SC Sheriff: Time for citizens to arm themselves

Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright held a news conference Monday to discuss a rape case.

According to TV station WYFF:

Sheriff Chuck Wright opened his news conference by saying, "Our form of justice is not making it." He said, "Carry a concealed weapon. That'll fix it."

More on the DOJ's 'gunwalking' doc dump

From:

The New York Times

CBS

Politico

The Wall Street Journal

Has Lanny Breuer has fallen on his own sword, or if he's been shoved under the DOJ bus? Or something in-between?

A Fast and Furious document dump at the DOJ

Senator Chuck Grassley's office shot out this response (last line is a zinger):

For Immediate ReleaseMonday, October 31, 2011

Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley made the following statement after the Justice Department provided more than 650 pages of documents related to the congressional inquiry into Operation Fast and Furious.  Grassley has been conducting oversight of the strategy since January.

“There are 652 pages of documents that our investigators will scour over the next several days, beyond the few that the Justice Department pointed out.  At first glance, though, the documents indicate that contrary to previous denials by the Justice Department, the criminal division has a great deal of culpability in sweeping the previous Wide Receiver strategy under the rug and then allowing the subsequent Operation Fast and Furious to continue without asking key questions.

“Most importantly, officials raised very appropriate questions related to Operation Wide Receiver at the same time that many of these same officials were receiving briefings on Operation Fast and Furious.  It begs the question why they didn’t ask the same important policy questions about an ongoing case being run out of the same field division.  

“It also appears that the impression left to Senate Judiciary Committee staff was false during a briefing by Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein and several others last February.  Despite their denials of gun walking, it appears that senior Justice Department officials clearly knew that it had happened in Operation Wide Receiver and ignored the red flags that it was happening in Fast and Furious.

“With every document that comes out, the Justice Department loses credibility and the faith of the American people.”

Occupy Atlanta targets foreclosure auctions

Under Georgia law, foreclosure auctions are held on the steps of county courthouses on first Tuesday of every month. Fulton County is among those with auctions scheduled tomorrow.

Occupy Atlanta says it will be at the courthouse as well.

From OccupyAtlanta.org:

Mrs. Obama: It's complicated

Are you paying attention to important issues affecting government and public policy? 

If not, that's okay. First Lady Michelle Obama is making excuses for you.

From a speech she gave last week:

Where do we go from here?  And I know that amidst all of the chatter and the debates, it can be hard to see clearly what’s at stake.  Gets lost.  Because these issues are complicated, and quite frankly, folks are busy, and they’re tired.  We’re raising families and working full-time jobs, and many helping out in their communities on top of all that. 

So many of us just don’t have the time to really follow the news and to sort through all the back and forth and to figure out how all of this stuff connects to our daily lives. But the fact is that in just a little over a year from now, we are going to make a decision between two very different visions for this country.

 It's a recurring theme with this administration. Remember Mr. Obama last July?

Well, let me distinguish between professional politicians and the public at large. The public is not paying close attention to the ins and outs of how a Treasury option goes. They shouldn’t.  They're worrying about their family; they're worrying about their jobs; they're worrying about their neighborhood. They've got a lot of other things on their plate. We're paid to worry about it.  

Y'all are too busy to figure out what's at stake. Government is complicated, and best left to professionals. Or so they say.

It may sound new when the Obamas say it, but it's an old trick. Ronald Reagan warned of it in his first inaugural address:

From time to time, we have been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. But if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price.  

If you want government that respects liberty and looks out for your rights as an individual, don't outsource your civic duty to be informed and active. 

Related post from July 2011

TalkSouthRadio archive link issues

We're experiencing intermittent outages or other technical issues with some of the links to archived shows at TalkSouthRadio.com.

If you find links that don't work, let us know. If you want to hear a particular show, we may be able to provide you with an alternative.

Part of the problem with the archives may be that we're exceeding our bandwidth allotment. Last week's EMP show was especially popular. It remains in replay on our main channel until 1pm EDT Thursday (November 3).

Prepare on warning versus ready in advance

When disaster looms, our society is programmed to react. As severe weather threatens, forecasts go out with warnings, and people rush to the store to get what they need to weather the storm.

But there are flaws with the prepare on warning model. There is a better, more traditional way to be ready even if an emergency comes with plenty of warning. General preparation in advance of warning is the philosophy that carried society through the ages before the advent of complex forecast and warning systems.

Don and I, as follow up to last week's EMP show, will talk about the pros and cons of these different prep philosophies on the next Don and Doug. We'll talk practical advice. You don't have to join a cult or talk in funny acronyms to undertake some common sense steps to protect yourself and your family.

We'll also ease back into some of the current event analysis that shows why being ready is more important that ever. It doesn't have to be an EMP event that shakes your world. It could be something as simple as an early snow storm.

Join us for Don and Doug Thursday at 1pm EDT on TalkSouthRadio.com.

Different strokes for different folks

While some Occupy Wall Street campers tough it out in tents in snowy, sub-freezing temps in cities around the country... AJC.com reports Occupy Atlanta has chosen to relocate to a homeless shelter.

Hooked on Government

From Bloomberg Businessweek: 

A record 49 percent of Americans live in a household where someone receives at least one type of government benefit, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. 

Women and guns

A recent Gallup survey found gun ownership is rising among women.

And it apparently goes beyond just pocket pistols.

It's no longer just us old guys like me that can tell the difference between a Mossberg and a Mosin.

