Blue Lights In The Mirror, What A Way To End The Day

Saturday, April 6th. This is the kind of day that makes rolling a truck across the highways of this nation special. The weather couldn't be much better. It's cool, but not cold with slightly overcast skies. I've got old 70's rock and roll on the satellite radio. Traffic is light. I'm pulling a light load with a new energy-efficient trailer which means I'm getting great fuel mileage. I travel through some of the most beautiful country in the United States as I cross interstate 40 through Tennessee, all four hundred fifty-one miles of it. Rolling mountains all the way across and into North Carolina. I was up early this morning at 4:30, 3:30 central when I started out.

I-40 Bridge coming into Memphis at 3:30 am (CST)

I got to Hurricane Mills, Tenn at about 7:00 am and had a wonderful breakfast at Loretta Lynn's Kitchen.

The rest of the morning and into the early afternoon was wonderful. Great day that could only be better if I was on my Harley. But then....

A North Carolina Highway Patrol car slowly passes me, backs out of it and falls in to my left side as he travels just behind me. Blue lights start flashing. I'm driving with the cruise control set at 63 in a 70 zone, in my lane not weaving and clearly wearing my seat belt. Nothing is wrong with my truck and I'm not doing anything wrong. Oh wait, yes I am, I'm driving a truck. Just being behind the wheel makes me a suspect. What crime? It doesn't matter. I see an exit ramp about 1/2 mile from where I am so I let off the cruise and turn on the emergency flashers so he knows I am pulling over as soon as I get to a safe location.

It's a young trooper who tells me to open my passenger door. He steps on the running board and looks around inside the truck. He's very nice. Very professional. "I need the registration on the truck and trailer, your driver's license, medical card, and log book. I stopped you to do an inspection." I asked what prompted him to stop me and was told, "Nothing, I just thought I'd do a random inspection." Can you imagine the uproar if this were happening to people in cars? No probable cause. Not even reasonable suspicion you're doing anything wrong or in violation of any laws. Just, "I thought I'd do a random inspection."

I came away from the stop with perfect inspection but terrible disposition. What a way to screw up the perfect day. Even though my truck is, like me, getting older with a lot of miles I try to keep it in top notch condition. It is serviced and a complete preventative maintenance is done between 15 and 18 thousand miles. My son owns a diesel repair shop, ServiceFleet, in Augusta, Ga and him and his mechanics do all my routine maintenance work. They know that if I don't pass an inspection because of something they missed it will be hell to pay.

I do it by the book. I run completely legal and compliant. My log books are electronic and help keep me 100% legal. I run at or below the speed limits. This not only helps from a safety standpoint but the reduced speeds, especially on the interstates, reduces my fuel costs and puts money in my pocket. Just one nickel per mile is $125.00 per week based on an average of 2500 miles a week. That's $6500 per year just by keeping my speed lower and not idling the truck. Safety pays.

I understand safety from all my years as a law enforcement officer. I know not all trucks are not well maintained and not everybody is going to run by the book. I am as concerned as the next person by this. It's my life and that of my family who must share the roads with these people so don't get me wrong, I do get it!

My complaint is not about trucks being inspected. You will never hear me complain (loudly anyway) about a routine inspection at a scale house or other location set up specifically for checking all trucks. My complaint is a Fourth Amendment issue. Why do I lose my rights against unreasonable search and seizure just because I happen to be sitting behind the wheel of a tractor-trailer?

Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968), was decided by the United States Supreme Court 45 years ago and was a landmark decision which held that the Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures are not violated when a police officer stops a suspect on the street and frisks him or her without probable cause to arrest, if the police officer has reasonable suspicion that the person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime and has a reasonable belief that the person "may be armed and dangerous."

