Security Weekly: Ordinary Citizens: The Last Line of Defense Against Terrorism, May 9,2013

By Scott Stewart
Vice President of Analysis

The April 15 Boston Marathon bombing has rekindled interest in the topic of grassroots terrorism, specifically the kind conducted by grassroots jihadists. We define grassroots jihadists as individuals who have been inspired by the al Qaeda core or franchise groups but who are not members of these groups.

Some grassroots operatives, such as Najibullah Zazi, who pleaded guilty to charges related to a New York City Subway bomb plot in 2009, travel to places, such as Pakistan, Somalia or Yemen, where they receive training from jihadist franchise groups. Other grassroots jihadists, such as accused Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, communicate but have no physical interaction with members of a franchise group. Some grassroots militants have no direct contact with other jihadist elements. Lastly, some would-be grassroots militants seek out other jihadist elements but accidentally make contact with government informants. In recent years, such cases have been occurring more frequently, resulting in sting operations and arrests.

Stratfor first began discussing the threat posed by grassroots jihadists in 2005, when we described how the al Qaeda threat was devolving from one based on the core al Qaeda group to a wider movement. But in the big picture, grassroots actors are not just a jihadist phenomenon. We've also extensively discussed the move to leaderless resistance operational models by both left- and right-wing extremists.

Grassroots operatives are a very big problem for government counterterrorism efforts. Indeed, that is why militant ideologues promote the leaderless resistance model. That doesn't mean that such operatives cannot be stopped, but in order to stop them, citizens must think differently about counterterrorism. In the face of a growing grassroots threat there is a growing need for what Stratfor calls "grassroots defenders."

Grassroots Threats

In recent decades, governments have become fairly efficient at identifying and gathering intelligence on known groups that could conduct violent attacks. This is especially true in the realm of technical intelligence, where dramatic improvements have been made in the ability to capture and process huge amounts of data from landline, cellphone and Internet communications. Governments have also become quite adept at penetrating known groups and recruiting informants. Even before 9/11, government successes against militant groups had led white supremacist and militant animal rights and environmentalist groups to adopt a leaderless resistance model for their violent and illegal activities.

In the post-9/11 world, intelligence and security services dramatically increased the resources dedicated to counterterrorism, and the efforts of these services have proved very effective when focused on known organizations and individuals. In fact, because of these successes we have seen jihadist groups, such as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the al Qaeda core, since 2009 encourage aspiring militants to undertake lone wolf and small-cell activities rather than travel to places like Pakistan and Yemen to link up with the groups and receive training in terrorist tradecraft.

We see no sign that this trend toward leaderless resistance will reverse in the near future, and our forecast is that the grassroots threat will continue to grow, not only from the jihadist realm but also from far-right and far-left actors.

Stretched Thin

As noted above, most counterterrorism intelligence efforts have been designed to identify and track people with links to known militant groups, and in that regard such efforts are fairly effective. By contrast, counterterrorism efforts have been largely ineffective in identifying those grassroots militants who do not contact known terrorist entities. The focus on identifying and monitoring the activities of someone connected to an established militant group is understandable given that operatives belonging to groups such as Hezbollah or al Qaeda have access to much better training and far greater resources than their grassroots counterparts. Simply put, counterterrorism agencies focus more of their attention on the more potent threat.

However, grassroots operatives can and do kill people. Although they tend to focus on softer targets than operatives connected to larger groups, some grassroots attacks have been quite deadly. For example, the July 2005 London bombings killed 52 people, and Anders Behring Breivik was able to kill 77 in his July 2011 twin attacks in Norway. While the Boston Marathon bombing killed only three, it wounded hundreds.

One problem for most counterterrorism agencies is that counterterrorism is not their sole mission -- or in some cases even their primary mission. Often, as is the case with MI5 in the United Kingdom, the primary counterterrorism agency also has substantial foreign counterintelligence responsibilities. In the case of the FBI, it has not only counterterrorism and foreign counterintelligence missions but also a host of other responsibilities, such as investigating bank robberies, kidnappings, white-collar crime, online crime and public corruption. Also, while counterterrorism was the primary focus of almost every law enforcement and intelligence agency immediately after 9/11, as time has passed, the emphasis on counterterrorism has lessened.

The resources of the primary counterterrorism agencies are also quite finite. For example, the FBI has fewer than 14,000 special agents to fulfill its many responsibilities, and while counterterrorism has become its top mission in the post-9/11 era, only a portion of its agents (estimated to be between 2,500 and 3,000) are assigned to counterterrorism investigations at any time. Some FBI contacts also tell us that counterterrorism assignments are not viewed as career enhancing, and thus many billets remain vacant.

Counterterrorism investigations can also be very labor intensive. Even in a case in which a subject is under electronic surveillance, it takes a great deal of manpower to file all the paperwork required for the court orders, monitor the surveillance equipment and, if necessary, translate conversations and run down or task out additional investigative leads developed during the monitoring. Seemingly little things like conducting a "trash cover" on the subject (sifting through a subject's trash for evidence and intelligence) can add hours of investigative effort every week. If full, 24/7 physical and electronic surveillance is put in place on a subject, it can tie up as many as 100 special agents, surveillance operatives, technicians, photographers, analysts, interpreters, lawyers and supervisors.

It is also important to recognize that the bar is set pretty high for the FBI to investigate people. The FBI cannot just open an investigation on someone on a whim. It needs an identifiable objective and purpose in order to open a preliminary inquiry into a potential suspect, what is referred to as an "assessment." The FBI can't open a case based on activity protected by the First Amendment or on a subject's race, ethnicity, religion or national origin. Even once an assessment is launched, it can't become a full field investigation unless it finds some indication that there is a potential criminal violation. Assessments also have a limited time frame and must be closed unless an indication of a criminal violation is found.

Again, given the potential threat posed by known or suspected al Qaeda, Hezbollah or domestic terrorist suspects, it is understandable that most of the counterterrorism resources would be devoted to investigating and neutralizing that threat. However, the problem with the focus on known actors is that it leaves very little resources for proactive counterterrorism tasks such as looking for signs of potential operational activities, including pre-operational surveillance and weapons acquisition, conducted by previously unknown individuals. Such efforts are a huge undertaking for agencies with limited resources.

Furthermore, in the case of a lone wolf or small cell, there simply may not be any clear-cut chain of command, a specific building to target or a communication network to compromise -- the specialties of Western intelligence agencies. The leaderless resistance organization is, by design, nebulous and hard to map and quantify. This lack of structure and communication poses a problem for Western counterterrorism agencies. Also, since the grassroots threat can emanate from a variety of actors, it is impossible to profile potential militants based on race, religion or ethnicity. Instead, their actions must be scrutinized for indicators of radicalization and attack planning.

Law enforcement has thwarted many grassroots plots, but in those plots the suspects have either planned an attack that was beyond their means, leading them to seek assistance from someone who turned out to be a government informant, or they have contacted a known militant actor and, in doing so, come to the attention of the authorities. Grassroots actors who do not seek assistance and who do not get caught communicating with known terrorist entities can often launch their attacks undetected. In those cases, the attack will either fail, like the 2010 Times Square bombing, or succeed, like the Boston Marathon bombing.

Grassroots Defenders

All grassroots militants engage in activities that make their plots vulnerable to detection. Due to the limited number of dedicated counterterrorism practitioners, these indicators (and sometimes blatant mistakes) are far more likely to be witnessed by someone other than an FBI or MI5 agent. This fact highlights the importance of what we call grassroots defenders -- that is, a decentralized network of people practicing situational awareness who notice and report possible indications of terrorist behavior such as acquiring weapons, building bombs and conducting preoperational surveillance.

It is important to note that grassroots defenders are not vigilantes, and this is not a call to institute the type of paranoid informant network that existed in East Germany. It is also not a call to Islamophobia -- the Muslim community is an important component of grassroots defense, and many plots have been thwarted based upon tips from the Muslim community. Grassroots defenders are citizens who take responsibility for their own security and for the security of society and who report possible terrorist behavior to the authorities.

The most important pool of grassroots defenders is police officers on patrol. While there are fewer than 14,000 FBI agents in the entire United States, there are some 34,000 officers in the New York City Police Department alone and an estimated 800,000 local and state police officers across the United States. While the vast majority of these officers are not assigned primarily to investigate terrorism, they often encounter grassroots militants who make operational security errors or who are in the process of committing crimes in advance of an attack, such as document fraud, illegally obtaining weapons or illegally raising funds for an attack.

For example, in July 2005, police in Torrance, Calif., thwarted a grassroots plot that was uncovered during the investigation of a string of armed robberies. After arresting one suspect, Levar Haney Washington, police searching his apartment uncovered material indicating that Washington was part of a small jihadist cell that was planning to attack a number of targets. Hezbollah's multimillion-dollar cigarette smuggling network was uncovered when a sharp North Carolina sheriff's deputy found the group's activities suspicious and tipped off the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, launching the massive Operation Smokescreen investigation.

Traffic stops by regular cops also have identified several potential grassroots jihadists. In August 2007, two Middle Eastern men stopped by a sheriff's deputy for speeding near Goose Creek, S.C., were charged with possession of a destructive device. Likewise, a traffic stop in September 2001 in Alexandria, Va., led to an investigation that uncovered the so-called Virginia Jihad Network. In fact, at the time of the 9/11 attacks, the operation's leader, Mohamed Atta, was the subject of an outstanding bench warrant for failing to appear in court after being stopped for driving without a license.

