Monthly Archives: November 2011
Yes, Virginia, guns DO save lives
I know, I have defended my life with a handgun. Duane Lester has the story of someone else who saved life because they were armed. As you read this, remember that Sarah Brady and the gun banning Left would make it so that stories like this one, turn out much differently!
Monday afternoon was another normal day of cooking burgers and fries and hot dogs and Philly cheesesteaks for Tim and Debbie Patterson.
Then, about 2 p.m., they heard a scream.
Tim rushed out the back door of The Big Yellow mobile kitchen at the corner of Harrison and Fourth. He looked around the Goodwill parking lot full of cars, and heard another scream. Then, he heard a woman’s voice.
“Let go of me,” it shrieked.
Patterson charged around a car and stopped. A man had a woman’s head pulled back with one hand, and a knife to her throat with the other.
Patterson didn’t hesitate.
He drew his Kimber 1911 .45 with a six-shot clip.
“Drop it, or I’ll shoot you,” he shouted.
The assailant, wearing a hoodie that covered his face, glanced up. He immediately let go of the woman, dropped the knife, raised his arms in the air and fled.
Patterson, who called 911, checked on the victim and stood by the knife until police arrived.
Duane closes with more thought provoking stats
It’s estimated that guns stop over 2.5 million crimes a year. Many of them, like this one, without every firing a shot.
Now, the the anti-gun brigade had their way, the man would have had to confront the knife wielding coward without the benefit of a superior weapon, putting his life in danger. He could have been stabbed the the woman, well, who knows what his intentions were with her.
To disarm the law-abiding is the ultimate dream of the Left. Remember that the most basic of human rights is the right to self-defense. That basic right is what the Left loathes, because self-defense in an act of the individual, and the Left thinks of individualism negatively. The Left worships Collectivism, and believes that individual liberty can be curtailed for the common, or collective good.
Evil Capitalists 1, Nanny Staters 0
H/T to The Lonely Conservative
The nannies in San Francisco thought it would be a good idea to ban toys in McDonald’s Happy Meals to force kids to eat healthier. Not only did the plan backfire, the kids whose parents used to just fork over a couple of bucks for the toy, and skipped the meal, now have to buy the meal to get the toy. SF Weekly explains:
It turns out San Francisco has not entirely vanquished the Happy Meal as we know it. Come Dec. 1, you can still buy the Happy Meal. But it doesn’t come with a toy. For that, you’ll have to pay an extra 10 cents.
Huh. That hardly seems to have solved the problem (though adults and children purchasing unhealthy food can at least take solace that the 10 cents is going to Ronald McDonald House charities). But it actually gets worse from here. Thanks to Supervisor Eric Mar’s much-ballyhooed new law, parents browbeaten into supplementing their preteens’ Happy Meal toy collections are now mandated to buy the Happy Meals.
Today and tomorrow mark the last days that put-upon parents can satiate their youngsters by simply throwing down $2.18 for a Happy Meal toy. But, thanks to the new law taking effect on Dec. 1, this is no longer permitted. Now, in order to have the privilege of making a 10-cent charitable donation in exchange for the toy, you must buy the Happy Meal. Hilariously, it appears Mar et al., in their desire to keep McDonald’s from selling grease and fat to kids with the lure of a toy have now actually incentivized the purchase of that grease and fat — when, beforehand, a put-upon parent could get out cheaper and healthier with just the damn toy. (Read More)
I love it! AGAIN, Nanny Staters are exposed as nothing but meddling morons who are so intent on running our lives that the cannot even think straight.
Kidnapper Sues His Hostages For $235,000 To Cover Emotional Stress And Hospital Bills After He Was Shot By Police
A man who held a Kansas couple hostage in their home while fleeing from authorities is suing them, claiming they broke an oral contract made when he promised them money in exchange for hiding him from police.
The couple has asked a judge to dismiss the suit.
Jesse Dimmick, of suburban Denver, is serving an 11-year sentence after bursting into Jared and Lindsay Rowley’s Topeka-area home in September 2009.
He was wanted for questioning in the beating death of a Colorado man and a chase had begun in Geary County, the Associated Press reports.
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Dimmick contends he told the couple he was being chased by someone, most likely the police, who wanted to kill him.
