Thursday - February 02, 2012
Rlly? Srsly?
New report released by GOP lawmakers suggests top Justice officials had extensive knowledge of Operation Fast and Furious
Top Department of Justice officials had extensive knowledge of and involvement in Operation Fast and Furious, claims a new report released Thursday, hours before Attorney General Eric Holder’s scheduled testimony to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The report released by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, top lawmakers investigating the botched gunrunning operation, claims Justice Department officials in Washington and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were involved in the coordination in the early stages of the operation.
Justice headquarters “had much greater knowledge of, and involvement in, Fast and Furious than it has previously acknowledged,” the memo reads.
The memo, which contradicts claims by the Justice Department, is based upon interviews, documents and emails involving key players of the operation run by the ATF. The operation allowed some 2,000 weapons cross the border into Mexico and into the hands of cartel members.
Gak, why is this even news?
Is it finally, finally becoming obvious to even the willfully blind that F & F had to be run from the very top, with the involvement of all the major players and all the LEO departments? We figured that one out 7 months ago, and then a short essay by a DC insider on how the system works (meetings, sign-offs, emails, CYA when things are ‘above your pay grade’, etc ) drove the point home. No kidding. It could not have been any other way. DHS, BATFE, FBI, DOJ, and the whole alphabet of agencies probably even including the CIA are in this up to their eyeballs and have been since the beginning. State Department too in all likelihood, right up to the very top (HRH HRC) and that strongly implies White House involvement. “We’ve got something in the works, under the radar” quoth Fearless Reader back in the day.
The media is only starting to bay about Eric Holder. They haven’t even begun to think about Janet Napolitano. It might take them a century to have the epiphany that at least a handful of Senators and Congressweasels are also involved, along with quite a number of top state officials. Fast and Furious was not an accident and it did not operate in a vacuum.
We The People aren’t stupid, and we figured out the obvious months ago: that a large chunk of our federal government and some of our state governments were knowingly involved in a wide ranging action that was this close to being an act of war against a neighboring sovereign nation, all done to further their Alinksi plans to fracture society and to serve as the ultimate example for shredding the keystone piece of the Constitution that protects the rest of it.
It failed. The word leaked out. And now DC is furiously blowing smoke and twisting mirrors as fast as they can. Needless to say, the media is fairly complicit, since this has never been more than a bit of a small scale back burner sidebar story for just a few of the networks. If this shit ever really hits the fan, Holder will be left holding the bag ... and nobody will ever connect the dots to all the other players involved.
Fast and Furious is 1000 times dirtier than Watergate. This should have toppled the whole government. It is the prime example of the hubris in DC and their above-the-law elitist mentality. And for the most part, the mindless sheeple ignore it or are completely unaware of it, because the media doesn’t want to splatter any mud on their masters.
Posted by Drew458
on 02/02/2012 at 09:48 AM
Filed Under: • Government • Corruption and Greed • Guns and Gun Control • News-Briefs • No Shit, Sherlock •
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Permalink • Friday - January 27, 2012
Makes Me Wonder
I can’t say if this is tinfoil hat stuff or not ...
A very interesting, if difficult, read in 3 parts over at Ulsterman, in which a drunken White House Insider rambles on about dirty politics inside the Obama and (to a much lesser extent) Clinton White Houses. Murder, drugs, clones?, the amazing power of certain billionaires, perhaps a few muted references to the Bilderberg group? Barack the athiest and Mooch the hater of Whites. It all gells in the comments at the end of Part 3, and will leave you wondering. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. Tip: “name deleted” refers to several different people across the essay. It can be a bit confusing, but the rather astute commenters figure it out in the end ... and yes, these things really did happen, right down to Diane Feinstein announcing Bin Laden’s death at the funeral for political operative Kam Kuwataan hour or more before the news broke. Spooky shit.
Let’s take a little side trip over to Birther Land: No ruling in Georgia court about Obama’s legitimacy to be on that state’s ballot, even though his attorneys dissed the court with a no show. Rumor is that a Default Judgement will be made, and the Birther people certainly had their day in court; see the videos at that link, where experts find that his SSN and birth certificate are fake. Lots of excitement at a number of Birther sympathetic blogs ( < a href="http://theulstermanreport.com/2012/01/26/court-hearing-on-obama-eligibility-completed-now-what/">here too ) but no official word from the bench one way or the other.
Plenty of other interesting reading at The Ulsterman Report, such as Fast and Furious‘s Cunningham taking the 5th and resigning, Holder not continuing as AG past the end of the year, etc ... all delivered before the news really got out.
