Grassley on gunwalking: 'Clean hands' excuse 'doesn't pass laugh test'

“The idea that senior political appointees have clean hands in these gunwalking scandals doesn’t pass the laugh test, especially considering we’ve seen less than 10 percent of the pages that the Justice Department has provided the Inspector General,” the release continues. [More]

This afternoon's Gun Rights Examiner report notes bloody hands are nothing to laugh at.

Drone Wars

Coming soon, to a neighborhood near you...[Read]

To not only keep all of us who have nothing to hide safe and free, but to do it at bargain prices!

We're the Only Ones Tweeting Enough

"Get those hacking (expletive). I'm a cop in the bay area CA. (sic) I would go at them with both guns!" Richmond police Sgt. Mike Rood wrote via Twitter to UFC President Dana White. [More]

His apologists in comments are quick to come to his defense.  He didn't really mean what he said literally. It was just a dumb Tweet.  His detractors are making a mountain out of a molehill and this is no big deal. 

Internet comments don't matter.

Do they, Detective Rod Tuason? 


[Via Dave Licht]

Does ‘fatally flawed’ minority report on gunwalking ‘absolve’ administration?

Unsurprisingly, the minority report would convince us senior administration officials are cleared of any knowledge and wrongdoing, and that the solution is to enact some administrative changes, treat “flaws” as internal personnel, rather than criminal matters, and enact more “gun control.” That makes it easy to point the finger at lower-level Phoenix operatives—if they face no criminal charges, there’s no incentive for them to squeal, and the ones who might can simply plead the Fifth (although why one would have to if there have been no crimes committed remains conspicuously unexplained) or simply not “recall.” [More]

Today's Gun Rights Examiner column looks at a fatally flawed report.

"So Get More Rocks and Build You a Dam."

Exactly. [Read]

That's exactly what I'm trying to help do when I urge readers not just to be consumers of articles and blog posts, but to take a moment--every day--to share relevant links and bypass a media that won't report, or that will, but not the truth.  The only way we happy few have been able to advance things this far is by screaming at the top of our lungs and banging whatever pots and pans we find at hand.  Yet too often, despite what we've managed to uncover to date, and how far we've managed to push that information, the maximum "contribution" to the effort offered by far too many is too leave a naysaying comment telling us why nothing can be done that will matter.

Rather than discourage the effort, and boy, is it sometimes tempting for those carrying the majority of the load to just say "screw it" and go on to more lucrative pursuits, would it kill them to offer an encouraging word instead, and maybe even help out?  Can you imagine the effect on morale if you were in the trenches awaiting battle and the voices of defeat before engagement were telling everyone how futile it was going to be, so why even try?

If the few rocks in the stream have managed to help effect the results we see today, I certainly wouldn't want to be the one to state with certainty that an engineered avalanche would make no difference.

I like the metaphor Mike raises here, and it fits with a thought I had the other day when he was grappling for an appropriate description for his part in things based on what others have said and on what he has done: leader, writer, investigator, citizen...

Here's what I think his title ought to be:

Think about it--like a valve that can impede the flow, that's exactly what he's doing.

In a system of self-government, we all should be government regulators.

We're the Only Ones with Holes in More than Our Story Enough

In 2007, he was acquitted of charges of aggravated battery and discharging a weapon at a police officer. But the jury hung on the attempted murder charges, leading to his retrial. [More]

If he didn't batter them and didn't discharge his weapon at them, how exactly did he attempt to murder four officers who shot him 28 times? 

O'er the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave

'I couldn't believe it because it was a quote from the comedy Family Guy which is an American show. [More]

It's all superstitious ritual. Every time they make you stand in a line or grope you or scan you with machines even the fricking Europeans won't allow, it's all about as meaningful and effective at warding off real evil as shamans waving talismans and chanting.

On the plus side, if this is representative of the rigid and constipated thought processes, the childish fear and the general incompetence of the forces of control., well, that's useful to know.

This Day in History: January 31

I did myself the pleasure of writing you a Line from George Town, acquainting you with the arrival of part of the British Fleet on the Southern Coast. There is every Reason to believe that their Land Forces are very numerous indeed. By some it is said Clynton, by others it is said Cornwallis has the Command. Be which it may, the Business will be very serious; they have both lost reputation in this State, and we may expect that every Effort will be made to recover it. [More]