Thursday - July 14, 2011

Hellena Handbasket

Saturday Update: Glad to see that the market did not panic, and just continued to slowly climb. Gold closed Friday afternoon at $1594.50, a solid 1/3 increase in just one year. Of course, one year ago at $1150 gold was still nearly 4 times higher than it was post-Y2k.

Your money is worthless. Today, it’s worth even less.

Prepare for the USA to get a credit rating downgrade. It’s coming. And now, today, in anticipation of that,

Gold Hits Almost $1600 Per Ounce
market touches $1,589.80, closes at $1,582.75

We are well and truly screwed.

Gold rallied to a record after Moody’s Investors Service placed the U.S. credit rating on review for a downgrade, U.S. debt-ceiling talks stalled and Europe’s sovereign crisis persisted, boosting haven demand.

Immediate-delivery bullion climbed as much as 0.5 percent to an all-time high of $1,589.80 an ounce, and was at $1,582.75 at 4:03 p.m. in Singapore. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s comments that additional stimulus may be needed also drove the metal’s ninth day of gains, the best run since April.

The U.S., rated Aaa since 1917, was put on review for the first time since 1995, on concern the debt threshold will not be raised in time to prevent a missed payment of interest or principal, Moody’s said. President Barack Obama walked out of a meeting with legislative leaders on raising the U.S. debt ceiling, according to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

“Gold will benefit from the turmoil,” said Guo Hongjun, head of research at Haitong Futures Co., China’s largest futures broker by capital. “Another round of quantitative easing will hit the dollar hard, drive up prices of commodities including gold, increase inflationary pressures and slow the recovery.”

The contract for August delivery in New York also gained to a record, rallying as much as 0.3 percent to $1,590.80 an ounce. Cash silver jumped as much as 1.8 percent to $38.855 an ounce, the highest intraday price since May 11.

Fed Chairman Bernanke said the central bank is prepared to provide additional stimulus to bolster the U.S. economy, and warned a failure by Congress to raise the $14.3 trillion debt limit would send “shock waves” through the financial system.

I’m wondering if the country wouldn’t be better off Bernanke-free. This guy seems to get it all wrong, every time. My bet is gold goes even higher tomorrow, and closes close to $1700 Friday.

Yeah, and as we go forward - what is it now, 813 days without a federal budget??? - the clown posse in DC is arguing about raising the debt limit even more. Odingus is threatening that if the ceiling isn’t raised and more money is borrowed, then he’ll stop paying Social Security. But “don’t call my bluff on this” he is demanding of Congress. Huh?

Meanwhile, the John Wayne Bobbit Squad (our dickless Republicans in DC) are calling for a constitutional amendment to balance the budget ... as their 30 pieces of silver for allow the debt ceiling to be raised yet again. Morons. You should have put that one in in 2003, and then shown how your own party could restrict themselves to that level of spending, even during wartime. Now you look like a bunch of turbopussies.

Congressional Republicans are rallying behind a long-shot bid for a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget. But they’re divided over conservatives’ efforts to demand its passage as their price for backing any increase in the government’s borrowing limit.

Right in the middle of their brawl with President Barack Obama over extending the debt ceiling and hacking trillions from projected deficits, GOP leaders are forcing House and Senate debates next week over similar amendments requiring the budget to be balanced, starting no sooner than five years from now.

And even this threat is empty handed bullshit. Do it NOW assmunch, not 5 years down the road.

It’s all just smoke and mirrors anyway. The Repussylickans have already planned out their cave-in strategery, with the bottom line long term result being Mitt Romney as their 2012 candidate. Where upon he will take a monumental ass-whuppin. It’s all part of the plan, because the Right side of the aisle is just as elitist and just as Socialist as the Left side.

Fire the whole lot of them, take a big boxful of darts and throw them at all 50 State’s phone books. Whatever names get hit get to be Reps and Senators. Assuming that a) those hit aren’t felons or under the age of 35, b) they can prove that they are actually citizens, and c) they at least graduated high school. They couldn’t do any worse. Oh, and they serve one term, the government locks up their assets right now, guarantees their regular job on return, pays them $100,000 cash per year, no taxes, and if they take (or any relative takes) gifts or money from anyone or any PAC, they get shot. On the spot.

Still Fast, Still Furious

I think for once I may have been a bit ahead of the curve with this Project/Operation GunWalker/GunRunner/Fast and Furious/Castaway thing. I see a lot more blogs catching on, and I’m hearing more and more about it on the news. Good. Keep the story out there. This thing is 1000 times worse than Watergate. It’s a 1000 times worse than a white stain on a blue dress and a bit of human humidor for your cigar. It’s “high crimes”, without the “misdemeanors”. Accessory to murder, acts of war against a sovereign nation, and a deliberate scheme to subvert the 2nd Amendment. Lying under oath and interfering with a Congressional investigation are small potatoes compared to those charges.

Funny thing is, I thought I was way behind the curve getting the story out. I’d heard about this nearly two years ago. When the far left was screaming that “90% of the guns coming into Mexico were from American gun shops”, I read on several gun forums that FFL dealers were having their arms twisted by the feds to make bulk sales to unlikely buyers. But it was all just rumor until somebody official huffed and puffed on the old Acme Thunderer. And now the story is out. Good. Keep it out. Demand action. Real action. Not another cover-up, not another whitewash. Close down the ATF. Fire Holder and prosecute him. And then let’s talk about the “I word”. Impeachment.

Two of many blogs, small and large, running part or all of this sordid tale:
http://ironicsurrealism.com/2011/07/10/proof-that-obama-ordered-and-holder-had-full-knowledge-of-operation-fast-and-furious/
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/%E2%80%98gunwalker%E2%80%99-deepens-agent-zapata-killed-by-gun-from-%E2%80%A6-texas/

Allen West calls for a special prosecutor. Me! Me! Me! Oooh oooh Mr. West, I want the job!!!! From HotAir:

Via our Townhall cousin Katie Pavlich, who makes an important distinction that’s occasionally been overlooked in all the Gunrunner/Fast and Furious coverage. Namely, they’re not the same program. Gunrunner is the ATF’s umbrella operation for selling guns to straw purchasers and then immediately busting them; F&F is the op that let those purchasers walk them across the border, where they ended up in the possession of cartels. It is true that Holder acknowledged the existence of Gunrunner in a 2009 speech in Mexico, but as Mike Riggs of Reason points out, there’s no evidence — yet — that Holder authorized or even knew about Fast and Furious.

From Pavlich’s post at Townhall, the money quote from Allen West, with video:

Congressman Allen West is calling for the removal of Attorney General Eric Holder by President Obama if a House Oversight investigation shows Holder was involved in the ordering of the deadly “Operation Fast and Furious.”

“Eric Holder has to be brought before an investigative committee and if those charges are warranted he needs to be held accountable but at least the President needs to realize that Eric Holder needs to be removed from the Department of Justice or else I believe President Obama is complicit and in approval of the actions of his Attorney General.”

Rock on, Congressman West (R-FL). And he’s black too!

And of course the far left digs into their bag of bumper sticker slogans and came out with their old chestnut “No Evidence!!”. How original.

http://reason.com/blog/2011/07/11/theres-still-no-evidence-that">Contrary to the smoking gun being waved around in the right blogosphere, there’s still no evidence that Attorney General Eric Holder knew about the Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms program “Fast and Furious,” in which ATF agents stood idly by as guns that were illegally purchased in the United States were trafficked to Mexico, where cartels used them to kill U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and God only knows how many Mexicans.

