This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Crime

  • Soldier arrested for attempting sales to cartels

    According to the Washington Times, Private First Class Luis Rafael Infantes, 21, and his father, Pedro Luis Infantes, 47 were indicted by Florida grand jury for trying to engineer the sales of night vision devices to Mexican drug dealers in a sting operation. From the Army Times;

    The FBI identified the younger Infantes as a Fort Knox, Kentucky, supply sergeant. An Army Human Resources Command spokesman said Infantes is a private first class assigned to 19th Engineer Battalion at Knox — an assignment he began July 28, personnel records show.

    The pair allegedly tried to sell 17 thermal-imaging monoculars, rifle-cleaning kits and other stolen military equipment for $153,500 through an intermediary “affiliated with Mexican drug trafficking organizations,” the release states. Their connection, whom the FBI says met with Pedro Infantes, was actually a law enforcement informant.

    They’re both facing a few decades of incarceration each and I think that’s being exceptionally generous – the sale, had it happened, probably would have cost a lot of people their lives by giving smugglers a night vision capability along our frontier with Mexico.

  • Beauty? Perhaps. Chutzpah? Yep. Brains? Um, Maybe Not So Much.

    A young woman in Riverside, CA, told her employer she’d injured her foot while working. The injury was allegedly bad enough she repeatedly told doctors she “could not wear any type of shoe for a period of time and could not move it [her foot] in any direction.”

    Her doctor provided an orthopedic shoe and crutches. She was ordered not to work. Because the injury was sustained at work, she was eligible for workman’s compensation benefits. She must have hurt her foot pretty badly, too – she was out of work for weeks.

    There was only one problem. While not working because of her “injuries” and drawing said workman’s compensation benefits, the young lady participated in multiple beauty contests.

    A video of one of those events even made it onto YouTube.  That particular beauty contest was only a few days after her initial claim of injuring her foot.

    Oops.

    It seems that one of the things she did while participating in those beauty contest was walk – in high heels, with no apparent discomfort or difficulty. Which was precisely what she claimed she could not do, and which was also what she claimed prevented her from working.

    Shawna Lynn Palmer, 22, is now facing three felony charges and the possibility of 1 year in jail, 3 years of probation, and paying $24k in restitution.

    I guess it takes all kinds.

  • Wishful thinking; tanks to Ferguson

    Wishful thinking; tanks to Ferguson

    Tanks in Missouri

    In case you didn’t hear, there have been riots and looting in Ferguson, Missouri this weekend after 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot was shot by police. According to the local news;

    Witnesses say that he was unarmed and his hands were in the air when a Ferguson police officer shot and killed him Saturday.

    Authorities told a different story. The police officer tried to get out of his vehicle just before the shooting, but Brown pushed him back into the car, said St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar.

    Brown “physically assaulted” the officer, Belmar said, and the teen tried to get the officer’s weapon. Brown was shot about 35 feet from the vehicle, the chief said, declining to provide more details.

    Whatever the circumstances, it probably doesn’t justify the looting and rioting. But, that’s what’s happening. Anyway, according to Twitchy, rumors started flying last night about tanks being sent to Ferguson on Twitter feeding the frenzy. I know the folks who weren’t in Ferguson were hoping for a bloodbath in the streets for their own political reasons, but, no those tanks aren’t going to the St Louis suburb. Our troops have more pressing issues with which to deal.

    I don’t know what happened with Mr. Brown, but whatever happened, it doesn’t justify the violence. It also doesn’t justifying calling for a race war, especially by people who are geographically removed from the event. Again from Twitchy;

    Race wars

    I know I don’t have to say anything, but, just in case, watch yourself in the comments.

  • Inter-service argument leads to homicide

    Inter-service argument leads to homicide

    According to the Washington Times, William Earl Cunningham, 63, of Laurel, Montana and Nathan Horn, 40, of Billings got into an argument about which was the better service, the Army or the Marines – the argument ended with Cunningham getting charged with murder;

    “I cut him. He’s dead,” Cunningham told police, according to charging documents, AP reported. “The knife’s on the table.”

    From KRTV;

    The men had previously argued about the military service, because Horn served in the Marines and Cunningham served in the Army, court records state.

    During the conversation late Saturday, the men argued again and Cunningham said Horn “jumped up and took a swing” at him.

    Cunningham pushed Horn back, court records state.

    “Then I cut him,” Cunningham allegedly said. “I did what the Army taught me to do.”

    According to police, Cunningham’s blood/alcohol was three times the legal limit for driving. The Washington Times reports that it wasn’t clear if either fellow had actually served.

  • This IRS Crap Just Keeps Getting “Better and Better”

    Well, it seems as if the IRS realizes it has a problem. And it released a solicitation recently – apparently this week – for contractor assistance in getting the problem fixed.

