Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Hardcore

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I spend most of my time writing these posts trying not to say what needs to be said. I word it cleverly to stay on the right side of the law and propriety. I avoid calling for any sort of action to be taken as that is a violation of the First Amendment protections against free speech, it goes a bit too far, you see. But, I am growing weary of playing a lop-sided game. I am growing weary of police who strut about with guns on their hips, badges on their chests and malice in their hearts.

Don't get me wrong, as far as policemen are concerned, I believe that most of them are honorably doing their jobs to protect us from criminals. They have families and a legitimate concern for the society in which they live. Yet, where are these men and women when the "bad" cops do their business? Where are the responsible cops when the Pima County SWAT shoots the crap out of a veteran? Are they quiet because they are also guilty of rigging evidence, of lying under oath, of fraudulently filling out warrants, of lying on their resumes? Let the first honest cop point the finger at the rest. Or, are there any left? And, if not, then what the hell is there to wait for?

Gov. Scott Signs Welfare Drug Testing Into Law

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Republicans said the measure was needed because if taxpayers are screened at their place of employment, so should welfare recipients. The drug testing bill was a priority for Scott.

“While there are certainly legitimate needs for public assistance, it is unfair for Florida taxpayers to subsidize drug addiction,” Governor Scott said. “This new law will encourage personal accountability and will help to prevent the misuse of tax dollars.”

Via Weasel Zippers

Breaking: Kloppenburg concedes

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Ding dong, the witch, gives up.

JoAnn Kloppenburg finally conceded the Wisconsin Supreme Court race this morning, announcing that she had called incumbent Justice David Prosser to congratulate him on his win. She had until today to file a challenge to the recount, which gained her 312 votes but still left her slightly over 7,000 votes behind Prosser in the hotly-contested election........

........The recount had insufficient common-sense basis, and Kloppenburg didn’t hesitate to spend taxpayer money on a fruitless attempt to reverse a 7316-vote deficit. Maybe it would serve no purpose because Kloppenburg would foot the bill in an election challenge — and because she might want to run for office again in a state that would get pretty angry over a nonsensical challenge to a 7000-vote margin loss.

Day By Day

America:DaybyDayCartoon

Allen West: U.S. military is being used as a "rent-a-force"

Tucson Interview of Jose Guerena Coworker at Memorial Day OathKeeper Event



Via Oathkeepers

Deputy's slaying sparks new worry

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Verbatim post

Vox Popoli

I am not at all surprised that the police are now being targeted for murder due to nothing more than their membership in the Badge Gang. And there isn't a soul in the country who can reasonably argue that the police haven't collectively begged for such targeting, considering how many innocent Americans they have killed with shameless impunity in the last two decades.
Bexar County Sheriff Amadeo Ortiz said the seemingly senseless and coldblooded slaying of a sergeant early Saturday on the East Side has sent a chilling statement to local law enforcement: No one is safe.

“The way it happened sends a message to the law enforcement community that we're not safe, even responding to calls and helping citizens,” Ortiz said Sunday. “Officers sometimes get hurt responding to domestic violence calls or shootings, but not while they're stopped at a red light.”

Sgt. Kenneth Vann, 48, was en route to a call for a shooting around 2 a.m. Saturday when a small white car pulled up next to his marked patrol car at a red light at Loop 410 and Rigsby Avenue, officials said. A barrage of shots was fired from the white car, likely from a high-caliber semiautomatic weapon, striking the passenger-side windows of Vann's patrol car and killing him, officials said.
Now this is the interesting part. A retired police lieutenant said in the article that the ambush-style killing "is part of a two-year national trend....Every officer in Texas and the U.S. knows there's a guy who could pull up next to them and kill them. How do you stop that sudden assault?”

You don't. You can't. And if you think the police are worried now, just wait until a) they start being gunned down when they leave their homes in the morning and b) their families start being targeted.

There is only one way the police can stop this and it is to immediately stop the militarization, shut down the SWAT units, end the no-knock raids, and return to keeping the peace rather than swaggering around as law enforcement officers. Because what is happening is what always happens when the balance of power is tipped too far. If the rules are stacked against you, you stop playing by the rules.

