Obama's SS is repaid for their "Protection"

Imagine if Ku Klux Klan members had stood menacingly in military uniforms, with nightsticks, in front of a polling place. Add to it that they had hurled racial threats and insults at voters who tried to enter.

Now suppose that the government, backed by a nationally televised video of the event, had won a court case against the Klansmen except for the perfunctory filing of a single, simple document - but that an incoming Republican administration had moved to voluntarily dismiss the already-won case.

Surely that would have been front-page news, with a number of firings at the Justice Department.

The flip side of this scenario is occurring right now. The culprits weren't Klansmen; they belonged to the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. One of the defendants, Jerry Jackson, is an elected member of Philadelphia's 14th Ward Democratic Committee and was a credentialed poll watcher for Barack Obama and the Democratic Party when the violations occurred. Rather conveniently, the Obama administration has asked that the cases against Mr. Jackson, two other defendants and the party be dropped.
According to the Department of Justice: "These same Defendants have made no appearance and have filed no pleadings with the Court. Nor have they otherwise raised any other defenses to this action. Therefore, the United States has the right ... to dismiss voluntarily this action against the Defendants." In other words, because the defendants haven't tried to defend themselves, the Justice Department won't punish them.

By that logic, if a murderer doesn't respond to the charges, he should be let free. That's crazy.
Hans Von Spakovsky, a legal scholar at the Heritage Foundation and a former commissioner at the Federal Election Commission, tells us, "In my experience, I have never heard of the department refusing to take a default judgment... . If a Republican administration had done this, it would be front-page news and every civil rights group in the country would be screaming about it."

Consider that the behavior of the defendants was so bad that witness Bartle Bull, a former Robert F. Kennedy organizer who did extensive legal work on behalf of black voters in Mississippi, testified it was "the most blatant form of voter discrimination I have encountered in my life."

Mr. Bull said the "clear purpose" of what the Panthers were doing was to "intimidate voters with whom they did not agree." He also said he overheard one of the men tell a white poll watcher: "You are about to be ruled by the black man, cracker."

So Good, I'll just reprint it

Thursday, May 28, 2009
On Empathy, Sotomayor, & Consequences
by Eric Von Haessler

If there is a problem with President Obama’s choice of Judge Sonia Sotomayor as his nominee to replace Justice Souter on the Supreme Court, it lay not in Sotomayor herself, but in the President’s criteria leading to her selection. In a recent interview held before announcing his nominee Mr. Obama stated he didn’t just want a jurist plucked from the Ivory Tower. While allowing that intellectual firepower was important he placed special emphasis on finding someone who also had, “a little bit of a common touch” along with, “a practical sense of how the world works.” To boil it down to one word, it was ‘empathy’ the President was most looking for in a potential nominee.

Empathy, the act of intellectually identifying with the experiences of another, is almost always a laudable human trait- almost, but not always. The ability to a walk a mile in another’s shoes bodes one well when cementing friendships and reinforcing alliances but it is always an abomination when applied to the interpretation of law. In fact, the application of empathy can’t help but to serve the corruption of law.

The statues of Lady Justice adorning courtrooms throughout the country most often depict a stern, but blindfolded arbiter. In her raised hand the scales are set evenly in anticipation of the coming weight of facts and evidence. In a lowered hand she brandishes the sword that will eventually cut one way or the other. The essential idea here is that the weight of the arguments made, not the adjudicators vision of the litigants, should be the only consideration before judgment is rendered.

When President Obama says he favors judges that not only stick to the letter of the law but also, “get a sense of how the law might work or not work in practical day-to-day living,” he is attempting to conjoin two principles that are mutually exclusive. It is not possible to both stick to and disregard the letter of the same law. Therefore, the President is explicitly stating that he believes there are times a Justice is morally bound to toss settled law to the wind in order to bring immediate aid and comfort to an individual litigant. This may feel good in law practice but it ain’t the practice of good law.

It is the purpose of legislators, not the bench, to facilitate the urgent redress of individual constituents. Politicians are elected and have to stand for reelection before those same constituents and that is why they are the proper constitutional ‘day to day’ representatives of the people before the powers that be.

A touch of color

We've spent the last few days painting the inside of the house; primarily the living room and the hallway. Previously, everything was eggshell.

At least Thursday night will be free

I can't believe NBC is cancelling My Name is Earl. That, and The Office are the only shows I watch on the low three.
Apparently, NBC wants to be the Saturday Night Live All the Time station. If you haven't fellated Lorne Michaels, they don't answer your calls. How else can you explain their new Thursday night lineup:

THURSDAY
8-8:30 p.m. ­ SNL Weekend Update Thursday (multi-episode run)
8:30-9 p.m. ­ Parks and Recreation
9-9:30 p.m. ­ The Office
9:30-10 p.m. ­ Community (moves to Thursdays 8-8:30 p.m. after 30 Rock returns)
10-11 p.m. The Jay Leno Show

SNL Weekend update?! Are you fucking kidding?
Parks and Recreation sucks. Amy Poehler just isn't funny. It's not in her blood.
Community stars Chevy Chase, who hasn't been funny since I was ten, despite way too many attempts.
Every single solitary Jay Leno show has been exactly the same. Just pick one and repeat it.
30 Rock is only ever funny because of Alec Baldwin, but I still can't watch it because of the off-chance that Tracy Morgan will be shown, forcing me to throw something heavy at my TV.

Screwed for being responsible

Once again, Obama and the feds have decided to reward failure and punish success.
Oh, don't expect those dimwits to realize it; that's not their goal, so much as to make the world "fair", as they define it. They just don't understand that there's no such thing as a free lunch.
If the world was "fair" then people with shitty credit and employment history wouldn't get loans, no matter what color they are.

