Michelle Nunn is not pro-gun

Michelle Nunn wants to be a Democrat senator from Georgia just like her daddy was.

But for a candidate in a pro-gun state like Georgia, she has supporters who cast her in a troubling light.

Big time gun-control advocate Mike Bloomberg is among those on the left doing what he can to move Nunn's campaign forward, noted Brandon Howell in a March column at Townhall.com:

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg maxed out to Nunn’s campaign in the final fundraising quarter of 2013, this coming in the same year in which he called on donors to quit contributing to Democrats who oppose his pro-gun control agenda.

Also in late 2013, the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action picked up on this:

Recently, Georgia U.S. Senate candidate Michelle Nunn attended a New York City fundraiser with Michelle Obama and picked up her endorsement. In her remarks Mrs. Obama said that electing Nunn is "critical" to enacting President Obama's anti-Second Amendment agenda. 

In her campaign, Nunn now seeks to play the political outsider, a middle-of-the-roader who runs ads proclaiming her fresh face wants to bring new ways of doing things to Washington.

Trouble is, there's a history from last year suggesting something quite different.

Life under Obama just gets uglier

Two prescriptions and a tank of gas cost me $300 tonight.

Then I came home and saw this:

Economy Stalls, Health Care Spending Explodes as Obamacare is Fully Implemented

Government gun control failure

Those who think only cops should be trusted with 'assault weapons' may be alarmed to learn how many real military weapons put in the hands of Georgia police and sheriffs departments have disappeared.

WSB-TV in Atlanta reports lost, stolen or otherwise unaccounted for weapons include four M-16 military rifles, seven M-14 military rifles, thirteen .45-caliber handguns, and a .38 Special.

Political correctness now enforced with stronger hands

That's the lead topic (as of this writing) for Friday, May 2nd's Don and Doug program.

Today's reality steers toward past fiction... but few bother to notice... at least not yet...

From Chris Muir's Day by Day Cartoon:

Choosing your friends and neighbors

"Today of course we are federally admonished not to choose our own friends and neighbors as if our lives were our own business. No. Instead we must follow the social directives of the Potomac Soviet, whether anyone wants to or not. Few do." - Fred Reed, at Fred on Everything

Are you sure it's Kennesaw?

You knew someone was gonna jump up with the finger pointing.

But Timothy Noah at WSJ's Washington Wire may have jumped the gun:

There’s a sad twist to the shooting Tuesday morning at a FedEx facility in Kennesaw, Ga., where an employee injured six co-workers before turning the gun on himself. Kennesaw is one of several U.S. cities and towns that have an ordinance requiring every household to own a gun.

Here's the rub. the crime scene actually isn't in the city of  Kennesaw. Yes, it has a Kennesaw postal address, but according to a county tax records, the FedEx facility on Airport Road is part of the Town Center CID located in unincorporated Cobb.

Cobb County Police were the lead agency in responding to Tuesday's shootings, and Cobb County Police handled dealing with the media at the scene. Again, for any doubting Thomases, more indications the crime was in unincorporated Cobb County.

Meanwhile, police have identified the deceased gunman as 19-year-old Geddy Kramer of Acworth.

Acworth, like unincorporated Cobb County, is not the City of Kennesaw.

Ashamed of her party?

Michelle Nunn is the highest profile Democrat running for the Georgia U.S. Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Saxby Chambliss.

Funny thing about Michelle Nunn, her primary ads are void of any mention of her being a Democrat.

At least one ad is heavy on imagery featuring the elder George Bush  - which some may take to infer Republican alignment. 

Don't be fooled. 

Michelle Nunn is a Democrat, daughter of retired Senator Sam Nunn, also a Democrat. But the Democratic Party has changed a lot since Sam's day. So much so, Michelle seems to have trouble uttering or displaying the word, at least in her ads.

Bits and pieces, here and there

As tensions between Europe and Russia mount over the Ukrainian situation, western military leaders are twiddling with micro-level forces.

Last week, Obama sent 150 soldiers for exercises in Poland... Now Canada reportedly commits a half a dozen fighter jets to Romania for patrol duty.

Why is it with every one of these token moves, I feel like we're getting closer to something that's going to be unstoppable?

Substantial forces tend to give an adversary cause of pause, but sending bits and pieces here and there only tend provoke bigger escalations.

And make tempting targets.

Businesses close in wake of Obama executive order

President Obama's executive order requiring higher minimum wage for employees of federal contractors is already having an impact. 

People are losing their jobs as companies begin retreating from doing business on federal installations.

