We need a whole lot more of this

Veterans Place Corrupt County Board Under Citizen’s Arrest – They Laugh, Until the Sheriff Shows Up

In an effort to take back their government from self-serving politicians and bureaucrats, Kraft and Allen established a group called the Edgar County Watchdogs. Through a combination of public pressure, Freedom of Information filings, lawsuits, and media exposure, they have created a system that deeply threatens Illinois' corrupt, entrenched political establishment. They operate a blog called Illinois Leaks that exposes corruption at the state and local levels. The blog is so popular that, it is trusted more than the local paper.

Considering the fact that, according to Forbes, their home county's government has racked up over $79 million in debt all on its own while serving only 18,000 residents, Kraft and Allen have their work cut out for them.

By relentlessly pursuing justice for even the smallest infractions by bureaucrats and politicians, the Edgar County Watchdogs have driven 102 public officials to resign from their posts, including 33 officials in Edgar County alone. The pair busted the mayor of Redmond for attempting to hold office while living out of town. They represented themselves in court and beat Illinois Assistant Attorney General Emma Steimel in a lawsuit seeking access to state e-mails. Officials who have resigned due to the Watchdogs' efforts include a property tax assessor, the Edgar County board chairman, an entire airport board and its manager, the attorney for Kansas Township's fire department, Shiloh's superintendent of schools, and Effingham's health department administrator, among others. After they exposed corrupt, illegal, and self-serving spending habits by the Ford-Iroquois County health department, the entire bureaucracy was dissolved. In some cases, federal agents have even stepped in to investigate and issue subpoenas to local officials after receiving tips from Kraft and Allen.

Video and links to the local newspaper at the link.

We need more people like this - in every local government in every state.

Then, after we regain control locally, we can go after Washington...

Charlie Hebdo

In case you missed them:

Little by little

we regain our country...

The Kansas Senate has passed SB 45, the bill that moves Kansas into the constitutional carry status of Arkansas, Arizona, Alaska, Wyoming, and Vermont.  If the bill passes the house and is signed by Governor Brownback, a person who can legally own a firearm and who is 21 or over will be able to carry a firearm concealed without fear of prosecution.   The bill, SB 45 had 26 cosponsors and was introduced by the Majority leader, Terry Bruce, of Hutchinson.  The bill passed with an overwhelming, veto proof, bi-partisan margin of 31 to 7.

The seven members that voted against the bill were: Faust-Goudeau (D), Francisco(D), Hawk(D), Hensley(D), Holland(D), Pettey(D), and Kay Wolf(R).

 link

It's always the ones with the 'D' after their names that vote against the Constitution. The one 'R' is likely a 'centrist' (RINO).

Email from the FBI

Just got this:

With E-Check usage at an all-time high the NICS Section wanted to send the following reminders.

~Be sure to log in daily to check the statuses of your delayed transactions.

~When submitting a search, be sure to provide as much descriptive information as possible to help avoid erroneous delays or denies.

~NICS is unable to assist with obtaining statuses of NTNs after 24 hours have elapsed from the time it has been retrieved. Be certain to record the NTN and status on the ATF Form 4473 as soon as you retrieve the status.

Thank you 

I guess Jugears is working on getting that coveted "best gun salesman" award again this year...

Ammunition Ban, M855 AP—Oppose

Much has been written lately about the BATFE's newest idiotic ruling to ban common AR-15 ammo. Anything to make life more expensive for Americans.

Go here.

Send an email as described. If we all do this, at least the government leeches can't say there was not opposition to this gross infringement of our rights.

Unemployment insurance follies

Since the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development website won't allow me to fill in the dates I've worked, I dial into the "help" system.

"If you speak English, press 1". I'm curious, so I don't touch the phone,

"En Espanol...dos". I continue to wait.

Some Asian language - Hmong? Cute female voice, anyway. Continue to do nothing.

"Do you speak a language other than English?". More waiting.

Instructions to make sure your phone is set for touch-tone - and if it's a dial phone, please wait.

Finally - "We are going to attempt to connect your call". Nine in line. Time is around ten minutes.

Or, I can ask for "virtual hold", and they will call me back in around half an hour. Still waiting - seven ahead of me now.

They really want me on "virtual hold"...

Number 6 now.

Number 2 now - still want me to go on virtual hold...

Finally - a human. Nice lady. The reason I can't get into the system is because I was working in Ill-Annoys, not Wisconsin - have to file down there. Thanks for your help, have a good day.

