Limited budget, technically challenged

Spending the day trying to update an old (too old) desktop computer to replace the one that crashed before the show on Friday.

Can't remember the last time I've fired up a computer with less than 512 mb of memory. And the XP version hasn't been updated since Service Pack 2.

Also giving some thoughts about moving Don and Doug over to BlogTalkRadio.  Stay tuned for details.

"Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God"

From Monticello.org:

"Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God" was a motto suggested for the Great Seal of the United States, but never used. (Thomas) Jefferson eventually appropriated it for this seal. The ultimate source of the motto is murky, but the best guess of scholars at this point is that Benjamin Franklin probably made it up.

Trickery or treachery...

Things are not always as they seem, or turn out as they're initially perceived or presented.

Whatever it is driving new regulatory gun control changes by the federal government, David Codrea makes the case that more public scrutiny is required. 

We used to have a republic

We were once a nation governed under rule of law.

Signs increasingly signal that may no longer be the case. Whims and emotion rule the day.

Need an example? Check out this op-ed headline in the New York Times.

Update: Seems Ian Hurd, the same prof that wants to see us rush in and bomb Syria, didn't see Benghazi as a big deal. Just some locals vying for attention.

"This is not part of an organized international effort. This is a very local group of people," explains Hurd. "It looks like, very local political goals within Libya to weaken the Libyan government and to shock the population into talking about the issues they want to talk about."

If Benghazi was a local-yocal thing, why does the Obama administration keep it shrouded in secrecy nearly a year after the fact?

Thrown bottle baits woman into an attack

Via WPXI in Pittsburgh:

A woman who said she was brutally attacked by a group of black teenagers in Pittsburgh’s North Side Sunday said the girls savagely beat her while calling her racial slurs.  

Ginger Slepski said she suffered multiple injuries, including torn shoulder ligaments. She said she thought the girls were going to kill her...  

Police said Slepski was savagely beaten after the girls threw a bottle at her car on Concord Street and she stopped to confront them. 

“I was mad. I knew they were younger. I thought they were in their early 20s. I got out and said, ‘What is your problem?’” Slepski said.  

All four African-American girls then called her names before getting physically violent. 

In the current climate, it's crazy to stop and confront a group (any group) over something like a thrown bottle. Even if your car gets dinged, get to a safe place and phone in a police report.

While incidents are widely scattered and often anecdotal, reports of racially motivated attacks or just plain mob violence seem to be on the rise. Still, many people remain unaware or in denial, and as a result, many haven't adopted a more evasive or defensive posture. Many have been trained in political correctness not to think along those lines.

I have a question for PC crowd: At what point does it stop being "racial profiling" and become politically correct to begin avoidance or defensive measures?

Is one supposed to wait until a bottle is thrown or fists fly before assuming at least a potential for danger?

More gun control by presidential decree

Pop. With all eyes on Syria, Obama springs executive action gun control on the folks here at home.

Today, the Obama administration announced two new common-sense executive actions to keep the most dangerous firearms out of the wrong hands and ban almost all re-imports of military surplus firearms to private entities.

For more than 50 years, the federal government has advocated civilian ownership of firearms like the World War II era M1 Carbine and the M1 Garand through programs like the Civilian Marksmanship Program and its predecessor.

2007 CMP National Match commemorative poster

Now Obama declares these arms to be too dangerous for civilians to be trusted with, so he's going to choke off future supply.

The move comes less than a week after the Civilian Marksmanship Program announced it is cutting back on its store hours because of dwindling rifle inventories. It remains to be seen if the CMP gets an exemption to Obama's new re-importation ban, but the way the AP crafted its story, it sounds unlikely. On the other hand, does anyone at the AP even know what the CMP is?

Why all the sneakiness and short notice?

Mike Bloomberg says he's found some gun owners on his side of the gun control argument, and has apparently built a series of activist events around them.  But he's being mighty stealthy about it.

The law and its drive to injustice

"This fact, combined with the fatal tendency that exists in the heart of man to satisfy his wants with the least possible effort, explains the almost universal perversion of the law. Thus it is easy to understand how law, instead of checking injustice, becomes the invincible weapon of injustice. It is easy to understand why the law is used by the legislator to destroy in varying degrees among the rest of the people, their personal independence by slavery, their liberty by oppression, and their property by plunder. This is done for the benefit of the person who makes the law, and in proportion to the power that he holds." - Frederic Bastiat, The Law, June 1850

Chrome issues

We're still have some (hopefully very limited) issues for readers trying to access the blog using Google Chrome. 

There's apparently some malware afoot that redirects to what appears to be a generic Google Apps page when some Chrome browser users attempt to access this blog using the naked domain "RadioShowNotes.com" as opposed to the full address of "www.RadioShowNotes.com."

All settings with the blog itself are as they should be, and have been verified by Google's tech staff. 

No problems have been reported to me by persons using Internet Explorer. 

Health care having allergic reactions to Obamacare

Hospitals are laying off people.

More doctors are calling it quits, or at least exiting private practice.

And yet the president is still promising (for some folks anyway) that health care premiums will be lower than their cell phone bills.

At least Obama's dropped the line that "you can keep your doctor."

"Compromise"

A recent video from Colion Noir. 

Obamacare

Why can't the government come clean - and pitch Obamacare realities instead of fantasies?



Meanwhile, the president keeps saying silly stuff, like claiming Obamacare premiums will run less than the cost of an average cellphone bill.

Worst hoaxes

A friend from high school posted this on his Facebook page:

While I agree Mr. Obama's been selling us one hoax after another, I'm not sure he's the hoaxiest.

From: IOwnTheWorld.com

The Left versus Right games in DC are pretty hoaxy as well. Republicans as well as Democrats have shown themselves to be steadfast fans of big government, and appear more concerned about protecting turf and bureaucracies than they are about looking out for us folks outside the beltway.

We've known from the start what Obama and Democrats want. It's probably the two-faced GOPers willing to betray their party's conservative base that's pulling the bigger hoax.

