Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, May 7, 2014


So I'm getting into the car... 

(Hank! My Charger! Hank the HEMI! Inferno Red!)

...following BodyPump and a shower.

Engine purring... sunroof open... windows open... stereo on...

(XM - Channel 6... "The '60's)

...next thing I know "Indian Reservation" is blasting - the original Don Fardon 1968 hit!

So... folks... let me ask you... how's the Great White Father in Washington done in "caring" for the American Indian?

Hmm... black illegitimacy 73%... don't get me started on the other stats...

How has a high degree of "government dependency" worked out for "Black America?" (How's it worked out for "Hispanic America?")

Folks... by and large "government" is incompetent. Even at the local level it seems clear that pothole repair is simply to much to expect from government in a timely manner! Let's not even get started on the waste and fraud in state and federal programs and spending overall!

What's it gonna take for more of you people to see things as I see them - to see things as they truly are?

The more government is empowered... the more America is prone to making the wrong moves at the wrong time for the wrong reasons.

Wake up, people! Wake up "We The People!"


14 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://news.yahoo.com/g7-begin-reducing-russian-energy-dependency-uk-minister-133031891.html;_ylt=AwrBEiQKaWlTiAcA53fQtDMD

NATO will have to consider permanently stationing troops in parts of Eastern Europe as a result of the increased tension between Russia and Ukraine, the alliance's top military commander said on Tuesday.

* LIKE HELL!

* FOLKS... THE COLD WAR IS OVER! REAGAN WON IT! IF OBAMA HAS SO SCREWED THINGS UP THAT IT'S BACK... WELL... LET THE EUROPEANS SPEND THEIR TREASURE AND RISK THEIR SONS, DAUGHTERS, FATHERS, AND MOTHERS TO "DEFEND" EUROPE.

Asked whether NATO might have to look at permanently stationing troops in the alliance's member states in Eastern Europe, U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove said: "I think this is something we have to consider and we will tee this up for discussion through the leaderships of our nations to see where that leads."

* I THINK IT'S TIME TO RETIRE OL' GEN. BREEDLOVE!

Breedlove declined to say whether he thought that France should scrap the sale of two Mistral helicopter-carrier frigates to Russia, saying this was "a national decision" that was up to France.

* SO LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT... (*SCRATCHING MY HEAD*)... WE'RE GONNA SPEND AMERICAN DOLLARS AND PUT AMERICAN LIVES ON THE LINE TO PROTECT FRANCE'S ABILITY TO SELL WEAPONS TO RUSSIA...?!?!

* OH... AND BREEDLOVE IS FINE WITH THAT!

* FOLKS... WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY - AND HE IS US!

William R. Barker said...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/05/05/u-s-businesses-are-being-destroyed-faster-than-theyre-being-created/?hpid=z5

The American economy is less entrepreneurial now than at any point in the last three decades.

(*CLAP...CLAP...CLAP*)

That's the conclusion of a new study out from the Brookings Institution, which looks at the rates of new business creation and destruction since 1978.

* BROOKINGS IS ON THE LEFT... (AND THIS ARTICLE IS FROM THE WASHINGTON POST...)

Not only that, but during the most recent three years of the study - 2009, 2010 and 2011 - businesses were collapsing faster than they were being formed - a first.

* CHANT IT WITH ME, FOLKS... O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A!

Overall, new businesses creation (measured as the share of all businesses less than one year old) declined by about half from 1978 to 2011.

(*CLAP...CLAP...CLAP*)

William R. Barker said...

http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/jamie-dupree/2014/may/05/us-house-preserves-lawmaker-auto-leases/?wpisrc=nl_rdin

As the U.S. House last week approved a funding bill for the operations of the Legislative Branch 2015, lawmakers voted to freeze the House budget and to again block any pay raise for members, but they refused to take another step on the budget, rejecting a plan to stop members from using some of their office account money to lease automobiles.

"Today, members of Congress can lease Lexuses, BMW's, Infinitis, Acuras, Mercedes," groused Rep. Richard Nugent (R-FL), who pressed the case for banning car leases.

"Having a personal car - basically paid for by the taxpayers - should no longer be allowed," Nugent argued in vain on the floor, as the House rejected his amendment on a vote of 221-196.

* UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF JOHN FUCKING SCUMBAG BOEHNER...

In expense records filed by members of the U.S. House, the number of lawmakers spending their office account money to lease a vehicle has declined slightly in recent years - there are 63 members right now using taxpayer money for a vehicle lease.

* LET'S CUT THEIR OFFICE ACCOUNTS BY HALF!

The numbers from the House Statement of Disbursements show this:

63 House members are spending $38,444.20 per month on auto leases, which totals out to $461,330.40 per year - that is an average of $610.23 per month per lawmaker lease.

38 Democrats are using official office account money to lease a vehicle, spending an average of $600.18 per month.

25 Republicans are using official office account money to lease a vehicle, spending an average of $625.39 per month.

The ten most expensive auto leases are split evenly by party, with five Democrats and five Republicans in the Top Ten.

* SO... THIRTEEN MORE DEMOCRATS THAN REPUBLICANS ARE SCUMBAGS... (BIG FRIGGIN' DEAL! I'D LIKE ALL 63 OF THESE CLOWNS TARRED, FEATHERED, AND RUN OUT OF WASHINGTON ON A RAIL!)

The most money is being spent for auto leases each month is by Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX) at $1,318.97 for two leases; one is for $333.33, and the other is for $985.64. Neugebauer defended the leases in an interview with KFYO Radio in Texas, saying that his staff uses the vehicles to get around his district. "It is more cost effective, when we ran the numbers, for us to lease the vehicles than to reimburse for mileage," Neugebauer said, adding that his $985.64 lease is for a hybrid Chevy Tahoe.

* FRANKLY... I DON'T GIVE A SHIT. THERE'S SIMPLY TOO MUCH ROOM FOR ABUSE UNDER THE CURRENT SYSTEM.

Not all of the leases are for cars for personal use - like the $800 per month for a "Mobile Constituent Service Center" spent by Rep. Kerry Bentivolio (R-MI), which his spokesman says is a trailer used for district work, not an automobile for personal use.

* WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "CONSTITUENT SERVICE" AND RE-ELECTION CAMPAIGNING? (NOT MUCH... RIGHT?!)

Only House members can use their official funds to lease vehicles; the Senate got rid of that option in recent years.

* THERE YA GO, FOLKS!

Under House rules, it is okay to lease a vehicle with money raised in campaign contributions, instead of official office funds.

* GEEZUS FRIGGIN' CHRIST...

William R. Barker said...

http://freebeacon.com/issues/economy-not-keeping-up-with-population-growth/

Before President Barack Obama took office 259.7 million people were part of the working-age population, or between ages 16 and 65. Now, the number has risen to 267.7 million.

* SOUNDS GOOD, HUH?! KEEP READING...

Despite adding more than 8 million people to the working-age population since 2007, total employment has declined by half a million, according to an analysis by the Senate Budget Committee.

* OOPS...

[I]n the same time period, total employment declined from 146.3 million to 145.7 million.

* OOPS...

In other words, 531,000 fewer people have jobs.

* OOPS... OOPS... OOPS...

“This statistic highlights an alarming trend that has embodied the president’s economic policies: more and more people are leaving the workforce entirely,” according to the analysis, which was released by Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.). “There are 58 million working-age people who are not working, and the labor force participation rate stands at 62.8%, the lowest level in 36 years.”

William R. Barker said...

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/labor-force-participation-rate-25-29-year-olds-hits-record-low

The labor force participation rate in April 2014 for Americans ages 25 to 29 hit the lowest level recorded since 1982, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) started tracking such data.

* CHANT IT WITH ME, FOLKS! O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A!

(In January 1982, when the data were first collected, the labor force participation rate for this group was 80.7%.)

(*SHRUG*)

The labor force participation rate, which is the percentage of the civilian non-institutional population who participated in the labor force by either having a job during the month or actively seeking one, hit a record low in April 2014 of 79.8%.

(*CLAP...CLAP...CLAP*)

The actual number of Americans, ages 25 to 29, not participating in the labor force hit a record high in April 2014 as well, with 4,280,000 not working.

When Barack Obama took office as president in January 2009, the number of Americans 25 to 29 not in the labor force was 3,769,000. Since then, that number has gone up by 511,000, an increase of 13.6%.