In his hand-written court documents, Dimmick said: ‘I, the defendant, asked the Rowleys to hide me because I feared for my life. I offered the Rowleys an unspecified amount of money which they agreed upon, therefore forging a legally binding oral contract.’
He wants $235,000 in total, including $160,000 for his hospital bills after he was shot in the back by police and an additional $75,000 for emotional stress.
Neighbours have said the couple fed Dimmick snacks and watched movies with him until he fell asleep and they were able to escape their home unharmed.
Dimmick was convicted in May 2010 of four felonies, including two counts of kidnapping.
He was sentenced to 10 years and 11 months on those charges.
He was later sent to a jail in Brighton, Colorado, where he is being held on eight charges, including murder, in connection with the killing of Michael Curtis in September 2009.
A preliminary hearing originally scheduled for December 6 has been rescheduled for April 12.
No plea has been entered in the case.
Robert E. Keeshan, an attorney for the Rowleys, filed a motion denying there was a contract, but said if there was it would not have been binding anyway.
‘In order for parties to form a binding contract, there must be a meeting of the minds on all essential terms, including and most specifically, an agreement on the price,’ he wrote.
Mr Keeshan said the contract also would have been invalid because the couple agreed to let Dimmick in the home only because they knew he had a knife and suspected he might have a gun.
Hundreds Of Solar Companies Expected To Go Bankrupt
Hundreds Of Solar Companies Expected To Go Bankrupt – Sweetness & Light
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From CNN’s Money.Com:
Solar power bankruptcies loom as prices collapse
By Steve Hargreaves
November 30, 2011NEW YORK (CNNMoney) – The once high-flying solar power sector is headed for tough times, as a combination of slack demand and massive oversupply is leading to plummeting prices and profits for solar panel makers…
The only time solar power was high flying was when it was being held up by massive government subsidies and sweetheart deals.
The past year was already grim. The Guggenheim Solar (TAN) exchange-traded fund is down 60% since January and sits even lower than it did following the crash in 2008.
Two high profile companies have gone bankrupt in the United States – government-backed Solyndra and Evergreen – and analysts anticipate more failures ahead.
“Solyndra was just the beginning,” said Jessie Pichel, head of clean energy research at the investment bank Jefferies & Co. “We’re going to see a lot of companies go bankrupt.”
Just how many? Of the few hundred or so solar panel makers worldwide, just 20 to 40 are expected to remain standing in a few years time, said Mark Bachman, a renewables analyst at Avian Securities…
[T]he next couple of years will be wrenching for companies and investors in the solar power space as the weaker players go bust or get bought by larger rivals…
Or the government.
In some ways, the bust was inevitable. For much of the last decade solar power worldwide saw annual growth rates in the double or even triple digits…
Both of these things led to a massive amount of available capital. Factories were built and production capacity mushroomed.
But just as all these new solar panels were making their way to market, the debit crisis hit in Europe. The generous subsidies offered to solar power by European governments and utilities were cut. Demand for solar panels fell.
Malarkey. If the solar industry had been funded by private capital and not governments, this would not have happened.
The simple truth is that solar power never attracted enough real capital. Just taxpayers’ money.
Plus, solar project developers were having a hard time getting credit to build new power plants, further cutting into demand. Prices for solar panels began falling rapidly.
A year ago solar panels were selling for $1.50 to $2 per watt, said Ramesh Misra, a senior analyst at Brigantine Advisors, a research outfit. Now they sell for half that, and the decline hasn’t stopped…
Lack of production caused the prices to fall rapidly? This article is all over the place trying to find excuses. And none of them make much sense.
Solar power is failing because it is not all that it was cracked up to be.
What has to happen to turn things around?
Better access to credit, a more stable subsidy policy and fewer solar panels on the market, analysts say. Fewer panels means fewer solar panel makers.
In other words the only thing that will save solar power is more subsidies and more bankruptcies.
Which just shows what a tangled web you weave, once you practice to deceive. And deception is what these ‘green’ industries are all about.
Thanks Barack… Need For Brazil Debt Kills U.S. Defense Company
Need For Brazil Debt Kills U.S. Defense Company – Townhall
How dependent has the United States government under President Barack Obama become upon borrowing money from foreign sources to support its spending?
