Surrender Now! This Is the Student Loan Police!

Glenn Beck's The Blaze ran a disturbing story about a man in Stockton, CA whose door was kicked down by a SWAT team - because his estranged wife, who was not present, was delinquent on her student loan!

Kenneth Wright was home with his three children early Tuesday morning. He hadn’t even gotten dressed for the day yet, and was still in his boxers. That’s when he looked outside and got a surprise.

“I look out of my window and I see 15 police officers,” Wright told News10. Then, the SWAT team busted down his door, allegedly grabbed him by the neck and put him in a police car for six hours, and even roused his children (ages 3,7, and 11) out of bed.

But there’s just one problem. The police weren’t after Wright. They were after his estranged wife. Not surprisingly, they didn’t find her:

To add insult to injury, officers put a large, clunky board over the hole they created in the door and said it was fixed.

“The hole is the least of my worries,” Wright said....

UPDATE: American Thinker has issued a few corrections and modifications to this story, which does not change the overarching theme of the original article, that the Dept. of Education overreacted to a non-threatening situation.

The story was a sensation on Wednesday morning. A Department of Education SWAT team broke down the door to a house owned by a man whose wife was delinquent on her student loans, according to original reports. The man was handcuffed and, along with his children, put in a cop car for 6 hours.

It turns out that some of this story was misreported. It wasn't a SWAT team but a special branch of the DOE who executes search warrants. And it wasn't for a student loan, but the warrant was in connection with a criminal investigation.

But before you breathe a sigh of relief, it should be rightly asked: What in God's name is DOE doing with a paramilitary unit to serve warrants?...

Uh-Oh! Muslim Brotherhood Legit in Egypt

A Times Live-AFP article announced that the grand-daddy of militant Islamic organizations (Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928), is no longer an outlaw group. The Egyptian government's ban, imposed in 1954, is hereby lifted.

EDITORIAL COMMENT: As the largest and best-organized opposition group to Mubarak, they are poised to become a formidable party in future elections. They are already campaigning for repudiating the treaty with Israel and strengthening their ties with Hamas and Hezbollah.

An Unusual Massacre in Syria

A Yahoo/AP report says that Syrian strongman Bashir Assad had even more blood on his hands. Approximately 120 Syrian security personnel, maybe more, have been killed by military forces. It is speculated that they were trying to escape into Turkey from Jisr al-Shughour. Perhaps they felt guilty about having to kill innocent civilians just because they joined in the protests against the Assad regime.

UPDATE1: An article in the Economist illustrates how difficult it is to get accurate information from a closed society such as Syria. The Assad regime may have exaggerated the number of security force members killed, and blamed their deaths on insurgents. What we do know is that about 150 unarmed civilians lost their lives in nationwide protests from Friday to Sunday, and that the Turks have turned away many Syrian refugees at the border. If they crossed over into Turkey in large numbers, the government there would label these Arabs a troublesome minority like the Kurds and Armenians.

UPDATE2: An article in the Daily Mail (U.K.) reports that the Turkish government has relented and allowed not less than 450 Syrian refugees fleeing for their lives, mostly from Jisr al-Shughour.

Trace Adkins Loses Home in Fire!

Country music star Trace Adkins home was destroyed in a fire, reports FOX News. "You can replace things, not people. I'm just glad that my children are safe," his wife, Rhonda Adkins, said. Three daughters and a nanny escaped unhurt while Adkins himself was traveling to Alaska.

A Slap in the Face

Note that I didn't say "a slap in the face of Jews," as Muslims also practice infant circumcision. The American Thinker and other conservative sources have been beating the drums over a proposed referendum measure in San Francisco that will ban circumcisions and traces the history all the way back to the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175-164 B.C.), who persecuted the Jews to the point where they rose up against him in the Maccabees revolt. This appears to be the work of a small but persistent minority, and Lloyd Schofield is the leader.

Mark Mix Makes His Case for the "Right to Work"

Hillsdale College's Imprimis ran an op-ed piece by Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. In other words, he is a staunch foe of unionization. The final paragraph sums up what he is driving at:

"Fortunately, there are signs that taxpayers are recognizing the negative consequences of compulsory unionism in the public sector. Just this March, legislatures in Wisconsin and Ohio revoked compulsory powers of government union bosses, and similar efforts are underway in several other states. Furthermore, the NLRB’s blatantly political and un-constitutional power play with regard to Boeing’s South Carolina production line is sure to strike fair-minded Americans as beyond the pale. Now more than ever, it is time to push home the point that all American workers in all 50 states should be granted the full freedom of association—which includes the freedom not to associate—in the area of union membership."

