31 October, 2004

Happy Halloween

And, Happy Annivesary Mrs. Paranoid.

Yup, today is Mrs. Paranoid's Anniversary, and I am sure the Evil Nun is still pissed at me...

--WP

Children growing up.

It just seems like yesterday, that I held my eldest daughter for the first time...

--WP

"Respect My Authority"

Or Cartman kills a 20 Year Old
U.S. Deputy Kills Driver In Dispute, Police Say

By Allan Lengel and Nicole Fuller
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, October 29, 2004; Page B01

"A traffic dispute between two motorists on Rockville Pike turned deadly last night when one driver, an off-duty deputy U.S. marshal, fatally shot the other in the parking lot of a busy shopping center, police said.

The federal law enforcement officer, who was driving with his family in a sport-utility vehicle, exchanged words about 8:30 p.m. with a young man driving alone in a red Chevrolet Camaro with New Jersey tags, said Capt. John Fitzgerald, a Montgomery County police spokesman."

They exchanged words, more like the U.S. Marshal said something like this.
"The two drivers pulled into the Mid-Pike Plaza, where they got into a fistfight, Fitzgerald said.

"Preliminary information is that the deputy marshal tried to defuse and disengage, to calm it down and settle it, and wanted to get the local police involved," Fitzgerald said."

And then, before the fist fight, the twenty-year old probably heard this.
"He said the young man got back into his car and drove toward or near the off-duty officer, who then opened fire, shooting multiple times. Officers found nine shell casings at the scene. The young man was taken to Suburban Hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later."
And, I am sure, the last thing the kid heard was- at least until the gunfire.

I found out about this at the The High Road yesterday, in this thread, that has my other links related to this, and which is an interesting read in itself.

I have always hated Cartmans, and still do...

--WP

28 October, 2004

For Army of Mom

Army of Mom goes in for surgery tomorrow, and on the 20th of this month, she sent Nurse Pluck to me, with the request I send her back by the 29th.

AoM, here she is.

Oh, and it may hurt like hell for awhile, but it will get better.

--WP

In from JA

I just received this in post in from JA on the FALFiles Forum.

I met JA, and his lovely wife several years ago at a mutual friends indoor firing range.

I spent some time with them instructing them in the use of a FATS II system. Both he and his wife were good. He recently relocated, and we do not speak as often as I would like, but then again, that is what E-mail is for.

Thanks JA, and tell the wife I said hello.

And to ILM Sniper and the rest of the boys- stay safe...

--WP

The F-22 Raptor ready to roll

To the tune of $260,000,000.00 each.
US deploys F/A-22 Raptor
By Lucy Sherriff
Published Thursday 28th October 2004 09:25 GMT

"The United States Air Force is commissioning a fleet of 277 F/A-22 Raptor fighter jets at a cost of $260m each. The first, which was due to be completed on Wednesday this week, is to join a fighter squadron close to Washington, DC."
I know I feel safer...

--WP

Scientists warn of 'ethnic weapons'

I first read of this idea in a short story back in the late 1970's, and the story was old when read it then. It was in an anthology of short stories from Playboy, from 1965- I think.

Yesterday, I found this article, and intended to post it last night, but other things prevented me from doing so.
Scientists warn of 'ethnic weapons'
By Leigh Dayton
October 27, 2004

"BIOLOGICAL weapons that target selected ethnic groups could become part of the terrorists' arsenal unless governments and scientists act now, the British Medical Association warns.

Such designer weapons would be based on the growing ability of scientists to unravel and compare human DNA.

In theory, experts could engineer organisms to attack genetic variations commonly found in, say, Chinese or German populations.

Genetically engineered anthrax, smallpox and polio viruses are also "approaching reality", the BMA claims in a new report, Biotechnology, Weapons and Humanity II.

The report, released yesterday in London, adds that organisms designed to attack food crops and even human immune and nervous systems are serious threats."
The short story had an Oriental scientist working on creating a disease that only affected the "Yellow Man". I remember the story vividly because, being in my early teens, it really made me think.

Yesterday's article does as well...

--WP


27 October, 2004

Do we ever change from the children we were?

Getting back to work has been tough because of so much work I have to catch up on, and I do not mind and I am earning my way. However, when you update systems and software for clients and you need to find the original software because older systems are going to be wiped and replaced and you need the original software, and you ask where it is at, what does one hear:
"I don't know."

I didn't do it."
Of course, then you have the grown-up versions:
"It is not my responsibility."

"I don't know how to install software."

"Did you look in the office?"
Of course, my favorite is from Adobe:
"It does no matter if you have the serial number or if it is on file, as soon as we introduce a new version, we no longer have the ability to provide replacement CD's for consumers- we just don't have it."
--WP

26 October, 2004

Oct. 26, 1942: The last man did not fail

One of my favorite Vin Suprynowicz columns.

FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
EDITORS: A LONGER VERSION, AT 2,000 WORDS, ALSO MOVES
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED OCT. 22, 2000
THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
Oct. 26, 1942: The last man did not fail


Oct. 26 falls on a Thursday this year.

Ask the significance of the date, and you're likely to draw some puzzled
looks -- five more days to stock up for Halloween?

It's a measure of men like Col. Mitchell Paige that they wouldn't have
had it any other way. What he did 58 years ago, he did precisely so his
grandchildren could live in a land of peace and plenty.

Whether we've properly safeguarded the freedoms he and his kind fought to
leave us as their legacy, may be a discussion better left for another day.
Today we struggle to envision -- or, for a few of us, to remember -- how
the world must have looked on Oct. 26, 1942. A few thousand lonely American
Marines had been put ashore on Guadalcanal, a god-forsaken jungle island
which just happened to lie like a speed bump at the end of the long
blue-water slot between New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago -- the very
route the Japanese Navy would have to take to reach Australia.

On Guadalcanal the Marines built an air field. And Japanese commander
Isoroku Yamamoto immediately grasped what that meant. No effort would be
spared to dislodge these upstart Yanks from a position that could endanger
his ships during any future operations to the south. Before long,
relentless Japanese counterattacks had driven the U.S. Navy from inshore
waters. The Marines were on their own.

World War Two is generally calculated from Hitler's invasion of Poland in
1939. But that's a eurocentric view. The Japanese had been limbering up in
Korea and Manchuria as early as 1931, and in China by 1934. By late 1942
they'd devastated every major Pacific military force or stronghold of the
great pre-war powers: Britain, Holland, France, and the United States. The
bulk of America's proud Pacific fleet lay beached or rusting on the floor
of Pearl Harbor.

As Mitchell Paige -- then a platoon sergeant -- and his men set about
establishing their last defensive line on a ridge southwest of the tiny
American bridgehead at Henderson Field on Guadalcanal on Oct. 25, it's
unlikely anyone thought they were about to provide a definitive answer to
that most desperate of questions: How many able-bodied U.S. Marines does it
take to hold a hill against 2,000 desperate and motivated attackers?

The Japanese Army had not failed in an attempt to seize any major
objective since the Russo-Japanese War of 1895. But in preceding days,
Marine commander Vandegrift had defied War College doctrine, "dangling" his
men in exposed positions to draw Japanese attacks, then springing his traps
"with the steel vise of firepower and artillery," in the words of Naval
historian David Lippman.