But police are not the only grassroots defenders. Other people, such as neighbors, store clerks, landlords and motel managers, can also notice operational planning activities. Such activities can include purchasing bombmaking components and firearms, creating improvised explosive mixtures and conducting pre-operational surveillance.

On July 27, 2011, an alert gun store clerk in Killeen, Texas, called the local police after a man who came into the store to buy smokeless powder exhibited an unusual demeanor. They located the individual and, after questioning him, learned he was planning to detonate an improvised explosive device and conduct an armed assault at a local Killeen restaurant popular with soldiers from nearby Fort Hood. The clerk's situational awareness and decision to call the police likely saved many lives. There are reports that just last week authorities in Montevideo, Minn., arrested a man who was reportedly preparing to conduct an attack. Concerned neighbors alerted authorities of his suspicious behavior. The man, a convicted felon, was reportedly affiliated with a militia group. Authorities allegedly found an AK-style rifle, Molotov cocktails and pipe bombs during a search of his home.

Ordinary citizens exercising situational awareness can and have saved lives. This reality has been the driving force behind programs like the New York Police Department's "If You See Something, Say Something" campaign, a program subsequently adopted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as a means of encouraging citizens to report potential terrorist behavior.

It is unrealistic to expect the government to uncover and thwart every plot. There are too many potential actors and too many vulnerable targets. Individuals need to assume some responsibility for their own security and the security of their communities. This does not mean living in fear and paranoia, but rather living with a relaxed level of situational awareness, being cognizant of potential dangers and alert to indicators of them. People who accept this responsibility and who practice this awareness are the true grassroots defenders.

Copyright: STRATFOR.COM

He's in the back, he's searched and cuffed, end of discussion.

The title of this post if from a list of rules I read my rookies when they start field training with me. This could have come out really bad. From PoliceOne:

Searching for safety: Armed, uncuffed, and in the back of a squad

Two police officers in Minneapolis are lucky to be alive after an incident in which they allowed an armed man to sit uncuffed in the back of their patrol car.

Metro Transit Officers Jason Malland and Adam Marvin found “an open bottle of liquor” on 21-year-old Wesley Rogers, but their pat-down failed to reveal the revolver secreted in the waistband of his pants.

Because Rogers was determined to be “obviously drunk,” the two officers decided to take Rogers to his North Minneapolis home as a “courtesy.”

Video of the incident — which happened in December — was released this week, showing Rogers pulling the gun during transit, and briefly pointing it in the direction of the two officers in the front seat before twice dropping it to the floorboard of the squad...

You can read the rest but these two are lucky to be alive. Lesson leaded, bull searches, period.

Star Trek: The logical TOS vs new school competition.

Won't spoil with any comments!

Geopolitical Weekly: Geopolitical Journey: Nostalgia for NATO, May 7, 2013

By George Friedman
Founder and Chairman

Several years ago, I wrote a series of articles on a journey in Europe. It was intended both to be personal and to go beyond recent events or the abstract considerations of geopolitics. This week I begin another journey that will take me from Portugal to Singapore, and I thought that I would try my hand again at reflecting on the significance of my travels.

As I prepare for my journey, I am drawn to a central question regarding the U.S.-European relationship, or what remains of it. Having been in Europe at a time when that relationship meant everything to both sides, and to the world, this trip forces me to think about NATO. I have been asked to make several speeches about U.S.-European relations during my upcoming trip. It is hard to know where to start. The past was built around NATO, so thinking about NATO's past might help me put things in perspective.

On a personal level, my relationship with Europe always passes through the prism of NATO. Born in Hungary, I recall my parents sitting in the kitchen in 1956, when the Soviets came in to crush the revolution. On the same night as my sister's wedding in New York, we listened on the radio to a report on Soviet tanks attacking a street just a block from where we lived in Budapest. I was 7 at the time. The talk turned to the Americans and NATO and what they would do. NATO was the redeemer who disappoints not because he cannot act but because he will not. My family's underlying faith in the power of American alliances was forged in World War II and couldn't be shaken. NATO was the sword of Gideon, albeit lacking in focus and clarity at times.

I had a more personal relationship with NATO. In the 1970s, I played an embarrassingly unimportant role in developing early computerized war games. The games were meant to evaluate strategies on NATO's central front: Germany. At that time, the line dividing Germany was the fault line of the planet. If the world were to end in a nuclear holocaust, it would end there. The place that people thought it would all start was called the Fulda Gap, a not-too-hilly area in the south, where a rapid attack could take Frankfurt and also strike at the heart of U.S. forces. The Germans speak of a watch on the Rhine. For my generation, or at least those millions who served in the armies of NATO, it was Fulda.

In the course of designing war games, I spent some time at SHAPE Technical Center in The Hague. SHAPE stands for Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. The name itself is a reminder of the origins of NATO, deep in World War II and the alliance that defeated the Germans. It was commanded by SACEUR -- Supreme Allied Commander Europe -- who was always an American. Over time, the name became increasingly anachronistic, as SACEUR stopped resembling U.S. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower and started resembling the chair of a fractious church board, where people showed up for the snacks more than to make decisions.

To me, in the 1970s, SHAPE and SACEUR were acronyms that recalled D-Day and were built around the word "supreme." I was young and in awe, with a sense of history and pride in participating in it. Why I should be proud to participate in what might lead to total catastrophe for humanity seems odd in retrospect, but there is little in any of our lives that does not seem odd in retrospect. However, I was proud that I got to go into a building designated as SHAPE's technical center. I felt at the center of history. History, of course, is deceptive.

Games and Reality

It was never clear to me what those above us (whom we called "EBR," echelons beyond reality) did with the games that were built and played, or with the results, but I believe I learned a great deal about the war that was going to be fought. What cut short my career as a war gamer was my growing realization of the triviality of what we were doing and that the intelligence that we were building the games from was inherently deficient. Moreover, the commanders weren't all that interested in what we were doing. And there was the fact that I was genuinely enjoying and actually looking forward to a war that would test our theories. When the pieces on a map represent human beings and their loss means nothing to you, it is time to leave.

The war gaming was not the problem; properly done, as I hope it is by now, it can aid in victory and save lives. But then, knowing the men (women came later) who would stand and fight at Fulda if the time came, I felt I had been given a frivolous job. There was one thing I got from that job, however: I came into contact with troops from all the armies that might be called to fight. I had a profound sense that they were not just my colleagues but also my comrades. Some didn't like Americans, and others didn't like me, but this is no different than any organization. We were peering into the future, with our fates bound together.

The U.S. and Soviet Views of NATO

The United States believed that the Soviet conquest of Western Europe would integrate Soviet resources and European technology. This same fear led the Americans and Europeans to fight Germany in two wars from two very different perspectives. For my European colleagues, it meant the devastation of their countries, even if NATO won the war. The Dutch, for example, had lived under occupation and even preferred devastation over capitulation. For me, it was an abstract exercise, both in the strange mathematics of the war games and in the more distant consequences of defeat for my country. At the same time, there was a shared sense of urgency that formed the foundation of our relationship: War might come at any moment, and we must consider every possible move by the Soviets, and we must propose solutions.

The Americans were always haunted by Pearl Harbor. This is why 9/11 was such a blow. The historical recollection of the attack out of nowhere was always close. Doctrine said that we would have 30 days' warning of a Soviet attack. I had no idea where this doctrine came from, and I suspected that it came from the fact that we needed 30 days' warning to get ready. The Europeans did not fear the unexpected attack; rather, they dreaded the expected attack for which preparations had not been made. World War II haunted them differently. They were riveted on the fact that they knew what was coming and failed to prepare. The Americans and Europeans were united by paranoia, but their paranoia differed. For the Americans, staying out of alliances and not acting soon enough was what caused the war. The United States was committed to never repeating that mistake. NATO was one of many alliances. The Americans love alliances.

It is interesting to recognize now what the Soviets were afraid of. When World War II came to them, they had no allies. Their one ally, Germany, was the one that betrayed them. The Soviets were both taken by surprise and fought alone until the Americans and British chose to help them. The Soviets had played complex diplomacy with traditional alliances, and when it failed the Soviet Union committed itself to never again depending on others. It had the Warsaw Pact because the West had NATO, but it did not depend on its allies. The Americans threw themselves into alliances as if an alliance solved all problems. The Soviets, however, acted as if allies were the most dangerous things of all.

In the end, when we look back on it, war was much less likely than we felt. The West was not going to invade the East. On the defensive, the Soviets would have annihilated our much smaller force. And, truth be told, no one had the slightest interest in conquering Eastern Europe or the Soviet Union.

As for the Soviets, on paper they were an overwhelming force, but paper is a bad place to think about war. The Soviets did not want a nuclear exchange, and in their view the United States was itching to have one. They knew if they moved westward there would be an exchange. Plus, it turned out, the Soviets would have a great deal of trouble keeping their tanks fueled as they moved to the west. They had a plan for laying plastic pipes from their fuel depots and rolling them out as the tanks advanced. The problem was that the pipes never worked very well, and their fuel depots were slated for annihilation by airstrikes, possibly the day before the war began officially.

All of this is past and I recollect it with a combination of pride -- not for what I did, which was little, but for simply being there -- and chagrin about how little we understood the enemy. Both sides were ready for war. Both sides were expecting actions that the other side had no intentions of undertaking. But all of the plans that we created were, in the end, irrelevant. The only way to win the game -- as the movie War Games said -- was not to play it. Not surprisingly, the leaders -- Eisenhower and Khrushchev, Nixon and Brezhnev, Reagan and Gorbachev -- knew it better than the experts. It has always struck me as the world's great fortune that the two great superpowers were the United States and the Soviet Union, who managed the Cold War with meticulous care in retrospect. Imagine the European diplomats of 1914 or 1938 armed with nuclear weapons. It is easy to believe they would not have been as cautious.

