Archive for the ‘Crime’ Category

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Buddy Barfield/David Dewhurst Campaign Embezzlement Update

Tuesday, January 7th, 2014

Remember the accusations that campaign consultant Kenneth “Buddy” Barfield embezzled over $1 million from David Dewhurst’s Lt. Governor and Senate campaigns over a number of years?

Well, the estimated total he’s accused of embezzling is now over $2 million, plus

Barfield has agreed to turn over his lavish West Austin home and various business assets to Dewhurst to settle a civil lawsuit filed by Dewhurst last year to recover the funds. A final judgment executing the settlement was signed by a state judge in November.

Sale proceeds from Barfield’s home, which has been listed at $2.8 million, will be pooled with the assets of Barfield’s businesses to repay Dewhurst’s campaign accounts for lieutenant governor and his 2012 U.S. Senate race. The home was valued at $1.37 million by the Travis County Appraisal District in 2013.

In all, the judgment states that the David Dewhurst Committee and Dewhurst for Texas campaign accounts should receive $3,750,000 from the Barfield properties. It lists seven Barfield companies, including Alexander Group Consulting, which conducted campaign work for Dewhurst and other candidates.

Evidently there is some fire behind all that smoke. (Also, it appears that Betsy Woodruff was right (and I was wrong) to describe Barfield as having embezzled “millions” plural rather than singular.) Also, this evidently doesn’t get him off the hook for possible criminal charges, which I understand are at both the state and federal levels (the latter for violating federal campaign finance laws for Dewhurst’s losing 2012 U.S. Senate race).

Still unanswered is just how bad is David Dewhurst’s oversight that someone managed to steal $2 million from his campaigns and he didn’t notice for years?

(Speaking of disorder in the Dewhurst campaign, according to this story I missed from last year, he evidently still owes vendors over $1 million from the Senate campaign. I sent out some queries Friday to the vendors named in the story to see if Dewhurst has paid those bills in the interim, but have yet to receive a reply from any of them.)

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Posted in Crime, Elections, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Flash Mob at Brooklyn Mall

Saturday, December 28th, 2013

One problem with defining the flash mob problem is conflicting reports on the severity of particular incidents.

Thursday there was a flash mob at Kings Plaza Shopping Center in Brooklyn. How bad was it?

According to the New York Post story linked above:

A wild flash mob stormed and trashed a Brooklyn mall, causing so much chaos that the shopping center was forced to close during post-Christmas sales, sources said Friday.

More than 400 crazed teens — who mistakenly thought the rapper Fabolous would perform — erupted into brawls all over Kings Plaza Shopping Center in Mill Basin on Thursday at 5 p.m., sources said.

The troublemakers looted and ransacked several stores as panicked shoppers ran for the exits and clerks scrambled to pull down metal gates.

[snip]

“They were playing the ‘knockout’ game,” said Shante, a 21-year-old perfume merchant, in reference to a violent trend in which teens try to knock out an unsuspecting victim with a single punch.

However, this CBS NY report makes things sound pretty chaotic, but a whole lot less criminal:

“There were reports of minor damage and no store owners reported any thefts.”

Well either looting occurred or it didn’t, but you would think thefts would have been reported if stores had been “ransacked.” Did the “minor damage” consist of decorations being knocked over or windows being smashed?

All sources agree that some fights broke out (though video of that seems to have been pulled from YouTube).

There was also reports of black-on-white racial attacks in the same neighborhood back in October.

And what does The New York Times have to say? Either my Google-fu is weak, or a mini-riot at a mall in the city it ostensibly covers is simply beneath The Gray Lady’s notice, as I couldn’t find any online coverage.

More on racial tensions in Brooklyn and the knockout game.

Edited to add: Gothamist seems to have some non-embeddable videos off of Facebook. What’s shown there seems slightly on the “rowdy” side of the “rowdy/criminal” divide. I would have been concerned had I been there, but I didn’t see any window smashing or looting. Caveats on limited viewpoints and small sample sizes apply.