Former Sen. John Edwards Insists He Is Innocent

FOX News and numerous other news sources have been following the case of former Democratic senator and vice-presidential nominee John Edwards, who is fighting 11 counts surrounding his alleged efforts to cover up his affair with Rielle Hunter,

Farewell, James Arness

It's not often we run two obituaries in the same day, but James Arness (1923-2011), star of the long-running "Gunsmoke" series and brother of the late Peter Graves, was a true American icon.

FOX News reports:

James Arness , the 6-foot-6 actor who towered over the television landscape for two decades as righteous Dodge City lawman Matt Dillon in "Gunsmoke," died Friday.

He was 88.

The actor died in his sleep at his home in Brentwood, Calif., according to his business manager, Ginny Fazer.

Arness' official website posted a letter from Arness on Friday that he wrote with the intention that it be posted posthumously: "I had a wonderful life and was blessed with some many loving people and great friends," he said.

"I wanted to take this time to thank all of you for the many years of being a fan of Gunsmoke, The Thing, How the West Was Won and all the other fun projects I was lucky enough to have been allowed to be a part of. I had the privilege of working with so many great actors over the years...."

Now We Know: The Left Is Out of Ideas

Peter Heck at American Thinker is the bearer of bad news:

With a little over a year to go until the next national election cycle is complete, it has become apparent that from an economic standpoint, the SS Liberal has officially run out of steam. Hull weighted down with the barnacles of false promises and rudder crippled by the reckless mismanagement of a spendthrift captain from Chicago, she sits there floundering in a sea of unemployment and malaise not experienced since Jimmy Carter was at the helm.

And despite all the rosy window dressing provided by the beaming ship attendants of the mainstream media, who pretend to be shocked every time another leak opens up, we passengers are fully aware of our surroundings....

Veterans' Crisis Line Rebranded

Source: The Retired Enlisted Association Washington Update, 3 June 2011

VA Suicide Prevention Outreach Program-The Department of Veterans’ Affairs has embarked on a “rebranding” campaign for the former “Veterans Suicide Prevention Hotline,” which has been renamed the “Veterans Crisis Line.” The Veteran Crisis Line call center is located in Canandaigua, NY and is staffed with professional responders trained and dedicated to serving veterans and their families.

The number is 1-800-273-8255; press 1 in order to reach the part of the system designed for veterans. The line is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year in order to serve veterans and their families when crises strike. The line is intended to help ALL VETERANS, even if they are not registered with the VA.

The intent of the VA’s campaign is to promote help-seeking behavior among the veteran community so that the chances are increased that somebody, either the veteran or their family, makes the critical first call for help. The campaign is also intended to promote broader VA suicide prevention efforts to foster greater trust in the VA, as well as increasing awareness and use of the veterans hotline and the fact that confidential help is available and that the treatment is effective.

The VA is seeking to target all sectors of the veteran community with this media campaign. The current news cycle is mainly about the suicide problem among returning OIF/OEF veterans, but apparently there is a problem among all age demographics in the veteran community. The National Guard/Reserve components, Vietnam-era vets, women, Native Americans (who have a very large risk of suicide as a population) and elder vets (among whom white males are the highest risk segment and they are very hard to reach).

The name change took place because key stakeholders felt that it was better to lower the threshold from suicidal to “being in a crisis,” in hopes that this lessened the stigma associated with seeking help, both within the veteran community as well as society at large.

Potential Death Panel Chairman Has Passed Away

Dr. Jack Kevorkian, 83, died early Friday morning at Beaumont Hospital in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak. Cause of death was recorded as pulmonary thrombosis. He also had chronic kidney problems and pneumonia.

"Dr. Death" served an 8-year sentence for second-degree murder because of his work in physician-assisted suicide (hence the picture of him posing in a pillory). CNN provided these and other details.

Use of "Oxi" Spreading

After we ran the first Oxi article on Tuesday, 31 May, a reader has directed us to a video (with full transcript) on newsy.com that this cheaper variant of crack cocaine is starting to spread from the slums to more affluent neighborhoods. It is an insidious drug, capable of getting one hooked after only one use, and the average life expectancy thereafter is only about one year.

How Not to Conduct Damage Control

Embattled Rep. Anthony Weiner, according to CBS New York, has done exactly the wrong thing to defuse the controversy swirling around the lewd photo sent out on his Twitter account. When CBS-2 political reporter Marcia Kramer went to his office on Capitol Hill, he called the cops on her! What a weenie! Meanwhile, the jokesters continue working him over.