The Terry Court recognized that ''not all personal intercourse between policemen and citizens involves 'seizures' of persons,'' and suggested that ''[o]nly when the officer, by means of physical force or show of authority, has in some way restrained the liberty of a citizen may we conclude that a 'seizure' has occurred.''  Years later Justice Stewart proposed a similar standard, that a person has been seized ''only if, in view of all of the circumstances surrounding the incident, a reasonable person would have believed that he was not free to leave.''

 http://constitution.findlaw.com/amendment4/annotation03.html> 

United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, arguably one of the most liberal justices, more recently wrote the opinion for the unanimous court in the case of Arizona v. Johnson 555 U.S. 323 (2009) which in part read: "During a traffic stop... passengers are seized under the Fourth Amendment once the vehicle they're in, when stopped by the police comes to a complete stop on the side of the road..."

I put these references in to show that we are not afforded the same rights under the Bill of Rights as every other citizen, including criminals.

Look at the references. Under Terry a police officer must at least have reasonable suspicion that the person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime...to be stopped in the first place. As I was driving along I fell into none of the categories and the officer had no reason to think any of these had, were, or were going to be done.

Once I was stopped "by show of authority" I was not allowed to leave. Can you imagine how far under the jail I would have been tossed if I had told him I didn't have time for the inspection and needed to continue on. This constituted a seizure under the strictest meaning of the word since I was in no way "free to leave."

Even Justice Ginsburg agreed that once a vehicle is stopped on the side of the road, "passengers are seized."

Like I said I understand the need for safety on our highways. A truck in the wrong hands is like a firearm in the wrong hands and will eventually kill. But will stepping on the Bill of Rights help anyone or is it like the President with his gun control agenda? All this is doing is creating a nation of criminals. Even if we are doing it the best and safest way possible we are still treated like criminals. We are "profiled" just for driving a truck.

How many other professions have entire law enforcement agencies, federal, state and local, dedicated to nothing but policing their profession? I can't off hand think of any. The Federal government has the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) that does nothing but regulate trucks. Each state has it's own truck enforcement division, whether it be called Transport Police, Dept of Transportation, Public Utilities or many other names they are all the same. Even local law enforcement have jumped on the band wagon in recent years assigning officers to nothing but truck enforcement. We have to obey all motor vehicle laws that the normal citizen does but, we have Federal, local, and state laws on top of those. I hate to say it because I heard it so many times over the years, "The city must be short on funds this month so you're writing more tickets," but a lot of this is a revenue grab.

Now we also have the FMCSA putting out new regulations or changing regulations almost daily and we are supposed to keep up with them.

Under it's newest rule, CSA (Compliance Safety Accountability) we are charged with things we have absolutely no control over. CSA was implemented over the weekend of December 2011 and is supposed to be a Safety Management System. CSA is currently being challenged in court but is still in use as the lawsuit proceeds.

CSA is flawed on many fronts but the most outrageous is in its Evaluation. "Evaluate safety performance of carriers and drivers and identify behavior patterns that may result in unsafe operations."

Read that again "....that may result in unsafe operations." This isn't saying that I have operated unsafely, only that I may, sometime in the future, operate unsafely due to their less that well thought out criteria. If I had a clearance light burn out during my trip when I had gotten stopped for the "inspection" I would have gotten points accessed on a scale of 1 to 100 with 100 being the worse. They think because this light burned out somewhere along my route I should have caught it and therefore I'm a danger on the highway.

I don't even have to do anything wrong. I am assigned points for anything that I'm involved with whether I'm at fault or not. Even if I am given a warning ticket it will be placed on my CSA record and held against me without due process of law under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. You can't go to court and fight a warning ticket so you have no recourse and you still get the points accessed.

One of the best examples of what can happen was stated by the Vice President of Safety for Groendyke Transport, Steve Niswander, during an inverview. "A driver can have a bad score, yet be a great driver. If, for example, a car driven by a drunk driver crosses the median and hits the truck head-on causing the death of both the driver and their passenger, you have an alcohol-involved accident with two fatalities. That will go on the driver's CSA record and it will blow their score clean out of the water through no fault of their own."

