Now We're All Equal

Source

And why not? Is it fair to have states with more population than others?

Dirty Harry

This just cracked me up.

H/T xkcd. Warning: this site is addictive.

Mayor De Blasio Has The NYPD Rash

iOTW has linked an article describing how Mayor De Blasio is offering an olive branch (sorta) to the NYPD unions while at the same time he is bringing pressure on local dems to publicly criticize the police for shaming him in public demonstrations.

While Mayor Bill de Blasio was personally coaxing the city’s police union presidents to meet with him, his top aides were on the phones with lawmakers urging them to blast PBA President Patrick Lynchand other officers for turning their backs on the mayor following the assassinations of two of New York’s Finest, DNAinfo New York has learned.

As late as Monday afternoon — the same time de Blasio was speaking with police union leaders to set up Tuesday’s détente to possibly mend their fractured relationship — the mayor’s government affairs honchos were privately cold-calling the city’s Democratic delegation of city and state elected officials, asking them to publicly criticize Lynch and those officers who dissed the mayor.

“City Hall wanted me to blast the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association for turning their backs on him,” a Big Apple legislator told “On The Inside.” “They called up Monday, said they were calling all of us, and that it was our obligation to stand up defending the mayor.”

DNAinfo story here.

The unions have got to be in hiz honor's head and his ass real bad for him to be thrashing around like this. He can't figure out whether to use lotion or foam to stop the itching and burning.

Go ahead Mayor, keep scratching. It'll only make it worse. Cops are already slowing down enforcement efforts to a crawl and while it isn't blue flu, it's definitely a cold shoulder.

Draft Day

Rookies Entering The ISIL Training Camp

For some time now the Religion of Peace has a major league team, ISIL, that has been conducting a draft for new players. All positions are always open, all the time. Signing bonuses are commonly offered with promises of  Paradise, bloody slaughter, virgins and young, stupid European women (definitely not virgins) being the most common incentives.

However, once drafted by the ISIL, it is very difficult to cancel your contract, as many have found out. In fact, if a player attempts an unauthorized contract termination, it can often result in the player's termination.

The Islamic State has in just a couple of months executed at least 116 foreign fighters who wanted to quit jihad and return home, a British-based human rights monitoring group claims.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the men killed were foreign fighters who had joined the insurgency but were caught trying to leave territory controlled by militants.

But the monitoring group warned numbers were probably underestimates. 'We believe that the real number of people that had been killed by IS is higher than the number documented,' it said on its website.

Story here.

In The News

And You Wonder Why They Turn Their Backs
There's no other way to describe him. Mayor De Blasio is an asshole.

On Friday evening, thousands of New Yorkers attended a memorial service for Rafael Ramos, one of the two NYPD officers assassinated a week ago by an Eric Garner protester. The service brought mourners from every corner of the city. Noticeably late was embattled Mayor Bill de Blasio, who made it to the service only just before its conclusion.

Liberal News Media Underestimate the Back Count
Many news outlets reported that hundreds of police officers turned their backs on NYC Mayor De Blasio when he spoke at the funeral of two murdered NYPD cops today.

There were thousands. A sea of blue clad backs.

Mayor de Blasio tried to make peace with the NYPD Saturday, but again collided with the Blue Wall of Resentment.

As he took the podium Saturday at the funeral of slain Officer Rafael Ramos, thousands of cops outside the church turned their backs to the video monitors showing the mayor giving his eulogy inside.

In a gradual wave, the assembled cops nearest the screens and speakers on Myrtle Avenue began to about-face, until the entire sea of blue stretching two blocks had their backs to the image of the city’s leader.

If you look closely at the photo in the NY Post article, you'll see that it isn't just NYPD cops turning their backs. Sheriffs, state troopers - they're all joining in solidarity with NYPD.


Donations Pour In For Families of Slain Cops
The families of the two officers will receive a total of $800,000 from a foundation that will pay off their mortgages.

The Tunnels to Towers Foundation, named in memory of a former FDNY firefighter, committed to pay off the mortgages for the families of NYPD officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos after they were shot and killed on duty in Brooklyn last Saturday.

The overwrought widow of murdered NYPD officer Wenjian Liu offered her teary thanks Friday after a charity confirmed its commitment to pay off the newlywed’s mortgage.

