Wednesday, October 09, 2013
I agree with Alien:
The next spending bill from the House should, whatever else it contains,
include the federal defunding of the National Park Service, right down
to zero dollars and zero cents, the complete abolition of any and all
federal park management or supervision, and transfer all federal park
properties to the states in which they are located.
If the NSPS is going to screw with people this way, it should expect to pay the price; and at this point, I think getting rid of ALL of them is suitable.
Will Fast And Furious Justice Finally Befall Eric Holder?
Not if Obama and most of the media have anything to say about it. Not to mention the "He's a Democrat, so he gets a pass" bastards in Congress.
Part-time government employees working for Cook County, Illinois — President Obama’s home county — may soon lose their employer-funded health insurance and instead have to move onto Obamacare’s healthcare exchanges.
That move would once again directly contradict President Obama’s promise that Americans who like their health plans could keep them.
Some of the enviroweenies have faced the reality of the true prices of gasohol; corn industry, lobbyists and Al Gore hardest hit.
Over in (formerly Great)Britain,
More than a dozen Muslim clerics have been caught agreeing to marry off girls as young as 14.
Four imams are now under investigation, after they offered to arrange the illegal ceremonies.
Undercover reporters, posing as the mother and brother of a 14-year-old, contacted 56 mosques across the country and asked clerics to perform an Islamic marriage ceremony, known as a nika.
Imams at 18 mosques agreed – including one who has advised the police.
The preacher was prepared to arrange the nika despite being told that the ‘bride’ was being forced to move in with a man against her wishes.
One of the annoying things about this crap: some southern preacher was pushing this, we'd be hearing about the 'evil Xtianists' and so forth; muslims do it, we're not supposed to notice.
And while people aren't paying attention to the IRS,
Senior Internal Revenue Service officials—including one at the heart of the IRS “targeting” scandal—violated agency policies and possibly federal records laws by using private email to send confidential taxpayer information, the GOP-led House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said in a letter.
In a Sept. 30 letter to IRS Acting Commissioner Daniel Werfel obtained by the Free Beacon, Oversight Chairman Darrel Issa (R., Calif.) said an investigation revealed a “troubling pattern” of at least four top IRS officials using their private email addresses to relay confidential tax information.
“This not only raises the prospect of violations of the Federal Records Act but it also raises data security concerns and violates internal IRS policies,” Issa wrote to Werfel.
Down in Mexico,
“The government didn’t do anything to help us,” said Zarcotellos, who lost her brother and a brother in law to the ruthless violence. “We couldn’t even send kids to school. I knew it would only end when the people armed themselves,” she said.
Outside the market, Alberto Castillo, a 62-year-old resident, explained, “the moment came when it became necessary. There was a lot of insecurity so the people rose up.”
Over the course of this year, the security dynamic in Xaltianguis has evolved dramatically. Twice a day, on early morning and mid-afternoon, several dozen women march together -- weapons at the ready -- through the streets. Their presence alone has proven to be a deterrent to would-be thieves and extortionists.
There's the obligatory crap about 'military-grade weapons bought in the US and smuggled in', otherwise a pretty good piece.
If the NSPS is going to screw with people this way, it should expect to pay the price; and at this point, I think getting rid of ALL of them is suitable.
Will Fast And Furious Justice Finally Befall Eric Holder?
Not if Obama and most of the media have anything to say about it. Not to mention the "He's a Democrat, so he gets a pass" bastards in Congress.
Part-time government employees working for Cook County, Illinois — President Obama’s home county — may soon lose their employer-funded health insurance and instead have to move onto Obamacare’s healthcare exchanges.
That move would once again directly contradict President Obama’s promise that Americans who like their health plans could keep them.
Some of the enviroweenies have faced the reality of the true prices of gasohol; corn industry, lobbyists and Al Gore hardest hit.
Over in (formerly Great)Britain,
More than a dozen Muslim clerics have been caught agreeing to marry off girls as young as 14.
Four imams are now under investigation, after they offered to arrange the illegal ceremonies.
Undercover reporters, posing as the mother and brother of a 14-year-old, contacted 56 mosques across the country and asked clerics to perform an Islamic marriage ceremony, known as a nika.
Imams at 18 mosques agreed – including one who has advised the police.
The preacher was prepared to arrange the nika despite being told that the ‘bride’ was being forced to move in with a man against her wishes.
One of the annoying things about this crap: some southern preacher was pushing this, we'd be hearing about the 'evil Xtianists' and so forth; muslims do it, we're not supposed to notice.
And while people aren't paying attention to the IRS,
Senior Internal Revenue Service officials—including one at the heart of the IRS “targeting” scandal—violated agency policies and possibly federal records laws by using private email to send confidential taxpayer information, the GOP-led House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said in a letter.
In a Sept. 30 letter to IRS Acting Commissioner Daniel Werfel obtained by the Free Beacon, Oversight Chairman Darrel Issa (R., Calif.) said an investigation revealed a “troubling pattern” of at least four top IRS officials using their private email addresses to relay confidential tax information.
“This not only raises the prospect of violations of the Federal Records Act but it also raises data security concerns and violates internal IRS policies,” Issa wrote to Werfel.
Down in Mexico,
“The government didn’t do anything to help us,” said Zarcotellos, who lost her brother and a brother in law to the ruthless violence. “We couldn’t even send kids to school. I knew it would only end when the people armed themselves,” she said.
Outside the market, Alberto Castillo, a 62-year-old resident, explained, “the moment came when it became necessary. There was a lot of insecurity so the people rose up.”
Over the course of this year, the security dynamic in Xaltianguis has evolved dramatically. Twice a day, on early morning and mid-afternoon, several dozen women march together -- weapons at the ready -- through the streets. Their presence alone has proven to be a deterrent to would-be thieves and extortionists.
There's the obligatory crap about 'military-grade weapons bought in the US and smuggled in', otherwise a pretty good piece.
Tuesday, October 08, 2013
Among the ways ATF wants to screw people:
the 'sporting use' test. Which they made up, and want to be able to change at will.
PLIMER: “Okay, here’s the bombshell. The volcanic eruption in Iceland ,
I remember reading that when Pinatubo was ramping up- long before the actual eruption-they found it to be pumping about 500 tons of sulfur dioxide per day into the atmosphere. Day after day.
And yet more bullshit from what I'll now call the National Socialist Park Service:
The seniors quickly filed back onboard and the bus went to the Old Faithful Inn, the park’s premier lodge located adjacent to the park’s most famous site, Old Faithful geyser. That was as close as they could get to the famous site — barricades were erected around Old Faithful, and the seniors were locked inside the hotel, where armed rangers stayed at the door.
“They looked like Hulk Hogans, armed. They told us you can’t go outside,” she said. “Some of the Asians who were on the tour said, ‘Oh my God, are we under arrest?’ They felt like they were criminals.”
By Oct. 3 the park, which sees an average of 4,500 visitors a day, was nearly empty. The remaining hotel visitors were required to leave.
As the bus made its 2.5-hour journey out of Yellowstone, the tour guide made arrangements to stop at a full-service bathroom at an in-park dude ranch he had done business with in the past. Though the bus had its own small bathroom, Vaillancourt said seniors were looking for a more comfortable place to stop. But no stop was made — Vaillancourt said the dude ranch had been warned that its license to operate would be revoked if it allowed the bus to stop. So the bus continued on to Livingston, Mont., a gateway city to the park.
Fire every damned one of them. And if the agency actually needs to be kept in operation, staff it with people who remember THEY AREN'T THE BOSS. AND THEY DON'T OWN THE PARKS.
PLIMER: “Okay, here’s the bombshell. The volcanic eruption in Iceland ,
…
Since its first spewing of volcanic ash has, in just FOUR DAYS, NEGATED
EVERY SINGLE EFFORT you have made in the past five years to control CO2
emissions on our planet – all of you.
And yet more bullshit from what I'll now call the National Socialist Park Service:
The seniors quickly filed back onboard and the bus went to the Old Faithful Inn, the park’s premier lodge located adjacent to the park’s most famous site, Old Faithful geyser. That was as close as they could get to the famous site — barricades were erected around Old Faithful, and the seniors were locked inside the hotel, where armed rangers stayed at the door.
“They looked like Hulk Hogans, armed. They told us you can’t go outside,” she said. “Some of the Asians who were on the tour said, ‘Oh my God, are we under arrest?’ They felt like they were criminals.”
By Oct. 3 the park, which sees an average of 4,500 visitors a day, was nearly empty. The remaining hotel visitors were required to leave.
As the bus made its 2.5-hour journey out of Yellowstone, the tour guide made arrangements to stop at a full-service bathroom at an in-park dude ranch he had done business with in the past. Though the bus had its own small bathroom, Vaillancourt said seniors were looking for a more comfortable place to stop. But no stop was made — Vaillancourt said the dude ranch had been warned that its license to operate would be revoked if it allowed the bus to stop. So the bus continued on to Livingston, Mont., a gateway city to the park.
Fire every damned one of them. And if the agency actually needs to be kept in operation, staff it with people who remember THEY AREN'T THE BOSS. AND THEY DON'T OWN THE PARKS.
Long post from the Dutchman
I'm going to copy here for those who can't go over there:
I don't suppose I need to introduce myself, as my sources report you are
quite aware of who I am - at least in the context of the Fast and
Furious scandal - and my ATF and DOJ files are several feet thick by
now, reflecting my opposition to militarized federal law enforcement
over the past twenty years.
It has been more than two years since you were named Acting Director of the ATF. At the time, sources of mine in DC characterized you as a political stooge, with one long-time DC observer saying:
Of course Traver never made it even to a recess appointment, so big was his anti-firearm rights baggage. Then they turned to you. Like I said, I thought about sending you a similar letter -- for about thirty-two and one-half seconds. I wrote then, "It would be a waste of time for he is, as my DC friend commented, merely a 'political stooge' placeholder playing a game of musical chairs with no odd man out, played for the benefit of the idly curious television cameras and temporarily concerned Congresscritters. It is Kabuki theater, signifying nothing." My other thought was, "Give him time. We'll see what he's made of."
In the past two years you have shown us, and I must say the picture is neither flattering nor reassuring. Other sources who have known you over the years characterized you as vindictive to subordinates and slavishly obedient to superiors saying you were "The Nuremberg Man" who would "kill his own mother if he was ordered to." Harsh? Certainly, within a year it was evident that not only were you not interested in getting to the bottom of the Fast and Furious cover-up, you were part of the cover-up yourself. As John Solomon reported in July of last year:
You mean snafus like Operation Fearless in Milwaukee? By the way, did y'all ever get that machine gun you had stolen back? Guess not. You know I'm reminded of the reproof Super Chicken gave to his trusty sidekick Fred the Lion whenever something would go wrong: "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred."
None of this is very pleasant for you to read, of course, but as "Uncle" Ho Chi Minh once cautioned, "Cherish your enemies for they teach you the best lessons." So let me, if I may, go back over some of the advice I gave to Andy Traver, for it seems that nothing has changed in the past two years.