(*SNORT*)

* FOLKS... WHAT CAN I TELL YA...?!

William R. Barker said...

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/may/05/us-russian-planes-more-active-in-asia-pacific/all/?print

The commander of U.S. air forces in the Pacific is reporting a significant increase in activities by Russian planes and ships in the region.

Gen. Herbert Carlisle...said Russia was demonstrating its capabilities and gathering intelligence on U.S. military exercises.

Carlisle said there had been long-range Russian air patrols to the coast of California and a circumnavigation of the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam.

He said a U.S. F-15 fighter jet intercepted a Russian strategic bomber that had flown to Guam.

He also reported a sharp increase in Russian air patrols around Japanese islands and Korea.

Carlisle said there was a lot more Russian ship activity too.

He was speaking Monday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.

(*CLAP...CLAP...CLAP*)

* CHANT IT WITH ME, FOLKS... O-BAM-A! KER-RY! HIL-LA-RY!

* FOLKS... IT'S NOT FUCKING FUNNY... IT'S REALLY NOT...

William R. Barker said...

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/russian-strategic-bombers-on-west-coast-did-they-take-down-los-angeles-air-traffic-control-systems_05062014

Last week something weird happened in Los Angeles and it likely involved a high altitude fly over.

Air traffic controllers at Los Angeles LAX airport reported that their computer systems were overwhelmed and crashed, leading to hundreds of flight delays and cancellations across the country. According to an NBC News investigation the outage was caused by the flyover of a U-2 spy plane. Apparently the 1950′s class spy plane entered LAX airspace at about 60,000 feet and its jamming systems crashed not only the primary air traffic control systems used to monitor and direct commercial airlines, but the back up systems as well.

* YEP. THAT'S THE REPORT I READ. IF MEMORY SERVES, I MADE THE STORY A NEWSBITE.

But within days of the original report, disseminated across broadcast networks all over America, the Air Force officially denied that it was a U-2 spy plane, claiming they found the glitch but provided no reason for what caused it:

* NOW THIS I DIDN'T SEE...

With the revelation this week that Russia has deployed strategic bomber fleets for fly-by’s along our West Coast to gather intelligence and test their capabilities, is it possible that someone flipped a switch to see what would happen?

The Air Force likely knows what caused the outage but refuses to share details, which suggests that either the United States was engaged in a military exercise and they want to keep it under wraps, or, it was the Russians and going public could further inflame the already heated geopolitical climate.

* I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO THINK, FOLKS. SHTF PLAN ISN'T THE SORT OF SITE I TEND TO RELY UPON. THAT SAID... (*SHRUG*)

William R. Barker said...

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/6/wheres-the-pork-durbin-reid-among-lawmakers-seekin/

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday that earmarks should be put back on the table as a tool for Congress, becoming the latest voice in a growing chorus to return to the days when pork-barrel spending dominated the annual appropriations process.

“I have been a fan of earmarks since I got here the first day,” Mr. Reid, Nevada Democrat, told reporters.

* I'LL LET THE MAN'S WORDS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES...

Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican and the top waste-watcher in Congress, circulated a letter last week with Sen. Mark Udall, Colorado Democrat, asking colleagues to pledge to stand by the earmark ban.

* DITTO...

William R. Barker said...

http://colemanscornerdotcomdotbr.wordpress.com/daily-blog/

* BY THE FOUNDER OF THE WEATHER CHANNEL...

The sky is falling. “Climate Change” is running wild and disaster is certain unless we immediately stop burning coal and oil and move quickly to “green energy” to eliminate use of fossil fuels. Heat waves, huge floods, powerful storms, droughts and rising seas are on the verge of killing millions of us and destroying our civilization. That is my summary of the new Federal Assessment of Climate Change issued by a Obama administration team of more than 300 "specialists" guided by a 60-member federal advisory committee produced the report. It was reviewed by federal agencies and a panel of the National Academy of Sciences.

This 600 page litany of doom and gloom has received extensive coverage by the panting anchors of the national media who feel important when telling their audience “the sky is falling.”

Horrible pictures of storms, floods, drought and heat waves leaped out of the TV sets as the New York and Washington DC headquartered media was particularly excited to tell us how the huge increases in floods and storms was the worst in that part of the nation.

