Assuming it does warm up enough that my hands don't stiffen,

got a fair amount to do today, some of which I flat refuse to do when I can't properly hold onto things. Among others, drilling. Years ago, for stitching in heavy or stiff leather, I borrowed the idea of drilling the holes instead of using an awl or whatever. I made up a long, tapered 'bit' of a piece of music wire for some leather, and for the heavier stuff I often use a 1/16" drill bit. Works very well, but you have to be very careful to keep things lined up to keep the stitching straight, which brings me back to stiff hands; not gonna do it if I have trouble holding things in place, which cold hands do not help with.

And something else to set up: Dad's old sizer/luber developed a problem and he bought a new one. We dug around online and found some ideas, and it looks like have the old one repaired and he gave it to me. So I need to find some long bolts and figure where and how to mount it so I can take it off the bench when not in use. Having this is both good & bad: good in that I can run stuff through without waiting to visit; bad in that up to now been a good time to sit & talk, while we ran a bunch of bullets through the press.

Ah well, I need to look at the news and get my blood pressure up for the morning. Ah, corrupt politicians, always good for that. Dodd having little bits & pieces come out more, which is good that it is coming out; bad that he got away with this garbage for so long. And Rangel, of course, is still screwing with our lives. I just love the line Republicans feel they can do business with him, and that he’d just be replaced by another Democrat anyway, so why make a big deal about his numerous ethics problems? Too many politicians spending too much time together and too damn much time in DC; so being a crooked politician just doesn't seem to bother them anymore in far too many cases. Term limits, anyone?

Oh, this is just bloody wonderful.
The Obama administration's decision to join the planning of the U.N.'s Durban II "anti-racism" conference has just taken a new twist: cover-up. On Friday, State Department officials and a member of the American Durban II delegation claimed the United States had worked actively to oppose efforts to brand Israel as racist in the committee drafting a Durban II declaration. The trouble is that they didn't.

The Feb. 20 State Department press release says the U.S. delegation in Geneva "outline[d] our concerns with the current outcome document" and in particular "our strong reservations about the direction of the conference, as the draft document singles out Israel for criticism." One member of the delegation told The Washington Post: "The administration is pushing back against efforts to brand Israel as racist in this conference." In fact, tucked away in a Geneva hall with few observers, the U.S. had done just the opposite. The U.S. delegates had made no objection to a new proposal to nail Israel in an anti-racism manifesto that makes no other country-specific claims.
...
It is impossible to argue that their silence was unintended. Over the course of the week's negotiations the American delegation had objected to a number of specific proposals. They had no trouble declaring "we share reservations on this paragraph," in the context of a demand to criminalize profiling. They "called for the deletion" of provisions undermining free speech like the suggestion to "take firm action against negative stereotyping of religions and defamation of religious personalities, holy books, scriptures and symbols."

Their silence when it came to Israel was, therefore, deafening. It also had the very concrete result of not placing the Palestinian paragraph in dispute, and the diplomatic rule of thumb is that paragraphs that have not been flagged as controversial cannot be reopened for discussion, as negotiations finalize an end product.
So while these UN clowns are trying to set it up as if 'palistinian' is a race, President Barack Lightworker The Obama's people do this:
Negotiators from the European Union suggested on Wednesday a new provision to "condemn without reservation any denial of the Holocaust and urges all states to reject denial of the Holocaust as an historical event, either in full, or in part, or any activities to this end." Iran--whose president is a Holocaust-denier--immediately objected and insisted that the proposal be "bracketed" or put in dispute. The move blocked the adoption of the proposal and ensured another battle over the reality of the Holocaust in April--at these supposedly "anti-racism" meetings. After Iran objected, the chair looked around the room, expecting a response. He said: "Is there any delegation wishing to comment on this new proposal by the European Union? It doesn't seem the case. We move on." U.S. delegates said nothing, even after the prompt.
Yeah, Jimmy Carter on speed: suck up to dictators and terrorist regimes and crap on someone who's actually on our side. Just bloody wonderful. First Obama 'apologizes' for the US being so unfeeling toward moslems(no mention of aid after disasters, etc., as that would mess up the apology), now this; I don't know whether to think he's sucking up to someone, paying someone off or just on the other side.

Ah, and of course Sen. John Effing Kerry is involved in things, while claiming he didn't know the letter was from Hamas, etc. Wonderful.

Ok, I'd heard about Dodd opening his big mouth(like Schumer)and causing some big problems, here's more specifics:
WASHINGTON - Senate Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd said banks may have to be nationalized for "a short time" to help lenders survive the worst economic slump in 75 years.

The Obama administration yesterday said a "privately held" banking system is the "correct way to go" and House Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank said nationalization ought "to be avoided."

Senator Jon Kyl, the second-ranking Republican and a member of the finance committee, agreed with Frank, saying nationalizing US banks is "out of the question" and isn't going to happen.
When the trouble caused and the screaming is enough to cause Barney Fannie Mae Frank to say something like that, it was bad and loud.

And, again, in the name of saving us, the politicians screw things up even more.
That, in turn, has prompted manufacturers to spread the word to dealers and service shops to pull the youth-sized motorcycles off showroom floors and to cease shipments of about three dozen parts, including batteries, wheel assemblies and brakes, deemed by the federal government to contain too much lead.
"Gasp, there is LEAD in BATTERIES?!? Horrors, we must ACT!" Friggin' morons.

Speaking of lead, I've got bolts to buy and a press to set up.

I have returned,

as if you noticed I was gone.

Out of town visiting family, which is always nice. Though I could have done happily without the cold front that came through the other day.

Dad's got a pretty good-sized garden, and he's got onions out already. Nothing else; still too early. I'm thinking of expanding my garden a bit, which will mean a trip to the topsoil place for about a thousand pounds or so of the stuff to fill in. Still deciding on that.

The day before I left, spent a while working on stuff for Medieval Fair; I could tell it'd been a while since had done that type of stuff, as my hands were aching for a day afterward. Which sucks. The arthritis doesn't help, either. This next couple of months should be a lot of fun in that respect; between weather shifting back & forth and trying to work on more stuff...

I have to admit I didn't miss looking at the news much; it's depressing as hell for the most part. Although the 'tea party' protests are a good sign, and have got to be worrying a lot of politicians, because when people who actually have jobs and pay their bills take time out to attend a protest and tell you what they think of you, that's got to get the attention of the congresscritters.

In any case, things to put away, including the bullets Dad & I sized & lubed while down there. So more tomorrow, assuming I get all the crap taken care of.

Some words for Obama and Clinton & Co.

from Hanson:
...So you can stop apologizing for America’s recent behavior—unless you think the world would be a better place with the Taliban, and Saddam and his two boys in power. Or maybe Europe should have Schroeder and Chirac back, or Libya with nuclear weapons, or Khalid Sheik Mohammed freed from Guantanamo. Or maybe America shouldn’t have given that $15 billion for AIDs relief in Africa, or helped with earthquakes in Pakistan and tsunamis in Indonesia. Now all that was sorta impulsive.”
...
As he thinks about this apology business, the battered American always gets a little angrier, “And another thing. Mr. Holder, I’ve never said or done a racist thing in my life, not one. Always supported equal opportunity, always will. So don’t call me a “coward” or my countrymen “cowards,” not when you’re my Attorney General. You are The Attorney General of the United States of America, so please, no more playing Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson, leveling the latest shake-down charge on television. That’s not really in your job description to call your own countrymen “cowards.”
...
...So please don’t tell me that the 93% of us that played by our grandfathers’ rules are obligated to come to the rescue of the 7%, who did the exact opposite. At one of your town meetings, just one, instead of pandering to those who defaulted, ask one of us to stand up for paying our debts and then say to the crowd, “Give a hand to Mrs. Battered American. She pays her mortgage, so the rest of us don’t have to!” Try that just once.”
...
Finally, Mr. Battered American would snap back to Mr. President: “I played by the rules, and put a little away in my 401(k). I knew the risks, not because the broker, the bank, or the firm told me all the risks, but because I never shook hands with any of them or even knew those who took my money and promised it was safe—and so I was never sure it really was. And I lost 30% of it. I will live by that too. But please, don’t tell me I must pay for AIG, and the state of California, and all those who charged too much on their VISAs. Just take more of my money in taxes to do all that—but, again, please, no more lectures that I have to, that I must, that I am obligated to. And no more of your team’s lecturing me about being patriotic in paying my taxes, and unpatriotic in not wanting to borrow more trillions that my kids’ kids will have to pay back.”

I'd make one change: "Mr. President, I'm already taxed to death, and you know it; stop telling me I'm 'unpatriotic' to want to keep more of what I earned to spend or save as I need and can; I'm sick of hearing rich people who dodge taxes tell me I'm not paying enough, and that it's 'patriotic' to pay more."