I always pay avid attention to the matter of who sits in your chair because up until now -- and at least until the IRS begins enforcing the "Health Care" mandate -- it has been the ATF of all the three-letter federal law enforcement agencies which has demonstrated by its mission and past talent for misadventure (Randy Weaver, Waco, David Olofson, etc.) the greatest aptitude for triggering the next American civil war. I have always taken a keen interest in understanding things that can make me suddenly and unexpectedly dead through no particular fault of my own save ignorance. For the same reason I keep track of neighborhood crime statistics, earthquake fault lines, tornado warnings, the behavior and habitat of poisonous snakes and the approximate location at any given time of my ex-wife so that I may give all of them a wide berth.
But of all of these threats to my existence it is the ATF which has drawn my consistent attention as the greater danger to my life, liberty and property. The Chief Counsel's Office, as you may know, is hard-wired through unofficial communication channels to the most avid of the citizen disarmament advocates in this country -- the Brady Bunch, CSGV, Senators Feinstein and Schumer -- and your lawyers (and I daresay your bosses Holder and Obama) pay attention to the dangerous siren song they sing.
And make no mistake, it IS dangerous -- very dangerous. As I wrote Eric Holder some time back when one of your agency's vindictive "economic Wacos" was threatening to turn deadly, there will be No more free Wacos. Don't take my word for it, but check with your analysts and with those of the FBI and CIA. Ask for a complete briefing paper on the Three Percent and the concept of "One Hundred Heads" introduced unexpectedly by an anonymous Marine Corps scout-sniper friend of mine who one day back in 2009 sent me this personal card:
As a former Marine you may recognize the MOS numbers of a scout-sniper,
someone with the the "skill set" (as you put it) to actually take those
one hundred heads. (I also suggest for your edification and amusement
the introduction to my novel Absolved: Tyrants beware. 4th Generation Warfare: How the next civil war will be fought.) As I wrote to Andy Traver:
These are unprecedentedly dangerous times and your agency has through arrogance, incompetence and both accidental and willful misadventure advanced its own front lines to the crumbling edge of an abyss. The advocates of citizen disarmament, wrongly believing that they have no skin in the game (that is, that they personally risk nothing by your obedience to their agenda) will be urging you to jump into that abyss, at the bottom of which is a ghastly civil war.
Please believe me when I say that it is in the vital interest of every American -- you, me, our children, everybody -- that you do not. And it certainly need not come to that.
Traver never made the grade. You did. Now you are stuck with something that I daresay you didn't know when you accepted it, other wise you would have run screaming in the other direction. Even so, you may be the right man in the right place at the right moment in history to avoid senseless, even unintended, violence on a vast scale.
Just as it took Nixon to go to China and Bill Clinton to accomplish welfare reform, you could take advantage of your unique position to reform the more dangerous habits of your agency.
You may by now have a more informed opinion of the culture and belief system of your agency as well as I know the culture and belief system of my friends. We call yours, with some justification we believe, "jack booted thugs." You call us "gun worshippers," "gun queers," "barrel suckers," and worse. We don't believe your agency has a constitutional basis to exist. Y'all don't believe that we have a right to question anything you order us to do, no matter how ill-considered, inconsistent or even malevolent it may be. Your employees, especially those of the Chief Counsel's Office, think it perfectly appropriate to misuse the power of their office to wreak havoc on innocent people's lives and families because of their political opinions. My folks think your folks could teach cockroaches some lessons about photo-phobia.
Mind you, even our folks understand that there are honest ATF street agents who chase real bad guys who commit real crimes. In fact, our understanding of your agency is far more informed and nuanced than you give us credit for, or indeed, far more than yours is of us. The ironic thing to those street agents is that they have as much trouble with the senior executive service (especially the Chief Counsel's Office) as they do with hardened criminals on the street and the sort of paperwork-chasing, agenda-driven investigations they are ordered into are really areas that they would prefer not getting into, for they believe such anti-firearm tail-chasing discredits the entire agency.
As numerous recent polls have demonstrated, belief in the legitimacy of the federal government and its power over the average citizen is at a modern nadir. Is this the fault of the people or the federal bureaucracy?
But it is not necessary to agree on the answer to that question to mutually understand that if the system is perceived by some to be illegitimate and hopelessly corrupt, that these people will take decisions based upon that belief -- decisions that could well lead to violence.
If as a result of studying recent outrages such as the railroading of David Olofson or the punitive "economic Waco" your agency has inflicted for years on Georgia firearms designer Len Savage in retribution for his testimony as an expert witness on behalf of defendants targeted by the ATF, we conclude that the agency is out of control and that -- even in federal court -- the rule of law no longer protects us, then surely you can understand our indifference to the notion that your position protects you.
In my own case, it was Special Agent Jody Keeku's framing of David Olofson which brought me off the benches and into the arena. If now your agency dislikes the results of my renewed attention to the darker recesses of their dungeons they have only Keeku and themselves to blame. To quote the American philosopher Frank Zappa: "Do you love it? Do you hate it. There it is, the way you made it." The Law of Unintended Consequences may be a bitch, but it is iron-clad and not subject to appeal or repeal, nor can it be manipulated, as your Chief Counsel's Office is so fond of doing, by unethical ex parte communication with federal judges.
And if the Founders' rule of law no longer obtains and it is merely naked power we are talking about -- that is to say, the law of the jungle -- then the hunter becomes the hunted and vice versa. Absent a mutual belief in the potency of the rule of law, the hitherto "law abiding citizen" must believe that such a corrupted system is merely a confidence game at his expense and if the law no longer protects him, then he must make his own arrangements. For if, after studying the Olofson case and others, we believe we no longer have the possibility of a fair trial in federal court, we still retain the right to an unfair gunfight with the ATF agents sent to our homes to arrest us on false charges.
That is where we are today. The question is, are you, Mr. Jones, going to reverse your agency's criminal drift under the shadow rule of the Chief Counsel's Office and execute the actual law in daylight under transparent rules and unambiguous regulations with verifiable testing procedures or are you going to embrace the Brady's citizen disarmament agenda and potential future violence?
Only you can answer that question.
On the off chance that you remember the oath you took to the Constitution when you first entered the service -- on the possibility that the law means more to you than an agenda provided to you by your putative sponsors -- in the hope that you are actually as honest and straightforward as you believe yourself to be -- I offer you below the results of my two decades study of the ATF. Just because I believe that your agency should be abolished doesn't mean that it is going to happen anytime soon. I live in the real world and see it with attentive eyes. So I offer these fixes in the interest of correcting the worst abuses of an agency I don't think should exist in the further interest of avoiding or at least postponing violence.
Even if you decide not to do a thing about any of these scandals, however, you should still study the list and possible solutions below. For even if you have no intention of correcting them, you may well one day will be called to testify under oath about them. Even with your anti-whistleblower policies, the cockroaches of your agency are no longer in a position to avoid the antiseptic qualities of bright sunshine.
I have already mentioned the first priority of purging the Chief Counsel's office (you might want to pay particular attention to the ruinous career of that poisonous weasel James P. "Little Jimmy" Vann). Here are the other suggestions I had for Mr. Traver:
2. Once you have the CCO saboteurs out of the way. you can begin to deal with the sorry regulatory mess the ATF has been. First, understand that NONE of the databases your agency relies upon is without huge errors. The National Firearms Registry, the NFRTR, is particularly vulnerable to court challenge as demonstrated in the recent Freisen case. How is it, one must ask, that your agency continues to make new additions to the NFRTR every month when not a single new automatic weapon has been manufactured or imported since 1986? The answer of course is that the NFRTR is hopelessly faulty, and the additions that the ATF discovers in the process of inspections merely paper that over. YET PEOPLE GO TO PRISON BASED IN PART UPON THE NFRTR EVERY YEAR. How you fix this scandal absent another amnesty I do not know. It is your call, but you will continue to waste money on worthless prosecutions based upon it -- and wreck innocent lives -- if you continue to embrace the utter failure represented by the NFRTR.
3. If the ATF is to be an actual "law enforcement" agency, the rules and regulations must be both transparent and unambiguous and supported by verifiable testing procedures. As it stands, the ATF under the shadow rule of the CCO mafia has none of these. Part of this is the ambiguity of the laws you are called to enforce but most of it is simple bureaucratic inertia combined with the CCO desire to be able to argue either way in court, depending upon which they believe will be more likely to convict. The Firearms Testing Branch ought to promulgate clear written procedures that they can defend logically in court with scientific videotaped evidence that can be verified by independent experts. And their word, once given, should not be subject to tampering by enforcement agents, such as happened in the matter of David Olofson, when SA Jody Keeku sent his rifle, which had been determined to be a malfunctioning semi-automatic rifle by FTB back for "further testing" under conditions that guaranteed uncontrolled and dangerous full auto fire. Absent any effective challenge or verification, testing becomes subject to mere agenda-driven opinion and agency convenience, yet through its unchallenged presentation in court becomes law without any basis in demonstrable fact. This is a perversion of science, logic and law. To the extent that you let this scandal fester, the ATF will continue to be despised as a mere force operating under color of law and not a law enforcement agency.
4. More so than the NFRTR, the contradictory regulatory Gordian knot that the agency has tied itself in over definitions and lengths of destructive devices and pistol grip shotguns will have to be dealt with. Should you do an amnesty followed by a demand of forfeiture or registration of millions of hitherto unregulated shotguns currently in the hands of law-abiding citizens? Boy will that make a whole bunch of NRA members mad. The NRA management might even be forced out of its symbiotic, go-along to get-along mindset. (Note: they didn't oppose YOUR nomination now did they?) And if you don't? Why, the Brady folks who now shower you with kisses will cover you with curses, because for them it is not about the law but the agenda -- their agenda. Either way you go, you will discredit your agency with SOMEBODY. Good luck with that.
5. Critics of the agency's missteps are not "enemies of the state." People who try to defend themselves against baseless charges are not legitimate targets for regulatory retribution. You should put a stop to all "economic Wacos" now in progress and forbid any more manipulation of enforcement to avoid embarrassing questions or even uncomfortable legal blow-back for CCO misdeeds. Stop the Don Corleone culture and attempt to make whole the damage it has inflicted on their victims. It is not a crime to be an effective expert witness against the ATF in federal court, nor should gun dealers be targeted for their political opinions. Until the law becomes more important than the agenda to the ATF, your agency will continue to pose a danger to itself and to the peace of the country.
6. The street agents are smarter than the muckety-mucks of the senior executive service, regardless of their pay grade. When the ill-considered Waco raid's cover was blown, it was a street agent who warned that the raid shouldn't proceed. He was ignored, to great loss of life. No one was inconvenienced for that deadly blunder, nor did their ATF careers suffer, unless you count the conscientious agent. To the extent that you give the street agents your own personal leadership and your own personal accountability, your people will take care of you. This is Leadership 101 and common sense, but it has been sorrowfully scarce in all of your recent predecessors. You should also understand that almost all whistleblowers are not bureaucratic traitors but merely honest folks trying to save the agency from the darker demons of the senior executive service's nature. Figure out a way to expedite the resolution of their complaints instead of trying to hide them and you'll be the darling of both parties on the Hill. It may run contrary to all agency history and bureaucratic reflexes, but it is nonetheless true.
