Attendance Skyrockets at Del Mar Gun Show (VIDEO)

At ABC News 10 San Diego:



Reminds me of a couple of years ago at the O.C. Fairgrounds, "Long Lines, Ammunition Shortages at Orange County Gun Show."

Man-Hunting in the Hindu Kush (VIDEO)

Following up from my report over the weekend, "The Drone Papers (VIDEO)."

Remember, so-called progressive Democrats are supposed to be antiwar, but we're seeing the most aggressive clandestine military build-up around the world ever, using special operations and unmanned aerial drones, to wage unlimited war, with virtually no checks and balances on executive power. And like I said earlier, I'm no shrinking violent on the War on Terror. I'm just gobsmacked at the left's epic hypocrisy.

In any case, at the Intercept, "MANHUNTING IN THE HINDU KUSH: CIVILIAN CASUALTIES AND STRATEGIC FAILURES IN AMERICA’S LONGEST WAR."

Ryan Devereaux, the report's author, is interviewed at communist Amy Goodman's Democracy Now:

The Drone Papers (VIDEO)

There's a number of fascinating things about this new investigative report from the Intercept, "THE ASSASSINATION COMPLEX."

A lot of innocent people are being killed, for one thing, "Nearly nine out of 10 people who died in airstrikes were not the Americans' direct targets..."

The most interesting thing, though, is that had the CIA/Pentagon drone program advanced this far during the early days of the George W. Bush administration, we'd be hearing about "Nazi" targeted killings until the cows come home, and the mainstream collectivist media would be reporting cries for war crimes tribunals non-stop. But since it's Obama's drone program, crickets. I mean, Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, et al., are anti-Americans who like nothing more than to put American lives are risk to get their "scoops." And honestly, while I don't love the loss of innocents as collateral damage in the War on Terror, I have no problem taking out bloodthirsty jihadis, of which there's a never-ending supply. Greenwald, et al., see most of the terrorists as victims of America's imperial aggression.

So you can see why the whole thing's pretty amazing. See the full report, "The Drone Papers."

In any case, here's a segment from communist Amy Goodman's Democracy Now:

Obama Administration Targets Innocent Chinese Americans in Massive Violation of Civil Liberties

From Joyce Xi, at USA Today, "To get my father, Xiaoxing Xi, FBI twisted America's ideals":

My father’s case reflects some of America’s most cherished ideals gone wrong. My father is a hard-working, innocent American who was presumed guilty. He devoted his life to academic research, for the sake of understanding the world around us better and contributing to his university and country — America. He had all that taken away from him in an instant.

There is no escaping the geopolitics of our time and the influence that tensions between the U.S. and China have in our society today. Recently, the government has raised the specter of economic espionage with much attention on China. But as our country faces increased anxiety over China, the government is targeting innocent Chinese Americans...

More, via Instapundit, who writes:

I know, sorry, you thought you lived in America. You’re not the first Asian to make that mistake in the Obama era. But, you know, we’ve been “fundamentally transformed.” Hopey Changey!

New Dana Loesch Advertisement for the National Rifle Association (VIDEO)

Here's Dana on Twitter, "As a mom, I want to do #WhateverItTakes to protect myself and my family."



And here's Dana's book, at Amazon, Hands Off My Gun: Defeating the Plot to Disarm America.

Rand Paul Goes After Chris Christie on National Security in GOP Presidential Debate (VIDEO)

More debate moments like this, please!

Watch, at Fox News, "Chris Christie, Rand Paul spar over NSA — Fox News Republican Debate."

Some First Amendment Freedoms Have Been Lost Since Selma

A phenomenal commentary, from Ronald Krotoszynski Jr., at the Los Angeles Times, "Could a Selma-like protest happen today? Probably not."

Quartering Spyware Troops in a Digital Age: Why Your Home Should Be Your Castle

From Glenn Reynolds, at USA Today, "Quartering spyware troops in the digital age":

In 1893, historian Frederick Jackson Turner published a famous paper on the closing of the American frontier. The last unsettled areas, he said, were being populated, and that meant the end of an era.