Did you read that? Scary huh? Let's try that on a passenger car. After Church you took the family to Grandma's house for Sunday fried chicken. The strongest thing you've had to drink is some of your Mom's great sweet iced tea. Now you, your wife and your two children leave and head on home. As you're driving along through town a drunk driver running 70 mph runs a stop sign hitting your car and killing everyone in the car but you. Of course the drunk driver walks away with minor injuries. You have just been involved in an alcohol-related accident with three fatalities. You've just lost your entire family and now you will also lose your job, and home because of something you had nothing to do with other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time and the points are accessed against you just for being involved. Can't happen. It could if you were behind the wheel of a truck.

I heard a story on the radio awhile back about a woman driver who had over a million miles of safe driving. No accidents, no tickets. She was stopped in traffic due to construction and even turned on her emergency flashers to warn other motorists. Someone texting and driving and not paying attention hit her truck in the rear killing themselves. Over ten years of safe driving didn't count. She was fired and can't get another job because of this incident on her record although she did everything right.

I could go on and on but I won't. I'll leave it here.

I'm not a lawyer but I do have a deep and passionate love of the law. This is my opinion based on research I've done. I'm a retired cop who's just trying to provide for my family now by driving and owning a truck. I'm not a criminal so please quit treating me like one.

PS: Thanks to a great organization like OOIDA for standing up for the little guy who can't to do it alone.

The Trucking Night Before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas, and on all the roads,
Truckers headed home, having emptied their loads.
Headed east from Atlanta, with the hammer down,
To play Santa for my Baby, back in J-Town.

There was Dickie in a Freightliner, Gary a Mack,
Two Centurys, then a Pete, with a tanker out back.
And Terry with his log truck and me in my Pete,
We were in the middle, we had the best seat.

When under the hood there arose such a clatter,
I hit the shoulder to see what was the matter.
Out the door I was gone in a flash,
Throw open the hood, find out what I'd trashed.

The smoke, the oil, it was all such a mess
I couldn't figure it out, I tried my best.
When headed west but what did appear,
A mobile service truck, amber lights flashing clear.

The young man driving was slender and quick,
My prayers have been answered, he could've been St. Nick.
The truck turned in the median and back he came,
Hollered at his helpers calling each one by name.

"Ray, and Dillon, and Donnie too,
This truck is trashed, this driver is screwed.
To the back of our truck, let's get our tools,
A computer, some gloves, and a turbo too."

Then in a twinkling, they were under the hood.
Wrenches flying, man are they good.
As I shook my head and was turning around,
He jumped from the truck, landing with a bound.

He was dressed in a uniform from his head to his feet,
It was covered in dirt, oil, water and grease,
A box full of tools he had in his hand,
The look on his face, one determined young man.

His eyes looked right through me, as by me he ran,
And fired up a generator in back of the van.
He returned with more tools and a box filled with parts.
I don't care what it costs, as long as this baby starts.

A harness full of wires he held tight in his teeth,
As he stripped each end from under it's sheath.
He had a smile on his face as they laughed, joked and talked,
Me, I was nervous, up and down the shoulder I walked.

He was slender and fit, along with his crew,
Each seemed gifted, they knew what to do.
A wink of his eye and a nod of his head
soon gave me to know i had nothing to dread

He spoke not a word as they finished their work,
He climbed in the truck and hit the key, it started with a jerk.
He gave his workers each a high five,
As he revved the engine, then from the truck he climbed.

He jumped in his van along with his crew,
I asked about the bill, what do I do?
But he yelled from the window as he drove out of sight
Merry Christmas to You and to All a Good Night


                                        By: Tony D Taylor

I Voted, Now Back to Work.

Well, time to go back to work. I'll be heading to south Georgia and then on to Tennessee and down to south Texas. I don't have a clue as to when I'll make it back home but it probably won't be in time to cast my vote. I will not let this year go by without at least having some say in the elections. The wife and I headed down to the County Elections office first thing this morning and cast our votes in early voting. Done. I love it!

Taking an impromptu poll of family and friends I found that only about 1 in 20 are even registered to vote. This is horrendous. Voting is not only your right, but a duty. Of the 19 who are not registered a few of them are the ones yelling the loudest about no jobs, rising gas prices, stagnant economy and any other thing you can think of. SHUT UP! If you don't vote then you have no say. You don't have a right to complain.

