And now the traditional Friday LinkSwarm on Friday!
LinkSwarm for June 21, 2013
June 21st, 2013Ted Cruz Fights Gang of 8 Illegal Alien Amnesty Proposal
June 20th, 2013Now would be a good time to call and email you Senator (and your Representative) to let them know you oppose the “Gang of 8” illegal alien amnesty proposal currently being debated in the Senate, especially since it does less than nothing to secure the border, and makes hiring illegals more attractive than hiring Americans, since employers need not pay for their ObamaCare.
Now would also be a great time to contact anyone you know at the national Republican Party and inform them that you will not donate a dime to any national GOP committee if illegal alien amnesty passes.
Here’s Ted Cruz speaking against the amnesty proposal on the Senate floor:
And on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show:
Adventures in Criminal Dumbassery
June 19th, 2013Suppose you want the police to arrest you, but you aren’t quite ambitious enough to issue a death threat to the President. What to do? Well, How about:
Well, Nick K. Gates appears to be just that special kind of criminal dumbass since he left threatening messages against Ted Cruz at two of his offices under the name “Abolfanzi Akbori.”
The article makes Gates seem quite the prize:
In a June 10 interview at his Houston apartment, Gates told investigators he has spent 12 days in the Harris County Mental Health Center.
Gates has a prior felony conviction for attempted retaliation, where he threatened the life of a Houston police officer and his child after the officer arrested him for driving while intoxicated, according to the arrest warrant. He also was convicted on the DWI charge.
More information on this Super-genius:
Upon further investigation, FBI agents in Austin learned that agents in Houston were investigating Gates for “threatening the life of a Houston based FBI agent.”
Authorities also learned that Federal Protective Services Houston had an open case on Gates for “sending inappropriate emails and making inappropriate phone calls” to the U.S. Citizens and Immigration Services case worker who handled his immigration case.
What a want to know is: With just a single felony conviction, wouldn’t our crazy, threatening felon be eligible for the Gang of 8 amnesty proposal?
(Hat tip: Jammie Wearing Fools via Ace of Spades.)
LinkSwarm for June 18, 2013
June 18th, 2013Too much going on, so here’s a LinkSwarm to start your day:
A Quick LinkSwarm on Syria
June 17th, 2013So Obama is (maybe) going to be shipping arms to Syrian rebels. I think this is a remarkably bad idea for a number of reasons, none of them that Bashar Assad isn’t a murderous thug who oppresses his own people, supports terrorism, and attacks and destabilizes neighbors like Lebanon and Israel. All that is true, and Assad certainly deserves a bullet in his head for his sins.
But there’s zero compelling evidence that toppling him is in the United State’s best interests, that America has any vital interests at sake in the Syrian civil war, or that al Qaeda-related Islamslist thugs won’t come out on top, impose Sharia law, and export Sunni-branded terrorism every bit as vicious and deadly as Assad’s Shia-backed variety. Indeed, the history of Libya and Egypt suggests that they are likely to be considerably worse. And predicting that Sunni Islamists are likely to come out on top of a post-Assad power struggle is like predicting that guys are going to wake up with no memory of last night in a Hangover sequel: we’ve seen this movie before.
Anyway, here are a few links for the current situation in Syria.
Texas vs. California Update for 6/17/13
June 17th, 2013Time for another Texas vs. California roundup!
Syrian Headlines One Year From Now
June 14th, 2013New Syrian President Greets American Ambassador
“A New Era”
Syria Pledges Cooperation in Iraq, Lebanon
Israel Claims New Syrian Government Shipping Arms to Hamas
Damascus Under Sharia
“They beat my wife,” claims distraught shopkeeper
Syrian chemical weapons missing?
Sunni, Shia Clashes in Lebanon Intensify
They’re Back: How Hezbollah Survived the Fall of Assad
New Round of Rocket Attacks Hit Tel Aviv, 2 Dead
Iran Withdraws From Nuclear Weapon Talks
American Solider Missing in Damascus
Syrian government pledges “full cooperation”
Hostage Video Released for Kidnapped Smith
Mother issues tearful plea for Smith’s return
Sunni Mosque Bombed in Karbala
Iraqis blame Iran
Alawite Insurgency Flares Again
Syrian military talks end without agreement
Clashes in Lebanon Spread, 31 Dead
Syria Denies Involvement in Preschool Bombing
Egyptian-Syrian Cooperation Pact Signed
KLM 411 Flight Kuwait Missing
KLM 411 Wreckage Found in Dessert
Investigators Say KLM 411 Shot Down
Iraq Denies Its Planes Were in Area
Al-Qaeda Claims Responsibility for KLM 411
“This is only the beginning.”
Syrian Government Denies Supplying MANPADS to Al-Qaeda
Jerusalem Hospital Bombed
18 dead, more feared in wreckage
IDF Invades Gaza
Fierce Fighting
First Large Incursion Since 2012
More Lebanese Rockets Hit Tel Aviv
UN Calls for Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza
Israel Displays Cache of Hamas Weapons, Claims Syrian Origin
Syria Denies Shipping Weapons to Hamas
“More lies from the criminal Zionist entity”
Six months after kidnapping, few leads on Pvt. Smith
Mother: “I pray every night.”