I don't like Bill Moyers, haven't for quite a while

due to his bullshit. Now some interesting things are coming out about Mr. Conservatives Are Intolerant Bigots, like
Moyers and J. Edgar Hoover worked together to illegally bug Martin Luther King jr. as well as leak unflattering information about political enemies to the press. Andy Ferguson wrote the definitive Bill Moyers takedown years ago, but sadly it's not online (it is collected in one of Ferguson's books). Anyway, in lieu of the main course, as an appetizer here's a very damning excerpt on Moyers from Morley Safer's autobiography.
and
When the press reported this, I received a call in my office from Mr. Moyers. Several of my assistants were with me. He was outraged; he claimed that this was another example of the Bureau salting its files with phony CIA memos. I was taken aback. I offered to conduct an investigation, which if his contention was correct, would lead me to publicly exonerate him. There was a pause on the line and then he said, "I was very young. How will I explain this to my children?" And then he rang off. I thought to myself that a number of the Watergate figures, some of whom the department was prosecuting, were very young, too.

From the linked excerpt from Morley Safer's book:
"I find it hard to believe that Bill Moyers would engage in character assassination over one evening news broadcast — even given the political imperatives of the moment. But I confess, I find it harder not to believe it.

His part in Lyndon Johnson and J. Edgar Hoover's bugging of Martin Luther King's private life, the leaks to the press and diplomatic corps, the surveillance of civil rights groups at the 1964 Democratic Convention, and his request for damaging information from Hoover on members of the Goldwater campaign suggest he was not only a good soldier but a gleeful retainer feeding the appetites of Lyndon Johnson.

It's all too confusing. Bill Moyers, the sometimes overly pious public defender of liberal virtue, the First Amendment, and the rights of miniorities playing the role of Iago."

Just a wonderful guy, isn't he?

It seems some guy named Pelton has aroused upset

from people like Blackfive, and the gentleman from Mudville, and, oh, a whole bunch of people. It seems Pelton wrote an article for Men's Journal that basically painted a bunch of people as fools and juveniles allowed to play with firearms. Such as
But Jones does have cool toys. During our initial chat he is constantly pulling his Beretta pistol out of his belt, playing with it, putting it on the desk, then back in his pants. He has a custom-made cowboy holster and a tricked-out assault rifle. “No one who is cool carries an M16,” he says. “The army owns this” — he points to the standard base — “but it doesn’t own this” — he points to the multiple accessories, such as an optical sight and the collapsing light stock, that convert his M16 into an M4. “It gives me more credibility.”
?
What the hell?

And the whole article goes on like this. Bill and Bob have a serious takedown of the article here: well worth reading.

You don't have to be a lawyer to know that when a judge says

"That was a court order, that wasn't a request," he said. "Is the Department of Justice taking court orders seriously these days?", it's an indication of a problem. Big problem.

This is on the trial of former Senator Ted Stevens. And if the article is correct, the Justice Department, at the least, acted badly.
The Justice Department this week took the highly unusual step of replacing the team handling posttrial litigation in the case. This followed last week's bizarre turn, when the chief of the public integrity section at Justice, William Welch, and his deputy, Brenda Morris -- the federal prosecutors who won the Stevens conviction -- were held in contempt of court.
Read that again. The 'chief of the public integrity section' and' his deputy', held in contempt. That's not the result of a slight error, I wouldn't think; that's the result of deliberately screwing around. And that's bad.

Those 33 documents relate to a complaint filed December 2 by one of the two FBI agents assigned to the case. Chad Joy claimed prosecutors covered up evidence and tried to keep a witness from testifying. He also said his partner, Mary Beth Kepner, had an unspecified "inappropriate relationship" with the state's star witness, Bill Allen, and other potential witnesses.
...
During the trial, Judge Sullivan had also admonished the prosecution for failing to share documents with the defense and redacting exculpatory passages from witness transcripts. Under the so-called Brady rule, Justice isn't obliged to share everything. But in a high-profile case prosecutors usually err on the side of absolute disclosure.

First off, I didn't know about the 'Brady rule'; I thought the prosecution HAD to share exculpatory evidence with the defense. The fact that they don't bothers hell out of me. Second, the 'redacting exculpatory passages' crap: translation is "We found this evidence that shows the defendant may not be guilty so we hid it." Which is fairly disgusting, and ought to be flatly illegal. It comes across to people as "We now know this guy may well be innocent of the charges, but we'll try to cover that evidence up and get a conviction anyway." Which is the kind of crap that's caused people like me to have very little trust in the Justice Department anymore. A lot of other CJ agencies, for that matter.

And, as a last note for the evening, "The poles are MELTING!!"

is bullcrap.
"The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) has been at the forefront of predicting doom in the arctic as ice melts due to global warming. In May, 2008 they went so far as to predict that the North Pole would be ice-free during the 2008 'melt season,' leading to a lively Slashdot discussion. Today, however, they say that they have been the victims of 'sensor drift' that led to an underestimation of Arctic ice extent by as much as 500,000 square kilometers.
That's one bleep of an 'underestimation'.
The AMSR-E data is updated daily and is available to the public. Thus far, sea ice extent in 2009 is tracking ahead of 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008, so the predictions of an ice-free north pole might be premature."
Snork. You think maybe?

Democrats: if they can't ban guns,

they want to make owning one so expensive you can't afford one:
Dunkin’s bill amends the Firearm Owners Identification Card Act, a previous bill aimed at chipping away at the Second Amendment. Dunkin’s amendment states “that any person who owns a firearm in this State shall maintain a policy of liability insurance in the amount of at least $1,000,000 specifically covering any damages resulting from negligent or willful acts involving the use of such firearm while it is owned by such person.”

Democrats; because they know what's good for you. Whether you agree or not.

Just some standard 'pretend journalism' in a CNN report

Pastor and Hakim note that the United States helps fuel the violence, not only by providing a ready market for illegal drugs, but also by supplying the vast majority of weapons used by drug gangs.

Pastor says there are at least 6,600 U.S. gun shops within 100 miles of the Mexican border and more than 90 percent of weapons in Mexico come from the United States.

And it's not just handguns. Drug traffickers used a bazooka in Tuesday's shootout with federal police and army soldiers in Reynosa, Mexico, across the border from McAllen, Texas.
If you've read here for a while(or at Uncles, where I found this mentioned, or a lot of other places) you know what bullcrap that is. But as Uncle notes, This Mexican gun canard is now officially dogma. For a reason.

Additionally, Opposing Views has, as noted, '19 facts' that aren't.

And, as if you needed it, one more proof of just how 'useful' the UN is when people are in danger:
BANGADI, Congo — Rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army sent torture victims _ including a man whose back was sliced with a machete _ to warn the people of this Congolese town they would be next.

The town's three policemen fled and there was no response from the military and U.N. peacekeepers to the increasingly panicked pleas for help. That's when residents realized they were on their own.
...
So Akoyo called a town meeting and told everyone to bring whatever weapons they had: pre-World War II rifles, homemade shotguns, lances, swords, machetes, hunting knives, bows with sheaths of poisoned arrows.

The women came armed with kitchen knives and log-sized wooden pestles used to pound yams into flour.

Since then, the residents of Bangadi have successfully driven off two attacks by the Ugandan rebels, who have killed at least 900 people in this remote northeastern corner of Congo over the past seven weeks.
But- of course- this is a horrible thing, because
Aid workers and human rights activists are watching the phenomenon with trepidation. In a part of Congo with dozens of militias and rebels, they fear these self-defense groups could transform into a menacing force.
So the UN won't/can't help, and the Army can't, but they'd rather people died than actually arm themselves and fight. Like the UN and Amnesty International have kittens- purple ones with pink spots- when the thought of arming people in Sudan so they can protect themselves is mentioned: "That is just continuing the cycle of violence", etc., translation "We'd rather these people be raped/tortured/enslaved/murdered than they be armed and protect themselves; don't they know only the government(preferably the UN) has the moral authority to protect them?"

Yeah, Captain, confiscating somebody's sign "...was not

a good decision..."
The police officers who stopped Oklahoma City motorist Chip Harrison and confiscated a sign from his car told him he has a right to his beliefs, but the U.S. Secret Service "could construe this as a threat against President Obama," according to the incident report released this morning.

The sign, which read "Abort Obama Not the Unborn," was returned to Harrison later that day, the report said.

Police spokesman Steve McCool said this morning that the sign was taken in error, and Oklahoma City residents should not be worried that their First Amendment rights will be violated. He said a supervisor "intervened and quickly returned the sign" after Harrison called the police department.

Captain, his rights WERE violated, in case that's something you've managed to overlook here. And as to the end of this report,
McCool said although the sign should not have been confiscated, the situation was made right in the end.

''We always try to do the right thing and in the end we believe we did the right thing by returning the sign," McCool said.
the rest doesn't sit all that well with how you 'made it right':
''The Secret Service called and said they were at my house," Harrison said.

After talking to his attorney, Harrison went home where he met the Secret Service.

