"He's making a list, and checking it twice."

You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town

He's making a list,
And checking it twice;
Gonna find out Who's naughty and nice.
Santa Claus is coming to town

He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!

O! You better watch out!
You better not cry.
Better not pout, I'm telling you why.
Santa Claus is coming to town.
Santa Claus is coming to town.


There are lists, and then, there are lists.

Some you want to be on. Some you don't.

Some you deserve to be on. Some you don't.

And some you get on and you later regret it.

Welcome to JournoList. If you ever wondered why the media sounds like a collectivist echo chamber, that's because it is. Read the article, and I'll have a comment at the end.

JournoList: Inside the echo chamber

MICHAEL CALDERONE
3/17/09 3:59 AM EDT Updated: 3/17/09 11:55 AM EDT

For the past two years, several hundred left-leaning bloggers, political reporters, magazine writers, policy wonks and academics have talked stories and compared notes in an off-the-record online meeting space called JournoList.

Proof of a vast liberal media conspiracy?

Not at all, says Ezra Klein, the 24-year-old American Prospect blogging wunderkind who formed JournoList in February 2007. “Basically,” he says, “it’s just a list where journalists and policy wonks can discuss issues freely.”

But some of the journalists who participate in the online discussion say — off the record, of course — that it has been a great help in their work. On the record, The New Yorker’s Jeffrey Toobin acknowledged that a Talk of the Town piece — he won’t say which one — got its start in part via a conversation on JournoList. And JLister Eric Alterman, The Nation writer and CUNY professor, said he’s seen discussions that start on the list seep into the world beyond.

“I’m very lazy about writing when I’m not getting paid,” Alterman said. “So if I take the trouble to write something in any detail on the list, I tend to cannibalize it. It doesn’t surprise me when I see things on the list on people’s blogs.”

Last April, criticism of ABC’s handling of a Democratic presidential debate took shape on JList before morphing into an open letter to the network, signed by more than 40 journalists and academics — many of whom are JList members.

But beyond these specific examples, it’s hard to trace JList’s influence in the media, because so few JListers are willing to talk on the record about it.

POLITICO contacted nearly three dozen current JList members for this story. The majority either declined to comment or didn’t respond to interview requests — and then returned to JList to post items on why they wouldn’t be talking to POLITICO about what goes on there.

In an e-mail, Klein said he understands that the JList’s off-the-record rule “makes it seems secretive.” But he insisted that JList discussions have to be off the record in order to “ensure that folks feel safe giving off-the-cuff analysis and instant reactions.”

One byproduct of that secrecy: For all its high-profile membership — which includes Nobel Prize-winning columnist Paul Krugman; staffers from Newsweek, POLITICO, Huffington Post, The New Republic, The Nation and The New Yorker; policy wonks, academics and bloggers such as Klein and Matthew Yglesias — JList itself has received almost no attention from the media.

A LexisNexis search for JournoList reveals exactly nothing. Slate’s Mickey Kaus, a nonmember, may be the only professional writer to have referred to it “in print” more than once — albeit dismissively, as the “Klein Klub.”

While members may talk freely about JList at, say, a Columbia Heights house party, there’s a “Fight Club”-style code of silence when it comes to discussing it for publication.

But a handful of JList members agreed to talk for this story — if only to push back against the perception that the group is some sort of secret, left-wing cabal.

Several members volunteered that JList is unlike listservs such as Townhouse, the private, activist-oriented group formed by liberal blogger Matt Stoller.

“No one’s pushing an agenda,” said Toobin.

Toobin joined JList about a year ago, and he said that he had to get a new e-mail address just for JList in order to keep up with the sheer volume of commentary that appears there every day. The frequent disputes among members, he said, are “what’s most entertaining on the list.”

John Judis, a senior editor at The New Republic, described JList in an e-mail as “a virtual coffeehouse” where participants get a chance to talk and argue.

“There is probably general agreement on the stupidity of today’s GOP,” he said. “But beyond that, I would say there is wide disagreement on trade, Israel, how exactly we got into this recession/depression and how to get out of it, the brilliance of various punk bands that I have never heard of, and on whether, at any given moment, the Obama administration is doing the right thing.”

But aren’t there enough forums for arguing about domestic and foreign policy — or even for partaking in the more idiosyncratic JList debates about the merits of Bruce Springsteen and whether The New Republic is liberal enough? And do those debates really have to happen behind a veil of secrecy?

“It’s sort of a chance to float ideas and kind of toss them around, back and forth, and determine if they have any value,” said New Republic associate editor Eve Fairbanks, “and get people’s input on them before you put them on a blog.”

Indeed, the advantage of JList, members say, is that it provides a unique forum for getting in touch with historians and policy people who provide journalists with a knowledge base for articles and blog posts.

Yglesias, who writes an eponymous blog hosted by the Center for American Progress, noted that “the combined membership has tentacles of knowledge that reach everywhere,” adding that “you can toss out a question about Japan or whatever and get some different points of view.”

Alterman said it’s important that there are “people with genuine expertise” on the list.

“For me, it’s enormously useful because I don’t like to spend my time reading blogs and reading up-to-the-minute political minutia,” he said. “This list allows me to make sure I’m not missing anything important.”

POLITICO’s Mike Allen, Ben Smith and Lisa Lerer are on the list. “The roster includes some of the savviest authorities on everything from behavioral economics to Ben’s Chili Bowl,” Allen said. “It’s a window into a world of passionate experts — an hourly graduate education.”

Said another JLister: “I don’t know any other place where working journalists, policy wonks and academics who write about current politics and political history routinely communicate with one another.”

But what if all the private exchanges got leaked?

That’s been the subject of some JList conversation, too, as members discuss the Weekly Standard’s publication of a 2006 e-mail posted to the private China Security Listserv by diplomat Charles Freeman, who last week withdrew his name from consideration for a top intelligence job.

Michael Goldfarb, a former McCain staffer and conservative blogger who published the e-mail, was not part of the China list and therefore hadn’t agreed to any off-the-record rules.

Asked about the existence of conservative listservs, Goldfarb said they’re much less prevalent.

“There is nothing comparable on the right. E-mail conversations among bloggers, journalists and experts on our side tend to be ad hoc,” Goldfarb said. “The JournoList thing always struck me as a little creepy.”

Kaus, too, has seemed put off by the whole idea, once talking on BloggingHeads about how the list “seems contrary to the spirit of the Web.”

“You don’t want to create a whole separate, like, private blog that only the elite bloggers can go into, and then what you present to the public is sort of the propaganda you’ve decided to go public with,” Kaus argued.

But Time’s Joe Klein, who acknowledged being on JList and several other listservs, said in an e-mail that “they’re valuable in the way that candid conversations with colleagues and experts always are.” Defending the off-the-record rule, Klein said that “candor is essential and can only be guaranteed by keeping these conversations private.”

And then Klein — speaking like the JLister he is — said there wasn’t “anything more that I can or want to say about the subject.”

Now, IF we ever do have a Restoration War in this country, sparked by the intellectual urgings of the pukes on JournoList, and

IF someone decides that Bill Clinton's Serbian Rules of Engagement have some utility in winning that war,

THEN, the best this leftist cabal can hope for is that the forensic IT professionals working for the Restored Republic of the united States of America use this list as the basis for indictments in the war crimes trials to follow. At worst, some time after the outbreak of hostilities, they get to meet this guy:

Some good news: "BATFE slapped yesterday"

Homer Hickam and "The Rocket Boys."

Also from Len, by way of a friend, comes this article about model rocketry from Planet News, "APCP not an explosive, rules Judge Reggie B. Walton."

BATFE slapped yesterday

Len,

You need to read this.......Some of your most favorite terms are used.......

"because the decision was arbitrary and capricious,"

"an abuse of discretion,"

"or otherwise not in accordance with the law"

"The Court further found that the agency 'ha[d] never articulated the standards that guided its analysis' that would permit a court sitting in review to 'determine whether [the defendant's] judgment reflect[ed] reasoned decision making.'"


http://www.rocketryplanet.com/content/view/2788/30/

ENJOY.........

"Even the LA Times gets it."

Len Savage forwaded this to me with that comment, and one other:

"Where is Eric Holder's condemnation?"

"A Pandemic of Fear," Chaos, Confusion, and Civil War

Picasso's Guernica

"He who laughs has not yet been told the terrible news." -- Bertolt Brecht.

"Brecht was an optimist." -- A friend of mine, yesterday.

Below are two opinion pieces that reflect a conversation I had yesterday about Obama, where we are as a country and who Saint Barry truly serves. Was he merely blundering or was this really part of somebody's plan?

