Category: random

Let me bitch and complain for a bit. It’ll make me feel better – promise.

Generally, I’d write about this sort of crap in my personal journal, but not today. Nope, this time I’m gonna publically shame me – or so I think.

After getting up this morning, I weighed myself.  I’m a hefty two-hundred and five pounds.

My first thought, “Holy shit!”

For years I’ve been battling a broken lower back, so exercise is difficult. Walking is even a strain on my vertebrae.

But I know I must do something – anything – which is better than nothing and nothings the one thing I’ve been doing the most.  But not today – I went for a stroll around the local neighborhood park.

In my youth, grade school through high school and even into my 20’s I was fast. At one point my top speed was clocked at 26.8 miles per hour.

I doubt I could go any faster than 6 miles an hour, if tested.

As a kid, I did a lot of running. In fact I could go for hours and hours and never realize how far I’d gone.

But that was running without a real purpose. I was jus’ a kid at play, having fun and doing what ever I could to keep from working my chores.

In track, I enjoyed the sprint, 100 and 220 yard dash and the 440 Relay. Long distant running was not my forte , as I saw it as work – and ask any long-distant runner – they’ll agree it is work.

When I was in the service, I could walk miles on end, hour-after-hour, through any weather condition, over any terrain. Today, though I found that walking half-a-mile or less in five-inch tall grass is an effort.

It wore me out, causing spasms in my lower back, so severe; I had to stop after one lap. Then I sat in my truck for 15 minutes waiting for the pain to subside.

But all is well that ends well – I’m home now — enjoying a Guinness Dark Draught.

 

Nevada needs to keep the Federal Government out of its business.  The state’s legalization of gambling in March of 1931 helped transformed Nevada into a major tourist destination during the Great Depression.

But to many that’s ancient history. And jus’ last week I reported:

“Governor Brian Sandoval is backing efforts for a federal law to regulate online poker, saying Internet gambling goes beyond what individual states can regulate, which is a split from the National Governors Association. Sandoval said the legislation is worth considering as Nevada would stand to gain if Internet poker is legalized.”

There is no need to involve the Federal Government and it’s over-use of regulations in Nevada’s quest to become the center of online gaming around the world. It’s obvious that Sandoval, a former federal Judge, Attorney General, and Gaming Commission Chairman and state legislator doesn’t understand or even grasp the concept of the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Give free enterprise an opportunity to succeed.

One day Bluejay saw Deer mixing some mush for her family. Now Deer had broken her leg and was allowing the marrow to run into the acorn mush.

When Bluejay tasted this mush she found it delicious. She thought she had learned something, and went home very proud.

The next morning, when she mixed her mush, she broke her own leg, too. But, unfortunately to her grief, instead of marrow, blood ran into the mush.

When Bluejay saw she was not successful, she got very angry. In a fit of rage she pulled her tail feathers out and put them on her head.

As a result of this temper tantrum, Bluejay has worn a topknot ever since.

The shift was quiet since it began at 11 o’clock that evening. The rain had stopped and the early hours of the morning had taken on a chill.

It was just before two and the pair was nursing a thermos of coffee.

“Sam eight, Sam eight” the radio popped to life.

It was Theresa calling their unit. Dale reached over and picked up the microphone.

“This is Sam eight, go ahead,” answered.

He unclicked the button.

“Sam eight, I got a report of a 10-31 in the water fountain area. Some dude just rolled a patron from the Alibi Bar,” Theresa said. Then she added, “He might be 10-32.”

Rolling down my window and took a large swig of my coffee, then dumped the rest into the street. I knew that the bad guy had just hit someone and stole whatever he could.

It was the day after payday. The report of a gun made matters worse.

“Ten-four,” Dale calmly replied, “Our twenty is at the post office. ETA, less than three minutes.”

“How about I get out here, Dale?” I asked as Dale hung up the radio mic, “They’ll expect cars, but not on foot. Besides, he might be coming this way.”

