Good question.

"Experts say Pelosi right to fear violence." Well, OK, if they're EXPERTS.

Lovable Larry, mascot of the the Threepers, expresses his opinion of sharp sticks.

At least they didn't quote the lying bastards at SPLC. You know, I'm with Mama Liberty on this one. If they don't want a civil disturbance, why don't they stop disturbing us?

I'm stressed for time this morning. Dissect this one at your leisure.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27566.html

Experts: Pelosi right to fear violence

By EAMON JAVERS

9/25/09 4:53 AM EDT

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently invoked the grim specter of political violence, arguing that today’s angry political climate could cause people to cross the line from heated talk to dangerous actions.

Republicans sharply rejected her claim, with House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) saying Pelosi is “living in another world.” Others charged that the California Democrat herself stoked emotions by labeling some health reform protesters “un-American.”

But it’s not just Pelosi who is worried. In interviews with POLITICO, five former Secret Service, FBI and CIA officers say that they, too, are concerned that today’s climate of supercharged political vitriol could lead to violence.

And this week, the FBI said that it is investigating whether anti-government sentiment played a role in the death of a U.S. Census worker who was found hanged from a tree in rural Kentucky, because the body had the word “fed” scrawled on the chest — though authorities say there are too many unanswered questions at this point to rule the case a homicide or a hate crime.

Beyond any specific case, some of the experts see the political moment as a part of a larger trend that’s been developing since the mid-’90s — dating back to GOP attacks on President Bill Clinton and continuing through the left’s sharp criticism of President George W. Bush, who was called a “liar” and “loser” by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

This summer’s protests against health care included an episode where freshman Rep. Frank Kratovil Jr. (D-Md.) was hanged in effigy. Anti-energy bill protesters tarred and feathered an effigy of Rep. Allen Boyd (D-Fla.). Last Halloween, a homeowner in liberal West Hollywood hanged in effigy Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin at his home.

There’s a big difference, of course, between a person who shouts at a congressman at a town hall and a person who would do something much more violent. But security experts say that the shouting incidents and other angry moments in recent weeks serve as indicators of an increase in political rage in the culture.

That rage comes against a backdrop of enormous changes in American life. The United States suffered a humiliating economic collapse that threatens its long-term position as the world’s most important economy, with a staggering 9.7 percent unemployment rate. President Barack Obama made several controversial federal interventions into the private sector.

At the same time, the country has elected its first African-American president at a moment when dramatic demographic changes mean that the groups now considered racial minorities will account for the majority of the U.S. population by the year 2042.

That kind of sweeping social change can be deeply unsettling.

“Times of threat bring increased aggression,” said Jerrold Post, a CIA veteran who founded the agency’s Center for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior during his 21-year career at headquarters in Langley, Va.

“And the whole country’s under threat now, with the economic difficulties and political polarization,” said Post, now a professor of psychiatry at The George Washington University. “The need to have someone to blame is really strong in human psychology. And once you have someone to blame, especially when there’s a call to action, some see it as a time for heroic action.”

In the United States, experts say, political violence is more likely to come from deranged loners than to come from any specific political group. For every Timothy McVeigh who is motivated by a murderous political ideology, there are far more delusional figures like Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, who tried to kill President Gerald Ford in 1975, and John Hinckley Jr., who tried to kill President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

Potentially violent loners, though, can be influenced by the atmosphere around them. Some of the security experts said angry rhetoric and images in the culture can agitate and inspire those loners to cross the line from anger to violence.

And several of the law enforcement experts said they see examples of fraying American nerves nearly everywhere in politics, from talk radio echoing with angry voices to Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) shouting, “You lie!” at Obama during a joint session of Congress.

All that contributes to a dangerous mix, says former Secret Service agent Ronald Williams, who served from 1970 to 1993. “When there are vitriolic comments, acrimonious commentary and anger, the likelihood of violence escalates,” he said.

Williams, who served on the protective detail for Ford, said he agreed with Pelosi’s comments, even though he doesn’t personally care for the speaker’s politics. “I’m not a real big fan of Nancy Pelosi’s,” he said. “But she is correct.”

Last week, Pelosi said she worried that the nation’s violent history could repeat itself. “I have concerns about some of the language that is being used, because I saw this myself in the late ’70s in San Francisco, this kind of rhetoric,” Pelosi said. “It created a climate in which violence took place.”

She also said she hoped everyone would turn down the rhetorical volume. “I wish we would all curb our enthusiasm in some of the statements and understand that some of the ears that it is falling on are not as balanced as the person making the statements may assume,” Pelosi said.

Later, her aides said she was referring to the assassinations of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978. But the killings of Moscone and Milk by Supervisor Dan White weren’t merely a random act of political violence — White served with both men and was upset that Moscone wouldn’t give him back his job after he changed his mind about quitting.

Williams says he sees provocative comments coming from both the left and the right, including from Pelosi herself. “By her own descriptions of the people who are out there protesting, she is engaged in ratcheting up the potential for dangerous acts to occur,” Williams said. Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) wrote an op-ed column in August that branded certain town hall protesters “un-American” for drowning out opposing voices.

Some Republicans agree: “If the speaker genuinely wants to lower the temperature of the debate, she should stop using heated rhetoric that is contributing to it in the first place,” said Paul Lindsay, a spokesman for the National Republican Campaign Committee.

For his part, Obama largely dismissed Pelosi’s concerns in an interview with CNN’s John King on Sunday. “Yelling at politicians is as American as apple pie. I mean, that’s — that’s in our DNA,” Obama said. “We have a long tradition of being skeptical of government.”

Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly said Pelosi merely “expressed her concern that people on all sides should certainly express their opinions but be careful what they say, because words have consequences.”

At least one Republican, Joe Scarborough, seemed to echo Pelosi’s comments this week, criticizing Fox commentator Glenn Beck for saying Obama is “a racist.” Scarborough, the host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” said, “You cannot preach hatred. You cannot say the president’s a racist. You cannot stir up things that could have very deadly consequences.”

Former President Jimmy Carter injected the president’s race into the national debate last week, telling NBC News, “I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man.” In his Sunday interviews, however, Obama rejected race as a primary reason for the opposition to him and his policies.

But whether it’s driving the anger or not, Obama’s race is a complicating factor for security agents, said Joseph Petro, a 23-year Secret Service veteran who spent four years guarding Reagan. “Politically inspired violence is a real problem,” said Petro, who is managing director of Citigroup Security and Investigative Services. “If you add in racism, the bandwidth of potential violence expands exponentially.”

Tom Locke, a 32-year veteran FBI agent who led the bureau’s investigation in the immediate wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, agrees. “With the openness in our society, it would be silly to say Obama’s not in danger,” said Locke. “The threats are real, and the threats are every day.”

The Secret Service declined to discuss its view of the security situation but says it is monitoring the situation. “We are respectful of everybody’s freedom of speech,” said Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan. “But there certainly is a line. And when people approach that line, we have an obligation to determine people’s intent.”

Former Secret Service agent Andrew O’Connell, who served on President George H.W. Bush’s security detail, takes solace from recent history. “There were some pretty violent statements” during President George W. Bush’s two terms in office, O’Connell said. “But I don’t think too many people acted on it then.”

"GO THREEPERS!" A Three Percenter makes the Rush Limbaugh Show.

This just in from The Trainer:

One of my guys was listening to Rush about 1400 - 1415 your time. A caller came on and before he did his thing, he told the guest host, Mark Steyn, he just wanted to say, "GO THREEPERS!" And Steyn, said, "Ok, GO THREEPERS!"

Thought you'd get a kick out of that.

Believe me, I do get a kick out of that. Outstanding. Maybe I'll send Mark an email to explain what he just cheered. I don't think he'll be too upset.

Mike
III

Almond Paste Coffee Cake: A Mike Hiland Classic.

Go here. Read. And leave Mike a compliment if you like it. I did.

Here's a hint: It ain't just about pastry.

Mike
III

Cui Bono? Did Glenn Beck murder a census worker? Or was it "Da Weed Man?"

