Self-gelded Lew Rockwell commentator, having voluntarily assimilated with the Borg concept, predicts future erectile dysfunction in millions in order to feel better about himself.

Loading the Jews of Warsaw on cattle cars.

"When They Come For Your Guns . . . You Will Turn Them Over."

David comments.

Shame on Lou Rockwell.com for publishing this defeatist, cowardly screed for cattle car riders and slaves. Just because Karger doesn't have the imagination or the guts to realize a workaround to dying on his own doorstep doesn't mean better, that is, more experienced/informed minds, aren't prepared to be a significant deterrent to tyranny, and that those who would gather up the guns don't know that they can be reached before and after a raid.

As for me, what expatriates of this country have to say about what still happens here is immaterial to me. They are deserters who have left the rest of us upon the battlefield of liberty and their opinions don't mean a fart in the wind.

Loading French Jewish women on cattle cars.

The Committee issues a report to "authorized journalists" but not to the blogosphere.

The LA Times claimed an exclusive: "Five ATF officials found responsible for Fast and Furious." The Issa Committee issued a report yesterday that was embargoed until midnight. All the major "authorized journalist" outlets got copies so they could write their stories yesterday. Even White House apologists like Jordy Yager and Pete Yost got copies. But the Committee staffers, whether on orders from high or not, stiffed the blogosphere, including yours truly.

As David Codrea observes: "Congressional Fast and Furious report released in advance to chosen few." David has a link to the report at his Examiner site above.

I'll have more comment when I've had time to sift through the report.

Sticking to their guns: Marines place $22.5M order for the Colt .45 M1911.

From FOX News:

It’s been called the greatest handgun ever made, and it has barely changed sine 1911, when the legendary John Browning designed it especially for the U.S. Military.

And now, the Colt .45 M1911 is making a big comeback, now that the U.S. Marines have placed a $22.5 million order for the Connecticut-made pistols.

The gun, which has been wielded on film by John Wayne and in real life by Sgt. Alvin York and Maj. Audie Murphy, was the standard-issue sidearm in the military for decades, until it was replaced by the Beretta M9 in 1985. . .

Colt Defense, based in Hartford, Conn., will supply as many as 12,000 of the 200,000 U.S. Marines with semi-automatic, tan-colored M45 Close Quarter Battle Pistols, and they will include spare parts and logistical support. The gun has long been the weapon of choice for special operations agents, thanks to its reliability and the stopping power of its massive bullets. . .

Some reports suggest Marines are not happy with their main Beretta M9s for their lack of accuracy and stopping power. With M1911's now supplying Special Ops, growing interest may lead to a better solution.

Judicial Sluts

David Codrea: Gun dealer Reese takes defense stand in firearms smuggling case

The prosecution has rested and Rick Reese has taken the stand in his own defense in the U.S. District Court in Las Cruces, N.M.

Mama Liberty's latest: I carry a gun - Get over it

"Of course, free lance criminals and maniacs are not the only, or even the most dangerous threats. The entire history of the world demonstrates clearly that those who desire to own other people and control their lives never cease their efforts to render them weak, helpless and unarmed in every way."

David Codrea: Scalia’s establishment take on ‘gun control’ should be no surprise to gun owners.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told "Fox News Sunday" that "the Second Amendment leaves room for U.S. legislatures to regulate guns, including menacing hand-held weapons,” The National Journal reported this morning, and that has created quite a media stir.

My comment: Anyone who thinks electoral politics or Supreme Court decisions derived from said politics is going to protect our liberty and property hasn't been paying attention. You'd better be getting ready to defend those things without benefit of any chance of political protection -- as a despised minority in your own country.

Redactions

An Open Letter to Bill Press: Regarding your proposal for a bloody civil war, just how many millions of us do you want dead?

Bill Press: He may have been drunk when he wrote the column below, but I don't think he can plead diminished capacity when he is convicted for violating the Law of Unintended Consequences.

"Bill Press: Praise the Lord -- and stockpile the ammunition."

My email reply:

-----Original Message-----

From: georgemason1776

To: bill@billpress.com

Sent: Sat, Jul 28, 2012 11:36 am

Subject: RE: Your proposal for a bloody civil war over firearms. How many millions of us do you want dead?

"Don't get me wrong. I believe in the Second Amendment. And, as a Scalia originalist, I believe we should take it literally. Let's bring back, in every state, as the Constitution so clearly calls for, a "well-regulated militia." Let's require its gun-toting members to carry and clean their own single-shot muskets, to wear the militia uniform, and to go out and drill once a month with fellow minutemen. But let all other guns be banned. . . There is no need for anyone, outside the military, to own an assault weapon. There is no need for anyone, outside of law enforcement, to have a handgun." -- Bill Press.

Dear Mr. Press,

I note with interest your proposals for the forcible disarmament of the American citizenry laid out in your recent column, "Praise the Lord -- and stockpile the ammunition." ( http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/opinion/x1602164926/Press-Praise-the-Lord-and-stockpile-the-ammunition )

I was just wondering how many millions of bodies of your fellow citizens are you willing to stack up to achieve that end? Will a million be enough? Three million? Five? Twenty? For surely you must recognize that there are people in this country who are willing to die for the Founders' principles of liberty and right to property. These are God-given and inalienable and do not depend upon any Constitution, law, politician's whim, and certainly not on your preference. More disconcertingly for you and your tyrannical, confiscationist ilk, people who are willing to die for their principles are most often willing to kill in defense of them as well, usually by a much larger ratio than one to one. So I ask you again, how many millions of us are you willing to kill, you bloodthirsty bastard, and how many of your side are you willing to see dead in your cause as well? Is it worth my life to you? The lives of all my family? Is it worth your life? Starting to have doubts?

Do not extrapolate from your own cowardice. Just because you would obey any government diktat that threatened you with prison or death doesn't mean others will. You may think us wrong, or even insane, but you cannot deny we exist in the millions, us "bitter clingers." So face the issue squarely and tell us now -- before the government begins shooting us in your proposed bloody civil war -- how many millions of dead Americans are you willing to see in order to get your way?

Otherwise, quit smoking what you're shoveling and shut up about disarming the rest of us. It can't be done without an exercise in tyranny that would make the Holocaust look like a picnic. For unlike Hitler's victims, we are armed, trained in the use of those arms, and intend to stay that way.

But, by all means, if you are willing to name a number and have the courage of your convictions, be sure and come yourself when the Feds raid the first house.

Sincerely,

Mike Vanderboegh

PO Box 926

Pinson, AL 35126

http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com

The smarmy elitist David Brooks solicits another bloody civil war and sees no downside.

"What We Talk About When We Talk About Guns."

I’d support a ban on assault weapons. I’d support all the background checks you can imagine. I’d support a national registry so that if a young man suddenly starts buying a bunch of guns and 6,000 rounds of ammunition in one week, then a bunch of red flags get raised in police headquarters across America.

David Codrea: Obama ‘gun control’ goes back under the radar.

Additionally, anti-gun legislative measures are still advancing, buried in pending bills that would escape notice unless watchful eyes were ever present. A case in point, The Hill reported Thursday, is a cyber security bill sponsored by leading “safe” Senate anti-gunners, containing an amendment that “would make it illegal to transfer or possess large capacity feeding devices such as gun magazines, belts, feed stripes [sic] and drums of more than 10 rounds of ammunition with the exception of .22 caliber rim fire ammunition.” The bill is scheduled for debate and amendment votes next week, and while survival of that provision is questionable, it illustrates that the public liberty must be guarded with jealous attention, and that the devil is always lurking in the details.