I pointed out that The Lightworker's policies and actions could hardly be worse for the country if he had planned it that way. These are not the actions of someone who wants a second term. The passions he is playing with here can easily explode. Remember that revolutions happen not when a population is downtrodden and oppressed, but rather when rising expectations are disapppointed. No one has raised expectations more than Obama. Unfortunately, the folks whose expectations have been irrationally and cruelly raised -- "Barack's going to make my house payment!" -- are precisely the folks whose disappointment can most easily be turned violent.

I have been trying to get my daughters to understand how fragile the rule of law really is. To this end, I have been letting them see youtube images of the LA riots of 1992. For example,

here,

here,

here,

here,

here,

here,

here,

here,

here,

and here,

The strength of the social contract in this country has only deteriorated since 1992. The criminal gangs and the "gangsta" culture have grown like Topsy in the past two decades. The lumpenproletariat of our cities is more violent and far better armed than in 1992. And Katrina demonstrated that in a real emergency, half of the LEO "Only Ones" will head to the hills with Momma and the other half will either be looting themselves or divesting honest citizens of the means of self-defense.

Yet Obama is laying the groundwork for a systemic failure of the rule of law. We Three Percenters are going to discover that, for us anyway, we are ALL Korean grocers.

We are left with the old crime-solving detective's question, "Qui bono?" "Who benefits?"

In the end, I think, historians will be astounded at how fast the United States of America collapsed. We should not be. The collectivist termites have been at the foundations of our Republic for most of a century now. The wonder is not that it will collapse. The wonder is that it has stood this long.

Yet, how to account for Obama? Everything he has done has served to discredit him, even with his own base. Anger builds everywhere over just about everything. Take the AIG bonuses. The Obamanoids knew about them before they even took office. They had to have known how intensely angering they would be. Yet they did nothing to stop them.

Take as well Obama's refusal to produce his birth certificate. I have not weighed in on this before, but even a self-obsessed narcissist could not fail to understand how such a refusal to prove his citizenship must strike at the heart of his legitimacy. Even a clever forgery would be better than a refusal. Yet refusal, and corrosive doubt, is what he has given us.

The removal of the United States from the world equation will only serve the interests of America's traditional enemies. "Who benefits?" Perhaps we should rather ask, "Who does he serve?"

This will not end well.

Get ready.

Mike
III

From Peggy Noonan at the Wall street Journal we have this:

Wall Street Journal
MARCH 13, 2009

There's No Pill for This Kind of Depression

by Peggy Noonan

Six months after the collapse, a "pandemic of fear."

It is six months since Lehman fell and the crash (or the great recession, or the collapse—it's time it got its name) began. An aspect of the story given less attention than it is due, perhaps because it doesn't lend itself to statistics, is the psychic woe beneath the economic blow. There are two parts to this. One is that we have arrived at the first fatigue. The heart-pumping drama of last September is gone, replaced by the drip-drip-drip of pink slips, foreclosures and closed stores. We are tired. It doesn't feel like 1929, but 1930. People are in a kind of suspended alarm, waiting for the future to unspool and not expecting it to unspool happily.

Two, the economy isn't the only reason for our unease. There's more to it. People sense something slipping away, a world receding, not only an economic one but a world of old structures, old ways and assumptions. People don't talk about this much because it's too big, but I suspect more than a few see themselves, deep down, as "the designated mourner," from the title of the Wallace Shawn play.

I asked a friend, a perceptive writer, if he is seeing what I'm seeing. Yes, he said, there is "a pervasive sense of anxiety, as though everyone feels they're on thin ice." He wonders if it's "maybe a sense that we've had it too easy in the years since 9/11 and that the bad guys are about to appear on the horizon." An attorney in a Park Avenue firm said, "Things look like they have changed and may not come back." He contrasted the feeling now on the streets with 2001. "Things are subdued. . . . Nine-eleven was brutal and graphic. Yet because there was real death and loss of life folks could grieve and then move on." But today, "the dread is chronic. . . . Tom Wolfe's Masters of the Universe were supposed to be invincible. The pillars of media were supposed to be there forever. The lawyers were supposed to feed through thick and thin. Not anymore." He quoted Ecclesiastes: "The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth." We are worried, he said, "about a way of life, about the loss of upward trajectory."

The sale of antidepressants and antianxiety drugs is widespread. In New York their use became common after 9/11. It continued through and, I hypothesize, may have contributed to, the high-flying, wildly imprudent Wall Street of the '00s. We look for reasons for the crash and there are many, but I wonder if Xanax, Zoloft and Klonopin, when taken by investment bankers, lessened what might have been normal, prudent anxiety, or helped confuse prudent anxiety with baseless, free-floating fear. Maybe Wall Street was high as a kite and didn't notice. Maybe that would explain Bear Stearns, and Merrill, and Citi.

Gun sales continue up. The FBI's criminal background check system showed a 23% increase in February over the previous year, a 29% increase in January, a 24% increase in December and a 42% increase in November, when a record 1.5 million background checks were performed. Yes, people fear President Obama will take away the guns he thinks they cling to, but a likely equal contributor to what The Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch called a "gun-buying binge" is captured in the slogan on one firearms maker's Web site: "Smith & Wesson stands for protection." People are scared.

They are taking cash out of the bank in preparation for a long-haul bad time. A friend in Florida told me the local bank was out of hundred-dollar bills on Wednesday because a man had come in the day before and withdrawn $90,000. Five weeks ago, when I asked a Wall Street titan what one should do to be safe in the future, he took me aback with the concreteness of his advice, and its bottom-line nature. Everyone should try to own a house, he said, no matter how big or small, but it has to have some land, on which you should learn how to grow things. He also recommended gold coins, such as American Eagles. I went to the U.S. Mint Web site the next day, but there was a six-week wait due to high demand. (I just went on the Web site again: Production of gold Eagle coins "has been temporarily suspended because of unprecedented demand" for bullion.)

In Manhattan, Catholic church attendance appears to be up. Everyone seems to agree that this is so, though the archdiocese says it won't have numbers until next fall. But yes, said Joseph Zwilling, the director of communications, "from what I've heard anecdotally from various priests," the pews have been fuller. The rector at St. Patrick's told him Ash Wednesday was "the busiest yet," with 60,000 people coming for ashes. At my local church at noon mass one day this week, there were 40 people when normally there are roughly a dozen, and the communion line stretched to the back of the church. Something is happening. Yesterday a friend sent the warning of the Evangelical pastor David Wilkerson, of Times Square Church, that a new catastrophe is imminent. This is causing a small sensation in evangelical circles.

To me, one of the signal signs of the times is the number of people surfing the Internet looking for . . . something. One friend looks for small farms in distressed rural areas. Another logs on late at night looking for a house to buy in a small town out West, or down South, or in the Deep South. She is moving all around America in her imagination. I asked if she had a picture in her head of what she was looking for, and she joked that she wanted to go where Atticus Finch made his summation to the jury. I don't think it was really a joke. She's not looking for a new place, she's looking for the old days.

I spoke to a Manhattan-based psychiatrist who said there is an uptick in the number of his patients reporting depression and anxiety. He believes part of the reason is that we're in a new place, that "When people move into a new home they increasingly recognize the importance of their previous environment." Our new home is postprosperity America; the old one was the abundance; we miss it. But he also detected a political dimension to his patients' anguish. He felt that many see our leaders as "selfish and dishonest," that "our institutions have been revealed as incompetent and undependable." People feel "unled, overwhelmed," the situation "seemingly unsalvageable." The net result? He thinks what he is seeing, within and without his practice, is a "psychological pandemic of fear" as to the future of things—of our country, and even of mankind.

So where does that leave us? The writer and philosopher Laurens van der Post, in his memoir of his friendship with Carl Jung, said, "We live not only our own lives but, whether we know it or not, also the life of our time." We are actors in a moment of history, taking part in it, moving it this way or that as we move forward or back. The moment we are living now is a strange one, a disquieting one, a time that seems full of endings.

Too bad there's no pill for that.

From Financial Sense comes this:

Chaos, Confusion, and Civil War

by J. R. Nyquist

Weekly Column Published: 03.13.2009

On 29 December 2008 the Wall Street Journal ran a piece about Igor Panarin, dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s diplomatic academy.

A former KGB officer, Panarin made a splash by predicting that America will probably come under martial law by the end of 2009, and may fracture into several states by 2011. When this happens, says Panarin, Russia and China will become the mainstays of a new global order.

Americans are naturally skeptical of Panarin’s analysis. But his conclusions are quite pedestrian. If North America sank beneath the ocean like the fabled continent of Atlantis, the world would belong to Russia and China. No significant obstacle would stand in their way. The proof of this is found in the history of all empires, in the character of the leaders in Beijing and Moscow, and in the appalling weakness of Europe and Japan. Unthinking people are sometimes heard to say that Russia and China aren’t expansionist powers. It is laughable to think this, because you don’t become the largest country or the most populous unless you’ve conquered a considerable territory inhabited by many millions of people.