The closer you look at the two sides in Washington DC, the more you notice they're more alike than different.

What's on Chicago PD's back lot?

Second City Cop has a shot of what looks like an MRAP belonging to Chicago police.

Second City Cop is a blog targeting a mostly police audience. So you might find the reader comments below the photo especially interesting.

Here's a set of Chicago MRAP procurement papers from July 2011. Same vehicle? Or have more been added? Update: Upon closer reading, the procurement papers appear to be for a $99,900 accessory ramp that Chicago PD had installed on an existing MRAP.

Pricey stuff, eh?

Gun control down under

Even when guns are tightly controlled, criminals have means of acquisition.

Take Sydney, Australia for example:

With 17 shootings in four weeks, four of them fatal, Sydney is experiencing another surge in gun violence.

This is from another Sydney gun story from a few weeks back:

A volatile mix of bikie gangs, drugs, ethnic rivalries and a 265 per cent rise in the number of handgun thefts threatens to turn Sydney into the East LA on the western side of the Pacific.

Gun controllers always promise they can end gun violence. Problem is, those committing the violence don't play by gun control rules.

No waiting period, no background checks

This is how bad guys get guns.

Smash and grab in Winder, Georgia.

"World gone mad"

This is a Bill Whittle commentary from earlier this month. As you watch, listen to the tone of his voice, watch is facial expression. I hear and see exasperation.

The warning signs of a growing madness become more defined. But most people remain too distracted or self-absorbed to see what's shaping up before them.

Safe passage

Second City Cop says big shuffle at Chicago's police department as bureaucrats promise to get kids to school safely. 

More NSA abuses

Whoa. What's this?

National Security Agency officers on several occasions have channeled their agency’s enormous eavesdropping power to spy on love interests, U.S. officials said.

Wall Street Journal goes on to say officials swear the practice isn't common. But only a few weeks ago, President Obama assured the nation this kind of stuff didn't happen at all.

"There is no spying on Americans," Mr. Obama told Jay Leno.

But we've learned a lot since then. And the disclosures seem to keep on coming.

As seen in the New York Times

Sunday's New York Times seems to pooh-pooh the idea of an Obama impeachment, but at the same time notes the subject is being raised:

While many members of Congress have used their August break to engage in conversations about immigration policy, the federal budget and the impending implementation of the Affordable Care Act, some Republicans have taken the opportunity to raise the specter of — if not quite the grounds for — presidential impeachment.

Obama wanted the CDC to do a gun violence study...

So the CDC arraigned for a group to to conduct one. 

Among the findings noted in this initial study: 

Almost all national survey estimates indicate that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals, with estimates of annual uses ranging from about 500,000 to more than 3 million per year, in the context of about 300,000 violent crimes involving firearms in 2008.

The New American offers this recap of the study. 

For those policy nerds who want the whole unedited caboodle - knock yourselves out here. 

Got the job, then off to play?

Samantha Power was only recently confirmed as America's new U.N. ambassador.

But when the Security Council met in emergency session over Syria this week, Power was nowhere around.

Fox News reports she's on some kind of personal trip. With whom, and what for, no one seems to know.

An attempt at Trayvonization?

The New York Times profiles and tries to humanize the 14-year-shot and killed by a police officer earlier this month.

Does it matter Shaaliver Douse talked of wanting to turn his life around and eventually go to college? Or that he liked his pancakes and waffles with syrup?

There's no need to Trayvonize this teen. He was a repeat firearms offender who was shooting at someone, and reportedly turned his gun on a cop before the cop shot him.

At least the Times didn't try to sucker us with a bunch of baby pictures.

S&W issues M&P safety alert

The alert covers all  M&P Shield™ firearms manufactured before August 19, 2013.

Our self-appointed Educator in Chief

Is seems a little early in the revolution for Comrade Obama to go after the bourgeoisie intellectual profs and their colleges. But look out, here it comes:

Obama: Feds Will Define What a Good College Is, Punish and Reward Accordingly

Perhaps the revolution has advanced faster and farther than most realize.

More from the state that banished a rodeo clown

Missouri seems more than a tad over protective when it comes to defending Mr. Obama's public image.

Missouri State Troopers now appear to be clearing anti-Obama protesters from overpass sidewalks.

Suffrage Demonstration
Washington DC, 1917

Whatever happened to case law where protests were allowed on public sidewalks?

Sidewalk protests were a staple of the civil rights movement.

And the suffrage movement as well.

So what's with the current push in Missouri to quash modern day protest and dissent?

Left v right? Bah, humbug.

"You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream - the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order - or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism." - Ronald Reagan, A Time for Choosing, 1964

Turning crime victims into criminals

In Illinois, if your gun is stolen and you fail to promptly notify the police, you are now the criminal.

Pickin' up emails, put 'em in a basket...

Well, well...

MORE: Declassified court opinions to show how NSA collected up to 56,000 emails with no terror link: http://t.co/MU356v8HtW -KK
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 21, 2013

Paul Ryan gets some love from OFA

For those who still believe Paul Ryan is a true political conservative:

OFA has begun demonstrating in favor of Republicans who publicly support a new path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, along with urging them to pressure their colleagues to join them. Among these Republicans is 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).

I still stand by my assessment made last year that had Romney-Ryan won last year's election, the progressive remake of America might be moving forward faster than it is now.

Under a Romney-Ryan administration, so-called political compromise would likely have been an easier sell. And compromise usually means progressive Dems get what they want. As it is now, under a purposely divisive Obama administration, Republicans have to work extra hard at making excuses for the sell-outs they're plotting.

"Back to 1942"

Ever see this film?

It's a tale of natural disaster (drought) compounded by man-made ones (war and corruption).



I caught this last night on NetFlix. Some English dialog, but mostly in Chinese with English subtitles.

A work of historical fiction, Back to 1942 seems an excellent portrayal of what can overtake a society when things go really bad. And it should serve as fair warning to those who think government (any government) will be their salvation when it does.

