RebelPundit interviews Chicago residents after the SotU address:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7mYg6Gt15o?rel=0]
Bloody well right.
Category: Uncategorized
[tap] [tap] Is This Thing On?
Uh, hi!
I guess I’m supposed to pay attention to this blog thing here. Sorry about that. I’ve been pretty busy the last several days. Regular content may resume in a day or six.
GOF Update
As I posted at the beginning of the month, commenter Grumpy Old Fart lost his mother and his home early in December. He left this comment this morning:
Okay, I have a paypal account. Sorry I took so long to reply, but internet access has been… problematic. However, with that said, I know basically nothing at all about paypal, so I don’t know what good it does or how to tell you to link to it.
With luck, I’ll still have consistent internet access for another day or two, so feel free to let me know what I should be doing with all this. Life has been… interesting lately, in an ancient Chinese curse kind of way.
I think he may be badly needing some other stuff, too.
The stuff I need most is stuff nobody can help me with. The Red Cross has been very good with the basics, clothes, toiletries and such, to the point where for a while I had more stuff than I had places to put it. The glaring issue right now is that I no longer have a picture ID, a SS card, or even a birth certificate. At this point my biggest problem is convincing anyone that I exist at all.
Kevin, you should have my email address in your contacts, so feel free to get in touch with me. You can understand why I’m unwilling to post it on a public forum. I tend to trust the people who post here, but that’s probably not the entire list of people who could conceivably see this either.
Ship-to address is something I’m a lot more comfortable with however:
1350 Rikisha Ln.
Beaumont, TX 77706Thanks, folks. Just knowing you care makes more difference than you probably realize. Since that’s something you don’t really get a feel for until you’re in a position like this, I hope none of you ever do realize it either.
For your PayPal account, all we need is the email address you use for it, I believe.
UPDATE: First things first, I just traded emails with GOF. He needs a computer:
I have some contract work writing for a publishing company in the UK, but since my computer burned I’m having to start all that from scratch as well. More to the point, until I get another computer, I can’t even make a start at redoing all the work I lost.
So… what do I need that you can provide? The only thing I can think of is funds toward another computer. That should probably go into paypal, since the donation account is pretty much meant for bill money.
Anybody got something they can spare? Can we get together and buy him something?
See? Reloading is EASY!
I just wish I could find some Unique…
THIS Was Caused by a Video
…I think it’s safe to say.
Cook’s Postulate is:
The key to understanding the American system is to imagine that you have the power to make nearly any law you want. But your worst enemy will be the one to enforce it. – Rick Cook
Dinesh D’Souza, vocal critic of Barack Obama and creator of the film 2016: Obama’s America, has just been given that lesson in spades.
D’Souza has been arrested and indicted for violation of campaign finance law. Specifically:
According to an indictment made public on Thursday in federal court in Manhattan, D’Souza around August 2012 reimbursed people who he had directed to contribute $20,000 to the candidate’s campaign.
The Justice Department in the form of the U.S. Attorney for Manhattan, Preet Bharara, proclaimed:
As we have long said, this Office and the FBI take a zero tolerance approach to corruption of the electoral process.
The mind simply boggles.
Nothing was done about voter intimidation in Philadelphia.
Nobody at Justice said “boo” when the Obama campaign accepted unverified credit card donations during his re-election run.
Not a peep out of the DoJ when Al Franken “won” his Senate race through voter fraud.
The list of “corruptions of the electoral process” are long and have been getting longer each year, but NOW the DoJ is ON THE JOB!
Like when the Bush DoJ prosecuted prominent lawyer Pierce O’Donnell for illegally contributing $26,000 to John Edwards’ presidential campaign the same way D’Souza is now accused. O’Donnell accepted a plea deal and got “60 days in prison, a year of supervised release, 500 hours of community service, plus a $20,000 fine.”
I’ve been reading Harvey Silverglate’s Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent, and one thing he points out early on is the power the DoJ has to coerce people into being witnesses:
Prosecutors are able to structure plea bargains in ways that make it nearly impossible for normal, rational, self-interested calculating people to risk going to trial. The pressure on innocent defendants to plead guilty and “cooperate” by testifying against others in exchange for a reduced sentence is enormous – so enormous that such cooperating witnesses often fail to tell the truth, saying instead what prosecutors want to hear. As Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz has colorfully put it, such cooperating defendant-witnesses “are taught not only to sing, but also to compose.”
Can’t wait to see who the prosecution will be dragging out as witnesses.
A recent Gallup poll indicates that “trust in government” is at an all-time low, with 57% of those polled indicating the trust the government “not very much” or “not at all” when handling domestic problems. But when queried on their faith in the Judicial Branch, 62% of those polled said they had a “great deal” to a “fair amount” of faith.
I think that’s about to change, too.