Without the United States in the picture, Russia and China would be the dominant powers. They would dictate terms to the world. No country or group of countries could possibly stand against them. This is because Russia and China possess thousands of nuclear weapons. The small nuclear arsenals of France, Britain, Israel and India do not pose a serious threat to large countries with large arsenals like Russia and China. Psychologically speaking, these small powers are helpless against great powers.

If Panarin is right about the breakup of the United States, then he is also right about the coming of a new global order under Moscow and Beijing. But is he right about the breakup of the United States? It was an anonymous Russian diplomat quoted in Pravda last July, who first intimated that the United States was about to suffer a profound crisis – a crisis of existence. How did the Russian diplomat know that the United States was headed for a financial crash? He knew because Russia has the best information service in the world, formerly known as the KGB. Russian spies have penetrated everywhere, and provide high quality information to people like Panarin – who is a “former” KGB analyst.

The Russian intelligence services have long tracked economic, financial and demographic changes in the United States. Russian analysts know that certain trends lead to political crisis. Such trends include ethnic balkanization, an ideological split in the ruling class, rising indebtedness, economic collapse, and declining moral standards. A country like the United States is ripe for civil war. If this should happen, foreign powers would intervene and the country would be split along geographical lines: California and the West would fall under Chinese control, Texas and the south would go to Mexico, and Russia would lay claim to Alaska. “It would be reasonable for Russia to lay claim to Alaska,” says Panarin. “It was part of the Russian empire for a long time.”

Panarin is saying, basically, that the present economic crisis signals a political crisis. The divisions within American society, and the narcissistic pathologies of consumer society, will cause an implosion. The people of America will turn against one another. The protective nuclear umbrella provided by the United States will cease to function. Europe and Asia will fall to Russia and China. From that point forward, the outcome of every political conflict on the planet will be determined in Moscow or Beijing. This would include, of course, the conflict within America itself.

Could America turn against itself in a matter of months? There are already inklings of a fissure. Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va) wrote a letter to President Barack Obama warning the administration to desist from bypassing the Senate’s authority over Executive Branch appointments. According to Senator Byrd, the new administration is creating new agencies out of the White House that “can threaten the Constitutional system of checks and balances.” In effect, Byrd explained, the White House is taking “direction and control of programmatic areas that are the statutory responsibility of Senate-confirmed officials.”

The new administration sees the economic crisis as an opportunity to create a new bureaucracy, less accountable and more powerful than ever. This new bureaucracy is preparing to take charge in the areas of health care reform, urban affairs, energy policy and the fight against climate change. Each new government office signifies a massive claim against the well-being of every American. The fight against global climate change will put the country in an environmental stranglehold. Health care reform signifies the nationalization of 14 percent of the U.S. economy. And what is meant by “urban affairs”? It is a wealth transference program bound to demoralize the suburbs. Administration energy policy promises expensive, unworkable energy alternatives while ignoring enormous oil deposits recently discovered under Montana and the Dakotas.

The Obama administration is headed for failure on every front. The economic healing process is being interfered with by a government that doesn’t know what it’s doing. The country is bound to suffer grievously, and lose patience. We already catch a glimpse of the future from Alan Keyes, who recently said that the country was headed for “chaos, confusion and civil war.” According to Keyes, “Obama is a radical communist, and I think it is becoming clear. That is what I told people in Illinois and now everybody realizes it’s true. He is going to destroy this country, and we are either going to stop him or the United States of America is going to cease to exist.”

The sentiments expressed by Mr. Keyes are those attending civil war. But matters have already taken a turn for the worse. There is a rumor in Washington that is making the rounds. It is alleged that the president has fended off dozens of law suits regarding his citizenship status, without producing a birth certificate to prove that he is a natural born citizen. In fact, Keyes will not acknowledge that Obama is actually the president. According to Keyes, “[Obama] has refused to provide proof that he is in fact a natural born citizen, and his Kenyan relations say he was born in Nairobi at a time when his mother was too young to transmit U.S. citizenship.”

The lines are being drawn, and we are headed for national tragedy. Panarin’s analysis isn’t farfetched at all. The country needs to wake up. Danger approaches, and it is coming on fast.

Latest Love Notes From the Limpdick Pink Swastika Set: Not That ADL, SPLC or MIAC Will Admit It.

Definition from the Online Slang Dictionary.

"Limpdick"

noun

A coward of either gender, as in, "Crash is a real limpdick."

Submitted by J. Rogers, Birmingham, AL, USA, Apr 12 1998.

Now I don't know "J. Rogers," but I thought of his definition when I pulled this out of my post office box.
Now THIS is "limpdick."

Thus do the neoNazis once again demonstrate that they fail to comprehend the difference between actual sex and hallucinatory masturbation.

I mean, if they were going to kill me, they would just do it, right? I am reminded of the moron Kluxer (or maybe it was an ATF agent -- same difference, right 'Good-O-Boy?') back in the 90s who called me up at midnight to threaten my life on a phone line that was under federal court-ordered wiretap. Only racist collectivists are this stupid.

Well, what can I say? The "I-can't-get-a-date-with-an-ugly-woman-so-I'm-going-to-be-an-excrement-for-brains-follower-of-a-dead-Austrian-male-prostitute-and-mass-murderer-who's-burning-brightly-in-Hell-at-the-moment" crowd sent me some love notes to my post office box, along with another neoNazi wet dream novel that describes, a la The Turner Diaries, what's going to happen to my kind when they take power. Among the other literature they sent me was a leaflet entitled:

"WHIGGER! ACT YOUR COLOR!" Uh, huh. You get the idea, so I'm not going to copy the text here. The leaflet ends, "Hail Victory! White Power!" They also sent me a helpful reference card in case I want to look up the latest posts on "Jewish Freemasonry" on the Internet. Hey, stop laughing, I'm not making this up.

"Nazis. I hate these guys." -- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Best biography of the Austrian male prostitute known as A. Hitler.

I assume they got my post office box off of the web site, so it is not like they didn't know who they were sending it to. (See my essay "Birmingham - Race and Armed Defense of Individual Liberty and the Republic" among others.)

Of course, my personal fight with the racist collectivists is a matter of Internet lore and documented record for the past 15 years. Only duplicitous idiots like the Missouri fusion center (MIAC -- see this recent post), the Southern Preposterous Lie Center and Mark "Sparky" Pitcavage ignored the street-level struggles of the constitutional militias against the racist and neoNazi terrorists in the 90s, and they did that because they had, and continue to have, money on the line.

Quick. Here's a militia joke from the Nineties.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MARK PITCAVAGE, SEEN HERE:



AND THE HINDENBURG, SEEN HERE?:



Answer: There are two. First, although both are gasbags and serve the commercial interests of a nascent collectivist tyranny, the Hindenburg was a dirigible whereas Pitcavage is a blimp. Second, Pitcavage has not yet spontaneously burst into flames.



We can always hope.

From a solid citizen who doesn't spread rumors. . .

I received an email from someone whom I trust who works on the "Hill"

To quote:

I’ve been attending hearings about Mexico/U.S. border violence the past couple of weeks and the hearings are nothing but a witch hunt against U.S. gun manufacturers and distributors; blaming them for gun running and drug crimes across the border. I fear the “Assault Weapons” ban may make a return, worse than ever.

GET READY.

Praxis: If your pack looks like this, you'll be dead.

Lighten the load.

Cache what you shouldn't be carrying.

Moving is as important as shooting.

This advertisement brought to you by NITMIL, Necessity Is The Mother of Invention Laboratories, the militia version of NATICK.

The professional staff at NITMIL Labs.

More from Gun Owners of New Jersey on the DoD's Brass Embargo.

At a secret training base in Fairfax, Virginia, the NRA works on its concept of cavalry riding to the rescue.

Received the email below from Larry at GONJ with more detail on the Brass Embargo. Of course, the "pragmatists" (Caleb for one) claim that the NRA has this one handled and is going to ride over the hill any second to save us all and get the policy reversed. If they do, it will be the first time in a while that they have accomplished anything, dare I say it? -- I dare, I dare -- "pragmatic."

Note, please, in your own letters to congresscritters, how much Georgia Arms provides in terms of millions of rounds per year to both civilians and law enforcement. This policy is beyond wrong-headed. It is malevolent to the interests of all law-abiding Americans. (Unless, that is, the Obamanoids intend to change the definition of the law.)

Mike
III

GONJ hasn't researched this material, so we urge you to do your own due diligence in regards to this report.


Larry
GONJ
908-277-1111
*******************************************************************************************


Ref: Ammo prices on 223 and 308 headed through the roof ?
http://sigforum.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/320601935/m/9941049651?r=9701059651#9701059651


DOD Ends Sale of Expended Military Brass to Remanufacturers
AND SO IT BEGINS...
Sunday, March 15, 2009
http://www.theshootist.net/

We all wondered when it was going to start. When the new administration would make their move against us as gun owners. Oh, everyone got upset about HR45 - I'll bet I got over 100 e-mails warning me about this draconian gun registration bill that had been introduced in Congress.

