Do 90% of Mexican 'Crime Guns' come from the US?

By David Codrea

March 30, 9:04 AM

Before I get into today's column, I'd like to make a few more observations about yesterday's.

Hopefully, it's clear to all that the three interdiction stops referred to in the ATF "Operation Southbound Steel" intelligence advisory information request were conducted by local law enforcement (specifically by the Pearl River and Jackson County Sheriff's departments, and the Gulfport PD). So it's not like the intrepid feds with their expanded Project Gunrunner budget are doing anything other than acting as a news aggregator here.

As one of my sources observed to me:

This is not the result of an ongoing federal investigation, it's BATF piggybacking on local cops...what is not being seized in Miss., they aren't seizing RPGs, grenades and Class III Military ARs and AKs. The point is that the military guns aren't coming from here. They come from Venezuela, Colombia, Cuba, Israel, Brazil and China...

That the cartels are getting military grade weapons from non-U.S. sources is borne out by journalists doing their own investigation instead of relying on government agencies for their talking points:

Most of these weapons are being smuggled from Central American countries or by sea, eluding U.S. and Mexican monitors who are focused on the smuggling of semiauto- matic and conventional weapons purchased from dealers in the U.S. border states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

Which brings us to one "reporter" who does parrot talking points, Matthew Price of BBC News, who "authoritatively" tells his readers:

It is estimated that at least 90% of the guns used by the Mexican drug trafficking organisations have come from the US.

Price may as well be working for the Brady Campaign, which tells those it hopes to manipulate:

More than 90% of the guns used by the drug cartels originate from U.S. gun sellers

And CNN spreads the meme via Brady Campaign president Paul Helmke and Brady board member and former Maryland Lieutenant Governor/US deputy attorney general Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who tell us in no uncertain terms:

American gun sellers supply the cartels with 95 to 100 percent of their guns, according to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Am I calling Price, BBC and the majority of establishment media following suit agenda-driven propagandists (or lazy incompetents) and the Bradys opportunistic liars trying to swindle us out of our rights? You tell me. Because here's what happens when we take these statements everyone assumes to be authoritative and true, and add one critical element: an oath or affirmation, with penalties for perjury.

I'd like to share with you a bit of testimony, from the Statement of David Ogden, Deputy Attorney General, United States Department of Justice, before the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing entitled “Southern Border Violence: Homeland Security Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Responsibilities”, presented March 25, 2009. Just a small bit, really, but a critical one, almost lost in the 20 pages of his statement:

According to ATF’s Tracing Center, 90 percent of the firearms about which ATF receives information are traceable to the United States.

Read it again, and compare it to what the antis are saying. It's very different, isn't it?

But it does raise the interesting question about why a guy with nothing more than a handful of friendly sources and access to the Internet (that would be me) "receives information" that is, according to sworn testimony before the Senate, apparently unknown to and uninvestigated by the agency tasked with enforcing the nation's gun laws. Or by the press...

The only explanations are ATF and their masters at DoJ are either hopelessly oblivious to what is really happening, that is, criminally negligent, or they are engaged in an outright conspiratorial fraud to deprive us of our rights.

Those are serious charges. I submit the sworn testimony of Deputy AG Ogden makes this a matter for official inquiry. Under glaring lights.

Why not go on the offensive instead of waiting for manipulators and deceivers to introduce further gun bans based on misrepresentations and lies? Why not demand of our representatives that they initiate hearings into what ATF actually knows about Mexican cartel guns and their suppliers? And take an extra close look at how they're deploying their manpower and resources?

You can start by contacting your representative and senators. Copy and paste the link to this article in your email. Then here's all you need to tell them, again a copy/paste:

Read this column. I expect you to open an official inquiry into why DoJ and ATF are misdirecting the American people on how Mexican drug cartels are supplying themselves with military grade weapons.

Who knows what this will result in? Perhaps nothing, or perhaps it will be the first few loose pebbles that precede the avalanche. Why not do it right now? And pass this along to your friends...?

What have you got to lose, a minute or two?

Good training is where you find it!

I’m just wondering aloud here. How much combat shooting could be learned by shooting squirrels while canoeing thru flooded woods.

Think about it! You’re moving, by virtue of the canoe’s roll, pitch, and forward progress. The squirrel is certainly moving. They tend to avoid sitting still for long periods – except when they think themselves well hidden.

It’s then, when they’ve “hunkered down” up there amongst the green, that your skills of observation can be tested and enhanced. By learning to search for target indicators like movement, sound, and silhouette, even though your target is a mere tree rat, the skills being honed are identical with those of a combat infantryman.

And finally, the size of a squirrel’s head at 25 yards compares favorably with the size of a man’s torso at 500 yards. Methinks the shooting skill-set is well served by squirrel hunting.

In addition to being loads of pure fun, squirrel hunting in flooded swamps while afloat is not bad training!

THIS guy was determined not to be a victim!

I guess it could be said that the gangbangers who repeatedly tried to rob this guy all experienced a Castastrophic Failure of the Victim Selection Process!

I had to get away to recharge my batteries!