Cui bono ("To whose benefit?", literally "as a benefit to whom?", a double dative construction) is a Latin adage that is used either to suggest a hidden motive or to indicate that the party responsible for something may not be who it appears at first to be. Commonly the phrase is used to suggest that the person or people guilty of committing a crime may be found among those who have something to gain, chiefly with an eye toward financial gain. The party that benefits may not always be obvious or may have successfully diverted attention to a scapegoat, for example. -- Wikipedia.

Bill Sparkman.

Before we start off into the land of political cardboard cartoon cut-outs, I want you to meet the man (as near as you can meet a dead man after the fact with inadequate information) whose caricature is at this moment being spun up by the other side as their latest symbol of "right-wing savagery."

Published: March 14, 2008 09:43 am

Never give up

Laurel County man doesn’t let cancer stop him from obtaining teaching degree

By Amber Podlucky / For the Times-Tribune

William E. Sparkman’s education story is one of thoughtful parental involvement for his son and for himself, and personal fortitude in the face of very difficult circumstances, including very serious personal illness.

He thought of it as volunteering in his son’s classroom. He never imagined it would lead to a career change.

Sparkman began his career path as a sports editor for the Mulberry Press in Mulberry, Fla. and through various jobs thereafter, landed him in London, Ky., just as his son, Josh (now 18 years old) was entering Johnson Elementary School.

His son could pass any test, but was struggling with completing the required assignments, so Sparkman thought that by volunteering in the classroom, he could help his son’s learning situation.

Eventually, he was offered the job of a paraeducator. Several years into the job, he realized he was doing many of the same things that the teachers were doing. Talking with several other paraeducators, he learned they were all going to school, working on their teacher certifications.

“Being a single parent, I knew I couldn’t quit my job and I would have limited nights to go to school, so it could take a long time to finish, “said Bill. “I checked around and discovered Western Governors University, and began online classes in September 2005. WGU offered everything that I wanted. I didn’t have to sit in class and I could go as fast or as slow as I needed to.”

Bill was making great progress when a life-threatening brick wall popped up. A cyst had formed on the right side of his neck and it was found to be Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.

Refusing to let that get in his way, he persevered. He began the necessary medical treatment and continued to do his student teaching.

“My mentor and college advisor, Carol Williams, provided me great support through this obstacle and continued leading me down the path to graduation. Carol lives in Atlanta, Ga., but she kept in constant contact with me the majority of my two-and-a half years in online studies through phone calls and e-mails,” Bill said.

Kelly Greene, of the Laurel County School system, is in charge of filling the vacancies for any teachers who are absent on any given day, so Bill kept Kelly up-to-date on his progress throughout his treatments.

“While in the process of getting his degree, Bill was never not available,” said Greene. “He was always very upbeat that early in the morning, willing and ready to go to work.”

Sparkman spoke with Greene at length about his being diagnosed with cancer. Sparkman assured her that he wanted her to continue to call him for work.

They went over in detail what he would have to do throughout his treatment, particularly on Fridays, when he would be unable to work due to the lengthy chemotherapy treatments. Greene said Sparkman was very conscientious as a substitute teacher and did not want his treatment to hurt his chances of being called into work.

Greene described Bill Sparkman as a man with a great attitude and added that someone with his enthusiasm and willingness to work is remarkable, given the situation.

Sparkman graduated from WGU in December 2007 with his bachelor’s degree in mathematics education.

With warnings from his doctor about traveling by plane, Bill took the long way to his graduation ceremony in February 2008 by driving all the way across the country to Salt Lake City to attend graduation in person and to receive the diploma he had worked so hard to earn.

“It took me five days to make the four-day trip, thanks to Mother Nature, and the harsh road conditions in Wyoming,” Sparkman recalled. “But once I got to Utah, it was clear sailing the rest of the way.”

“WGU is the only accredited university where you can obtain a bachelors degree in education,” said Sparkman, “and as more people discover WGU, I believe that more great teachers will be there for more students and be able to provide the support everyone deserves.”

Last Friday was Sparkman’s final chemotherapy treatment. He is happy and hopeful that the treatment worked and is totally successful. He’ll get the news of his final test results on tax day, April 15.

Although he realizes that his doctor will not be able to tell him he is totally cured, Sparkman is looking forward to hearing that his cancer is in remission, enough that he’ll only have to go in for a checkup ever 6-12 months.

Today, Bill Sparkman patiently waits for a math teacher position to open as he continues to substitute teach in various schools throughout Laurel County. Along with his commitment as a substitute teacher he also works evenings at the Campground Elementary in its after-school program.

“I think things are looking pretty good as there are eight schools throughout Laurel, Knox, Whitley and Clay counties,” said Sparkman, reflecting on his future as a teacher. “Working for the U.S. Census Bureau, I’ve become familiar with the numerous opportunities the school systems have to offer. I’m hoping to stay here in Laurel County, but I’d be willing to travel to any of the other schools, if that’s where a position opens. My home, my life is here in Laurel County, and this is where I want to stay.”

Sparkman takes no personal credit for his remarkable recovery.

“I know a lot of people were out there praying for me, and I have no doubt that it was a mixture of God’s will, the doctors, and my friends and family that got me through this,” he said.

“I don’t know who played the biggest part in getting me well, but I’d be happy to bow down and kiss whoever’s feet were in front of me.”

Now here is what we know so far in the state-run media about his murder

Hanging Death of Census Worker Probed

By DEVLIN BARRETT and JEFFREY McMURRAY,
AP

MANCHESTER, Ky. (Sept. 24) -- When Bill Sparkman told retired trooper Gilbert Acciardo that he was going door-to-door collecting census data in rural Kentucky, the former cop drawing on years of experience warned: "Be careful."

The 51-year-old Sparkman was found hanged from a tree near a Kentucky cemetery and had the word "fed" scrawled on his chest, a law enforcement official said Wednesday, and the FBI is investigating whether he was a victim of anti-government sentiment.

"Even though he was with the Census Bureau, sometimes people can view someone with any government agency as 'the government.' I just was afraid that he might meet the wrong character along the way up there," said Acciardo, who directs an after-school program at an elementary school where Sparkman was a frequent substitute teacher.

The Census Bureau has suspended door-to-door interviews in rural Clay County, where the body was found, until the investigation is complete, an official said.

The law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss the case and requested anonymity, did not say what type of instrument was used to write the word on the chest of Sparkman, who was supplementing his income doing Census field work.

He was found Sept. 12 in a remote patch of Daniel Boone National Forest and an autopsy report is pending.

Manchester, the main hub of the southeastern Kentucky county, is an exit off the highway, with a Walmart, a few hotels, chain restaurants and a couple gas stations.

The drive away from town and toward the area Sparkman's body was found is decidedly different, through the forest with no streetlights on winding roads, up and down steep hills and sparsely populated.

FBI spokesman David Beyer said the bureau is assisting state police and declined to discuss any details about the crime scene. Agents are trying to determine if foul play was involved and whether it had anything to do with Sparkman's job as Census worker, Beyer said. Attacking a federal worker during or because of his federal job is a federal crime.

Sparkman's mother, Henrie Sparkman of Inverness, Fla., told The Associated Press her son was an Eagle scout who moved to Kentucky to direct the local Boy Scouts of America. He later became a substitute teacher in Laurel County, adjacent to the county where his body was found.

She said investigators have given her few details about her son's death. They did tell her his body was decomposed and haven't yet released it for burial.

"I was told it would be better for him to be cremated," she said.

Acciardo said he became suspicious when Sparkman didn't show up for work at the after-school program in Laurel County for two days and went to police. Authorities immediately investigated, he said.

"He was such an innocent person," Acciardo said. "I hate to say that he was naive, but he saw the world as all good, and there's a lot of bad in the world."

Lucindia Scurry-Johnson, assistant director of the Census Bureau's southern office in Charlotte, N.C., said law enforcement officers have told the agency the matter is "an apparent homicide" but nothing else.

Census employees were told Sparkman's truck was found nearby, and a computer he was using for work was inside, she said.

Sparkman had worked for the Census since 2003, spanning five counties in the surrounding area, conducting interviews once or twice a month. Much of his recent work had been in Clay County, officials said.