Would you believe the answer is: “enough to exclude a long-time U.S. manufacturer from consideration for a defense contract in favor of a foreign-based manufacturer, despite the U.S. manufacturer having invested considerable time and profits earned from their other products to develop a product that specifically satisfies the government’s needs?”
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AINonline’s Chris Pocock reports:
The U.S. Air Force has apparently chosen the Embraer Super Tucano to meet the Light Air Support (LAS) requirement. Hawker Beechcraft’s AT-6 was the other contender. No official announcement has yet been made, but Hawker Beechcraft said it received a letter from the USAF that excluded the AT-6 from the hotly contested competition. The company is protesting the decision to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The LAS competition was designed to produce an alternative to jet combat aircraft for counter-insurgency operations. The Air Force planned to buy 15 aircraft for a training school at Eglin AFB, Fla., but had not confirmed plans to equip any of its own squadrons.
However, the U.S. was expected to supply or sell LAS aircraft to various countries, starting with 20 for Afghanistan. It was this potential that led Hawker Beechcraft and partners to spend “more than $100 million to meet the Air Force’s specific requirements,” the company said.
Last month, Hawker Beechcraft completed weapons drop tests with the AT-6, a modification of the successful T-6 primary trainer on which all U.S. military pilots graduate.
Meanwhile, Embraer teamed with Sierra Nevada Corp to offer the EMB-314 Super Tucano, and said it would assemble the aircraft in a new facility at Jacksonville, Fla.
Manufacturing.net carries the Associated Press’ article, which describes the size of the contract, as well as the Hawker Beechcraft’s investment in its AT-6 program (emphasis ours):
The Air Force has notified Hawker Beechcraft Corp. that its Beechcraft AT-6 has been excluded from competition to build a light attack aircraft, a contract worth nearly $1 billion, the company said.
The company had hoped to its AT-6, an armed version of its T-6 trainer, would be chosen for the Light AirSupport Counter Insurgency aircraft for the Afghanistan National Army Corps. The chosen aircraft also would be used as a light attack armed reconnaissance aircraft for the U.S. Air Force.
The piston planes are designed for counterinsurgency, close air support, armed overwatch and homeland security, The Wichita Eagle reported (http://bit.ly/ud7FDMhttp://bit.ly/ud7FDM).
Hawker Beechcraft officials said in a news release that they were “confounded and troubled” by the Air Force’s decision. The company said it is asking the Air Force for an explanation and will explore all options.
Hawker Beechcraft said it had been working with the Air Force for two years and had invested more than $100 million to meet the Air Force’s requirements for the plane. It noted that the Beechcraft AT-6 had been found capable of meeting the requirements in a demonstration program led by the Air National Guard.
It’s all the more remarkable because the U.S. company has been laying off its workers given the current economic climate.
By contrast, Hawker Beechcraft’s competition for the defense contract, Brazil’s Embraer, is under investigation by the SEC into possible corrupt practices. The Wall Street Journal’s Paulo Winterstein reports:
Brazil’s Embraer SA, the world’s No. 4 aircraft maker, said Friday that an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission into possible corrupt practices shouldn’t hurt the company’s chances of selling planes to the U.S. military.
The company said Thursday that it was subpoenaed by the SEC, but Chief Executive Frederico Curado said Friday the investigation in itself shouldn’t affect its ongoing bid to sell Super Tucano aircraft to the U.S. Air Force. Mr. Curado said he expects the government to announce a decision within “weeks” on a contract reportedly valued at $1.5 billion.
“This is a new process for us but as far as we understand it, the investigation won’t have an impact,” he said in a conference call with journalists. “Restrictions in dealings with the U.S. government would come only after a conviction.”
Embraer said that the SEC and U.S. Justice Department are investigating possible breaches of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits company officials from making payments to government officers to get or keep business. The company declined to give details beyond saying that the investigation is related to Embraer business dealings in three countries.
So how does the United States’ federal government’s need to borrow large amounts of money from foreign sources perhaps come into play in stacking the deck against of a mid-size U.S. manufacturer against the fourth-largest maker of aircraft in the world for a U.S. defense contract?
As the fifth largest major foreign holder of U.S. debt, one whose share of that debt has been growing consistently for several years, the Obama administration may well have made a strategic decision to favor Brazil’s Embraer company as a reward for Brazil’s growing ranking among all foreign holders of U.S. government-issued debt.
