A Nation on the Edge of Revolt

Ernest S. Christian and Gary A. Roberts wonder aloud whether the power grabs of the Obama Administration and the ruling class mentality of entrenched Democrat and Republican political machines will lead to a second Revolutionary War.

I'll lay it out bluntly for you; either the American people—not extremists, but good and decent patriots like your neighbors and yourselves—will revolt and destroy the ruling class and reform our government based upon first principles, or the United States we know as our forefather conceived it is dead.

I do not state this as hyperbole. I do not state this to incite violence. I state this as nothing more or less than an observation of both history and current events. While we are a relatively young nation, our government is the oldest on the planet. Since our founders met in Philadelphia, the French have gone through five republics. Every nation in Europe, Africa, Asia, South America and North America has seen governments rise and fall, but our resilient democratic republic, the "Great Experiment," has soldiered on.

All cultures and governments, however, rot. This inevitably comes from inside, as a cancer. Our politicians view the people as rubes and subjects, and treat them as such. They imagine themselves a ruling class that exists for their own edification, at the expense of the nation as a whole.

When nations reach this point, they either collapse, or the people reform or replace their governments.

We have arrived at that time. Reform increasingly seems to be a fleeting option. Republicans and Democrats differ only in how they plan to loot the public coffers. Our present Congress and Administration are merely more transparent in their corruption and disdain than their predecessors.

Our would-be ruling class has abandoned the principles that founded this nation. They are attempting to establish a state of affairs where the people serve the government and the government determines your success or failure. Corruption no longer matters. Sovereignty no longer matters. The rule of law no longer matters.

They have won in a bloodless coup.

Or so they would like you to think.

Whether they actually win or not depends upon how much you love your family and your nation and the principles that made this nation great. Our founders themselves believed in the right of revolt, and knew better than any of us that governments must be replaced from time to time. They were wise enough to provide us with a constitutional framework that will outlast any government, including this one. We can dispose of this government, and restore the Constitution that has served us and the rest of the world so well for so long.

We stand at the brink.

We are on the right side of history. Our would-be rulers, fat on self-appointed largesse and drunk on their own purloined power, imagine us subjects, not free men and women.

Revolution is a brutish, nasty business. Innocents will fall along with patriots and the corrupt, and success is not assured.

In a letter to James Warren in 1789, Samuel Adams foresaw our current state.

A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.

The question for you, my fellow Americans, is simple.

Will you fight, or will you surrender your liberties?

I pray for peace.

But I prepare for war.

Dilbert Nuked

Like many bloggers, I've toyed with monetizing my blog... though not in any serious way. All the advertising I've ever done is because advertising have gone out of their way to contact me. Within the last week, I was contacted by a new advertiser (very nice folks, actually) and decided to try their flash-based ads.

You hated it. Auto-playing flash-based ads with audio that can't be stopped is apparently not the way to keep your readership happy. Who knew?

Hey...I screwed up. I apologize.

The lure of easy advertising dollars perhaps financing my next toy blinded me to the annoyance these ads caused you.

I have used and will continue to use BlogAds and I'm proud to represent both the Conservative and Military advertising hives, and encourage you to advertise with them. I've recently partnered with the VAMortgageCenter.com, have always run my share of Google Ads, and have a tip jar for those inclined to use it.

But I'll accept no more auto-playing flash ads with unstoppable audio. That was a bad decision on my part. I won't do that again.

That Sweet, Sweet Scent of Desperation

Steny Hoyer? He haz it:

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said on Wednesday that the expiration built into the Bush tax cuts is a "Republican tax increase" for "working Americans" and the Democrats have "no intention" of allowing it to go into effect.

"We have no intention of allowing the Republican tax increase — that their policies would lead to — to go into effect for working Americans. Period," he said. "We're going to act and make sure that the Republican phase out and increase in taxes does not end as they provided for in the laws they passed."

This is the same Steny Hoyer who said in late June that the Bush cuts must eventually be rescinded so that Democrats could continue their free-spending ways:

Hoyer also suggested that tax cuts enacted under former President George W. Bush will eventually be rescinded. He said that it is necessary in order to help pay for the nation's mounting deficit and that permanent tax cuts would be too costly.

"As the House and Senate debate what to do with the expiring Bush tax cuts in the coming weeks, we need to have a serious discussion about their implications for our fiscal outlook, including whether we can afford to permanently extend them before we have a real plan for long-term deficit reduction," Hoyer told a forum on deficit reduction.

Is over a month too long ago to consider Hoyer a hypocrite and opportunist? Perhaps his position has "evolved" over time.

If so, it was a short time.

Here is Hoyer a week ago today.

In a speech on the economy and jobs, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Friday reiterated his party's call to extend the Bush middle-class tax cuts and deemed Republicans' call to extend breaks for the wealthy a "mistake [that] would be putting ourselves even deeper into debt."

Hoyer is now and always was against the "Bush tax cuts," a phrase he's uttered like a curse since they were first enacted. Hoyer's ultimate plan is to raise taxes—or as he says, "raise revenue"— on the middle class, just as soon as it is politically feasible. But he can't raise those taxes if House Democrats get pummeled in the fall.

Steny's terrified, and changing his tune today for one reason, and one reason only.

He can see November from his house.

Nice work, Blutarsky

Administration spokesman Robert Gibbs ranted about Rush Limbaugh and how the government takeover of GM and Chrysler was a good thing, then made the kind of gaffe that we've come to expect from this administration of dunces:

"I'll let those that sat in the cheap seats a year-and-a-half ago and wanted to walk away" from a million workers, he continued, "explain to every one of those workers why they made that decision."

Finally, he wrapped it up: "And then you should ask Mr. Limbaugh — I don't know what kind of car he drives, but I bet it's not an F-150."

Ford, which makes the F-150 pickup, didn't take the bailout, and was the first of the three companies to turn a profit.

Bo Dietl Doesn't Know His Butt From a Hole In The Ground

Why being a retired NYPD detective earns someone the right to be called a "gun expert" is anyone's guess, but Edgar Sandoval and Samuel Goldsmith of the N.Y. Daily News called Bo Dietl one, and he promptly returned their thanks by making all three of them look like idiots.

Anna Fermanova has been accused of attempting to smuggle three high-end night vision rifle scopes to her husband in Russia, a gross violation of export laws that could result in serious jail time for the native Latvian. Fermanova is the second very attractive young woman accused of being a Russian spy in recent months after Anna Chapman, and the media wasn't about to miss a chance to sell advertising, so they decided they needed another story (presumably as an excuse to post her pictures).

The Daily News then decided Dietl was just the gun expert to interview about these scopes, and it all went to Hell from there:

"These are used specifically for an assassination," said security consultant Bo Dietl, a former NYPD detective. "You're not going to hunt deer with a super scope. That's crazy.

"You could take someone out with one of these scopes in the dead of night from up to a mile-and-a-half-away," he said. "I have friends in Iraq who use these. These are the real deal."

The optics—which the Daily News grossly over-valued by $1,000-$1,500—are indeed marketed as having a range in excess of a thousand yards, but the simply fact of the matter is that these Raptor scopes (when they were available to the public) were only available with short- to mid-range 4x or 6x power magnification. This magnification range is popular among sportsmen and the military to ranges of perhaps several hundred yards even during the daylight and twilight hours, but for Dietl to claim "you could take someone out with one of these scopes in the dead of night from up to a mile-and-a-half-away" is, to put it mildly, a load of crap.

As for Dietl's claim that "These are used specifically for an assassination," well, he's astoundingly ignorant about that as well.

The primary use for night vision (NV) scopes hasn't changed much in the 50+ years they've been used. NV scopes and googles are primarily used by soldiers to identify the enemy, either while out on patrol or while guarding static positions. They are not "specifically used for assassination", unless Dietl wants to label the thousands of U.S. soldiers using this sort of technology every night in Afghanistan and Iraq as assassins.

If someone did know a little bit about this kind of technology, and had a grasp of history, they would come to the much more reasonable conclusion that the Russians would be interested in obtaining the latest U.S. technology so that they could reverse engineer it and then build advanced night vision scopes for export sales and/or use this tech to equip their own soldiers.

For the record, Russian soldiers aren't assassins either, and know hell of a lot more about night vision gear than some self-aggrandizing media whore retired New York cop.

I'd also point out that night vision rifle scopes are used in the taking of various animals including wild hogs in Texas, where Fermanova lives. I'd also point out that wild boar hunting is a sport in Russia and other parts of the former USSR as well (though I still find her story more than likely a bad cover story).

I would mention that night vision scopes are also used for predator hunting and predator control.

But that would just be piling on.

Oh Pretty Please... Shirley Sherrod Announces She Will Sue Andrew Breitbart

I suspect that this will end badly. For Sherrod.

Note the creative writing in the AP story (my bold):

Ousted USDA employee Shirley Sherrod says she will sue conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart, the Associated Press reports.

Sherrod made the announcement Thursday in San Diego at the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention.

Breitbart posted a heavily edited video of Sherrod speaking to an NAACP group and appearing to admit that she had deliberately refrained from giving full assistance to a farmer because he was white.

The political fallout from the posting eventually prompted the Agricultural Department to fire Sherrod to resign.

First a few words about the narrative that the AP writer is trying to further.

The video was not heavily edited... it wasn't edited at all. It was merely an excerpt proved to Breitbart from a much longer speech. That speech, viewed in its entirety, seems to suggest that Shirley Sherrod does in fact continue to struggle with racism. Some of her more recent comments (post-firing) also show Sherrod to be a woman fighting a battle against her own racial biases.

The other amusing claim is that the video led to her eventual firing. Eventual? The Administration was so eager to see her gone that she was driven to pull over to the side of the road and resign on her Blackberry... they didn't even let her get to the office.

But now let's back to the story, and away from the narrative.

Sherrod claims she wants to sue Breitbart. I don't see him being the kind of guy to back away from a challenge, so there is a pretty good chance he won't settle, and they'll wind up in court.

Frankly, Sherrod seems to have a lot more to lose during legal proceedings than Breitbart. She and her husband have profited immensely from race-baiting, and they both have racist and or race-baiting comments caught on video that they cannot deny. Discovery and a cross-examination by a good attorney are not something I think either Sherrod would want to address.

I think she's bluffing, but I kinda hope she isn't.

Blue Falcon Bradley Manning Confirmed As Primary Suspect in Wikileaks Afghan Doc DumpAfghan

So tell me, gentle readers... when is the last time a member of the armed forces disgraced his uniform, his fellow servicemen, our allies, and his country this much? He's the anti-Audie Murphy.

The Pentagon is focusing on jailed Army Pfc. Bradley Manning as the main suspect in the leak of tens of thousands of secret U.S. military documents related to the war in Afghanistan, a senior Pentagon official told CNN Wednesday.

Manning, 22, is believed to have accessed a worldwide military classified Internet and e-mail system to download tens of thousands of documents, according to the official, who did not want to be identified because of the ongoing criminal investigation of the soldier.

Breaking: Second Missing Sailor in Afghanistan Found Dead

No details yet, or any indication whether he was killed in the initial ambush, or later. Will update as more information comes in.

Judge Blocks Sections of AZ Immigration Law... For Now

Most of the law has been approved, but the most controversial provisions have been blocked from going into effect when the law becomes active tonight. The contest provisions are not overturned, and are merely placed on hold.