The Census Bureau has yet to begin door-to-door canvassing for the 2010 head count, but thousands of field workers are doing smaller surveys on various demographic topics on behalf of federal agencies. Next year, the Census Bureau will dispatch up to 1.2 million temporary employees to locate hard-to-find residents.

The Census Bureau is overseen by the Commerce Department.

"We are deeply saddened by the loss of our co-worker," Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in a statement.

Locke called him "a shining example of the hardworking men and women employed by the Census Bureau."

Kelsee Brown, a waitress at Huddle House, a 24-hour chain restaurant in Manchester, when asked about the death, said she thinks the government sometimes has the wrong priorities.

"Sometimes I think the government should stick their nose out of people's business and stick their nose in their business at the same time. They care too much about the wrong things," she said.

Appalachia scholar Roy Silver, a New York City native now living in Harlan County, Ky., said he doesn't sense an outpouring of anti-government sentiment in the region as has been exhibited in town hall meetings in other parts of the country.

"I don't think distrust of government is any more or less here than anywhere else in the country," said Silver, a sociology professor at Southeast Community College.

The most deadly attack on federal workers came in 1995 when the federal building in Oklahoma City was devastated by a truck bomb, killing 168 and injuring more than 680. Timothy McVeigh, who was executed for the bombing, carried literature by modern, ultra-right-wing anti-government authors.

A private group called PEER, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, tracks violence against employees who enforce environmental regulations. The group's executive director, Jeff Ruch, said it's hard to know about all of the cases because some agencies don't share data on violence against employees.

From 1996 to 2006, according to the group's most recent data, violent episodes against federal Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service workers soared from 55 to 290.

"Even as illustrated in town hall meetings today, there is a distinct hostility in a large segment of the population toward people who work for their government," Ruch said.

Sparkman's mother is simply waiting for answers.

"I have my own ideas, but I can't say them out loud. Not at this point," she said. "Right now, what I'm doing, I'm just waiting on the FBI to come to some conclusion."

Now, it didn't take long after the rebirth of this previously ignored story (Bill Sparkman's body was discovered on 12 September and reported in the local press) for collectivist maggot bloggers to assign a prime suspect:

Glenn Beck, of course.

Meet Michael Stone, the Portland, Oregon "Progressive Examiner."

Stone describes himself thusly: "Gypsy scholar and freelance writer, Michael is a secular humanist with a passion for politics and protecting the civil liberties of those on the margins of society." He also helpfully gives us his email address, stonemichael@hotmail.com which you may want to visit after reading the rest of my post.

Now, mind you, Stone is not the only leftie to pick up on this meme. Even the Huffington Post has decided to praise a Boy Scout leader now that he is safely dead, which may be a first for them. But here is what "gypsy scholar" Stone believes:

Did Beck's 9-12 protest inspire Census worker's murder?

September 23, 7:28 PM

Did Glenn Beck's 9-12 protest inspire the murder of a US Census worker? A disturbing story is developing concerning the murder, the hanging, of a US Census worker. The worker was found dead, hanging from a tree, the same day as Glenn Beck's 9-12 Tea Party march on Washington D.C. The marchers were angry about many things, the expansion of the Federal Government in particular. The fact that the murdered Census worker was found with the word "Fed" written across his chest raises the inevitable speculations, and investigations.

The slain Census worker, William E. Sparkman Jr., was a 51-year-old single father who once battled Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. Sparkman, from London, Kentucky, worked two jobs while supporting his family. The part-time Census field worker and teacher was found Sept. 12 in a remote patch of the Daniel Boone National Forest in rural southeast Kentucky.

The anger and hate generated by media personalities such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, and politicians such as Joe Wilson and Sarah Palin, is bound to find an outlet that leads to violence and tragedy. It was, and is, only a matter of time.

Words have power, and words have consequences. While Beck may claim to be the silly clown when the chips are down, he is nevertheless guilty of screaming "fire" in a crowded theater. Good people on the left and right have called for Beck and his kind to cease and desist, to end the assault on civility.

Time may or may not tell if Beck had any direct influence in this good man's death.

Time may or may not tell if the climate of hate and fear Beck generates influenced this good man's death. Yet the fact remains, a good man is dead.

This will be the meme as the state-run media begins to flog this story.

However, my first move upon learning of this story late last night was to call up the newly-promoted Captain Bear, Regimental S-2 of the Dogtown Rangers. He went to work and shortly I had a report on Clay County, Kentucky, and a better suspect than Glenn Beck, or any of his Tea Party friends.

"Sir," reported CPT Bear, "Clay County is the pot capitol of Kentucky, hell, maybe of all the country east of the Mississippi. And where the body was found, that's 'Injun Country.' Cops don't go up there if they can avoid it. I'm sending you a story with links and a suspect."

Here's the story, from irjci.blogspot.com:

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Southeastern Kentucky has become less favorable for marijuana growers

By some estimates, Kentucky is still No. 2 in marijuana production, exceeded only by much larger California, but the legal and cultural climate for the crop in the state's most popular growing area has become less favorable, Bill Estep reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Estep's chief example is southeastern Kentucky pot grower J.C. Lawson, who bragged to the newspaper almost 20 years ago that he made $1 million in a few months and employed 20 people, bringing jobs and money to impoverished Clay County. "Lawson is still a symbol, but of a world and a war that is much different than 20 years ago," Estep writes. "The drug problem is worse in some ways, the war against it has escalated, and Lawson is headed to federal prison."

When pot became big business, some local officials took payoffs to protect the trade, and "The acceptance of marijuana growing colored local justice systems, according to some authorities who thought they couldn't get a meaningful conviction in some counties," Estep reports. But for the last 10 years, the region has been part of the Appalachia High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a federal designation that brings money and other resources to bear on the growers. Map shows that the HIDTA was recently expanded to include Hamilton and Washington counties in Tennessee and Letcher County, Ky., where The Mountain Eagle reported the move "should help local law enforcement agencies to secure more federal funding for the efforts to disrupt and dismantle drug trafficking organizations." Also, for the last five years, southeastern Kentucky has had a special, federally funded anti-drug program, Operation UNITE, courtesy of Rep. Hal Rogers, a subcommittee chairman on the House Appropriations Committee.

"Attitudes about drugs have evolved as well, in large part because of abuse of powerful prescription pills, unavailable in the late 1980s, that have brought misery and death to many families," writes Estep. "People who said little or nothing about marijuana cultivation in 1987 now work to promote awareness of drug abuse and keep track of how cases are handled." (Read more)

OK, so what do we have? An innocent census taker, not from that county, wanders up into pot grower's "Injun Country." This is a place where cops fear to tread, likely made even more dangerous now that the pot growers are under economic pressure. He is found some days later, a rotting corpse at the end of a rope with "fed" carved in his chest. And this is Glenn Beck's fault?

How about we apply a little Occam's Razor and Cui bono to this case. How about this guy?


Meet "Da Weedman."

the_weedman101's profile

Name: Da Weed Man

Location: Clay County Kentucky.

Joined on: December 16th, 2008

Interests: Smokin weed

Favorite JTV Quotes: Wanna buy some weed off of me :D

About Me: I Smoke Weed

It may be straining the credulity of the average state-run media reporter, but people other than "right-wing anti-government militias" refer to Feds as "Feds." Applying Occam's Razor and Cui bono to this murder would seem to point in the direction of paranoid pot growers rather than Glen Beck.

Yet, unless local law enforcement is able to break this case, you will be hearing a lot of "right-wing hate speech" in the coming days and nothing about the Clay County Kentucky Pot Empire. Why? Certainly some of the up-east "talking heads" who will be pointing their manicured fingers at "militia maddogs" partake of some of Clay County's finest and are not unaware of its source.

Again, on this separate question of deliberate press misdirection we must ask: Cui bono?

Who benefits?

Why the people who now control the FBI, of course. The people in the White House.

Would someone with better connections than me forward this to Glenn Beck?

He's not only gonna need an alibi, but it never hurts to have an alternate suspect whose culpability is more obvious than yours.

Mike Vanderboegh
sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com

PS: Excellent staff work by CPT Bear. Another notch on the fabled belt of the Dogtown Rangers.

If it ain't true it oughta be.