Byron York at Examiner.com notes:

In late March, the publication Military Times reported that three McDonald's fast-food restaurants, plus one other lesser-known food outlet, will soon close at Navy bases, while other national-name chains have "asked to be released from their Army and Air Force Exchange Service contracts to operate fast-food restaurants at two other installations." 

Military Times quoted sources saying the closures are related to the coming mandatory wage increases, with one source saying they are "the tip of the iceberg."

More unemployed people. Fewer meal time choices. Seems to fit right in with what Mr. Obama promised in 2008 when he spoke of fundamentally changing the United States of America.

Choosing sides

"Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last forever. We must take it or leave it.” - C. S. Lewis, in The Case for Christianity

Police issue citation to kids playing with Nerf guns

Happened in Wausau, Wisconsin.

Actually, the issue here appears to be bigger than Nerf guns.

Apparently all it takes to warrant a citation for disorderly conduct today is to be a kid playing outside and be just loud enough for a neighbor to notice.

Report: BLM is carrying out an Obama "Climate Action Plan"

It seems the federal Bureau of Land Management brags of its plans for the desert land that it's wresting from people like the ranchers who've been grazing cattle there, sometimes for a century or more.

Solar Industry magazine notes:

Before 2009, there were no solar projects authorized on public lands. As part of President Barack Obama's Climate Action Plan to reduce carbon pollution and increase renewable energy in the U.S., the BLM has a goal to approve 20 GW of renewable energy production on public lands by 2020. Of the 51 projects approved so far, 28 are solar. The BLM also has designated Solar Energy Zones, 285,000 acres of public land in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah that serve as priority areas for these large projects.  

The approval process includes reviews that show the projects will not interfere with animal conservation, water-saving efforts and other environmental issues.

However, in typical progressive Democrat fashion, it appears private sector ranching (raising beef to feed the American people) gets crushed under the plan.

Meanwhile, beef prices have risen to all time highs in the U.S.

Planning to keep Americans fed at affordable prices apparently isn't part of the BLM's new formula.


Update: BLM is targeting more than ranch land. Now it reportedly wants to grab a campground from the Boy Scouts.

Dems are in trouble, but Republican elites talk of throwing them a lifeline

Even the Washington Post sees it. Democrats are in trouble this 2014 election year:

Obama’s low rating could be a significant drag on Democratic candidates this fall — past elections suggest that when approval ratings are as low as Obama’s, the president’s party is almost certain to suffer at the ballot box in November. 

But wait, there's a Republican Party that's apparently working to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory...

From Breitbart:

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), who told donors that he was "hellbent" on passing amnesty legislation, mocked amnesty opponents in Congress last week. According to NBC 5 in Texas, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) "will soon introduce a bill that will establish a path to citizenship for the minor children of illegal immigrants and a guest worker program," and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) told Roll Call that Republicans are "as close as we have ever been" in getting amnesty legislation and that they believe they "finally have the policy right." 

Passing amnesty this year, according to a Washington Post report, could put states like Arizona and Texas in play for Democrats in addition to making Americans less likely to support Republican candidates, as Breitbart News has noted.

In 2010, Republicans were swept into power in the House of Representatives because they promised to be an opposition party to Obama, his progressive Democrat allies and their touted fundamental transformation of America. But since then, establishment Republicans, under the direction of guys like John Boehner, have looked more like Obama enablers hellbent on Republican Party suicide rather than members of an opposition they promised.

What kind of trouble they expecting?

Zero Hedge, which previously noted police in China have recently begun carrying guns, now shares photos of Chinese cops practicing with what appear to be bayonets.

Then and now

"Cops and cop cars, 1938 and 2014"

Via the Woodpile Report, which observes:
"Either their vehicles are getting bigger or the cops are getting smaller. Wink wink."

Obama caught bowing again

This time it was to Honda's robot in Japan.

Same president dissed American ATMs a few years back.

More progressive panic and posturing over Georgia's new gun law

The new law expanding "gun rights" in Georgia continues to send panic through the progressive political ranks.

E. J. Dionne at Real Clear Politics is among those crying wolf, and to apparently expecting immediate masses of carnage in the streets of our Peach State.

Despite the overall fearmongering tone, there is a paragraph in Dionne's piece I found enlightening:

The New York Times found that in the 12 months after the Sandy Hook shootings, 39 laws were enacted tightening gun restrictions; 25 were passed by state governments under full Democratic control. Seventy laws were passed loosening gun restrictions, 49 of them in Republican-controlled states. According to The Wall Street Journal, 21 states strengthened firearms restrictions in 2013, and 20 weakened them.