With a good portion of Embraer’s Super Tucano aircraft being manufactured outside the United States, the move will increase the U.S.’ trade deficit in goods and services with Brazil, which in turn, will be balanced by the U.S. government’s “export” of U.S. Treasury securities to Brazil.
The move is strategic because developing Brazil as a major holder of U.S. government-issued debt would offset China’s outsize influence over the United States given its status as the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury securities. Since China has previously flexed its muscles with respect to its interests through the markets for U.S. Treasuries, the Obama administration is likely seeking to reduce its potential influence.
That influence is substantial. Through the end of September 2011, the U.S. Treasury reports that China holds $1.15 trillion in U.S. government-issued securities directly, and another $109 billion indirectly through Hong Kong. Meanwhile, a very large portion of the United Kingdom’s reported U.S. government debt holdings of $421.6 billion are actually controlled by Chinese interests. The figure currently recorded for the U.K. is largely a consequence of the nation’s position as a major international banking center, which will be revised in several months time to reflect actual holdings by nation.
The bottom line is that if a comparatively small U.S. manufacturer of airplanes with a major investment in its future to develop an aircraft that can do what the U.S. government wants and can demonstrate that’s the case needs to be pushed aside in favor of a foreign manufacturer with considerable ethical issues regarding its business practices, and if doing so will help it borrow more money to spend, then that’s what the Obama administration will do.
Man Collapses In Shock After The Prostitute He Hired Turns Out To Be His Daughter
Man Collapses In Shock After The Prostitute He Hired Turns Out To Be His Daughter – Daily Mail
A married man who ordered a prostitute to a hotel room collapsed in shock after he answered the door to his own daughter.
Titus Ncube from Bulawayo’s Nkulumane 5 suburb in Zimbabwe, said he was so shocked at seeing his daughter that he fell to the ground.
The 20-year-old woman, who has not been named, was so upset she fled the hotel in tears.
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Mr Ncube told the Zimbabwe News he was having marital problems and decided to take some comfort elsewhere so rented a hotel room – and hired the prostitute.
The father-of-three told Zimbabwe News: ‘I am sorry for what I did. I spoke to my wife and my daughter.
‘I apologised for my actions because I just wanted my family back.
‘My daughter has now stopped doing what she was doing and is going back to school next year.
‘My marital problems are not over, but we have a marriage counsellor who is helping us to get over this most difficult period in our marriage.’
But his wife Rosemary added: ‘If it were not for my children, I could have divorced him a long time ago.
‘But because I know the trauma that divorce has on children, I made a decision to stay.’
Muslims Slaughter At Least 45 Christians In Plateau State, Nigeria
At Least 45 Christians Killed In Plateau State, Nigeria – Compass Direct News
Fulani Muslim herdsmen along with Muslim soldiers have killed at least 45 ethnic Berom Christians in Plateau state in the past week, Christians in this northern-central Nigerian town said.
Smaller attacks beginning on Nov. 20, reportedly over allegations by Fulani Muslims of cattle theft, preceded an attack on a Barkin Ladi church on Nov. 23 that killed four Christians, and an assault the next day left 35 Christians dead in Barkin Ladi and nearby Kwok village, according to area Christian leaders.
Church attendance was decimated yesterday as thousands of Christians have left the area.
“Christians are fleeing the town because we have no guns to fight back,” said one woman in a group of six Christians trying to leave Barkin Ladi. “Muslims have guns, and they have their soldiers fighting for them, so we have no choice but to leave town.”
Almost all churches in the town cancelled or held reduced worship services on the first Sunday (Nov. 27) after the crisis was contained, as nearly all area Christians have fled to Jos or have left Plateau state, long hit by ethnic property conflicts fueled by anti-Christian sentiment. In March 2010 ethnic Berom Christians, who live as farmers, suffered attacks from Fulani nomads who graze their cattle on the Beroms’ land, resulting in hundreds of deaths in three villages near Jos.
In the attack on Thursday (Nov. 24), the Fulani Muslims were shouting “Allahu Akbar [God is greater],” said farmer Choji Pamjamo, 51.
