Audit the fed makes it out of committee.

Who the Hell is driving Biden’s motorcade? Three accidents in six days with one fatality. Get that guy off the road.

ETA: And I mean the drivers, not Biden.

Lawyer says he’s paralyzed and may never walk again. Sure, it’s not dead but it’s the next best thing.

He had a handgun carry permit.

A search of his place turns up HIV drugs.

Blogging Imam Who Knew Fort Hood Gunman and 9/11 Hijacker Goes Silent

Earth almost hit by a asteroid.

ZOMG!!!111eleven! We’re out of gold

ZOMG!!!111eleven! Deficit as percent of GDP spikes like punch at a Kennedy party.

Another officer credited for ending the shooting. That seems consistent with the account I linked earlier. Though that account was unconfirmed, several military folks I know vouched for it.

ETA: And this is not to question Officer Munley who acted bravely. Rather, to give credit to another heroic officer.

Thanks to all the vets out there. And for you folks who aren’t bets, take a vet to lunch.

I’m not a big fan of the death penalty for the reason Tam says and, also, because it’s application tends to disfavor certain socioeconomic classes. But I did tip up a glass of Buffalo Trace last night to celebrate the DC sniper’s exit from this world.

Blame the weapon.

Blame the gun culture

Blame guns in general

Blame Clinton:

A Clinton Administration revision to Department of Defense Directive 5210.56 — Army Regulation 190-14, dated 12 March 1993 — permits the Secretary of the Army to authorize military personnel to carry firearms “on a case by case basis” for personal protection within the continental United States, but forbids military personnel to carry their own personal firearms and both requires “a credible and specific threat” before firearms be issued for military personnel to protect themselves. It further directs that firearms “not be issued indiscriminately for that purpose.”

Thus did President Bill Clinton — Commander-in-Chief of the United States Army — apply to American military personnel under his command the same anti-gun policies his administration and a Democratic-controlled Congress applied to American civilians in the Brady Bill and Assault Weapons ban of 1994.

Editorials calling to end that here and here.

Of course, no one but blogs are talking about the shooter’s terrorists connections or the fact he was being watched by various fed.gov agencies for posting his jihad fantasies on the internet.

And what is with little jihadis and strip clubs?

The Fort Hood shooter will be tried in military court. He could get the firing squad but that presumes Obama has the stones to sign that order.

And the DC sniper is set to die tonight by lethal injection. One shot, one kill. Make it two shots. I’ll have some bourbon at 9:00 to commemorate the event.

An alleged first hand account of the Fort Hood shooting. Cannot attest to its validity so take with huge grain of salt. Snopes says undetermined but, given their accuracy, I wouldn’t bet on that either.

Tomorrow is Veterans Day. And you should take a vet to lunch. Pass it on.

By Mas Ayoob. I also wonder why there were, initially, several ‘confirmed’ reports of multiple shooters.

Hero:

Kimberly Munley, hero and civilian police officer, saved lives when she put an end to the rampage by shooting Major Hasan 4 times, even while Officer Munley herself was wounded.

Grrl power. Never thought I’d see Egalia mention that someone armed was a hero.

Another mass shooting, in Orlando.

More info here. Suspect still at large.

Roberta:

In other news, 3,699 to 13,999 Muslims serving in the U. S. military didn’t go on a shooting spree yesterday.

It’s not the religion. It’s not the guns. It’s the crazy. And no one group has a lock on crazy.

By most accounts, it’s looking like a case of Sudden Jihad Syndrome. Seems the shooter was upset about being deployed overseas, which makes you wonder about his career choice since that line of work stands a better than average shot at being deployed overseas. Witnesses report he shouted allahu akbar while shooting.

And there’s that whole matter of him being investigated for his online postings of threats and suicide. So, why wasn’t he investigated? If not that, why not at least inform his commanding officers of his tendency to talk about suicide bombing? The hints were there. Another in a line of fatal intelligence failures, I suppose.