Keep your eyes on Palestine (and Syria)

One of my favorite songs from the '70s was a Larry Norman tune called Peace, Pollution, Revolution.

The word is revolution, but no one's fired a shot
Each side has its battle plan, a million counter plots.
And the world is closely watching as we near the battle lines.
But if you're truly wise, you'll keep your eyes on Palestine.

A few Middle East headlines of the past day or two:

Violence escalates in Syria, while Syrian President Assad warns against Western intervention.
Meanwhile, events in Israel have heated up the following Israeli airstrikes on militants in Gaza.
And, in Yemen, a top counter-terrorism official has been assassinated by car bomb.

Don't get so caught up in the circuses on our own streets that you fail to see what's escalating elsewhere.

Is the Occupy movement running behind schedule?

Van Jones promised last month that we should hold on to our seats, that October would be the turning point in what Jones called the progressive fight-back.

From MSNBC on September 29:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

So far, October has delivered some protests and urban camp outs. There's been some skirmishes with police.

If anything, the progressives' standing with most Americans may diminish if what we've seen so far is the best they can do.

Talk of secession at Occupy DC

Check out the interview with an Occupy DC spokesman at The Daily Caller.

The spokesman, identified by the Daily Caller as union organizer Anthony Sluder, not only talks crazy secession rhetoric, he's sloppy with his history.

He says the Founding Fathers spent 1775 "developing" our Constitution.

The U.S. Constitution was written in 1787, and signed by members of the Constitutional Convention on September 17 of that year. After the ratification process, the U.S. government under the Constitution commenced in 1789.

Why would the Founding Father need a constitution in 1775? They didn't come up with the Declaration of Independence until 1776.

Airplanes into buildings

Occupy Wall Street apparently thinks it's clever.


ThinkProgressVideo via YouTube.com

One gun shut down Occupy Atlanta

Some have taken the presence of a man with an AK-47 at Occupy Atlanta's base camp as a sign of the left about to go violent.

But what if the gun toter had another objective such as unmasking official bias against those practicing rights guaranteed by the First and Second Amendments in a manner fully in accordance with Georgia law?

David Codrea expands on the topic at National Gun Rights Examiner and links to a post apparently from the AK guy prior to his arrival at Woodruff Park.

Agree or disagree with the tactic, the power of the Second Amendment was clearly displayed. Government was comfortable with an unarmed crowd, but feared one armed demonstrator.

Another cheery poster from Occupy Oakland

                                      From: OccupyOakland.org

Occupy Oakland got organizing tips from Black Panthers

MercuryNews.com reported former leaders of the original Black Panthers gave Occupy Oakland a pep talk on October 18:

David Hilliard, former chief of staff of the party, gave a rousing speech about organizing. Former party members will also speak at Laney College tomorrow afternoon from 4 to 6 p.m. to talk about their 10 point organizing principles. 

"I bet Huey Newton is smiling on us right now," said a young man who took the microphone, before reading out the ten points, including housing, education, health care for black, poor and oppressed people, an end to police brutality, an end to wars of aggression and several others. 

A woman in the crowd stood silently with her fist raised in the classic Black Panther pose.

This was not an unplanned, spontaneous appearance. It was promoted in advance by OccupyOakland.org:

Gun ownership is rising

A new Gallup survey shows gun ownership is up. And while Republicans are more likely to own, it looks like Democrats are starting to close the gap. 

Check out the survey findings here. 

The much requested EMP show is available

We took  a break from politics.

This week's Don and Doug spent two hours on EMP: What it is, what its potential is to disrupt our lives, and we kicked around some practical steps you can take now to better your chances of survival if it happens.

The show's in  replay until next Thursday at the TalkSouthRadio site.

Or you can listen from start to finish by accessing the show archive by clicking here.

EMP discussion today at 1pm EDT

Don and I take a break from politics to discuss EMP (electromagentic pulse) today on TalkSouthRadio.com.

As previously posted, Don knows a thing or two about EMP.

We'll talk about possible scenarios. Possible precautions. Maybe even recommend some actions.

Join us for the live show if you can. If not then, catch us on replay later.

Not a keeper

Barack Obama's book Change We Can Believe In now sells used on Amazon for as low as a penny.

Peter Schiff takes on Occupy Wall Streeters

Nothing beats a good sidewalk debate. Schiff was ready. The other side seemed limited to talking points.

From MRC TV:



H/T NoisyRoom.net

Issa questions Napolitano on Fast and Furious

Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) seems perplexed. Why did Homeland Security and Secretary Napolitano take so long to start putting the pieces together?



If you're pressed for time, here's a written account of the exchange from Politico.com that also includes other elements of Napolitano's testimony before the committee.

Occupy London may be a Potemkin occupation

The Daily Mail reports thermal imaging reveals many of the tents are empty at night.

Grassley, Issa question elements in DOJ and ATF narrative

Senator Chuck Grassley from Iowa and Congressman Darrell Issa of California have sent a letter to the attorney general seeking details of a federal agent's murder and questioning the timing of an ATF report concerning a gun that was used.

From Senator Grassley:

For Immediate Release
October 26, 2011 

Grassley, Issa Press for Additional Information on Death of ICE Agent Zapata, Tactics Used in Texas 

WASHINGTON – Senator Chuck Grassley and Congressman Darrell Issa are pressing for additional information into the murder of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata and the tactics used while conducting surveillance on known straw purchasers, raising concerns similar to policies of Operation Fast and Furious out of the Phoenix office. 