U.S Embassy in Damascus Overrun; Ambassador, 12 Others Feared Dead
Obama: Embassy overrun by protesters of anti-Islamic cartoon
Lebanese Civil War Heating Up Again
NSA: Annals of Non-Denial Denials
June 14th, 2013So House Intelligence Committee leaders say that Edward Snowden is lying. They’re saying that he couldn’t possibly have had access to the records he said he did, that he lied about his past, etc.
You know what neither the House Intelligence Committee nor Obama seems to be denying? That the NSA gathers data on emails and phone calls for every American in general, or Verizon customers in specific. One need not believe that Snowden is telling the truth about everything, or that he’s a hero, or that everything he revealed (like details of our spying on various Chinese firms) needed to be revealed.
It’s the domestic spying on all Americans that’s the scandal: The United States government ignoring fourth amendment constitutional guarantees. The fourth amendment reads: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
Government asking for “the email and phone records for every American” is, in fact, an unreasonable search and seizure, and “the servers of every major telecommunications and Internet provider in America” is an unreasonable place to be searched. That’s the scandal, not the handwaving Obama and congress have participated in to distract you from the fact that every single piece of electronic communications you participate in is being tracked by the government.
That’s the scandal. One of the many perpetrated by the Obama Administration (who have scaled up electronic eavesdropping and warrantless wiretaps far beyond what liberals screamed about George W. Bush undertaking).
That’s the NSA scandal we should focus on.
Political Correctness Trumps Fighting Terrorism Yet Again
June 13th, 2013Want to keep the FBI from keeping tabs on you? Then operate out of the one place they’re not monitoring: Mosques. Because there’s no chance Islamic terrorists could be operating out of there.
So the NSA needs to monitor the phone records of every American, but the FBI won’t look in one obvious place terrorists might actual be found?
If you needed any more evidence the Obama Administration values political correctness over actually fighting terrorism, there it is.
In related news Austin police announced that the only place off limits for prostitution stings was massage parlors.
(Hat tip: Ace of Spades.)
Lawsuit Against Rosemary Lehmberg Moves Foward, Jury Trial Schedule for July 22
June 13th, 2013That’s what I’m gleaning from this Statesman article on Travis County DA Rosemary Lehmberg following her DWI, though it doesn’t say the July 22 trial is for her removal under state law for intoxication of public officials. (The trial is not for her DWI, for which she already plead guilty and served time.) Unfortunately, the piece by Ciara O’Rourke is hardly a model of journalistic clarity:
Judge clears way for suit to remove Lehmberg
Visiting Judge David Peeples made several rulings Tuesday in a lawsuit to remove Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg from office, including allowing another removal petition filed recently by a former district attorney candidate to proceed.
Rick Reed, who ran against Lehmberg in 2008, filed a petition two weeks ago that claims 16 counts of official misconduct ranging from coercion of a public servant to retaliation.
That and a separate petition to remove her from office on grounds of intoxication were filed under a state law that allows the removal of a district attorney on grounds of incompetency, official misconduct and intoxication on or off duty.
Lehmberg pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated April 19, a week after Travis County sheriff’s deputies arrested her following a 911 call about a car driving for about a mile in a bike lane, swerving and veering into oncoming traffic, according to an arrest affidavit. A blood sample showed her blood alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit.
Reed cites Lehmberg’s behavior as she was being booked in jail, including asking for Sheriff Greg Hamilton several times, as examples of her alleged misconduct.
A jury trial is scheduled for July 22, though the Travis County attorney’s office, which is representing the state, could decline to pursue the suit on either ground.
Executive Assistant County Attorney James Collins said the county attorney’s office is at this point preparing for trial on July 22, though he told Peeples that prosecutors haven’t finished reviewing Reed’s petition.
A second hearing before the trial date was scheduled for June 21, when Collins told Peeples prosecutors expect to request to test a hair sample from Lehmberg and to further test the blood sample taken after her arrest.
I’m assuming the trail is for “a separate petition to remove her from office on grounds of intoxication were filed under a state law that allows the removal of a district attorney on grounds of incompetency, official misconduct and intoxication on or off duty,” but the piece is so poorly written it’s hard to tell.
The Fox 7 report is considerably clearer: “A petition filed by County Attorney David Escamilla calls for her removal on grounds of intoxication saying Lehmberg violated Texas Government Code. Lehmberg did not appear in court Tuesday when a judge decided there will be a jury trial.”
In other news, as Dwight already reported, Governor Rick Perry is threatening to veto all state funding for the Travis County Public Integrity Unit, which Lehmberg heads as Travis County DA, unless she resigns.
But there is one good spot of news for Lehmberg: She’s no longer a suspect in a hit-and-run that happened the night of her drinking-and-driving binge.