Dale nodded his head up and down and I got out of the car. I turned on his radio and put the mic to his lips.

“Two Sam Eight to dispatch,” I said in a normal speaking tone.

“Dispatch, go Two Sam Eight” Theresa responded.

Looking to my right then said, “Two Sam Eight Tommy be in the area on foot.”

There was a brief pause, “Ten-four and ten-zero, Two Sam Eight.”

Theresa was telling me to be careful. They had known each other since grade school.

When we graduated, we walked together down the neatly arranged rows of fold up chairs in the new gym at Margaret Keating Elementary.

“Ten-four, dispatcher,” I came back.

Trotting up the long silent walkway past KPOD radio station, I could see the light of the control room as it reflected itself down to the sidewalk.

Jogging across B Street and into the water fountain area, I could see two city units ahead, Dale was standing with them. There was a dark figure lying on the ground.

I picked up the microphone. “I can see you One Sam Eight. Is that our victim?”

“Ten-four,” Dale responded, “You see anyone?”

“Negative,” Tommy replied.

About that moment a rhododendron bush to the left of me burst to life. Out of it popped a man.

He was short with brown tangled hair. I could see he had on a red plaid shirt.

The man turned and ran in the direction I had just come from.

“Dale! I got him. He’s running toward C Street!” I yelled, forgetting my radio.

I dashed after the man.

He ran fast as I tried to catch him. The pursuit crossed the feed store parking lot and turned up Highway 101.

In the distance, I could hear other officers attempting to join the foot race. After a quarter of a mile, the man started to slow down but that’s when I started to catch up to him.

The man turned left around a corner. We were nearing McNamara and Peeps Lumber Yard.

I could hear the chain link fence as the man climbed over it.

Within seconds I was at the same fence. I did not slow down.

Judged the distance from the sidewalk and across the grass to be less than 15 feet, I would jump over the fence on the run.

The first step was fine.

It was the second step that proved to be a problem as I slipped in the wet grass. I had flat-soled boots on and it was like ice-skating and I shot forward into the fence.

Crash!

I was able to stop myself from falling but I had lost my momentum to jump the fence. Now I would have to climb it.

So, I pulled myself up onto the chain linking. It rattled and shook as I did so.

Leaning over the top of the fence at my waist I proceeded to swing my legs over. The upper half of my body was already over the top.

Suddenly I stopped. I could go no further.

My belt caught me. The webbing held fast against the metal points of the fence.

I was stuck.

Kicking and struggling, I could not go back or forward on the fence. Suddenly my radio dropped out of its carrying case and crashed to the ground in front of me,  jus’ out of my reach.

“Damn,” I thought, as my mind raced ahead. “What if he’s out there and can see me?”

I instinctively reached back for my 38. It was missing also. It had fallen out when Tommy crashed into the fence.

Now, I was a sitting duck. my service belt had trapped me upside down on the chain link fence.

Worse yet, no one knew where I was except the robber I had been chasing. I continued to struggle, wiggled and pulled, but got nowhere with the fence.

Then I thought, “Maybe I can get my belt undone.”

Reaching up and I felt for the buckle. That too was a struggle.

It was held fast against the fence on the opposite side. I was hanging jus’ far enough over the fence that I couldn’t reach over it and get to the buckle.

Desperate, I needed to get free of  the fence. That’s when I decided to suck in my stomach and try to squirm free of my uniform pants.

Within moments I was out of my breeches. But I was still hanging upside down because I couldn’t get my feet out of my boots and they were still hung up in the legs of my pants, but now I could reach my radio.

“Two Sam Eight to One Sam Eight,” I called out.

“Go ahead Two Sam Eight,” it was Dale, “Where are you?”

I felt my face turn flush red, and then replied, “I’m on the south west corner of the lumber yard.”

“Sam 10 to dispatch,” the radio said. “We got him down at first stop light on Northcrest.”