NATO's Legacy and Disarray

What NATO provided that was priceless, and the unexpected byproduct of all of this, was a comradeship and unity of purpose on both sides of the North Atlantic. Even the French, who withdrew from NATO's military command under Charles de Gaulle, remained unofficially part of it. There was little question but that if "the balloon went up" -- the enemy took action -- the French would be there, arguing over who would command whom but fighting as hard as the Underground did before D-Day. But through NATO, I got to know Germans at a time when knowing Germans was not easy for me because of what my family went through during the war. I was forced to distinguish Germany from Franz who could play the ukulele.

I had a son in 1976. When I went to Europe, I met an Italian and we became friends. We would talk about what we would tell our families to do if the balloon went up. The conversation -- strange and perhaps pathological as it was -- bound us together. It was not war, it was not peace, but it was a place in the mind where the preparation for war and the anxiety that it generated created strange forms, such as plans for the movement of children in order to avoid a nuclear holocaust.

NATO, far more than a model United Nations or a Fulbright, allowed ordinary Americans and Europeans to know each other and understand that with linked fates, they were comrades in arms. After World War II, that was a profound lesson. Millions of draftees experienced that and took the lesson home.

The end of the Cold War is no great loss, although my youth went with it. Losing the unity of purpose that the Cold War gave Western Europe and the United States is of enormous consequence. For a while, after 1991, the two sides went on as if the alliance could exist even without an enemy. However, NATO started to fragment when it lost its enemy. The passion for a mission gave NATO meaning, and the passion was drained. The alliance continued to fragment when the United States decided to invade Iraq for the second time. The vast majority of countries in NATO supported the invasion -- a forgotten fact -- but France and Germany did not. This damaged the United States' relations with Europe, particularly with the French, who have a way of getting under the skins of Americans while appearing oblivious to it. But the greater damage was within Europe -- the division between those who wanted to maintain close relations with the United States, even if they thought the Iraq War was a bad idea, and those who wanted Europe to have its own voice, distinct from the Americans'.

The 2008 global financial contagion did not divide the Americans and Europeans nearly as much as it divided Europe. The relationship between European countries -- less among leaders than among publics -- has become poisonous. Something terrible has happened to Europe, and each country is holding someone else responsible. As many countries are blaming Germany as Germany is blaming for the crisis.

There can be no trans-Atlantic alliance when one side is in profound disagreement with itself over many things and the other side has no desire to be drawn into the dispute. Nor can there be a military alliance where there is no understanding of the mission, the enemy or obligations. NATO was successful during the Cold War because the enemy was clear, there was consensus over what to do in each particular circumstance and participation was a given. An alliance that does not know its mission, has no meaningful plans for what problems it faces and stages come-as-you-are parties in Libya or Mali, where invitations are sent out and no one RSVPs, cannot be considered an alliance. The committees meet and staffs of defense ministers prepare for conferences -- all of the niceties of an alliance remain. SACEUR is still an American, the Science and Technology Committee produces papers, but in the end, the commonality of purpose is gone.

My European colleagues and I were young, serious and dedicated. These are all dangerous things because we lacked historical perspective (but then, so did many of our elders). What we had together, however, was invaluable: a moment in history, possibly the last, when the West stood shoulder to shoulder in defense of liberal democracy and against tyranny. Still, I look back on the Soviets and then look at al Qaeda and I miss the Soviets. I understood them in a way I can never understand al Qaeda.

So I will be asked to speak about U.S-European relations. I will have to tell the Europeans two things. The first is that there is no American relationship with Europe because Europe is no longer an idea but a continent made up of states with diverse interests. There are U.S.-French relations and U.S.-Russian relations and so on. The second thing I will tell them is that there can be no confederation without a common foreign and defense policy. You can have different tax rates, but if when one goes to war they don't all go to war, they are just nations cooperating as they see fit.

I remember the camaraderie of young enlisted Americans and Europeans, and the solidarity of planning teams. This was the glue that held Europe together. It was not just the commanders and politicians, but the men who would have to cover each other's movement that created the foundations of NATO's solidarity. My recollections are undoubtedly colored with sentimentality, but I do not think I've done the idea an injustice. NATO bound Europe together because it made the nations into comrades. They were able to face Armageddon together. Europe without NATO's solidarity has difficulty figuring out a tax policy. In the end, Europe lost more when NATO fell into disuse than it imagined.

I don't know that NATO can exist without a Cold War. Probably not. What is gone is gone. But I know my nostalgia for Europe is not just for my youth; it is for a time when Western civilization was united. I doubt we will see that again.

Geopolitical Journey: Nostalgia for NATO is republished with permission of Stratfor.

Officer Down

Master Deputy Sheriff Joseph "Shane" Robbins
Polk County Florida Sheriff's Office
End of Watch: Friday, April 26, 2013
Age: 40
Tour: 15 years

Master Deputy Sheriff Shane Robbins was killed in a single-vehicle crash on Bomber Road, near Spruce Road, at approximately 9:15 am.

He was traveling westbound when his vehicle left the roadway for unknown reasons. A nearby resident who heard the crash called 911 to report the crash and responding rescue workers extricated him from his patrol car. He was transported to Winter Haven Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Master Deputy Robbins had served with the Polk County Sheriff's Office for 15 years and was assigned to the Northeast District. He is survived by his wife and five children.

Rest in Peace Bro…We Got The Watch

Day is done, Gone the sun, From the lake, From the hills, From the sky. All is well, Safely rest, God is nigh. 

Am I just an idiot magnet this weekend.

Rhetorical question for someone on patrol I know, but here we go.

Last night I’m working DWI overtime and after getting one processed, another unit was nice enough to transport her to jail for me. My department frowns on working more than 16 hours in a shift because of fatigue and other issues. I was about to finish my report then I file the charges (20 minutes work tops) and I’m gone just in time for the end of a 16 hour shift.

Well another female suspect decided to make life interesting. After being informed the officer had obtained a warrant for a blood draw she screamed “You’re not taking my blood” and a few other choice words I will not mention here. The officer then asks me and a couple of others to help and it takes almost five minutes to get her cuffed. Then she will not cooperate so we have to bring in the chair we use for blood draws, strap her in, wheel her to the room and then she resist the nurse. We had to flatten her hand so the nurse could use the butterfly on her. Well that wastes a half hour so I finish the report and start working on my charges. To my joy I find the charge system (some of the best technology 1980 could buy...it’s amazing how primitive our software is) has gone down.

I wait five minutes and it comes up. Oh boy. I log one and as I finish the first page (my information and the DA’s info) the system locks up and dies.

Repeat five more times until I say screw it, I’ll try it at at a computer at the station.

It’s working and I get through the first page. Then I finish the second page (identifying information on the suspect) and SOP, it locks up and dies.

Repeat multiple times but at least it was stable enough I was able to get through one page at a time before it crashed.

I get more or less finished by 730 and called another officer who said she would enter the last witness’s data for me. Get home and asleep around 830 after a 17.5 hour shift.

I’m getting too old for this. As I was really to leave I met some friends from the night shift and mentioned “A sign you’re getting old is when you were 20 you went to bed around 6....now you get up at 6!”

Well after a few hours sleep I’m’ getting ready for for Saturday watch. I’ve put on my uniform, went to the truck to drop off a few things before leaving. I’m about to depart when there is a knock at the door. A complete stranger asks me “Are you a police officer?”

As I”m standing in my uniform a few thoughts came to mind, but I was courteous to one of my elders and said “Yes ma’am I am. How can I help you.”

She asks me to help her get her granddaughter in her car.

Now one thing I’ve been learned since the academy is don’t police off duty, with exceptions. If a stranger is getting his ass kicked it’s incumbent upon me as a peace officer to take action on or off duty. This is not one of those exceptions. It’s a family issue and I’m not required to assist and I don’t want to pry into a neighbor’s family matters.

I try and explain this to the grandmother and she is not happy, but after about five minutes she leaves. Pissed off but welcome to life.

After getting to work praying for a short shift I get on the street. I get called to an accident on the freeway and they are very dangerous. The side of a freeway is an excellent place to get killed. Well I drive up and the two cars are on the shoulder. I get out and go to the first vehicle where the driver is in intense conversation with someone. I knock to get her attention and she raises her hand with a finger (not the middle) like to say “one minutes”. I knock harder, she opens the window and I have to explain the facts the life very quickly.

“Are you hurt?

“No, but my insurance company....”

“Excuse me, give me your license and insurance. We are getting off this highway now!”

I go to the other car where they have two children in the back and get the driver’s license and explain we’re leaving. I tell both we’re about to move and my first pain in the ass waves me over.

“Officer, my insurance company says the children need to be checked....”

“Ma’am, we’re going to take care of that off this highway!” After knowing her for less than two minutes I’m getting to think of her as a modern version of Mrs. Kravitz and she is that annoying. She is completely oblivious to the fact even in that car of hers she can get killed right now.

Well we get off the highway alive, I”m starting my investigation and one of the questions I always ask for my report is “What do you do for a living?‘ Sounds simple enough, kinda like “How old are you?” or “What is your name?” It gets complicated. I ask my driver that question and her answer is “I work.”

