Oh Boy….

Yikes:

ATF UPDATE: Jones pick as ATF chief is in deeper trouble. “Earlier this week, Donald Oswald, a former Minneapolis FBI director and self-described Democrat, wrote to alert the Senate Judiciary Committee to Jones’ ‘atrocious professional reputation within the federal law enforcement community.’ . . . The newest flashpoint involves operation ‘Fearless Distributing,’ a Milwaukee sting operation in which the ATF set up a phony storefront targeting gun traffickers. A recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation found what it called a string of mistakes, including a military-style machine gun that ended up on the streets, and a robbery of the agency store that netted $35,000 in merchandise.”

This agency doesn’t seem to be ready for primetime.

via Instapundit » Blog Archive » ATF UPDATE: Jones pick as ATF chief is in deeper trouble. “Earlier this week, Donald Oswald, a for….

Reason I say, “Oh Boy….” for is this: I have heard from sources that are of the Alex Jones credibility that the ATF basically is an agency unto itself. I have also heard that they do not take too kindly to insults of this sort. So, if I were Glenn Reynolds, I would be real careful about making jokes at the expense of the ATF.  As some of you know, I am also an Amateur Radio Operator, or Ham for sort. Well, once back in the late 1990’s, when I was a part of the BBS scene; I heard of a guy, who made a posting on a land-line bulletin board, basically mocking the ATF, saying something along these lines. Well, a week later the ATF was at his doorstep. They ended up busting the guy on an illegally modified AR-15. modified for automatic fire. The person ended up doing 15 years for that little stunt.

Now to be honest, I did not give that story much credibility; so, I used some of my contacts in the local and state governments around here, via Amateur Radio,  to check on this story and sure enough it was true. As to what, if anything, prompted the raid, they could not tell me. But, the facts was, someone got a hard-on for a poster on Bulletin Board and it went downhill from there.

So, to Glenn and everyone else; I simply say this: Be careful. All it takes is some irate FBI or ATF agent to get a hard-on for you and you are done my friend. The Government does not need a reason to raid your house anymore. All they have to do is think you are doing something illegal and they can come in, with a no-knock raid and take everything you own; even if you did nothing wrong and getting your stuff back is like a nice day in hell.

Again, I would like to think that nothing would come of what Glenn wrote; but if I were in his shoes and I had a big traffic blog like his, there would be no way in Hades that I would ever write anything of that sort on my blog. There are too many agencies out there data mining, and there are too many agencies with people snooping; especially at the Pentagon.

In short: Watch it and be safe….and smart.