DHS Has Advice For Border Agents: Run Away

By William Teach March 10, 2014 – 6:55 am

I suppose this is the kinder, gentler version of keeping our border secure and stop those crossing our border

(Daily Caller) Top administration officials have directed 21,000 border patrol officers to retreat whenever illegal immigrants throw rocks at them, and to avoid getting in front of foreign drug-smugglers’ vehicles as they head north with their drug shipments.

“Agents shall not discharge firearms in response to thrown or hurled projectiles… agents should obtain a tactical advantage in these situations, such as seeking cover or distancing themselves,” said the instructions, issued Mar. 7, under the signature of Michael Fisher, chief of U.S. Border Patrol.

Agents were also directed to keep their weapons holstered when drug smugglers drive by.

I wonder if they are allowed to use harsh language?

The new instructions do allow agents to use guns to defend themselves from vehicles that drive at them. “Agents shall not discharge their firearms at a moving vehicle unless the agent has a reasonable belief that… deadly force is being used against an agent,” the new instructions say.

However, the instructions also suggest that officers be penalized if they don’t step back. Agents “should not place themselves in the path of a motor vehicle or use their body to block a vehicles’s path,” according to new instructions.

These same smugglers could be bringing in more illegal aliens and guns, not just drugs. We won’t know what they’re smuggling if the Border Patrol doesn’t actually, you know, stop them.

Unsurprisingly, these new rules are being praised by all sorts of illegal alien support groups and Democrat Party elected officials. One has to wonder who these Democrats think they are elected to help: U.S. citizens or illegals?

The commissioned report (which came from a far left illegal alien supporting group) was challenged by mid-level DHS officials, who argued that the rules barring self-defense from rock-throwers “could create a more dangerous environment [especially for agents operating] in rural or desolate areas, often alone, where concealment, cover and egress is not an option,” according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.

Illegal alien supporters apparently perceive that smugglers are now “undocumented immigrants” now.

Elsewhere

(Al Jazeera) U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has confirmed that at least 550 detainees at the Northwest Detention Center in Washington state have launched a hunger strike.

The detainees, who have been refusing to eat since Friday, are demanding better food, safer working conditions and for President Barack Obama to sign an executive order ending deportations, according to Maru Mora Villalpando, founder of Latino Advocacy.

The hunger strikers, Villalpando said, are part of a growing, nationwide campaign against the U.S. immigration policy. Villalpando put the number of hunger strikers at 1,200, more than twice what ICE reported to Al Jazeera.

In a sane world we would simply deport these illegals immediately.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

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John Kerry Wants US Envoys To Make “Climate Change” Their Priority

By William Teach March 9, 2014 – 4:48 pm

Our high fossil fuels flying Secretary of State apparently has nothing better to do, having solved all the world’s issues

(Yahoo News) US Secretary of State John Kerry has called on American ambassadors around the world to make the fight against climate change a top priority ahead of new UN talks next year.

In his first department-wide policy guidance statement since taking office a year ago, he told his 70,000 staff: “The environment has been one of the central causes of my life.”

“Protecting our environment and meeting the challenge of global climate change is a critical mission for me as our country’s top diplomat,” Kerry said in the letter issued on Friday to all 275 US embassies and across the State Department.

This is a guy who’s flying all over the world, owns multiple fossil fueled vehicles, along with multiple energy sucking, CO2 producing McMansions. He generated 12 tons of “carbon” during his February trip to the Far East to discuss “climate change”. The average American’s carbon footprint is 19.6 metric tons per year.

“We’re talking about the future of our earth and of humanity. We need to elevate the environment in everything we do,” he said.

It was, he said “our call to conscience as citizens of this fragile planet we inhabit.”

The environment will be fine. CO2 levels have been higher for most of the Earth’s history. I love this comment from Linda Loo

Make it the priority and then what? They can’t fix problems that are actually fixable. Our country is still reeling from the catastrophe caused by crooked business and banks. Though things are slowly improving there is still a lot of unemployment. Heaven forbid if they raise minimum wage. And what about the fact our educational system has fallen to the bottom of the list? But, hey, by all means make “climate change” a priority. No matter that there isn’t a blessed thing they can do about it if it is really happening. All the wind turbines and expensive hybrid cars and regulating companies to have less pollutants will not keep the climate from changing but it sure will make a lot of money the people with all their contraptions (a.k.a. snake oil) to prevent it from happening.

