Combat Tortoise

This tortoise is relentless. It's like he's on a mission or something.

More On The El Paso Police Pinata

The El Paso Police Pinata thread has received a lot of attention for some reason. I only posted four photographs as I am not a gore merchant. I am a retired police officer and a certified evidence technician - I processed crime scenes for seven years. I'll go into some more detail now as I believe it is warranted, particularly from some of the reponse from Gunbroker.com and XD Talk (hi guys!).

There are twelve crime scene pictures that my brother sent me. I will now include all of them and comment where I see something relevant.

Photo #1

The first four photographs are the only ones that show the placement of a single helmet. From his proximity to the suspect closest to the plainclothes officer (we'll call him Officer #1 and the suspect is Suspect #1) and the helmet. He appears to have lost consciousness or has expired. If you look closely at the rearmost suspect (farthest away from the police officer, we'll tag him Suspect #3) you will see a very small object near his right knee. When blown up, it resembles a cartridge casing. While onlookers appear to keep their distance, there is no real attempt to secure the scene. It is a cloudy day and thus no sharp shadows; however, look at the apparent shadow thrown by the white pick up truck bed, the helmet and the officer's feet. It appears to be a very short shadow so it may be that these photos were taken around noon time.

You will also notice something in this and in all the other photos that is conspicuous by its absense - there are no emergency medical workers in attendence. The motorcycle cop in the back (if that's what he is - he's wearing a helmet) we'll call Officer #2. There appears to be another officer (dark pants and dark t-shirt) next to the motorcycle cop, we'll call him Officer #3 because it seems that he is wearing some kind of equipment around his waist. Next to Officer #3 is a man in a white t-shirt. Behind him is a man dressed in matching blue pants and shirt and he has something shiny on his belt. We'll call him Officer #4.

The suspect in the middle, Suspect #2, apparently has a gunshot wound to his left arm and is lying on his right side.

There appears to be a line of some kind of cobblestone to the right of the suspects' motorcycle. It could be a false curb marking where parking is allowed.

Photo #2

This photograph is taken from the same aspect. Suspect #2, the one still alive, has moved and Suspect #1 has been rolled on his back. Suspect #1 also has his left leg splayed out away from the motorcycle and his right arm has moved lower to his body, away from Officer #1. To the left of Suspect #2 is another police officer wearing mustard colored shorts and carrying handcuffs. We'll tag him as Officer #5. Behind Officer #5 is a man wearing a white long sleeved shirt and blue with some kind of identication tag around his neck. I will not tag him as a cop right now.

Next to Officer #2 (motorcycle cop) is a man with a big gut wearing a horizontally striped shirt and blue shorts. To the right of him is a man wearing a striped shirt and jeans. It looks like he is holding a cell phone and there is something in his right hand. Look above his right hand; apparently he is wearing a holster as his shirt is bloused out over it. Tag him Officer #6.

Look at Suspect #1's right thigh. There is a blood stain on his pants but no blood underneath his leg. This smear was caused by someone dragging Suspect #2 over his leg. This action probably caused the movement of Suspect#1 as detailed in the above paragraph. I will blame Officer #5 for this as he looks like a chump. He may be considering whether or not it is necessary to 'cuff Suspect #2.

Suspect#3 has not moved. There is still a small object near his right knee. You can now see the motorcycle on the right side of the photo. There is a small object on the lane paint stripe just to the left of the motorcycle's rear tire. Perhaps it is a lane reflector. Officer #3 is talking on a cell phone and seems to have his right hand on his holster.

The suspects' motorcycle still has its headlight on. There doesn't appear to be any spilled gas on the road.

Photo #3

Officer #1 has moved to the left side of the photograph. He is still holding his pistol. Officer #3 appears to be motioning for people to stay away from the scene, you can see the holster on his right thigh more clearly now. The motorcyle cop hasn't budged, perhaps he is posing. Mustard shorts is out of the picture as well as the guy with the big gut.

Photo #4

The photographer has moved behind the cobblestone line. Officer #1 is still holding his pistol and he is dancing over the stream of blood. The suspect's headlight is still on. Suspect #2 has his head up from the pavement. Either he is waiting to see if the cops are going to kill him outright or someone is talking to him. He is not using his arms to support himself. He may also have a chest wound, but since he was originally laying on his right side, the blood on his t-shirt could be from the gunshot wound to his arm.

There is a mark on the side of the suspects' motorcycle gas tank shroud. I can't tell if it is a bullethole, the headlight is still on.

Suspect #1 looks like he has bled out. I have seen far, far more blood than that on a bleed out. Suspect #3 still has his head up. There may be blood on the right side of the black full cover helmet. I call Suspect #1 as the driver as I think he was wearing the helmet. There is blood on his right hand corresponding to the blood on the helmet.