''When I was on my way there, the Secret Service called me and said they weren't going to ransack my house or anything ... they just wanted to (walk through the house) and make sure I wasn't a part of any hate groups."
Aside from the bullcrap of OCPD both stopping him and taking his property AND reporting this to the Secret Service, as Insty put it Since when do government officials search homes to ensure the absence of impure political thoughts?(why, in the Age of Obama, of course)

So some OCPD officers didn't like the sign and stopped him, confiscated his sign and turned him in to the Secret Service(there are times it's just so damned tempting to simply abbreviate 'SS') who wanted to search his house(and by the way, how the hell are they defining 'hate group'?)...
Not one of the better moments for OCPD.

If solar power works so well and is such a good idea,

why all the pork needed to push people into buying it?

Well, if Pelosi actually gave a crap about the teachings of the church she claims to be a member of, this would be a bit uncomfortable; but she only cares about it so far as she can use it to help further her politics, so she'll just ignore it.

This is the level of politics Obama is used to; any surprise he is what he is?
Assistant U.S. Atty. Joseph Alesia called Troutman's conduct "a five-year crime spree." In some instances she blocked low-income housing because no one involved would pay her a bribe, he said. "Even by Chicago standards, it's no small crime," Alesia said.
Don't you just love that qualification?
Former Chicago Alderman Arenda Troutman today was sentenced four years in prison for fraud, becoming the 28th Chicago Alderman since 1972 to be measured for pinstripes.

A good thing came out of court the other day:
Fairfax, Va. – Today, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously in support of allowing employees to store legally owned firearms in locked, private motor vehicles while parked in employer parking lots. This decision upholds NRA-backed legislation passed in 2004.
...
In March 2004, the Oklahoma legislature passed an amendment holding employers criminally liable for prohibiting employees from storing firearms in locked vehicles on company property. A number of corporations subsequently filed suit in opposition to the new laws, alleging they were: unconstitutionally vague; an unconstitutional taking of private property; and preempted by various federal statutes. The lower court ruled in favor of the injunction.
...
In October 2008, Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry and Attorney General Drew Edmondson appealed to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals the lower court decision to strike down the NRA-backed worker protection laws. Today’s proceedings handed down by Circuit Judges Paul J. Kelly, Bobby R. Baldock, and Michael W. McConnell reversed the lower court’s grant of a permanent injunction.
This is from a NRA Alert, and I'm glad to read it. In one of the cases that brought this about, AOL fired some people because they were 'caught' on tape moving firearms among vehicles; some people were going to the range after work and were going in one or two vehicles. AOL fired them for 'having firearms on company property' even though it's a parking lot that doesn't belong to AOL. There were other cases, and hopefully this will put an end to the bullcrap. Probably won't, because the Brady Gun-Ban Group will push the companies to take it to the next level, and some of the "I'm the boss, and nothing else matters" types won't like it. It's a mix; I don't like government telling business "You must do this" on their property when it has nothing to do with the business; neither do I like business trying to control all aspects of employees lives, and that's what this was: "You can't have anything I don't like in your car".

Oh gee, something else dirty hidden in the 'stimulus' package that nobody had time to read?
When Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, a longtime champion of inspectors general, read the words “conduct or refrain from conducting,” alarm bells went off. The language means that the board — whose chairman will be appointed by the president — can reach deep inside a federal agency and tell an inspector general to lay off some particularly sensitive subject. Or, conversely, it can tell the inspector general to go after a tempting political target.
Congress: trying to protect itself in unethical and illegal activities for, oh, a long time now.

A view on how the "Bush is rushing us into (fill in)!!!" clowns have a different standard when it's Obama and Pelosi and Reid rushing us into crap. And she's right; the major media have, generally speaking, blown any reason for people to trust a word they say to be unbiased, and they're paying for it; they'll BE paying for it for a long time to come.

You want to know how freaking stupid some of Pres. The Obama's supporters are?
President Please is a non-profit organization dedicated to the abolition of "the N-Word" and it's replacement with the word "President".
Yeah, I wonder how much Obama will like a bunch of thugs and rappers calling each other 'president'?

Murtha and Pelosi, corrupt in a tree... or something like that:
And Pelosi's name comes into play as well regarding an earmark she secured for a PMA client. No wonder she wanted Murtha as her number two. He ran the tollgate on the fast lane to the money.
...
According to CQ MoneyLine, the same House members who took responsibility for PMA’s earmarks in that spending bill have, since 2001, accepted a cumulative $1,815,138 in campaign contributions from PMA’s political action committee and employees of the firm.

Murtha, who used to boast that his middle initial stands for “power,” carved out $38.1 million for PMA clients in the fiscal 2008 defense spending law, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Of the Democratic leaders, only Pelosi cold be documented as having secured an earmark for a PMA client in the first Democratic-written Defense spending bill: $2 million for SA Photonics’ Satellite Coherent Optical Receiver.

And, having just signed to take money from us, our kids, our grandkids(assuming this country still exists by the time these effing watermelons are done), now they want to destroy the economy even faster:
The decision, which most likely would play out in stages over a period of months, would have a profound impact on transportation, manufacturing costs and how utilities generate power. It could accelerate the progress of energy and climate change legislation in Congress and form a basis for the United States’ negotiating position at United Nations climate talks set for December in Copenhagen.

And Hope! and Change! from our new Attorney General:
At a Department of Justice program this morning celebrating African American History Month, the nation's first black attorney general -- Eric Holder -- said the United States is a "nation of cowards" when it comes to racial issues.
Yeah, this is a 'post-racial' administration; except when they'll use racial bullcrap to shove their views on us. Wonderful.

And please note: these bastards flat hate actual free speech, precisely because they can't control it:
Waxman is also interested, say sources, in looking at how the Internet is being used for content and free speech purposes. "It's all about diversity in media," says a House Energy staffer, familiar with the meetings. "Does one radio station or one station group control four of the five most powerful outlets in one community? Do four stations in one region carry Rush Limbaugh, and nothing else during the same time slot? Does one heavily trafficked Internet site present one side of an issue and not link to sites that present alternative views? These are some of the questions the chairman is thinking about right now, and we are going to have an FCC that will finally have the people in place to answer them."
...
But Copps has been a supporter of putting in place policies that would allow the federal government to have greater oversight over the content that TV and radio stations broadcast to the public, and both the FCC and Waxman are looking to licensing and renewal of licensing as a means of enforcing "Fairness Doctrine" type policies without actually using the hot-button term "Fairness Doctrine."

Blah. I've got cleaning to do. Unfortunately my broom won't reach to DC, but need to do it anyway.

Awww, President Lightworker, is the mean Democrat

accusing you of war crimes?
The United States' presence in Pakistan and Afghanistan is only furthering the spread of terrorism and President Obama could be charged with war crimes, former Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.) wrote Wednesday.

"Why are we killing GIs to spread terrorism?" Hollings, a longtime (though now-retired) lawmaker asked in a blog post for the Huffington Post. "The best way to stabilize is to get out. It became a matter of conscience for me years ago."

Hollings argued that Obama's continuation of some of former President Bush's tactical strategies in the war on terror could make Obama liable for war crimes charges.
Etc. ad nauseum from a "Let's hurry up and lose!" Evil Party member.

He's already tried to talk the NATO allies into living up to their obligations and been told to to away, now this; ike it says, Very soon Obama will understand what it's been like to be in Bush's shoes.

Normally I wouldn't mention the personal side of yesterday

but President Barack Cartmann Obama has now screwed up my birthday by having signed that giant crap on our heads on that day.

So I spent part of the day at the range enlarging my carbon footprint. More on that later.

I effing hate Illinois fascists.

Two pieces of bureacratic bullcrap,

one by a media outlet with their tail in a crack, trying to talk their way out of it; the other is federal agents who apparently falsified work records while in Iraq.
On the first,
It seems as though the Commercial Appeal (and, more specifically, its editor - Chris Peck) cannot stop putting up half-assed rationalizations for their handgun carry permit holder database. Once more into the fisking breach I go.
And it goes from there. It appears Peck may have studied a lot of things, but honest reporting may not have been one of them.

On the second,
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Justice recently (December 2008) reported on “An Investigation of Overtime Payments to FBI and Other Department of Justice Employees Deployed to Iraq” during the period 2003 through 2008. The “other” employees in the title of the report included ATFE Special Agents as well as DEA Special Agents and Deputy U.S. Marshals.

ATFE Special Agents were deployed in Iraq on 90-day TDY assignments between 2003 and 2008. During that time, they were paid $4,175,731.00 in unauthorized and unlawful overtime pay. They filed fraudulent claims for the overtime and ATFE senior officials did nothing to monitor the claims or review them for conformity with federal law and regulations. In other words, the ATFE Special Agents, law enforcement officers who are sworn to faithfully execute the laws of the United States, filed false time and attendance reports claiming pay for overtime which was not worked and for which payment was not authorized under federal law.
Just a wonderful display of integrity, isn't it?