Personally, I think Romney ought to be thankful that the confiscationists have brought up the firearm issue just in time for the election. Ought to work real well in those swing states.

Swindler Corzine gets a pass from Eric Holder. No big surprise why.

"REVEALED: Corzine’s MF Global Was Client of Eric Holder’s Law Firm."

Now that he's been caught, B. Todd Jones crawfishes on his threat to whistleblowers.

ATF head clarifies remarks from video criticized as warning to whistle-blowers."

Bill O'Reilly, faux conservative, at it again.

Remember this David Codrea piece from 2010? "'Conservative' Bill O'Reilly supports gun confiscation in emergencies." Well, he's at it again. A reader writes:

I watched the O'Reilly Factor tonight again, and Bill is on the third day of advocating for a national gun registration of any firearms that Congress decides are "heavy weapons". If a 7.62x39 and 223 fit (rounds used in the AK47 and AR15 class of rifles respectively), I'm thinking anything could be made to fit since those are lower powered cartridges than any commonly used hunting rifles used for plain old deer hunting. Definitely anything that will accept a magazine over a set number of rounds will be included in his definition.

Oh, and he wants it to include ammunition sales also.

The FBI will be kind enough to handle that database, and to mine it for terrorism threats.

As a white male who is religious, a military vet, gun enthusiast and conservative I already fit Homeland Security's primary definition of domestic terrorist. I want to thank him for wanting to give the FBI cause to monitor my life, put me on no-fly lists, and whatever other grief the government can cause without having to bother with due process.

So, since a national firearm database is not only illegal (thanks to the 1986 Firearms Owner Protection Act) but also a downright stupid idea that he refuses to back off of, I think it's time to move forward with a boycott and to urge as many local groups, internet forums and the NRA to back and move forward with.

Compare this to what Jim Zumbo did by suggesting the banning of black rifles, and he was driven out of the industry for a long time. This is much worse, and needs to be squashed immediately before Obama and Holder and the Brady Group all start talking a national database is "common sense" gun laws that even conservatives like Fox News agree with!

I never thought a Fox News fair and balanced commentator would be the one to give fodder to the Brady Group and Democrats that would help them roll gun laws back 25 years.

If somebody could provide a list of advertisers to the O'Reilly Factor and his radio shows, that would be a great help.

Evil guns spawning in large numbers to commit more violence on unsuspecting humans.

"Please do not feed the guns."

"Latinos may lead the way to gun control in the future." Not so fast, say other Latinos.

Soldaderas of the Mexican Revolution.

The other day I was doing an interview with a Mexican journalist and pointed out that the Mexican Revolution would have been impossible without American firearms. I also postulated that the solution to Mexican violence, where only the government and criminals have firearms, is to arm the Mexican people with Kalashnikovs and 300 rounds per to start -- especially the women -- as a counterbalance to both. She was shocked at the proposal. There was a recent debate at NBCLatino that applies to this subject.

First, Raul A. Reyes argued that Latinos were the key to gun control in the future.

While our political leaders worry about getting on the wrong side of gun control debate, Latinos are very progressive on the issue. An April report by the Pew Center found that Latinos are more likely to favor strict gun control laws that either whites or African-Americans. Similarly, a 2011 poll done by the bipartisan Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition found that 86 percent of Hispanic voters support requiring background checks on all gun sales. Sixty-nine percent believe the laws governing the sale of guns should be stronger. Perhaps in the future, as our numbers continue to grow, Hispanics will demand laws to limit the possibility of senseless gun violence.

Yes, the Second Amendment guarantees all Americans the right to have and bear arms. But let’s take a look at its actual words: “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” The key words here are “well regulated.” Our founding fathers clearly recognized that there might be a need for regulation of citizens and their firearms.

A good starting point would be to revive the ban on assault weapons. No one needs a semi-automatic for hunting, self-defense, or to protect their home. These are weapons designed for war. They are the weapons of choice for drug cartels and traffickers throughout Latin America, and they come from the U.S. If Holmes had not had an AR-15 assault rifle, surely we would not have seen so many casualties in Aurora.

Right now, Americans must call upon Congress and our candidates to fully discuss gun control.

Stephen A. Nuňo answers effectively with "Gun control is people control, with racist implications."

Some think that Latinos may lead the way to gun control in the future because they are more likely to favor strict gun control than others. Well, let’s hope not. Or at least, before Latinos enter into this debate, let’s hope they enter it with as much information about gun control than what they are learning from their liberal counterparts.

Last week’s tragedy in Aurora, Colorado has reset the debate over gun control with renewed hope by anti-gun advocates that Latinos may give them the electoral heft they need to increase the power of the gun control lobby.

First, let’s get one thing out-of-the-way. The right to keep and bear arms has nothing to do with hunting, collecting or sporting. The sensibilities of liberals’ anti-gun attitudes do not need to be assuaged as a prerequisite to owning firearms. The right to own firearms is a fundamental right recognized by the Constitution. It is not a privilege. It is a right just as voting, free speech or, dare I say, privacy is.

Second, the right to keep and bear arms is an individual right, not a collective right. It is not a State right. To say that a State can regulate firearms under the pretense of regulating a militia ignores the fundamental reason the 2nd Amendment exists, the connection between an armed citizenry and a free society.

This does not mean there should be zero regulations on guns, but the political standoff over gun control is fundamentally about mistrust. Gun owners simply do not trust the government or anti-gun folks to impose any regulations on gun ownership, and when gun control advocates create false justifications for the ownership of guns, such as hunting, gun owners are justified in that distrust.

Third, we should understand the historical connection between gun control and racism. Simply put, gun control is people control, and this has had deeply racist implications in the past. The roots of gun control in California are tied to white anxiety over Mexican-Americans and Chinese-Americans at the beginning of the 20th century.

Gun control gained renewed vigor in California after the Black Panthers armed themselves against white police officers intent on keeping their boots on the neck of the black community. Gun control in the South was explicitly designed to keep guns out of the hands of black communities who used firearms to defend themselves against the Ku Klux Klan. . .

Finally, the idea that Latinos are more disposed to gun control for any cultural reason is patently false. Mexico, where a majority of U.S. Latinos come from, is one of the few countries besides the United States to have its own version of the 2nd Amendment. Article 10 of the Mexican Constitution recognized over one hundred and fifty years ago that “every man has a right to have and carry arms for his security and legitimate defense”.

Unfortunately, Mexico’s recognition of the right to keep and bear arms included a direct avenue for government suppression of that right, with tragic results we don’t need to rehash here.

Latinos should acknowledge the greater historical context and meaning of the right to keep and bear arms before making a decision about gun control. Most important is the relationship between the people and the government. The government may indeed desire a less armed citizenry, or fewer armed Latinos, but Latinos’ answer to the government should be, fine, you first.

Okay, NOW I'm back up at home.

Will have some catching up to do, but both my daughters are home today and we're going shooting this morning so most of it will be this afternoon.

David Codrea: Obama floating new semi-auto ban puts administration intent on the radar

"With this as background, Obama ending his self-imposed citizen disarmament discussion embargo, not only before the election, but the day before speculation in some quarters has him signing the ATT, ought to put gun owners on high alert."

Another country heard from . . .

Highlighting the considerable intellectual acumen and moral authority of our opponents is this comment:

Really, Mike? How many people are you going to take out in the revolution, when that cancer is gnawing at your guts? You pathetic old man, and all your fat beer-guzzling redneck buddies here, you're about as scary as an army of field mice. Vermin one and all. Colorectal cancer will do the government's work for it, and we won't have to pay for a bullet to kill all of you. That rancid hamburger you all devour by the ton will get the job done.

