Niggling little facts…

Posted on by March 6, 2013


Obama’s set piece town hall meeting has stirred at least “some” of the reporters to actually ask pointed questions…

Fact- Most of Obama’s questioners Wednesday were from friendly sources, including a member of the Service Employees International Union and a member of Health Care for America Now. White House aides selected other questions submitted by people on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. It’s pretty easy to stay on message when you know EXACTLY what the questions are and you have the scripted answers already done…

This quote from Obama just scares the hell out of me though. “Part of that is the way the Constitution is designed. We don’t have coups [de’tat] or governments collapsing. The disadvantage is it’s hard for us to make great, big, bold steps.”

If the Constitution is a disadvantage, and considering the adminstration already thinks it’s only advisory in nature, what are they REALLY up to?

Oh yeah, the pissed off reporter? The Dragon herself, Helen Thomas! Here is part of her comment:

“Nixon didn’t try to do that,” Thomas said. “They couldn’t control (the media). They didn’t try. “What the hell do they think we are, puppets?” Thomas said. “They’re supposed to stay out of our business. They are our public servants. We pay them.”

Thomas said she was especially concerned about the arrangement between the Obama Administration and a writer from the liberal Huffington Post Web site. The writer was invited by the White House to President Obama’s press conference last week on the understanding that he would ask Obama a question about Iran from among questions that had been sent to him by people in Iran.

“When you call the reporter the night before you know damn well what they are going to ask to control you,” Thomas said. “I’m not saying there has never been managed news before, but this is carried to fare-thee-well–for the town halls, for the press conferences,” she said. “It’s blatant. They don’t give a damn if you know it or not. They ought to be hanging their heads in shame.”

In other news…

Madame Pelosi wasn’t happy with the small private jet that comes with the Speaker’s job…no, Madame Pelosi was aggravated that this little jet had to stop to refuel, so she ordered a Big Fat 200 (well about 100 first class) seat jet that could get her back to California without stopping! It’s call a C-32, which is actually a Boeing 757.

Since she only works 3 days a week, this gas guzzling jet gets fueled and she flies home to California , cost to the taxpayers of about $60,000 one way!

That is $480,000/month JUST IN FUEL COSTS, or $5,760,000/year; when you add in personnel costs this total probably approaches between $7 and $8,000,000 a year. Oh yeah, paid by US TAXPAYERS! No wonder she complains about the cost of this war…it might cramp her style and she is styling all right, on the backs of the taxpayer.

When you see the military families in this country doing without. This woman demands you and I conserve our carbon footprint, buy smaller cars, etc. and wants to force us to “upgrade” our houses to green status (on our dime) before sale (regardless of age) in the new C&T bill, it can ONLY make you wonder…

Has absolute power really corrupted absolutely, and is THIS a prime example?

My answer- Hell YES!!!

Brig Gen Ed McMahon, RIP…

Posted on by March 6, 2013


The REST of the story…

The story below was written by Major Van Harl, USAF Ret.

He wanted to be a Marine fighter pilot. The US was building up their military force, but they were not at war as yet and the Navy required all its potential Navy and Marine pilots to have two years of college. So he started classes at Boston College.
When Pearl Harbor was attacked, the Army and the Navy both dropped the college requirement and Ed applied to the Marines. His primary flight training was in Dallas and then he went to Pensacola, Florida. He was carrier qualified, which means he knew how to perform a controlled crash of his single engine fighter, onto the rolling deck of a Navy floating runway.

It took Ed almost two years to get through all the Navy flight training. His problem was he was a very good pilot and the Marines needed flight instructors. He had a great command presence and public speaking ability, which landed him in the classroom, training new baby Marine pilots.

His orders to the Pacific fleet and the chance to fly combat missions off a carrier came in the spring of 1945, on the same day the Atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Of course his orders where changed. He never went to sea and he was out of the Marines in 1946.

Ed stayed in the USMC as a reserve officer. He became a successful personality in the new TV medium, after the war. His Marine command presence helped. He was recalled to active duty during the Korean War. He never got to fly his fighter aircraft, but he saw his share of raw combat. He flew the Cessna O-1E Bird Dog, which is a single engine slow-moving unarmed plane. He functioned as an artillery spotter for the Marine batteries on the ground and as a forward controller for the Navy & Marine fighter / bombers who flew in on fast moving jet engines, bombed the area and were gone in seconds. Captain Ed was still circling the enemy looking for more targets, all the time taking North Korean and Chinese ground fire.

He stayed with the Marines as a reserve officer and retired in 1966 as a Colonel.