If you accept the picture painted by this report, the weather was just right, steady and nice in the historic past but because our industrialized society has powered its heating and air conditioning, its transportation by train, plane, cars and trucks, generated it’s electric power to run our lights, computers, television and smart phones with fossil fuels it has triggered this nightmare of awful storms, droughts and heat waves.

I am deeply disturbed to have to suffer through this total distortion of the data and agenda driven, destructive episode of bad science gone berserk.

The only good news is that at least where I am and on the channels and websites I saw I was not further insulted by fawning TV Weathercasters visiting the White House and interviewing the President. I best I can tell, on a national level, that turned out to be a non-event (thank goodness).

Please allow me to hold your attention for a few minutes to explain why I don’t buy into this Climate Change alarmism.

The climate of Earth has never been “normal” or stable.

* DUH...!

It has continuously changed through this planet’s 4.5 billion year history.

* YEP...!

Powerful storms, floods, droughts, heat waves and ice and snow storms have come and gone as long as Earth has existed.

* THE GRAND FRIGGIN' CANYON...!!!

The current bad science is all based on a theory that the increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from the exhaust of the burning of fossil fuels leads to a dramatic increase in “the greenhouse effect” causing temperatures to skyrocket uncontrollably.

This theory has failed to verify and is obviously dead wrong.

* THUS... "CLIMATE CHANGE."

But the politically funded and agenda driven scientists who have built their careers on this theory and live well on the $2.6 billion a year of Federal grants for global warming/climate change research cling to this theory and bend the data spread to support the glorified claims in their reports and papers.

* FOLLOW THE MONEY, FOLKS...

When the temperature data could no longer be bent to support global warming, they switched to climate change...

* WELL...? THEY DID - RIGHT? THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED - RIGHT?!

...and now blame every weather and climate event on CO2 despite the hard, cold fact that the “radiative forcing” theory they built their claims on has totally failed to verify.

They call people such as me who debunk their non-scientific silliness as “deniers” and claim we are "flat-earthers" and shills for “big oil.”

It is insulting and maddening.

But I will not be silenced.

And neither will the thousand others, many of them with Ph.D.’s and on the faculties of major universities who are working to stop this bad science that labels CO2 as a pollutant and blames it for every shift in the weather.

William R. Barker said...

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/report-pentagon-paid-150-per-gallon-for-green-jet-fuel/

The Department of Defense (DOD) paid $150 per gallon for alternative jet fuel made from algae, more than 64 times the current market price for standard carbon-based fuels, according to a report released on Wednesday.

* THOSE INDIVIDUALS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS OUTRAGE SHOULD BE SHOT.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) noted in its report that a Pentagon official reported paying “about $150 per gallon for 1,500 gallons of alternative jet fuel derived from algal oil.”

* NAME? POSITION?

The price for conventional jet fuel is currently $2.88 per gallon.

* LESS THAN REGULAR GAS! CERTAINLY LESS THAN $150/GAL.!

GAO’s report reveals that federal agencies have paid significantly higher prices in an effort to promote biofuels in commercial and military aviation.

* AGAIN... WHO... WHO IN POWER SIGNED OFF?!

“Of the two alternative jet-fuel production processes approved for use in commercial and military aircraft (Fischer-Tropsch and HEFA), DOD, according to a DOD official, paid from about $3 to $150 per gallon,” GAO reported.

The Pentagon has previously come under fire for paying exorbitant prices for aviation biofuels. Reuters reported in 2012 that the Air Force had purchased 11,000 of alcohol-based jet fuel for $59 per gallon from a Colorado-based biofuel company.

* AND WAS ANYONE FIRED...? COURT MARTIALED PERHAPS...?

That company, Gevo Inc., was backed financially by high-dollar Democratic donor Vinod Khosla, who has invested in a number of companies that have received federal support from the Obama administration.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

* FOLKS... "THE ADMINISTRATION" DOESN'T TELL US ANYTHING WE COULDN'T HAVE GUESSED FOR OURSELVES. WHO ARE THE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FOR THESE OUTRAGES? WHO ARE THE OFFICE HOLDERS... THE OFFICIALS... THE MILITARY OFFICERS?!

A week before that story broke, the Navy spent $26 per gallon to fuel its Great Green Fleet during the 2012 Rim of the Pacific exercise.