The Japanese regiments had been chewed up, good. Still, American
commanders had so little to work with that Paige's men had only four
30-caliber Browning machine guns on the one ridge through which the
Japanese opted to launch their final assault against Henderson Field, that
fateful night of Oct. 25.

By the time the night was over, "The 29th (Japanese) Infantry Regiment
has lost 553 killed or missing and 479 wounded among its 2,554 men,"
historian Lippman reports. "The 16th (Japanese) Regiment's losses are
uncounted, but the 164th's burial parties handle 975 Japanese bodies. ...
The American estimate of 2,200 Japanese dead is probably too low."

Among the 90 American dead and seriously wounded that night were all the
men in Mitchell Paige's platoon. Every one. As the night wore on, Paige
moved up and down his line, pulling his dead and wounded comrades back into
their foxholes and firing a few bursts from each of the four Brownings in
turn, convincing the Japanese forces down the hill that the positions were
still manned.

The citation for Paige's Congressional Medal of Honor adds: "When the
enemy broke through the line directly in front of his position, P/Sgt.
Paige, commanding a machine gun section with fearless determination,
continued to direct the fire of his gunners until all his men were either
killed or wounded. Alone, against the deadly hail of Japanese shells, he
fought with his gun and when it was destroyed, took over another, moving
from gun to gun, never ceasing his withering fire."

In the end, Sgt. Paige picked up the last of the 40-pound, belt-fed
Brownings -- the same design which John Moses Browning famously fired for a
continuous 25 minutes until it ran out of ammunition in its first U.S. Army
trial -- and did something for which the weapon was never designed. Sgt.
Paige walked down the hill toward the place where he could hear the last
Japanese survivors rallying to move around his flank, the gun cradled under
his arm, firing as he went.

The weapon did not fail.

Coming up at dawn, battalion executive officer Major Odell M. Conoley
first discovered the answer to our question: How many able-bodied U.S.
Marines does it take to hold a hill against two regiments of motivated,
combat-hardened infantrymen who have never known defeat?

On a hill where the bodies were piled like cordwood, Mitchell Paige alone
sat upright behind his 30-caliber Browning, waiting to see what the dawn
would bring.

One hill: one Marine.

But that was the second problem. Part of the American line (start
ital)had(end ital) fallen to the last Japanese attack. "In the early
morning light, the enemy could be seen a few yards off, and vapor from the
barrels of their machine guns was clearly visible," reports historian
Lippman. "It was decided to try to rush the position."

For the task, Major Conoley gathered together "three enlisted
communication personnel, several riflemen, a few company runners who were
at the point, together with a cook and a few messmen who had brought food
to the position the evening before."

Joined by Paige, this ad hoc force of 17 Marines counterattacked at 5:40
a.m., discovering that "the extremely short range allowed the optimum use
of grenades." In the end, "The element of surprise permitted the small
force to clear the crest."

And that's where the unstoppable wave of Japanese conquest finally
crested, broke, and began to recede. On an unnamed jungle ridge on an
insignificant island no one had ever heard of, called Guadalcanal. Because
of a handful of U.S. Marines, one of whom, now 82, lives out a quiet
retirement with his wife Marilyn in La Quinta, Calif.

On Oct. 26, 1942.

When the Hasbro Toy Co. called up some years back, asking permission to
put the retired colonel's face on some kid's doll, Mitchell Paige thought
they must be joking.

But they weren't. That's his mug, on the little Marine they call "GI Joe."

And now you know.


Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas
Review-Journal, and editor of Financial Privacy Report (subscribe by
calling Nicholas at 612-895-8757.) His book, "Send in the Waco Killers:
Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998," is available by dialing
1-800-244-2224; or via web site
http://www.thespiritof76.com/wacokillers.html.

***

Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com

"When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved,
as a rule the majority are wrong. The minority are right." -- Eugene V.
Debs (1855-1926)

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and
thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series
of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken

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--WP

25 October, 2004

This was sent in for my viewing and comments.

The Pentagon 9/11
--WP

Congratulations to No-Neck's Family

As he just let me know, there are now six generations of his family alive. The eldest was born in 1905 and the latest was born around 02:00 this morning.

Happy Day bud!

--WP

24 October, 2004

"...finally accountable for the disgrace,"

CSM sent the link to Dean Spier's posting on the Gun Zone Forum for STOLEN HONOR to me Friday night, but I had not had the opportunity to watch it until this morning.

Here is the broadband link, and here the dial-up.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ADDMENDUM - The direct links no longer work and you must register, but it is free.

Go here to register and receive via E-mail for an account.

Further, the only way to watch it is in a pop-up window.

I have to say thank you to the folks who had it up as long as they did.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ADDMENDUM II- Go to Dean Spier's posting at the Gun Zone Forum, as they are now hosting it.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As long time readers of this blog know, I have no love for G.W. Bush and think him unworthy of a second term in office. Further, they also know what Putz I think John "Elmer" F. Kerry is. The Swiftboat Veterans were damning, but this is, I think much more powerful.

I wish to thank CSM, Dan Spier, and the folks hosting it.

--WP

23 October, 2004

Happy Birthday CSM!

Just wanted to say Happy Birthday and thank you for your friendship- drink one on me CSM.

--WP

Disjointed Ramblings

I have been working quit a bit the past week and a half. Catching up with my clients needs and systems.

I have not been posting as much, and expect this to continue for about the next three to four weeks.

Today, I am about computered out.

So, in no particular order, I see the Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkey's are throwing another hissy fit about their language being lost as the language of diplomats and I am sure this is why they are doing this:
France's report said standards of English in schools were poor and worsening.

"Its conclusions have been challenged by some politicians, including one deputy from the ruling UMP party, Jacques Myard.

He told Le Monde: "English is the most-spoken language today, but that won't last."

He said Spanish, Chinese and Arabic were all growing in importance.

"If we must make a language compulsory, it should be Arabic," he said."
And, here in the good old "Homeland", we have this:
Government Schools And Muslims Will Brainwash Your Kids
By Dave Gibson (10/22/04)

"In observance of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month will become part of the curriculum for many U.S. public school students. In Herndon, Va., a Muslim teacher named Ayeefa Syeed will be teaching third through fifth grade children in that city about Ramadan and the tenets of the Muslim religion (well, at least the popular tenets).

Over the last few years, this practice has been quietly spreading into this nation's government schools system. In 1997, the U.S. based Council on Islamic Education produced a 'lesson plan' entitled "Muslim Holidays" for U.S. children. The manual is full of politically-correct information about Islam as well as tips on how teachers can circumvent regulations against religion. Since that time, over 4,000 U.S. teachers have used it in their classrooms with the blessing of their respective school officials.

Prayer rugs are distributed, Muslim prayers are recited, and basically a 'happy face' is put on the most dangerous and violent religion the world has ever known. Government teachers and administrators who are overwhelmingly liberal, no doubt take great pleasure in turning our public schools into American hadrassas."
Then, jumping back overseas, Malaysia is taking away paper "money" for plastic "money":
Polymer notes to replace paper currency
Kamarul Yunus

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 21:
Bank Negara Malaysia will start phasing out paper currency notes, replacing them with the new, more durable and security-featured polymer notes.