Truth. That’s the “2%” I was talking about the other day. At some point GuWalker became GunRunner which got out of control and became Fast and Furious. Somewhere there is a paper trail. This is the kind of thing we used to call “scope creep” in the IT world, and I think it’s what the military calls “mission blurring”. But with all the bureaucracy, meetings, paper shuffling, CYA, and sign-offs going on in DC, there has to be a ton of documentation that shows where and when this happened and who gave it the nod. Come on, the damn thing had an OFFICIAL government project name fer cryin out loud. It DIDN’T just happen by accident. Everyone knew, and approved. So just like last time around, “no evidence!” is a mighty thin thread to hide behind.

Meanwhile, a town in New Mexico has fired it’s entire police force for their involvement in firearms and narcotics smuggling. Gosh, and every damn one of them is of “Spanish” heritage. Right.

New Mexico town dissolves police dept after gun smuggling scandal

The scandal-plagued, tiny New Mexico border town of Columbus is dissolving its police department and asking the county sheriff to protect its citizens.

An employee at Columbus City Hall confirmed to The Lookout that the police force has been dissolved. The Luna County Sheriff’s Office will now take over patrolling the town.

The town has been upended since federal authorities arrested Police Chief Angelo Vega, Mayor Eddie Espinoza, Village Trustee Blas Gutierrez and nine other residents for conspiring to smuggle hundreds of guns to drug cartels over the border in March. All of the accused have pleaded not guilty, and their trial is expected in October, according to the Las Cruces Sun News.

   Sunday - July 10, 2011

Expect the Unexpected

Such a non-surprise: this month’s pitiful job numbers are most likely hot air. How unexpected!

The Labor Department officially announced that only 18,000 jobs were created during the month of June compared to May’s levels. That’s considerably below the 157,000 jobs that payroll-processing firm ADP said on Thursday were added by companies in the private sector.

Our economy is said to need at least 150,000 jobs a month just to keep up with people entering the workforce. So even job growth of 150,000 isn’t good enough.
...
Now for the really bad news: that 18,000 gain announced by the government yesterday isn’t real.

For one thing, the number of jobs increased in June only because the Labor Department simultaneously revised downward the number of jobs that existed in this country during May. It’s like moving the fences at Citi Field so the Mets players can hit more home runs. It might make Jose Reyes feel better, but it doesn’t actually make him more powerful.

Without the fence-moving operation in the May employment report, the June number—yesterday’s number—would have shown a decline of 26,000 jobs.

And that’s the good part of it. It gets worse, unexpectedly.

Does anybody actually believe the official job numbers anymore? We’ve had several years now where every month’s dismal numbers are “unexpected”. Same goes for the real estate market. Real unemployment is close to 20%, and underemployment is at a similar level. All you need to do is look around you to see that. Well, assuming you don’t live inside the DC beltway, where everyone has a really great high paying job. With the government. Which has added more than 1 million “workers” to the payrolls in the past couple years. Somehow though that’s not unexpected.

Who do they think they are fooling?  (you know, other than TV talking points puppets like Kirsten Powers and Chris Matthews?)

I could have run this post last year, or the year before that; things haven’t changed a bit in all those months. What did you expect?

update

some unexpected reality ...

The unemployment rate increased to 9.2% in June, the Labor Department reported, but if the recession hadn’t pushed so many people out of the labor market it would have been much worse.

The duration of unemployment continues to increase and sat at an average of 39.9 weeks in June. More than four million people who want jobs, or nearly a third of the unemployed, have been out of work for more than a year. Those are the people are hanging in and looking for work, but a large number have given up altogether.

The share of the population in the jobs market, called the labor-force participation rate, fell to 64.1% last month — the lowest level since 1984 when women were still just beginning to enter in full force. The participation rate peaked in 2000 and has been steadily declining since as the effect of women taking full-time jobs plateaued and Baby Boomers began to retire, but the decline accelerated sharply during the recession. The participation rate was 66% at the start of the recession and 65.7% when the recovery started in June 2009. If the participation rate were still at that level, the unemployment rate would be more than 11% right now.

With nearly a third of the unemployed out of work for over a year, it makes their reintegration back into the labor market more and more difficult. People out of a job that long tend to lose skills and experience long-term effects on their lifetime earning power. It’s even harder to reintegrate workers who have dropped out altogether.

There’s also a problem of underemployment. A comprehensive gauge of labor underutilization, known as the “U-6″ for its data classification by the Labor Department, accounts for people who have stopped looking for work or who can’t find full-time jobs. That number shot up in June to 16.2% from 15.8% a month earlier.

So had the labor force not shrunk, the U-6 would be what, 18%? 20%?

And I call BS on that “People out of a job that long tend to lose skills”. Maybe your ability to swing a hammer is down for a week, but you come right back. So does your ability to write computer code, or to close sales calls, or work the appointment book or the rivet gun.  Stop with this “chronically unemployable” crap already. The one or two weeks your company will “suffer” from a re-hire’s decreased production will probably be more than made up for after that because of their increased drive to hold on to that job. The vast ranks of the unemployed are not worthless throw-away losers. They certainly bring more to the table than the fresh out of school never-before employed.

There is a huge evil afoot in this country that gets next to no attention. The “middle age castaways” or whatever you want to call it. Hundreds of thousands of people, millions maybe, who did a job for 5, 10, 15 years and then got cut, who can’t get work because all the hiring attention is on a) kids fresh out of school, or b) currently working “experts” stolen from other companies. This is age-ism, and it is rampant. And terribly short sighted.

   Friday - July 08, 2011

Almost To The Top

Let’s knock off the BS already DC. It’s pretty clear that the Operation Fast And Furious / Project Gunwalker awareness went all the way up the pyramid from the very beginning.

I’ll keep it short and concise. Here’s 98% proof that Holder is lying. The 2% part is that this operation has two names, so he can play the “depends what the definition of ‘is’” is card:

Operation Fast and Furious, begun in 2009, purposefully allowed known and suspected smugglers to purchase weapons at licensed gun dealers in the United States—sometimes while under active surveillance by U.S. law enforcement--and then allowed the smugglers to get away with the weapons, in some cases delivering them, as the government expected, to Mexican drug cartels. Agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) were specifically ordered not to stop the purchases, not to intercept the smugglers after they made the purchases, and not to retrieve the weapons.

The purpose of the operation was to let the Justice Department trace the movement of the guns and uncover the full structure of the gun-smuggling operations.

However, on Dec. 14, 2010, two rifles sold to one of the smugglers that the Justice Department had allowed to buy guns turned up at the scene of the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

Within 24 hours of Terry’s murder, according to an internal ATF email released by Issa, the FBI had definitively traced the rifles found at the murder scene back to Operation Fast and Furious and had so notified ATF.

Six weeks later, on Jan. 27, 2011, Senate Judiciary Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R.-Iowa) wrote a letter to ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson asking him to explain Operation Fast and Furious in light of the weapons found at the scene of Terry’s murder. Five days after that, on Feb. 1, 2011, the story of Operation Fast and Furious broke in the press—with multiple reports referencing Grassley’s letter to Melson. By Feb. 3, 2011, the operation, its link to the murder of Border Patrol Agent Terry, and Grassley’s inquiry to the ATF about it, had been reported in USA Today, The Arizona Republic, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Associated Press.

Yet, three full months after these public news reports, at a May 3 Judiciary Committee hearing, Attorney General Holder, under questioning by Issa, testified that he had “probably” only learned about Operation Fast and Furious in “the last few weeks.”

“We believe that he was aware of it much earlier than he said in his testimony and questioning before the Judiciary Committee,” Issa told CNSNews.com in an interview.

OK - Here it is: in the above excerpt we see that Holder testified May 3 2011 that he only learned about Fast and Furious “in the last few weeks”.
But here is Holder talking in Mexico, April 2, 2009, more than TWO YEARS before that:

“Attorney General Eric Holder at the Mexico/United States Arms Trafficking Conference
CUERNAVACA, MEXICO ~ Thursday, April 2, 2009
...
Last week, our administration launched a major new effort to break the backs of the cartels. My department is committing 100 new ATF personnel to the Southwest border in the next 100 days to supplement our ongoing Project Gunrunner, DEA is adding 16 new positions on the border, as well as mobile enforcement teams, and the FBI is creating a new intelligence group focusing on kidnapping and extortion.  DHS is making similar commitments, as Secretary Napolitano will detail.”