Remington scouts Nashville

Tired of anti-gun games in hardcore blue states, another gun maker is reported to be seeking a less hostile home for possible expansion or relocation. 

CMP inventories are shrinking

The Civilian Marksmanship Program cites dwindling inventories in announcing it's cutting back on store hours. From a CMP email newsletter sent this week:

CMP Stores Days of Operation. Beginning in October, 2013 the CMP stores will only be open three days a week: Thursday through Saturday. The days of operation are being reduced as a result of the decreasing amount of rifles that we will have available for sale. The CMP stores will NOT be open on Wednesday, 2 Oct. 

Remaking America's military in the progressive image

Over at the Woodpile Report, Ol' Remus ponders a bit on the social remaking of America's armed forces:

The US military is probably the most traditional and honor-bound part of the government establishment, historically true to their calling and doggedly loyal to the country. In recent times it's been degraded by social experimenters, irrelevent futziness training, no-win political missions and now cammy-pattern feminism. Set against this are credible stories of derailed promotions, rumors of blackmail at flag level and many lesser examples of hostility toward members whose loyalty to the country is unwavering. Instances of supplying intel and weapons to our putative enemies, and warrettes which end not in victory but in nation building videogames if not humiliating bugouts, make it difficult for conscientious members of the military to understand why they fight. 

What appears to be happening is this. The collectivists captured the permanent government at least a couple of generations ago. Having recently annexed the Republican party they now see themselves as settling into perpetual power, and not without cause, the days of orderly change are behind us. But no regime can rule, as versus govern, without the explicit backing of the military. Mere acquiescence is not enough, there must be positive loyalty specific to the regime.

Barack Obama told you he would fundamentally change America. Too bad no one asked him for specifics when he was touting his plans for change back in 2008.

Car shopping

Not much time to post the past couple of days. Been shopping for a replacement for our well used minivan that's covered over 182,000 miles since we acquired in in '05.

If the economy blows up, I want a primary family vehicle that's not nearing its last hurrah.

That said, we'll probably keep the old van as a back up. Hardly any trade-in value anyway.

Irritating and dishonest. Or just irritating and stupid?

CNN's Piers Morgan told a whopper on TV last week.

The insufferable Morgan then counter-claimed that, according to the FBI, no less, Virginia had the highest murder rate in the United States in 2009. Morgan’s statement would have been true only if 25 states had seceded in 2008, however, and according to the FBI’s 2009 crime report, there were still 50 states in 2009 and Virginia ranked 26thamong them in murder, with a rate 12 percent lower than the national rate.

No, I'm not surprised a gun-hater like Morgan just makes things up. But I am surprised a cable news outlet continues to let him diminish their brand. Unless maybe the goal is to make CNN something as propaganda driven as MSNBC.

The Left's not clowning around. But does it see the big picture?

The radical Left is remaking America in rapid order. But does it really know where it's all going?

Daniel Greenfield notes:

A liberalism that plans sex ed for elementary schoolers thinks a clown in an Obama mask is somehow inappropriate for children. Maybe if he gay-married the bull, they could have gotten behind it. 

Remember when a Bush spokesman said something negative about Bill Maher’s praise for terrorists and the media melted down in shrill hysterics about freedom of speech? 

Nope. Gone now.

Does the Left really think its shame-them-into-compliance, threats of Stalin-like reeducation, or talk of criminal prosecution will bring America fully into submission to its radical remake?

On a related note, did you catch Obama's comments on Egypt the other day?

We appreciate the complexity of the situation.  While Mohamed Morsi was elected President in a democratic election, his government was not inclusive and did not respect the views of all Egyptians.  We know that many Egyptians, millions of Egyptians, perhaps even a majority of Egyptians were calling for a change in course...

Look what Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood attempts at fundamental change in Egypt has led to in that country.

Does Obama even see the irony in his choice of words over Egypt when his own administration here at home can be seen along similar lines. Exactly where does Obama think he's taking us?

And now, the back story...

Mr. Obama may have made the photo op. But if the tale told this week was accurate, his mind and hands were engaged in other things as the bin Laden raid went down.

From Hope n' Change

Thought police, gulag enforcers, and the over-sensitivity of the American Left

Daniel Greenfield writes at Sultan Knish:

What can’t be seen on the stage of Saturday Night Live must go underground to the Missouri State Fair. In every totalitarian country, the jokes that can’t be told are told anyway in secret places, between friends and to rural and working class audiences. The Soviet anecdote was born out of such restrictions.  

“Premier Andropov,” one anecdote went, “I heard you collect political anecdotes. How many do you have so far?” 

“A whole Gulag,” was the answer. An eagle-eyed Daily Kossack with a camera has added one rodeo clown and one cowboy president to the Obama gulag. 

Unlike community organizers, cowboy presidents however are capable of bearing the stings and arrows of rodeo clowns. 

Friday, August 16th

Today's Don and Doug goes live at 1:00 pm EDT.

More signs of political overreach. More signs of push back. The Left's race card tactic is looking especially tattered this week.

And there are more disclosures about NSA spying, based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden, making their way into the mainstream media.

Discussion begins at 1 o'clock. We take calls at 678-344-9926 if you care to join.

Live audio link here or at TalkSouthRadio.com

Update: Today's was a great show. Too bad hardware glitch ate most the first hour. What I could salvage made it to replay. First time we've had a crash like that in the more than two and a half years we've done the show.

A couple of chickens with something to say

Via Free North Carolina:

Via Daily Paul:

"Unintended Surveillance"

The Washington Post appears to break new ground as it discloses more documents previously provided by Edward Snowden:

The National Security Agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since Congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008, according to an internal audit and other top-secret documents.

Study: A foreclosed house next door may make you fat

Bankers are making you fat. You see, bankers are foreclosing on houses, and that raises the stress levels on surrounding neighbors who then indulge in overeating.