I resist the answers coming into my head and I have to pry a bit. “Ok, what exactly do you to. I’m a police officer?”

“I work at an office”

“Got it. What do you do at the office? Secretary? General admin? “ I resisted the temptation to ask if Mrs Kravitz was there to clean the office because that is what I’m figuring her common sense quotient is not too high. Well after about two minutes I determine she is an office manager. I won’t go there.

Anyway, after starting my initial interview with the driver of the other car who have two kids (two and three months) they ask for a medic to check the kids out. I request an ambulance. After about five minutes I can hear the siren and then I can here Mrs. Kravitz.

“Officer there is an ambulance, you can flag it down.”

I hold it back even though I’m on limited sleep, no rest, not enough caffeine and in desperate need of some scotch.

“Yes ma’am, I called for them.”

Another simple question I had to ask Mrs Kravitz. “Ma’am, what lane were you in at the time of the accident?”

“The fast lane.”

“Ma’am, I take it you mean the left lane...”

It took a couple of minutes to verify this was a correct assumption on my part. Can’t be too sure with her.

The medics check the kids out, they are fine and in a few more minutes it’s done. Or so I thought. Mrs Kravitz asks for directions to get back on the highway. I point out where the on ramp is, tell her how to get there (it’s not not like I haven’t patrolled this area for over seven years) and she proceeds to drive in a completely different way than what I told her.

Don’t go there man, get out before she comes back asking for more directions.

Finish the report, finish my shift with no more contact with unintelligent life forms and am now at home with an excellent cigar and some 12 year old scotch, actually looking forward to catching up on some house work tomorrow and the ride to the state capital on Monday for the Texas Peace Officers Memorial Services

Life is improving. The temperature has dropped so I’m finishing this in shorts, a t-shirt and a light jacket. I gotta finish my Romeo y Julieta, although Elmer wants his Daddy back in the house.

Have a great weekend!

OK, we want more stupid people with guns. What court genius thought this was good.

One of my favorite sayings as a cop is "Don't knock stupid people, they are job security." I was referring to the criminals and in certain cases, the general public. Hey, you get a call from a moron about McDonalds not having a chicken sandwich and tell me he it's not stupid.

Well, maybe I was more right than I thought.

Court OKs Barring High IQs for Cops

A man whose bid to become a police officer was rejected after he scored too high on an intelligence test has lost an appeal in his federal lawsuit against the city.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York upheld a lower court’s decision that the city did not discriminate against Robert Jordan because the same standards were applied to everyone who took the test.

“This kind of puts an official face on discrimination in America against people of a certain class,” Jordan said today from his Waterford home. “I maintain you have no more control over your basic intelligence than your eye color or your gender or anything else.”

He said he does not plan to take any further legal action.

Jordan, a 49-year-old college graduate, took the exam in 1996 and scored 33 points, the equivalent of an IQ of 125. But New London police interviewed only candidates who scored 20 to 27, on the theory that those who scored too high could get bored with police work and leave soon after undergoing costly training.

Most Cops Just Above Normal The average score nationally for police officers is 21 to 22, the equivalent of an IQ of 104, or just a little above average.

Jordan alleged his rejection from the police force was discrimination. He sued the city, saying his civil rights were violated because he was denied equal protection under the law.

But the U.S. District Court found that New London had “shown a rational basis for the policy.” In a ruling dated Aug. 23, the 2nd Circuit agreed. The court said the policy might be unwise but was a rational way to reduce job turnover...

OK, I could make comments about my command staff and their IQs but I won't. I'm getting promoted in a few months and I won't go there. But you have a man who is intelligent enough to guard the criminals but not to catch them. Hey New Town, did you think (rhetorical question, I know) that maybe someone this smart would make a good investigator? Or a superior sergeant/lieutenant/captain?

I don't know who started this crap but I would love to see their IQ.

IT IS DONE!

Daddy, come in please!

My final paper that is.

I made a mistake on New Year’s Eve. I enrolled the first class in my master’s program, starting the class in the two months before my wedding. Add to that a lot of unplanned for overtime from Field Training, Traffic and DWI. Love the money and I really needed to pay off the wedding but it resulted in me having to push it with the class...barley made it in with the final paper last night and it was not my best work. I’ll start my next class in June and I shouldn’t have any major things come up till later this summer/fall when I get promoted.
So I’m on the way to my master’s degree, my promotion is later this year and summer is almost upon us. Time for summertime resolutions.

I generally don’t make New Year’s resolutions. They are never kept. But for the new summer, here we go. In no particular order:

Get back into reading. My goal is one average size book a week. Been off the for a while and I miss it. Plus read my magazines on Sunday morning with the Chronicle.

Get to church more often. Period.

Keep up with my STRATFOR and other readings and start posting on the blog again on what is happening in the world.

Get to the gym regularly and especially the pool.

Clean up the office and the garage. Office first. It needs it after the last few days.

Enjoy the family more. We’re going to the museum with the girls on Sunday, the in-laws for Sunday dinner and got the family coming over in a few weeks for the yearly crawfish boil.

Get out of the house more, period. The walls are closing in. Take Elmer for a daily walk. Pick up a hammock so I can relax outside more with Beth or just a good book.

Thats all I can think of off the top of my head. Enjoying a Rocky Patel with some excellent coffee It’s Friday morning on a gorgeous day in Houston. Not a cloud in the sky, no humidity and it’s in the 50s. In May. ALGORE must be in town talking about Global Warming or something. And the NRA is in town. I’ll try and sneak over there for a bit. Monday is the

Have a great weekend!

This is sick....

Someone in the past said (paraphrasing) "you can well judge a man by how he treats animals." I wonder how to judge these waste of sperm.

This is what a human does to an animal in the truck of a car.

Miami-Dade County Animal Services rescued a group of dogs believed to be used for trunking.

A Good Samaritan called animal services Wednesday, saying a pet owner in the Goulds repetitively threw dogs in a trunk and let them fight to the death.

"[They] put the dogs in the trunk, lock it up, and they run around, put the music on very, very loud so no one can hear it," said Dahlia Canes with Miami Coalition Against Breed Specific Legislation. "After 10 or 15 minutes, they stop. The dead dog they throw out and the winner keeps going with it."

When authorities responded, they found five adult dogs and four puppies in crates.

"The kennels did not have any water, food, or adequate shelter," said Luis Salgado with Miami-Dade County Animal Services. "They were in feces and urine so the conditions were pretty bad." 

Many were covered in scars and open wounds. One of the dogs had teeth marks on his face.

"There are puncture wounds," said Salgado. "One of the dogs had a broken wrist, an injured eye. One of the dogs is just bit up all over the place and [has] open wounds on his face."

Authorities didn't find the pet owner. The animals were friendly with the veterinarians.

"Usually, dogs that are used for fighting are very loving of their owner. They actually fight to please the owner," said Salgado.

"They deserve better," said Canes.

Yes but the turds who did this don't.  Who is the son of a bitch here?  Rhetorical question, I know.  How can people be this sick?

Security Weekly: The Cuban Spy Network in the U.S. Government, May 2, 2013

By Scott Stewart
Vice President of Analysis

On April 25, the U.S. government announced that it was unsealing an indictment charging Marta Rita Velazquez with conspiracy to commit espionage on behalf of the Cuban government. Velazquez, a former attorney adviser at the U.S. Department of Transportation and a legal officer at the U.S. Agency for International Development, fled the United States for Sweden in 2002 and was indicted in 2004. Velazquez apparently selected Sweden because the country considers espionage to be a political offense, therefore it is not covered under its extradition treaty with the United States. She and her husband also lived in Sweden from 1998 to 2000, so the country was familiar to them.

Though the Velazquez indictment is several years old, it provides a detailed and fascinating account of Cuban espionage activity inside the United States. It also raises some significant implications about the daunting challenges facing American counterintelligence agencies.

The Story

According to the indictment, Velazquez was born in Puerto Rico. She graduated from Princeton University in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in political science and Latin American studies, obtained a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1982 and then received a master's degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington in 1984. She was hired by the U.S. Department of Transportation in August 1984.

The U.S. government alleges that Velazquez was first recruited by the Cuban intelligence service in 1983 while a student at Johns Hopkins. She reportedly traveled from Washington to Mexico City where she met with a Cuban intelligence officer and was formally recruited as an agent. During her studies at Johns Hopkins, the government claims that Velazquez served as a spotter agent who helped the Cuban intelligence service identify, assess and recruit people who occupied sensitive national security positions or who had the potential to move into such positions in the future.

The indictment asserts that in this role, Velazquez identified and befriended Ana Belen Montes, a fellow student at Johns Hopkins, in 1984. In addition to their Puerto Rican heritage, the two students reportedly shared a strong disdain for the Reagan administration's policy toward Nicaragua's Sandinista regime. Velazquez reportedly told Montes that she had friends (the Cubans) who could help Montes in her desire to help the Nicaraguan people.

During the early 1980s, a left-wing movement developed in many American universities. The movement opposed Reagan's Central American policies, such as opposition to the Sandinistas, support for the Contra rebels and support of the regimes in El Salvador and Guatemala. This movement was perhaps most readily seen in one of its larger and more active organizations, the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador. The movement radicalized some students who went on to work with Marxist groups in Latin America, such as Christine Lamont, who joined the Salvadoran Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, and Lori Berenson, who moved to Peru to join the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. According to the FBI, the Cuban intelligence service also recruited students like Velazquez and Montes from within this movement.

