Every morning, my first stop in front of the computer is Day by Day. Chris Muir never fails to poke somebody’s eye (mostly the Liberal/Progressive) and is always good for a chuckle dosed heavily with real common sense. The toons that ran Sunday and yesterday might shed a bit of light in the cavernous cranium of Japete. I’ll have more on her on a later post.

According to the Charlotte Observer: The agents for the North Carolina Division of Alcohol Law Enforcement are either the unluckiest SOBs, ride their guns real hard or something might be amiss. Kimbers falling apart like cheap Hi Points in a year? And before that the same thing happened to their SIGs? But the officers were kind enough to buy the weapons for themselves before getting new ones ….. at a substantial discount. By the way, Do you want a full auto M4?

What is wrong with Revenooers?

Man killed by fighting rooster…

Colonel Sanders will be prosecuting.

Streets of Fire is one of those movies that you either like or don’t give a darn about it. It is a cinematic Music Video in an era when MTV actually played music videos. I liked the music, the atmosphere (some mythical New York-like city but without what you don’t like of NY) during what looks like the 50’s, cool cars, good and great actors beginning their careers and with 2 exceptions nothing but lever action rifles and revolvers. Walter Hill directed the movie and I came to find out he also directed some of my classics like The Warriors, Southern Comfort, Long Riders (I just watched it for  the first time 2 months ago), Crossroads and written produced or was somewhat involved in a bunch of other movies, TV shows and miniseries.

Eve though the movie was supposed to ride on the fame of Michael Pare, just fresh from the hit movie Eddie and The Cruisers, my attention got caught by a couple of relative unknowns:

The bad guy was called Raven Shaddock played by Willem Dafoe. It was his second role in a movie and I cannot think of anybody back then who did not have a comment to make about him.

Make no mistake, all the characters in the movie are two dimensional, but Dafoe even back then manages to pop above and makes you think that there is something more that you need to know.

The love interest, Ellen Aim was played a very nubile Diane Lane.

During the whole thing she was nothing more than eye candy but I was not the only one that went “Whoa!” at the closing when she “sings” the centerpiece song of the movie “Tonight is what it means to be young.” She let’s herself go and she’s been in my radar ever since.

In summary, not an Oscar winner movie and Diane won the Razzie that year for worst supporting actress but I enjoy the heck out of the darn thing. Any movie with classic cars, classic guns, Willem Dafoe and Diane Lane can never be too bad.

In another post I showed video of Cavim (Venezuela’s Firearms and ammunition factory) going up in smoke. The intial reports that some of the ordnance was found up to four miles away apparently was inaccurate. It seems that some of the ammuniotion went as far as a thousand miles away landing in the Tolima Department of Colombia in the middle of a FARC camp as reported by the Colombian Army:

Patriot battalion troops found 1,300 rounds belonging to the FARC guerrillas in the village of El Retiro. Inspected the equipment was found that ammunition is manufactured by the Venezuelan military industry. In the same operation were found documents referring to the illegal armed organization.

I guess Venezuela’s Armament industry has advanced to levels no one ever suspected. A sure triumph for the revolution of Uncle Hugo.

By now it is out there that ATF’s forays into “controlled” deliveries of weapons to the mexican cartels might have caused the death of an a Border Patrol agent. But if the rumors are true, this is not the first time that ATF screwed the pooch at international level.  During the 90s and after their magnificent interventions in both Ruby Ridge, Waco and the scandal of the Good O’ Boy Roundup, ATF went to South America and attempted to build up cases of gun running amongst the Colombian Cartels and the US dealers to prop up their damaged reputation. Their investigations were so unprofessionally made that other federal law enforcement agencies in the region were soon complaining to D.C. about them and asking to have them removed. This was not your average inter-agency rivalry moaning and groaning but serious concern due to the well deserved reputation for bungling cases ATF had (and still has) and the fact that the “competing” agencies were used to work closely due to the reality of working in dangerous countries where their lives were literally at stake every second made and silly bureaucratic jealousy was likely to kill agents.

Again this is a rumor heard through federal Law Enforcement grapevines and other sources, but the almost-worst case scenario did come to pass, ATF meddled were they were told not to and not only ruined a major drug case but also almost cost the life of an agent. It is said that the country head of the agency whose agent almost got killed was so incensed, he promised that he would shoot any ATF agent in country on sight. Soon after ATF was sent back to the El Norte and ceasing all operations in and about South America other than being used to trace weapons from the comfort of their Washington headquarters. Still, the other agencies were pretty pissed about ATF and began lobbying on their own to have them disbanded and somebody else to absorb ATF responsibilities. Supposedly ATF was pretty much in the bag with lots of congressional backing to make them go away when 9-11 happened and they were spared from the chopping block. Somebody said that the two great winners of 9-11 were Bin Laden and ATF and that is some nasty stuff to say but reflects the respect that ATF has amongst almost all levels of our society…..other than the L.A. Times, Washington Post, N.Y. Times and some selected members of Congress.

As for the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, common sense would indicate that ATF is directly responsible for his death by providing his murderer with the weapon used. Also that ATF is responsible for any and all deaths that have occurred by using such “controlled” weapons. The Attorney General should be right now in deep investigation and the agents involved suspended without pay pending charges for Murder and/or Manslaughter just like any other citizen. The truth is that we will not see such prosecutions since the Government whitewash and the media spin has already started. At the most, they will get a slap on the wrist and a verbal spanking for their deeds. One must remember that the ultimate goal for the ATF was not to interdict gun trafficking to Mexico but to restrict gun sales to law abiding civilians and the current administration will make sure that it remains the same. The best indicator of future behavior is past behavior and we saw this type of cover and burial of bad actions during the last Democratic Administration. Back then Wayne LaPierre said something that I am sure it will apply in the very near future:

“I’ve come to believe he (Clinton) needs a certain level of violence in this country. He is willing to accept a certain level of killing to further his political agenda. The vice president, too. How else can you explain this dishonesty we get out of the administration?