I think that something a bit like that is happening in my field of constitutional law. The last part of the Bill of Rights left almost untouched — the Third Amendment — is now becoming the subject of substantial academic commentary, with a symposium on the amendment, which I attended, this past weekend held by the Tennessee Law Review.

The Tennessee Law Review published the very first law review article on the Third Amendment back in 1949. But there weren't very many to follow: a handful, over many decades. Maybe that's because the Third Amendment just plain works. It provides: "No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law."

That doesn't happen much — The Onion ran a parody piece some years ago entitled "Third Amendment Rights Group Celebrates Another Successful Year" — and so it may just be that the Third Amendment is the only part of the Bill of Rights that really works. Except that it may not be working the way that we think.

The only Supreme Court case in which the Third Amendment did any heavy lifting is Griswold v. Connecticut, a case that's not about troop-quartering, but about birth control. The Supreme Court held that the Third Amendment's "penumbra" (a legal term that predates the Griswold case) extended to protecting the privacy of the home from government intrusions. "Would we," asked the court, "allow the police to search the sacred precincts of marital bedrooms for telltale signs of the use of contraceptives?" The very idea, said the court, was "repulsive."

Likewise, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held in Engblom v. Carey that the Third Amendment protects a "fundamental right to privacy" in the home. Since then, courts haven't done much to flesh these holdings out, but I wonder if they should. In the 18th century, when the Third Amendment was drafted, "troop quartering" meant literally having troops move into your house to live at your expense and sleep in your beds. It destroyed any semblance of domestic privacy, opening up conversations, affection, even spats to the observation and participation of outsiders. It converted a home into an arena.

Today we don't have that, but we have numerous intrusions that didn't exist in James Madison's day: Government spying on phones, computers, and video — is spyware on your computer like having a tiny soldier quartered on your hard drive? — intrusive regulations on child-rearing and education, the threat of dangerous "no-knock" raids by soldierly SWAT teams that break down doors first and ask questions later.

The Third Amendment hasn't been invoked in these cases — well, actually, it has, in the case of a SWAT team in Henderson, Nev., that took over a family home so that it could position itself against a neighbor's house — but maybe it should be. At least, maybe we should go farther in recognizing a fundamental right of privacy in people's homes...

More.

'Citizenfour'

The Laura Poitras documentary on Edward Snowden debuts tonight on HBO.

And I gotta say, it was pretty interesting seeing Glenn Greenwald on stage last night with an Oscar.

At LAT, "Oscars 2015: 'Citizenfour' wins for documentary feature." And at the New Yorker, "Why “Citizenfour” Deserved Its Oscar" (via Memeorandum).

And FWIW, at Reddit, "We are Edward Snowden, Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald from the Oscar-winning documentary CITIZENFOUR. AUAA."



No need to rehash my disagreements with Greenwald. Longtime readers know how I feel. I would remind folks of Louise Mensch's destruction of these hypocritical traitors from last year, "David Miranda – Snowden’s Mule, and physical data."

NPH wasn't joking last night when he joked about Snowden's "treason."

Video Shows Kristiana Coignard Allegedly Wielding Knife Before Killed by Police

It's hard to see anything in the surveillance video, but the woman does lunge at one of the officers, apparently just after she'd pulled a butcher's knife out of her knapsack.

At LAT, "Video shows girl pull knife on Texas police before they shoot her."

And the full police video is here: "Video of Longview Police Department Lobby on night teen was fatally shot by officers." (The kill shot is just after 11:00 minutes. )

U.S. Spies on Millions of Drivers

You know, who isn't being spied on nowadays?

And cars? Our cars are being surveilled? Okay, but did anyone even know about this?

At WSJ, "DEA Uses License-Plate Readers to Build Database for Federal, Local Authorities":

WASHINGTON—The Justice Department has been building a national database to track in real time the movement of vehicles around the U.S., a secret domestic intelligence-gathering program that scans and stores hundreds of millions of records about motorists, according to current and former officials and government documents.

