I'm moving to Florida!

Wait. I'm already in Florida, not that you'd know it by this morning's low of 24 degrees. Thank gawd for global warming is all I can say. Who knows how much colder it might have been without all these greenhouse gasses heating up the planet.

Quotable Quotes

"[I}t's pretty rich that Hillary can presume to tell us all what to do -- and criticize President Bush for not getting our intelligence right on Iraq -- when she couldn't even manage her husband, and didn't have wits enough, or so she claims, to know about her husband's affairs." -- Clint Johnson

Question:

Why is Doyle acting even stranger than she usually does?

Clue:



Via: Word Puzzle

Guard The Borders Blogburst

By Heidi Thiess


We are still closely watching the Border Patrol case, especially after last week's explosive news that the DHS had lied to Congressmen who were looking into the case. Close on the heels of that shocking revelation, we noted that US Attorney Johnny Sutton, the prosecutor in this case, has lied openly and repeatedly about this case to the media. In an effort to counter Sutton's lies, here is one of his favorite public statements about Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean deconstructed:

"These guys did very serious crimes and once anybody who knows all the facts of this case — the fact that they shot at an unarmed guy 15 times, lied about it, covered it up, destroyed the evidence ... it's hard for me to imagine a prosecutor would look the other way," he said.

1. It has not been proven that the drug smuggler was unarmed. Sutton has been unable to prove it, yet he states it like it's a fact. Furthermore, two of the drug smuggler's own family members have made statements that he has been running drugs since he was 13 or 14 and has never smuggled drugs without being armed.

2. Compean and Ramos DID NOT LIE about shooting the drug smuggler. They didn't know that they had until almost a month later! And it's still not proven that Ramos is the one who shot the drug smuggler.

3. The DID NOT try to "cover it up". They verbally reported to their superiors that they fired their weapons.

4. They DID NOT destroy evidence. Sutton has been harping on this because he claims that the site of the shooting was a "crime scene" and that the BP agents knowingly altered the scene of the crime by picking up their shell casings. That is FALSE. The agents, including the agents that were with them at the time of the shooting, did NOT designate the area a crime scene, since they did NOT know that the drug smuggler had been shot.

5. In fact, far from lying about the incident or "covering it up", Ramos and Compean followed procedures exactly:

U.S. Border Patrol firearms policy specifically states that agents are prohibited from filing a report if a shooting incident takes place and that only an oral report to supervisors is required.

"Ensure that supervisory personnel or INS investigating officers are aware that employees involved in a shooting incident shall not be required or allowed to submit a written statement of the circumstances surrounding the incident," according to the firearms policy. "All written statements regarding the incident shall be prepared by the local INS investigating officers and shall be based upon an interview of the INS employee."

INS refers to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which oversaw the Border Patrol prior to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. The shooting policy has remained unchanged.

Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General documents obtained by the paper show that all nine agents on the scene at the time of the shooting - including two supervisors - knew shots had been fired.

Oscar Garcia, El Paso Border Patrol Union representative with Local 1929 and a firearms instructor, said that the Report of Apprehension or Seizure filed by Compean and Ramos on the day of the incident was accurate. Garcia stated that the agent's omission of the shooting in the drug seizure report followed firearms policy.

"Our own policy prohibits them from filing any report on the shooting incident," Garcia said. "The U.S. Attorney's assertion that they covered up the incident by not filing a report is ridiculous."

6. On Saturday, it was further revealed that two of the Border Patrol agents that had testified on behalf of the prosecution against Ramos and Compean also lied in their testimony during the trial.

Two Border Patrol agents who testified against two co-workers convicted of shooting a drug smuggler will be fired for changing their stories about events surrounding the shooting, according to documents obtained by the Daily Bulletin.

Sources inside the Border Patrol also say Oscar Juarez, a third agent who testified against Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, resigned from the agency last month shortly before he was to be fired.

All three agents gave sworn testimony against Ramos and Compean for the U.S. Attorney's Office, which successfully prosecuted the shooting case in March. The agents were given immunity in exchange for their testimony despite changing their accounts of the incident several

"When you give deals to witnesses like immunity, the government usually gets the testimony (it wants)," said Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, a former judge and prosecutor. "This case is a perfect example."

What else is Johnny Sutton up to, besides being a bald-faced liar and coercing others to lie? As we've already reported in our previous coverage, he's an over-zealous prosecutor of American law enforcement officers who are doing their best to protect America and themselves from coyotes, drug smugglers, and the other criminals turning our borders into a war zone. Ramos and Compean are not Sutton's only victims:

A Texas deputy sheriff who fired shots at a fleeing vehicle after the driver tried to run him down faces 10 years in prison for injuring one of the passengers, a Mexican national being smuggled illegally into the United States.