My thanks to John54 for this one:

Getting A Parking Ticket

The other day I went downtown to run a few errands. I went into the local coffee shop for a snack. I was only there for about 5 minutes, and when I came out, there was this cop writing out a parking ticket.

I said to him, 'Come on, man, how about giving a retired person a break'?

He ignored me and continued writing the ticket. His insensitivity annoyed me, so I called him a 'Nazi.'

He glared at me and then wrote out another ticket for having worn tires.

So I proceeded to call him a 'dough nut-eating Gestapo.' He finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first.

Then he wrote a third ticket when I called him a moron in blue.

This went on for about 20 minutes. The more I talked back to him the more tickets he wrote.

Personally, I didn't really care. I came downtown on the bus, and the car that he was putting tickets on had one of those bumper stickers that said, 'Obama '08.'

I try to have a little fun each day now that I'm retired.

The doctor tells me that it's important for my health.

"Mike, why don't you post on KABA anymore?"

Anti-Semite flies buzz around their lying "Protocols" philosophy.

Folks,

I've been asked the above question for I have indeed decided not to post my own stuff on KABA anymore, except in extra-ordinary circumstances.

Well, it's like this:

Comment by: Emmett (9/22/2009)
I think Richard Cohen would call Red Mike Vanderboegh an anti-semite, although he'd be wrong. Red Mike is White on the outside, black on the inside, with the mind of a Jew! Richard and Red Mike are on the same team, just in different positions. Red Mike does enjoy his agitating and provoking of the gullible Patriot. Cohen enjoys agitating and provoking the gullible Goyim. Bolshevik and Zionist, they're on the same team. The nwo/owg team!

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

Comment by: coldsteel (9/22/2009)
Typical **** rant. Shove up your ass jewboy.

There are too many anti-semite, neo-Nazi fleas on that dog and I ain't got time to dip 'em anymore.

I still go to KABA for a good blend of 2nd Amendment news every morning. And I would be remiss not to note that KABA was essential to building my readership in the early days of Sipsey Street. I have tried to help them out too, passing along fund-raising requests (for which I caught hell from some quarters).

But it appears to me that though I have a good friend in Bruce Krafft, that Mark Taff never has liked my stuff much and to fight the comment wars over there takes time I simply do not have.

Everybody quite rightly keeps screaming "BOOK!!!!!" at me over here. There is also the press of day-to-day events which must be dealt with -- and never forget there's a reason and an audience for every post, even if it is not obvious or appears frivolous. The blog is a reflection of the outside struggle, which happens in real time, in the streets and in the countryside, and not just for hearts and minds.

Indeed, there are two silent legal skirmishes in the larger cold war happening today, with opportunity for government misadventure in either.

I also have to write to add a little, and I mean little, cash to supplement my disability pennies. All this takes time. Then there are my health issues, which, if I'm not careful, will kill me before the Feds do.

So I cut out what I can and the gnat-dick Jew haters over at KABA are easily expendable.

If anybody thinks my stuff is worthy of posting on KABA, they are welcome to do so and have my thanks. But don't expect me then to go over there and defend it from the buzzing moron flies who leave their anti-Semite turd philosophy long enough to try to track their little shit-laden feet across that screen. I ain't got the time.

Mike
III

Performance Art

Yes, those are fifty cals.

Tip of the boonie hat to es.

Says es:

Made this using a combo of .50 plain tip, blue tip, red tip and silver tip

Praxis: "Nosler has hit a home run."

RELOADERS: NOSLER HAS HIT A HOME RUN

Carl F. Worden
September 22, 2009


Happy Autumn and happy hunting season!!

Before I begin with this extremely good news for reloaders, I want you to know I am in no way associated with Nosler and I am not being compensated by Nosler in any way, directly or indirectly, for writing this piece.

Reloading for extreme long range accuracy in an extreme long range-accurate rifle has always been a hassle. Before you even begin to load rounds for your rifle you must size the brass for length, bore out the flash hole, ream the primer pocket, chamfer the mouth of the brass and then go through the laborious task of weighing each brass case into groups so that the powder you are loading fills the case exacly the same. You cannot achieve near-absolute consistency shot-to-shot if you do not take these preparatory steps if you want tight groups beyond 300 yards. Now you must load your cases with match-grade primers with absolute consistency. Only then can you fill each case with the exact weight of powder and crown that sparkling gem with a match-grade bullet set to a depth where the bullet just exactly touches the rifling. Now you are ready to shoot.

Nosler has done all the case prep, including case weight sorting, and is selling that brass for reloading. I recommend you start with 200 cases and keep them separate from any others of the same caliber that you may have in stock.

My 300 Winchester Magnum, bull-barreled rifle has a 28 inch barrel which allows me to load Berger 210 grain bullets that leave the barrel at 2,950 FPS, and the accuracy I achieve is stunning at .33 MOA. Of course, no matter how much case preparation you perform, you cannot achieve that kind of accuracy if you don't have a rifle capable of it, and that requires a match trigger in a solid action mounted in a composite stock with a match-grade barrel. Remington 700 actions have always been favored, but Savage is now producing some really fine, out-of-the-box rifles that shoot .50 MOA with the right ammo, and the bonus is that factory Savage rifles can cost far less than an equivalent Remington custom rig.

Have fun! Carl F. Worden

"PFA Theology" -- That's what killed Abortionist Tiller, with a little help from the Anti-Christ Prince Charles. I kid you not.

Meet Prince Charles, Scott Roeder's favorite candidate for the Anti-christ. Huh?

OK, first off, mea culpa. I said Roeder, the killer of abortionist Tiller, was Christian Idenitity. "Was" is the operating term, there. He had been Identity, but by the time of the shooting of Tiller, Roeder had morphed into something considerably more squirrelly-bird, if that is possible.

Just got off the phone after a long talk with my friend Judy Thomas at the KC Star. We were chatting about something else, but the conversation rolled around to old Roeder. She pointed me to a story of hers I had missed.

FBI traces Roeder associates; Suspect in abortion doctor's death had "crazy, fanatic" beliefs, acquaintance says.By Judy L. Thomas

Monday, August 31, 2009
Section: NATIONAL/LOCAL, Page A4

They met in one another's homes on Saturdays, their Sabbath, for potluck dinners and scripture study sessions.

Among the topics: The Old Testament, their Hebrew roots and the "secret societies" attempting to control government and culture.

Among the members: Scott Roeder, the Kansas City man accused of killing Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller.

As the investigation continues into whether Roeder acted alone in Tiller's May 31 death, members of the study group have found themselves in the spotlight, showing up on the witness list for the prosecution and being interviewed by the FBI.

Even a rabbi at an Overland Park congregation of Messianic Jews has been questioned, although Roeder's group broke away after some members were asked to leave the synagogue.

"People are trying to make something out of nothing," said Michael Clayman, an attorney who was host for the group for a time in his Merriam home.

"It was like any other Bible study around town. It was a bunch of guys having spaghetti and meatballs, talking about philosophy. It wasn't a bunch of Jim Jones people meeting or drinking Kool-Aid or plotting things. No cult, no nothing."

The group does help explain the foundation of some of Roeder's beliefs, which included distrust of government and opposition to abortion.

Those attending the study group describe themselves as Messianic Jews who, unlike mainstream Jews, believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Some people who call themselves Messianic Jews, such as Roeder, are not Jewish.

Messianic Jews observe many Jewish customs, including dietary laws and holidays.
In a recent interview, Roeder said he "had become a believer" around 1992.

"I converted, born again to Christianity," he said. "I guess you could say Messianic, or turned to Jesus, Yeshua, as my Savior." He said Messianic believers such as himself had gone "back to our Hebrew roots."

Roeder said he preferred going to a study group instead of a more formal religious setting because "organized religion is 501(c)3 tax-exempt organizations, which are businesses."

"We stay away from them," he said, adding that religious organizations receiving tax-exempt status become corrupt because they are beholden to the government.

Roeder and other members of the Bible study used to attend the Or HaOlam Messianic Congregation in Overland Park but split off, some said, because the leaders did not want to hear their talk about Freemasons and other "secret societies."

They also didn't approve of Or HaOlam being registered as a nonprofit corporation with the state of Kansas.