The letter explains the inconsistent statements by the Justice Department regarding Otilio Osorio, his brother Ranferi Osorio, and Kelvin Morrison. The three straw purchasers were known to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, long before one of the guns purchased by the brothers was linked to the murder of Agent Zapata. 

To make matters worse, Grassley and Issa wrote in their letter that documents indicate the ATF failed for more than three months to create a Report of Investigation on the November 9 transfer of firearms between the brothers and Morrison and a confidential informant, witnessed by ATF agents. The report was finally written on February 25, 2011—the same day the ATF received the report tracing the Zapata murder weapon back to the purchase by Otilio Osorio.

Grassley and Issa said that documenting investigative steps three months after the fact and only after a trace returned to the murder of a federal agent raises red flags about the nature of ATF’s investigation...

The full release with related links and documents is available here.

More student loan pandering

Education Secretary Arne Duncan was on MSNBC this morning. He says the Obama administration will put caps on student loan repayment.

TheHill.com reports:

“What we’re trying to do is help on the back end, to reduce those monthly payments on those loans,” Duncan said. “To make sure folks have a better opportunity to be successful there — less defaults will strengthen the economy, and we can do this by ourselves. We don’t have to wait for Congress — we can’t wait for Congress. We’re moving ahead today.” 

According to Duncan, the Know Before You Owe plan will cap monthly student loan payments at 10 to 15 percent of the graduate’s income.

The Obama team has long advocated moving student loans out of the private sector and making them a government-only operation.  Now they advocate more money for the pipeline while capping loan  repayment. Sounds like a sure-fire way to run more deficits, and ultimately stick someone else with the bill.

If government wants a put an end to abusive student loan debt, maybe it should stop loaning vast amounts of money to students who are pursuing courses of study that will never allow them to earn sufficient income to make realistic repayments. 

The college and student loan scam

Karl Denninger takes on the college education and student loan game at Market-Ticker.org. He also debunks presidential pandering on the subject.

EMP on Thursday's Don and Doug

As advertised, Don and I will talk EMP and its potential impact on Thursday's (October 27) Don and Doug.

As a warm-up, consider this excerpt from a National Geographic special from 2010:





If you have a specific question or comment you'd like to give us before the show, you can leave a voicemail at 404-981-1775. The live call in number during the show is 678-344-9926.

You can also find me on Twitter (@TalkSouthRadio) before and during the program.

Another stupid study out of Harvard

This one says drinking soft drinks increases the likelihood that teens will carry weapons.

The abstract of the study, conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Vermont School of Economics, says:

Adolescents who drank more than five cans of
soft drinks per week (nearly 30% of the sample) were
significantly more likely to have carried a weapon and to
have been violent with peers, family members and dates
(p<0.01 for carrying a weapon and p<0.001 for the
three violence measures). Frequent soft drink
consumption was associated with a 9 - 15% point
increase in the probability of engaging in aggressive
actions, even after controlling for gender, age, race, body
mass index, typical sleep patterns, tobacco use, alcohol
use and having family dinners.

The study was conducted in Boston high schools. Boston is already a city at war with soft drink consumption.  Which begs the question of how much bias is cooked into the study and its results.

More atrocities reported in Libya

CBS News reports:

Nearly 300 bodies, many of them with their hands tied behind their backs and shot in the head, have been collected from across Sirte and buried in a mass grave. The new government has been slow to confront allegations of atrocities by rebel fighters, despite repeated calls for them to do so.

President Obama told us in March the U.S. military began airstrikes over Libya to "protect civilians." He later amended to the goal to include regime change.


Is our president now pleased with what he's helped bring to pass?

"Comrades in Cairo" send greetings to Occupy Wall Street

OccupyWallStreet.org posts a "Solidarity Statement from Cairo"

MTV spins Occupy Wall Street as infotainment

The network that brought us Beavis and Butt-Head now attempts to turn Occupy Wall Street into a reality show. Here's part of the show pitch from the MTV website:

The special episode will take you to the front lines as MTV cameras follow three young people who get swept up in the political movement that has quickly grown into a global phenomenon. Viewers will be introduced to Bryan, one of the leaders of the Occupy sanitation team. You'll watch as he steels himself against a potential fight with the city when he fears that their request to clean the park is an excuse to evict the protesters... 

The problem for young protesters like Bryan is who do they turn to? Their parents, the government? Many believe it no longer matters who's in charge in Washington because none of those big money politicians has any answers. That might be why this group sees Occupy as a kind of war their generation must wage, one that might not end soon, but which they support because it allows them to speak out against corporate America and voice the concerns they have about not being able to find work. That also explains why nearly half (45 percent) have postponed a major life milestone (marriage, having children) because of the economy or their employment situation.

So far, True Life: I'm Occupying Wall Street is planned as a one-shot special airing November 5. If ratings are good, will MTV consider further episodes?

It's unfortunate, but many Occupiers simply failed to adequately vet their college-age plans. Many now in the streets failed to pick viable areas of study, and racked up mountains of debt pursuing career paths that will never recoup what they've spent. Rather than face reality early on, they patted themselves on the back for pursuing their dreams, and continued to take on more debt. MTV should consider a series along that theme.

Also worth noting: Beavis and Butt-Head return to the MTV schedule this fall. Timing couldn't be better.

We are not a democracy

Here's a great little video. Well worth the investment of eleven minutes it takes to watch:


From YouTube.com  h/t Market-Ticker.org

Among citations in the presentation is this quote from James Madison in the Federalist Papers #10:

"Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths."