Sam 10 had caught the bad guy.

Theresa responded, “Ten-four Sam 10,” then she proceeded to clear the radio by calling to each Sheriff’s unit.

“Sam 8 is 10-13,” Dale responded.

A minute later he walked past me as I hung on the fence.

“Dale?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Dale said, “Where are you?”

Dale had turned around and walked past me again.

“To your left,” I nearly shouted.

Dale stopped and pulled out his flashlight. I could hardly see because of the big white beam of light that flashed in my eyes.

“Get me down, would you?!” I shouted in a near panic.

Dale started laughing as he walked towards me. He reached up and unlatched the buckle of my belt.

Flopping to the ground, I stood up and tucked my shirt back in my pants and snapped his radio back in its holder. Dale handed my revolver to me over the fence and I proceeded to walk through the lumberyard towards the front gate.

I could hear Dale laughing all the while.

Senator Harry Reid has been discharged from the hospital after a car crash on Interstate-15  in Las Vegas. Hospital spokeswoman Karen Gordon says the senator left less than three hours after the crash that happened jus’ after 1 p.m. Friday.

Officials from his office say he suffered bruising to his ribs and hip in the crash, and was taken to UMC by his security detail as a precaution. Reid officials say other members of the senator’s security detail and a staffer had minor injuries and were also taken to the hospital for evaluation.

Troopers say six vehicles were involved in the apparent chain reaction rear-end crash, including two police vehicles, two Capitol Police vehicles and two civilian vehicles. In May 2010, Reid’s wife, Landra, broke her neck and nose after being rear-ended by a tractor-trailer in a Washington D.C.

First lady Michelle Obama was also in Las Vegas Friday. She says it will take a lot of hard work by supporters to make sure President Barack Obama carries Nevada on Election Day.

She urged a cheering crowd to make phone calls and knock on doors to ensure a big voter turnout for a presidential race tight enough to go either way. Mrs. Obama told the crowd in a school gym to “work like you’ve never worked before,” and flashed a thumb’s up when the crowd chanted “four more years.”

The Democratic president and Republican challenger Mitt Romney were also in the Silver State this week pleading with voters to go to the polls.

Her return to Washington was delayed. A McCarran International Airport spokesman says her aircraft was held up for three hours because of mechanical problems.

The early voting message is resinating with Nevadan’s as one-quarter of active voters have already cast ballots in the November election during the first six days of early voting. The Secretary of State’s office shows nearly 317,000 people have voted either in person or by mail.

Democrats are outpacing Republicans at the polls so far by 10 percentage points. Early voting ends November 2nd.

Meanwhile politicians joined high school bands, beauty queens and others in the annual 74th Nevada Day Parade in Carson City.

Senator Dean Heller, and his wife, Lynne, kept to tradition by riding horses in the parade. His Democratic challenger, Congresswoman Shelley Berkley, was right behind him as she waved to people while riding atop a vintage red Pontiac.

Among parade co-grand marshals was Nevada Army National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Jeremiah Mock, who served three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Carson City sheriff’s deputies estimate the parade attracted a crowd of 35,000.

Speaking of Berkley, Veteran Administration Southern Nevada Healthcare System Director John Bright is being questioned by the House Ethics Committee investigating her.  The committee is looking into whether she used her position to help her family’s financial interests.

Investigators say Berkley’s husband, Dr. Larry Lehrner’s Kidney Specialists of Southern Nevada was paid nearly $1.4 million for 569 VA dialysis patient visits from 2008 through August 30th of this year.

As Berkley undergoes scrutiny, Governor Brian Sandoval is backing efforts for a federal law to regulate online poker, saying Internet gambling goes beyond what individual states can regulate, which is a split from the National Governors Association. Sandoval said the legislation is worth considering as Nevada would stand to gain if Internet poker is legalized.

