Obama Furioso
The Christian Science Monitor says that “when a journalist for Univision asked President Obama last week why he hasn’t fired Attorney General Eric Holder over the ‘Fast and Furious’ gun walking fiasco, the reporter, it turns out, had an inside scoop that added urgency to the question. At 7 p.m. on Sunday, Univision says it’ll air a blockbuster investigation detailing the impact of the deeply flawed gunrunning investigation, which operated between Oct. 2009 and January 2011.”
Blockbuster? Nothing affects Obama.
Like the recent attacks on American diplomatic facilities in the Middle East, responsibility for ‘Fast and Furious’ has never been laid the media at the doorstep of the Obama administration. Asked by Univision why he should not fire Attorney General Eric Holder, the President had a response. Bush did it.
The Washington Post wrote of that particular denial, “perhaps the president made a mistake, and he really meant to talk about gun-walking in general instead of a particular gun-walking operation. But he could also be trying to wash his hands of any accountability for a program that launched on his watch and allowed 2,000 powerful firearms to end up on U.S. and Mexican streets. Either way, we can’t let politicians get away with this sort of egregious factual mistake. Otherwise they’ll start making them on purpose.”
Why not lie on purpose? Here’s how it works. The National Journal poll of June 28, 2012 lays out the numbers from the Democratic perspective. They reckon that while a few Hispanic voters may be angry at an administration for unleashing a wave of mayhem on Mexico what they mostly care about is immigration amnesty.
Will the recent developments involving immigration prompt higher Latino turnout in 2012 than in 2008?
DEMOCRATS (100 Votes)
Yes: 85%
No: 15%How damaging are the “Fast and Furious” proceedings to President Obama?
DEMOCRATS (99 VOTES)
Very damaging: 2%
Somewhat damaging: 23%
Not damaging: 75%
That’s a bingo!
So give ‘em the Green Card and tell them to shove Fast and Furious where the sun don’t shine. And anyway, why sweat a few dead Mexicans when an article in the Washington Post concludes that the biggest threat to Hispanics in this election is — Romney! Well not just Romney but the entire Republican Party, which threatens to disenfranchise Hispanics and return them to slavery.
Civil rights groups are warning that as many as 10 million Hispanics may be deterred from casting ballots because of changes to voting laws.
In a report to be released Monday, the civil rights group Advancement Project cites the potential impact of newly restrictive photo identification laws, proof-of-citizenship requirements and late efforts in a few states to remove noncitizens from the voter rolls.
The Christian Science Monitor article continues. “The program will detail Fast and Furious ties to the massacre of 16 teenage boys and girls in Ciudad Juarez, the nation-shaking murder of Mario Gonzalez Rodriguez, the brother of the former Chihuahua attorney general, the extent to which the Mexican government knew about the program, and an interview with a drug trafficker who says he heard from colleagues that the US government was selling guns to the cartels.”
Why that should matter is a debatable proposition. If 2,000 guns had been smuggled into Canada without that governments permission and wound up killing hundreds some might even call it an act of war. But Mexicans? Chihuahua? Here’s the Green Card and shut up. The current administration may have been remiss at protecting US diplomatic facilities in the Middle East. But look who’s in jail?
I Ruined the President's Genius Plan
That's How It Works
Too bad the sitting President is Democrat. Otherwise there would have been a Pulitizer Prize for someone in the Fast and Furious story.
Belmont Commenters
How to Publish on Amazon’s Kindle for $2.99
The Three Conjectures at Amazon Kindle for $1.99
Storming the Castle at Amazon Kindle for $3.99
No Way In at Amazon Kindle $8.95, print $9.99
Speaking of the perfidious media: Democratic pollster and longtime Washington insider Pat Caddell is incandescent with rage at the “journalists” who are betraying our country by betraying our trust.
“This video is equal parts terrifying and infuriating. And it’s got nothing to do with having to look at Caddell,” says Ace. Zing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=brDZJA8j-8c
He says he’s not only furious, but for the first time in his life, he’s afraid for our nation: that without the press reporting what’s going on — deliberately burying the truth and protecting the candidates for only one Party — we will no longer be a free people.
