Laying it out

On Facebook, Franklin Graham writes:

Why is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu being shunned by the liberal media, congress, and President Barack Obama? I believe it’s because this administration has been heavily influenced by Muslims speaking into and giving advice in various areas of the White House. They are anti-Israel and anti-Semitic—and they are influencing the president who as we all know was raised with a strong Muslim influence in his life. His father and his stepfather were Muslims and he attended Islamic schools. Prime Minister Netanyahu has been a friend to the US and deserves our respect. They’re treating our friend and ally as an enemy.

Give it up Jeb, just go home

Roll out the Astroturf, bus in supporters where you have none.

Isn't that the way SEIU stages portests? How the Dems pack venues ahead of the Iowa primary?

It's how Jeb Bush reportedly played CPAC. 

Most everything in politics is phony now.

Don't expect politicians to fix it. They like it the way things are.

Pelosi's team bumbled as bad as Boehner's

Earlier today, Democrats were pounding their chests over the way Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats came to "rescue" John Boehner's Republican efforts to keep DHS open.

So, Pelosi caved...

What's up with that?

Didn't Nan get the memo that Dems wanted a shutdown for fundraising purposes?

From The Hill:

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on Saturday emailed supporters incorrectly saying that Republicans had allowed the Department of Homeland Security to shut down.  

"Republicans forced a shutdown of Homeland Security. It started at MIDNIGHT last night," the DCCC wrote in a fundraising email to supporters shortly after 9 a.m. Saturday.  

"Together, we can make the Republicans regret their destructive choice to shut down President Obama’s agenda. Don’t miss this chance!" the email added. 

Understand the bottom line:

Pelosi ordered House Democrats to vote against Boehner's short term DHS funding plan on Friday.

A fundraising letter was prepared blaming Republicans for failing to muster vote for passage to keep DHS open.

But Pelosi apparently had a change of heart, and gave up enough Democrat votes at the last minute late Friday night to keep DHS open.

The disingenuous Democrat fundraising letter went out anyway.

This completely crashes Democrat attempts to spin Friday's events. Not that Boehner gets any bragging rights for his own botched attempts at complicity with the administration.

Protests planned today in Chicago

Seriously, even in Rahm's Chicago, talk of a "black ops" police interrogation site seems a little far fetched.

Any chance "Chuy" shows up at the protest?

Update: More Lefty cheerleading for today's planned protests, but apparently we'll have to wait a little longer before Chuy chimes in.

A new Dark Age

"The Obama years will be forever known as the Dark Ages of US history, a time of political, cultural and economic deterioration. We have yet to see if they will lead to the fall of the American republic." - Lawrence Sellin PhD, writing at Accuracy in Media


Meanwhile, over at Hope n' Change Cartoons...

At least Verizon keeps a sense of humor over net neutrality

Don't worry, if you can't read code, they translate via typewriter.

From Verizon's public policy blog

Congrats to the ATF

There's a new round of massive cconsumer ammo buying underway thanks to the federal bureaucrats' proposed ban on M855.

Lower the bar

Eric Holder wants lower thresholds for politically motivated prosecutions.

Snip, snip

Modern communications infrastructure is probably less secure than you ever imagined.

Look what just happened in Arizona.

Via the Washington Free Beacon:

Cellphone, Internet, and telephone services across half of Arizona went dark on Wednesday after vandals sliced a sensitive fiber optic cable, according to those familiar with the situation. The incident is raising concerns about the safety of U.S. infrastructure. 

The outage shut down critical services across large parts of the state, preventing individuals from using their phones, bank and ATM cards, and the Internet. Critical services, such as police and state government databases, as well as banks and hospitals, also were affected as a result of the vandalism.

Also from Facebook....

Where's the text?

Via Twitter:

— MATT DRUDGE (@DRUDGE) February 26, 2015

Southern weather reactionary realities

As seen on Facebook:

Republicans endorse Obama's dictatorship

More funding for Obama's illegal executive amnesty appears to be on the way, courtesy of Quislings in the Republican Party.

Republicans in the House and Senate can't find the courage to defend the Constitution and American rule of law, so today they scramble in an attempt to approve more short term funding for Obama's Department of Homeland Security including his by-decree executive amnesty program.

Meanwhile, Obama has warned agents at DHS that he expects them to follow his policies rather than Constitutional law. If they don't, there will be consequences.

America is in trouble when a president places himself above rule of law, above the courts, and a majority of those in Congress cast the Constitution and give the rogue president permission to continue his fundamental transformation.


