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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2009/04/02/myth-percent-guns-mexico-fraction-number-claimed/

The Myth of 90 Percent: Only a Small Fraction of Guns in Mexico Come From U.S.
While 90 percent of the guns traced to the U.S. actually originated in the United States, the percent traced to the U.S. is only about 17 percent of the total number of guns reaching Mexico.

By William La Jeunesse and Maxim Lott

FOXNews.com

Thursday, April 02, 2009
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You've heard this shocking "fact" before -- on TV and radio, in newspapers, on the Internet and from the highest politicians in the land: 90 percent of the weapons used to commit crimes in Mexico come from the United States.

-- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it to reporters on a flight to Mexico City.

-- CBS newsman Bob Schieffer referred to it while interviewing President Obama.

-- California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said at a Senate hearing: "It is unacceptable to have 90 percent of the guns that are picked up in Mexico and used to shoot judges, police officers and mayors … come from the United States."

-- William Hoover, assistant director for field operations at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, testified in the House of Representatives that "there is more than enough evidence to indicate that over 90 percent of the firearms that have either been recovered in, or interdicted in transport to Mexico, originated from various sources within the United States."

There's just one problem with the 90 percent "statistic" and it's a big one:

It's just not true.

In fact, it's not even close. By all accounts, it's probably around 17 percent.

Hurray! Even the FBI can't prove that the Blackwater guards were at fault in this terrible incident. The odds are that the insurgents did fire and were hiding in the crowd to get as many innocents killed as possible. There is no proof to contradict the story that the guards told.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090401/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/blackwater_forensics_2

FBI scientists were unable to match bullets from a deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting to guns carried by Blackwater Worldwide security guards, according to laboratory reports that leave open the possibility that insurgents also fired in the crowded intersection.

Five Blackwater guards face manslaughter and weapons charges for their role in the shooting, which left 17 Iraqis dead and inflamed anti-U.S. sentiment abroad. Prosecutors say the contractors launched an unprovoked attack on civilians using machine guns and grenade launchers. The guards maintain their convoy was ambushed by insurgents.

The FBI lab reports, obtained by The Associated Press from someone not involved in the criminal case, allow for both possibilities.

Investigators recovered .30-caliber bullets from a survivor, a Blackwater truck and around Baghdad's Nisoor Square. Scientists could not determine whether those bullets came from .30-caliber Blackwater machine guns.

The AK-47 rifles favored by many Iraqi insurgents also fire .30-caliber bullets.

More stupid insanity from the escaped monkeys who are running this administration.

Send all these killing machines into the homes of the lawyers who are volunteering to defend them. Allow the lawyers to really get to know their clients, before they die.

Keep the terrorists OUT OF AMERICA! What good can come of allowing these pig lovers a chance at more Americans?

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/30/virginia-jail-home-gitmo-detainees/

A Virginia jail could be the next home for Guantanamo Bay inmates.

The maximum security jail in Alexandra, Va. -- home to approximately 460 inmates -- is under contract to take federal inmates who are tried at the courthouse just a few blocks away.

Among them could be former Al Qaeda operatives detained in Guantanamo Bay like Abu Zubaydah, Al Qaeda's operations chief, or Abd Al-Nashiri, the alleged planner of the U.S.S. Cole attack, Alexandria sheriff Dana Lawhorne told FOX News.

"We are a maximum security jail, so the answer is yes," Lawhorne said when asked about the possibility that Gitmo detainees could be transferred to the jail.

Lawhorne said that although most inmates are booked at city jail on local charges, Al Qaeda operative Zacarias Moussaoui was detained there in a separate unit on the third floor for five years.

Lawhorne said he and his team were given specific instructions for Moussaoui's imprisonment, which included no contact with television, radio, or other inmates.

"He had to be isolated. He could not be within earshot -- of television, radios, and other people. It takes a lot of space to accomplish that," Lawhorne said.

The jail, built in 1987, is surrounded by condominiums, government offices, and a luxury hotel just a few hundred feet from the courthouse door.

In a letter sent to Attorney General Eric Holder two weeks ago, Virginia Rep. Frank Wolf, a Republican, inquired about the housing and handling of detainees at Alexandria's jail because he said all signs indicate that Gitmo detainees will be transferred there. Holder's office has not yet responded, according to Wolf.

Obama promised to have the most ethical and transparent administration ever, yet the Press has to submit questions for approval before they are allowed to be asked and certain lines of questioning are forbidden because the Messiah can't answer them right now. Or ever.

Now that same "honest" administration is trying to hide the fact that their Messiah hung around with indicted thugs and wants to use those same thugs to change this Country into a different one. One that the majority of Americans reject. If we wanted his vision we would go to Cuba. Maybe we can send the ACORN thugs to Cuba and see what it is they want here. Castro can give them some good lessons in thuggery.

http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=92724

In the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the top Republican Party official in that state accused President Obama of "trying to inject politics" into the 2010 count.