He has some harsh words to say for the Republicans’ refusal to fight back, as well: that they have to man up and start calling out the press on their corruption and lies. He’s so worked up in this clip that he keeps tripping over his own words.
As a longtime pollster, Caddell says the Liars are in fact doing push polls and trying to create momentum for their darling, but he also says the Republicans are just too weak and complicit in the system themselves; otherwise, why wouldn’t they fight harder? I have to say, I’ve been wondering exactly this for the last eleven years.
TEA Party, here I come!!!
All I can say is thank God for Univision and their investigative department, Univision Investiga. This story MAY have more bang (sorry) for the buck being shot from the barrel (how could I resist?), as it is, of Univision for Latino voters. The source this time might be the most important thing. Only time will tell.
Beverly at 1, yep, I’ve watched Pat Caddell’s talk and read the copy: wow, wow, wow–the Stupid Party should broadcast elements of that from now till the election–and Romney should fire his Team Idiota of MSM butt-kissers, but being the stupid Party, who expects they will?
Hey, if the Repubicans could run the likes of Alf Landon, Wendell Wililkie, Thomas Dewey, Dick Nixon, Gerald Ford, Bob Dole, the two Bushes, and McLame, c’mon. Why break such an election-losing idiotic tradition?
The best presidents the Repubs ever had were exceptions, flukes, dark horses: Abe Lincoln the Railsplitting Vamp slayer, TR (before he went Progressively insane–they planned to run him in 1920, by which time he was far, far gone Leftish, but he died in his sleep; i.e., it took an Act of God to prevent it), the Harding/Coolidge duo (only got selected because of a hung convention that had to choose people no one knew) and Ronald Reagan, whom the Repubs were desperate to stop and who tried to pair him in 1980 with Gerald Ford (I kid you not).
Caddell is perfectly on target talking about the nexus of money and contacts in DC. “Follow the money”, indeed. It’s a cesspit, about like late Republican Rome.
What we need are extensive, self-supporting villas in the deep countryside, and armed by our personal retainers.
An Préachán
Greetings, everyone. It’s been a while.
I’d just like to say that I agree with (37) Maineman in the Co-candidates post, and also with Old Salt and Peter Boston. I agree as well with Beverly above.
I believe Romney will win the next election, and that his margin of victory will be decisive. I do not believe that any of Subotai’s three scenarios will come to pass, and in fact Romney will be installed as the next President of the US with far less drama than some of us imagine.
The problem is that nothing of substance is really changed by elections. The culture that swept Obama into power will still be with us, and we best not look to Romney to provide any leadership when it comes to eradicating it. We might think of the situation like this:
-To vote for Obama is to vote for the corruptor of our society.
-To vote for Romney is to vote for a not yet fully corrupted but mostly irrelevant vestige of our society’s past.
-There is no restorer running in this election, and we’re past the point of restoration anyway.
-Therefore, vote for Romney to buy some time and cushion the impact.
It’s not exactly a campaign slogan to get the animal spirits pumping, but nevertheless we must support Romney with everything we’ve got.
However, let’s be real about one thing. On fiscal and tax matters, Romney is going to be just as ruinous to America as Obama is. He may keep his campaign pledge to scuttle Obamacare (yay), but he will just end up passing some Medicare expansion to much the same effect. This election is all about the Culture War, the social issues, religion, and race. It is about the reign of Christ and His Church vs. a post-protestant morass of social justice liberalism and sentimentality. It is about raising children to be men vs. aborting them. It is about the respect of private property vs. quartering and cronyism for blacks and Hispanics.
If Republicans were ever to “man up,” they would need to start talking about these things. The prospects for that are not encouraging at present, but as we say, reality always wins.
Univision’s audience doesn’t vote, so there’s no reason to feed them Democrat soap opera narratives, and the MSM business model instability doesn’t operate.
The Hispanic communities in America are diverse and complicated. Their relations with white society are often adversarial and many are deeply tied to cultures of dependency and Client Patron relations that undermine the rule of law and support corruption. The line between Black and Hispanic groups can be arbitrary because of intermarriage outside of America and cross breeding inside America, where the quaint term marriage no longer applies.