* FOLKS... IMAGINE WHAT THE WASTED MONEY COULD HAVE FUNDED...

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

William R. Barker said...

http://thehill.com/regulation/205484-administration-to-pledge-equal-education-for-illegal-immigrants

The Obama administration announced Wednesday it would issue new "guidance" requiring U.S. schools to provide equal education to all children, regardless of their immigration status.

* UNDER WHAT SUPPOSED AUTHORITY...?!?!

The Justice and Education departments sought through 2011 guidance to ensure equal treatment for undocumented children in accordance with the Supreme Court’s 1982 Plyler vs. Doe ruling, which prohibited a school district from charging illegal immigrants extra tuition fees.

* SO IT WAS THE SUPREME COURT! (I'M GUESSING BY A BARE MAJORITY OF LEFTISTS...)

William R. Barker said...

http://www.steynonline.com/6317/gun-control

* MARK STEYN...

During the early morning hours of New Year's Eve, 2008, police sergeant Jeffrey Cotton fired three bullets at Robert Tolan; one of those bullets hit its target and punctured Tolan's right lung.

At the time of the shooting, Tolan was unarmed on his parents' front porch about 15 to 20 feet away from Cotton.

Happy New Year! Auld Lung Syne: That's one acquaintance Mr. Tolan won't soon forget.

But it gets better!

The only reason Sgt Cotton was emptying his gun into Mr. Tolan was because his colleague, Officer Edwards, had mistransposed a digit when taking down Tolan's license plate, which is 696BGK. Instead, Officer Edwards entered into the database 695BGK - which came up stolen.

As Mr. Tolan and his cousin exit the vehicle, Officer Edwards draws his gun, orders them to the ground, and accuses them of stealing the car. "That's my car," says Tolan, but complies with the request to lie face down.

[H]earing the commotion, Tolan's parents come downstairs in their pajamas and find their son and their nephew lying on the ground with a cop pointing a gun at them. Mrs. Tolan explains, "Sir, this is a big mistake. This car is not stolen... That's our car."

[I]n a different policing culture, an officer facing four family members insisting this is a family vehicle might wonder whether it is, as Mrs. Tolan suggests, all a mistake - a small mistake, if not yet "a big mistake." And he might ask the lady if she has any proof of that: How long have they had it, where did they buy it, etc. Instead, he radios for back-up - because in America one heavily armed officer shouldn't have to deal with four unarmed civilians all on his own - and so the small mistake of a transposed number becomes a very big mistake.

Sgt. Cotton arrives, pistol drawn, and orders Mrs. Tolan, a law-abiding person not accused of any crime, to stand against the garage door. She says, "Are you kidding me? We've lived here 15 years. We've never had anything like this happen before."

Three people testified that Sgt Cotton grabbed her arms and slammed her into the garage door with such force that she fell to the ground.

Mrs. Tolan produced photographic evidence of bruising over her arms and back.

(Sgt. Cotton disputed their testimony and the photographs. Nevertheless, young Tolan did not like seeing his mother assaulted.)

Both parties agree that Tolan then exclaimed, from roughly 15 to 20 feet away, 713 F. 3d, at 303, "[G]et your fucking hands off my mom." Record 1928.

The parties also agree that Cotton then drew his pistol and fired three shots at Tolan. Tolan and his mother testified that these shots came with no verbal warning. Id., at 2019, 2080.

One of the bullets entered Tolan's chest, collapsing his right lung and piercing his liver. While Tolan survived, he suffered a life-altering injury that disrupted his budding professional baseball career and causes him to experience pain on a daily basis.

The District Court found for the coppers...

...and so did the Fifth Circuit, ruling that "Get your fucking hands off my mom" constituted a "verbal threat" and, from a guy on his knees 15-20 feet away, "an immediate threat to the safety of the officers" - rather than (as we approach Mother's Day) what ought to be the sentiment of any self-respecting young man seeing somebody physically assault his mom.

The Supreme Court has now vacated the Fifth Circuit's decision, and "remanded the case for further proceedings."

(Because, after being shot for a misentered license plate digit, and after enduring five-and-a-half years of constant pain, what you really want is yet another go-round with a justice system that thinks this is all somehow consistent with routine police procedure.)