What is the practical implication of the decision? Experts and pundits alike are scrambling to determine the effect, and as I'm just as (un)qualified as many of the other pundits, here is my take.

The law allowed to go into effect tonight will have little practical effect on how police officers in Arizona do their jobs, but the considerable public support for the bill and the fact that much of the law was not successfully challenged means that criminal aliens will likely continue their exodus from the state. Remember that SB 1070 was Arizona's first high profile battle in their war against illegal aliens, and their is absolutely nothing that changes the political climate.

The politicians who pushed this legislation are still in office, and still afforded what amounts to a mandate by the people to continue their efforts. Public opinion in Arizona, as well, is strongly against illegal immigration, and the continuing interest in the case is fueling a drive in many states to pursue similar laws.

The public has had it with criminal aliens, and those that would exploit them for political power. This isn't over, not by a long shot.

Let's Try Bradley Manning for Treason

I was wrong.

The Afghan War documents published by Julian Assange and Wikileaks aren't just a compendium of old news. It also includes the names of Afghan nationals that have been trying to help defeat the Taliban, and now puts hundreds of lives at risk.

One specific example cited by the paper is a report on an interview conducted by military officers of a potential Taliban defector. The militant is named, along with his father and the village in which they live.

"The leaks certainly have put in real risk and danger the lives and integrity of many Afghans," a senior official at the Afghan foreign ministry told The Times on condition of anonymity. "The U.S. is both morally and legally responsible for any harm that the leaks might cause to the individuals, particularly those who have been named. It will further limit the U.S./international access to the uncensored views of Afghans."

One former intelligence official told the paper that the Taliban could launch revenge attacks on "traitors" in the coming days.

The real suspected traitor in this mess is U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning, the analyst who bragged to a white hat hacker that he had stolen over a quarter-million military and diplomatic documents and sent them to WikiLeaks. Manning was taken into custody earlier this year after being fingered by the military as the source of the Apache gun camera footage Assange turned into a propaganda film called "Collateral Murder" that Assange used for fund-raising and not a little self-promotion. Manning is also the primary and obvious suspected leaker of these documents, which may be part of the $250,000 he stole.

I argued back in June that Manning should be charged with treason. If he is found to be the source of those documents, his only choice should be between rope, bullets, or a needle.

Despicable Ds: Obama's DOJ Attempts to Screw Overseas Soldiers Out Of Their Vote

I'm shocked, shocked to discover that a progressive-led government would seek to disenfranchise the military servicemen that they so clearly despise:

The Department of Justice is ignoring a new law aimed at protecting the right of American soldiers to vote, according to two former DOJ attorneys who say states are being encouraged to use waivers to bypass the new federal Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act.

The MOVE Act, enacted last October, ensures that servicemen and women serving overseas have ample time to get in their absentee ballots. The result of the DOJ's alleged inaction in enforcing the act, say Eric Eversole and J. Christian Adams — both former litigation attorneys for the DOJ’s Voting Section — could be that thousands of soldiers' ballots will arrive too late to be counted.

I'm sure the fact that soldiers tend to vote a bit more conservatively has nothing to do with this, at all.

Another Anna Chapman? Russian Beauty Arrested for Weapons Smuggling

24-year-old Anna Fermanova was arrested for allegedly attempting to smuggle night-vision equipment out of the country.

A young beautician has been charged with trying to smuggle weapons parts into Russia as U.S. authorities continue to investigate suspected foreign spies.

Anna Fermanova, who lives near Dallas, Texas, was apprehended while trying to take three hi-tech night-vision rifle sights aboard a flight to Mexico.

The 24-year-old was stopped in March by officials at JFK Airport in New York and the items were confiscated.

She was allowed to complete her journey and arrested when she returned to the U.S. earlier this month.

Fermanova is currently under arrest at her parents' home in Plano, Texas, on $50,000 bail.

She is expected to attend court in New York in the next few weeks where she faces a possible ten years in prison.

Under U.S. law, sophisticated military weapons cannot be exported without the approval of the U.S. State Department.

Ignorance of the law is no defense, but her apparent attempt to cover-up the serial numbers of the NVGs she was smuggling seems to indicate she was well aware of what she was doing, and simply very bad at stealing the technology.

Winning Hearts And Minds? What About Half-Credit?

A squad of soldiers is given orders to go out and capture a high-value terrorist target in the mountains of Afghanistan. During a firefight, the target is killed, but the combat rages around them, and they are unable to retrieve the body for identification.

One of the soldiers improvises... and may now face charges. I don't see why.

After all, he kept his head:

Just picture the scene as a soldier returns from hunting an arch-enemy. Commanding officer: 'Did you get him?' Soldier: 'Yes, sir.' Commanding officer: 'Are you sure?' Soldier: 'Yes, sir.' Soldier reaches into rucksack and places severed head on table.

Commanding officer: ' ****!' If it happened in a Hollywood movie, the audience would either laugh or applaud. But there was no laughter the other day when this happened for real in Babaji, Afghanistan, current posting for the 1st Battalion, Royal Gurkha Rifles.

The precise circumstances will not be determined until an official report has been completed, but reliable military sources have confirmed that a Gurkha patrol was sent out with orders to track down a Taliban warlord described as a 'high-value target'.

Having identified their target, a fierce battle ensued during which the warlord was killed. To prove that they had got their man, the Gurkhas attempted to remove the body for identification. Further enemy fire necessitated a fast exit minus corpse. So, an unnamed soldier drew his kukri - the standard-issue Gurkha knife - removed the man's head and legged it.

The Afghans are horrified, and the spineless British, of course, seem intent on punishing the soldier for doing his job to the best of his ability.

Was the beheading barbaric? Did it horrify the Afghans, and strike fear into the hearts of the Taliban and al Qaeda?

Good.

The idea of "winning their hearts and minds" is wonderful, in theory, but striking fear into the hearts of your enemy and those who would aide them is a tactic that has been just as effective throughout history.

Let the Taliban sweat.

WikiLeaks: A Whole Lot of Nothing Going On

Sure, there isn't much in the way of news in WikiLeaks frantically-promoted Afghanistan War Diary, but doesn't Julian Assange have fantastic hair? After all... that's what this is really about.

My latest article is up at Pajamas Media.

When Spencer Met Scotty

I'm pretty sure this is one of the signs of the apocalypse.

I can only imagine that we will soon be treated to fantastical claims of tanks driven by Fred Barnes and Karl Rove chasing Iraqi dogs though plate glass windows.

Nifong Investigator Charged With Stalking, Obscenity

Apparently the District Attorney and the accuser in the infamous Duke Lacrosse rape hoax weren't the only loons involved in the case.

Guns and cell phones were among the items seized in a search of a home and several vehicles belonging to the top investigator for former Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, according to search warrants released on Monday.

Linwood Wilson, 61, is accused of violating a June 8 protective order sought by his estranged wife in Kent County, Del. He is charged with stalking and two felony charges of obscenity, in addition to other harassment charges.

Wilson worked for Nifong from 2005 until Nifong resigned in 2007 over his improper handling of rape allegations against three Duke University lacrosse players that proved to be unsubstantial.In the July 15 search, authorities seized a booklet labeled "Barbara Wilson portfolio," 21 pictures of Barbara Wilson, three cell phones, a shotgun and shotgun shells, laptop desktop computers, a mini-disc player, a .38 Special handgun, rifle rounds, VHS tapes and a digital camera.

Vetting. People in Durham should try some.

Body of One Missing Sailor Recovered in Afghanistan

He apparently was the sailor killed during the the capture attempt. The second sailor is presumed captured, as the Taliban has claimed. the Taliban hopes to use him as leverage in a prisoner exchange.

There is still no word publicly on why the men left their base alone.

More Than a Rope and a Tree

If you are going to call someone a liar over a lynching claim, make sure you understand the definition of the term first.

If you don't, you deserve the scorn you get.

The "Full Sherrod"

Dan Riehl has done some digging and found out why the media made Shirley Sherrod disappear so quickly. It seems both racism and Marxism run deeply in her family, including her husband, Charles Sherrod, who has no use for "the white man and Uncle Toms."

I'll send you to Dan's article to read the rest.

It is so amusing that clowns such as Bob Schieffer attack Andrew Breitbart for the video excerpts he released of Shirley Sherrod (full disclosure: Brietbart sites Big Government and Big Journalism carry some of my blog entries, but no money changes hands), when anyone who watch the full video would note other references she made during the speech that reveal she does, in fact, view the world through a racial lens.

The more she spoke, the more racist she revealed herself to be. Like Cindy Sheehan before her, the media gave her plenty of rope, and she hanged herself quiet violently with it. She exposed herself as being a liability instead of a useful idiot, and so her expected opportunity to turn the rare "full Ginsburg" vanished into nothing.

There needs to be a term for those inconvenient ideologues exposed at their expected apex in the news cycle, who are then ostracized by the media, never to be heard from again.

The "full Sherrod" seems just as good a name as any.

But Will They Retract?

Digger's Realm and Kimberly Dvorak, the two bloggers that have driven the hoax of Los Zetas gunman taking over American ranches in Texas, only to be besieged by U.S. and local law enforcement officers, reaffirmed late Saturday that they were sticking to their stories, and that they would have more evidence by Sunday.

Sunday morning and afternoon came and went without an update, and so I sent both of them the following email:

You have yet to provide a single on-the-record source (and the Minuteman citing an anonymous source does not count) for the allegation of a ranch invasion, can't provide an address, nor dig up the name of the people displaced, etc.

There is literally no evidence of anything, except for unsupported claims by anonymous sources. It has been almost 24 hours.

At what point will you issuing a retraction of your Laredo invasion story?

Dvorak answered within minutes.

I am not nor have I been working with the Minutemen. If you carefully read my story it was left very, very general. I have yet to get anyone at Sheriff's, BP or DHS to say this is false and here is my name and title. I stand by my story, as for others I cannot verify. I have refused to print updates until I get someone to go on the record- period. There have been more than 250 incursions into U.S. by Mexican military, according to Sheriff Sigi Gonzales - his words not mine. Nowhere in my brief story is there any numbers of Zetas, if they are still there, etc. I got word about this on Friday and sat on it until I had additional sources. I will not burn my LE sources as they would lose their jobs. My short story had more background information than actual event details. Do you really need a dead body to believe Zetas are crossing our borders? I stand by the story.

I wrote back to her, noting that she no direct evidence of any ranches being taken over, was ignoring the two local media outlets that dispute that such an event took place, the repeated disavowals from the Laredo PD, Web County Sheriff's office, Border Patrol, and FBI to multiple reporters and bloggers.

I noted she can't provide any evidence to support her story, and was not likely develop evidence to support it. I told her that at this point, she should issue a retraction, mentioning that her LE sources have made claims, but that they are contradicted by multiple agencies and Laredo media, both print and television.

Her response was even more telling.

I have not got anyone to tell me via phone or email - 'It did not happen, name and title.' They tell me they can neither confirm or deny. My LE was there. I'm not asking you to believe me or tell me I'm lying. It was a FYI story and I stand by it. Senior DHS brass have said it did not happen, but said that was off the record and no name. Why? So to me there is no proof one way or the other.

The bolding, of course is mine. Kimberly Dvorak, Examiner.com's San Diego County Political Buzz Examiner, doesn't have any proof, but she's going to stick by her story... because. So much for her ethics.

