Free Republic

Eight children a day are killed in this country by guns, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Those poor babies:

It seems the Army general knows nothing of the group and less about civic duty.

I wonder about his connection to Mexico.

Nah. He's just scared:

Busca Fox planta rusa para helicópteros

Jorge Alejandro Medellín
El Universal
Ciudad de México
Domingo 06 de junio de 2004

El mandatario mexicano busca se consolide el segundo complejo en Hidalgo y Veracruz para el ensamble de unidades militares serie Mil Mi, con la visita de Vladimir Putin

15:05 El presidente Vicente Fox buscará concretar un acuerdo comercial y tecnológico con el gobierno de Rusia, para que éste instale en Hidalgo y Veracruz plantas de maquinaria pesada para la industria militar, ensamble y mantenimiento de helicópteros de guerra de la serie Mil Mi.

Esto sucederá durante la primera visita de Estado que realizará a México el mandatario de Rusia, Vladimir Putin, en la que podría consolidarse la instalación de la segunda planta de armado de helicópteros de guerra, dado que en Campeche operan desde el 2001 los hangares del consorcio lituano Avia Baltika, que desde 1998 surte de material aéreo a la Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional (Sedena), a la Armada de México y a la Policía Federal Preventiva (PFP).

Avia Baltika, que inició operaciones en hangares de la Armada en Campeche, controla a la empresa "Kazan Helicopter", encargada de dar mantenimiento aquí a las aeronaves militares de las dependencias mencionadas.

El pasado miércoles, durante una gira de trabajo por Ciudad Sahún, Hidalgo, el presidente Vicente Fox adelantó su intención de firmar acuerdos con el gobierno ruso para instalar en México una de maquinaria pesada para la industria militar, y otra para el mantenimiento y ensamble de helicópteros bélicos.

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TRANSLATION

Fox wants to expand military ties with Russia
BY JOHN RICE/Associated Press
El Universal
Viernes 04 de junio de 2004
Nuestro mundo, página 7

THE PRESIDENT SAYS THE PRINCIPLE TOPIC OF TALKS WITH RUSSIAN PRESIDENT PUTIN WILL BE MORE COOPERATION ON MAKING HELICOPTERS.

President Vicente Fox says his country hopes to expand military cooperation with Russia, assembling some Russian helicopters here and importing a mixed civilian-military factory. Speaking in the state of Hidalgo on Wednesday, Fox said the arms issue would be "a principal topic" in talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is scheduled to arrive on Monday. Fox gave few details, but said possible projects include "the installation of a large maintenance center for helicopters" as the first step in a plan to assemble helicopters in the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz.

The president said he also hoped to sign an agreement with Putin for a plant that would assemble heavy machinery "for the military industry, heavy machinery for the construction industry, heavy and transport machinery for various uses that occur in a dynamic economy." Fox said that factory was intended for Ciudad Sahagun, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Mexico City. The president mentioned the arms plans briefly during a speech dedicated to regional economic development. Mexico largely avoided Russian equipment during the Cold War.

But since the collapse of the Soviet Bloc, it has begun to adopt some Russian equipment, which is less expensive than that sold by the neighboring United States or most European suppliers. The Air Force and Navy operate at least 56 Russian-made transport helicopters, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Retired Gen. Luis Garcías Magaña, a former federal congressman, said Mexico would have to carefully study which Russian material should be made here, "not because it is bad, but because the investment is very high." "Weapons and helicopters that is complicated because you not only have to bring the factory but also bring experts, as they did with former Soviets in Cuba, to train Mexican personnel." He noted that such factories often can be used for civilian production as well. "From the practical point of view, the Mexican armed forces don't need huge things." Marco Vicenzino, a Latin America specialist at the IISS Washington office, said the projects were not likely to create a problem with the United States. "You're not talking missiles here," he said. "I don't see any major threat." "It just gives competition for the market."

SOP for gangs where I'm from...no access to firearms so it's off to the local hardware store for a shiny new chinese machette...

You can do better than that. Much, MUCH better....

More info here.

That said, folks keep talking about these Minutemen being "armed" -- the heaviest artillery I've seen in photos is what appears to be a 1911 on an older gentleman's hip.

Look LOTS closer. There's some serious hardware available if they need it, but nobody seems to be posturing by waving it around until they do.

Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) Loves His Team America Minuteman T-Shirt!

Guys like this is all it takes to close a section of border.

That's the photo used on the Fox News O'reilly Factor TV report on the MMP last night.

I just got my copy in today's mail. Thanks for the heads-up!

Maybe someone a-hole has with the brains to think of it, but lacking the moral restraint to stop him from actually doing it, has finally slithered out of the ooze.

I'll bet I can describe this guy to a 'T'.

I really hope you're wrong. But it seems that there may be a pattern of such recent shootings.

Question is, are the methods and motivation also of similar origins?