Also, Pattycakes tells us that the narrative is shifting. I think after this incident, most folks won’t approve of that kind of PC scrubbing. The press is loathe to speculate about the shooter’s religion and that being a factor. But within minutes they were speculating about stressed out soldiers going crazy. No one should be saying that Muslims are inherently violent. That’s wrong and bigoted. But tiptoeing around the issue that violent acts that have been committed by someone whose religion influenced them is not. It’s called reporting. And the press needs to stop acting like it doesn’t exist.

Of course, the press couldn’t get the guns right. In less than 44 minutes, the guns went from sniper rifles, to uzis, to M16s, and lastly we learn it was handguns. I’m surprised the press didn’t throw in a gratuitous AK-47 reference for consistency.

Shifted to a lone gunman narrative. Several folks report lots of shots and rifle fire in different areas. 2 suspects released. Supposedly a fourth person in custody. Shooter was killed by police. Keeps changing so no more posting on it until we actually, err, know stuff.

Shooter was a psychiatrist

Odd. Also, seems they haven’t let out much info on the other two suspects. I’ve heard reports that they don’t know if they were involved. And reports they were part of an ambush.

Also, the guy may have shot himself. That doesn’t sound very Jihad.

Voters of Maine vote for bigotry.

Israelis stop tanker full of weapons

In response to school violence in Germany, they’ve set up a text and phone system to alert people.

Lou Dobbs says people shot at his house. I’m sure bloggers and news columnists will be out there blaming a political ideology for this one, right?

Two shot in LA synagogue. Still on the loose. Little speculation on this one in the press.

And the FBI killed the leader of a mosque in a raid. While the NYT won’t tell you a lot of things, Moe Lane will.

But let’s make sure we continue demonizing Oath Keepers, who the press will tell you are domestic terrorists despite not terrorizing anyone.

Update: Looks like Dobbs was the victim of a rule four violation.

I am amazed at the amount of PSH coming from the press and the boneheads at the Southern Policy Law Center about the Oath Keepers being right-wing, neo-Nazi, racist, radical extremists and terrorists. They’re not. They have simply stated they will not violate their oath to the constitution by following orders that go against it. Granted, some of their pledges are for events that are quite unlikely to occur. That, to me, makes them a bit quirky but not inherently dangerous. They’re just following in the fine tradition of refusing to take orders.

More on the morons at SPLC from Jesse Walker.

This made me tear up a bit.

Walgreen’s 10-K footnotes:

The Federal government has been considering proposals to reform the U.S. health care system. These proposals may increase government involvement in health care, increase regulation of pharmacy services, result in changes to pharmacy reimbursement rates, and otherwise change the way we do business. The effect of these proposals could have an impact on our results of operations.

Via Ben, who notes it’s not just Walgreen’s.

Sniper Muhammad to die by lethal injection.

Not just for gun rights folks.

Money is worth less. But it costs more.

Seems the DOW isn’t really worth more. Money is just worth less.

Today, we’re bombing the Moon. That’s as far as I’m willing to take it. The last thing we need is to get involved in a ground war there.

Rampaging raccoons are all the rage: A pack mauls a woman. And blogger raccoon sightings here, here and here.

The better to eat you with: that is one big wolf.

Folks are buying American. Weed that is.

80% of Puerto Rico Murders Called Drug-Related

Wow:

In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar.

Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars.

Hope and change.

Heh.

BB with the funny: The ego has landed.

Update: Ouch:

Perhaps the video of Chicago teenagers being beaten to death during gang riots had more of an impact than the celebrities Daley sent there.

Or, as Dad says, the IOC is racist.

Evil CEO who sits on board of libertarian think tankdoes the unthinkable: something incredibly kind-hearted. I’ll probably start using FedEx when I can now.

Trapping iguanas. There’s a cookbook for iguana.

Also, five year old shoots giant gator.

Cameron Aulner tackled a man who abducted a child. Cameron is in a wheelchair.

Now better, when coupled with the ability to disarm the oppressive patriarchy.

CostCo now sells a 6 Month-4 Person food supply for about $2K.

A point I’ve made before is that insurance is not care. Insurance companies do not deny you health care because they don’t provide it.

I was going to comment on how the FBI basically held little Johnny Jihad’s hand and walked him through how to blow up a building so they could arrest him later. And how we’re all supposed to be impressed by that. I mean, gee, brainwashing an impressionable youth into doing something stupid is so hard. I held off that comment until I realized other folks were having the same thought.