Party chief Bob Gleason charged Obama with "enlisting" the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now to be a "national partner" in the work.

WND already has reported on allegations of misbehavior on the part of ACORN and a U.S. House subcommittee recently heard GOP lawyer Heather Heidelbaugh and a fired ACORN employee who alleged the organization falsified voter records and violated federal tax and campaign finance laws.

Gleason warned Obama "is trying to interject politics into the 2010 U.S. census, hoping to increase the reach of his party throughout the country."

He said ACORN's results simply won't be trustworthy.

I am glad that private security is being upgraded to police levels. With the horrible crime rates in our cities and the worries about terrorists we need a new line of defense. i know that the Liberal solution to crime is to fire the police and give the cash to the criminals so they don't have to work and have more time to plan a better life. Or plan better crimes.

Train these guys and send them to work. Have the police handle the major stuff. It makes sense to me. What is the downside?

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/police.private.security.2.966243.html

Since the private security patrols arrived, the robberies have continued, "but it's slowing down, because it seems like more of the stores have to have their own guns and their own security."

In addition to the Fraternal Order of Police being against it, experts tell CBS 2 that asking private security guards to conduct police functions is dangerous, and potentially fatal, with most security guards paid much less and receive less training. Chicago's Police Supt. Jody Weis calls it all a work in progress.

"Let's be creative," Weis said. "If we can have police officers focusing on higher priority cases, it's worth talking about."

CBS 2 wanted to ask the Toronto-based firm which was the lowest bidder for contracts in the 9th and 10th wards about the background and training of its officers. Also in question was is how much experience the Canadian company has with the inner city problems which make the Roseland community a challenge for even the most streetwise Chicago Police professionals. The firm has not yet returned calls.

This is just stupid. How fat do you have to be to be too fat to work??
Put these people on a diet and put them to work. Their medical conditions will mostly vanish once they lose the weight from sitting on their fat butts all day.

Can I get a bonus for not being too fat to work? What a crock.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,509514,00.html

A British family of four, who receives more than $30,000 a year in benefits because they are "too fat to work," says they deserve more money, London's Daily Telegraph reported.

The Chawners, who live in Blackburn, England, have a combined weight of 1,160 pounds.

"What we get barely covers the bills and puts food on the table," Philip Chawner, 53, told the newspaper. "It's not our fault we can't work. We deserve more."

Philip and his wife Audrey, 57, weigh 336 pounds each. Daughters Emma, 19, and Samantha, 21, weigh in at 236 pounds and 252 pounds, respectively.

Audrey Chawner, who has epilepsy and asthma as a result of being overweight, told "Closer" magazine her family's weight is genetic and they cannot afford to eat healthier.

Philip Chawner has Type 2 diabetes and was eligible for gastric band surgery until he developed a heart condition.

"I'm a student and don't have time to exercise," Emma Chawner said. "We all want to lose weight to stop the abuse in the street, but we don't know how."

The Nazis have been trying to regain power since they had their butts kicked all those years ago. The failure of socialism to cure the woes of Eastern Europe after communism collapsed has only exasperated the issues that caused the rise of National Socialism in the first place. Something has to give soon or the West will collapse. I pray that we can survive that.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKTRE5231M820090304

BERLIN (Reuters) - German police have launched a nationwide search of more than 200 homes and businesses of people suspected of belonging to the country's extreme right, the Federal Crime Office (BKA) said Wednesday.

"The primary aim of the concerted action by crime fighting authorities is to seize and confiscate prohibited items like music in order to move effectively and extensively against the spread of right wing extremism," the BKA said in a statement.

More than 60 years after World War Two and the Nazi Holocaust, right-wing radicalism is still a problem in Germany, particularly in the former communist eastern part of the country where unemployment is nearly double the rate in the west.

The BKA said last year that neo-Nazis appeared to have shifted their tactics and stepped up violent attacks. Government figures show anti-Semitic crimes rose at the end of last year.

The BKA said the search began earlier Wednesday and was being carried out in all 16 federal states. A BKA spokeswoman could not say for now if any arrests had been made.

Lets kill more babies! It works in Kansas, it will work in Chicago! Kill the unborn, free the terrorists! Kill, kill, kill!

http://www.lifenews.com/nat4869.html

Strongly pro-abortion Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has accepted President Barack Obama's request to serve as the Health Secretary. Sebelius has one of the most radical pro-abortion record of any elected official and a longstanding relationship with a late-term abortion practitioner.

White House officials told the New York Times as late as February 18 that Sebelius had emerged as Obama's leading choice for the position. Then, this week, they acknowledged that her pro-abortion record could cause problems for her nomination.