"On Tuesday, the central bank will launch for circulation notes of one denomination ? expected to be the RM5 ? to be followed by other denominations later.

Sources say the new notes are expected to be issued in time for the coming Deepavali and Hari Raya Aidilfitri holidays.

An official said once Bank Negara issues the polymer notes, the central bank will stop issuing the existing paper notes of the particular denomination.

However, existing paper notes in circulation will be considered legal tender until they are brought back to Bank Negara.

"At that point, we will not re-issue paper notes.

"We are phasing out the old notes gradually," the official said.

Polymer notes have a high level of durability and retain their quality while in circulation, as well as staying clean and hygienic to handle.

With clean, robust notes in circulation, polymer notes have a significantly extended lifetime, lasting three or four times longer than paper notes.

As such, they are very cost-effective with significant savings in the provision of notes for the country.

Not only that, at the end of their circulation life polymer notes can be recycled."
Gee, recycled, isn't that special, but not as special as what is happening in the U.K.:
Met deploys mobile gun scanner in London raid
By John Lettice
Published Saturday 23rd October 2004 13:37 GMT

"The Metropolitan Police deployed a weapons scanner in the London Borough of Lewisham last night, as the culmination of a week-long series of anti gun crime operations in the Borough. Friday's swoop also identified a radical new use for the Millenium Dome, although the scanner itself seems not to have detected any guns.

A BBC report tells us that police boarded 20 police vans and two London buses at the Dome, then swooped on a pub, a barber's shop and a take-away. Although the BBC says 700 officers were involved, The Register's abacus suggests that total capacity of the vehicles mentioned would be more in the region of 400, depending on how sociable the officers may have been feeling. But there may well have been a total of 700 involved.

A street was cordoned off, and the occupants of the premises were made to walk past the scanner, which found no guns. 14 people were however arrested for other reasons.

The Met has a small number of low intensity X-ray scanners, which it has previously offered to schools as weapons detectors, but it's also possible that the scanner is a 'weapons detector' it announced last year.

The Met declined to discuss the workings of the scanner when it was announced, but it is not exactly a secret. It is a Millimetre Wave Camera developed by QinetiQ, and the technology is particularly applicable for airport security scanners and similar. It works by passively detecting naturally occurring radiation, and as metal objects completely reflect this, they show up well. As the human body reflects 30 per cent of naturally occurring radiation, it sees through clothes and, as QinetiQ coyly puts it, "a person's actual body shape" can be seen. Phwoarrr..."
Of course, the Limey Bastard's at the Register, as regular readers of that site know, are always big on gun confiscation. Of course, most of those Limey Bastard's are, and look where it has brought them to.

Nevertheless, we have our own crime to worry about, such as these antics:
Early voting brings cries of bullying

By Brittany Wallman
Staff Writer

October 23, 2004

"On Election Day, voters will be protected from campaign pressures by a 50-foot cone, an invisible barrier that campaign workers cannot breach. Not so for early voters.

While the Voter's Bill of Rights in state law says they have a right to "vote free from coercion or intimidation by elections officers or any other person," a glitch in the newer early voting law does not include the same 50-foot guarantee.

As a result, with early voting taking place in busy public places like City Halls and libraries, voters are voicing complaints of being blocked by political mobs, or being singled out for their political views. Others say they have been grabbed, screamed at and cursed by political partisans of all stripes.

Republican Rep. Tom Feeney of Oviedo said the antagonizers are "Kerry thugs" out to harass Bush voters.

"If you ask me whether I believe there is an organized effort to intimidate Republican voters, the answer is absolutely yes," said Feeney.

The Republican Party is calling on the secretary of state's office for help, asking that early voting rules be clarified.

The secretary of state's office has not yet responded.

"Significant numbers of people have already been deterred from voting," wrote Republican Party Chairwoman Carole Jean Jordan to Secretary of State Glenda Hood, "and this will continue until corrective measures are taken."

Democratic Party officials in Tallahassee said they've had some complaints, too.

"We have had incidents as well," said Christine Anderson, spokeswoman for the Kerry campaign. "We've had quite a few."

She said the party hasn't taken affidavits from voters and found it shocking the Republicans were so focused on the issue rather than working to make sure people can vote."
Moreover, to think it is illegal to take a gun to a polling place, but then again, political arguments will happen anywhere and between anyone, and these Geeks prove it:
Libertarian Badnarik an Election Spoiler?

Posted by michael on Friday October 08, @04:24PM
from the election-already-spoiled dept.

Mr. Slippery writes "The New York Sun points out that Libertarian Party candidate Michael Badnarik could tip the balance in this year's presidental election, like Ralph Nader is accused of having done in 2000. Bush's policies may be driving some traditional conservative Republican voters into the Libertarian camp. Rasmussen polls have put him as high as 5% in New Mexico and 3% in Nevada, which could make a difference in which major party candidate takes those states."
Hmm, all this because Bob Barr throws his support to Badnarik? Nope and not at all, but because people are angry that our Constitution and Bill of Rights are, and have for so long, been used as toilet paper.

However, anger is no longer an allowed emotion as explained in this editorial:
The anti-angry brigade

Anger management is all the rage these days. Brendan O?Neill says it?s a sign of emotional correctness gone mad

"Imagine if Arthur Seaton, the fictional factory hand created by Alan Sillitoe for his 1958 novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, had been around today. Sillitoe was the angriest of the Angry Young Men, and Seaton ? a ?billygoat trying to screw the world...because it?s trying to do the same to me? ? the most rebellious and unforgiving of his creations. He was a womanising wide-boy who worked in a Nottingham factory by day and drank himself stupid by night, spending his time ?fighting with mothers and wives, landlords and gaffers, coppers, army, government...?.

In New Labour?s New Britain, Seaton would be carted off for a short, sharp dose of anger management therapy, perhaps courtesy of the courts or as part of a workplace stress-relief programme. From schools and colleges to workplaces and prisons, the management of anger has become big business. Anger, or at least the unmediated expression of it, has effectively been outlawed. The emotional police have declared war on anyone who remotely resembles an angry young man (or woman). The aim, it seems to me, is to turn the ?billygoats? into sheep, yet barely an eyebrow has been raised in response to this insidious campaign of emotional conformism.

If the Fifties were ?The Angry Decade? (the title of Kenneth Allsop?s 1958 study of the AYM), then the noughties are the Anti-Angry Decade. Ours is an age which elevates emotion over reason ? provided our emotion of choice is on the approved list. We are encouraged to open up, confess, break down, weep, show compassion, and the more publicly we do it, the better. But anger? That is stigmatised. The British Association of Anger Management has a team of coaches who offer advice about this ?powerful? and potentially ?dangerous? emotion to the general public, children and teenagers, government bodies, corporations, the education sector, personnel managers and anyone else ?dealing with their own or another?s anger?. Its aim is to ?extinguish the flames? of anger, which, if left unmanaged, can apparently have ?massive social implications on your family, your career and ultimately YOU?. (At £110 per hour for a one-on-one phone session with a BAAM anger coach, it can also have massive implications for your bank balance.)"