As for Digger, at Digger's Realm... dead silence. No response to email. No updates on his blog, and the last update citied Dvorak's post as "proof."

Dvorak is going to try to ignore her duty as a journalist and refuses to retract an article she cannot support with facts. Apparently, she is fine with destroying what reputation she has, and that is entirely her prerogative.

I hope that Digger is a bit wiser. Time will tell.

Update: It is rather sad, but no, he isn't.

Howard Dean Calls White House Racist

Of course he didn't. He actually accused Fox News of being racist.

But the fun part of his blustery, overheated rhetoric is that it perfectly encapsulated the racist and racialist divisiveness of the Obama White House, an Administration that has put relations into a dedicated tailspin every time it has opened its mouth.

Even Maureen Dowd places the blame for Shirley Sherrod's firing squarely at the feet of the White House, not Fox. The White House had her ousted before Fox News played so much as one-second of tape.

Howard Dean has always been somewhat crazed, which is why his fellow Democrats couldn't stand the thought of him being their Presidential nominee. But to blame Fox for Obama's racism?

That's a long stretch, even by Deans' standards.

What's Wrong With Laredo? Part II

As bizarre as the Invasion of Laredo is as a story, the most disappointing this about it thus far isn't that a handful of conspiracy theorists could concoct such a story, but that our federal government has created the conditions for such a flight of fancy to appear absolutely possible.

We are a nation governed by generations of Republicans and Democrats that desire an open border for nefarious political reasons, led by a President, U.S. Attorney General, and Congress that do not every pretend to care about the lives of American citizens or the sovereignty of our nation. We are citizens abandoned, adrift, and worried about our future, threatened by a very real and very violent war between Mexican authorities and powerful drug cartels.

Given all this context, all the evidence of failure of a government unwilling to protect our national sovereignty or our citizens, and it isn't difficult to understand how a story like the Laredo ranch invasion seems entirely plausible.

Barack Obama, Janet Napolitano and Eric Holder have failed us. This invasion may have been a hoax, but at the same time, it serves as a very real reflection of their incompetence.

What's Wrong With Laredo? Part I

Tell Chuck Norris to stand down. Invasion USA never happened.

I contacted both the Laredo Police Department and the Webb County Sheriff yesterday and debunked claims that Los Zetas gunmen from the Gulf Cartel has crossed the border from Mexico and took over two ranches in Texas. The Laredo Morning News also refuted the claim. Pro 8 News, the NBC affiliate, didn't think enough of the absurdity to even comment on it... they found the installation of a new traffic light more newsworthy.

Absurdly, the same trio of sites that cried wolf are still sticking by their story, utter lack of credible evidence aside.

Cypress News publisher John G. Winder is sticking with the story, not because any additional evidence has been produced, but because the two sources for his version of the story, blog Digger's Realm and Examiner.com's San Diego (CA) County Political Buzz Examiner blogger Kimberly Dvorak are standing by their militiamen and anonymous police sources.

The original Cypress Times story? A re-publication of the original Digger's Realm story.

The Digger's Realm story? Two anonymous Laredo police sources and a San Diego California Minuteman named Jeff Schwilk who claims he got his information from... an anonymous Laredo PD officer.

San Diego County Poltical Buzz Examiner Kimberly Dvorak? She claims her information also comes from two anonymous Laredo PD sources.

Are we noticing a pattern here? Every bit of of this claim, which has now scattered far and wide across the Internet, can be traced back to two anonymous police department sources of a police department that does not even have jurisdiction where the alleged invasion is taking place.

I invite Digger and Kimberly Dvorak to provide me with the names and contact information of their anonymous police sources. Perhaps the officers will provide me with the answers to two simple questions that neither blogger has apparently thought to establish yet.

• What are the physical addresses of the two ranches Los Zetas are said to have taken over?
• What are the names of the ranchers that have been displaced from their ranches by Los Zetas?

It seems rather odd that the stories promoting this claim say that people were forced out, but that neither has thought to name, locate, or try to interview the best possible eyewitnesses. That is what you would expect from competent journalists. We're not seeing it here.

Instead, we're offered a conspiracy theory where law enforcement at every level, the media, and the citizens of Webb County are conspiring to cover up an invasion by a handful of drug dealers.

Laredo Truthers? I think we've found some.

No, Texas Hasn't Been Invaded

Twitter exploded a while ago about this story, which claims that heavily-armed Los Zetas gunmen of the Gulf Cartel have taken over ranches on the U.S. side of the border.

My curiosity got the better of me, and so I called the Laredo Police Department, and had a delightful chat with the acting watch commander, Sgt. Perez.

Sgt. Perez informed me that I was her seventh caller about this claim since she came on duty this afternoon. She stipulated two things that blows holes in the invasion claim.

1. The location of the alleged invasion is outside of their city-limits jurisdiction, so they would not be involved, and;
2. while they would not be involved in any law enforcement response outside of their jurisdiction, they work closely with the county sheriff's office and would know if such an event is occurring.

She also provided me the number of the Webb County Sheriff's Department. The deputy that answered the phone there was less amused, having also dealt with this rumor multiple times in a short amount of time. She also told me that there was no invasion and no law enforcement siege, and that deputies were continuing normal operations.

Don't believe the hype.

Update: The Laredo Morning Times dumps all over this false alarm as well.

Update: Simple Questions For the Laredo Truthers:

If there is any truth at all to this story, there will be several simple, easily discoverable facts.

• What are the names and exact addresses of the ranches that were taken over?
• What are the names of the ranchers and families that were displaced?

Taliban Claims Two U.S. Soldiers Captured

And worse than the often exaggerated claims of the Taliban, ISAF confirms that two soldiers have gone missing.

"Two International Security Assistance Force service members departed their compound in Kabul City in a vehicle on Friday afternoon and did not return," ISAF said in a brief statement.

"The unit dispatched vehicles and rotary-winged assets to search for them and their vehicle, and the search is ongoing."

The obvious questions is, of course, why did two soldiers leave their base without being part of a larger unit? There is something more than a little suspicious about the circumstances. Hopefully they'll be recovered alive and their COs will be able to question them about that.

CNN Anchors Calls For Bloggers to be Held to Higher Standard Than Themselves

CNN's Kyra Phillips and John Roberts aren't happy with Andrew Breitbart's exposure of Shirley Sherrod. They're of the opinion that the excerpt of the video he promoted unfairly labelled her a racist (Phillips and Roberts didn't apparently have a problem with their colleague Andreson Cooper, who filmed a segment with Sherrod that proved she is racist).

Because of this incident Phillips and Roberts think that bloggers should be regulated.

The last I checked, bloggers were subject to the same libel and defamation laws that news outlets were, and neither anchor has established why bloggers should be held to a higher standard than they themselves are.

That this call for censorship comes from the very network that concealed torture and murder for a ratings advantage? Beyond belief.

Tancredo Calls For Impeaching Obama

Whatever you think about Tom Tancredo, you can't accuse him of being shy to voice his opinion.

There is no higher duty of the federal government and our elected representatives than to protect our nation from invasion. Multiple reports and testimony before Congress by U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials have stated that a porous border with Mexico is "a path" terrorists will use if they can. Some would-be terrorists, including at least one associated with Hezbollah, already have. Recent reports of contacts between Hezbollah and Mexican drug cartels make it all but certain that terrorists intent on destroying us will come across our southwestern border. Therefore, it is of utmost importance for the administration to do everything in its power to keep Americans safe. Our safety is not a bargaining chip for another amnesty - or for any other political objective whatsoever.

Mr. Obama's refusal to live up to his own oath of office - which includes the duty to defend the United States against foreign invasion - requires senators and representatives to live up to their oaths. Members of Congress must defend our nation against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Today, that means bringing impeachment charges against Mr. Obama.

Progressives, of course, are absolutely thrilled that Obama is laying waste to the Constitution to enact their agenda, and there is no chance at all of them impeaching President Obama. Because of the unspoken code of honor among political thieves, I suspect that even Republican landslides in November resulting in the GOP takeover of the House and Senate still wouldn't result in in impeachment proceedings.

They're all interested in furthering their own power, and thee is little hope that they care enough about the Constitution to set a precedent that might be used against them later.

Unless someone comes up with explicit criminal charges, the only thing that will end the Obama disaster before January 20, 2013 is an act of God... and frankly, I suspect he's got more important things to do.

Impeachment is a wonderful fantasy. It just won't happen.

With Bigotry and Distrust for All

What a difference a day makes. My latest article at the Washington Examiner has posted, and in it I was giving Shirley Sherrod the benefit of the doubt regarding the racist thoughts she obvious still struggles with.

After more recent revelations, I almost with I could take those words back, but at the same time, they make an interesting marker in the continually evolving opinion many of us have regarding this now fired (maybe hired?) USDA employee.

Shirley Sherrod Not Quite Post-Racial

After watching her now infamous full-length speech to the Georgia NAACP, I mentioned in my initial post about Shirley Sherrod that "she isn't a saint, just better equipped to put her racism aside in most instances."

Most instances. Not all.

And it isn't buried as deep as we all hoped it was, as this segment with Anderson Cooper proves:

Reacting to a question Anderson Cooper asked about a comment Andrew Breitbart made about her, Sherrod replied.

I think he would like to get us stuck back in the times of slavery. That's where I think he would like to see all black people end up again. And—

Cooper then interjected, "You think he's racist" and Sherrod continued:

—and that's why I think he's so vicious. Yes I do! Against a Black President. You know. He would go after me... I don't think it was even the NAACP he was totally after. I think he was after a black President.

Greg at Rhymes with Right (who tipped me to this video via email) ripped into Sherrod in response.

I wish that someone would tell this racist, race-baiting hate-monger that Barack Obama is not a black president. Barack Obama is the President of the United States, and that being the subject of harsh language and partisan attacks by one's opponents is a part of the job. That was the case with the holders of that office who happened to be white, and it still is the case when the holder of that office happens to be black.

The full-length NAACP speech left clues that Sherrod still harbors strong feelings about race and seems to have a rank-and-file leftist ideology, so it is not surprising to see her fall back on those beliefs, no matter how toxic they are.

SCAR-L Cancelled?

From being touted as the next-generation 5.56 combat rifle for the U.S. Army to the scrap heap in record time (Via The Firearm Blog).

On the record, SOCOM told me spending money on the Mk-16 wasn't worth it since it was only a marginal improvement over the M4 and saw no use in spending SOCOM dollars on a weapon the services buy their snake eaters already. And the meme that that Mk-16 wasn't "cancelled" and that only hyperbolic "reportage" "interpreted" the fact that the command had decided to stop buying the Mk-16 and have all those in the field returned as a "cancellation" is borderline delusional. Give me a break. It's CANCELLED! Live with it!

The SCAR simply didn't make sense in 5.56 Mk-16 trim as it didn't offer next generation improvements over the existing M4/M16 family of weapons.

Unfortunately for manufacturer FN Herstal, there is little chance that the closure of the military market for the Mk-16 will be made up for with civilian sales. At more than $3,000 retail on the street, the rifle simply costs more than it's performance and caliber justifies.

I'm not an industry insider by any measure, but the only way I could see the civilian variant of the Mk-16 having any widespread commercial success would be a combination of it experiencing a significant price drop so that it competes against piston-ARs, and availability in 6.8 SPC.