Don and I discuss this dangerous state of affairs on today's Don and Doug webcast.


But wait, there's more!

It seems some House members have broken ranks with the Speaker's sell-out.

How long will the rebellion last?

At home and abroad

"ISIS has killed four Americans — in Syria. We’re not exactly talking about another 9/11. Here’s a tip: If you don’t want to be killed by ISIS, don’t go to Syria.  Meanwhile, illegal aliens have killed, raped, and maimed thousands of Americans — in America. If you don’t want to be killed, raped, or maimed by illegal immigrants in your own country, I have no tips for you. There’s nothing you can do. You’re on your own. Good luck." - Ann Coulter, writing at AnnCoulter.com

George Soros is funding Obama's "net neutrality" push

It's reported George Soros has pumped $196 million into Obama's efforts to seize regulatory control of the Internet, and has placed so-called net neutrality proponents on White House staff.

Here's another odd report: Google and other Internet firms have won concessions, and revisions have been made to the "net neutrality" plan after their request.

Did Google get to see the "net neutrality" plan that's been kept secret from the rest of America, or did it just guess at what the plan said when it requested changes?

Net neutrality's looking more and more like Obamacare. Big biz cronies have the inside scoop, while the American people are left in the dark til the plan's a done deal.

The FCC's still expected to vote on this shove-it-down-our-throats plan later today.

The closer we get to a vote, the worse this thing smells.

Will it go to a vote today?

Saw this on Twitter:

Here is Pres. Obama's revised 317-page plan to regulate the Internet. The public still can't see it. I'm voting no. pic.twitter.com/RirBVPChmV
— Ajit Pai (@AjitPaiFCC) February 25, 2015

Meanwhile, even Lefty proponents of "net neutrality" concepts now fear overreach in the stealthy plan Obama's people are pushing through.

More fundamental transformation from a rogue government

Obama's administration acts more like it's staging a coup than operating as one of three branches of the U.S. government.

Seems the FCC chairman doesn't want to share his secret plan for grabbing control of the Internet with members of Congress. 

The Federal Communications Commission plans to vote on "net neutrality" tomorrow.

And no one outside the highest offices in the FCC and the White House seems to know what's in it.

Obamanet vote as soon at tomorrow

FCC could vote to grab control of the Internet as soon as tomorrow. 

Still won't show us the written plan. 

Where's America's outrage?

A death in the family, an out of town wedding, and now an approaching winter storm.

Have had my hands full.

Blogging should resume in the next day or two as long as the allegedly approaching storm doesn't crash the grid and take down our Internet connection.

Is the American military really this stupid?

From the Daily Star out of Lebanon:

A U.S. Central Command official said Thursday that an Iraqi and Kurdish military force of 20,000 to 25,000 troops is being prepared to recapture the city, probably in April or May. 

But (Iraq defense minister) Obeidi declined to confirm that timetable, and expressed irritation at the remarks from the unnamed U.S. official. 

“This is urban warfare and we have civilian populations. It is very important to take time and accuracy in setting the plan for this battle,” he told a news conference in Baghdad. 

“A military official should not reveal the timing of an offensive,” he added. “The battle for Mosul starts when preparations are complete, and selecting the time is up to Iraqi military commanders.”

Astroturfers and the push to limit gun rights

David Codrea picks up on some stuff Sharyl Attikisson recently noted on her blog.

The Obamanet vote is only days away

We're said to be just six days away from an FCC vote where government will grab regulatory control of the Internet.

Do you understand what's at risk here?



Have you written to Obama's puppet of an FCC Chairman to declare your opposition?

His email address is here.

Better write now. Before the Intenet becomes the Obamanet.

Update: And yes, the FCC Chairman has thus far refused to share the text of proposed Internet regulations with the American people. It's the latest example of a now familiar progressive Democrat theme: Government gets to approve and lock-in changes in your life before you get to know what those changes are.

Cartoon truth

Via Twitter

From 19 Feb Australian newspaper The Age pic.twitter.com/3je4PUuXnG
— Ian Geldard (@igeldard) February 18, 2015

"There is no modern Islam"

"ISIS isn’t just seventh century Islam. It’s also much more recent than that. It’s Islam before the French and the English came. It’s what the Muslim world was like before it was forced to have presidents and constitutions, before it was forced to at least pay lip service to the alien notion of equal rights for all." - Daniel Greenfield, writing at FrontPage Mag

Churning butter?

Daniel Henninger writes at the Wall Street Journal: 

The Obama anti-ISIS “coalition” is essentially a pick-up basketball team without a coach. That video of Mr. Obama shooting air baskets in the Oval Office and giving himself a fist-pump for the effort about sums up the U.S.’s virtual foreign policy. 