The primary goal of the license-plate tracking program, run by the Drug Enforcement Administration, is to seize cars, cash and other assets to combat drug trafficking, according to one government document. But the database’s use has expanded to hunt for vehicles associated with numerous other potential crimes, from kidnappings to killings to rape suspects, say people familiar with the matter.

Officials have publicly said that they track vehicles near the border with Mexico to help fight drug cartels. What hasn’t been previously disclosed is that the DEA has spent years working to expand the database “throughout the United States,’’ according to one email reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Many state and local law-enforcement agencies are accessing the database for a variety of investigations, according to people familiar with the program, putting a wealth of information in the hands of local officials who can track vehicles in real time on major roadways.

The database raises new questions about privacy and the scope of government surveillance. The existence of the program and its expansion were described in interviews with current and former government officials, and in documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union through a Freedom of Information Act request and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. It is unclear if any court oversees or approves the intelligence-gathering.

A spokesman for Justice Department, which includes the DEA, said the program complies with federal law. “It is not new that the DEA uses the license-plate reader program to arrest criminals and stop the flow of drugs in areas of high trafficking intensity,’’ the spokesman said.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the government’s use of license-plate readers “raises significant privacy concerns. The fact that this intrusive technology is potentially being used to expand the reach of the government’s asset-forfeiture efforts is of even greater concern.’’

The senator called for “additional accountability’’ and said Americans shouldn’t have to fear ”their locations and movements are constantly being tracked and stored in a massive government database.’’

The DEA program collects data about vehicle movements, including time, direction and location, from high-tech cameras placed strategically on major highways. Many devices also record visual images of drivers and passengers, which are sometimes clear enough for investigators to confirm identities, according to DEA documents and people familiar with the program.

The documents show that the DEA also uses license-plate readers operated by state, local and federal law-enforcement agencies to feed into its own network and create a far-reaching, constantly updating database of electronic eyes scanning traffic on the roads to steer police toward suspects.

The law-enforcement scanners are different from those used to collect tolls.

By 2011, the DEA had about 100 cameras feeding into the database, the documents show. On Interstate 95 in New Jersey, license-plate readers feed data to the DEA—giving law-enforcement personnel around the country the ability to search for a suspect vehicle on one of the country’s busiest highways. One undated internal document shows the program also gathers data from license-plate readers in Florida and Georgia.

“Any database that collects detailed location information about Americans not suspected of crimes raises very serious privacy questions,’’ said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the ACLU. “It’s unconscionable that technology with such far-reaching potential would be deployed in such secrecy. People might disagree about exactly how we should use such powerful surveillance technologies, but it should be democratically decided, it shouldn’t be done in secret.’’

License-plate readers are already used in the U.S. by companies to collect debts and repossess vehicles, and by local police departments to solve crimes.

In 2010, the DEA said in internal documents that the database aided in the seizure of 98 kilograms of cocaine, 8,336 kilograms of marijuana and the collection of $866,380. It also has been connected to the Amber Alert system, to help authorities find abducted children, according to people familiar with the program.

One email written in 2010 said the primary purpose of the program was asset forfeiture—a controversial practice in which law-enforcement agencies seize cars, cash and other valuables from suspected criminals. The practice is increasingly coming under attack because of instances when law-enforcement officers take such assets without evidence of a crime.

More.

And related, at Reason, "Cops Are Still Robbers."

In Wake of #CharlieHebdo March, France Cracks Down on Hate Speech. Wait. What?

It was a nice march, but pessimists sure didn't have to wait long to be proved correct.

At the BBC, "Paris attacks: Dieudonne held as France tackles hate speech," and the Guardian, "Dieudonné arrested over Facebook post on Paris gunman."

Video here, "French Comic Dieudonne Faces 7 Years in Prison for Paris Attack Facebook Post."

Also, from Neo-Neocon, at Legal Insurrection, "France is cracking down on “hate speech”."