    No, it’s not for help in finding Lois Lerner’s missing email.

    The problem the IRS is seeking contractor assistance to solve? Destroying magnetic computer storage media and devices – including “. . . . at least 65,464 magnetic tapes, 3,225 hard drives, 5,856 floppy disks and 708 reels . . . .”

    Yeah, you read that correctly.  The IRS wants a contractor to help them destroy magnetic tapes and hard drives.  Those are exactly the kinds of storage media on which missing email relating to the current IRS scandal was located before the items holding those missing emails supposedly “crashed” or “were reused”.

    I’m not joking.

    Oh, and it gets even better.  Remember Lerner’s hard drive?  The one that was supposedly “destroyed”, was “unrecoverable” – and took all her archived 2009-2011 email with it?

    Well, it appears that IRS IT experts have indicated to House Ways and Means Committee investigators that Lerner’s hard drive was found to be only scratched, not “destroyed” – and that data from the device should have been recoverable.

    House investigators found this out during recent conversations with IRS IT experts.  The IRS initially refused to make these in-house experts available to the House Ways and Means Committee.

    The IRS also refused to use outside experts to attempt to recover data related to this matter.  Use of an outside data recovery expert was something the IRS’s own IT staff recommended.

    Gee.  Now, why wouldn’t the IRS want an outside expert in data recovery looking into the matter?  It couldn’t be because that would be someone whose livelihood they didn’t control and might not be able to muzzle – could it?

    Don’t forget:  IRS officials also initially told the House Ways and Means Committee, under oath, that the device was toast.  They further said that data from said device was “unrecoverable”, and that the device had been “recycled”.

    But it also turns out that the agency isn’t sure precisely what happened to Lerner’s hard drive, either.  And an internal memo has now come to light which appears to describe her computer as having been “recovered”.

    Hmm.  That’s . . . interesting.

    This whole mess is now far past ridiculous and well into disgusting.  “Transparent”?  Well, if you mean that as a synonym for “obvious” – as in “transparent and shameless dissembling” – that certainly IMO looks like it’s the case here.

    I’m thinking it’s about time to subpoena a few folks from the IRS to testify before the House Ways and Means Committee, maybe some for the second or third time.  And if and when they try to plead the fifth, the committee’s lead counsel should tell the first couple of them who do that the following:  “Use immunity.  Now spill – or you’re going to jail tonight for contempt instead of home.”

  • Waxhaw, NC veterans’ memorial statue stolen

    Waxhaw, NC veterans’ memorial statue stolen

    Waxhaw stolen statue

    Someone sent us an article from WSOC-TV about some ambitious thieves who stolen the above pictured statue.

    Apparently, the local crime stoppers are offering a reward. I’m thinking that it’d be pretty difficult to hide and it looks more like a plea for help than a profitable crime.

  • More “Good News” About IRS Computers

    Now it looks like even more have crashed – and more email may be “lost”.  Including, of course, email from a few more key players in the IRS scandal.

    This is getting f**king disgusting.  I’m too p!ssed to write an article, so you’ll have to go and read this one from the Daily Caller.

    “Most transparent administration in history” my ass.

  • Tennessee Guardsman killed in armory

    Tennessee Guardsman killed in armory

    SFC Braden1

    Parachutecutie sends us a link to the story of a Tennessee National Guardsman, Sergeant First Class Michael Braden who was shot while he was at work in an armory. Police suspect 15-year-old Christopher Farrar who was booted from school for drug use;

    Sgt. Braden, from Ripley, Tenn., was a Readiness Non-commissioned Officer (NCO) who coordinated day-to-day activities and schedules at the armory.

    He joined the Army National Guard in 1987 and was deployed twice to Kuwait with a transportation company out of Brownsville.

    A graduate of Ripley High School, Sgt. Braden is survived by his wife Jennifer and their three children.

    Of course, the teen’s family doesn’t think he did it, even though several other weapons were found at the home where he staying;

    News 2 talked exclusively with Farrar’s aunt, Rebecca Chambers, who said her heart goes out to the victim’s family, but she does not believe her nephew is behind the senseless act.

    “We will leave it to the investigators to do their job and hopefully find the right person. I just can’t believe that Christopher is responsible for this,” Chambers said.

    She explained Farrar was living with her and his grandmother for the summer.

    Yeah, if our justice system relied solely on the testimony of the accused perpetrator’s families, our jails would be empty. One of the last things that SFC Braden had done before his death was to drop off his son at the recruiter’s office to turn the youngster over to the Army for basic training;

    WSMV Channel 4

    More on the gunman;

    His Facebook page tells a different story. His cover page depicts marijuana leaves and he belonged to a Facebook group named “Hail Satan.”