Photo #5

Still not sure about that round mark on the tank shroud. Suspect#3 appears to have some blood under his head, he is clutching a baseball cap in his left hand - obviously he wasn't wearing the helmet. That small object is still near his right knee. The motorcycle cop still hasn't moved. He is the only one with shiny shoes. Suspect #3 now has his head down, right side towards the pavement.

Photo #6

Suspect #3 moved his head to the other side. Officer #1 still has his pistol in his hand. The motorcycle cop has moved ever so slightly away from his two wheeler. The suspects' motorcycle's drive chain needs a good lube. That object near Suspect #3's knee is still there.

Photo #7

Officer #1 has had his pistol surgically attached to his hand. The cop expects Suspect #2 to jump up at any time and assault him, possibly with deadly shards of bone from his left arm. This and the next photograph show how badly that arm has been hit.

Photo #8

Officer #1 may be questioning Suspect #2. Still no medical personnel on the scene, but these photos could have been taken within five minutes or less. In a third world city it probably is unfair to expect an ambulance within minutes.

Photo #9

There is a black line just above Officer #1's belt. It may be a holster. Officer #1 is either going to holster his pistol or is preparing to shoot and then urinate on Suspect #2. The man in the background wearing jeans and a gray shirt looks like he is taking a picture.

Photo #10The pistol is now holstered and Suspect #2 can't believe that he hasn't been shot or pissed on. It looks like someone wearing uniform shoes is squatting just to his right,

Photo #11It does not look like Suspect #1 took a GSW to the chest. Perhaps a gut shot severed a major artery.

Photo #12

Last photo. I can't tell if this was a police photographer taking these shots or not. If it was, he is not very good.

It seems like the photographer tried to capture the scene from all four sides (that is an absolute minimum - I would go through a dozen rolls easy at a scene like this), but he missed shooting from the side of the road where the police motorcycle was parked, or else those photos were not included in the original emails.

No Bail

Mitt Romney has written a piece for the NY Slimes about the automotive industry bail out. I am surprised they printed it.

If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.

Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.

I never knew that his father was once the CEO for Ford.

I love cars, American cars. I was born in Detroit, the son of an auto chief executive. In 1954, my dad, George Romney, was tapped to run American Motors when its president suddenly died. The company itself was on life support — banks were threatening to deal it a death blow. The stock collapsed. I watched Dad work to turn the company around — and years later at business school, they were still talking about it. From the lessons of that turnaround, and from my own experiences, I have several prescriptions for Detroit’s automakers.

Guess what the first recommendation is? Starts with a "U", ends with a whimper as the auto giants go bankrupt from jacked up wages demanding more pay for less work. At the same time, the company executives also need an ass kicking. The fact that the three major automotive CEO's flew their private $36 million corporate jets to Washington, DC, at an estimated cost of $20,000 for each flight is a travesty. They need their egos trimmed and their golden parachutes deflated.

First, their huge disadvantage in costs relative to foreign brands must be eliminated. That means new labor agreements to align pay and benefits to match those of workers at competitors like BMW, Honda, Nissan and Toyota. Furthermore, retiree benefits must be reduced so that the total burden per auto for domestic makers is not higher than that of foreign producers.

That extra burden is estimated to be more than $2,000 per car. Think what that means: Ford, for example, needs to cut $2,000 worth of features and quality out of its Taurus to compete with Toyota’s Avalon. Of course the Avalon feels like a better product — it has $2,000 more put into it. Considering this disadvantage, Detroit has done a remarkable job of designing and engineering its cars. But if this cost penalty persists, any bailout will only delay the inevitable.

Second, management as is must go. New faces should be recruited from unrelated industries — from companies widely respected for excellence in marketing, innovation, creativity and labor relations.

Isn't it funny how the other American automotive manufacturers like Toyota and Honda are not asking for bail outs? And please don't bother with the ridiculous argument that these companies are foreign owned and supported and yad yada yada. The Big Three blew it big time. And how is that?

The domestic manufacturers squandered their dominant position in the U.S. market en masse because they were consistently the highest-cost, lowest-quality producer in a game that the Japanese had single-handedly redefined to be one of lowest cost, highest quality. And now we are well into the second generation of buyers who, thanks to the Toyotas of the world, have never owned a domestic brand of car or truck.

But back to Romney. I think he wanders off the reservation here. He is alluding to some kind of a restructuring of the corporate structure and labor contracts. I don't think that is going to happen. The industry has been grabbing its ankles for far too long for the unions to let up now.

Companies in the 21st century cannot perpetuate the destructive labor relations of the 20th. This will mean a new direction for the U.A.W., profit sharing or stock grants to all employees and a change in Big Three management culture.