The world knows Ed as Ed McMahon of the Johnny Carson, Tonight Show. One night I was watching the show when the subject of Colonel McMahon earning a number of Navy Air Medals came up. Carson, a former Navy officer, understood the significance of these medals, but McMahon shrugged it off, saying that if you flew enough combat missions they just sort of gave them to you. McMahon flew 85 combat missions over North Korea; he earned every one of those Air Medals. The casualty rate, for flying forward air controllers in Korea sometimes exceeded 50% of a squadron’s manpower. McMahon was lucky to have gotten home from that war.

Once a Marine, always a Marine.
When the public was spitting (taking their personal safety into their own hands) at Marines on the streets of Southern California during Vietnam, Colonel McMahon was taking Marines off the streets and into his posh Beverly Hills home. I spoke to a retired Marine aircrew member the day Colonel McMahon died and he personally remembered seeing McMahon at numerous Marine Air Bases in California in the 1960s. He was known for going to the Navy hospitals and visiting the wounded Marines and Sailors from this country’s conflicts, even in the last years of his life.

Colonel McMahon presented awards and decorations to fellow Marines and attended many a Marine ceremony and the annual Marine Corps Birthday Ball. He stayed true to his Corps as a board member of the Marine Corps Scholarship Fund and as the honorary chairman of the National Marine Corps Aviation Museum. After retiring from the Marine Reserve, one night on the Johnny Carson show, members of the California Air National Guard came on stage.

Colonel McMahon was commissioned a Brigadier General in the Air Guard in front of millions of Americans who watched it happen live. You will not see anything like that on TV anymore.

The three core values of a United States Marine are; honor, courage and commitment. This is what a Marine is taught from the first day of training and this is what that Marine believes. That was Colonel Edward P. McMahon Jr. USMCR Retired. Before he was a national figure he was a true combat hero and a patriot the nation needed then and this country needs now.

Your war is over. Thank you Colonel McMahon. Semper Fi sir.
23 June 2009
Major Van Harl USAF Ret.

Very well written and shows a different side than that of entertainer… Johnny Carson was a Naval Officer for about three years, but never saw combat per se. I personally think the fact that both were in the military was part of the mutual respect between Carson and McMahon.
RIP sir, RIP. I’m sure you and Johnny are at it again!

Sotomayor Overturned…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
Syllabus RICCI ET AL. v. DESTEFANO ET AL.
CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT
No. 07–1428. Argued April 22, 2009—Decided June 29, 2009*

This action presents two provisions of Title VII to be interpreted and reconciled, with few, if any, precedents in the courts of appeals discussing the issue. Depending on the resolution of the statutory claim, a fundamental constitutional question could also arise. We found it prudent and appropriate to grant certiorari. 555 U. S. ___ (2009). We now reverse, by 5-4 decision.
Bottom line- Sotomayor et al got their hands slapped pretty significantly…
The reason to overturn was just because the city thought they “might” get sued, that was NOT grounds to throw out the test. So now SIX years later, it looks like they will be forced to promote the original guys that passed the test…
What a way to run a railroad… or a Town for that matter.
Now it will be interesting to see if this impacts Sotomayor’s hearings at all. One would HOPE there will be questions asked…
ON a side note, wonder if their promotion dates will be back dated and whether they will get back pay… My guess, probably not; but it sure would be a nice way for the firefighters to recoup for the hate and discontent of the last six years…
EDIT- It appears the firefighters WILL get both backdated promotions AND PAY! Yes!!! 🙂

Here are the guilty parties…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

These are the sleazebags that voted yes on the Cap and Trade bill, which will make us second class citizens… If one of these congresscritters belongs to you, your mission is to make SURE they ARE NOT RE-ELECTED next year.

Enough is enough, it is time for us to take back out country!