So conclude educated elites at Harvard who've written a study:

“Millions of homes went into foreclosure during the Great Recession, and housing markets in many areas of the country are still struggling to recover. People living next door to foreclosed properties have been hit hard by the housing crisis; their homes may have lost value, and blighted houses on the block make many people feel less safe,” said lead author Mariana Arcaya, SD ’13, research scientist in the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies. “While our study wasn’t designed to pinpoint the mechanisms by which foreclosures put neighbors at risk of weight gain, previous research tells us that eating and drinking more are common reactions to stress, and that dangerous blocks may discourage physical activity. 

Arcaya and her colleagues analyzed housing and medical data from 2,078 study participants in Massachusetts from 1987-2008. They looked at foreclosure records as well as participants’ proximity to foreclosed homes and their body mass index (BMI) levels. They found that living within 100 meters of a foreclosed home significantly increased the likelihood of having a higher BMI. Living near foreclosed homes was also associated with higher odds of being overweight.

The study goes on to say:

 “Policymakers at the state and federal levels, community development corporations, lenders, housing planners and municipal officials should likewise take such effects into account when making housing-related decisions.”

Seriously? Are we supposed to accept that people are victims to the point that every event near or far puts us at risk of lives tumbling beyond our control unless government moves in to soften the impact?

America had many of foreclosures in the 1930s. There were also all kinds of other economic stress factors back then. And the government documented the economic depression and its results by shooting tens of thousands of photographs. How many of those photos show obese people? 

A foreclosure auction in Iowa in the early 1930s when "the bottom fell out of everything."
U.S. Government Photo/Farm Security Administration. Library of Congress

Serta Sleeper Cell?

http://waronguns.blogspot.com/2013/08/serta-perfect-sleeper-cell.html

More stealth than activism

At Gun Rights Examiner, David Codrea notes the Bloomberg-backed anti-gun bus tour seems to take a lower and lower profile. 

Here's the Fast and Furious update

Sharyl Attkisson comes through as promised:

Three more weapons from Fast and Furious have turned up at crime scenes in Mexico, CBS News has learned, as the toll from the controversial federal operation grows.

Prayer to Dear Leader

Posted on YouTube is what's supposed to be a prayer for Barack Obama. Trouble is, the child here sounds as though he's praying to Barack Obama.

I'll assume the video's legit.

Blessings flow from Barack Obama, who's endowed by God with special powers?

Someone's worked hard to indoctrinate a child to this extent. Mmm Mmm Mmm.

Fast and Furious Update

Will we be hearing more about this soon?

CBS Source: more Fast and Furious guns recovered in Mexico.
— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) August 13, 2013

It's like Obamacare for education

There's lots of talk about the federal government's push for its new Common Core curriculum in public schools.

Here's a guy who has more than a few bones to pick with the program:



If half of what's stated in this rebuttal is true, Common Core is nothing less than a crime being committed against America's kids.

Rolling out Common Core nationwide, without assessing such a radical remake over time seems, at best, a gamble. But the Left has long had a fetish for radical transformations that make sponsors feel good - regardless of whether there's the slightest hope the transformations are actually workable or productive.

Eric Holder may want drug possession under-reported...

But the attorney general apparently doesn't mind over-reporting other stuff when it fits the administration's agenda.

More random ruling by the executive elite

The Daily Caller notes:

Attorney General Eric Holder is directing federal prosecutors to evade federal law by downplaying the quantity of drugs seized in arrests.

"The new, improved 1984"

Charles Hugh Smith writes: "The new, improved version of 1984 is based on complicity."

U.S. embassies in the Middle East reopen, but...

While the U.S. has reopened all but one of its embassies in the Middle East, there's growing skepticism about why they were closed in the first place.

McClatchy Newspapers reported on Sunday:

A high-ranking Yemeni security official speaking on the condition of anonymity told McClatchy that the claims of a foiled plot had no basis in fact. That source bemusedly attributed media reports about imminent terror strikes to a single official’s comments, which he cast as a misguided attempt at shifting public opinion in the face of increasing and unpopular American drone strikes.

Newscast chatter about possible terror strikes and closing embassies abroad certainly seemed to displace coverage of Obama administration scandals here at home.  And the terror plot news came at a time there had seemed to be growing media interest in circumstances surrounding personnel involved in the Benghazi attack eleven months ago.

Has media interest in Benghazi grown cold again after the week-long diversion?

Obamacare song titles

Via Twitter:

#obamacarehitsongs Can't Take My Spies Off of You

— Russ Johnson (@RussJohnsonMD) August 11, 2013

#obamacarehitsongs Money for Nothin'

— Marjorie Haun (@Reagan_Girl) August 11, 2013

#ObamacareHitSongs We Don't Need No Obstetrician

— Imaumbn™ (@Imaumbn) August 11, 2013

#obamacarehitsongs I Can't Go For That...

— Benghazi BunnyFooFoo (@GOPBunny) August 11, 2013

Assessing the state of tyranny

Monty Pelerin writes:

True tyranny is serious and should not be used as a tool to smear political opponents. It is a specific condition, one which the Founders found serious enough to initiate a revolt against England.

Now it is used more as political invective than in its true meaning. Sadly, the politicians who bandy the word about for advantage are unaware of true tyranny or that they are guilty of committing it.

I seriously doubt all the accomplices in the trend toward modern tyranny do so unwittingly. But, yes, many are likely self-deluded enough not to see the trend they're a part of.

One more excerpt from Pelerin's essay:

America is now run by political sociopaths, unrestricted by laws, ethics or tradition. That characterizes both political parties. It does not matter whether we elect a “good man” next. No country survives dependent on the masses electing the right man. Countries survive with systems that protect them when the wrong man is elected. We no longer have that protection.

Full blown tyranny may not be here yet. But America sorely needs awakening to the direction it's being taken.

Who's more honest: Government or Honey Boo Boo?

Might be funny if not so reflective of our current reality.

Watch as Shep Smith goes from defending government, to expressing complete loss of faith.

From a recent Fox News cast:




Smith's comments are in line with a theme of last week's Don and Doug. It's another sign government is losing the trust of the American people.