The interviews with “Wall Street Insider” are ... well, “shocking” doesn’t begin to cover it:
President Barack Obama has been closely tied to Shorebank for far longer than most realize – nearly twenty years. Is it so much to imagine then that his rise to power…an oddly meteoric rise mind you…is it so much to think that perhaps then there are those within the move for globalization that have been the unknown hand behind this untested and inexperienced man’s ability to be elected President of the United States?
UM: A conspiracy?
WSI: No – a simple investment. President Obama is nothing more than an investment with the expectation of return. Nothing more. What is politics – those who finance politics…but a system of investment? So too is the Obama presidency.
What makes this different though, is that the return on investment this time is the collapse of the American economy and its subsequent replacement within the larger globalization movement.
Conspiracy theories or not, the UM guy does seem to be well connected. The silence of the lambs - no GOP leader is saying a word about Holder and F&F - could be quite telling. And all these stories are interrelated to some extent. Makes my head spin. NAFTA, CAFTA, IMF, F&F, the mortgage crisis, QE1, 2, & 3, mid-east unrest, dumbed down education, exhortations to class warfare ... just different parts of the same pie? Really spooky shit.
And in parting, a PS from another Ulsterman post:
Tony West, appointed by Barack Obama to one of the highest positions within the Obama Department of Justice , working directly under the supervision of Attorney General Eric Holder, is in fact the brother-in-law to current California Attorney General Kamala Harris – the same Kamala Harris who Kam Kuwata was working against during that campaign in 2010.
A brief overview of Mr. West details some rather interesting tidbits – including his participation in defending the “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh in 2002.
Perhaps even more telling in the context of the Kam Kuwata story is this detail:
As co-chairman of Obama’s campaign, West was instrumental in helping the candidate raise an estimated $65 million in California.
And my own PS: If you don’t frequent Discover The Networks, you really ought to. The Who’s Who is vast and complex, but all the players in all the shows on all the stages all know each other, more or less.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/27/2012 at 10:46 AM
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Permalink • Thursday - January 26, 2012
Failure To Think Is Inexcusable
Let’s Get The Stoopit™ Out Of Government
We Could Start in Denver Colorado
Failure to think. Not jut circular logic, but spiral logic. Death spiral logic. Toss ‘em, start over. You ought not to be allowed to be this stupid or this dishonest and hold a job in government.
DENVER—A proposal to let Colorado residents carry concealed weapons without a permit failed Monday over concerns that it would make it easier for criminals and the mentally ill to have guns in public places.
A Senate committee rejected the bill on a 3-2 party-line vote, with Democrats voting against it. It’s the second year in a row the proposal has failed, but identical legislation is still running in the Republican-controlled House.
The bill would allow anyone legally able to have a gun to carry it concealed in public places, including colleges and private schools. Law enforcement officials testified against the bill, saying that removing the need for a concealed-carry permit would eliminate a safeguard authorities have to prevent some people from having weapons.
Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said every year he denies conceal-carry permit requests from people who are mentally ill, are suicidal, or have substance abuse problems.
“These are people who otherwise are legally able to carry a firearm, and under this bill could carry a concealed firearm. These are people who are sometimes psychotic,” he said.
Stop me if I’m wrong, but the basic definition of a criminal is one who does not obey the law, right? So how is a permitting process going to even slow these people down?
Let’s not forget the purchasing process is still in place, and it’s still run by the feds, with that NICS system and all. Which, by LAW, disqualifies proven hard core criminals and the mentally ill already. Which means that they can’t legally buy a gun to begin with. Well, at least they can’t legally buy a gun from a gun store. Not sure how the disqualifications extend to personal sales, but I bet they do. Guaranteed, right?
PS - the Sheriff ought to be horse whipped, shot, and then fired. Nervy mother fucker, ain’t he, carrying out his own laws? Last time I checked, Colorado is NOT a “may issue” state, it is a “shall issue” one. Run this corrupt badge the hell out of town ASAP.
Republicans argued that they are trying to protect Second Amendment rights and that allowing law-abiding citizens to carry a concealed weapon without a permit would increase public safety because people could more easily defend themselves.
...
Sen. Bob Bacon, a Democratic member of the committee that rejected the bill, said he worried about people being able to have firearms on college campuses, and he questioned Republicans’ argument that law-abiding citizens would be the ones taking advantage of the law.
“For me, law-abiding citizen is not a permanent condition,” he said. “All of us, on certain occasions, can snap,” he added.
And boy howdy, if the above quotes aren’t the clearest example of the core differences between the two parties, I don’t know what is. The Repubs want to pass the bill to increase your freedom and safety, both of which are your responsibility. The Dems don’t want to pass it because you can’t be trusted; you are a criminal in waiting and must be overseen by your masters in government. For your own good.
h/t to OCM
Posted by Drew458
on 01/26/2012 at 08:42 AM
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Permalink • Monday - December 19, 2011
more law and disorder and the joke named justice
Tiz always thus. One rule and law for one group, and another set of standards for another.
