Saturday, July 9, 2011
Texas guns, Mexican murders: An interactive map of gun purchases and cartel killings
Sticker via Blue
=========================================================
Below via Sipsey Street Irregulars
This interactive map is based on documents amassed by reporter Dan Freedman for his story Smuggled Guns: the Bigger the Better, which ran May 29 in the Houston Chronicle.
Freedman surveyed 44 gun trafficking cases involving 165 defendants in U.S. jurisdictions along the border. From U.S. court documents, Freedman extracted a list of 1,600 guns by brand name. All were weapons purchased in the Southwest for transit to Mexico and that nation’s violent drug cartels. Most of the weapons were either sent to Mexico or intercepted en route.
The map, prepared by reporter-researcher Will Tucker, breaks down each purchase documented in the court indictments and criminal complaints and, if known, shows where in Mexico the weapons ended up. With the ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious now in the headlines, Texas on the Potomac is pleased to present the survey data in an interactive format that allows readers to view and comment.
Captain Lenoir at Cedar Mountain and Ox Hill
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial Commission"
========
Captain Lenoir at Cedar Mountain and Ox Hill:
(from “At War: Battlegrounds and the Homefront”)
“[On July 23, 1862, Walter W. Lenoir of Caldwell county found] he had been elected and appointed first Lieutenant of Company A in the 37th North Carolina regiment. On the way to Richmond, Walter learned that the captain of Company A had resigned on account of bad health, and he had been promoted to take the captain’s place. The news left him with a heavy sense of responsibility, for he was now asked to command battle-hardened veterans.
Walter’s regiment had been in camp near Gordonsville [Virginia] for only a few days when it received marching orders on August 6. [Despite stomach problems]…he found himself relishing the nightly fare of dry army crackers, cakes of flour heated on strips of wood over an open fire, badly cooked beef roasted on sticks, and raw bacon.
After a few days he and his men were filthy and covered with body lice, an indignity Walter blamed on the abandoned Yankee knapsacks they found on the outskirts of Richmond. Since learning that he would be serving in General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s corps, Walter had always expected to be sent “to some place where there is good work to be done.” That place was Cedar Mountain.
Walter’s company had about an hour to rest before it was thrown into the battle to fill the gap in the Confederate lines. The thought of dying, but not of being wounded, ran through his mind. Most of his men, he observed, became serious as they awaited battle, yet once in action they seemed to possess an amazing ability to cast aside their fear of death and face with cool indifference the awful sights and sounds that would envelop them.
The battle enveloped Walter in a bedlam of noise and confusion as the retreating Virginians swarmed through the Confederate lines, separating him from some of the men in his company …[but able to keep] the remnant of his company moving forward only by constant effort. After repulsing a Union cavalry charge (“in almost an instant eight or ten dead horses were piled in the road”), the Confederates charged…across the cornfield to attack the fleeing Yankees, but they quickly fell back to a safe position.
After praising his men for their bravery and checking on casualties and those present for duty, Walter joined other Confederates in roaming over the battlefield. The Yankees had been badly bloodied; Walter stepped over the bodies of at least six or eight of their dead. Yet no one had been killed or wounded in Walter’s company and casualties in his regiment were very light. He could find no explanation for the contrast “except that our God in whom we trust favored our righteous cause.”
[Resting on a slight ridge after the Ox Hill engagement of August 31, Walter] felt an “awful pain” in his right leg. A minie ball had ripped through it about halfway between his knee and foot, smashing both bones. No sooner had he told [Captain] Morris that he thought his leg had been broken when a second ball, perhaps skipping up from the ground, laid bare the shinbone in the same leg and took off his right toe.
Disabled and fearing that he would bleed to death from a severed artery, he began to drag himself toward the rear…[and] Exhausted after crawling for about fifteen feet, he collapsed in a small clearing by the road. As sand was thrown into his face by minie balls striking the ground near his head and Yankee artillery shells exploded all around him, he realized he was in a more exposed position than the fence he had just left. He lay hopeless, waiting to die.
Looking back, Walter marveled at how calm and resigned he had felt. What sustained him was faith in the God he never had acknowledged in a public confession of faith. He felt that he was “in the hands of a good and merciful God and that He would do with me what was right.”
