battle the flow of guns to Mexico….but actually spend it “wherever” .

Further, at the conclusion of this post:
“Rio Rico 2”. What happened in Rio Rico where 2 firearms were recovered?

________________________

Mike Vanderboegh answers: The murder of Brian Terry. Note that the origins of the scandal begin at least back in 2009. Note also the Justice Department approval of wiretaps. Do you recall what Senator Grassley wrote in his first letter of 27 January to Acting Director Melson about if the ATF had prior contact with straw purchasers that it would raise a number of serious questions? The fact is that coupled with the decision (by Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer) to get rid of Attache Gil and keep the Mexicans in the dark, this is where the cover-up began. It explains why the FBI has been mum on the murder investigation. They CAN'T give us details without the whole sordid tale coming out.

And the latest from Codrea on this mess.


On a more local level, the Camden PD is apparently run by fascist clowns who don't care about that pesky oath involving the Constitution:
In the federal lawsuit filed last week, Davila claims officers are required to approach random residents and ask for personal information and, in some cases, take photographs of the individual or even run a warrant check without probable cause.

Officers are required to document the encounters and are then evaluated on how many reports they take during a shift, the lawsuit alleges.

Believing the practice to be a violation of citizens' rights, Davila objected to the initiative in a March 2009 roll call after Deputy Chief Michael Lynch allegedly stated "no resident of the City of Camden should be able to come out of their home and not expect to be engaged by a Camden Police Officer," the lawsuit claims.
One of the things that pops to mind: did the PD run these randomly-stopped people through the Interstate Identification Index as well as a general warrant search? If so, they violated both NCIC police and federal privacy law as well as the other violations you can think of in crap like this.


Yeek!
Over the past 10 years, city cops fired 4,702 bullets, accidentally pulled the trigger 323 times, and missed 78 percent of their intended targets, according to data The Post culled from a decade's worth of NYPD annual firearm-discharge reports.
Which connects right back to Tam's post:
NYPD's Emergency Services Unit (which, among other functions, serves as their SWAT team) has managed to rack up three NDs in the past three months, including a rooftop sniper sending one flying while pulling security at a Madison Square Garden event and a cop on a raid in the Bronx shooting the suspect's father in the stomach.
Sounds like they need a training upgrade in NYC. Badly.


Let's see, a corporation is made up of stockholders, runs businesses where people are employed and thus get a paycheck, and now Obama says “Corporate Profits “Have To Be Shared By American Workers”? Uh, no, they don't, you socialist clown; they have to pay their employees the wages and benefits that have been agreed upon, nothing more.


NC Gun Blog looks at the problems with 'safe storage' laws.


And finally, when the Justice Department can't even deal with bogus domestic violence information, why should we expect them to deal well with anything else?

In North Carolina sits a clown named Kevin Lacy,

their DOT's State Traffic Engineer. Who should be removed from that position and kicked out the door for this crap.
The N.C. Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors, a professional licensing agency, is investigating an allegation in December against David N. Cox by Kevin Lacy, the Department of Transportation's state traffic engineer.

Lacy said an eight-page traffic analysis submitted by Cox on behalf of a North Raleigh neighborhood group appeared to contain "engineering-level work" done by someone not licensed as an engineer.

Cox and the North Raleigh Coalition of Homeowners' Associations offered the study in a failed effort to win state approval for new traffic signals at two intersections on Falls of Neuse Road. The city of Raleigh will start work this spring to widen a 1.3-mile stretch of Falls of Neuse.
"Be involved in your government! But if we don't like what you say or how you say it, we'll screw you over."


"Screw the rules, let's take care of him." In all the best ways.



David Cameron has criticised "state multiculturalism" in his first speech as prime minister on radicalisation and the causes of terrorism.

At a security conference in Germany, he argued the UK needed a stronger national identity to prevent people turning to all kinds of extremism.
Used to be that if you immigrated to a country you learned the language and obeyed the laws and became a citizen of that country; then MC became the thing and Britain(and us, and Europe) is paying the price. And, of course, the usual suspects are screaming "How dare you!" Including wityh this bit of bullshit:
Luton Labour MEP Richard Howitt, a keynote speaker at the counter-rally to the EDL demo in Luton, added: "The attack on multiculturalism surrenders to the far-right ideology that moderate and fundamentalist ideas cannot be distinguished from each other, and actually undermines respect and co-operation between peoples of different faith.
Dumbass, we can- and could- distinguish between those things; you did not want people to be allowed to do so, because it would hurt what you were trying to do. So you have sections of major cities where non-muslims can't safely go, and the police won't go unless in teams, and British laws aren't enforced if it might upset the muslims running the areas. And idiots like you want to make it even worse.