I don't know about you, but I sure have been wanting to go out an kill something- fortunately, hunting season is almost here...

--WP

22 October, 2004

"What happened to Nim?"

I have been watching THE GREEN BERETS on AMC, as I do at least once a year.

Just thought I would post the lyrics:
Ballad Of the Green Berets
by Sgt. Barry Sadler 1965

Fighting soldiers from the sky
Fearless men who jump and die
Men who mean just what they say
The brave men of the Green Beret

Chorus:
Silver wings upon their chest
These are men, America's best
One hundred men will test today
But only three win the Green Beret

Trained to live off natures land
Trained in combat, hand-to-hand
Men who fight by night and day
Courage peak from the Green Berets

(Chorus) Silver wings upon their chest
These are men, America's best
One hundred men will test today
But only three win the Green Beret

Back at home a young wife waits
Her Green Beret has met his fate
He has died for those oppressed
Leaving her his last request
"Put silver wings on my son's chest
Make him one of America's best
He'll be a man they'll test one day
Have him win the Green Beret"

(Chorus) Silver wings upon their chest
These are men, America's best
One hundred men will test today
But only three win the Green Beret
You can find the song here.

--WP

Bob Barr supports Badnarik for President

STRAYING FROM THE HERD: BARR THE CONTRARIAN SAYS HE'S GOING LIBERTARIAN
=========================
October 22, 2004
For Immediate Release
Contact: Stephen P. Gordon
Office: (512) 637-6867
Cell: (256) 227-8360
communications@badnarik.org
http://www.badnarik.org
=========================

ACROSS THE DIVIDE
Bob Barr supports Badnarik for President

Atlanta, GA - Bob Barr is a conservative's conservative -- a former Republican congressman, a leader in the fight to impeach Bill Clinton and an entrenched traditionalist on issues like medical marijuana and gay marriage.

But Bob Barr is not voting for George W. Bush on November 2.

In a debate on Georgia's proposed same-sex marriage ban last night, Barr asserted that he'd be voting for neither Bush nor Democratic challenger John Kerry, saying he has "serious questions about both presidential candidates."

He's voting Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik.

Over the years, the Libertarian Party and Barr have had an on-again, off-again relationship: allies on issues of privacy rights and fiscal responsibility, opponents on drug war and other cultural issues.

Since his exit from Congress after redistricting put him up against another popular representative (Libertarians ran ads in that campaign taking him to task for his opposition to medical marijuana), Barr's career trajectory tilted toward the issues on which he and Libertarians agree. He's spoken at party events and complimented Libertarians on their approach more often in recent times.

Then, last week, Barr publicly voiced his doubts about Bush in a column for Creative Loafing, an Atlanta weekly: "...when the nation enjoyed the fruits of actual conservative fiscal and security policies, a Democrat occupied the White House and Congress was controlled by a Republican majority." The column closed with a hypothetical "Hmmm. Who's the Libertarian candidate again?" Barr subsequently hosted Badnarik on his talk radio program.

"I welcome Congressman Barr's support," says Badnarik, currently stumping in Michigan. "While we don't agree on every issue, we have much in common -- and I think most people will understand that it wasn't Bob Barr who walked away from the Republican Party, but the Republican Party which walked away from the values he's worked all his life to support."

Other recent endorsers of Badnarik include former Reagan administration official Lance Lamberton, Orange County Register senior editorial writer Alan Bock and comedians Penn Jillette and Doug Stanhope. Badnarik's name will appear on the ballot in 48 states and the District of Columbia; New Hampshire voters will have the option of writing him in for the presidency.

Go visit Mr. Barr's site here.

--WP

John "Elmer" F. Kerry

So Elmer went and bagged himself a goose yesterday in Ohio, I do not think so.

Pictures show three geese and "Elmer" claims everyone bagged one but, and in his words:
"Too lazy," Kerry joked. "No, still giddy over the Red Sox. It was hard to focus."
He did not shoot anything off but his mouth, and for the Duck's Unlimited crowd, most of the ones I have met have happily sold out their rights for just another week of duck hunting, and will continue to do so at any opportunity- they make me sick. Many in the shooting community know this and have a real distaste for the O/U crowd, and so what has DU done to try save their image? They have scrambled to distance themselves as far as possible from the photo op. A big thanks goes to El Rojo at The High Road for posting the information.

What a Putz, he was too "giddy" to kerry it...

--WP

19 October, 2004

It is Tuesday, and the World seems normal- FUBAR!

Hmm, let's see, recently, the NRA endorsed Bush, today we hear that Yasser Arafat endorses Kerry, and last week, we found out that many in the World thinks that they should have a voice in our elections, and how many folks, besides me have a problem with all of this?

Bush is undeserving of the NRA endorsement because of many, many reasons, but number one is this, Yasser Arafat is a terrorist, and quite frankly, I do not give a shit as to what the World thinks, irrespective of the fact that our lying elected, appointed, and bureaucratic weasels keep saying that we are a democracy (ptuey!), we are not!

I say toss out the United Nation's, and send those foreign weasels back to where they came from, cease every damn aid program, bring home each and every one of our soldiers, but not before we charge each of their respective governments $10,000.00 in gold bullion for each of their representatives, and each of our soldiers protecting their countries, and then tell the World to go fuck itself- we have enough problems here.

Oh, I suppose that now I will hear from those that will tell me that we are too dependent on the World and that it is a World market- but I have one thing to say to this, we no longer buy from them and see just how damn quickly they come a begging (anyone ever heard of Wal-Mart). What is that you say- China? LOL! Nearly all of China's population is still and will remain for many generations as dirt-poor farmers. How many people actually think that their infrastructure will be able to absorb a rapid influx, particularly when currently roughly ten (10) percent of its population lives in it's top ten cities? On the other hand, India is what you say. Seventy (70) percent of it's population lives in villages and you can do a bit more research here.

In addition, then again, we will now hear about mulitnational corporation persons. I say repeal all laws relating to this and write one, just one, barring all corporations from EVER receiving status as a being- let alone an immortal one. So now, that brings us to lawyers and I say tough shit. There are many good one's around and, and many good men, and they will stand up- which will bring us back to solving our own problems- repealing repressive and un-Constitutional laws. We will have it rough for quite awhile, but we will do it and be stronger for it.

You may be wondering what really brought this rant on, and it is that today, in 1781, Cornwallis surrendered and ended our first war of Independence. We taught the World what freedom means and what we would suffer to achieve it, and I will be damned if I will not fight on.

Raise your glasses and remember what our Founding Father's knew, that freedom is most deliciously sweet, but a drink that carries a steep and heavy price:
"And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor."
--WP

15 October, 2004

Political Rhapsody

No-Neck sends me crap from this site all of the time, and I think it ususally blows, but this time he did good, and it is just too funny not to share.

I bring you MadBlast's, Political Rhapsody!

Oh, and while you are at it, check out The Presidential Horror Show!, and as the site says- Mock the Vote!

--WP


14 October, 2004

George Bush/John Kerry - Defenders of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights

Transcript & Video: Third Debate
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,135380,00.html

SCHIEFFER: Mr. President, new question, two minutes. You said that if Congress would vote to extend the ban on assault weapons, that you'd sign the legislation, but you did nothing to encourage the Congress to extend it. Why not?