Back at the library but should be up and running at home today.

Went to the dentist this morning for another go at saving one of my teeth. Will try to have some significant posts later this afternoon.

Here's the Lou Dobbs show link for those who missed it.

Link.

Back at the library.

Still no service at home. Hopefully I'll be back in the saddle later tonight. As far as the doctor visit went, he declared that I seem to be on the mend. And that's good news.

"Time to repeal Second Amendment?" "How many millions of bodies of . . . American firearm owners . . . are you willing to stack up to achieve that result?"

From the Winona Daily News.

Again and again, we’ve used the Constitution to wipe the blood from our hands ... but it doesn’t work any more.

If the Second Amendment protects the right of James Holmes to equip himself for mass murder, it’s time to repeal the Second Amendment.

Times change. Our Constitution should change with them.

My response:

RE: Your proposal for bloody civil war.

So Jerome Christenson wants to repeal the Second Amendment. How many millions of bodies of those of us American firearm owners who would resist such a move to the death are you willing to stack up to achieve that result?

And have you considered that people who are willing to die for a principle are most often willing to kill in defense of it as well? And we will not go gentle into that tyrannical collectivist good night. Indeed, I think it is safe to say we would make it more than a one-to-one ratio.

What an unthinking putz you are.

If it's not one thing, it's another.

The broadband service for my entire neighborhood went off along with the power yesterday afternoon before I got home. The power later came on, the broadband did not. After talking with the company they concede it is an outside problem for the whole neighborhood. Technicians on the way today, they say. I am at the library at the moment and then headed to the doctor so it will be a while until I have significant posts later this afternoon.

Your tax dollars at work. (Murderer's name redacted) "Received $26K Grant From Bethesda-Based National Institutes of Health."

"Where does he get those wonderful toys?" -- The Joker in Batman, 1989.

I guess now we know how the murderous moke could afford all his toys. Your tax dollars at work.

Out of the mouths of liberal editors -- very occasionally -- comes . . . the truth.

Time's Halperin Admits: 'Most Major News Organizations' Want Stricter Gun Laws.

"If you walk the halls of most major news organizations or of the OEOB at the White House or West Wing, I think you'd find overwhelming sentiment that there should be stricter gun control laws in the United States."

The Law of Unintended Consequences kicks in, again.

The Denver Post reports it here and John Ransom comments upon it here: firearm sales are way up in Colorado following the "Movie Victim Disarmament Zone Massacre." Well there's a big surprise. I imagine this will show nationally as well. Thank you Mike Bloomberg! Really.

Time to feed the hogs anyway. Why doesn't he threaten us with something we're scared of? Bloomberg proposes a national police strike unless he gets more gun control laws.

"Police Officers Should Go On Strike If There Are No Gun Reforms.

"I don’t understand why police officers across this country don’t stand up collectively and say we’re going to go on strike, we’re not going to protect you unless you, the public, through your legislature, do what’s required to keep us safe,’" he told CNN’s Piers Morgan on Monday.

Along the lines of the soldier's prayer, "Oh, Lord, make my enemies arrogant and stupid." -- This is this week's winner of the Arrogant & Stupid Award. These Mandarins who live in an armed bodyguard bubble whenever they venture out of their taxpayer-paid Green Zones are unbelievable. This billionaire who bought his office in New York, a city with strict gun control that is currently experiencing a wave of shootings, wants to blackmail the American public by threatening us with a nationwide police strike?!? They're not going to protect US? Who's going to protect THEM? If the Constitution and the rule of law no longer protects the people, is it unreasonable for those people to conclude that the Constitution and the rule no longer protect such thugs operating under color of law as Bloomberg?

As far as Bloomberg threatening a police strike until he gets more of our traditional liberty and property, Why doesn't he threaten us with something we're scared of? For such an action will work no hardship on me and mine. Nine One One has never been more than a body retrieval and paperwork service. In those parts of the country where most of us "bitter clingers" live, a police strike will not work a hardship on us. It's a lot simpler to "Shoot, shovel, and shut up." We can wait until Mike's "Only Ones" get back from their unpaid holiday to tidy up the paperwork, if necessary.

And if you're not up to gravedigging, it's probably time to feed the hogs anyway.

David and I will be on Lou Dobbs again tonight.

At least, that's the schedule. Show comes on at 7:00 Eastern.

Heads up, Birmingham FBI.

Hey all you Special Agents:

Remember the last time I got an Easter card full of brown and white powder that I made the mistake of calling the locals on? You know, the one that turned my neighborhood into a HAZMAT circus for several hours one day and brought out your representatives as well? Now, do you recall that I promised that the next time I got a suspicious package I would come down and deliver it to you at your Fort Apache headquarters downtown so it wouldn't frighten my neighbors?

Well, this moke says it's on the way.

Mike Vanderboegh

Life after Gunwalker. Dan Restrepo goes on tour.

Dan Restrepo, long-time readers of this column may recall my column from April of last year.

If personnel is policy and bad policies on the ground come from meetings of ambitious persons on high, then those of us who are trying to figure out where the Gunwalker scandal came from might want to look at Dan Restrepo and the meetings he's been in.

At the time, my sources said that if Dan Restrepo wasn't the Oliver North of the Gunwalker Scandal, that he knew who was. Since then, intense scrutiny has focused on his National Security Council deputy Kevin O'Reilly. In May of this year it was announced that Restrepo was headed for the White House back door.

Now, we know some of what Restrepo has in mind for making money post-Gunwalker: he going on the rubber chicken fajita circuit for the International Association of Speakers Bureaus.

"The International Association of Speakers Bureaus (IASB) is a 501c6 nonprofit trade organization representing speakers bureaus and agencies worldwide. Founded in 1986, IASB provides leadership to the bureau industry through education, resources and partnerships."

From the IASB biography:

Dan Restrepo: President Obama´s advisor regarding Latin America

Dan Restrepo is a veteran of the Obama White House and has worked at the highest levels of the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of the U.S. government.

He has experience as a speaker on U.S. foreign policy, particularly toward Latin America; the domestic and international role of the growing Latino population in the United States; and U.S. electoral dynamics, among other topics.

At the White House, Restrepo served as President Obama´s principal advisor on the Western Hemisphere on the National Security Council staff. He was also part of the team responsible for maintaining and strengthening ties with Latino communities. He joined the historic 2008 Obama campaign in its early days serving as an advisor regarding Latin America issues. He also helped formulate strategies designed to attract the Latino vote and served as a Spanish language spokesman during the 2008 general election. In 2000, Restrepo worked on Vice President Al Gore´s campaign in Florida during the general election and the historic and controversial recount.

Restrepo, whose career has combined politics, policy, communication, and law, has been recognized three straight years as one of the most influential Latinos in the United States. In April 2009, he made history when he became the first person to brief in Spanish during a regularly scheduled White House daily press briefing.

As an advisor to President Obama, Restrepo was responsible for U.S. policy toward Latin America, Canada, and the Caribbean. He managed President Obama´s five trips to Latin America and his more than 30 bilateral meetings with Presidents and Prime Ministers from across the region. Restrepo also advised Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden, and other senior U.S. officials during their trips to Latin America and in their interactions with leaders across the region.

Restrepo has been a commentator on a wide range of topics on U.S., Latin American, and Spanish media. Before working at the White House, he established, at the Center for American Progress - the United States´ most important progressive think tank - a program on the U.S. relationship with the Americas and the impact of Hispanics on U.S. policy and politics. Restrepo also worked on the professional staff of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee and as a clerk to a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Based on his professional and personal experiences, Restrepo offers a unique perspective on the global emergence of countries in Latin America and its implications for business, international relations, and public policy.