I spent the last three days on the St Mary’s river, canoeing with friends. We had an awesome time, even though the river was flooded and good spots to camp were few and far between. There was gunfire, squirrel hunting (using canoes in flooded woods!), squirrel eating, beer drinking, flareguns, paddling, sh*t talking, and generally a great overall MAN trip!

Trip vignette # 1

I’m sitting on a dirt road in the woods, scanning the trees for squirrels, and I spot one along the trail behind me. Putting the crosshairs on him, he’s perfectly silhouetted on the top of a big limb overhanging the dirt road about 30 feet in the air. I get on the trigger and Mr. Squirrel does the full-body shimmy indicating a hit; so I double-tap him within a fraction of a second to ensure his demise.

As I take the .22 away from my eye, I note where a moment before the dirt road was empty, now stand two of my friends with startled looks on their faces! I focus on them in the exact moment that the squirrel hits the dirt no more than 3 feet in front of them! Way cool in its effect, but VERY unsettling in the knowledge I fired my rifle directly over their heads.

They forgave me in the sure and certain knowledge that I didn’t do it with malice aforethought!

Trip vignette # 2

We’re sitting in camp well engaged in shooting the bull when one of my buddies asks if it’s true that I’ve chopped trees down with my Main Battle Rifle. I assured him I had on more than one occasion. Since he was armed with his own recently acquired MBR chambered in a .308, he hastened to put the story to the test.

He picked out a nearby tree with a diameter of about ten to twelve inches and proceeded to open fire at it from a distance of about 25 feet. When the tree remained standing after the completion of the second magazine, he attempted to help it over by pushing on it. We the observers quickly and vehemently pointed out that this was “against the rules.” Angrily he went to his pack to get the third magazine for his rifle.

Taking advantage of his momentary distraction, I jumped up, grabbed by .22 semi-automatic and ran a few paces forward to change the angle of fire in the direction of the tree and out of alignment with my fellows.

The “rest of the story” you can most assuredly guess: The tree toppled with a resounding crash…right along with my friend’s self-esteem and confidence in his weapon! Not one to let it go by, I made sure to ask him repeatedly throughout the rest of our adventure, “Hey Rad… ya wanna shoot my .22?”

LOL

Why Obama is doing the things he's doing

Victor Davis Hanson has as good an explanation as any I've ever heard!

Here's a teaser for you:

If you believed that the United States is hardly exceptional, but merely one nation not all that different from others, then you would have confidence in the aggregate wisdom of the United Nations, and the cultural and economic paradigms provided by the nations of the European Union.

If you believed that wars, crises, and international tensions are brought about by miscommunications, misunderstandings, and Western insensitivity, rather than by despots trying to advance illiberal agendas whenever and wherever they sense an opening, then you would blame past administrations for our present ills, with all their bellicose and retrograde talk of preparedness, deterrence, and pre-emption. You would grandly proclaim a new age of harmonious relations, and count on your rhetorical abilities and charisma to persuade past rivals and mischaracterized enemies that, at this rare but opportune moment, there are no real differences between us — and thus no reasons for future disputes.

Now get over there and read the whole thing!

Area politician reveals the depth of his ignorance (or his agenda!)

Here's the head of the Clay County democratic party showing his utter disdain for the personal right of self-defense:

Not everyone thinks the idea of increasing gun ownership is a good idea.
Any effort to put more guns on the street is wrong headed, says the head of the
Clay County Democratic Party.

"There are too many guns," said Thomas Nazworth, Democratic Party
chairman. "You’ve already got every right to defend yourself in your home. What
is this going to be the wild, wild west where everybody has got sidearms? That
is not answer."

The gun program is just a desperate attempt to bolster membership, said
Nazworth, who pointed out the number of registered Democrats in Clay County has
increased to 33,000 while Republicans have remained around 65,000.

President Obama has only discussed a possible ban on automatic weapons,
Nazworth said. Even if the president wanted to ban handguns, such a proposal
would require a constitutional amendment that would never make it through
Congress, he said.

"We’re not talking.38s or a .357 here, only automatic weapons … This (GOP
event) is an overreaction to a problem that doesn’t exist," Nazworth said.

Here's my response via his email:

I have a couple of questions for you?

a. Why should my right to defend myself end at my property line?

b. Where in the second amendment does it mention self-defense of the home?

c. Have you ever been accosted by a raving lunatic on a public street? (I have!)

d. If you think there're too many guns, why not come try and take them away from us? Or would you rather some OTHER mother's son risk his life to do that FOR YOU?

e. Have you missed all the indications that our society is headed full-tilt towards a meltdown...primarily instigated by YOUR party? When the entitlement leeches' checks all bounce, and they come to your door "asking" for a "donation", what will you do? Call 911?

f. And last question: If our government doesn't trust us enough to own whatever guns we want, why should We The People trust that government with ANYTHING?

Have a nice day!

In case you feel inclined to have a word or three with him: nazworth@bellsouth.net

Obama's gift to the queen - an Ipod

This clown is such an embarrassment!

The epitome of class meets The Jeffersons!

Queen Elizabeth (who positively oozes class and breeding from evey pore) must certainly be thinking:

"Well there goes the bloody neighborhood!"