Government is losing its legitimacy.

Overwhelm the border? Sounds kinda Cloward Piven-ish

From News 10 San Diego:

Sources said immigrants are being taught to use "key words and phrases" to be allowed to enter and stay in the country. 

Border agents said 199 people came through the Otay crossing Monday claiming a "credible fear" of the drug cartels in Mexico. 

"They are being told if they come across, when they come up to the border and they say certain words, they will be allowed into the country," said a border agent who wanted to remain anonymous. 

Sources said there were so many people doing this on Monday that they had to close down the Otay processing center and the overflow was shipped by vans to the San Ysidro station. 

"We are being overwhelmed," said the agent.

Are we experiencing Cloward Piven strategy along the southern border?

Let's not forget it was our own U.S. government that helped arm Mexican drug cartels through the auspices of the ATF and Operation Fast and Furious.

HUD's new game

The Department of Housing and Urban Development recently announced plans to greatly expand its reach into the kind of neighborhoods we live in.

Some ugly stuff here. Intentions may sound noble to some ears. But forced diversity at the hands of an unbridled federal bureaucracy sounds fraught with danger.

Applying terms that are less politically correct, you might even say what HUD proposes sounds like is a program of redistribution and resettlement.

We've apparently entered a new and scary era. One where the federal bureaucracy wants to micromanage not only our states and cities, but wants to micromanage us right down to the neighborhoods we live in.

Never before has it been asserted that the Constitution covers a federal bureaucracy micromanaging who can or should live in a zip code or neighborhood.

When integrationist school busing was rolled out in the '70s and '80s, many who could bolted for the 'burbs. Race was only part of motive. Many families simply didn't want their kids sitting on school buses for extended time just because a bureaucrat or federal judge thought it was a spiffy idea.

HUD's proposed misadventure may well reignite more population destabilization, taking 'burb dwellers - and perhaps major employers - even farther from the inner cities.

Beware unintended consequences.

We no longer live under the live-and-let-live federal government of the Founders.

What HUD wants is Soviet style central planning on steroids.

Florida sheriffs unanimously support "Stand Your Ground"

Via Florida Sheriffs Association:

FSA President, Sheriff Grady Judd, today announced, “The right to self-defense is well-established in law.  The Florida Sheriffs confirmed this position by voting unanimously, at the 2013 Florida Sheriffs Association Summer Conference, to support the Stand Your Ground law as it is currently written.  Our current judicial system is comprised of multiple checks and balances to ensure fair and equitable application of all laws, including Stand Your Ground.”  

Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law 

A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity, and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.
F.S. §776.013(3)

Obamacare's a stepping stone

Senate President Harry Reid (D-NV) made a comment in Vegas that should take none of us by surprise.

Democrats aren't happy with Obamacare. They're just using it as a stepping stone.

Reid, as quoted in the Las Vegas Sun:

“What we’ve done with Obamacare is have a step in the right direction, but we’re far from having something that’s going to work forever,” Reid said. 

When then asked by panelist Steve Sebelius whether he meant ultimately the country would have to have a health care system that abandoned insurance as the means of accessing it, Reid said: “Yes, yes. Absolutely, yes.”

Reid's comments are exactly in line with the position Barack Obama outlined for the Service Empolyees International Union in early 2008. There would be an intermediate step as the Left weened Americans off private sector health care and substituted government administrators.


Reid's comments, along with Obama's provide anecdotal evidence Dems never intended Obamacare to work. They packed it with enough failure points, and designed it to do enough damage to traditional insurers, that the system would fail so that government could rush to the sheeple's rescue with a bold new single payer, exclusively government health care plan.

Only thing that surprises me is that Reid's already jumped out front speaking of the next phase before Obamacare is fully rolled out. The Left's timetable for America's fundamental transformation appears to be picking up its pace. 

Something's amiss

The "naked domain" (radioshownotes.com) is not referring traffic to the primary (www.radioshownotes.com).

We're still up and running. But readers not using the "www" prefix are getting directed to a Google hold page.

Trying to trouble shoot, and get resolution.

Update: After racking my brain to no avail Saturday, I awake Sunday to find the naked domain now works as it should. Divine healing overnight? Or did someone reset a glitch at Google?

Regardless, glad things are back to normal.

Update II: Just after noon on Sunday. Naked domain is again being diverted to the Google Apps hold page.

Is this some kind of Google glitch. Or am I actually experiencing some sort of hack-tivity?

Update III: This appears to be a malware issue. And a very selective one, just my website address is impacted. I've scrubbed my machine inside and out, but I can't shake or trace the source. And, now that I've checked, it appears to be limited to Google Chrome. Other browsers redirect as they should.

Did I say something to make someone mad?

Surveillance reforms. Don't settle for window dressing

The American Civil Liberties Union chimes in on Obama's call to reform government surveillance policies and programs:

"While the initial reforms outlined by the president are a necessary and welcome first step, they are not nearly sufficient. The bulk collection of Americans' phone records is only one of several troubling programs disclosed over the last two months. The president must work with members of Congress to reform all of these surveillance programs, including those authorized by Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, which collect, monitor and retain the contents of Americans' communications without a warrant. We also urge the president to release the relevant FISA Court opinions and agency memos that have created a body of secret law that is far removed from public oversight and adequate congressional review. We must ensure that the government's surveillance programs once again adhere to the protections afforded by the Fourth Amendment."

Don't expect government (including the Congress) to willingly, meaningfully reform surveillance programs if it thinks it can get away with a little window dressing.

Mess with the government

Talk like a terrorist.

Obama's revisionist Boston tale

Did you catch Mr Obama on Leno earlier this week? How 'bout the part where he rewrote the history of how things played out shortly after the Boston Marathon bombing?

From a show transcript (via Politico):

One thing I've tried to do as President is not over react, but make sure that as much as possible the American people understand that there are genuine risks out there.  What's great about what we've seen with America over the last several years is how resilient we are.  So after the Boston bombing, for example, the next day folks were out there, they're going to ball games.  They are making sure that we're not reacting in a way that somehow shuts us down.  

