Nom de plume: Rivrdog

H1N1, a recap

Remember back in late October when President Obama declared that the H1N1 influenza, aka the Swine Flu, was a National Medical Emergency?

Remember the predictions of "we're all going to get it?" followed by "OMFG, tens of thousands will DIE?" "We won't be able to keep fire stations open", etc, etc.

So, the Feddle Gummint busted butt and hustled out a vaccine to protect us. At the time of the October declaration, the vaccine was "two weeks away".

Oh, wait, no they didn't bust butt, either. Here it is the middle of December, and the vaccine is just BEGINNING to arrive in the quantities it was supposed to arrive in a month ago.

Guess what else? The Swine Flu petered out. It never did mutate into the killer flu which was predicted. It is actually far less potent and damaging to the population than the seasonal flu, which is just starting up.

Well, the H1N1 vaccine has just hit the streets in Gresham, Oregon. The Urgent Care clinic just a mile down the road from me got hundreds of doses two days ago, and it was duly announced in the local press. All day long yesterday, a total of two people came in to get vaccinated.

Oh, and that nasty seasonal flu? Well, there's no vaccine for it available right now in my area. It seems that all vaccine-making effort was put into the Swine Flu vaccine, so we are about to be hit by the REAL flu with no chance to gain immunity from it in time.

Now, do you REALLY want the folks who bollixed this flu business up so badly running YOUR health care for real?

I don't.

Combat AAR from Ft. Hood

I haven't checked the authenticity of this piece. The source who sent it to me is a retired cop, and he got it from a retired military guy, who supposedly received it from the writer. I'm not going to change any of the text for grammar or formatting or pagination.

 Since I don't know when I'll sleep (it's 4 am now) I'll write what happened (the abbreviated version.....the long one is already part of the investigation with more to come).  I'll not write about any part of the investigation that I've learned about since (as a witness I know more than I should since {EEFI redacted}).  Don't assume that most of the current media accounts are very accurate.  They're not.  They'll improve with time.  Only those of us who were there really know what went down.  But as they collate our statements they'll get it right.  

 I did my SRP last week (Soldier Readiness Processing) but you're supposed to come back a week later to have them look at the smallpox vaccination site (it's this big itchy growth on your shoulder).  I am probably alive because I pulled a ---------- and entered the wrong building first (the main SRP building).  The Medical SRP building is off to the side.  Realizing my mistake I left the main building and walked down the sidewalk to the medical SRP building.

   As I'm walking up to it the gunshots start.  Slow and methodical.  But continuous.  Two ambulatory wounded came out.  Then two soldiers dragging a third who was covered in blood.  Hearing the shots but not seeing the shooter, along with a couple other soldiers I stood in the street and yelled at everyone who came running that it was clear but to "RUN!".  I kept motioning people fast.  about 6-10 minutes later (the shooting continuous), two cops ran up.  one male, one female.  we pointed in the direction of the shots.  they headed that way (the medical SRP building was about 50 meters away).  then a lot more gunfire.  a couple minutes later a balding man in ACU's came around the building carrying a pistol and holding it tactically.  He started shooting at us and we all dived back to the cars behind us.  I don't think he hit the couple other guys who were there.  I did see the bullet holes later in the cars.  First I went behind a tire and then looked under the body of the car.  I've been trained how to respond to gunfire...but with my own weapon.  To have no weapon I don't know how to explain what that felt like.  I hadn't run away and stayed because I had thought about the consequences or anything like that.  I wasn't thinking anything through.  Please understand, there was no intention.  I was just staying there because I didn't think about running.  It never occurred to me that he might shoot me.  Until he started shooting in my direction and I realized I was unarmed.

   Then the female cop comes around the corner.  He shoots her.  (according to the news accounts she got a round into him.  I believe it, I just didn't see it. he didn't go down.)  She goes down.  He starts reloading.  He's fiddling with his mags.  Weirdly he hasn't dropped the one that was in his weapon.  He's holding the fresh one and the old one (you do that on the range when time is not of the essence but in combat you would just let the old mag go).  I see the male cop around the left corner of the building.  (I'm about 15-20 meters from the shooter.)  I yell at the cop, "He's reloading, he's reloading.  Shoot him! Shoot him!)  You have to understand, everything was quiet at this point.  The cop appears to hear me and comes around the corner and shoots the shooter. 

   He goes down.  The cop kicks his weapon further away.  I sprint up to the downed female cop.  Another captain (I think he was with me behind the cars) comes up as well.  She's bleeding profusely out of her thigh.  We take our belts off and tourniquet her just like we've been trained (I hope we did it right...we didn't have any CLS (combat lifesaver) bags with their awesome tourniquets on us, so we worked with what we had).