EMP on Thursday

As previously announced, Don and I will focus on EMP during Thursday's show.

The use of EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) has caught the attention of U.S. military planners in recent years.

Consider this portion of an assessment excerpted from a 2005 report prepared at the U.S. Air War College:

Certainly, adversaries learned from Saddam’s poor decision to face  American forces head-on and will increasingly employ asymmetric attacks to defeat U.S. forces in the future.  Electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapons  represent one of the most likely and potentially devastating opportunities for this type of attack in the near future.  Ranging from sophisticated  intercontinental nuclear weapons specifically designed to generate EMP effects to relatively crude and cheap electromagnetic bombs, these  weapons can destroy all electronic devices within a target area as small as an automobile or as large as the continental United States.  As U.S. forces continue to modernize and rely on electronic systems for effectiveness, it will become increasingly probable that an adversary will use EMP to strike at America’s Achilles’ heel.

The assessment, written by Major Colin R. Miller, USAF, goes on to state:

EMP poses a massive threat to U.S. theater operations through its potential to isolate forces and deny access to regions, its ability to nullify the U.S. technology advantage, and its potential to produce a devastating national catastrophe.  Even more ominous is the fact that the means to produce EMP effects, both nuclear and  non-nuclear, are proliferating.

If you've not heard of EMP before, or just want to know more about it, join us for this week's Don and Doug at 1:00pm EDT on Thursday on TalkSouthRadio.com.

If you'd like to call in a question before the show, leave us a voicemail at 404-891-1775. During the show, the live call in number is 678-344-9926. We also monitor comments, and take questions, via Twitter @TalkSouthRadio.

Ron Paul denounces TSA highway checkpoints

From the congressman's statement:

Disarming the highways and filling them full of jack-booted thugs demanding to see our papers is no way to make them safer.  Instead, it is a great way to expand government surveillance powers and tighten the noose around our liberties.

If we could just print more money!

Apparently if we got rid of politicians and corporations, and just create a society where the people could freely print money, that would fix everything.

At least that seems to be the plan put forward by one young woman at Occupy San Francisco.

If printing money isn't working for Bernanke, what makes her think her printing press is any better?

Ball sports are too violent. Firearms offer better exercise.

Such was the opinion of Thomas Jefferson.

From Monticello.org:

In 1785 Thomas Jefferson wrote to his fifteen-year-old nephew, Peter Carr, regarding what he considered the best form of exercise: "...I advise the gun. While this gives a moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprize, and independance to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks."

Perry's hunting trip

Rick Perry went hunting over the weekend.

I don't doubt Perry is a strong supporter of gun rights. But...

I hate it when politicians dress up in hunting clothes to present themselves as advocates for the Second Amendment. It only reinforces the ill-conceived belief held by many that the Second Amendment is limited to  protection for sporting purpose firearms.

Took an evening off from the Internet

The conversion of my fireplace back to a wood burner was completed Saturday. Saturday night was spent giving it a test.

While enjoying the fire, I tuned in the Grand Ole Opry on WSM in Nashville using a vintage transistor radio. Yes, I could have had a better signal on the Internet, but I enjoyed listening the way we did prior to the digital age - even with occasional signal fade.

As the fire burned on, I switched off the radio and picked up a book. Valley Forge is a history based novel by Newt Gingrich and William Fortschen. I got about a third-way through before the fire died around  midnight.

If you think Congress is dysfunctional now, Gingrich uses the book to make the case it was even more so in 1777-78. 

Chilling new narrative related to Fast and Furious

Mike Vanderboegh is quoting sources again at Sipsey Street Irregulars. The allegation is chilling:

In late September 2009, ATF Phoenix Group VII supervisor Hope MacAllister walked into the Lone Wolf Trading Company. She had a message for the owner Andre Howard, according to sources familiar with the investigation into Fast & Furious in both DC and Arizona, and the message was this: "The amount of weapons you sell is about to dramatically increase." Howard, the sources say, was cautioned that "he might not have enough stock" to supply the straw buyers that MacAllister somehow knew were on the way and that "he should stock up on what they wanted."

Vanderboegh's a must-read for those seeking to stay on the cutting edge of Fast and Furious reporting.

Vanderboegh and David Codrea began digging into what they called Gunwalking in December 2010.
 
That's way ahead of anyone else. Way ahead of other media. Way ahead of Congressional Oversight investigators.

I-20 in Georgia had TSA checkpoint last year

To follow up on this week's TSA highway checkpoints in Tennessee: It wasn't the first time Homeland Security has done it.

WSB-TV in Atlanta reported the TSA and Homeland Security ran a checkpoint on I-20 last year with the assistance of the Douglas County, Georgia Sheriff's Office:

A TSA spokesman told Channel 2 the event is known as Visible Inter-mobile Prevention and Response, or VIPER, an operation that is conducted with local authorities as a training exercise. The TSA spokesman said the operation is not in response to a specific threat.

Operation VIPER has struck in other places as well. Jackson, Mississippi and Tampa, Florida are among places with media reporting the operations, but in those locations, bus stations were the targets.

Operation VIPER is an interesting choice of name for a domestic homeland security operation.  A viper can be more than a snake. Webster's offers this secondary definition:  A vicious or treacherous person. 

TSA checkpoints spread to Tennessee highways

It appears Tennessee has surrendered to the TSA's Big Brother campaign.