“On Thursday at about 9 a.m., the Muslims’ call to prayer was made at the Izala [Islamic sect] mosque,” Pamjamo said. “And shortly after that, we saw hundreds of armed Muslims invading the town from all directions, attacking and killing Christians. They were shouting ‘Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar,’ as they were burning properties belonging to Christians.”
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Pamjamo confirmed Christian leaders’ account of an attack on a Church of Christ of Nigeria (COCIN) congregation in the Sabon Layi (Rantya) area of Barkin Ladi the previous night (Nov. 23), saying that among the four Christians killed was Bible teacher Yakubu Pam.
David Gyang, 51, an elder at the COCIN Barkin Ladi church, said Muslims set off a religious crisis by attacking Christians at the church site on Wednesday night (Nov. 23) and then launching a major offensive the next morning.
“Some of the Christian victims in this attack that I know include a Christian police officer, one Mr. Bulus, who is the station officer of the Barkin Ladi police station,” Gyang said. “He was inside his house on that day, and these Muslims broke the walls of his room and went inside to kill him and his son. A second Christian victim is Solomon Pam. He was attacked and had his hand broken.”
Gyang lamented that Muslim soldiers brought to town to restore order joined their fellow Muslims in killing and maiming Christians.
“Muslims soldiers took sides with their fellow Muslims and were shooting and killing Christians,” he said. “They also had soldiers guarding mosques in the town, but none was sent to watch over our churches, and that is the reason Muslims were able to burn the Baptist church in the town.”
The COCIN church in Barkin Ladi had an average Sunday service attendance of about 1,200 people, but yesterday only 50 showed up, he said.
“We could not go on with the worship but held a prayer meeting, and then our pastor left to Kwok village for the burial of the 26 killed there,” he said.
Sources told Compass that along with the 26 Christians killed in Kwok village, nine others were killed in the attack on Barkin Ladi on Thursday (Nov. 24). Compass found that the area attacks on Christians began Nov. 20, the day of the alleged cattle theft, with the killing of three Christians outside Barkin Ladi, and then two Christians in the town were killed on Nov. 21.
The next day, a Christian was beheaded behind a popular hotel in Barkin Ladi known as the White House, sources said. The attack on the COCIN church ensued the following evening.
Bitrus Davou and John David, two young Christian men who live near the church building, said they narrowly escaped death.
“Bullets fired at me by a Muslim soldier missed me and killed my dog,” said Davou, 21.
David, also 21, said he and five friends were sitting in front of their house when a Muslim soldier appeared and began shooting at them.
“My friends ran inside the house, but I could not follow suit immediately as there was no route for me to run – so I jumped into an unfinished building beside my house,” David said, pointing toward the bullet holes in the wall where he had taken refuge. “While there, the soldier spotted me and began shooting at me. It is a miracle that I escaped unhurt.”
The Rev. Daniel Moses, pastor of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), said the violence was started by town Muslims who obtained massive support from Muslims from other parts of Barkin Ladi Local Government Area. Thousands of Christians have been displaced, he said.
“As of this morning [Sunday, Nov. 27) corpses of Christians killed are still being recovered, but we can confirm that 37 corpses have been recovered already, and even as I talk to you the burial of some of them is going on in the surrounding Christian villages,” Moses said.
Emmanuel Kyesmen, secretary of ECWA congregation, said the government has been slow to address security concerns.
“Alhaji Kasimu, one of leaders of the Muslim community in Barkin Ladi, is responsible for arming Muslims to attack Christians – we all know this, and the attention of security agencies have been called to his activities, but no one seems to take the necessary steps to check him,” Kyesmen said. “It appears the man is above the law.”
The Barkin Ladi ECWA church, whose regular worship service usually attracts about 270 people, was a ghost of itself on Sunday, with only 42 members able to muster the courage to show up. The service lasted no more than 15 minutes, as they only prayed and left.
Kyesmen told Compass that 11 members of the church had their houses set ablaze by Muslims.
“As a church, we have become targets of attacks,” Kyesmen said. “Our pastors and members are being killed in Plateau state by Muslims, while thousands of others have become refugees in their fatherland. There is the urgent need for the Nigerian government to find a lasting solution to this problem.”
Religious conflict has been growing in Plateau state since 2006, he said, with numerous investigating committees instituted to investigate and report on the immediate and deeper causes, he said.