Still the relations between the Black and Hispanic communities is at the lower economic levels more competitive than is either groups relations with working class whites. It will be interesting to see how Blacks and Hispanics, and Moslems as a third wheel, relate to each other in the work place over the next few weeks.
It is possible that the overt hostility of Black America, remember George Zimmerman, to Hispanics will affect the vote. Hispanics with higher aspirations may be motivated to switch loyalties and change their perceptions of traditional Caucasian society. The voyage of other immigrant groups into the mainstream and into the Republican Party could prove a template. The Italian community is now often a bulwark of capitalist conservatism.
I’d love for Romney during the first debate to turn directly to Obama, and ask him, “Mr. Obama, can you spell the word ‘accountability’”?
Then rattle off a dozen different scandals, following up with:
“Now, Mr. Obama, Americans know that a President cannot control the 10,000 appointees who work for him or the millions of military and civil servants every hour of every day. However, accountability means as Harry Truman had on a sign at his desk that “the buck stops here..”. Mr. Obama, in that long list I just referenced, what if anything did you do to hold anyone accountable? American’s want to know, just where does the buck stop in an Obama Administration, because we haven’t seen any accountability yet, from your fake birth certificate to your fake response on ‘Fast and Furious’ to your fake response to the attacks in Egypt and Libya.”
Election over; Obama GONE.
#5
You are singing the same identify politics tune as the Left and adding slightly different lyrics.
The foundation of a just society that promotes human flourishing is the recognition of the dignity of each human being without regard to group, race, gender and every other differentiating canard.
4. rhhardin
Univision’s audience doesn’t vote, so there’s no reason to feed them Democrat soap opera narratives, and the MSM business model instability doesn’t operate.
Meds, dude, take your meds. A *very* substantial number of Univision’s audience does vote. By and large they are disgusted with Romney but furiously loathe Obama; what I’m seeing (I’m in the middle of it here in Shakytown) is that a third will vote Romney just to stick it to Obama, a third will vote Obama to stick it to Romney and a third will sit it out because they just can’t stand El Presidente. I suspect that Univision’s people are just about as Left leaning as our own MSM, and certainly they have been generally supportive of the Donks in the past. I suspect that this is an October Sorpresa cooked up special just for El Uno as recompense of El Uno’s signal failure to follow through on his immigration promises.
Now even Democrats demand that Barack Obama comes clean over al-Qaeda and Middle East attacks
PUBLISHED: 14:39 EST, 28 September 2012
Democrats, including Senator John Kerry, a possible Secretary of State if Barack Obama wins a second term, have joined Republicans in demanding answers as to why terrorists were able to murder the U.S. ambassador to Libya.
The new Democratic demands as it emerged that no threat assessment was conducted before Chris Stevens, the late U.S. Ambassador, and his team began ‘taking up residence’ at the Benghazi compound.
A source told Fox news that the security lapses were a ‘total failure’ and there was no proper security equipment installed in the compound’s buildings apart from a small number of video cameras.
The source said that on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the worst, the security lapses were a 10.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2210162/Democrats-echoing-Republican-demands-White-House-come-clean-Middle-East-attacks.html
The Zombie Apocalypse is upon us; the zombies are Obama voters. Clearly nothing Obama does (or doesn’t do) will shake their mind-numbed dedication to their monster-leader. In true horror fashion, these Zombies can’t be stopped, they just keep coming. The polls prove that.
We’ve been extraditing cartel members to face American justice.
It only takes a extradition request from Mexico to turn these people over for Mexican justice. About the only defense available would be the Constitutional protection against double jeopardy. A pardon doesn’t count as a trial.
I have a dream. One day the fluoride will run out, or the cell phone towers will all crash, or whatever has been causing the insanity in the voting population will stop; maybe a really big solar flare. And the people will shake themselves, as if from a great stupor, look around and say; “My God, what have we done???!!!!???!!!”
Well, it’s a lovely thought.
Untill then, I think we should try to appeal to the ‘Caddell’ and ‘Scoop Jackson’ Democrats, if any still draw breath, and to their love of whats left of the republic.