And that's the right reaction.  Terrorists depend on the idea that we're going to be terrorized.  And we're going to live our lives.

Uh huh. Note that Mr. Obama slipped "next day" into his comments. He didn't dare mention what happened later in the week.

I distinctly remember reports of bus and train service being halted, stores and restaurants told to close. And Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick telling all Boston to stay indoors.



Just blows my mind how progressives like Obama don't even try to stick close to the facts. They just make stuff up, and expect us to swallow it whole.

Blunder or tip off?

Obama confirms secret Benghazi indictment.

Or maybe he was just flouting that he's above the law in our once great, but now fundamentally transformed, nation.

New GOP logo

Via All The Right Snark:

Friday, August 9th's discussion

Don and I will be back at 1:00 pm today with a live program at TalkSouthRadio.com.

Fact or fantasy: Has government lost its legitimacy?

It's a question or theme we've seen raised in various circles recently. I'd like to talk about it.

Exactly where do Americans stand on government overreach?

How many even deem what's happening to be overreach, how many welcome it?

Or are most folks still too comfortable to even give it much thought?

We tackle the topic on today's Don and Doug.

You can access the program directly by clicking here.

The link to On Demand playback will be linked here once the live program's over. (The archived August 9th show has been uploaded, and available for replay).

Wall of worry?

What's with all the shipping containers outside the Hasan trial?

"Shut down or roll over"

Wired: Snowden’s Email Provider Shuts Down Amid Secret Court Battle

Slowly slipping out of their slumber...

"It’s dawning on a lot more people that a government run by secret spymasters is illigitmate even by the most conventional, mainstream standards." - Claire Wolfe

So busted

Obama gets caught recycling the same comments over and over and over.

IRS policy and government surveillance

Government snooping and overt actions to recreate evidence to cover up the data trail was going on long before Obama's team rolled into power.

Reuters reports the practice was detailed in IRS manuals during the Bush years, before being quietly removed in 2007.

A 350-word entry in the Internal Revenue Manual instructed agents of the U.S. tax agency to omit any reference to tips supplied by the DEA's Special Operations Division, especially from affidavits, court proceedings or investigative files. The entry was published and posted online in 2005 and 2006, and was removed in early 2007. The IRS is among two dozen arms of the government working with the Special Operations Division, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency.

This was flying out in the open and no one noticed? No one in the Congress was aware?

Gotta wean ourselves off the Left v Right, Republican v Democrat political gamesmanship. Instead focus on the concept that the people we elect and send to Washington seem more interested in protecting and expanding the tools of the federal bureaucracy than they are about protecting your rights under the Constitution.

"A conclave of would-be wizards"

And now a word from a voice on the left side of the political spectrum:

"I felt sorry for President Obama, going about the country trying to appear historically heroic without doing a damn thing, really, to face down to the monsters in our own midst. But then one hears the rumor of Larry Summers’ imminent appointment to chair the Fed, and it is no longer possible to feel sorry for Obama, but rather to feel sorry for the nation laboring under such a conclave of would-be wizards." - James Howard Kunstler

Sequester factoid

The Foundry notes:

While defense is only around 20 percent of the government’s spending, it bears more than 40 percent of the sequestration cuts. Entitlements, especially Social Security and Medicare, are driving our deficit and debt crisis, yet the Senate and President Obama haven’t put forward a credible plan for reforming either.

Liberty Tree

The unexpected falling of an old tree leads its owner to reflect on the state of  liberty in America.

Feeling down about the state of the nation?

"For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth—to know the worst and to provide for it." - Patrick Henry, addressing the Virginia House of Burgess, March 1775

Middle East mashup

Same rebels Obama wants to arm? Same al Qaeda that's making threats, forcing closures of  U.S. embassies?

"Al Qaeda group leads Syrian rebels' seizure of air base"

TSA VIPRs back in the news

The Transportation Security Administration's VIPR (Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response) teams were introduced publicly a couple years ago with flashy checkpoints along Interstate highways.

But after public reaction seemed to go mostly negative, and VIPR personnel apparently had culture clashes with local police agencies, the TSA quietly pulled back on its VIPR operations.

However, being in the shadows doesn't mean they've gone away.

The New York Times notes VIPR teams are still out here, expanding, and as controversial as ever:

The program now has a $100 million annual budget and is growing rapidly, increasing to several hundred people and 37 teams last year, up from 10 teams in 2008. T.S.A. records show that the teams ran more than 8,800 unannounced checkpoints and search operations with local law enforcement outside of airports last year, including those at the Indianapolis 500 and the Democratic and Republican national political conventions. 

The teams, which are typically composed of federal air marshals, explosives experts and baggage inspectors, move through crowds with bomb-sniffing dogs, randomly stop passengers and ask security questions. There is usually a specially trained undercover plainclothes member who monitors crowds for suspicious behavior, said Kimberly F. Thompson, a T.S.A. spokeswoman. Some team members are former members of the military and police forces. 

T.S.A. officials would not say if the VIPR teams had ever foiled a terrorist plot or thwarted any major threat to public safety, saying the information is classified. But they argue that the random searches and presence of armed officers serve as a deterrent that bolsters the public confidence.

Do bureaucrats really believe the BS they peddle about boosting public confidence?

An December 2011 editorial in the Orange County Register used other terms to describe VIPRs:

To us, this sounds like something more like the Stasi secret police in the former East Germany, in which citizens spy on one another. “Your papers, please!” should not be a command Americans hear, and fear.

As the Register noted, VIPRs appear to be little more than political theater; something designed to normalize the behavior of a police state.

The TSA is now more stealthy in how it operates its VIPRs, but that doesn't mean they're less a threat to liberty. Consider one of Webster's definitions for the word viper: a vicious or treacherous person. I suspect it says a lot about the mindset that created the TSA VIPR model.

I can see Obama's economy from my front porch

Yesterday, I noted how FDR's administration documented hard times in the 1930s.

