It's been rough.

It always takes a few days for me to recover from these trips and the second and third day afterward, strangely, are always the worst. I am ashamed to say that I missed marking the anniversary of Erik Scott's assassination at the hands of the corrupt Reid machine in Las Vegas yesterday -- not because I forgot but because I just didn't have it in me. I will rectify that later today. Someone asked me below how I felt about being right about the sociopath Ryan Payne all along, and I've got to say that it brings me no pleasure. The sad thing is that our side in the liberty movement doesn't seem to have learned much since the 90s, allowing itself to be routinely victimized by the same hucksters, disinformation artists, snitches and provocateurs. And of course the liars-for-money at SPLC are still there to take advantage of every slip, real, exaggerated or even imagined. Still, the trip to Colorado was a real boost to my morale. There are some wonderful folks out there and I have every confidence that they will win on that front in our cold war. Still, while my morale may have been boosted, my body was not. Will try to do better later.

"Gun Confiscation Has Begun In New York! … Or Has it?"

Bob Owens has his doubts.

Performing the Hickenloop-de-loop. I love it when this arrogant asshole opens his mouth. Bloomberg steps in it again.

From Colorado Peak Politics -- BLOOMBERG AGAIN: Colorado Springs and Pueblo Have No Roads?

In a ridiculous interview published by Rolling Stone yesterday, Colorado’s Surrogate Governor (h/t Team Beauprez) Michael Bloomberg basically called Colorado Springs and Pueblo bassackwards because the cities recalled far left Senators responsible for passing his disastrous gun legislation. Here’s what he said that was mysteriously yanked down yesterday:

“In Colorado, we got a law passed. The NRA went after two or three state senators in a part of Colorado where I don’t think there’s roads. It’s as far rural as you can get. And, yes, they lost recall elections. I’m sorry for that. We tried to help ‘em. But the bottom line is, the law is on the books, and being enforced. You can get depressed about the progress, but on the other hand, you’re saving a lot of lives.”

Too much ignorant arrogance? Politico noted that Rolling Stone pulls controversial Michael Bloomberg article. Breitbart jumped on it too: "Bloomberg Disses Rural Colorado: 'I Don't Think There's Roads' in Colorado Springs or Pueblo."

Politico followed with this update: "Sources familiar with the incident tell us that Rolling Stone was scheduled to publish the piece on Monday, July 14, but accidentally published it early. Bloomberg press representatives alerted Rolling Stone to the mistake and it was taken down. The piece will be published again, in its entirety and without change, on Monday."

Here's the entire article in its cached form.

Regarding Colorado, see also: The money war hits Colorado

And RUNNING SCARED: Udall Skips Own Fundraiser Rather Than Appear with Obama

And -- DOA: Hick’s Bid To Appease Polis Appears Dead

Are gun owners so naïve as to buy Christie's recent 'pro-gun' conversion?

Christie is clearly banking on the hope that gun owners are dumb enough to be fooled by his nominally "pro-gun" actions of late, and it appears, inexplicably, that his bet might actually pay off. If gun owners allow him to win the Republican presidential primary, they will get what they deserve. Unforgivably, though, the rest of us will get what they deserve, as well.

Southern Preposterous Lie Center strikes again, shaping the propaganda battlefield, trying to excuse future government violence against the Bundys. (And all with the help of the sociopath Ryan Payne.)

"Look out Mr. Friendly Policeman, Anti-Government-Killers-Gonna-Get-Yo-Momma!"

So, the first intimation of the latest assault against the truth by SPLC came to me from here: The Cliven Bundy Copycat Militia Movement.

Though they agree that the BLM was wise to retreat from Bundy’s bunkerville ranch rather than risk a shootout, the authors of the SPLC report condemn the inflated sense of victory the move gave Bundy supporters.

“It’s impossible to overstate the importance of the victory won in the desert today,” the head of the anti-government III Percent Patriots Mike Vanderboegh wrote on his blog after the standoff. “The feds were routed—routed. There is no word that applies. Courage is contagious, defiance is contagious, victory is contagious. Yet the war is not over.”