I was really glad to see Tom Gresham, host of "Gun Talk Radio," an editor, writer, television host on "Self-Defense TV," and one of the foremost gun spokespersons, come out and tell everyone to stop worrying about legislation so absolutely over-the-top--it would never get out of committee.

Tom said save your energy for when we really need it--don't expend it trying to warn everyone in your e-mail list about legislation that would go nowhere.

Now, Tom just interviewed me, and Larry Haynie, owner of Georgia Arms (www.georgia-arms.com), on Gun Talk (www.guntalk.com)--and Tom agrees, now is the time to "...unleash the hounds..." by which he means start e-mailing and writing your senators and congressmen.

Now it has come clear...now we know what they intend to do.

It is an end-run around Congress. They don't need to try to ban guns--they don't need to fight a massive battle to attempt gun registration, or limit "assault" weapon sales.

Nope. All they have to do is limit the amount of ammunition available to the civilian market, and when bullets dry up, guns will be useless.

Think we jest?

Here is a copy of the letter sent to Georgia Arms just Thursday evening--effectively cancelling a contract he had to purchase 30,000 pounds of expended military brass in .223, 7.62mm, and .50 caliber:


March 12, 2009

Larry Haynie
Georgia Arms
PO Box 238
Villa Rica, GA 30180

Re: Event 7084-6200:

Dear Larry Haynie,

Effective immediately DOD Surplus, LLC, will be implementing new requirements for mutilation of fired shell casings. The new DRMS requirement calls for DOD Surplus personnel to witness the mutilation of the property and sign the Certificate of Destruction.

Mutilation of the property can be done at the DRMO, if permitted by the Government, or it may be mutilated at a site chosen by the buyer. Mutilation means that the property will be destroyed to the extent prevents its reuse or reconstruction. DOD Surplus personnel will determine when property has been sufficiently mutilated to meet the requirements of the Government.

If you do not agree with the new conditions of your spot sale, please sign the appropriate box provided below stating that you do not agree to the new terms and would like to cancel your purchase effective immediately. If you do agree to the new terms please sign in the appropriate box provided below to acknowledge your understanding and agreement with the new requirements relating to your purchase. Fax the signed document back to (480) 367-1450, emailed responses are not acceptable.

Please respond to this request no later than close of business Monday, March 16th, 2009.

Sincerely,

Government Liquidation.



Got that? From now on, remanufacturers of military brass will not be able to buy surplus brass from DOD--actually from Government Liquidators, llc.--the corporation that sells surplus materials for the U.S. government. At least, not in any form recognizable as once-fired brass ammunition.

Now all brass ammunition will have to be shredded, and sold as scrap.

Georgia Arms, who brought this to our attention, is the 5th largest ammunition manufacturer of centerfire pistol and rifle ammunition in the U.S.

"We're right up there behind Hornady," Larry Haynie told me.

He also told me with the cancellation of his contract to purchase this brass, and the ending of his ability to purchase any more expended military ammunition, he will have to severely curtail his operation--laying off approximately half his 60-person
work force.

Haynie further pointed out this move is a stupendous waste of taxpayer money - reducing the worth of the brass some 80%--from casings, to shredded bulk brass.

He stated most of this will now go to foundries where it will be melted down, cast in shippable forms, and likely be sold to China, one of the largest purchasers of U.S. metals on the open market.

Haynie was manufacturing over 1 million rounds of .223 ammunition every month, which he sold on the civilian market to resellers, and to law enforcement agencies across the country.

He will start tomorrow sending cancellations of orders for .223 to law enforcement agencies all over the country.

You can expect this to affect every bullet you purchase in the future--with no reloaded ammunition available, the already strained new manufacturers will be unable to meet demand. They are already turning out everything they can build for the military market.

The civilian market is stressed to the point even reloading components have become hard to find.

Now, with this hit, ammunition prices will go through the roof in the next year.

Your quality piece, sitting in your gun rack, will become a very expensive wood and steel, or plastic and steel club.

What can you do?

Google "contact members of Congress" or simply type in www.congress.org.

When you reach that site, type in your zip code--it will give you all your representatives, senators, and their web pages.

Here is a letter I just sent to Representative Bill Cassidy, Congressman from the 6th District of Louisiana, and Senator David Vitter of Louisiana. I will be sending it to every member of our congressional delegation. Feel free to copy it and paste in your own e-mail, sending it to your legislators. We have to stop this now!


The Honorable Bill Cassidy
Member of Congress from Louisiana

Dear Congressman Cassidy:

It has come to my attention that the Department of Defense has issued a directive that all expended military brass (fired cases) will now be shredded and sold for scrap material, rather than resold by Government Liquidators LLC to the civilian market for remanufacture.

You may not be aware of it, but there is a severe shortage of ammunition available for sale to the public across the country, causing problems for shooters, hunters, and reloaders everywhere.

Now, apparently the Obama administration, realizing they cannot move against private firearms ownership since the landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Washington D.C./Heller case, has made their move in another way.

By cutting off the resale of expended military ammunition to remanufacturers, they have put a stranglehold on the nation's ammunition supply.

Further, they have reduced the return to the government on expended brass by 80%. What was sold for remanufacturer at a fair return to the government, will now cost the taxpayers untold sums of money as the cost of scrap brass is far below the price per pound for expended military ammunition.

In addition, the use of remanufactured ammunition is a huge asset to law enforcement agencies across the country who buy millions of rounds of reloaded ammunition a year from these manufacturers for practice rounds.

With this market gone, law enforcement will no longer be able to purchase inexpensive reloaded ammunition, and with the continuing combat status of military forces across the Middle East, original manufacturers of new ammunition are turning out everything they can make to the government, thus exacerbating the shortage of new ammunition in both the civilian and law enforcement market.

Lastly, in these harsh economic times, does it not strike you as cold and calculating that the Obama administration has no compunction against ruining an industry that employs thousands of American citizens in the remanufacturing of sporting and military ammunition. One major resupplier, Georgia Arms, the fifth largest manufacturer of centerfire pistol and rifle ammunition has informed me he will have to quickly lay off half his 60-person workforce, as he has had to cancel contracts with dozens of police agencies who had contracted with him to supply them with remanufactured .223 ammunition.

Georgia Arms has been practically put out of business by this directive that all expended military brass must be shredded. His current contracts have been canceled, and he is notifying his customers across the country he can no longer supply their ammunition needs.

Please look into this immediately. This move by the Obama administration is nothing but a back-door strike against firearms ownership in this country--if shooters can't
buy ammunition, the guns are little better than steel clubs--and this is obviously the intent.

Thank you for your time and efforts in this serious attack against the Second Amendment rights of the American citizenry.

Sincerely,

Gordon Hutchinson
Author "The Great New Orleans Gun Grab" Firearms Columnist for Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Mississippi Sportsman magazines.

--------------------------
Finally, here is the other letter sent to Georgia Arms informing the company their contract to purchase expended military ammunition had been cancelled:

Dear Valued Customer:

Please take a moment to note important changes set forth by the Defense Logistics Agency:

Recently it has been determined that fired munitions of all calibers, shapes and sizes have been designated to be Demil code B. As a result and in conjunction with DLA's current Demil code B policy, this notice will serve as official notification which requires Scrap Venture (SV) to implement mutilation as a condition of sale for all sales of fired munitions effective immediately. This notice also requires SV to immediately cease delivery of any fired munitions that have been recently sold or on active term contracts, unless the material has been mutilated prior to sale or SV personnel can attest to the mutilation after delivery. A certificate of destruction is required in either case.

Thank you,

DOD Surplus
15051 N Kierland Blvd # 300
Scottsdale, AZ 85254

Praxis: Firearm Manuals

My thanks to jvhat for this link to what is dubbed "the largest selection of free downloadable gun manuals anywhere in the world."

Praxis: "Shot placement is everything in a gunfight."

In one of life's little sychronicities, I was just talking last night to Yenta about the fact that most LEO marksmanship skills are poor to non-existent in a gun fight. That is, not their ability to punch paper but rather their ability to take down a man in a gun fight. The corrolary to this is that if you are going to hit a man with something, hit him with something that COUNTS, i.e. does not deposit its energy on the wall behind him, WHERE it counts.

My thanks to Brother Key for forwarding me this FBI Academy PDF document. (Warning: Graphic autopsy photos.)

Money quote:

Lessons Learned

** Determined individuals can sustain MANY gunshot wounds in areas that produce great PAIN and continue to fight a LONG time, even without the aid of drugs or alcohol.