(The Making of a Confederate, Walter Lenoir’s Civil War, William L. Barney, Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 77-88)
========
Captain Lenoir at Cedar Mountain and Ox Hill
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial Commission"
========
Captain Lenoir at Cedar Mountain and Ox Hill:
(from “At War: Battlegrounds and the Homefront”)
“[On July 23, 1862, Walter W. Lenoir of Caldwell county found] he had been elected and appointed first Lieutenant of Company A in the 37th North Carolina regiment. On the way to Richmond, Walter learned that the captain of Company A had resigned on account of bad health, and he had been promoted to take the captain’s place. The news left him with a heavy sense of responsibility, for he was now asked to command battle-hardened veterans.
Walter’s regiment had been in camp near Gordonsville [Virginia] for only a few days when it received marching orders on August 6. [Despite stomach problems]…he found himself relishing the nightly fare of dry army crackers, cakes of flour heated on strips of wood over an open fire, badly cooked beef roasted on sticks, and raw bacon.
After a few days he and his men were filthy and covered with body lice, an indignity Walter blamed on the abandoned Yankee knapsacks they found on the outskirts of Richmond. Since learning that he would be serving in General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s corps, Walter had always expected to be sent “to some place where there is good work to be done.” That place was Cedar Mountain.
Walter’s company had about an hour to rest before it was thrown into the battle to fill the gap in the Confederate lines. The thought of dying, but not of being wounded, ran through his mind. Most of his men, he observed, became serious as they awaited battle, yet once in action they seemed to possess an amazing ability to cast aside their fear of death and face with cool indifference the awful sights and sounds that would envelop them.
The battle enveloped Walter in a bedlam of noise and confusion as the retreating Virginians swarmed through the Confederate lines, separating him from some of the men in his company …[but able to keep] the remnant of his company moving forward only by constant effort. After repulsing a Union cavalry charge (“in almost an instant eight or ten dead horses were piled in the road”), the Confederates charged…across the cornfield to attack the fleeing Yankees, but they quickly fell back to a safe position.
After praising his men for their bravery and checking on casualties and those present for duty, Walter joined other Confederates in roaming over the battlefield. The Yankees had been badly bloodied; Walter stepped over the bodies of at least six or eight of their dead. Yet no one had been killed or wounded in Walter’s company and casualties in his regiment were very light. He could find no explanation for the contrast “except that our God in whom we trust favored our righteous cause.”
[Resting on a slight ridge after the Ox Hill engagement of August 31, Walter] felt an “awful pain” in his right leg. A minie ball had ripped through it about halfway between his knee and foot, smashing both bones. No sooner had he told [Captain] Morris that he thought his leg had been broken when a second ball, perhaps skipping up from the ground, laid bare the shinbone in the same leg and took off his right toe.
Disabled and fearing that he would bleed to death from a severed artery, he began to drag himself toward the rear…[and] Exhausted after crawling for about fifteen feet, he collapsed in a small clearing by the road. As sand was thrown into his face by minie balls striking the ground near his head and Yankee artillery shells exploded all around him, he realized he was in a more exposed position than the fence he had just left. He lay hopeless, waiting to die.
Looking back, Walter marveled at how calm and resigned he had felt. What sustained him was faith in the God he never had acknowledged in a public confession of faith. He felt that he was “in the hands of a good and merciful God and that He would do with me what was right.”
(The Making of a Confederate, Walter Lenoir’s Civil War, William L. Barney, Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 77-88)
========
Captain Lenoir at Cedar Mountain and Ox Hill
Obama’s EPA adds Texas to new cross state emissions rule at the last minute
......the Texas Brigade was passing in review to honor a visiting British colonel. The visitor noticed that the wear and tear of months in the field had taken the seat of almost every Texan's trousers. Some had patched them, but a good many more hadn't.
"Never mind their raggedness, Colonel.
The enemy never sees the back of my Texans,"
said Lee.
===============================
Unemployment is at 9.2% nationally, thanks in no small part to Obama’s failed policies, while Texas’ unemployment rate is more than a point lower than the national average. Texas has its own power grid, and was supposed to be left off the EPA’s new cross state emissions rule — but the Lone Star state got added anyway on Thursday. And Obama’s EPA administrator doesn’t care a bit about the people who are losing their jobs or will end up seeing their energy rates skyrocket because of this. She is just doing her boss’ bidding.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said those fears were exaggerated, particularly in Texas, where some already have moved to clean up their coal-fired plants.
Yes, Texas is already cleaning up its air on its own, and has been since the 1990s. So why the meddling? Politics.
“Texas has an ample range of cost-effective emission reduction options for complying with the requirements of this rule without threatening reliability or the continued operation of coal-burning units,” Jackson said.