And don't miss civil liberties drama queen Glenn Greenwald, at the Intercept, "FRANCE ARRESTS A COMEDIAN FOR HIS FACEBOOK COMMENTS, SHOWING THE SHAM OF THE WEST’S “FREE SPEECH” CELEBRATION."

As they say, even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Fumiko Hayashida, Among First Japanese American Internees, Dies at 103

A tragic, yet fascinating, story, at LAT, "Fumiko Hayashida dies at 103; among first Japanese American internees."

Interesting obit: Fumiko Hayashida, 103, one of the 1st Japanese Americans in internment camps http://t.co/LGdtXRFOlx pic.twitter.com/TpuzUauGjM

— Lauren Raab (@raablauren) November 16, 2014

'No Angel'

It turns out today's front-page New York Times article on Michael Brown referred to the black thug teenager as "no angel," which is exactly correct. Except that's not politically correct, so out came the knives of the leftist censors to tear into the skin of public editor Margaret Sullivan.

Here's her response to the latest leftist two-minute hate, "An Ill-Chosen Phrase, ‘No Angel,’ Brings a Storm of Protest":

In my view, the timing of the article (on the day of Mr. Brown’s funeral) was not ideal. Its pairing with a profile of Mr. Wilson seemed to inappropriately equate the two people. And “no angel” was a blunder.

In general, though, I found Mr. Eligon’s reporting to be solid and thorough. I came away from the profile with a deeper sense of who Michael Brown was, and an even greater sense of sorrow at the circumstances of his death.

She defends the piece, only to further inflame the black leftist lynch mobs:

So disturbing and unwarranted. The New York Times defends Michael Brown Jr. ‘no angel’ characterization http://t.co/jG2tsSuHP7

— Donna Brazile (@donnabrazile) August 25, 2014

Hope and change!

VIDEO: Race Hustler Al Sharpton Leads Staten Island Protest Over NYPD Chokehold Death of Eric Garner

Funny how Sharpton waited a month to have this protest, making sure to time it with the national race relations debate over Ferguson.

The irony is that in the case of Eric Garner, there's little controversy that the police used excessive force.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Thousands Protest in Staten Island Over Eric Garner's Death: Event, Led by Rev. Al Sharpton, Caps Weeks of New Scrutiny of the NYPD."



PREVIOUSLY: "VIDEO: Staten Island Man Dies After Placed in NYPD Chokehold, Slammed to Ground."

VIDEO: Staten Island Man Dies After Placed in NYPD Chokehold, Slammed to Ground

This is just ridiculously sad.

The man, choking, says repeatedly, "I can't breathe!" My eyes get teary listening to his cries.

At the New York Times, "Man’s Death After Chokehold Raises Old Issue for the Police":

The 350-pound man, about to be arrested on charges of illegally selling cigarettes, was arguing with the police. When an officer tried to handcuff him, the man pulled free. The officer immediately threw his arm around the man’s neck and pulled him to the ground, holding him in what appears, in a video, to be a chokehold. The man can be heard saying “I can’t breathe” over and over again as other officers swarm about.

Now, the death of the man, Eric Garner, 43, soon after the confrontation on Thursday on Staten Island, is being investigated by the police and prosecutors. At the center of the inquiry is the officer’s use of a chokehold — a dangerous maneuver that was banned by the New York Police Department more than 20 years ago but that the department cannot seem to be rid of.

“As defined in the department’s patrol guide, this would appear to have been a chokehold,” the police commissioner, William J. Bratton, said at a news conference in City Hall on Friday afternoon.

More.

And at New York Daily News, "Staten Island man dies after NYPD cop puts him in chokehold — SEE THE VIDEO."

A YouTube clip is here.

How Many More Americans Can Obama Kill?

At the Daily Beast, "‘Drone Memo’ Doesn’t Apply to America’s New Terror War."

And at the ACLU, "Anwar Al-Aulaqi: FOIA Request - OLC Memo."