Facepalm.

Four police officers shot in no-knock raid. I thought the justification for no-knock raids was so they wouldn’t get shot and so evidence couldn’t be destroyed.

A census worker has been found dead from hanging with the word fed written on his chest. The blame is coming soon.

Via BB.

Comparative chart of the cost of medical procedures in certain countries. I dunno that I’d have the same procedure at 1/10th the cost if it was in India.

The WaPo:

Democrats Target Bank Overdraft Charges

A backlash is brewing on Capitol Hill against banks that charge large fees for overdrafts without asking or telling customers, the latest sign that the financial crisis is shifting the balance of power from banks toward borrowers.

Banks struggling to survive have become increasingly reliant on the fees, which could total $38.5 billion this year.

But congressional Democrats, who pushed through new restrictions on credit cards this spring, now are promising a crackdown on overdraft fees, using words like “criminal” and “rip-off” to describe the practice of letting people overspend and then charging them fees without warning. Most overdrafts are now incurred on debit card transactions.

The result of this will be either interest free loans or not covering written checks. And the fees for bounced checks are usually more because, in addition to a bank fee, the place you bounce a check to probably charges a fee for that.

In Germany:

Ten pupils wounded after student armed with axe and Molotov cocktails goes on rampage at German school

Dildos going to the supreme court.

Coverage from the past here.

Stingray tells us about the excellent service from CMMG

Killing terrorists and that Kanye West is a jackass.

Update: Ashley reminds me he supports a playoff system in college football. So, that’s three.

Looks the folk at the UN want to replace the dollar with something else, since our money’s value is on the decline and no one really wants to buy it anymore.

Legalize prostitution and rape rates drop. A lot.

Or mangy dog?

SAT scores for the class of 2009 drop.

Ex-Student with pipe bombs, sword, a chainsaw, and other video game cliches tackled by teacher before rampage. Clearly, we should ban pipe bombs. Oh, wait.

Won’t have to hear about Michael Jackson for a while.

Go topless for women’s rights.

Boobie warning.

HT MKS.

A point made here before but opposition to gay marriage is tied to age:

If people over 65 in each state made the laws, 0 states would have gay marriage; if people under 30 made the laws, 38 states would have gay marriage.

FDIC broke?

Or Hate for profit.

Yale: The terrorists win.

Here. Strangely, dying not one of them.

Ouch!

Times tough in the porn industry.

Nut job in PA opens fire at a health club. On the local talk radio this morning, they were reading excerpts from this guy’s blog where he had been planning this for over a year. He was angry over not having a girlfriend since the 1980s.

Perry Bigley to a 911 operator:

I have the robber in one hand and the phone in the other

Obama’s interesting license plate.

But the dead are leaving their graves in Chicago.

Some workers decided to unite and fight their employer for unfair labor practices. They won. So, the owner shut the place down.

Big banks will not accept California’s IOUs. Ya know, I called up my bank and asked if I could send them some IOUs instead of my mortgage payment. After they got done laughing, they pointed out that my mortgage was already one big IOU. Someone should explain that to California.

Yup:

At some point the criminal justice system is going to need to explain why this suspect was out on the street

Judge Kozinski cleared.

A picture from Iran.

Don’t try to rob a retired boxer.

In Honduras, their supreme court ordered the military to depose the president for acting unlawfully. DC has a write up. It is interesting how our leaders are responding. Says Hillary Clinton:

the action taken against Honduras’ president should be condemned by everyone

And:

Obama says Honduras coup was “illegal” and Zelaya remains the president.

Wow. The statists support the state. Who would have guessed? I don’t know much about law in Honduras but the supreme court ordered the removal of the president. Not exactly as though there was a violent insurrection or overthrow there.

Michael Jackson has died. Everyone in Iran says that sucks.

It’s just like capping kneecaps.

How when some politico wants to raise taxes in a budget crisis, the first thing they evoke is cutting back on police. Yet, even though they’re never the ones to get the money, they’re the first ones cut.

Damn, we don’t even rate as the Great Satan any more:

Britain has replaced America as Iran’s “Great Satan.”