7. The cultivation and pressuring of informants, including those at the highest levels of industry associations such as the NFATCA, is doing your agency more harm than good when it is driven not by actual police work in furtherance of the law but by the desire on the part of CCO to root out and make unwarranted criminal cases against people they view as "poisonous weasels." This agenda-driven corruption of the process opens the ATF up to self-discrediting errors such as that represented by R.A. Bear. As best I understand the beginning of the story, the CCO wanted to "get" an honest man whose only "crime" had been to defy them in court. To that end they put pressure on all their snitches to come up with anything. One highly-placed informant, apparently on the hook legally and under pressure himself from the ATF, gave them a name: R.A. Bear, the stuffed child‘s toy of the daughter of another man who the informant despised. What consideration the informant got for providing the name is unknown except to him and your agency. From that point Mr. Bear took on a life of his own, a process which I was honored to assist in. We gave him friends, a life history, we paged him at gun shows and machine gun shoots and, on the orders of the CCO, your agents scurried hither and yon, chasing each and every clue and always coming up empty. CCO lawyers demanded to know about him in discovery depositions, always to be told truthfully under oath, "I know of no such person as R.A. Bear." Now it is hoped that R.A. Bear will be present at a congressional oversight hearing, if the GOP ever finds its spine (perhaps in the run-up to the 2014 midterms I am now being told) with full explanation from other witnesses under oath as to how he came to be the focus of an ATF bear hunt. If you want to prevent another such long, expensive, foolish and utterly self-discrediting trackdown at taxpayer expense, you should buy stuffed toy bears and send one each ATF employee this Christmas, as a reminder that when their agenda gets in front of the law and even common sense, you are not going to reward them for it. (By the way, if you don't believe me, just ask Little Jimmy Vann -- he knows ALL about Ramsey A. Bear.)
8. Finally, your agency and other agencies in the federal government pay the Southern "Poverty" Law Center big bucks for "hate group" orientation. Stop it. They are by now very rich liars for money ($200M plus in assets and the 2009 IRS paperwork of SPLC indicates even a Cayman Islands account), and although they have provided political cover to your agency at critical points in the ATF's history, such as the Good O' Boys Roundup scandal, they are so factually challenged that any "intelligence" they provide nowadays is worthless. You are paying good taxpayer money to propangandize your employees with their agenda. And, as my Michigan farmer Grandpa used to say, they "don't know shit from shinola." I ask you, if we were actually as morally contemptible, intellectually challenged and cartoonish as they portray us with their conflationary propaganda -- or even if we really were just "gun queers" and "barrel suckers" -- could we have successfully made R.A. Bear real and had your agency chasing a stuffed child's toy for the better part of two years? Could we have exposed the Fast and Furious scandal? Vectored the Senators' staffs to the whistleblowers? Linked up the whistleblowers with honest media folks like Sharyl Attkisson of CBS?
This gets back to old Uncle Ho's adage, "Cherish your enemies for they teach you the best lessons." The old murdering communist is burning in Hell, but he was right about that. If we are to avoid unwanted violence during your tenure as ATF Director, it is important that we see each others positions clearly and move, when we move, slowly and carefully. And keep your hands where we can see 'em.
Remember in every decision you make that there are now no more free Wacos and the Law of Unintended Consequences still trumps every best-laid plan.
But if you can get your traditionally agenda-driven cowboy agency actually under control and operating according to law, it will go a good way to minimizing the chance of an accidental discharge leading to the next American civil war.
With hope, but not much faith, I look forward to the remainder of your tenure as ATF Director.
Good luck.
You're going to need it.
In fact, we all are.
Mike Vanderboegh
The alleged leader of a merry band of Three Percenters.
PS And quit whining. It is unbecoming of a former Marine.
Reality Sinks In. An Open Letter to the Whiner Known as ATF Director B. Todd Jones.
6 October 2013
Dear Mr. Jones,
It has been more than two years since you were named Acting Director of the ATF. At the time, sources of mine in DC characterized you as a political stooge, with one long-time DC observer saying:
My reaction is that the bag here is too mixed to be effective, and to constitute effective reform, with McMahon and Newell sitting where they are. It compromises too much; reflects the relative lack of power that Todd Jones has; and reinforced the notion he's a political stooge. I hope that I'm wrong about this, but it is what I think --- it is nowhere near the housecleaning that needs to be done.At the time I thought I would send a letter of friendly advice to you, much as I did to Chicago Gang favorite Andy Traver back in November 2010. (In fact, it is remarkable as I re-read it now, how much of this advice still holds true despite two years of your tenure.) Here, in part, (along with a quote from Voltaire) is what I told Traver then:
Perhaps the baldest hypocrisy is leaving ATF Counsel intact --- because that's ultimately where most if not all of the problems originate; and those that didn't originate there, got fed and nurtured by the ATF Counsel thugs.
"Dans ce pay-ci, il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un admiral pour encourager les autres." "In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time, to encourage the others." -- Voltaire's Candide.
1. Deal with the Chief Counsel's Office incompetent shadow management of ATF. To paraphrase Shakespeare, "first thing you do is fire all the lawyers." For more than a decade the CCO has run ATF as a sorry parade of temporary management came and went. When a new acting director would come in, he would first turn to the guys who "knew stuff" at that rarefied level of ATF headquarters, the Chief Counsel's Office. Problem was, and is, they are not beyond setting up acting directors for a fall to further their own power and agenda (just ask poor Ken Melson) . Simply put, they don't like the competition that a director, a real director, gives them. You may simplify your life by firing anyone even tainted by the present CCO mafia and get some competent attorneys in there who feel bound by the law rather than an agenda. Being loyal to their oaths and to your direction wouldn't hurt either. In any case, the sight of incompetent and/or malevolent CCO lawyers being frog-marched out past the ruins of their government careers will certainly "encourage the others." Morale among the street agents will soar.
Of course Traver never made it even to a recess appointment, so big was his anti-firearm rights baggage. Then they turned to you. Like I said, I thought about sending you a similar letter -- for about thirty-two and one-half seconds. I wrote then, "It would be a waste of time for he is, as my DC friend commented, merely a 'political stooge' placeholder playing a game of musical chairs with no odd man out, played for the benefit of the idly curious television cameras and temporarily concerned Congresscritters. It is Kabuki theater, signifying nothing." My other thought was, "Give him time. We'll see what he's made of."
In the past two years you have shown us, and I must say the picture is neither flattering nor reassuring. Other sources who have known you over the years characterized you as vindictive to subordinates and slavishly obedient to superiors saying you were "The Nuremberg Man" who would "kill his own mother if he was ordered to." Harsh? Certainly, within a year it was evident that not only were you not interested in getting to the bottom of the Fast and Furious cover-up, you were part of the cover-up yourself. As John Solomon reported in July of last year:
The federal prosecutor brought in to reform the embattled Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the aftermath of the Fast and Furious gun scandal distributed a videotaped message to employees this month warning there would be “consequences” for reporting wrongdoing outside their chain of command.
The video, obtained by the Washington Guardian, immediately raised alarm among agents in the field, members of Congress and whistleblower advocates
“Choices and consequences means simply that if you make poor choices, that if you don’t abide by the rules, that if you don’t respect the chain of command, if you don’t find the appropriate way to raise your concerns to your leadership, there will be consequences,” Acting Director B. Todd Jones told the employees in a video distributed July 9 by email and closed-circuit TV and obtained by the Washington Guardian.
The 3 minute, 22 second videotape was the last of eight “Changecasts” that Jones distributed to ATF employees in recent weeks to describe how he planned to run the agency, improve morale and instill a new culture in the aftermath of one of the agency's worst scandals.
ATF officials in Washington and rank-and-file agents told the Washington Guardian that the tape was interpreted by many as a warning not to pursue the path of the Arizona agents who went outside the agency in 2011 and reported concerns to Congress about the bungled Fast and Furious gun probe that let semiautomatic weapons flow to Mexican drug gangs.
Of course once caught, you immediately crawfished, denying that you had intended to intimidate anyone. The whistleblowers were not reassured. At the time, your words made the cover story of the Fall 2012 edition of The Agent, the official publication of the National Association of Federal Agents. In fact, as you well know, the cover showed a photo of an immensely ugly toad, with your threat in a cartoon bubble above it. This was, of course, a reference to your nickname earned long ago in certain federal law enforcement circles, "The Toad," or sometimes rendered as "B. Toad Jones."
Shortly after that, you complained publicly that you were "under the microscope" and that running ATF was 'Testing All Of My Skill Sets.' At the time I thought, "What a whiner." Now appears a story indicating that if anything your whining has grown more shrill:When President Barack Obama picked B. Todd Jones to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, it looked like the moment had arrived when the beleaguered ATF would reassert itself as an agency with teeth. . . It didn't work out that way. One by one, the bills failed. Support for expanded background checks fizzled. Jones' nomination sat idle for eight months before the Senate finally confirmed him. Two months into his tenure, Jones is stuck between a White House with high expectations for curbing gun violence and a Congress that has little appetite for strengthening his agency.
"The debate going on in this town right now makes it real clear to anyone who's got a mind and is forward-looking and not living day to day that the resources are going to be diminished," Jones said. "We're also going to have to and have been doing more with less. We're not right-sized, we're not resourced. . ."
During his confirmation hearing, Jones acknowledged that ATF was "very much in distress." Repairing that hasn't been easy so far.
The ATF was among the many federal agencies rushing to the Washington Navy Yard last month when a Navy contractor killed 13 people and terrorized his office building with a sawed-off shotgun.
Tracing guns is the ATF's responsibility. But in the first high-profile investigation since being confirmed, Jones saw the FBI snub his agents and trace the shotgun itself. Neither agency has commented on the situation.
Also, late last month the Justice Department's inspector general issued a scathing report on the agency's handling of cigarette smuggling cases between 2006 and 2011. The report concluded ATF mismanaged undercover operations, lost track of millions of cigarettes and misused some of the $162 million in profits from the investigations.
The conclusions recalled the missteps of the failed operation "Fast and Furious," in which the ATF allowed gun-runners to buy weapons in hopes of tracking them and disrupting Mexican gun smuggling rings. The ATF lost track of the guns. . .
The legacy of "Fast and Furious" continues haunts the agency today, to Jones' frustration. "I'm tired of ... constantly being flogged for mistakes," he said. "There's much, much more that we've done right that that public never hears about than the snafus that they do hear about."
You mean snafus like Operation Fearless in Milwaukee? By the way, did y'all ever get that machine gun you had stolen back? Guess not. You know I'm reminded of the reproof Super Chicken gave to his trusty sidekick Fred the Lion whenever something would go wrong: "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred."
None of this is very pleasant for you to read, of course, but as "Uncle" Ho Chi Minh once cautioned, "Cherish your enemies for they teach you the best lessons." So let me, if I may, go back over some of the advice I gave to Andy Traver, for it seems that nothing has changed in the past two years.
I always pay avid attention to the matter of who sits in your chair because up until now -- and at least until the IRS begins enforcing the "Health Care" mandate -- it has been the ATF of all the three-letter federal law enforcement agencies which has demonstrated by its mission and past talent for misadventure (Randy Weaver, Waco, David Olofson, etc.) the greatest aptitude for triggering the next American civil war. I have always taken a keen interest in understanding things that can make me suddenly and unexpectedly dead through no particular fault of my own save ignorance. For the same reason I keep track of neighborhood crime statistics, earthquake fault lines, tornado warnings, the behavior and habitat of poisonous snakes and the approximate location at any given time of my ex-wife so that I may give all of them a wide berth.