Abercrombie
Ackerman
Adler (NJ)
Andrews
Baca
Baird
Baldwin
Bean
Becerra
Berkley
Berman
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Blumenauer
Boccieri
Bono Mack
Boswell
Boucher
Boyd
Brady (PA)
Braley (IA)
Brown, Corrine
Butterfield
Capps
Capuano
Cardoza
Carnahan
Carson (IN)
Castle
Castor (FL)
Chandler
Clarke
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Cohen
Connolly (VA)
Conyers
Cooper
Courtney
Crowley
Cuellar
Cummings
Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)
DeGette
Delahunt
DeLauro
Dicks
Dingell
Doggett
Doyle
Driehaus
Edwards (MD)
Ellison
Engel
Eshoo
Etheridge
Farr
Fattah
Filner
Frank (MA)
Fudge
Giffords
Gonzalez
Gordon (TN)
Grayson
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hall (NY)
Halvorson
Hare
Harman
Heinrich
Higgins
Hill
Himes
Hinchey
Hinojosa
Hirono
Hodes
Holt
Honda
Hoyer
Inslee
Israel
Jackson (IL)
Jackson-Lee (TX)
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Kagen
Kanjorski
Kaptur
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilpatrick (MI)
Kilroy
Kind
Kirk
Klein (FL)
Kosmas
Kratovil
Lance
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lee (CA)
Levin
Lewis (GA)
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Loebsack
Lofgren, Zoe
Lowey
Luján
Lynch
Maffei
Maloney
Markey (CO)
Markey (MA)
Matsui
McCarthy (NY)
McCollum
McDermott
McGovern
McHugh
McMahon
McNerney
Meek (FL)
Meeks (NY)
Michaud
Miller (NC)
Miller, George
Moore (KS)
Moore (WI)
Moran (VA)
Murphy (CT)
Murphy (NY)
Murphy, Patrick
Murtha
Nadler (NY)
Napolitano
Neal (MA)
Oberstar
Obey
Olver
Pallone
Pascrell
Pastor (AZ)
Payne
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Perriello
Peters
Peterson
Pingree (ME)
Polis (CO)
Price (NC)
Quigley
Rangel
Reichert
Reyes
Richardson
Rothman (NJ)
Roybal-Allard
Ruppersberger
Rush
Ryan (OH)
Sánchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schauer
Schiff
Schrader
Schwartz
Scott (GA)
Scott (VA)
Serrano
Sestak
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Shuler
Sires
Skelton
Slaughter
Smith (NJ)
Smith (WA)
Snyder
Space
Speier
Spratt
Stupak
Sutton
Tauscher
Teague
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Tierney
Titus
Tonko
Towns
Tsongas
Van Hollen
Velázquez
Walz
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watson
Watt
Waxman
Weiner
Welch
Wexler
Woolsey
Wu
Yarmuth

Another idea- Make sure at the respective tea parties that everyone knows who voted to pass this piece of crap!

My Tea Party poster is going to say-

Of the people, for the people, by the people.

NOT

By the Administration, for the Unions, screw the people…

Did anybody bother to READ it???

Posted on by March 6, 2013


Here we go again… Another “shovel ready” program, and just like the last one, IT STINKS!!!

Lawmakers were making their last pitches for and against a controversial climate and energy bill before the full House of Representatives votes Friday afternoon.

Floor statements and three hours of speeches on the bill were setting the stage for a vote on one of the most significant environmental bills in history: a sprawling measure that aims to wean industry off of carbon-emitting fuels tied to global warming.

The House Rules Committee cleared the bill for floor action early Friday after working through most of the night.

Kinda doubt it… What happened to “transparency” and bills being posted for 5 days for public review? Hmmm???

Republicans oppose the bill, calling it a huge energy tax, and it was still uncertain whether House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has the votes to get the measure through. The bill would impose the first U.S. limits on greenhouse gases linked to global warming and would shift the country away from reliance on fossil fuels.

A handful of undecided Democrats hold the key to passage of the bill that the leadership has sought to act on before Congress departs for a weeklong recess for U.S. Independence Day on July 4.

That comment there causes me to automatically throw the BS flag…

Any bets there is MASSIVE arm twisting going on? The Lightbringer is out on a limb along with Stretch Pelosi on this one… Credibility is definitely lacking on the true impact, let alone the true costs, both in terms of people/jobs and real dollar costs to the consumer.

I also wonder if CBO was even given a chance to review this to put a proposed cost on it after the dems got burned on the Health Care bill…

I’ve called all my congresscritters this morning asking them to vote NO! Hope others have done the same… sigh…

I literally cannot afford much more tax/spend from this administration, seeing that I get absolutely NOTHING in return, other than to pay MORE taxes…

And oh, by the way, I make a LOT less than $250k year…

EDIT- as of 1300 it passed a test vote. The vote was 217-205 to advance the bill to the floor, and 30 Democrats defected, a reflection of the controversy the bill sparked.

sigh…

Socialism? Is it here? Now???

Posted on by March 6, 2013

Norman Thomas socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America said this in a 1944 speech:

“The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of “liberalism,” they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.” He went on to say: “I no longer need to run as a Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party. The Democratic Party has adopted our platform.”

