Vince Cefalu, who has been working for years within BATFE to get better management of operations, was given notice last week. He and others have tried to change bad practice and had been stonewalled for years. His involvement with F&F is that he started a website, www.CleanUpATF.org, initially to expose mismanagement and then to investigate the deaths of agents Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata.
ATF senior counsel Ronald Weich promised in front of Darrel Issa's House Committee on Oversight that agents would not be retaliated against. I guess that promise was made with crossed fingers.
To listen to Vince Cefalu tell his story, go to www.NRANews.com and find the interview that Ginny Simone did June 29. Or these news feeds: http://cleanupatf.org/forums/index.php?/topic/213-vince-cefalu-firing/
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Fast and Furious: Mexico Wants to Prosecute US Officials
Fast and Furious is a BIG deal in Mexico. The press there has been covering it better than NBC and ABC have here. Now comes word that officials in Mexico want to prosecute US officials for flooding Mexico with illegals guns. And remember, the possible deaths in Mexico now number in the hundreds.
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-seattle/breaking-f-f-firestorm-mexican-officials-want-to-prosecute-u-s-officials
Further damning evidence surfaced by Dave Workman yesterday shows that, contrary to ATF testimony that they have only been aware for a "few" months, many people knew about Fast and Furious as long ago as October 2009. And, F&F is solely a product of the Obama administration.
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-seattle/redacted-f-f-e-mail-possibly-tells-more-than-it-was-supposed-to
Comment: My original post on F&F prognosticated that this scandal could be similar in severity to Watergate. It now appears that it will be. The U.S. public should be absolutely outraged over this flouting of the law by those who are supposed to protect it.
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-seattle/breaking-f-f-firestorm-mexican-officials-want-to-prosecute-u-s-officials
Further damning evidence surfaced by Dave Workman yesterday shows that, contrary to ATF testimony that they have only been aware for a "few" months, many people knew about Fast and Furious as long ago as October 2009. And, F&F is solely a product of the Obama administration.
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-seattle/redacted-f-f-e-mail-possibly-tells-more-than-it-was-supposed-to
Comment: My original post on F&F prognosticated that this scandal could be similar in severity to Watergate. It now appears that it will be. The U.S. public should be absolutely outraged over this flouting of the law by those who are supposed to protect it.
Monday, July 4, 2011
History: Join, Or Die
Today, July 4th is hot and I am watching a Glen Beck re-run about the Founding Fathers. Glen's Founding Fridays shows contain a lot of good history that is little known or taught.
Benjamin Franklin produced this cartoon to help unite the colonists against the French and their Indian allies during the frontier wars. The men who fought in these skirmish wars that lasted several decades, became the hardened fighters who formed the basis of the militias available after 1776 to fight their former British masters.
From Wikipedia: "Join, or Die" is a well-known political cartoon, created by Benjamin Franklin and first published in his Pennsylvania Gazette on May 9, 1754.[1] The original publication by the Gazette is the earliest known pictorial representation of colonial union produced by a British colonist in America.[2] It is a woodcut showing a snake severed into eighths, with each segment labeled with the initials of a British American colony or region. New England was represented as one segment, rather than the four colonies it was at that time. In addition, Delaware and Georgia were omitted completely. Thus, it has 8 segments of snake rather than the traditional 13 colonies.[3] The cartoon appeared along with Franklin's editorial about the "disunited state" of the colonies, and helped make his point about the importance of colonial unity. During that era, there was a superstition that a snake which had been cut into pieces would come back to life if the pieces were put together before sunset.[citation needed]
The cartoon became a symbol of colonial freedom during the American Revolutionary War."..."The difference between the use of "Join or Die" in 1754 and 1765 is that Franklin had designed it to unite the colonies for 'management of Indian relations' and defense against France, but in 1765 American colonists used it to urge colonial unity against the British."
Benjamin Franklin produced this cartoon to help unite the colonists against the French and their Indian allies during the frontier wars. The men who fought in these skirmish wars that lasted several decades, became the hardened fighters who formed the basis of the militias available after 1776 to fight their former British masters.
From Wikipedia: "Join, or Die" is a well-known political cartoon, created by Benjamin Franklin and first published in his Pennsylvania Gazette on May 9, 1754.[1] The original publication by the Gazette is the earliest known pictorial representation of colonial union produced by a British colonist in America.[2] It is a woodcut showing a snake severed into eighths, with each segment labeled with the initials of a British American colony or region. New England was represented as one segment, rather than the four colonies it was at that time. In addition, Delaware and Georgia were omitted completely. Thus, it has 8 segments of snake rather than the traditional 13 colonies.[3] The cartoon appeared along with Franklin's editorial about the "disunited state" of the colonies, and helped make his point about the importance of colonial unity. During that era, there was a superstition that a snake which had been cut into pieces would come back to life if the pieces were put together before sunset.[citation needed]
The cartoon became a symbol of colonial freedom during the American Revolutionary War."..."The difference between the use of "Join or Die" in 1754 and 1765 is that Franklin had designed it to unite the colonies for 'management of Indian relations' and defense against France, but in 1765 American colonists used it to urge colonial unity against the British."
History: Sybil Ludington Outrides Paul Revere
On April 26, 1777, a 16-year old woman named Sybil Ludington rode 40 miles to rouse the militia for the defense of Danbury, CT. Her ride was twice as long at 40 miles as that of Paul Revere's poem-recounted ride.
"The British are burning Danbury. Muster at Ludington's," Ludington shouted to inform the militiamen.