But of all of these threats to my existence it is the ATF which has drawn my consistent attention as the greater danger to my life, liberty and property. The Chief Counsel's Office, as you may know, is hard-wired through unofficial communication channels to the most avid of the citizen disarmament advocates in this country -- the Brady Bunch, CSGV, Senators Feinstein and Schumer -- and your lawyers (and I daresay your bosses Holder and Obama) pay attention to the dangerous siren song they sing.
And make no mistake, it IS dangerous -- very dangerous. As I wrote Eric Holder some time back when one of your agency's vindictive "economic Wacos" was threatening to turn deadly, there will be No more free Wacos. Don't take my word for it, but check with your analysts and with those of the FBI and CIA. Ask for a complete briefing paper on the Three Percent and the concept of "One Hundred Heads" introduced unexpectedly by an anonymous Marine Corps scout-sniper friend of mine who one day back in 2009 sent me this personal card:
Sir,I have read you on the internet and believe in what your doing. One day the ATF will come to count coup on you and take your head. I promise to take One hundred heads for yours.Cheyenne 0317/8541
These are unprecedentedly dangerous times and your agency has through arrogance, incompetence and both accidental and willful misadventure advanced its own front lines to the crumbling edge of an abyss. The advocates of citizen disarmament, wrongly believing that they have no skin in the game (that is, that they personally risk nothing by your obedience to their agenda) will be urging you to jump into that abyss, at the bottom of which is a ghastly civil war.
Please believe me when I say that it is in the vital interest of every American -- you, me, our children, everybody -- that you do not. And it certainly need not come to that.
Traver never made the grade. You did. Now you are stuck with something that I daresay you didn't know when you accepted it, other wise you would have run screaming in the other direction. Even so, you may be the right man in the right place at the right moment in history to avoid senseless, even unintended, violence on a vast scale.
Just as it took Nixon to go to China and Bill Clinton to accomplish welfare reform, you could take advantage of your unique position to reform the more dangerous habits of your agency.
You may by now have a more informed opinion of the culture and belief system of your agency as well as I know the culture and belief system of my friends. We call yours, with some justification we believe, "jack booted thugs." You call us "gun worshippers," "gun queers," "barrel suckers," and worse. We don't believe your agency has a constitutional basis to exist. Y'all don't believe that we have a right to question anything you order us to do, no matter how ill-considered, inconsistent or even malevolent it may be. Your employees, especially those of the Chief Counsel's Office, think it perfectly appropriate to misuse the power of their office to wreak havoc on innocent people's lives and families because of their political opinions. My folks think your folks could teach cockroaches some lessons about photo-phobia.
Mind you, even our folks understand that there are honest ATF street agents who chase real bad guys who commit real crimes. In fact, our understanding of your agency is far more informed and nuanced than you give us credit for, or indeed, far more than yours is of us. The ironic thing to those street agents is that they have as much trouble with the senior executive service (especially the Chief Counsel's Office) as they do with hardened criminals on the street and the sort of paperwork-chasing, agenda-driven investigations they are ordered into are really areas that they would prefer not getting into, for they believe such anti-firearm tail-chasing discredits the entire agency.
As numerous recent polls have demonstrated, belief in the legitimacy of the federal government and its power over the average citizen is at a modern nadir. Is this the fault of the people or the federal bureaucracy?
But it is not necessary to agree on the answer to that question to mutually understand that if the system is perceived by some to be illegitimate and hopelessly corrupt, that these people will take decisions based upon that belief -- decisions that could well lead to violence.
If as a result of studying recent outrages such as the railroading of David Olofson or the punitive "economic Waco" your agency has inflicted for years on Georgia firearms designer Len Savage in retribution for his testimony as an expert witness on behalf of defendants targeted by the ATF, we conclude that the agency is out of control and that -- even in federal court -- the rule of law no longer protects us, then surely you can understand our indifference to the notion that your position protects you.
In my own case, it was Special Agent Jody Keeku's framing of David Olofson which brought me off the benches and into the arena. If now your agency dislikes the results of my renewed attention to the darker recesses of their dungeons they have only Keeku and themselves to blame. To quote the American philosopher Frank Zappa: "Do you love it? Do you hate it. There it is, the way you made it." The Law of Unintended Consequences may be a bitch, but it is iron-clad and not subject to appeal or repeal, nor can it be manipulated, as your Chief Counsel's Office is so fond of doing, by unethical ex parte communication with federal judges.
And if the Founders' rule of law no longer obtains and it is merely naked power we are talking about -- that is to say, the law of the jungle -- then the hunter becomes the hunted and vice versa. Absent a mutual belief in the potency of the rule of law, the hitherto "law abiding citizen" must believe that such a corrupted system is merely a confidence game at his expense and if the law no longer protects him, then he must make his own arrangements. For if, after studying the Olofson case and others, we believe we no longer have the possibility of a fair trial in federal court, we still retain the right to an unfair gunfight with the ATF agents sent to our homes to arrest us on false charges.
That is where we are today. The question is, are you, Mr. Jones, going to reverse your agency's criminal drift under the shadow rule of the Chief Counsel's Office and execute the actual law in daylight under transparent rules and unambiguous regulations with verifiable testing procedures or are you going to embrace the Brady's citizen disarmament agenda and potential future violence?
Only you can answer that question.
On the off chance that you remember the oath you took to the Constitution when you first entered the service -- on the possibility that the law means more to you than an agenda provided to you by your putative sponsors -- in the hope that you are actually as honest and straightforward as you believe yourself to be -- I offer you below the results of my two decades study of the ATF. Just because I believe that your agency should be abolished doesn't mean that it is going to happen anytime soon. I live in the real world and see it with attentive eyes. So I offer these fixes in the interest of correcting the worst abuses of an agency I don't think should exist in the further interest of avoiding or at least postponing violence.
Even if you decide not to do a thing about any of these scandals, however, you should still study the list and possible solutions below. For even if you have no intention of correcting them, you may well one day will be called to testify under oath about them. Even with your anti-whistleblower policies, the cockroaches of your agency are no longer in a position to avoid the antiseptic qualities of bright sunshine.
I have already mentioned the first priority of purging the Chief Counsel's office (you might want to pay particular attention to the ruinous career of that poisonous weasel James P. "Little Jimmy" Vann). Here are the other suggestions I had for Mr. Traver:
2. Once you have the CCO saboteurs out of the way. you can begin to deal with the sorry regulatory mess the ATF has been. First, understand that NONE of the databases your agency relies upon is without huge errors. The National Firearms Registry, the NFRTR, is particularly vulnerable to court challenge as demonstrated in the recent Freisen case. How is it, one must ask, that your agency continues to make new additions to the NFRTR every month when not a single new automatic weapon has been manufactured or imported since 1986? The answer of course is that the NFRTR is hopelessly faulty, and the additions that the ATF discovers in the process of inspections merely paper that over. YET PEOPLE GO TO PRISON BASED IN PART UPON THE NFRTR EVERY YEAR. How you fix this scandal absent another amnesty I do not know. It is your call, but you will continue to waste money on worthless prosecutions based upon it -- and wreck innocent lives -- if you continue to embrace the utter failure represented by the NFRTR.
3. If the ATF is to be an actual "law enforcement" agency, the rules and regulations must be both transparent and unambiguous and supported by verifiable testing procedures. As it stands, the ATF under the shadow rule of the CCO mafia has none of these. Part of this is the ambiguity of the laws you are called to enforce but most of it is simple bureaucratic inertia combined with the CCO desire to be able to argue either way in court, depending upon which they believe will be more likely to convict. The Firearms Testing Branch ought to promulgate clear written procedures that they can defend logically in court with scientific videotaped evidence that can be verified by independent experts. And their word, once given, should not be subject to tampering by enforcement agents, such as happened in the matter of David Olofson, when SA Jody Keeku sent his rifle, which had been determined to be a malfunctioning semi-automatic rifle by FTB back for "further testing" under conditions that guaranteed uncontrolled and dangerous full auto fire. Absent any effective challenge or verification, testing becomes subject to mere agenda-driven opinion and agency convenience, yet through its unchallenged presentation in court becomes law without any basis in demonstrable fact. This is a perversion of science, logic and law. To the extent that you let this scandal fester, the ATF will continue to be despised as a mere force operating under color of law and not a law enforcement agency.
4. More so than the NFRTR, the contradictory regulatory Gordian knot that the agency has tied itself in over definitions and lengths of destructive devices and pistol grip shotguns will have to be dealt with. Should you do an amnesty followed by a demand of forfeiture or registration of millions of hitherto unregulated shotguns currently in the hands of law-abiding citizens? Boy will that make a whole bunch of NRA members mad. The NRA management might even be forced out of its symbiotic, go-along to get-along mindset. (Note: they didn't oppose YOUR nomination now did they?) And if you don't? Why, the Brady folks who now shower you with kisses will cover you with curses, because for them it is not about the law but the agenda -- their agenda. Either way you go, you will discredit your agency with SOMEBODY. Good luck with that.
5. Critics of the agency's missteps are not "enemies of the state." People who try to defend themselves against baseless charges are not legitimate targets for regulatory retribution. You should put a stop to all "economic Wacos" now in progress and forbid any more manipulation of enforcement to avoid embarrassing questions or even uncomfortable legal blow-back for CCO misdeeds. Stop the Don Corleone culture and attempt to make whole the damage it has inflicted on their victims. It is not a crime to be an effective expert witness against the ATF in federal court, nor should gun dealers be targeted for their political opinions. Until the law becomes more important than the agenda to the ATF, your agency will continue to pose a danger to itself and to the peace of the country.
6. The street agents are smarter than the muckety-mucks of the senior executive service, regardless of their pay grade. When the ill-considered Waco raid's cover was blown, it was a street agent who warned that the raid shouldn't proceed. He was ignored, to great loss of life. No one was inconvenienced for that deadly blunder, nor did their ATF careers suffer, unless you count the conscientious agent. To the extent that you give the street agents your own personal leadership and your own personal accountability, your people will take care of you. This is Leadership 101 and common sense, but it has been sorrowfully scarce in all of your recent predecessors. You should also understand that almost all whistleblowers are not bureaucratic traitors but merely honest folks trying to save the agency from the darker demons of the senior executive service's nature. Figure out a way to expedite the resolution of their complaints instead of trying to hide them and you'll be the darling of both parties on the Hill. It may run contrary to all agency history and bureaucratic reflexes, but it is nonetheless true.