I can't believe the excuses. The biggest one is that, "My one vote ain't gonna mean anything." YES IT DOES! Lets take a look at a few in recent history.
1) This year: Rick Santorum defeated Mitt Romney in the Iowa caucuses by 34 votes out of 121,503 total votes cast. A margin of only 0.28%. Of course Romney went on to win the nomination overall but this was the closest GOP primary in history.
2) United States Senate election in the State of Washington, 2000. Democrat Maria Cantwell defeated Republican Incumbent Slade Gorton by only 2229 votes out of 2,461,379. A margin of less than 1 percent.
3) 2010 Lakeview, Ohio School District was won by only 2 votes out of 3,570.
Several state electoral races have come in at under 1/2 of a percentage point. We won't even talk about Bush and Gore in 2000 where it was 0.009%.
Don't say your vote does not count.

Talking to our daughter this morning I asked her why she doesn't vote. "I don't keep up with the issues enough to stay informed," was her response. You're a young, bright, college student. The future of this country depends on your generation to be informed and keep up with the issues. You're an accounting major. It seems like the economy would be first and foremost on the minds of all your classmates and yourself. I know that you look at more on that computer than Facebook. Flip through the news pages. There aren't too many newspapers left anymore but get the news from someplace and not just one source.

When Diane and I started dating I was still an Investigator with the Johnston Police Department. She had never voted, and other than workplace gossip, she didn't have a clue as to what went on in her own town. She was amazed that I was getting called out at all hours of the day and night for robberies, murders, any, and every, imaginable crime.  She told me after only a few weeks, "I didn't know all that went on here." She just got up, went to work, and came home. Now she is one of the most informed people I know. She developed an honest interest in what went on not only in our town and county, but the entire country.

That is just what everyone in this country needs to do. Instead of just walking around looking at the sidewalk, look up, look around, see what is happening. Find out why your gas prices are rising. Find out why your groceries have gone up about 37% in the last two years. Your gross income is the same as it was last year, so why am I seeing less in my paycheck?

What I'm asking is to take the time to get informed and get out and vote. Your vote does matter.

On another note I wish the best to my friends who are running for office this year: Sonny Cox, Coroner Greenwood County, Bob Fisher, Greenwood County Council, Sonya Spray, Aiken County treasurer, Donnie Myers, Eleventh Circuit Solicitor and Shane Massey, SC State Senate.

Sonny, Bob, and Sonya I can't vote for you since I don't live in your counties, but I do wish each and every one of you the best of luck and I know you'll do great things for your citizens.

Patriot Guard Riders

Earlier today I was looking at the new members on the SC Patriot Guard Forums with the intent of sending something to welcome and tell them what to expect from a personal perspective. I deleted it before finishing as I realized there was just too much to tell in a forum, so I decided to come here and try to tell everyone, not just new members, what this organization has meant to me.

New members: Welcome. My first, and probably best, piece of advice to you is get a good pair of sunglasses. Not as much for protection from the sun but to hide the tears that will inevitably well up in your eyes at each and every mission. You can't help it, and it will happen. Chances are you didn't know the person you will be standing the flag line for, but you do know that sometime during their life they were willing to pick up a gun and tell you, "Sleep well tonight, I'm watching over you and I'll see that no harm comes to you or your family." Chances are that person didn't know you either but was willing to die to see that you lived in peace and this country continued on. This goes not only for the military but for those in law enforcement. I can remember being told over 30 years ago at the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy, "Your primary responsibility is to protect those who can't protect themselves." Our firefighters and emergency medical personnel are in the trenches also and you need to make sure you know they are watching over you and if you need them they will be there. How many times does the general public even give a second thought to those on the front lines unless they need them. I know every man and woman in this country thought about them on 9/11 and the days shortly thereafter, but how soon life returns to normal and people forget and don't ever even say a simple "Thank You."

