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

Category: Crime

  • BOLO Ryan Chamberlain

    Ryan Chamberlain

    Fox News reports that the FBI executed a warrant at the house of Ryan Chamberlain in San Francisco, he wasn’t home, but apparently they found a metric-sh*t-ton of ricin along with some bomb-making material;

    KGO said the amount of ricin found is the largest ever seen before in the city.

    Tests will be conducted to confirm that the substance is ricin.

    The ABC affiliate said investigators in hazmat suits entered the apartment and made the discovery. The apartment is near Jackson and Polk in San Francisco’s Russian Hill neighborhood.

    Chamberlain is reportedly a “political junkie” with a criminal record of minor infractions.

    KGO says;

    At some point in in the evening, there was a loud bang. Sources say they were able to safely disrupt some sort of device.

    […]

    Dressed in full hazmat suits and masks, investigators walked in and out of the Jackson Street ground-level apartment all day. Only ABC7 News was there as agents rigged a pulley system to remove a tool box from the one-bedroom unit then examined it in the courtyard. At one point, mobile x-ray machines and the bomb disposal robot were both used.

    I wonder what his complaint is.

  • Theft by uniform

    Chockblock sends us a link to the story of James Silbaugh who stole a pool from Walmart wearing an Army dress uniform. I wasn’t aware of the fact that loss control officers will just let you wheel stuff to your car without paying for it if you wear a uniform;

    According to investigators, James Silbaugh, of Fairchance, walked into the store wearing a United States Army Class A uniform.

    Authorities say Silbaugh grabbed a $500 backyard pool, put it in a shopping cart and marched out of the store without paying for it.

    Once in the parking lot, state police say Silbaugh, who’s Myspace page has pictures of the 36-year-old in a U.S. Army battle dress uniform, unboxed the pool, threw it in his car and took off.

    The news story says police don’t know if the Silbaugh is in the military or not, well, I know he’s not in AKO, so….

  • More crazy vet fear

    More crazy vet fear

    david eugene smith

    TSO sends a link to the Orlando Sentinel with the story of yet another vet who has gone nuts because he has this PTSD thing;

    A manhunt began late Monday for David Eugene Smith, who has a history of mental illness, is paranoid, delusional, armed and “exceptionally dangerous.”

    Deputies found Danyala Smith, 31, Nioski Williams, 25, and Miranda Mims, 28, dead in a home on Old Highway 37, south of Lakeland, on Monday night.

    […]

    Smith, who refers to himself as “Prince David,” might have been in the military in the past and suffers from PTSD, Judd said.

    Smith has been held under Florida’s Baker Act for mental-health evaluation.

    In 2009, he was arrested by Lakeland police on charges of cocaine possession, marijuana possession and carrying a concealed weapon.

    Court records show he was convicted of a misdemeanor marijuana charge and the state dropped the cocaine and firearms charge.

    I’m sure that it would be a nightmare to get a FOIA on the guy, I count seven David Eugene Smiths in AKO. I saw where he had been in the 82d Airborne Division, none of those seven have that in their records. None of them are in Florida. So getting his records would be a crap shoot. But, I do know that experts on PTS tell me that folks who do suffer from PTS aren’t a danger to anyone except themselves. The guy has more issues than PTS, obviously.

    The prosecutor dropped weapons charges and cocaine possession charges against him – it sounds more like law enforcement failed him. The PTS bullshit comes from his mother who is obviously trying to blame the military for abandoning him – but like I said, folks who have PTS don’t hurt other people. they have anger issues, but they’re more likely to hurt themselves than others.

    But saying “military” and “PTSD” makes it all so easy to understand for the low information public and the media.

    I saw another article somewhere which reported that he was going to pay back his cheating wife – but he doesn’t have a wife according to his mother, so there’s more at work here than his military service.

  • I’ll Just Leave This Here . . .

    . . . ’cause the headline pretty much says it all.  Happened this past Monday.

    Restaurant with ‘No Weapons, No Concealed Firearms’ Sign Robbed at Gunpoint

    No comment necessary other than, “Predictable.”

