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An audacious band of citizen militias battling a brutal drug cartel in the hills of central Mexico is becoming increasingly well-armed and coordinated in an attempt to end years of violence, extortion and humiliation.

What began as a few scattered self-defense groups has spread in recent months to dozens of towns across Michoacan, a volatile state gripped by the cultlike Knights Templar, a drug gang known for taxing locals on everything from cows to tortillas and executing those who do not comply.

Gun laws are FAR stricter in Mexico than they are here in the US – many calibers are restricted to the military or law enforcement (.380, .22, 9mm  are permitted with some other exceptions, so are shotguns > 25″), Federal Government highly restricts the sale and purchase of private arms, legal open carry is illegal except by Government permission, private sales are prohibited, and guns are sold in government regulated shops only.  While there is the idea of gun ownership in the Mexican Constitution, it is not like that of the US one.

The army deployed to the area in May, but the soldiers are mostly manning checkpoints. Instead, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto is facing the awkward fact that a group of scrappy locals appears to be chasing the gangsters away, something that federal security forces have not managed in a decade.

The Mexican drugs cartels have been around for a long time – mostly due to the demand here in the States and the money drug users can spend for it.  During all that time, 10s of thousands of Mexicans have died in this drug war – and their Government has been all but powerless to protect its citizens from its ravages.  Ordinary citizens, law enforcement, journalists, military, elected officials – all types of folks have been gunned down or made to “disappear” for being threats to the cartels’ profits or turf.  The State has been powerless to protect its citizens even if Piers Morgan, Diane Feinstein, and now FORMER Colorado State Senator Angela Giron have argued otherwise (and Colorado voters decided to disarm her legislatively).

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“And Huot just spit on him in an insipid attack on the credibility of a true Patriot.”

A gentle Patriot passed away a few days ago – Laconia’s Honorable Bob Kingsbury:

Ret. Lt. Col. Robert P. Kingsbury, 87, died September 7, 2013 at Maple Leaf Health Care Center following a brief illness.  He was born in Decatur, IL. on May 5, 1926, the son of Paul C. and Irene Rose (Garon) Kingsbury.

He was a graduate of Cleveland East Technical High School in 1944 and earned his BS degree from the University of Maryland in 1950. He proudly served active duty in the U.S. Army from 1944-1946 and 1951-1953 and then active Reserves from 1953-1979, retiring from the military in 1979 as a Lieutenant Colonel. During his military career, he was awarded the Purple Heart and Presidents 100 for his legendary marksmanship. Prior to his civilian retirement, he worked in manufacturing sales for BF Goodrich and Ethyl Corporation. He was a long-time resident of Laconia after moving to NH in 1975. Family members include 4 daughters and 3 grandsons.

From 2010 to 2012, he served as a State Representative from Belknap County…

Of course, as Grokster Steve already pointed out, “The New Democrat Party’s version of Civility” came out in Full Monty (in the worse possible meaning of the phrase).  But like a bad infomercial (“WAIT!  There’s MORE!), local Democrats decided to pile on even in death as their politics knows no boundaries (even to the afterlife – even though most polls show their belief levels are, well, not much).  To wit (the witless and apparently the heartless) retired Judge and NH State Rep David Huot  decided to enter Stage Left with an outrageous Letter to the Editor upon Bob’s death:

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Progressives – they are just so SMUG when they use one of the classic phrases that just screams “I an intellectually and morally superior than you – *I* will make the decision for you (moron, evil, uneducated, politically incorrect, or conservative) sub-human.  Here, take my hand and I will lead you to the Enlightened Utopia we have planned for you  (because, pretty much, you’re too dumb to do it on your own)”.