Well guess what… IT’S HERE…


And tomorrow the All Barack Channel will provide you a four hour infomercial on it! Of course there is no bias here… nope, not a bit, just toe the line. Why no, there will be NO ads that don’t agree with the purpose of the infomercial. Sigh…


William Warren hits the nail on the head with this cartoon!

An interesting fact is that the new health care bill has those with paid health care being taxed WITH THE EXCEPTION OF UNIONS! They were specifically given an out to prevent the union employees being charged… Why oh why am I NOT surprised by this…

HERE is the link. Read it an weep!

“Baucus has proposed the tax threshold on health care benefits be set higher than the cost of policies available to federal employees and he has proposed exempting until 2013 those plans negotiated as part of union contracts.

“It’s a means of making sure that unions are foursquare behind any reform bill that comes out,” said Henry Aaron, a health care policy expert at Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. “

In addition to all this, Congresscritter Frank Lautenberg, (d) NJ has a new way to get guns away from us…

“Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2009” would give the Attorney General to right deny someone their Second Amendment rights without having been convicted, or even charged, with any crime; simply by adding their names to a terrorist watch list. And BINGO one will find himself or herself prohibited from exercising their constitutionally-protected rights, and will have a LONG uphill battle to get their names removed from the watch list…

I know one guy that has been trying for three years, still on it…

On yet another note, day before yesterday was the final day for comments on revocation of ruling letters under 19CFR Part 177. Now I know you are wondering whatinthehellishemumbling about now…

AGENCY: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security.
ACTION: Notice of proposed revocation of four ruling letters and revocation
of treatment relating to the admissibility of certain knives with spring-assisted opening mechanisms.

(read any switchblade or one handed opening knife)

It is now CBP’s position that knives incorporating spring- and release-assisted opening mechanisms are prohibited from entry into the United States pursuant to the Switchblade Knife Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1241–1245.

Soooo… Napolitano is taking another shot, and going around Congress not through them…

The above sentence is the key point in the document and, I believe, is a big enough loophole to drive a Mack Truck through…

It absolutely depends on how some faceless bureaucrat decides to determine what is a release assisted opening mechanism. Is it the button on the blade? Is it index opening feature (on a Kershaw for example)? Beats the hell outta me…

And it will be interesting to see if there is any public notice of it’s adaption, or whether we will be getting smacked up against the wall by CBP when we come across the border and probably charged with a felony possession…

Break- Break-

The entertainment industry lost the ultimate second banana today- Ed McMahon, Brig Gen, USMC, Ret. died today. Rest in peace Sir, rest in peace…

That is all.

Let us see your guns…

Posted on by March 6, 2013


From the GAO report– Firearms Trafficking: U.S. Efforts to Combat Arms Trafficking to Mexico Face Planning and Coordination Challenges

“While it is impossible to know how many firearms are illegally smuggled into Mexico in a given year, about 87 percent of firearms seized by Mexican authorities and traced in the last 5 years originated in the United States, according to data from Department of Justice’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). According to U.S. and Mexican government officials, these firearms have been increasingly more powerful and lethal in recent years. Many of these firearms come from gun shops and gun shows in Southwest border states. U.S. and Mexican government and law enforcement officials stated most firearms are intended to support operations of Mexican DTOs, which are also responsible for trafficking arms to Mexico. The U.S. government faces several significant challenges in combating illicit sales of firearms in the United States and stemming their flow into Mexico. In particular, certain provisions of some federal firearms laws present challenges to U.S. efforts, according to ATF officials. Specifically, officials identified key challenges related to restrictions on collecting and reporting information on firearms purchases, a lack of required background checks for private firearms sales, and limitations on reporting requirements for multiple sales. GAO also found ATF and Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the primary agencies implementing efforts to address the issue, do not effectively coordinate their efforts, in part because the agencies lack clear roles and responsibilities and have been operating under an outdated interagency agreement. “

So we have the same information that has already been disproved by media now in a official report, and multiple recommendations very carefully worded to be “non-specific” in how to combat the illegal arms trafficking…

Now this from this the NRA news…

“In some cases, BATFE agents have asked to enter these people’s homes, and requested serial numbers of all firearms the members possess.

In each case, the agents were making inquiries based on the number of firearms these NRA members had recently bought, and in some cases the agents said they were asking because the members had bought types of guns that are frequently recovered in Mexico.

This kind of questioning may or may not be part of a legitimate criminal investigation. For example, when BATFE traces a gun seized after use in a crime, manufacturers’ and dealers’ records will normally lead to the first retail buyer of that gun, and investigators will have to interview the buyer to find out how the gun ended up in criminal hands. But in other cases, the questioning may simply be based on information in dealers’ records, with agents trying to “profile” potentially suspicious purchases.