Pei Xia Chen, who married Liu just three months before his execution last Saturday, stood crying and hugging her relatives during a Staten Island news conference.

“When you see somebody in despair, you bring them some joy,” said Frank Siller, chairman of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation. “When you see somebody that is in darkness, you bring them light.

Vice President Biden Stumbles Into NYPD Funeral
Thinking he was at the opening ceremony for a new bridge, Biden commented on the very large number of police officers directing traffic right outside the church and how the federal dollars spent on this project would ease traffic management burdens on over worked cops. He then thanked them for saving him a "neat" parking spot outside.

Thousands attended the funeral of slain New York City police officer Rafael Ramos on Saturday morning, including Vice President Joe Biden, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, who shared their condolences with the officer’s family.

Biden was one of the first to speak at the service at the Christ Tabernacle Church in Queens, addressing Ramos’ family and hundreds of police officers gathered inside, as thousands more outside watched the proceedings on big screens.

Unto Us A Son Is Given

For unto us a child is born, 
unto us a son is given: 
and the government shall be upon his shoulder: 
and his name shall be called Wonderful, 
Counsellor, The mighty God, 
The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Lights Out

North Korean Wingnut-in-Chief Kim Jung-un was unable to update his Facebook page yesterday as the interweb tubes serving his country wilted like week old kimchi left in the sun. From Fox News:

Prominent North Korean websites were back online Tuesday after an hours-long shutdown that led to speculation by some researchers and web watchers that the country's Internet connections could be under cyberattack.

South Korean officials told the Associated Press that Internet access to the North's official Korean Central News Agency and the Rodong Sinmun newspaper were working normally Tuesday after being inaccessible earlier. Those sites are the main channels for official North Korea news, with servers located abroad.

The outage came less than a week after the U.S. vowed an unspecified response to a massive hacking attack against Sony Pictures Entertainment over the release of the comedy film "The Interview." The plot of the comedy centers on the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, leading to widespread speculation that the country was responsible for the attack. Late last week, the FBI publicly blamed North Korea in the incident, though Pyongyang has denied involvement.

The White House and the State Department on Monday declined to say whether the U.S. government had any role in North Korea's Internet problems.

Gee, I wonder how that happened? The Washington Times has a clue:

In the shadows of the Sony hacking incident and North Korea’s massive Internet outage, the Pentagon has quietly built a multibillion-dollar cyberwarfare capability and trained its commanders to integrate these weapons into their battlefield plans.

U.S. Cyber Command was officially stood up in 2010, based at Fort Meade in the Maryland suburbs of the nation’s capital, consolidating intelligence and cyberwarfare capabilities of the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines under one house. Soon, billions of dollars were being invested in the concept that cyberattackers targeting America should be prepared to sustain their own damage.

[...]While the U.S. government remained mum Monday on whether it was behind Pyongyang’s downed Internet service, it offered a clear and confident message that the Pentagon is equipped to conduct such offensive operations in cyberspace.

Army Lt. Col. Valerie Henderson, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said the Defense Department constantly prepares to counter cyberthreats. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf described the U.S. retaliation against North Korea for the Sony hack this way: “Some will be seen. Some may not be seen.”

Perhaps this is the modern cyber equivalent of a shot across the bows. Or a slap across the ass.

Officer Down

In police work there is nothing that grabs your heart like the words that you hope you never hear over the radio, "Officer Down."

There is a rush of blood as your body prepares for whatever action you need to take; your breath gets short, your hands clench the steering wheel while you wait for the dispatcher to give the location. As soon as the location and the affected unit number is given, you slap on the lights and siren and take off. Maybe you swear a little or pray a little but it's balls to the wall as you figure out the shortest route to the downed cop.

Twice I have heard those words broadcast. The first time was instigated by some idiot who didn't like the advice given to him by a cop on a neighbor trouble call and wanted another cop to tell him what he wanted to hear. So he calls the station and tells the communications section that a cop has just been shot in front of his house. He certainly got his cops.

Luckily the unit who had just cleared the call was still close by and cancelled the call so everyone slowed down. But for thirty seconds or so about forty or fifty marked and unmarked units were screaming towards this fool's house. The dispatcher keeps repeating the order to stand down, slow down before someone gets hurt; back then the dispatchers were also cops and they know how we react to something like that.