It was reported that Alternet, Soros’ Media Matters, and other progressives staged a conference call this afternoon where they mapped strategy to defend Planned Parenthood from the choices Planned Parenthood staffers made on tape.
...
The majority of the call was spent discussing ways to discredit Rose because of her funding. They surmise that some group which donates to her pro-life magazine is a group donated to by a group given money by the Koch Brothers. So says people who just cashed a $1 million-dollar check from George Soros.

For the sake of argument, assuming that the Koch Brothers (I had to Google them to see exactly what it is they do and how their name isn’t pronounced like the sobriquet for phallus but rather, the soda) were as ubiquitous in activism as George Soros is publicly, the greatest irony has befallen our senior fellows who hate big business and personal wealth so much: they are willing pawns in a battle between frillionaires. This alone virtually precludes any other potential criticism of their actions. George Soros is the only billionaire allowed. See, they hate personal wealth when it isn’t made out in $1 million dollar increments to their organizations.




I have to admit, might've been me as a kid


And more of Nanny Bloomberg's 'Do As I Say, Not As I Do' crap:
When Mayor Bloomberg came into office there was just one executive cook at Gracie Mansion to make the VIP feasts.

Today there are three - costing taxpayers a whopping $245,000 this year.

And despite the big spending cuts the mayor has ordered across every city agency, too many cooks won't be spoiling the broth at the city-owned mansion.



And that's all I've got time for right now. It's sunny, it's up to 24- almost yesterdays high- and have to run out for some stuff.

Further idiocy from Scotland:

"We have a new law you must observe. But we won't tell you how to obey it."

I submit another agency that has so much free cash and time

that their budget needs to be drastically cut. Or the agency done away with entirely.
FTC Suspects Chuck E. Cheese of Marketing to Children
The eagle-eyed regulators at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have a sneaking suspicion that a company offering disgusting pizza, animatronic human-sized mice, and a ball pit may be trying to appeal to children. Or rather, their marketing (the slogan was “Chuck E. Cheese: Where a Kid Can Be a Kid!” last time I checked) may inappropriately appeal to children.
How about an alternate headline: "FTC Suspected Of Insane Power Grab", or "These Effing Bureaucrats Need To Be Hanged"?

At this point Lisa Jackson should be fired and the EPA

should be either put on a very damned short leash or done away with.
Will Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson make a back door move to ban lead bullets the day before the November 2 elections?

Several environmentalist groups led by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) are petitioning the EPA to ban lead bullets and shot (as well as lead sinkers for fishing) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Although EPA is barred by statute from controlling ammunition, CBD is seeking to work farther back along the manufacturing chain and have EPA ban the use of lead in bullets and shot because non-lead alternatives are available. But here's the catch: the alternatives to lead bullets are more expensive. A ban on the sale of lead ammunition would force hunters and sport shooters to buy non-lead ammunition that is often double the cost of traditional lead ammunition. A box of deer hunting bullets in a popular caliber could be upwards of $55.

Although the EPA could have dismissed the request due to a lack of jurisdiction, it is obliging CBD.
Let's note also what Sebastian pointed out the other day: Remember this is a no-win situation for us, because bullets made of materials other than lead are often considered armor piercing by law. Which I wonder if might be part of what they're going for: ban conventional bullets, and then ban bullets- or start using existing law to ban- made of anything they can possible describe as 'armor piercing'.

Note the day she makes her decision, the day before the November 2 elections; makes you wonder if this is fanaticism, incompetence or an actual wish to do severe damage to the Democrat Party.

Let's see what's up today

The professionalism of ABC News:
I noticed a man in black shirt with a phone camera aggressively questioning and haranguing a gentleman with the sign, “No Sharia Here.” He was very aggressive, disrespectful and condescending; apparently, he did not like the gentlemen’s answers about Shariah and pushed the point: “Why do you feel threatened? What are you afraid of? Why can’t you answer my questions?”
...
But there was cameraman was standing nearby, watching the scene play out. When I asked, he said he worked for ABC News. I then asked if the man in the black shirt was with him. The ABC cameraman said, “yes.”
...
Sure enough, a few blocks away, I observed the man in the black shirt getting into an ABC News truck and putting on the sound equipment. When he saw me with my camera, he attempted to hide. At that time it became clear the man in the black shirt was an employee of ABC News. The ABC cameraman also witnessed his colleague’s aggressive behavior–and did nothing to stop him.
ABC: Making All The News We Want You To See.