The U.S. attorney, who won lengthy prison terms last year for two U.S. Border Patrol agents in the shooting of a drug-smuggling suspect, also prosecuted Edwards County Deputy Sheriff Guillermo F. Hernandez, who is to be sentenced next month.

The deputy's boss, Sheriff Donald G. Letsinger, said his officer -- who had been on the job for a year -- "followed the letter of the law" in defending himself in the April 2005 incident and questioned why the government brought charges.

"This is a fine young man, and I just don't believe he committed the wrong of which he was accused," Sheriff Letsinger said. "I have never had anything hurt me so badly as this prosecution. We've got to make this right."

Rep. Ted Poe, Texas Republican, called the prosecution and conviction of Hernandez, known to his friends as "Gilmer," "another example of how the federal government is more concerned about people [who are] illegally invading America than it is about the men who protect America."

"Once again, our government is on the wrong side of the border war," Mr. Poe said.

The deputy's Dec. 1 conviction has enraged his hometown of Rocksprings, Texas, population 1,250, where "Free Gilmer" signs have been posted. The Baptist church is paying the deputy's mortgage and others have come up with costs for the family's truck, propane and water bills. Hernandez, 25, and his wife, Ashley, have a 4-month-old daughter.

"The town is outraged that this has happened to our deputy," said the Rev. Albert Green, pastor at the First Baptist Church. "Those people were in this country illegally, and they tried to run him down. They were the criminals, but the prosecutors made our deputy out to be the criminal."

"I do not know a single person who doesn't feel Gilmer was prosecuted for doing his job," said Mr. Green, who is the deputy's pastor. "I do not know a finer, more well-behaved gentleman. He would not purposely or willfully hurt anyone."

U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, appointed in October 2001 by President Bush, said Hernandez fired shots at the vehicle as it sped away "knowing it was occupied with the nine individuals," at least seven of whom were illegal aliens -- some of whom later were called to testify for the government.

Hernandez was convicted after a jury trial in U.S. District Court in Del Rio, Texas, 75 miles southwest of Rocksprings -- found guilty of violating "under the color of law" the civil rights of Maricela Rodriguez-Garcia, a Mexican national.

Furthermore, those same illegals LIED about Hernandez shooting at them after they crashed their vehicle and fled on foot:

Sheriff Letsinger also said the Rangers and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents, using dogs and metal detectors, found four shell casings at the traffic stop site but none at the crash site -- discounting claims by two of the vehicle's occupants that Hernandez fired shots at them as they fled the vehicle.

Nevertheless, Sutton treated the testimony of illegals already proven to be liars as inviolable, while painting Hernandez as a "rogue cop" (sound familiar?) and has imprisoned Hernandez for doing his job. But it doesn't stop there. Sutton has a very dirty track record. In 2004, in an effort to protect one of his star witnesses - a Mexican informant - he covered up the informant's participation in 15 tortures and murders at the "House of Death" in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.

Apparently, no crime is too vile for Sutton when it comes to protecting his informants. Just as he protected the notorious drug smuggler Aldrete-Davila and provided whim with taxpayer funded benefits such as a vehicle and a green card, so he has previously protected and paid off an informant that he KNOWS is a mass murderer. In fact, Sutton's office has gone to great lengths to conceal the heinous crimes of their informant and have moved him frequently to keep him away from other American law enforcement agencies, such as the DEA. Furthermore, Sutton has been involved in making huge payments in "hush money" to this informant - over $50,000 - which was disguised as a payment to a different informant who was already dead. Now Sutton has gone to his high-level contacts inside the Department of Justice (I've previously revealed his insider connections with Alberto Gonzales and George Bush) in order to shut down a DEA officer who is brought serious charges against Sutton for his complicity in covering up torture and murder.

Several sources within the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of ICE, confirmed that the informant Lalo was moved around frequently after DEA was forced to evacuate its agents from Juarez and the full extent of his – and the ICE agents’ and U.S. prosecutor’s – complicity in the murders became known to DEA.

“They (the ICE agents and U.S. prosecutor Juanita Fielden) couldn’t get rid of him (Lalo), so they tried to control him, and they moved him from place to place, to Albuquerque (N.M.) then to San Antonio (Texas), so no one could talk to him,” one source says.