This New York Times article reminds us that there's no free lunch. Ya see, credit card companies make their money on the dolts that don't pay their balance on time every month. In fact, I am what is known in the industry as a "deadbeat" because they don't make money off of me. I have a credit card with no annual fee, a low interest rate, and plenty of grace period. Cards like that are going to become more and more scarce once the feds interfere with their fairness jihad. By hamstringing the credit card companies from having higher interest rates and annual fees on people with crappy credit and payment histories, the feds are forcing those companies to make more money off of the people who DO pay their bills. Like me.

Oh, Goody

In local news,



Feds seize $6 million of meth, disrupting Mexican pipeline.
(Yes, just about 2 miles from my house)

The Drug Enforcement Administration seized approximately 351 pounds of Mexican crystal methamphetamine in Gwinnett County in the largest seizure recorded on the East Coast.

Charged with felony trafficking are Jose Rafael Lopez-Jimenez, 34; Gerardo Antonio Urena-Esquivel, 35; Luis Naranjo-Leon, 23; and Hugo Flores Rios, 29. All are Mexican natives (Illegals) and are being held without bond in the Gwinnett County jail.

Although officials have ruled out any connection between this bust and a quadruple shooting Monday down the street from the Buckingham Place home, that investigation continues, Benson said.

****More on THAT story here*****

Gwinnett police seek shooters after botched drug deal

Officers said they found three males inside the house with gunshot wounds.

One of those victims, according to neighbors, fled the house and collapsed in a nearby yard. His hands were tied behind his back and he was shouting for help, neighbors said.

The other two other victims were taken out of the house on stretchers. Their conditions were unknown, Spellman said.

Another person with gunshot wounds went to Gwinnett Place mall with a friend. He was found dead in the parking lot near Macy’s, Spellman said.

Not Guilty

Jury Duty is over. I find it amazing that I got selected, but I did; one of 12 out of about 60. Ha Ha, all you bleeding heart liberals assumed I'd convict anyone, didn't you? Be honest, you did.

Honestly, I kept waiting for the state to prove its case and she never did. Here's the story.

A cop is working as a safety officer for an apartment complex.
At 1AM, he comes to the office to check and lock it down for the night. He is supposed to do this at 10pm, but he had to work late.
When he goes to set the alarm, the panel tells him that one of the zones is activated. There's no time stamp on when the alarm began being activated. It could have been that way for hours.
He goes downstairs to investigate.
Downstairs, there is a circular hallway that connects to the pool, the fitness center, the bathrooms, and the computer center. The computer center door is the only one that is kept locked. The other doors are left open to the residents until 10pm (when he is supposed to lock them, so tonight they're open until 1)
The cop sees the suspect exiting through the door to the pool. He detains him and goes back to check the computer room. He finds that the lock has been pried apart, the handle hanging from the door. There are pry marks on the door frame where the additional deadbolt has been pried apart.
The suspect has no tools on him. There are no tools found in the vicinity.
Nothing has been stolen from the computer room. The only thing out of place is a keyboard, which was placed on the monitor.
The suspect is a 17 year old (18 at the time of trial) black kid. He and his mother live in the complex.
The charge is burglary, a felony.
The suspect says he was "hanging out" and was meeting his girlfriend out in front of the office. His girlfriend is waiting in a car outside of the complex. His mother corroborates this story.
The cop said the kid told him that he had been in the computer center, but it wasn't refuted by anybody, and it seemed too likely that he asked "Were you in there?" and the kid said yes. He could have meant in the building, in the hallway, etc.
To me, there were just way too many possible scenarios and no real proof. Maybe the kid was in there to go to the bathroom before meeting his girlfriend.
The hours of unmonitored access, coupled with the pry marks and absence of tools were too much to not have tons of reasonable doubt. Before I go saddling an 18 year old with a felony charge, I've gotta be damn sure he did it.
For burglary, you have to be in the building with the intent of stealing something. It just wasn't there.

QOTD

"You're like catnip, but with the opposite effect."
-Mrs Schwartz

Jury Duty

I have jury duty this week. This is the first time I've been called for this. I went in at the appointed time. We were all corralled into a huge room full of chairs. There were two huge tv screens at the front of the room. Between the screens and the woman behind a microphone, we were instructed as to our responsibilities. Then we were organized according to the trials that we were assigned to; about 60 people per trial.
We were sitting there; I was reading a book; for about an hour when we were instructed that the defense had copped a plea at the last moment. We were released for the day.
I have to call every night to find out if I am expected to appear the next morning.

Old Photos

It's been a while since "I went through the camera and looked at the pictures, so here goes:

We had a tornado scare come through the area. That was when Murfreesboro got hit.

We weren't taking any chances around chez Exador:




I left the watering can in the pen. Of course, any change is a scary thing:


I got the girls stuffed bunnies as a post-easter gift (because they were on sale for 70% off). In case there was any doubt as to the ferocity of these hunting dogs, let's put that controversy to rest:

You Pesky Kids!

The house that is behind us was vacated last summer. The previous owner claimed he had suddenly decided to move to Gainesville, but his wife let slip that they were being foreclosed on due to lack of payment on the mortgage.
Since then, the house has been empty.
Mrs Schwartz was called over to the fence by two guys this morning. They told her they are handymen who work for the new owner. They said that someone has broken into the empty house to smoke cigs and drink beer. They've done it twice (the repair guys had already fixed it from the last time) but this last time, they pissed all over the carpet (Nice), so the handymen now had to replace all of the carpeting.
The house is kind of isolated from us; in fact we can't even see it. It's not surprising that we didn't hear anything. Of course, now we'll be on the lookout for them.