No matter what, the DoJ has bottomless pockets, and unless some high-powered law firm agrees to represent him pro bono, D’Souza doesn’t.
It’s called “Lawfare,” and when practiced by the government against its citizens, it is particularly vicious. I have very little doubt that this is what is going on in the prosecution of D’Souza. I don’t know if he’s guilty or not. I DO know that when the Left is profiting, not a word is said, not a soul is prosecuted. When it’s their ox being gored, SOMEONE MUST PAY! And, honestly, I do not doubt that the Obama administration through the Holder Justice Department is exercising “the Chicago Way” here. As Glenn Reynolds put it:
Is there anything this administration does that isn’t politically motivated?
In other words, I know who I trust, and it isn’t the .gov.
UPDATE: Read this. Had enough yet?
Quote of the Day from Erik Prince, ex-CEO of Blackwater:
“Look,” he says, grasping to end our talk on an optimistic note, “America can pull its head out at any time. That happens at the ballot box. Ballot boxes have consequences still in America.” He continues: “But the American electorate has to actually pay attention, has to turn off the Xbox long enough to pay attention. Otherwise they’re going to continue to elect the government they deserve.”
Nerdvana
Saw this at Facebook:
(click for full size)
WANT!!
Unfortunately, copyright infringement prohibits its commercial manufacture. Bummer.
Still like this one, though:
Your Moment of Zen
Time for another:
This is Why 18 U.S.C. § 922 Needs to be Amended
A couple of days ago in the little town of Orrville, Alabama, a man “waving a gun” walked into a Dollar General Store and forced a cashier and a customer into a break room. Oddly enough, the force field generated by the posting of this sign
did not prevent Kevin McLaughlin from walking through the doorway, gun in hand.
The customer, one Marlo Ellis, was – in accordance with the sign – carrying his firearm concealed. He turned, drew his weapon and shot McLaughlin once in the chest. McLaughlin was DRT.
Alabama law does not require a permit for open carry, but does for concealed. According to the story, the police are checking to ensure Ellis was properly permitted, though the DA stated that he didn’t believe any charges would be pressed, regardless. HOWEVER, Ellis is currently out of jail on bond, facing charges of “rape in the second degree and enticing a child for immoral purposes, stemming from a 2013 investigation involving a girl under the age of 16.” The DA stated in the story that Ellis was within his rights to have a CCW permit because he has not yet been convicted.
I don’t think so.
Question 11b on BATFE form 4473 (PDF) asks:
Are you under indictment or information in any court for a felony, or any other crime, for which the judge could imprison you for more than one year?
And the instructions for questions 11b through 11l state:
Generally, 18 U.S.C. § 922 prohibits the shipment, transportation, receipt, or possession in or affecting interstate commerce of a firearm by one who: has been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence; has been convicted of a felony, or any other crime, punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year (this does not include State misdemeanors punishable by imprisonment of two years or less); is a fugitive from justice; is an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, or narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance; has been adjudicated mentally defective or has been committed to a mental institution; has been discharged from the Armed Forces under dishonorable conditions; has renounced his or her U.S. citizenship; is an alien illegally in the United States or an alien admitted to the United States under a nonimmigrant visa; or is subject to certain restraining orders. Furthermore, section 922 prohibits the shipment, transportation, or receipt in or affecting interstate commerce of a firearm by one who is under indictment or information for a felony, or any other crime, punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.
Mr. Ellis is under indictment. He is may be a “prohibited person” and can might be charged with possessing and carrying a weapon illegally.
A weapon which he used to, quite possibly, save several lives, including his own.
The local DA might not charge him, but a Federal prosecutor certainly could, and I wouldn’t put it past them. The number of “crimes” that carry a possible sentence of “imprisonment for a term exceeding one year” is insane. Just being under indictment for one negates your right to arms. Crimes like “providing police with a false name” for instance. Or walking out of a restaurant on a $25.01 tab.
Mario Ellis might very well be a child-raping scumbag who should be thrown under the jail – but until he goes to trial he should either be sitting in a cell or he should have all the rights of any other citizen.
UPDATE: After carefully scrutinizing 18 U.S.C. § 922, I’m certain that it’s illegal for someone to SELL to a person known or believed to be under indictment, but I’m not so certain that it’s illegal for someone under indictment to possess. I think it’s a gray area that Prosecutors might play in. I have altered the post to reflect this.
Quote of the Day – Sultan Knish Edition
Daniel Greenfield, who blogs at Sultan Knish, is also a contributor at FrontPage Mag. His most recent column No Country for Liberal Republicans is chock-full of QotD material. Here’s my selection for today’s serving:
In the last two elections, the bloodthirsty neo-confederate party of hate served up a liberal Republican, currently championing Obama’s illegal alien amnesty, and a liberal Republican, currently being blamed by Obama supporters for inspiring ObamaCare. Its fantasy candidate for the upcoming election had spent the last election hugging Obama, and then signed off on tuition for illegal aliens and banned gay conversion therapy, and was, until a few weeks ago, being praised as the ultimate good Republican; only to be subjected to the same ritual media humiliations as McCain and Romney.