Of course, getting rid of more than 10 million illegal aliens and ending immigration from south of the border would also be a significant help. But that's not going to happen either.

Here's an interesting comment from a retired cop at Denninger's place: "I am a former police officer from a high crime town in the Chicago area and have witnessed the changes to police tactics first hand. 20 years ago when I worked patrol we showed up with shoes and leather polished, said Sir when pulling someone over, stopped and talked to the residents and children and tried to de-escalate situations whenever possible to avoid confrontation. Now??? Military style uniforms, AR15's, Taser's and the general thinking that that badge gives them additional rights. Act like you are at war and you will be, guaranteed.... Its a shame that I can't teach my grandson that the police are there to help, because I no longer believe that myself."

Contrast with this the march protesting the police murder of Marine Jose Guerena.

A group called Oath Keepers organized a march and protest for Jose Guerena. Guerena was killed by a Pima County SWAT team on May 5th. They entered his home with a search warrant, but deputies said when they went in, Guerena aimed an assault rifle at them. They fired 71 rounds and killed him. More than a hundred people took part in the march, some of which came from as far away as Vegas. The people said they were there for a number of reasons: pay tribute to a fallen marine, support the victim's family, and protest the tactics of the SWAT team.

Some protest, some shoot. If the police don't abandon their present path of violence and start prosecuting police killers instead of protecting them, they can expect more of the latter and less of the former.

Johnny Reb Canon

Via Sipsey Street Irregulars

They sure screwed up the music!

Oathbreaker Profiles

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Verbatim post.

Oathbreaker Profiles: raw info from a reader

Below is from a reader sent via email. Further research and verification is needed. Please send more info as email or as a comment.

From reader:

The likely info for the three justices on the Indiana Supreme Court who broke their oath by opposing the Fourth Amendment:

(see http://www.greeleygazette.com/press/?p=9805)

DAVID, STEVEN H
1640 US 421 N.
WHITESTOWN, IN 46075

SHEPARD, RANDALL T
3644 TOTEM LN
INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46208

SULLIVAN, FRANK JR
5854 LAWTON LOOP W DR
LAWRENCE, IN 46216

Results obtained via search at http://www.stats.indiana.edu/dlgf_HomesteadLU/

This data is from 2007-2008 and has not been verified for certain as the residence of the individual in question.

Justice biographies with pictures:

http://www.in.gov/judiciary/supreme/bios.html

A comment on An Especially Sad Memorial Day



Today I remember :

Best friend:

SFC Mitchell A. Lane – United States Army (1987-2003)

Special Operations Engineer, sniper, & SF Combat Diver with ODA-365, Company C, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group

Died 29 August 2003 at Deh Chopan, Zabul Province, Afghanistan

Buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Section 60, Site 7889

At the very end of his second tour in Afghanistan he died during a night time combat assault while fast roping into a known enemy cave complex.

He was an outstanding soldier who had completed numerous courses including the Basic Combat Engineer's Course, Basic Airborne Course, Special Forces Qualification Course (18C), Special Forces Combat Diver Course, French De-Mining Course, Water Infiltration Course (WIC), Special Forces Advanced Urban Combat Course (SFAUC), & Special Forces Target Interdiction Course (SOTIC). He was slated to attend the Special Forces Warrant Officer Candidate Course when he returned to the states. He left behind a wife and two daughters.

(P.S. I have been told that he is forever memorialized in the Special Forces Museum at Ft. Bragg for some type of a quick fuse that he developed on the battlefield in Afghanistan and that there is a display with a mannequin of him wearing his uniform there that looks just like him. If you ever get over to Fayetteville I would love a picture of the display.) I shall. It's been a few years since we've been there.