I would personally find it most attractive if they could find a way to market/sell it as a 5.56/6.8 SPC combo kit, especially if they could drop the price of that kit below $2,000 on the street. Is that actionable? Would that be profitable? I don't know. But if they don't come up with something, I suspect the civilian variant of the SCAR Mk-16 will fade away just as quickly as the military variant.

In other gun-related news, today is the last day I'll mention that I'm accepting donations (yellow button on the right) for accessories for my BCM Mid-16 Mod 2.

My unexpected knee surgery is covered 100% by my insurance, but the twice-a-week physical therapy is killing me with co-pays, and that is eating up my gear budget.

Thanks to those of you who can afford to donate (and those of you who already have), and to everyone else, thanks for simply being readers!

What Is With This "Old Speech" Lie?

Time and again I've seen Shirley Sherrod's now infamous "one of his own kind" speech referred to as an "old speech."

Let me put this in plain English: That speech was delivered March 27, 2010.

C-Span got it. The vast majority of bloggers got it.

If I didn't know better, I'd think there was a cabal of progressive journalists and pundits co-ordinating this disinformation.

But we know that would never happen.

And Now For Something Completely Different

We cover several different topics here on CY, but generally focus on politics, media bias, firearms, and military affairs. Even then, we don't have time to cover all that we would like to talk about... including charity work.

My family—particularly my wife and older daughter—volunteer with the SPCA of Wake County, a no-kill animal shelter. This year, Purina and Kroger grocery stores are working together to donate $150,000 to a total of 18 shelters.

The catch? You have to vote for the shelters.

So on behalf of my wife and daughter, dozens of other dedicated volunteers, and thousands of cute and cuddly cats, dogs, bunnies, I ask you to please vote for the SPCA of Wake County. It doesn't cost you a dime, and can lead to a significant donation for our animal friends.

Thanks!

You Were Duped, Rubes

Liberals love to think of themselves as better educated, more experienced free thinkers, too sophisticated to be conned or controlled.

I have a revelation for you, my friends.

The latest JournoList dump from the Daily Caller reveals the collusion of the liberal media as they worked together to find ways to attack Sarah Palin, right after the Alaskan governor was named John McCain's surprise pick to be the Republican Vice Presidential candidate.

Amidst this debate over how most effectively to destroy Palin's reputation, reporter Avi Zenilman, who was then writing about the campaign for Politico, chimed in to note that Palin had "openly backed" parts of Obama's energy plan. In an interview Wednesday, Zenilman said he was offering "typical offhand political analysis" and that Journolist was one of many online places he scoured for news to post to his blog.

Chris Hayes of the Nation wrote in with words of encouragement, and to ask for more talking points. "Keep the ideas coming! Have to go on TV to talk about this in a few min and need all the help I can get," Hayes wrote.

Suzanne Nossel, chief of operations for Human Rights Watch, added a novel take: "I think it is and can be spun as a profoundly sexist pick. Women should feel umbrage at the idea that their votes can be attracted just by putting a woman, any woman, on the ticket no matter her qualifications or views."

Mother Jones's Stein loved the idea. "That's excellent! If enough people – people on this list? – write that the pick is sexist, you’ll have the networks debating it for days. And that negates the SINGLE thing Palin brings to the ticket," he wrote.

Months of this shaped the narrative and the pop-culture view we have of Sarah Palin, a skilled politician that rose through the ranks of Alaskan politics based upon a foundation of integrity, grit, and courage to become—for a time—a governor with (I think) the highest approval ratings ever (please correct me if i am wrong).

This now-exposed collusion between members of the media, shared with their co-conspirator politicians and Hollywood allies, was used to create a purposely warped view of who Sarah Palin is, and what she represents.

How can you tell if you were affected by this orchestrated mischaracterization?

I'll leave that to you to discuss.

What Are We Doing in Afghanistan?

Asking the hard questions that must be asked, in my latest article at Pajamas Media.

Beat Up All Over: Wake School Board Chair Calls NAACP "Sad," and "Irrelevant."

As someone who lives in in Wake County, has a child in Wake County Schools, and has watched William Barber's incessant grand-standing, I have to say Margiotta is more than likely right:

The head of the Wake County Board of Education on Wednesday called a disturbance and nearly 20 arrests at Tuesday's school board meeting "sad" and called the state NAACP "irrelevant."

"You don't have to be a rocket scientist to recognize that there are other motivations other than what's going on in the Wake County Public School System," board Chairman Ron Margiotta said. "That's a sad commentary, because the ones that are being punished will be the children and the families of this county."

An estimated 1,000 people took to the streets of downtown Raleigh Tuesday morning in a rally organized by the civil rights group to protest the school board's decision earlier this year to do away with a policy that assigns students to schools based on socio-economics.

Nineteen people, including state NAACP President Rev. William Barber, were arrested during protests.

And more to the point:

Margiotta said he thinks Barber and the NAACP are using the school-assignment debate to generate headlines and keep their names in the news.

"I've tried to be nice. It's quite evident people have other motivations, other than what's going on in the Wake County Public School System," Margiotta said. "They're an organization trying to become relevant again."

Of the 19 protesters arrested at the meeting, only 4 were from Wake County.

The others were presumably bused in.

The Sherrod Debacle

Like most of you, I've followed the Shirley Sherrod saga for the past three days. Unlike many pundits, I've been relatively quiet on the matter (except on Twitter).

There are plenty of opinions and mine is certain no more important than any of the others, but I would like to point out a few things.

• Breitbart claimed context is everything, but then ran the video without much in the way of context
• Shirley Sherrod did initially act as a racist. She admits that openly in the short video, and more importantly, the NAACP crowd approves of her sentiments
• The NAACP acted rashly, and condemned Sherrod without knowing the facts
• The White House acted rashly, and applied force to the USDA immediately, to the point Sherrod was forced to pull her car over and resign via Blackberry

David Frum is bizarrely blaming the conservative media for this trainwreck of a story, even as he cites a number of conservatives (and by no means all) who have condemned this story.

But here are the facts.

Breitbart may have over-reached and be unrepentant, but his sin was still relatively minor. He presented as much of the story as he had, and explained it the best he could based upon the information provided. Was it responsible to run that short video segment without context?

As you consider your response, think about how much news is run without the entire story being known at the outset.

It was the NAACP and USDA, acting under orders from Frum's idle idol in the White House, that over-reacted and pilloried Shirley Sherrod. They demanded her roadside resignation without giving her any chance to defend herself at all.

Now that the full video is up for everyone to watch, we can easily understand why Shirley Sherrod harbors some racism in her heart.

Her father was murdered, and she saw no hope of justice. Another relative was one of many blacks lynched by a corrupt white sheriff. She has every right to be bitter. She has every right to be racist, with that kind of abuse in her background. And undoubtably, her story starts off with that racism blinding her.

Ultimately, though, her story is one of someone seeking redemption. She overcame her racism to help that farmer and is now considered a family friend and hero. But there couldn't be redemption if she wasn't racist to begin with. She overcame it to a large extent, but as the full speech reveals, she isn't a saint, just better equipped to put her racism aside in most instances.

I am convinced, however, that Sherrod wasn't asked to resign over her own comments. I think the NAACP and White House came down on Sherrod as a scapegoat. They could not disciple the NAACP audience for their affirmation of the early part of her story where she admitted her racist feelings. They were terrified of being painted as hypocrites because of their continued attempts to portray Tea Party protesters as racists. They decided to act rashly.

They fired her, purely as an act of political gamesmanship, in hopes of protecting themselves from the backlash. And now, when it appears that that her racism and redemption aren't nearly as as inflammatory as they thought, they're considering asking her back... and looking like fools in the process.

She isn't sure she wants to be back. Can you blame her?

No one involved comes out of this looking good. Everyone involved made mistakes.

Hopefully, we can all learn a lesson here, about waiting for the full story to be revealed before rushing to judgement.

Blingapalooza: The Target

Good morning...err afternoon, everyone.

I want to take a few minutes to thank those of you who have donated thus far to my question to outfit my new rifle.

One of our number is a a guy named Tim who just happens to be an Eo-Tech dealer and he has suggested that he can help out with one of their super-cool holographic weapons sights (HWS).

I'm partial to the 517.A65 myself. But that depends on you guys and girls think.

Is it fair for me to ask you guys to chip in a few dollars one a year or so, simply because you read my blog? I think so. It's far to ask, I mean. I provide the bloggy goodness, the occasional gotcha or exclusive, or simply a place to hang out and argue with one another (you know who you are).

I like to think there is some entertainment value in that. Now, whether the value is enough for good optics or rail covers is entirely up to you.

Thanks for your support!

And now back to your regularly scheduled blog...

Treason of the Press

The Daily Caller dropped an article today proving the collusion we've long suspected among members of the media. The article exposes the thoughts of some of the liberal writers that belonged to JournoList, a listserv of hundreds of left wing journalists, educators, and pundits, in relation to revelations about then-candidate Obama's relationship to his pastor Jeremiah Wright.

Wright was Obama's pastor for more than two decades at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, where he preached sermons steeped in black liberation theology, a cultish mix of liberation theology—a Marxist blend of religion and Marxism that originated in South America— and racial separatism/ black supremacist thought.

As you may suspect, it seems that every blogger on the center-right has an opinion about the revelation—for most Americans, actually just a confirmation—of the collusion among journalists in support of left wing Democratic politics, politicians, and policy.

But this collusion is more than just an example of media corruption. It is an example of these journalists and pundits using their positions, accumulated credibility, and power to thwart the freedom of speech from the inside.

Allow yourself just a few minutes to consider the ramifications of this surrender of ethics and their demand for conformity, and you will be terrified.

It isn't just that the roughly 400 JournoList members conspired behind a common cause. No, the far more alarming revelation exposed is that they conspired to support one political party and one candidate and sought to silence all that opposed them.

Michael Tomasky, a writer for the UK's Guardian accidentally hit the nail on the head, when he stated:

"Listen folks–in my opinion, we all have to do what we can to kill ABC and this idiocy in whatever venues we have. This isn't about defending Obama. This is about how the [mainstream media] kills any chance of discourse that actually serves the people."

While he meant that in a different context, he's entirely correct; this kind of collusion is about how the media, "kills any chance of discourse that actually serves the people."

They are targeting not just a minor-league shock radio talker, or local news opinion columnist (though they are obviously in favor of that as well when they feel it is warranted). They are going after ABC News. They don't even want to attempt to convince ABC News to change their focus. They intend to use "power" to issue a "warning."

Even worse, Jonathan Stein of Mother Jones suggests using left wing propagandists at Media Matters to help facilitate the strong-arming attempt.

The conversation reveals that journalists are not only colluding to shape the news in favor of one political ideology, but more than willing to use their influence in an attempt to silence those they see as obstacles to their machinations.

It is journalistic oppression. It is an explicit betrayal of the free exchange of ideas that liberty depends upon like oxygen.

Americans have repeatedly risked their lives, fought and died, for the freedom of speech that the denizens of JournoList would steal away.

Fortunately we live in an age where such collusion cannot be kept secret, and there is a price to be paid for such treachery.

In entirely unrelated news, I'm hoping you'll consider hitting the big yellow "Donate" button in the right sidebar if you're a CY fan. I don't do fundraising very often, but I'd appreciate it if you would consider sending a few bucks to my gun bling and House cane fund.