7. The cultivation and pressuring of informants, including those at the highest levels of industry associations such as the NFATCA, is doing your agency more harm than good when it is driven not by actual police work in furtherance of the law but by the desire on the part of CCO to root out and make unwarranted criminal cases against people they view as "poisonous weasels." This agenda-driven corruption of the process opens the ATF up to self-discrediting errors such as that represented by R.A. Bear. As best I understand the beginning of the story, the CCO wanted to "get" an honest man whose only "crime" had been to defy them in court. To that end they put pressure on all their snitches to come up with anything. One highly-placed informant, apparently on the hook legally and under pressure himself from the ATF, gave them a name: R.A. Bear, the stuffed child‘s toy of the daughter of another man who the informant despised. What consideration the informant got for providing the name is unknown except to him and your agency. From that point Mr. Bear took on a life of his own, a process which I was honored to assist in. We gave him friends, a life history, we paged him at gun shows and machine gun shoots and, on the orders of the CCO, your agents scurried hither and yon, chasing each and every clue and always coming up empty. CCO lawyers demanded to know about him in discovery depositions, always to be told truthfully under oath, "I know of no such person as R.A. Bear." Now it is hoped that R.A. Bear will be present at a congressional oversight hearing, if the GOP ever finds its spine (perhaps in the run-up to the 2014 midterms I am now being told) with full explanation from other witnesses under oath as to how he came to be the focus of an ATF bear hunt. If you want to prevent another such long, expensive, foolish and utterly self-discrediting trackdown at taxpayer expense, you should buy stuffed toy bears and send one each ATF employee this Christmas, as a reminder that when their agenda gets in front of the law and even common sense, you are not going to reward them for it. (By the way, if you don't believe me, just ask Little Jimmy Vann -- he knows ALL about Ramsey A. Bear.)
8. Finally, your agency and other agencies in the federal government pay the Southern "Poverty" Law Center big bucks for "hate group" orientation. Stop it. They are by now very rich liars for money ($200M plus in assets and the 2009 IRS paperwork of SPLC indicates even a Cayman Islands account), and although they have provided political cover to your agency at critical points in the ATF's history, such as the Good O' Boys Roundup scandal, they are so factually challenged that any "intelligence" they provide nowadays is worthless. You are paying good taxpayer money to propangandize your employees with their agenda. And, as my Michigan farmer Grandpa used to say, they "don't know shit from shinola." I ask you, if we were actually as morally contemptible, intellectually challenged and cartoonish as they portray us with their conflationary propaganda -- or even if we really were just "gun queers" and "barrel suckers" -- could we have successfully made R.A. Bear real and had your agency chasing a stuffed child's toy for the better part of two years? Could we have exposed the Fast and Furious scandal? Vectored the Senators' staffs to the whistleblowers? Linked up the whistleblowers with honest media folks like Sharyl Attkisson of CBS?
This gets back to old Uncle Ho's adage, "Cherish your enemies for they teach you the best lessons." The old murdering communist is burning in Hell, but he was right about that. If we are to avoid unwanted violence during your tenure as ATF Director, it is important that we see each others positions clearly and move, when we move, slowly and carefully. And keep your hands where we can see 'em.
Remember in every decision you make that there are now no more free Wacos and the Law of Unintended Consequences still trumps every best-laid plan.
But if you can get your traditionally agenda-driven cowboy agency actually under control and operating according to law, it will go a good way to minimizing the chance of an accidental discharge leading to the next American civil war.
With hope, but not much faith, I look forward to the remainder of your tenure as ATF Director.
Good luck.
You're going to need it.
In fact, we all are.
Mike Vanderboegh
The alleged leader of a merry band of Three Percenters.
PS And quit whining. It is unbecoming of a former Marine.
More "Screw people as much as possible" shutdown theater
Nearly a third of Blount County is inside the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park. So when the federal government shut down the park, it
also shut down one of the area’s chief sources of revenue.
The National Park Service also closed the Foothills Parkway, a major thoroughfare in the county. The closure came without warning and left the local school district scrambling to get children back to their homes.
The Park Service is not your friend. And apparently has no problem with screwing the citizens this way.
From Ace:
NYTimes reports that the faulty Obamacare websites were designed by contractors, who the White House has declined to identify. That's right, proles, you have no right to know just which donors' sons got paid outrageous sums of taxpayer money to half-ass the exchange software and which other donors' sons are now getting paid outrageous sums of taxpayer money to fix the half-assed work that should have been done correctly in the first place.
NFL starts treating off-duty cops just like everyone else: whining and moaning ensues.
Yet there's always money for crap like this...
The ... NEA has awarded a grant of $100,000 for a multimedia game teaming players with an alien who fights to improve women’s auras damaged by negative self-esteem, discrimination and eating disorders.
I believe the word "Dupnik" should live on in infamy.
Sounds good to me. Define 'Dubnik' as 'A walking pile of crap wearing a badge'.
The National Park Service also closed the Foothills Parkway, a major thoroughfare in the county. The closure came without warning and left the local school district scrambling to get children back to their homes.
The Park Service is not your friend. And apparently has no problem with screwing the citizens this way.
From Ace:
NYTimes reports that the faulty Obamacare websites were designed by contractors, who the White House has declined to identify. That's right, proles, you have no right to know just which donors' sons got paid outrageous sums of taxpayer money to half-ass the exchange software and which other donors' sons are now getting paid outrageous sums of taxpayer money to fix the half-assed work that should have been done correctly in the first place.
NFL starts treating off-duty cops just like everyone else: whining and moaning ensues.
Yet there's always money for crap like this...
The ... NEA has awarded a grant of $100,000 for a multimedia game teaming players with an alien who fights to improve women’s auras damaged by negative self-esteem, discrimination and eating disorders.
I believe the word "Dupnik" should live on in infamy.
Sounds good to me. Define 'Dubnik' as 'A walking pile of crap wearing a badge'.
Monday, October 07, 2013
Appears the Park Service has been taking lessons from the IRS on
"Screwing with people for political purposes." In this case, that means "Let's make a bunch of Democrat politicians happy":
A planned immigration reform rally will take place on the National Mall on Tuesday even though the site is closed due to the government shutdown.
Organizers for the "Camino Americano: March for Immigration Reform" were spotted Monday setting up a stage and equipment on the National Mall for the rally which will take place on Tuesday.
A few scattered barriers around the park have signs informing visitors that the area is closed as a result of the government shutdown.
Most basic fix: any agency that plays political games like this? Chop their budget. Immediately.
Hey, if they've got the money to pay people to get barricades and close off monuments and POST GUARDS ON THEM, then they've got far more money than they need.
A planned immigration reform rally will take place on the National Mall on Tuesday even though the site is closed due to the government shutdown.
Organizers for the "Camino Americano: March for Immigration Reform" were spotted Monday setting up a stage and equipment on the National Mall for the rally which will take place on Tuesday.
A few scattered barriers around the park have signs informing visitors that the area is closed as a result of the government shutdown.
Most basic fix: any agency that plays political games like this? Chop their budget. Immediately.
Hey, if they've got the money to pay people to get barricades and close off monuments and POST GUARDS ON THEM, then they've got far more money than they need.
So what all else was BATFE up to?
I mean, if they're that worried about this after what's already come out...
The Obama administration is blocking a federal law enforcement agent from publishing a book about the failed "Fast and Furious" gun-smuggling sting operation because of concerns that the book would negatively affect morale, the American Civil Liberties Union said Monday.
The ACLU charged that the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is worried that the book proposed by an ATF agent would hurt relationships with other U.S. law enforcement agencies.
Well, maybe if you bastards didn't
violate borders,
lie under oath,
screw your own agents,
consider piles of dead bodies in Mexico a good thing,
and screw people over constantly,
maybe you wouldn't have these concerns; something to consider, maybe?
The Obama administration is blocking a federal law enforcement agent from publishing a book about the failed "Fast and Furious" gun-smuggling sting operation because of concerns that the book would negatively affect morale, the American Civil Liberties Union said Monday.
The ACLU charged that the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is worried that the book proposed by an ATF agent would hurt relationships with other U.S. law enforcement agencies.
Well, maybe if you bastards didn't
violate borders,
lie under oath,
screw your own agents,
consider piles of dead bodies in Mexico a good thing,
and screw people over constantly,
maybe you wouldn't have these concerns; something to consider, maybe?
Mostly back still
Dad had a slip last week and messed-up a knee. So have been visiting and taking care of some yard and house stuff he and Mom can't do right now. Looks like it'll require surgery; sees the doc tomorrow to decide for certain, and set a date if needed.
So, we'll see how that goes.
In the meantime, back to our usual screaming:
What kid of farging idiots close scenic turnouts ON PUBLIC HIGHWAYS with the excuse that "You're not allowed to look at Mt. Rushmore while the .gov shutdown is in effect"?
And why the hell is the highway patrol allowing this crap?
All the Barrycading of war memorials have been covered the last while, also the various vets moving the damn things. Other day saw a picture of one of the "I'm only following orders" park police locking some kind of strap between Barrycades; so if anyone's going to a monument, take bolt cutters.
Speaking of which,
Join fellow Veterans at the war memorials in Washington DC on Sunday October 13th at 9 AM and at memorials across these United States.
Also found at Sondra's place:
And a list of things being screwed with by Obama's dictate; have to make things painful for people, y'know.
And again, to that parks clown whining that 'this is disgusting', screw you; you don't seem to have any problem doing it to people.*
The Spartans may have had their shields, Native Americans their tomahawks and arrows, the Samurai may have wielded his sword with all the deadly grace of a tiger in mid-attack, but pound for pound, nothing comes close to the audacious stupidity of "Barrycades" and people in pointy little Smokey the Bear hats, poised to protect America's monuments from law-abiding citizens.
And now I've got stuff to catch up on. More bitching later.
*Flat out of patience with this garbage.
So, we'll see how that goes.
In the meantime, back to our usual screaming:
What kid of farging idiots close scenic turnouts ON PUBLIC HIGHWAYS with the excuse that "You're not allowed to look at Mt. Rushmore while the .gov shutdown is in effect"?
And why the hell is the highway patrol allowing this crap?
All the Barrycading of war memorials have been covered the last while, also the various vets moving the damn things. Other day saw a picture of one of the "I'm only following orders" park police locking some kind of strap between Barrycades; so if anyone's going to a monument, take bolt cutters.
Speaking of which,
Join fellow Veterans at the war memorials in Washington DC on Sunday October 13th at 9 AM and at memorials across these United States.
Also found at Sondra's place:
And a list of things being screwed with by Obama's dictate; have to make things painful for people, y'know.
And again, to that parks clown whining that 'this is disgusting', screw you; you don't seem to have any problem doing it to people.*
The Spartans may have had their shields, Native Americans their tomahawks and arrows, the Samurai may have wielded his sword with all the deadly grace of a tiger in mid-attack, but pound for pound, nothing comes close to the audacious stupidity of "Barrycades" and people in pointy little Smokey the Bear hats, poised to protect America's monuments from law-abiding citizens.
And now I've got stuff to catch up on. More bitching later.
*Flat out of patience with this garbage.
Sunday, October 06, 2013
Mostly back,
no bitching and yelling tonight. I will leave you with the next Experiment phase to hold you till tomorrow
Saturday, October 05, 2013
Friday, October 04, 2013
“We utterly disavow idea WH doesn’t care when it ends. House should act now, no strings attached,” he added.
Reporters and bloggers were quick to note the irony of the White
House press secretary rejecting a statement by a “senior administration official.”
Who was it that said "A 'gaffe' is when a politician tells the truth were you can hear it" ?
“It’s a cheap way to deal with the situation,” an angry Park Service ranger in Washington says of the harassment. “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.”
I admit that one of my first thoughts is "But you don't mind doing it, do you, you bastard."