CPS Energy last month announced it would shutter its two oldest and dirtiest coal plants by 2018, 13 years ahead of their planned retirement date, rather than spend upward of $550 million on new pollution-control equipment.
That’s going to cost jobs. This is politics disguised as science. Just take a look at the states the EPA decided to leave off the rule change.
Via bigtimer
National Police Misconduct NewsFeed Daily Recap 07-08-11
Here are the 19 reports of police misconduct tracked in our National Police Misconduct News Feed for this Friday, July 8, 2011:
Holder bragged about Operation Gunrunner in 2009
On May 3, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder testified before House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa's committee that he only learned about the government's sale of weapons to Mexican drug cartels "in the last few weeks."
But Big Government found a 2009 speech by Holder on the Department of Justice's own website that proves the attorney general was well aware of Operation Gunrunner back in 2009:
The problem with Holder’s feigned ignorance is that he gave a speech in Cuernavaca, Mexico, on April 2, 2009, in which he boasted about Operation 'Gunrunner” and told Mexican authorities of everything he was doing to insure its success.
When questioned by the media, Holder also denied knowing anything about Gunrunner:
"Holder's office at first vehemently denied ATF has ever knowingly allowed weapons to get into the hands of suspected gunrunners for Mexico's drug cartels," CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reported.
But at the arms trafficking conference in Cuernavaca, Holder not only acknowledged the program, he bragged that he was in the process of expanding it:
"Last week, our administration launched a major new effort to break the backs of the cartels. My department is committing 100 new ATF personnel to the Southwest border in the next 100 days to supplement our ongoing Project Gunrunner, DEA is adding 16 new positions on the border, as well as mobile enforcement teams, and the FBI is creating a new intelligence group focusing on kidnapping and extortion. DHS is making similar commitments, as Secretary Napolitano will detail."
So Holder's May 3rd denial appears to be refuted by his own words.
Via Captain Mike
PRACTICAL LIFE EXPERIENCES: TRANSCRIPT CREDIT FOR HOME SCHOOLERS
Most states recognize and accept two or three transcriptcredits for practical life experiences. Homeschool students may earn transcript credit for real life experiences based on the Carnegie Unit formula of 45 minutes multiplied by 180 days. For example, a student who trains and rides horses may legitimately earn one half to one full transcript credit under several titles:
physical education, equine studies, or animal husbandry. A student who practices and/or plays a musical instrument at church or in an instrumental quartet for 45 minutes a day for 90 days may earn one-half transcript credit for instrumental music. A student who works on a family farm or ranch may earn one half transcript credit in agriculture for every 67 hours of supervised work involving such skills as hauling hay, plowing fields, harvesting crops, wrangling cattle, shearing sheep, or raising turkeys. A student who completes an apprenticeship in an auto mechanic shop or family ranch may earn transcript credit based on the Carnegie Unit formula. The same formula is applicable for students who work or complete apprenticeships in a commercial businesses such as a flower shop, bakery, cabinet shop, or restaurant.EARNING HIGH SCHOOL CREDIT “EARLY”Home school students do not need to wait until age 15 to start earning high school transcript credit. Students may start earning academic credit whenever they complete a high school level course. Many home school students are quite capable of understanding and completing high school level courses before attaining the normal high school age of 15 years. Such students need not wait to begin their high school studies. Parents should set up an official high school transcript whenever their child completes an academic study that is considered to be a high school level course, such as Algebra I, English Writing Skills, Physical Science, History, or Geography.LITERATURE CREDIT FOR BOOKS READ AT HOMEStudents may earn high school transcript credit in literature when parents select a variety of books to be read and summarized. Selections should include historical non-fiction, historical fiction, novels, and biographies. Suggested titles are Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson, Pilgrim’s Progress, Black Beauty, Scottish Chiefs, Little Women, Little House on The Prairie, Noble Imposter, Tale of Two Cities, The Book of Job, Animal Farm, and Chariots of Fire. Biographies could include such persons as Florence Nightingale, George Washington, George Mueller, Abraham Lincoln, Douglas MacArthur, Gladys Aylward, Ronald Reagan, Lewis and Clark, and Clara Barton. At least a dozen books should be assigned for reading and summarizing to earn one high school transcript credit. Parents may want to require their teenagers to view and summarize such films as One Against The Wind, Ben Hur, The Great Escape, Florence Nightingale, The Robe, and Beyond The Next Mountain.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)