The need for collaboration will mean accepting sanity in salaries and perks. At American Motors, my dad cut his pay and that of his executive team, he bought stock in the company, and he went out to factories to talk to workers directly. Get rid of the planes, the executive dining rooms — all the symbols that breed resentment among the hundreds of thousands who will also be sacrificing to keep the companies afloat.

Unfortunately he is referring to his father's generation, a generation that knew hardship, sacrifice - and leadership. Those people are almost all gone now. The "me" generation is now in charge and I have little confidence in its ability to turn this situation around without first milking it for all it's worth, just as they have been doing for quite some time.

But except for the federal guarantees, I do agree with Romney's call that bankruptcy is the only salvation for these companies. Let them use this to reorganize they way they do business.

The American auto industry is vital to our national interest as an employer and as a hub for manufacturing. A managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the industry needs. It would permit the companies to shed excess labor, pension and real estate costs. The federal government should provide guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing and assure car buyers that their warranties are not at risk.

In a managed bankruptcy, the federal government would propel newly competitive and viable automakers, rather than seal their fate with a bailout check.

Remember all those computer companies that were around in the late 1980's? How any of them went under? Tons.

I remember we had a large Wang optical disk document storage system in our department and we were concerned about the company being bought out. Then the company that bought it out was bought out. Eventually what was left of Wang ended up with Bull, Inc. Our tech guy nailed it almost twenty years ago - there were just too many systems around for someone not to pick them up and maintain them. There was too much money to be made.

The same applies to the Big Three. Let the market determine what will happen to the US automotive industry and not congressmen nestling in someone's back pocket.

Bomb Proof Tires

I have always been fascinated by military technology. As a 12 yo kid I used to write to the various Secretaries of the armed services asking for information on their various eapons. I would always get a very nice letter from some undersecretary along with a thick packet of wonderful stuff showing tanks, planes, ships, etc.
Now that my kid is in the Army, my interest in innovative technology towards life saving military applications is even keener. This CNET News article is welcome news for anyone with a loved one who goes in harm's way.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Wausau, Wis., company have come up with a 37-inch, bullet- and a bomb-proof Humvee tire based on a polymeric web so cool looking there's no need for hub caps.

This is hawt.

Resilient Technologies and Wisconsin-Madison's Polymer Engineering Center are creating a "non-pneumatic tire" (no air required) that will support the weight of add-on armor, survive an IED attack, and still make a 50 mph getaway. It's basically a round honeycomb wrapped with a thick, black tread.

The military wants an alternative to the current Humvee "run flat" tires, which despite the name, still need a minimal amount of air pressure to roll and can leave troops stranded after being shot or blown out.

There will have to be a trial or shakedown period, of course; but I hope that this goes out to the troops ASAP.

Beware The Kool Aid

The invitation extended by various bloggers and commentors to "drink the Kool-Aid" has been used so often that it has lost it's potency. I well remember the Guyana mass suicide and the shock I felt when I first became aware of it. It made no sense at all. How could people act like this? How could supposedly intelligent people let themselves be talked into something like this? Nearly a thousand lives snuffed out for the sake of .... what? Some suicidal nutjob preacher? How could he possibly talk these many adults into murdering their children? And we think that we and others like us are not susceptible to this type of manipulation.

Since then, events have conspired to dilute our sensitivity to tragedy; we are not as easily moved as we once were; we are not quite as innocent. Nevertheless, the admonition against drinking the Kool-Aid is still operative - a warning against complacency. We need to carefully examine our belief systems, for it is the ultimate foundation for our actions. And like any system it is built upon information, information passed on by reliable sources - like our parents and teachers.

Bruce Walker has written an insightful article at the American Thinker that deals with the abandonment of our traditional belief system - God, Country and Family - for something else.

We are drifting into the sort of horrific future he described. Too many of us for comfort or solace have become just like the denizens of Jonestown: Orwell's children -- a new generation of creature enraged into constant militancy against eternal enemies, oblivious to the notion of a Blessed Creator, melded into the consciousness of the party hive, divorced from history, hypnotized by images, inoculated against reason, stripped of family, and existing only to serve the cause.

[...]What are the characteristics of the Orwellian state?

Start with God. He must go. The great Russian novelists knew this: "Without God, everything is permitted." In Oceania, God simply does not exist. The Nazis bragged that they would raise a generation "...without ever having heard of the Sermon on the Mount or the Golden Rule, to say nothing of the Ten Commandments." The Soviet persecuted anyone who followed the God of Jews and Christians. God is hounded in our world today. A generation of Orwell's Children are growing up without thinking about God at all or thinking that God is a silly idea cherished by sillier old fogies.

