“Disarmed by the very government that armed his murderers.”

That’s Ace, paraphrasing commenter "Roark” (at Gateway Pundit), on Brian Terry.

Fox News:

...Federal officials revealed Monday that murdered Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and an elite squad of federal agents first fired bean bags — not bullets — at a heavily armed drug cartel crew in the mountains south of Tucson in December 2011.

Disgusting.

And remember this:  Those "bean bag” rules-of-engagement do not apply when government SWAT teams go after American citizens.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 23:27:58 GMT | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Grate expectations

Tam explains why this time around the Democrats are playing the class-warfare card:

...Nobody’s buying "Hope & Change” anymore, except maybe those GOP loyalists hoping Romney will bring some...

Related:

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 16:01:41 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Mitch McConnell feels sad and misunderstood...

National Review: ...What’s your message to conservatives and tea-party activists who are suspicious of Republican leaders and their commitment to repeal [Obamacare]?

McConnell:  Boy, I don’t know how they could be suspicious on this issue.  Every single Republican in the House and Senate voted against Obamacare.  I must have made 125 speeches about it on the floor.  If there is any area where I don’t think conservatives of any stripe should be concerned, it would be this one.  We’ve been clear and unambiguous about Obamacare from the beginning to the end — all of it.

Well ya’see, Mitch, it’s because you and your Republican buddies in Congress-especially you guys in the Senate- have established quite a  reputation...


...not to mention that earlier in this same interview you said:

...we’re looking at all of the angles.  But our goal is to repeal it and replace it.

So already you’re doing it wrong.  And we’re supposed to trust you?

Elsewhere:
Via DrewM at Ace (and hey, Mitch, you should check out the comments.  You might learn something.)

Posted by: Old Grouch in Rants at 18:27:50 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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What they *need* is an “out-of-CONGRESS” experience

The Wall Street Journal:

There was bipartisan joy in Washington Friday, and you can guess the reason:  They were spending money, big money.  Congress passed a $120 billion highway funding bill.  The vote in the Senate was 74-19 and 373-52 in the House. Who says Democrats and Republicans can’t agree on anything?
...
House Republicans originally sought sensible reforms... [but] at the insistance of Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, nearly all these money savers were stripped...  Republicans also folded... on the Keystone XL pipeline...
...
Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell quipped that the... deal was like "an out of body experience” for many of his colleagues...

Elsewhere:

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 19:03:39 GMT | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Stand and deliver

DrewM. issues a warning:

Dear GOP,

This is your last chance.  If you blow this, I'm out and you need to be destroyed.

What is it?  Repeal ObamaCare on Day 1. Don't worry about replace, don't worry about anything else.  We will do everything we have to drag your sorry asses over the line this fall, including electing Mitt Fucking Romney.

In return this is what you will do:

Instead of adjourning for pictures and tea and cake to celebrate getting your pathetic asses elected to 2 or 6 years on the government teet, you will immediately pass a one line bill that says, "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (and whatever statute number has to be included) is hereby repealed."

That's it.  Nothing more, nothing less.

Since Congress meets before Inauguration Day, Obama will still be President.  Simply hold the legislation at the desk so the 10 day pocket veto clock doesn't start.  If other parliamentary BS is needed, just do it.

Then as soon as Mitt takes the oath of office, before his speech no one will care or remember, walk the bill up to him at the podium to sign.

If this does not happen, the GOP must be destroyed and a new party built to replace it.

Word.

LATER, Eve of Destruction Dept (120701):
Jeff Goldstein:

...except, you know, for the popular provisions of a centralized, state-run, top-down authoritarian health care system run by bureaucrats.  Those could be part of a common-sense replacement program.  Offered up by Republicans.  Who really do care about clean air and vibrant senior citizens and the horrors of autism.  Really.  So says House leader John Boehner...

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 16:11:01 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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It’s been vicious out there for a long time...

The age when liberal academics could comfortably expect to see their dominance of the academy translate into a broad progressive consensus on the [Supreme] court are over.  We’ll be battling over the composition of the court for a long time—and if a liberal or conservative justice is forced to retire while the other party holds the presidency, I expect to see things get vicious indeed. - Megan McArdle

...who must have slept through both the Thomas and the Bork confirmation hearings.

(Link via Insty.)

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 00:03:13 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Hey Texas, time to man up!

Quoth Tamara:

It’s a disgrace to the noble Lone Star Republic... that, when I visit there, I have to keep my gun burkha snugged around my body while walking the windswept parking lots of Amarillo in a way that I don’t when I’m walking through the Hoosier hippie enclave of Broad Ripple, because in Texas it's a crime if somebody accidentally sees my gun and here in Indiana the hippies can just piss off if they catch a glimpse of my heater.

Now if we could just do something about Indiana’s smoking laws...

LATER: In a comment, Josh K. reminds me that hoosiers still have some 4th Amendment-related housecleaning on our agenda for next November.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 01:17:26 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Best Wisconsin summary so far...

Walker had more out of state money
but Barrett had more out of state voters.

relayed by "momma” in a comment at Ace’s place (naturally!).

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 02:29:49 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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We already knew that he wasn’t one...

Stacy McCain:

The assertion that the polarization of American politics is entirely the fault of extremists who allegedly have pulled the Republican Party rightward... is both (a) untrue, and (b) a transparent effort by the Left to scapegoat its antagonists for a problem the Left and its Democratic Party allies have caused.

Do not permit yourself to be deceived by this humbug, and do not trust any "conservative” who cedes an inch to this vicious lie.

Like (soon to be ex-) Senator Lugar?

...we have an increasing number of legislators in both parties who have adopted an unrelenting partisan viewpoint...  Partisans at both ends of the political spectrum are dominating the political debate in our country. ... And I believe that if this attitude expands in the Republican Party, we will be relegated to minority status...

Previously:
(Lugar quote via:  Dave in Texas)

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 19:26:13 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Now, just suppose this guy’s name was “Roger Clemens”...

The Daily Caller:

U.S. Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich plans to resign his position soon, as two different scandals rage on in which he has provided allegedly misleading information to Congress.

Weich, who has served as Attorney General Eric Holder’s emissary in congressional communications... is the same Holder deputy who falsely told Congress that neither the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives nor any part of the Department of Justice ever allowed illicit firearms to "walk” across the U.S.-Mexico border — even as contrary facts emerged from the investigation into Operation Fast and Furious.

On Feb. 4, 2011, Weich wrote to Congress that the idea that "ATF ‘sanctioned’ or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser who then transported them into Mexico … is false.”
...
The DOJ has since retracted Weich’s letter but has not held anyone accountable for providing that misinformation to Congress...

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 21:34:20 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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