   Meanwhile, in the most bizarre moment of the day, a photographer was standing over us taking pictures.  I suppose I'll be seeing those tomorrow.  Then a soldier came up and identified himself as a medic.  I then realized her weapon was lying there unsecured (and on "fire").  I stood over it and when I saw a cop yelled for him to come over and secure her weapon (I would have done so but I was worried someone would mistake me for a bad guy).  I then went over to the shooter.  He was unconscious.  A Lt Colonel was there and had secured his primary weapon for the time being.  He also had a revolver.

   I couldn't believe he was one of ours.  I didn't want to believe it.  Then I saw his name and rank and realized this wasn't just some specialist with mental issues.  At this point there was a guy there from CID and I asked him if he knew he was the shooter and had him secured.  He said he did.  I then went over the slaughter house...the medical SRP building.  No human should ever have to see what that looked like, and I won't tell you.  Just believe me.  Please,  there was nothing to be done there.  Someone then said there was someone critically wounded around the corner.  I ran around (while seeing this floor to ceiling window that someone had jumped through movie style) and saw a large African-American soldier lying on his back with two or three soldiers attending.  I ran up and identified two entrance wounds on the right side of his stomach, one exit wound on the left side and one head wound.  He was not bleeding externally from the stomach wounds (though almost certainly internally) but was bleeding from the head wound. 

   A soldier was using a shirt to try and stop the head bleeding.  He was conscious so I began talking to him to keep him so.  He was 42, from North Carolina, he was named something Jr., his son was named something III and he had a daughter as well.  His children lived with him.  He was divorced.  I told him the blubber on his stomach saved his life.  He smiled.  A young soldier in civvies showed up and identified himself as a combat medic. We debated whether to put him on the back of a pickup truck.  A doctor (well, an audiologist) showed up and said you can't move him, he has a head wound.  We finally sat tight.  I went back to the slaughterhouse.  They weren't letting anyone in there not even medics.

   Finally, after about 45 minutes had elapsed some cops showed up in tactical vests.  Someone said the TBI building was unsecured.  They headed into there.  All of a sudden a couple more shots were fired.  People shouted there was a second shooter.  A half hour later the SWAT showed up.  There was no second shooter, that had been an impetuous cop apparently.  But that confused things for a while.  Meanwhile, I went back to the shooter.  The female cop had been taken away,and a medic was pumping plasma into the shooter.  I'm not proud of this but I went up to her and said "this is the shooter, is there anyone else who needs attention...do them first".  She indicated everyone else living was attended to.  I still hadn't seen any EMTs or ambulances.   I had so much blood on me that people kept asking me if I was ok.  But that was all other people's blood.  Eventually, (an hour and a half to two hours after the shootings) they started landing choppers.  They took out the big African American guy and the shooter.  I guess the ambulatory wounded were all at the SRP building.  Everyone else in my area was dead.  

I suppose the emergency responders were told there were multiple shooters.  I heard that was the delay with the choppers (they were all civilian helicopters).  They needed a secure LZ, but other than the initial cops who did everything right, I didnt' see a lot of them for a while.  I did see many a soldier rush out to help their fellows/sisters.  There was one female soldier, I dont' know her name or rank but I would recognize her anywhere who was everywhere helping people.  A couple people, mainly civilians, were hysterical, but only a couple.  One civilian freaked out when I tried to comfort her when she saw my uniform.  I guess she had seen the shooter up close.  A lot of soldiers were rushing out to help even when we thought there was another gunman out there.  This Army is not broken no matter what the pundits say. Not the Army I saw.  
and then they kept me for a long time to come.  oh, and perhaps the most surreal thing, at 1500 (the end of the workday on Thursdays) when the bugle sounded we all came to attention and saluted the flag.  in the middle of it all.  
 

this is what I saw.  it can't have been real.  but this is my small corner of what happened.

Seems to be a close correlation of what happened as it has been reported in the MSM so far, except as to the role of the female police sergeant, who the MSM says took down the guy, shooting even after she was hit, but this account has her partner taking him out.

The victimology of the Ft. Hood attack

They were soldiers.

Does anything more need to be said, MSM?

I think not, so STFU with sobby victim stories.

Bunker in

Time for the Grumpy Major's Club to bunker in, I guess.

Just out: the "Primary Shooter" at Ft Hood was one MAJ Malik Nadal Hassan, a life-long Muslim convert. The same report seems to say that the Major took the point and made the initial attack with two pistols, but had two soldier-accomplices who ambushed SWAT officers who came to the scene following the Active Shooter Doctrine. One civilian police officer was killed and four wounded. Any bets as to whether the two accomplices were also Muslim converts?

Stay tuned. Fox News says now: LONE SHOOTER! For a shrink, that's deadly work!