** Shot PLACEMENT is everything in a gunfight and ALWAYS the key to stopping a threat effectively.

Sipsey Street Irregular Road Show Itinerary Change

"The Line" at Knob Creek, Kentucky

We were going to be at the Indy 1500 show next weekend. We have had to change that because of circumstances attendant to the completion of the book. We WILL be at the Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot the first weekend of April. See ya there.

Mike
III

Knob Creek Gun Range
690 Ritchey Lane
West Point, KY 40177
1 mile off Dixie Highway on Highway 44
Phone: 502-922-4457

NEXT MACHINE GUN SHOOT IS APRIL 3rd, 4th, & 5th!

"Whatever it takes": You don't have to be so depressed when the Depression really hits.

From World Net Daily.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

REAL AMERICA
I'm depressed … but preparing
Patrice Lewis notes Flyover Country folks are getting ready – how 'bout you?

Posted: March 14, 2009
1:00 am Eastern

By Patrice Lewis

I just learned a depressing statistic: The unemployment rate in our corner of Idaho is 13.6 percent. Keep this in mind for a moment.

A couple weeks ago I was asked by the local Mormon church to teach a class on cheese making. Mormons, in case you don't know, are big on self-sufficiency. They are counseled to keep at least a year's worth of food and other provisions stored up. Whatever your views on the Latter Day Saints, I'll admit this is a spiffy concept.

I was happy to teach what I know about making cheddar and mozzarella, and I included how to make butter and yogurt as well. Preceding my class, the group had a lively discussion about garden seeds. After the class, a local woman displayed some products of her cottage industry: reusable feminine hygiene items (a huge hit with the largely female audience). The next day, my daughter's violin teacher called to reschedule lessons for the next eight weeks because she's attending a Master Gardening class.

We had dinner with neighbors the other night, and the subject of borrowing each others' tractor implements came up in order to drastically expand everyone's gardens. One woman commented, "It's like we're living on a commune but in separate houses." That's because there happens to be a broad range of useful skills represented among our circle of neighbors and friends, and we're all willing to pitch in and trade knowledge, equipment and labor.

Welcome to Flyover Country, where we know darned good and well a depression is looming. People are preparing like crazy.

Defining an economic depression, of course, is an elusive thing. They're easiest to spot after the fact. The general distinction of a depression seems to be when the GDP declines by more than 10 percent and unemployment rises above 10 percent. Right now it's been reported that the GDP decreased 6.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008. Apparently we're not depressed yet.

Or are we? Remember, our corner of Idaho has a 13.6 percent unemployment rate.

It's been argued that the Great Depression of the 1930s was intensified and lengthened by FDR's aggressive government interference rather than letting the free market sort things out through harsh selection for a couple of years. The concern today is that Obama's administration is duplicating or exceeding FDR's policies, thus guaranteeing our country will go down the economic tubes for the foreseeable future.

But the point of this column is not to argue definitions or point the finger of blame (tempting as it may be). The point is for us, individually, to be ready for the worst.

If you're lucky enough to still have a job and a home – unlike a whole bunch of less fortunate people – then you're in a position to prepare.

Those of us in Flyover Country are scared spitless about the economy – 53 percent think we're on track for a 1930s depression – but we're being scared into action. The other 47 percent, I assume, are locked into Obama-worship and are in denial. (They're confident the Messiah will save them.) They're putting their trust in the current administration and are sitting on their hands, waiting for a bailout. They may be in for a nasty surprise.

But for many, frugality has become the norm. I know from personal experience that thrift stores in nearby urban areas are now thronged regularly. People are stockpiling as never before including, apparently, the federal government. The dipsticks in the mainstream media used to call this sensible behavior "hoarding," but even the talking heads seem to be changing their tune since more and more "ordinary" people are stockpiling needed items.

As I said in one of my earlier columns, we are astoundingly vulnerable in this country because we've lost much of the knowledge and skills of our forefathers, the wisdom mankind has honed since the dawn of civilization. We have lost that wisdom in only two or three short generations due to the ease of modern technology. But here's the thing: Technology, if it's gone, doesn't put food on the table. Garden seeds and know-how do.

Girls used to learn cheese making at their mothers' elbows. Boys used to learn carpentry at their fathers' knees. Now we can barely unclog a toilet by ourselves, much less know the proper way to build an outhouse, grow a garden, or butcher a steer.

I'm not saying our culture will backslide to the days where everyone had a cow and an outhouse. I'm saying things are going to be tough economically for a long time, and having food and other necessities stored up is a good thing. I'm saying that blindly putting your trust in a governmental bureaucracy to feed, clothe and house you is stupid. The government cannot do anything with efficiency, certainly not at the individual level. Try asking the government for a tube of toothpaste next time you run out and see what happens.

Your ability to prepare for a depression is clearly dependent on where you live (it's hard to keep a cow in a high-rise apartment) and your income status (it's hard to buy a year's worth of food when you're unemployed). But for cryin' out loud, do something. Anything. If you can't stockpile goods, then stockpile knowledge. Learn a useful, barterable skill such as sewing, carpentry, welding, or canning. Don't become a burden on the rest of us because you're in denial.

Whatever your views on the cause of our current economy, and whatever your views on what is needed to pull us out, remember this: In the end, the only thing you can depend upon is YOU. You're the only who can tighten your belt, buy seeds, stockpile food, plug those financial leaks … whatever it takes. But don't bury your head in the sand and think that hard times can't hit you personally, because they can. It's time to stop thinking ideologically and start thinking practically.

Prepare as best you can – so you too don't have to be so depressed when the depression hits.

Oathkeepers new video now on youtube.

The Oath Keepers' "O.K."

Go here:

http://www.youtube..com/watch?v=rzadNTI2bec&eurl=http://oath-keepers.blogspot.com/

And after that, visit the Oathkeepers website here.

Pass it on to every current-serving military man or woman you know.

Well, boys and girls, this is proof positive you've scared the brown cheese out of the Obamanoids.

"Holy Gaia, Sarah Brady!" Gun confiscationist reacts poorly to the news that the American people continue to arm despite his earnest advice that this is not necessary. (Photo found at Democratic Underground.)

JPFO has this about the Pentagon shutting off the tap of once-fired brass to civilian shooters. What's next? Suspension of the Civilian Marksmanship Program? At a time when government is desperate for every dime, there is no other explanation for this move -- you've scared the excrement out of the Obamanoids with your concerted efforts to stockpile ammo. This is proof that they now view YOU as the enemy.

Of course this comes as no surprise.

Write your letters to your Senators and Congressmen as Gary Marbut suggests and put your opposition on the record, but redouble your efforts to acquire ammunition by any means possible.

The long-term solution is to set up our own ammo factories in semi-autonomous regions such as Native American reservations and states that still take the Tenth Amendment seriously, a la John Robb. Actually, can it be long until state economic development authorities start bankrolling start-ups in local ammunition plants? Why don't all you Three Percenters put a bug in their ear about THAT?

Mike
III

Say goodbye to government surplus brass. The Obamanoids have cut off the supply.

March 13th 2009

Government Destroys Once Fired Brass Cases

This a selection of email content - presented ''as is''.

From: KTO
To: undisclosed-recipients
Sent: Friday, March 13, 2009 2:31 PM
Subject: [Fwd: More ammo problems - Action Needed]

Dear MSSA Friends,

Another serious problem has just been created to add to the critical ammo shortage in the U.S. Read my letter to Senator Max Baucus about this below. An agency of the Department of Defense has just directed that all military fired brass must be destroyed.

I highly recommend that you send emails to U.S. Senators Baucus and Tester, and to Montana's lone Congressman Rehberg, asking them to get immediately onto fixing this.

FYI, Baucus is Chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee. He could simply call the Pentagon and tell them that if they don't reverse this DLA directive that the Pentagon will suffer a mysterious budget cut of several billion dollars. Also, Baucus's former Chief of Staff, Jim Messina, is now Deputy Chief of Staff at the White House. If Max called Jim and asked, Jim could fix this problem with a phone call too.

I recommend you communicate with the Baucus, Tester and Rehberg staffers who are tasked to firearms issues. They are:

Baucus - "Heather O'Loughlin" heather_o'loughlin@baucus.senate.gov

Tester - "Lillstrom, Alpha" Alpha_Lillstrom@tester.senate.gov

Rehberg - "Abra Belke" abra.belke@mail.house.gov

Tell them we simply don't accept the military destroying perfectly good brass that could be sold into the civilian market for private and commercial reloading.

Gary



========================

Max,

Greetings from Missoula.

You called me on October 24th, 2008, to ask me to let you know if there is ever anything MSSA needs you to do for us and for Montana gun owners.

Thank you. This is exactly such a case.

In the email below from the Defense Logistics Agency you will see that DLA has effectively ordered the immediate non-sale and destruction of all once-fired military brass.

Max, this is a HUGE problem.

