Thursday, April 30, 2009






Thursday, 30 April 2009




Chaffetz bill would require government to resell shell casings




Joe Pyrah - Daily Herald




For four days in March, gun owners across the country were up in arms about a Department of Defense decision to not resell its spent brass casings.
The DOD sells more than 100 million used casings a year -- in .223 and .308 variants -- to businesses such as Georgia Arms, near Atlanta, which in turn reloads the cartridges and sells them to the public.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz says the decision not to resell was made intentionally by the Obama administration, and he plans to introduce legislation to ensure it doesn't happen again.

It was "a concerted effort by this administration to short the supply" of ammunition, said the 3rd District Republican who views it as back-door gun control.

Georgia Arms co-owner Larry Haynie agrees. He said he was told by government officials that it was a clerical error.

"Hell no," he said when asked if he believed that. "That's just the government catch-all right there."

There is a press release from the Defense Logistics Agency four days after it was initially stated that the casings would be destroyed instead of resold. The DLA is in charge of handling the spent cartridges, including determining their impact on national security.

It reads in part: "Upon review, the Defense Logistics Agency has determined the cartridge cases could be appropriately placed in a category of government property allowing for their release for sale."

Haynie says it was the uproar that caused the change, not a question of national security.

"The American system still works," he said.

Chaffetz wants to make sure the river of empty brass continues to flow from the DOD into private hands. The legislation will read: "The Secretary of Defense may not implement any policy that would prevent or place undue restriction on the continued sale of intact spent military brass ammunition casings to domestic manufacturers of small arms ammunition."

The ammunition market seems to be doing a fine job of keeping prices high all by itself.

"Since Obama was elected, they've just run away," Haynie said, because of fears of gun control legislation. The last time sales were this high was when Bill Clinton was president and talking about an assault weapons ban.

"He's armed up America way more than Clinton ever thought about doing."




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Sunday, April 12, 2009

Monday, April 06, 2009

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Reprinted From AP


Wednesday, 01 April 2009
G-20 protesters break into Royal Bank of Scotland



Raphael G. Satter - The Associated Press




LONDON — G-20 protesters clashed with riot police in central London on Wednesday, breaking into the heavily guarded Royal Bank of Scotland and smashing its windows. Nearly two dozen people were arrested.

Some 4,000 anarchists, anti-capitalists, environmentalists and others clogged the streets of London's financial district for what demonstrators branded "Financial Fool's Day." The protests were called ahead of Thursday's Group of 20 summit of world leaders, who hope to take concrete steps to resolve the global financial crisis that has lashed nations and workers worldwide.

Protesters also tried to storm the Bank of England and pelted police with eggs and fruit. A battered effigy of a banker in a bowler's hat hung on a traffic light near the Bank of England.

While most of the protesters were peaceful, a violent mob wearing balaclavas broke into the RBS building and stole keyboards that were used to break windows. Other protesters spray-painted graffiti on the RBS building, writing "class war" and "thieves."

Riot police batted back protesters carrying banners that read "Abolish Money."

Protesters focused the Royal Bank of Scotland because it was bailed out by the British government after a series of disastrous deals brought it to the brink of bankruptcy. Still, its former chief executive Fred Goodwin — aged 50 — managed to walk off with a tidy annual pension of 703,000 pounds ($1.2 million) — just as unemployment in Britain is at 2 million and rising.

"Every job I apply for there's already 150 people who have also applied," said protester Nathan Dean, 35, who lost his information technology job three weeks ago. "I have had to sign on to the dole (welfare) for the first time in my life. You end up having to pay your mortgage on your credit card and you fall into debt twice over."

The protests in London's financial district — known as "The City" — came as Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Barack Obama held a news conference at Britain's Foreign Office elsewhere in the capital.

"Clearly, everybody has the right to protest and to make their views known, but people also have the right to go about their daily lives without fear of violence or unnecessary disruption," said Michael Ellam, Brown's spokesman.

At least one police officer was injured when a printer and other office equipment was thrown out of the RBS window. Hundreds cheered as a blue office chair was used to smash one of the blacked-out branch windows.

Two men — one was wearing a suit — exchanged punches in the financial district before police intervened.

Of the nearly two dozen people arrested, offenses included disorderly behavior, illegally wearing a police uniform, carrying knives and assault. Another person was arrested for drug possession.

"The greed that is driving people is tearing us apart," said Steve Lamont, 45, flanked by his family and protesters who were banging on bells, playing drums and blowing whistles.

Bankers have been lambasted as being greedy and blamed for the recession that is making jobless ranks soar. Protesters waved banners reading "Banks are evil," ''Eat the bankers," and "0% interest in others."

London equity analyst Viktor Gusman, 53, said he understood the protesters' anger ahead of the G-20 summit but said it didn't put him off working in finance. Some bankers went to work in casual wear Wednesday for fear they could be targeted.

"This is what I do," he said, taking a cigarette break a block down from a police barricade in central London. "I'm supporting my wife and mother and I don't know that it hurts anyone."

Some financial workers leaned out office windows, taunting the demonstrators and waving 10 pound notes at them.

Police helicopters hovered above as a separate protest — climate change and anti-war — started near Trafalgar Square.

"It seems like everything is in a mess," said protester Steve Johnson, 49, an unemployed construction worker.

One protester dressed as the Easter bunny managed to hop through the police cordon but was stopped before he could reach the Bank of England. Another black-clad demonstrator waved a fake light saber at officers.

More protests are planned in London for the G-20 meeting on Thursday.

Still, the protests Wednesday were minor compared to those during a World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle in 1999, where some 50,000 people turned out and several hundred people were arrested.














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La Vie Boheme