The FDA and DEA just can't stop screwing with things. And people.
The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) is beginning a "massive new program" to reduce overdoses, diversion, and inappropriate use of powerful opioid pain relievers, especially targeting extended-release and patch formulations of fentanyl, methadone, morphine, oxycodone, and oxymorphone. On Monday, the FDA announced it had sent letters to 16 drug companies who produce the 24 listed products informing them they would now have to create a Risk Evaluation and Management Strategy (REMS) "to ensure that the benefits of the drugs continue to outweigh the risks."

That means physicians are likely to face new procedures in prescribing the drugs, and patients are likely to face more hurdles in obtaining them, an FDA official said at a Monday press conference. But pain patients already face serious obstacles in obtaining relief. The FDA action comes in the context of a campaign by the DEA to crack down on doctors it deems to have improperly prescribed large amounts of opioid pain medication -- even though prescribing what at first glance appear to be extremely large amounts is well with standard pain relief practice. Physician's fears of being prosecuted have contributed to what pain patient advocates describe as a crisis in chronic pain relief.
Apparently they have food safety and actual illegal drugs so under control they can waste time and people on this; maybe their budgets need to be looked at.


Ah, the wonders socialism brings to countries...
Fernandez's countrymen went wild with joy on bulletin boards and Facebook, showing just how worried they are about their country. Their greatest fear is violent crime.

Ever since Chavez became president in 1999, Venezuelan cities have become hellholes in which murder rates have more than quadrupled. At 233 per 100,000, or one murder every 90 minutes, the rate in Caracas now tops that of every war zone in the world, according to an official National Statistics Institute study released Wednesday.

In fact, crime is the defining fact of life in today's Venezuela. About 96% of all murder victims are poor and lower-middle class, the very people Chavez claims to represent. "Don't venture into barrios at any time of the day, let alone at night," warns the Lonely Planet guide to Venezuela to hardy adventure travelers.


One of the consequences of telling kids the only good work to go for is something with a college degree:
Workers with specialized skills like electricians, carpenters and welders are in critically short supply in many large economies, a shortfall that marks another obstacle to the global economic recovery, a research paper by Manpower Inc (NYSE:MAN - News) concludes.

"It becomes a real choke-point in future economic growth," Manpower Chief Executive Jeff Joerres said. "We believe strongly this is really an issue in the labor market."
And so what are they doing? Importing skilled workers from other countries.

You've got kids or grandkids, point out to them that these are jobs where you can make good pay, they tend to be pretty secure AND they don't require years giving thousands(tens of, hundreds of) of dollars to a college.


Hadn't said anything about this before: while back Rep. Carnahan(D-MO) suffered a firebomb attack at an office. Usual accusations against tea party, etc. Except
Reporters, Prompted By Rightwing Blogs, Ask Russ Carnahan If His Own Staffer Was Arrested (and Released) In Connection With Firebombing
and Carnahan says 'yes'. Interesting.


I think I'll close this with a quote from Jefferson about Congress under the Articles of Confederation:
Our body was little numerous, but very contentious," Jefferson noted, but he asked how it could be any other way if Congress was doomed to be composed of lawyers "whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing and talk by the hour."
I have wondered: what might a ban on lawyers serving in Congress be like...

The REAL Gulf disaster

Info here

By the way, why the hell is the Dept. of Agriculture

making low-income housing loans?

I'm going to start this with a great big "Screw you porridge-monkey bastards

in Scotland"
Megrahi, 58, is the only person convicted of the 1988 bombing of a US Pan Am jumbo jet over Lockerbie, which left 270 dead.

Professor Sikora, the dean of medicine at Buckingham University and medical director of CancerPartnersUK in London, was paid for his medical assessment of Megrahi at Greenock prison on July last year.

He told the newspaper: “There was always a chance he could live for 10 years, 20 years ... But it's very unusual.

"It was clear that three months was what they were aiming for. Three months was the critical point.