That's near me, I'm in Fenton, MO!

There've also been a series of similar highway shootings in the Memphis, TN area....

Someone making coordinated testruns, perhaps?

So he can bag two game wardens, seven hunders, and a cow?

Only if he's out poisoning pigeons in the park.

[And maybe he'll do in a squirrel or two...]

It means that Kerry bought the hunting gear TODAY.....just for the photo-op. The VP is making the point that Kerry obviously doesn't hunt if he had to run out and buy gear to do it in. Capiche?

Another interesting point: Since Kerry had the photo-op photogs waiting to get their pics, and spent less than two hopurs afield with his party to get their birds, did they have pre-killed geese on hand as props for the occasion? Or was he hunting over a grain-baited area to eliminate any chance of returning empty-handed?

TITLE 16, CHAPTER 7, SUBCHAPTER II § 703

§ 703. Taking, killing, or possessing migratory birds unlawful Release date: 2004-04-30

Unless and except as permitted by regulations made as hereinafter provided in this subchapter, it shall be unlawful at any time, by any means or in any manner, to pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill, attempt to take, capture, or kill, possess, offer for sale, sell, offer to barter, barter, offer to purchase, purchase, deliver for shipment, ship, export, import, cause to be shipped, exported, or imported, deliver for transportation, transport or cause to be transported, carry or cause to be carried, or receive for shipment, transportation, carriage, or export, any migratory bird, any part, nest, or eggs of any such bird, or any product, whether or not manufactured, which consists, or is composed in whole or part, of any such bird or any part, nest, or egg thereof, included in the terms of the conventions between the United States and Great Britain for the protection of migratory birds concluded August 16, 1916 (39 Stat. 1702), the United States and the United Mexican States for the protection of migratory birds and game mammals concluded February 7, 1936, the United States and the Government of Japan for the protection of migratory birds and birds in danger of extinction, and their environment concluded March 4, 1972 [1] and the convention between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics for the conservation of migratory birds and their environments concluded November 19, 1976.

I'm in the midst of redoing my 1022 as a bullpup (basically, so as to not interfere with my mojo re: my bullpupped AK47)
I don't like the feel of the Muzzelite kits I have handled, so I'm scratchbuilding it.
Input on mat'ls would be appreciated.
I'm having a devil of a time finding plank hardwood. Oak is not too heavy for a 1022?

What a clever idea.

The Krinker Plinker available from C&S Metall-Werkes would seem a good starting point. In a bullpup configuration, a full-length or bull-target 10/22 barrel could be used without sacrificing compactness. The ejection arc remains problematic for the Southpaws, however.

The local story should be referenced, as it seems closer to an un-spun account of an interview, than what the AP put together using it, with other matterial and spin added.

Hell, the AP can't even get his home town right.

Local newspaper accounts are usually the source of AP reports, as supplied by local newspapers that are AP members. The AP is nothing more or less than a co-op service of those member papers.

Another interesting question: Where is the PCF-94 now? Was it one of the boats abandoned to the North Vietnamese on 30 April 1975? Or one of those "rescued" by the South Vietnamese Navy and one maverick US Naval advisor to their riverine force, most of which were transferred to the naval forces of the Phillipines?

My bet is that nobody wants to golooking under that particular rock, knowing what it could lead to.

I'd start with a small one and work my way up.

Entry level M18 57MM Recoilless Rifle.

Would you consider 73mm SPG-9, little brother of main gun armament of the old BMP-1 and BMD-1 personnel carriers, to be similar startup equipment?

The air groweth crisp.

Indeed.

The great guns slay from a league away, the death- bolts fly unseen,
And bellowing hill replies to hill, machine to brute machine,
But still in the end when the long lines bend and the battle hangs in doubt,
They take to the steel in the same old way that their fathers fought it out.

It is man to man and breast to breast and eye to bloodshot eye
And the reach and twist of the thrusting wrist,
as it was in the days gone by!
Along the shaken hills the guns their drumming thunder roll --
But the keen blades thrill with the lust to kill that leaps from the slayer's soul!

For hand and heart and living steel, one pulse of hate they feel.
Is your clan afraid of the naked blade?
Does it flinch from the bitter steel?
Perish your dreams of conquest then, your swollen hopes and bold,
For empire dwells with the stabbing blade, as it did in the days of old!

Donald Robert Perry Marquis, The Bayonet

I'd take a Sig GSR!

If you ever get the opportunity, try out a SIG 210 sometime. Superb.

dread78645 gave me the link to opensecrets.org which is also a great site. I posted the list of contributors on my Hillary web site.

Thank you! Go get 'em!

The Glock 17, the first model introduced, was designed as a replacement for the Austrian Military's alumunum-framed Walther P1, the 1960s/70s version of the WWII German P.38 9mm service pistol. Since the P1/P.38 was a double-action or trigger-cocking design, the Austrian military required a user-friendly safety that rendered the pistol reasonably safe for military use, as per the hammer-dropping thumb safety of the P1.