Rabbi Shmuel Wolkenfeld of the Or HaOlam congregation confirmed that Roeder and the others left over disagreements. Wolkenfeld said he hadn't seen them for several years.

"We had such divisive conversations with them," he said. "Scott became displeased with us because we were an incorporated Kansas charity."

He said the group also espoused conspiracy theories -- including an assertion that Prince Charles is the Antichrist -- and that eventually, he and the elders had to "uninvite" two of Roeder's friends.

"With Scott, we had a bunch of discussions, then he just disappeared," he said. "I wish we could have helped him, but he had his own opinions."

Wolkenfeld said the congregation was shocked by Tiller's slaying.

"Our congregation is certainly pro-life," he said. "So for something like that to happen is abhorrent. All it does is bring disgrace on the whole cause."

Wolkenfeld said two Wichita police detectives paid him a visit after Tiller's murder to ask about Roeder.

"What they said was they knew we had a history with him and they were looking for any possible lead," he said.

After leaving Or HaOlam, the group began meeting on Saturday afternoons, first at Clayman's house and most recently at an apartment in Westport that Roeder shared with another man.

The man asked not to be identified because he fears losing his job, saying he already had lost a new roommate who discovered the man's ties to Roeder.

The man said the study group was suspended after Roeder's arrest.

He said he last saw Roeder the day before Tiller was killed. Roeder told him that he was going to visit his family in Topeka and didn't come home that night. The next day, he said, the FBI knocked on his door at 4:15 p.m. and started asking questions.

Agents took his home computer and laptop and also Roeder's computer, he said, along with some Hebrew teaching tapes. He said he's met with FBI agents five times since Tiller's death.

Tim Parks, who was Roeder's roommate for five years before Roeder lived with Clayman, said he attended some of the study group's meetings. He said, however, that "I disagreed with a lot of that stuff." Some of the beliefs, he said, were "kind of off the wall."

"To me, it's PFA theology," he said. "Plucked from air."

Parks said he isn't convinced that Roeder killed Tiller.

"A bunch of us think he is being framed," said Parks, who also has been interviewed by the FBI. "To me, the entire judicial system is suspect."

Clayman said he met Roeder about two years ago while attending a different study group. He said Roeder lived with him for 11 months but moved out April 1 because he'd lost his job and wasn't paying his rent.

Clayman said Roeder took the abortion issue to the extreme.

"Scott believed that the Bible was literal, the word of God," he said. "Where he went astray was he had this crazy, fanatic doctrine that you could somehow justify killing somebody just because they were an abortion doctor."

Clayman said Roeder talked often about his belief that killing an abortion doctor was an act of justifiable homicide.

"When he brought up that in theory -- but he never did threaten anybody when I was around -- I said, 'How can you repay evil with evil?' " he said.

Clayman said investigators won't find any conspiracy behind Tiller's killing, especially among the members of the study group.

"A Bible study is studying the Bible," he said. "We'd read from the Bible and say, 'What do you think about that?' Then we'd discuss it. We didn't sit around and have sacrifices in the backyard."

As for Roeder, Clayman said, "He's going to be tried, and he's going to try and do a dog-and-pony show in front of the media. He wants to tell the whole world. He's a martyr, see? That's what he wanted to be."

To reach Judy L. Thomas, call 816-234-4334 or send e-mail to jthomas@kcstar.com.

Here's the coat of arms of Prince Charles, with notaions of how it "proves" that he is the Anti-christ. Further proof? Judy tells me that if you add up the numerical letter values for all the letters in "Charles Prince of Wales," it adds up to "666."

OK, I quess. But here's where the whole Prince Charles as Anti-christ theory breaks down for me, slap in the middle of the road to Reality with a busted axle and four flat tires:

Camilla Parker-Bowles. There ain't no way, in hell or any other place, that THIS is the doxie of the Anti-christ. No way.

Typeay forwards us a media decision flow chart.

Another play from the instruction manual Tyranny for Dummies: The Purge of the Officer Corps.

Previously, students, we have examined predictable gambits from the playbook of tyranny, such as the Manufactured Outrage (Reichstag Fire, Oklahoma City Bombing, Beslan School Massacre) and the Demonstration of Terror to Overawe the Subject Population (Waco, Kristallnacht). Today, boys and girls, we shall deal with another play that every tyrant must make before he sits secure on his bloody throne -- the Purge of the Officer Corps. Before we delve into history for context, however, you must first read the following materials from the present day.

First came this story in the Washington Post. A smippet:

McChrystal: More Forces or 'Mission Failure'

Top U.S. Commander For Afghan War Calls Next 12 Months Decisive

By Bob Woodward
Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, September 21, 2009

The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan warns in an urgent, confidential assessment of the war that he needs more forces within the next year and bluntly states that without them, the eight-year conflict "will likely result in failure," according to a copy of the 66-page document obtained by The Washington Post.

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal says emphatically: "Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near-term (next 12 months) -- while Afghan security capacity matures -- risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible."

His assessment was sent to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Aug. 30 and is now being reviewed by President Obama and his national security team.

McChrystal concludes the document's five-page Commander's Summary on a note of muted optimism: "While the situation is serious, success is still achievable."

But he repeatedly warns that without more forces and the rapid implementation of a genuine counterinsurgency strategy, defeat is likely. McChrystal describes an Afghan government riddled with corruption and an international force undermined by tactics that alienate civilians.

He provides extensive new details about the Taliban insurgency, which he calls a muscular and sophisticated enemy that uses modern propaganda and systematically reaches into Afghanistan's prisons to recruit members and even plan operations.

McChrystal's assessment is one of several options the White House is considering.

His plan could intensify a national debate in which leading Democratic lawmakers have expressed reluctance about committing more troops to an increasingly unpopular war. Obama said last week that he will not decide whether to send more troops until he has "absolute clarity about what the strategy is going to be."

Then came this analysis piece by Michael Crowley at The New Republic:

Obama vs the Generals?

Michael Crowley

September 21, 2009

This morning's Washington Post's account of Stanley McChrystal's Afghanistan review isn't very surprising. We already knew that McChrystal sees the Taliban as a formidable enemy and thinks the U.S. needs an ambitious coutinerinsurgency to succeed.

What is striking is the back-and-forth, by means of background quotes, between the White House and the Pentagon in the Post's accompanying analysis piece. In the wake of the tainted Afghan elections, Barack Obama sounds increasingly wary about a major escalation in America's support for a government widely seen as illegitimate (not to mention corrupt). Important people in the White House, including Joe Biden, understand that you can't wage a winning counterinsurgency on behalf of a broadly distrusted government. (For more on Biden see my print story this week, not yet online). But the military establishment obviously wants to proceed, and is increasinly relying on press leaks to pressure the Obama team to deliver the boots. Here's the most vivid example from the Post:

But Obama's deliberative pace -- he has held only one meeting of his top national security advisers to discuss McChrystal's report so far -- is a source of growing consternation within the military. "Either accept the assessment or correct it, or let's have a discussion," one Pentagon official said. "Will you read it and tell us what you think?" Within the military, this official said, "there is a frustration. A significant frustration. A serious frustration."

And from the White House, we get this irritated retort:

The president, one adviser said, is "taking a very deliberate, rational approach, starting at the top" of what he called a "logic chain" that begins with setting objectives, followed by determining a methodology to achieve them. Only when the first two steps are completed, he said, can the third step -- a determination of resources -- be taken.

"Who's to say we need more troops?" this official said. "McChrystal is not responsible for assessing how we're doing against al-Qaeda."

It's an awfully uncomfortable spot for Obama to be in. During the campaign he spoke often--albeit usually in the context of Iraq--about heeding the advice of his commanders on the ground. Now he's in a position where he may not want to accept it.

As I wrote in my last print piece, this line of thinking helped George W. Bush screw up Iraq. That said, what the generals want is not the only consideration here. Their job is to tell Obama how the war can be won. Obama's job is to decide whether, in the context of America's myriad priorities at home and abroad, it's worth the projected cost.

Obama on the spot, eh? Not necessarily. Now let us finish with this piece of what seems like arcane but interesting inside political baseball by Ben Smith at Politico.com, but isn't really.

A D.C. whodunit: Who leaked and why?