And Finally, Washoe County District Attorney Richard Gammick is urged voters to join him in casting a ballot for state Senator Greg Brower, but there’s a problem: He doesn’t live in Brower’s district.

Gammick says he made a mistake and didn’t realize it until he got his sample ballot. He says he thought he was in Brower’s district after redistricting.

Gut-check, smell test, whatever you want to call it — is that time when you sense something is wrong. This is one of those times.

An aquaintance was standing in line for early voting a day ago, when she over heard a woman, also standing in the same line, tell someone else that all she had is her California driver’s license.  Unfortunately for the woman with the ID issue, she was voting in Nevada.

“I watch as she tells the woman she has no proof of being a NV resident,” she said.

“Are you kidding me?” I responded, “You should have challenged he on the spot. In Nevada you have that right!”

“My husband is at the Washoe County Registrar of Voter’s office right this second,” she returned.

“Good,” thought.

Well, her husband learned poll workers in Nevada cannot legally ask for identification and a California driver’s license is an acceptable form of ID, since in order to register in the first place a person has to have a phone or power bill, if they don’t have a Nevada driver’s license. Furthermore, he found out a state ID acts as a government issued ID and no ID’s required if you can confirm the information the poll worker can legally ask, which is your address and phone number, thus proving who you say you are.

For me and many others, like my friend, this smells to high-heaven and is a punch to our gut as we realize jus’ how easy it is to stuff the ballot box in Nevada and learn the voter-challenge law is worthless.

Sometimes, one has to find humor where ever they can.

My sister, Deirdre says our youngest sister Marcy is sick a lot. Part of the back story is that she was struck by a car in 1981, leaving her paralysed and causing the loss of one of her legs and has been in a wheelchair ever since.

Deirdre tells me, “Doctors up here are idiots and I don’t mind saying so.”

She says Marcy wishes she didn’t ramble on when visiting with her doctors, but they talk over her like she doesn’t know a thing about her condition. The last doctor told her she needs to get out of her wheelchair and get some exercise.

“Guess what?” Deirdre adds, “He almost succeeded in getting her out of her chair – in order to choke him!”

 

It’s taken 46 days, but finally something seems to be happening with regard to the terror attacks on our U.S. compound in Benghazi.

Three senators are demanding the Obama administration make public the surveillance video taken during last month’s deadly attack in Libya. Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte wrote to President Obama’s defense secretary, CIA director and attorney general demanding the video be declassified.

In the run-up to the presidential election, a number of news reports show the Obama administration is distorting the account of the attack on September 11th that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. Officials continue to blame it on a mob set into motion by an anti-Islamic film.

Meanwhile, the Senate Intelligence Committee has scheduled a series of hearings to investigate the intelligence and security surrounding the Benghazi attack. The panel, chaired by Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, will hold closed hearings beginning November 15th.

The  hearing will look at four main areas: Information surrounding intelligence and reporting of threats before the attack; what is now known about what happened in the attack, including who is responsible; the capability of the intelligence community to collect information in the Middle East and North Africa; and security at State Department and other U.S. facilities in the region.

Unfortunately, they won’t look into the connecting between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Obama Administration.

This is like untangling a spider-web, without breaking the strands, so I’ll do my best to keep it simple. In July, the U.S. State Department approved a license for the newly formed U.S.-based organization “The Syrian Support Group” to raise money for Syrian rebels — overriding President Obama’s administration sanctions and his Executive Order against such activity.

Near the end of May, the group sent a letter to the State Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) which issued the group a license on July 23rd, allowing them to “export, re-export, sell, or supply to the Free Syrian Army (‘FSA’) financial, communications, logistical, and other services otherwise prohibited by Executive Order 13582 in order to support the FSA.”

The FSA is affiliated with the Syrian National Council, whose political director, Louay Safi, used to be one of the top Islāmic advisers to the Pentagon and was only one of two officials authorized to certify Muslim chaplains for the U.S. military services. Safi’s relationship with the Pentagon ended in 2010 after it was discovered he was teaching Islāmic theology classes to troops headed for Afghanistan.