(Please obscure the faces of the other operators as they are still serving over there and I wouldn't want to do anything to jeopardize them. Redleg)

Eight years later, just amazing. BT

==============================

Great uncle:

PFC. Harold Werner – United States Army National Guard (1942-1944)

Infantryman with Company M, 3rd Battalion, 142nd Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division

Killed in action 11 June 1944 at hill 233 in the vicinity of Capalbio, Italy

Buried at Florence American Cemetery and Memorial, Plot B, Row 7, Grave 33

He landed on Red Beach at 0345 hours 9 September 1943 (Operation Avalanche). He fought up the Italian peninsula and was involved in actions at innumerable unnamed hills, the push up through the Liri Valley at Mount Maggiore, Mount Lungo, Mount Sammucro, Mount Difensa, San Pietro, & Cassino. He was involved in the breakout from the Anzio beachhead where his regiment found and exploited a gap in the German lines which ended months of stalemate and finally led to the advance on and capture of Rome. During the pursuit of German forces from Rome, on 11 June 1944 Company M (heavy weapons company) and Headquarters Company were counterattacked by a large German force. Their position was overrun with 33 missing or killed. I have been unable to determine total casualties from this engagement. After some of the fiercest combat and amid the most grueling conditions encountered in the European theater of operations, my young uncle met his end alone leaving no one to carry on his name. His division was pulled out of the lines and eventually out of Italy 2 weeks later



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Great uncle on the right.

1LT Lowell C. Lutton – United States Army Air Force (1941-1943)

P-38 Lightning Pilot with the 431st Fighter Squadron, 475th Fighter Group

Missing in Action 2 November 1943 returning from mission against Rabaul, New Britain

Memorialized at Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Tablets of the Missing

After transfer from the 49th Fighter Group's 8th Fighter Squadron He started flying long range combat missions starting in July of 1943 and his previous experience served him well, he claimed three Japanese aircraft in three days during mid-August. On the 16th he fought Nakajima Ki-43 Oscars over Marilinan, New Guinea, and shot down one of 12 claimed in the squadron's first combat. Two days later the 431st reported another dozen victories, and he bagged a pair of Oscars near Wewak. Beginning in October, the Fifth Air Force launched a series of strikes against the Japanese naval air complex at Rabaul, New Britain. The 431st was engaged near the target on 23 October, and he claimed a Mitsubishi A6M Zeke. Back again on 2 November, he was seen to shoot down another Zeke but failed to return to base. It was assumed that he ran out of fuel and crashed. He married shortly before heading overseas and never had any children.

An especially sad Memorial Day

Redleg said...

...... that was a good piece Brock. Having grown up among a long line of military men with over 15 years of service myself it definitely appears today that we are a dying breed, an anachronism in our own time. It appears that there is no longer any place for those of us who still hold on to ideals hammered into us during our years of service…ideals such as loyalty, duty, respect, selfless-service, honor, integrity, personal courage or the 5 Cs of an NCO (courage, candor, competence, commitment, and character).

Inversely, it appears that those of us who still cling to those military ideals are reviled and told that such antiquated concepts no longer apply, pertain or even matter. The only thing that seems to matter these days is how many lies can I tell and how many people can I step on to achieve my goals and to attain everything that I am entitled to.

I weep for the country that my children and grandchildren have inherited from me. I have brought them up to believe as I do. Have I done them a disservice in instilling such ideals and morality in them when our world has grown so obviously corrupt and contemptible?

Gone but NEVER forgotten!

We're Mad As Hell, And We're Not Going To Take It Anymore

Via Green Mountains Homesteading

Immemorial

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Confederates all, needless to say.
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Via Green Mountains Homesteading

"Peace was not won for us by campus activists with kerchiefs shrieking into megaphones or bearded thinkers pontificating smugly about utopia. They have always been its greatest obstacles. For it is not some noble and glorious state. It is the absence of war. And war is only absent in the face of war. Our homes are not kept safe by the books in them, but by the weapons borne in their defense. So too no nation is kept safe from intruders by its libraries, but by its soldiers. Great libraries make great soldiers. But a library without soldiers ends up as the Great Library of Alexandria did when the Muslim horde arrived to claim it. As a pile of ashes."