Speaking of Hope and Spare Change...

I know last night that I mentioned I might not be blogging much today or for the next couple of days, and that is entirely true. I just got back from having arthroscopic knee surgery, and after I have my chicken noodle soup, I plan on drifting off into a pleasant haze under the influence of 1000mg of "the good stuff."

Before I go, though, I thought I'd make a simple request.

As you know, I just got a new rifle last week, a Bravo Machine Co. Mid-16 Mod 2.

Pretty impressive, isn't it?

One thing several of you recommended in the comments of the post about that new rifle is that I should invest in some "bling" in the form of of optics or other functional enhancements. I am completely down with that... but I'm not made of money, either.

So here's my request:

If you enjoy Confederate Yankee (or like some of the other writing I've done), consider hitting the "Donate" button in the right nav bar. A few dollars here and there adds up, and I'd greatly appreciate it.

Unfortunately, the IV painkillers are wearing off, so it's time for me to take a couple of pills and enjoy the fruits of pharmacology.

Audit: Obama Killed Tens of Thousands of Jobs

Now needed: hope and spare change.

Last year, while the Obama administration seized two of the nation’s three main domestic auto manufacturers, it also shut down thousands of dealerships across the country, supposedly to stabilize GM and Chrysler. A new report from Neil Barofsky, the Inspector General of the TARP program, calls into question that decision. In a sharp rebuke to the White House, Barofsky says that the action needlessly cost tens of thousands of jobs and extended an already-disastrous downturn in employment:

Follow the link to Hot Air for the details, but you already know the big picture.

Barack Obama is the Jack Kevorkian of economics.

And For My Next Trick, A House Impersonation

Posting should by nonexistent to drug-addled for the next few days, as I'm going in for arthroscopic knee surgery first thing in the morning. This will give me a matched pair, as I had the other one operated on 15 years ago. It shouldn't be that big of a deal; they're just pulling out scar tissue and maybe some loose cartilage that might be lurking.

It shouldn't be too bad... I already have my cane and Vicodin.

Character Revealed

Tea Party activist Mark Williams says he's done discussing the controversy stirred up by his attack on the NAACP, accusing a fellow movement leader of turning the debate into "a World Wrestling style personality conflict."

The National Tea Party Federation, an organization that represents the Tea Party political movement around the country, has expelled Williams and his Tea Party Express organization because of the inflammatory blog post Williams wrote last week, federation spokesman David Webb said Sunday. In response, Williams announced in another statement on his blog that, "I am refusing all media requests on this" and canceled a scheduled interview on CNN to discuss the controversy Sunday evening, citing a last-minute change in travel plans.

Williams deserved his ouster from the Federation for his poor attempt at satire, though I'm perplexed as to why his entire organization was suspended. Should the entire group be purged because their leader is a failure?

If so, will the last person leaving Washington, DC please shut off the lights.

I find it amusing that real inflammatory speech such as Williams is so easily identified and dealt with, but that the NAACP and other progressive groups have to go the route of Think Progress and manufacture fake racism.

As there racists in the Tea Party? I assure you there are as many racists in the Tea Party as there are at Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Burger King, Harvard University, your local car wash and the NAACP. Any organization of any size will attract individuals with fringe, even radical beliefs. The measure of the culture and character of an organization is revealed after those radical elements are exposed, and the organization has to decide how to deal with those radicals.

The NAACP refuses to discipline their radicals. The Tea Party expels them.

That the Tea Party better represents the values and ideals most Americans revere is obvious to all.

Never Let Go of the Narrative

Nick Miroff and William Booth have a fascinating article in the Washington Post about U.S. grenades provided to allied governments in past decades turning up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

M67 "baseball" grenades, typically stolen from military armories in Central America, are part of a growing arms race between cartels and government forces.

Miroff and Booth have done their homework identifying the source of the grenades, but then they got sloppy:

The redeployment of U.S.-made grenades by Mexican drug lords underscores the increasingly intertwined nature of the conflict, as President Felipe Calderón sends his soldiers out to confront gangs armed with a deadly combination of brand-new military-style assault rifles purchased in the United States and munitions left over from the Cold War.

As we've covered extensively in the past, only 8-percent of cartel firearms are purchased in U.S. gun shops, and the number of firearms traced to the U.S. for any reason—including stolen weapons— is still just 18-percent.

The vast majority of cartel weapons—82-percent—comes from the same black market sources as the grenades.

It's a shame that writers who did their homework to track down the various sources of cartel grenades so easily believed the fictions created by politicians such as Barack Obama and Felipe Calderon about cartel small arms, stories readily debunked by our own BATF trace data.

Neither cartel grenades nor guns come from American civilian sources.

It's too bad the authors were all too eager to continue pressing a left-wing anti-gun agenda in an otherwise informative article.

Think Progress and the Eighth Circle of Hell

Guess where John Podesta has set up an office?

My latest at the Washington Examiner.

Stephen Glass, Redux? ThinkProgress.org Publishes Completely Fraudulent Video Labeling Tea Partiers Racists

Heads should roll.

My latest article, at Pajamas Media.

Day-by-Day Fan?

You may have already seen this posted elsewhere on the 'net, but Chris Muir's excellent online conservative comic strip Day by Day is having it's annual fund-raising drive.

There are various levels of support, and DBD swag to go with it.

So if you're a DBD fan, show Chris a little love... and by love, I mean money.

If you aren't a regular reader, i suggest you go on over and check it out.

You're missing some really good stuff.

Think Progress Ripped Content From Tea Party Video To Create Fraudulent Racism Vid

You would have thought that the three separate entries I dedicated to exposing the lies yesterday in this article and video by the progressive propagandists at Think Progress, I would have said all there is to say.

But there is more... and it is shocking.

Remember "Activist 2," the Saint Louis Team Party infiltrator, that claimed "I'm a proud racist, I'm white?"

It seems that Think Progress used a clip from this video, a video entitled "Proof that the Tea Party is not racist."

The guys at SharpElbows.Net thwarted this infiltrator, heavily documenting his attempt to mingle with Tea Party protesters in Saint Louis.

Think Progress misrepresented everything this video and the Tea Party stands for, and against.

If staffers, including editor-in-chief Faiz Shakir should not be terminated for this behavior, I'd like to know why.

I'ma Let You Finish...

...but Barack Obama is the greatest gun salesman of all time!

In October 2009, firearms and ammunition excise tax collection climbed 45 percent from the previous fiscal year, the greatest annual increase in the firearms tax revenue in the agency's history, the report said. By comparison, the average annual increase for fiscal years 1993 to 2008 was 6 percent.

A Gallup Poll conducted in early October 2009 said one possible explanation for the surge in gun and ammunition sales could be that more than 50 percent of the Americans who owned guns and some 41 percent of all Americans believed that President Obama would "attempt to ban the sale of guns in the United States while he is president."

Another Think Progress "Tea Pary Racist" Debunked

The selective editing and inherent dishonesty from Think Progress just keep getting worse.

At the beginning of the Think Progress video claiming that Tea Party protesters are racists is a man with his bi-racial son and black wife who claims that Barack Obama is "too black to be President."

Kind of an odd statement from the patriarch of a mixed race family, isn't it? I daresay it seems like something must have been taken out of context.

And it was!

Let Coast Rebel has the entire video clip... in context.

Barack Obama's just a bad guy. That's all I can say. He's... He's too black to be President.

And you look at the color of my wife, it's not the color of his skin that troubles me, it's not the blackness of his skin that troubles me.

It's the blackness inside... his heart.

He's a bad guy.

But not bad enough to take the proud father of a handsome bi-racial son and label him to all the world as a racist. For that you need a lower life form.

You need a Think Progress intern.

Busted for Fraud, Think Progress Decides to Play Cover Up... Poorly

Oh, Think Progress... aren't you clever?

You apparently didn't like us promoting your video, and so you marked the version linked in that previous entry as "private", blocking access to most users.

Uh, guys?

Merely blocking that video and replicating it elsewere doesn't do you any favors, or save you any embarrassment. Amusingly, it it indicates that you know you have a problem, but that you simply don't care to correct your lies.

I'd feel sorry for you, if you had souls.

But your offending article is still online. Your video may change locations, but is easily relinked. The more often you do it, the more obvious your panic becomes.

About the only thing you can do at this point to save face is to issue a retraction, but we know that isn't likely to happen either, is it?

That wold require humility and integrity, two character traits that have rarely burdened you.

Keep playing games, my friends.

We'll keep busting you.

Think Progress Caught Using Liberal-Manufactured Signs From "Crash the Tea Party" as Evidence of Tea Party Racism

Do you remember the abortive "Crash the Tea Party" movement? It was the brainchild of a liberal that explicitly called for progressives to commit fraud in order to attempt to discredit the Tea Party protests.

At Pajamas Media we covered the abortive effort extensively, and made note of the very real bigotry the Crashers unwittingly revealed... in themselves.

This morning, I came across this video from Think Progress:

Typical of the kind of dishonest effort Think Progress produces, the video heavily edits clips so that you have no idea what the context of a statement is or precisely what someone they've edited is trying to say.

Worse, the video "liberally" makes use of counter Tea Party protesters and infiltrators, including "Crash the Tea Party" drones, in order to fabricate their view.

The guy who claims "I'm a proud racist, I white" was actually driven out of the Tea Party protest he attempted to infiltrate.

Nice work, Think Progress!

Seconds later, Think Progress stitches together a series of posters they claim belong to Tea Party protesters.

Really, Think Progress?

Did you not think we'd remember the amusing signs your fellow liberals created for their little abortive "Crash the Tea Party" stunt in Boston? Let's just say that some were more amusing than others, and some just showed pathetic and angry progressives often are.

There is an old saying that you're entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts.

At Think Progress, they're ready to make up the "facts," yet again.

Update: Oh, Think Progress... did you really think you'd get away with it?

Also, RightKlik discovers that another of the men featured in the video made his comments in 2006... well before the Tea Party was even a dream.

Update: Think Progress even tried to portray the father of a bi-racial boy as a racist as he speaks in front of his own son.

Seriously... is there anyone in this video who is what Think Progress says they are?

Arizona Immigration Law Faces First Legal Hurdle

Arizona governor Jan Brewer and supporters of Arizona's not-as-controversial-as-the-media-would-like-to-make-it immigration law have claimed that it merely mirrors federal law on the subject. If that is true, the judge hearing today's case brought by an Arizona police officer should have a fairly easy time dismissing this first challenge.

A Phoenix police officer's challenge to the new immigration law in Arizona could be settled in a court hearing Thursday.

Phoenix police officer David Salgado has sued Arizona's Gov. Jan Brewer and is asking a federal judge to stall the implementation of the law until it can be proved that it is constitutional.

Brewer has asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit.

The law is scheduled to go into effect July 29, if it survives this challenge and several others to be heard by the judge on July 22.

Who Should You Trust?

My latest entry at the Washington Examiner.

Laugh or Cry: Administration Won't Let BP Test New Spill Cap

Uh, what else should they have been talking about for the past three months?

P's work on capping the Gulf of Mexico gusher was frozen Wednesday after the federal government raised concerns the operation could put damaging pressure on the busted well that could make the leak worse.

An administration official, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the talks with BP, said the government was acting out of "abundance of caution" and didn't want potentially dangerous pressure tests on a tighter containment cap that has been placed over the well to go ahead until BP answers questions about possible risks.