I think this reporter actually gets some things,

and is telling another one off about it:
I'm phobically allergic to the conservative Republican types the military is rife with, but I've only been in country four months and already I hate liberals. There's plenty of ugliness to report in Iraq (as there are thousands of stories of hope and headway)--and the U.S. military certainly isn't beyond reproach. Nobody's telling you to report on one side or the other. But manipulating the truth because of your own personal biases is wretched and works in the face of progress. The other end of the political spectrum disregards you, Dahr, and now I know why. I thought it was because you're a liar--but you aren't. You don't have enough backbone to be a liar. You're a craven obfuscationist, intent on promoting your agenda at the cost of a menagerie of much braver men and women.

Got some disgreements with him on some points, but this guy went there and actually listened and looked and learned.

And yet another sign of the Era of Multi-Culti Surrender

we're in, and that's going to wind up with us converted, dhimmi or dead if we're not damn careful and lucky:
Muzzammil Hassan, CEO of Bridges TV, whose motto is "connecting people through understanding," apparently didn't think Thursday's honor killing -- and make no mistake about what this was -- at the station might somehow blur that message.


Of course, police and mainstream media are treating the gruesome homicide as a simple case of domestic violence. Even though the victim, 37-year-old Aasiya Zubair, had recently filed for divorce and apparently was concerned enough about her Muslim husband's reaction to obtain a restraining order. And, despite the fact that she was beheaded, a particularly hideous practice all but unthinkable to any but Islamic fundamentalists, you can bet that her murderer's religion will never be mentioned, as though it were irrelevant.
...
Let's never forget "domestic violence" victim Aqsa Parvez, the 16-year-old Canadian girl whose father strangled her for refusing to wear the traditional Muslim head scarf in 2007. Or Amina and Sarah Said of Dallas, both murdered by their father in 2008 for dating non-Muslim boys. Or Sandeela Kanwal of Georgia, who was strangled to death by her Muslim father, Chaudhry Rashid, last July.

Rashid's actions are of special note here, as he actually admitted his motive to be protecting his family's honor from the divorce his daughter was planning.

Thousands of girls are murdered by their own muslim families each year to 'cleanse their honor' of the stain of the girl being raped.

They murder their daughter. For having been raped.

I really do not give a rats ass about what the progressive minds of the EUnuchs think, or some worthless excuse for a man who thinks that's a proper way to behave; only a sick culture based on sick beliefs could do this. And only a sick culture would make excuses for the dirtbags who do it. If someone raped my daughter I wouldn't kill my daughter; I'd give the rapist the choice of going to prison or into a hole. You don't like that? Screw you. You and every multi-culti moron who won't hold muslims to civilized standards. Usually the same people who blame Israel for every palistinian who stubs his toe and cry "WAR CRIME!" when Israel whacks the filth shooting rockets at schools.

THERE ARE 'HONOR' MURDERS BEING COMMITTED IN OUR COUNTRY. And our 'PC at any cost' media don't have the balls or the integrity to say it. So we'd better spread the word. And make noise about it, and the idiots who won't call them what they are.

All righty, Sen. Specter, you miserable little lying

son of a bitch, where's that "We are not going to monitor your doctor" bullshit you spouted now?
HHS bureaucrats will soon be empowered to overrule your doctor. Doctors who don't comply with the government's treatment protocols will be fined. That's right: Instead of your treatment being determined by your doctor, it will be settled on by some narcoleptic half-wit in Washington who couldn't get a job in the private sector.

And a brand-new set of bureaucrats in the newly created office of "National Coordinator of Health Information Technology" will be empowered to cut off treatments that merely prolong life. Sorry, Mom and Pop, Big Brother said it's time to go.
Oh, sorry, Senator, did that bad nasty little Obamessiah lie to you? Or did you lie to us? Again?

Specter and Collins and Snowe, three RINOs who need to be removed from their seats. You miserable bastards, you helped bring this garbage on us, and you need to pay the price for it.

And just how well do these socialist shits in HHS and Congress think people are going to take it when said faceless bureaucrats rule that Mom or Dad can't receive a treatment because their masters don't think it's worth it?

Fascist dirtbags all, and they need to end up like Mussolini. Oh, and Sen. Specter? Just what other little surprises did you help drop on us like turds in a toilet, helping pass a bill that even the apologists for admit they never had a chance to read?

I'd forgotten about this: making ammo right under the nose

of the British Army:
The head of the clandestine Israel Military Industry, Yosef Avidar, devised a plan to smuggle in machines for a secret factory to make the bullets. Though he was successful in purchasing machines in Poland in 1938, the Zionists could only get them as far as Beirut, where they were stored for nearly four years before Jews who served in the British army succeeded in bringing them to Palestine.

The ammunition plant was built almost under the noses of the British, who had a nearby base. The site was a place where pioneers would go for training in kibbutz life before moving on to establish cooperatives around the country. Under the code name "the Ayalon Institute," a group of pioneers from the Hatzofim Aleph movement and members of the Haganah (and, later, joined by members of the Palmach) dug a large underground chamber 300 square yards 13 feet underground with nearly 2-foot-thick walls and ceiling. The entire project was completed in 22 days. To conceal the clandestine project, the Jews built housing, a dining hall, chicken coop, cow barn, workshops, a laundry a bakery, and a vegetable garden to give the outward appearance of an ordinary kibbutz.
22 days. In a time and place where being caught making ammo meant a death sentence.

Thanks to Tuccille for the reminder. And some links to 'make your own gun' plans.

Noting corrupt Illinois politicians who made it to DC

to screw us over, let's note one who's turned out to be just as big a dirtbag as the #1:
Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's brother solicited U.S. Sen. Roland Burris for up to $10,000 in campaign cash before Blagojevich named Burris to the coveted post -- something Burris initially failed to disclose under oath before an Illinois House impeachment panel, records and interviews show.

Burris (D-Ill.) acknowledges being hit up for the money in a new affidavit he has sent to the head of the House committee that recommended Blagojevich be removed from office.

'...failed to disclose under oath..." You know, if you or I admitted that, we'd be looking at a federal prosecutor filing charges. Hell, if you say something they decide wasn't said the same way you said it in a different interview, they can charge you with 'lying to a federal investigator' and put you in prison; does anybody think that'll happen to Burris?

So is our Justice Department going to investigate

this, or is the work going to have to be done completely by others? And if this isn't the kind of thing they should look into, what is?
On Thursday Sept 15, 2008 at roughly 11 AM The Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous draw down of money market accounts in the USA to the tune of $550 Billion dollars in a matter of an hour or two. Money was being removed electronically.

The Treasury tried to help, opened their window and pumped in $150 Billion but quickly realized they could not stem the tide. We were having an electronic run on the banks. So they decided to closed down the accounts.

Had they not closed down the accounts they estimated that by 2 PM that afternoon. Within 3 hours. $5.5 Trillion would have been withdrawn and the entire economy of the United States would have collapsed, and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed.

I first read about this a day or so ago, and the question Gateway asks is very good:
The catastrophic attack occurred on September 11, 2008?
Why is this news just now getting out?
From the sound of this, it was a deliberate attack. So what's being done about it? And if the people responsible aren't digging into this with all they've got, why the hell not?

Mark Steyn describes the 'stimulus' manure pile

and Pres. The Lightworker Obama's knowledge and skills:
To be sure, the present state of the economy is an “event,” and has blown many governments around the world off course. But again: The hideous drooling blob of toxic pustules dignified as “stimulus” is something the incoming Obama had months to prepare for, with oodles of bipartisan goodwill and fawning press coverage to waft him along. Instead he chose to outsource it to Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barney Frank, and the rest of the congressional pork barons. So that too is not an “event” but merely, like his cabinet picks, a matter of judgment and executive competence.

Put plainly: we have a incompetent, arrogant socialist in the White House, and the mess is going to get far worse.

Jimmy Carter on meth in the White House

Where's the rabbit?

The officials said the new Obama administration of has decided to end sanctions against Iranian government agencies or companies that aid Teheran's missile and nuclear program. The officials said Israel has been informed of the new U.S. policy.

"We were told that sanctions do not help the new U.S. policy of dialogue with Iran," an official said.

"dialogue with Iran". With a country whose government has repeatedly called for genocide. That murders our troops, and gives support to terrorists and kidnappers, torturers and murderers. That's a priority with the Obama administration, 'dialogue' with them.

And if you don't think big chunks of the money the House and Senate voted to rape out of you will go into this 'dialogue', then you're too damn stupid to be out without being on a leash.

Our 'progressive' President. You clowns who fell into the 'hope and change' bullshit, who bought into the 'he's wonderful, even though he hasn't actually done anything in his life' crap, this is what you've brought us.

As expected, the socialists and power-grabbers in Congress

have crapped all over us. And our children. And our grandchildren. All for their own political advantage. Screw that oath about the Constitution, they had POWER and AUTHORITY to grab, and what's giving up your integrity- what was left of it, anyway- compared to that?