“But the surprising thing is that none of these reports has been implemented, and no individual has been made to face the wrath of the law,” Kyesmen said. “The government must have the courage to ensure that those causing these problems are prosecuted.”
Among the church buildings found locked on Sunday morning were St. Joseph’s Catholic Parish, St. Mark’s Anglican Church, ECWA Good News Church, COCIN Church Sabon Layi, Living Faith Church, and a host of other Pentecostal and charismatic churches. The few churches that opened for prayer, which lasted no longer than 15 minutes, included the ECWA church, the COCIN church, and the All Denomination Church at the police barracks.
David Alamba, 48, a technician whom Compass met near the town’s police station along with five Christian women who were trying to leave Barkin Ladi, said many churches in town have been closed as most Christians have fled.
“Most Christians who live in Muslim quarters like Sabon Layi, Angwan Hausawa, Angwan Kwano, Angwan Izala, and Angwan Katako areas have to get soldiers to accompany them before they get their few belongings to leave the town,” he said. “You have to pay the soldiers at least 2,000 naira (US$12) before they escort you to your house to get a few belongings before you move out of the town.”
Alamba said Muslims have been moving into the farms belonging to Christians and are destroying crops.
“This is to chase us out of the town and make us homeless, and at the same time starve us to death, since we now have no food to eat,” he said.
Predominantly Christian areas affected by the attacks included Rantya Gwol, Anguwar Tasha, Gangare, and Hayin Asibiti, sources said.
Several people fleeing the town as Compass arrived asked, “When will the killings of Christians in Nigeria stop?”
Daily Benefactor News – Most Corrupt Administration In History Abruptly Seals Court Records Of Agent Brian Terry’s Murder
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On December 14, 2010 in Peck Canyon, northwest of Nogales, Arizona, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was shot dead by a group of illegal border entrants who refused commands to drop their weapons after they were confronted by U.S. agents. The illegals murdered Terry with a gun connected to a failed federal experiment that allowed firearms to be smuggled into Mexico. The family of slain border agent Brian Terry blamed Eric Holder for their son’s death in a recent interview.
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Now the Obama Administration has sealed the court records on Agent Terry’s murder.
Judicial Watch reported:
The Obama Administration has abruptly sealed court records containing alarming details of how Mexican drug smugglers murdered a U.S. Border patrol agent with a gun connected to a failed federal experiment that allowed firearms to be smuggled into Mexico.
This means information will now be kept from the public as well as the media. Could this be a cover-up on the part of the “most transparent” administration in history? After all, the rifle used to kill the federal agent (Brian Terry) last December in Arizona’s Peck Canyon was part of the now infamous Operation Fast and Furious. Conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the disastrous scheme allowed guns to be smuggled into Mexico so they could eventually be traced to drug cartels.
Instead, federal law enforcement officers lost track of more than 1,000 guns which have been used in numerous crimes. In Terry’s case, five illegal immigrants armed with at least two semi-automatic assault rifles were hunting for U.S. Border Patrol agents near a desert watering hole just north of the Arizona-Mexico border when a firefight erupted and Terry got hit.
We know this only because Washington D.C.’s conservative newspaper got ahold of the court documents before the government suddenly made them off limits. The now-sealed federal grand jury indictment tells the frightening story of how Terry was gunned down by Mexican drug smugglers patrolling the rugged desert with the intent to “intentionally and forcibly assault” Border Patrol agents.
You can see why the administration wants to keep this information from the public and the media, considering the smugglers were essentially armed by the U.S. government. Truth is, no one will know the reason for the confiscation of public court records in this case because the judge’s decision to seal it was also sealed, according to the news story. That means the public or media won’t have access to any new or old evidence, filings, rulings or arguments.
Obama’s failed Fast and Furious program is also linked to 200 murders in Mexico.
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Sheriff Joe endorses Perry, cites border enforcement ercord
A nice pick up. Via Gateway Pundit
Texas Governor Rick Perry won the endorsement today of Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The tough Arizona sheriff said no candidate had done more to secure the border than Governor Rick Perry.
The Hill reported:Rick Perry announced Tuesday that he had earned the endorsement of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the controversial but influential Arizona lawman known for his tough stance on illegal immigration.