The stats show promise. Despite their best shot, progressive gun-control fanatics seemingly were only able to deliver in the bluest of blue states.

Dionne also fails to mention the mass civil disobedience now occurring where some of the more restrictive gun control laws were passed.  Connecticut, for example, still sidesteps enforcement of its new registration requirements amid estimates that up to 100-thousand residents are in willful non-compliance. Estimates of non-compliance in New York range as high as a million gun owners.

The Left may still brag about new gun control restrictions passed last year. But if the states are afraid or otherwise unwilling to enforcement their new laws, it speaks volumes of how out of step they are with people living in those jurisdictions.

Chicago crime accounting trick

Rumored in Chicago: The weekend now ends at 8:00 am Sunday morning. 

Is this how city officials plan to keep the weekend murder count in check?

Buh-bye California

Report says Toyota will be moving its U.S. sales headquarters from California to Texas.

Formal announcement expected today.

Updates from Chicago's progressive Democrat Utopia...

Three highlights from the weekend at Second City Cop blog:

At least four people were killed and 27 others wounded within 16 hours across Chicago. 

Leonore Draper was minutes away from entering her West Pullman home after an anti-violence charity event she attended Friday night when she was shot and killed. 

Exactly 14 days after his murder case was dismissed, a South Side man was arrested after running from Chicago police and dropping a handgun, prosecutors said Saturday. 

Meanwhile, the New York Times and others on America's political Left have spent most the past week acting like an old white rancher in Nevada is, or at least exemplifies, America's biggest social and/or criminal problem.

Reality checking the Bundy bashers

Doug Giles notes at Townhall.com:

Yep, the stealing of old Cliven’s cattle; the paramilitary machinery levied against cowboys on horses; the sniper’s bouncing multiple .223 rounds off Bundy’s bull’s noggins via helicopters; the dumping of his slaughtered cattle into mass graves and the separation of his mama cows from their nursing calves by government goons was about the worse PR the BLM could ever dread to receive. Heck, even PETA was bitching about the Bureau of Land “Management.” 

But in Obamaland, all that is second fiddle to an old, white cowboy saying “Negro, slave and pickin’ cotton” in the same sentence.

Looky what dem Syrian rebels got!

The LA Times takes notice: It appears someone is now supplying at least one rebel faction with U.S. made TOW missiles.

But wait, there's more...

NPR reports the CIA has opened a pipeline for all kinds of goodies.

Second-guessing Putin

Amateurs at taking shots at predicting where the Russian/Ukraine mess is going...

Mac Slavo at SHTFplan.com is among 'em:

No one at the White House will officially admit it, but we may well be sitting on the cusp of a widespread conflagration. To suggest otherwise is simply naive. The chess game is, without a doubt, in full swing.

I'm not in the camp that sees WWIII just around the corner. At least not yet.

Still, it worries me that Putin knows he and Russia may never get a mushy-squooshy opponent like Obama ever again, and the Obama window is closing. Why not take full advantage?

Meanwhile, I see Russia's ruble has been hit with some devaluations because of recent tensions. Some analysts think this will make Putin pull back. I suspect analysts fail to realize Purtin will make up a lot of this loss when he socks it to Europe next time Europe negotiates a natural gas deal.

I tend to think Europe's economy is at far more risk here than Russia's if  things continue to play out six to eight months forward. Question is, will something trigger a blow up before then?

False framing on the immigration issue

Here are ten counter points to the most touted lines used in pushing immigration reform.

And here's a graphic to drive home even more dangers lurking in what the political establishment wants to push on us:

Speaker Boehner is an embarrassing failure

You may have read about it, but you should take time to see video of  Speaker John Boehner mocking fellow Republicans of the House for their reluctance to follow him into a rush for immigration reform.



The man shows complete contempt for those elected conservative representatives who don't want to rush down a stealthy but progressive path to national ruin.

When John Boehner mocks fellow Republicans in the House, he's also mocking the Republican voters who put them there. Boehner seemingly forgets they're supposed to be our representatives, not his lackey foot-soldiers.

They're cookin' up more than gumbo in Louisiana

According to this video, there' s something called the State Conprehensive Person Profile in the works:



Gotta watch it when the state starts bragging on comprehensive.

"All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state. " - Benito Mussolini

Weighing Cliven Bundy's now infamous comments

Much has been said, mostly by the frothing political Left, after Cliven Bundy made some comments, reported by the New York Times, that some have deemed to be "racist."