Integrity, probably a foreign word of uncertain meaning to people like Murtha and Schumer and Specter and Snow and Collins, Reid and Rangel.
Another contributor listed as a PMA lobbyist is, in fact, a sales manager for an inflatable boat manufacturer in New Jersey. John Hendricksen said he did make campaign donations but never worked at PMA and does not know how he ended up listed in records that way.
...
Federal investigators are focused on allegations that PMA founder Paul Magliocchetti, a former appropriations staffer close to Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), may have reimbursed some of his staff to cover contributions made in their names to Murtha and other lawmakers, according to two sources familiar with the investigation. PMA has long had a reputation for securing earmarks from congressional appropriators, particularly for defense contractors, and it has donated generously to influential members of Congress. Magliocchetti personally gave $98,000 in campaign donations last year, according to campaign records.

Murtha crapping on our troops, Reid doing the same and telling them they'd lost in the middle of the fucking war. Pelosi making sure she has almost complete power over the House so she can shove her socialst garbage down our throats.

I know a lot of people out there call yourselves and voted for supposed blue dog Democrats; well, they listened to your e-mails and calls(when they bothered) saying "NO!" and did it anyway, because keeping Pelosi and Hoyer and the other bigshot Evil Party people happy meant more to them than you. Happy?

I just wrote a letter to the Stupid Party chairman asking "what are you going to do about Collins and Snowe and Specter? Or are you going to do ANYTHING?" I doubt I'll get an answer; they're too busy telling themselves at the national level that they didn't go left enough in the last election and that explains all their problems.

Right now I'm pissed enough to agree with that guy the other day: burn the Capitol down with every one of the bastards inside.

One last note on the supply situation

No, I don't mean rope.

One of the things I did today, while hope for a lane to open up at the range, was look for supplies. I needed some powder and bullets, and since the powder(sometimes bullets) have been a pain in the ass to find lately, ran out west of OKC to a shop in El Reno whose name I can't remember right now(just remembered: Gene Sears). Not a bad drive, and if anybody will have what you need, they will.

So when the nice lady asked could she help me, and I said "Powder and bullets", she said "Let's go into the warehouse and see if we have them."

This is the second time I've been there, and the first time I thought the same thing when we went through the doors: "Screw the pirates, HERE'S the treasure!" Shelves and rows of all kinds of bottles and boxes and shiny.

They had the 2400. They had the Sierra and Gold Dot bullets; low on some powders but everything else in abundance with one exception: primers. Some they were out of, some short on, and she said that for the past while those have been the one component they tend to have trouble getting. So I picked up a brick of what I use the most to go along with the others.

I'll note this place, except for no range, was as busy as H&H was; less firearms but LOTS more reloading stuff.

And now, good night

And since I'm speaking of lying, thieving, treacherous politicians,

1. In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress. -- John Adams

2. If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed. -- Mark Twain

3. Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But then I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain

4. I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. -- Winston Churchill

5. A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. -- George Bernard Shaw.

6. A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money. -- G. Gordon Liddy

7. Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. -- James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)

8. Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. -- Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University

9. Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. -- P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian
Go read the rest

About my description of McCain a couple of posts ago

and my generally deteriorating language.

Not one damn excuse do I make. I wrote once about how these bastards insist on having their ass kissed, and how so many people go along with it. Some quite eagerly. Many of them get too damn used to being one of 'The Most Exclusive Club In The World', which has brought us such shining lights of bullshit as Sen. John Effing Kerry, and Sen. Charles Hypocrite Schumer and Rep. Charles Tax-Cheat-In-Charge Rangel. And let us not forget Vice-President Biden, who wants to arrange it so his son can walk into the Senate seat he used to hold; bastard seems to think it belongs to him to hand down.

I am sick of every God-damned one of them. And my language has deteriorated as my rage has grown. I'm not apologizing for it.

Ok, is Sen. Feinstein actually stupid enough to let this slip out,

or was she actively trying to screw the whole operation?
A senior U.S. lawmaker said Thursday that unmanned CIA Predator aircraft operating in Pakistan are flown from an airbase inside that country, a revelation likely to embarrass the Pakistani government and complicate its counterterrorism collaboration with the United States.

The disclosure by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, marked the first time a U.S. official had publicly commented on where the Predator aircraft patrolling Pakistan take off and land.
At a hearing, Feinstein expressed surprise at Pakistani opposition to the ongoing campaign of Predator-launched CIA missile strikes against Al Qaeda targets along Pakistan’s northwest border.

“As I understand it, these are flown out of a Pakistani base,” she said of the planes.

We KNOW she's been willing to use her position to steer God-only-knows how much money into her family business; question is, is she so "Let's lose the war NOW!" that she'd deliberately let this out? Or so damn unthinking as to let it slip?

And these dirtbags- or effing morons, whichever- are voting now to screw the economy into the ground and destroy freedom in this country. While they're not trying to get our troops killed.

Speaking of which, take note of this:
Little more than a year after U.S. spy agencies concluded that Iran had halted work on a nuclear weapon, the Obama administration has made it clear that it believes there is no question that Tehran is seeking the bomb.

In his news conference this week, President Obama went so far as to describe Iran's "development of a nuclear weapon" before correcting himself to refer to its "pursuit" of weapons capability.

Obama's nominee to serve as CIA director, Leon E. Panetta, left little doubt about his view last week when he testified on Capitol Hill. "From all the information I've seen," Panetta said, "I think there is no question that they are seeking that capability."

The language reflects the extent to which senior U.S. officials now discount a National Intelligence Estimate issued in November 2007 that was instrumental in derailing U.S. and European efforts to pressure Iran to shut down its nuclear program.

One of the disgraces of the past few years was people in the CIA deliberately acting against the interests of this country for political reasons. And this is some of the followup. Every one of the sons-of-bitches should be charged with treason and punished appropriately. And no, I do not use 'treason' lightly; deliberately acting in ways that damage this country and expose us to greater danger for their personal motives counts.

I'd say people just don't believe President Hopeychangeypants

when he says he's not after our guns. Remember I said I was going to the range? It was kind of delayed; when I got there, there was a waiting list for a lane. At 10:30 on a weekday morning. AND the sales side was busy, too. Including(I love it!) lots of women, both sides.

So I went off to take care of some other things, then went back by a couple of hours later and was able to shoot. Aside from general practice(I need more) I'd wanted to try something. While back I'd gotten an extra-power Wolff recoil spring for the compact .45, and with Gold Dots it worked perfectly, but with lighter practice loads I kept getting something I'd NEVER had before: double-feeds. I'd wind up with a round in the chamber and the next round from the magazine trying to feed. The combination of the stronger recoil spring and lighter loads managed the combination of ejecting the empty, jarring the next round out of the mag and into the chamber, and then trying to feed the round after that as the slide tried to close. Downright strange. So before I left I'd put the standard spring back in, and no double-feeds.

Amazing what you run across.

Along with trying to ram his Fidel Bill(Socialism or Death!)

down our throats, President The Obama is kissing up to Syria. Freaking SYRIA. I guess he thought kissing up to Iran this soon would be seen as a Bad Thing, but figures he can slime through on Syria.

Some House Democrats are unhappy with the way things have been going:
“We will tell the Senate Democratic leadership to let the GOP filibuster,” a House leadership aide said. “The House is not going to move on what the Senate passes and give in during conference like we have been doing.

“I think we are going to need some of those [filibusters] to satisfy House Democrats that they have a voice, that they are representing their constituents and getting things done the way they were elected to do,” the aide said.
Ok, if they think they don't 'have a voice', they need to talk to Pelosi; she's the Speaker. And if they think their votes for the Fidel Bill were 'doing what they were elected to do', they're morons. You'd think the 'bleeping-to-one against' phone calls and e-mails would have indicated that, but we are talking about politicians sucking up to the Fearless Leader here. They want Republicans to filibuster to prove to Democrat voters that the Dem politicians are... And apparently, from this, the Dems think shutting out Republicans from conference, etc., means the Dems are 'giving in during conference'... Amazing, isn't it?

I've been speaking of tar, feathers and ropes; this guy is moving directly to more drastic action.
It is clear by Harry Reid’s addition of an $8+ Billion light rail from Las Vegas to Los Angeles that the wish list keeps growing and there is no standard for Arlen Spektre or the RINOs in name that reign mainly from Maine to ever oppose it.
...
It’s pitchfork and torch time. If Congress doesn’t listen to us then it should be burnt to the ground. It would still be exponentially cheaper to rebuild than our entire economy after this legislative abomination wrecks it.
So Reid added more than 8 BILLION for a light rail system between two cities. Gee, trying to buy people, Harry? The previous land deals weren't dirty enough? Damn.

And while Congress is playing "Let us spend the country into destruction for the Socialist Future", and Mexican drug gangs are kidnapping and torturing people in the US in part because the bastards in Congress don't want to upset Mexico and the illegal alien lobby by doing something about securing the border,
AUSTIN -- Texas officials are working on a plan to respond to a potential collapse of the Mexican government and the specter of thousands fleeing north in fear for their lives after recent reports indicated the country could be on the verge of chaos.

"You hope for the best, plan for the worst," Katherine Cesinger, spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry, said last week. "At this point, we've got a contingency plan that's in development."
...
El Paso Democratic state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh said El Paso is already seeing refugees from the violence in Juárez.