Truth must go too. Nazis embraced the "Big Lie." Soviets denied that honesty, per se, mattered. In Orwell's Oceania, the Inner Party members learn to even lie to themselves and to hold utterly contradictory beliefs at the same time. Truth and honesty have little meaning to Orwell's Children in our world. All truth is relative, all honesty a sham.

Have many Americans drank deeply of the liberal Kool-aid? Are we as a nation committing cultural suicide? Orwell's darkly prophetic book, 1984, describes how a totalitarian government assumes power and control.

Orwell even told us, by name, the professionals who would lead us into the nightmare of 1984: "sociologists," "teachers," "bureaucrats," "journalists," "professional politicians," "scientists," "trade union organizers," "publicity experts," and "technicians." (The term "community organizer" was unknown to him.) Those who enslave were those who taught students, who created the news, who sat in the halls of government power, and who defined official "truth" (at least truth de jour.)

But we can only be enslaved if we choose so. This is why our belief system is so important. We elect those who make the laws. We chose how we want the governemnt to act.

Orwell's Children live among us now, not in tiny numbers in weird Marxist cults like Jim Jones' People Temple, but as leaders of Congress, as the establishment of academia, as the producers of news and entertainment, as the administrators of public schools, as the "experts" in a thousand myriad and odd fields of putative "expertise." They infatuate our bored children with the only reality and the only diversion that many can find. They wait for the rest of us to grow older and to die.

[...]We are all anchored in belief, but it is what we believe that matters. We can believe in the lies of Big Brother, which change each day with the needs of the party or we can believe in the truth of a living God. We can become the children of Orwell or the special creatures of God. Everything -- our nation, our world, our families, our communities -- flows from that choice.

We will not be condemned because we did not educate our children.

We will be condemned for not passing on our beliefs to them.
We will be condemned for not protecting our cultural heritage - our freedoms.
We will be condemned for not helping them resist the lure of the Kool-Aid.

Senator Butterworth

It's scary....

Useless, Simply Useless

In this picture you see the news media protecting the public interest by interviewing and vetting Barack Obama during the election. This is probably the leg tingle that Chris "MSNBC's Golden Retriever" Matthews was referring to.

Now all of a sudden the media is reporting that unrepentent terrorist Ayers actually was a family friend of Obama and that Obama faithfully attended the church services of Rev. "God Damn America" Wright for twenty years.

So ... Obama throws these two under a bus, and the media resurrects them .... more than a week after the election is over.

What wasn't an issue is now an issue? What's changed? Oh, he's gonna be the President.

H/T to Protein Wisdom and Rotti Emperor Misha

El Paso Police Pinata

Three armed perps tried to rob an El Paso Special Operations police officer and then get away on a stolen motorcycle.
Bad idea. The cop used a .40 cal. stick to bust them open.
Two dead and the one perp survivor shot in both arms.
The pics are pretty graphic so if you have a weak stomach (sight of blood), you may want to pass this by.
Pics are below.
H/T to my brother Bob.

UPDATE: I have tried to find mention of this story somewhere, anywhere in a newspaper, snopes, or other media offering other than a blog and have not been successful. I find it unbelieveable that a cop could off three armed perps in this country and not have it splayed all over the place.

I did find a story from Cebu City, Philipines, where three armed men were shot to death on an overloaded motorcycle. Apparently they also were not wearing helmets. They apparently were suspects in an armed robbery and refused to stop for a police road block on or about 2 NOV 08 as reported here.

The three men refused to stop when flagged at a checkpoint and one of them, who was riding behind the driver, even pulled out a gun and fired prompting the police to retaliate.

The three were identified by relatives at the morgue of Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes in Nivel Hills.

SPO2 Rey Cuyos of the Homicide Section of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) identified the three dead as Abran Gabato, 28, single, and a resident of sitio Sandayong, Guadalupe; Wilner Ponce alias “Botong”, 31, of Lower Kalunasan, Guadalupe; and Totong Cabajar, of sitio Sandayong of the same barangay.

Gabato was reportedly the driver of the motorcycle with plate number GU1664.
The relatives of the fatalities, who the police believe were motorcycle robbers, said that they only learned of the incident from the media yesterday.

PO2 Michael Codaste of the Homicide Section said that the three sustained several gunshot wounds in their head and other parts of the body. Ponce was hit six times while both Gabato and Cabajar were hit four times.

UPDATE: I did a major review of all twelve photos here.

Put A Sock On It Flipper

First there was the movie "Jaws."

Now there's something else. From now on you may want to to swim with a cork.

Don't ever let your daughter date a dolphin. They're maniacs. I almost wish that dolphins saw us as food instead of this.

Is that a sardine in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?

In as much as the object of Flipper's passion in this video is a man, I'm wondering if we should rename that fish Barney and put him in charge of, oh, I dunno, banks?