BUSH: Actually, I made my intentions -- made my views clear. I did think we ought to extend the assault weapons ban, and was told the fact that the bill was never going to move, because Republicans and Democrats were against the assault weapon ban, people of both parties.

I believe law-abiding citizens ought to be able to own a gun. I believe in background checks at gun shows or anywhere to make sure that guns don't get in the hands of people that shouldn't have them.

But the best way to protect our citizens from guns is to prosecute those who commit crimes with guns. And that's why early in my administration I called the attorney general and the U.S. attorneys and said: Put together a task force all around the country to prosecute those who commit crimes with guns. And the prosecutions are up by about 68 percent -- I believe -- is the number.

Neighborhoods are safer when we crack down on people who commit crimes with guns.

To me, that's the best way to secure America.

In other words, we were terrified that if we had renewed it before the election, the NRA and the gun-owners who tossed out the politicians in 1994, and supported me in 2000 would have handed me my head on a platter- just wait until after January though. The peons should not have those types of weapons, no matter the Second Amendment says. However, I have been able to prevent pilots from being armed, thanks to Tom Ridge and TSA. Chuckle, it never ceases to amaze me that the public really thinks I care about them beyond how much money we can steal from them via their taxes and inflation!
SCHIEFFER: Senator?

KERRY: I believe it was a failure of presidential leadership not to reauthorize the assault weapons ban.

I am a hunter. I'm a gun owner. I've been a hunter since I was a kid, 12, 13 years old. And I respect the Second Amendment and I will not tamper with the Second Amendment.

But I'll tell you this. I'm also a former law enforcement officer. I ran one of the largest district attorney's offices in America, one of the ten largest. I put people behind bars for the rest of their life. I've broken up organized crime. I know something about prosecuting.

And most of the law enforcement agencies in America wanted that assault weapons ban. They don't want to go into a drug bust and be facing an AK-47.

I was hunting in Iowa last year with a sheriff from one of the counties there, and he pointed to a house in back of us, and said, "See the house over? We just did a drug bust a week earlier, and the guy we arrested had an AK-47 lying on the bed right beside him."

Because of the president's decision today, law enforcement officers will walk into a place that will be more dangerous. Terrorists can now come into America and go to a gun show and, without even a background check, buy an assault weapon today.

And that's what Osama bin Laden's handbook said, because we captured it in Afghanistan. It encouraged them to do it.

So I believe America's less safe.

If Tom DeLay or someone in the House said to me, "Sorry, we don't have the votes," I'd have said, "Then we're going to have a fight."

And I'd have taken it out to the country and I'd have had every law enforcement officer in the country visit those congressmen. We'd have won what Bill Clinton won.
In other words, I am to stupid to even know my job, which is to get a bill through Senate, agreed upon with the House of Representatives and then sent to the President to sign so it becomes a law- no matter if it is un-Constitutional or not. If I am elected, I will just mandate, as the Elder Bush did with weapons that made us both squeamish.

Yes, I am a life long hunter, just look at the pictures of me standing tall with that rifle, I mean shotgun, I mean the gun I wanted to ban and was given to me illegally, but not given to me.

I was a Law Enforcement Ossifer and all of the Chiefs of Police want to see these guns banned too. Of course they are beholden to politicians for their jobs so they better back me- just don't ask most line cops and their organization, the Fraternal Order of Police, who don't. I will take care of them later.

A pox on both of your houses, you lying weasely bastards!

--WP


13 October, 2004

"Hard Questions for Tonight's Debate? Nah."

Email sent out from Alan Korwin at Bloomfield Press:
Should Bush or Kerry get the hard questions?

"While the final presidential debate is covering familiar ground and current events, the critically important fundamentals of government will be ignored completely. One of these men will be in charge of keeping our government legitimate. Tonight, as you're watching, see if any constitutional issues -- the heart of our system -- are addressed by the candidates, or the talented CBS news moderator."

-----------------------------------------------

The Liberty Poll
The Liberty Poll
The Liberty Poll

Mike Anthony, Alan Korwin, Vin Suprynowicz

POLICY QUESTIONS

1. Can you name areas where government might serve the public interest, but where it has no authority to act? If not, is it still accurate to say we have "government of limited powers"? Does this matter?

2. Can you name any current areas of government operations that are outside the authority delegated to government?

3. If you are elected to the office you seek:

a. What laws will you repeal;

b. What government agencies will you shrink or close?

4. Would you support criminal penalties:

a. For politicians who violate their oath of office;

b. For bureaucrats who act outside the powers delegated to them?

5. When did you last read the state and federal Constitutions?

6. Should someone who has sworn an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, but who then votes to allocate tax funds to programs or departments not authorized by that Constitution, be removed from office?

7. As a candidate for a state or federal office, can you think of any ways to improve enforcement of the 10th Amendment (the states and the people retain powers not delegated to the federal government)?

ISSUE QUESTIONS

8. With regard to jury trials, should judges be required to inform jurors that they have the power, in the sanctity of the jury room, to decide whether a law in question is just, or constitutional? Should schools teach this?

9. With regard to due process, should judges be allowed to prevent defendants from presenting a defense on constitutional grounds if they so choose?

10. With regard to the war on some drugs, is the war succeeding? When could it be declared a success, the expense of waging it cease, and the tax-based infrastructure surrounding it be decreased or dismantled? If it can't be declared a success, when might it be declared a failure and brought to a close?

11. With regard to law enforcement, are you in favor of police being allowed to use deadly force when absolutely necessary to protect innocent lives from criminal attack? Do you believe that people, even people with no training of any kind, have less right to defend themselves than the authorities do?

12. With regard to the right to keep and bear arms:

a. Should it be legal for a person caught in a criminal killing spree to shoot back? Is there any limit on the number of bullets they could use? Do you think they should be charged with something if they manage to stop the attack and the attacker dies, or if they use a type of gun not on an approved list?

b. Since some people believe tragic gun accidents could be reduced through education, and that a tax incentive could increase the number of Americans knowledgable about gun use and safety, do you think this statement is true: "Gun-safety training would cause accidents and cost lives"?

13. With regard to establishing a federal ID number for every American, would you vote to enable or block such legislation if it were proposed? Which part of the Constitution would authorize such controls?

14. With regard to asset-forfeiture laws and policies, describe how these are permissible under the Constitution. If elected, would you do anything to change current asset-forfeiture law?

15. If elected to the office you seek, would you support legislation to license writers or register printing presses? Would you support legislation to license publishers to help control "hate speech?" Why would an honest writer or publisher object to such a program?

"A follow-up module of The Liberty Poll, with detailed questions for reporters to consider for extended interviews, is posted at http://www.gunlaws.com, along with the reason you don't see questions like this on the nightly news.

The Liberty Poll was developed by attorney Michael P. Anthony, author Alan Korwin and syndicated columnist Vin Suprynowicz."

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 13, 2004
675 Words

Permission to use The Liberty Poll in conducting interviews is granted.
Permission to reprint this article in whole or in part is granted.