These stories have made the news and passed pretty quickly cos more important stories take their place. Like how the evil American empire, so described on the radio here by the lawyer of that queer traitor Bradley Manning, is treating his baby faced innocent client. The other person interviewed (for the prosecution) holds the view and correctly I believe, that Manning could not have had the time to read all 125,000 docs he stole and gave to Wikileaks. So the claim of his altruistic intention is rubbish. I sidetracked myself again. That isn’t the subject of this post.
This is.
Ok, fair is fair and if someone fiddles at the expense of the taxpayer, they damn well should face the humiliation of fines and exposure and jail time. These are the leaches that sit on fat asses passing regs and new laws and more rules that the rest of the population is made to live by and with. The average person doing the same thing sometimes does go to jail. Ah but, some things depend on who and what you are.
The crooks here are white, so far. And not members of any favored minority. They are, or were, members of the Labour Party. Think left wing. Or as Lyndon refers to it, the Lie-bour Party. I believe he has a few more colorful names as well. They’ve wrecked this country.
(this does not let off crooks of a conservative bent btw)
MPs’ expenses: jailed trio ordered to pay back legal costs
Three former Labour MPs who were jailed for fiddling their expenses have been ordered to pay back a total of £125,000 – less than half of the money spent on their court cases.But a fourth disgraced politician was spared any repayment on the grounds he is already bankrupt.
Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Eric Illsley, exposed for claiming too much on their Parliamentary allowances after the landmark investigation by The Daily Telegraph, were told by a judge they must give back their legal aid funds and contribute to prosecution costs.
They have already been denied the “parachute” payments given to most MPs when they leave Westminster, and forced to pay back their fraudulently claimed expenses.
So that’s one little part of the expenses fiddle by crooks in control of the public purse.
Here’s another that made the news in the last week. Just a small item which set me to thinking.
Recently a fellow named James Lunn, was working for the Ministry of Justice. Which as we all know doesn’t really exist anywhere in the world anymore. In addition to the crime of being white and middle class, Mr lunn apparently has sticky fingers and has been caught with his paws in the ministry cookie jar. The headline said that he used his MOJ credit card like a piggy bank. His piggy bank. So not an altogether honest man we may all agree.
His lawyer said that his client was working in an enviorenment where everyone abused their expenses.
Oh well, if everyone does it .... Anyway, Mr. Lunn is now facing a year in jail and well deserved as this is not the first time he’s tried to glom money from the public cookie jar. You might interested to learn that the sum he stole was £3,400. Or in our dollars at the current rate. $5,270.15. Not a small sum but then not the Great Train Robbery either.
But for real chutzpah (Yiddish for nerve, in spades. ) take a look at this one. And just so you know, she’ll be entitled to draw money just for signing in when the dust settles. But whatcha gonna do? She came to this country at the age of 13 and has learned well how to fleece the infidel. She was made a Peer, the first muzzie female peer I believe. She’s a baroness FYI. Might be a token jest-ture to prove there isn’t any anti female anti islam feelings and it’s quite pc too.
Take a look at this. Has she drawn a year in the pokey for a hundred thousand plus fiddle? Uh huh. I see you know the answer already.
She was raised to the peerage as Baroness Uddin, of Bethnal Green in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, for life by Letters patent in the afternoon of 18 July 1998, at the House of Lords.
She was the youngest woman on the benches and the only Muslim and Bangladeshi woman to be appointed to the House of Lords. She was invited to the House of Lords for her contribution to the advancement of women and disability rights, swearing in by saying “Almighty Allah” as she took her seat in the parliament. Since entering the House of Lords, besides claiming the maximum possible amount she could fleece the taxpayer for, she has supported a handful of initiatives.
In 2010, The National Executive Committee of The Labour Party suspended Uddin indefinitely from the Party in light of the expenses claim allegations.
In October 2010, Under the recommendation of The Privileges and Conduct Committee of The House of Lords a suspension is to be handed down to Pola Uddin until Easter 2012 at the earliest for claiming expenses “to which she was not entitled”. The Committee also acknowledged a repayment agreement for expenses wrongly claimed.Uddin claims on her House of Lords Expenses that a flat inMaidstone, Kent is her main residence on which she has claimed £30,000 per annum in tax-free expenses since 2005. This is said to have allowed her to also claim the second home allowance on her London property, a scheme that ostensibly exists to compensate politicians living outside London for the cost of accommodation close to Parliament. Residents living near the flat in Maidstone reportedly said they had not seen any occupiers in the flat since Uddin purchased it and that it has remained completely unfurnished, but Uddin claims: “The Maidstone property is furnished and I strongly deny that I have never lived there” Uddin’s husband even denied having a property in Kent when questioned on the issue
She also has one of the highest claims for overnight subsistence of any member of the Lords.