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Posted in Crime, video | No Comments »

More Annals of Criminal SUPER-Geniuses

Friday, December 13th, 2013

Protip: If you are a convicted felon, try not to put up Instagram pictures of yourself holding two guns.

Especially if you have “$250,000 worth of stolen jewelry, electronics and and firearms” in your house.

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Posted in Crime | No Comments »

LinkSwarm for November 27, 2013

Wednesday, November 27th, 2013

I’m guessing a lot of people will be traveling or furiously cleaning their house today, so here’s a small pre-Thanksgiving LinkSwarm for the distracted:

  • Dear America: In case you didn’t notice in the ObamaCare meltdown, the economy is still screwed.
  • Current estimate for people losing their employer health insurance thanks to ObamaCare: 80 million.
  • Abbott Labs CEO: ObamaCare provides “clear incentives for companies to drop their health care plans and move people onto the exchanges.”
  • Noted right-wing white supremacists Al Sharpton and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter say the Knockout Game is real. (Hat tip Jammie Wearing Fool.
  • Israel is not the only country upset over Obama and Kerry’s Iranian cave-in; the Saudis are pissed, too.
  • The pro-Amnesty lobby thinks they can punish politicians for agreeing with the will of American voters. Fuzzy, feel-good “immigration reform” polls well right up until voters realize what they’ll actually get is illegal alien amnesty.
  • Leander ISD is bankrupting its children.

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    Posted in Border Control, Crime, Foreign Policy, Jihad, ObamaCare | No Comments »

    Things Are About To Get Really, Really Ugly in Venezuela

    Tuesday, November 26th, 2013

    The Venezuelan Parliament just passed an “enabling law” to give Socialist President Nicolas Maduro dictatorial powers.

    Gee, you know what other Socialist President had his country pass an “Enabling Law” to give him dictatorial powers?

    Go ahead.

    Guess.

    Maduro’s opponents? Not happy.

    Earlier this month, Maduro sent the army to seize electronics store and force them to sell goods below cost, i.e. at the laughable “official exchange rate” of 6.3 bolivars per dollar rather than the real black market rate, which is some eight times higher. (They even tried to get Twitter to block unofficial exchange rates.) And Maduro is looking to loot more stores ahead of the December 8 elections. Given that Hugo Chavez has been hollowing out the country since 1999, I’m not even sure it’s possible for the opposition to win a large enough victory to escape the margin of voter fraud anymore.

    Inflation is running at 54%. Oil prices are at 16 month lows, and the country’s oil production has been declining for a while. That, and the crazy Socialist looting, have sent Venezuela bond prices into a tailspin and sent their interest rates to an all-time high. Crime is also high, with Caracas being the murder capital of the world (yes, even worse than Chicago).

    Maybe that’s why Goldman Sachs has a scheme to help Venezuela swap gold for dollars.

    It’s almost as if Maduro read Atlas Shrugged and saw it as a blueprint rather than a cautionary tale. Imagine Greece, if hyperinflation was just getting started and they didn’t have German taxpayers to bail them out.

    You can decree imaginary exchange rates the same way you can decree that π be set to exactly 3, and the reality will ignore and punish your delusion. Watch inflation skyrocket and business collapse as sellers are unable to buy goods and unwilling to sell at a loss, guaranteeing that a far-from rich country is about to get a whole lot poorer.

    The only question now is whether Venezuela’s economic collapse will bee Argentina bad, or Weimar Germany bad.

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    Posted in Crime, Economics | No Comments »

    LinkSwarm for November 25, 2013

    Monday, November 25th, 2013

    This was supposed to go up Friday, but Stuff and Things interfered once again.

    Obama’s “deal” with Iran drops sanctions and lets them enrich uranium to their heart’s content. I guess Obama needs the Iran agreement as a disastrous fake achievement to distract from ObamaCare, his last disastrous fake achievement. I haven’t read all the details, so I can’t tell if it’s Madeleine Albright bad, or Neville Chamberlain bad, but it doesn’t appear to address Iran’s continued support of Assad, Hezbollah, or their other terrorist activities. Still to be decided: whether Obama personally plants the knife in Benjamin Netanyahu’s back, or has aide do it. (If Hillary Clinton wanted to put distance between herself and the Obama Administration, now would be a great time to denounce the Iran deal.)