The state and feds begin random highway and bus station checkpoints.

From Nashville CBS affiliate WTVF:

The written version of the story is available here on the station's website.

Liberty is being lost. Our right to travel, to move about in our own nation, at our own will is being encroached on step-by-step.

Rambling occupier may be on to something

A woman interviewed at Occupy Atlanta may sound like she's babbling a bit when you first listen.

But pay attention to her claim people are afraid to go to work, or to even seek work, because of fear instilled by the government.



From YouTube.com

Americans may finally be waking up that invasive TSA screenings and media campaigns about See Something, Say Something are about more than foiling terrorists. They're cleverly crafted activities to pacify and intimidate the people as government erodes our liberties.

More Occupy analysis on this week's 'Don and Doug'

Some of the stuff we'll talk about Thursday (October 20) at 1:00pm EDT: 

A professional analysis of Occupy Wall Street participation was released this week by a Bill Clinton pollster. This isn't a Tea Party.

 

The professional protest lefties continue to act as if civil authority will collapse and join the Occupy ranks. Michael Moore pleads for the police to cross over, while others continue to fantasize the Marines will cross over. We're not kidding

The week brought another clue to how closely aligned some in Obama's OFA are linked with Occupy - and with Communist activists. Again, we wouldn't kid you.

 

While the protests appear to be significant - at least as far as catching national attention - we need to avoid tunnel vision. The economy continues to crumble. And our gov't deficits are breaking records - despite all the lies about cuts earlier this year. 

 

These and other topics at 1:00 pm EDT with Don and Doug on TalkSouthRadio.com or go straight to the stream right here. We take live calls at 679-344-9926. Or reach out to us on Twitter @talksouthradio.

Polling the Occupy protesters

Some polling and profiling of participants in the Occupy Wall Street Movement in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal:

The protesters have a distinct ideology and are bound by a deep commitment to radical left-wing policies. On Oct. 10 and 11, Arielle Alter Confino, a senior researcher at my polling firm, interviewed nearly 200 protesters in New York's Zuccotti Park. Our findings probably represent the first systematic random sample of Occupy Wall Street opinion.

Our research shows clearly that the movement doesn't represent unemployed America and is not ideologically diverse. Rather, it comprises an unrepresentative segment of the electorate that believes in radical redistribution of wealth, civil disobedience and, in some instances, violence. Half (52%) have participated in a political movement before, virtually all (98%) say they would support civil disobedience to achieve their goals, and nearly one-third (31%) would support violence to advance their agenda.

Read the article in full. It's written by Douglas Schoen, a former pollster for President Bill Clinton. 
Schoen makes the case Democrats are making a blunder by aligning too closely with the Occupy crowds.

"Is this anyway to run a coverup?"

Mike Vanderboegh usually has some fresh details or observations on the Fast and Furious gunwalking scandal that he and David Codrea broke and have been blogging about since late December.

Check out a recent offering over at Sipsey Steet:

SSI Exclusive: Is this any way to run a cover-up? The Empire Flounders Back. Selective document releases from the White House help prove Issa's case.

For those unfamiliar with Mike's earliest bloggings on the story - check out this blog entry from December 28, 2010:

Border Patrol agent killed with ATF-smuggled AR? Some ATF agents seem to think so.

Federal Big Brother of Investigation

Worth noting the FBI apparently has a half million dollars to spend to have someone monitor and record callers to talk radio shows.

WMAL in Washington reports the FBI denies any Big Brother intent:

 The FBI has awarded a $524,927 contract to a Virginia company to record as much radio news and talk programming as it can find on the Internet.

The FBI says it is not playing big brother by policing the airwaves, but rather seeking access to what airs as potential evidence.

Potential evidence of what? It appears the FBI now presumes forms of electronic free speech are suspicious activity to the extent they must be monitored.

As I ponder this report, I'd like to see some originating documentation. I've come up empty trying to search out some initial request for proposal. Seems to me, a half million dollars is a woefully inadequate sum to monitor all the Internet.

If you know the genesis of this story, I'd appreciate you passing it along.

Update: If you think WMAL's report about the FBI sounds far fetched, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is also seeking a company to help it monitor news and social media. The Fed's request for proposal is available here.

Sunday's shocking Cantor comment

Congressman Eric Cantor (R-VA) backed off from earlier criticism of the Occupy movement during an appearance on Fox News Sunday.

And Cantor blew us away with his claim on that Republicans should now focus on reducing "income disparities" in America.

Cantor's assertion makes it clear he believes it is government's role to channel how an individual (or any private entity) uses the resources that are its own.

Put Mitt Romney on the presidential ballot, with guys like Cantor backing him up, and I'm not so sure having the GOP in charge beats having an Obama second term. Not by much anyway. 

Either way, the American cookie is about to crumble. Might as well have the Democrats in place to take the blame if we're not going to get a Republican team that's dedicated to restoration of conservative principles in  government.

Too many people are still putting false hope in the Republican brand when Republicans repeatedly show they're more interested in opinion polls and being popular than they are a national restoration rooted in the Constitution. 