Uddin’s home in Wapping, where she lives and is registered to vote, is a housing association property. Spitalfields Housing Association received a public subsidy of £37.8 million in 2008. The average rent for its properties is £104 a week, a sixth of the market rate. The allegations of fraud led the Tory opposition leader in Tower Hamlets, Peter Golds, to state, “Lady Uddin is depriving a low-income family of a home which was built for the needy at public expense.” On 5 May 2009, one of the senior Lord’s official, Clerk of the Parliaments, has announced the House of Lords authorities are investigating the report by the Sunday Times. Uddin welcomed the review: “I welcome this review and will co-operate fully with him in the hope of a speedy resolution and clarity that I did not break the rules of the House.”
On 23 November 2009, Uddin’s cases was passed to the police for possible prosecution for fraud. The Daily Telegraph later reported that she was refusing to cooperate with the police investigation, refusing to answer any questions.The Crown Prosecution Service announced on 10 March 2010 that Baroness Uddin would not face any charges on the grounds that a senior parliamentary official ruled that a Peers “main house” might be a place they visit only once a month. There were no indications that the expenses would be paid back.
On 18 October 2010, the House of Lords Privileges and Conduct Committee ruled that Baroness Uddin had ‘acted in bad faith’ and recommended that she should be asked to repay £125,349 as well as being suspended from Parliament until Easter 2012.In November 2011, it was revealed that no formal mechanism existed to prevent Baroness Uddin’s return to the House of Lords, even if she refused to repay the expenses that were fraudulently claimed, leading many members of her own party to call for her to resign rather than bring the House of Lords into further disrepute.
The amount of money quoted in her case (£125,349) is probably the largest amount in any of the House of Commons or House of Lords expenses scandals.Bangladesh Mansion
Further expenses claims by Uddin were later discovered when The Sunday Times revealed that she owns a mansion in Bangladesh. The mansion was described as made out of Italian marble with tiles, mosaics and with a balcony.’ An investigation of this has been acquired to whether she does have a home in Bangladesh. The mansion was believed to be built after Uddin became a peer in 1998, costing £140,000 which was organised by her husband Komar, located in Jawa Bazar in Chhatak; this is where many of her in-laws are originally from. However Uddin claims that the land was bought by her husband’s family, purchased by Kumar’s father in 1980.
FULL UNEDITED WIKIPEDIA VERSION HERE
OH BTW .... SHE IS NOT PAYING BACK ONE SINGLE DIME.
Now then, if Mr. Lunn, thief tho he may be were a member of her privileged group .... any questions?
Posted by peiper
on 12/19/2011 at 07:10 AM
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Finance and Investing • Government • muslims • UK •
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Permalink • Friday - December 16, 2011
Finally, Hope For Some Change!!
A rare bit of sanity in government! I’d call it a
Congress overturns incandescent light bulb ban
Congressional negotiators struck a deal Thursday that overturns the new rules that were to have banned sales of traditional incandescent light bulbs beginning next year. That agreement is tucked inside the massive 1,200-page spending bill that funds the government through the rest of this fiscal year, and which both houses of Congress will vote on Friday. Mr. Obama is expected to sign the bill, which heads off a looming government shutdown.
Congressional Republicans dropped almost all of the policy restrictions they tried to attach to the bill, but won inclusion of the light bulb provision, which prevents the Obama administration from carrying through a 2007 law that would have set energy efficiency standards that effectively made the traditional light bulb obsolete.
The spending bill doesn’t actually amend the 2007 law, but does prohibit the administration from spending any money to carry out the light bulb standards — which amounts to at least a temporary reprieve.
Half a loaf is better than a sharp stick in the eye, right? The rest of the story details the rest of the less than great news, but I’m looking for something - anything!! - positive coming from the feds, so I’ll take this and be happy.
Oh, if only the UK could feel the joy of this moment. Real light bulbs, cheap. Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty, we’re free at last. Until next year.
Posted by Drew458
on 12/16/2011 at 11:10 AM
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Permalink • Wednesday - December 14, 2011
The DC Garbage Nazis
WASHINGTON - It’s the law in D.C. - recycle or face a fine from the Department of Public Works. But is enforcement of the law going too far?
Dupont Circle resident Patricia White says she has been fined eight times for throwing homemade cat litter in her trash. The fines total $2,000. White says she shreds old newspaper and junk mail to use as cat litter. She believes she is helping the environment by reusing the paper and avoiding cat litter you will find in stores.