See the rest of the story here:
http://radio.mikehuckabee.com/Article.asp?id=1401472&spid=33201
http://wn.com/sybilludington See video in Memory.
http://www.suite101.com/content/sybil-ludington-colonial-heroine-a146150
And here is another amazing rider that many don't know about: Wentworth Cheswell also rode that night. He went west to recruit blacks to the cause. He was a black man and a judge and remained so for 47 years.
From Wikipedia: "Wentworth Cheswell (11 April 1746 – 8 March 1817) was an African-American teacher, American Revolutionary War veteran, assessor, auditor, selectman and Justice of the Peace. He is considered by some[who?] the first African American elected to public office, as well as the first archaeologist in New Hampshire, despite being perceived by local contemporaries as white."
"The British are burning Danbury. Muster at Ludington's," Ludington shouted to inform the militiamen.
See the rest of the story here:
http://radio.mikehuckabee.com/Article.asp?id=1401472&spid=33201
http://wn.com/sybilludington See video in Memory.
http://www.suite101.com/content/sybil-ludington-colonial-heroine-a146150
And here is another amazing rider that many don't know about: Wentworth Cheswell also rode that night. He went west to recruit blacks to the cause. He was a black man and a judge and remained so for 47 years.
From Wikipedia: "Wentworth Cheswell (11 April 1746 – 8 March 1817) was an African-American teacher, American Revolutionary War veteran, assessor, auditor, selectman and Justice of the Peace. He is considered by some[who?] the first African American elected to public office, as well as the first archaeologist in New Hampshire, despite being perceived by local contemporaries as white."
Sunday, July 3, 2011
My New Most Favorite Fantasy
As reported below, I loved the country in NW Nevada around Soldier Meadows Guest Ranch.
http://redbearrides.blogspot.com/2011/06/soldier-meadows-is-slice-of-heaven.html
But to share it with Fast Kitty will not work for her on motorcycles very well. Therefore, my new fantasy vehicle is a side-by-side ATV by Can Am.
http://en-us.can-amside-by-side.brp.com/showroom/all-series.aspx
http://redbearrides.blogspot.com/2011/06/soldier-meadows-is-slice-of-heaven.html
But to share it with Fast Kitty will not work for her on motorcycles very well. Therefore, my new fantasy vehicle is a side-by-side ATV by Can Am.
http://en-us.can-amside-by-side.brp.com/showroom/all-series.aspx
Fast and Furious - Disgusting Partisan Politics by Elijah Cummings
Elijah Cummings is the Democrat Minority member on Darrel Issa's House Committee on Oversight. Despite damning and specific testimony by three BATFE officers at the Committee hearing two weeks ago which clearly accused BATFE management of wrong-doings that resulted in the deaths of two Border Patrol agents, Cummings went off on his own crusade.
He convened a Minority committee meeting designed specifically to place the blame on guns and gun laws rather than BATFE mis-management. He invited a half-dozen anti-gunners to testify, and no-one from the pro-gun side. The idea was to create a red-herring issue to try to move the blame off of ATF and onto law-abiding gun owners, and existing gun laws. And then he produced a 26-page report that doesn't even mention Project Gunrunner or the two dead agents. Or the recently reported possible 150 dead Mexican police officers.
Cummings knows that Fast and Furious is going to eventually implicate the Acting Director of ATF, other ATF management, probably Attorney General Eric Holder, and possibly President Obama. So he is using classic, and morally abominable, political mis-direction techniques.
See following link for an article with more details:
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/rep-cummings-gunrunner-report-neglects-to-mention-gunrunner/
Overall Picture: President Obama will not admit publicly to hating guns and the 2nd Amendment. But he is doing everything possible behind the scenes to weaken our Constitutional right.
He convened a Minority committee meeting designed specifically to place the blame on guns and gun laws rather than BATFE mis-management. He invited a half-dozen anti-gunners to testify, and no-one from the pro-gun side. The idea was to create a red-herring issue to try to move the blame off of ATF and onto law-abiding gun owners, and existing gun laws. And then he produced a 26-page report that doesn't even mention Project Gunrunner or the two dead agents. Or the recently reported possible 150 dead Mexican police officers.
Cummings knows that Fast and Furious is going to eventually implicate the Acting Director of ATF, other ATF management, probably Attorney General Eric Holder, and possibly President Obama. So he is using classic, and morally abominable, political mis-direction techniques.
See following link for an article with more details:
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/rep-cummings-gunrunner-report-neglects-to-mention-gunrunner/
Overall Picture: President Obama will not admit publicly to hating guns and the 2nd Amendment. But he is doing everything possible behind the scenes to weaken our Constitutional right.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Fun with Clunker Math
I make no claims for the veracity of this calculation, but it is fun and sounds about right.
CLUNKER MATH
A clunker that travels 12,000 miles a year at 15 mpg uses 800 gallons of gas a year.
A new vehicle that travels 12,000 miles a year at 25 mpg uses 480 gallons of gas a year.
So, the average Cash for Clunkers transaction will reduce gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year.
The government claims 700,000 clunkers have been replaced so that’s 224 million gallons saved per year.
That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil.
5 million barrels is about 5 hours worth of US consumption.
More importantly, 5 million barrels of oil at $70 per barrel costs about $350 million dollars.
So, the government paid $3 billion of our tax dollars to save $350 million.
We spent $8.57 for every $1.00 we saved.
I’m pretty sure they will do a much better job with our health care though.
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