That pretty much clinches it for me. The glove fits so I don’t acquit. But it doesn’t stop there. As I pointed out yesterday, this “rogue action” was specifically funded in the bail-out bill. By name, for $10,000,000. The implication, and it’s a damned strong one, is that for things to be that out in the open then a tremendous amount of backroom action in DC had to have already taken place. Meetings, analysis, proof of concept, all sorts of sign-offs that Agency X wasn’t stepping on the toes or the turf of Agency Y, etc. Lots of documents, lots of meetings, lots of emails, lots of signatures. Updates every 6 months and another round of approvals. In other words, everyone knew. Everyone.

Here is a really long post from someone who understands how the federal government actually works. It was written in early June and labels this whole mess “weaponsgate”. And it points out that it is almost a written in stone guarantee that Janet Napolitano, the Director of Homeland Security, and Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State, were completely aware of everything, from the very beginning. Oh, and Felipe Calderon, the President of Mexico as well, because of that sticky little treaty thingy called the Brownsville Agreement ( you don’t run ops in my country, senor, and I don’t run them in yours. Si? ) So ask yourself this: If DHS and SoS and El Presidente de Mexico knew, what are the odds that POTUS didn’t?

An operation like Fast and Furious doesn’t just happen. Not if it’s legal.

A Group One Undercover Investigative Operation, and Fast and Furious fits that bill, would first require departmental approval from ATF and, second, approval from its parent organization, DOJ—plans and proposals, with mission, targets and specific outcomes ready for scrutiny.

That means signatures—a senior executive at ATF, and a John Hancock from no less than an Assistant Attorney General at Justice.

After Fast And Furious gets a green light from ATF and DOJ, the same fully fleshed-out proposal, the power-point presentation and the agency-department signoff travel upwards (step three) to what’s called an Undercover Operational Proposal Committee, a body composed of senior executives from every US enforcement agency—Justice, ATF, DEA, DHS, ICE, FBI, Secret Service et al—any department or agency whose interests might be affected or intersected by the operation.

Committee approval doesn’t happen easily.

And had it not been for John Dodson, the one lone whistleblower at ATF, this whole thing would have been the perfect PR storm to re-instate the Assault Weapons Ban, ban semi-automatic firearms, and start a gun grabbing putsch the likes of which haven’t been seen since Hitler came to power in the 30s.

Read the stories at the links. “"I just want you to know that we are working on it,” said Obama some time ago when asked about gun control by his base, “We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar.” Maybe so, but all the stealth technology in the world is useless if the pilot turns on the IFF. And Dobson was the pilot. Ping! Contact!

And yet the White House is still playing stupid.

It’s high time we pulled the covers off this cover-up. All of them.

Read more at these:
a timeline of events

Jan. 8, 2011: U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is shot while meeting with constituents in Tucson. ATF agents were initially worried she might have been shot by a gun sold through Operation Fast and Furious.

The implication there is that ATF already knew damn well that some of those guns smuggled into Mexico were making their way back into the USA.

Issa Says He Doesn’t Believe Holder’s Testimony Was Accurate Grow a pair already Darrell. Holder is lying out his ass, and the absolute proof is posted right here. Would it be raaaacist for me to say it’s time to call a spade a spade?

Obama Administration Not Enforcing Gun Laws, Issa Says Crivens, what an understatement. Water is wet, who knew???

   Thursday - July 07, 2011

It’s Getting Higher

Project Gunwalker/Fast & Furious Scandal Goes To The Top
FBI and DEA Involved
Eric Holder’s Toes Held to the Fire

But only if you keep the pressure on. Write, email, phone your reps. Do the same for the media. Demand an honest, open, and huge investigation. AG Eric Holder ACTED UNDER ORDERS, as did the BATFE, FBI, DEA, and who knows who else? Probably the damn Parks Department too. And who has the power to coordinate those departments? President Obama and the Director of Homeland Security.

Americans have DIED because of this con!! And the whole bleeding thing was done to advance the Democratic Agenda: more gun control. Plain and simple.

Yesterday, Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson answered questions from Rep. Darrell Issa and Senator Charles Grassley surrounding Operation Fast and Furious. Melson voluntarily participated in the interview and appeared with personal counsel, meaning although the Justice Department has prohibited Melson to testify before Congress on behalf of the DOJ about the scandal, he can in fact come forward with information as an individual informant outside of the DOJ and separate from DOJ interests.
...
Melson revealed the scope of Operation Fast and Furious reaches far beyond ATF and the Justice Department. He said the FBI, DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) and other agencies were heavily involved:

We have very real indications from several sources that some of the gun trafficking “higher-ups” that the ATF sought to identify were already known to other agencies and may even have been paid as informants. The Acting Director said that ATF was kept in the dark about certain activities of other agencies, including DEA and FBI. Mr.Melson said that he learned from ATF agents in the field that information obtained by these agencies could have had a material impact on the Fast and Furious investigation as far back as late 2009 or early 2010. After learning about the possible role of DEA and FBI, he testified that he reported this information in April 2011 to the Acting Inspector General and directly to then-Acting Deputy Attorney General James Cole on June 16, 2011.

The evidence we have gathered raises the disturbing possibility that the Justice Department not only allowed criminals to smuggle weapons but that taxpayer dollars from other agencies may have financed those engaging in such activities. While this is preliminary information, we must find out if there is any truth to it. According to Acting Director Melson, he became aware of this startling possibility only after the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and the indictments of the straw purchasers, which we now know were substantially delayed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Main Justice.

Looks like it’s finger pointing time in DC as all the little scumrats scurry around trying to squeak “not me! not me!” Snap a trap on their asses. The top crimefighters in the country, working hand in glove with known alien criminals in hopes of pulling a fast one on the American people? Son of a bitch.

Of course, those words have yet to be spoken. It’s going to take some more heat before the big rats squeak that line out. But you know that that is the real truth. For now the focus is merely on everyone in DC with a suit and a badge being involved with a highly illegal straw purchasing scam. We’ll get around to motives eventually. Right now we’re still turning over rocks looking for worms.

Oh, and merely as an aside, when asked about this by the Mexican government, our big honchos denied everything. Do you know what purposely arming a huge group of organized criminals in a foreign country is, to the point where they effectively become a standing army strong enough to topple the local government and law enforcement agencies? It is an act of war. Straight up subversion. Casus belli. See, toldja is was bigger than Watergate.

The October 27, 2009 email from ATF Phoenix Field Division Special Agent in Charge (SAC) William Newell regarded a Southwest Border Strategy Group meeting that focused on Fast and Furious. It contained a laundry list of high ranking Justice Department officials that attended the meeting, including:

* Assistant Attorney General (Criminal Division) Lanny Breuer,
* Kenneth Melson, Acting Director, ATF
* William Hoover, Acting Deputy Director, ATF
* Michele Leonhart, Administrator, DEA
* Robert Mueller, Director FBI

Four other Justice Department directors or their representatives came from the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), Bureau of Prisons (BOP), U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), and the Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA). The chair of the Attorney Generals Advisory Committee (AGAC) also attended the session. Their names were redacted in the released document. U.S. attorneys for all four southwest border states also attended.

Operation Fast and Furious, now known to many by the more accurate name of “Gunwalker,” was a multi-agency operation that allowed and — in some instances — approved the purchase of firearms destined for Mexican drug cartels by so-called “straw buyers.” The purchasers, who had clean criminal records, would buy firearms from U.S. gun stores for drug gangs. While most gun smuggling involves small quantities of weapons, a small number of high-volume straw purchasers each bought hundreds of firearms for the cartels.