  • Mother forced into Medicaid. “There was just one option—at the very affordable monthly rate of zero. The exchange had determined that my mother was not eligible to choose to pay for a plan, and so she was slated immediately for Medicaid.”
  • The real rationale behind ObamaCare was the redistribution of wealth. “The redistribution of wealth has always been a central feature of [ObamaCare].”
  • “Insurance is complex to buy”? Really, Mr. President? I’m pretty sure Forest Gump could have figured that out in less than 3 years…
  • The real reason behind Obama’s laughable deal with Iran is to shore up his shrinking liberal base, the only group that still supports him after the ObamaCare debacle.
  • John Bolton calls the deal “abject surrender”.
  • End result of the Iran deal? “War has now become a much more likely prospect.”
  • Given all that, Harry Reid nuking the Senate’s filibuster gets pushed further down the Stack of Perfidy. What it tells us is that Democrats believe they’re going to lose the Senate. “They think it’s very likely that they will lose their Senate majority in 2014. They are essentially writing off the last two years of Obama’s presidency, which means getting as much done as possible right now. They are going to spend the next year packing as many liberal justices and appointees onto the courts and various bureaucracies as they can.”
  • Democratic Rep mugged in DC. Does this mean she’ll turn Republican? (Hat tip: Ace of Spades.)
  • 16 things people couldn’t believe about America until moving here. (Hat tip: Michael Totten.)
  • I wonder how John Carter feels about being labeled part of “the House’s own pro-amnesty gang”?
  • Related: How Amnesty dies: Part 1, Part 2.
  • Syrian Kurds declare autonomy.
  • Crystal Mangum, the central accuser in the Duke Lacrosse “rape” case (which wasn’t) has been convicted of murder. Somehow I managed to miss Nancy Grace’s wall-to-wall coverage of her trial…

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    Posted in Border Control, Crime, Democrats, Foreign Policy, ObamaCare | 1 Comment »

    Gun & Crime LinkSwarm for November 20, 2013

    Wednesday, November 20th, 2013

    We interrupt our continuing series on the failures of ObamaCare to bring you a dollop of gun- and crime-related news:

  • It takes a special kind of super-genius to threaten to shoot gun-rights activists.
  • Though that does give me a chance to bring up the Recall Hudak Too campaign, to recall another gun-grabbing Colorado state senator.
  • San Francisco magazine ban challanged in court. (Hat tip: Alphecca.)
  • Requiring liability insurance for gun owners appears to be dead for now.
  • World’s first 3D printed metal gun. And they’re in Austin!
  • Meet Monticello, NY Mayor Gordon Jenkins. He’s a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns. He’s also been arrested for DWI and hitting a cop. Funny how so many people in favor of “gun control” can’t seem to practice self-control.
  • Another dead goblin.
  • Speaking of dead goblins: Armed homeowner gets the drop on intruder by pretending to be deaf and blind. Only problem with the story is that some details don’t match up: “The intruder lowered his weapon for a moment — long enough for Carlson to grab his own loaded Glock 9mm handgun.” Then: “‘I’ve never had my revolver out of my pocket in 50-some odd years,’ Carlson said by phone Friday evening.” To the best of my knowledge, Glock doesn’t make any revolvers, much less a 9mm. (There are 9mm revolvers, but they’re not particularly common.) Possibly the owner was speaking with colloquial inaccuracy, or was misquoted.
  • In Pierce County, Washington, an armed homeowner killed an intruder who drove his car through a metal gate, then broke into his house. Not exactly the perfect stealthy crime…
  • “Drunk Florida Man Tries to Use Taco as ID After His Car Catches Fire.”
  • Uh…noted without comment:

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    Posted in Austin, Crime, Guns, video | No Comments »

    ObamaCare LinkSwarm for November 19, 2013

    Tuesday, November 19th, 2013

    I actually forgot to add a bunch of ObamaCare links to yesterday’s LinkSwarm, so here they are along with some of newer vintage. Every day, the disaster get’s worse for Democrats (and the nation). It’s like a Hindenburg that never stops exploding.