Contact:
Alan Korwin
BLOOMFIELD PRESS
"We publish the gun laws."
4718 E. Cactus #440
Phoenix, AZ 85032
602-996-4020 Phone
602-494-0679 FAX
1-800-707-4020 Orders
http://www.gunlaws.com
  • E-Mail
  • Call, write, fax or click for a free catalog.

    12 October, 2004

    Sen. Dayton Temporarily Closing Office

    Associated Press

    WASHINGTON


    "A Democratic senator said Tuesday he is closing his Washington office because of a top-secret intelligence report that made him fear for his staff's safety.

    Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn., said his office in the Russell Senate Office Building across the street from the Capitol will be closed while Congress is in recess through Election Day, with his staff working out of his Minnesota office and in Senate space off Capitol Hill.

    "I take this step out of extreme, but necessary, precaution to protect the lives and safety of my Senate staff and my Minnesota constituents, who might otherwise be visiting my Senate office in the next three weeks," he said.

    Dayton said he could not give details of the intelligence report, which he said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., presented to senators at a briefing two weeks ago.

    Frist spokesman Bob Stevenson said he was unaware of any other senators who were closing their offices.

    Brian Roehrkasse, a Homeland Security Department spokesman, said the department had no intelligence indicating al-Qaida intends to target any specific U.S. locations.

    Added Capitol police spokesman Michael Lauer: "There's been no specific threats against the Capitol complex. We continue to be on guard now, all the way up to the election and all the way through the inauguration."

    Nonetheless, Dayton said he would advise people from his home state to avoid Capitol Hill until after the Nov. 2 election.

    "I would not bring my two sons to the Capitol between now and the election," he added."
    Democrap Senator Mark Dayton is running and hiding, eh? Well, you liberal pussy, if you had learned how to use one of those recently NO-LONGER BANNED FALSE AWB Weapons, taught your staff to as well, and fought for your constituents to own them as the Second Amendment enumerates, you would not have to run like the coward you are.

    However, I suppose we should thank you for showing us the true colors of the filthy, stealing, weasley, rat-bastards elected directly, and contravene to the way our Constitution was supposed to work.

    Hey, you stumblebum, I think I will remind you of this.

    --WP

    Monkey Shortage Threatens Germwar Vaccine Testing, Some Researchers Warn

    By Zack Phillips, CQ Staff

    "The effort to develop countermeasures to biological terrorism, many scientists say, faces a looming problem on the horizon: a critical shortage of monkeys needed for testing.

    Three years after the anthrax attacks that killed five people and injured dozens of others, many involved in biodefense research say the country does not have a large enough supply of non-human primates for the kind of massive research effort that would be needed in the aftermath of another bioterrorist attack.

    "Today it is an area of concern," said Michael J. Hopmeier, a special adviser to the U.S. Surgeon General, the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and other government agencies. "In the near future, it's going to be a significant problem."

    Testing vaccines to defend against bio-terror agents - such as anthrax, smallpox and even monkeypox - is too dangerous for human subjects. DARPA, long a leader in over-the-horizon scientific projects, is working to construct synthetic systems to duplicate human organs and immunology for such tests, but they are still far from producing results needed now, researchers say.

    Thus the development of countermeasures to biological agents, many scientists say, rests largely on the shoulders of the monkey, the animal whose biology most closely resembles that of humans.

    A rule developed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2002 allows the approval of new drugs and products based solely on animal studies, in cases where clinical trials in humans are unethical or unsafe.

    Biodefense researchers say they have enough monkeys for current projects. But many say no contingency stock is available to supply the kind of immediate and unexpected push for a new inoculation necessary in the wake of a bioterrorist attack.

    "To me, we don't have any surge capacity," said C.J. Peters, director for biodefense at the University of Texas Medical Branch Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases."
    Try here, here, here, here, there...

    --WP

    MAXIME FAGET 1921-2004

    Another great from NASA's Mercury program has passed.
    Space capsule designer dies at 83
    Area engineer was in at the start of the space race
    By MARK CARREAU
    Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

    "Maxime "Max" Faget, an intuitive engineer who became the chief architect of NASA's Mercury capsule and a key contributor to the design of three other manned spacecraft, has died. He was 83.

    Faget died Saturday at his Clear Lake-area home after a lengthy struggle with bladder cancer.

    One of Faget's accomplishments was the design of the Mercury capsule that carried Alan Shepard into space.

    "There is no one in space flight history in this or any other country who has had a larger impact on man's quest in space exploration," said Christopher Kraft, the former director of the Johnson Space Center. "History will remember him as one of the really great scientists of the 20th century."

    The son of a Public Health Service physician, Faget was born Aug. 26, 1921, in Stann Creek, British Honduras, and studied engineering at Louisiana State University.

    After serving in the U.S. Navy as a submarine officer, he rose to legendary status in the earliest days of America's space program."
    Another thank you is owed...

    --WP

    Not about jobs- no, it is about controlling those that can do.

    Remember this next time you hear about the "low-wages" the boys in blue get, to make you sleep comfortable at night. (The Whose Paranoid household does not dial 911; we use 1911- at least until we can get to the shotgun):
    Club owners cry 'shakedown'
    Law requires nightspots hire off-duty officers for security


    By J. ANDREW CURLISS, Staff Writer

    "RALEIGH -- The police first visited Gary H. Gibson a year ago, shortly after his Loafers Beach Club opened at a new location on Atlantic Avenue in North Raleigh.

    The officers, Gibson recalled, said he needed to hire an off-duty Raleigh cop to watch the club's parking lot Friday and Saturday nights.

    Gibson resisted. He said his patrons, mostly regulars and couples who dance the shag, do not cause trouble. Police said he could be charged with a crime if he didn't comply.

    Reluctantly, Gibson hired an officer at $30 an hour.

    "It was a shakedown," Gibson said. "Pure and simple: a shakedown of me by the cops."

    But the arrangement is legal.

    Raleigh police in the past 15 months have stepped up enforcement of a city ordinance that directly benefits them.

    The measure requires any business with a capacity greater than 99 that offers "amplified entertainment" to post a sworn officer over the parking area. It applies when the business is open from 8 p.m. until one hour past closing.

    Officers have handed out two dozen misdemeanor citations since mid-2003 to bars, restaurants and nightclubs for failing to hire an officer.

    In the three years prior, records show, police cited a total of four violators. The ordinance was enacted in 1999 to curb problems at nightspots near residential areas. Its primary goal was to cut down on noise, including that from throbbing bass speakers.

    But another section requires parking lot security, overseen by an officer with the power to arrest. The idea is to prevent trouble without tying up on-duty officers.

    The requirement applies any day the business is open, regardless of whether it has a band on stage or is playing amplified entertainment, defined essentially as music from speakers.

    Raleigh's well-known Angus Barn restaurant is subject to the law, as are many other familiar spots: Rudino's Pizza & Grinders on Harvest Oaks Drive; Champps Restaurant, the Twisted Fork and Ted's Montana Grill at Triangle Town Center; and the Brownstone Hotel in West Raleigh.

    In February 2003, national attention fell on nightclub safety after more than 20 people were killed in a stampede at a Chicago bar. A few days later, more than 90 people were killed in a fire at a Rhode Island nightclub.