Boom! And since Kerry, as Sec Of State, ie “The Boss”, made this pronouncement, the people working for him will surely understand that this is a directive, and further ignore the real world issues to focus on this phony, far left political issue.

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Posted in Climahypocrites, Global Warming, Kerry | 19 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach March 9, 2014 – 1:00 pm

…is an awesome carbon friendly bike saving Gaia from a fever, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Evil Blogger Lady, with a post on Sarah Palin’s CPAC speech.

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Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

By William Teach March 9, 2014 – 9:13 am

Happy Sunday! Another gorgeous day in the Once And Future Nation Of America. This pinup is by Edward D’Ancona, with a wee bit of help.

What is happening in Ye Olde Blogosphere? The Fine 15

  1. Scared Monkeys discusses Rand Paul winning the CPAC straw poll
  2. Patterico highlights some guy saying a president shouldn’t take all those vacations
  3. Director Blue notes which cars have the most obnoxious drivers (This one is a few days old, but kinda funny)
  4. Free North Carolina covers an elderly lady jailed for feeding birds
  5. Raised On Hoecakes has some good news for bloggers, thanks to Getty Images
  6. The Lonely Conservative covers what Ann Coulter says should be the GOP’s #1 issue
  7. The Hockey Schtick catches the IPCC head denying what the IPCC stated
  8. Wizbang notes that no DNC member can think of a Hillary accomplishment
  9. The People’s Cube has great quotes then and now
  10. The Daily Gator notes how Los Federales wasted another $2.4 million
  11. Q&O notes science in the service of politics
  12. protein wisdom covers black teen unemployment
  13. Atlas Shrugs notes another sterling example for the RoP
  14. Legal Insurrection wonders if Obama sabotaged Kerry’s peace talks
  15. And last, but not least, Lady Liberty 1885 points out that Occupy Monday is coming

As always, the full set of pinups can be seen in the Patriotic Pinup category, or over at my Gallery page. While we are on pinups, since it is that time of year, have you gotten your “Pinups for Vets” calendar yet? And don’t forget to check out what I declare to be our War on Women Rule 5 and linky luv posts and things that interest me

Anyone else have a link or hotty-fest going on? Let me know so I can add you to the list. (BTW, since someone asked, the reason I leave links for the previous week up (or you might see a *) is because they are place holders for later in the day or for next weeks. Easier than rewriting all the time. Also, the listing order has to do with how they are added over time, not how good a post is. I just copy and paste from the previous week, then edit. If you see one of the *’s, go ahead and check out the blog anyhow, see if there is an update. I cannot update with my Android during the day.

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What Say To An “Individual Shared Responsibility Payment” To The IRS?

By William Teach March 9, 2014 – 8:19 am

Of course this must be about Obamacare

(Townhall) Here’s your Orwellian Phrase for the Week: Individual shared responsibility payment. Yeah… Go ahead and try to wrap your brain around that amalgamation of contradictory concepts. The phrase is not gleamed from some glossy DNC spin-office, or a Harvard professor’s latest psychobabble posing as an academic paper. Apparently the phrase is the IRS’s fancy (new) term for the Obamacare Mandate tax that individuals will have to pay if they fail to get health insurance this year.

As reported by Americans for Tax Reform:

If you (or any of your dependents) do not maintain coverage and do not qualify for an exemption, you will need to make an individual shared responsibility payment with your return.

That’s right, campers, the IRS refuses to call it a tax, instead, it goes with something more reminiscent of a Marxist/Communist country.

This should make filling out a tax form interesting. Especially for those who have been unemployed for a long term, as so many have been during the Obama Years. And everyone must prove that they had health insurance for every single month of the year. You are guilty till you provide evidence otherwise.

Here’s one other interesting tidbit

You will owe 1/12th of the annual payment for each month you (or your dependents) do not have coverage and are not exempt.

So, if you leave a job which provides health insurance, voluntary or otherwise, and do not maintain coverage, you be required to pay the ISRP. That should help the well-being of those who were laid off or fired.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

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Las Vegas Casino Workers May Strike Thanks To Obamacare

By William Teach March 8, 2014 – 2:56 pm

Why? The costs imposed by Obamacare

(Buzzfeed)  Contract negotiations are stalled for thousands of workers at casinos on the Strip and in downtown Las Vegas to the point where they may go on strike — and the sticking point is Obamacare.