Why is this a problem? The RKBA is only as good as the ammunition supply for the firearms we own. The shelves of the Nation's sporting goods stores are essentially bare of ammunition. The entire ammunition market in the U.S. is highly stressed.

For example, I have six classes scheduled for April to teach Montana citizens gun safety and self defense with firearms. Students must bring 100 rounds of ammunition to these classes. I thought to check this week about availability of ammunition for my students for these April classes - the most common ammunition in .38 special and 9mm. Of four primary sporting goods stores in Missoula, three had NONE - at all! One store has a limited supply that it doesn't expect to last long.

Against this background of ammunition shortage, about the only ammunition that continues to be somewhat available is that from second tier manufacturers who are remanufacturing ammunition from once-fired military cartridge brass. As of yesterday, that supply came to an end because of the DLA administrative decision to destroy ("demil") all fired military brass.

Max, I have a lot more information about the national ammunition shortage, too much to put in one email. It is both a supply and demand problem. Without that lengthy detail, take my word for it that U.S. gun owners are very at-risk for their effective RKBA because of existing ammunition shortages. This administrative decision by DLA places a log on the back of a camel already sagging in the middle.

We sincerely hope that you can do something to turn DLA around, and reauthorize the flow of once-fired, undestroyed military brass from the military to civilians and civilian entities.

One final thought. The military can sell reloadable brass for $2.00 per pound. Brass that has been destroyed for reloading purposes and value sells for about 35 cents per pound. So the DLA is expecting taxpayers to pay DoD extra to make reloadable brass unavailable to civilian gun owners.

Please keep us informed about what can be done and is being done to fix this serious problem.

Sincerely yours,


Gary Marbut, president
Montana Shooting Sports Association
http://www.mtssa.org
author, Gun Laws of Montana
http://www.mtpublish.com






-----Original Message-----
From:

SurplusNews@govliquidation.com

SurplusNews@govliquidation.com
Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2009 5:34 PM
To: rlepage@usa.net
Subject: Important Notice to Scrap Metal Buyers!

http://www.govliquidation.com

Dear Valued Customer:

Please take a moment to note important changes set forth by the Defense Logistics Agency:

Recently it has been determined that fired munitions of all calibers, shapes and sizes have been designated to be Demil code B. As a result and in conjunction with DLA's current Demil code B policy, this notice will serve as official notification which requires Scrap Venture (SV) to implement mutilation as a condition of sale for all sales of fired munitions effective immediately. This notice also requires SV to immediately cease delivery of any fired munitions that have been recently sold or on active term contracts, unless the material has been mutilated prior to sale or SV personnel can attest to the mutilation after delivery. A certificate of destruction is required in either case.

Thank you,

DOD Surplus
15051 N Kierland Blvd # 300
Scottsdale, AZ 85254

Praxis: Sleeping Bag Zipper Repair

Folks,

In my constant procurement scrounging for militia equipment, I often come across deals on USGI sleeping bags. Sometimes, as in this week, I find one in great shape save for the zipper, which does not close. In my favorite local thrift store I found an Intermediate Cold Weather Sleeping Bag, much like the one above, in excellent condition for $6.00.

Note: In the same trip I got two GI duffel bags for $2.00 each and an ALICE Y-harness (minus LC belt) with two canteen covers (sans canteens), one stainless steel canteen cup, one first aid/compass pouch and two M16 30 round magazine pouches, at $2.70 for the lot. Of course I had a belt (two bucks), canteens (a buck each) and battle dressings (free) in my garage from earlier forays, so I put it all together and packed it away in a two gallon plastic bucket that will shortly join other similar buckets in one of several caches. One complete combat LBE ready to issue for maybe $7.00 total.

Back to the sleeping bag:

I figured I'd have to replace the zipper, until in searching the web for a new zipper I came across these instructions from Mountain Equipment Co-op on how to repair a zipper.

I figured, hey, what have I got to lose? So, I followed the directions and, sha-zam! I've got a perfectly serviceable sleeping bag to put back in a five gallon bucket for issuance if, as and when. All I had to do was tighten the slider with a pair of pliers and all it cost was $6.00 for the bag.

Not bad, eh?

Mike
III

Zipper Repair

Over time, a zipper's sliders can become loose. If you pull up the slider and the teeth don't stay closed behind it, the slider should be tightened or replaced. If the teeth themselves are damaged, you may need to replace the entire zipper.

Required Equipment

Hinged or adjustable (not needle-nose) pliers

You may also need:

Zipper stops, found at fabric stores or MEC

Scissors

Replacement slider

Needle and thread





Tighten Sliders

Move the slider to the bottom of the zipper.

Put the pliers around the slider, so that the pliers are gripping it from the inside and outside of the garment (you may need to undo some stitching). Needle-nose pliers will place uneven pressure on the slider, and can wreck it.

Gently squeeze the left side of the slider, then squeeze the right side. Test the zip. You may have to re-squeeze the slider until the zipper functions, but avoid squeezing so hard that you jam or break the zipper.

If the zipper does not separate at the bottom (ie, the fly on a pair of pants), a few teeth at the bottom may not properly engage. To fix this, install new bottom stops, or sew the teeth closed.

Replace Sliders

For zippers that do not separate at the bottom you may need to open the seam and remove the bottom stops, or cut away the bottom half inch of the zipper. For zippers that separate at the bottom, such as a jacket, remove one or both of the top stops.
Zip the slider off the end of the zipper where you removed the stops.

Place the two ends of the zipper teeth into the front two openings of the slider.
Holding the teeth together, move the slider up or down the zipper. It may require a few tries to get it sliding evenly.

Once the slider is operating, attach new bottom or top stops. If necessary, sew the bottom of the zipper closed and re-sew any seams required.

Update on III Patches from Raven's Wood:

Today I received 12 separate orders ranging from 1 to 10 patches each. Most paid with USPS money orders but a couple paid with personal checks (I'll be holding their orders up until the checks clear).

One guy wanted his in Desert.

Could you both put up a notice on your blogs that we don't yet have desert available, like we said in the original advertisement?

We can order the Desert in a bit...I want to make sure that we can sell the minimum order of 200 based on initial orders first, though...

More commentary on THIS:

From the pen of Lexington Northbridge Concord, born 19 April, 1975, forwarded to me via email this day with the comment: "More Americans, particularly military and police, must come to understand the significance of their oaths, and to accept their individual responsibilities when they violate their oaths."

A presumption unrebutted stands as true.

Lt. Col. Scott Wile's words:

And it was going to be a long, drawn out situation. ... we have mutual aid agreements with all of our local surrounding communities ... we called down to one of the local police departments and offered our assistance. ... they said, “Absolutely. We could use the military police." .... local law enforcement and the state law enforcement were establishing a cordon ... We took their posts for them.

... we realized that this was gonna be a major undertaking, ... All we provided was some security ... we provided relief forces for the guys that were working it.

We just relieved the guys that were blocking traffic and protecting the area.

What we did was we went down and just…we took our military police because we’re readily available. ... we just took up posts ....

We will provide assistance to our partner community.

All we were doing was enforcing the cordon.

I just had to respond with it. As the Provost Marshall, these are all my guys and this was a place that we needed to be ... We went down and took care of business.

I can just talk about the specific incident that we dealt with last night

My personal opinions have no bearing here whatsoever. I gotta run.

[emphasis added]


18 USC, § 1385

Whoever willfully uses any part of the Army to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.


LTC Wile has by his willful initiative used the Army to, in his words, "call the local police and offer the assistance of the Army military police to stand at posts and enforce the cordon in a major undertaking ... he and his soldiers had to respond and deal with this incident; they took care of business."

Sounds like the transcript of a confession.

When any office-holder acts outside the authority of his office, he acts in his individual capacity. He has vacated his office, and his acts which abuse the powers of his former office are criminal acts and, in military cases, are treasonous acts.

When criminal acts are documented in pictures, and oral statements describing the acts are recorded and broadcast, is it not the charge of local, state and federal justice departments to investigate and bring charges against the criminal evildoers?

Remember: A presumption unrebutted stands as true.

Scott Wile acted outside of the authority of his office. He acted in his individual capacity. He vacated his office. He presumed that his individual abuse of the powers of his former office in the Army would would not be punished. His presumption must be rebutted.

In the event that it can be shown that Wile's office in the Army did not have the authority to order soldiers to "stand at posts" and "enforce the cordon", the actions of the soldiers doing so are the result of Wile's abuse of the Army. This is not only a matter for the Army to take up against Wile; it is for civil authorities to prosecute as well.


Wile made the declaratory statement that, "It was going to be a long, drawn out situation. This was gonna be a major undertaking." He can not pretend to defend his actions as insignificant or inconsequential.