ATF agents were told by their supervisors to ignore their agency’s charter and training and allow the guns to be smuggled into Mexico without interdiction. Roughly 2,000 firearms — ranging from pistols and AK-pattern semi-automatic rifles to .50 BMG sniper rifles — were smuggled into Mexico under Gunwalker and without the knowledge of Mexican authorities. Hundreds of smuggled weapons have turned up at crime scenes across Mexico and the U.S. border states and at least 152 law enforcement officers and soldiers have been killed with Gunwalker weapons.

While it has been known since the beginning of the investigation that the ATF, DOJ, DHS, and the IRS were heavily involved in Gunwalker, the Newell email confirms that every major agency within the Department of Justice was briefed on Gunwalker, including the AGAC, which has the formally ordered functions of giving U.S attorneys a voice in department policies and advising the attorney general.

Also known as Project Gunrunner, the Arizona-based operation was supposed to be a sting, under which the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which is part of the Justice Department, allowed “straw purchasers” to transfer weapons from gun shops in Arizona to Mexican drug cartels to trace and halt crossborder arms-trafficking.

That’s the official version, anyway—but it’s crumbling, fast.

The ATF’s acting director, Kenneth Melson, has been singing like a canary to congressional investigators as he pushes back against administration pressure for him to resign and take the fall for something that, at the very least, had to include the US Attorney’s Office, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and possibly the Homeland Security Department.
...
“The evidence we have gathered raises the disturbing possibility that the Justice Department not only allowed criminals to smuggle weapons, but that taxpayer dollars from other agencies may have financed those engaging in such activities,” they wrote.

“It is one thing to argue that the ends justify the means in an attempt to defend a policy that puts building a big case ahead of stopping known criminals from getting guns. Yet it is a much more serious matter to conceal from Congress the possible involvement of other agencies in identifying and maybe even working with the same criminals that Operation Fast and Furious was trying to identify.”

That’s the key to this mess—and the reason that Operation Fast and Furious might turn out to be the biggest Washington scandal since Iran-Contra.

As Issa and Grassley note in their letter, had the other agencies shared information—theoretically the goal of the post-9/11 revamp of the intelligence and law-enforcement agencies—“then ATF might have known that gun trafficking ‘higher-ups’ had already been identified.”

So if the identities of the Mexican criminals were known to the feds, what was the point of Project Gunrunner—and why is Holder so desperately trying to stonewall by withholding hundreds of documents from Congress?

Law-abiding gun owners and dealers think they already know. With the Obama administration wedded to the fiction that 90 percent of the guns Mexican cartels use originate here—they don’t—many suspect that “Fast and Furious” was a backdoor attempt to smear domestic gun aficionados as part of its stealth efforts on gun control by executive fiat.

“I just want you to know that we’re working on it,” Obama was quoted as saying to gun-control advocate Sarah Brady in March. “We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar.”

Unfortunately for the administration, this one’s out in the open now.

And the cover up and the stonewalling that’s been going on for months now? Gosh, glad you asked:

Mr. Melson said that he told the Office of the Deputy Attorney General (ODAG) at the end of March that the Department needed to reexamine how it was responding to the requests for information from Congress.

According to Mr. Melson, he and ATF’s senior leadership team moved to reassign every manager involved in Fast and Furious, from the Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations down to the Group Supervisor, after learning the facts in those documents. Mr. Melson also said he was not allowed to communicate to Congress the reasons for the reassignments. He claimed that ATF’s senior leadership would have preferred to be more cooperative with our inquiry much earlier in the process. However, he said that Justice Department officials directed them not to respond and took full control of replying to briefing and document requests from Congress. The result is that Congress only got the parts of the story that the Department wanted us to hear.

Acting ATF Director flat out lays the blame for the smokescreen at Holder’s doorstep:

“If his account is accurate, then ATF leadership appears to have been effectively muzzled while the DOJ sent over false denials and buried its head in the sand,” Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in a letter Tuesday to Attorney General Eric Holder. “That approach distorted the truth and obstructed our investigation.” (news video at link)

Your taxpayer dollars were spent to buy those guns you know. $10,000,000 to be exact:

[ text of HR1 stimulus bill of 2009 ] For an additional amount for ‘State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance’, $40,000,000, for competitive grants to provide assistance and equipment to local law enforcement along the Southern border and in High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas to combat criminal narcotics activity stemming from the Southern border, of which $10,000,000 shall be transferred to ‘Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Salaries and Expenses’ for the ATF Project Gunrunner.

Can’t blame Bush for this one.

Now watch it be utterly buried by the MSM. I already checked CNN.com. This story does not exist. AT ALL. The only thing remotely similar is one story on ATF head may quit from TWO WEEKS ago which does outline Gunwalker somewhat, and another one in which idiot Rep Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) says how Fast & Furious shows the need for more gun control.

Most honest and transparent government, evah!

   Friday - July 01, 2011

California Ignores The Law, Suffers

California Taxes The Internet
Amazon Immediately Fires All California Employees, Moves Out


What part of “you can’t do that” does CA not understand? Businesses Go Gault to avoid this tyranny.

California tells online retailers to start collecting sales taxes

Beginning Friday, Amazon.com and other large out-of-state retailers will be required to collect sales taxes on purchases that their California customers make online.

Beginning Friday, a new state law will require large out-of-state retailers to collect sales taxes on purchases that their California customers make on the Internet — a prospect eased only slightly by a 1-percentage-point drop in the tax that also takes effect at the same time.

Getting the taxes, which consumers typically don’t pay to the state if online merchants don’t charge them, is “a common-sense idea,” said Gov. Jerry Brown, who signed the legislation into law Wednesday

But those taxes may come with a price. Amazon and online retailer Overstock.com Inc. told thousands of California Internet marketing affiliates that they will stop paying commissions for referrals of so-called click-through customers.

That’s because the new requirement applies only to online sellers based out of state that have some connection to California, such as workers, warehouses or offices here.

Both Amazon in Seattle and Overstock in Salt Lake City have told affiliates that they would have to move to another state if they wanted to continue earning commissions for referring customers.

“We oppose this bill because it is unconstitutional and counterproductive,” Amazon wrote its California business partners Wednesday. Amazon has not indicated what further actions it might take to challenge the California law.

Amazon ends deal with 25,000 California websites

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law California’s tax on Internet sales through affiliate advertising which will immediately cut small-business website revenue 20% to 30%, experts say.

The bill, AB 28X, takes effect immediately. The state Board of Equalization says the tax will raise $200 million a year, but critics claim it will raise nothing because online retailers will end their affiliate programs rather than collect the tax.

Amazon has already emailed its termination of its affiliate advertising program with 25,000 websites.

Click a link on some blog that takes you to an online retailer - say one that sells crossbows perhaps? - and the blogger in California “owns” or “roots” the sale in that state, so the retailer then owes sales tax to that state? As in: you live in New Mexico, you click on a link at a blog run by some guy in New Jersey that takes you to a crossbow selling online retailer in Indiana, and now New Jersey has the power to collect sales tax from a transaction between Indiana and New Mexico? Is there a diplomatic way to say “Blow it out your ass, fuckface!”??

This is a Use Tax, plain and simple. And use taxes are the biggest loser idea that ever was. While the laws may require citizens to add up the things that they buy out of state and then pay the proper amount of sales tax to their home state, other than my mother nobody in the entire country does this. Nobody. Because deep down we all know that what we buy somewhere else is no business of the state we live in, so they can sod off.

Amazon was quick to turn the tables. Calling the new law unconstitutional, Amazon sent an email Wednesday to California affiliates immediately severing ties with them—and putting those businesses in the crosshairs.