On Feb. 20, thousands of housekeepers, porters, cooks, cocktail servers, and others represented by Nevada’s largest union, the Culinary Union Local 226, voted to end a contract extension the workers agreed to last summer. The union wants to maintain its current benefits — including health care coverage at no cost to workers, pensions, and guaranteed 40-hour workweeks.

Rising health care costs due to provisions in the Affordable Care Act could put those benefits in jeopardy, the union says.

“The biggest hurdle to reaching settlements in Vegas is the new costs imposed on our health plan by Obamacare,” Donald “D” Taylor, president of Unite Here, the parent union of CU Local 226, told BuzzFeed in a statement. “Even though the president and Congress promised we could keep our health plan, the reality is, unless the law is fixed, that won’t be true.”

What else is there to say about Obamacare that hasn’t been said before? It’s a terrible law that causes more problems than it solves, it causes employer costs to rise and there is only so much a company can eat, which means issues for the workers and/or passing the costs on to the consumers and/or cutting back on service. And this will only get worse once the illegally delayed employer mandate comes closer to implementation.

Read: Las Vegas Casino Workers May Strike Thanks To Obamacare »

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If All You See…

By William Teach March 8, 2014 – 1:00 pm

…is a horrible fossil fueled airplane, causing islands to tip over from sea rise, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Other McCain, with a post on Piers Morgan and the Duke U. porn star student.

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We’re Saved: Senate Dems Plan All-Nighter To Yap About Hotcoldwetdry

By William Teach March 8, 2014 – 10:47 am

Funny that they’ve waited till now to do this, rather than during the very cold and snowy previous two months

(WSJ) Most of the Senate’s recent late-nighters have been courtesy of Republicans, with GOP lawmakers seizing the floor to talk about unmanned drones or the new health law, to name two topics that claimed a combined 34 hours over two stretches last year. On Monday, Senate Democrats will take their turn, dedicating an all-night session to climate change.

Beginning after the Senate’s Monday evening votes, 28 members of the Democratic caucus plan to speak until around 9 a.m. Tuesday to push for action on climate change. In a nod to the social media frenzy generated by recent GOP floor dramatics, Democrats already have their Twitter hashtag ready: #Up4Climate.

“On Monday we’ll be sending a clear message: it’s time for Congress to wake up and get serious about addressing this issue,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.), who gives a weekly speech on climate change on the Senate floor. His nearly constant prop: a large poster-board with a photo of Earth and the slogan “Time to Wake Up.”

I wonder if these Senate Dems realize that Democrats control the Senate? Oh, and that they’ll use lots of electricity to hold the silly session? Remember, Warmists state that use of electricity causes “climate change”. Oh, and I wonder how they’ll get to the Senate? Fossil fueled vehicles? How did Whitehouse get from Rhode Island to D.C.? A fossil fueled flight, per chance?

(HuffPo) The following senators are participating: Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Patty Murray, (D-Wash.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Barbara Boxer, (D-Calif.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Mark Udall (D-Colo.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Angus King (I-Maine), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.).

Every single one of them took some form of fossil fueled travel to get to D.C. On Monday, make sure to tweet them questions like

  • Have your replaced all the lights in your offices and homes with CFLs/LEDs on your own dime?
  • Will you pledge to give up your own fossil fueled travel?
  • Have you placed solar panels on your own homes?
  • Do you take showers lasting no more than 2 minute?
  • Is your life “carbon neutral”?
  • Are you super scared by a miniscule 0.14F increase in global temps since 1997?

There are lots more to be asked, I’m sure you folks can think of a few.

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Posted in AGW Idiocy, Democrats, Global Warming, New Climate Deniers | 26 Comments | Trackback URL

Atheists Still Working Hard To Exclude 9/11 Cross From Museum

By William Teach March 8, 2014 – 8:57 am

They’ve been pushing this issue for years, ever since they learned that the 9/11 cross would be a part of the museum. As far back as 2011 they filed a lawsuit to stop the inclusion. Why? The typical silly argument about a cross being on government land, and because they might be offended. Mostly because they’re jerks and want to ruin it for everyone else

(CBS NY) Arguments were heard Thursday in a case brought by an atheist group against placing what’s known as the World Trade Center cross in the National September 11 Museum.