You can blame BisW (for the introduction) and Cracked.com for this travesty.

Ohhhhhhhh Cookie, you and your Navy buds like to talk about your experience in submarines where the dolphin insignia as worn a uniform breast pin. Are there any other underwater "experiences" you want to share, hmmmmm Cookie? Hee Hee

That reminds me of the COB and the coffee urn, huh Cookie? Now that's a classic.

Congrats To The Corps

Happy Birthday Marines! November 10, 1775.

UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS BIRTHDAY MESSAGE - 10 NOVEMBER 2008

Sweet God, Please No

The idiot who helped set up the intelligence debacle that led to 9/11, the mouth breathing ignoramus who helped set up the sub prime disaster as Vice Chairman of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) from 1997 to 2003 is now being considered for the position of Attorney General of the United States.

The one and only Jaime Gorelick.
We are so screwed. You might as well torch the Constitution with this loon at the DOJ wheel.

Hopefully They Will Hang

You really wish that certain organizations were immune from the usual run of buffoons, idiots, jackasses and homicidal miscreants that plague the rest of mankind. But no matter how you screen your potential employees, there are always some savages that manage to insinuate themselves into our most cherished and noble institutions.

Whenever someone confronts me with a tale about a corrupt cop I usually remind them that our public safety and military organizations do not order a new class of rookie candidates from a clone factory in northeast Idaho. We recruit them from the general population.

When my daughter was being recruited by the army, we were told by the recruiter that he is limited to just 30% of the population. The other 70% are either physically or morally unfit to serve in the armed forces. My wife and I were shocked to hear that. But the following events reveal how big a problem that is.

This week I read a story in my local paper about the murder of a young Marine and his new bride. I had to read it twice because I couldn't believe what I read. Marine Sgt. Jan Pawel Pietrzak and his wife Quiana Pietrzak were murdered in their home just outside the city of San Diego. According to police they were tied up, tortured and shot in the head. Qiana was also sexually molested before she was killed.

The Motive? Apparently robbery. Items from the Pietrzak home were found in the suspects' residences.

The suspects? Four other Marines. Two of them worked for Pietrzak at Camp Pendleton where he was a helicopter mechanic.
Words fail me... I hope they use rotted rope so they have to drop them a few times,

Hey Shipwreck

This is some funny stuff.


There are 15 episodes in the first season. Really, these things are a scream.

Thanks Danny

With all the bad news lately I was gratified to read this in the newspaper this morning:

Grocer Wegmans Food Markets Inc. is telling employees it isn't going to wait for suppliers to pass along lower food prices before passing those on to customers - a savings Wegmans estimates will reach $12 million.

The Rochester-based supermarket chain said it is lowering prices on hundreds of products right now and absorbing the loss.

"These are uncertain times. We know our employees and customers are very concerned and so are we," Wegmans executives Danny Wegman and Colleen Wegman told employees in a joint statement Thursday. "During difficult times like these, it's OK with us if we make a little less money."

My wife shops exclusively at Wegmans and has done so for years. It is probably the cleanest, most well stocked, friendliest grocery store in the Country. It is also noted as one of the best corporations to work for. My daughter, who is in the Army, worked for them in their flower shop while she was in high school. The morning paper had a color photo of a Wegman's employee on the top of the local section. It was a photo of my wife's cousin, Chris, who is a produce manager.

"Though the lower costs we expect in 2009 haven't arrived yet, we think it's necessary to lower prices now," said Natale. "As a family-owned business, we can accept leaner profits in order to put employee and customer needs first."

[...]The company said the price reductions aren't temporary price promotions but will be in effect "for an extended period of time."

Way to go Danny Wegman.

The democrat Sponsored Extortion Starts In 3...2...1...

The voting machines are still warm yet but the democrats are already itching to pay back the unions. This bribe will be disguised in the form of an automotive industry bailout for about $25 billion. Why? Read this from the lips of the AFL-CIO:

Here’s how union members made the difference in last night’s big win.
* Union voters supported President-elect Barack Obama 67 percent to 30 percent over Sen. John McCain. In the top-tier battleground states the difference was even more stark, with union members going for Obama 69 to 28—a 41-point margin.
* While McCain won among voters ages 65 and up, active and retired union members older than 65 went for Obama by a 46-point margin.
* While McCain won among veterans, union veterans went for Obama by a 25-point margin.

The auto manufacturers are looking at an underfunded pension debacle that has been brewing for year. Read this NY Times article from 2005:

The End of Pensions
By ROGER LOWENSTEIN

I. THE LATEST FINANCIAL DEBACLE
When I caught up with Robert S. Miller, the chief executive of Delphi Corporation, last summer, he was still pitching the fantasy that his company, a huge auto-parts maker, would be able to cut a deal with its workers and avoid filing for bankruptcy protection. But he acknowledged that Delphi faced one perhaps insuperable hurdle - not the current conditions in the auto business so much as the legacy of the pension promises that Delphi committed to many decades ago, when it was part of General Motors.