After being fined several times, White says she called the Department of Public Works inspector who issued the tickets. According to White, the inspector admitted to digging through trash looking for violations. White even appealed the violations in D.C. court. Judge Audrey Jenkins agreed with the inspector after White explained the situation. FOX 5 tried to reach Judge Jenkins, but her office has declined to comment.
D.C. Council Member Jack Evans says DPW is going too far with its recycling enforcement. He demanded a meeting with DPW Director Bill Howland to discuss White’s case.
White says she will continue to fight the citations and continue to dispose of her cat’s litter in the trash and not in the recycling bin.
We have paper recycling here in Clinton too. Newspapers, magazines, cardboard. But if you shred the paper it becomes garbage, and if the paper is soiled with either food or feces it is NOT recyclable. I think the garbage nazis in DC and Judge Stoopid ought to get a better grip on reality. Besides, newspaper is organic, so it can decompose, and it will decompose more readily once it is cut into little bits and soaked with something, especially something that happens to be an organic acid. Like cat pee.
Yet another case of A Bridge Too Far that has connected the insane asylum with the powers of government.
Posted by Drew458
on 12/14/2011 at 08:32 AM
Filed Under: • Government • Stoopid-People • Tyrants and Dictators •
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Permalink • Thursday - December 08, 2011
Old News Is New News Again Yet Again
Holey cheese and rice! Is today Time Warp Day or something? What kind of hermetically sealed rock have these jokers been living under?
Documents obtained by CBS News show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) discussed using their covert operation “Fast and Furious” to argue for controversial new rules about gun sales.
In Fast and Furious, ATF secretly encouraged gun dealers to sell to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels to go after the “big fish.” But ATF whistleblowers told CBS News and Congress it was a dangerous practice called “gunwalking,” and it put thousands of weapons on the street. Many were used in violent crimes in Mexico. Two were found at the murder scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
ATF officials didn’t intend to publicly disclose their own role in letting Mexican cartels obtain the weapons, but emails show they discussed using the sales, including sales encouraged by ATF, to justify a new gun regulation called “Demand Letter 3”. That would require some U.S. gun shops to report the sale of multiple rifles or “long guns.” Demand Letter 3 was so named because it would be the third ATF program demanding gun dealers report tracing information.
On July 14, 2010 after ATF headquarters in Washington D.C. received an update on Fast and Furious, ATF Field Ops Assistant Director Mark Chait emailed Bill Newell, ATF’s Phoenix Special Agent in Charge of Fast and Furious:
“Bill - can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same (licensed gun dealer) and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun multiple sales. Thanks.”
Well, perhaps it is actually new news here in the middle of December that BACK IN JULY a document surfaced that certainly seemed to support the conclusion THAT THE ENTIRE RIGHT WING BLOGOSPHERE FIGURED OUT quite a number of months before that.
At this rate, CBS will run the “news” that this operation was also used to launder vast amounts of money ... sometime in the Spring perhaps? And they’ll get around to calling for Mueller’s, Holder’s, Napolitano’s, and Obama’s heads in about 2017. Melson and Burke are already long gone, but they’re just the fall guys. This goes all the way up the ladder, right to the very top. Chop chop. Chop.
Posted by Drew458
on 12/08/2011 at 09:25 AM
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Permalink • Old News Is New News, Again
Gee, didn’t the New Digital Media figure this out in excruciating detail more than a year and a half ago?
Yeah, and water can’t cure dehydration. Numbnuts.
Sen. Susan Collins on Wednesday blasted the Defense Department for classifying the Fort Hood massacre as workplace violence and suggested political correctness is being placed above the security of the nation’s Armed Forces at home.
During a joint session of the Senate and House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday, the Maine Republican referenced a letter from the Defense Department depicting the Fort Hood shootings as workplace violence. She criticized the Obama administration for failing to identify the threat as radical Islam.
Thirteen people were killed and dozens more wounded at Fort Hood in 2009, and the number of alleged plots targeting the military has grown significantly since then. Lawmakers said there have been 33 plots against the U.S. military since Sept. 11, 2001, and 70 percent of those threats have been since mid-2009. Major Nidal Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, who is being held for the attacks, allegedly was inspired by radical U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in late September. The two men exchanged as many as 20 emails, according to U.S. officials, and Awlaki declared Hasan a hero.
Pretty damn pathetic if you ask me. I think that “workplace violence” label falls under the “nice try asswipe” and “you can fool some of the people NONE of the time” categories. It wasn’t “human-caused disaster” either, or whatever the proper pansy-ass euphemism is. It was straight up terrorism executed by a jihadist who used the ninny-britches military’s kowtowing to political correctness to his advantage to work his evil. Take the bastard out and shoot him. And don’t call it anything else. Period. Next?