Fast and Furious on Face the Nation

Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and CBS Investigative Reporter Sharyl Attkisson joined Bob Schieffer for the discussion:



H/T Sipsey Street Irregulars

Occupy Wall Street and the not-so-good old days

Check out today's (October 16)  Day by Day Cartoon. Especially the first couple of panels:

Girls with guns at a Los Angeles high school

"Training in marksmanship helps girls at Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles, Calif., develop into responsible women. Part of Victory Corps activities there, rifle practice encourages girls to be accurate in handling firearms." - (08/00/1942)  

Courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, Hyde Park, New York. - Reproduction number: 66297(4)

Marksmanship once a popular sport in NYC schools

There once was a time when New York City public schools took pride in teaching students basic rifle marksmanship. Check out this New York Times story from January 23, 1908.

Protests in Rome lead to clashes with police

Media accounts say today's demonstrations in Italy against (what protesters describe as) corporate greed have turned violent, leading to arrests.

Russia Today appears to be among the first TV outfits posting video of European events on-line:


Russia Today via YouTube.com


I'm struck by the new narrative protesters are using to describe today's European protests.

When Occupy Wall Street began, organizers said they were building on the demonstration movements of the Middle East, Greece and Spain. Today, the narrative has shifted, now demonstrators and the media credit Occupy Wall Street as the genesis of today's demonstrations in Europe. Seems to me, either the protesters or the media, or both, are talking in circles.

Irregardless of where they started, I find it harder and harder to buy the fantasy that these demonstrations are grassroots or spontaneous.

EMP Attack

Electromagnetic (EMP) Pulse. Are you familiar with its application as a weapon?

Don Dickinson and I plan an upcoming Don and Doug dedicated to discussion of EMP. We're tentatively targeting a date late this month, with the specific day and time to be announced later.
(Update: Program time October 27, 1pm EDT)

Don has insight few civilians have. In the Army, he was trained as a Prefix-5 officer (Nuclear Weapons Employment Specialist) and has maintained his study of EMP as a weapon ever since.

Some may be familiar with EMP through William Fortschen's book One Second After.

Don believes Fortschen's fictional scenario accurately describes what EMP is capable of. "I am afraid the book is a very plausible description. What makes an EMP attack so devastating for so long is that it breaks civilization physically long enough for society to cross the privation and psycological threshold back to pre-industrial society. Since modern people are not prepared for that, the impact is horrible and long-lasting."

If you want to do some prep prior to the show, pick up a copy of Fortschen's book. It's available at many libraries.

If there's a specific EMP question you have, let us know in advance. Make a comment, or send us an email. Or leave a voice message for possible use in the show by calling 404-981-1775. We also plan to take live calls during the program.

MSNBC's Donny Duetsch longs for a Kent State moment

On MNBC's Morning Joe, Donny Deutsch predicts what he calls a Kent State moment will help galvanize today's Occupy Wall Street class war movement.

He's quick to add clarification:



Stick around for the end of the video clip. Deutsch describes Occupy Wall Street efforts as coming off as somewhat child like. Even Deutsch admits when the Tea Party has held demonstrations, those demonstrations have carried what Deutsch calls a grown up tone.

Lanny Davis spins for Holder

Lanny Davis, a key lawyer who helped guide embattled President Bill Clinton through impeachment, now opines on behalf of embattled Attorney General Eric Holder.

Davis writes in the Huffington Post: 

If ever there is an example of hyper-partisanship, the recent personal attacks challenging the honesty and competence of Attorney General Eric Holder regarding the ATF's errors in its "Fast and Furious" gun-tracking program should be Exhibit A. 

In 2008, the same Lanny Davis saw no problem going after questionable allies of Barack Obama if it seemed to favor Obama's Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton.

Consider how Huff Po described Davis in 2008:

Indeed, Davis has gone where others only tread in private. In the wake of revelations over controversial statements of Sen. Barack Obama's former pastor, the Clinton campaign enforced a code of silence. Davis, in contrast, took to the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal -- enemy turf in progressive circles -- expressing bewilderment about the relationship.

And even before William Ayers and the Weather Underground were thrust into the center of the political debate, Davis was posing questions to Obama on the matter during a segment of Fox News' Hannity and Colmes.

Is it odd that a man who once challenged candidate Obama's questionable ties would be so quick to defend President Obama's attorney general? 

Maybe it's more than Holder and Obama that Davis now seeks to defend. Maybe he acts for the sake of the Democratic Party.

But considering Davis' past ties to the Clintons, it's worth considering that his entry as a champion of Holder may have more to do with Hillary. Are we on the verge of learning about Hillary Clinton's State Department having ties to Fast and Furious?


Clinton has long shown interest in the flow of guns from the U.S. to Mexico. As Secretary of State, Clinton sought to be seen as personally involved in the issue. Consider this report by CBS in 2009:

For the record, Clinton's claim that 90 percent of the guns used by cartels in Mexico come from America has since been debunked. Stratfor, a private global intelligence firm, published an analysis of the claim earlier this year. Fox News had one in April 2009.

Obama knew before Holder?

An odd discovery in the Fast and Furious scandal:  The president admits to knowing about it before the  attorney general admits to knowing about it.

A video report is available here.

Funny sign

I've never seen a homeless advocate call for this before.

Lost in a corn maze

Americans aren't the independent, self-sufficient problem solvers they once were.

Here's the tale of a family that needed 911, police and a police K-9 to rescue them from a corn maze. 

Marxist chant at Occupy Atlanta

Among the Occupy Wall Street Marxist moments we'll highlight on today's Don and Doug show an example captured at Occupy Atlanta.

It's available on YouTube with subtitles:


From ConservARTive.com via YouTube.com


Today's (October 13) show is live at 1pm EDT on TalkSouthRadio.com

Today's Don and Doug

Live today at 1pm EDT on this week's Don and Doug:

We'll update the Wall Street Occupation. It has spread to other cities including Atlanta. Have you noticed the clear Marxist references at some of the rallies?  We have examples.