I'm sorry... did this sneak up on them? Did our brilliant Energy Secretary not know that BP was going to attempt to cap the well? Did they not think about the possible effects that might happen, until this morning?

Why are they just getting around to asking questions now?!?!?

Unless this article is being entirely misreported, the Obama Administration didn't do any research at all to determine whether or not capping the well at the surface would be the best option.

If it wasn't the best option to cap the spill, then why has the Administration had BP wasting their time and money? Merely to give the appearance that "something" was being done as President Putt Putt dealt with more pressing issues the putting green?

As someone suggested earlier today, the Deepwater Horizon isn't Obama's Hurricane Katrina. Obama is Katrina... presidential disaster of epic proportions.

There is a Reason We Only Protect the Right to Arm Bears

Man's best friend? Not this pooch.

Oddly enough, I've heard similar stories before, where people have been shot by pets, children, and inanimate objects when a firearm isn't properly stored and kept on safe.

All guns are always loaded, remember?

That's The Sound of Me Not Caring

It must be a slower news day than I thought.

Racists! Obama Compared to Two White Guys

Yeah, this is hyperbolic and over the top, but you have to know it is by design. People are talking and writing about it, aren't they?

Of course, Obama is nothing like Hitler or Lenin.

Both of them were demonstrably more competent in promoting their peculiar brands of socialism than the President, and garnered far more support from their countrymen, for a much longer period of time.

NAACP Kicks Out Press, Kills Webcast To Discuss Tea Party Resolution

They're meeting behind closed doors because meeting under sheets has already been done.

You could have watched this collection of bigoted lickspittles discuss the proposed resolution to call the Tea Party racists, but the cowards have pushed the press out of the room and killed the convention webcast.

A Simple Challenge to the NAACP

If you are going to issue a resolution smearing Tea Party protesters as a group as racists for the acts of a distinct minority shunned by the group at large, don't you also have an obligation to pass a resolution against your own organization for far more pervasive racist behavior?

NAACP officers and members alike have proven themselves guilty of racist rants against Jews, and as an organization, you seem to tolerate and (even promote) a pervasive hatred of minority conservatives, from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, to Condoleeza Rice, to Kenneth Gladney, and beyond.

Do the honorable thing, and submit yourself to the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group, if one hoping to change.

You don't just deserve that classification every as the Tea Party... With a longer, and more documented history of this kind of behavior, you deserve it far more.

NAACP Considers Resolution Decrying Racist Elements in NAACP Movement

I'm kidding.

They'd never been honest enough to admit that their organization is run through with racists that automatically dismiss blacks with traditional conservative values as race traitors.

Instead, they're attacking the tea party again, for threatening to end their enslavement not to government handouts, but to a perpetual victim mentality. The NAACP long ago devolved from a champion of civil rights into just another mouthpiece constituency angling for whatever scraps of power and relevance that the Democratic Party will toss its way.

Until they take a sober look at their own house and put it in order, they are due the mocking and scorn that this hypocritical announcement so richly deserves.

Duke Rape Case Accuser Heads to Court on Attempted Murder Charges

Among others:

A Durham woman who falsely accused three Duke University athletes of rape four years ago will be in court Monday on a separate case in which she faces multiple charges, including attempted first-degree murder.

Crystal Mangum will be in court at 2:30 p.m. Monday to tell the judge that she doesn't want to be on house arrest at her friend's house anymore. She will also try to regain custody of her three children, ages 10, 9 and 3.

Mangum was arrested in February and charged with attempted first-degree murder, five counts of arson, assault and battery, communicating threats, three counts of misdemeanor child abuse, injury to personal property, identity theft and resisting a public officer.

Police said she assaulted her boyfriend, Milton Walker, set his clothes on fire in a bathtub and threatened to stab him.

"I am being unfairly treated due to preconceived notions that people had about me concerning another case," Mangum said in a news conference last month on the porch of a friend's house, where she is staying while under house arrest while awaiting trial.

Which other case is the obvious question. After all, the Duke case was hardly her first brush with the law.

In related news, the home in Durham where the non-rape occurred is being demolished.

It had to be.

It was white.

Video: BP Spills Coffee

This isn't realistic at all.

Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen isn't blocking people entering the room who have paper towels, and Barack Obama didn't shank the golf ball Kevin Costner told them to chuck at the spill.

President Putt-Putt Goes on Vacation... Again

Maine, this time. Jim Hoft notes this is Obama's third vacation since the Deepwater Horizon disaster began.

There is no word yet on how many rounds of golf he will be playing on this vacation.

Black Rifle Update

Last week I asked you for advice on M4 carbines. Specifically, I was trying to decide between a pair of exellent rifles, the Noveske Rifleworks 16" Light Recce, BASIC, and the Daniel Defense DDXVM and was wondering which I should go with.

As it turns out, the answer, according to you, was neither.

There isn't anything wrong with either of these firearms, but as more than one experienced reader pointed out, I'm not going to need such high-end carbines for the kind of shooting I am most likely to do. I'm not SWAT, or a security contractor in the Sandbox.

Regular reader Mike McDaniel, Down Range TV's Michael Bane, and Sean from I am to misbehave were among those that pounded into my head that a solid, basic carbine without all the bells and whistles would suit my needs just fine. I didn't need a $1,500-and-up rifle.

And then Blake pointed me to this gem of a page, a comparison chart of major AR brands based upon key features.

After reading through that thread, comparing all the features, listening to the practical advice of experts (and then submitting to gun geek lust just a little bit) this is what I ended up ordering on Friday.

Meet the Bravo Company Machine Mid-16 Mod 2.

It has all the key features I could hope for, plus some nice extras (quad-rail, rear BUIS), and at a very reasonable price.

Mike McDaniel suggested an excellent list of add-ons to enhance the functionality of the carbine, without paying "tacti-cool" prices for stuff I don't need. I've ordered the basics.

Now I need to start thinking about a carbine training course, and training gear.

But that sounds like another blog post, for another time...

Wife of Oil Exec Wounded By Shoe Box Bomb

Well, the President did ask his tolerant, peace-loving followers—no doubt the same kind souls that sit at home sharpening their Obama Youth knives preparing for their One Nation meetings—to get in their neighbor's faces.

Perhaps someone just took that advice too literally.

The woman was opening a package left at her doorstep in the 2100 block of Seamist Court Friday evening. She had found the shoe-sized box in front of her home about a day ago but didn't decide to open it until around 6:30pm Friday. The woman, who officials said is in her 60s, took the box to the backyard and opened it on the patio. That's when it exploded.

"Don't know where it came from -- postal service or whether it was dropped off. I don't have that information yet," said HPD Lt. Colin Weatherly."The person went outside, basically opened the packaged; it detonated."

Residents told Eyewitness News that when the bomb went off, it sounded like a transformer blew.

The woman survived the blast, and is being treated for facial injuries.

Get in their face, blow it off... hey, you voted for change, didn't you?

More Counter-Tea Party Astroturf

First, there was the Coffee Party.

The there was the Other 95%.

Don't feel bad if you don't remember these groups. Despite media cheerleading, they were stillborn at the start. There is simply no vocal grassroots support for a government that consists of a series of cascading failures.

But leftists are intent on creating yet a third astroturfed counter to the grass roots Tea Party, progressives from some of the most thuggish leftist groups are coming together to form something called One Nation:

In dem Bemühen, die Tee-Party für den Erfolg, 170 liberalen und bürgerlichen Rechte Gruppen replizieren bilden eine Koalition, dass sie hoffen, die Bewegung der politischen Energie und Einfluss übereinstimmen. Sie versprechen "counter The Tea Party narrative" und helfen, die fortschreitende Bewegung zu finden, ihre Stimme wieder nach 18 Monaten der Bahn werfen.

Die groß angelegte Versuch, liberale Einheit, genannt "One Nation", werden versuchen, die Themen, die Spannung der progressiven Breitensport vor zwei Jahren neu zu beleben. In einer Wiederverwendung der alten Kampagne Barack Obamas Slogan, sind die Organisatoren fordern "alle ändern" für sie gestimmt haben - Sack im Weißen Haus ...

... "Nachdem mit dem Gespenst der Teeparty konfrontiert... Wir hielten es für dringend geboten, die Mehrheit in diesem Land, das im Jahr 2008 gewählt hat und zurück auf die Couch gegangen zu organisieren", sagte Benjamin Jealous, Präsident der NAACP . "Wir haben in verschiedene Richtungen gespalten."

Die beteiligten Gruppen repräsentieren den Kern der Erstwähler, die Präsident Obama - einschließlich des Nationalen Rates der La Raza, NAACP, AFL-CIO, SEIU und den Vereinigten Staaten Student Association unterstützt. (Der Aufwand ist unabhängig von der Demokratischen Partei den Plan 50.000.000 $ auszugeben versucht, dieselben Wähler zu erreichen.)

Oops. I forgot to translate that out of the original Deutsch.

In an effort to replicate the tea party's success, 170 liberal and civil rights groups are forming a coalition that they hope will match the movement's political energy and influence. They promise to "counter the tea party narrative" and help the progressive movement find its voice again after 18 months of floundering.

The large-scale attempt at liberal unity, dubbed "One Nation," will try to revive themes that energized the progressive grassroots two years ago. In a repurposing of Barack Obama's old campaign slogan, organizers are demanding "all the change" they voted for -- a poke at the White House...

..."Having been confronted with the specter of the tea party . . . we felt it urgent to organize the majority of this country, which voted in 2008 and has gone back to the couch," said Benjamin Jealous, president of the NAACP. "We've been split off in different directions."

The groups involved represent the core of the first-time voters who backed President Obama -- including the National Council of La Raza, NAACP, AFL-CIO, SEIU and the United States Student Association. (The effort is separate from the Democratic Party's plan to spend $50 million trying to reach those same voters.)

Nothing bad ever happens when you combine racial nationalists and savage union muscle, does it?

North Carolina Democrats Boot Pastor For Using 'Jesus' in Prayer

So let me get this straight:

Ron Baity of Berean Baptist Church in Winston-Salem was asked to be honorary chaplain of the state house of representatives in Raleigh, but his tenure was cut short because his prayer invoked Jesus?

Baity's troubles began during the week of May 31. He said a House clerk asked to see his prayer. The invocation including prayers for our military, state lawmakers and a petition to God asking him to bless North Carolina."

"When I handed it to the lady, I watched her eyes and they immediately went right to the bottom of the page and the word Jesus," he told FOX News Radio. "She said 'We would prefer that you not use the name Jesus. We have some people here that can be offended.'"

When Baity protested, she brought the matter to the attention of House Speaker Joe Hackney.

"I told her I was highly offended when she asked me not to pray in the name of Jesus because that does constitute my faith," Baity said. "My faith requires that I pray in His name. The Bible is very clear."

When the clerk returned, Baity said he was told that he would be allowed to deliver the day’s prayer – but after that – his services would no longer be needed.

I would be very, very interested to know if a Muslim Imam has ever been asked to deliver a prayer in front of the NC state House, and if he was, whether or not Democrats dared throw him out for invoking the name of Mohammed in his prayers.

I suspect that like easily offended Democrats everywhere, Hackney and his fellow Tarheel liberals are being very selective in how they enforce rules regarding prayer. It would also be very interesting to know if Democrat demands for the pastor to alter his prayer are grounds for a First Amendment inquiry.