As WCBS 880′s Marla Diamond reported, the lawyer for the 9/11 museum, Mark Alcott, called the steel beam cross an artifact during oral arguments at the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.

But American Atheists attorney Edwin Kagan called the 17-foot-tall crossed beams a religious symbol that only gives one story of the people who suffered and has no place on government-owned land. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey owns the site where the museum is located.

Judge Reena Raggi said there are countless other religious artifacts on display at many museums. She asked the lawyer for the American Atheists if their goal was to censure history.

There was lots of whining from the atheists lawyer about religion

“This is part of religious history. It’s an act of religious symbolism. It is a shrine now,” Ken Bronstein of New York City Atheists said outside court. “That miracle cross should be moved back to St. Peter’s where it was for five years.”

Atheists are working overtime to tick off the American citizens. And still fail to understand the 1st Amendment. The cross gave great comfort to workers who worked tirelessly in an attempt to find survivors in those early, bleak days.

(Washington Post) Questions raised by the three-judge panel included whether similar treatment would be needed in a place like the Holocaust Museum, a museum that includes Jewish artifacts but would not be considered an endorsement of Judaism.

Excellent question. There are plenty of religious objects residing within government funded museums. The Smithsonian is funded 70 cents on the dollar by the federal government (money well spent, IMO). There are numerous religious works in the museums of all stripes. Have you ever visited the National Gallery of Art (if not, you really should)? There are numerous pieces of art that directly support Christianity.

Let’s be clear: this group does not represent all atheists, nor speak for them, nor make clear their thoughts. Most that I’ve met could care less.

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Posted in 1st Amendment, 2996, Christianity | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

Syria, Other Middle East Nations Take Advantage Of Obama Weakness

By William Teach March 8, 2014 – 8:27 am

If your foreign policy is one of weakness, of inattention, of fantasy, what do you think will happen?

(Washington Post) Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is taking advantage of the rift between Russia and the United States over Ukraine to press ahead with plans to crush the rebellion against his rule and secure his reelection for another seven-year term, unencumbered by pressure to compromise with his opponents.

The collapse last month of peace talks in Geneva, jointly sponsored by Russia and the United States, had already eroded the slim prospects that a negotiated settlement to the Syrian war might be possible. With backers of the peace process now at odds over the outcome of the popular uprising in Ukraine, Assad feels newly confident that his efforts to restore his government’s authority won’t be met soon with any significant challenge from the international community, according to analysts and people familiar with the thinking of the regime.

Well, in Obama’s defense, Assad was going to take advantage no matter what. Of course, part of that is because Obama is too weak to be dictating to Syria what they should do. But, wait, it gets better!

The Syrian war is only one of a number of contentious issues in the Middle East that expose the vulnerability of U.S. interests to a revival of Cold War-era tensions with Russia such as those that have surfaced in Ukraine. The nuclear accord with Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, both of which rank higher on the Obama administration’s foreign policy agenda than Syria, are also dependent to an extent on Moscow’s cooperation.

Because Obama is weak internationally. Pixie dust doesn’t work. Finger wagging and speeches about the “international community” do not work. Think Iran isn’t watching? The Palestinian Authority?

In a less-noted development in recent months, newly ambivalent U.S. allies such as Egypt and Iraq have been quietly concluding significant arms deals with Moscow, largely spurred by concerns that the Obama administration’s reluctance to become embroiled in the messy outcomes of the Arab Spring means that Washington can no longer be counted on as a reliable source of support.

Most Arab countries have remained silent on the Ukraine crisis, and some could well move further into Russia’s orbit should Washington be seen to be wavering, said Theodore Karasik of the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis.

So we could easily lose those nations who were confederates of the U.S.

An Assad adviser has blown off the call for international monitoring in Syria this week regarding elections.

“Putin sees the world as one big chessboard on which he can play two or three moves at the same time. I am not sure the West can do that,” he said. “I don’t see the Russians backing off their support for Assad, and I think Assad will continue to do what he has always wanted to do, which is to win militarily.”

This is the part where Obama is only thinking in the here and now. He doesn’t seem to be able to focus on multiple issues, so he bounces from subject to subject, pivots for a few, then jumps away. Certainly, not everything can be blamed on Obama’s lackadaisical, tepid, wobbly foreign policy, as nations will often do things regardless of what other countries and leaders say. However, those same Obama qualities lead them to act sooner, to blow off and statements from the US, and move them away from the U.S.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

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