“Unfortunately, Governor Brown has signed into law the bill that we emailed you about earlier today. As a result of this, contracts with all California residents participating in the Amazon Associates Program are terminated effective today, June 29, 2011,” the company wrote in an email to affiliates obtained by FoxNews.com.

By ending these local affiliate programs, Amazon and Overstock should largely exempt themselves from the law—meaning California shoppers probably won’t see taxes on books and other goods from them.

The States are just as out of control and out of their minds as the federal government when it comes to taxes. Neither group has been able to spend responsibly for the past 80 years or more, and both are now mired in debt. But neither will face the music and put their budgets under the chopper. The post I didn’t run: Obama wants to raise taxes hugely to attempt to balance the budget. Which will once again KILL any slight bit of growth the economy may have been showing. It’s like he’s doing this shit on purpose. Nobody could be that stupid by accident. Guess I was wrong: Jerry Brown is that stupid. And so is California, for re-electing this wasted old hippie 20 years past his sell-by date.

The internet is a duty free port. Just make sure that whatever you buy online comes from some other state. If it comes from your state, just go buy it locally instead. Personally, if I ran a web business I’d set it up off shore if I could. Failing that I’d set it up in Delaware, or another state that has no sales tax. Failing that, I’d make it abundantly clear that no sales would be made to the state the business resided in. And thus the taxman can go to hell. Because that’s what America is all about.

   Wednesday - June 29, 2011

This One’s In The Bag

From Top To Bottom, Government Has Only One Policy:
Waste Money On Shit




Condo residents in Florida forced to pony up $200-$500 to DNA dog poop.
Poop Police to wage war on Phantom Shitters.


Good Lord, and I thought my condo association could waste money. We’re not even in the same ballpark as this bunch.

Plagued with pets that do business in all the wrong places, dog owners in the Village of Abacoa, a condominium association of 458 units, must pay a $200 fee starting Aug. 1. The money will pay DNA Pet World Registry to take the dog’s genetic fingerprint and keep the information on file.

Doggie droppings found in condo common areas will be collected and mailed in a plastic tube to the Knoxville, Tenn.-based company. If the poop matches the pooch, the owners can be fined up to $1,000. If they don’t pay, a lien can be placed on their home, said Susan Nellen, property manager for Versa Property Management, which manages the condo near Roger Dean Stadium.

Not everyone supports the policy.

“This is nuts. They will be testing all kinds of poop. Is this America?” said Troy Holloway, who owns one of the condos.

But managers say they have no choice. Dogs are defecating and urinating in elevators, in stairwells, on carpets and in the lobby, as well as common areas outside. The condo association is spending $10,000 to $12,000 a year replacing and cleaning, said Matthew Brickman, president of the Village of Abacoa Condominium Association.

“The smell is disgusting. Residents are embarrassed to have company. Dog crap is everywhere,” Nellen said.

A maintenance person from Versa Management will collect marble-sized samples found in restricted areas. The samples go in a leakproof plastic container about the size of a small perfume bottle containing DNA stabilization solution. The container is mailed to DNA Pet World, where the identification test is done.

If the illegal poop matches a registered dog, the owner can be fined. If the problem persists, the animal can be confiscated, Brickman said.

Feces identification is a booming business. DNA Pet World and PooPrints - its motto is “Match the Mess through DNA” - are spinoffs from BioPet Vet Labs. They started in October. By the end of the year, they expect 300 American franchises, Mayer said.

The process only works for feces. There is not enough DNA in urine to make a match, Mayer said.

Welcome to the nanny state. When society breaks down civility is the first thing to go. Respect for yourself and for your neighbors? Gone. The unspoken desire to make your little corner of the world a better place? Gone. It’s not my responsibility. Let someone else do it. And let’s see what I can get away with when nobody is watching, haha on you sucka.

We always had dogs when I was growing up. They would ask to go out, get hooked up to a long rope, and go out in the back yard to do their business. We’d come along later with a shovel and clean things up, although this wasn’t really practical in the winter, and lead to a rather spotty lawn in the early spring. And when the dogs went for a walk, if they dropped one, no, we didn’t clean it up. Nobody did. But the town wasn’t wall to wall dogs, and the poop was usually in the street. It washed away in the rain. It didn’t really matter. But most of us knew better than to let our dogs drop the big one on somebody’s lawn, even if we didn’t like them. Especially if they were watching; that could get you a punch in the nose.

A couple decades ago we started having the Baggy Brigade when people walked their dogs. I thought it was kind of gross at first, but later I came to see that this was a decent thing. It’s the responsible and considerate thing to do.

We are not allowed to have dogs in our condo village. Dogs aren’t even allowed to visit. I miss them. But even if we were allowed, I don’t think I’d have one. It just isn’t fair to the animal to be locked in the house all day, alone. Dogs need people around, and they need to get outside and run around and sniff things and do all their doggy activities. So the first part of being a responsible pet owner is determining if you can even properly care for one. If you can’t, then you don’t have pets. And if you take your pet around and about to do it’s business, you join the Baggie Brigade and you clean up after it. Period, no question, no hesitation. Anything less is not only irresponsible, it’s embarrassing. Because humans know the difference between right and wrong, and that’s all there is to it. I think the entire British Empire, and white culture in general, was built on that one concept of avoiding embarrassment. Be honest, considerate, and responsible, because you’ll feel like a real jerkwad when you don’t and then get caught out. Worse, people will talk.

Sounds to me like these folks in Florida are only one or two steps up the evolutionary stairs from the dogs they won’t clean up after, and that’s forcing the local nanny state to step in. Maybe they should just write a new bylaw that prohibits having dogs. It’s worked for us. But we both sure miss having a dog around sometimes. That’s the price you pay.

Hey ... Poop Police! Isn’t that one of Obama’s Shovel Ready jobs?

   Monday - June 27, 2011

Awesome, Chicago Style

Blagojevich Convicted of Trying to Auction Off Obama’s Senate Seat
Ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich found guilty on 17 of 20 counts, including all charges related to an attempt to sell the Senate seat vacated by President Obama.

CHICAGO—A jury convicted former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Monday of nearly all the corruption charges against him, including that he tried to sell or trade President Obama’s old Senate seat.

Blagojevich had faced 20 charges, including the Senate seat allegation and that he schemed to shake down executives for campaign donations. He was convicted on all charges regarding the Senate seat.

Jurors delivered their verdicts Monday after deliberating nine days.

Blagojevich had testified for seven days, denying wrongdoing. Prosecutors said he lied and the proof was on FBI wiretaps. Those included a widely parodied clip in which Blagojevich calls the Senate opportunity “f------ golden.”

Jurors in his first trial deadlocked on all but one charge, convicting Blagojevich of lying to the FBI. Blagojevich already faces up to five years for the lying conviction.

Blagojevich was arrested in December 2008, after the FBI had wiretapped hundreds of his telephone calls at work and home. The Illinois Legislature impeached him a month later.

Both trials hinged on whether the former governor’s bold ramblings to aides and others on the telephone was just talk, as he insisted, or part of “a political crime spree,” in the words of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.

Before a national audience, the Blagojevich saga exacerbated Illinois’ reputation for graft. The convictions mean Blagojevich is the second Illinois governor in a row facing a prison sentence for corruption. His predecessor, former Gov. George Ryan, is serving a 6 1/2 year sentence.

Can we get a bunch of Republicans to sing outside the courthouse? “na na naa na, na na naa na, hey hey hey, goodbye!” WTF, that’s what the scumbag left did for Bush at the inauguration. It would only be fair, and much more fitting, to give this felon a bit of a serenade.

Lock him up for 20 years, and that’s after he turn’s State’s Evidence to reduce his jail time by ratting out his cronies. 20 years is a gift: he could go in a maximum of 345.