If nothing works, and no solar flare saves us, I’d like to ask a favor of any reader who lives near Philadelphia; On the day ‘Dear Leader’ takes his second oath of office, could someone go to Benjamin Franklin’s grave and leave a paper on it for me? On the paper write;
” Sorry Mr. Franklin, we couldn’t keep it”
Richard – PJ is dropping posts. Mine would have been #6. Waited for 10 minutes after I posted it – still not there. When I tried to re-post, returned error “duplicate post”. Maybe mine got flagged and is sitting in a queue somewhere.
Regards .. O.S.
“for the first time in his life, he’s afraid for our nation”?
In the words of S.L. Jackson, “Wake the fuck up.”
Actually, go the fuck back to sleep because, in words of Harry Reid, “This war is lost.”
And, by the way, if you don’t know how to short the equities markets you better either learn–or at very least get your ass into cash. There’s a big run-up coming–to be followed by a downdraft that will make fall 2008 look like happy days.
Charles @ 8: “A source told Fox news that the security lapses were a ‘total failure’ and there was no proper security equipment installed in the compound’s buildings apart from a small number of video cameras.”
Yup. Anytime I am concerned that an RPG-armed band of professional killers is headed my way, I just pull out the trusty old video camera. Hey! Don’t knock it. That video camera has kept those Islamic terrorists away every time I have tried it.
I dunno, I think we confuse what we see in the media (that is, those of us who still read/watch the legacy media) with reality sometimes. If the media doesn’t report it, did it still happen? Yes. Will people find out about it and react to it? Nowadays, more likely than ever before. The Tea Party rallies happened even though the media tried to ignore them – the Tea Party is still out there even though the Obamedia tries to pretend it’s dead. On the other hand, the media huffed and puffed and tried to blow a whole lot of gas into #occupy, but it’s essentially gone the way of the Coffee Party – down the drain.
So do people know and/or care about Fast and Furious? I think maybe more than we realize. They just ain’t out rioting in the streets like some peaceful, religious types who dislike a film too much – after all, a lot of these people still have other things to do (like jobs) to stand around and make noise for the moron media on queue. I won’t say FnF will swing their vote because I think a lot of them are already voting NoooBama.
I may be wrong but I have the sense that a lot of people are gonna be surprised on Election day. It used to be the conventional wisdom that once a country went communist, it stayed in the fold and never came back. Then, pretty much unexpectedly in 1989, the whole Iron Curtain fell down like a guy too busy talking on his cellphone to notice the open manhole. The conventional wisdom right now is that nothing affects Obama. I think I hear a bunch of nitwits’ cellphones ringing…
1. beverly, et al:
Yes, we’ve all been saying this: the media are in the tank and the Repubs won’t fight. Bush I and II, McCain, and now Romney all having a pillow fight.
And against Obama(!) probably the most vulnerable of them all. As Caddell said, it’s obvious now, if it wasn’t during McCain for sure, that the Repubs, if they want to win at all, only want to do so to continue the status quo.
As clubber L3 has often said, there’s only one party really: the Incumbent Party. The only hope is for the TPers to vote massively and then keep their feet to the fire; the rot is so deep I don’t think most of us yet realize much—I know I don’t.
The people have blindsided the media establishment before. The Gingrich Revolution in 1994 leaps to mind. It shellshocked the Washington establishment, they didn’t see it coming at all. Remember Peter Jennings likening the American public to an infant throwing at tantrum? The pot called the kettle deliciously on that one.
Mentioned above, the Tea Party pheonomenon happened not just without the media but with their active effort to supress it.
Add to that the more recent spontaneous Chik-Fil-A quasi-protest. That was really something, a true popular groundswell that arose without a campaign or even a broadly heard national call. The very lame counter-protest, the Chick-Fil-A Kiss-In, got more coverage in the local press around here than the original action. The local station interviewed two angry lesbians with a placard on the scene where hundreds had gathered unheard the day before, leaving people around here laughing and shaking their heads at the television set. At times it is as if the press is taunting, provoking with their shamelessness. More and more people are noticing.
Trevon vs. Zimmerman
Spontaneous Protest in Libya vs. Coordinated Terrorism by Al Qaeda
People watch the lips move on the talking heads, but who can trust what they say?
Yes, Cowboy, Chick-fil-A was a Big Effin’ Deal. More so than many people realize.