Then, the first hints of the informant’s role in the murders in Juárez hit the media in the spring of 2004, and the cover-up went into full swing, according to sources. The problem is that the informant Lalo had leverage because of what he knew. He was demanding more money, sources indicate.

That’s what allegedly led one of Lalo’s ICE handlers, a high-level supervisor in El Paso, sometime between March and June of 2004, to put a payment through to him using a dead informant’s “source number,” which is a number assigned to all confidential sources in order to keep their identity concealed.

Although it is not clear how much money was given to Lalo through this means, sources indicate that it was discovered by someone at ICE headquarters in Washington, D.C. The sources add that because the payment required headquarters’ approval, the amount likely exceeded $50,000.

“The confidential informant (Lalo) said the government owed him money,” one source says. “They decided they better pay him or he would start talking.”

According to law enforcement sources, a high-level ICE supervisor in El Paso allegedly sent out the word to members of his staff that no one was to cooperate with any investigation into the informant’s role in the murders, or they would face discipline. Ironically, that supervisor has since been promoted, sources indicate.

To date, no one directly involved in overseeing the informant has been brought up on criminal charges, at least no such charges have been publicly announced. One field agent has been put on administrative leave, however. Law enforcers familiar with the case believe that Hispanic agent, unless he has documentation to prove otherwise, will likely be the only person set up to take the fall.
Any investigation into U.S. prosecutors in this matter, of course, would have to go through Sutton’s office – absent the appointment of a special prosecutor – or through the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which is under the charge of San Antonio native Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Given those realities, most law enforcers who spoke with Narco News believe that, absent intervention by Congress, nearly everyone involved will get a pass on the House of Death murders.

“If Sandy Gonzalez or I had done something like this, we’d be in prison,” says a former high-ranking DEA official who asked to remain anonymous. “When a U.S. attorney is incompetent, there are no sanctions. You have the Department of Justice that is supposed to control these U.S. Attorneys, but they don’t when it comes down to nut-cutting.”

As for Sandalio Gonzalez, he can’t believe justice is being sacrificed in this case, that some 15 murdered people are deemed expendable for the sake of salvaging careers and promoting political ambitions.

“If someone in Congress is not willing to take a stand on this, the nation as a whole loses some integrity in the process,” he stresses. “This isn’t about national security, spies or intelligence work, this is police work, right here. There are bodies out there.”

All the details of the above case are presented here. There is no crime to vile - not drug smuggling, not torture, and not mass murder - for U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton to overlook in order to further his career. How many lives does he get to destroy with impunity before he's held accountable? U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton is a despicable and incredibly corrupt individual. And because of his long-held and close ties with President George W. Bush, and U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and other high-ranking Texas politicians in D.C., Johnny Sutton gets a free pass for crimes that would put any other American into prison for the rest of their lives! Who is paying Johnny Sutton for his crimes?

---

This has been a production of the Guard the Borders syndicate. It was started by Euphoric Reality to educate the public about the vulnerabilities of our open borders during an age of global terrorism and the resultant threat to our national security and sovereignty. If you are concerned about the lapses in our national security and the socio-economic burden of unchecked illegal immigration, join our blog syndicate. Send an email with your blog name and url to admin at guardtheborders dot com.

Dear Nico,

Thank you for your February 8 email concerning this post. You wrote, "You might see fit to mention this point while commenting on Pelosi's aircraft issues. We've been covering the story all week," and you even included a link to "Hastert Used Military Aircraft To Fly Foley Page Scandal Figure To Washington."

That's just so danged thoughtful of you, especially as busy as you are.

That you even noticed this tiny little blog of mine much less took the time to write to me . . . really, I'm almost speechless. Almost, but not quite.

Consider it mentioned, purple prose headline and all.

<snicker>

The headline of the Think Progress story you, as one of its assistant editors and perhaps the story's author, emailed, makes it clear just how desperately you want to try to distract from "Pelosi's aircraft issues." Why else would <gasp> "Foley Page Scandal" be relevent much less the need for the word (cue the ominous music) "Figure" in the headline.

Such imagery conveyed with only a few words! Like . . . uh, the Runaway Bride, maybe? A towel draped over this mysterious "figure's" head to hide their identity? I commend you, Nico! Such a similarity in tone to a headline I saw at the grocery store the other day: "Space Aliens Ate My Baby's Brain."

Anyway, interestingly enough, as the Think Progress piece noted in regular font but drowned in the surrounding sea of text in BOLD (So that readers would skim by it?), the "Foley Page Scandal Figure" was none other than Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), who happened to be chair of the board overseeing the page program at the time. And like Hastert, <gasp> also IN Illinois.