The quote is accurate. The wild conflation, guilt by disassociation and ludicrous exaggeration which follows it is not:

Since 2009, there have been 17 shootings involving anti-government extremists and law enforcement. . . Then, of course, there were the Millers. At the Bundy ranch, before he and his wife, Amanda, were reportedly asked to leave, Jerad Miller told a Las Vegas TV station, “I feel sorry for any federal agents that want to come in here and try to push us around, or anything like that. I really don’t want violence toward them, but if they’re gonna come bring violence to us, well, if that’s the language they want to speak, we’ll learn it.”

Less than two months later, the couple shot and killed two Las Vegas cops and another man and before dying in a shootout with police. The Millers left a “Don’t Tread on Me” flag and a swastika on the police officers’ bodies.

“Government officials need to understand what motivates this movement because the Millers will not be the last to demonstrate their anti-government rage with bullets,” the SPLC report’s authors write. “Law enforcement officials also need training on a movement that increasingly targets them.”

Note that there is no mention that I was involved in having the Millers turned away. No mention that the Bundys had no contact with the Millers. No mention that the Millers were snitches for the Las Vegas PD. But of course “law enforcement officials also need training on a movement that increasingly targets them,” implying that those of us who went to stand between the armed Feds and their intended victims, the Bundys, intend to target LEOs. And who will provide this "training"? Why the SPLC, of course, which has been paid millions of your tax dollars over the years propagandizing police of all levels to fear and hate the armed citizenry. And then there's this:

The SPLC praises Attorney General Eric Holder’s recent announcement that the Justice Department plans to revive the Domestic Terrorism Executive Committee, which was created in response to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, and hopes it means swift prosecutions for those who aimed loaded weapons at federal officers at Bundy’s ranch—a federal offense with a maximum 20-year prison sentence.

Readers will recall my last "Open Letter to Eric Holder on the Occasion of the Reawakening of His Frankenstein Monster, the Domestic Terrorism Executive Committee." Make note for future reference that the SPLC, which had its own snitch inside the "christian" Identity compound at Elohim City, Oklahoma, at the time of the Aryan Republican Army and the Oklahoma City bombing, is pining for those "good old days."

But these are hardly all of SPLC's latest lies for money. Here is the cover report: "Bundy ranch standoff was highly coordinated, reflecting threat of larger far-right militia movement."

“The Bundy ranch standoff wasn’t a spontaneous response to Cliven Bundy’s predicament but rather a well-organized, military-type action that reflects the potential for violence from a much larger and more dangerous movement,” said Mark Potok, senior fellow in the SPLC’s Intelligence Project. “This incident may have faded from public view, but if our government doesn’t pay attention, we will be caught off guard as much as the Bureau of Land Management was that day.”

Uh, huh. You know I was asked by a reporter the other day about the fact that he observed many Three Percenters at the stand-off, and asked me if I had issued orders for them to be there. I laughed. I told him it was a spontaneous reaction to the BLM violence and that apart from crafting the ideas represented in our stated policy of "No More Free Wacos," that no further action was required from me. This was how Three Percenters acted. They didn't require marching orders.

Ah, but how does SPLC "know" that this was a premeditated action? Why because the sociopath Ryan Payne told them so:

The SPLC has found that a Montana man who leads a militia called Operation Mutual Aid scouted the locations that were used by the snipers.

Ryan Payne, a 30-year-old electrician and former soldier from Anaconda, Montana, told the SPLC that in the days before the standoff he and Bundy toured the public lands the rancher was using, looking for ways to defend them. Payne had snipers in position when the standoff came to a head.

“Not only did they take up the very best position to overwatch everything, they also had the high ground, they were fortified with concrete and pavement barriers,” Payne said. “They had great lines of fire and then, when I sent in that other team, for counter-sniper positions, [the BLM agents] were completely locked down. They had no choice but to retreat.” The reason, he boasted, was “overwhelming tactical superiority.”

Now you see, I didn't know that this whole deal was a carefully crafted plan of Ryan Payne's. I daresay that no one else, including the Bundys, did either. But that hasn't prevented Payne from bragging to SPLC about how this was all his premeditated idea and the result of his careful planning. And you can see the use that the SPLC has eagerly put to his bragging.