Speaking of which,
The Claude Moore Colonial Farm has already had to cancel all of its events at a loss of roughly $15,000. As the farm depends entirely on itself for survival, there is a growing likelihood that it may not survive the National Park Service’s decision to close it. The farm remained open during every single previous government spending standoff.
Eberly says that so far, the National Park Service is not even responding to her queries about the barricades. The silence does not seem to be an effect of a lack of personnel due to the shutdown, because the NPS has been very busy deploying barricades and shutting down self-sufficient parks all over the country.
And please note that it appears the NPS has no legal right to close it. But, being feds under Obama, they did it anyway.
And next time some idiot like Harry Reid whines "What right does the House have" to say something about spending,
Federalist 58:
Who was it that said "A 'gaffe' is when a politician tells the truth were you can hear it" ?
“It’s a cheap way to deal with the situation,” an angry Park Service ranger in Washington says of the harassment. “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.”
I admit that one of my first thoughts is "But you don't mind doing it, do you, you bastard."
Speaking of which,
The Claude Moore Colonial Farm has already had to cancel all of its events at a loss of roughly $15,000. As the farm depends entirely on itself for survival, there is a growing likelihood that it may not survive the National Park Service’s decision to close it. The farm remained open during every single previous government spending standoff.
Eberly says that so far, the National Park Service is not even responding to her queries about the barricades. The silence does not seem to be an effect of a lack of personnel due to the shutdown, because the NPS has been very busy deploying barricades and shutting down self-sufficient parks all over the country.
And please note that it appears the NPS has no legal right to close it. But, being feds under Obama, they did it anyway.
And next time some idiot like Harry Reid whines "What right does the House have" to say something about spending,
Federalist 58:
The House of Representatives cannot only refuse, but they alone can propose, the supplies requisite for the support of government. They, in a word, hold the purse that powerful instrument by which we behold, in the history of the British Constitution, an infant and humble representation of the people gradually enlarging the sphere of its activity and importance, and finally reducing, as far as it seems to have wished, all the overgrown prerogatives of the other branches of the government. This power over the purse may, in fact, be regarded as the most complete and effectual weapon with which any constitution can arm the immediate representatives of the people, for obtaining a redress of every grievance, and for carrying into effect every just and salutary measure.Thanks to Jawa Report for noting this
So that Obamacare success story
was one more pile of crap.
But in an exclusive phone interview this morning with Reason, Chad's father Bill contradicted virtually every major detail of the story the media can't get enough of. What's more, some of the details that Chad has released are also at odds with published rate schedules and how Obamacare officials say the enrollment system works.
Is there any truth in ANYTHING these people tell us?
Some interesting stuff from an interview with Rumsfeld:
Colin Powell seems not to feel the same sense of obligation. For the Rice profile, I also got to spend a little time with Powell and while I’m not saying he polishes a shiny statue of Colin Powell that he keeps by his bedside every morning, he has jealously guarded his good name, sometimes at the expense of the men he served with – an experience that he seems to feel besmirched by. So he is not necessarily the most interesting or reliable source about what actually happened, either.
...
I had to see this for myself, partly as a reporter and partly for my psychological well-being, so I went down to Washington, for maybe 3 weeks, and attended maybe 5 or 6 of his briefings at the Pentagon. I then wrote a piece for Harpers that focused on one particular briefing, in which Rumsfeld explained to the press corps the nature of conflict, which he said in its scope, intensity and duration would be analogous to the Cold War. As someone who was secretary of defense during the heart of the Cold War, this was obviously something he had thought through. This statement led the nightly news in Germany, but no American news outlet picked it up. This struck me as dangerous—we were warned that this is what policymakers had in mind. If the popular meme became that the president lied us into war, like with the Gulf of Tonkin resolution that led us into Vietnam, the reality is that I saw an outspoken cabinet official who was quite specific and blunt in his description of what was coming.
...
And yet Rumsfeld says in your interview that unlike the Cold War, the administration didn’t have a very clear idea of the intellectual underpinnings of the war. “The White House,” he says, “was very nervous about even talking about religion, for fear of being seen as being against a particular religion. And yet if you don’t pin the tail on the donkey and say that the enemy is radical Islam and Islamism and people who go out and kill innocent men, women and children to try to impose their views on others, and who are fundamentally opposed to the nation-state—we weren’t willing to say that. I was. But as an administration we weren’t.” So why didn’t the administration’s strategy match Rumsfeld’s clarity?
I think the process that Rumsfeld described – of decision-making by a camarilla, meaning by the President and a tight inner circle of trusted aides, while the heads of major departments like State and Defense are largely kept in the dark – has clearly persisted through the Obama administration. The policy results in both cases seem to be only half-baked.
But in an exclusive phone interview this morning with Reason, Chad's father Bill contradicted virtually every major detail of the story the media can't get enough of. What's more, some of the details that Chad has released are also at odds with published rate schedules and how Obamacare officials say the enrollment system works.
Is there any truth in ANYTHING these people tell us?
Some interesting stuff from an interview with Rumsfeld:
Colin Powell seems not to feel the same sense of obligation. For the Rice profile, I also got to spend a little time with Powell and while I’m not saying he polishes a shiny statue of Colin Powell that he keeps by his bedside every morning, he has jealously guarded his good name, sometimes at the expense of the men he served with – an experience that he seems to feel besmirched by. So he is not necessarily the most interesting or reliable source about what actually happened, either.
...
I had to see this for myself, partly as a reporter and partly for my psychological well-being, so I went down to Washington, for maybe 3 weeks, and attended maybe 5 or 6 of his briefings at the Pentagon. I then wrote a piece for Harpers that focused on one particular briefing, in which Rumsfeld explained to the press corps the nature of conflict, which he said in its scope, intensity and duration would be analogous to the Cold War. As someone who was secretary of defense during the heart of the Cold War, this was obviously something he had thought through. This statement led the nightly news in Germany, but no American news outlet picked it up. This struck me as dangerous—we were warned that this is what policymakers had in mind. If the popular meme became that the president lied us into war, like with the Gulf of Tonkin resolution that led us into Vietnam, the reality is that I saw an outspoken cabinet official who was quite specific and blunt in his description of what was coming.
...
And yet Rumsfeld says in your interview that unlike the Cold War, the administration didn’t have a very clear idea of the intellectual underpinnings of the war. “The White House,” he says, “was very nervous about even talking about religion, for fear of being seen as being against a particular religion. And yet if you don’t pin the tail on the donkey and say that the enemy is radical Islam and Islamism and people who go out and kill innocent men, women and children to try to impose their views on others, and who are fundamentally opposed to the nation-state—we weren’t willing to say that. I was. But as an administration we weren’t.” So why didn’t the administration’s strategy match Rumsfeld’s clarity?
I think the process that Rumsfeld described – of decision-making by a camarilla, meaning by the President and a tight inner circle of trusted aides, while the heads of major departments like State and Defense are largely kept in the dark – has clearly persisted through the Obama administration. The policy results in both cases seem to be only half-baked.
Thursday, October 03, 2013
I'm beginning to think that all school principals
need to be legally
required to undergo mental illness screenings focusing especially on
neurosis and hoplophobia.
So says Ace; I'm thinking he's right.
A police officer who dropped off his daughter at her Phoenix elementary school was asked by the school’s principal not to wear his uniform to the school because other parents were concerned that he was carrying a gun, MyFoxPhoenix.com reported.
What The Hell?
A district spokeswoman told the station that "some parents" voiced concern about seeing a fully armed police officer on the school’s campus. The spokeswoman apologized that Urkov perhaps took the discussion the wrong way.
"It was not the intent of the principal to offend him," the spokeswoman said.
You just told a cop you don't want him around the school in uniform; however could he take that the 'wrong way'?
And 'offend'? What the hell else is it but an offense against intelligence, reason and plain friggin' common sense?
Meanwhile, school officials' initial reaction was to ask the officer not to wear his gun and uniform to school, they are now saying they want to turn this incident into "a teachable moment."
The only way this could be teachable would be to say "Hey, dumbasses: cops carry guns. They're THE PEOPLE YOU CALL FOR HELP WHEN YOU NEED SOMEONE WITH A GUN. So shut the hell up and deal with it, you self-centered hoplophobic morons."
So says Ace; I'm thinking he's right.
A police officer who dropped off his daughter at her Phoenix elementary school was asked by the school’s principal not to wear his uniform to the school because other parents were concerned that he was carrying a gun, MyFoxPhoenix.com reported.
What The Hell?
A district spokeswoman told the station that "some parents" voiced concern about seeing a fully armed police officer on the school’s campus. The spokeswoman apologized that Urkov perhaps took the discussion the wrong way.
"It was not the intent of the principal to offend him," the spokeswoman said.
You just told a cop you don't want him around the school in uniform; however could he take that the 'wrong way'?
And 'offend'? What the hell else is it but an offense against intelligence, reason and plain friggin' common sense?
Meanwhile, school officials' initial reaction was to ask the officer not to wear his gun and uniform to school, they are now saying they want to turn this incident into "a teachable moment."
The only way this could be teachable would be to say "Hey, dumbasses: cops carry guns. They're THE PEOPLE YOU CALL FOR HELP WHEN YOU NEED SOMEONE WITH A GUN. So shut the hell up and deal with it, you self-centered hoplophobic morons."
From the People's Republic of MA,
BREAKING: Mass. Police Chief Confiscates Man’s Guns and FOID Due to “Immaturity”
To be followed by "MA Police Chief's Ass Sued Off"
If correct, then some Air Farce brass need to have their brass removed.
Anaheim Hills High School: why people are comparing public schools to a form of child abuse.
Principal Kimberly Fricker responded in an email, which said, in part, “The shirt had a gun on it, which is not allowed by school police. It’s protocol to have students change when they’re in violation of the dress code.”
'School police'? Principal who can't spell, or a slip of information?
The real aim of 'modest gun control laws'.
Once again: we're supposed to trust these bastards why?
More troubles for the Preferred Narrative™ of globular warmering.
To be followed by "MA Police Chief's Ass Sued Off"
If correct, then some Air Farce brass need to have their brass removed.
Anaheim Hills High School: why people are comparing public schools to a form of child abuse.
Principal Kimberly Fricker responded in an email, which said, in part, “The shirt had a gun on it, which is not allowed by school police. It’s protocol to have students change when they’re in violation of the dress code.”
'School police'? Principal who can't spell, or a slip of information?
The real aim of 'modest gun control laws'.
Once again: we're supposed to trust these bastards why?
More troubles for the Preferred Narrative™ of globular warmering.
Some hysterical Democrat on bookface was screaming insults
and came out with 'teahadi'; apparently standing against The Obama makes you just like a terrorist blowing people up. One thing led to another, so
So bite us, you shrieking morons
Wednesday, October 02, 2013
Because Science!
And it takes my mind off those disgusting bastards in DC, another stage of The Experiment
About those war memorials being closed,
The National Park service has closed facilities that are either unmanned or take no federal funding, and says that the Obama administration
ordered the shutdown.
and
Government watchdog Judicial Watch has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get to the bottom of the National Park Service’s actions at the World War II Memorial in Washington this week. The NPS has barricaded the memorial and on Tuesday tried to prevent veterans from visiting the memorial, which has no amenities and is normally open to the public at all times.