  • More now think Obama bungled ObamaCare (63%) than now think Bush bungled Iraq (44%), or even at the Iraq war’s nadir of unpopularity (57%)
  • Why ObamaCare is on life-support.
  • How unpopular is #ObamaCare? Try “Fugitive Slave Act in Boston in 1858” unpopular.
  • Speaking of unpopular, Obama’s ratings are off the chart bad. (Hat tip: Moe Lane.)
  • It took Obama to turn the American public libertarian. “Majority in U.S. Say Healthcare Not Gov’t Responsibility”.
  • Ace explains the difference between the Upton and Landrieu bills.
  • D.C. insurance commissioner fired 24 hours after questioning ObamaCare “fix.” (Also via Ace.)
  • The New Republic develops a case of the vapors over ObamaCare dooming big government.
  • Does Obama’s latest “ObamaCare means what I say it means” open him up for a Supreme Court challenge?
  • Number of successful #ObamaCare enrollees in NC: 1. Wait, they haven’t paid yet. 0.
  • Not even Obama is saying the ObamaCare website will be fixed by the December 1st deadline. Now it will be “improved”. I guess they’re changing the clip-art…

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    Posted in Crime, Democrats, Guns, ObamaCare | No Comments »

    LinkSwarm for November 18, 2013

    Monday, November 18th, 2013

    Some links to start your week with, ObamaCare still looming as topic one:

  • Chao before Congress: ObamaCare is hunky dory! Chao in internal memo the day before: we are so farked!
  • Over four million Americans have their policies cancelled thanks to ObamaCare.
  • Less than 50,000 sign up for ObamaCare.
  • One of the Democratic Senators running as hard as she can away from ObamaCare is Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu. Too bad she already embraced 100% accountability for it.
  • Race-baiting provided a shield that allowed Obama to fail.
  • And remember that calling Obama’s critics racist was a deliberate strategy by MSM members wanting to boost and protect Obama.
  • Don’t expect Obama to bounce back.
  • So is Politico actually covering the dysfunction within the Obama cabinet, or are they trying to shield a favorite from the stink of failure engulfing same?
  • A look back at Communist genocide in Ukraine.
  • Fitch gives Chicago bonds three steps, yes they gave them a three step cut toward the floor.
  • Michael Totten: “The case for walking away from Egypt and dusting our hands off is sound.”
  • Antisemitism getting worse in Europe says notorious Zionist shill, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.
  • Islamists in Nigeria doing what they do best: murder children.
  • Sex crime investigator arrested for sex crime with a minor. That’s really cutting out the middleman…
  • How the holy hell can Amtrack lose one BILLION dollars on food service? You could feed Ethiopia on that!
  • Dwight has an EarthQuest update.
  • Julian Castro to force streetcars down the throats of San Antonians despite votes against them.
  • Another super-genus criminal. Just click the link and look at the pics.

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    Posted in Communism, Crime, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Guns, Jihad, Media Watch, ObamaCare, Texas | No Comments »

    Meet the New Obama Navigators: Same As the Old ACORN

    Friday, November 15th, 2013

    James O’Keefe is exposing the “ObamaCare Navigators” the same way he exposed ACORN. Indeed, I strongly suspect they;’re the same people.

    And both those videos were filmed in Texas.

    Once again, both the Obama Administration and the Democratic Party seem remarkably comfortable aiding and abetting the willful defrauding of the American taxpayer. Just as they were for the Pigford scandal:

    It’s obvious that more than just ObamaCare needs to be repealed…

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    Posted in Crime, Obama Scandals, ObamaCare, video, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | No Comments »

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