You will note that the link provides contact information for the IASB in Bogota, Colombia. This is probably one of the few places in the hemisphere where audiences won't ask him about his role in Fast and Furious.

Film Flam

I'm surprised, but Ice-T gets it.

"The Last Form Of Defense Against Tyranny"

Praxis: Mo Molle, Mo Problems and Way Too Funny.

From the Total Survivalist Libertarian Rantfest.

OK, is the PayPal button working satisfactorily now?

Supposed to be fixed.

Another country heard from . . .

Folks, today is my 60th birthday and I received the following comment on a post about my health from the other day:

Anonymous said...

Go, big C, go! Got that champagne ready to roll as soon as I see the news that you've kicked the bucket, Mike! You're going to love non-existence!

July 23, 2012 10:31 AM

I must tell you that such "love notes" tickle the heck out of me and always make me laugh. When you're so impotent and vacuous of ideas that you're reduced to this, I mean, can there be any doubt that we are winning the battle of principle where it really matters?

David Codrea: Reporting Colorado-style shooting unlikely in Philippines belies brutal reality

David slams another "authorized journalist."

Will be back up and running at home later today -- thanks to y'all.

I am overwhelmed at the response to David's reaction to the post below. Consequently, I will be back up and running at home later today. I am embarrassed for did not intend to angle for donations and I was somewhat pissed at David for doing so, even given the need. He told me to bugger off (or words to that effect), that he would do what he wanted and write what he pleased. I wouldn't want it any other way, I suppose. If that makes me a hypocrite, then I guess I am.

All I can say is God bless you all for your continued support and I will do my best to make it count.

Mike (at the library)

III

Due to technical difficulties beyond our control. . .

With medical bills piling up, Rosey tells me that she was unable to pay the Internet bill this month so I may go off the air at home tomorrow, perhaps until Wednesday. If so, I will fill in when I can at the library. However, that depends if I can control the Gleevec-induced nausea long enough to venture out so I may not be able to post tomorrow. Just wanted all you Hundred Heads fellows out there not to get concerned if you don't hear from me for a couple days. God bless you all.

John Richardson: Now They Want You To Be The Victim, Too

"Hunting preserves for psychopaths."

Federal Appeals Court upholds Georgia ban on guns in places of worship.

Federal Appeals Court Judge Gerald Tjoflat

More black-robed thuggery.

John Monroe, the attorney for GeorgiaCarry.org, said he did not know yet if the group would continue its challenge. But, he said, the decision referenced an argument the group did not make.

"The state can't prohibit anyone form carrying a gun in church," Monroe said. "We never argued that a person should be able to carry against the church's wishes."

David Codrea: Menino Chick-fil-A stance shows guns aren’t only freedom ‘progressives’ threaten

The Founders must be picking up speed rolling in their graves.

David and I make the Italian press. "Il Watergate delle armi di Obama?"

The Italian Job.

David has the links here. The original in Italian is here. A horrendously bad Google translation is here: The Watergate of weapons of Obama discovered by two bloggers.

More confirmation that the theater was a victim disarmament zone.

Colorado theater called 'gun-free' zone.

David Codrea: 'Tea Partier' Jim Holmes calls ABC tie-in on Batman shooting ‘blatantly lazy’

"An earlier ABC News broadcast report suggested that a Jim Holmes of a Colorado Tea Party organization might be the suspect, but that report was incorrect," ABC News said in a statement. "ABC News and Brian Ross apologize for the mistake, and for disseminating that information before it was properly vetted."

Lesson of Colorado: Ignore Victim Disarmament Zones and pack concealed anyway.

You know, my daughters go to the movies. What if Malia and Sasha had been at the theater, as so many of our kids do every day? -- Barack Obama reacting to the "Colorado Movie Massacre."

I'll tell you what would have happened -- the Secret Service protective detail would have put several bullets through the facepiece of the moke's gas mask -- end of story. The hypocrisy of these Mandarins, who live in bodyguard envelopes whenever they venture out of their designated Green Zones, knows no bounds. One of my daughters went to another midnight showing of the same movie here in Birmingham last night. She went with her boyfriend who was packing his permitted FEG Browning Hi-Power clone, despite the fact that the theater has a "no guns" policy.

Virginia Citizens Defense League lists Cinemark Theaters (which also owns Tinseltown, Cinearts, and Century Theatres) as being victim disarmament zones upon orders of the management. If so, it was only a matter of time before something like this happened.

Of course, as I lay on the couch upstairs this morning trying to control my nausea, I watched the predictable blood dancers of the victim disarmament crowd (Bloomberg, the Brady Bunch, et. al.) who made it more difficult to hold down my breakfast (a struggle I ultimately lost).

To me, the lesson of last night is to ignore Victim Disarmament Zones and pack concealed anyway. Only you are responsible for your safety, not some risk-averse corporate drone a thousand miles away.

We will find out in time what motivated this evil prick, but the essential lesson is that only the ARMED intended victims of a mass shooting can interrupt them in time to make a difference. The same goes for government-sponsored genocides.

Having another rough day medically.

Don't know how many posts I'll be doing.

Something else to thank George W. Bush for. . .

"No, George, for this to work right, you've got to turn around and bend over."

USDA partnering with Mexico to boost food stamp participation.

The Mexican government has been working with the United States Department of Agriculture to increase participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps.

USDA has an agreement with Mexico to promote American food assistance programs, including food stamps, among Mexican Americans, Mexican nationals and migrant communities in America.

“USDA and the government of Mexico have entered into a partnership to help educate eligible Mexican nationals living in the United States about available nutrition assistance,” the USDA explains in a brief paragraph on their “Reaching Low-Income Hispanics With Nutrition Assistance” web page. “Mexico will help disseminate this information through its embassy and network of approximately 50 consular offices.”

The partnership — which was signed by former USDA Secretary Ann M. Veneman and Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs Luis Ernesto Derbez Bautista in 2004 — sees to it that the Mexican Embassy and Mexican consulates in America provide USDA nutrition assistance program information to Mexican Americans, Mexican nationals working in America and migrant communities in America. The information is specifically focused on eligibility criteria and access.

David Codrea: ATF damage control on whistleblowers raising new concerns.

“If you’ll notice in the email from [ATF Associate Chief Counsel Joel J.] Rossner, he’s telling the managers not to ask any of the whistleblowers if they are indeed whistleblowers,” Madea explained. “Because you see, if the managers asked the question and got caught retaliating, the managers could not claim they “DIDN’T KNOW” when the inevitable lawsuit goes before the MSPB [Merit System Protection Board] or Federal Court. And in this case, you can believe these managers will go before congress and claim they ‘didn’t know he was a whistleblower at the time of the alleged reprisal.”

Dismantling of a Culture: America’s elites now disdain the rest of America. "Expecting post-religious, Bible-ignorant thinkers to grasp America is like expecting a gerbil to sing Pagliacci."

Interview with David Gelernter.

The Cultural Revolution itself began right after World War II (when our leading colleges were still in the hands of the generally centrist WASP elite) and culminated around 1970, when intellectuals were in control, and preparing to use these universities as platforms for imposing their worldview throughout the schools’ establishment and cultural elite. . .

American culture had its throat slit and bled to death at our feet. Isn’t that revolutionary enough? The blood is only metaphorical, but to the 40 percent of [all] infants [who are] born to single mothers this year, the consequences will be real.