Posted by Drew458
on 12/08/2011 at 09:11 AM
Filed Under: • Government • Military • Politically Correct B.S. • RoPMA •
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Permalink • Wednesday - November 23, 2011
It’s a start
A former fundraiser to President Barack Obama was sentenced to 10.5 years in federal prison today. Tony Rezko, 56, will end up spending only seven years behind bars because the judge gave him credit for time he’s already served.
In 2008, Rezko was convicted of pay to play politics including fraud, bribery and extorting millions from businesses seeking contracts with the state of Illinois while Rod Blagojevich was Governor.
...Rezko’s sentencing of 10.5 years could set a precedent for the upcoming sentencing of convicted Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Blagojevich was found guilty on multiple corruption charges during his re-trial earlier this year. His sentencing is scheduled for Tuesday December 6th in Chicago.
Posted by Drew458
on 11/23/2011 at 09:10 AM
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Permalink • Friday - November 18, 2011
Conservative Pandering
House passes concealed weapons permit bill
A state permit to carry a concealed firearm would be valid in almost every other state in the country under legislation the House passed Wednesday.
The first pro-gun bill the House has taken up this year and the first since Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., was severely injured in a gun attack in January, it had the National Rifle Association’s backing and passed by a comfortable margin. The vote was 272-154, with only seven Republicans voting against it and 43 Democrats supporting it.
The Democratic-controlled Senate has no parallel bill. But two years ago, GOP Sens. John Thune of South Dakota and David Vitter of Louisiana nearly succeeded in attaching a similar measure to a larger bill.
Under the House legislation, people with a concealed carry permit in one state could carry a concealed weapon in every other state that gives people the right to carry concealed weapons. While states have various standards for issuing such permits, currently only Illinois and the District of Columbia prohibit the concealed carrying of weapons.
“The Second Amendment is a fundamental right to bear arms that should not be constrained by state boundary lines,” said GOP Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
The bill’s chief co-sponsor, Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., said states should consider concealed carry permits no differently from driver’s licenses recognized by all states. He noted that many states already have reciprocity agreements with other states.
- The Second Amendment already recognizes citizen’s natural right to bear arms. This means anywhere, everywhere, at any time. So this bill is just mouthwash.
- The Second Amendment does not say a single word about “this natural right can only be exercised with the proper government permits, training classes, and psychological exams, and can be limited by time, place, and circumstance at the whim of the government.”
- Article IV Section 1, the “full faith and credit” part of the Constitution, requires states to recognize each others licensing and contracts, so “common sense” would say that “reciprocity” has always existed.
- Without a parallel bill up for vote in the Senate, this vote does NOTHING other than pander to the RKBA crowd, those “bitter clingers”, as we move into an election year.
- The vast majority of states - 39 so far - are already either “shall issue” (35) or “no permit required” (4). Many of those states already have reciprocity agreements with many of the other CCW states.
- CCW is seriously restricted or denied only in the states that are historically highly liberal. California is a mess of local regulations and favoritism. New York’s laws are quite muddy and flat out denied in New York City. New Jersey considers even owning a firearm to be a crime, but will issue CCW to those with lots of money and excellent political connections. I don’t know what the deal is in Alabama and Connecticut, but I’d expect Alabama to have its act together.
- Only Illinois flat out refuses to recognize the Second Amendment in as many ways as it can, and it’s even worse in the city of Chicago and its surrounds.
Had the Supremes made a bolder, more righteous decision in Heller, none of this would be necessary. But while they did kick the ball far down field, they sort of punted at the end. That’s why we’re still going through iterations of idiocy, like this worthless bill.
Many sources covered this story yesterday. If I wasn’t such a cynic I’d be embarrassed at the level of turbo-stupid displayed in the comments at most of them. Instead I’m merely annoyed because I don’t accept those comments as naive. I see them as knowingly misleading. Especially the ones that blather on about “states rights”. Jerks. States have NO rights, only powers. And NO state has the power to ignore the Constitution or any part thereof.
The right of the people to keep and bear arms - in any manner as they desire, whether on their hip or in their pocket - shall not be infringed. “Brandishing” however is a crime when not done for self-defense. And that’s about all there is to it.
Posted by Drew458
on 11/18/2011 at 09:29 AM
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Permalink • Saturday - November 12, 2011
A Shot In The Arm For The Economy?
It occurs to me that if a) there was no corporate tax, then b) then no companies could make political contributions, and c) there would be no charges of corrupt crony capitalism.