The 11 women and one man reached the verdicts on their 10th day of deliberation in the trial, which began April 20. As the verdicts were read, Blagojevich turned to look back at his wife, Patti, who dropped into her seat. None of the jurors would look at the defendant as the verdicts were being read.

He was found guilty of all 10 counts involving wire fraud—each of which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. The other 10 involved extortion and bribery. Most of the counts have a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

The jury acquitted Blagojevich on one count of bribery and was unable to reach verdicts on two counts of attempted extortion.

   Sunday - June 26, 2011

Double Trouble

UPDATE, Christmas Day 2011:

It has come to my attention, from direct contact with friends of Brooks Papineau, that the jihad angle of this story may be false. Everyone in the news media based their stories on one report released by the Sheriff’s office.  A little bit of internet research shows that the man was given a Christian burial and is not remembered as a convert to jizzlam AT ALL.

Brooks Lawrence Papineau of Key Center, WA, born May 10, 1957, passed away unexpectedly June 15, 2011, at the age of 54.

Brooks was a Kitsap Peninsula native who graduated from West Bremerton High in 1975. Brooks served his country two years in the Army National Guard and five years in the Coast Guard. He worked at the U.S. Postal Service for the past 27 years.

...

Funeral Mass will be held at Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church

I have had a lengthy email conversation with one of his friends, going back and forth several times, and that has sown the seeds of doubt. It is just as likely that the “he had a koran and was converting” is not only a misstatement but an outright lie. A veteran, a postman, and a gun collector? On the West Coast? Heck, that sounds like the core thesis for another “rogue soldier - government trained killer - goes on killing frenzy” storyline for an NCIS episode on TV. I am making no accusations: I am merely saying that the Sudden Jihad Syndrome meme that went viral in the press and across the internet could be not just accidentally false, but deliberately false. And if it was deliberate, then the question you have to ask yourself is WHY. Why would someone make such a statement ... in a part of the country where they spit on disabled veterans during parades ... where we saw those “protesters” marching some years ago with their “We support the troops when they frag their officers” banner ... where half the cop shows on TV are filmed and written, and the “rogue soldier” theme gets used at least once a week by at least one of them? Ahem.

So let me make myself very clear here: the news stories IMPLIED jihadism. The guy’s friends say that’s BS. The man was given a Catholic funeral and burial. Will the RC church do such a thing for an actual convert? I don’t know, but I have my doubts. I have NO INFORMATION AT ALL that this was a “bad shoot” or that anti-military attitudes or anti-postal worker attitudes had anything to do with it. I just tossed those out there because they are not impossible, especially not in that corner of the nation ... though to be extra fair, it could be very wrong for me to paint Tacoma Washington with the brush that properly covers the Olympia Washington area. I’m not from there, I’ve never been there, but I know that certain parts of that state - see Sondra K’s blog, right? - are over-the-left-horizon nutso. So anything is possible.

For all I know, the statements about the man’s mental health, his driving record, and his drinking habits may also be wrong. As his friend has written, this entire story is based on ONE press release by the police.

I am waiting for more information from his friends that will help clarify this situation. It will never be a good situation; a man is dead. But there is no reason to support a false meme (or several of them), and the little I’ve found so far is enough to cast reasonable doubt on that. Not proof, but reasonable doubt ... against a misstatement/misunderstanding/malicious rumor/bit of emergency CYA perhaps. Welcome to the digital age; that’s about the best I can do right now. It’s not like we’ve never seen a smear campaign go on before. Herman Cain, Robert Bjork anyone?

If and when I get more information I will consider it and may edit out large parts of this story. Until such time it stands, but it would be irresponsible of me to not stridently point out that one, several, or nearly all the parts of this story may be wrong or false. Give the deceased a fair shake, because he can no longer speak for himself.

Merry Christmas.

Not sure how to title this one. Is it

Postal Worker Goes Jihadi?

or

Jihadi Goes Postal?

KEY PENINSULA, Wash.—A man who was fatally shot by Tacoma police during a traffic stop early Wednesday morning pointed a gun loaded with armor-piercing bullets at the officer who stopped him and was carrying a large amount of ammunition in his truck, the Tacoma Police Department said.

Wednesday afternoon, the Medical Examiner’s Office identified the man as Brooks Papineau of Gig Harbor. He died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen.

“The driver exited his vehicle armed with a gun, and the officer opened fire, striking the subject,” said Mark Fulghum of the Tacoma Police Department.

When police searched Papineau’s truck, they found a large amount of ammunition and additional ammunition magazines.They also said they found a Koran and several books on converting to Islam.

Police said Papineau went home sick from his job at the U.S. Postal Service at about 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Pierce County sheriff’s investigators say it appears the armed man who was killed by a Tacoma police officer during a traffic stop did not fire his handgun.

Spokesman Ed Troyer says the semi-automatic gun was loaded with bullets that can pierce body armor. More ammunition was found in the man’s pickup truck along with a sword, pepper spray, an English version of the Quran and book on the rights of non-Muslims in Muslim countries.

The man was identified by the medical examiner’s office as 54-year-old Brooks Papineau of Gig Harbor.

Troyer says he smelled of alcohol and had a history of drunken driving.

The officer who fired at Papineau is a seven year veteran of the Tacoma Police Department. She was not hurt in the confrontation. Pierce County Sheriff’s Detective Ed Troyer says investigators learned the driver lived in the area, had a history of drunk driving stops, and mental health issues.

So we’ve got a mental case postman with alcohol issues who appears to be a recent convert to islam. And we all know how extra motivated recent converts to anything are.

I looked at more than two dozen articles on this incident, and the most I could find out was that he pulled a semi-automatic. Suicide by cop perhaps. But I could find out nothing about the “armor piercing ammunition”. No surprise there. Real armor piercing pistol ammo is damn rare stuff. The truth is that regular bullets shot from medium powered handguns will shoot right through the less expensive Level I police vests; Level II vests won’t always stop the higher powered handgun bullets. Low powered centerfire rifle bullets will also penetrate these vests, and bullets shot from any kind of hunting rifle more potent than great-grandpa’s .30-30 will go through any vest other than the top rated military models. And those might be defeated by actual high powered magnum rifles firing actual armor piercing bullets. No vest is truly bulletproof, because there are always bigger and stronger bullets. But your typical money saving Level I cop vest is only good for stopping bullets of .38 Special power or less, and while that’s better than no vest at all, it isn’t really much protection. So almost any bullet would be judged armor-piercing against a vest like that, and the media just can’t resist this kind of thing.

The koran in the car along with books about converting and about dhimitude is getting just about no attention, naturally. To the media, it’s no different than having a couple of those pamphlets the Jehovah’s Witness folks leave on your doorstep.

   Tuesday - June 21, 2011

Explicit admission

NJ Assembly panel advances health benefits bill

TRENTON, N.J. – The move to stabilize New Jersey’s underfunded pension and health care systems by requiring public workers to pay sharply more for the benefits while suspending bargaining over health care was fast-tracked through the Legislature Monday, after Democrats joined with Republicans to buck the powerful public employee unions.

The Senate passed the bill 24-15 as a gallery full of raucous union members looked on; eight Democrats aligned with all 15 Republicans to pass the bill. An Assembly budget panel advanced the measure hours later, also without the majority party’s support.

A vote by the full Assembly is set for Thursday. Gov. Chris Christie has already indicated his support.

“The time for political calculations is over,” said Senate President Stephen Sweeney, a Democrat and member of the ironworkers’ union, who sponsored the bill. “The time for passing the buck to someone else is over.”

The Assembly Budget Committee approved the bill 7-5 after an eight-hour hearing that began with an impassioned plea from Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver. Three Democrats paired with four Republicans; five Democrats voted ‘no.’

“This is the correct legislation for this moment,” Oliver said. “This bill will ensure a strong future for our state.”

The Republican governor, a driving force behind the landmark legislation, praised the Senate for its action.