This will never happen with the PGR. They remember every day. I have never been involved with a greater group of men, women, and even children than with the PGR. In the dictionary under Patriot there should be a photo of the Patriot Guard Riders. These guys and gals are the embodiment of true patriotism. I belong to many great and charitable organizations, such as American Legion, American Legion Riders, Harley Owners Group, my church and a several others. I did eight years as a US Navy Corpsman and twenty-three years as a Police Officer, most of that time as a detective/investigator. I feel I have done a lot over my fifty-eight years on this earth but never have I done anything that makes my heart swell with pride as much as each time I stand the flag line, look over and see the complete and sincere honor, respect, and reverence on the faces of every person in that line as they proudly hold the American flag. To know that each and every one of them took time from their day, their work, their families and their many other obligations to be there. When the call came they were needed, everything was dropped and they started making plans working around anything else they might have had planned for that day. Not one person is wondering what else he, or she, could be doing. They are there because they want to be. They feel in their hearts and souls that they need to be. Frequently I'll pass, or be passed by, several bikes or a car or pickup with Patriot Guard stickers and I sit up taller in the seat knowing they are headed to or from a mission and that I'm not there but I am still very much a part of that. Each time I see them I wish I could turn this rig around and follow them and stand the line with them no matter where I am. We are one, there are no borders.

When I first joined the Patriot Guard I knew I would only be able to attend occasionally as I am an owner/driver of a small one truck company so I'm usually away from home and on the road somewhere when a mission is happening. Every mission I do make then makes me want to be at them all. If you can make every mission that is great with them. If you make every other one, that too is great. If you can only make one out of fifty they will never question it. They are glad to have you any time you can make it and will always welcome you with open arms, literally. There will be hand shakes and hugs from everyone. You will make many new friends and with any one of them you would be glad to share a foxhole if the need ever arose. When you ask a member, "Why do you do this?" there are as many responses as people. But the one thing you hear from each of them is, "To show my respect for what they did for us." It's never "me" but always "what they did for us." There are retired vets, Vietnam Vets, Veterans such as myself who never saw a day of war and non-veterans. There are blue collar workers, professionals, clergy, small business owners, unemployed and underemployed workers and everyone of them are there to show their honor for these fine men and women who stood for them. It's the one place you can see a retired cop and an outlaw biker standing side by side with one purpose in mind and that is to remember and honor.

The members of the family and friends are so proud you are there in their time of need. Just look at the letters of appreciation on the PGR website. You might want to wear those sunglasses as you read these. I remember at one funeral the 81 year old father of an EMT walked the entire flag line thanking each and every member for being there. It was our honor to be there but here he was thanking us. The PGR is not there for accolades, but out of sincere respect, honor, and patriotism.

The PGR is not just about funerals. It is family. Each member is treated with utmost respect no matter what walk of life you come from or what you do for a living. Politics are also left at home. The PGR does "Happy Missions" as they like to call them. They escort military personnel as they are leaving for deployments and  happy missions when a unit is returning to the States. They will be met at the airports and escorted in. These are some of the happiest moments you'll have and once again don't forget the sunglasses. It gets especially sunny inside an airport terminal at three in the morning and you're watching a family member welcoming their loved one home. If you were on the escort that took them to the airport to be deployed, you will feel absolutely wonderful to escort them, alive and well, back home. There are also meet and greets where the members can just spend time getting to know each other. If a mission comes up at the same time a meet and greet is supposed to happen the mission comes first as it should be and usually will be rescheduled.

As you probably have already read if you've visited their website, you don't have to be a veteran to be a member, and there are many who are not, and you don't have to ride a bike, you only have to respect and honor those who have served or are currently serving. The "cagers" as they are known are a much needed part of the mission as they are the ones to transport the flags and water. Our missions are not limited to military, but to all those who stand for, and protect us, including Law Enforcement, Firefighters and Emergency Medical Personnel.