I made the effort to track down video of Bundy's remarks, and no, I don't see him embracing some romantic vision of American slavery as some of his most viral critics contend.  In a rambling and awkward way, he seems to ask if people aren't being pulled back into enslavement by gimmicks and games of government. And Bundy's use of archaic terms, words like 'negro' or 'colored' just don't play well with today's politically correct speech police.




Then there's this, first reported by CNN, and picked up by Talking Points Memo. One of Bundy's bodyguards at the ranch is black:

"Mr. Bundy is not a racist," he told CNN. "Ever since I've been here, he's treated me with nothing but hospitality. He's pretty much treating me just like his own family."

"Cliven Bundy is a robustly imperfect individual," says William Norman Grigg at LewRockwell.com.

Robustly imperfect. Think about it.

If Americans wait for the perfect specimen to rise up to challenge our imperfect and increasingly forceful government, we stand no chance of regaining the kind of balance that the founders intended.


Note: Don and I spent a good deal of time discussing the Bundy situation near the open on this week's show. Program's available here.

About the Georgia gun bill signed into law yesterday...

And now for some back story:

Why did Georgia Governor Nathan Deal wait so long before signing the gun bill, and why did he trek up to the mountain community of Ellijay to do it?

The signing took place in the home district of, and with high profile participation by, Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, a Republican who is apparently getting a worrisome  primary challenge from a popular local high school coach who is backed by the local Tea Party.

Deal had 40 days from the end of the session to sign the bill, or it would have become law without his signature. The gun bill was within days of becoming law anyway.

So, Deal deal's signing was about as late as it could be, and still have relevance. And it seems timed to deliver a primary election pop for the governor and his allies.

Early voting for the primary begins on Monday.

Undercover

Local news in Las Vegas says some at Bundy Ranch fear their ranks have been infiltrated by federal agents working undercover.

From KLAS-TV:

An atmosphere of uncertainty now surrounds the Bundy ranch. The so-called security guards aren't sure, but they believe it's possible federal agents are among them, posing as militia.

Begs the question: If federal agents are infiltrating the Bundy ranks, is it merely to gather intel, or does someone in government envision false-flag antics to discredit those who've opposed the BLM.

You gotta break some eggs to make a Utopian ommlette

"In a word, liberal ideology so often proves more important than people. Noble theories about saving humanity offer exemption from worry about the immediate consequences for individual humans. In a personal sense, those who embrace progressive ideas expect to be excused from the ramifications of their schemes. For the elite who send their kids to prep schools and private academies, public charter schools for the poor are bad, given that they undermine the dream of progressive, union-run education that has turned into a nightmare for those forced to enroll in it."
- Victor Davis Hanson, writing at National Review

Easter weekend in Chicago: At least 9 dead, 36 wounded

Progressives are really know how to tackle what they call "gun violence."

Yeah, right.

Chicago officials have their hands full this morning, trying to put some spin on a very bloody weekend.

CHICAGO (CBS) – Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said a bloody holiday weekend that saw at least nine people shot and killed and dozens others wounded “doesn’t wipe out” reductions in violent crime in the past two years.  

Since Friday evening, at least nine people were shot and killed in Chicago, and at least 36 others were wounded.  

“This doesn’t wipe out what has happened over the last two years, and this is a conversation that we’ve had time and time again,” Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said Monday morning. “There’s no magic formula here. We have a plan, we have a strategy, and it’s hard work... 

Meanwhile, Chicago still has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the U.S.

Can't wait to see what boils over on Memorial Day... or on the 4th of July...

Firearms ignorance reigns in the anti-gun movement

Bloomberg's "Everytown" political machine finally gets a Facebook page.

And then goes and posts this...

From Facebook

The anti-gun crowd once again shows it knows nothing about guns.

Meanwhile, the pro-gun "Everytown" Facebook page is still up and running. With far more "Likes."

Wanna bet the Kremlin is laughing?

Does anyone think the Russians will be impressed or deterred by military mini-exercises in Europe proposed by Obama and Hagel? This is supposed to reassure NATO allies?

We've probably seen larger military training ops take place in major U.S. cities in recent years.

Laying the groundwork for censorship

It appears Democrats are on the move again:

Boston (April 16, 2014) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, introduced legislation to examine the prevalence of hate crime and hate speech on the Internet, television, and radio to better address such crimes. The Hate Crime Reporting Act of 2014 (S.2219) would create an updated comprehensive report examining the role of the Internet and other telecommunications in encouraging hate crimes based on gender, race, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation and create recommendations to address such crimes.