That phrase, by the way, is “you don’t need that” – or in this case at TreeHugger (they are still so much fun to poke, even though I’m still banned from the comments), the plural “we don’t need that“.  The signature thought run concurrently:

• I have no idea why someone would want that
• You would abuse that
• I don’t know anyone that has that or wants to do that
• Or in the space that TreeHugger occupies intellectually – “how DARE you do something that would violate the orthodoxy of our environmental Religious vows”

It was in a post concerning the “GE Kitchen of the Future” and while the author liked some things and didn’t like others, this one seemed to be a show stopper on this feature:

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Piers, Piers, Piers – you of all people should know the phrase containing “and dispel all doubt”.  A recent tweet on his favorite hobby horse (the Socialist / Statist mantra that citizens should be disarmed) shows a serious lack of understanding of the underlying philosophy of the US Constitution.  The Founders were careful with their words and careful with their construction of that document – and Morgan just continues to flail away

I'd like to suggest a new amendment to the U.S. Constitution that enshrines the right NOT to be shot/killed by a gun.

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) September 12, 2013

I’d like to suggest a new amendment to the U.S. Constitution that enshrines the right NOT to be shot/killed by a gun.

Certainly, he is of the “Safety & Security should be primary over Freedom” crowd.  Right there, he goes cross purposes to the fundamental meaning of the Declaration and the Constitution as the intent was to put a fence around Government to prevent its intrusion into the natural self-evident Rights imbued to us simply for being human. They knew that this fence HAD to be constructed by negative liberties – the Bill of Rights spells out what the Government CANNOT do so as to safeguard those Rights.  The Constitution spells out what is allowed and more importantly, outlines that everything else for “powers” is not allowed to the Federal Government.

For the sake of argument, what would this take?

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So much for “it’s for the children!” – instead, it is the age old Democrat ploy of “let’s use kids as political shields – again!”. This sorry political story actually illustrates TWO really bad problems:

• Democrats have no problem in threatening the well being of toddlers and young children to get their way
• Congress not able to kill off old laws and the programs they spawned that make no sense anymore (unless it can be used as a Democrat billy club later)

From The Hill (emphasis mine, reformatted):

Democrat’s latest farm bill strategy: Threaten to double the price of milk

The top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee has launched a new strategy for passing a farm bill this year: threaten to send milk prices skyrocketing.  Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) said he called Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack this week suggesting that the agency begin the process of implementing the 1949-era dairy policies that would take effect Oct. 1 if Congress fails to act on a farm bill before then.

“Clearly this is not going to get done by the 1st of October, so my suggestion to the secretary is that they should start now putting the framework together to implement the permanent law on dairy Jan. 1,” Peterson said Wednesday in the Capitol. “And it sounds to me like they’re going to take a very serious look at that.” The 1949 law requires the Agriculture Department to manipulate the dairy market in such a way that milk is priced at a floor of roughly $39 per 100 pounds – a figure that would lead milk prices to roughly double at today’s rates.

Good to know – Democrats are willing to hurt poor families in order to get their way politically. 

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Rent-Seeking:

The expenditure of resources in order to bring about an uncompensated transfer of goods or services from another person or persons to one’s self as the result of a “favorable” decision on some public policy….Examples of rent-seeking behavior would include all of the various ways by which individuals or groups lobby government for taxing, spending and regulatory policies that confer financial benefits or other special advantages upon them at the expense of the taxpayers or of consumers or of other groups or individuals with which the beneficiaries may be in economic competition.

Rent-Seeking:

In public choice theory, rent-seeking is an attempt to obtain economic rent, (i.e., the portion of income paid to a factor of production in excess of that which is needed to keep it employed in its current use), by manipulating the social or political environment in which economic activities occur, rather than by creating new wealth. One example is spending money on political lobbying in order to be given a share of wealth that has already been created.