The indictment alleges that in the fall of 1984, while Montes was working as a clerk at the Department of Justice, Velazquez took her to New York to meet a friend who Velazquez said could provide Montes an opportunity to help the Nicaraguan people. The friend was an intelligence officer assigned to the Cuban mission to the United Nations. The women again traveled to New York together in early 1985 and met the Cuban intelligence officer a second time. He arranged for the two women to secretly travel together to Cuba via Spain.

In March of 1985, Velazquez and Montes traveled to Madrid, Spain, where they were met by a Cuban intelligence officer, who provided them with false passports and other documents. They then used these documents to travel to Prague in what was then Czechoslovakia. Once in Prague they were met by another Cuban intelligence officer who provided them with yet another set of false documents, as well as new sets of clothing. The Cuban officer they met in Prague then traveled with the women to Havana.

Once in Havana, the women reportedly received training in espionage tradecraft subjects, such as operational security and secure communications, including receiving and encrypting high frequency radio transmissions. The women were also allegedly subjected to practice polygraph examinations and taught methods to deceive polygraph operators.

Upon completion of their training, the women then returned to Madrid via Prague using their assumed identities. Once in Madrid they took tourist photographs of each other to support the story that they had been in Spain and then returned to Washington.

Upon returning to Washington, Montes applied for a job at the Defense Intelligence Agency using Velazquez as a character reference. She was hired by the Defense Intelligence Agency as an analyst in September 1985. Montes would excel at the agency and eventually became the Defense Intelligence Agency's most senior Cuba analyst. She served at that agency until the FBI arrested her in September 2001. Montes pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit espionage charges in March 2002 and is currently serving a 25-year sentence.

Velazquez's trip to Havana with Montes occurred after she had been hired by the U.S. Department of Transportation in August 1984 and had been granted a Secret clearance in September 1984. In March 1989, Velazquez took a position as a legal adviser for Central America with the U.S. Agency for International Development. She was a regional legal adviser for the agency in Managua, Nicaragua, from 1990 to 1994, in Washington from 1994 to 1998 and in Guatemala City, Guatemala, from 2000 to 2002.

In June 2002, when it was announced that Montes had pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the U.S. government, Velazquez resigned from her position at the U.S. Agency for International Development and moved to Sweden, where she remains.

Cuban Intelligence

The Velazquez case, when studied in conjunction with those of Montes and Walter and Gwendolyn Myers, provides a fascinating window into the scope and nature of Cuban intelligence efforts inside the United States. With Velazquez at the U.S. Agency for International Development, Montes at the Defense Intelligence Agency and Myers in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, the Cubans had incredible coverage of the American government's foreign policy and intelligence community. Even after Montes was arrested and Velazquez fled to Sweden, Myers remained at the State Department until his retirement in 2007.

It is also quite interesting that all three of these cases are linked to the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Velazquez and Montes were students in the program in the early 1980s, and Myers taught there until 1977, after receiving a Ph.D. from the school in 1972. He returned to the school following his retirement in 2007 and worked as a professor of European Studies until his arrest in June 2009. The school is a high-profile institution that has a proven track record of placing graduates in the American foreign affairs and intelligence communities -- and of hiring former government personnel to serve as professors. Still, it is not the only program with such a profile, and the Cubans would almost certainly have recruited a promising agent from Georgetown's Walsh School, Harvard's Kennedy School or any other program if provided the opportunity. The fact that there were three high-profile Cuban agents who penetrated the U.S. government and who were all associated with the School of Advanced International Studies would seem to be an incredible coincidence. The FBI is probably still looking for potential agents who Myers could have spotted for recruitment when they studied there from 2007 to 2009.

When considering espionage cases, we often refer to an old Soviet KGB Cold War acronym -- MICE -- to explain the motivations of spies. MICE stands for money, ideology, compromise and ego. Traditionally, money has proved to be the top motivation for Americans arrested for espionage, but as seen in the Velazquez, Montes and Myers cases, the Cubans were very successful in recruiting American agents using ideology. Like the Montes and Myers complaints, there is no indication in the Velazquez complaint that she had ever sought or accepted money from the Cuban intelligence service for her espionage activities. While Velazquez and Montes were both of Puerto Rican descent, Myers' recruitment shows that Cuban intelligence officers did not just confine their recruitment activity to Hispanics.

In addition to the Cuban preference for ideologically motivated agents, this case also shows that the Cuban intelligence service is very patient and is willing to wait years for the agents it recruits to move into sensitive positions within the U.S. government rather than just focus on immediate results. It took several years for Velazquez to get a job with access to Top Secret information. Although it must be recognized that this is often the case with ideologically motivated agents who are commonly recruited while students. It is also clear that Cuban espionage efforts against the United States did not end with the Cold War and continue to this day.

Perhaps the most disturbing revelation from the Velazquez case for American counterintelligence officials, though, is the fact that Velazquez was not caught due to some operational mistake or intelligence coup. The only reason she was discovered is because of Montes' arrest and confession, which uncovered her activities. This means that her espionage tradecraft was solid for the nearly 18 years that she worked as a Cuban agent within the U.S. government. Furthermore, the background investigations conducted for the security clearances she held with the Department of Transportation and the Agency for International Development did not pick up on her anti-American sentiments -- even the "full field" investigation that would have been conducted prior to her being granted a Top Secret clearance.

It is not surprising that the background investigations failed to uncover Velazquez's espionage activities. Background investigations often are seen as mundane tasks, and thus are not given high priority -- especially when there are so many other "real" cases to investigate. Furthermore, these investigations are most often done by contract investigators whose bureaucratic bosses emphasize speed over substance, meaning important leads are often ignored because of a case deadline. In fact, contractors who do attempt to dig deep are sometimes accused of trying to milk the system in an effort to acquire more points (the basis upon which contract investigators are paid) by running additional leads and interviewing additional people.

Quite frankly, when it comes to background investigations, the prevalent attitude is to do the minimum work necessary to check off the prerequisite boxes and get the investigation over as quickly -- and as superficially -- as possible. Background investigations have become perfunctory bureaucratic processes that lack the ability to uncover the type of information required to catch a spy who does not want to be caught.

Velazquez would not have been required to pass a polygraph at the U.S. Agency for International Development like Montes had to at the Defense Intelligence Agency. Nevertheless, the portion of the indictment that discussed the training in deceiving the polygraph that Velazquez and Montes received during their first trip to Cuba underscores the limitation of polygraph examinations -– they only work really well on honest people.

Finally, it is interesting to look at these Cuban cases in light of what they may tell us about the larger challenges facing U.S. counterintelligence officials. If a small, poor nation like Cuba can successfully recruit so many agents and place them in critical positions within the U.S. government for so long, what does this portend about the efforts and successes of larger or richer countries with aggressive intelligence agencies like China, Russia, Israel and India?

Copyright: Stratfor.com

What a man...he invents the Internet...he's the inspiration for a character in Love Story...and now he lays down his lifelong ambition for the sake of the country. I am touched!

The Most Interesting Man in the World has nothing on ALGORE!

Am I the only one who shutters when you think he was a heartbeat away from the presidency for eight years and he did win the popular vote in 2000.

Great quote from the bottom of Breitbart:

Zachary Goldberg

Yes Mr. Gore. You were also the nations 43rd president and invented the internet. Now take your pill, sit over by the window, and keep an eye on the pigeons.

I like Ted!

Someone with this little time in office I would generally like to see get a few more years under his belt. But we need help NOW and this may be the New Hope we've been praying for!

Cruz 2016 | National Review Online

Freshman senator Ted Cruz is considering a presidential run, according to his friends and confidants.

Cruz won’t talk about it publicly, and even privately he’s cagey about revealing too much of his thought process or intentions. But his interest is undeniable.

“If you don’t think this is real, then you’re not paying attention,” says a Republican insider. “Cruz already has grassroots on his side, and in this climate, that’s all he may need.”

“There’s not a lot of hesitation there,” adds a Cruz donor who has known the Texan for decades. “He’s fearless.”

For the moment, Cruz’s inner circle is small: mostly aides from his Senate campaign; his father, Rafael; and his wife, Heidi. They didn’t plan on having these presidential conversations so early in his first term. Yet Cruz’s rapid ascent and a flurry of entreaties from conservative leaders have stoked their interest — and Cruz’s.

“Ted won’t be opening an Iowa office anytime soon, but he’s listening,” says a longtime Cruz associate. “This is all in the early stages; nothing is official. It’s just building on its own.”

Behind the scenes, there is a palpable fear on the right that the GOP will nominate a moderate Republican in 2016. There’s also growing unease with the field of likely contenders.

Don't argue with that. The morons running the Republican Party leadership who gave us McCain, Romney and Dole are gunning to give us another RINO like Jeb Bush. Hey guys, in case you haven't been keeping up on current events, each one of them got their asses kicked in the general election. And the reason is the party base, the flyover country hicks you are embarrassed of will not support you or your candidate. So if you want to keep loosing, give us a moderate again. But I digress.

Enter Cruz. His supporters argue that he’d be a Barry Goldwater type — a nominee who would rattle the Republican establishment and reconnect the party with its base – but with better electoral results.

Republican power brokers from the early-primary states have noticed. They tell me that the Cruz factor is a frequent topic of discussion among state-based strategists.

“You bet, he’s on my radar,” says Chad Connelly, the chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party. “Conservatives think he’s a rock star. I hear about him from everybody.”