On the other hand, some of the agents have used heavy-handed tactics. One reportedly demanded that a gun owner return home early from a business trip, while another threatened to “report” an NRA member as “refusing to cooperate.” That kind of behavior is outrageous and unprofessional.

Whether agents act appropriately or not, concerned gun owners should remember that all constitutional protections apply. Answering questions in this type of investigation is generally an individual choice. Most importantly, there are only a few relatively rare exceptions to the general Fourth Amendment requirement that law enforcement officials need a warrant to enter a home without the residents’ consent. There is nothing wrong with politely, but firmly, asserting your rights.

If BATFE contacts you and you have any question about how to respond, you may want to consult a local attorney. “

Is this what we have come to? Where we no longer have a pretense of rule of law?

Where as soon as you buy a specific type of gun in the Southwest you are going to come under scrutiny? It sounds to me like BATFE is already going down that road, and who is being impacted? Law abiding citizens, who are complying with the law!

Is this also going to extend to ammunition? What is going to be the next step(s)?

I don’t have a clue, but I’m sure it’s not going to be in our favor as gun owners, regardless of where we live… I just wonder if the Southwest is a test case, so to speak, to see how much push back they are going to get from gun owners…

Once the nose is under the tent flap…

Something light…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

It’s coming up on the weekend, so something a little lighter for your enjoyment!

Those guys are FAST on their feet! AND they never missed a beat…

For all you Fathers out there, HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!

Lightning…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

Lawdog got me thinking about lightning and lightning strikes with THIS post…

One of the problems with aviation, is you are up there WITH the lightning, especially when you are flying operational aircraft and don’t have the option of dodging the weather like commercial airliners do…


I did a post a long time ago about a rescue we were involved in that caused us to have to fly into the back side of a hurricane, and the ensuing lightening damage we took.


The pictures below are a similar result to a P3 that took place a couple of weeks ago…


This picture shows the damage to the left side of the radome and ensuing fire in the radome, most probably caused by shorting out of the radar and the hyper expansion of the air due to heat (which may have also caused the rupture at the join in the middle of the radome). The thing sticking out the side of the radome is one of the struts. The straight ‘line’ above the split is one of the lightning wicks built into the radome to channel the lightning and keep this from happening (supposedly)…

This picture shows a nose on view of the radome, and the split down both sides right on the join line. Also, note the melted copper just above the ruler tape. It got a ‘hair’ warm right there…


The depth of the ‘dimple’ was about a foot, and of course the forward radar was inop from the initial strike on. NOT a good thing when you’re trying to penetrate bad weather, trust me on that one…

The crew also reported ball lightning coming through the tube and out the back. The 9 inch static wicks on the airplane were burned down to stubs by this strike….



THIS is a halfway decent little video on ball lightening, one thing I will say, it DOES have a charge and is repelled by other electrical systems.



But the old Orion brought the crew back, just like it has many times before…


And HERE is an explanation of St. Elmo’s Fire, and a pretty good little video about mid-page on how lightning occurs. St Elmo’s Fire is seen many times by pilots as a green flickering on the windscreen as they fly into clouds or near thunderstorms.


Now back to the regularly scheduled BS… 🙂

The other side has been heard from…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

Well, the LWL are out in full cry…


Rusty Depass, a South Carolina Republican, posted a comment on his Facebook page suggesting the gorilla that escaped form a local zoo was an ancestor of First Lady Michelle Obama. DePass posted the controversial comment shortly after hearing of the gorilla’s escape, saying: “I’m sure it’s just one of Michelle’s ancestors — probably harmless.”

Of course the left has called comment was racist and unacceptable. He was apparently outed by a SC blogger who found the comment on Facebook and posted it last week. Huffpo and numerous others are piling on as fast as they can..

Following outrage over the remark, DePass removed the comment from the social networking site and apologized, claiming the comment was a joke and he was only referencing Obamas past comments on evolution.

Facebook decided to “un-friend” DePass and completely removed his Facebook page from the site.


So much for equal opportunity and freedom of speech- Guess that ONLY goes one way…

The Columbia, SC Mayor released a statement saying: “You know, I don’t think there’s anything funny about that comment. That is the first lady of the United States. We’ve had a long tradition of wonderful first ladies, and I don’t think any of them deserve that type of comment.” Gee, where was the “love” for Sarah Palin and her daughter???

Why wasn’t DePass given a pass like Letterman???


Makes ya think doesn’t it… sigh…