"On the balance of probabilities, I felt I could sort of justify [that]."
Yeah, you could 'justify' that so the Scots and English governments could suck up to Gadaffi by turning a mass-murdering terrorist loose. Scotland, screw you; you keep making me so very damned glad some of my ancestors got the hell out of there a long time ago.


If this is how NASA is going to be run, we need to dump it entirely and let private enterprise take over completely:
In the video below, Charles Bolden, head of NASA, tells Al Jazeera that the "foremost" task President Obama has given him is "to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with predominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering." Thus, NASA's primary mission is no longer to enhance American science and engineering or to explore space, but to boost the self-esteem of "predominantly Muslim nations."

Exploring space didn't even make the top three things Obama wants Bolden to accomplish. The other two are "re-inspire children to want to get into science and math" and "expand our international relationships,"
Add that to this:
Bolden is being investigated by the NASA inspector general because he consulted on the project's merits with Marathon Oil, where he served on the board of directors and still holds up to $1 million in company stock. Marathon Oil has competing biofuels technology under development, which some suggest is the reason Bolden quashed the project. Bolden's actions in light of his relationship to Marathon Oil triggered the investigation.
and we also have one more Obama appointee who belongs in a cell.


BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - A 100-foot (33-meter), twin-screw diesel submarine seized at a jungle shipyard in Ecuador marks a quantum, if anticipated, leap in drug-smuggling evasion technology, the top U.S. counter-drug official for the region said Sunday.

"It is the first fully functional, completely submersible submarine for transoceanic voyages that we have ever found," Jay Bergman, Andean regional director for the Drug Enforcement Administration, told The Associated Press.


From Theo:


From Blazing Cat Fur, if you go to Britain do NOT trust their 'justice' system. Especially if you're Jewish:
The seven broke into the EDO MBM armaments factory in January 2009 at the time of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. The factory was exporting military equipment to Israel. After being directed to acquit them by the Judge, George Bathurst-Norman, the Jury duly obliged, accepting their defence that although they had committed a crime, they were doing so in order to prevent the greater offence of Israeli “war crimes”.


More Wonders Of Obamacare:
The Columbus-based family owned restaurant chain - known for serving small square hamburgers called "sliders" – says a single provision in the bill will eat up roughly 55 percent of its yearly net income after 2014.

Starting that year, the bill levies a $3,000-per-employee penalty on companies whose workers pay more than 9.5 percent of household income in premiums for company-provided insurance.

White Castle, which currently provides insurance to all of its full-time workers and picks up 70 to 89 percent of their premium costs, believes it will likely end up paying those penalties. The financial hit will make it hard for the company to maintain its 421 restaurants, let alone create new jobs, says company spokesman Jamie Richardson. White Castle employs more than 10,000 people nationwide, and more than 1,200 in Ohio.

We need to borrow from a fine comedian and start a new line: "Mr. President, here's your sign!"


Wouldn't surprise me:
The drug-cartel enforcer told an unsettling story: A woman who worked in the Mexican border's biggest U.S. consulate had helped a rival gang obtain American visas. And for that, the enforcer said, he ordered her killed.


The Holder view on civil rights and voter intimidation:



And that's your Moments of AHHHHGH! for today. If you're lucky, I may be back later.

Remember that bit about restricted airspace over the spill zone?

Consensus was it was to keep air traffic down for safety reasons. Maybe not, it seems:
I don’t think this is an “Obama problem” as much as it is a “government problem,” but of course the bold, fresh Hopenchange climate of transparency was supposed to solve this particular government problem, wasn’t it? The next question, though, is what would be waiting for CNN on the beach assuming they were allowed to go down there. For a hint, see the second clip below via Fast Company. Remember, according to multiple sources, BP’s actually stooped to creating the beach equivalent of Potemkin villages as backdrops for Obama photo ops. Even the stuff in the gulf that looks okay isn’t really okay.

Got some stuff planned that'll keep bloggage to a minimum

the next couple of days, so I'll try to give a fair pile of stuff now. Starting with
Arizona is spending $1.25 million to build bridges for 250 rare red squirrels so they won’t get hit by cars crossing the rural road. The money is being spent, officials said, because cars kill about five of these squirrels each year.
Federal grant money. Which means the feds take it from us for crap like this.