But there would still be graft. Payouts for friends, political appointments, sweetheart deals ... it never ends. But the level of cronyism under the current administration is just beyond comprehension. Hundreds of billions of dollars worth. It never ends. It never even slows down.
$433M Smallpox Drug Contract to Company Tied to Dem Donor
Scientists are questioning a $433 million government contract for a smallpox drug they say the country doesn’t need, amid concerns over the way the project was secured for a firm tied to a Democratic donor.
The Los Angeles Times reported over the weekend that U.S. officials took unusual steps to award the contract to Siga Technologies. Democratic donor Ronald Perelman has the controlling share of the company.
The article cited emails showing the Obama administration replaced the lead negotiator on the project following complaints from Siga—Siga was apparently concerned about the government’s objections to how much money Siga would make off the deal.
Earlier, in December, the government also reportedly blocked other companies from bidding on the contract in a second round.
Siga ultimately won the contract in May, but some questioned the price of the drug—approximately $255 per dose—and the practicality of the project.
The government already has a smallpox vaccine on reserve. Siga’s pill is meant to help people diagnosed too late for the vaccine to be effective, according to the Times.
Reporting from Washington — Over the last year, the Obama administration has aggressively pushed a $433-million plan to buy an experimental smallpox drug, despite uncertainty over whether it is needed or will work.
Senior officials have taken unusual steps to secure the contract for New York-based Siga Technologies Inc., whose controlling shareholder is billionaire Ronald O. Perelman, one of the world’s richest men and a longtime Democratic Party donor.
When Siga complained that contracting specialists at the Department of Health and Human Services were resisting the company’s financial demands, senior officials replaced the government’s lead negotiator for the deal, interviews and documents show.
When Siga was in danger of losing its grip on the contract a year ago, the officials blocked other firms from competing.
Siga was awarded the final contract in May through a “sole-source” procurement in which it was the only company asked to submit a proposal. The contract calls for Siga to deliver 1.7 million doses of the drug for the nation’s biodefense stockpile. The price of approximately $255 per dose is well above what the government’s specialists had earlier said was reasonable, according to internal documents and interviews.
Once feared for its grotesque pustules and 30% death rate, smallpox was eradicated worldwide as of 1978 and is known to exist only in the locked freezers of a Russian scientific institute and the U.S. government. There is no credible evidence that any other country or a terrorist group possesses smallpox.
Siga’s drug, an antiviral pill called ST-246, would be used to treat people who were diagnosed with smallpox too late for the vaccine to help. Yet the new drug cannot be tested for effectiveness in people because of ethical constraints — and no one knows whether animal testing could prove it would work in humans.
Hey, remember when the media had shit-fits 24-7 over some no-bid contracts awarded to Halliburton and Blackhawk for work in the Iraq war zone, even though no other companies existed that could perform the work in the time and scope necessary? Do you think they’ll wind up their alarm sirens and start screaming over this one, when at least a dozen other companies could have made this drug that may not even work and is probably not even needed? [crickets] [more crickets]
Remember when those same media “watchdogs” went turbo-monkey-poo over “no WMDS” in Iraq, and how Iraq was considered the most likely evil nation to even have a bio-terror capability?
So? So what will they say now? [even more crickets]
Posted by Drew458
on 11/12/2011 at 04:21 PM
Filed Under: • Government • Corruption and Greed • Medical • War On Terror •
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Permalink • Saturday - November 05, 2011
no more squatter/gypsy/traveler stories … except for this.
For a few years now I have shared with some great frustration, the many stories about squatters, travellers and gypsies. They all do basically the same thing and all pretty much cause havoc and great expense to innocent property owners.
It isn’t that the problem has gone away in the short time I was gone. Trust me. It hasn’t. But to be honest, I am bone tired of the story and I bet you are too.
Damn if it isn’t reported so often (cos it happens so often) that you’d get the impression nothing else happens here except that subject. So in the future, I am going to ignore (or will do my best to ignore) any more articles on that subject.
I can report however that Parliament has met to discuss legislation to outlaw squatting. I’m not clear on the traveller/gypsy thing though. Whatever, I have discovered I’m brilliant because what I’ve been ranting about seems to have been said publicly by some politician who has said, that folks do things like squatting and taking property simply because they have faith that they will get away with it. Which is what I’ve been saying for so long. So I guess maybe now I’m a rocket scientist er sompthin. Jeesh. Wouldn’t you think that was self evident? Why has it taken these folks so damn long to discuss the topic in govt.?
Anyway, I think the law will change but I don’t yet know when it will take effect.
Why not now? What’s wrong with now? Or first thing Monday morning. Why wait?
But I guess better late then not at all.