In a piddling few decades, the world’s most powerful, influential cultural establishment happened to get demolished and rebuilt from the ground up. What had been basically a Christian, patriotic, family-loving, politically moderate part of society became contemptuous of biblical religion, of patriotism, of the family, of American greatness. The American cultural elite used to resemble (more or less) the rest of America. Today it disdains the rest of America. That’s a revolution.

My favorite line in this interview: "Expecting post-religious, Bible-ignorant thinkers to grasp America is like expecting a gerbil to sing Pagliacci."

Un-american.

Too right. Obama is instead Amerikan.

John Solomon rips the "Mr. Friendly" mask off B. Todd Jones.

"No more Mister Nice Guy."

"ATF chief warns of 'consequences' to outside whistleblowing."

The federal prosecutor brought in to reform the embattled Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the aftermath of the Fast and Furious gun scandal distributed a videotaped message to employees this month warning there would be “consequences” for reporting wrongdoing outside their chain of command.

The video, obtained by the Washington Guardian, immediately raised alarm among agents in the field, members of Congress and whistleblower advocates

“Choices and consequences means simply that if you make poor choices, that if you don’t abide by the rules, that if you don’t respect the chain of command, if you don’t find the appropriate way to raise your concerns to your leadership, there will be consequences,” Acting Director B. Todd Jones told the employees in a video distributed July 9 by email and closed-circuit TV and obtained by the Washington Guardian.

The 3 minute, 22 second videotape was the last of eight “Changecasts” that Jones distributed to ATF employees in recent weeks to describe how he planned to run the agency, improve morale and instill a new culture in the aftermath of one of the agency's worst scandals.

ATF officials in Washington and rank-and-file agents told the Washington Guardian that the tape was interpreted by many as a warning not to pursue the path of the Arizona agents who went outside the agency in 2011 and reported concerns to Congress about the bungled Fast and Furious gun probe that let semiautomatic weapons flow to Mexican drug gangs.

Darrell Issa and Charles Grassley are not amused.

Grassley and Issa wrote to Jones, “Your ominous message – which could be interpreted as a threat – is likely to have a major chilling effect on ATF employees exercising their rights to contact Congress. Therefore, it needs to be clarified.”

Their letter here.

4GW: Brilliant example of 4th Generation Warfare in Syria.

"I'm gonna have to get some more deputies."

"Syria Bomb Attack Targets Assad Inner Circle." Exactly how they did it is a bit unclear, but the Syrian resistance went a long way to chopping the head off Assad's snake with a single, targeted attack.

The brother-in-law of Syrian president Bashar al Assad and his defence minister are among three killed by a bomb that struck at the heart of the country's security elite.

Assef Shawkat and defence chief Daoud Rajha died in the blast at a meeting of senior security and government figures in Damascus.

Syrian general Hassan Turkmani, a former defence minister and senior military official, was also killed, and several others were wounded.

The attack, which sparked apparent celebrations in parts of the capital, is by far the most serious on the president's inner circle and some analysts believe it marks the "beginning of the end" for the Assad regime.

These were not just military commanders, but major supporters of the regime -- not to mention war criminals. My bet is that this marks the real turning point in this civil war. All tyrant-wannabes should take note. This is the way 4GW is fought. Don't start nothin', won't be nothin'.

More ATF bloviating on the subject of "The Attack of the Eighty Percent Receivers."

"Unfinished Gun Parts Getting ATF Attention."

Praxis: Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden

Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians.

Fascinating and full of primitive gardening tips. A tip of the boonie hat to FG for forwarding it. Preppers should probably print it out.

Can't wait to read this one. The Communist. Frank Marshall Davis: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mentor

Frontpage Magazine interview with Paul Kengor, Ph.D

FP: Ok, so who was Frank Marshall Davis?

Kengor: Frank Marshall Davis, Communist Party USA (CPUSA) number 47544, was a 20th century American who wrote pro-Soviet propaganda in newspaper columns and was a loyal Soviet patriot.

FP: What do you mean by “loyal Soviet patriot?”

Kengor: While it will shock naïve liberals who still don’t grasp the horrors of communism, readers of FrontPage will understand. Leftist Americans who took the extraordinary step of joining CPUSA swore a loyalty oath to the USSR—Stalin’s USSR in the case of Frank Marshall Davis. The oath stated: “I pledge myself to rally the masses to defend the Soviet Union, the land of victorious socialism. I pledge myself to remain at all times a vigilant and firm defender of the Leninist line of the Party, the only line that insures the triumph of Soviet Power in the United States.”

FP: When did Frank Marshall Davis join the Communist Party?

Kengor: Remarkably, he joined early in World War II, after the Hitler-Stalin Pact—a period when many Party members bolted the Party because they were outraged at Stalin signing that pact with Hitler. That pact, of course, precipitated the invasion of Poland and World War II. Jewish American communists in particular were aghast. The man in Moscow to whom they swore their unwavering allegiance had helped pave the way for the Holocaust.

Here it is at Amazon: The Communist.

Frank Marshall Davis (1905-1987).

David Codrea: Trial begins for N.M. gun dealer family charged with illegal sales.

"Concerns for the validity and fairness of what the government represented early on as a slam dunk case have surfaced following revelations that the family has been forced into a fixed fight by having to face an opponent with unlimited resources, including the government’s ability to limit their access to defense funds through seizures. Adding to this are acknowledgments that the family dutifully followed rules on purchaser background checks and record-keeping, including tax reporting, did not attempt to collect a premium for any of the firearms involved, that law enforcement officers were routinely employed and supported by the store, and that wife Terri Reese actually attempted to report a suspected straw buyer before the government began investigating her family."

Should have known I would jinx it.

The latest info is that the next Lou Dobbs interview has been pushed off until next Tuesday. Should have known I would jinx it by saying anything. Maybe my stomach won't be flying loops around my spine next week.

I'm ashamed I didn't think of this, although if I offered anything more than $1.98 as reward money people would know I was lying.

"Reward offered for White House Fast & Furious info."

One of the nation's oldest conservatives group is offering whistleblowers a $100,000 reward for information from the White House and Justice Department on the "Fast & Furious" administration gun-running bungle.

The Conservative Caucus told Secrets that it believes that the scandal which led to the death of a U.S. Border Control agent is a potential Watergate.

Their reward poster reads: "If you have verifiable evidence that President Obama or one of his aides knew about Operation Fast & Furious while it was underway, Call 1-888-692-7374 toll free. This is your opportunity to save yourself before Operation Fast & Furious comes crashing down like Watergate. Don't go to jail. Turn states evidence now just like John Dean did. The truth will come out. Will you be caught in the web of Operation Fast & Furious, or will you avoid jail time?"

Peter Thomas, who heads the grass roots conservative group formed by Howard Phillips in 1974, said "We felt forced to run this advertisement and offer the $100,000 reward because justice was not being served, and we wanted to offer an opportunity to anyone who knows the truth to save yourself before Operation Fast & Furious comes crashing down like Watergate; to make the right choice now."

"DOJ withheld 'Fast and Furious' whistleblower memo."

John Solomon has the story.

The Justice Department has withheld from Congress memos showing that senior officials inside the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives began preparing as early as February 2011 to treat the agents who unmasked the bungled Fast and Furious gun operation as whistleblowers.

The memos, obtained by the Washington Guardian, were triggered by the agents' allegations, Justice officials confirmed. In them, ATF officials in Washington instructed field supervisors not to retaliate against the agents in Arizona who complained they had been ordered to let semiautomatic weapons flow to suspected straw buyers for Mexican drug cartels rather than interdicting them.

Even as the warning was being sent, Obama administration political appointees were publicly undercutting the agents’ credibility, insisting to Congress that ATF never knowingly let weapons cross the border into Mexico’s violent drug wars - a denial that turned out to be false.