Wile admitted that, "We have mutual aid agreements with our local surrounding communities. We will provide assistance to our partner community." Can that compromising condition be shown to be unlawful? Whom does he mean when he says "We"? Does he mean the Army? If so, where is the authorization for the Army to make agreements with the civil police? If he does not mean the Army when he says "We", then he means "I". That would be Wile acting in his individual capacity, and he would be abusing the powers of his former Army office. Who are those "communities"? Are they the civilian police departments? The warm and fuzzy words "surrounding" and "partner" when used to modify (pun intended) "community" can be intended to lower the vigilance of the real communities being controlled by the 'Only Ones'.

Wile initiated the unlawful action: "We called down to one of the local police departments."

Wile was in agreement with the civilian police to "use the military police in establishing a cordon ... We took their posts for them. We were enforcing the cordon." Wile, acting as an individual, used Army force upon the civilian population.

Wile, as an individual and not as an Army officer, unlawfully "provided some security ... we provided relief forces for the guys that were working it." 'Working it' is what one does as a job, as employment. Does Wile subconsciously or consciously imagine he is an independent contractor, "providing security, assistance, and relief" for the civilian "guys who are just workin' it"?!

Wile, as an individual and not as an Army officer, unlawfully "took our military police because we’re readily available. We were just directing traffic." An Army officer can not make the appraisal that soldiers are "available" for "enforcing" the behavior of civilians. Wile, the private individual, presumes that he can do that. Also, isn't "just directing traffic" the description of the 'workin' it' which was being done around the train stations in Germany in the late nineteen thirties?

Wile said, "I just had to respond. These are all my guys and this was a place that we needed to be. We went down and took care of business." Wile the private contractor was simply using his employees to take care of business, to "deal with the incident last night." No big thing - one hand washes the other. Besides, we've got agreements, ya know.

Last, and very much not least, Scott Wile was finally telling the truth when he said, "My personal opinions have no bearing here whatsoever. I gotta run." His personal opinions have no bearing in this sordid affair. His oath is everything in this horrific matter, although it evidently means very little to him. His presumption of innocence must be vigorously rebutted by both military and civilian authorities.


P.S.: just found this on DRS's blogspot:
By Drew Zahn
© 2009 WorldNetDaily DES MOINES, Iowa

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Greg Hapgood said, "In order to get that larger neighborhood feel or city feel, we have to be creative and partner with our communities."

Does this 'partnering with our communities' bode ill for American Citizens everywhere? ... Just asking ...

Lexington Northbridge Concord

It turns out, we had a hero after all.

Too bad he apparently wasn't armed. This is the lesson of Mumbai, Samson, Alabama and every other mass killing. The ONLY weapons that matter are the ones in the hands of the killers and the ones in the hands of the armed citizenry on the spot. The rifles, pistols and shotguns in the pickup lockbox, in the closet at home or locked up in the trunk are inconsequential. You must be prepared at an INSTANT'S notice to defend yourself, your family and your community. If by doing so you risk arrest by some 'roidal cop, so be it. If you don't, you'll have the rest of your life to regret your timidity and indecision -- whether that is two seconds or twenty years.

MBV
III


Town comedian hailed as hero in Alabama killings

By JAY REEVES
Associated Press Writer


SAMSON, Ala. (AP) -- Many around Samson knew Bruce Maloy as their town's comedian, a goodhearted, wiry little jokester who was always boasting about hitting it big someday.

In life, he never really got the spotlight he was seeking. But in the days following the massacre that shattered their small Alabama community, some have dropped the comedian label and replaced it with another: Hero.

On Friday, witnesses and authorities said Maloy, the 10th and final victim of Tuesday's shooting rampage by Michael McLendon, single-handedly tried to end the violence with his beat-up old pickup truck.

With gunshots still echoing through downtown Samson and the killer headed toward a bigger city 12 miles away, Maloy chased McLendon's dark red Mitsubishi out of town, ramming the vehicle at least once.

Maloy slowed down the killer briefly, and he may have given police and state troopers time to catch up to McLendon, said Geneva County Chief Deputy Tony Helms. But it cost him his life.

"There's a hero in all of this that nobody is talking about, and that's Bruce Maloy," said Jim Stromenger, a dispatcher with the Samson Police Department.

McLendon shot the 51-year-old welder to death at a lonesome spot on Alabama 52 before eluding police in Geneva and killing himself with a single gunshot to the head at a former workplace, Reliable Products.

"Whether Bruce was following him in an attempt to find out where he went, stop him, I don't know. But I think he deserves recognition for what he did," said Helms.

Helms was one of two officers involved in a dizzying, final shootout with McLendon at Reliable Products, where the killer ran inside and killed himself.

A divorced father with three grown children, Maloy lived in an old trailer off a dirt road on the outskirts of town. Christmas lights still hang from the side.

Maloy's youngest child, 19-year-old Eva Maloy, helped his ex-wife and friends gather a few items from his home Friday as others made funeral arrangements. She's not exactly sure what her father did that day, but the idea of him giving his life to help others wasn't surprising.

"It sounds like him," said Maloy.

Initial reports depicted Maloy as the final victim of random gunshots sprayed by McLendon after he killed his mother, four more relatives and four others in the Alabama's worst mass killing. A truer picture emerged when investigators spoke with witnesses, piecing together details of McLendon's 24-mile path of death, Helms said.

Maloy was stopped at a traffic light on Main Street in Samson, headed west toward his home. Shots rang out to his left at the Big Little Store, and McLendon pulled out of the parking lot going east toward Geneva.

Two workers at Samson Feed and Seed saw Maloy whip his ragged old Isuzu pickup to the left, doing a U-turn and gunning it as he took off after McLendon.

With Maloy behind him, McLendon shot at a hardware store and a car stopped at a red light and kept going. Within seconds, Craig Harrison saw both vehicles speed past his business.

"The car came by and Bruce was right behind him. He wasn't two car lengths away from him," said Harrison, who formerly employed Maloy at Craig's Cycle and Marine. Harrison heard two more shots and believes McLendon was trying to get Maloy off his tail.

Maloy's chase ended 2.4 miles from where it began. Damage to the front of Maloy's truck indicates he rammed McLendon at least once, and the Mitsubishi had damage to its rear, although a police car could have done that.

Near a pipe plant just inside the city limits, McLendon fired at least three shots at Maloy after a collision. Two bullets hit metal, a third went through the windshield and struck Maloy.

Some people didn't like being around Maloy because he was such a big talker, Harrison said. He could be a little obnoxious with his joking and boasting.

But Samson now knows him as someone much different.

"He needs some recognition for what he did," said Harrison. "It was something he always wanted, and now the old boy won't see it."

"Who are you going to believe? Me, or your lying eyes?"

OK, just so you know, the Army says that the fire team shown in the Reuters photo was not there "enforcing" anything, they were just "supporting."

Huh? Oh, OK. So those guys were just out on the street looking for coffee and doughnuts for the locals? Groucho Marx would make a better Public Affairs Officer.

Thanks to Stewart Rhodes, we have the following transcript of Alex Jones interview with Lt. Col. Scott Wile, Director of Public Safety and Provost Marshall at Ft. Rucker. It can be found http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=92444.0 here

Stewart says, "And here is the money quote:"

AJ: Yeah. But you personally believe in the Second Amendment. Don’t you?

LTC W: Sir. My personal opinions have no bearing here whatsoever. Hey, sir. I appreciate you contacting me and giving me an opportunity to chat with you for a while, but I gotta run.

His personal opinions have no bearing? He just follows orders.

Synopsis: Lt. Col. Scott Wile, Director of Public Safety and Provost Marshall at Ft. Rucker, Alabama explains the military’s public role while assisting in law enforcement efforts at a shooting incident in southern Alabama on Mar 10th. It is unclear from this transcript whether the military was acting in a law enforcement role or not during the incident. Also of interest is LTC Wile’s response when asked about his oath to the Constitution, and, specifically, his personal beliefs about the Second Amendment. Much commentary about this topic by Jones and callers during the show.

//interview begins sometime into either the 2nd or 3rd hour of the 3/11/2009 broadcast//

LTC W: //cuts in// the incident took place and all of the local law enforcement from the state of Alabama responded. It happened in several different cities. It was a very ugly situation. And it was going to be a long, drawn out situation. So, here, in southern Alabama, we have mutual aid agreements with all of our local surrounding communities where they support us when we need help. We support them. We’ve had several natural disasters in the past such as a hurricane and a tornado. And we support each other in times of need. So, when this happened, we called down to one of the local police departments and offered our assistance. And they said, “Absolutely. We could use the military police.” So we went down. And all we did was provide a support role where we went…we took 20 MPs down there. The local law enforcement and the state law enforcement were establishing a cordon and taking care of the area. So we just provided support, went in. And allowed those…the state and local law enforcement folks to go and take a knee and drink water, go and get some food, just rest for a little while. We took their posts for them. And then when they came back, we moved on to other places to see where we could assist.