BEN SMITH | 9/22/09 4:51 AM EDT

Bob Woodward’s Monday-morning exclusive on a 66-page report from Gen. Stanley McChrystal to President Barack Obama about Afghanistan policy was a rite of passage for the new administration: the first major national security leak and a sure sign that the celebrated Washington Post reporter has penetrated yet another administration.

White House officials greeted the leak with a grimace, but none suggested they’d begin a witch hunt for the leaker. Woodward is famous for his access to the principals themselves — he recently traveled to Afghanistan with National Security Adviser James Jones — and leak hunters couldn’t expect with confidence that they’d find themselves disciplining just an undisciplined junior staffer.

But inside the White House and out, the leak touched off another familiar Washington ritual: speculation about the leaker’s identity and motives.

This is a capital parlor game that, for the Obama administration, has some dire implications. Unless the West Wing somehow orchestrated an elaborate head fake — authorizing what looks at first blush like an intolerable breach of Obama’s internal deliberations — the Woodward story suggests deeper problems for a new president than a bad news cycle.

Woodward — like other reporters, only more so — tends to shake loose information when he can exploit policy conflicts within an administration. There is now a big one over a critical national security decision, along with evidence that some people who ostensibly work for Obama feel they can pressure him with impunity. It took several years within former President George W. Bush’s administration before deep personal and policy fissures became visible.

So who did it?

The simplest theory — and one most administration officials Monday were endorsing — is that a military or civilian Pentagon official who supports McChrystal’s policy put it out in an attempt to pressure Obama to follow McChrystal’s suggestion and increase troop levels in Afghanistan.

But not everyone in Washington is a believer in Occam’s razor, so all manner of other theories flourished.

There are believers in the reverse leak, in which the leak itself is meant to damage McChrystal’s position by inducing White House anger at the general. There’s the fake leak, in which the White House may have been trying to back itself into a corner. A former government official with ties to the Pentagon said the talk in the building was that a senior military official had given it to the reporter for his book on the Obama White House — not realizing it could end up in print sooner.

“That places the ball clearly in the president’s court,” former Clinton Defense Secretary William Cohen said, noting that Obama had already publicly placed his trust in McChrystal’s judgment.

“It’s an effort — whether by [McChrystal] or by somebody in the Pentagon or maybe the White House — to say, ‘You’ve asked the military to give you not what you want to hear but what you have to know. Now it’s up to you as commander in chief to decide if you think you have a better idea.’”

The leak is a shot across the bows, he said, of Vice President Joe Biden and of leading congressional Democrats who oppose a buildup in Afghanistan.

Another Clinton veteran with experience in national security matters was not so sure, however, that Obama wasn’t helped by a piece that lays the public ground for an inevitable troop escalation. “This thing has to have some airing and consideration by the public — so in the tactical sense, there’s a benefit to considering it,” the official said.

But some said all this speculation may be overthinking the matter. Many people in Washington, after all, are motivated by personal vanities as much as by policy convictions.

“It’s most likely someone who has or is cultivating a personal relationship with Bob Woodward and positioning himself to look good in Woodward’s next book,” said Matt Bennett, vice president at the Democratic-leaning think tank Third Way, echoing the views of many inside government and out.

The history of Woodward sources portrayed as heroes is long, including the likes of Colin Powell and, for a time, George W. Bush. But Woodward’s take on the Bush administration also changed dramatically with time, and some portrayed positively in his early books were savaged in the later ones.

Whatever the motive, the appearance of McChrystal’s report makes it more difficult for Obama to defer, through an extensive series of consultations, a decision over which side he will take in a debate over the recommendation of adding more soldiers and civilians to a more robust mission with the goal of giving Afghanistan — perhaps for the first time — a strong, functioning central government. The release follows a letter from a range of Obama’s usual critics — from neoconservative foreign policy thinkers to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Bush adviser Karl Rove — pressing Obama to follow just that policy.

“The Pentagon hasn’t changed and there are a lot of people within the Pentagon who understand the strategic use of the leak,” said Heather Hurlburt, executive director of the Democratic-leaning National Security Network. One possibility you have to look at is this being leaked by someone who is in league with the neocon assault on Obama, where anything short of ‘all in’ is framed as weak and a defeat.”

In the larger sense, the document’s contents are completely unsurprising — McChrystal’s views were widely known, and the assessment just spells them out. But giving the document to a brand name like Bob Woodward, who has a flair for the dramatic, ensures big play in The Washington Post and broad pickup by other media.

“This leak would, by all appearances, be the act of someone who supports an increase in troop strength and resources,” said Kevin Kellems, a communications director for former Vice President Dick Cheney, who noted that “the power of Woodward going on page A1 is exceptional” in its ability to dictate to wire services and cable outlets, a vanishing power of the newspapers. “This is the act most likely of a civilian who is an advocate of this position and believes they were right to do this because lives were at stake.”

Third Way’s Bennett, whose group backs a bigger commitment in Afghanistan, said he thought the document would do McChrystal’s position more harm than good.

“It’s not going to pressure the president to go the way they want him to go,” he said. “It’s going to annoy people in the White House, and that’s never a good idea.”
Others argued that the White House itself benefits from the leak.

“It’s a helpful thing to have out in the ether for the White House,” said Dan Senor, a former spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, who said the report would help beat back criticism on the left. “I think the White House wants to convey how much pressure they’re under from the military,” he said, adding that he wouldn’t speculate on the source of the leak.

Others simply welcomed the fact that the leak might force a quicker decision on an urgent question.

“It at least, for the first time, gives people a tangible picture of what the recommended options are, and it to some extent forces the issue,” said Anthony Cordesman, a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who has been critical of an Afghan buildup. “The tendency in the White House is to try and slip this until health care and possibly the economy are taken care of, but nobody has that kind of time.”

Meet Mikhail Tukhachevsky

Now, students, a history lesson.

In 1935 Tukhachevsky was made a Marshal of the Soviet Union, aged only 42. In January 1936 Tukhachevsky visited Britain, France and Germany. Worried over Tukhachevsky's growing influence, Stalin determined to eliminate him and seven other high-level Soviet military commanders. Just before his arrest, Tukhachevsky was relieved of duty as assistant to Marshal Kliment Voroshilov and appointed military commander of the Volga Military District. It is believed that Stalin ordered this ruse (one employed with seven other arrested commanders as well) to separate Tukhachevsky from the troops and officers under his command. Shortly after departing to take up his new command he was secretly arrested on May 22, 1937, and brought back to Moscow in a prison van. . . All were charged with organization of a "military-Trotskyist conspiracy" and espionage for Nazi Germany. Brought before the court martial board, the Soviet military prosecutor alleged that during Tukhachevsky's foreign visits, the general had contacted anti-Stalin Russian exiles to foment plots against Stalin. The prosecution then introduced copies of confessions signed by the defendants as evidence. . .

After Soviet archives were opened to researchers after the fall of the Soviet Union, it became clear that Stalin actually concocted the fictitious plot by the most famous and important of his Soviet generals in order to get rid of them in a believable manner. At Stalin's order, the NKVD instructed one of its agents, Nikolai Skoblin, to pass to Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the German Nazi SD (Sicherheitsdienst) intelligence arm, concocted information suggesting a plot by Tukhachevsky and the other Soviet generals against Stalin. Seeing an opportunity to strike a blow at both the Soviet Union and his arch-enemy Admiral Canaris of the German Abwehr, Heydrich immediately acted on the information and undertook to improve on it, forging a series of documents implicating Tukhachevsky and other Red Army commanders; these were later passed to the Soviets via Beneš and other neutral parties. While the SD believed it had successfully deluded Stalin into executing his best generals, in reality they had merely served as useful and unwitting pawns of Stalin. It is notable that the forged documents were not even used by Soviet military prosecutors against the generals in their secret trial, instead relying on false confessions extorted or beaten out of the defendants.

Tukhachevsky at secret trial, 11 June 1937. You can plainly see he's had the crap beaten out of him.