Then there’s the man who incorporated the Syrian Support Group in April 2012, and applied for the State Department OFAC license, Chicago-lawyer Mazen Asbahi. When running for president in 2008, Barack Obama appointed Asbahi to head Muslim outreach for his campaign.

After his appointment, it was learned Asbahi served as a board member of the Allied Assets Advisors Fund, a division of the North American Islāmic Trust (NAIT), which is yet another front for the Muslim Brotherhood. And as an aside, also on the board of Allied Assets Advisors was Jamal Said, a Chicago imam who raised $50,000 for Sami al-Arian, the head of Palestinian Islāmic Jihad in North America.

Both NAIT and Said are named unindicted co-conspiritors in the Holy Land Foundation trials of 2007 and 2008.

Finally, Asbahi and Safi were at the same White House meeting on June 29, 2011. Furthermore, Asbahi visited the White House again in April, jus’ days after the Syrian Support Group was incorporated.

And let us not forget that four Americans, including a U.S. Ambassador, two Navy SEALS and a civil service employee, were murdered in Benghazi because of this vast web.

As I was leaving work last night, ABC News had jus’ announced a Tunisian man was arrested October 11th, in Turkey with reported links to the attack on a U.S. consulate in Libya a month earlier. I’ve been on fire, burning angrily, ever since.

This comes on the heels of the Obama administration’s appointment of an investigator for the terror attacks in Benghazi with known Islamist-sympathizing. Former Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering, who has documented ties with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), is the co-chairman of the board of George Soros’ International Crisis Group who funds the pro-Iranian front group, the National Iranian American Council (NIAC).

Pickering’s Islamic-connections came to light after by the Investigative Project on Terrorism was published, exposing what it called the “scores of established, radical Islamists” who met with senior administration officials over the course of hundreds of White House visits.

These “established, radical Islamist,” include members of the Muslim Brotherhood. But lets step back and take a walk through the Rose Garden the days following the attacks in Benghazi.

Here’s what President Barack Obama said on September 12th:

“Since our founding, the United States has been a nation that respects all faiths. We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. But there is absolutely no justification to this type of senseless violence. None. The world must stand together to unequivocally reject these brutal acts… No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for.”

Here’s Jay Carney, White House Press Secretary, the following day:

“I think it’s important to note with regards to that protest that there are protests taking place in different countries across the world that are responding to the movie that has circulated on the Internet.”

Here’s Hillary Clinton on September 14th:

“We’ve seen the heavy assault on our post in Benghazi that took the lives of those brave men. We’ve seen rage and violence directed at American embassies over an awful Internet video that we had nothing to do with. It is hard for the American people to make sense of that because it is senseless, and it is totally unacceptable.”

And Carney the same day:

“We were not aware of any actionable intelligence indicating that an attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi was planned or imminent. That report is false.”

Finally, Obama’s U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice hit every Sunday show with this message on September 16th:

“Based on the best information we have to date … it began spontaneously in Benghazi as a reaction to what had transpired some hours earlier in Cairo, where, of course, as you know, there was a violent protest outside of our embassy sparked by this hateful video.”

Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the U.S. has been looking into the arrests of two Tunisian men being detained in Turkey reportedly in connection with attacks on the consulate in Libya last month.  The charges are punishable by six to 12 years in prison, according to the provisions of the anti-terrorist law in force in Tunisia since 2003.

Now we’re learning that between 300 and 400 national security officials received emails detailing the Benghazi terrorist attack as it was happening on 9/11, raising fresh questions about the truth behind the Benghazi attack. The emails show that the Libyan radical Islamic group Ansar al-Sharia claimed responsibility for the attack just two hours after it began via social media.

White House officials told CBS News that an unmanned Predator drone was sent over the U.S. mission in Libya, providing Washington with a live feed to the chaos that unfolded. However, we still don’t know why and, Americans deserve answers.