Today, as on every trash day, I got another glimpse of what's happening in America today.

Never saw this in my neighborhood six or seven years ago. Now it's a weekly occurrence, usually with multiple visitors on trash day. Scavenging for scrap is a regular occurrence across America.

Say a prayer, if you will, for all those struggling to get by in our fundamentally transformed America. Especially for those who get up each day, and do what they can to support themselves.

Where things stand...

Al Qaeda threat forces U.S. to close 19 embassies and consulates for a week.

We're using drones to blast away in Yemen.

Must be serious.

But not serious enough for Mr. Obama to skip a golf vacation at Martha's Vineyard.

This is where he'll stay.

This is where he'll golf.

New York Times notes a trend

Gun makers are moving from states no longer friendly to firearms. And if they're not moving altogether, they're prioritizing expansions in states where their industry and goods aren't vilified.

Then and now

In the 1930s, FDR had government chronicle the economic depression with thousands of photos. One example, shot by the Farm Security Administration in 1936:

Family between Dallas and Austin, Texas. The people have left their home and connections in South Texas, and hope to reach the Arkansas Delta for work in the cotton fields. Penniless people. No food and three gallons of gas in the tank. Father is trying to repair a tire. Three children. Father says, "It's tough, but life's tough anyway you take it" - FSA Photo and caption via Library of Congress

The Obama administration, on the other hand, pretends economic recovery is rolling forward, and touts every new part-time temporary job as a significant event.

While America slept...

"Congress’s supine ceding of its powers, and the Obama administration’s usurpation of both legal and extralegal powers, is worrisome. But what is particularly disturbing is the quiet, polite, workaday manner with which the administration goes about its business — and with which the American public accepts it."  - Kevin D. Williamson, writing at National Review.

A little too honkish

Spent part of the day looking for a used horn pad for a 1995 Ford Ranger.

The switch inside the old pad sticks. Tap the horn, it keeps blowing. Grip the wheel too hard, or roll over a speed bump, beep beep.

Ford incorporates the horn switch in the pad with the airbag. You can't get to the switch to clean, re-position or replace the actual switch.

A Ford dealer quoted me $1200 for a new replacement. Sounds a little steep to me.

Update: Looks like I got bad information. Now that I've removed the air bag, it appears the horn switch is separate from, and below the pad on my model. I've blown out dust on the contacts, moved and taped a couple wires that were dangling loose near the contact points. Seems to be working.

Maybe Ford went to a more complex design on later models. But mine seems to be a simple enough fix. If this doesn't hold, maybe I'll go scavenging for a new steering wheel.

Cautionary note: Always disconnect the battery before working with an air bag component. And let the vehicle sit a while so components have time to discharge.  Last thing you want is an accidental deployment.

Stats raise a question

New part-time jobs greatly out-pace new full-time jobs.

How many new jobs are simply old full-time jobs divided into two or more part-time jobs that juice the stats?

MAIG advice is bad advice

Executive Director of Bloomberg's Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Mark Glaze, suggests you'd be better off to fist fight an ax handle armed attacker than to use a gun in self defense.

Sheesh.

H/T: War on Guns

More guns = Less crime

Another set of  numbers seems to back up the premise that more guns in the right hands leads to less crime.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch has been digging into Virginia stats:

Looking back over seven years, total firearm sales in Virginia have risen a staggering 101 percent from 2006 to 2012, while gun-related crime has dropped 28 percent during that period.

Burying the secrets of surveillance

Revelations about secret police tactics keep on coming.

From Reuters: U.S. directs agents to cover up program used to investigate Americans.

It says, in part:

The undated documents show that federal agents are trained to "recreate" the investigative trail to effectively cover up where the information originated, a practice that some experts say violates a defendant's Constitutional right to a fair trial. If defendants don't know how an investigation began, they cannot know to ask to review potential sources of exculpatory evidence - information that could reveal entrapment, mistakes or biased witnesses.

Sounds like a tactic ripped from the pages of history's most notorious police states.

Are you still telling yourself this is about terrorism? Or that it's all being done for our protection?

Gardening failure

My efforts at a vegetable garden this year have been a big, fat failure.

Too much rain early in the summer, along with the cloudy skies over an already marginal area for sunlight, and things just didn't take.

Squash plants became mushy and disintegrated. Tomato plants grew, but have produced little fruit; heirloom varieties have yet to yield anything ripe.  A blackberry patch along a fence line was loaded with nearly ripe berries when we left for vacation, but was barren on our return; a neighbor had spotted a deer in our backyard.

Now I find an invasion of worms has infested the broccoli. Not sure it's worth saving at this point.

Too bad we don't eat crabgrass. It's advanced faster than I can pull it out or turn it over.

After several years of bumper yields, this year is a major disappointment. Maybe I need to till it under, do some soil prep, and tarp over the plot until next spring.

Government statistic

The FBI allows, even encourages, its informants to break laws.

Agents authorized 15 crimes a day, on average, including everything from buying and selling illegal drugs to bribing government officials and plotting robberies. FBI officials have said in the past that permitting their informants — who are often criminals themselves — to break the law is an indispensable, if sometimes distasteful, part of investigating criminal organizations.

This is CNN?

Report says Cable News Network is pondering a move into fictional programming. Report also says "Tim McVeigh and the gun show culture" is the theme of one proposed series that's being pitched.

Unintended consequences

Gun buyback programs are to guns what Cash for Clunkers was to cars.

They both create(d) demand for new ones.

H/T: War on Guns

"Message for the Media"

A Natalie Foster video...

Agency data envy

Seems like an odd way to defend NSA spying. The New York Times reports other federal agencies want access to the NSA's domestic spying data, but are frequently turned down:

Agencies working to curb drug trafficking, cyberattacks, money laundering, counterfeiting and even copyright infringement complain that their attempts to exploit the security agency’s vast resources have often been turned down because their own investigations are not considered a high enough priority, current and former government officials say.