Rush Limbaugh said that it was as if a nationwide Tea Party rally spontaneously broke out.
About a month earlier, the Supreme Court decision came down upholding Obamacare, with the Bush nominee John Roberts as the deciding vote. I gave up hope that the country could be saved, and quit flying my flag.
But after Chick-fil-A on August 1, I started flying it again.
Edit: Come to think of it, the outpouring of support for Chick-fil-A was closer to the spirit of the original Boston Tea Party than the modern Tea Party rallies. As far as I was concerned, it had nothing to do with gay marriage. It was about standing up for free speech and opposing fascist thuggery.
related to the current topic only by being yet another story of the craziness of modern life, but here ’tis:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/49197769
‘Drunken’ Broker Sent Oil to 8-Month High in 2009: Report
Published: Thursday, 27 Sep 2012 | 1:56 PM ET
By: James Burgess
Oilprice.com
On June 30, 2009, oil mysteriously jumped by more than $1.50 a barrel during the night, to reach its highest price in eight months, the kind of swing that is caused by a major geopolitical event.
The amazing, true cause of this price spike has now been released by a Financial Services Authority investigation (FSA).
Although not authorized to invest company cash in trades, Steve Perkins, a long standing, senior broker at PVM Oil Futures, had managed to spend $520 million on oil futures contracts throughout the night, the FSA said.
On the morning of the 30th, an admin clerk called Perkins to ask why he had bought 7 million barrels of crude during the night. Perkins had no recollection of the transactions, and it turned out that he had made the trades during a “drunken blackout,” according to the FSA.
By the time PVM realized the transactions had not been authorized by a client, they had incurred losses of $9,763,252.
Between the hours of 1:22 a.m. and 3:41 a.m., Perkins gradually bought 69 percent of the global market, while driving prices up from $71.40 to $73.05, by bidding higher each time.
At 6:30 a.m., presumably sobering up and realizing what he’d done, he sent a message to his managing director claiming an unwell relative meant he would not be able to make it into work.
Following an official investigation Perkins admitted to having a drink problem, had his trading license revoked for five years, and was given a fine of £72,000 ($116,878).
The FSA has said that they will re-approve his license after the five-year period, if he has recovered from his drinking problem, although they warned that, “Mr Perkins poses an extreme risk to the market when drunk.”
–
Cute punchline. They don’t say what it finally cost them, but even the $10m loss is less than 2% of the amount put at risk, the loss might have been smaller or larger or even a profit, explaining the somewhat mild reactions. Also what they don’t say is that efforts like this MIGHT be taken by mostly sober traders, attempts to make money by manipulating the market and sometimes successful.
Two things killed me for the Republican Party.
1. When Bush thought it was a great idea to give the maintenance contract for the major United States ports to a company in Dubai. I had to replace my BS detector because it lit off so hard, it bent the arrow on the meter. I’m an old-fashioned Cold Warrior, so my reaction to that suggestion was instantaneous. Funny. I get the same feeling I did then whenever I see Moresi on the TV. Except today, that feeling is much better calibrated than it was during the Republican’s reign. Used to have a saying in the Navy when one erroneously put too much trust into a “colleague:” “You F*****ed up – you trusted me.”
2. When Bush nominated Harriet Myers for the Supreme Court. It insulted me. It meant that Bush looked at me and said, “It doesn’t matter who I put in because she is pro-life and I know you are pro-life too.” “No, George, I want the best qualified, original intent candidate…not some nepotism-like offering; not someone that you can control with a string. You clearly mis-underestimated how slavish a Republican that you think I am.” That seemed a really bad idea then, but I was totally for the Roberts nomination at the time and my new BS meter barely moved. I put it back in the shop on June 30th.
The repair guys said it was about as reliable as polling; that most of us can’t reliably operate today’s BS detector because of the surplus of noise in the atmosphere. Sun spots or some such (one even implied that the device can be hacked by the unscupulous). They recommend going back to “gut,” “common sense,” “intuition,” and SWAGs. Try to filter out all the commenters, pontificators, and slicksters who can defeat the normal BS detector because they first tell you the truth to fill up your trust database. Somewhere out into the future, they begin to slip in bulconguava to short-circuit the detector’s normal operation – with a full database, the needle will barely move, giving you a false sense of security. If you’re paying attention, however, your “in-house” detector will catch that right off. Know how? Look in a mirror every time something strikes you as…unusual. In the mirror, you’ll be unconsciously furrowing your brow. That’s the ticket. And you won’t need an expensive contract with O’Reilly’s “body language maven” to decide who’s subconsciously lying.