Attorney General Eric Holder's Sgt Schultz act gets old as he tries to dodge Fast and Furious.
Other topics as they come up. Or as you bring them to the table.

We take your calls at 678-344-9926.  Or Tweet us @TalkSouthRadio.

The show stream is available by clicking here.

Don't forget, we have a new free Android app for TalkSouthRadio. Check it out, and go mobile with us!

Until today's show, last week's remains in replay.

Watch Eric Holder cut and run

It only took one question about Fast and Furious at Tuesday's news conference to send the attorney general  running:



Holder's quick exit reminded me of the way a certain 1960s TV character reacted when he was exposed to  more than he wanted anyone to know.



Eric Holder can run. But he can't hide.

Congressional investigators today issued a new subpoena to Holder and his gang at the DOJ regarding Fast and Furious. There's a bunch of stuff Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and the House Oversight Committee want to look at.

Here's the list.

Denny Hastert endorses Romney

Denny Hastert did much to undo the Gingrich conservative revolution and, as Speaker, and turned the GOP controlled House of Representatives into an ever more willing to spend den of pork barrel politics.


Americans became so unhappy with the House under Hastert, they voted out the Republican majority in 2006, and gave control to progressive Democrats led by Nancy Pelosi.


An endorsement by Hastert in the current GOP presidential race should be a kiss of death for any candidate.


Conservatives take note: Denny Hastert has endorsed Mitt Romney. 

Ambiguous goals for the Occupy Wall Street movement

The demonstrations have spread to more cities. And with the spread comes side issues. 


In Boston, demonstrators show support for an accused terrorist about to go on trial.


In Atlanta, the crowd wants a park renamed for Troy Davis, a convicted cop killer who was executed for the crime. 


But, even so, the Occupy movement maintains much of its ambiguity. It's hard to discern what it really stands for, or what goals it seeks. 


At CNNMoney, Julianne Pepitone writes:

Like the "Arab Spring" uprisings that inspired its tactics, the word-of-mouth demonstration has tapped into a collective anger. Some protesters are upset about taxation; for others, the big issue is the high unemployment rate. Or corporate greed. Or the distribution of wealth.

Seems to me, Occupy Wall Street is thriving on its lack of specifics. People are reading into it what they want to see. It's the same trick that allowed many to swoon over then-candidate Barack Obama's Hope and Change in 2008.


Pepitone does get one thing right: Occupy Wall Street is about emotion. 


It's not about finding solutions, it's not about fixing anything. It's about pushing people's emotional hot buttons, tapping their anger, and manipulating them based on emotion - and then using them to manipulate the larger  society.


But without specific goals, without specific expectations, it's likely to only deepen many participants' despair - just like what happened when many began to realize what Obama meant by change wasn't what they thought it was.


Raising the levels of dissatisfaction, and increasing levels of public anger, seem to be the only consistent objectives of the Occupy Wall Street movement.  The results of Occupy Wall Street seem to play more into creating division and unrest than they do in pointing the country in a direction of finding real solutions to the problems that plague us.

Drinking on the job

What's with the president clutching beers in so many photos?

There's a shot in Florida here where he's clutching a beer while chatting with an unemployed construction worker.

And on October 6, the White House put out this photo (shown to the left) of the president sharing a beer with Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer back in September.

For more Obama brew shots, look here, here, and here.

In fact, the beer with Meyer was brewed at the White House.


Is the prez coming off as obsessed with his suds?

I can't wait until he's out of office. Maybe he can open the first presidential library with a bar and microbrewery.

Fox News talks Fast and Furious subpoena

Just to clarify, CBS has not been alone among MSM reporting Fast and Furious.

There's been significant coverage on Fox News Channel too. William La Jeunesse has been lead reporter on the story at Fox, and today reported Congressional investigators are in the process of sending a new subpoena to Attorney General William Holder.

Marxist recitation at Occupy Atlanta

When participants in the Occupy Wall Street movement insist it's not a Marxist undertaking, do you believe them?

Here's a priceless peek at the Occupy Atlanta contingent:

CBS coverage of Fast and Furious

Coverage by CBS of Washington's Fast and Furious scandal has been outstanding.

And people are noticing. Sharyl Attkisson is the lead CBS reporter.

At the Baltimore Sun, Z on TV writes:

The blowback from the White House and DOJ has been petty, nasty and has failed to responsibly address the serious charges Attkisson's reporting raises. This is exactly the White House contempt for the press that I wrote about shortly after Obama's inauguration. It's the White House I came to know when I criticized it for its war against Fox News in 2009.

He goes on to say: 

Team Obama, under the direction of David Plouffe, will try and find a way to punish CBS News for Attkisson's work, make no mistake about it. As I said two years ago, I have not seen a White House as vindictive in its dealings with the press since the one inhabited by Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew. But CBS News isn't backing down so far.

Despite solid reporting by CBS, many in the media continue to either avoid the story. or attempt to pass of their shallow coverage as serious effort. 


Meanwhile, the bloggers (David Codrea and Mike Vanderboegh), who broke the story continue to advance it as well. I've been following their coverage long before CBS picked up on the story.  And even now, as I was back in February, I'm still perplexed the national media, for the most part, continues to shun its traditional watchdog role and avoid serious coverage.