Here is the entire report. Once again, I get an honorable mention in SPLC's version of "Anti-Government-Killers-Gonna-Get-Yo-Momma" list of lying fund-raising justifications. That bank account of SPLC's in the Grand Caymans must be in need replenishment.

LATER: Here are some more gems from the report.

Writing on his blog hours after the standoff, Mike Vanderboegh, an aging government-hating propagandist from Alabama who heads the III Percent Patriots, characterized the standoff in grandiose terms. “It is impossible to overstate the importance of the victory won in the desert today,” he gushed. “The feds were routed — routed. There is no other word that applies. Courage is contagious, defiance is contagious, victory is contagious. Yet the war is not over.” Within weeks, that rhetoric appeared predictive as two people who had spent time on the Bundy ranch before reportedly being asked to leave went on a shooting spree in Las Vegas.

So, I'm "an aging government-hating propagandist"? And what's this "Patriots" shit? This is the same language used in the New York State Police Terrorism "Intelligence Center" report. Proof, if any were necessary, that the New York secret political police get their lies from SPLC. And get how I "predicted" the Miller's cop-killing spree?

And more detail on sociopath Payne's apparently willing interaction with SPLC:

After watching the video from his home in Anaconda, Mont., 650 miles away, Ryan Payne, 30, an electrician and former soldier who had deployed twice to the Iraq war, became enraged. Payne is part of a small militia unit, the West Mountain Rangers, but he also sits atop a little-known militia organization called Operation Mutual Aid, a group that he hoped could coordinate militias across the country to respond to federal aggressions. That night, he called Bundy and asked if he needed the militia’s help, Payne told the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) during a nearly two-hour interview at the Bundy ranch weeks after the standoff.

Nice to be able to help your enemy craft his lies about your side. If, that is, it IS your side..

Ikea's 'weapon free' backtracking for 'Only Ones' makes things worse, not better

This correspondent would argue, on the other hand, that Ikea's willingness to be consistent, and apply its "disarmed victim zone" rules to everyone, even those bedecked in the trappings of government authority, is the one thing they got right. Well, except for the fact that it didn't last .

GAO’s ATF report to Congress skirts wider concerns about dissolving bureau

Support for the idea by the decidedly leftist and anti-gun Center for American Progress should be all the warning needed to conclude the devil will be in the details, and a merger into other agencies will most likely result in an out of the frying pan, into the fire end result.

"Even a stopped clock is right twice a day."

"Even a stopped clock is right twice a day." -- Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (and she had the face to stop them, too.)

Oddly enough, I'm with Old Yellowstain on just this one point: Boehner disagrees with Palin on impeaching Obama

Why energize Obama's base to turn out? Save it for the war crimes trials.

"Militia Sets Up Command Center South of San Antonio/"

And just who are they commanding?

The Real Reasons Why The Liberty Movement Is Preparing To Fight

The SPLC and others within the establishment accuse the Liberty Movement of arming for conflict against the government. I am here to tell them that is EXACTLY what we are doing. We are arming because the establishment is arming against us. Yes, we are a threat, but only to political and corporate criminals who use subversion and violence to wrest freedom from the hands of good people. I am not afraid to openly admit it. I and many others will fight against any measure or man that seeks to undermine the rights of the people or destroy the founding principles of this nation.

Out of the Hickenloop.

Hick and Barry shoot some balls. "It's okay, Mr. President, Vanderboegh left the state this morning."

Dem. Congressman: ‘Floored Me’ to See Obama Shoot Pool Rather than Visit Border

Close to being the worst idea ever. If John Dodson had been an FBI agent, he would have been found mysteriously dead in the desert and no one -- NO ONE -- would have ever heard about Fast and Furious.

Bill by Jim Sensenbrenner would dissolve federal ATF agency

Policy analysts with the Center for American Progress, a nonpartisan but left-leaning Washington, D.C.-based think tank, said Tuesday the ATF needed restructuring and it made sense to blend it into the FBI.

There's a clue. If the collectivists at CAP think it's a good idea, it certainly isn't. Let me tell you something. If John Dodson had been an FBI agent, he would have been found mysteriously dead in the desert and no one -- NO ONE -- would have ever heard about Fast and Furious.