Last thing they told me to do was “Go to the Belmont Club.” “Oh, they’ll be some charlatans there, but quite frankly, few can defeat the common sense selector on your own, God-installed device.”
sd @ 21: The repair guys said it was about as reliable as polling; that most of us can’t reliably operate today’s BS detector because of the surplus of noise in the atmosphere.
Oh yeah.
MSM is insane. Since Clinton, all Democrats do is lie, and no major institution seems to care. All the customer support lines speak Hindi and I don’t. The plainest algorithms no longer work in the stock market, nothing in my econ text books seems true anymore, and when I look down, all I see is a thousand feet of clear air and some rocks. Even the regular refs blew a call at the start of the 49er/Jets game. The Republican RINO candidate seems almost uninterested in winning. Government job figures aren’t the least bit credible, the Democratic/incumbent tells nothing but half-lies about the current status, and again the MSM is AWOL or mad as hatters, the Plouffe/Axelrod pair of campaign chiefs are loathsome. We can’t name our opponent in the war, and forbid our troops from fighting back, when those we are there defending, our putative allies, attack us. Global warming hysteria and “green job” gibberish threatens our sanity daily. The falcon cannot hear the falconer.
Is there an app for that?
I’ve decided that I will vote for Romney, even though I don’t trust him, because the alternative is so awful. If Romney is elected and then begins to betray the trust by more of the same raise benefits/raise debt/raise taxes I hope we will immediately begin to work to see he is not re-nominated in 2016. We cannot wait until 2014 or 2015 to begin the work because it is so very difficult to remove the incumbent.
That seemed a really bad idea then, but I was totally for the Roberts nomination at the time and my new BS meter barely moved. I put it back in the shop on June 30th. – #21. Sgian Dubh
Aside: When was the last time a Supreme Court Justice moved “right”? Or more precisely, when was the last time a progressive became a strict Constitutional constructionist?
This child-like thought goes back at least 40 years, when I first read about the liberal Warren Courts. “These guys take an oath of office to uphold the Constitution of the United States. That’s the ONLY thing they promise the American people. Isn’t a ruling created out of whole cloth grounds for Impeachment?”
I’ve heard in civil torts that failure of certain legal initiatives, e.g. defending a patent or copyright, forever sacrifices the legal rights those devices were meant to secure. The same applies to Impeachment. The failure of Congresses to use it when warranted has pushed the bar up to the point where no official could be impeached for anything.
Court authority begins and ends with Congress, which explains why the USSC has become so corrupt.
Buck @ 16:
So many thought that was demise of the Communist Party. It was not. We just opened the compound we kept them in and let them roam free. They are still here and creating mischief.
Dad, the old Marxist, predicted pretty much the last 20 years and he died in 1992.
Gordon @ 17 – L3 did something about it. Did he not?
Campaign for Primary Accountability
This cycle is over. The next starts on November 7th. Pay attention.
Sgian Dubh @ 21:
See the above or go register Dhimmicrat/Demonrat and hang at the Huffinggluetoast. The rest of us have work to do.
And as for the rest of the Eeyore’s, see the sentiments and link above or just go ahead, curl up into a fetal position, stick your thumbs back in your mouths and let the rest of us get about it.
molon labe
Whover wins the first order of bsuiness shoudl be to cut budgets of ATF, DEA, Secret Service and Homeland security by half.
Gordon @ 17 – L3 did something about it. Did he not?
Indeed he did and I am a donor to his organization.
25. R Daneel
Eeyore, the old grey Donkey, stood by the side of the stream, and looked at himself in the water.
“Pathetic,” he said. “That’s what it is. Pathetic.”