The second time I heard that call was thirteen years later, and it was for real.

On October 30, 1990, Detective Wally Howard was working undercover for the Central New York Drug Task Force. He was conducting a direct buy from a dealer from the Bronx. He was surrounded by other undercover agents from the task force who had him under surveillance while the deal went down.

A day or two before I had made the arrangements for the transfer of $4000 from one of my confidential funds to the Task Force so they could make a sizable buy from this dealer. Wally had over forty grand  in cash when he was murdered - right in front of a half dozen under cover cops and cameras.

One suspect was armed with a .22 caliber handgun. He climbed into the driver’s seat of Officer Howard's car while second suspect walked to the passenger side window carrying a .357 revolver. The first suspect pulled his gun. As he did so, Officer Howard reached for his own firearm. The second suspect, standing outside the car, fired once, striking Officer Howard in the head at point-blank range. In the seconds before he was shot Officer Howard was able to fire his weapon twice, striking and wounding the first suspect. Both suspects attempted to flee the scene but were immediately apprehended by back-up officers. Officer Howard died at 8:15pm that evening without regaining consciousness.

You remember exactly where you are when and what you were doing when that call goes out. I think some kind of trauma occurs when those words slam into your ears. It's like a jackhammer ripping apart the synapses in your brain.

Officer Howard's 16 year-old killer was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to 30 years to life in prison. He will be eligible for parole in 2020. The other suspect was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life. He will be eligible for parole in 2015.

The NYPD cops go through this far more often than most cops. It's a gut wrenching part of the job in one of the largest cities in the country.

There'll be a huge funeral. A sad, glorious, rousing send off by thousands of cops who, the next day, will suit up again, sit down in roll call to listen to the sergeant/lieutenant/captain tell them what they need to know for the day and walk off to find a car.

The days will pass. They always do. There is always another call. There is always another domestic, another assault, another missing child, another theft, another drunk, another accident. And while they're responding to another call, the cops who work the 84th Precinct in Brooklyn will pass by the location where Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were killed. And they'll remember. And it will be like it happened yesterday.

And after they retire they'll still remember. Those jackhammered synapses won't allow them to forget. Just as I can never forget.

The Cost Of Political Manipulation And Incompetence Continues To Rise

An on duty Florida Police Officer is murdered. Officer Kondek was formerly a NYPD police officer before moving to Florida.

Officer Charles Kondek, 45, was gunned down in Tarpon Springs, about 30 miles northwest of Tampa, after responding to a call for service around 2 a.m. EST, the Tarpon Springs Police Department said.

The officer later died of his injuries at a local hospital, the police department said.

And another savage tried to murder a NYPD officer.

Only hours after two New York policemen were ambushed and executed in Brooklyn by a man claiming he wanted revenge for the death of Eric Garner, a man in the Bronx allegedly attempted to murder a third New York policeman. He only failed because his gun didn't work when he pulled the trigger, police say.

On Saturday night at 9 p.m., Raymond Leonardo, 18, was allegedly shooting out windows with a .357 caliber revolver when police arrived. According to law enforcement, he refused to drop the gun and aimed point blank at one policeman.

But when he pulled the trigger, it didn't fire, officials claim. Leonardo fled with the gun in his pocket, then was captured after running a few blocks. One police source offered a simple cause for the gun’s inability to function: “It looks like he used up all of his bullets.”

NYPD Cops Murdered

Two NYPD officers were murdered this afternoon. This is a direction result of the reckless actions of Obama, Holder and Sharpton in their concerted efforts to inflame racial tensions. The NYPD has got to be going out of their minds.

Two uniformed NYPD officers were shot dead Saturday afternoon as they sat in their marked police car on a Brooklyn street corner — in what investigators believe was a crazed gunman’s execution-style mission to avenge Eric Garner and Michael Brown.

“It’s an execution,” one law enforcement source said of the 3 p.m. shooting of the two officers, whose names were being withheld pending family notification of their deaths.

The tragic heroes were working overtime as part of an anti-terrorism drill when they were shot point-blank in their heads by the lone gunman, who approached them on foot from the sidewalk at the corner of Myrtle and Tompkins avenues in Bed-Stuy.

