Bill-O'-Notes®

The Australian is reporting that Australia may be taking U.S. detainees at Guantanamo in Cuba.  The incoming Obama administration intents to close the prison facility within two years and will be seeking alternative placements for the 250 detainees.

The article points out that the Bush administration has reached out to over 100 nations over the past year seeking this kind of help.

Will there be stateside options?  How does  your neighborhood look for a new home for Gitmo detainees?

The birth of Christ is a celebration that is often looked upon as reflective of a miraculous, quiet, peaceful and awesome moment in that manger in Bethlehem. Rightfully so.  But I cannot help but to wonder why the birth of Jesus is not seen as the wonderfully cataclysmic moment in history that it was.

You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. Luke 1:31 NIV

After about 4,000 years the Christ child prophesy was fulfilled and with it came the way to eternal salvation for those who repent and put their trust in Jesus Christ. Everything changed on that first-ever Christmas day.

Merry Christmas to all.

Butt of joke tosses fox pee.’ How’s that for a headline?

Eight years was enough. Scott Wagar of Willmar, Minnesota found himself to be the perennial butt of the joke with those prankster students and their homecoming week antics. Toilet papering homes and tossing the incredible edible egg was the collegians’ modus operandi.

This time, Wagar would be ready.  Hello, night vision goggles.  And hello… fox urine?

According to police, Wagar of Willmar saw “15-20 people running toward his place. He told them to leave and sprayed them with the fox urine. He also struggled with one teen who he says grabbed him from behind.”

Wagar of Willmar says he sprayed the kids with a mixture of one-third fox urine and two-thirds water because “it stinks, but it doesn’t hurt anything.”

It will be interesting to see how this story flushes out. Is a man’s home his castle or just a septic system?

Why understanding the Posse Comitatus Act (PCA) is important

There were great concerns raised by both ends of the political spectrum on the heels of the 9/11 attacks on America.  The issue of homeland security became front-and-center in the American psyche as communities took careful inventories of their traditional law enforcement resources for frontline defense.

The Washington Post is reporting today that the Pentagon “expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials.”  This would constitute a sevenfold increase in domestic deployment of military resources, a process that has been long in development.

What is the PCA?

Here is an solid discussion (transcript) on the PCA from the Massachusetts School of Law’s MSL Presents: A Question of Law on MSLAW-TV. The context of the discussion is around the October 2002 hunt for the Beltway Sniper where the military used a sophisticated reconnaissance airplane to complement the efforts of traditional law enforcement.

The original Posse Comitatus Act was a rider to an appropriations bill, Chapter 263, Section 15, approved on June 18, 1878. It read as follows:

From and after passage of this act it shall not be lawful to employ any part of the Army of the United States, as a posse comitatus, or otherwise, for the purpose of executing the laws, except in such cases and under such circumstances as such employment of said force may be expressly authorized by the Constitution or by act of Congress; and no money appropriated by this act shall be used to pay any of the expenses incurred in the employment of any troops in violation of this section, and any person willfully violating the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction thereof shall be punished by fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars or imprisonment not exceeding two years or by both such fine and imprisonment.

Section 1385 of Title 18, United States Code (USC), states:

“Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.”

Close call for CNN reporter in Mumbai

CNN New Delhi correspondent, Sara Sidner who would report later:

“As we were standing outside a large group of people came around, many of them young, with the smell of alcohol on their breath, frankly. They were standing very, very close and suddenly chaos erupted.”

Five blog years & still plugging away

In this world I lovingly slug ‘blogdom’, five years is a lifetime and for Bill-O’-Notes® five years has been a wonderful ride. Thank you for dropping by from time to time.

November 22, 2003 marked the inaugural post to what was then known as “The Original Bill-O-Blog.” Out of deference to a gentleman who would subsequently register that same handle I opted to make a break of it and put a fresh coat of paint on the old blog; Bill-O’-Notes® marked the next phase in this blog experiment thingy.

Just like my days as a radio talker, I have never wanted to take life too seriously. Sometimes, however, stuff happens and you just have to go there.  This blog has been a true outlet with which to get things off of my chest or just to pass the time.

God has been very good to me and my family and His blessings are immeasurable.  On this eve of Thanksgiving Day 2008 it is an appropriate time to thank our Lord and Savior for all that we hold dear and, quite likely, take far too much for granted.

What is wrong with this picture? Nothing at all.

This cute picture was taken in 2007. There will be no update for 2008. Why not? Local authorities have caved to pressure to ban any traditional garb at the students’ Thanksgiving celebration so as not to offend anyone. Call me offended.

Cody Lucas, left, and Vince Tran participated in last year’s Thanksgiving celebration, a four-decade-old Claremont school district tradition.

As we work our way through another Christmas season, a holiday that has seen increasing challenge with each passing year, it really should not surprise any of us that Thanksgiving should be safe from amounts to a now pervasive secular progressive action. It is fitting that we consider the basis for this celebration from President Lincoln.

President Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation c. 1863

…”The year that is drawing toward its close, has been filled with the blessing of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added– which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.

“In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict, while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

“Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines of iron, coal and precious metals have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battlefield; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

“No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

“It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people.

“I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.

“And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine Purpose to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity [sic] and Union.”

Abraham Lincoln