You may be right R Daneel, I am getting along in age and if there is an economic collapse, this “old grey donkey” is certainly not able to react to events like I used to, but I’ll do my best. That said, the lead in to my comment about Republicans that you apparently found fault with, although true, was simply an attempt at a light-hearted discussion considering the condition we find ourselves in. I try to be pessimistic not as an excuse to throw in the towel, but to prepare for the worst case that I see on the horizon. That a way, if I’m wrong – I’m happy. If I’m right – I’m prepared.
Telling me to “…go register Dhimmicrat/Demonrat and hang at the Huffinggluetoast” was actually pretty harsh, though. It indicates to me that you may have missed many of my posts to date which are nowhere near as intellectual as yours, but filled with passion about the love I have for the United States of America. Most of my forebears served honorably in the Air Force and the Navy and I followed in my Dad’s footsteps to the Navy. The remainder of my family (who today drink volumes of Kool Aid) call me a jingoist and not with the levity I tried to entwine in my comments above.
I am the last person that will give up on my country even as they pack me like a sardine in our local “Boy Scout Camp” after the collapse. You suppose too much if you “ass-u-me” that there is nothing that I have already done for the cause, but you have to call them as you see them.
Molon Labe…I like the sound of that – French ain’t it? I’ll have to look it up.
Last item. I went to the range Friday to sight in my Ruger M77 in .243 Winchester. Took it to a local gun store to a guy who is almost as old as me to see if the barrel was OK, considering I hadn’t shot it since 72-73 and just had it in an old case. It was easy getting the rifle out – the zipper pulled away from the mildewed plastic covering because the links were rusted shut. Would have been perfect if moths fluttered out as well. I asked the guy to look at it as I was afraid the barrel was probably rusted or pitted past the point of salvage. He returned a couple minutes later and remarked that the barrel looked clean as a whistle after he removed all the grease and gunk some damn fool left in there. I told him it hadn’t been shot in 40 years and he just grunted “Dumb luck” and handed it back to me.
Knuckleheads like me don’t get a lot of respect when we go to the gun store – even for fishing line. They hear me ask a question or two and I swear I can hear the words, “Damn Yankee” whispered down the counter, but just like here, I’m not concerned what some folk think. I try to do what I think is right.
“Off 5 degrees to the right!” the old guy mentioned out of the corner of his mouth, and I heard more snickering down the counter.
“Was that for me? I asked him.
“Said you was goin’ to shoot it out yonder this weekend?”
“Yes, sir, that’s my intent.”
“Well, you caint hit a damn thing with it with that set up.”
“Sir?”
“Your glass is canted to the right. A heap.”
“Oh, I didn’t notice.” More snickers.
“Here let me fix it.”
“How much?”
“No charge – even for you.” I swear I heard someone say “sodbuster.”
Well before I went, I got my manual out for Bushnell and found out about clicks and how to apply them. But I found out something equally important. “Parallax.” Do you know what that is Daneel? It is when you get down behind your scope and if you haven’t set it right, you can see the crosshairs – those things you use to point the bullet at the target – move all around the target paper if you move your head. I even found out that if you don’t focus your reticle so that it is as clear as the background, you’ve probably got a bad case of parallax.
In that case, the target you think you see through the glass is a whole lot different than where the shot ends up.
Well, after 40 years, the old girl seemed to shoot pretty good, but the old eyes of this Eeyore had trouble seeing the target. It was white and orange all smooched together, but my cantankerous and pessimistic complaining got the attention of a couple of young boys just out of the Army and they came over to find out what the commotion was Thank God for those two guys. They each grouped 5 rounds at just over half and inch and about ¾ inch, respectively.
Took pity on me, they did. My gun’s still good and there’s no parallax problem out to 100 yards.
Yikes! What about at 300?
Bottom line: there are many ways to prepare for 7 Nov 2012, both offensively by getting out into the fight in our communities before, during, and after the election, and defensively, with our pocket books and letter-writing campaigns. I agree that L3 and the Tea party are viable and desireable alternatives to the RINO left.
Sgian – Sorry I just tired of the ‘we ain’t winning so I’m discouraged’ I hear all over the place. I ain’t ‘intellectual’ so same to you. I am just an old foot soldier.