Obama's decision to allow word of his selection to lead ot the media first on a Saturday is designed to play down news coverage of his selection of a hardcore abortion advocate to lead his health care reform efforts and to implement his pro-abortion agenda.

He will make the announcement official on Monday at the White House.

As the health secretary, Sebelius could have an impact in crafting a health care plan that could cover abortions with taxpayer funds or require insurance companies to cover abortions in their plans.

Sebelius could also, if confirmed by the Senate, could also issue new regulations overturning the protections President Bush put in place that protect pro-life doctors and medical centers. The Obama administration announced Friday that it opened a 30-day comment period in preparation to do so.

Sebelius is most notorious for her close relationship with late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller, who has escaped prosecution and accountability thus far for allegedly repeatedly violating state abortion laws. However, a judge recently ruled charges against him from the state attorney general's office can move ahead.

He's done so in part because of the lax standards of Sebelius and her political allies, to whom Tiller has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars. Governor Sebelius vetoed a bill last April that the legislature approved that would have strengthened the state's limits on late-term abortions.

Why is it that so many of The One's henchmen are found to be criminals? It is unnerving to watch the "most open and honest" administration since the "most ethical administration ever" of the Clintons? Maybe I can get some cash together to buy a seat? I am not sure I am unethical enough to be a Democrat, but I can try! Who wants to bribe me?

I do take small and large amounts! I have a Cabinet position to buy!

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bronx/2009/02/28/2009-02-28_buildings_sprang_up_as_donations_rained_.html

The man who is President Obama's newly minted urban czar pocketed thousands of dollars in campaign cash from city developers whose projects he approved or funded with taxpayers' money, a Daily News probe found.

Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion often received contributions just before or after he sponsored money for projects or approved important zoning changes, records show.

Most donations were organized and well-timed.

In one case, a developer became a Carrion fund-raiser two months before the borough president signed off on his project, raising more than $6,000 in campaign cash.

In another, eight Boricua College officials came up with $8,000 on the same day for Carrion three weeks before the school filed plans to build a new tower. Carrion ultimately approved the project and sponsored millions in taxpayer funds for it.

Carrion resigned as borough president effective Sunday and begins his new job as director of the White House Office on Urban Policy Monday.

If the Liberals or the Media, is there a difference?, were to allow the Republican voice to be heard then there would no way to say the Republicans have no plan. By ignoring and silencing the Right, the Left can then blame the Right for not speaking out. What a plan!

This is why blogs and talk radio have come around. And why those same voices need to be silenced by the Left with the New Fairness Doctrine.

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-politics-of-four-percent-mortgages/

First, let's be clear as to how much money falling mortgage rates can put in consumers' pockets. The average home price is about $200,000, and let's assume that entire amount is financed with a 6% mortgage. A reduction to 4% would save the homeowner $4,000 in interest costs every year. Multiply that by the 85 million homes in America and we get $340 billion in interest savings.

And this isn't a one-time economic stimulus. That $4,000 is a permanent reduction in household expenses that the borrower can rely upon, as long as they continue to make their mortgage payment. Imagine the boost that could provide to the economy and the pressure it could take off America's cash-strapped families. It may even jump-start the new home sales market.

If a straightforward mortgage rate reduction that puts $340 billion in homeowners' pockets every year and could slow or stop further housing declines sounds like a simpler and better alternative than the $787 billion of phony tax rebates and pork barrel spending that was just passed by the Democratic Congress, then you're probably starting to understand why this Republican alternative wasn't widely debated.

What's even more egregious is that as the massive spending bill was being written in marathon backroom deal-making sessions, President Barack Obama continued to make the false claim that Republicans wanted to do nothing in the face of the crisis. This proposal for lowering home mortgage rates was just one of many alternatives that was introduced by the Republicans, including Senator Lindsey Graham's package of personal and corporate tax cuts.

The mortgage rate reduction proposal was killed, not because Democrats didn't agree with it, but precisely because it was a reasonable alternative that could have sparked intelligent discussion on the best way to improve the economy. When you're trying to push an $800 billion spending spree through Congress in the dead of night, the last thing you want is an intelligent discussion. But the fear mongering and false choices worked and the stimulus bill was passed. Where does that leave interest rates? Falling quickly most likely. Now the Democrats need the economy to recover to ensure a 2010 reelection, and the easiest way to do that is to keep interest rates and mortgage rates as low as possible.

About Me

Belisarius

This is my place to vent a little and get things off my chest. I am a retired Marine who has interests in WMDs. Since WMD events are, thankfully, few in number, I spend a lot of time reading about people likely to use them. This takes me on some interesting tangents. I travel alot in my post retirement career and do not always have time to comment as I post articles. Give me a day or two to catch up if I skip comments, please.

Email: belisarius =at= politicalinsecurity =dot= com

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