Afraid of the consequences of trying popular generals and war heroes in a public forum, Stalin ordered the trial also be kept secret; author and Stalin Terror survivor Alexander Barmine doubted there was really any 'trial' at all, noting that Stalin had ordered in advance that the eight generals be shot immediately following their court-martial. In the book The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression, it is said that Tukhachevsky's confession, written by him, is stained in blood. From this, one could assume that Tukhachevsky and his fellow defendants were tortured. After the secret trial, known as Case of Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization, Tukhachevsky and eight other higher military commanders were convicted on June 12, 1937 and immediately executed. Tukhachevasky was killed by NKVD captain Vasili Blokhin. When Tukhachevsky was in his cell, Blochin shouted "Comrade Tukhachevsky is wanted at the plenary session of the political bureau!", and then shot Tukhachevsky in the cervical vertebrae (execution-style), causing immediate death. Perhaps afraid of army uprisings, Stalin ordered the communiqué announcing their arrest, trial, and execution withheld from broadcast until after the executions had already taken place. Tukhachevsky's military writings were then banned. -- Wikipedia.

Tukhachevsky's widow was arrested by the NKVD shortly thereafter. She later went insane and was last seen on the eve of her deportation to the Ural District, wearing a strait-jacket. Svetlana Tukhachevskaya, then twelve years old and the Marshal's only daughter, was sent to a special orphanage for the children of the people's enemies. She was arrested in 1944 and sentenced by an extrajudicial body Special Council of the NKVD to five years in Gulag. She died in 1982.

Once Stalin was able to eliminate the most famous and popular of the Soviet military commanders, he had free rein to continue purging the rest of the Red Army and the Soviet government. On January 31, 1957, Tukhachevsky and his colleagues were declared to have been innocent of all charges against them and were "rehabilitated." -- Wikipedia.

All dictators purge unreliable generals, especially if they're popular. Beck opposed Hitler, and General Beck's ouster was soon arranged. But this business above, this inside political baseball of who leaked what, and Obama versus the Generals, this is not on the order of Stalin or Hitler, surely?

No.

Not yet.

But ask yourself this: what if this is not just the usual game of Washington elbows at the table of power? What if Obama has taken a good look at the stable of generals and has decided there are some he wishes to maneuver out of his way? The best way to do that is to contrive a crisis of conscience in the men and women he wants gone.

The generals have three solemn responsibilities in this order: to uphold the Oath to the Constitution, to defend the country from attack, and to take care of their soldiers.

Generals in the Sixties and Seventies destroyed their reputations, and almost, the Army itself, by slavishly obeying civilian commanders who forced them into violating all three of these responsibilities for the sitting president's political whim or benefit.

The officer corps collectively swore another oath after Vietnam, one that was personal, private and kept between themselves: "Never again." No more Vietnams. Next time the officer corps promised themselves and each other that they would resign their commissions rather than participate in political farce that got good men killed for nothing.

Even if Obama knows nothing about the military -- and he's only ever evinced an interest in defunding it as a waste of domestic program money -- General Jones, his military eminence grise has surely explained this to him.

To issue an unconstitutional order, have it refused, and then to fire a general would be very bad publicity, especially if that general speaks out. Far easier to contrive a resignation, even a mass resignation, over "policy differences." Then he can appoint whatever rubber-spined toady wearing a uniform that suits his appetite.

That's the play that's going on here, gentlemen and ladies, I'd bet my life on it.

Huh. In point of fact, I already have. But no matter.

The real question is, once this happens, what does the non-commissioned officer corps think of it? And the Lieutenants, Captains and Majors? And more importantly, what will they do?

The answers to THOSE questions may not be the ones Obama expects.

But the play? The play is right out of the handbook, Tyranny for Dummies.

But the thing is, this manual has never been applied to this country, not to its intended conclusion. In the end, it may not even work here as it has in countries and cultures all over the world.

Should be a good test of that "American exceptionalism" thing, don't you think?

Let's test their frigging tyrannical theory and see who wins.

Willing to bet your life?

Because somebody has already bet it for you.

Mike
III



"HEY! Who let that goddam dog in here?" "Grrrrrrr." "Oh, uh, nice doggy. Nice doggy."

The latest from Raven's Wood on the III Patches.

As of 9/21/09, all "III Patch" orders received by Raven's Wood have been fulfilled. The Woodland patch is out of stock and has been re-ordered. Any order received from 9/22/09 for Woodland will be held until the patches come in and then fulfilled in the order received.

3 Color Desert Patches are still available and orders for the 3 color will be processed normally.

Ordering information:

Send $4 per patch, post paid, in a USPS money order, Certified or Cashier's check (orders with personal and/or business checks held until cleared - approximately 10 business days) to:

Raven's Wood Enteprises, LLC
PO Box 962
Birmingham, MI 48012

The Stalin Epigram

Written by Osip Mandelstam in 1933, and read to a small circle of friends, one of whom was an NKVD informer, it was inspired by his personal witness of the great famine.

Our lives no longer feel ground under them.
At ten paces you can't hear our words.
But whenever there's a snatch of talk
it turns to the Kremlin mountaineer,
the ten thick worms his fingers,
his words like measures of weight,
the huge laughing cockroaches on his top lip,
the glitter of his boot-rims.
Ringed with a scum of chicken-necked bosses
he toys with the tributes of half-men.
One whistles, another meows, a third snivels.
He pokes out his finger and he alone goes boom.
He forges decrees in a line like horseshoes,
one for the groin, one the forehead, temple, eye.
He rolls the executions on his tongue like berries.
He wishes he could hug them like big friends from home.

The epigram reached Stalin, who declared it counter-revolutionary.

Instead of executing Mandelstam immediately, Stalin decided to torture him, first by forcing him into exile and then sending him to work in the Gulag. During these years Mandelstam became depressed and tried to commit suicide several times. Eventually he started writing pro-Stalin poetry in attempts to save the lives of himself and his wife. He died in 1938, apparently due to an illness, although it is just as likely he was murdered. Not that it made any difference.

He wrote his own epitaph, I think, when he said:

"Only in Russia is poetry respected – it gets people killed. Is there anywhere else where poetry is so common a motive for murder?"

Yes, there were, and are today, many places where such things happen. It is the mark of the advanced collectivist state and respects no nationality.

WaPo writer unsuccessfully attempts to set the rules of debate with the wolverine. "How do you like YOUR balls, Mr. Cohen? Attached, or detached?"

Richard Cohen, Washington Post columnist. Liberal. Urbane. Sophisticated. Without an ever-lovin' clue. As they say in Winston County, "God love him."

Healthy Debate Doesn't Involve Threat Of Guns

By RICHARD COHEN

Washington Post

Monday, September 21, 2009

Try a thought experiment: What would conservatives have said if a group of loud, scruffy leftists had brought guns to the public events of Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush?

How would our friends on the right have reacted to someone at a Reagan or a Bush speech carrying a sign that read:

"It's time to water the tree of liberty"?

That would be a reference to Thomas Jefferson's declaration that the tree "must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

Pardon me, but I don't think conservatives would have spoken out in defense of the right of every American Marxist to bear arms or to shed the blood of tyrants.

In fact, the Bush folks didn't like any dissent at all. Recall the 2004 incident in which a distraught mother whose son was killed in Iraq was arrested for protesting at a rally in New Jersey for first lady Laura Bush. The detained woman wasn't even armed. Maybe if she had been, the gun lobby would have defended her.

The Obama White House purports to be open to the idea of guns outside the president's appearances. "There are laws that govern firearms that are done state or locally," Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, said on Tuesday. "Those laws don't change when the president comes to your state or locality."

Gibbs made you think of the old line about the liberal who is so open-minded he can't even take his own side in an argument.

What needs to be addressed is not the legal question, but the message that the gun-toters are sending.

This is not about the politics of populism. It's about the politics of the jackboot. It's not about an opposition that has every right to free expression. It's about an angry minority engaging in intimidation backed by the threat of violence.

There is a philosophical issue here that gets buried under the fear that so many politicians and media types have of seeming to be out of touch with the so-called American heartland.

The simple fact is that an armed citizenry is not the basis for our freedoms. Our freedoms rest on a moral consensus, enshrined in law, that in a democratic republic we work out our differences through reasoned, and sometimes raucous, argument.

Free elections and open debate are not rooted in violence or the threat of violence. They are precisely the alternative to violence, and guns have no place in them.