Cruz’s allies whisper that the 42-year-old attorney, who holds degrees from Harvard Law and Princeton, doesn’t take the groundswell of enthusiasm lightly. Besides talking with conservative grandees, he has called his peers in the legal community and raised the prospect.

“We all see a path, and he does, too,” says a former Cruz colleague. “This isn’t someone who needs to be told the obvious. He didn’t run for the Senate to get cozy, so no one who knows him is surprised that he’s at least looking at it.”

Cruz isn’t worried that his birth certificate will be a problem. Though he was born in Canada, he and his advisers are confident that they could win any legal battle over his eligibility. Cruz’s mother was a U.S. citizen when he was born, and he considers himself to be a natural-born citizen.

I think he can show a birth certificate saying born of American parents while overseas or something like that. Unlike the current occupant of the White House.

As Cruz considers a run, his staff keeps adding new speaking appearances to his calendar. This week, he’ll headline the South Carolina GOP’s Silver Elephant dinner; in late May, he’ll speak to Wall Street heavies at the New York GOP’s annual dinner.

Earlier this year, Cruz gave the keynote speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he was greeted with a raucous reception and praised by Sarah Palin. She touted Cruz as a conservative who “chews barbed wire and spits out rust.”

Love it! Thanks Sarah for a great quote!

The debates over gun control, immigration, and President Obama’s appointees have fueled his rise. He has been out front on each issue, brashly battling Democrats and, if need be, his fellow Republicans. “He’s the purest of the young conservative senators — that’s how we see him,” says a consultant who works for a leading conservative group.

That ideological purity and Cruz’s presidential maneuvers make aides close to other Republican contenders nervous. The backroom Republican consensus is that a Cruz insurgency would hardly be a quixotic publicity stunt. He’d outflank almost all of the other candidates on the right, and his debating skills, which once won him national awards, would be formidable. It doesn’t hurt that much of the media already hates him with a passion.

He’s also tighter with Republican donors than most people realize. Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal, is a close friend — one of many donors with Cruz ties. Four years ago, Thiel poured more than $250,000 into Cruz’s aborted race for Texas attorney general, and he has recently donated millions to groups supporting Cruz, such as the Club for Growth. Sources close to other top Republican donors tell me that the senator is as good at wooing financiers as he is at wooing the Tea Party.

Cruz is obviously only one of several Senate conservatives gunning for the nomination. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, among others, have been busy traveling to the early states and slowly building up their political staffs. So have GOP governors such as Wisconsin’s Scott Walker and Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal.

For now, Cruz is running behind in terms of organization. But sources say that doesn’t deter him in the slightest. “If he thinks this country needs bold leadership, he’s not going to shy away,” the former colleague says. “He is one of the most confident people I know, and he’d run to win.”

At least this keeps him on the farm team even if he doesn't jump in in 2016. However, the usual suspects (mainstream media, Democrats (redundant I know), RINOs) are starting to throw stuff at him. I pray he doesn't let those charges sit out there. Ted knows how to answer them better than others, but he cannot let a baseless charge like his birth sit unanswered.

Thank you Ted for shaking things up again!

747 crash in Afghanistan

No words are really needed.

US Boeing 747 crash and burn caught on dashcam in Afghanistan

Harrowing footage of a US cargo plane in Afghanistan plummeting to the ground immediately after takeoff and erupting in a massive ball of flames has emerged online. All seven passengers onboard were killed.

Video apparently shot from a vehicle dashcam shows the National Airlines Boeing 747 taking off from the Bagram Airfield military base, just north of the Afghanistan capital of Kabul, on Monday.

The plane’s nose pitches up heavily on its ascent, stalls, and then falls from the sky in a matter of seconds. It immediately explodes upon impact, sending a massive, think plume of smoke up into the sky.

While the video appeared within 24 hours of the crash and appears to be authentic, the date on the dash cam is wrong. National Air Cargo later confirmed the videos authenticity.

Seven passengers – all of them American citizens – were killed in the crash. Shirley Kaufman, VP for National Air Cargo, said five of the seven causalities were from Michigan.

“We are not yet releasing the identities of the colleagues we lost out of respect for their families who need a little more time to reach their loved ones,” The Pentagon Post cites Kaufman as saying...

...The crash appears to be the deadliest aircraft-related accident at Bagram Airfield since its conversion into a massive base of military operations following the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan...

God bless and keep the passengers and crew.

Geopolitical Weekly: Redlines and the Problems of Intervention in Syria, April 30, 2013

By George Friedman
Founder and Chairman

The civil war in Syria, one of the few lasting legacies of the Arab Spring, has been under way for more than two years. There has been substantial outside intervention in the war. The Iranians in particular, and the Russians to a lesser extent, have supported the Alawites under Bashar al Assad. The Saudis and some of the Gulf States have supported the Sunni insurgents in various ways. The Americans, Europeans and Israelis, however, have for the most part avoided involvement.

Last week the possibility of intervention increased. The Americans and Europeans have had no appetite for intervention after their experiences in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. At the same time, they have not wanted to be in a position where intervention was simply ruled out. Therefore, they identified a redline that, if crossed, would force them to reconsider intervention: the use of chemical weapons.

There were two reasons for this particular boundary. The first was that the United States and European states have a systemic aversion to the possession and usage of weapons of mass destruction in other countries. They see this ultimately as a threat to them, particularly if such weapons are in the hands of non-state users. But there was a more particular reason in Syria. No one thought that al Assad was reckless enough to use chemical weapons because they felt that his entire strategy depended on avoiding U.S. and European intervention, and that therefore he would never cross the redline. This was comforting to the Americans and Europeans because it allowed them to appear decisive while avoiding the risk of having to do anything.

However, in recent weeks, first the United Kingdom and France and then Israel and the United States asserted that the al Assad regime had used chemical weapons. No one could point to an incidence of massive deaths in Syria, and the evidence of usage was vague enough that no one was required to act immediately.

In Iraq, it turned out there was not a nuclear program or the clandestine chemical and biological weapons programs that intelligence had indicated. Had there been, the U.S. invasion might have had more international support, but it is doubtful it would have had a better outcome. The United States would have still forced the Sunnis into a desperate position, the Iranians would have still supported Shiite militias and the Kurds would have still tried to use the chaos to build an autonomous Kurdish region. The conflict would have still been fought and its final outcome would not have looked very different from how it does now.

What the United States learned in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya is that it is relatively easy for a conventional force to destroy a government. It is much harder -- if not impossible -- to use the same force to impose a new type of government. The government that follows might be in some moral sense better than what preceded it -- it is difficult to imagine a more vile regime than Saddam Hussein's -- but the regime that replaces it will first be called chaos, followed by another regime that survives to the extent that it holds the United States at arm's length. Therefore, redline or not, few want to get involved in another intervention pivoting on weapons of mass destruction.

Interventionist Arguments and Illusions

However, there are those who want to intervene for moral reasons. In Syria, there is the same moral issue that there was in Iraq. The existing regime is corrupt and vicious. It should not be forgotten that the al Assad regime conducted a massacre in the city of Hama in 1982 in which tens of thousands of Sunnis were killed for opposing the regime. The regime carried out constant violations of human rights and endless brutality. There was nothing new in this, and the world was able to act fairly indifferent to the events, since it was still possible to create media blackouts in those days. Syria's patron, the Soviet Union, protected it, and challenging the Syrian regime would be a challenge to the Soviet Union. It was a fight that few wanted to wage because the risks were seen as too high.

The situation is different today. Syria's major patron is Iran, which had (until its reversal in Syria) been moving toward a reshaping of the balance of power in the region. Thus, from the point of view of the American right, an intervention is morally required to confront evil regimes. There are those on the left who also want intervention. In the 1980s, the primary concern of the left was the threat of nuclear war, and they saw any intervention as destabilizing a precarious balance. That concern is gone, and advocacy for military intervention to protect human rights is a significant if not universal theme on the left.

The difference between right-wing and left-wing interventionists is the illusions they harbor. In spite of experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq, right-wing interventionists continue to believe that the United States and Europe have the power not only to depose regimes but also to pacify the affected countries and create Western-style democracies. The left believes that there is such a thing as a neutral intervention -- one in which the United States and Europe intervene to end a particular evil, and with that evil gone, the country will now freely select a Western-style constitutional democracy. Where the right-wing interventionists cannot absorb the lessons of Afghanistan and Iraq, the left-wing interventionists cannot absorb the lessons of Libya.

Everyone loved the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. What was not to like? The Evil Empire was collapsing for the right; respect for human rights was universally embraced for the left. But Eastern Europe was occupied by Josef Stalin in 1945 following domination and occupation by Adolf Hitler. Eastern Europeans had never truly embraced either, and for the most part loathed both. The collapse freed them to be what they by nature were. What was lurking under the surface had always been there, suppressed but still the native political culture and aspiration.

That is not what was under the surface in Afghanistan or Iraq. These countries were not Europe and did not want to be. One of the reasons that Hussein was despised was that he was secular -- that he violated fundamental norms of Islam both in his personal life and in the way he governed the country. There were many who benefited from his regime and supported him, but if you lopped off the regime, what was left was a Muslim country wanting to return to its political culture, much as Eastern Europe returned to its.

In Syria, there are two main factions fighting. The al Assad regime is Alawite, a heterodox offshoot of Shi'ism. But its more important characteristic is that it is a secular regime, not guided by either liberal democracy or Islam but with withering roots in secular Arab Socialism. Lop it off and what is left is not another secular movement, this time liberal and democratic, but the underlying Muslim forces that had been suppressed but never eradicated. A New York Times article this week pointed out that there are no organized secular forces in areas held by the Sunni insurgents. The religious forces are in control. In Syria, secularism belonged to the Baath Party and the Alawites, and it was brutal. But get rid of it, and you do not get liberal democracy.