While the feds are too busy to actually DO anything about illegal aliens, like enforce our borders, they're busy spending our money on this:
ICE chief John Morton — the same man who signaled last month that he may refuse to process illegal aliens sent to him by Arizona law enforcement officials — has already eliminated 50 detention facilities. This despite a DHS inspector general report released last spring exposing the federal government’s bipartisan failure to expand detention space capacity to end the dangerous game of illegal alien “catch and release.”

Instead, among the p.c. makeover measures under consideration or about to be made by Obama’s ICE agency in the next 30 days:

– “Softening” the physical appearance of privately contracted detention facilities with “hanging plants.”

- Giving illegal alien detainees e-mail access and free Internet-based phone service.

- Abandoning lockdowns, lights-out, visitor screening and detention uniform requirements.

- Serving fresh veggies and continental breakfast and providing Bingo sessions, arts and crafts classes, and, yes, movie nights.
They're planning to sue Arizona for enforcing federal laws, but they think this crap is important...


The Coast Guard does a good job of search and rescue; but it is a government bureaucracy, which leads to crap like this:
Sixteen barges sat stationary today, although they were sucking up thousands of gallons of BP's oil as recently as Tuesday. Workers in hazmat suits and gas masks pumped the oil out of the Louisiana waters and into steel tanks. It was a homegrown idea that seemed to be effective at collecting the thick gunk.

"These barges work. You've seen them work. You've seen them suck oil out of the water," said Jindal.

So why stop now?

"The Coast Guard came and shut them down," Jindal said. "You got men on the barges in the oil, and they have been told by the Coast Guard, 'Cease and desist. Stop sucking up that oil.'"

A Coast Guard representative told ABC News today that it shares the same goal as the governor.

"We are all in this together. The enemy is the oil," said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Dan Lauer.

But the Coast Guard ordered the stoppage because of reasons that Jindal found frustrating. The Coast Guard needed to confirm that there were fire extinguishers and life vests on board, and then it had trouble contacting the people who built the barges.
Apparently the idea of sending someone to look on the barges for extinguishers and vests didn't occur to the Coasties.


Well, that's interesting:
Police use the onset of summer to issue fines to women found wearing make-up and nail polish, or figure-hugging clothes. Veils are tightened to stop showing so much hair, with light, nearly transparent head-coverings a particular target. Men deemed to be 'harassing' women while driving are also stopped.

In a television interview marking the anniversary of his re-election, Mr Ahmadinejad said he did not approve, and that the police actions were "designed to create tumult".

"The government does not agree with this behaviour and will respond to and control it as much as it can," he said. "It is an insult to ask a man and woman walking on the steet about their relation to each other. Nobody has the right to ask such questions."
First thought: things are getting so ready to blow completely that Ahmadogcrap wants to lower the tension, and thinks this will help.


Ann Coulter on the SC Senate primary:
They're hopping mad, these liberals, but it's not clear what their theory of the crime is. Before accusing Republicans of committing a dirty trick, apparently no one asked the question: "OK, but what was the trick?"

The key to Greene's victory, you see, is that he got more votes. How do liberals imagine Republicans pulled that off? Mesmerize the Democrats into voting for an idiot? If Republicans could do that, John McCain would be president.


This time I'll send you directly to Theo for the cartoons. Note: parts of his site may be NSFW.


Why does this not give me a warm and fuzzy feeling?
Seventeen Afghan military officers and enlistees have gone AWOL from a Lackland AFB language school over the past 18 months, the Air Force said Thursday.

Just what happened to the foreign troops isn't clear. The Air Force said the cases were given to the Department of Homeland Security once the officers and enlistees disappeared.


Why aren't they going to court? Because it would make trouble for Obama, and most of our major media is in the tank for him. That's why.


I'll say it again: 'zero-tolerance for weapons' isn't about safety, it's about covering the ass of bureaucrats. And giving them even more control over the kids and their families.
These were those miniature, 1 inch plastic soldiers of which some number usually come poised in various shooting positions. And THAT violated the school's weapons ban? How insane is that?
Not insane at all, if your aim is to protect the education bureaucrats from having to think, and give them more control over people.


And finally,
And now, I must get to it.

Wow, I wonder why they'd do that...

Late Wednesday night, the FAA created a "no-fly zone" over a large area in the Gulf in order to, uhm, secure the safety of cleanup workers or something.
and add to that,
Update: In the comments, GulfCoastBamaFan observes that the GIS (Geographical Information System) data related to the spill is now unavailable:

Damn, almost like they don't want people to know about something