Posted by peiper
on 11/05/2011 at 12:32 PM
Filed Under: • Government • Travelers/Gypsies/Squatters •
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Permalink • Monday - October 31, 2011
Another Drop In The Bucket
This one is almost too small to notice, not even $100 million. Still, it’s your money, and it’s gone, and I bet if you could turn over this rock you’d find Obama donor roaches on the board, scurrying for the shadows. Crony socialsim and a “green bubble”. Any fool with a green
(Reuters) - Beacon Power Corp filed for bankruptcy on Sunday just a year after the energy storage company received a $43 million loan guarantee from a controversial U.S. Department of Energy program.
The move comes about two months after solar panel maker Solyndra also filed for bankruptcy, setting off criticism of the government loan program.
The department guaranteed $535 million in loans to Solyndra, and Congress is investigating whether political influence played a role.
Beacon Power used the government-guaranteed-loan to build a 20-megawatt flywheel energy storage plant in Stephentown, New York.
The company said in documents filed with Delaware’s bankruptcy court that it had $72 million in assets and $47 million in debts.
A flywheel energy storage plant. A flywheel energy storage plant?? Excuse me, am I reading this right? The government handed out a fortune for a perpetual motion scheme? Horry clap. Can you get any more naive than that????
Posted by Drew458
on 10/31/2011 at 09:53 AM
Filed Under: • Government • Corruption and Greed • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices •
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Permalink • Friday - October 28, 2011
Saving Money The Government Way
February 27, 2008 | By Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross
Where else but San Francisco City Hall could a 10-foot-long wheelchair ramp wind up costing $1 million?
Thanks to a maze of bureaucratic indecision and historic restrictions, taxpayers may shell out $100,000 per foot to make the Board of Supervisors president’s perch in the historic chambers accessible to the disabled.
What’s more, the little remodel job that planners first thought would take three months has stretched into more than four years - and will probably mean the supervisors will have to move out of their hallowed hall for five months while the work is done.
“It’s crazy,” admits Susan Mizer, director of the mayor’s Office on Disability. “But this is just the price of doing business in a historic building.”
advertisement | your ad hereSupervisor Jake McGoldrick said Tuesday that the issue went to the heart of liberal guilt that often drives the city’s decision making. He also choked on the price tag, and asked that the board take some more time to come up with an alternative, like maybe just getting rid of the president’s elevated seat.
The root of the problem dates back to when City Hall got a $300 million makeover in the 1990s that made just about every hallway, bathroom and office accessible to the disabled. The exception was the board president’s podium, which is reachable only for someone who can climb the five steps from the chamber floor.
The understanding was that the room would eventually be made fully accessible. But no one worried about the podium until 2004 when Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier, who uses a wheelchair, joined the board.
Wheelchair ramp in San Francisco supervisors’ chamber finally moves forward
By: Joshua Sabatini | 02/02/11 11:30 PM
Examiner Staff WriterFor years, Michela Alioto-Pier, who uses a wheelchair, fought for a ramp in the historic Board of Supervisors chamber in City Hall. Now, after much arguing, officials are finally talking about the details of installing the $529,000 ramp, and work could begin in August.
The rub is that Alito-Pier is no longer on the board. She was termed out in January. And no current supervisor uses a wheelchair. But Susan Mizner, the director of the Mayor’s Office on Disability, said making the board president’s podium wheelchair-accessible is still needed even without Alioto-Pier.
“It’s not just a matter of whether there would be a Board of Supervisors member who uses a wheelchair and is the president,” Mizner said. “To have the second-most powerful seat in city government be inaccessible is a strong and bad message that we don’t want to send to the [disabled] community.”
August 29, 2011 | Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross, Chronicle Columnists
What costs more: a home in San Francisco’s Sunset District, or a wheelchair ramp in the Board of Supervisors’ chambers?If you picked the house, you’re wrong.
By the time the final tab comes in, the cost of designing and installing a ramp to the president’s chair at the Board of Supervisors - a project now under way - is expected to top out at $699,413.
That is about $50,000 more than the median cost of a home in the Sunset.
Any jackass with a hammer and some 2x4s could whack something together in a week, for peanuts. A decent carpenter with one helper ought to be able to do the job in a couple days, with another day or two at most for finishing work to make it beautiful. No way in heck this project had to cost more than half a million. $5,000 would be my guess, and $10,000 should get you something drop dead gorgeous, rock solid, and easy to use. If you don’t care about pretty, you could build one for $500, labor included.
But hey, at first the bill was over a million, then it came down to half a million, and then was built for that price with only 40% cost overrun. And it took years instead of days. For government, that’s high efficiency and cost savings.
Posted by Drew458
on 10/28/2011 at 03:22 PM
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Government •
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LAAR She Blows! Part One
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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.
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Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
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