This was the same fear that had obsessed Alfred P. Sloan Jr., the storied president of G.M., who warned way back in the 1940's that pensions and like benefits would be "extravagant beyond reason." But under pressure from the United Auto Workers union, he granted them. And as future auto executives would discover, pension obligations are - outside of bankruptcy, anyway - virtually impossible to unload. Unlike wages or health benefits, pension benefits cannot be cut. Unlike other contracts, which might be renegotiated as business conditions change, pension commitments are forever. And given the exigencies of the labor market, they tend to be steadily improved upon, at least when times are good.

For the U.A.W., Miller noted forlornly, "30 and Out" - 30 years to retirement - became a rallying cry. Eventually, the union got what it wanted, and workers who started on the assembly line after high school found they could retire by their early
50's. "These pensions were created when we all used to work until age 70 and then poop out at 72," Miller told me. "Now if you live past 80, a not-uncommon demographic, you're going to be taking benefits for longer than you are working.

That social contract is under severe pressure."

This was writen three years ago. Now fast forward to 2008. Nothing has changed except all the strings have come off the public purse.

“Alan Reuther, legislative director of the United Auto Workers, said in an interview that the group is proposing lawmakers approve up to $25 billion in new loans for General Motors Corp, Ford Motor Corp and Chrysler LLC. Reuther said the aid would cover pledged contributions to a retiree health care trust, the Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Association [VEBA], which was negotiated last year with the companies.”

What does this buy us, the people who are stuck paying for it? We get to support UAW janitors and lawn mower jockeys who make $65 an hour.

According to the National Review:Massive job cuts at General Motors, America's largest carmaker — coupled with the bankruptcy of Delphi, America's biggest autoparts maker — have provoked predictable handwringing from liberal pundits who worry that America is "losing its manufacturing base." But the wrenching change now buffeting the auto industry defies the usual press formulas. Just listen to Steve Miller a turnaround specialist who is steering Delphi's restructuring process. He exploded the myth of America's "endangered" union manufacturing jobs at his October press conference announcing Delphi's move into Chapter 11: "We cannot continue to pay $65 an hour for someone to cut the grass and remain competitive."

Take grass cutting. As defined by the current United Auto Worker contract negotiated with the "Big Five" (GM, Ford, Chrysler, and top parts makers Delphi and Visteon), an auto "production worker" is a job description that covers anything from mowing grass to cleaning the toilets. In the real world, these jobs would be outsourced to $8 an hour, no-benefit wage earners, but on Planet Big Five, these jobs get the same wages as any auto line-worker: an average $26 an hour ($60,000 a year) plus benefits that bring the company's total cost per worker to a staggering $65 an hour.

But at least the grass cutters are working for their pay. The UAW contract also guarantees that 12,000 autoworkers get full wage for doing nothing. On the heels of Miller's straight-talk, the Detroit News reported that "12,000 American autoworkers, instead of bending sheet metal, spend their days counting the hours in a jobs bank." These aren't jobs. And they certainly aren't being "lost" to China."We just go in (to Ford's Michigan Truck Plant) and play crossword puzzles, watch videos that someone brings in or read the newspaper," The News quoted one UAW worker as saying. "Otherwise, I've just sat."

On top of that, the Holy One of Chicago will seek to enforce an open ballots law where union officials can look over your shoulder when you vote on whether or not to create a union shop.

Legislation that would make it more difficult for workers to hold a private ballot vote in unionization drives, which critics say would lead to harassment and intimidation, has spurred a pitched battle between powerful labor unions supportive of Sen. Barack Obama and big business in the presidential campaign.

Seen by the AFL-CIO as a way to boost union rolls by hundreds of thousands of new members, the hotly-contested bill has become this year's No. 1 election issue for organized labor. Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has promised union bosses that the Employee Free Choice Act will become law in 2009 if he wins the presidency in November.

"We're ready to play offense for organized labor. It's time we had a president who didn't choke saying the word 'union.' A president who strengthens our unions by letting them do what they do best: organize our workers," Mr. Obama told the AFL-CIO in Philadelphia on April 2.

"I will make it the law of the land when I'm president of the United States," Mr. Obama told the labor federation.

Yuppers, now there's a changey hope for you right there. Payback is a gold plated bitch when you're the one footing the bill. My thanks to all you who just helped create the Union Thug Entitlement Program.

No More Excuses!