  • Phony FBI agents sought in Michigan

    TSO sends us a link from West Bloomfield, Michigan where police are searching for two men and a woman who tried to get in a woman’s home dressed in windbreakers with FBI markings. They are described as “Middle Eastern”;

    The homeowner told police that two men and a woman knocked on her door, identified themselves as FBI agents and demanded to come inside. The homeowner said all three suspects were armed with black handguns, and wearing all black clothing that had “FBI” written in blue lettering.

    Feeling something about the situation wasn’t quite right, the homeowner called 911 and told the suspects that police were on the way. The trio then fled the area in a black Mercedes sedan with tinted windows.

    All three suspects are described as being of Middle Eastern descent. The males both appear to be in their 30?s, while the female is in her 20?s.

  • “Slow-Rolling” Appointments: Not Just at Larger VA Medical Centers Anymore

    It seems as if the VA appointment “record-keeping issue” is indeed widespread, and possible systemic.  The Army Times is reporting that VA investigators are now looking at the Cheyenne, WY, VA Medical Center (VAMC).

    A nurse – who’s now been suspended from duty – at the Cheyenne VAMC allegedly told employees there to falsify appointment records.  According to Wyoming’s congressional delegation, “the department only took action against the nurse after an email about ‘gaming the system’ surfaced in media reports.”

    Additionally, two employees at the Durham, NC, VAMC were placed on leave last week for “inappropriate scheduling practices”.  Investigations have also been started at VA hospitals in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado.

    Oh, and the problem apparently has been under investigation for a while, too.  The VA OIG apparently began investigating similar complaints of “hidden” wait times at the Albequerque VAMC months before the scandal broke in Phoenix.

    If the problem is this widespread – and has been under investigation for months – that tells me senior VA leadership indeed needs to go.  IMO, that means either they were complicit in the practice or were completely out of touch with reality.  In either case they’ve proven they’re simply not able to do their job.

     

  • Did Holder “Misspeak” Yet Again?

    Earlier this week, the US Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Justice Department had no plans to investigate the VA hospital “secret list” scandal. I noted that in this story.

    Well, it looks like the AG’s remarks on the subject were – to be charitable – inaccurate.  Again.

    Yesterday, the VA’s Acting Inspector General, Richard J. Griffin, disclosed that VA Office of the Inspector General (OIG) personnel are currently working with Federal prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona and with personnel from the Public Integrity Section of the Justice Department in Washington, DC. According to Griffin, these individuals are working together to “determine any conduct that we discover that merits criminal prosecution.”

    Hmm.  Last time I checked, both US Attorney’s offices and the Public Integrity Section were part of the Justice Department – which Holder heads. And from what Griffin said yesterday, it certainly looks like they’re “involved in an investigation” at this time. But maybe I’m just confused here.

    It’s simply not plausible to me that the AG would be clueless about what his agency is doing in connection with a matter of extreme public interest.  I don’t believe he is, actually.

    This isn’t the first time that Holder has made public statements (some of them under oath) that later turned out to be inaccurate. Remember Holder’s “erroneous” testimony to Congress concerning “Fast and Furious”?

    Geez.  GMAFB.

    I have to tip my hat to Holder, though. With a straight face, he delivers sworn testimony and other public statements that later are shown to be inaccurate better than anyone in recent memory. The man has talent, and he has chutzpah.

    He has no shame, of course. But he certainly has talent and chutzpah.

    As I said the other day: Holder seems to have forgotten history. He might do well to remember it.

    Why?  Because it wasn’t the Watergate break-in that put former AG John Mitchell in prison. It was his participation in the cover-up.

  • And The Cover-Up Continues . . . .

    Title says it all:

    Eric Holder: No Plans at DOJ to Investigate Secret Waiting Lists and Veteran Deaths at VA Hospitals

    Is anyone surprised?  God knows how Holder can look at himself in the mirror.

    Holder would do well IMO to remember one thing, though. It wasn’t the Watergate break-in that ended Nixon’s Administration.

    It was the cover-up afterwards that nailed them.  And John Mitchell was one of those who ended up doing time.