Since the Glock had eliminated the external hammer of the pre-WWII Walther design, a simple trigger and striker blocking mechanism was sufficient, enough to prevent discharge of the chambered round if the weapon was dropped, as from a tank turret onto the steel chassis below, or by a pilot in the cockpit of his aircraft onto a concrete airfield ramp below. The German G3 rifle accomplishes this with a trigger pull in the 8-15 pound pull range, not a practical approach with a handgun, just as the US M1911A1 .45 pistol used a grip safety to obviate the possible problem, as does the German-issue MP2 Uzi submachinegun.

Those military services that issue handguns in fairly large quantities usually try to limit the possibility of such incidents by requiring the weapons to be carried with the chamber unloaded. That restriction is immediately disregarded by serious frontline troops, who pop one up the pipe just as soon as the rear echelon MPs and officers fade away from the combat areas. So too do the Austrians seem to take things more seriously: both the Austrian Jagdkommando troopers and the AustriaAir Air Marshals I've run across carried their Glocks with a round chambered.

Neither do I mind doing so, given a decently designed and constructed holster.

Does anyone know where to find the list of campaign contributors by name and amount. I don't see a database on FEC.gov.

Here's some related info for you:

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D-NY)

Top Contributors

1 Citigroup Inc $138,900

2 International Profit Assoc $120,999

3 Kushner Companies $115,000

4 Goldman Sachs $104,670

5 Metropolitan Life $97,500

6 Walt Disney Co $78,850

7 Time Warner $75,100

8 Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $70,075

9 Viacom Inc $63,525

10 Skadden, Arps et al $62,850

11 Cablevision Systems $58,950

12 EMILY's List $53,775

13 PaineWebber $51,000

14 Credit Suisse First Boston $48,500

15 Kirkland & Ellis $47,500

16 US Government $44,250

17 Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu $42,350

18 General Electric $41,650

19 Bear Stearns $39,650

20 Patton Boggs LLP $39,000

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FEC info on Kushner personal contributions to Hillary 2000 Senate campaign

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FEC info on other Hillary/2000 Senate campaign contributions

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N.J. Governor's Top Fund-Raiser Charged

By STEVE STRUNSKY
The Associated Press

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - Gov. James E. McGreevey's top donor Real estate developer Charles Kushner engaged a call girl to have sex with a witness, had someone videotape them, and then sent the man's wife a copy of the tape, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie said Tuesday.

Kushner was trying to discourage the witness, a former employee, from cooperating further in a criminal investigation of Kushner for possible tax fraud and illegal campaign contributions, Christie said.

Christie said Kushner hired two prostitutes in December for $25,000 and had also targeted a second witness, also a former employee, but that witness declined the prostitute's advances.

"There is nothing, nothing more sacrosanct than the integrity of the grand jury system," Christie said.

Kushner, 50, was charged of conspiracy, obstructing a federal investigation and promoting prostitution. He posted $5 million bail and was ordered to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet.

"We are saddened to hear of the allegations," McGreevey spokeswoman Kathy Ellis said. "It would be inappropriate, however, to comment further on matters unrelated to this office."

Kushner did not speak in court and had no comment outside the courthouse.

"Charles Kushner is one of the most respected business leaders in the community and widely known as a very generous philanthropist," his lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said in a statement.

"The charges filed today are entirely baseless. Mr. Kushner is confident that once the facts are fully disclosed in a courtroom he will be completely exonerated."

Last month, Kushner was fined $508,900 by the Federal Election Commission for improperly contributing money to political candidates in the names of his companies.

Since his first gubernatorial campaign in 1997, McGreevey has received at least $369,050 from Kushner, family members and employees of Kushner's firm. The money accounts for nearly 5 percent of the $7.9 million in donations McGreevey has raised in the last decade. Kushner has also solicited donations from friends and business associates.

In February 2003, Kushner withdrew as McGreevey's nominee to head the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. At the time, Kushner was the target of lawsuits contending he improperly used business funds for personal and political purposes.

Kushner denied any wrongdoing and McGreevey refused to back away from the appointment despite months of questions about the nominee's background and campaign donations.

Christie said Tuesday's indictment is not related at all to McGreevey.

"There is absolutely nothing in this criminal complaint which has anything to do with the governor of New Jersey," Christie said.

Last week a federal indictment charged another McGreevey fund-raiser with extortion, alleging he demanded money to help a farmer get a favorable sale price for his land in a farmland preservation program.

Although McGreevey himself was not mentioned by name, the governor has said he believes he is the "State Official 1" referred to repeatedly in the indictment.

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Corzine to give up funds from Kushner

Investigative Report: Another Clinton Scandal Coming?

Yep. Sure looks like it...

See Number Seven, for Hillary Connection info.

Follow the money...