ADDED: At the New York Times, "Court Releases Large Parts of Memo Approving Killing of American in Yemen: Targeting Anwar al-Awlaki Was Legal, Justice Department Said."

Traitor or Patriot? Edward Snowden Interview with Brian Williams of NBC News

Well, dirtbag traitor, of course. But a hero to the America-hating left.

At NBC, "Edward Snowden's Motive Revealed: He Can 'Sleep at Night'."

'Can't bring myself to feel sorry over the botched execution of a guy who shot a woman and buried her alive after he raped her friend...'

Comment from Dana Loesch, on Facebook.

And that made me realize, after my earlier entry, "Clayton Lockett Botched Execution," that I never did find out about the guy Lockett's conviction.

Here's what I found online, "Appeals Court Upholds Death Penalty for Ponca City Man":

HE BURIED HIS VICTIM ALIVE. MT @DailyMailUS: Killer dies of heart attack after 20 minutes of agony in botched Oklahoma execution

— Tammy Bruce (@HeyTammyBruce) April 30, 2014

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the death sentence given to convicted murderer Clayton Darrell Lockett, of Ponca City, Oklahoma. Lockett was convicted in August 2000 of the first degree murder of 19-year-old Stephanie Nieman. Lockett was also sentenced to more than 2,285 years in prison for associated non-capital crimes occurring that night, including assault with a dangerous weapon, burglary, first degree rape, and kidnapping.

A jury found that on June 3, 1999, Clayton Lockett and two co-conspirators, Shawn Mathis and Alfonso Lockett, broke into the Perry, Oklahoma, home of Bobby Bornt. They assaulted Bornt before burglarizing his home for drugs. While they were at Bornt's home, two 19-year-old women arrived. The men repeatedly raped and assaulted one woman, whose name is withheld as a victim of sexual assault, before loading Bornt, Bornt's 9-month-old son, Stephanie Nieman, and the other woman into Bornt's and Nieman's trucks and driving them to a rural location in Kay County.

Bornt testified that he heard Clayton Locket say, "Someone has got to go," before he put Nieman in a ditch dug by Shawn Mathis and shot her twice. He also testified to hearing the men laugh about "how tough [Nieman] was" when she did not die after the first shot.

Bornt and the other victim believe they were spared because they have children; however, both testified to hearing Lockett plan to kill them and take Bornt's infant son to either a shelter or Bornt's parents' house.

Clayton Lockett was found to be the instigator of all crimes that evening. According to court documents, State's evidence included a videotaped confession by Locket in which he "confessed to going to Mr. Bornt’s home to rob him; to personally hitting and beating Mr. Bornt, [name withheld], and Ms. Neiman with his fists or with the shotgun; to binding the victims with duct tape; to planning to kill all three adult victims; to forcing them (along with the baby) to leave Mr. Bornt’s house and go to the country, where the adults were to be killed; to taking Ms. Neiman’s and Mr. Bornt’s trucks; to being the ultimate decision maker as to which victims would be killed; to instructing Mr. Mathis on how to dig the grave; to personally shooting Ms. Neiman while she cried; to threatening to kill them if they told anyone of his crimes; and to insisting that his accomplices bury Ms. Neiman when he knew she was still alive." He was convicted of 19 felony counts...

But OMG cruel and unusual!!

Clayton Lockett Botched Execution

Hey, props to Oklahoma whose officials will almost single handedly ensure that the death penalty is finally ruled cruel and unusual.

This execution went so awry that officials tried to resuscitate Lockett.

Frankly, just bring back the firing squad. Damn.

At London's Daily Mail, "Killer dies of heart attack after twenty minutes of agony when Oklahoma experimental drug execution goes wrong. Second lethal injection postponed."

Also at the Tulsa World, "Execution botched before inmate dies of heart attack; second execution postponed":

Prison officials said they will try to get Lockett to hospital to resuscitate him.

— Bailey Elise McBride (@baileyelise) April 30, 2014

He was conscious and blinking, licking his lips even after the process began. He then began to seize.