And while the first blast at Rent-Seeking Walmart’s new stores has petered out, it is an EXCELLENT, encapsulated example of Rent-Seeking by those waving the Union Label.  There are those in DC that will do anything to keep out the Big Box stores, especially Walmart.  The Unionistas claim that Walmart doesn’t pay it workers well enough (er, then why do they work there?  but that’s for another post).  So, the Biz-Haters and the Unions wanted to have a “living wage” restriction placed upon Walmart via the Large Retailer Accountability Act that would have put their entry level labor costs 25% over the competition:

The bill would require retailers with corporate sales of $1 billion or more and operating District stores of at least 75,000 square feet to pay their employees a “living wage” — no less than $12.50 an hour in combined wages and benefits. The proposal includes an exception for employers who collectively bargain with their employees, and existing employers have four years to come into compliance under the law.

Notice the store size (only Big Boxers).  Notice the corporate sales limit (er, Walmart is WELL north of that).  OK, that would be fair – if a town has decided what it’s “look and feel” is to be, so be it.  But notice the “Rent-Seeking”:

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Does he think us that stupid that we have forgotten that Al Qaeda turned airliners into bombs?

(H/T: Liberal Logic 101)

I think I prefer this one – a rememberance of a true “move forward” against those same Al Qaeda

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“The Tea Party has had it with Republican leaders, abandoning the GOP in stunning numbers at a time when mainstream leaders are arguing for immigration reform and support for an attack on Syria.

A new Pew Research Center poll provided to Secrets on Wednesday found that just 27 percent of Republicans who agree with the Tea Party approve of Republican leaders in Congress. A whopping 71 percent disapprove.

…The job rating of GOP leaders among Tea Party Republicans has fallen 15 points since February, from 42% to 27%. Disapproval has risen from 54% to 71% over this period. There has been no similar decline among Republicans who do not agree with the Tea Party.

This internal dissent contributes to the lower job ratings Republican leaders receive from the public. The survey, conducted Sept. 4-8 among 1,506 adults, finds that just 24% of the public approves of Republican leaders’ job performance, while 33% approve of the job of Democratic congressional leaders. “

It is clear that there is a feeling amongst TEA Party folks that Obama / the IRS / DOJ / Democrats took advantage of the fact that TEA Party groups tried to “do the right things / follow the rules” in the process of obtaining tax-exempt status for donations (which would have led to more political speech and activism).  There has been little done in reign in those in the IRS responsible for bringing political bias to bear in the most feared department in the Federal Government. Now knowing the targeting done to them by those in the Federal Government who hold Progressive / Big Government political views, their dander is now up.

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A while ago, a Muslim group called  AMPAC, announced a “Million Muslim March” in DC on 9/11 (reformatted, emphasis mine):

The American Muslim Political Action Committee is hosting what it hopes will be a gathering of one million people in Washington, D.C., on the 12th anniversary of 9/11 to urge the government to reveal “the truth” about the attacks.  “We want to hold President Obama accountable for his empty promises of creating a transparent government,” march organizer Isa Hodge told U.S. News. “What exactly have we spent all our money, lost lives and taken lives for? The entire record of the 9/11 Commission has never been released.” Protesters will also denounce “FBI traps,” “illegal tapping and surveilling of Muslim Americans” and “media propaganda making the word terrorist synonymous with Muslim,” he said. The march was announced as the “Million Muslim March” earlier this year, but its name has since been changed to the “Million American March Against Fear,” according to Hodge.

Yeah, the name was changed (er, whitewashed) due to the bad PR they got when it was announced (I remember a big blow out for them when a representative went on Hannity).  Then the bikers caught wind of it and a group called “2 Million Bikers to DC” sprang up – many of them vets who fought Islamic Jihadis in Iraq and Afghanistan (and other “kill ya if I tell ya” places).  They knew what this march meant – and got a tad cross over it.  Their response?  Well, I reviewed some of the comments and they are not Politically Correct (yeah, some folks would have a cow over them).  In fact, some would call it hate speech.  And try to stop them from going (after all, the Left cannot tolerate any dissent).

And they did – the National Park Service, that is – and the reaction is shown below (love that “Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children” logo on the right hand side, aka “we take no crap from no one ’cause we already put our lives on the line for the USA”):

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