H/T: My Daily Kona

Conundrums

I received an email that contained the following:

Conundrums 

The six contradictions of socialism in the United States of America: 

1. America is capitalist and greedy - yet half of the population is subsidized. 

2. Half of the population is subsidized - yet they think they are victims.  

3. They think they are victims - yet their representatives run the government.  

4. Their representatives run the government - yet the poor keep getting poorer. 

5. The poor keep getting poorer - yet they have things that people in other countries only dream about. 

6. They have things that people in other countries only dream about - yet they want America to be more like those other countries. 

Much wisdom expressed, but it came as one of those emails that's apparently been floating around for years without a notation of authorship.

So, I did some digging.

I found it posted online as early as 2009 at FreeRepublic, which had excerpted it from a comment at the Wall Street Journal following a Peggy Noonan column. The lines appear to be a rewrite of an old Soviet joke, but even the WSJ comment attributed the observations to an anonymous author.

The conundrums have spread far and wide.

The People's Cube also featured them in November 2012, both at its home site and the Washington Times.

If anyone knows of earlier citations or authorship, please share. Drop me a email or leave a comment.

On the theme of an American Easter...

From Library of Congress:

"General Washington at Christ Church, Easter Sunday, 1795"
A painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863-1930) from 1908

Yes, it's Easter

Via Twitter:

Luke 24:6 “He is not here but he is risen!”
— Mr. T (@MrT) April 20, 2014

Bloomberg's "Everytown" bungles at the start

"Everytown for Gun Safety"

Ex-New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg's putting $50 million into his latest project pushing deeper, more restrictive gun control laws.

But somebody beat him to claiming the name on Facebook.

BuzzFeed Politics notes:

Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg announced on Tuesday the creation of Everytown for Gun Safety, a major gun-control campaign that will combine some of his previous efforts.  

But a pro-gun group has already reserved that page on Facebook. The first post the group made proudly stated that it stole the name of Bloomberg’s group. 

Here's the pro-gun site's Facebook link. The Bloomberg team has thus far failed to have it permanently banished.

It features real gun safety messages, like this:

Via Facebook

And yes, it does take a dig at the Bloomberg anti-gun campaign:

via Facebook

According to BuzzFeed, Bloomberg's "Everytown" team vows to get the pro-gun site eliminated, or at least separated from the name:

“Maybe they’d like to duel for it,” said Mark Glaze, the executive director of Everytown for Gun Safety. 

Odd suggestion coming from a group that claims its intentions are to end gun violence.

Back at ya, Harry Reid

You may have seen this a couple days back. Senate President Harry Reid (D-NV) said protesters who turned back federal agents at the Bundy Ranch were "nothing more than domestic terrorists."



However, Reid's name calling carries little sting. According to at least one news account, it's apparently being welcomed with open mockery.

From the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

“Are you guys domestic terrorists?” he (Cliven Bundy) asked the crowd gathered around a stage near the north bank of the Virgin River. 

The supporters, many wearing name tags that said “domestic terrorist,” erupted with cheers and applause.

Remember the Democrat congressman from Memphis who tried to smear Tea Party Republicans in Congress with a "domestic enemies" label last year?

Democrats sure have changed under Obama's reign.

I clearly remember when Democrats championed dissent and protest.

"I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration somehow you're not patriotic. We should stand up and say we are Americans and we have a right to debate and disagree with any administration," said Hillary Clinton just eleven years ago.

Democrats like Sen. Reid and Rep. Steve Cohen would do well to review the words of the former junior senator from New York.

Georgia's HB 60 to be signed next week

The Safe Carry Protection Act was passed by the Georgia legislature earlier this year.

Governor Nathan Deal's office now says he'll sign the new law next week.

But the signing won't be in Atlanta. Deal's taking the signing show north to Ellijay.

.22 ammo orders still backlogged

Anyone who shoots .22 Long Rifle ammo knows supply is still hard to come by.

The Civilian Marksmanship Program continues to have a huge backlog of  backorders. An email from the CMP carried this update:

AGUILA .22LR STANDARD VELOCITY. After a very long wait, CMP received a full container (1,000 cases) of Aguila .22LR ammunition, CMP item number 419ASVSE. Because of the price increase to $305 per case, we are contacting customers who have this item on order with the option to cancel the order or to continue processing at the new price. Contact is being made via email and phone call if necessary, oldest orders first. We still have over 6,000 customer orders for this item and are expecting another shipment of 1,000 cases in June, 2014. 

On the bright side, the CMP says it has caught up on its outstanding orders for Aguila .30 cal carbine ammo, and even has some in stock to sell. It also had some vintage Lake City carbine ammo available at the time the email went out.