Leftist realpolitik—melting guns so it can churn more butter—may survive a pullout from the world in normal times. But it’s not going to hold for the next two years, not at this pace, not with Islam’s jihadists using social media to make all of us party to the de-civilizing of the world.

Sorry, I don't buy that Obama's  trying to "churn more butter."

Taking a broad view of his game and his results to-date, Obama's detachment seems more of a ruse intended to buy more time and give more advantage to the enemies of America (as well as the rest of Western Civ).

Republicans aren't in it to win it

GOP resistance to amnesty for illegals is a sham. 

They know it, but they think you're too stupid to see it.

Obama just can't see it

Or pretends not to.

From the New York Post:

From his remarks yesterday:

They are not religious leaders -- they’re terrorists.   And we are not at war with Islam.  We are at war with people who have perverted Islam.

How well does this president understand Islam as practiced by Mohammed himself and Mohammed's inner circle?

Classic Islam plots its advance

Today's Islamic State strategies seem not much off from Islamic strategies of medieval time.

Libya today, Europe tomorrow. 

Italy's starting to get skittish.

Someone tell me again why Obama and NATO thought it such a good idea to aid in deposing Gaddafi, thereby opening Libya up to medieval rule by various Muslim militias.

Coming to America

Thanks to a decision by a federal judge in Texas, Obama's executive amnesty for southern border crossers may be on hold at least for a while.

But the Left always has an alternative plan underway to undermine America...

Let the potential ISIS airlift to America begin in earnest.

You may remember, funding for airlifting Syrians to America was included in Boehner's CRomnibus.

Marxist theory

A good job didn't deter Major Hasan from pursuing a personal Jihad. Nor did it deter those members of Afghan security forces who committed fratricide.

Wealth didn't deter the secular radicals of the Weather Underground.

The psychobabble spouted by State Department's Marie Harf comes off sounding like something ripped straight from unrefined Marxist theory.

What is the Islamic State?

"There is a temptation to rehearse this observation—that jihadists are modern secular people, with modern political concerns, wearing medieval religious disguise—and make it fit the Islamic State. In fact, much of what the group does looks nonsensical except in light of a sincere, carefully considered commitment to returning civilization to a seventh-century legal environment, and ultimately to bringing about the apocalypse." - Graeme Wood, writing at the Atlantic

In other words, the Islamic State must be viewed through a lens of raw basic Islam of a type Mohammed himself preached and practiced.

Meanwhile, there's at least one idiot at the U.S. State Department who seems to think the only way to defeat ISIS is to find its members jobs (presumably at a $15 an hour minimum wage).

You can run, but how long can you hide?

Have the hard lessons learned in World /War II been lost?

Why did Virginia Democrats run away twice rather than hold their places and vote on a resolution supporting Israel?

Posted by VAGOP on February 6, 2015:

Weather forecasts got some things wrong...

No, we didn't get a major ice event. But close enough.

This neighboring tree always
leans, at midnight last night,
it was bent twice as low.

Weather forecasts going into last night called for temperatures rising into the high 30s or low 40s,
with rain continuing until around 3:00 am. Then the rain was supposed to cease, and by 4:00 am, the temps were going to start falling into the 20s. 

Didn't quite happen that way. 

Between nightfall and sunrise, temps didn't waver much beyond a range of 31 and 33. 

And ice was quick to form. 

By 10:00 pm, limbs were falling with regularity.

But things could have been a lot worse. The rain stopped before midnight, and with it, any additional ice accumulation. Trees and branches stopped falling. Power stayed on except for a couple of momentary burps. 

I will say, the smartest thing we did a year and a a half ago was to remove the last of the tall pines near the house. We would have likely taken some direct hits last night if those trees had still been in place. Every remaining pine around here dropped some kind of limbs prior to midnight last night.

Another government induced ammo buying surge

Good luck finding the popular variant of 5.56x45 ammo known as "green tip" or M855.

M855 is a favorite round for many AR-15 shooters, but it's hard to come by now that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has proposed M855 come under a civilian consumer ban.

Anti-gun activists can't get the popular support for new widespread government gun, magazine and ammo bans they want, so they'll parse words and use bureaucracy in an attempt to keep whittling away at availability in any way they can.

Obama admin tells Border Patrol not to detain drunk drivers

"Allow them to go on their way."

We lost another embassy this week. The one in Yemen closed, and Americans make a hasty retreat.