“I’m Putting Wings on Pigs Today,” a person believed to be the gunman wrote on Instagram in a message posted just three hours before the officers were shot through their front passenger window.

I hope there is a special place in hell for politicians.

The gunman was a fugitive who had just murdered his girlfriend in Baltimore Saturday morning, sources told The Post.

Minutes after shooting the two officers, he, too, was dead.

He fled to a nearby subway station, the G-train station at Myrtle and Willoughby avenues, where, as pursuing cops closed in, he shot himself on a crowded platform, sources told The Post.

Story here.

Update:
The NYPD PBA has announced that all members are to consider themselves on a wartime footing. I am posting this from Weasel Zippers but cannot find independent corroboration.

Starting IMMEDIATELY- At least two units are to respond to EVERY call, no matter the condition or severity, no matter what type of job is pending, or what the opinion of the patrol supervisor happens to be.

IN ADDITION: Absolutely NO enforcement action in the form of arrests and or summonses is to be taken unless absolutely necessary and an individual MUST be placed under arrest. These are precautions that were taken in the 1970’s when Police Officers were ambushed and executed on a regular basis.

The mayors hands are literally dripping with our blood because of his words actions and policies and we have, for the first time in a number of years, become a “wartime” police department. We will act accordingly. FORWARD MESSAGE IN ITS ENTIRETY TO ANY AND ALL MOS

Band Of Brothers - A French Perspective

We may take for granted the prowess of the American soldier, but our allies don't.

What follows is an account from a French ISAF soldier that was stationed with American Warfighters in Afghanistan sometime in the past 4 years. This was copied and translated from an editorial French newspaper.

A NOS FRERES D’ARMES AMERICAINS

"We have shared our daily life with two US units for quite a while - they are the first and fourth companies of a prestigious infantry battalion whose name I will withhold for the sake of military secrecy. To the common man it is a unit just like any other. But we live with them and got to know them, and we henceforth know that we have the honor to live with one of the most renowned units of the US Army - one that the movies brought to the public as series showing "ordinary soldiers thrust into extraordinary events". Who are they, those soldiers from abroad, how is their daily life, and what support do they bring to the men of our OMLT every day? Few of them belong to the Easy Company, the one the TV series focuses on. This one nowadays is named Echo Company, and it has become the support company.

[...] Heavily built, fed at the earliest age with Gatorade, proteins and creatine - they are all heads and shoulders taller than us and their muscles remind us of Rambo. Our frames are amusingly skinny to them - we are wimps, even the strongest of us - and because of that they often mistake us for Afghans

[...]And they are impressive warriors! We have not come across bad ones, as strange at it may seem to you when you know how critical French people can be. Even if some of them are a bit on the heavy side, all of them provide us everyday with lessons in infantry know-how. Beyond the wearing of a combat kit that never seem to discomfort them (helmet strap, helmet, combat goggles, rifles etc.) the long hours of watch at the outpost never seem to annoy them in the slightest. On the one square meter wooden tower above the perimeter wall they stand the five consecutive hours in full battle rattle and night vision goggles on top, their sight unmoving in the directions of likely danger. No distractions, no pauses, they are like statues nights and days...

[...]And combat? If you have seen Rambo you have seen it all - always coming to the rescue when one of our teams gets in trouble, and always in the shortest delay. That is one of their tricks: they switch from T-shirt and sandals to combat ready in three minutes. Arriving in contact with the enemy, the way they fight is simple and disconcerting: they just charge! They disembark and assault in stride, they bomb first and ask questions later - which cuts any pussyfooting short.

The full editorial here.

H/T the Jawa Report

SEIU Violence

Google "SEIU violence" and settle down with some popcorn.

Savage
Evil
Incompetent
Unlawful

Surprise, Surrise. The first arrest in the beating of two NYPD Lieutenants is a big shot for the SEIU. Of course he is a union (community) organizer.

 I imagine I am channeling every cop in the country when I say, "I'd love to see how tough this guy is when there isn't a mob backing him up. Just give me a minute alone with him, that's all I ask."

One “alleged” cop-beater down, six to go.

An organizer at the city’s largest union surrendered to cops Thursday and was charged with busting an NYPD lieutenant’s nose during a videotaped mob attack on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Crown Heights resident Rob Murray, 43 — who makes more than $105,000 a year with the Service Employees International Union — turned himself in at the 5th Precinct station house in Chinatown with his lawyer around 8 a.m.