More bullshit:
The Naval Academy Athletic Association is a private organization not funded by the government. Gladchuk said the Air Force-Navy game could be held without any “appropriated funding.” Air Force recently created a similar athletic association that operates using private funds, donations and revenue from intercollegiate contests.
“We could run our entire athletics program and conduct events as we always do without any government funds,” Gladchuk said. “In talking to the Air Force athletic director, their football team could execute the trip without government funding.”
Asked why the Department of Defense was suspending intercollegiate athletic contests if government funds are not required, Gladchuk said he was told it was about “optics.”
“It’s a perception thing. Apparently it doesn’t resonate with all the other government agencies that have been shut down,” Gladchuk said.
Harry Reid is an asshole.
Yet more bullshit:
The Claude Moore Colonial Farm announced on Wednesday that NPS has ordered it to suspend operations until Congress agrees to a deal to fund the federal government.
According to Anna Eberly, managing director of the farm, NPS sent law enforcement agents to the park on Tuesday evening to remove staff and volunteers from the property.
“You do have to wonder about the wisdom of an organization that would use staff they don’t have the money to pay to evict visitors from a park site that operates without costing them any money,” she said.
The park withstood prior government shutdowns, noting in a news release that the farm will be closed to the public for the first time in 40 years.
“In previous budget dramas, the Farm has always been exempted since the NPS provides no staff or resources to operate the Farm,” Eberly explained in an emailed statement.
“In all the years I have worked with the National Park Service … I have never worked with a more arrogant, arbitrary and vindictive group representing the NPS,” Eberly said.
Gee, I wonder why.
and
Government watchdog Judicial Watch has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get to the bottom of the National Park Service’s actions at the World War II Memorial in Washington this week. The NPS has barricaded the memorial and on Tuesday tried to prevent veterans from visiting the memorial, which has no amenities and is normally open to the public at all times.
More bullshit:
The Naval Academy Athletic Association is a private organization not funded by the government. Gladchuk said the Air Force-Navy game could be held without any “appropriated funding.” Air Force recently created a similar athletic association that operates using private funds, donations and revenue from intercollegiate contests.
“We could run our entire athletics program and conduct events as we always do without any government funds,” Gladchuk said. “In talking to the Air Force athletic director, their football team could execute the trip without government funding.”
Asked why the Department of Defense was suspending intercollegiate athletic contests if government funds are not required, Gladchuk said he was told it was about “optics.”
“It’s a perception thing. Apparently it doesn’t resonate with all the other government agencies that have been shut down,” Gladchuk said.
Harry Reid is an asshole.
BASH: But if you can help one child who has cancer, why wouldn’t you do it?
REID: Why would we want to do that? I
have 1,100 people at Nellis Air Force base that are sitting home. They
have a few problems of their own. This is — to have someone of your
intelligence to suggest such a thing maybe means you’re irresponsible
and reckless –
BASH: I’m just asking a question.
Yet more bullshit:
The Claude Moore Colonial Farm announced on Wednesday that NPS has ordered it to suspend operations until Congress agrees to a deal to fund the federal government.
According to Anna Eberly, managing director of the farm, NPS sent law enforcement agents to the park on Tuesday evening to remove staff and volunteers from the property.
“You do have to wonder about the wisdom of an organization that would use staff they don’t have the money to pay to evict visitors from a park site that operates without costing them any money,” she said.
The park withstood prior government shutdowns, noting in a news release that the farm will be closed to the public for the first time in 40 years.
“In previous budget dramas, the Farm has always been exempted since the NPS provides no staff or resources to operate the Farm,” Eberly explained in an emailed statement.
“In all the years I have worked with the National Park Service … I have never worked with a more arrogant, arbitrary and vindictive group representing the NPS,” Eberly said.
Gee, I wonder why.
What kind of schmuck puts barricades around an open-air park
that’s normally open 24/7/365? First class.
Schmucks who want to screw things up as much as possible.
He says they are considering going ahead with the trip even if the government is still on shutdown, but when he called the parks service, he was told they would face arrest. "I said, are you kidding me? You're going to arrest a 90/91-year-old veteran from seeing his memorial? If it wasn't for them it wouldn't be there. She said, 'That's correct sir.'"
When Armstrong asked for her name, he says she did not give it to him and then promptly hung up the phone.
So this is the 'reasonable' people speaking?
Tam's comment on this idiocy: Be very careful what you wish for, hippie. Reaping whirlwinds takes a bigger scythe than the one you bought down at the organic co-op.
Only federal employees classified as “essential” can work during a government shutdown. At EPA, that means just 6.6 percent of its workforce, according to Reuters.
Of the agency’s 16,205 employees, a mere 1,069 will work through the shutdown. That means that taxpayers employ 15,136 people at the EPA who are “non-essential.”
Schmucks who want to screw things up as much as possible.
He says they are considering going ahead with the trip even if the government is still on shutdown, but when he called the parks service, he was told they would face arrest. "I said, are you kidding me? You're going to arrest a 90/91-year-old veteran from seeing his memorial? If it wasn't for them it wouldn't be there. She said, 'That's correct sir.'"
When Armstrong asked for her name, he says she did not give it to him and then promptly hung up the phone.
So this is the 'reasonable' people speaking?
Tam's comment on this idiocy: Be very careful what you wish for, hippie. Reaping whirlwinds takes a bigger scythe than the one you bought down at the organic co-op.
Only federal employees classified as “essential” can work during a government shutdown. At EPA, that means just 6.6 percent of its workforce, according to Reuters.
Of the agency’s 16,205 employees, a mere 1,069 will work through the shutdown. That means that taxpayers employ 15,136 people at the EPA who are “non-essential.”
Tuesday, October 01, 2013
Magholder review
Yes, I'm finally getting to it. Here's my opinion:
I like it.
More details? Ok. Their website is here, with a video of it in use. Which I'll steal.
WOTC reviewed it here(lots of pictures), using the 1911 version to hold a Ruger LCP magazine. I'm using the same holder with a 1911 officer's-model magazine(Mec-Gar in this case). I've been carrying it on the left side where I'm used to the spare being.
I think it's a lot more comfortable than a vertical mag holder, which always manages to rub on my ribs, or press on them when I sit down. It's very positive on retention, no worry about the mag falling out(more on that in a bit). It's a very solid unit, no concern with it cracking or breaking unless you stomp on it. And I think it'd take a pretty hard stomp.
It is a different motion to draw, and that means training to get the new motion into your reflexes. And it has to have a belt loop or something to brace against or it'll slide along the belt until it reaches one; that could be a problem for some pants or kilts.
On that retention thing: when I first got it it was so damn positive it was hard to pull it out with one hand holding it in place; tried it with both Mec-Gar and McCormick mags, same thing. Problem or wears-in? I wrote to ask, and got this reply:
The fit of the 1911 will change over the next 3-4 days with a magazine inserted. The 1911 is a different animal than the rest, mostly due to the many different makers and the dimensional variations encountered. To accommodate that, the material we use is different (14% glass reinforcement v. 30% in the M&P) to allow it to "creep" more than the other models.
Also, the tabs might retain the magazine catch very tightly the first time or two the mag is removed from the MagHolder. Before shipping, two different mags are inserted and removed, but the dimensional variations sometimes allow the customer's mag to get hung up still.
If you don't mind, give it a few days and let me know what you think after the polymer creeps a bit and your mags have settled in. If there is still concern, let me know and we will take care of it for sure.
Which makes sense; everybody and their grandma has made mags for 1911s over the years, and there is a lot of variation. So I left a mag in it for a week, working it in & out a few times, and it did indeed ease up. On the Mec-Gar it's still fairly tight, but does slide out with a positive pull; with the McCormick it comes out more easily, but still no worries about the mag falling out(if I can hold the thing butt-down and shake hell out of it and the mag stays in, it's not going to fall out while I'm walking or running around).
And, as a further point, the horizontal position seems to make it less noticeable. As an experiment I had my shirt tucked over my pistol(love that tuckable holster) but the Magholder in plain sight on the left while going about the day: stores, restaurants, wherever, and I doubt most people even saw it; anyone who did apparently thought glasses case or something(the MG magazines being blued helps).
As I said, I like it.
Oh, and if anyone from the FTC see this: I bought it with my own money, so piss off
I like it.
More details? Ok. Their website is here, with a video of it in use. Which I'll steal.
WOTC reviewed it here(lots of pictures), using the 1911 version to hold a Ruger LCP magazine. I'm using the same holder with a 1911 officer's-model magazine(Mec-Gar in this case). I've been carrying it on the left side where I'm used to the spare being.
I think it's a lot more comfortable than a vertical mag holder, which always manages to rub on my ribs, or press on them when I sit down. It's very positive on retention, no worry about the mag falling out(more on that in a bit). It's a very solid unit, no concern with it cracking or breaking unless you stomp on it. And I think it'd take a pretty hard stomp.
It is a different motion to draw, and that means training to get the new motion into your reflexes. And it has to have a belt loop or something to brace against or it'll slide along the belt until it reaches one; that could be a problem for some pants or kilts.
On that retention thing: when I first got it it was so damn positive it was hard to pull it out with one hand holding it in place; tried it with both Mec-Gar and McCormick mags, same thing. Problem or wears-in? I wrote to ask, and got this reply:
The fit of the 1911 will change over the next 3-4 days with a magazine inserted. The 1911 is a different animal than the rest, mostly due to the many different makers and the dimensional variations encountered. To accommodate that, the material we use is different (14% glass reinforcement v. 30% in the M&P) to allow it to "creep" more than the other models.
Also, the tabs might retain the magazine catch very tightly the first time or two the mag is removed from the MagHolder. Before shipping, two different mags are inserted and removed, but the dimensional variations sometimes allow the customer's mag to get hung up still.
If you don't mind, give it a few days and let me know what you think after the polymer creeps a bit and your mags have settled in. If there is still concern, let me know and we will take care of it for sure.
Which makes sense; everybody and their grandma has made mags for 1911s over the years, and there is a lot of variation. So I left a mag in it for a week, working it in & out a few times, and it did indeed ease up. On the Mec-Gar it's still fairly tight, but does slide out with a positive pull; with the McCormick it comes out more easily, but still no worries about the mag falling out(if I can hold the thing butt-down and shake hell out of it and the mag stays in, it's not going to fall out while I'm walking or running around).
And, as a further point, the horizontal position seems to make it less noticeable. As an experiment I had my shirt tucked over my pistol(love that tuckable holster) but the Magholder in plain sight on the left while going about the day: stores, restaurants, wherever, and I doubt most people even saw it; anyone who did apparently thought glasses case or something(the MG magazines being blued helps).
As I said, I like it.
Oh, and if anyone from the FTC see this: I bought it with my own money, so piss off
The gun bigots in Canada are unhappy
that CA hasn't signed on to the "Let the UN control all arms" treaty. Sounds like their PM & Co. care more about Canada than Kerry and Obama care about the US.
What? Anybody expected truth out of these people?
From at least June 26, 2013 to as recently as September 15, under the topic, "Where can I get free or low-cost care in my community?" the following statement appeared: "If you can't afford any health plan, you can get free or low-cost health and dental care at a nearby community health center."
...