So, with the Lefty-Loons and media hyping "Foleygate," the military aircraft taking Hastert back to Washington from Illinois, makes a stop at another Air Force Base in Illinois, to pick up the guy in charge of the page program, too.

Can you imagine?

I can imagine how you would have spun it if Shimkus hadn't been in Washington because he was still waiting for a connecting flight: Bush Orders Hastert To Delay Appearance by Page Scandal Witness.

Feel free to email me again, Nico. Any time.

Wet

It was sprinkling when I dashed into the grocery store around noon yesterday. The weatherjerks were predicting we'd be getting "weather" starting later in the day and I wanted to be home if, for a change, they were right.

For a change they were.

I'd just come in from feeding Nuthatch (The Horse) when the rain began falling. Nothing bad but it had picked up when a sister-in-law who lives over by Tampa called around 6:30. By 7 when I talked to Da Kid who was on duty in South Georgia, it was really starting to come down. And then, the bottom dropped out.

No wind to speak of, but listening to the roaring rain outside and the occasional plink-plink-plinkity-plink (Hail?) I realized I hadn't heard anything like that since the 2004 hurricanes.

By 8:30 the ground by the back steps was under water. And then, except for showers during the night, it was over.

It hadn't started yet for those in Central Florida where, as of right now, fourteen fatalities have been reported so far.

~~~~~Later: Nineteen now.

Brother-in-law in Ohio called a bit ago to make sure we were okay, saying he can't figure out why anyone would want to live in Florida. "You just told me you're expecting a temperature of zero degrees or less tonight," I replied. "California has earthquakes and New York, Hillary Clinton. I'm staying put, theng-que-veddy-mush."

Checking the Florida Bloggers who always put the media to shame when it comes to hurricane reporting, nothing from Florida Cracker who I believe is in the affected area.

Ain't she just so speshul!

"The office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is pressing the Bush administration for routine access to military aircraft for domestic flights, such as trips back to her San Francisco district, according to sources familiar with the discussions." -- Washington Times

Actually, I don't have a problem with that so long as the trips are to conduct government business. She is, after all, next in line after the Vice President if something happens to Dubya and with the way things are, I think the added security makes sense.

Buuuuut let's remember, this is Nancy Pelosi we're talking about.

Speaker Pelosi! The champion of minimum-wage workers everywhere . . . except in Samoa where StarKist -- in which whose parent company, Del Monte, she and her husband have stocks valued at $7 million -- is the primary and pretty much sole employer.

Speaker Pelosi! The champion of working stiffs and their right to organize . . . except in the restaurants and vineyards she and her husband own, who are precluded from union membership as a condition of employment.

Speaker Pelosi! . . .

Okay, I'll stop. You get my drift.

Madam Speaker doesn't want "on demand" military flights just for her own travel, you see.

The sources, who include those in Congress and in the administration, said the Democrat is seeking regular military flights not only for herself and her staff, but also for relatives . . .

I realize none of them would ever want to lower themselves and fly commercial and risk the possibility of <Eeeeew!> sitting next to any of the lower classes -- like you or me -- but these folk are millionaires many times over. If they don't already have their own private jet(s) (How much you wanna bet they do.) let 'em lease one. Or rent one when they need to zip around to who knows where, when, or for whut.ever reason. Let the Pelosi "family" pay for its own travel.

. . . and for other members of the California delegation.

Well, hell! Why stop with just the California delegation? Let's have free (to them since the lower classes -- you and I -- are paying the bill), military flights for all Blue-state Congresscritters! And their staffs. And families, too!

A knowledgeable source called the request "carte blanche for an aircraft any time."

And what about the environment? Kyoto? Our "carbon footprint"? All this zooming around by everybody . . . Oh, that's right. I keep forgetting. When the elites talk endlessly about everyone needing to make sacrifices for the common good, they never mean themselves. They're not "everyone."

They're speshul.

What ticks me off more than anything about this, though, is the way Madam Speaker obviously sees our military in this.

The planes she wants made available at every whim not only to herself but her entourage, her family and chronies, too, aren't military aircraft. They're nothing more than taxi cabs to her.

The personnel on them she wants at their constant beck and call aren't highly-trained specialists. They're servants who have nothing better to do, than serve Madam Speaker, her entourage, her family, and her cronies.

LATER: Nancy Pelosi is Drunk with Power, Part II

Quotable Quotes

"A bleeding heart does nothing but ruin the carpet.'' -- Betty Horton

[Bugmenot]