Hayes Rips AG Holder, Calls For His Resignation

I don't recall how I got on Illinois Second District Isaac Hayes (R) mailing list, but man, he isn't pull any punches in this release, calling for U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to resign:

CHICAGO: Republican nominee for Illinois 2nd Congressional District Isaac Hayes released the following statement calling for Attorney General Eric Holder to resign after failure to prosecute the New Black Panther Party for voter intimidation during the 2008 election.

"The Justice Department's refusal to prosecute the terrorist actions of the New Black Panther Party for its 2008 intimidation and threatening vitriol outside a Philadelphia polling place is criminal affirmative action. This selective justice paradigm was exposed during the testimony of J. Christian Adams – a former U.S. Prosecutor assigned to the Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, before the U.S. Civil Rights Commission – who testified he was told 'cases are not going to be brought against Black defendants for the benefit of White victims.'

"Attorney General Eric Holder has historically taken a partial approach to justice. It was in 2001 that he spearheaded the pardon of Marc Rich, a billionaire financier who had fled the country rather than face federal tax evasion charges.

"Mr. Holder was in full support of reading the Christmas Day bomber, Umar Farouk Abdumutullab, Miranda rights reserved for U.S. Citizens. He also supported the trying of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, 9-11 mastermind, as he would a shoplifter in an American courtroom instead of a military tribunal.

"In addition, Mr. Holder played the race card against Arizonans who are living under the constant threat of violence and kidnapping from illegal aliens who openly cross the U.S.-Mexico border. His charges of racism were not based on fact or substantive evidence because he admitted to not having read the bill. Sadly, his accusations were based on a philosophy that desires to 'create fairness and balance' by selectively picking winners and losers. From Mr. Adam's testimony the losers are White Americans.

"As a Black American I have experienced racism and prejudice. Hatred and violence directed toward any group is unacceptable and un-American. Racism should never be tolerated indiscriminate of who initiates it. Regrettably, the Department of Justice has engaged in an act of injustice by initiating racism of its own.

"I call on Attorney General Holder to step down because I no longer have confidence in his ability to be fair and impartial. Furthermore, his worldview that protects terrorists and criminals at the expense of U.S. citizens is in direct violation of his Constitutional oath to 'support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.'"

Eric Holder, Attorney General for Barack Obama, is racist, unfair, and breaching his oath of office?

Surely, you cant' be serious, Mr. Hayes.

Oakland Riot After Mehserle Verdict

Reminds you of Congress, doesn't it?

The trouble Thursday boiled down to a racially diverse mob of about 200 people, many bent on destruction no matter what, confronting police after the day's predominantly peaceful demonstrations ended.

Sporadic conflicts were quelled quickly early in the evening, but by late night at least 50 people - and maybe as many as 100 - had been arrested as small groups smashed windows, looted businesses and set trash bins on fire.

The violence was contained for much of the early evening within a one-block area near City Hall by an army of police officers in riot gear, but around 10 p.m. a knot of rioters broke loose and headed north on Broadway toward 22nd Street with police in pursuit.

They smashed windows of shops including the trendy Ozumo restaurant, and one building was spray painted with the words, "Say no to work. Say yes to looting."

This was a bunch of progressives/socialists/anarchists bound and determined—regardless of what the jury decided in this case—to do to Oakland what our progressive Congress and President is doing to our nation.

Hints of Conspiracy in Polish President's Crash Investigation?

When investigators start asking about the possibility of man-made fog and interference with the plane's instruments from a distance (a plane recently renovated by the Russians shortly before it crashed, I may add), we end up with the elements of a great conspiracy theory... or a Tom Clancy novel.

Predictable: Leftists Wet Themselves Over LA Guns In Church Law

Louisiana's Bobby Jindal signed a law allowing guns in church... and the law seems a bit absurd:

Burns' bill would authorize persons who qualified to carry concealed weapons having passed the training and background checks to bring them to churches, mosques, synagogues or other houses of worship as part of a security force.

The pastor or head of the religious institution must announce verbally or in weekly newsletters or bulletins that there will be individuals armed on the property as members of he security force. Those chosen have to undergo eight hours of tactical training each year.

There is no federal law against carrying guns in church.

In many states there are few if any restrictions regarding legally concealed handguns in church, or for that matter, openly carried firearms, though doing so might earn you some odd looks.

The odd and chaffing bit of this law is that Louisianans carrying weapons must be part of some known security force, and that the church must broadcast such information to church members in every weekly bulletin... perhaps so so timid soul doesn't get the vapors upon seeing a bulge in the pastor's pocket (Yes, pastors carry concealed carry weapons too).

As you may have been able to predict, the typically law-ignorant left is freaked out over the the law, obviously unaware that the law is hardly unique except in it's oddly restrictive requirements.

They apparently think—or prefer— that the right to self protection ends for the faithful at the church door.

Even more sadly, they desperately cling to their own impulsive insecurities and stereotypes. They are apparently still firmly convinced that the mere possession of a firearm will cause someone to go in to an uncontrollable, homicidal rage:

If you're like most Americans, there's probably been a time in your life when you've been sitting in church, listening to a particularly ennui-inducing homily or enduring another warbly version of "Holy Holy Holy" and thought, "Man! I could really reach for some steel right now, squeeze off a few rounds, and let these fools know what the score is!"

The author of this screed should obviously be kept far away from all firearms, at all times. Responsible citizens, however, are ill served by poorly written and overly-restrictive laws.

Update: Don Surber has another take, calling the the signed bill "the ultimate law to freak out liberals."

Are You Not Entertained?

This past Saturday evening in Alton, Illinois, a 911 call was placed reporting a dumpster fire, and when firefighters arrived, they were attacked with bottle rockets and larger fireworks capable of serious injury or death. The attacks continued even after police arrived (to the apparent delight of the community's residents) The crowd's violent urges only seemed to fade when officers engaged the mob with pepper-balls, a form of the agent used in pepper-spray adapted for use in paintball guns.

Eventually the police ran out of ammunition and withdrew, but they and the fire department returned to engage in further combat later that night with the mob. They've returned to fight arson every day since.

To date, no one has been killed or seriously injured in this on-going crime spree in a sad little public housing complex in a town north of Saint Louis.

Nor has there been much media attention for what the Associated Press described as a mob luring police and fire units into an ambush "as entertainment for hundreds of people who gathered at the Oakwood Housing Complex to watch."

I thought we lived in a more civilized country.

Obviously, I was wrong.

BREAKING: Democrat Senators Still Not Dead

Wishing politicians dead is one of the most normal actions a human being can undertake. Sending out fake press releases announcing their deaths?

New, and annoying:

At least three Democratic senators have been subjects of false reports of their deaths in the past two days, prompting the U.S. Capitol Police to open an investigation into the matter.

Several news outlets received a hoax e-mail news release, announcing the death of Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Tuesday. Leahy, 70, who participated in July 4 events, is alive and well, according to spokesman David Carle.

"It was spoofed to look as if it had come from the office," Carle said.

A copy of the e-mail, posted on the Web site of Washington's WTOP radio, said Leahy had died of liver cancer.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), an 86-year-old appropriator who recently announced he is free from a form of stomach cancer, was also spoofed, his office confirmed.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who serves on the Judiciary and Appropriations committees with Leahy, was subjected to a hoax of the same kind on Monday, her office confirmed. Similarly, she was said to have died of cancer at her home.

You might assume all of these bogus messages are coming from the same person (and you'd probably be right).

Has anyone seen Helen Thomas lately?

Holder's Injustice Department Sues Arizona... On Grounds of Embarrassment?

The bleating and whining from President Obama and his progressive allies that Arizona's new immigration law is blatantly unconstitutional has been exposed as so much bluster today, as the best the our anti-rule-of-law government can come up with is a weak case built up preemption:

The Justice Department has decided to file suit against Arizona on the grounds that the state's new immigration law illegally intrudes on federal prerogatives, law enforcement sources said Monday.

The lawsuit, which three sources said could be filed as early as Tuesday, will invoke for its main argument the legal doctrine of "preemption," which is based on the Constitution's supremacy clause and says that federal law trumps state statutes. Justice Department officials believe that enforcing immigration laws is a federal responsibility, the sources said.

The glaring weakness in the DOJ's claim is that the Arizona law precisely echoes the federal law, by design.

The reality of the case is that Arizona intends to enforce their version of the law, while Obama-led Executive Branch had no intention of enforcing the federal law.

I'm admittedly not close to being a lawyer, so perhaps my readers can explain something to me.

If this case is the Obama Administration's explicit admission that they do not intent to uphold the law, does that mean that Obama has breached his oath of office? Doesn't this case provided grounds for impeachment?

The Butterfly Defect

My latest entry at the Washington Examiner.

Is a .30-06 the Best Round for Aliens?

I always thought the .223 was purpose-built for little green men, but to each his own:

Fairfield Police Sgt. James Perez said Dane Eisenman, 57, responded to a classified advertisement for a .30-06 rifle about a month ago. While filing out the paper for the rifle, police said, he mentioned to the seller what he would be using the weapon for.

"He said he was going to use the weapon to kill aliens," Perez said.

The seller was unsure if Eisenman was referring to space aliens or illegal aliens, Perez added. Sgt. Perez said Eisenman told the seller of the rifle every 36,000 years, aliens who live under the sun come to Earth to kill humans, and he needed to be prepared because "They're going to be coming soon."

The U.S. Justice Department immediately vowed to fight any laws aimed at resisting their invasion.

British Methodists Sign Up to Help Islamists Build Ovens

And the sad thing is that these cattle don't seem to understand the first bit about the path they have chosen:

The decision last week by the Methodist Church of Britain to launch a boycott against goods emanating from settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem will send a shiver down the spine of anyone with a feel for where the rancid, global campaign against the Jewish state is currently heading.

The boycott will involve transactions of the church itself, and extends to encouraging all affiliated Methodists to follow suit. The Methodists boycott no other country.

The fact that an institution professing allegiance to values of love, truth and justice should have succumbed to an agenda of hatred, hypocrisy and barbarism is sadly emblematic of the degraded spirit of our times, and of the moral inversions which blow through them.

But who, these days, can really be surprised about such happenings in modern Europe? It is only the banality, to appropriate Hannah Arendt, of this particular evil that still has the power to shock us. For, in watching the discussions at the Methodist Conference which approved the boycott, there was little in the way of the visceral hatred of Israel which we have become so accustomed to seeing in academic settings or in the trade unions. Here was a group of almost stereotypically ordinary, middle-class, English Christians calmly reciting every hackneyed anti-Israeli calumny in the book.

I want to say that American Methodists and perhaps Presbyterians have either already adopted those measures or are flirting with them. Anyone know the answer to that?

It always amazes me how "good" people can not just turn a blind eye to evil, but actively participate in it by allowing themselves to be fed beliefs they should know not to be true.

Paul Krugman...

... is an economic genius?

Today, American workers face the worst job market since the Great Depression, with five job seekers for every job opening, with the average spell of unemployment now at 35 weeks. Yet the Senate went home for the holiday weekend without extending benefits. How was that possible?

The answer is that we’re facing a coalition of the heartless, the clueless and the confused. Nothing can be done about the first group, and probably not much about the second. But maybe it’s possible to clear up some of the confusion.