However, sometime between September 16 and September 23, the reference to "free" care was dropped. The title of the topic was changed as well, and now reads: "Where can I get low-cost care in my community?"
"Because we've got one and they have to do something to justify the cost(besides, they like kicking doors)!"
An Arlington spokeswoman said the raid was perfectly legal and appropriate. "The purpose was to improve the quality of life, to resolve safety issues within neighborhoods and to hold the property owner responsible for creating blight conditions on their property," she stated, not really explaining how this or even marijuana cultivation requires a SWAT team.
If this is true, then every Marine involved needs to lose his commission.
A little more of the Obamacare future:
But when he attended King George Surgery in Stevenage, his GP said he could not have the minor operation – which doctors often do under local anaesthetic in their own consulting rooms.
Mr Merrett, 46, said: ‘I was told, in no uncertain terms, that unless I gave up smoking or signed up to a quitting clinic they would refuse to treat me. I was gobsmacked.’
He claims the doctor told him: ‘These directions are not mine. It’s not me refusing this treatment, it’s the NHS trust.’
And let me remind you of the words of the man chosen to help run Obamacare:
The decision is not whether or not we will ration care—the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open. And right now, we are doing it blindly. ...
...any health care funding plan that is just, equitable, civilized and humane must, MUST redistribute wealth from the richer among us to the poorer and the less fortunate. Excellent health care is, by definition, redistributional."
They really like that word, don't they?
What? Anybody expected truth out of these people?
From at least June 26, 2013 to as recently as September 15, under the topic, "Where can I get free or low-cost care in my community?" the following statement appeared: "If you can't afford any health plan, you can get free or low-cost health and dental care at a nearby community health center."
...
However, sometime between September 16 and September 23, the reference to "free" care was dropped. The title of the topic was changed as well, and now reads: "Where can I get low-cost care in my community?"
"Because we've got one and they have to do something to justify the cost(besides, they like kicking doors)!"
An Arlington spokeswoman said the raid was perfectly legal and appropriate. "The purpose was to improve the quality of life, to resolve safety issues within neighborhoods and to hold the property owner responsible for creating blight conditions on their property," she stated, not really explaining how this or even marijuana cultivation requires a SWAT team.
If this is true, then every Marine involved needs to lose his commission.
A little more of the Obamacare future:
But when he attended King George Surgery in Stevenage, his GP said he could not have the minor operation – which doctors often do under local anaesthetic in their own consulting rooms.
Mr Merrett, 46, said: ‘I was told, in no uncertain terms, that unless I gave up smoking or signed up to a quitting clinic they would refuse to treat me. I was gobsmacked.’
He claims the doctor told him: ‘These directions are not mine. It’s not me refusing this treatment, it’s the NHS trust.’
And let me remind you of the words of the man chosen to help run Obamacare:
The decision is not whether or not we will ration care—the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open. And right now, we are doing it blindly. ...
...any health care funding plan that is just, equitable, civilized and humane must, MUST redistribute wealth from the richer among us to the poorer and the less fortunate. Excellent health care is, by definition, redistributional."
They really like that word, don't they?
Monday, September 30, 2013
Interesting news from the CMP link repaired
Over
the years, many Civilian Marksmanship Program firearms purchasers have
asked if the CMP would consider offering reliable, reasonably-priced and
prompt maintenance, repair and upgrade of USGI-issue rifles. The CMP
has responded and the answer is "YES" we will.
Effective October 1, 2013, the CMP Custom Shop will
open for business, providing a wide variety of repair, upgrade and
custom services for a wide range of U.S. Military rifles, specifically
those issued in early eras.
The
CMP Custom Shop will be able to perform virtually any normal upgrading,
accurizing, customizing and refinishing (not to mention regular repairs
and troubleshooting) to the types of rifles that we are currently
selling or have sold in the recent past.
More information at the link.
Added: tried fixing the link, Blogger bloggered it again. So moved it, seems good now
Added: tried fixing the link, Blogger bloggered it again. So moved it, seems good now
That's one way to reduce the number of cancers:
call them something else.
And if they're not cancer, why, then you can steer people away from those expensive cancer treatments and such, and isn't that wonderful?
Private company launch of supplies to the ISS. Successfully.
And if they're not cancer, why, then you can steer people away from those expensive cancer treatments and such, and isn't that wonderful?
Private company launch of supplies to the ISS. Successfully.
Sunday, September 29, 2013
When people like Larkin say 'common sense',
this is the only proper response:
Well, if you leave off tarring and feathering and such, it's the only proper one.
Well, if you leave off tarring and feathering and such, it's the only proper one.
Ah more delightful actions from associates of the terrorists
our President wants to give arms to.
Suspected Islamist gunmen have attacked a college in north-eastern Nigeria, killing up to 50 students.
The students were shot dead as they slept in their dormitory at the College of Agriculture in Yobe state.
North-eastern Nigeria is under a state of emergency amid an Islamist insurgency by the Boko Haram group.
Just wonderful God-damned people, aren't they?
In June, Boko Haram carried out two attacks on schools in the region.
At least nine children were killed in a school on the outskirts of Maiduguri, while 13 students and teachers were killed in a school in Damaturu.
In July in the village of Mamudo in Yobe state, Islamist
militants attacked a school's dormitories with guns and explosives,
killing at least 42 people, mostly students.
Boko Haram regards schools as a symbol of Western culture. The group's name translates as "Western education is forbidden".
I really don't want to say more about this, as it would get a bit intemperate.
Suspected Islamist gunmen have attacked a college in north-eastern Nigeria, killing up to 50 students.
The students were shot dead as they slept in their dormitory at the College of Agriculture in Yobe state.
North-eastern Nigeria is under a state of emergency amid an Islamist insurgency by the Boko Haram group.
Just wonderful God-damned people, aren't they?
In June, Boko Haram carried out two attacks on schools in the region.
At least nine children were killed in a school on the outskirts of Maiduguri, while 13 students and teachers were killed in a school in Damaturu.
Boko Haram regards schools as a symbol of Western culture. The group's name translates as "Western education is forbidden".
I really don't want to say more about this, as it would get a bit intemperate.
The Brass Catcher, Part II
Because I tried the one I made for the Carbine, and it worked. Reasonably. But it needed to be a bit bigger to work well on the Garand. So:
Started with the same stuff, 1/16" spring wire*. Used the same basic design as the Carbine catcher: the box is longer, and the arms are longer and fit further down on the forend.
The wire, shaped
How it looks naked
After lacing some netting to it
Using one piece of wide velcro over the legs to stabilize them, and two velcro straps to hold it in place; worked well on the both rifles so far, and with the longer arms on this one(more distance between straps) should be more stable.
Actually, looking at things, I could probably make the Carbine version with the box a little shorter. However, right now I'm not going to mess with it. And hopefully can try the Garand version out soon.
*Back when I was smithing I picked up a number of ten-foot pieces of this stuff from my favorite salvage yard; it's been handy for a whole lot of things. Springs, awls, small screwdrivers and so on.
Started with the same stuff, 1/16" spring wire*. Used the same basic design as the Carbine catcher: the box is longer, and the arms are longer and fit further down on the forend.
The wire, shaped
Actually, looking at things, I could probably make the Carbine version with the box a little shorter. However, right now I'm not going to mess with it. And hopefully can try the Garand version out soon.
*Back when I was smithing I picked up a number of ten-foot pieces of this stuff from my favorite salvage yard; it's been handy for a whole lot of things. Springs, awls, small screwdrivers and so on.
Not appetizing,
especially for a Sunday morning, but what happens when you get careless:
Found at RS McCain
And no, no idea what the sniper used.
Yeah, interesting map. With the usual PC crap added.
The next largest grouping of people in the United States by ancestry are those who claim to be English-American.
Predominantly found in the Northwest and West, the number of people directly claiming to be English-American has dropped by 20 million since the 1980 U.S. Census because more citizens have started to identify themselves as American.
With another dose of that:
The surprising number of people across the nation claiming to have American ancestry is due to them making a political statement, or because they are simply uncertain about their direct descendants. Indeed, this is a particularly common feature in the south of the nation, where political tensions between those who consider themselves original settlers and those who are more recent exist.
Translation: "If you don't call yourself a '-American', you're making a political statement or don't know where you came from."
Reply: 'Screw you, Jerreat, you PC-brained bigoted twit.'
Let's see, what hyphenated-American should I call myself? The Cherokee, or Scot, or English, or Irish? Answer is, I don't: I AM American. And you can kiss my ass.
You'll notice there's not listing for Scots, either.
On September 18 USA Today, in a front page story, reported the following: "Newly uncovered IRS documents show the agency flagged political groups based on the content of their literature, raising concerns specifically about 'anti-Obama rhetoric,' inflammatory language and 'emotional' statements made by non-profits seeking tax-exempt status."
Not only have ABC, CBS and NBC not reported this story they've flat out stopped covering the IRS scandal on their evening and morning shows. It's been 85 days since ABC last touched the story on June 26. NBC hasn't done a report for 84 days and CBS last mentioned the IRS scandal 56 days ago on July 24.
But we're supposed to trust
This agency, and the ones who won't do anything about this, and
The news media that don't bother with reporting this.
I repeat: our President and John Effing Kerry want to give arms and air support to the associates of these people.
Are .gov schools a form of child abuse? Looks like it.
A racially-inspired islam-connected attempted mass murder... not exactly big news to the major media, is it?
And that's all I've got for now.
Found at RS McCain
And no, no idea what the sniper used.
Yeah, interesting map. With the usual PC crap added.
The next largest grouping of people in the United States by ancestry are those who claim to be English-American.
Predominantly found in the Northwest and West, the number of people directly claiming to be English-American has dropped by 20 million since the 1980 U.S. Census because more citizens have started to identify themselves as American.
With another dose of that:
The surprising number of people across the nation claiming to have American ancestry is due to them making a political statement, or because they are simply uncertain about their direct descendants. Indeed, this is a particularly common feature in the south of the nation, where political tensions between those who consider themselves original settlers and those who are more recent exist.
Translation: "If you don't call yourself a '-American', you're making a political statement or don't know where you came from."
Reply: 'Screw you, Jerreat, you PC-brained bigoted twit.'
Let's see, what hyphenated-American should I call myself? The Cherokee, or Scot, or English, or Irish? Answer is, I don't: I AM American. And you can kiss my ass.
You'll notice there's not listing for Scots, either.
On September 18 USA Today, in a front page story, reported the following: "Newly uncovered IRS documents show the agency flagged political groups based on the content of their literature, raising concerns specifically about 'anti-Obama rhetoric,' inflammatory language and 'emotional' statements made by non-profits seeking tax-exempt status."
Not only have ABC, CBS and NBC not reported this story they've flat out stopped covering the IRS scandal on their evening and morning shows. It's been 85 days since ABC last touched the story on June 26. NBC hasn't done a report for 84 days and CBS last mentioned the IRS scandal 56 days ago on July 24.
But we're supposed to trust
This agency, and the ones who won't do anything about this, and
The news media that don't bother with reporting this.
I repeat: our President and John Effing Kerry want to give arms and air support to the associates of these people.
Are .gov schools a form of child abuse? Looks like it.
A racially-inspired islam-connected attempted mass murder... not exactly big news to the major media, is it?
And that's all I've got for now.
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