While you are tuned, open a new tab over at Say Uncle's, where a lively discussion of the incident ensues.

Now that the details are mostly out (great job on ComSec, Army! You kept the press buffaloed for the better part of 4 hours), let's get one thing straight:

The Second Amendment is hardly involved in this, so let's NOT turn it into a 2A bunker-in session.

THE ISSUE IS RADICAL ISLAM, PEOPLE!

Let's keep this in perspective.

Letterman: A jerk by any other name...

...is still a jerk.

OK, he did the right thing by going to the police and having the extortionist arrested. That is ALL that's right about this sordid tale.

Holding women hostage to his sex drive in return for opportunities (or maybe even just HOPE of opportunities) to work for his production company makes him a jerk of the first water.

Here's hoping those women ALSO do the right thing, and sue the pants off "Worldwide Pants, Inc" and it's CEO, Letterman.

Toying with the truth again, Associated Press? (Updated)

In the first bit of hard news out of Government Motors (formerly: General Motors), sometimes known as UAW Motors, the official end to the Saturn line of cars was announced.

Too bad, they were decent automobiles, I owned a used one for a while and my daughter drove it while an undergrad in college.

Saturn probably developed more die-hard followers than any GM-branded automobile, and their most recent ad wants you to continue believing that. The smiling gentleman in the Star Trek shirt DOES speak to your brand loyalty.

When "New GM" was foisted off on the world earlier this year, Saturn was sold to Penske, Inc. Roger Penske, better known for his auto racing endeavors, and a very successful truck rental fleet man to boot, bought the company on the condition that he could find another manufacturer to make the vehicles as is and also develop new automobiles to sell.

It was a tall order, and it never happened. I don't think that the first condition has ever been met outside of military vehicle production, and even then the specialty vehicles are usually made by one manufacturer. The second condition might have been possible, but there would have been a gap of several years for the Saturn system to weather between the cancellation of this years' vehicles and the next models, and such gaps are impossible to bridge.

The "automotive writers of Associated Press" put together a story on Saturn's demise, but strangely enough, in that story, there is no mention of how the profitable division came to such a sorry pass.

****************************************************************************

UPDATE: 100109 1216 PDT: AssPress has yet another story out, in much more detail as to the proposed Penske deal which fell through, BUT STILL NOT ONE MENTION OF THE UAW'S ROLE.

****************************************************************************

Blame the UAW for that, but, strangely enough, you won't see any mention of the union in the above story. UAW members built Saturn vehicles, but from the get-go in the eighties, the union had a monetary interest in the whole Division. For an exercise in obfuscation, Google up "GM Saturn UAW" and see what hits you get. ALL of the first two pages of hits are about union troubles. NONE of those articles by various auto magazines and other interested writers has a single good thing to say about the union OR the "Breakthrough" agreement it signed with GM and the Saturn Division.

The UAW killed Saturn years ago, by destroying the labor-management detente that had built the expensive Spring Hill, TN plant where the cars were originally made. In recent years, the cars were built as orphans in various other GM plants, evidently under the standard UAW labor contract, not under the "visionary" contract that built the Division.

In a strange twist of fate, the entire fate of "New GM" now rests on the creation of a new labor-management detente similar to the one which failed at the Saturn Division. When Barney Frank and Tim Geithner broke up the old GM after rescuing it with taxpayer largesse, they simply handed the majority of the stock in the "New GM" to the UAW. The UAW owns Government Motors now, and is responsible for what happens to it's management direction.

It stands to reason that the UAW could have prevailed on it's members to build the cars at GM plants in a side agreement with Penske, or could have urged other of it's members to build them in a renewal of the detente, at another manufacturer.

But no, the UAW let Saturn die. There was no way that Roger Penske could have pulled off this miracle without the help of the UAW, and as an astute businessman, he must have taken some assurances of the UAW people with him when he signed on to the agreement to buy Saturn.

It's pretty obvious now that those were false assurances.

If I can come up with this tale of perfidy in less than an hour, why couldn't the entire Associated Press do it in the weeks and days which they must have had? (ED. NOTE: The AssPress must have read either my mind or my blog, because they have come out with a more detailed story, but they still pretend the UAW doesn't exist).

The answer, folks, is that the Associated Press is bought and paid for by the Left, and the Left would never allow a story to cast one of it's major players, the UAW, in a bad light. This story couldn't have been written WITHOUT showing the UAW in a bad light, and the AssPress just couldn't pull that trigger, so they lied by omission in their article.

NYC is FUBAR

Did the authorities in New Yawk City REALLY arrest a couple merely because they posed their kids for photos with firearms? Or is there more to this story than this short AP bulletin reports on?