The embassy's Marine guard contingent destroyed its crew served weapons, but was forced to surrender their small arms prior to being allowed to enter the airport to exit the country.

Best I can tell, President Obama didn't have much to say about America's retreat out of Yemen.

However, Mr. Obama did spend time this week making a video as he played with cookies and milk at the White House.

The Internet becomes the Obamanet if Obama gets his way

Power grabs come naturally to the president. The Internet appears to be the next target.

It was an ugly exit from Yemen

U.S. Marines destroyed some of their own weapons, were forced to surrender others, prior to evacuation from Yemen after the closure of the U.S. embassy there. 

Sweden cuts interests rates to below zero

Imagine owing less money on a loan than you borrowed before you had to pay any of it back.

That's what's happened in Sweden, where interest rates charged by the central bank to commercial banks is now in negative territory.

And Sweden's not the first to go this route.

Once was a time, stuff like this would have registered in mainstream media and generated lots of water cooler conversations.

Now, it comes on so fast and so often, it scarcely gets acknowledged.

The world is living a lifestyle beyond what real economies can support. And it's using any gimmick available to prolong illusioins, and avoid the necessary corrections.

Economic data dots

Even though consumers allegedly had more money in their pockets thanks to cheap gasoline, retail sales fell in January.

And while retail sales ticked down, the federal deficit ticked up. And hold your horses if you want to blame Obama for a higher deficit. Speaker Boehner, House Republicans and their CRominbus boondoggle cleared the path for how the federal government is currently spending.


Update: U.S. Government collected record revenue in January, but still managed to run up higher deficits.

Firefighters back off when they heard ammo cooking off

Did firefighters in Connecticut do all they could to save the home of a firearms dealer?

Seems when firefighters arrived, they heard ammo exploding in the home... and reportedly chose to fight the fire "defensively", which usually means from outside only.

Click here for how the NBC station in New Britain, Connecticut covered the fire.

I guess it depends on how much ammo was inside and, more on point, what type it was. And whether it was loaded in firearms. But I have to wonder how much factual training these firefighters have when it comes to ammo.

As a rule, ammo in a fire seems to present danger comparable to things like aerosol cans, and perhaps much less risk than things like camping propane tanks, gasoline cans or lawnmowers.

Here's a video. Fast forward to about 13:11 to see how ammo "cooks off" in a fire, and how firefighter turnout gear provides protection at reasonable distances.


Will be interesting to see how investigators assess and grade the efforts of firefighters today in Connecticut.

Looking for a used car

I'm looking to pick up an older used car to be used by a young driver.

In the old days, you'd check the newspaper, maybe just drive around town looking for cars in driveways with signs on the windows.

Well, it seems most the older used car sales have migrated to Craigslist now, and media reports can make it sound as if every Craigslist transaction is a potential ambush.

Yesterday, there was a report of a college student killed trying to buy a phone. A couple weeks ago, an older couple was killed shopping for a car.

I'll tread softly in the Craigslist territory, paying special attention to neighborhoods and other surroundings where these cars are located. I may also see what car dealers have on their lots, even though I know it means some mark-up is involved.

Think of this as a phone bank designed to push us toward Cloward Piven...

Headlined at the Washington Times:

Homeland Security sets up Obama amnesty complaint hotlines for illegals 

Memos say agencies want to know if federal officials violate ‘new DHS enforcement priorities’

The Islamic roots of the Islamic State

At the left-leaning UK Guardian, someone dares to write that the Islamic State (aka ISIS) and its barbaric ways are steeped in solid Islamic tradition...


Excerpts

Savagery is part of Isis’s ideological DNA. The danger of the group lies in its effort to transform the concept of jihad not through individual fatwas, as al-Qaida does to justify suicide bombing in civilian areas, but through a fully fledged ideology. To do so, Isis uses stories from Islamic history and modern jihadi texts to change the paradigm of how to understand and conduct jihad. 

And

Savagery is at the core of Isis ideology. But it is crucial not to play down that brutal acts have to be justified through sharia texts. Islamic fundamentalism is Isis’s ideology, so to speak, and every act has to be grounded in religious traditions. Muslim clerics who issue a “letter to al-Baghdadi” or a lengthy fatwa to delegitimise Isis miss the mark unless they understand the invigorating nature of this violent ideology. While Isis uses manuals such as Naji’s book, it references religious texts and stories. Muslim clerics should recognise that theoretical fatwas cannot sufficiently counter what I call “kinetic” sharia, consisting of stories and actions carried out by authoritative Muslim figures in early Islam, on which Isis relies heavily to justify its ideology. Statements such as “this hadith is weak” or “it is not permissible to kill prisoners of war” can be backed by religious texts, but how early Muslim leaders acted is similarly powerful, if not more persuasive.