The same media that insisted that the murder of four Americans in Benghazi was not a scandal and that the murder of Brian Terry in Operation Fast and Furious was not a scandal is bleating that a little traffic is a scandal. Not a little traffic in assault rifles, as in Fast and Furious, but in the distance between cars.
By all means, do read the whole thing.
When Dealing with New Jersey Maryland, the Gun Owner Acts at His Peril
I have discussed this before, but in 1996 the New Jersey Superior Court declared a man a felon for possession of an “assault weapon” – a Marlin Model 60, tube-fed .22 rimfire rifle he had won as a prize in a “police combat match” in the late 1980’s. He took his prize, put it into his gun safe with the tags still dangling from the trigger guard, and apparently never took it out again….
Until 1993 when apparently someone dropped a dime on him after New Jersey passed its draconian “assault weapons” ban that made a .22 rifle with a 17-round magazine capacity a prohibited weapon. Mr. Pelleteri, a firearms instructor, fought the case all the way to the New Jersey Superior Court which found against him, stating this chilling phrase:
When dealing with guns, the citizen acts at his peril.
The GeekWithA.45 calls New Jersey a “dark and fascist state,” and I think with ample reason. (Begin Edit) But New Jersey apparently isn’t content to oppress its residents ain’t got a patch on Maryland. If you’re a visitor there, you’re at severe risk as well:
Gun owner unarmed, unwelcome in Maryland
John Filippidis, silver-haired family man, business owner, employer and taxpayer, is also licensed to carry a concealed firearm.
He’d rather he didn’t feel the need, “but things aren’t like they used to be. The break-ins, the burglaries, all the crime. And I carry cash a lot of the time. I’m constantly going to the bank.
“I wanted to be able to defend my family, my household and the ground I’m standing on. But I’m not looking for any trouble.”
Filippidis keeps his gun — a palm-sized Kel-Tec .38 semiautomatic (layers of editorial fact-checkers – Ed.), barely larger than a smartphone in a protective case — in one of two places, always: in the right-hand pocket of his jeans, or in the safe at home.
“There are kids in the house,” Filippidis says, “and I don’t think they’d ever bother with it, but I don’t want to take any chances.”
He’s not looking for any trouble, after all.
Trouble, in fact, was the last thing on his mind a few weeks back as the Filippidises packed for Christmas and a family wedding in Woodridge, N.J., so he left the pistol locked in the safe. The state of Florida might have codified his Second Amendment rights, but he knew he’d be passing through states where recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions affirming the rights of individuals to keep and bear arms have been met by hostile legislatures and local officials.
“I know the laws and I know the rules,” Filippidis says. There are, after all, ways gun owners can travel legally with firearms through hostile states. “But I just think it’s a better idea to leave it home.”
So there the Filippidises were on New Year’s Eve eve, southbound on Interstate 95 — John; wife Kally (his Gulf High sweetheart); the 17-year-old twins Nasia and Yianni; and 13-year-old Gina in their 2012 Ford Expedition — just barely out of the Fort McHenry Tunnel into Maryland, blissfully unarmed and minding their own business when they noticed they were being bird-dogged by an unmarked patrol car. It flanked them a while, then pulled ahead of them, then fell in behind them.
“Ten minutes he’s behind us,” John says. “We weren’t speeding. In fact, lots of other cars were whizzing past.”
“You know you have a police car behind you, you don’t speed, right?” Kally adds.
Says John, “We keep wondering, is he going to do something?”
Finally the patrol car’s emergency lights come on, and it’s almost a relief. Whatever was going on, they’d be able to get it over with now. The officer — from the Transportation Authority Police, as it turns out, Maryland’s version of the New York-New Jersey Port Authority — strolls up, does the license and registration bit, and returns to his car.
According to Kally and John (but not MTAP, which, pending investigation, could not comment), what happened next went like this:
Ten minutes later he’s back, and he wants John out of the Expedition. Retreating to the space between the SUV and the unmarked car, the officer orders John to hook his thumbs behind his back and spread his feet. “You own a gun,” the officer says. “Where is it?”
“At home in my safe,” John answers.
“Don’t move,” says the officer.
Read the whole thing. Check your blood pressure afterwards. I think a little B-positive spurted from my eyes.
“Dark and fascist” might be a little generous there, Geek, (but I bet you’re glad you didn’t relocate to Maryland).
(Screwed up the post – I plead fatigue. It’s been a rough week.)