This is what many observers missed in the Arab Spring. They thought that under the surface of the oppressive Hosni Mubarak regime, which was secular and brutal, was a secular liberal democratic force. Such a force was present in Egypt, more than in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan or Libya, but still did not represent the clear alternative to Mubarak. The alternative -- not as clearly as elsewhere, but still the alternative -- was the Muslim Brotherhood, and no secular alternative was viable without the Egyptian army.

The Difficulties of an Intervention

There are tremendous military challenges to dealing with Syria. Immaculate interventions will not work. A surgical strike on chemical facilities is a nice idea, but the intelligence on locations is never perfect, Syria has an air defense system that cannot be destroyed without substantial civilian casualties, and blowing up buildings containing chemical weapons could release the chemicals before they burn. Sending troops deep into Syria would not be a matter of making a few trips by helicopter. The country is an armed camp, and destroying or seizing stockpiles of chemical weapons is complicated and requires manpower. To destroy the stockpiles, you must first secure ports, airports and roads to get to them, and then you have to defend the roads, of which there are many.

Eradicating chemical weapons from Syria -- assuming that they are all in al Assad's territory -- would require occupying that territory, and the precise outlines of that territory change from day to day. It is also likely, given the dynamism of a civil war, that some chemical weapons would fall into the hands of the Sunni insurgents. There are no airstrikes or surgical raids by special operations troops that would solve the problem. Like Iraq, the United States would have to occupy the country.

If al Assad and the leadership are removed, his followers -- a substantial minority -- will continue to resist, much as the Sunnis did in Iraq. They have gained much from the al Assad regime and, in their minds, they face disaster if the Sunnis win. The Sunnis have much brutality to repay. On the Sunni side, there may be a secular liberal democratic group, but if so it is poorly organized and control is in the hands of Islamists and other more radical Islamists, some with ties to al Qaeda. The civil war will continue unless the United States intervenes on behalf of the Islamists, uses its power to crush the Alawites and hands power to the Islamists. A variant of this happened in Iraq when the United States sought to crush the Sunnis but did not want to give power to the Shia. The result was that everyone turned on the Americans.

That will be the result of a neutral intervention or an intervention designed to create a constitutional democracy. Those who intervene will find themselves trapped between the reality of Syria and the assorted fantasies that occasionally drive U.S. and European foreign policy. No great harm will come in any strategic sense. The United States and Europe have huge populations and enormous wealth. They can, in that sense, afford such interventions. But the United States cannot afford continual defeats as a result of intervening in countries of marginal national interest, where it sets for itself irrational political goals for the war. In some sense, power has to do with perception, and not learning from mistakes undermines power.

Many things are beyond the military power of the United States. Creating constitutional democracies by invasion is one of those things. There will be those who say intervention is to stop the bloodshed, not to impose Western values. Others will say intervention that does not impose Western values is pointless. Both miss the point. You cannot stop a civil war by adding another faction to the war unless that faction brings overwhelming power to bear. The United States has a great deal of power, but not overwhelming power, and overwhelming power's use means overwhelming casualties. And you cannot transform the political culture of a country from the outside unless you are prepared to devastate it as was done with Germany and Japan.

The United States, with its European allies, does not have the force needed to end Syria's bloodshed. If it tried, it would merely be held responsible for the bloodshed without achieving any strategic goal. There are places to go to war, but they should be few and of supreme importance. The bloodshed in Syria is not more important to the United States than it is to the Syrians.

Redlines and the Problems of Intervention in Syria is republished with permission of Stratfor.

Another great cartoon...

From our friends at The Liberal Offender:

No comment is needed! :<)

Not good news from the Land of Cheese....

I believe in forgiveness and redemption, for the most part. There are some sins that cannot be forgiven and I put killing a cop in that group. So this is not good to hear.

Man who killed two police officers in 1975 wins release

SUMMIT, Wis. -- After years of attempts, a man who killed two Summit police officers nearly 40 years ago has won release from confinement at Wisconsin mental health institutions.

A six-person jury in Waukesha has found that Alan Randall should still be subject to conditions that will now be set out by the state Department of Health Services in a plan to be presented to a judge for approval in July.

Randall, now 54, killed Robert "Rocky" Atkins and Wayne Olson in January 1975, when Randall was 16. Prosecutors believe he also killed his neighbor several days earlier.

Two years after the crimes, he was found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect in the officers' murders, and committed to a state mental hospital...

...Schimel said a judge in 1977 added a 10-year probation sentence, to be served if Randall was ever released from mental hospitals, for burglaries and other crimes committed around the time of the slayings. Theoretically, Randall could be sent to prison for that period if he violates conditions, but Schimel said there are questions about the legality of that sentence...

I would say unbelievable but in the 70s in liberal areas like Wisconsin it was far too typical. These people are just sick, they're not responsible for their actions, etc. But this is good.

...Randall's attorney, Craig Powell, said that the state had the burden to show clear and convincing evidence that Randall was a danger, but that most of the evidence was related to the 1975 crimes.

Gee, maybe killing two cops is, in professional jargon, a clue he's a danger to others.

I hate to say it but one got away from justice. My prayers are with the families of Officer Robert "Rocky" Atkins and Officer Wayne Olson. God knows justice wasn't served here.

Now this is what I call DWI work

I've done my fair share of DWI cases while on patrol and I've gotten two in one shift, but this takes it.

Four suspected drunk drivers arrested at same location in Montgomery County

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Investigators said four drunken drivers were arrested at the same location in Montgomery County overnight, and one nearly struck a deputy at the scene.

According to the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, deputies stopped a driver on the North Freeway near Oakwood because he was wanted in connection with assaulting his 15-year-old daughter. He was intoxicated when deputies pulled him over, officials said.

After the arrest, the deputy was about to get into his car when another driver approached the scene and slammed into the rear of the patrol car, almost hitting the deputy.

That driver also failed a field sobriety test and was taken into custody. But it didn't end there.

Two other drivers who tried to maneuver around the police barricade at the scene were also arrested for driving drunk. All four suspected drunk drivers were taken to jail.

Nice work Montgomery County Sheriff's Office. And thankfully no one was injured in this cluster of a scene.

Good to know someone in the military is doing well now....

Chesty XIV just got promoted:

Sgt. Chesty XIII (left) relaxes as PFC Chesty XIV, the newest Marine Corps mascot, sits during the ceremony in which the puppy was made a full Marine on Monday, April 8, 2013, at the Marine Barracks Washington.

Chesty XIV Becomes a Full Marine

With his predecessor barking in either approval or protest, the Marine Corps’ new mascot, Chesty XIV, was made a full Marine on Monday.

Top Marine officers urged the new mascot to carry on in the tradition of Sgt. Chesty XIII, while their wives are making sure the puppy is better behaved.

With the entire Marine Barracks Washington force watching, Gen. James Amos, the commandant of the Marine Corps, promoted the young bulldog from recruit to Private First Class and pinned on him the service’s symbol, the Eagle Globe and Anchor. PFC Chesty XIV will begin taking on duties during the Marines Friday Night Parade this year. The young Chesty is mostly white with some brindle markings and a small black mark under his left eye, as if he stepped out of a bar fight while on shore leave.

Throughout the ceremony, Sgt. Chesty XIII barked loudly, a sign, according to Marines watching the ceremony, that the bulldog was upset about no longer being the center of attention.

But Gen. Amos offered Sgt. Chesty a ringing endorsement, reminding the audience about how the bulldog had gone nose to nose with Bravo, former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s golden retriever, growling and trying to intimidate the higher ranking pooch.

“We saw what Chesty did to Bravo last summer, so Chesty the Marine needs to pay attention to his mentor,” said Gen. Amos.

Sgt. Chesty occupies a peculiar place at the barracks. Marines speak reverentially about his faceoff with Bravo, while many of the wives are determined that PFC Chesty will have better manners.

Bonnie Amos, Gen. Amos wife, has vowed the new mascot must be well-socialized and has been supervising his upbringing....

...Christine Mosser, the wife of Staff Sgt. Jason Mosser and the new Chesty’s caretaker, has taken Mrs. Amos’s direction to heart. PFC Chesty’s best friend is a cat named Dean Martin, and Ms. Mosser said she is training the young bulldog not to fight with other dogs.

“We keep telling him, ‘No Bravo! No Bravo!’” she said

Not getting that nasty faced son of a bitch to fight, good luck Mrs Mosser. Chesty XIV, congratulations and hope you have a long time in service. Chesty XIII, thanks for your service and enjoy your retirement.

Hopefully this ends soon.

I started my career in law enforcement in 1998 and Officer Blando was the first Houston area cop murdered after I took the oath. It has been fourteen years since that aweful day and fortuanlly the Harris county jury did it's duty. Now it looks like it will finally look come to a close.

DEATH ROW
Last-ditch appeals filed for cop killer

As Houston cop killer Jeffrey Williams counts the days to his May 15 execution, his attorneys are launching a last-ditch effort to save his life by asking a federal court to reconsider claims that earlier defense lawyers botched the case.

In a petition filed with a Houston federal court late Thursday, Virginia-based lawyer Jon Sheldon asserts that Williams’ trial attorney failed to adequately investigate the case and, in the trial’s punishment phase, neglected to present testimony that would have shown that the killer — though not mentally disabled — was unable to function in society.