By the heartless, I mean Republicans who have made the cynical calculation that blocking anything President Obama tries to do — including, or perhaps especially, anything that might alleviate the nation’s economic pain — improves their chances in the midterm elections. Don’t pretend to be shocked: you know they’re out there, and make up a large share of the G.O.P. caucus.

In Krugman's world, money does grow on trees. Otherwise, how could he responsibly advocate the government going ever deeper in debt, spending money it does not have at a time when experts are predicting that the policies of Congress and the President are plunging us from recession into depression?

I'm not an economist myself, and so I'm sure Mr. Krugman could come up with dazzling explanations full of expensive language to explain his position, but I'll simply counter him by pointing out some inescapable truths:

• growing the size of government at the expense of the private sector is bad for the economy
• increasing government control over specific industries makes it more difficult for new companies to penetrate that market sector, protects large incumbent companies in that sector, and stifles innovation
• you cannot spend your way out of debt
• poor people, dumb people, and lazy people don't create jobs
• if government gets out of the way, wealth can be made from thin air

Let's look at those simply claims in a little more detail.

Growing the size of government at the expense of the private sector is bad for the economy.
Government does not create wealth. Government does not pay taxes. It is easy for even the simple layman to understand that when government job creation approaches private sector job creation, bells and whistles should go off in warning. You can never have parity between government and private sector jobs, and once the percentage of government jobs grows too high, there are not enough private sector dollars generating taxes to support the government.

At the present time, only government hiring is growing, along with government salaries in some areas. Why should we trust Democrats who want to grow the size of the government, when that position is entirely self serving?

Increasing government control over specific industries makes it more difficult for new companies to penetrate that market sector, protects large incumbent companies in that sector, and stifles innovation.
Recent regulations proposed to "save" or "regulate" the financial sector have no intention of protecting the people from the avarice of bankers. Quite to the contrary, Democrats are creating "reform" that rewards their campaign donors at the banks by making it harder for upstart banks to establish themselves or grow. With decreased competition, these existing large banks can grow ever more predatory, and borrowers will payer higher fees and penalties for declining levels of service.

You cannot spend your way out of debt.
Seems simple right? Many of us learned this the hard way in college, financing our nightlife on promises of easy credit. By the time we graduated, we have mountains of credit card debit that had nothing to do with the cost of tuition and textbooks. Faced with hard choices, we quit spending money and paid off out debts.

So why is the response of Democrats, including Mr. Krugman, to keep spending money we don't have, to sustain a lifestyle we can't afford?

Poor people, dumb people, and lazy people don't create jobs.
I've never been employed by someone who made minimum wage, and no company survives without intelligent and hard-working leadership. Democrats love to build up a strawman of the evils of the rich, but forget to address an obvious truth: the rich are rich because they seize opportunities to make money and work very hard to do the work others will not or cannot do. Their skills are in short supply, and so they come at a premium. On the other hand, the poor, unintelligent and lazy are guilty of perpetuating behaviors that ensure they remain poor. They have poor saving, investing and spending habits, tend to be impulsive, and think little about the long term impact of today's excess spending.

Sound like any political party you know?

If government gets out of the way, wealth can be made from thin air.
Bill Whittle of PJTV has made this point so eloquently on his show Afterburner many times. Ideas initiative and hard work has made men like Warren Buffett and Jay Z wealthy. They used their talents to make wealth from nothing.

But back to the point of Krugman's accusation that "heartless, the clueless and the confused" Republicans are acting irresponsibly. Republicans have simply asked for Democrats to stop extending unemployment benefits without paying for it, and even went so far as to find a way of paying for the extensions, using unspent stimulus money.

Krugman's friends in the Democratic majority refuse to pay for the benefit extensions with the unspent stimulus money they have in pocket. Instead, they attempt to add to our already out of control debt.

Tell us again Mr. Krugman... who is clueless and confused?

Any Black Rifle Experts Out There?

So I'm going to ask something that might seem a bit hypocritical here.

I've written on CY and at Pajamas Media about how the 5.56 NATO round needs to be replaced in the military, and that M16/M4 weapons system is getting long in the tooth, and that it should probably be replaced. I still feel that way... as it applies to the military. I want them to have weapons that are lightweight, ridiculously reliable, accurate, easy to maintain and perfectly lethal. I also want a pony.

But for my needs, an AR-type rifle fits the bill. Specifically, I'm looking at a carbine with a 16" barrel and mid-length gas system chambered in 5.56 (I'll also probably get a 6.8 SPC upper from Bison Armory at some point, but that is down the road).

I've narrowed my choices down to 2 options:

Champions Don't Quit

Few of you probably know this, but long before I ever though about politics or blogging I was a sports writer. I don't follow sports as often as I once did and hardly ever write about them anymore, but every once in a while I'll witness the greatness and grit that sports can show in individuals.

UFC 116 showed that in spades, and particularly in the two most important matches of the night.

I know that many people find mixed martial arts to be too violent for their tastes, but I'm utterly captivated by it. The brutal physicality of it, the strategic ebb and flow, contrasting styles and raw heart on display is simply impossible to turn away from, and the backstories and larger-than-life personalities of some of the sports stars keep you coming back for more.

Last night, my brother-in-law and I watched a beaten and battered Chris Leben refuse to admit defeat to Yoshihiro Akiyama, a fighter who had not lost since 2005. Akiyama punished Leben and was winning the fight on points, but Leben refused to quit and kept coming forward pressing a tiring Akiyama, who just couldn't seem to understand why his opponent still stood. Leben absorbed everything Akiyama had to throw, and then caught him in a triangle choke that ended the fight. After the fight, Leben looked the worse for wear, but there was no doubt that he was the victor. His sheer tenacity broke Akiyama's will and defeated him before he was able to crank down on the choke. It was Leben's second victory in two weeks, in a sport where athletes train for months between fights.

MMA fans didn't buy the UFC pay-per-view to watch Leben gut out another win, however. They came to see two of the biggest, fastest, most imposing fighters on the planet collide.

Brock Lesnar's outsized WWE-crafted heel personality suits him well for the role of the champion people love to hate, as the 6'3" 265 lb monster defended his UFC heavyweight champion against Shane Carwin, another massive 265-lb fighter that put all 12 of his previous opponents out within the first round.

Many people watched the fight to see how Lesnar would cope when he finally ran into someone as big, fast, and strong as he was. Many hoped he would lose in a flurry of punches from Carwin.

They nearly got their wish.

Carwin toppled Lesnar early in the first round and pounced on him against the cage, connecting on strike after strike. For tense moments it looked as though the referee might stop the fight. If it was any fight other than the heavyweight championship, he probably would have. But to be the champion you have to beat the champion, and the unwritten rule is that champions get little more wiggle room than journeymen grinding it out in the lower ranks. Truthfully, they've earn that right along with their championship belts.

And so while Carwin through powerful bombs and Lesnar covered up to protect himself from a clean knockout punch, it became apparent that the ref would not easily stop this fight. Carwin kept up a relentless pace, but each punch cost him power and strength. Incredibly, near the end of the round, a bloodied Lesnar fought to his feet. As the round ended and both men staggered to their corners, the audience and viewers at home were amazed. No challenger had so throughly dominated a champion in the first round without finishing the fight, but Lesnar absorbed everything Carwin had to offer. And Carwin had punched himself out.

It was in the Lesnar-dominated second round that the South Dakotan really earned my respect as a fan.

Lesnar had Carwin on his back, and was able to slip free and take a full mount position. Everyone, and I do mean everyone expected Lesnar to draw up and start dropping hammerfists and elbows on Carwin's face. It's simply what you do when you're a ground-and-pound fighter.

But Lesnar saw an opening few (if any of us) saw, and slipped off to his right as quickly as he took the mount, trapping Carwin's arm in the process and connecting in a loose choke. Lesnar turned, tightened, and suddenly it was over.

It was an awesome display for fortitude and adaptability from a fighter that almost had his career ended by illness after his last victory. He is the heavyweight champion of the world, and last night he proved he deserved it.

Happy Birthday, America

Sometimes it is difficult to see past the hot dogs and fireworks to remember that the Fourth of July is that day that brave and determined colonists declared themselves independent from the most powerful nation on earth, and in so doing, took the first bold steps towards developing a nation that become the bulwark of liberty and freedom for the following centuries.

Remember our founders on this day and the importance of the Declaration they created.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Dull Steele

A new RNC Chair: now that's change i can believe in.

"Keep in mind again, federal candidates, this was a war of Obama's choosing. This was not something that the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in," he said. "But it was the president who was trying to be cute by half by building a script demonizing Iraq, while saying the battle really should be in Afghanistan. Well, if he is such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that's the one thing you don't do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan?"

We don't need a Chairman that gets his war advice from The Princess Bride.

Will General Petraeus Change the Afghan RoE?

Soldiers and civilians alike have complained that Gen. Stanley McCrystal's rules of engagement in Afghanistan. Now that Gen. David Petraeus has taken over the fight since McCrystal's self-immolation, will new RoE lead to fewer US and Afghan civilian casualties?

I ask the question in my latest article at Pajamas Media.

Scholars: Obama One of the Bestest Presidents Evar!!!

No... they're serious.

George W. Bush was no FDR, but Barack Obama could be.

That's the verdict of 238 of the nation's leading presidential scholars, who - for a fifth time - rated Franklin Delano Roosevelt the best president ever in the latest Siena College Research Institute poll.

In office for barely two years, Obama entered the survey in the 15th position - two spots behind Bill Clinton and three spots ahead of Ronald Reagan.

When asked for comment about the poll, noted Presidential Scholar researcher Richard James offered his own terse opinion.

During Immigration Speech, Flying Golden Demon-Snakes Erupt From Obama's Hands

I love the pictures Drudge digs up...

Source.

A Whale Skimmer Still Anchored By Administration, EPA

The most powerful oil-skimming vessel in the world languishes in port, anchored by incompetency in the White House and absurd EPA red tape:

The A Whale arrived in the Gulf on Wednesday, the Coast Guard said. It was anchored in Boothville, Lousiana, about an hour south of New Orleans.

"While the ship is ready to work, it still doesn't have approval to engage in the effort," said Frank Maisano, spokesman for TMT Shipping, the vessel's owner and operator, in a statement.

Officials from the company are meeting with BP and the U.S. Coast Guard Thursday morning, he told CNN. "We don't know what will happen," he said, but added it's expected that parameters for a test of the vessel will be discussed -- "they'll give us a plot and we'll test the technology."

Has a government ever been overthrown for environmental incompetence?

Which Country Was He Was Elected to Lead?

The Deepwater Horizon oil disaster continues nearly unabated. Our economy is in shambles, our national debt is exploding, our jobless claims are rising, home sales are slumping, and even liberal economists describing our financial situation as a depression.

How does our President respond?

By pandering to criminal aliens.

It would be nice to have a President who cared about the state of our nation, but this is what we deserve for electing a man running on a nebulous and empty slogan of change.

The Slow Expansion of my Media Empire Continues...

I don't think Andrew Brietbart is feeling any pressure, but I've starting writing for another media outlet.

As most of my regular readers know, I've been a part of Pajamas Media since the beginning, and I've built up a pretty nice body of work there over the years.

I'm happy to announce that I've recently joined the Washington Examiner's stable of writers in the Opinion Zone as well. You can read my first three entries via my staff bio... please do, and tell me what you think.