Rough patch.

Side effects of my cancer med took me out of the fight for the past day or so. Have much to do before Friday so I'll try to play catch-up today if my nausea level allows. Sorry for the missed day.

"DHS – Praise Lord Obama and pass the ammo."

"The following chart demonstrates the frequency, quantity, and variety of ammunition the Department of Homeland Security has awarded to a variety of providers since Mr. Obama took office in January 2009. Solicitation and award notifications are available upon request."

“White Girl Bleed A Lot”

From Dr. Thomas Sowell: "Are race riots not news?"

When I first saw a book with the title, “White Girl Bleed A Lot” by Colin Flaherty, I instantly knew what it was about, even though I had not seen the book reviewed anywhere, and knew nothing about the author.

That is because I had encountered that phrase before, while doing research for the four new chapters on intellectuals and race that I added to the revised edition of my own book, “Intellectuals and Society,” published this year.

More of Vanderboegh and Codrea on Lou Dobbs on Friday.

Yup. Hope I don't jinx it, but I guess they liked us. We'll try to have some news to break by then.

"Do Obama's Executive Orders Reveal A Pattern?"

More on the nascent Obama tyranny.

Dems demonstrate the difference between them and the GOP boneless chickens.

"I've got balls. No, really, I do. I keep 'em right here in my pocket where I can take 'em out and look at 'em every now and then."

The Democrats play hardball

President Barack Obama and congressional Democratic leaders enter the final stretch of the legislative year prepared to play hardball: They refuse to budge on the looming defense cuts and expiring Bush-era tax cuts.

The Democratic hard line — asserted by Obama at a private Oval Office meeting with senior party leaders last week — is based squarely on the belief that Republicans will cave on taxes because the GOP has far less leverage than it did after its resounding success in the 2010 elections.

The Boneless Chicken Ranch: Where GOP leadership is raised.

David Codrea: Retaliation fears keeping more ATF whistleblowers from coming forward.

"A combination of fear that Department of Justice and ATF management will take revenge on them, and that most of the press and administration-supporting lawmakers will allow and even encourage that to happen, is keeping critics of agency corruption and abuse silent, Gun Rights Examiner learned over the weekend through a series of emails and telephone discussions with an agent whose name is being withheld for that reason."

Grassley: Can U.S. attorney be trusted in Furious probe?

Darned good question.

Maybe they'll get "Gunwalker Bill" Newell to teach the Aussies a few of his gun control meme tricks.

Tie me kangaroo down, sport. US experts to train officers for illicit weapons fight.

Sorry, guys, but I've had a pretty rocky weekend.

Hoped to have a couple of "Torpedo Los!" stories ready for today, but now it looks like tomorrow at least.

Sipsey Street Exclusive: Stratfor's "intelligence" analysis of Gunwalker less than persuasive. ATF's new target: "The Attack of the Eighty Percent Receiver."

I have never been particularly impressed with Stratfor Global Intelligence's analyses of current events, and had that reaffirmed with a recent article entitled, "The Other Consequences of Fast and Furious."

Beginning with the false premise that the majority of cartel weapons in Mexico were obtained from American gun shows and gun stores (precisely the propaganda point that the Gunwalker Scandal was designed to elicit), Stratfor eschews witha sniff the political controversy and says:

Rather, we are more interested in the way that criticism of Fast and Furious has altered law enforcement efforts to stem the flow of guns from the United States to Mexico and the way these changes will influence how Mexican cartels acquire weapons.

The Statfor article then details "Law Enforcement Shifts" based almost entirely on ATF sources, designed to push the "Iron River" meme and the valiant struggle of the gun cops to overcome it.

Despite their impact, the law enforcement and reporting changes cannot stem the tide of weapons entirely. In the same way that drug flows adapt to law enforcement interdiction efforts, weapons flows will also adjust. Previous federal investigations have shown that Mexican cartels have contacts in many different parts of the United States, including cities such as Chicago and Atlanta, far from the border. One way to bypass the increase in ATF inspections and the border state reporting requirements is to buy guns in states located farther from the border. Of course, this would require the weapons to be transported longer distances to get to Mexico, increasing transportation costs as well as exposure to interdiction efforts. A shift in the points of purchase would also almost certainly result in the expansion of the new reporting requirements to other states.

Although it will never be possible to completely cut off the flow of guns to Mexico from the United States, it can be reduced. This would force the cartels to search for new sources of weapons.

Riiiight. And what are these new sources? Why Stratfor has a suspect, courtesy of the ATF, the "80% receiver."

One significant emerging source of AR-15/M16 variants is something called an 80 percent lower receiver. (The lower receiver is the part of the AR-15/M16/M4 that carries a manufacturer's serial number. These 80 percent lower receivers do not have any serial numbers.) Under U.S. federal firearms law, the unfinished lower receiver is not considered a firearm and thus can be shipped anywhere and sold to anyone without a license. Once the remaining machining on the lower receiver is completed, one can build an AR-15, M16 or M4 carbine by purchasing the additional required parts -- such as the bolt assembly, trigger assembly and barrel -- which also are not considered firearms. Once the weapon is fully assembled, it is then considered a firearm and subject to federal firearms law.

While the 80 percent lower receivers are intended for do-it-yourself gun enthusiasts, according to the ATF, these guns have also begun to show up in increasing numbers in Mexico.

Many if not most of the semi-automatic rifles purchased in the United States and smuggled into Mexico are converted to be capable of fully automatic fire by armorers working for various cartel groups. The same armorers are capable of finishing the machining on 80 percent lower receivers and assembling completed firearms from them. The finishing process is not difficult, and there are specialized jigs one can buy and instructional videos posted on the Internet to assist in the process. With experience, proper parts and equipment, a competent machinist can quickly and easily finish a lower receiver in an hour or less.

I did some checking around and this business of the "eighty percent receiver" says more about the appetite of the ATF for an expanded mandate to control gun manufacturing in this country than it does about reality in Mexico.

I asked a number of folks including Georgia gun designer and SOT-licensed manufacturer Len Savage (a good friend of Ramsey A. Bear) about the Statfor article's premises and he replied to the email recipients:

I saw this earlier this week.

A couple of things to note:

* 80% receiver thing...bullshit. There is no such thing. ATF or any govt agency does not recognize 80%. Term of art nothing more.

* Since the mid 90's manufacturing machinery has been going to Mexico...I KNOW this. I made some of those machines that went when I worked for SESCO (Special Engineering Services Co.)

* With a simple and relatively cheap 3 axis CNC you can just push a button and make as many machinegun receivers as you wish....Prints and data package are available online at no cost (google if you don't believe me).

* Mike has been to my shop, and can tell you: very simple and modest (less than 800 square feet) and no CNC equipment. I make MG's or semiautos regularly in it. There is also the example of the Khyber pass gun makers in mud huts, an anvil and files have been making guns for the last hundred years with no electricity!!!!!

* With cartel money and influence they could get the equipment and it is not that difficult (think of all the small ffl/07's in this country working out of their homes and garages) Ronny Barrett designed and made his now famous .50 cal sniper rifle in his garage on simple machines.

A source within the ATF confirmed that the "eighty percent receiver" was just "the latest boogeyman-threat invented by the higher-ups to persuade the Congress to give them more power to regulate manufacturers and strangle the legal individual manufacture of semi-auto ARs for personal use."