Yes Mr. Sheldon, you are right. Your client is not able to function in society. Society looks down on murderers. Especailly cop killers. So we will insure he will not have to attempt to function in society by eliminating him from the human gene pool.

Sheldon further argues that Williams’ court-appointed appeals lawyer not only failed to aggressively pursue the case and make an ineffective counsel claim but missed a filing deadline that led to his “cut and pasted” appeal’s rejection.

Claims fizzled

To date, Williams’ ineffective counsel claims have fizzled. Now, Sheldon hopes a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Martinez v. Ryan, will prompt the courts to take another look.

The ruling allows reconsideration of a rejected ineffective counsel claim if it is “substantial” and if it can be proved that an appeals lawyer’s performance fell below an objective standard of reasonableness. It requires proof that, had legal representation been adequate, the trial’s outcome may have been different.

Williams, 37, was represented in his February 2000 trial by veteran Houston defense lawyer Donald Davis. Months after Williams’ conviction, Davis committed suicide. Williams’ appeals attorney was Jules Laird, a former Harris County assistant district attorney.

Laird on Friday said he filed two petitions on Williams’ behalf, one dealing with constitutional issues of the killer’s initial trial, and a second asserting mental disability claims. “I talked to the family, reviewed the files and did my own investigation,” he said. “... I don’t recall filing late, but if the court says I did, I did.”

Laird said he does not remember whether he raised the issue of ineffective counsel.

I hate to say it but former prosecuters make great defense attornies. Sounds like this waste of sperm has really good council.

Williams’ legal troubles began the night of May 19, 1999, when he drove a stolen Lexus into the parking lot of a motel in the 6800 block of the Southwest Freeway. He was spotted by Troy Blando, 39, a plainclothes Houston police officer assigned to the auto theft detail.

Self-defense claimed

Confirming the car had been stolen, Blando attempted to make an arrest. Williams struggled. As Blando cuffed one of the man’s hands, Williams pulled a pistol and fired a fatal shot. The killer still wore the handcuffs when he was arrested.

Williams claimed he thought Blando was a robber and that he fired in self-defense. Williams, who is black, also said Blando, who was white, addressed him with a vulgar racial term...

Yea Jeff, all robbers identify themselves as police and carry handcuffs. You know something that is really vulgar there Jeff. Murdering another man.

You know what's kinda funny. These big and bad s%^&heads are not so big and bad when the time comes. They ain't so big and bad when the door opens and they cower in the corner screaming "you ain't taking me!!!!!" Then an extraction team goes in, kicks their asses and then actually patches up any injuries. Then they strap him down to the gurney, bring him to the chamber and the needles are put in. And he is put down like the animal he is .

God be with you Jeff. If justice is served on May 15th, you will face a judge you cannot lie to and cannot appeal from.

RIP Officer Troy Blando.

West's Best are Laid to Rest

Caskets sit in front of the stage of a memorial for firefighters who were killed in the West, Texas,  fertilizer plant explosion Thursday, April 25, 2013, at Baylor University in Waco,Texas.

Memorial Service for Fallen West, Texas Firefighters

WACO, Texas (AP) ...The April 17 explosion left a crater more than 90 feet wide and damaged dozens of buildings, displacing many residents from their homes. The Insurance Council of Texas estimates it caused more than $100 million in damage.

The blast came minutes after a fire was reported at the West Fertilizer plant, operated by Adair Grain Inc. Ten of those killed were first responders who sped out to the nighttime blaze.

The memorial service honored those first responders and two civilians who tried to fight the fire and were posthumously named volunteer firefighters. Among the dead were brothers Douglas and Robert Snokhous, West High School graduates who volunteered together for the town's fire department.

It opened with a photo slide show set to country music that was projected onto a movie screen over their 12 flag-draped coffins. It showed images of the men from their childhood, their weddings and other moments throughout lives filled with children and friends. Mourners were given programs with full-page profiles of each of the victims, describing their lives, their values and their faith.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry eulogized the unpaid firefighters and first responders, lamenting that each had a personal story and journey that drew to a close too soon.

"These are volunteers. Ordinary individuals blessed with extraordinary courage and a determination to do what they could to save lives," he said. "They're the ones who proudly said 'not on my watch' in the moments immediately following that explosion."...

...A parade of fire trucks and other first responders' vehicles paraded through Waco en route to the ceremony at Baylor's sports arena. The vehicles entered under an archway formed by the ladders from two fire trucks with an American flag hung between them.

Nearly 10,000 packed the Ferrell Center, more than three times West's entire population of 2,700. Many of the mourners wore the uniforms of police, firefighters and paramedics and wiped tears from their eyes.

Brian Crawford, fire chief in the Dallas suburb of Plano, attended with 11 others from his department even though they live 100 miles from West.

"With these unfortunate circumstances, it's time to show we are all a family," Crawford said. "These were our brothers and they paid the price."...

Rest in Peace Gentlemen. You're in God's embrace and may He be with your families and friends during this time.

Day is done, Gone the sun, From the lake, From the hills, From the sky. All is well, Safely rest, God is nigh. 

And this is why unions are an anachronism

Anyone remember this.

Hostess shuttering doors, ending era of iconic brands

Hostess CEO says strike was fatal blow for bankrupt company and that it is too late to fix it. Nearly 600 could lose jobs in Schiller Park and Hodgkins bakeries.

Chris Pruitt, an employee of a Hostess plant in Peoria, strikes with other employees in
front of the Hostess Brands plant in Schiller Park. (Keri Wiginton, Chicago Tribune)

Fear not for the Twinkie. In all likelihood it will outlive us all.

The same cannot be said for Hostess Brands, the bankrupt baker responsible for Twinkies, Wonder Bread and other goods. The company said Friday it has asked a bankruptcy judge for permission to go out of business and lay off 18,500 workers, blaming a labor strike by members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union.

In the Chicago area, Hostess employs about 300 workers making CupCakes, HoHos and Honey Buns in Schiller Park. Hostess also has a bakery in Hodgkins, where 325 workers make Beefsteak, Butternut, Home Pride, Nature's Pride and Wonder breads. The company's connection to Chicago is more than crust or frosting deep: the Twinkie was invented in the Chicago area in 1930....

Like man industries, unions will not make concessions and the results? The workers, whose interest they notionally represent, are unemployed. I wonder what the union leadership is doing right now? I'll bet they are no in the unemployment roll.

Fast forward a half year.

Hostess Reopening Plants, Without Union Workers

The bankrupt assets of Hostess Brands, Inc., the company responsible for Twinkies, Ho Ho's, Sno Balls and Ding Dongs, are being put back to work by a buyout firm. What's not being put back to work are the former Hostess unionized employees.

The unionized workers had been on strike when the company folded late last year.

The company had imposed a contract that would cut its 19,000 workers' wages — 15,000 of whom belonged to the workers from the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers & Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) — by 8 percent. (The Teamsters was Hostess' largest union, followed by BCTGM.) The contract would have also cut benefits by 27 to 32 percent.

Hostess filed for Chapter 11 in January 2012. In November 2012, the company announced it would be shutting its doors for good. By that time, it had lost about $1.1 billion, largely due to bankruptcy filings.

But last month Apollo Global Management, LLC, and Metropoulos & Co., which owns Pabst Blue Ribbon and Vlasic pickles, bought the 83-year-old company for $410 million, renaming it Hostess Brands LLC. It is planning to re-open four bakeries over the next two and a half months, in Columbus, Ga.; Emporia, Kan.; Schiller Park, Ill.; and Indianapolis. It is also contemplating a fifth in Los Angeles.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, C. Dean Metropoulos, the company's chief executive, said that between now and September, he plans to inject $60 million in capital investments into the plants, and hopes to hire at least 1,500 workers.

But those workers won't be unionized.

"It appears that they are discharging the union contract in bankruptcy," said Matthew A. Kaufman, a labor attorney in Los Angeles who is not affiliated with the case.

While Metropoulos did not respond to interview requests from ABC News, he told the Journal that he does "not expect to be involved in the union going forward."...

Sixty million put into a more efficient company, over 1500 new employees working and putting more product on the market more efficiently. What is missing? The union.

Unions still serve a purpose but they seemed locked into an eighteenth century mindset of sweatshops, etc. Sorry, the world has moved forward. There is competition and technology that has made production of all types of items more efficient.

I posted last year on how Harley Davidson had to tell it's union either work with us on modernizing our factory in York PA or we're out of here. This union had it's head out of its ass and compromised. Results include the factory still there, employees (granted fewer) still there and Harley Davidson still operating.

To the soon to be employed in for Hostess, and others, have a great weekend.

Deputy Sheriff Chad Christian Key
Grayson County Texas Sheriff's Office
End of Watch: Saturday, April 20, 2013
Age: 42
Tour: 4 years
Badge # 20

Deputy Sheriff Chad Key was struck and killed by a drunk driver while directing traffic at the intersection of U.S. Highway 82 and Bethany Road shortly before 10:30 pm.

The driver who struck him failed to stop but was arrested a short distance away. The subject was a habitual drunk driver who was out on bond on a previous drunk driving arrest.

Deputy Key had served as a corrections officer with the Grayson County Sheriff's Office for 3-1/2 years. He had served as a patrol deputy for only two months. He is survived by his wife and three sons.

Rest in Peace Bro…We Got The Watch

Day is done, Gone the sun, From the lake, From the hills, From the sky. All is well, Safely rest, God is nigh.