You can't cheat an honest man....

Or so the saying goes. Billy Allen Fletcher claims he was an innocent dupe in what has turned into a Federal white collar crime investigation into a "Pump and Dump" scheme allegedly undertaken by Lois Newman and her son in law "Nick" Jarvis. Mind you, Fletcher is a former Sergeant with HPD's White Collar Crime division, so you'd think he would know better right? Fletcher claims that prior to the NuTech deal in May of 2007, he was heavily indebted and had borrowed hundreds of thousands of dollars from a number of people in order to just make payroll at his company, RPM. He also admits that he knew that his business partner had a felony record but that he had no reason to think that he was not legitimate. Apparently Nick Jarvis explained it all away. Oh, and let's not forget that he ran afoul of Nick's brother trying to do the same thing a couple years earlier but wised up and backed out of the deal. Nick's brother also had a felony record too apparently.

I guess this falls under the category of "situational ethics". When you are broke and about to go bankrupt, getting involved with a shady deal might not be so bad after all....

But here is the thing that really gets me: He still owes a lot of people a lot of money that he borrowed back in 2007. And the feds have essentially shut down NuTech, so he can't possibly be making money from there. So just how exactly is it that he managed to fund a campaign for the State Lege, and then managed to keep himself out of bankruptcy while spending six months every other year up in Austin running his mouth? they don't pay legislators squat, so who is paying his bills while he's up in Austin shooting off his mouth?

The Death of New Orleans is Assured

Back in May 2005, and again in November 2005 and again in May 2008, I posted articles in the "Death of New Orleans" series chronicling the levee failures and the causes of those failures. In all of those articles, I stated emphatically that the only way that New Orleans could ever be classified as safe was if the low lying areas were backfilled to above sea level before rebuilding. The alternative was that New Orleans, or at least the low lying areas, had to be abandoned. There is no way in which a levee can ensure that there will not be more loss of life due to catastrophic flooding.
A panel of the US National Academy of Engineering has arrived at that very same opinion.

In Search Of.... A job...

Not for me mind you but for a good friend of mine who recently was a victim of Obama Economics. He was a consulting IT manager for one of the big accounting/consulting firms. He was working as a consultant to one of the large retail chains. He has recently been let go as a result of job cuts. If anyone knows of an opening of this sort, please let me know and I'll pass the info on.

Under Communism, The State controls the Means of Production

Under the latest scheme, The US government will own over 50% of GM, the UAW will own 39%, and bondholders will be left with a paltry 10%. Additionally, in the Chrysler/Fiat deal the UAW will hold 55% of Chrysler as well.

But we don't live in a communist country... or do we?

Guilty of murder, but media still tap dancing around motive.

In November 2006, Rohina Abdul Ali was bludgeoned to death in her bed while lying next to her 4 year old daughter. Rohina was an Afghan refugee who had come to the US along with her mother, brother, and 4 year old daughter. At the time, I speculated that the motive, if ever revealed, would turn out to be an honor killing. I speculated that she had found that the US is much more free and decadent than her home country. Her mother was known to be "overly protective" according to reports. Last week, the mother was found guilty of Rohina's murder and was sentenced to 75 years in her death. But the motive has still not been made public. I stand by my prior speculation. This was an honor killing, and the Chronicle is hiding that fact.

Ron Paul is NOT the Taxpayer's Best Friend

At Wednesday's Tea Party Downtown (Photos will be posted later) it was clear that a number of the speakers were huge fans of Ron Paul. He was constantly being lauded as "The Taxpayer's best friend in Washington DC" but here is the real truth of the matter: In total dollars, Dr. Paul was the second largest procurer of earmarks of all Texas Congressman. Sure he voted against the Porkulus bill, but only after it was clear it was going to pass anyway with all 21 of his earmarks attached, to the tune of $75,175,750. The only congresscritter that outspent him was a Democrat named Chet Edwards from CD17 who spent a total of $117,926,271 on 55 earmarks. This is why voting history can be so misrepresentative of a legislator's true motives. Dr. Paul is not a fiscal conservative, he is a spendthrift and he is spending YOUR MONEY TO DO IT! Anyone who tells you different is either lying or doesn't know a damned thing about what he or she is saying.

It doesn't matter what letter is behind your name, if you are spending my great-grandchildren's fortune, you will be kicking cans in 2010 if I have anything to do with it.

Special Thanks to Charlie Domino, National Secretary of The American Conservative Party for compiling the data. (Correction: Charlie informs me that he did not compile it, one of his volunteers did.)

You might be a domestic terrorist if.... (Updateded and bumped to the top.)

You have political bumper stickers on your car....
You have or distribute "subversive" literature....
You have a problem with The North American Union, or the Trans-Texas Corridor...
You support third parties like this one, or this one, or this one...
At least that is what the Missouri State Police and the Department of Homeland Security have determined.....

UPDATE:
Well, it would appear that the DHS is getting into the act as well. I feel so... radical. Don't you?

Where have I hard this before?

"Obama May Block Sun's Rays to End Global Warming"

Sounds a lot like a couple things I wrote not long ago....

When Seconds Count

During the Binghamton NY shooting, SWAT did not enter the building for 45 minutes after the first officer arrived. The Binghamton police chief is rather defensive about that. He claims that those who had been shot would not have survived if they had received prompt medical attention, but of course he has no way of knowing that for sure. But current training doctrine calls for immediate entry by the first responding officer, not setting up a perimeter and waiting. But setting up a perimeter and waiting for SWAT was exactly what Binghamton PD did. How many lives did this cost? We will never truly know. Does HPD train to enter immediately? Does HCSD? I'd be willing to bet the answer is no.

Dealing with the Devil

That is what many second tier banks have discovered that they had done when they accepted TARP money from the government. The government approached these banks with an offer they could not refuse. They were told that they MUST take the money, even though they didn't need it and didn't particularly want it, because if only the tier one banks accepted it, then it would make those banks look shaky and the Fed could not abide by the banks being made to look shakier than the rest of the banks, so the solvent banks had to take money too. Besides, the government told them that their competitors were taking the money which would put them at a competitive disadvantage if they didn't partake as well. Many of these second tier banks gritted their teeth and took the money. Now that the Obama administration is trying to use that money as an excuse to dictate how much money officers may make, and how they may run thier businesses, and WHO may run their businesses, these banks, who again didn't need nor want the money to begin with, are wanting to give the money back. But the Obama administration is refusing to take the money back.
So once again these banks learn that when you deal with Satan, you ultimately get burned.