Now don't get me wrong, I want the ATF abolished just as much as any of its victims, but I also know that they aren't going to repeal any of the laws they enforce. The worst thing I can think of is to give the job to the secret political police thugs of the FBI.

Well, that last leg damn near killed me. "I'm going back to Alabama where everyone is, without exception, armed and therefore unfailingly polite."

I'm back in Alabama. Barely. After traveling from Denver to Memphis to Atlanta, I rediscovered that the Delta-ese term "gate change" actually means "death march." The changes -- from concourse to concourse, and then again from one of the second concourse to another -- damn near killed me. Couldn't find a vehicle to hire so I had to march at speed with my two bags -- something I shouldn't even have tried. By the time I got home I had avoided a heart attack but was completely, utterly spent. I'll have a report later today, but what sticks out in memory is a moment in Denver after being trampled, cursed and elbowed aside for the umpteenth time, someone asks me where I'm headed. "I'm going back to Alabama," I replied, "where everyone is, without exception, armed and therefore unfailingly polite."

Forwarded by my friend Jesse Trentadue.

New OKC Bombing Trial Set to Begin July 28 in Salt Lake City

Bloomberg group candidate survey may be more useful to pro-gun activists

As for the rest, earlier this year, Democrats who want to win were trying to quiet the guy down, with “Bill Clinton [asking] Bloomberg to temper his enthusiasm for attacking politicians who oppose stricter gun laws if those politicians happen to be Democrats.” When even Daily Kos posters conclude “Bloomberg is not helping” and ask “Why stir the hornet’s nest over an issue that does not bring Dems to the polls?” gun owners could do worse than calling out that which savvy leftists would rather people didn’t see. Some of us might even be inclined to shout “Bring it on!”

The Nexus Of Counterinsurgency And Community Policing

It all continues a rich tradition of flirtation with treasonous theories at the SWJ. After all, it worked so well in Iraq and Afghanistan, why not try it in the United States?

Functional printed semi-auto pistol shoots new nail into 'gun control's' coffin

All the rejuvenated talk of banning all semi-automatic firearms, "high capacity" magazines ("progressive"-speak for "standard capacity magazines), and private sales (and a mandate for "universal background checks" would be just that--a ban of private sales) ignores the fact that technology is on the verge of making such endeavors utterly irrelevant. When one can after all simply print these items at home, without asking the government's permission, "gun control" will have suffered its long and richly deserved death without dignity.

Will try to update as I fly home. (And Obama flies in as I fly out.)

My flights(s) from Denver to Memphis to B'ham will occupy most of today, taking about ten hours if everything goes right. I'll work on my report on this amazing trip on the way and post it tomorrow.

LATER: Just learned that Obama is flying in today to do a fundraiser for Udall. Some German tourists were watching television in the food area and commented excitedly when this was announced: "Ooh, der President ist coming!" "Ja," I responded sourly, "Seig heil." I don't think that's what they were expecting. Hope the bastard doesn't fly in until after I've left. I don't want anything to slow my return trip to Rosey.

More potential blows to the empire's Mandate of Heaven

VA whistleblowers to detail retribution

Benghazi panel ramps up

Gee, I wonder if the Kochs would like to return the favor by funding investigations into the corrupt Reid machine in Vegas? Behind Harry Reid’s war against the Koch brothers

Behind Harry Reid’s war against the Koch brothers.

After Reid’s ad-libbed comments, his office developed a strategy for a coordinated campaign that’s expected to resume this month and carry clear through Election Day and beyond. It’s been shaped and reinforced by Reid’s staff, including former operatives of the liberal Center for American Progress, which had pioneered Koch-bashing politics years earlier. An eclectic cast of characters was also involved, including Reid’s wife, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a top Democratic pollster, two brothers who wrote a business-management book and various liberal super PACs and nonprofits. This story, drawn from more than a dozen interviews with people involved in various phases of the effort — most of whom requested anonymity to discuss ongoing political deliberations — reveals for the first time the key players and considerations behind Harry Reid’s War on the Kochs, the risky strategy on which Democrats are hinging their midterm election hopes.