More than 1,600 died in the drug violence there last year, and the bloodbath continues. More than 200 people have been slain so far this year.

Nearly 50 victims of the violence in Juárez were shuttled to Thomason Hospital for treatment last year. And Shapleigh said many people from Juárez who can afford to are moving north to El Paso.

Developing a contingency plan to deal with a potential Mexican downfall makes sense, he said.
And if you don't think citizens along and near the border aren't preparing... they've already got illegals cutting fences, stealing and destroying and so forth, the thought f what would happen in an actual collapse of Mexico is scary as hell.
On the other side, But Texas could do more to help prevent a catastrophe in Mexico, he said, by working with state and local officials in that country to reinforce their governments.

While federal officials in the U.S. and Mexico often work together, Payan said, state and local leaders with firsthand knowledge of the problems often mistrust one another and fail to collaborate to deal with their mutual concerns.
Gee, Texas officials have problems with trusting Mexican officials; now why might that be?

One more reason to think Specter, Snowe and Collins should be run, if not out of DC(preferable) then out of the Stupid Party on rails,
The Democratic leader pointed to the recently passed $785 billion stimulus bill that recently passed as an example of how the two parties find ways to work together.

"$785 billion was not a scientific number, but a political one," he said. "Three Republicans set that as the limit of what they would vote for."

"Several economists have said that this may not be enough. And they might be right, but this is what we could get."
Lampposts, ropes, politicians...

Screw it. I'm going to the range.

While Sen. John Fucking McCain is asking for money

so he can screw things up again in the next election just to stroke his ego some more, would someone wave this in front of his face and ask the bastard how this happening in his home state fits with his desire to 'work with President Obama' on amnesty for illegals and not wanting to 'waste money' on fences and walls?
According to ABC News, the use of kidnapping by Mexican drug cartels for ransom and revenge has spread beyond the Rio Grande and into Arizona — and the federal government has done nothing to stop it. Phoenix has become the second-worst city in the world for kidnappings, right behind Mexico City, with brutal dismemberments for those abductees who do not get ransomed quickly enough:
...
In what officials caution is now a dangerous and even deadly crime wave, Phoenix, Arizona has become the kidnapping capital of America, with more incidents than any other city in the world outside of Mexico City and over 370 cases last year alone. But local authorities say Washington, DC is too obsessed with al Qaeda terrorists to care about what is happening in their own backyard right now.
I'll disagree with the 'too obsessed' crap: the problem is not worries about murdering islamic terrorists, the problem is a bunch of chickenshit dirtbag politicians too worried about sucking up to illegals in hopes of more political power combined with 'PC at any cost' multicultural fools preventing us from securing our borders.

And yes, Sen. McCain, I'm including you in the chickenshit politicians. You tried to shove amnesty down our throats and insulted and belittled anyone who disagreed with you, and you've made it plain you'd still like to do it. Well, here's one of the results right there in Phoenix, in your home state. Now what are you going to do? One of the few things actually authorized for the federal government to do in that document you've sworn to protect and uphold is defending this country from outside threats; are you going to live up to it or not?

This is the kind of 'reasoning' that Obama & Co.

think counts as economic thinking:
For the purpose of a Keynesian stimulus it doesn’t matter if it’s spent on a park or a highway beautification project. Any spending is better than tax cuts, you could pay people to dig holes and fill them up again and that would be superior to tax cuts. Spending on parks or museums would also be better than military spending, which most of these fools have no problem with, because military spending tends to be very inefficient at creating jobs.
Got that? ANY spending is better than you keeping what you earn to spend as you wish. Effing morons.

And I think all the places that are going to lose piles of jobs when Pres. The Obama cuts military spending are going to argue about the 'inefficient at creating jobs' line.

This is the kind of 'reasoning'

Hold a politician to account? Take him off the committee

while the investigation- such as it is- continues? Sounds good to me, but then I'm not one of the jackasses in Congress.
More than a month into the new session, the reorganized committee -- with new leadership -- will begin again to look at Rangel's ethical issues, which we recently reported on here. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in November that the report would be completed by the close of the 110th Congress, which was January 3.

The investigation remains incomplete, and Rangel still chairs the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, much to the chagrin of House Republicans. Rep. John Carter (R-Texas) introduced a privileged resolution that would have forced Rangel to step down from Ways and Means until the ethics committee completed its report. The House voted last night to table it, however -- thereby killing it.
According to the story, EVERY Democrat either voted to table it or(the chickenshits) voted 'present'.

Here's the funny part:
Carter, the Republican Conference Secretary, said yesterday that he was not out on a witch hunt for corrupt politicians, but rather he was attempting to save the good name of Congress.

"It worries me that the public perceives a body made up of hard-working men and women on both sides of the aisle in such a negative light," Carter said. "Mr. Rangel has many issues hanging out there and still is in charge of writing the tax laws in this country as chair of the House committee."

Got news for you, Mr. Carter: Congress doesn't HAVE a 'good name'. Congress is now known as a bunch of flat-out crooks and socialists(at worst) and incompetents(at best) with a sprinkling of honest people; kind of like having high-grade sprinkles on a rotten cupcake.

Speaking of rotten, I got this from GOPUSA this morning:
I want you to know that I do intend to seek re-election. The magnitude of the financial crisis that many American families are facing makes it clear to me that I want to continue to serve the people of Arizona and our country in the Senate.

Today, I'm asking you to join my campaign by making a generous contribution so I may continue my service to our great nation.
The message includes this:
As always, I anticipate a tough re-election challenge. The national Democrats will no doubt target me for defeat in an attempt to expand their majority in the U.S. Senate. But with your help, we will counter those efforts and put forth an aggressive campaign to win. That's why I'm asking you to join my campaign by giving $25, $50, $100, $250, $500 or whatever you can afford right away.
Mr. McCain, I'd rather take a pile of money and use it for kindling than send it to you. The only reason I could vote for you in the past election was because I thought you'd be somewhat less damaging to the country, and it really pissed me off that between the Stupid Party bigshots and the media I wound up with you as the alternate to The Obama. And the way your people crapped all over Sarah Palin after your loss made it worse, you bastard. And THEN, just to make it even better, you signaled your intention to 'work with' Obama on immigration, which pretty much pointed to the amnesty you tried to shove down our throats already.

So go away, McCain: stop screwing with our lives. I decided a long time ago that 9/11 or no, Arizone should have gone through with the recall on you. Go away.

Speaking of the reputation of Congress, Maxine Waters is a member: 'nuff said.
Her questions to the bankers are so bizarre that they don't know what to do. Ken Lewis looks like a deer in the headlights as Waters asks her about offshore loss mitigation efforts. He can't even figure out what she's talking about, and neither can I. She also asks the bankers, few of whom are in the credit card business, how many of them have cut credit limits to people on the basis of where they shop. It's like watching your crazy aunt challenge your boyfriend to prove that fairies aren't real.
She's also the one who slipped in a hearing and told an oil company guy she'd like to see the oil industry socialized. 'Good name of Congress' my ass.

It appears that Pelosi and Reid staff met all through the night in secret with Democratic conferees’ staff to cobble together the “stimulus” conference report. Republican conferees were frozen out.

The objective appears to be to produce a final conference report on the trillion-dollar spending bill by this afternoon so that floor action can take place in both chambers by Thursday.

They intend to ram this trillion-dollar spending bill through with as little debate and scrutiny as possible.
'Good name of Congress', bullshit.

Assuming you could get through the Praetorian Guard that's protecting the House & Senate from the peasants, I've come to the conclusion that damn near the only thing that would really, truly get the attention of a good many of these politicians would be a bunch of people from back home showing up with a bucket of tar and a bag of feathers. Or, in some cases, a rope. And some of them would STILL stand there telling you that you don't know what's good for you, you should go home and stop causing problems, etc.

I occurred to me that a friend of mine is probably reading some of my recent stuff

and wondering if she should have a trank gun around next time we meet?

The lady in question I met down in Texas a bit over a year ago. It went to 'we'll have to see how things go' partly because the lady would like to marry, and partly because one day, not thinking anything of it, I sent her this address and said "Can't remember if told you before, but this is my soapbox."

As to the marriage part, that's largely out for one simple reason: I think I'd make a lousy husband at this point, and she needs- deserves, for that matter- better than that. That's not an excuse, that's cold fact. Unfortunately.

The other, she ran across a couple of things as she read through and said "I don't think I've known someone as opinionated as you before!"* It seems some of the things I have an attitude about were a bit shocking, if only for bluntness. With a bit of conflict, of course; she's a much nicer person in some ways than I am. And sense of humor conflicts; I told her about the Kalashnikitty shirts, and giving one to my goddaughter for a sleep shirt and she just about blew a gasket. Definite conflict, there.

Back to the original point, she may be reading some of my recent commentary on the proper association of many politicians to hemp products and thinking "And I was snuggled up to this nut?" And I do have to say I've been a bit, ah, emphatic lately; having a bunch of crooks, snobs and morons in DC ignoring what we have to say and assisting Obama in trashing the place brings that out in me. It makes me think of some music. Friend has an adapter to convert audio tapes to MP3 files and I was using it to save some stuff I've had for years. I ran across one song:
Scots wha hae w' Wallace bled,
Scots wham Bruce has often led,
Welcome to your gory bed,
Or to victory.