The Republicans earned this. They blew it when they abandoned the tenets of good government and tried to be democrats. In the aftershock, or afterglow depending on your political affiliation, of the election this much is clear - there are no more excuses for the democrats. They are now in charge and must accept responsibility for everything that happens.

My bet is that for the next four years it will be the same bait and switch that the democrats usually pull. But we have to remain adamant; you got all those voters to pull the lever for you based on your promises. Now pony up.

No.
More.
Excuses.

Time To Dig In .... And Relax!

I voted early this morning before I went to work. No lines, no waiting and no exit polls.

I don't plan to watch election results because I refuse to allow the media to play with my head.

Even if you average all the polling results, I think the polls are so screwed up, so biased, so skewed that you end up averaging a turd. It's brown and it stinks. This same turd called for Democratic wins in the last two Presidential elections - wrong.

It is a shame that the polls don't show how urban political machines corrupt the election process. Like the Black Panthers intimidating voters in Philadelphia as reported by Fox News. I'll bet no other media outlet will report this.

Update sometime later:
I promised myself that I would not watch any TV at all today, but here I am watching Neil Cavuto.

I promised myself that I wouldn't get twitchy but I am taking an extra aspirin just in case I manage to throw a wrench in the ol' pump again.

I promised myself that I would avoid caffeine for the rest of the day for obvious reasons but that's out the window too.

I promised myself that I would keep everything in perspective and trust God in all things. This lead from Lucianne.com helped:

Let's face it, it ain't all about us.

SO RELAX!

Aunt Zeituni

It appears that the Dems are throwing up a smokescreen about Obama's illegal alien aunt. The London Times scoped her out after reading about her in Obama's book. They dug around a bit and found her in a Boston housing project- no thanks to US print or electronic media or other sources.

The trail that led to “Aunt Zeituni”, the relative of Barack Obama who was traced by The Times last week, started with Mr Obama’s memoir, one of the most widely read political autobiographies of all time.

The Democrat campaign has implied that the story might have come from Republican sources – “the American people are ... pretty suspicious of things that are dumped in the marketplace 72 hours before a campaign,” said Mr Obama’s chief strategist David Axelrod yesterday.

In fact, the story came from a book that has been read by millions, including just about everyone connected to the Obama campaign. Dreams From My Father was first published in 1995, and the story of how Mr Obama returned to Kenya in 1988 to trace his roots has become the cornerstone of his political biography. Yet the US media appears to have overlooked the passage indicating that at least one relative of Mr Obama’s had moved to America and might still be there.

Now maybe someone can find this out:

Is she registered to vote?

If so, then she broke the law and should be arrested and summarily deported.

Funky Gallup

The following information comes from a pollster, DJ Drummond, at Wizbang.

Don't buy into the numbers given out by the Gallup organization regarding this election:

In conclusion, Gallup is assuming that because some democrats in some states are showing up strong in early voting, that this means a blow-out is coming. In truth the lower-than-expected totals of actual voting, combined with reports that no state so far is reporting blow-out numbers, demonstrates that the election is highly volatile and far from over, and depends as it has all along on the three key components of voter turnout, who wins the independent voter support, and which way the undecideds break. Don't be fooled, this race is still red hot.

MacBarack

There's so much Obama bashing going on that it seems that everyone has gone baby-seal hunting. Hopefully the only thing left of the Obama election cartoon come next Tuesday night will be a pair of jug ears and a seething core of unfulfilled ambition.

All this is a response to the carefully crafted drama that is the Obama Campaign for President. As in a Shakespearean play the antagonist has presented himself as one thing but behind the scenes, sotto voce, all kinds of hell is breaking loose.

ACT I
Alas Poor Obama, I Know Him!
Dr. Thomas Sowell in the TownHall.com

Barack Obama has the kind of cocksure confidence that can only be achieved by not achieving anything else.

[...]The kind of self-righteous self-confidence that has become Obama's trademark is usually found in sophomores in Ivy League colleges-- very bright and articulate students, utterly untempered by experience in real world.

The signs of Barack Obama's self-centered immaturity are painfully obvious, though ignored by true believers who have poured their hopes into him, and by the media who just want the symbolism and the ideology that Obama represents.

The media hath borne him on their backs a thousand times.

[..]For someone who has actually accomplished nothing to blithely talk about taking away what has been earned by those who have accomplished something, and give it to whomever he chooses in the name of "spreading the wealth," is the kind of casual arrogance that has led to many economic catastrophes in many countries.

and now how abhorr'd in my imagination it is!

The equally casual ease with which Barack Obama has talked about appointing judges on the basis of their empathies with various segments of the population makes a mockery of the very concept of law.

My gorge rises at it.

After this man has wrecked the economy and destroyed constitutional law with his judicial appointments, what can he do for an encore? He can cripple the military and gamble America's future on his ability to sit down with enemy nations and talk them out of causing trouble.