AJ: So did ah…so the Army contacted the police departments. Was this while the hour-long rampage was going on? Over 20 plus miles? Or did you contact them after they’d already…after he’d already killed himself?

LTC W: Yes, sir. It was after. After the event. When we realized that this was gonna be a major undertaking, then what I did was I called and offered my assistance. And the police chief took me up on it. And we called in the soldiers and drove down there.

AJ: Perhaps you can shed some more light because we’re getting conflicting stories. One sheriff’s deputy is reporting he had a fully automatic AK-47. Or was it semi-automatic? Or do you know?

LTC W: No sir. I don’t have any idea. I didn’t get involved in any part of the investigation or the active part of the law enforcement piece. All we provided was some security at some posts. And we provided relief forces for the guys that were working it.

AJ: Well being there in Alabama, you probably have a clearer picture of this…and then having your people on the ground…than we do. Boiling it down. What happened?

LTC W: Ah, yeah. Sir, I’ll tell you, you’re…what you’re hearing in the news is the same thing that we heard. I didn’t get involved in any part of the investigation. The true heroes were the local and state law enforcement from Alabama. And all we did was just go down there and…the exterior part of the cordon. We just relieved the guys that were blocking traffic and protecting the area.

AJ: Now, when you talk about mutual agreements with the county…previously, we hear about hurricanes or earthquakes or things like that. Certainly with the National Guard and things. But under Posse Comitatus…that still enforces in it to have the military out involved with law enforcement?

LTC W: Yes sir. And we don’t provide any kind of law enforcement role off of the installation. We didn’t go down there in a law enforcement role. What we did was we went down and just…we took our military police because we’re readily available.

AJ: I understand.

LTC W: …just went down and in a support role, we just took up posts for folks to rotate them so that we could…they could get out, get a place to go sit down, get something to eat, and then get back and take their posts.

AJ: No. I understand

LTC W: We didn’t provide any kind of law enforcement activity at all.

AJ: OK. The reason people ask that is we’ve all heard about NORTHCOM and the new 20 thousand troops for brigade homeland. I’m sure you’ve heard about that?

LTC W: Yes sir.

AJ: And how the Army War College says they are preparing for civil unrest. And so we see more and more reports about the Marines in California at DWI checkpoints and the Army assisting in drug interdiction and things like that inside the United States. So that’s…that’s why we were bringing that up because we see this happening more and more. Previously, if there was a shooting going on in Alabama, would the regular Army respond to that?

LTC W: Well sir. We wouldn’t respond to it. We would not…we would never respond off the installation in a law enforcement role. What we will provide though is a support function.

AJ: I understand.

LTC W: We will provide assistance to our partner community.

AJ: Sure. So military police though, setting up checkpoints, stopping traffic going through. That is not a law enforcement role?

LTC W: Yes sir. That is a law enforcement role. And that, we would not do here at Fort Rucker. I can’t speak for what NORTHCOM or the Army War College is trying to put together. But here at Fort Rucker, we would not do that.

AJ: No. No. But I’m looking at photographs of police blocking the…military police, Army military police blocking the road.

LTC W: Yes sir. All we were doing was enforcing the cordon.

AJ: I understand.

LTC W: And just directing traffic around it. We weren’t stopping anybody. We weren’t engaging anybody. We were just directing traffic.

AJ: OK. And what does…Fort Rucker is mainly Army aircraft support. Isn’t it?

LTC W: Yes sir. It’s the home of the Army aviation center.

AJ: Well, we know the folks in Alabama are great people. And we know the military are great people. It’s just there’s been big national debates about the larger and larger presence of military. And it was just interesting to see this in a report. We’re glad that more people weren’t killed. But sadly, 10 people is quite a lot. How’s the community taking this right now?

LTC W: Yeah. Sir, like everything else, the community is…they’re supporting each other. They’re taking care of the families of the affected people. And everybody’s pulling together to provide whatever it is that’s needed.

AJ: Well, in closing, we’re talking to Col. Scott Wile. Any thing else you think is important to add here, sir, or that you can tell us?

LTC W: Yeah. No sir. I’d just like to, one more time, reinforce that the true heroes in this situation were all of the state and local and federal law enforcement folks that are in the southern part of Alabama. And we were just happy to be able to provide them some assistance.

AJ: Now, specifically, they cornered him and then had a shootout and he killed himself? Or did they shoot him?

LTC W: Yes sir. I don’t have any of the facts of the case. Like I said, I was purely in a support role where we just went down and did what we could to help out.

AJ: Oh, so you were there yourself.

LTC W: Yes sir.

AJ: Wow. Were you on duty then or did you have to throw your uniform on quick and…

LTC W: Sure. Yeah. I just had to respond with it. As the Provost Marshall, these are all my guys and this was a place that we needed to be and in order to make sure that we provided the exact assistance that was within our limits. We went down and took care of business.

AJ: Well, we appreciate you sir, Colonel. All I know is I made a film. And in it we have the photographs and news articles during Bayfest in Alabama where the Alabama Defense Force was out searching little kid’s bags to go into the city. And that’s the type of stuff that we don’t like under the Constitution. And there’s a lot of calls to restrict the Second Amendment right now because of this shooting. And I just hope that the military will protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic.

LTC W: Yeah. Sir, I’ll tell you. That was…you just said a great deal of stuff and I…I don’t have a comment on that. I didn’t…I have nothing to say about that. I can just talk about the specific incident that we dealt with last night and the support that we provided to the local law enforcement here in southern Alabama.

AJ: Yeah. But you personally believe in the Second Amendment. Don’t you?

LTC W: Sir. My personal opinions have no bearing here whatsoever. Hey, sir. I appreciate you contacting me and giving me an opportunity to chat with you for a while, but I gotta run.

AJ: OK. Col. Scott Wile, thanks for joining us from Fort Rucker there in Alabama. Take care.

LTC W: OK sir.




From CetmeModeloC we have this response to troops from Fort Rucker patrolling in the wake of the spree killing in South Alabama:

Let's make something perfectly clear.

18 USC 1385 reads as follows:

18 USCS § 1385

§ 1385. Use of Army and Air Force as posse comitatus

Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

HISTORY:
(Added Aug. 10, 1956, ch 1041, § 18(a), 70A Stat. 626; June 25, 1959, P.L. 86-70, § 17(d), 73 Stat. 144; Sept. 13, 1994, P.L. 103-322, Title XXXIII, § 330016(1)(L), 108 Stat. 2147.)

Patriot Act or not a "Mayor", "Governor", "Sheriff" etc. cannot "just" call for assistance and get the Army to respond. It takes an Act of Congress to authorize such an action.

Has anyone been able to verify that the individuals pictured are in fact Active Duty Army and not just, maybe, National Guard or local SWAT?

BTW There is only one exception to section 1385 and it is 18 USC § 1384:

§ 1384. Prostitution near military and naval establishments.

Within such reasonable distance of any military or naval camp, station, fort, post, yard, base, cantonment, training or mobilization place as the Secretary of the Army, the Secretary of the Navy, the Secretary of the Air Force, or any two or all of them shall determine to be needful to the efficiency, health, and welfare of the Army, the Navy, or the Air Force, and shall designate and publish in general orders or bulletins, whoever engages in prostitution or aids or abets prostitution or procures or solicits for purposes of prostitution, or keeps or sets up a house of ill fame, brothel, or bawdy house, or receives any person for purposes of lewdness, assignation, or prostitution in any vehicle, conveyance, place, structure, or building, or permits any person to remain for the purpose of lewdness, assignation, or prostitution in any vehicle, conveyance, place, structure, or building or leases or rents or contracts to lease or rent any vehicle, conveyance, place, structure or building, or part thereof, knowing or with good reason to know that it is intended to be used for any of the purposes herein prohibited shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

The Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force and the Federal Security Administrator [Secretary of Health and Human Services] shall take such steps as they deem necessary to suppress and prevent such violations thereof, and shall accept the cooperation of the authorities of States and their counties, districts, and other political subdivisions in carrying out the purpose of this section.

This section shall not be construed as conferring on the personnel of the Departments of the Army, Navy, or Air Force or the Federal Security Agency [Department of Health and Human Services] any authority to make criminal investigations, searches, seizures, or arrests of civilians charged with violations of this section.

HISTORY:
(June 25, 1948, ch 645, § 1, 62 Stat. 765; May 24, 1949, ch 139, § 35, 63 Stat. 94; Sept. 13, 1994, P.L. 103-322, Title XXXIII, § 330016(1)(H), 108 Stat. 2147.)

For those of you who think it is alright to allow the military to patrol your streets just because they took an oath and are brave American soldiers take a moment and reflect on what you are saying.

There are those in the military who would protect your rights but are you willing to take the chance that the unit that comes to your town is full of those Oath Keepers and not just Oath Breakers?