Why couldn't THIS guy be our first black president?

March 31, 2009, 0:00 a.m.

A Rookie President
We can lose some very big games with this rookie.

By Thomas Sowell ( a genius if there ever was one, in my opinion!)

Someone once said that, for every rookie you have on your starting team in the National Football League, you will lose a game. Somewhere, at some time during the season, a rookie will make a mistake that will cost you a game.

We now have a rookie president of the United States, and, in the dangerous world we live in, with terrorist nations going nuclear, just one rookie mistake can bring disaster down on this generation and generations yet to come.

Barack Obama is a rookie in a sense that few other presidents in American history have ever been. It is not just that he has never been president before. He has never had any position in any kind of organization where he was personally responsible for the outcome.

Other first-term presidents have been governors, generals, Cabinet members, or others in positions of personal responsibility. A few have been senators, like Barack Obama, but usually for longer than Obama, and not having spent half their few years in the Senate running for president.

What is even worse than making mistakes is having sycophants telling you that you are doing fine when you are not. In addition to all the usual hangers-on and supplicants for government favors that every president has, Barack Obama has a media that will see no evil, hear no evil, and certainly speak no evil.

They will cheer him on, no matter what he does, short of first-degree murder — and they would make excuses for that. Even Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan has gushed over President Obama, and even crusty Bill O’Reilly has been impressed by Obama’s demeanor.

There is no sign that President Obama has impressed the Russians, the Iranians, or the North Koreans, except by his rookie mistakes — and that is a dangerous way to impress dangerous people.

What did his televised overture to the Iranians accomplish, except to reassure them that he was not going to do a damn thing to stop them from getting a nuclear bomb? It is a mistake that can go ringing down the corridors of history.

Future generations who live in the shadow of that nuclear threat may wonder what we were thinking about, putting our lives — and theirs — in the hands of a rookie because we liked his style and symbolism?

In the name of “change,” Barack Obama is following policies so old that this generation has never heard of them — certainly not in most of our educational institutions, where history has been replaced by “social studies” or other politically correct courses.

Seeking deals with our adversaries, behind the backs of our allies? The French did that at Munich back in 1938. They threw Czechoslovakia to the wolves and, less than two years later, Hitler gobbled up France anyway.

This year, President Obama’s attempt to make a backdoor deal with the Russians, behind the backs of the NATO countries, was not only rejected but made public by the Russians — a sign of contempt and a warning to our allies not to put too much trust in the United States.

Barack Obama is following a long practice among those on the left of being hard on our allies and soft on our enemies. One of our few allies in the Middle East, the Shah of Iran, was a whipping boy for many in the American media, who vented their indignation at his regime — which now, in retrospect, seems almost benign compared to the hate-filled fanatics and international-terrorism sponsors who now rule that country.

However much Barack Obama has proclaimed his support for Israel, his first phone call as president of the United States was to Hamas, to which he has given hundreds of millions of dollars, which can buy a lot of rockets to fire into Israel.

Our oldest and staunchest ally, Britain, has been downgraded by President Obama’s visibly unimpressive reception of British prime minister Gordon Brown, compared to the way that previous presidents over the past two generations have received British prime ministers. President Obama’s sending the bust of Winston Churchill from the White House back to the British embassy at about the same time was either a rookie mistake or another snub.

We can lose some very big games with this rookie.

Hatred of Corporate America? Maybe

KFC wants to help patch the nation's potholes

Tribune staff report
1:09 PM CDT, March 27, 2009

Everybody needs a little KFC. But maybe not Chicago.

The fast-food chain has sent off a letter to the nation's mayors, offering to patch their potholes for free. The company will leave behind a stenciled brand on the patch informing people the road has been "Re-Freshed by KFC."

"In honor of our "Fresh Tastes Best" campaign, we want to come and Re-"Fresh" your roads!" KFC president Roger Eaton says in the letter. "Every patched pothole comes with the Colonel's very own stamp of approval."

But Brian Steele, a spokesman for the Chicago Department of Transportation, which is charged with repairing the city's potholes, said "We don't allow any type of printing or advertising placed on a city street or sidewalk."

He said the city was looking to promote and seek support for its own pothole repair program, and said they've been "in discussion" with an advertising firm for more than months about the idea.

As for the KFC offer, Steele said the city first learned of it Wednesday. "Were looking into it [the KFC offer].....Until we learn more we don't know how it stacks up."

KFC estimated that U.S. roads are plagued with more than 350 million potholes. "That's one mini-canyon for every man, woman and child in America."

KFC has already tried out its campaign to stamp out potholes in its hometown of Louisville, Ky., earning a testimonial from Louisville's Mayor Jerry Abramson who noted that "finding funding for needed road repairs is a continuing challenge." The company will choose four other cities.

The magazine Advertising Age reports that the KFC campaign appears to be part of a growing effort by companies to build goodwill. It notes that this past holiday season, Charmin provided a public restroom in Times Square for the third year running. The company has also developed an application for iPhone and BlackBerry that helps consumers find toilets when the need arises. Samsung has installed electrical charging stations in many major airports to help travelers stay connected while in limbo.