On the contrary, violence and the threat of violence have always been used by those who wanted to bypass democratic procedures and the rule of law. Lynching was the act of those who refused to let the legal system do its work. Guns were used on election days in the Deep South during and after Reconstruction to intimidate black voters and take control of state governments.

Yes, I have raised the racial issue, and it is profoundly troubling that firearms should begin to appear with some frequency at a president's public events only now, when the president is black.

Race is not the only thing at stake here, and I have no knowledge of the personal motivations of those carrying the weapons. But our country has a tortured history on these questions, and we need to be honest about it. Those with the guns should know what memories they are stirring.

And will someone please tell the armed demonstrators how foolish and lawless they make our country look in the eyes of so much of the world? Are we not the country that urges other nations to see the merits of the ballot over the bullet?

All this is taking place as the country debates the president's health care proposal. There is much that is disturbing in that discussion. Shouting down speakers is never a good thing, and many lies are being told about the contents of the health care bills. The lies should be confronted, but freedom involves a lot of commotion and an open contest of ideas, even when some of the parties say things that aren't true and act in less-than- civil ways.

Yet if we can't draw the line at the threat of violence, democracy begins to disintegrate. Power, not reason, becomes the stuff of political life. Will some group of responsible conservatives, preferably life members of the NRA, have the decency to urge their followers to leave their guns at home when they go out to protest the president? Is that too much to ask?

"Let me introduce you to my leetle friend."

Dear Richard,

I read your editorial with great interest. I hope you understand that what I am about to say comes strictly from an avuncular, friendly uncle sort of perspective. You see, you really don't know what you don't know about this subject. I will try to keep you safe by explaining.


A. We ain't "Bush Folks." Most of us Tea Partiers don't listen to the sell-out GOP or their lap dog the NRA anymore. Haven't for years. The misnamed PATRIOT Act did it for most of us. The rest of us were alienated by their corruption, by their failure to enforce our borders, by their growing government, enlarging debt beyond sanity and finally by printing money to do it all. We took an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. In our eyes, Clinton was a skirt-chasing domestic enemy, Bush was an affable, badly misguided pretend-conservative domestic enemy, and now true believer Obama jumps into the tyrannical vehicle they constructed and has his foot on the gas, peeling the tires, headed straight for us -- and our kids and any future they might have had. Pardon us if we try to throw a few caltrops in the road to slow him down. The GOP laid down the predicate for Obama just as the Weimar Republic did for Hitler. Ergo, by politically defeating the GOP and NRA's corrupt arrangement and driving them effectively from the field, you no longer have them to protect you from us. You have us surrounded, you poor bastards. You are finding out what it is to deal with us directly and you don't like it one bit. Perfectly understandable.


B. We don't wear jackboots, government employees do. This isn't about left or right, which is a false dichotomy anyway, invented by collectivists to advertise their alleged opposition to other collectivists. What is the functional difference between communists and Nazis? They both like to stack up bodies, just for different reasons. And a socialist is a communist who hasn't yet figured out where they keep the guns. We Tea Partiers are for individual liberty, free men and women and free markets. We are for the ordered liberty of the constitutional republican variety, the right to property and the rule of law. You remember the rule of law, surely? You know, the thing Obama threw out when he seized GM and Chrysler, stiffed the secured creditors and gave their money to his crony friends, the auto unions? Michael Barone called that "gangster government," and rightly so. But do you know what the Founders' prescription was for gangster government? Armed citizens.


Now, I understand how you mistake the measure of the people you are messing with, I really do. First, this has become a matter of irreconcilable world views. You worship "democracy," literally "majority rule." We revere the Republic of the Founders, who, by the way, hated mob rule as much as they hated royal despotism. Avid students of history, they understood that unrestrained democracy was three wolves and a sheep, sitting down to vote on what to have for dinner. In a republic, the sheep is off the menu, and personally armed to make sure the wolves don't lose their sense of perspective when the sheepdog isn't around. But, as I say, this is a matter of conflicting world views, so you can't see this from our point of view and we, being students of history ourselves, refuse to let you persuade us that yours is anything but a suicide pact for us.


C. If you really think "an armed citizenry is not the basis for our freedoms," keep pushing us back from ours and watch what happens. You say, "our freedoms rest on a moral consensus, enshrined in law, that in a democratic republic we work out our differences through reasoned, and sometimes raucous, argument." First, I'm glad to see you still know how to use the word "republic" in a sentence, as if that means anything. The world is replete with "democratic republics" run by jackbooted thugs whose only "consensus" and "reasoning" comes from a state monopoly on the use of force. This is proven by how deep they dig the mass graves of their opponents and how high they stack the bodies. And, by the way, you ARE the same guys who your Fearless Lightworker proclaimed that now that the anointed had won the election that it was time for the rest of us to shut up, get out of the way and like it, aren't you? Does that sound like "moral consensus" and "reasoned argument" to you? Well, it sounds more like the rapist's command to us. Did you really forget it was Americans you were talking to?

D. Finally, I want to deal with this race canard you folks always wrap around every failing argument. There was a sign I saw at the 9-12 demonstration in DC (yes, I was one of the alleged "tens of thousands" you media folks couldn't count) that read, "I don't hate Obama because he's black, I hate him because he's red." Precisely. The only folks in this country who are as obsessed about race worse than a 1930s Nazi Gauleiter from Lower Saxony, is an American liberal of the 21st Century. But that club loses its sting when we cease to care about it. Take me for example. I've fought neo-Nazis and Kluxers all my life, at street level where you risk quite a bit more than your "journalistic reputation." In the '90s, when the Clinton Administration was strangely sheltering certain members of the Aryan Republican Army bank robbery gang, letting them walk the streets of Philadelphia armed and unmolested, me and my militia friends embarrassed the FBI into arresting them by posting notices, "Unwanted by the FBI." Think I'm lying? Google "Michael Brescia" and my name and see what pops up. Call ME a racist to my face and I'll punch you in the nose.

You hypocritical hothouse lily liberals disgust me. There is no one more racist than an American liberal. Why, it was armed black men in the Sixties -- the Deacons for Defense and the Panthers -- who scared you into passing the Gun Control Act of 1968. Why did you then focus on so-called "Saturday Night Specials?" I'll tell you why. Because they were the inexpensive pistols used by poor inner city folks to defend themselves from the thugs that Great Society welfare programs had set amongst them and empowered. Gun control is racist at its core. It always has been since the first slave codes disarmed slaves and free blacks alike. And you call US racist?

But here's the thing. As this is all about diametrically opposed world views, I don't expect you to get any of this. I told you all of the above to tell you this. When a black man, a citizen, shows up carrying an AR-15 at an Arizona town hall, the sound you're missing is the rattlesnake's buzz. When a grandma who's never been in a demonstration in her life, carries a sign to her nation's capitol that says, "Don't make me come back here with my rifle," the message you're ignoring is the quintessential American sentiment, "Don't tread on me." And when firearms owners like me tell you we will NOT obey any further laws that restrict our liberty, steal our property or threaten our lives or those of our children -- and that by our refusal we will force you to try to work your will upon us, even at the point of a government gun -- you are hearing the equivalent of a wolverine's growl.

You know, my Michigan farmer grandpa once told me why he didn't argue too much with my grandmother. "Son, let me tell you something," he cautioned, "You don't poke a wolverine with a sharp stick unless you want your balls ripped off."

How do you like YOUR balls, Mr. Cohen? Attached, or detached?

Then maybe you and the regime you support better drop the stick and ease on up out of our faces.

Don't start nothin', won't be nothin'.

We've been poked enough these last 75 years, and we've always backed up, grumbling. No more.

You don't have the GOP and the NRA to protect you anymore, Mr. Cohen.

It's just you and the wolverine.

Like I asked before, how do you like your balls?

Now, that's what I call a "healthy debate."

How 'bout you?


Mike Vanderboegh
PO Box 926
Pinson, AL 35126
GeorgeMason1776@aol.com
sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com

Mad Bob's pet, "Sweetie," mascot of the shadowy and feared Dogtown Rangers Militia.

"Bejabbers! Tie up the bloody hellhound, ye godless heatherns! Bloody Yanks."