There is a set of eligibility requirements for those buying from the CMP, stuff like demonstrating active involvement in firearms or marksmanship activity, and membership in an approved shooting sports or collectors organisation. Most folks can easily qualify if they have interest.

A warning to the wise

From Investors Business Daily: "Beware The Increasing Militarization Of Government"

No plans "right now" to enforce Connecticut's gun law

Connecticut's Record-Journal reports:

While gun owners who didn’t register could face a Class D felony conviction carrying a maximum of five years in prison, state police spokesman Lt. Paul Vance said there are no plans for enforcing the law right now.

H/T: Sipsey Street Irregulars, which chose a different excerpt.

Electricity prices surge

Electricity prices hit record high. 

How much of the surge can be attributed to government coercion that forced closure of many low cost coal fired electricity production plants?

Rush? What rush?

It's reported New Yorkers are no more willing to register their now highly regulated guns and ammo mags that the folks in Connecticut were.

That means a much larger pool of non-compliance with New York's bigger population.

More O-care tricks

If you fear a survey won't be favorable, why not just change the survey?

From the New York Times:

The Census Bureau, the authoritative source of health insurance data for more than three decades, is changing its annual survey so thoroughly that it will be difficult to measure the effects of President Obama’s health care law in the next report, due this fall, census officials said.

The changes are intended to improve the accuracy of the survey, being conducted this month in interviews with tens of thousands of households around the country. But the new questions are so different that the findings will not be comparable, the officials said.

"Improve the accuracy"? Somehow I suspect that means improve the spin potential.

This also caught my eye:

The questionnaire traditionally used by the Census Bureau provides an “inflated estimate of the uninsured” and is prone to “measurement errors,” said a working paper by statisticians and demographers at the agency.

So, now they tell us faulty data was used inflate the numbers justifying Obamacare in the first place.

Obamacare looks darker and dirtier with each new twist.

Followng rules...

From Chris Muir's Day by Day Cartoon:

Other disputed BLM actions

The federal Bureau of Land Management is attempting a land grab in Texas  Or is it Oklahoma?

And in Utah, there's some horse trouble involving the BLM that has folks riled up.

Other people's debts

The IRS has a new policy: Seizing people's imcome tax refunds to pay other people's debts.

From the Washington Post:

Across the nation, hundreds of thousands of taxpayers who are expecting refunds this month are instead getting letters like the one Grice got, informing them that because of a debt they never knew about — often a debt incurred by their parents — the government has confiscated their check.

We edge closer and closer to direct confiscation of American citizen assets to satisfy a government that knows it needs new revenue streams to buy time for its ways of excessive spending and debt.

Feds cave at Bundy Ranch

Looks looks like the Bureau of Land Management has chosen to rethink its strategy at Bundy Ranch.

What's up today at Bundy Ranch

Bob Owens at Bearing Arms previews...

Owen notes in an update the FAA has declared the ranch area a "no fly zone."

I'd guess government wants to keep media choppers away. Makes it harder for media to get video that really shows how big the protests are getting. Also makes it harder for media (or others) to get video of cows or carcasses being hauled away.

Jay Carney's kitchen

A recent magazine article with photos featuring Jay Carney's wife and family revealed some interesting artwork in the family's home.

Update: If your're curious about what the posters say, look no further.

Update II: What's up with the Carney's home bookshelf? Deemed too sparse for publication - or were titles covered to avoid embarrassment?

They're coming to take them away...

One of two strips today at Day By Day Cartoon:

What's MSM have to say?

The Las Vegas Review Journal, daily newspaper, is covering developments at the Bundy ranch.

From Thursday: Bureau of Land Management takes down its "First Amendment areas" intended for protests.

Wednesday's story: Militias "mobilizing" to support embattled Clark County rancher.

Level of protest rises at Bundy Ranch

So says Mike at Sipsey Street.

Are there lessons to be learned from The Walking Dead?

"The relentless violence and gore is not for the squeamish, but is probably a realistic portrayal of the brutishness and harsh conditions that will overwhelm this country once the electrical grid goes down, fuel becomes scarce and the global supply chain fails. Our just in time society is about one week from chaos, lawlessness, starvation and death on a grand scale." - The Burning Platform

Eric Holder showing signs of stress?

Or is this just his inner bully acting out? 

The Daily Caller reports on an exchange on Capitol Hill today between the attorney general and Congressman Louie Gohmert of Texas:

“I realize that contempt is not a big deal to our attorney general, but it is important that we have proper oversight,” Gohmert said. 

“You don’t want to go there, buddy! You don’t want to go there, okay,” Holder shot back. 