Ruger M77 RSI in .308 is sighted in. Go get one of these:
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=31887/Product/BORESIGHTERS
Gets you on paper without burning a lot of ammo.
molon labe is Greek in the root = “Come and take them” attributed to Leonidas at Thermopylae
Parallax? Never covered it in my physics courses. (I jest)
I recommend the Mossberg’s for inexpensive bolt actions. ATR100 in .30-06 or .270WIN with a fair scope for less than $400 is pretty good. My .270 in SSTL gave me MOA right out of the box. I did nothing to it. Used my boresighter to set it up then spent less than 20 rounds getting it dialed in the first time.
Re: #1&2 – if Romney loses I pray the Tea Party rises up and becomes a real alternative to the Republican party. There’s just not a lot of difference between the Rep & Dems anymore.
@28: Yikes! What about at 300?
That sub-MOA 243 of yours is a sweet shooter. Wind will prove to be a problem at 300 yards though due to the projectile’s lighter weight. While a 308 will handle the wind much better out to around 500 yards, your rifle will handle most of your needs.
29. R Daneel
No harm no foul, Man. It’s getting tight everywhere.
If you’re an old foot soldier (or a young one), you’re my brother. Straight up.
31. MSO…30 Daneel
You should see that Ruger M77! It only has about 100 rounds through it and it looks brand new. Seriously, I haven’t shot it in 40 years – that was no story. I was really lucky that I gooped up the barrel the last time I cleaned it and put it up, because I didn’t fire it; neither did I clean it.
Like my old Pappy used to say: “I’d rather be lucky than good.”
I have been reading up since I took it to the range and I understand that the .243 is a good deer cartridge, but just as both you guys said, the heavier cartridge bucks the wind much better.
My reticle has 4 long heavy posts and just a small X in the middle so there is not much of a reference point. However, since it also has a bullet drop compensator, I’m learning that there is not much to adjust like I see with those expensive models. The “focus” selector is on the bell and once I sight it in at 100x, I just select the BDC for correcting for a target further away.
Almost as bad as not shooting this beauty for 40 years, is that I think I knew even less about what I was doing 40 years ago, than I have learned in the past two weeks. Hey, that manual is pretty neat! Still have a lot to learn, but I have to admit, shooting is really a lot of fun.
If you guys have any questions, just come see me and I’ll help you out.
One final question before this thread is closed…What do you guys recommend for “break in” procedures if I buy another rifle?
All brand new firearms should be broken down, cleaned and lubricated with high quality lubricants before firing; follow the manufacturer’s guidance. Most manufacturers’ ship firearms coated with preservatives; make sure this is removed and replaced with lubricants. Grease is generally preferred over oil; it stays where you put it and lasts longer. Apply grease and wipe off excess; it’s hard to under-lubricate with grease. The general guideline is oil for intricate mechanisms in enclosed places (trigger assemblies) and grease for metal to metal contact areas. Mobil 1 synthetic wheel bearing grease is excellent for firearms.
The barrel and chamber should always be kept dry of oil and grease when firing. Run a few dry patches down the barrel and wrap patches around a chamber brush to dry the chamber before firing.
Krieger provides a good write-up on barrel break-in and cleaning, but the advantages are so slight that many manufacturers make no recommendations.
Get a good quality one-piece coated cleaning rod and bore guide suitable for your rifle. Dewey offers a wide selection of cleaning rods and bore guides. Just get the rod of the right length and caliber for your rifle.
Always shoot high quality commercial ammunition when breaking in your rifle. It’s more expensive, but we’re only talking about a 10 to 50 round break-in. Following break-in, learn to handload your own ammo. It’s a great hobby and it helps you find the loads that work best with your specific rifle under various circumstances. It won’t save you much money as you end up shooting much more, but a 20 to 30 percent reduction in cost per round is not to be overlooked.
What MSO said.
…Then FrogLube® the bolt.
#3 & Mr. R. as ruinous as Mr. O.
Only if he has to compromise with a Congress not overwhelmingly (super majority) obligated to the (taxed-enough-already) movement. This means some of us are going to need to vote against our libertarian instincts for a social conservative representative or senator – and worse, sometimes vote for those who would use government power to intrude on us to the same degree the leftists do. We can address these sacrifices later – survival of the dream and the American founding principles trumps all. And gridlock now means death – unlike the past.