Now's the day, and now's the hour,
See the front of battle lour,
See approach proud Edward's power;
Chains and slavery.

Wha will be a traitor knave?
Wha will fill a cowards grave?
Wha sae base as be a slave,
Let him turn and flee.

There's a tendency to throw notes about Specter and Obama and Co. in there, you know? Last verse:
Lay the proud usurper low
Tyrants fall, in every foe
Liberty's in every blow
Let us do or die.

Seems appropriate, don't it? And if she reads this, she'll be sure I'm on the watch list.


*Cue joke about "Attitude? I don't have an ATTITUDE!"

Just so you know, the Aussies suffer from enviroweenie

morons too. In this case, to the tune of a bunch of people dead because they didn't want people clearing brush and trees around their homes.
ANGRY residents last night accused local authorities of contributing to the bushfire toll by failing to let residents chop down trees and clear up bushland that posed a fire risk.

During question time at a packed community meeting in Arthurs Creek on Melbourne's northern fringe, Warwick Spooner — whose mother Marilyn and brother Damien perished along with their home in the Strathewen blaze — criticised the Nillumbik council for the limitations it placed on residents wanting the council's help or permission to clean up around their properties in preparation for the bushfire season. "We've lost two people in my family because you dickheads won't cut trees down," he said.

Read it all, and think what the atmosphere must have been like in that room. Especially when
There was widespread applause when Nillumbik Mayor Bo Bendtsen said changes were likely to be made about the council's policy surrounding native vegetation.
Don't you just love that word? 'Likely'? As in "We'll think about it, peasants."
But his response was not good enough for Mr Spooner: "It's too late now mate. We've lost families, we've lost people."

Tim Blair once had a piece about the different ways 'mate' could be used to have different meanings; in this case I think it means "You slimy bastard, you're not getting away with this 'likely' bullshit, not now." I hope.

Speaking of Blair, he has a piece noting the size of some of the bushfires in the past, since the globular warmeringers are claiming the current fire proves 'climate change'( the PC term since temps aren't going up like they claimed for so long) is striking:
Contrary to current hyperbole, Black Saturday was not the worst fire day ever. Ash Wednesday’s wind speeds ranged from 70 to 120 km/h. A savage south-west front led to most of the deaths and property loss, whereas Saturday had a modest wind change.

Nor was the area burned in the latest fires exceptional. About 300,000 hectares is the likely total, compared with 1.5 million on Black Friday 1939, several million on Black Thursday 1851, 260,000 on Red Tuesday 1898 and 230,000 on Ash Wednesday. Note that the days of the week have mostly been used up already. Every 10 or 20 years there is a bushfire disaster. This isn’t going to change.

South-eastern Australia is perhaps the worst fire vortex in the world ...
Kind of like Oklahoma is right in the middle of the tornado area. And, up until the last century or so, grass fires in the long-grass prairie were bloody awful; think of dry grass six feet tall running for hundreds of miles with high winds pushing fire... from what I've read the plains tribes feared it more than anything else. For damn good reason. There's more than a hundred dead down under so far. From what I've read they're pretty sure arson was involved; if it is, just what kind of punishment is bad enough?

Well, let's see: Pres. The Obama is a liar,

(yeah, whoda thunk it?), his friend in charge of the Dept of Education has this to recommend how well he fixed Chicago schools:
"If someone hits a student, they are going to be fired. It's very, very simple," Duncan said.

Before heading to Washington, he vowed to take action.

"Any founded allegation where an adult is hitting a child, hitting a student - they're going to be gone," Duncan said.

But that's not what happened under Duncan's watch. Of the 568 verified cases, only 24 led to termination. Records show one teacher who quote "battered students for several years" was simply given a "warning" by the Board of Education.

And another student was given "100 licks with a belt." The abuse was substantiated, but the records show the teacher was not terminated.
But this miserable slug will do MUCH better now that he's in DC. Right.

Of course, that's right in keeping with the 'most ethical Congress EVAH!' that Pelosi promised. When she wasn't acting like a Soviet commissar, which seems to be her "What I want to be when I grow up" desire. By the way, just in case anybody searches,
JOHN MURTHA IS A CORRUPT BASTARD.
JOHN MURTHA IS A CORRUPT BASTARD.
JOHN MURTHA IS A CORRUPT BASTARD.
Along with Tax-writing Tax-cheat Rangel, who's still in charge of our tax laws after the 'investigation'(to greatly misuse the word), and our Tax-Cheat Head of the Treasury.

And let us not forget the commissars wanting to shove their socialized health care down our throats by means of the 'stimulus' bill. I'll throw in again, Specter, Snowe and Collins? What did your integrity cost? Or did you just not have any left? Of course, socialized health care has worked so well in Canada...
In Ontario, Lindsay McCreith was suffering from headaches and seizures yet faced a four and a half month wait for an MRI scan in January of 2006. Deciding that the wait was untenable, Mr. McCreith did what a lot of Canadians do: He went south, and paid for an MRI scan across the border in Buffalo. The MRI revealed a malignant brain tumor.

Ontario's government system still refused to provide timely treatment, offering instead a months-long wait for surgery. In the end, Mr. McCreith returned to Buffalo and paid for surgery that may have saved his life. He's challenging Ontario's government-run monopoly health-insurance system, claiming it violates the right to life and security of the person guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

...On the other side of the country in Alberta, Bill Murray waited in pain for more than a year to see a specialist for his arthritic hip. The specialist recommended a "Birmingham" hip resurfacing surgery (a state-of-the-art procedure that gives better results than basic hip replacement) as the best medical option. But government bureaucrats determined that Mr. Murray, who was 57, was "too old" to enjoy the benefits of this procedure and said no. In the end, he was also denied the opportunity to pay for the procedure himself in Alberta. He's heading to court claiming a violation of Charter rights as well.

Ah, just the thing. If I knew how to do the rollover thing I'd just steal the picture(with credit, of course), but since I don't you'll have to go here to see President Barack Cartmann Obama.

And if Hillary Clinton didn't see this coming, then she's far more stupid than I thought. Pres. The Obama wants every position held by his buttmonkeys, and she ain't one of them.

I have a question for all five of you who read this: since so many of the slimy parasitespoliticians in DC don't seem to care what we say in calls and messages, what do YOU think it would take to get their attention? For real?

Another paper decided to publish a database of carry permit holders,

all in the name of 'the public's right to know', of course. So this gentleman published the names of the managing staff at the Memphis Commercial Appeal. I doubt it'll get the points across, since they already know them and discounted them, but worth doing.

You don't actually CARE about the pork in the 'stimulus' bill.

How do we know so? That lying socialist bastard(to repeat myself) Sen. Chuck Schumer(Douche-NY) says so. Insty has a link to all the contact information for Schumer, but it really doesn't matter: he doesn't give a rats ass what anybody thinks if they disagree with what he wants to do. As Uncle noted a few days back, every one of these bastards who voted to rape us- again- was getting their phones and e-mail shut down by people calling/sending and saying "NO, DAMMIT!", and they did it anyway.

One can only conclude it will take something dramatic(lynching, the many-times-mentioned tar and feathers being applied, etc.) to make these people actually realize that we mean it. Because a lot of them either don't think we do, or think it doesn't matter; by the time the next election rolls around they figure they'll have figured a way to slime their way back into office. The reason being, they keep doing it. Murtha called the people in his district racists and bigots and rednecks- using the last in the most offensive way possible- and his corrupt, lying ass is back in the House. So why should they believe that we're really mad, when enough people keep excusing them, or being bought off with other people's money, and reelecting them?

Hell, that fucking traitor Arlen Specter(Backstabbing Piece Of Crap-Reelected By Morons In PA- and thank you again for helping with that, George Bush, you bastard) was telling someone that the bill 'needed a lot more study', then said he was voting for it anyway. Which makes me wonder:
Is he just a flat friggin' moron? or
I wonder what the price is for what he counts as his integrity? Same question for Snowe and Collins.

Just ONE damn little meteor, just one, dammit.

To assist the terrorist & felon-pardoner we have heading Justice,

Obama wants this jerk:
Groves says Ogden argued that the high court should look to laws, legal opinions, and decisions of foreign countries and international organizations regarding the death penalty. He notes that in particular, Ogden cited the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) — a 1989 treaty that bars the execution of people who commit crimes while under the age of 18.

Ogden, says Groves, pointed out that the United States is one of only two countries in the world that has not signed onto that treaty.

“[He argued] that doesn’t mean that the U.S. doesn’t have to follow the treaty, [but that] it means the opposite — that the United States must follow the treaty that it has specifically decided not to join,” says Groves. “Why? Because [Ogden argued] the rest of the world has joined it — and so therefore it’s some new customary, international norm and the United States must outlaw the juvenile death penalty.”