William R. Barker said...

http://www.steynonline.com/6317/gun-control

* ANOTHER BY MARK STEYN...

In a column on the botched execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma, Kevin Williamson remarks en passant:

When police were called to a home in Boiling Spring Lakes, N.C., by parents seeking assistance in getting their mentally ill teen-aged son to the hospital for emergency treatment, two officers arrived and began attempting to calm down the agitated young man until a third officer, apparently an impatient one, showed up and ordered them to use their Tasers on the 100-pound teen, who was holding a screwdriver.

Unsurprisingly, the tasing did not calm down the young man, who, according to his parents, was suffering from schizophrenia and had failed to take his medication. So he was shot to death by a police officer whose last words before pulling the trigger were: "We don't have time for this."

* OK. WITH THIS ONE MY SYMPATHIES GO TO THE OFFICERS. I'M SORRY THE KID ENDED UP DEAD, BUT I'M NOT GONNA SECOND GUESS THESE COPS WHEN THE KID HAD A SCREWDRIVER WHICH HE WAS BRANDISHING AS A WEAPON.

* I WOULD SAY BRING BACK BATONS AND BATON TRAINING FOR SITUATIONS SUCH AS THIS. IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THE TEEN COULD HAVE AND SHOULD HAVE BEEN DISARMED AND THAT A BATON WOULD HAVE BEEN AN EFFECTIVE LAW ENFORCEMENT TOOL.

When I imagine the police officer in question, I don't hear the voice of Dirty Harry — I hear the DMV lady and the clerks at the local IRS office; bloodless, officious little bureaucrats to whom the people they encounter every day are not citizens to be served but objects of contempt and problems to be endured until retirement, as though humanity stopped at the edge of the counter.

The bureaucrats do not have life-and-death power over us in most cases, but when they do, they can be counted upon to misuse and abuse that power.

* AND I MUST SAY... I ALSO HAVE SYMAPATHY WITH STEYN. I FEAR I AGREE WITH HIM ON WHAT HE JUST WROTE!

There are other "We don't have time for this" stories - "we don't have time for the norms of civilized policing" - every day of the week. Random example from Boone County, Kentucky. No big deal. Didn't make any big-city papers - unless you count London, England's Daily Mail:

Deputy Tyler Brockman shot 19-year-old pre-school teacher Samantha Ramsey dead as she was leaving a party.

As I wrote a month ago, after a trooper fired half-a-dozen shots at a septuagenarian veteran reaching for his cane; York County Sheriff Bruce Bryant assured his officer that he "did the right thing." And so he did - by the book.

In what circumstances isn't it "the right thing" to shoot the citizenry?

It would be nice to get a Supreme Court ruling on that one of these days. Mr. Tolan lives in daily pain, so he came out ahead of the poor schizophrenic and the pre-school lady, who are both six feet under. If someone shoots up a grade school or a movie theatre, the cable airwaves fill with experts demanding gun control. But every day Americans are shot for no reason other than that armed bureaucrats "don't have time for this." Any chance of a little more gun control there?

As I always say in these circumstances, if you need to shoot a schizophrenic, a teenage partygoer, a lame septuagenarian, a confused hobo, etc, etc, etc, you're doing it wrong. "The book" is the problem. "The book" is what needs to change. Anyone who goes into law enforcement assumes the risk that a traffic stop might turn out to be something more. Mr. Tolan, Miss Ramsey and the rest of us should not have to assume any such risk. In routine encounters with law enforcement, a citizen should not have to weigh the likelihood that the officer will decide to shoot him dead. That's about as basic a standard for civilized society as one can muster.

William R. Barker said...

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/205550-pelosi-skips-lerner-contempt-vote

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) did not attend the Wednesday evening vote series to hold former IRS official Lois Lerner in contempt for refusing to testify about the agency’s improper scrutiny of Tea Party groups.

She was, however, expected at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fundraiser attended by the president and roughly 90 guests at the home of Disney Chairman Alan Horn in Bel Air, Calif., according to a White House pool report.

She also did not vote on the resolution to call on the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel in the IRS investigation.

Moreover, Pelosi did not vote in the mid-afternoon vote series on Wednesday either.

Pelosi's office did not comment.

* WHAT A PIECE OF SHIT...