Understanding Alinsky's rules

If you've heard of Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals, but have never had them explained to you, there's a solid video primer from Leadership Institute's Campus Reform.

The series looks at some of Alinsky's rules, but is presented with a twist. It explains how to apply the rules to advance conservative causes. While focused on university campus organisations, consider the broader applications.



After part one, there's a link to part two. Then part three, and so on.

It's part know your enemy. Part fight fire with fire.

The series appears to be a work in progress. So far, four rules have been covered. Perhaps others will be added soon.

h/t Conservative Hideout 2.0

Occupy Wall Streeters turn away Congressman Lewis

One of the stranger things I've seen come out of the Occupy Wall Street protests is the way a rally in Atlanta shunned hearing from Democrat Congressman John Lewis.

Words would fail to describe. So take a look at the way these occupiers operate:



From YouTube.com

DOJ changes its story

I received another news release from Senator Chuck Grassley's office about developments in Fast and Furious. Grassley spokesperson Beth Levine writes:

“Now, eight months after Senator Grassley personally raised the issue with him, Attorney General Holder has officially admitted that this case involved ‘weapons that should have been interdicted but were not.’  That’s quite a reversal from the Department’s initial denial, which claimed the whistleblower allegations were false and that ‘ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally.’

The Grassley release, in full, is available here.

Fast and Furious video recap

From the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform:


From: YouTube.com

Other videos from the committee are available here.

Obama's October Revolution

Jeffrey Kuhner writes in the Washington Times:

"Occupy Wall Street is not a spontaneous uprising of disenchanted citizens frustrated with corporate plutocracy and capitalist excess. Rather, it is a planned, manufactured attempt to prop up Mr. Obama’s failed presidency. It is a page taken straight from the Alinsky playbook: Demonize bankers and businessmen in order to divert attention from the real source of our economic woes, Mr. Obama’s policies."

Kuhner calls out many of the same players Don and I have mentioned in recent shows. He connects many of the same dots. 

Read his entire column here.

Occupy Wall Street - Athens, Georgia

In the '60s, they had an excuse. They dropped acid, took hallucinogens, so some protesters may have sounded incoherent.

But what's the excuse here?

From a participant in the Occupy Wall Street solidarity demonstration today in Athens, Georgia:



C'mon, people. This is supposed to be an economic protest.

And this is the best some can do to articulate it?

Sounds like they're out to kill more jobs

Obama's Justice Department vows to go after medical marijuana dispensaries.

Aren't there more important things DOJ could focus on?

Fast and Furious memos to Eric Holder

Just out of Senator Chuck Grassley's office:

For Immediate Release

Thursday, October 6, 2011

 Holder Received at Least Five Memos on Fast and Furious

             WASHINGTON – Senator Chuck Grassley and Congressman Darrell Issa today said that Attorney General Eric Holder received at least five weekly memos beginning in July 2010, including four weeks in a row, describing the ill-advised strategy known as Operation Fast and Furious.  The memos were to Holder from Michael Walther, the director of the National Drug Intelligence Center. 

The Attorney General told Issa during a House Judiciary Committee in May 2011 that he had just learned of Fast and Furious a few weeks before.  Yet, on January 31, in a previously scheduled meeting, Grassley personally handed him two letters about Fast and Furious. Grassley and Issa said they find it very troubling that Holder actually knew of Operation Fast and Furious much earlier, and in greater detail than he ever let on.

 The memos specifically said that the straw buyers were “responsible for the purchase of 1500 firearms that were then supplied to Mexican drug trafficking cartels.” 

 “With the fairly detailed information that the Attorney General read, it seems the logical question for the Attorney General after reading in the memo would be “why haven’t we stopped them?” Grassley said.  “And if he didn’t ask the questions, why didn’t he or somebody in his office?”

 “Attorney General Holder has failed to give Congress and the American people an honest account of what he and other senior Justice Department officials knew about gunwalking and Operation Fast and Furious. The lack of candor and honesty from our nation’s chief law enforcement officials in this matter is deeply disturbing,” Issa said. 

Grassley and Issa have been leading the investigation into who approved the strategy to allow guns to be purchased by known straw buyers who then often transferred the firearms to Mexican Drug Cartels.

          
The memos can be found here.

Occupy Wall Street, Fast and Furious on today's Don and Doug

Coming up at 1 pm today with Don and Doug:

[The completed show is now available on demand by clicking here]

More discussion of Occupy Wall Street.  Everything from last night's pushing, shoving and pepper spray in New York to sympathetic protests happening around the country. Are these protests as spontaneous as shadowy organizers would have you believe?

Why would unions commit thousands of members and millions of dollars to back a leaderless movement?

We'll also be getting into the latest on the ATF scandal known as Fast and Furious. Things are heating up as the White House struggles to explain why documents don't seem to match what the attorney general has previously testified under oath.

We've been on the Occupy Wall Street story for over a month now. Long before most media let on something was building. And we've been talking about Fast and Furious (aka Gunwalker) since January when bloggers first raised concerns.

Join us for more cutting-edge discussion of these and other topics today at 1 pm EDT on TalkSouthRadio.com.  Live listener calls are welcome at 678-344-9926.

And don't forget, there a new free Android app for TalkSouthRadio. Check it out, and go mobile with us!


Update: President Obama has now scheduled a news conference for 11 am. If he says something worthwhile, or outrageous, we'll work a recap of it  into today's show. We'd love to hear him personally address the latest on Fast and Furious.