Rather than give assurances of good gate keeping, this disclosure should be a warning that the potential for abuse becomes greater as government gets bigger and data collection more routine. Government has a way of taking what begins as an emergency measure, and turns it into the routine.

Most are too you to remember, but income tax payroll deduction was once deemed an emergency measure; it was supposed to sunset after World War II.  Used to be medical records were a private matter as well; something kept between a doctor and a patient.

To say some some agencies are being kept out of NSA data vaults, or that they only get limited access, gives me little comfort. Walls like this, even if they're as intact as claimed, have a way of eroding over time.

Crackers and terrorists

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) compares the tea parties to "white crackers" of the segregationist era. Rangel also says Republicans are doing more damage to the country than terrorists.

CBS News is among those now reporting Rangel's comments.

Has Rangel gone senile? Or does he merely attempt to play the race card in an attempt to shame opposition into silence as the progressive cabal completes its undoing of the American republic?

World War Z...

Or "World War D"?

From Chris Muir's Day by Day Cartoon:

Standing guard

“When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe." - Luke 11:21

Trivia time

What movie poster has the most guns in it?

Targeting a RINO in SC

The Daily Caller reports:

The first woman to graduate from the Citadel is planning to challenge South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham in the Republican primary next year. 

Charleston businesswoman Nancy Mace will head to Goose Creek Saturday to announce her Senate campaign, The Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.

Rising authoritarianism

Daniel Henninger shares some observations by way of the Wall Street Journal:

The political left, historically inclined by ideological belief to public policy that is imposed rather than legislated, will support Mr. Obama's expansion of authority. The rest of us should not. 

The U.S. has a system of checks and balances. Mr. Obama is rebalancing the system toward a national-leader model that is alien to the American tradition. 

Mr. Obama promised to fundamentally transformation America. Everyone should realize by now, he wasn't just blowing political smoke. He meant every word of it.

Obamacare rolls into Georgia

From SavannahNow:

“Insurance companies in Georgia have filed rate plans increasing health insurance rates up to 198 percent for some individuals,” (Georgia Insurance Commissioner Ralph) Hudgens wrote in a July 29 letter to Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the president’s point person on Obamacare.

Labeling a bit of history as inappropriate

Reading a book on Civil War history the other night, I got a hankering to hear some music of the era. There are plenty of period ballads and anthems on YouTube, both from the North and the South.

But when I clicked on one entry, I got this:

Bonnie Blue Flag is offensive? Despite the warning, I watched the video. So what? It showed some drawings of battle scenes. Nothing I saw rated a parental/consumer warning.

For those who don't know, Bonnie Blue Flag was a tune probably second in popularity behind Dixie in the South during the war. The Bonnie Blue Flag flew over batteries in Charleston that fired on Fort Sumter. For the most part, the ballad's a telling-in-song of which states seceded from the Union, and in what order (with a bit of literary license), to form the Confederacy.

First gallant South Carolina
   Nobly made the stand,
Then came Alabama,
   Who took her by the hand.
Next quickly Mississippi,
   Georgia and Florida
All raised on high the Bonnie Blue Flag
   That bears a single star...

And yes, there are other Bonnie Blue entries on YouTube without a warning, so perhaps there's more to the warning's back story. There's even a shortened movie version where Ted Turner, former head of Atlanta's Turner Broadcasting, plays the part of a Confederate officer singing along in an audience.

As with many songs of the era, Wikipedia notes Bonnie Blue Flag was also adapted and sung in praise of the Union's cause.

We trusted you as brothers,
Until you drew the sword,
With impious hands at Sumter
You cut the silver cord.
So now you hear the bugles,
We come the sons of Mars,
To rally round the brave old flag
That bears the stripes and stars.

Another bit of trivia: Do you remember what Rhett and Scarlett named their daughter in Gone With the Wind?

Bonnie Blue Butler.

But alas, with today's political correctness, GWTW is deemed offensive and inappropriate as well.

Here's a thought

"The lesson we must teach these Marxists disguised as liberal Democrats is: We will roll you back. It's like Patton in Africa. There is no other choice." - Velociman writing at Velociworld blog

America is changing. Have you noticed?

The U.S. Park Service may have "lost" more guns than it has police officers.  Why is a federal agency keeping large numbers of military style firearms "off inventory"?

Evidence emerges Homeland Security teams have started targeting house calls and conducting searches based on what people read or shop for on the Internet.

And government now moves beyond just controlling behavior, it wants an active role in shaping how you think. The federal government has reportedly begun hiring what's called a "Behavioral Insights Team." The goal is to find ways to "nudge" people into compliance with government's agenda.

Would previous generations of Americans allowed any of this?  Are we already living in a "digital gulag"? 

Don and I talk about it later today (Friday, August 2nd) at 1:00 pm Eastern at TalkSouthRadio.com.

A direct link to the program audio stream can be accessed here at show time. 

Another gun scandal under Obama's watch

Move over ATF. This time the scandal involves the U.S. Park Service, which seems to be missing a bunch of "military style" rifles. And more.

From the UK Daily Mail:

An inspector general report prompted by an anonymous complaint revealed that the the park police couldn't account for 477 government-issued military-style rifles and couldn't tell inspectors where hundreds of other weapons were. 

An anonymous tip that prompted the investigation concerned allegations that officers were taking home weapons that weren't assigned to them. The report confirmed that this happened at least twice. 

But the larger implications of 'hundreds of guns that are off the books,' one recently retired Park Police officer told MailOnline, is 'absolutely stupid and a disaster waiting to happen.'

Think about it. At the same time lawmakers in federal and state governments are working to limit or even ban civilian access to certain firearms, federal bureaucrats are keeping stashes of arms off the books.

Why on earth would they do that? We'll likely hear it blamed on sloppiness. But this kind of sloppiness would mean five years in prison for a civilian under Sen. Schumer's proposed background check bill.

Perhaps these arms are sitting in the back of bureaucrats closets. Perhaps they've made their way to criminals in the streets. The fact a government agency keeps large numbers of guns off inventory should raise all kinds of red flags.