    Raleigh and Wake County officials say it was in response to those incidents that they began making surprise visits to nightspots to ensure they were following rules, including having an officer in the parking lot. By late May 2003, police started writing citations. Many of the cases are dismissed later, records show, after officers are hired.

    Zoning inspectors also can enforce the ordinance by writing civil citations for a violation. They never have, records show."
    There is quite a bit more at the link, and you should read the complete article. Further, just how many towns and cities across our great land have "ordinances and laws" just like this?

    I would like to know- wouldn't you?

    --WP


    Government Funds Chat Room Surveillance Research

    By Michael Hill Associated Press Writer
    Published: Oct 11, 2004

    "TROY, N.Y. (AP) - Amid the torrent of jabber in Internet chat rooms - flirting by QTpie and BoogieBoy, arguments about politics and horror flicks - are terrorists plotting their next move?

    The government certainly isn't discounting the possibility. It's taking the idea seriously enough to fund a yearlong study on chat room surveillance under an anti-terrorism program.

    A Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute computer science professor hopes to develop mathematical models that can uncover structure within the scattershot traffic of online public forums.

    Chat rooms are the highly popular and freewheeling areas on the Internet where people with self-created nicknames discuss just about anything: teachers, Kafka, cute boys, politics, love, root canal. They are also places where malicious hackers have been known to trade software tools, stolen passwords and credit card numbers. The Pew Internet & American Life Project estimates that 28 million Americans have visited Internet chat rooms.

    Trying to monitor the sea of traffic on all the chat channels would be like assigning a police officer to listen in on every conversation on the sidewalk - virtually impossible.

    Instead of rummaging through megabytes of messages, RPI professor Bulent Yener will use mathematical models in search of patterns in the chatter. Downloading data from selected chat rooms, Yener will track the times that messages were sent, creating a statistical profile of the traffic."
    Does anyone really think this is something new and just started?

    How many news stories over the past several years about sex rings being broken have we read. Over the past year, it seems to be at least one every two months. The story line is always the same. "Some asshole whose wife is not giving him any" goes online to a chat room, meets "Sexy Betty 15-year old" who just cannot wait to have her itch scratched. They converse online, and "some asshole whose wife is not giving him any" starts to fantasize about miss young, nubile, and willing "Sexy Betty 15-year old". Over a couple of months, "Sexy Betty 15-year old" convinces him to meet her to do some real live scratching across states lines, and BAM! "Some asshole whose wife is not giving him any" is now on his way to meet the police for a long stay in the pokey, and maybe suicide, for his disturbing thoughts.

    Or, "some fed-up patriot" finally has had enough and starts cruising the "patriot sites", boards, forums and chat rooms and meets online someone who is voicing the "patriots" frustration, they start talking, discuss the bastards in the swamp, start making plans to fight back, maybe discussing the assembly and storage of household supplies in the proper proportions and BAM! "Some fed-up patriot" is now on his way to meet the police for a long stay in the pokey, and maybe suicide, for his disturbing thoughts.

    Or, you do not even have to go online for this kind of disgusting activities to take place, there is always the 1-800-Turn-In-Your-Neighbor telephone numbers, for those that just cannot stand to know that others may actually have different thoughts, opinions, ideas, or hell even a better time than they are having.

    Of course, this is now being trumpeted as another tool in Homeland Security. I despise the use of this phrase for it is just to damn close to Rodina and Der Fatherland.

    Many who now embrace this concept, only a few short years ago were railing against our government committed atrocities right here in the old "homeland". Each of the measures passed since September 11th, 2001 were fought tooth and nail against by these same people who now consider them O.K. simply because the Republicrats are currently holding the keys.

    I believe Robert Anson Heinlein called them Mrs. Grundy, and others throughout history called them the "Thought Police".

    I simply call them the tools of tyrants...

    --WP

    11 October, 2004

    Things I wanted to post this weekend and did not.

    By now, most have heard about the FBI seizing Indymedia's servers. I read about it late Thursday evening and one of the best articles on it was Friday at the Register.

    Also read on Friday, was this article:
    "Attorney General Bill Lockyer will push for a state law requiring handgun ammunition sold in California to carry a microscopic code that would allow law enforcement to trace bullets back to the buyer."
    Oh yes, this will really work- NOT!

    In addition, here is the latest victim in our War on Some Drugs- Brian Cara, Police Chief Brian Cara. However, before you get your feathers all a ruffled, he was stealing, I mean smoking the evidence.

    Lastly, is this article Representative, Ron Paul, M.D., writes about HR 10.

    What came to mind when I read this was a line in a movie starring Kurt Russell:

    "May the wings of Liberty never lose a feather."

    However, there is only one problem, she has not lost just one feather, those bastards in the swamp are boiling the whole bird...

    --WP

    09 October, 2004

    ABC, the network news, and stupidity.

    I found the following on Drudge last night:

    Who is this man?



    He is one of the many idiots that run network news who firmly believe that they are there to guide as us sheep, for we are too stupid to understand life and must be led about. There are many idiots who watch the network news who, if queried, would actually be shown to be valid sheep to be led about.

    However, many of the sheep have left the network news for cable to be led about by those idiots.

    By now, you are probably wondering what this idiot, Mark Halperin, has done, and it is simple, he has added more evidence that the network news, and I do not think this is limited to ABC, as the recent Man Blathering incident has shown, firmly believes that it is there to lead us about and save us from ourselves- just as most journalists do. Here is the internal memo that was leaked to Drudge:
    Halperin Memo Dated Friday October 8, 2004

    "It goes without saying that the stakes are getting very high for the country and the campaigns - and our responsibilities become quite grave

    I do not want to set off (sp?) and endless colloquy that none of us have time for today - nor do I want to stifle one. Please respond if you feel you can advance the discussion.

    The New York Times (Nagourney/Stevenson) and Howard Fineman on the web both make the same point today: the current Bush attacks on Kerry involve distortions and taking things out of context in a way that goes beyond what Kerry has done.

    Kerry distorts, takes out of context, and mistakes all the time, but these are not central to his efforts to win.

    We have a responsibility to hold both sides accountable to the public interest, but that doesn't mean we reflexively and artificially hold both sides "equally" accountable when the facts don't warrant that.

    I'm sure many of you have this week felt the stepped up Bush efforts to complain about our coverage. This is all part of their efforts to get away with as much as possible with the stepped up, renewed efforts to win the election by destroying Senator Kerry at least partly through distortions.

    It's up to Kerry to defend himself, of course. But as one of the few news organizations with the skill and strength to help voters evaluate what the candidates are saying to serve the public interest. Now is the time for all of us to step up and do that right."
    Here is the New York Times, Nagourney/Stevenson, article (which requires registration- go here to get around it), and here is Howard Finemans' opinion.

    Both articles are nothing more than spin for Kerry (the Democraps) in my opinion, and that is fine, the Fox News Network does it for the Repuglicrats, and everyone has their biases, but journalists and the media constantly lie to us about this. However, as was so eloquently put in the Outlaw Josey Wales, "don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining."

