Posted by Jack

Coincidental with the Boston bombing, comes a series of poisoned letters sent to several senators and the president.   It’s not been determined if the these events are related.  Wonder if they were mailed from Boston?

Victims of risin laced letters known so far:

1.  Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss

2. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala

3.  Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich

4. President Barack Obama-D

UPDATE ON BOSTON BOMBING: Investigators believe they have identified a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing from security video, a U.S. law enforcement source said on Wednesday, but no arrest had yet been made. Police may make an appeal to the public for more information at a news conference scheduled for later on Wednesday, a U.S. government source said. Earlier, CNN reported a suspect was in custody, citing Boston and U.S. law enforcement sources, but later retracted its report.

The FBI duisclosed today that Obama was the target of a death letter.   The revelation of the poison filled letter to Obama comes less than 24 hours after U.S. Capitol Police confirmed it was investigating a letter addressed to Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., that tested positive for the poison ricin in a preliminary examination.

Obama was briefed on the suspicious letters on Tuesday night and again on Wednesday morning, said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.

Another suspicious package was received Wednesday morning at the Washington offices of Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., according to Shelby’s spokesman Jonathan Graffeo. He said the package is being investigated by Capitol Police and it was not known if it was similar to the ones addressed to Obama and Wicker.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., issued a statement saying that a suspicious letter also was received Wednesday morning at his Saginaw, Mich., field office. He said the staffer who received the letter did not open it and turned it over to authorities, who are investigating.

Ricin comes from the castor oil plant Ricinus communis, is a highly toxic, naturally occurring protein.

This is the absolute latest and best information on the web…

ONLY TWO BOMBS:  Dispelling earlier reports of as many as seven devices being found around Boston, Gene Marquez, assistant special agent in charge for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said authorities had determined that the only bombs deployed in the attack were the two that detonated shortly before 3 p.m. EDT on Monday. Any unexploded device might have provided a clearer picture of what materials were used and how the bomb was assembled, furnishing leads in the case.

NO SUSPECTS:  Late on Monday, police searched a Boston area apartment of a Saudi Arabian student who was injured in the blast, law enforcement sources said. But they said evidence showed that the student was expected to be cleared of suspicion and that he was unlikely to shed any light on the attack.

TYPE OF EXPLOSIVES:  A pressure cooker stuffed with gunpowder and shrapnel caused at least one of the blasts at the Boston Marathon.  Trauma surgeons said at press briefings the majority of victims suffered lower-body injuries, and several had a range of metallic shrapnel material removed during surgery, including pellets and what appeared to be carpenter nails.

TYPE OF INJURY:  “The vast majority of the injuries were to lower extremities, including some victims who had parts of their legs blown off,” said Dr. Tracey Dechert, a trauma surgeon at Boston Medical Center, which treated 23 people and performed amputations on five of them.

HUMAN TOLL:  Blasts killed three people and injured 176 others.

I just found this on the internet – Instructions how to make bombs out of pressure cookers similar to those believed the source of two explosions in Boston on Monday.  The article was published two years ago in Inspire, an online magazine tied to al-Qaeda and the late U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

The article, complete with detailed pictures shows a step by step process how to make a high explosive pipe bomb or a larger bomb using a pressure cooker, nails glued to the inside, filled with a mixture of ground up match heads and sugar or gunpowder.  The detonator was a 9V light bulb filament wired to a batter operated timing device.  Low cost, highly explosive, easy to construct and conceal.

Would-be bombers, the article said, should use gloves to prevent their fingerprints from being found on the bomb fragments and to “put you [sic] faith in Allah and pray for the success of your operation.”

Awlaki, the magazine’s founder, was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in 2011.

By Robert J. Samuelson,

by Jack Lee

Latest update:

President Obama said Tuesday the FBI is investigating the Boston Marathon bombings as an “act of terrorism,” but the perpetrators and motives remain a mystery.

“What we don’t yet know, however, is who carried out this attack or why, whether it was planned and executed by a terrorist organization, foreign or domestic, or was the act of a malevolent individual,” Obama said in brief remarks at the White House.

The Saudi who was injured at the hospital is declared a witness, not a suspect.

4-15-13:  It was exactly what a terrorist would be looking for,  Americans jammed into a tight area on a highly significant date for a big event.  In this case it was to celebrate a patriotic date in Boston’s revolutionary history mixed in with the running of the Boston Marathon.   This brought in people from all over the country and the world.  There was also massive media coverage present and this added up to one big, tempting target.  The crowds were so large that even small explosive devices would be assured of a high casualty count.  In the twisted mind of a terrorist bent on killing American’s it doesn’t get much better than this.

Not much is known about who did it or why, but we do know we have at least two dead, over 123 injured and some had ball bearings removed from their bodies, suggesting an IED.   A 20 year old Saudi national is in a Boston Hospital, reportedly being admitted with severe burns after the bombings along the marathon route.   Was this just a highly unusual coincidence or something more sinister, who knows?  For now this is an open story with the blanks to be filled in later.