Off to the Ill-Annoys UI site - will update...

The Ill-annoys site worked OK, but did ask for my WEIGHT on my driver's license. If all goes well, I'll get benefits in two weeks - about a quarter of what I was earning.

Tax time

Did our taxes today. Only took three hours, including the "e-file". Getting a good refund, at least that's what the filled-out forms tell me. I'll believe it when the checks clear.

Aside from the Wisconsin e-file form not being readable in the browser, but just fine downloaded and opened in Adobe, and the fact that the Wisconsin W-2 form not allowing punctuation and cents where the federal form did, I think I only damned the fed and state IRS to eternal hell with extra brimstone fifty or so times.

Trivia

Been watching reruns of "The Twilight Zone" on the satellite - that channel that once upon a time offered science fiction, but now seems to have the same relationship to sci-fi as the "History Channel" has to actual reality.

Noticed that quite a few of the episodes use chunks of the sets from "Forbidden Planet", including the whole space ship and the ammeters from the Krell laboratory.

The space ship is seen flying upside down in a few episodes, and they seem to have knocked the dents out of the gangway steps the Id monster put in.

The ammeter panels appear is several other spaceships.

Who knew Hollywood was recycling back then?

Good news?

Norway: Muslims organizing to protect a synagogue from terrorists

And now for something completely different: A group of Muslims in Norway is organizing a protective ring around Oslo's synagogue following Sabbath services this weekend. The effort is a reaction to the shootings in Copenhagen, according to Hajrad Arshad, 17, one of the seven organizers of the "Fredens Ring" (Friendship Ring) (Ring of Peace).

Facebook page for Fredens Ring

This is what I have been advocating - Muslims standing up for civilized behavior and acting to thwart possible terrorism by those of their faith who take the Koran literally.

I hope this is the start of the end of the Islam as a political force. Likely, though, it's going to result in a bunch of dead Muslims because they dared to go against the terrorist's interpretation of the Koran.

There are about 1000 Jews in Norway - and 200,000 Muslims, almost all immigrants.

The "Fredens Ring" effort is thus not only a gesture toward Oslo's Jewish community, but perhaps also a message intended for some fellow Norwegian Muslims. "Islam is about protecting our brothers and sisters, regardless of which religion they belong to," it says on the Facebook page (according to a translation here). "Islam is about rising above hate and never sinking to the same level as the haters. Islam is about defending each other."

 I have to wonder, though, if this is either very naive, idealistic Muslims speaking, or some staged event to reinforce the "not all Muslims are violent" meme...

Lying (Taqiyya and Kitman)

Encounters with Monster and the Wisconsin DWD

I have a Monster login, last used about three years ago. So, when a search found a possible job in Janesville right next door, I eagerly clicked on the "apply" button. The Monster login screen appears.

I enter my user name and what I think is my password - it's been a long time. Monster tells me I must have made a mistake - I am trying to access the job seeker's page, and do I want to go to the employer's page instead?

The employer's page is just that - where employers go to post job opportunities. I have never been an employer unless you count the time I paid my two older kids to assemble military battery pack control prototypes for a customer. They learned surface mount soldering, and I got my 25 prototypes built while I worked on other things.

Tried logging in with my Google account, as they suggest. Same result.

So, Monday I'm going to contact the company directly. If they are paying Monster to post jobs, at least Monster should ensure that the website allows job-seekers to log in correctly.

Next stop is the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development. As much as I detest asking for government aid, I like to keep my wife fed and housed, and I've paid enough self-employment taxes to think I'm entitled to get something back.

I log in, using the same credentials I had three years ago. It lets me in. So far, so good.

Answer all their questions. No trouble.

Now, they want my work history since I last had gotten a UI check. OK, I'll fill out the forms.

"When did you start this job? If you can't remember the exact date, be as close as you can.". I enter a date in MM/DD/YYYY format, as that is what they asked for in an earlier question - the slashes are mandatory. Tab to the next question - and my entry disappears.

Try again - same result.

Try answering the next question - "When did you end this job?". Same result.

Try clicking on "Next" with both questions unanswered. "You must enter a valid starting and ending date". Also, the website informs me that claim entry will close in 45 minutes. It's a quarter after 6.

Start looking for the "contacts" tab, so I can ask for help or tell them their website is broken. Get a nice list of phone numbers that Ii can't call until next Monday during normal bureaucracy hours.

Fun way to start the weekend.

End of an era

My last day at the "temp to hire" job was yesterday. Everyone came by to shake my hand and wish me well - and express disbelief that I was being let go.