— Bailey Elise McBride (@baileyelise) April 30, 2014

At 6:33 the doctor said Lockett was unconscious and then at 6:34 Lockett began to nod, mumble move body.

— Bailey Elise McBride (@baileyelise) April 30, 2014

Director of Corrections addressing media now, no questions.

— Bailey Elise McBride (@baileyelise) April 30, 2014

Sedated 7 minutes into execution, at that time began pushing 2nd and 3rd drugs. Some concern durgs were not having an effect.

— Bailey Elise McBride (@baileyelise) April 30, 2014

7:06 inmate Clayton Lockett suffered heart attack and died.

— Bailey Elise McBride (@baileyelise) April 30, 2014

Prison Director has stayed execution for Charles Warner for 14 days.

— Bailey Elise McBride (@baileyelise) April 30, 2014

Lockett's vein blew during the execution preventing the chemicals from effectively entering his body.

— Bailey Elise McBride (@baileyelise) April 30, 2014

He is still alive, the state stopped his execution. He was lifting head at 6:39 and he was still alive and DOC closed curtain and stopped it

— Cary Aspinwall (@caryaspinwall) April 30, 2014

Clayton Lockett died inside the execution chamber at 7:06 pm of a massive heart attack according to DOC officials.

— Cary Aspinwall (@caryaspinwall) April 30, 2014

FYI this type of scenario is exactly what attorneys for Lockett and Warner had argued might happen with Oklahoma using untested method

— Cary Aspinwall (@caryaspinwall) April 30, 2014

You're right. Let's shoot them. RT @TonyBudetti Another botched execution in Oklahoma. We are better than this, America!

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) April 30, 2014

If the scumbag Oklahoma murderer died, how was the execution "botched" - Seems like a success to me

— Cameron Gray (@Cameron_Gray) April 30, 2014

McALESTER -- The execution of convicted killer Clayton Lockett was botched tonight at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary before he died of a massive heart attack. The event prompted officials to postpone a second execution scheduled for two hours later.
Lockett was given execution drugs and reacted violently, kicking and grimacing while lifting his head off the gurney to which he was strapped. He was pronounced dead at 7:06 p.m. inside the execution chamber -- 43 minutes after the process began -- Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton said.

In a media conference, Patton said Lockett's veins "exploded" during the execution, which began at 6:23 p.m. The inmate died from what Patton called a "massive heart attack." The death occurred after the execution process was halted.

Convicted killer Charles Warner was scheduled to be executed at 8 p.m. Patton said he notified the governor's office and the attorney general's office about the events and asked for a 14-day delay of Warner's execution, which was scheduled for 8 p.m.
Gov. Mary Fallin issued a statement tonight saying she had issued an executive order delaying Warner's execution for 14 days.

“I have asked the Department of Corrections to conduct a full review of Oklahoma’s execution procedures to determine what happened and why during this evening’s execution of Clayton Derrell Lockett,” Fallin said in the statement. “I have issued an executive order delaying the execution of Charles Frederick Warner for 14 days to allow for that review to be completed.”

Tonight's executions were to be the first in Oklahoma using a new three-drug cocktail of vecuronium bromide, midazolam and potassium chloride.

Lockett had no last words as the execution began. Sixteen minutes after it started, OSP Warden Anita Trammell said: “We’re going to lower the blinds temporarily.” A doctor in the chamber went to Lockett’s right arm and lifted the sheet, apparently checking his vein where a tube had been inserted.

Patton left the room for several minutes and was on the phone. Department of Public Safety Commissioner Michael Thompson then left the observation area to take a phone call from the line inside the execution chamber.

When Patton returned to the observation room, he said: “We’ve had a vein failure in which the chemicals did not make it into the offender. Under my authority, we’re issuing a stay for the second execution.”

More at that top link.

Amazing.

Leftist demands for more "humane" executions ends up bringing about more inhumanity --- and, ultimately, a further erosion of public support for capital punishment.

There's gotta be some Alinskyite angle in here somewhere. Man, those criminal-coddling progs are good!