“The federal government has failed on border crime and border enforcement, and no candidate for president has done more to secure the border than Gov. Rick Perry. I have been watching Gov. Perry and Texas closely and know his border surge operations with state, local and federal law enforcement officials have helped shut down the illegal trafficking of weapons, drugs and people,” said Arpaio in a statement.
Steyn rips Newt!
Congrats to Jill, at Pundit and Pundette who Steyn referenced in his remarks on Rush’s show
Hats off to Bob Belvedere
Rack up another member of the 1,000,000 hit club. Congrats Bob, Ed and I are right behind you!
President Asshat Has Cut Spending On Border Fencing, Infrastructure And Technology By Half, Leaving 1,300 Miles Of Mexico Border Unfenced
The Obama administration has slashed spending on border fencing, infrastructure and technology, cutting it by more than half since it peaked under President George W. Bush in fiscal 2008, according to a Government Accountability Office report.
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In 2008, according to GAO, the federal government spent more than $1.3 billion on border security fencing, infrastructure and technology. In 2011, it spend $573 million.
Meanwhile, Customs and Border Protection has said that as of June it had fenced only 649 miles of the nearly 1,954-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border – leaving more than 1,300 miles of that border unfenced.
The November 2011 GAO report refers to this category of federal spending by the acronym BSFIT.
“Over $4.7 billion has been appropriated for BSFIT activities from fiscal years 2007 through 2011,” it says.
The report breaks the figure down for the five consecutive fiscal years (the 12-month period from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30 of the following year) – $1.188 billion for FY2007, $1.303 billion for FY2008, $845 million for FY2009, $800 million for FY2010 and $573 million for FY2011.
Over that period, the annual appropriations for border security therefore peaked in FY2008 under President Bush and declined to its lowest level in FY2011 under President Obama.
“An across-the-board cut to DHS appropriations of 0.2 percent reduced the BSFIT appropriation to $573 million [in fiscal 2011],” notes the GAO. The report added that some of the annual appropriations covered in the report do not expire at the end of the fiscal year for which they were allotted.
The report also stated that last January, “after 5 years and a cost of nearly $1 billion,” the DHS ended the Secure Border Initiative Network (SBInet) – also known as the virtual fence – “because it did not meet cost-effectiveness and viability standards.”
“DHS is developing a successor plan to secure the Southwest border called the Alternative (Southwest) Border Technology plan,” the report adds. “The plan’s first phase is the Arizona Border Surveillance Technology Plan, which also includes a mix of radars, sensors, and cameras.” It is expected to cost about $1.5 billion over 10 years.
Explaining how the appropriations have been directed, the report said that in November 2005 the DHS initiated the Secure Border Initiative (SBI), described as “a multiyear, multibillion-dollar effort aimed at securing U.S. borders and reducing illegal immigration.”
Under the SBI, the DHS’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) implemented the following programs:
-SBI Network (SBI): radars, sensors, and cameras along 53 miles of Arizona’s 376-mile border with Mexico;
-Northern Border Program: cameras, radars, and operations centers along the border with Canada;
-Tactical Communications Modernization: an upgrade to the CBP communications systems; and
-Tactical Infrastructure – fences, roads, and lighting along the southwest border.
According to the CBP, as of the end of June 2011 it had completed 649 miles of pedestrian and vehicle fencing along the approximately 2,000 mile-long Southwest border.
“A total of 350 miles of primary pedestrian fence has been constructed, while the final total of vehicle fence (the project was officially completed on January 8, 2010) was 299 miles,” it says.
A “primary pedestrian fence” is aimed at preventing the illegal passage of people while a “vehicle fence” is focused on stopping the unauthorized passage of vehicles.
“Their placement depends on the threat at the location and the operational needs of law enforcement,” CBP says.
CBP is responsible for securing a total of 8,607 miles of the U.S. border, including about 2,000 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border, approximately 4,000 miles of the U.S.-Canada border, plus sectors of coastline in the Gulf of Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
As of the end of fiscal 2010, the U.S. government had established “effective control” over 1,107 miles of the 8,607 miles it is responsible for securing – 69 miles along the northern border, 873 on the U.S.-Mexico border and 165 miles in coastal sectors.
Less than half of the southwest border and less than two percent of the northern border are therefore under “effective control.” The term applies to those areas where the U.S. government can “reasonably” be expected to intercept illegal cross-border activity.
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Dave C