The good Doctor has another full page of beatings, bludgeonings and bloody bashings like this:

Add to Obama and Biden House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and you have all the ingredients for a historic meltdown. Let us not forget that the Roman Empire did decline and fall, blighting the lives of millions for centuries.

All that's missing is a sword fight.

ACT II
Julius Obama gets the shaft from his friend.
Et tu Hillary?
By Anonymous at RedState.com This Brutus in the making offers her qualifications:

[...]During the primaries, I was a campaign worker for the Clinton candidacy. I believed in her and still do, staying all the way to the bitter end. And believe me, it was bitter. The snippets you’ve heard from various media outlets only grazed the surface. There was no love between the Clinton and Obama campaigns, and these feelings extended all the way to the top.

Hillary was no dope though, and knew that any endorsement of Obama must appear to be a full-fledged one. She did this out of political survival. As a part of his overall effort to extend an olive branch to the Clinton camp and her supporters, Obama took on a few Hillary staff members into his campaign. I was one such worker.

I’m going to let you in on a few secrets here, and this is not because I enjoy the gossip or the attention directed my way. I’m doing this because I doubt much of you know the true weaknesses of Obama. Another reason for my doing this is that I am lost faith in this campaign, and feel that this choice has been forced on many people in this country. Put simply, you are being manipulated. That was and is our job – to manipulate you (the electorate) and the media (we already had them months ago). Our goal is to create chaos with the other side, not hope.

So much for the introductions. Then she sharpens the Ginsu and conceals it 'neath her toga.

Being in a position to know these things, I will rate what the Obama campaign already knows are their weak links from the most important on down.

1 – Hillary voters. Internal polling suggests that at best, we are taking 70-75% of these voters. Other estimates are as low as 60% in some areas – particularly Ohio and western PA. My biggest problem with this campaign’s strategy was the decision NOT to offer Hillary the VP slot. She was ready and able to take this on, and would have campaigned enthusiastically for it. This selection would have also brought virtually all of her supporters into the fold, and the Obama campaign knew it.

The first nick hits between the third and fourth right lumbar. Sweeeeet.

2 – Sarah Palin. Don’t believe what the media is telling you about how horrible a choice she was. Again, our internal polling suggest that though she has had a minimal impact on pulling disaffected Hillary Democrats to McCain, she has done wonders in mobilizing the base for McCain. Another thing – we were completely taken by surprise with her pick. In my capacity in the research department, I looked into the backgrounds of Leiberman, Romney, Pawlenty and Ridge, and prepared briefs. I don’t mind bragging that we had pretty good stuff on all of them.

One good thrust deserves another.

3 – Obama’s radical connections. Standards operating procedure has been to cry “racism” whenever one of these has been brought up. We even have a detailed strategy ready to go should McCain ever bring Rev. Wright up. Though by themselves they are of minimal worth, taken together, Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers, Father Pfelger, and now, Rashid Khalili, are exactly what the campaign does not need. The more focus on them, the more this election becomes a referendum on Obama. The campaign strategy from the very beginning was to make this election referendum on Bush. Strategists have been banging their head on how successfully McCain has distanced himself from Bush. This has worked, and right now the tide is in his favor. People are taking a new look at Barack Obama, and our experience when this happens tells us this is not good news at all.

One sign of a homicide with a possible sexual context is when there are multiple stab wounds to the body. Hell hath no fury like a scorned campaign worker?

4 – The Bradley Effect. Don’t believe these polls for a second. I just went over our numbers and found that we have next to no chance in the following states: Missouri, Indiana, North Carolina, Florida, New Hampshire and Nevada. Ohio leans heavily to McCain, but is too close to call it for him. Virginia, Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Mexico and Iowa are the true “toss up states”. The only two of these the campaign feels “confident” in are Iowa and New Mexico. The reason for such polling discrepancy is the Bradley Effect, and this is a subject of much discussion in the campaign. In general, we tend to take a -10 point percentage in allowing for this, and are not comfortable until the polls give us a spread well over this mark.

This is why we are still campaigning in Virginia and Pennsylvania! This is why Ohio is such a desperate hope for us! What truly bothers this campaign is the fact that some pollsters get up to an 80% “refuse to respond” result. You can’t possibly include these into the polls. The truth is, people are afraid to let people know who they are voting for. The vast majority of these respondents are McCain supporters. Obama is the “hip” choice, and we all know it.

You can strain spaghetti with Obama's toga now...

ACT III
The cruelest cut of all.
Via the intertubes, Obama is shown the Ghost of Banquo. Mama Obama speaks her mind regarding her husband's qualifications in this 2004 video clip.




Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous campaign fortune, or to strangle this bitch right now...