“This is a watershed moment for New Jersey, proving that the stakes are too high and the consequences all too real to stand by and do nothing,” he said in a written statement. “As a result of Democrats and Republicans coming together to confront the tough issues, we are providing a sustainable future for our pension and health benefit system, saving New Jersey taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars and securing a fiscally responsible future for our state.”

NAACP: Making NJ public workers pay more for health care is racist!!

National NAACP head Ben Jealous weighed in against the pension and health benefit bill moving through the Legislature today, saying black New Jerseyans would be disproportionately hurt by the changes.

“We see this same pattern in many states and cities across the nation. Public sector jobs are critical in communities of color and attacks on bargaining rights and health care disproportionately affect our communities,” said Jealous in a prepared statement.

The statement was accompanied by a new report by Rutgers labor relations professor Jeffrey Keefe that argues public sector employment is a “a special bulwark for the Black middle class” because it “provides stable full-time employment with middle income earnings and employer provided health insurance, among other benefits.”

“New Jersey’s public sector has provided stable full-time employment with middle income earnings and employer-provided health insurance for more than 15 percent of black workers, all of which is now under attack as New Jersey leaders threaten to sharply reduce public workers’ pay and benefits,” wrote Keefe. “Because of the particular importance of public sector employment to the black community, black workers will suffer disproportionately if the attacks on public worker benefits prevail.”

Oh how I would love to see the real raw numbers. Because 25 and 40 percent are also “more than 15 percent”. Mr. Jealous has come right out and spoken the one truth that must never be mentioned: government employment is a jobs program for black people. I’m fairly certain he’s aiming quite low. If you were to combine local, state and federal numbers, my guess is that the real percentage of the black community working for the government - any kind or level of government - is considerably higher than 15 percent. Like 25 percent. Perhaps more. 15 percent is probably only the part that works for the state government.

I would not like to then be able to look up the actual size of the working age black population, and I certainly would not want to add in the number of black people who are in prison or receiving multiple forms of government assistance (welfare & food stamps) etc. Because the total number you’d get would show you just how large a slice of their population is being supported either fully or majorly (>50%) by government. And people would get upset if that number was something like 80%. They’d come to the wrong conclusions and start getting terrible ideas about demographic sponging. And that would be racist!

   Tuesday - June 07, 2011

Stop The Madness Already

You Personally Owe China $534,000



Ok, that’s a slight misstatement. You may not actually owe that money to China, but you owe it to someone. That’s your household’s slice of the actual total US debt. And Obama keeps right on spending, even though actual tax revenues are way way below the anticipated ones. Duh, because the economy remains in the outhouse, heading for another major dip. Unemployment is up again, and the housing market is a total disaster. The USA is about to lose its AAA rating, so the cost of all future borrowing will be far higher. Better start a big veggie garden and begin learning how to be a peasant; Turd World status, here we come.

U.S. funding for future promises lags by trillions

[ USA Today ]

The federal government’s financial condition deteriorated rapidly last year, far beyond the $1.5 trillion in new debt taken on to finance the budget deficit, a USA TODAY analysis shows.

The government added $5.3 trillion in new financial obligations in 2010, largely for retirement programs such as Medicare and Social Security. That brings to a record $61.6 trillion the total of financial promises not paid for.

This gap between spending commitments and revenue last year equals more than one-third of the nation’s gross domestic product.

Medicare alone took on $1.8 trillion in new liabilities, more than the record deficit prompting heated debate between Congress and the White House over lifting the debt ceiling.

Social Security added $1.4 trillion in obligations, partly reflecting longer life expectancies. Federal and military retirement programs added more to the financial hole, too.
Corporations would be required to count these new liabilities when they are taken on — and report a big loss to shareholders. Unlike businesses, however, Congress postpones recording spending commitments until it writes a check.

The $61.6 trillion in unfunded obligations amounts to $534,000 per household. That’s more than five times what Americans have borrowed for everything else — mortgages, car loans and other debt. It reflects the challenge as the number of retirees soars over the next 20 years and seniors try to collect on those spending promises.

“The (federal) debt only tells us what the government owes to the public. It doesn’t take into account what’s owed to seniors, veterans and retired employees,” says accountant Sheila Weinberg, founder of the Institute for Truth in Accounting, a Chicago-based group that advocates better financial reporting. “Without accurate accounting, we can’t make good decisions.”

Michael Lind, policy director at the liberal New America Foundation’s economic growth program, says there is no near-term crisis for federal retirement programs and that economic growth will make these programs more affordable.

“The false claim that Social Security and Medicare are about to bankrupt the United States has been repeated for decades by conservatives and libertarians who pretend that their ideological opposition to these successful and cost-effective programs is based on worries about the deficit,” he says.

Bring home our troops; let the world handle it’s own problems for once. Park the Navy off the coast of Haifa, guard the Suez Canal. Burn Somalia to the ground after sinking every little boat within 200 miles of it’s coastline. Co-opt the railways for a short while and issue the order to fix bayonets: clear out at least 10 million illegals. Then guard the borders and the coasts. Keep the ones who pick lettuce, but that’s about it. Americans need those jobs. Simplify the tax system and cut the IRS down to about 500 unarmed employees. Throw out every union in every branch of government and renegotiate every job. Your government worker paycheck just got cut by 40% and your benefits halved. Now start the government layoffs: 3/4 of everyone goes, period. Many many federal departments are simply going to be disbanded, period. Being a member of the federal legislature is now a $50,000 a year job, with legal endemnities: to get the job you pledge your assets and your sacred honor. Screw it up - as in not making a budget on time that comes in 25% under the revenue curve, Tweeting pictures of you wee-wee, introducing blatantly unconstitutional bills, taking bribes, etc - and you loose your job and your assets and you go to jail. Give up the War on Drugs: legalize marijuana, and make it a capital offense to be in possession of cocaine in any form, opiates, LSD, methamphetamines, and several other “designer” drugs. Wait, that’s not “giving up” is it, it’s “winning” ... which is something America has mostly forgotten how to do when it comes to wars. Time to learn.

And that’s just a start.

We have allowed Limited Government to morph into an all devouring monster that has eroded most of our rights and has spent us into a nearly bottomless pit. Stop the madness. We need to climb out of that if we can. Maybe we can’t, but we have to make a 50 year attempt. Starting today.

   Thursday - May 26, 2011

Jose Guerena: not much for me to add

Murder and a Cover Up



There is not much left for me to add to the story you’ve probably already read a dozen articles on. I’ve been reading and researching for over a week now, and it stinks. This is at least my third attempt to write this post, but I don’t know where to begin. Absolutely wrong 8-1 decision by the Supreme Court seems to gut the 4th Amendment. Even Scalia signed on. Lunatic liberal as Sheriff. Militarization of the police. Disinterested media. Jack booted thugs. Racism? Just another damned Mexicano, so who cares? The whole damn country should be screaming from the rooftops demanding a fully transparent investigation from the highest levels of state government. Yet 3 weeks after the event, pretty much all we have is “nothing to see here, move along.” There should be major media pieces, with graphics, time lines, coroner’s report diagrams, photographs and interviews ... and there haven’t really been. Oh, there’s been some. But they haven’t dug down deep enough.

On May 5, Tuscon citizen and USMC veteran Jose Guerena was killed in his own home by a multi-departmental SWAT team under the jurisdiction of infamous Sheriff Dupnik. In an absolutely stellar display of police marksmanship he was hit 60 times from 71 shots fired in about 7 seconds by 5 officers, who panic reacted when one of their own shot first. While his wife and small son hid in a closet and called 911, who dicked about and wasted at least 15 minutes before sending an ambulance. Which the police refused access to Guerena for an hour and 15 minutes. And that’s about the only real facts that we have, because the bullshit and the CYA began almost immediately thereafter.