Psy-ops?

Odd that a study of Vlad Putin done for the Pentagon in 2008 suddenly now finds its way into the hands of a national U.S. newspaper. 

Is the Obama team trying to play head-games with the Russians?

Is it trying to set the stage for a larger, more direct move?

What are the chances Team O is playing in a game well over its head?

How many government "alphabet agencies" are collecting intel on gun owners?

A bunch apparently.

More praise for Obama

Of course, the praise comes from a former Obama White House insider who's probably every bit as messed up as the president himself.

Recycling!

From Chris Muir's Day By Day Cartoon:

Eleven-year-old uses shotgun to defend herself

In Michigan, an 11-year-old girl apprently had the presence of mind to grab a shotgun before going into hiding an invader entered her home.  That, or she chose a hiding place with the gun pre-positioned.

As it was, the shotgun reportedly turned the odds in her favor, no shot necessary.

Via MLive.com:

A Lapeer County Sheriff's Office news release states one person knocked on all the doors and forced their way inside the home when there was no response. The girl locked herself inside a bathroom closet with a shotgun.  

The suspect eventually opened the bathroom door and closet where the child was hiding with the weapon. The girl aimed the shotgun at the suspect, whom then fled from the home. 

Thia is the kind of gun-used-for-self-defense story that seldom gets attention.

Display of a gun is often enough to turn the tables on bad guys, deter further aggression.

This one, I suspect, only got attention because of the defender's age.

Note: I said defender, not victim

Dupilicity and complicity

The GOP, having risen to power in the senate on the goodwill of voters opposed to the Obama administration, appears more duplicitous in its complicity with Obama than it was before.

More systematic destruction of the U.S. economy

The United States corporate tax rate is already the world's highest.

Now Obama wants new taxation on U.S. companies foreign earnings.

Obama's either a clueless idiot, or he's making a determined effort to encourage more corporations to relocate their headquarters to more tax-advantaged locations off-shore. And there is a third possibility...

The president can't enact new taxation on his own (when last we checked). Let's hope Congress is smart enough to deny the president this economic death-blow plan.

In all likelihood, Obama's foreign earnings tax plan has little chance of passage. He's just pandering to economic illiterates, hoping stupid sheeple take the bait in an ongoing campaign to ratchet up class war in America.

Solar power update

Experimentation with solar power is going well.

The solar-charged battery bank is powering a 24/7 night light in the basement, two other areas in the basement now have solar powered 12 volt ceiling light fixtures, and I'm using the bank and an inverter to charge other batteries from time to time. 

I've added a second 100 watt panel (wired in parallel), and the battery bank was back to full charge by 9:30 this morning. Skies are lightly overcast.

This has me wondering. Should I consider some means to switch from charge controller to a small grid-tie inverter once my batteries are at full charge? Since my batteries are nearly new, should I add another 35ah AGM battery to the four already wired in parallel? Or should I simply proceed with expanding the existing system's the load, and experimenting with how much use I can get out of it as-is?

I've upgraded my charge controller to a Morningstar SunSaver 20L for 12 volts. The amperage capacity is less than the controller that came with my initial Renogy kit, but the SunSaver is of a heavier-duty type construction, and carries a five year warranty.

Also, for those who noted the lack of fusing in my initial set up, fuses have been added at critical points. On-off switching has also been added to disconnect the panels from the charge controller, and to disconnect the load feed from pre-wired fixtures.

The battery in the foreground is not wired into the system, it's an RV type deep cycle AGM intended as a mobile power supply for a second 300 watt inverter. Among potential uses, I can tote it to the second story and run lights or electronics when power's out. It can also serve as a backup if the main battery bank approaches low voltage thresholds after dark.

Some of my previous posts on this system are here, here and here.

"Community standards"

In California, a prosecutor stretches the bounds of law and imagination to keep prosecuting in a self-defense case that's already been to court. 

Is is fair to keep prosecuting someone who prevailed in a road rage case by use of a firearm simply because the district attorney knows most people in the community don't like guns?

The U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights are supposed to protect the individual's rights, not force compliance with the will of a mob.

Upset by allegations of racism...

The U.S. Army deletes a tweet concerning a report of "chinks" in armor. 

Political correctness is transforming us into a nation of idiots obsessed with racism.

Actual racism (or bigotry) need not accompany their accusations.