There are some clues and speaking as a criminal investigator, the color of the smoke from the blast was brown and that’s significant.  We know it’s highly unlikely to be gunpowder,  black powder or ammonium nitrate fertilizer.   Could be chemical.  Next, the ball bearings used for shrapnel are typical of many IED’s made by Muslim fanatics to do harm in Israel, Iraq and Afghanistan.   The placement of the bombs was low because legs were blown off or heavily mangled, suggesting a backpack or box bomb laid the ground.  Small, but lethal.   The bomb from the Kennedy Center didn’t detonate and from that location we know how it was packaged.  Unfortunately, it had to be deliberately detonated at the scene.   The likely method would be a water cannon.  It blasts water into the package, backpack or suitcase and short circuits the timing device as it blows off wires.  It does just enough damage to stop a full on explosion.  This method preserves most of the bomb for evidence.  There was obviously some sophistication to the bombs because they had timers and something unusual for the explosive material, suggesting a level of knowledge and experience.

More to follow…

From: John Tate <john.f.tate@campaignforliberty.com>

(Just food for thought…PS takes no position on the content of this email)

SHUT UP! GO AWAY! … That’s the message the GOP establishment sent this week at their annual spring meeting in L.A. to those of us who truly believe in limited constitutional government.

Despite RNC Chairman Reince Priebus’ recent comments welcoming the liberty movement to the GOP, the establishment still wants liberty activists purged from the Party.
As you know, new rules designed to weaken grassroots activists were RAMMED through at the hands of establishment-insider lawyer Ben Ginsberg over the SCREAMING objections of rank-and-file delegates at the Republican National Convention last August in Tampa, Florida.

Virginia National Committeeman Morton Blackwell led an effort to reverse the Ginsberg power grab at this week’s spring meeting.  Unfortunately, party insiders defeated Morton Blackwell’s Resolution from clearing the Rules Committee and making it to the floor for a full vote. And when all was said and done, the RNC only overturned one of the many destructive rules passed in Tampa.  Of course, in typical establishment fashion, the RNC tried to “calm” the grassroots’ fears by tossing liberty-minded Republicans another bone.

You see, the RNC passed a Resolution honoring Ron Paul at the spring meeting – just moments before turning around and slapping his supporters in the face. After suffering an embarrassing defeat last November to the worst President in my lifetime, it looks like the Republican establishment still doesn’t get it.  It seems like the party insiders and GOP hack consultants who control the Party want the GOP to continue losing national elections to Democrats.  That’s because the establishment’s power grab in Tampa wasn’t just an attack on Ron Paul and his supporters.  It was attack on Tea Party types, Pro-Lifers, the Christian right and grassroots activists of every stripe.

But this fight is far from over.

Grassroots conservatives can – and will – attempt to overturn the Tampa power grab at the next annual RNC meeting.   The good news is, Morton Blackwell’s Resolution came just THREE VOTES shy of clearing the Rules Committee.   And even though the establishment blocked a roll call on some of the important votes that took place this week, it’s all on video. That means you and I know exactly which RNC members to turn up the heat on before the next vote takes place.

I’ll have more information in the coming weeks about our battle for the heart and soul of the GOP, but I wanted to give you a quick update of what happened at this week’s RNC spring meeting.

Together, you and I will restore constitutional principles in the Republican Party.

Why do supermarkets make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front?

How come the key word in funeral is fun?

Just wondering…

by Jack Lee

It was August 16th, 1994 and the Chico Planning Commission had just passed a controversial plan to expand the Jesus Center (local homeless shelter) over the strong objections of business owners in the downtown.   A story in the Enterprise Record opened with, “A victory for the homeless of Chico may have been won Monday night, but some feel it may come at their expense.”  Time is the great arbiter of truth.  19 years later,  it’s abundantly clear… it did come at their expense.

Continuing with the 1994 story-  Despite a large audience that had gather to oppose the expansion, the Commission went forward with the request and granted permission for the Jesus Center to expand their laundry and shower facilities, and approved their plans to add a new building with more beds behind it’s existing structure.

Only one Commissioner, Gary Short, voted no. He said at the time, he was disappointed the other commissioners had not voted with him.  He felt the other commissioners bought into the emotional side and rejected the hard facts.  Opposing Short was Commissioners Kirk Monfort, Scott Gruendl, Celia McAdam and Brenda Crotts. Attorney Rick Keene (and then council candidate) was prepared to vote yes, but he had excuse himself because of a conflict of interest.  He had represented the Center in a legal matter.

Prior to the vote a large group of business owners had vehemently protested expanding the Center, saying any expansion would act like a magnet for the homeless, but what was worse was the location on Park Avenue.   They said it was too close to downtown and they felt the homeless would drift from the shelter into the downtown and cause problems. Their position was the shelter shouldn’t even be located there in the first place. Keene urged the Commissioners to approve the expansion and said, “We as a city have to take care of our people”.