Five individuals are still wanted in this assault.

Scratch the surface of SEIU and you'll have to scrape the thug from underneath your fingernails.

Interesting Times

So much unrest and uncertainty in the world.

Russia's economy is tanking due to sanctions so Putin is ripping off his shirt and channeling his inner Cossack.

Mooslims are slaughtering school children... again.

The NSA is interpreting the skidmarks on our underwear.

There's another beaner tsunami approaching our southern border.

Congress don't give a shit as they have already stolen everything that wasn't nailed down since Teddy Roosevelt was President.

Meanwhile, the idiot in the White House can't break himself away from ESPN.

Unsettled times remind me of when I was an undergrad. We didn't trust the government then and don't trust it now. 

No You Wouldn't.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — As he drops new hints about his 2016 intentions, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is appearing in South Carolina just weeks before a self-imposed deadline to decide whether he will run for president.

Bush is scheduled to give Monday’s commencement address at the University of South Carolina. It marks the Republican leader’s second visit in three months to the state that will host the 2016 presidential primary season’s first contest in the South.

In a television interview aired on the eve of the South Carolina appearance, Bush expressed confidence that he “would be a good president,” adding that he was in the process of writing an e-book about his time as governor that would come out in the spring. He also said he would make public about 250,000 emails from his time in office, in an effort to promote transparency and to “let people make up their mind,” he told ABC’s Miami affiliate WPLG-TV.

I've already made up my mind. No, hell no.

Moses only had to deal with one burning bush. We've had two so far. No more.

Story here.

So Ya Wanna Play Football

There is an article in the NY Post detailing the injuries and financial hardships of retired NFL football players. A number of players suffer dementia, debilitating joint pain, and bankruptcy...

While much-publicized concussions and head injuries account for some of the problem, they’re just one possible hardship of many for those who spend years slamming into each other at full speed.

“Since 2011, at least seven NFL players or former players have committed suicide,” the authors write, noting that one of these, Jovan Belcher, “also killed his girlfriend.”

Super Bowl quarterback Jim McMahon suffers from dementia. Hall of Fame running back Earl Campbell “can barely walk,” and “quarterbacking legend John Unitas lost the use of [his] hands and fingers.”

Ex-NFLers Curt Marsh and Jim Otto have both “lost limbs to football injuries.”

On the money end of things, Terrell Owens “is nearly penniless despite earning top dollar for years,” and “seven-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Warren Sapp has filed for bankruptcy.”

Sapp's NFL earnings totaled over $82 million. Now he claims he has nothing.
Terrell Owens made almost $70 million in his career.  Also claims nada net worth today.
Earl Campbell has a net worth (2012) of $25 million.

Here is a list of all current NFL salaries.

Many of these players sound like they exercise the same fiscal restraint as the US government.

As far as injuries go, football players have been getting slammed down and banged up for well over a hundred years. And only now the players are aware of the risks? I call BS on this.

Here's some of the NFL's early history:

 1895
John Brallier became the first football player to openly turn pro, accepting $10 and expenses to play for the Latrobe YMCA against the Jeannette Athletic Club.
1896
The Allegheny Athletic Association team fielded the first completely professional team for its abbreviated two-game season.
1897
The Latrobe Athletic Association football team went entirely professional, becoming the first team to play a full season with only professionals.
1898
A touchdown was changed from four points to five. Chris O’Brien formed a neighborhood team, which played under the name the Morgan Athletic Club, on the south side of Chicago. The team later became known as the Normals, then the Racine (for a street in Chicago) Cardinals, the Chicago Cardinals, the St. Louis Cardinals, the Phoenix Cardinals, and, in 1994, the Arizona Cardinals. The team remains the oldest continuing operation in pro football.
1900
William C. Temple took over the team payments for the Duquesne Country and Athletic Club, becoming the first known individual club owner.

I don't want to marginalize these injuries. I watched the 1986 game where the Bears Jim McMahon was picked up by the Packers Charles Martin *spit* and slammed to the ground. I was outraged. Martin should have been arrested.

But let's put this in perspective. Football players are not indentured servants; they are all volunteers and they make a damn sight more money than our people in the armed forces, police and fire who face greater risks.