Sat around for 7 1/2 hours and actually had about half an hour of useful things to do.

It would have been more cost effective for the management to have given me a week's severance - I would have had a week of working hours to look for another job, and they wouldn't have had me sitting there for almost 40 hours surfing the Web...

I've got a couple resumes out and the temp agency says there might be a couple opportunities in Rockford for me. I also found one possibility in Janesville - less than ten miles away.

More BATFEIEIO bullshit

In preparing for a gun transfer, I went to the FBI E-Check page to fill out the Brady check info for the customer.

The on-line form now asks if this is a pre-check for a pawn.

Since when are we supposed to do a Brady check on someone turning a gun in for money?

This might have been SOP forever, and I just noticed now - I'm not running a pawn shop.

Looking for work

Last Friday, the boss called me into his office - says his budget has been cut by 50%, and he has to let me go. This Friday is my last day.

Looks like he is going to send some work towards my business, doing PC boards, though.

I've got several resumes out already. Also the contracting outfit i got in here from is looking for another position near here.

Seems like just last year I was doing this...

Juxtaposition

Stopped for donuts at the bakery Friday morning.

On the way back to my car, noticed the "Ready for Hillary" bumper sticker on the lower right side of the back of the SUV parked next to my car with my "Monica Lewinski's X Boyfriend's wife for president" bumper sticker on the lower left side.

Perfect photo opportunity - I just need to learn how to take pictures with my new Blackberry...

Belief

So, Scott Walker went to "once Great" Britain.

Some reporter asked him if he "believed" in the theory of evolution.

He said he's have to take a punt on that.

There's the big trouble with the media, especially the left-leaning ones. They have no clue about real science.

One can "believe" in God, the tooth fairy, or that socialism / Communism will work. One can believe their lottery ticket will win. One can believe in ancient aliens, or that man is causing "climate change".

Theories are there to be disproved or supported. One does not "believe" in them. So far, no one has brought out hard, scientific proof that Darwin was wrong.

Unlike the theory of "climate change".

Loaded question, indeed.

Worth reading

If you don't know L Neil Smith's work, you have missed a great true Libertarian.

Americans Have Obeyed Their Last Gun Law

The Bill of Rights was the make-or-break condition that allowed the Constitution to be ratified. No Bill of Rights, no Constitution. And since all political authority in America "trickles down" from the Constitution, no Constitution no government. And, since the Bill of Rights was passed as a unit, a single breach, in any one of the ten articles, breaches them all and with them, the entire Constitution. Every last bit of the authority that derives from it becomes null and void.

Let's review:

No Second Amendment, no Bill of Rights.
No Bill of Rights, no Constitution.
No Constitution, no government.

Once again, to make sure that the dumbest lawyer in the room gets it:

No Second Amendment, no Bill of Rights.
No Bill of Rights, no Constitution.
No Constitution, no government.

Why a so-called law professor can't figure this out is beyond me. No doubt, in part, her mind has been damaged by years of law school, No doubt she regards the Bill of Bights as an obstruction to an agenda that she feels more loyalty to than she does to the Constitution, that of converting a nation of free and independent individuals into an ant-farm, Recall that the head of the most violent, lawless government we've had to suffer under since 1865, also claims to have been a law professor.

Go read the whole thing -  and get some of his books - great reads!

 

Letter to the editor

Beloit got buried last weekend - and as usual, the city could not figure out how to plow the road properly - so, a letter to the editor of the Beloit Daily News:


Before moving to Beloit, I've lived in several places. Chicago, Suburban towns. All of them were able to maintain their roads, especially in the downtown areas where most cities would like people to go to shop and visit.

Beloit, however, can't seem to manage to remove the snow from downtown. After every big snowstorm, there are three and four foot high berms of snow filling the center of the street and most left turn lanes. It's impossible to make a left turn into parking lots. This morning, a car was stuck in the snow left in the middle of Fourth Street by the bridge over the river. Two police vehicles were needed to prevent accidents.

In the paper today, the streets supervisor was quoted as saying they can't use trucks to haul snow because the snow would leave them wet and they can't spread salt from a wet truck.

South Beloit does not seem to have a problem keeping their roads clear. Neither does Rockford.

Perhaps Beloit needs to set aside one or two plow trucks to haul snow, and clean up the mess the right way, right away. Let's see our city have some pride in keeping the downtown plowed properly.


Let's see if it gets printed - they only have letters to the editor one or two days a week lately.