“I don’t want to go there?” the Texas Republican responded. 

“No,” Holder said, leaning forward in his seat. 

“About the contempt?” Gohmert asked. 

“You should not assume that that is not a big deal to me. I think that it was inappropriate, I think it was unjust. But never think that that was not a big deal to me. Don’t ever think that,” Holder said pointing at Gohmert.

Video accompanies the Daily Caller story at the link here.

Connecticut rally recap

Via David Codrea

Georgia mayor blasts Bloomberg's anti-gun mayors group

Mayors Against Illegal Guns tried to recruit Forrest Park's David Lockhart. 

Lockhart didn't just say no, he let 'em have it with both barrels (figuratively speaking).

All is not well in China

Shipbuilding is just one of the trouble spots.

Do you remember this warning from just a month ago?

Rewriting the 2nd

The New American has compiled a interesting collection of entries from Common Core curriculum materials:

In a textbook approved by Common Core for use by students studying for the Advanced Placement (AP) history exam, the Second Amendment is defined this way: "The Second Amendment: The people have the right to keep and bear arms in a state militia." 

Another book that received the Common Core stamp of approval informs students that the Second Amendment “grant[s] citizens the right to bear arms as members of a militia of citizen-soldiers.” 

Then, there is a worksheet reportedly approved by Common Core for use by history teachers in preparing lessons on the Bill of Rights that “informs” students, “The Government of the United States is currently revisiting The Bill of Rights. They have determined that it is outdated and may not remain in its current form any longer.” 

Actually, the statement is not a statement of fact, but an introduction to a proposed lesson asking the students to “prioritize, revise, prune two and add two amendments to The Bill of Rights.” 

Finally, there is the description of the Second Amendment published in a book approved by Common Core for use in elementary schools. 

Regarding the Second Amendment, the authors of the book state: 

This amendment states that people have the right to certain weapons, providing that they register them and they have not been in prison. The founding fathers included this amendment to prevent the United States from acting like the British who had tried to take weapons away from the colonists.

How can subsequent generations of Americans defend the Second Amendment (or the Bill of Rights, for that matter), if they don't understand it, and are deliberately misled as to the meaning?

New Yorkers follow in Connecticut's footsteps...

Despite demands under New York's SAFE Act, there's apparently a whole bunch of people who are failing to register their weapons. 

Will any New York newspapers be as foolhardy as Connecticut's Hartford Courant, and editorialize in favor of enforcement action?

Habitual misplacement

It's being reported six billion dollars in State Department funding was either misplaced or lost during Hillary Clintin's term as Secretary of State.

The Clintons seem to have knack for misplacing things.

Remember the Whitewater papers?

Heck, even a misplaced moon rock turned up in some Clinton papers not too many years ago.

But, hey, as they say...

"What difference does it make?"

Rally in Connecticut

There's a live feed of today's in progress gun rights rally in Connecticut available here.

Audio's iffy. I suspect other videos will surface as the day goes by.

Some of those attending are also tweeting photos and updates...

ALL AGES HERE AT CT GUN RIGHTS RALLY!!! #2A #TCOT #CCDL @twitchyteam @michellemalkin pic.twitter.com/W3q7Ju2HQa

— AGal (@GallSueJoe) April 5, 2014

Jumpers

First, a rash of financial pro suicides, most of them jumpers.

And now a CIA guy?

When's the Bloomberg gang gonna do something about all these tall, deadly buildings? How many stories are too many stories for us regular folks to be trusted with?

Elitist and apparently proud of it

David Perdue wants the Georgia Republican nomination for US Senate. But he sounded pretty darn elitist when caught on video at a forum in Bibb County:

The AJC's Political Insider has video and a transcript that includes this:

“I mean, there’s a high school graduate in this race, OK? I’m sorry, but these issues are so much broader, so complex. There’s only one candidate in this race that’s ever lived outside the United States. 

Perdue's comments were intended as a jab at Karen Handel, who lacks a formal college degree. But Perdue's eagerness to be arrogant have surely cost him points with lots of people. Jim Galloway at Political Insider notes Georgia's current lieutenant governor lacks a college degee, as does at least one existing member of Georgia's congressional delegation.

I don't care what Perdue's business background is. Last thing we need in DC is another self proclaimed educated elitist know-it-all who looks down on the constituents back home. Especially one who thinks time living overseas makes him better than those of us who've spent our lives living at home in America, fully immersed in American culture.

Tax-free holiday on guns 'n ammo 'n archery gear

Coming to Mississippi in September.