Yeah, we should be in a big damn hurry to trash the Constitution and our own other laws so as to suck up to the 'new international norm'. And President The Obama wants him as #2 and what may come to be laughingly referred to as the 'Justice Department'.

Don't you love it? Children should be able to get an abortion without the parents being told, let alone having to give approval, but someone who hasn't reached 18 by a few months can't pay the full adult penalty for murder.

As various people have said, barring very hard work and- possibly- divine intervention, we are so screwed.

A question occurs to me about the Porculus Bill being debated:

Do these morons in DC not know, or just not care, that while they're talking about how close to another TRILLION DOLLARS they're going to take from us,

we're filling out our taxes?

WHAT media conflict of interest

could you be talking about?
...to publicly address and resolve what appears to be a clear violation of journalistic ethics by ABC’s Chief Washington Correspondent George Stephanopoulos. Last week a Politico story broke the news that Stephanopoulos has participated in daily phone strategy sessions with now White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel throughout his tenure at ABC.

And this is just one piece of bullshit by media that we have real corroboration for; doesn't count the others there's knowledge of but nothing solid, or the ass-kissing that went on all through the campaign.

I've never liked Stephanopoulos; sonnabitch helped Clinton lie for years, then got hired by a news agency, then wrote a book about HOW he lied and how bad it made him feel, and is still pulling down big money as a 'journalist'. I can't say this is a real breach of ethics for him personally; he gave up his ethics a long time ago.

The picture this guy has of one of the protesters

of the horror of JROTC kids learning to shoot... The fact that this bitch has the sign in bloody Spanish indicates a couple of things to me:
It's entirely possible she's an illegal, who should be getting the hell out instead of carrying a sign,
She's probably one of the morons who makes excuses for gangbangers and illegals committing various crimes,
And California sucks.

My post about Sen. John Effing Kerry(Royalist-MA),

I seem to have upset that wide commenter Anonymous, who, among other things, said this:
Spending the money is about using it where it will do the most good to stimulate our ecomony. Are you intending on purchasing something with the money you would receive? That would help the economy. However, if you intend to pay off bills that would not be stimulating the economy because the money would be applied to previously purchased goods.
And so forth. Including
Now, perhaps you only care about yourself and don't really care about helping out the economy and assisting in putting you fellow citizens back to work, then I suppose I can understand your anger over Senator Kerry's comments. But,ultimately, in the end your selfishness will catch up to you and when you need that new job or you need to purchase that new product you will find both are not available to you.

Awww, isn’t that sensitive and feeeeeeling? Anony agrees with Sen. Effing Kerry and Bill Effing Clinton and Barney Effing Frank and Cris Effing Dodd and every other power-grabbing money-grubbing socialist leech in DC and all their buttmonkeys: They should control how and where and when we spend our money because to do otherwise would make us ‘selfish’. Wanting to pay bills with MY money is ‘selfish’. Wanting to get a car that’s the best deal for MY money is ‘selfish’. If I want to invest any of MY money and it’s not in an ‘approved’ investment, I’m ‘selfish'.

Normally I try to be calm about such things, but in this case:
Fuck you. You and every one of those thieves in Washington who want total control over our lives. This bill has even had the CBO stating it’s a friggin’ disaster, it’s going to cost us our economy, and LOTS of jobs, and yet you sit there and parrot that ‘This bill is about creating jobs’ bullshit. No, this bill is just like most ‘gun control’ laws: it’s about control. Of us, of what we earn, of what we do.

And whether you like it or not, whether hypocritical bastards like Kerry like it or not, IT IS MY MONEY. I worked for it, I earned it, and it's not your damned privilege to tell me how I'll be ALLOWED to spend it.

Anony finishes with this
This bill is not a debate over how much you pay in taxes how much you get for the money you pay in. And, it is not about managing your money. This bill is about creating jobs, moving America forward and helping fellow Americans..
Bull-fucking-shit. This bill isn’t about ‘jobs’ and ‘moving America forward’; if it was it would be all about things like tax cuts and reducing bullshit regulations and giving people and business a chance to get ahead. And it would include some money for building the eight-legged horses for the people like Frank and Dodd who helped create the damn mess. Instead it’s full of pork and bribes. If it was concerned with creating jobs, it wouldn’t involve all kinds of bullshit like billions to ACORN to further practice vote fraud.

And if President The Lightworker Obama

actually cared about jobs as opposed to payoffs, he wouldn’t have signed this:
Described as an act that discriminates against 84% of the work force, Obama signed an executive order that
“repeals Executive Order 13202, that prohibited federal agencies and recipients of federal funding from requiring contractors to sign union-only project labor agreements (PLAs) as a condition of performing work on federal and federally funded construction projects.”
Put bluntly, this is that God-cursed crooked politician Obama paying off the unions for past and future favors. That's not about 'helping fellow Americans' unless you've decided the only ones who should get help- until it's their turn to be destroyed- are the unions, and screw everyone else. And let's not forget that this will also raise the costs of lots of projects, which means thieving politicians taking more of my money to give it to the God-damned unions. AFTER the politicians skim off their take, of course.



So you can join Kerry and Obama and Frank and every other thief and liar in DC in kissing my ass.


Thanks to Theo for the illustrations.

Collins, Specter and Snowe:

three RINOs that need to be removed from office. And, once again, thank you George Bush, you bastard, for helping keep that piece of treacherous crap Specter in office.

As Malkin says, So, your representatives of the “most deliberative body in the world” have barely a day to digest and debate the 778-page legislative text before rushing to vote on cloture Monday evening.

As Uncle pointed out, these clowns have been getting something like 9-1 AGAINST this crap from the people they claim to represent, and they STILL do this. Every one of these people, whatever party, should be removed from office at the first opportunity. Using pitchforks if necessary.

I think it was last week Glenn Beck told of some Stupid Party representative bitching at him about the crap happening at the border and in illegal immigration, something like "I wish you'd stop talking about this, it upsets people and makes it hard for us to deal." I wish I could remember the bastard's name, unfortunately there's far too many in DC who would really like to make people stop talking about the crap they're doing and- as illustrated above- don't want to be bothered by the peasants who actually believe in the way this government is supposed to work.

There was some other moron told either Rush or Glenn, can't remember which, "Would you stop talking bad about Republicans?" To which he was reminded "I'm not a Republican, I'm a conservative; and if you don't like what I say about you, stop acting like Evil Party Lite". Which pretty much covers it. The Stupid Party members in the house held against this socialist power-grab, which is good, but the simple fact is that after all the garbage they've pulled on us in the past we cannot trust them to hold; they're going to have to PROVE to US that they can be trusted.

Remember the study linking MMR vaccine and autism?

As Insty put it, can you trust ANYTHING that comes from the Lancet?
THE doctor who sparked the scare over the safety of the MMR vaccine for children changed and misreported results in his research, creating the appearance of a possible link with autism, a Sunday Times investigation has found.

Confidential medical documents and interviews with witnesses have established that Andrew Wakefield manipulated patients’ data, which triggered fears that the MMR triple vaccine to protect against measles, mumps and rubella was linked to the condition.

If indeed true, this is a violation of ethics, a violation of the scientific method, and these bastards are responsible for a lot of sickness and death. Another case for a public whipping post, or tar and feathers. Maybe both.

There are problems with vaccinations, oh yeah; among other things, kids who have nasty reactions to a vaccine shouldn't have to continue getting the damn thing in order to go to school. Doesn't change that vaccines, used properly, have done incredible good in this world. Smallpox, for instance, used to torture and cripple and kill millions, and it doesn't exist in the wild anymore. These jerks... what is the right kind of punishment for what they've done?

John Kerry is an arrogant statist bastard,

pretty much proven- again- out of his own mouth:
During his speech, he addressed the argument made by fellow senators and many economists that tax cuts might be more helpful to stimulating the economy than long-term government spending. The American people are also coming around to that view, according to a recent CBS poll, which found only 22 percent of them favor more government spending over tax cuts as stimulus.

His argument against tax cuts for Americans during these hard economic times was illuminating:
I've supported many tax cuts over the years, and there are tax cuts in this proposal. But a tax cut is non-targeted.

If you put a tax cut into the hands of a business or family, there's no guarantee that they're going to invest that or invest it in America.

They're free to go invest anywhere that they want if they choose to invest.

I seem to remember, when FDR was trying to put a man in jail for selling wheat at other than approved price(he was selling only to local buyers and argued that the new law about interstate sales didn't apply, the government lawyer said something like "Are we going to go back to farmers selling to who they choose for what price they choose?"

And we had that wonderful bit from Bill Clinton about "You might not spend your money the right way" if you're allowed to keep more of it.

God DAMN these people, one and all. Kerry, it's none of your damned BUSINESS how I spend my money; Bill Clinton, same to you you controlling piece of crap. And there are far too many vile beings in DC who think the same way but don't have the nerve to say it out loud, or just realize that saying it just might upset the peasants.

Lampposts, ropes, politicians... repeat as required...