    This past week, Howard Stern announced that he is leaving broadcast radio, and moving to the Sirius Satellite network. Good for him and good for everyone else, as I see this move as a great step up for those that want to get real news, as more outlets make this type of move, the quality of the reporting will improve because people will tire if the same old crap is spouted when they are paying for it.

    Further, many, many people using the Internet have done a great job exposing the lies that our so-called leaders and saviours espouse. And this change will continue to grow as more folks really begin to realize that these ass-wipes really need nothing more than a good tar-and-feathering...

    --WP

    08 October, 2004

    He was a Hero.

    October 8th, 1918 - Sergeant Alvin C. York:
    "It was here that Alvin distinguished himself in combat. On October 8, 1918, Corporal Alvin C. York and sixteen other soldiers under the command of Sergeant Bernard Early were dispatched before sunrise to take command of the Decauville railroad behind Hill 223 in the Chatel-Chehery sector of the Meuse-Argonne sector. The seventeen men, due to a misreading of their map (which was in French not English) mistakenly wound up behind enemy lines. A brief fire fight ensued which resulted in the confusion and the unexpected surrender of a superior German force to the seventeen soldiers. Once the Germans realized that the American contingent was limited, machine gunners on the hill overlooking the scene turned the gun away from the front and toward their own troops. After ordering the German soldiers to lie down, the machine gun opened fire resulting in the deaths of nine Americans, including York's best friend in the outfit, Murray Savage. Sergeant Early received seventeen bullet wounds and turned the command over to corporals Harry Parsons and William Cutting, who ordered York to silence the machine gun. York was successful and when all was said and done, nine men had captured 132 prisoners."
    You can find more on this man here.

    --WP

    Screw both Henry Waxman and the Russians!

    I found this asinine article via GunNewsDaily:
    Congressman Henry Waxman calls for action over problems with criminals using fake gun dealer license
    10/07/2004 11:07

    Rep. Waxman, has thrown the gauntlet at the Department of Treasury and to the Department of Justice to 'clean it up'

    "The GAO, using a computer and off the shelf software was able to completely create a very plausible, but fake, Gun Dealers License. With a fake license, a person can literally get any number of weapons - to include the 50 caliber BMG Sniper rifle.

    The GAO has also demonstrated the Americas NCIS - the criminal background check, is also flawed and criminals are bypassing the system to create a gun trafficking enterprise in the US. It should be noted that the National Rifle Association has protested the background checks claiming discrimination of gun purchasers and it appears they might be working actively to undermine all gun control laws.

    Representative Waxman has repeatedly calling on John Ashcroft to look into the matter of .50 Sniper Rifles being available to persons under the age of 18.

    American's have been willing to pay the price, in civil liberties, to help protect America from terrorist attacks by supporting acts and laws written by the Bush administration. However, when it comes to internal terrorism, Bush has gone soft by enabling more and more liberalized gun laws.

    One clear example is Tromix which markets a .50 caliber weapon in the US that they boasted, in their advertising, will pierce the windshield of a Douglas DC-9. This comes from an investigation conducted by Congressman Waxman's office.

    Apparently the Department of Justice is turning a blind eye to it all. Bush states he is tough on terrorism, but his actions contradict his words.

    The GAO, in their under cover investigation, using simple software, created false birth certificates and driver's licenses - they then purchased firearms in Virginia, West Virginia, Montana, New Mexico and Arizona. When the undercover agents went into the stores to purchase firearms, the NCIS background check - even though the id's, the names on the id's and the addresses on the id's were completely bogus, the NCIS gave the OK to purchase.

    Another under cover investigation found that the armor piercing military rounds for the .50 rifle are being sold on the civilian market. The rounds, designed to pierce tank armor and causing lethality, are not something that should be available to civilians, but instead are being marketed. So far the US military has not come up with an explanation - nor will they."
    So they created a fake FFL, but did they purchase anything with it? I rather doubt it as a distributor or an FFL will check with the F-Troop before sending merchandise along the way for resale.

    In addition, anyone who has spent time price-shopping for .50 caliber rifles, knows good and well that to get one of these is going to be at a minimum of $3500.00 (rifle, scope, ammunition, finding a place to shoot and it's range fees) Federal Reserve Notes (commonly called dollars), so his call to investigate 18 year old kids purchases is a load of bs.

    Further, the military does not need to come up with an explanation as the purchase of .50 caliber ammunition is legal- nor is it cheap either. However, as to their claims of AP ammunition, I provided the Google link, you go find it, as I could not.

    Historically, the Russians have always preferred a yoke about their necks, and Henry Waxman- well what can one say about him beyond, that I am sure he was the kid everyone picked on in school.

    I do have these suggestions though:
    --WP

    Do you know what this week was?

    It was Banned Books Week.

    Well, I had not read about it, until now...

    --WP

    07 October, 2004

    Mrs. Paranoid at the range tonight, practicing for qualification coming Saturday.

    A 224 out of 250- very good, but I know she can do better. She just needs to get to the range more often.

    Remember boys and girls, practice, practice, practice...

    --WP

    Time to Update Your Browsers

    It ain't no skin off my nose, but you older Internet Explorer, Opera, Mozilla and Firefox users (you know who you are), should seriously consider upgrading your browsers so that you no longer have the security threats to your system that you currently have.

    --WP

    Judge Sam Cummings does it again.

    For those that do not know who Judge Sam Cummings is, click here, and to give credit where it is due, No-Neck sent this in:
    Victory for Free Speech at Texas Tech
    Federal Judge Strikes Down Speech Code

    LUBBOCK, Texas, October 5, 2004

    "In the third victory in the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education's (FIRE's) ongoing legal campaign for free speech on America's public campuses, a federal judge struck down Texas Tech University's speech code. The judge also ordered large areas of the university to be opened to free expression and prohibited the university from enforcing several other severe limitations on speech. The case against Texas Tech was coordinated by FIRE and filed by the Liberty Legal Institute and the Alliance Defense Fund against Texas Tech President Donald R. Haragan as part of FIRE's ongoing Speech Codes Litigation Project.

    "FIRE is turning the tide in the battle for free speech on campus," remarked David French, president of FIRE. "As one court after another strikes down public college and university speech codes in response to FIRE's Speech Codes Litigation Project, college and university administrators are rapidly becoming aware that neither the public nor the courts will support unconstitutional restrictions of basic freedoms on campus."

    U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled on September 30, 2004, that many of Texas Tech's policies were unconstitutional. Along with striking down a speech code that banned, among other things, "insults," "ridicule," and "personal attacks," Judge Cummings determined that a university policy requiring students to get prior permission before engaging in even casual free expression was not sufficiently "narrowly tailored" to be enforced against students at this public university. Judge Cummings stated that "the Prior Permission section?sweeps too broadly in imposing a burden on a substantial amount of expression that does not interfere with any significant interests of the University." The judge found a policy limiting the distribution of pamphlets unconstitutional for the same reason. Read the opinion in Roberts v. Haragan here. [1.2 MB PDF]"

    Hmm, and to think I had a full letter grade lowered in one of my history courses in college, in part, because of this type of crap, it is good to see it changing.

    Of course, that socialist-bastard professor thought the epitome of civilization was 16th and 17th century France...

    --WP