Me and the Man of Substance been watching this one. I sure didn't think it would fall this way.

To recap: Joe Horn, a resident of Pasadena Texas observed two men (illegal aliens as it happens), burglarizing a neighbor's home, and he called 911.

He spent some time on the phone with the 911 dispatcher, waiting for law enforcement to arrive.

They didn't, and he grabbed a shotgun and went out to confront them.

According to the transcript, the 911 operator repeatedly urged Joe to stay inside and wait for law enforcement. Joe waited a while, then said 'he did not believe it would be right to let the burglars get away'.

"Well, here it goes, buddy," Horn can be heard telling the operator. "You hear the shotgun clicking and I'm going."

He went out, told em to stop. They didn't. And he shot both of them, in the back.

I pause to mention that I have taken the training required for a Texas CHL. This was stressed as a huge no-no, although I did take the class before the "Castle Doctrine" law passed. Allah calls this a huge migraine. Can't argue, but I got some Excedrine.

The lawyer for Joe did his lawyerly duty, talked about how Joe wishes he had stayed inside, it's "affected him", and the other bullshit you offer up in defense of your client (gotta be PR, you go before the grand jury in Texas by yourself, if I recall correctly it's been a few years, ahem).

Now, the interesting part to me, and something we won't get out of secret grand jury testimony (I have that correct, don't I? I'm not a lawyer, but I think the proceedings are not public, so put me some knowledge. Are there records I need to fret over?), is that a plainclothes detective watched the whole thing go down.

I have to think he mighta testified.

This is the statement that persuaded me the most:

"The detective confirmed that this suspect was actually closer to Horn after he initiated his run than at the time when first confronted," said Corbett. "Horn said he felt in jeopardy."

If he felt threatened.

It sounds like that's where the grand jury came down on this.

UPDATED: Commenter jmarsh added this: "I think the grand jury effort, if there's the same forcible felony "out", was actually more of an effort to indemnify Joe Horn."

Yup. The Castle Doctrine law in Texas provides for something called Affirmative Defense, protection from civil litigation if the shooter's actions were justifiable under the law. jmarsh might be right.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 04:17 PM | Comments (143)
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Seems a tad optimistic to me -- and what then do we make of John "Secure the Border First" McCain's promise to seek amnesty on day one of his administration?

Even Chertoff, offering a rosy prediction, says it will take three years.

Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said tightened security on the U.S.-Mexico border has sparked increased violence there and that the border probably will not be fully secure until 2011, three years after the Bush administration leaves office.

"(Increased violence) is what typically happens when you start to enforce and make it harder to fight over the shrinking pie, so to speak, and who gets the best opportunity to exploit the additional space that's left," Chertoff said at a news conference at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection headquarters in Washington, D.C. on Monday.

"That's a good sign," he said. "The bad news is, it's created a lot of violence and created a lot of havoc, particularly in Mexico."

...

"We have to recognize that both countries (U.S. and Mexico) have a common interest in securing the border," Chertoff said.

Uh-huh.

"I think we will have made a dramatic amount of progress," he said. "I think if we continue on the course we've set now we can get the border secure ... sometime in 2011."

Posted by: Ace at 03:17 PM | Comments (33)
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Sector outlook: "Grim."

Instapundit says he doesn't have much "glee" about this. I have a lot more. It's true that news is important.

On the other hand, those who have been delivering the news to us have been doing a rotten -- and deliberately so -- job. People don't trust them; they recognize they are by and large an owned-and-operated subsidiary of the DNC's communications department.

It's a good thing when bad businesses die. It clears the way for good businesses to enter the field.

Posted by: Ace at 02:53 PM | Comments (50)
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Caught by Commentary:

In February, 2007, when Barack Obama declared that he was running for President, violence in Iraq had reached apocalyptic levels, and he based his candidacy, in part, on a bold promise to begin a rapid withdrawal of American forces upon taking office. At the time, this pledge represented conventional thinking among Democrats and was guaranteed to play well with primary voters. But in the year and a half since then two improbable, though not unforeseeable, events have occurred: Obama has won the Democratic nomination, and Iraq, despite myriad crises, has begun to stabilize. With the general election four months away, Obama’s rhetoric on the topic now seems outdated and out of touch, and the nominee-apparent may have a political problem concerning the very issue that did so much to bring him this far. . . He doubtless realizes that his original plan, if implemented now, could revive the badly wounded Al Qaeda in Iraq, reënergize the Sunni insurgency, embolden Moqtada al-Sadr to recoup his militia’s recent losses to the Iraqi Army, and return the central government to a state of collapse. The question is whether Obama will publicly change course before November. So far, he has offered nothing more concrete than this: “We must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in.” . . . Yet, as exhausted as the public is with the war, a candidate who seems heedless of progress in Iraq will be vulnerable to the charge of defeatism, which John McCain’s campaign will connect to its broader theme of Obama’s inexperience in and weakness on national security.