Please, if you haven’t read about this story, go here to the Huffington Post and spend a few minutes reading Radley Balko’s essay. It’s long, but this iteration covers almost all the details.

Almost all. One point it misses which I’ve seen elsewhere, is that the police refused to allow the EMS crew into the house because they felt that they had a barricade situation. This is a crock. You’re going to have to do some of your own Googling, because I’ve lost track of most of the dozens and dozens of articles I’ve read on this. There are thousands of them. Find the ones written by Ghost32, the ones at Reason, and the original May 6 article and it’s follow ups. Sorry, but I’m just overwhelmed by all of it. The barricade story is just one more of the lies put out by Dupnik’s goons.

Guerena was shot 60 times. He didn’t crawl off anywhere with his gun. He died on the spot. I’m sorry. I know the meme is that the amped up cops cruelly left him to die, but lets get real. The weapons of choice of any SWAT team are the H&K MP5 machine pistol and the M16 (or any of it’s variants, full auto or semi). High velocity 9mm pistol bullets, or 5.56mm military rifle bullets. His body was torn to shreds, obviously. As his wife said in the 911 call, his intestines were all over the floor. So there was no reason at all to deny the EMS crew, but there was nothing for them to do. Even if they’d got there within 3 minutes of the shooting, there would have been nothing for them to do. People just don’t survive 60 bullets. Worst case they bleed out in a couple minutes. Possibly in a handful of seconds.

One article I found said how a reporter had been in the house afterwards and saw the enormous blood puddle in the hallway, sans drag marks. Where’s the picture please? Or the statement that they weren’t allowed to take any. Several others have said how interviews with the neighbors belied the story that the cops showed up with sirens wailing and lights flashing. One mentions how a neighbor was on the phone with his father, when suddenly gunshots rang out ‘pop pop pop’.

Some of the posts I’ve read have conjectured that some of the police fired at him right through the walls of his house. Given thermal imaging this is entirely possible; the typical home construction in America will hardly slow bullets down, much less stop them. But with thermal imaging (which we do not know if the SWAT cops had) it would be very easy to know that there were other people in the house, including a child. And having such gear would really put the lie to the “barricade situation” story. But that “some cops shot through the walls from the side of the house” idea does provide an answer to another unanswered question: how can you fit 5 big burly cops in body armor in the hallway of a small house, or at the doorway, so that they all have a clear line to the target, and NOT have this as a premeditated assassination? You can’t. The SWAT team had to be arrayed in some kind of battle square formation with prone, kneeling, and standing shooters BEFORE they kicked in the door. Lined up like a three tiered firing squad.

About the only thing I can add is that there is a good chance that the SWAT cops never needed to fire a shot, even if they had been shot at. Why? Read the article: they had shields. Now, I don’t know what kind of shields. Obviously not Viking targes, or Roman Scutums, but something modern. Possibly something like the plexiglass affairs the Bobbies used against that machete guy in the UK video Peiper put up the other day, but hey. This is a SWAT team. So my guess is that they had SWAT shields. And those things are bulletproof. Seriously so; they are designed to stop full power military rifle fire. And they’re big enough to hide behind.

So every day it looks more and more like this is the dirtiest cover up ever, engineered by a foaming lefty in charge. The story changes every day. The warrant was sealed 4 days after the event transpired. There is no evidence of any narco trafficking by Guerena, and even the later claim that he was involved in a home invasion ring seems to be little more than slander. I have not heard of any independent investigation being started up from Phoenix.

I would have thought that Sheriff Dupnik would have been canned after his idiotic remarks started a partisan nationwide shitstorm of baseless accusations after the shooting by Jared Loughner back in January. Or placed on leave of absence pending investigation over his own non-action prior to that, since he was well aware of Loughner’s crazy and had ignored it multiple times. And now we’ve got one of the lamest CYAs ever, and that still isn’t enough for the Arizona government to act?

It’s over folks. We live in a police state. At least one state’s high court supports them.  And to some extent, so does the Supreme Court. More than 50,000 No Knock Warrants issued every year. No right to defend yourself against illegal entry or home invasion if, afterwards, one they take off their masks, take off their armor, take off their ninja outfits, and turn out to be police. With a sealed warrant you have no right to see. But it’s Ok for them to shoot you on the spot in your own home, even if you haven’t fired a shot in your own defense. 60 times.

Looks like somebody’s “fundamental change” to America is nearly complete.

   Friday - May 06, 2011

Captain Clueless Takes The Credit?

This might go a long way towards explaining why the OBL story seems to change by the hour. A 4 page insider’s story that Obama and his minion Jarret are blithering indecisive idiots, and that the whole OBL mission was run by Leon Panetta, with support from Hillary. Or is it just another whack job conspiracy “anonymous source” story written by one of her supporters? It sure goes a long way towards explaining that now famous “Situation Room” picture, where TOTUS looks more like a bad puppy caught peeing on the carpet than Our Bold Progressive War Leader. Hell, look at it: he’s not sitting at the head of the table. He’s not even sitting in a “big people” chair. He’s squatting on the floor. There isn’t even a chair for him to sit in. They just stuck him in for a photo op.

Q: You stated that President Obama was “overruled” by military/intelligence officials regarding the decision to send in military specialists into the Osama Bin Laden compound.  Was that accurate?

A: I was told – in these exact terms, “we overruled him.” (Obama) I have since followed up and received further details on exactly what that meant, as well as the specifics of how Leon Panetta worked around the president’s “persistent hesitation to act.” There appears NOT to have been an outright overruling of any specific position by President Obama, simply because there was no specific position from the president to do so.  President Obama was, in this case, as in all others, working as an absentee president.

I have been told by more than one source that Leon Panetta was directing the operation with both his own CIA operatives, as well as direct contacts with military – both entities were reporting to Panetta only at this point, and not the President of the United States.  There was not going to be another delay as had happened 24 hour earlier.  The operation was at this time effectively unknown to President Barack Obama or Valerie Jarrett and it remained that way until AFTER it had already been initiated.  President Obama was literally pulled from a golf outing and escorted back to the White House to be informed of the mission.  Upon his arrival there was a briefing held which included Bill Daley, John Brennan, and a high ranking member of the military.  When Obama emerged from the briefing, he was described as looking “very confused and uncertain.” The president was then placed in the situation room where several of the players in this event had already been watching the operation unfold.

The President of the United States, the Commander In Chief of all the military overruled?

That’s called a coup ladies and gentlemen. Treason in the highest degree. A junta, even if it was one that only lasted a few hours. Obama the sock puppet, his strings pulled from behind the curtain. If this story is even remotely true, how can you have the smallest measure of faith that these strings aren’t being pulled on a daily basis? Read the article.

   Monday - May 02, 2011

Nothing To Crow About

Hopewell Township is about 2 dozen miles south of us. It’s north of Trenton and west of Princeton. About 8 miles west of where Dr. House would work if he was real and not just a TV show.

Local Law: You Can Only Get Some 10 Days A Year
And You’d Better Not Make Noise About It
Well, that is if you’re a rooster

HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP — Roosters looking to get a little action in local henhouses must first produce a clean bill of health under a newly adopted law regulating romantic interactions among chickens in backyard farms.

The so-called “chicken legislation” — the butt of jokes in news stories around the globe — was adopted unanimously by the township committee Monday night after nearly three hours of debate.

The measure not only limits the amount of time male chickens can spend with their female counterparts to 10 days each year, but also requires them to prove they’re disease-free before they’re allowed access to the hens.

The male fowls are allowed limited time on the property “for purposes of fertilization” but must keep quiet during their stays. Any rooster caught crowing for a prolonged period of time will subject the property to a two-year moratorium on all rooster visits.

Mayor Jim Burd told The Times of Trenton the ordinance is a compromise between today’s lifestyle and the township’s agricultural history.

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