Mississippi's tax break may be the result of peer pressure. Its Second Amendment tax-free holiday will coincides with Louisiana's, which was enacted by the Louisiana legislature in 2009.

Military incursion

Via Judicial Watch:

In the latest Mexican military incursion into the United States, two heavily armed camouflaged soldiers from Mexico actually crossed 50 yards inside Arizona and held American Border Patrol agents at gunpoint in a tense confrontation. 

Armed with assault-style weapons, the Mexican soldiers retreated back south after a 35-minute standoff as if nothing ever happened and the Obama administration just let it slide.

Full story here.

Puke: It's the new weapon in class war

Class envy and class war protests get gutsy in Oakland, California.

Another site notes the splashy tactic.

What recovery?

"We are being lied to by the mass media. The much-vaunted "recovery" is smoke and mirrors, created by QE. Stocks are going up but in part because of the decline of the U.S. dollar as a currency unit. Welcome to the Mushroom Growth Recovery: Where the American people are being kept in the dark and fed horse manure." - JWR at SurvivalBlog.com

H/T: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton via Facebook

Let me add one other observation I shared on Terresa's Facebook post: A recycling business near me has again lowered what it pays for many categories of scrap metals. Tells me industry demand is softening.

Commentary from Connecticut

The editorial board of the Hartford Courant in February chimed in on Connecticut's new gun and magazine registration law by calling for prosecution of the tens of thousands of Connecticut residents who are willfully disobeying the law.

While the Courant, best I can tell, hasn't retreated from its official position, it has given gun rights advocate John Cinque access to its editorial page. Among Cinque's comments recently appearing in Courant:

Those in government who choose to rule by fiat instead of by representing us have a choice to make: This choice is reason or force. The line is drawn and the people will no longer allow further encroachment of our natural rights. An armed society is a polite society. As long as the people remain armed, government knows that it cannot rule over the people by force. Those who stand in defiance of unconstitutional laws do so out of duty, honor, oath and love of country.

A gun rights rally is planned this weekend in Hartford.

Secrecy, shadows and central planning

Building the Machine is a recently released documentary detailing some of the undisclosed, or at least under reported, aspects of the new Common Core K-12 education curriculum.

If you're expecting a bunch of "Tea Party" ranting, think again. The program, produced by the Home School Legal Defense Association, is more like a dissenting report anchored on the insights of former Common Core insiders.

Runs just under 40 minutes.

Asking questions can be dangerous

In Connecticut, the Daily Caller reports a community college student was suspended for asking questions of the governor following a public forum.

Today's education elites seem to prize compliance with authority over traditional American ideals such as free speech  or full participation in political debate. And yes, sometimes free speech can be less than polite when it comes to discussion of hot topics.

Another gun biz flees anti-gun New York // Update: No, not really

Looks like we can add Numrich to the list...

Update: Not so fast...

Looks like I got punked on this April Fool's Day. Now that I'm able to get access to the full site...

Odd. Numrich seems to think it's a good thing staying put in New York.

It's Bush over Obama by a wide margin

A recent poll of Iraq and Afghanistan war vets gives Bush the nod as the better CiC.

Obamacare and other contrived pressure points

Obamacare has unleashed chaos into the American health care system... but it appears Obamacare has only managed to insure about two million people who were previously uninsured.

PJmedia notes:

A RAND study pours buckets of cold water on the Obama administration’s claims that it has nearly reached 7 million sign-ups for Obamacare. The whole point of Obamacare, supposedly, was to insure the uninsured and bend the cost curve down. Those who had insurance were supposed to be able to keep it. Families were supposed to start saving about $2500 a year. If you believed the Obama administration. 

Reality, according to RAND‘s study, is that the Obama administration’s 7 million figure is deceptive. Supposing 7 million have actually signed up and paid their first premium — which is not a given, as the administration claims it does not know how many have paid — two-thirds of those who did sign up already had insurance before Obamacare.

Meanwhile, how many previously insured people are now uninsured?

Things will go even more out-of-line when Obamacare premiums inevitably bubble ever higher.

And Obamacare is only one of our artificially contrived pressure points.

Couple the collapse of American health care with the curtailment of America's industrial base and electrical generation capacity sought under the guise of preventing 'climate change,' and our problems grow exponentially.

How many millions will be displaced, or even die, as the result of what's shaping up to be a politically orchestrated national suicide?

Don't worry. Today's progressive American government seems convinced it can recruit new immigrants to replace any vacancies created by the current push for systemic and societal fundamental transformation.

Talk of economic recovery was premature

Or it was simply hype.

The patient remains on life support. And will for the foreseeable future.