Another source familiar with the gun industry pointed out that the eighty percent receiver's offered for sale were "just not that cheap. If you're a drug cartel drowning in money, you can afford an arms manufactory with all the bells and whistles . . . (after the initial investment in machinery) you can crank 'em out, for a fraction of the cost of the 80 percent receiver blank, which still requires machining to finish it anyway."

Readers may recall this story from back in October of last year which quoted a State Department cable from October 2009 which warned:

"Claims by Mexican and U.S. officials that upwards of 90 percent of illegal recovered weapons can be traced back to the U.S. is based on an incomplete survey of confiscated weapons. In point of fact, without wider access to the weapons seized in Mexico, we really have no way of verifying these numbers."

Thefts from Mexican government arsenals, importations of weapons left over from the guerrilla wars in Central and South America in the 90s are also significant sources of cartel weapons. Yet, the meme invented by Billy Hoover of the ATF and parroted by many anti-gun politicians including the President, has always been that American gun shows and gun stores (the same gun stores whose owners had to be coerced into selling to straw buyers) are the principal sources of cartel weapons.

In this lie, Stafor has now apparently been recruited as a willing pawn. So much for "intelligence."

And speaking of elites . . . lest we forget.

Progressive genocide.

More astonishing than the number of people sterilized is the long list of famous Americans who supported and sanctioned such programs. Bruinius takes his book’s title from the 1927 Supreme Court majority opinion in Buck v. Bell, which ruled that the Constitution did not prohibit Virginia — and, consequently, other states — from sterilizing its citizens. The opinion, by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., is Bruinius’ trump card, and he repeats bits of it often; if you have trouble believing that anyone with half a brain might have bought the arguments of eugenicists, the opinion settles the matter.

“We have seen more than once that the public welfare may call upon the best citizens for their lives,” Holmes wrote. “It would be strange if it could not call upon those who already sap the strength of the State for these lesser sacrifices [ i.e., forced sterilization], often not felt to be such by those concerned, in order to prevent our being swamped with incompetence. It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind.” Referring to Carrie Buck, the plaintiff in the case whom the state intended to sterilize, and whose mother and daughter both had been suspected by doctors to be afflicted with feeblemindedness, Holmes added: “Three generations of imbeciles are enough.” (As Bruinius points out, Holmes had this label wrong; Buck and her kin had been diagnosed as morons, not imbeciles.)

Others who supported eugenics included Victoria Woodhull, the suffragist and progressive activist who was the first woman to run for president; the inventor Alexander Graham Bell (who later moved away from the movement); foundations connected with the Carnegies, the Harrimans and the Rockefellers, which donated large sums toward eugenics research; professors at leading universities, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Johns Hopkins; and editorialists of the New York Times. Bruinius also fingers Margaret Sanger, the birth control advocate who founded the American Birth Control League, the predecessor to Planned Parenthood, as having sympathy for eugenics; though Sanger did say many suspect things, her closeness to the movement has been questioned and rejected by her supporters. Then there was Theodore Roosevelt, who, in a letter to the eugenicist Charles Davenport in 1913, hoped that “Someday we will realize that the prime duty, the inescapable duty, of the good citizen of the right type is to leave his or her blood behind him in the world; and that we have no business to permit the perpetuation of citizens of the wrong type.”

It’s not exactly clear what Roosevelt meant by “citizens of the wrong type,” but it should be noted that as eugenics thinking matured, many supporters began to see the delineations between people of the right and wrong type as extending beyond just mental categories. Leading eugenicists argued that science proved that non-whites were genetically inferior to whites, that certain kinds of Europeans were better than other kinds, and that you should never trust a Jew. The eugenicists’ claims were touted by opportunistic politicians, who used the scientific findings to pass restrictive immigration laws in the U.S.

The Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics.

Hitler studied American eugenics laws. He tried to legitimize his anti-Semitism by medicalizing it, and wrapping it in the more palatable pseudoscientific facade of eugenics. Hitler was able to recruit more followers among reasonable Germans by claiming that science was on his side. While Hitler's race hatred sprung from his own mind, the intellectual outlines of the eugenics Hitler adopted in 1924 were made in America.

During the '20s, Carnegie Institution eugenic scientists cultivated deep personal and professional relationships with Germany's fascist eugenicists. In Mein Kampf, published in 1924, Hitler quoted American eugenic ideology and openly displayed a thorough knowledge of American eugenics. "There is today one state," wrote Hitler, "in which at least weak beginnings toward a better conception [of immigration] are noticeable. Of course, it is not our model German Republic, but the United States."

David Brooks embraces his inner (and outer) elitist. (He just wants all the other elitists to be like him.)

And they call this guy a "conservative."

Republican National Committee begins to dip its toe into the Fast and Furious scandal pool.

RNC: Obama hasn’t answered for Fast and Furious ‘scandal’

Republicans are hammering President Obama over his handling of a failed gun-tracking operation and the ensuing contempt vote of his attorney general, even as national polls show that the majority of voters see the moves as largely political.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) hit Obama Friday for not taking more responsibility for the problems in his administration, saying that he’s unfairly attacking GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s record as a chief executive of a private equity firm when he has “scandals” of his own.

“Obama says he is responsible for what happens under his watch, but won't answer for the scandals that have plagued his administration,” said the RNC in an e-mail blast.

The RNC pointed to “Fast and Furious” as a key example. The botched operation was run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and authorized the sale of nearly 2,000 weapons to known straw buyers for Mexican drug cartels. It may have contributed to the killing of a Border Patrol agent.

"Nick Gillespie owns Rachel Maddow and Bill Maher over Fast and Furious."

Missed this earlier.

"Taking Down the Second Amendment: The Connection between Fast and Furious and the Trayvon Martin Case."

Another analysis piece from Jeff Lipkes at American Thinker:

Why was Holder willing to become the first sitting Cabinet officer in history to be held in contempt of Congress? Why was the White House suddenly willing, at the 11th hour, to invoke executive privilege -- recalling the seamy Watergate scandal -- if the documents do not implicate Tricky Barack? Even with a pussycat press, these are significant crosses to bear going into an election campaign.

Again, the only logical explanation is that the objective of F&F was the "expected legislative developments" and that this objective was discussed "at the highest levels of the White House," as reporters used to repeat during the halcyon days of Watergate. If supervisors were "giddy" with delight when guns found at crime scenes in Mexico were traced to the operation, it was because that was the mission's goal. . .

Holder has an interesting take on this amendment. Asked on ABC News in 1999 if he understood it to mean that "citizens have a right to bear arms" and to "buy a firearm," Holder replied, "No court has ever said that the 2nd Amendment actually says that. I think if you look at it, it talks about bearing guns in a well regulated militia. And I don't think anywhere it talks about an individual" (Pavlich, 22). The Founders, in other words, were using "people" as in "People's Republic of China," not as a synonym for "the population."

Before Fast and Furious, the AG was notorious for engineering last-minute pardons for Marc Rich, on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List for the largest tax fraud in history, and for sixteen members of FALN, the Puerto Rican terrorist group that killed several people in bombings in Chicago and New York.

But a more revealing accomplishment was his role as point man in the kidnapping of Elian Gonzalez. After applying for a court order to seize the boy from his legal guardian, Holder went ahead with the operation without one, then baldly denied that Elian was seized at gunpoint. Holder was not fazed by the fact that millions of people throughout the world had seen Alan Diaz's disturbing photo.

Holder's 130-man INS militia brought enough assault weapons to have taken out Lazaro Gonzalez, Elian's uncle, and any other family members who had armed themselves. But he might have hesitated. It would have been tough to portray the Gonzalez family as nutcase Branch Dravidians. At the very least, Holder might have been tempted to have waited for a court order.