It's hard to read anything into it, but I would read THIS into it: the Probable Cause for arrest on this charge seems to be non-existent. First of all, how would you tell from a photograph whether the weapons were even functional (and thereby capable of causing the injury to the child that is central to such a charge)? In arrests for Armed Robbery with a Firearm, the firearm MUST be tested for functionality before the Court will allow the A-Felony to proceed, and there are a HUGE number of accurately-detailed toy firearms these days.

It could be that the arrestees were felons, and if so, a photograph of them posing with REAL WEAPONS with their children would be sufficient to get a warrant on felon-in-possession, but the story doesn't say that, and again, how would they know that the weapons were real? It says that they were also arrested on marijuana charges, and those were likely made incident to arrest.

In fact, since constitutionally-guaranteed rights are at stake here, I would have thought that the DA in whichever Borough issued the charges would be interested in assuring the public that the LEOs involved were not acting beyond the scope of their authorities, but hey, that's New York, and the "Justice" system there frequently operates on the basis of fear, not on ANY desire to adhere to the Constitution.

If this case IS one of over-zealous authority in an un-constitutional anti-gun mood, I hope some decent attorney in New Yawk will take the opportunity to sue the pants off of the City, and the State as well, if it can be done.

I also hope that if such a lawsuit DOES get filed that the AssPress will report on it as faithfully as they did with this story. I'm not holding my breath in either case, though.

NYC is fucked up beyond all recognition.   

Hat in the ring...

That would be Dr. John Kitzhaber's hat, thrown back in for a third term as Guv'ner (after two terms out of that office).

He rates a F- or something bad from the NRA, but the curious thing is the question even the libs are asking: why is the man running, when he left office after making his infamous statement that Oregon was "un-governable" (after losing a fight to hike the State Income Tax into the stratosphere)?

Word, Governor:

In the sense of spending Oregon into the Hell that California finds itself in right now, we are STILL un-governable.

You have has your 6-month pout because you didn't get to be health, no-wealth and educate-shun Secretary, and you didn't get to be Obama's Surgeon General, either (probably because you refused to wear the uniform, right, Guv?).

Pouts over, so the good Doctor wants to climb back into the Governor's saddle again.

No thanks, Gov. Go back to your cushy ER job, we don't need you here.

BTW, probably the only (D)onk who could beat Dr. Kitz is Pete Defazio, well left of Karl Marx, but somehow leaves gun-bashing out of his politics and gets an "A" from the NRA, one of the few true lib (D)onks to be graded that high. What's more, he is a certified maverick, and has already told the Obamabots to piss up a rope on a couple of occasions, most notably the Stimupalooza.

If I were voting in the primary, he'd get MY vote, but I'm Independent now, and have no primary vote in this benighted State.

A true health-care crisis

How do you generate a TRUE health-care crisis?

That's easy. Get rid of about half the practicing providers (not just doctors, but nurses, techs, etc).

How do you guarantee to get rid of those providers?

Follow the advice of the airhead Angie Hicks who was interviewed this morning on Fox News. She's from Angie's List. Excuse that transcript, it is generated by a lousy speech-recognition computer.

She advocates requiring the online rating of all providers, despite knowing that most folks who take the time to make an online rating do so only when they're teed off, so you get skewed results which are worthless. The fact that she's bringing this up now probably means she's involved in a push to get some regulation along these lines included in ObamaCare.

I wouldn't practice medicine under such duress.

Neither will many doctors.

Good, that will make for MANY battlefield medics available for the militia when they have to take the field for the Un-Do....

Lessee, who has a program to teach docs to shoot?

....hmmm, might have to write that syllabus myself.

Sileo In Abyssus

My Kennedy post.

I was living in Massachusetts when Ted Kennedy drove Mary Jo Kopechne off the Chappaquiddick Bridge, and despite being a champion swimmer, left her to die in a car that was barely submerged. At the time, rumors abounded that she was pregnant with his love-child, but since her autopsy was sealed, we'll never know one way or the other.

He then left the scene of that "accident", a chargeable felony.

At the time, all the details of the post-mortem investigation were sealed, not because there was no need to know, but because Teddy-boy was a Kennedy, and Kennedys have been "royals" in Massachusetts ever since the patriarch, Joe, formed his rum-running Irish Mafia back in the Twenties.

The only Kennedy worth writing history about was Jack, who I met in person in 1959, but the clan continues, to this day, infesting American politics as if every single Kennedy was born with a right to be elected.

Now we must put up with days, to weeks, to a month or more of "National Mourning".

I'm not going to mourn, I'm just going to look out to see which one of that God-forsaken clan gets "anointed" to be the next Massachusetts Senator.

BTW, the Latin title translates to "Rest In Hell"