Jennifer Rubin points out:

So now other MSM outlets can get into the act. MSNBC tips its hand by saying, “This isn’t the Weekly Standard writing about this.” And other mainstream media sources likewise rush to confirm that, my gosh, Obama has a problem.

Perhaps if mainstream media reporters and pundits actually read something other than each otherÂ’s publications they might learn something new. Seriously, they tell us that the same facts reported months ago by Weekly Standard wasnÂ’t worth a mention but a belated account from the New Yorker is? There could be no better proof that the worst victim of the media cocoon is the mainstream media itself.

That is interesting -- apparently MSNBC holds it against the Weekly Standard that it's gotten this right long before the liberal media would even acknowledge something as awful as the possibility of an American military victory.

Posted by: Ace at 02:30 PM | Comments (37)
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The test had two twists: the interceptor was launched from an airplane, and the target was a two-stage missile whose warhead separated from the main missile.

So, this was new, and it was news.

The networks didn't cover it and neither, it seems, did most print outlets.

Dave in Texas did over the weekend. I guess he just doesn't understand the importance of The Narrative (TM).

Update: Newsbusters did find one network reference to the test since they first published the post. The "Today" show mentioned the test once in a 9 AM news summary.

Posted by: Ace at 02:10 PM | Comments (21)
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The blogospheric anthropomorphization of John Bolton's Mustache may (but probably won't) result in a TV series.

"In a cartoon setting, the mustache has its own personality," Oates says from Aspen, Colo., where he's finishing his latest solo album....

The pilot, which Primary Wave estimates will be between six and 10 minutes long, is being storyboarded, and the aim is to have it completed in the next two months. It will portray Oates opening a new wing of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that focuses on mustachioed musicians.

Suddenly, a dying David Crosby appears and with his last breath warns Oates of a mysterious secret group of mustache wearers bent on killing other mustache wearers. As actor Tom Selleck attempts to escape from the latest murder scene, Oates summons his own mustache with a fist pump that simultaneously changes his clothes from conservative attire to pink pants and white boots.

Thanks to MattM.

Posted by: Ace at 01:47 PM | Comments (20)
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The Chosen One really can unite us all! Even Satan's got Obamania!

Posted by: Ace at 01:29 PM | Comments (25)
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The Chosen One's taken a stand:

At an event [last] week in New Mexico, Obama repeated the misleading claim that "women still earn only 77 cents for every dollar earned by men," and dismissed the notion that factors other than discrimination explain the wage gap as "just totally wrong.

More on The Chosen One's uncompromising stand:

Democrat Barack Obama, determined to win over female voters, talked Monday about the women who helped shape his life in arguing that he would be a better proponent of equal pay than Republican John McCain.

The presumed Democratic nominee toured a baking facility and chatted with female workers about their economic challenges.

Sen. Obama told how he was raised by a single mother and his grandmother, who made sacrifices to support their family. He told them that Sen. McCain opposed legislation earlier this year that would have made it easier for women to sue their employers for pay discrimination. Obama supported the bill.

"I'll continue to stand up for equal pay as president — Senator McCain won't, and that's a real difference in this election," Obama said.

Uh huh. Three guesses as to which campaign pays women more than men on average, and which campaign pays them $6,000 less on average.

Does Obama support his female employees' right to sue him? If not, why not? And why do they have to sue for equal pay in the first place, since he's such a bear on the subject?

Is he waiting for a vote in Congress? (A vote he's sure to vote "present" on or simply skip, as is his practice as regards controversial bills.)

Posted by: Ace at 12:27 PM | Comments (30)
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From an Instapundit reader, reacting to Wes "Timeranger" Clark's claim that McCain's only military experience is getting shot down:

The Saddest Thing About Barack Obama's Available Military Expertise...

...is that though he has Wes Clark in his corner, the only person he knows with the experience of getting a bomb on target is Bill Ayers.

McCain, meanwhile, wonders how Clark's distractions about McCain's military experience helps Michelle Obama's kids.

Posted by: Ace at 12:03 PM | Comments (15)
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The new Quantum Of Solace trailer is up. Conservative film blogger Dirty Harry has the link and is impressed.

I was never a huge Bond fan but the most recent one and this trailer are changing my mind. It looks like all the worrying about rebooting the franchise was for nothing.

Now if they can only finish the movie without anyone else getting hurt or killed.

Here's the most important part of any Bond film...the Bond Girl. Meet Olga Kurylenko

Update: I embedded the clip below (ace). more...

Posted by: DrewM at 11:50 AM | Comments (52)
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