That’s the upshot of the announcement Wednesday that the Islamic Republic of Iran is considering downgrading its diplomatic ties to Britain, the country’s former colonial ruler.

Only fair, I suppose, since I refer to hit as Not So Great Britain. Now, we’re the Not So Great Satan.

Bloomberg reports easing restrictions on Cuba could been importation of their cigars.

Truth: Bang-bang beats tweet-tweet

Everyone is all ga-ga over how social media is enabling those in Iran to stand up for themselves. The pictures are amazing. People are throwing rocks at snipers. And the mullahs can’t stop the signal. The trouble for the citizens is that they will be crushed when the government decides it has had enough. That is happening now.

I wish them the best. But, more so, I wish they had rifles.

Phelps is correct: Obama has a pop quiz. And there are reports that the security forces in Iran have opened fire on protesters. Also, the little tyrant in North Korea is waving is nuclear arms in the air.

Will there be hope or change?

Guy is drunk. Cops show up and guy gets in his car. Cops tell him to stop. Then Tazer him. While being tazed, the engine revs and car lurches forward. Cop puts six rounds into the drunk as his car lurching is seen as aggressive. I’m no expert but I can imagine that the engine revving was caused by muscle spasms from being tazed. And I can’t imagine that someone in the act of being tazed is a threat to anything other than upholstery.

You know you’re crazy when even other white supremacists say you’re crazy.

Earth and Venus to collide. In 3.5 billion years.

Shooter IDed as James W. von Brunn. Apparently, anti-Semite white supremacist. Here’s his webpage. Google cache here. Said things about how Hitler screwed up by not gassing enough Jews. Shooter had a shotgun. Was shot by armed guards.

Update: Also tried to arrest Federal Reserve Board of Governors for treason. Was convicted by jury of Negroes (his words, not mine). Sounds like a real piece of work.

Also, a possible truther.

Update: Also, 88 years old.

CNN: Shooting reported at or near U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

More:

D.C. police spokeswoman Traci Hughes says a person walked into the museum with a rifle and shot a guard. Hughes says the shooter was also shot.

ETA: Suspect in custody.

Uh oh: Two passengers on doomed Air France jet had names linked to Islamic terror groups

Don’t read too much into it. People have been on lists before for no reason.

A current events quiz, of which I am one of the 6% to score 100%.

Despite the US Government dumping $50B into a company that is too big to fail, GM is filing for bankruptcy. I would think that $50B was to, you know, pay your bills so you wouldn’t go bankrupt. And the best part is the .gov is going to shell out another $30B.

Some guy obviously unclear on what it means to be pro-life decided to walk into a church and shoot a doctor who performs abortions.

Seen at Reason:

A new Gallup Poll claims that for the first time since 1995—when the question was first asked by the organization—most Americans consider themselves to be “pro-life” rather than “pro-choice.”

The rise of suburban survivalists:

These people snapping up everything from water purification tablets to thermal blankets shatter the survivalist stereotype: they are mostly urban professionals with mortgages, SUVs, solid jobs and a twinge of embarrassment about their newfound hobby.

Insty notes that amazon.com has a survivalist community. Deb looks at survivalism too.

MKS: Is the public being misled on economic news?

Tam on Chrysler:

Psssst! Wanna buy a zombie?

Too late, you just did. For $7,200,000,000.

Time:

The paper, published by Cato in April, found that in the five years after personal possession was decriminalized, illegal drug use among teens in Portugal declined and rates of new HIV infections caused by sharing of dirty needles dropped, while the number of people seeking treatment for drug addiction more than doubled.

“Judging by every metric, decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding success,” says Glenn Greenwald, an attorney, author and fluent Portuguese speaker, who conducted the research. “It has enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem far better than virtually every other Western country does.”

Compared to the European Union and the U.S., Portugal’s drug use numbers are impressive. Following decriminalization, Portugal had the lowest rate of lifetime marijuana use in people over 15 in the E.U.: 10%. The most comparable figure in America is in people over 12: 39.8%. Proportionally, more Americans have used cocaine than Portuguese have used marijuana.

And probably fewer instances of police killing old ladies and planting drugs on them too.

ACK looks at the swine flu hysteria.