And if the SWAT team had broken in with guns blazing and left with blood on its hands, the next time the feds faced armed opposition -- say, to the return of a fifteen-year-old runaway to her father so she could marry her cousin in Lahore -- they might have been even more wary.

* * *

The murder of Brian Terry has temporarily derailed the administration's plans to slowly, incrementally nationalize Chicago-style gun laws. But there are other fronts in this war, and the vilification of George Zimmerman seems to be very much a part of the campaign to take firearms out of the hands of private citizens. It's a clever strategy: no one has to mention the "g" word.

The surveillance state marches on.

"Hidden Government Scanners Will Instantly Know Everything About You From 164 Feet Away."

Maybe they should pass a gun ban law. Oh, wait . . .

"NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly rails against community leaders for their 'silence' after a week where 77 people were shot in the city."

David Codrea: Holder bar complaint called ‘specious, frivolous’ as Issa ethics charge is filed. “We’re having fun. It’s the Justice Department that’s desperate.”

“It appears to be a desperate attempt by some factions to drag out the destructive, political games that Americans are rightly fed up with."

“There are political games Americans are rightly fed up with,” responded Mike Vanderboegh, one of the co-signers of the Holder ethics complaint. “They’re coming from those who place shielding their positions of privilege above finding out the truth, and who are doing everything in their power to discourage an open investigation.”

“As for rejecting the complaint because of assumptions it makes, its unarguable that the Attorney General has been found in contempt of Congress. On that basis alone, the DC Bar has not just the authority, but the responsibility to conduct an investigation,” he said.

“I also take exception to the accusation that we’re desperate,” Vanderboegh laughed. “We’re having fun. It’s the Justice Department that’s desperate.”

Another country heard from . . .

This typical comment was appended to one of my posts when I was having a rough day. It is, no doubt, from one of those brilliant intellects over at Media Matters, or, perhaps, comes "Gunwalker Bill" Newell:

Chemo?! One of the two words I was hoping to hear attached to your name! 'Terminal' is the other one. Details, details! Will you be dead soon, or should we expect the air to be fouled with your presence for more than a few more weeks? You sure looked like shit on Dobbs the other night, hopefully that's an indication that the time is short. Give me a rough date to mark on the calendar so I can have a taste of champagne on the day your sorry carcass is hauled off to the trash heap.

It's okay for the GOP leadership to go swimming in Lake Lou Yaeger -- the fish only eat testicles.

"Well, THAT'S a relief."

Pacu, Testicle-Eating Fish Species, Caught In Lake Lou Yaeger In Illinois.

Residents of Papua New Guinea may beg to differ. There, according to British fisherman Jeremy Wade, the pacu is known as the "ball cutter." In 2011, Wade said locals informed him that two fisherman had died from blood loss after something in the water had bitten off their testicles, according to the Metro.

"The locals told me that this thing was like a human in the water, biting at the testicles of fishermen," Wade said.

Wade determined that the perpetrator was the pacu, which is known for having human-like teeth.

AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE. Well that didn't take long. What did I tell you? Media Matters wets pants again over the Lou Dobbs interview. Can Rachel resist her obsession with me or will she follow suit?

"Fox Business' Dobbs Fawns Over Terror-Inspiring Blogger."

I posted this comment:

I just wanted to say that I love living in you MM mokes' heads rent-free. The only thing better is the same arrangement I seem to have with Rachel Madcow -- only she pays my utilities there as well and she's in higher real estate market. -- Vanderboegh

I wonder, can Rachel resist her obsession with me or will she follow suit? You know the last time I got an 18 minute "enemy of the people" rant from her. I think an appearance on Lou Dobbs would be worth at least twenty minutes.

The premier advocate of a government monopoly of violence denounces "The Return of the Nullifiers." (I didn't know it, but I'm a "nullifier.")

I mean, really, who knew?

David Codrea: Attorney responds to claim that consistency was purpose behind ATF form change.

"An attorney reporting a change to ATF’s Form 4473 Firearms Transaction Record requiring gun buyers to identify if their “ethnicity” is 'Hispanic or Latino,' says dismissing the revision as simply a move to standardize race and ethnicity on all federal forms is 'a lame excuse' that ignores several key considerations."

Media Matters poster gets irked at my characterization of them as collectivists.

"Danielsangeo" over at MM wrote:

Mike, we don't care if you're an ex-communist. We're not communists either. You're way off base.

To which I replied:

You are ALL collectivists though, certainly. There are many varieties of collectivism, from Marxist-Leninists and National Socialists through fascists and socialists to racists, tribalists and religious collectivists. The only difference between a socialist and a communist is that the socialist hasn't found his AK-47 yet and worked up the guts to use it. An old German surgeon once told me that all political systems should be judged by their results -- principally in terms of how much individual liberty they allowed and how many bodies they stacked up. Viewed thusly, the political continuum is not a line, but a circle, with communism and National Socialism cheek-by-jowl down at the bottom and lesser virulent forms of like collectivisms arrayed up the two arcs of the circle until you get to the apex of the Founder's Constitutional Republic of the rule of law and limited government power enhancing the ability of free men and women to experience the "pursuit of happiness" of liberty, property and life. When you use government power to extort -- by government violence -- compliance for a purpose you find laudable but they do not (and what federal law these days does not come with that steel fist at its core?) you invite defensive violence on the part of people who decline to be extorted. Herr Dokter Richter knew what he was talking about, and he suggested that I read Hayek's The Road to Serfdom, followed by Hoffer's The True Believer. He knew the collectivist big lie, having seen the monumental crime of millions of young men killing each other in the snows of Russia for murderous causes hardly much more different than the faces of the leaders. That chance meeting caused me to rethink everything I thought I knew.

We -- that is the folks who I represent a small sliver of a sample of -- and you here at the laughably named "Media Matters" (as well as the larger populations we agree with) are divided upon the answer to the fundamental question -- does the government serve the people or do the people serve the government? Which is to be superior? The collective or the individual? I stand on the side of individual liberty. This is not a question whose answer can be finessed or negotiated for the answers are mutually antagonistic. Historically such conflicts are almost always settled by violence for that very reason. Your "reasonable regulation" is our "intolerable act." From our point of view, we've been pushed back from the free exercise of our God-given and inalienable rights for many years now. You should not be all that surprised that some of us have decided to warn you that we can shove back.

And let's get one thing straight, at least, since everyone here seems to think within the straight-jacket of party politics, this has nothing to do with that false dichotomy. I am not a member of the GOP, nor are most of my friends. I'm proud to say I've been on the enemies lists of the past three White Houses. Mostly that is because I'm a big believer in the antiseptic qualities of sunlight on government conduct. The ATF whistleblowers came to us in spite of our philosophical differences because they knew we shared that principle and that our past track record proved we couldn't be bullied off of it.

I find it ironic -- but perfectly understandable given the propensity of all collectivists to embrace cognitive dissonance -- that y'all spend so much effort defending the bureaucracy of federal law enforcement agencies just because they now temporarily serve the nominal commands of your Dear Leader (anybody remember COINTELPRO?). This puts the lie to your perception of yourselves as "defenders of civil liberties." (They same goes for so-called neo-Cons.) Civil liberties for thee but not for me. I get it. What you don't get is that if somebody decided to start making the trains run to "Arbeit Macht Frei" camps in a future America and fill them with Nancy Pelosi and her ilk (yea, even Media Matters' uncomprehending and foul-mouthed mokes), it would be me and my despised friends who would be blowing up the tracks, cutting the wire and shooting the guards to free you. That is the cost of unbending principle.

Try it sometime.

Mike Vanderboegh