Keene spoke as if we could somehow magically throw a bubble over the City and care only for the needy from Chico, but not attract homeless from outside the Chico area. Another Council candidate recognized the reality, but didn’t care. Then Candidate Stephen T. Davis said, “Of course it will attract transients, but argued…” that a neighborhood that didn’t want to feed and clean the poor was morally rotten to begin with.”

The business owners were adamant in their opposition!   ”My business is the toilet for Park Avenue!” quipped Barbara Easter who talked about the human filth she has to clean up almost daily.   Scott Mulholland, owner of a neighboring car lot said the increased accommodations would increase foot and vehicle traffic in an already overburdened area. Katy Thoma, the center’s director, responded to this by saying the poor didn’t drive cars. (According to the ER story this angered the opponents in the audience who yelled back at her)

Fast forward to April, 2013: The homeless population has grown exponentially and so have the associated problems. Calls for police, reports of filth, vandalism, drunks, stabbings, and widespread aggressive panhandling have all taken a heavy toll on the downtown economy and our public safety resources. This has worked out just as the original protesters said it would.

Here we are once again, with many people, but this time citizens, shoppers and business owners alike, all protesting the bums in the downtown. It seem history is repeating itself. Our council has resoted to special hearings in which the advocates for expanding tax funded facilities were given extensive time to present their case and protesters were denied the customary 3 minutes and limited to 1 minute in rebuttal time. The council is being schooled that they way to improve the homeless problem is to build more facilities. This is coming from people of the same mindset as those in 1994. Scott Gruendl, one of the original Commissioners that approved the expansion is now Councilman Gruendl, we wonder if he has learned from his past mistakes?

Since 1994 two more shelters have been established and it seems the more we build, the more that show up from outside the area to take advantage.

The new advocates for the homeless, and some of the old ones too, would now like to build another and much larger homeless shelter.  They also want the taxpayers to provide for permanent low income housing and adult day care centers, so the homeless wouldn’t gather in the downtown or chase customers away with their aggressive panhandling.  Obviously these outspoken people have learned nothing from our history, but I wonder if the voters of Chico have?

Posted by Tina

Read the full article here.

Posted by Tina

Here’s a story out of Texas that illustrates the nutty and unlawful abuse of power atmosphere that gun rights activists create when they gin up “gun violence” mania…Patrick Howley, The Daily Caller:

The conflict between law enforcement and armed military personnel in the community around Fort Hood, one of America’s largest military bases, has recently and repeatedly involved the issue of gun control — and the tension has been exacerbated in part by an Obama-supporting prosecutor described as a “bandleader” of anti-gun efforts in the heavily conservative community.

The conflict reached a fever pitch last month, when Texas police arrested an active-duty Army sergeant for “rudely displaying” a hunting rifle. The sergeant, C.J. Grisham, established an online legal defense fund after he was, in his words, “illegally arrested and disarmed” for carrying the firearm.

“While out hiking with my son through backcountry roads to help him earn his Eagle Scout rank, I was illegally arrested and disarmed without cause. I was thrown in jail and my lawfully owned weapons were confiscated without receipt or notice,” Grisham wrote on the website for the defense fund.

You won’t believe what the local officer said to the sergeant: “In this day and age, [people] are alarmed when they see someone with what you have,” one of the officers tells Grisham in the video. “They don’t care what the law is.”

Posted by Tina

PJ Media, in service to America and liberty, brings a must read tribute to Margaret Thatcher from a man who lived in the Ukraine as a teen and spent free time listening to Voice of America or the BBC Russian Service on a short wave radio. His admiration for Thatcher and Reagan serves as a reminder…turns out he’s also an artist (see Thatcher, right). An excerpt:

Gradually, the news sank in: if Britain was indeed a socialist state, then everything we were told about the outside world was a lie. And not just any lie — it was an inconceivably monstrous, colossal lie, which our Communist Party and the media thoroughly maintained, apparently, to prevent us from asking these logical questions: if the Brits also had free, cradle-to-grave entitlements like we did, then why were we still fighting the Cold War? And what was the purpose of the Iron Curtain? Was it to stop us from collectively surrendering to the Brits, so that their socialist government could establish the same welfare state on our territory — only with more freedom and prosperity minus the Communist Party?

The next logical question would be this: if Great Britain wasn’t yet as socialist as the Soviet Union, then didn’t it mean that whatever freedom, prosperity, and working economy it had left were directly related to having less socialism? And if less socialism meant a freer, more productive, and more prosperous nation, then wouldn’t it be beneficial to have as little socialism as possible? Or perhaps — here’s a scary thought — to just get rid of socialism altogether?

Imagine huddling behind closed doors in your home and listening to the banned radio broadcasts from the West in defiance of the authorities…imagine a strong desire to hear something that sounded authentic…imagine the presence of an innate longing to be free!