U.S. diplomat Sean Smith, who was killed in the attack, left distress messages on a gaming website, “Assuming we don’t die tonight, we saw one of our ‘police’ that guard the compound taking pictures.”

Thirty minutes later, U.S. Ambassador Stevens met with the Turkish ambassador. By this time special operators in the CIA safe house already knew something was wrong.

The Turkish ambassador left with no incident, unharmed. Hours later, the attack began.

The fight lasted seven hours, with a live feed streaming into the White House Situation Room. Cameras positioned in the compound, as well an aerial drone taking pictures of the U.S. outpost in Benghazi were also fed live into the State Department and the Pentagon.

So how did this really start? And it wasn’t because of a You-Tube video as they administration would like us to believe.

The Obama administration appears to have been arming Libyan “rebels” with rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), surface to air missiles and other weapons in order to overthrow Muammar Gadhafi. In 2011, these rebels were successful in their goal, ultimately torturing and killing the dictator.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which had been coordinating with the U.S., offered its assistance in dealing with rebels in the region in exchange for help in crushing the Gadhafi regime.

Those same rebels turned out to be members of al-Qaeda. They allegedly sought to oust Gadhafi because he had been cooperating with the U.S. to end their presence in Libya.

Recall the U.S. had partnered with Gadhafi ever since he complied with U.S. demands that he abandon his nuclear and biological weapons program. Nonetheless, the Obama administration abandoned it’s agreement to continue joint cooperation with Gadhafi.

Since Gadhafi’s death, al-Qaeda’s only counterbalance in Libya removed, the terror group responsible for the September 11th attacks has now been left uncontested to spread through the region. But it doesn’t end there.

Benghazi is a well known weapons location point, which might explain what Ambassador Christopher Stevens was doing there to begin with. It’s also a place where no U.S. diplomatic outpost should have ever been situated in the first place.

It’s believed that Stevens knew trouble was coming, which is why he requested additional security. This is because Stevens was “pointman,” in this weapons-running scheme, working directly with Abdulhakim Belhadj, who is commander of the Muslin-Brotherhoods proxy organization, Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG).

Through Belhadj, Stevens supplied weapons for rebel forces in Libya and later to Syria via Turkey. It’s widely known that President Obama has maintained warm relations with Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, having spoken no less than 13 times by phone last year alone.

The New York Times reported in June, CIA operatives were on the ground in Turkey helping opposition forces and it is known that Stevens had met with a Turkish official the night of his demise. Also no secret is the blood-feud between President Bashar al Assad and Erdogan.

From what I’ve pieced together, the Muslim Brotherhood and its proxy, LIFG, through it’s leader Belhadj, were advising the U.S. on which rebel-factions in Libya and later, in Syria, should receive our arms. Those rebel receiving arms turned out to be members of al Qaeda, whose now dead leader bin Laden was once counted among the membership of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Aiding Islamists to retake the Maghreb while expunging the region of all Western-influence makes sense, if you understand Obama ideology, however despite the unofficial U.S. policy of aiding “non-violent” Islamists, the Obama administration has forgotten jihadists will do what jihadists do, manipulate Americans to get what they want, then kill in the name of God as they work to implement a global caliphate based on sharia law.

Ambassador Stevens learned this the hard way after he outlived his usefulness and, like any other infidel, was beaten, raped and eventually murdered by “true Believers.” By calling Benghazi what it is Obama could no longer say he cut off the head of al Qaeda when he killed bin Laden, nor would he be able to say the war on terror is over.

However as this unfolds, the U.S. media continues to focus largely on the election cycle we are in, so it seems doubtful this scandal will blow up on the Obama Administration before November 6th.  The facts as they now stand reveal that not only did Obama know from day one the Benghazi breach was an act of terror waged by pro-al Qaeda militants, but he watched it unfold.

It’s October — and so far the media has missed the surprise.