It Only Cost $2 Million!

The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) has replaced the "food pyramid" with this representation of a plate, according to Glenn Beck's The Blaze.

Gawker had a few choice words to say - whether they were in or out of the body while making this observation I know not:

Michelle Obama and her nosy goons at the USDA have destroyed America's beloved "food pyramid" nutritional diagram in favor of a new "food plate," which they unveiled this morning. As if any Americans eat food off a plate? Wake me when the nutritional diagram for wolfing down food over the kitchen sink comes out.

America's top doctor, Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, confirms that this new "plate" is connected to Michelle Obama's larger plot to stop fat people from being so fat all the time. According to Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack, the fatties were too fat to interpret a pyramid, which was really just a garden-variety 2D triangle....

Gov. Mitt Romney Is Running for President Again

Not surprisingly, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney made his public announcement today at a picnic in New Hampshire. FOX News has the story.

The Dogs Bark, but the Caravan Moves On

Michelle Malkin savors the sweet irony. So does Rush Limbaugh. Not content with helping elect and continuing to defend Barack Obama, reporters of the Dinosaur Media are whining because Gov. Sarah Palin is attracting all kinds of publicity without breaking a sweat - or being beholden to them.

Defense Secretary Gates' Swan Song at American Enterprise Institute

In his column, "Gates' Verdict: Pentagon's Biggest Enemy Is Itself," Michael Barone explains our basic problem with the Dept. of Defense in a nutshell. "Peace" advocates smugly assume that every penny spent on defense is money wasted, but that is too simplistic. National defense is one governmental function that is CONSTITUTIONALLY MANDATED, which is more than one can say about education, welfare, the EPA, OSHA, and many other agencies that have been created over the years. Any cuts to this vital operation should perform liposuction on the fat instead of cutting away at the meat, which has been a specialty of Democratic presidents such as Jimmy Carter.

What the Lamestream Media Won't Tell You About the Obama Entourage to London

Dale McFeatters has the stomach-turning details on Barack Obama's massive entourage to London (500 strong):

The heads of government in London for the G-20 summit are discussing serious and weighty issues, which in time will be duly reported on, but right now the British press is entranced by the sheer size of President Obama's traveling entourage. And no wonder.
Obama arrived with 500 staff in tow, including 200 Secret Service agents, a team of six doctors, the White House chef and kitchen staff with the president's own food and water.
And, according to the Evening Standard, he also came with "35 vehicles in all, four speech writers and 12 teleprompters." For sure, our president is not going to be at a loss for words....

UPDATE: One reader wrote in to bring up the fact that this article was written in 2009 and was making a reference to the G-20 Summit in Cannes, France. On this point I stand corrected, but his disdain for the American people and extravagant lifestyle remain a problem that can best be remedied by impeachment or defeat at the polls.

Virulent Strain of E. Coli Has Europeans Alarmed

The English-language branch of Der Spiegel has this story about an outbreak that originated in Spain and/or Germany and has claimed 15 lives so far:

...The eeriest thing of all, according to Rolf Stahl, is the way patients change. "Their awareness becomes blurred, they have problems finding words and they don't quite know where they are," says Stahl. And then there is this surprising aggressiveness. "We are dealing with a completely new clinical picture," he notes.

Stahl, a 62-year-old kidney specialist, has been the head of the Third Medical Clinic and Polyclinic at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) for almost 18 years. "But none of us doctors has ever experienced anything quite like this," he says. His staff has been working around the clock for the last week or so. "We decide at short notice who can go and get some sleep."

The bacterium that is currently terrifying the country is an enterohemorrhagic strain of the bacterium Escherichia coli (EHEC), a close relative of harmless intestinal bacteria, but one that produces the dangerous Shiga toxin. All it takes is about 100 bacteria -- which isn't much in the world of bacteria, which are normally counted by the millions -- to become infected. After an incubation period of two to 10 days, patients experience watery or bloody diarrhea....

The Endeavour Has Landed!

The following description, from FOX News:

Endeavour and its six astronauts returned to Earth early Wednesday, closing out the next-to-last mission in NASA's 30-year program with a safe middle-of-the-night landing.

Endeavour glided down onto the runway one final time under the cover of darkness, just as Atlantis, the last shuttle bound for space, arrived at the launch pad for the grand finale in five weeks...