If you are a new member you will be assigned a "mentor" who will walk you through each and every step. There is absolutely nothing hard about anything we do and you will be well taken care of by the mentors and ride captains. A primary concern of the PGR is safety and if you ride a bike make sure your mentor or the ride captain knows if you've never ridden in groups as that is a tremendous safety aspect. You will under no circumstances be turned away, they will only make sure that you are given instruction and placed with an experienced group rider to show you the safest ways to do things.

There are several very good items on youtube that will help the uninitiated to understand better what the PGR is all about and it you haven't seen them I have listed two of my favorites here:




I know I've gone on and on but I can't say enough about this wonderful group. If I can be of any help please feel free to email me at tdtaylor83@aol.com and include PGR in the subject line. I don't have all the answers but I bet I know the people that do and can put you in contact with them.

I will close up shop for tonight with one last thought for my brothers and sisters:

LISTEN FOR THE RUMBLE!
THE SOUTH CAROLINA PATRIOT GUARD RIDERS ARE IN TOWN!

Fast and Furious: Obama's Watergate?

Remember Watergate? I do. There are still a quite a few of us around that remember the two things headlining the nightly news in the early 70's. Vietnam and Watergate. Both were extremely divisive and both were tearing the country apart at the seams.

Ask anyone what they know about President Richard Millhouse Nixon and you'll usually get a one word response: Watergate.

There was a whole lot more to his presidency than Watergate. Nixon opened relations with China. He escalated, then ended, our involvement in Vietnam. He reaffirmed agreements with the Soviet Union over Cuba, started the Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Safety and Health Administration, oversaw the first large scale integration of public schools and endorsed the Equal Rights Amendment (although it was never ratified by the requisite 38 states). Whether you're pro or con on these things doesn't matter, they are still a part of his legacy. Very few people remember his responsibility for any of these and I don't believe he is given credit for them with today's students but they do credit him for, and remember, Watergate.

Did Nixon break into the Watergate complex? Of course not. Watergate wasn't so much about the actual break in as it was about the scandal of the President of the United States attempting to cover up the fact that he knew about it and so did high level members of his cabinet and others close to him.

Apparently we now have another President trying to cover up. Who knew about Operation Fast and Furious and when did they know have been among questions the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform have been asking. Some of the President's supporters are already crying foul and saying this isn't the same thing. Well guess what, I agree with you. This isn't the same. Innocent people didn't die because of Watergate but they have, and still are, dying because of "Fast and Furious."

For the few who may not be familiar with Operation Fast and Furious it was an undercover investigation which began in late 2009 with a teleconference between Deputy Attorney General David Ogden, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, ATF Director Kenneth Melson, DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart, and Director of the FBI Robert Mueller. This conference also involved several prosecutors from the Southwest. It was an attempt to track guns to kingpins of the Mexican drug cartels. It was to be run by the ATF's Phoenix office. They were going to attempt to identify and eliminate arms trafficking networks instead of just street level, or low level, buyers. Some of the key players were supposedly street racers operating from an auto repair shop, thus the name from the movie Fast and Furious.

I was a Law Enforcement Officer for 23 years. Most of that time as an investigator/detective. For several of those years I served in an undercover capacity working narcotics and gun running cases. Every Law Enforcement Agency is there to "Serve and Protect." You are there to protect and never, ever, put the public at risk. Never allow guns or drugs to get away from you. Occasionally we had to do a "walking" sting where the guns or drugs were allowed to leave my possession for a short time but they were always kept under strict surveillance and tracking. I worked cases in conjunction with the ATF and and the agents I worked with never would have allowed guns to disappear. Once we tracked them to their final destination we immediately made arrests and reclaimed them. You NEVER allow guns or drugs to get onto the streets. If it looked as if we would lose the item the operation was immediately shut down and the weapons or drugs were taken back into our possession. If these items were lost during an operation in which I was involved I would have been fired on the spot, and should have been. There are no excuses.

Therein lies the problem with Operation Fast and Furious. There was no attempt at interdiction of the weapons which were being purchased and transferred to the cartels in Mexico. They were allowed to "walk." In other words just let them go. Department of Justice and ATF policy have always required gun shipments to be intercepted. Apparently their thinking was that we'll just arrest who ever has the weapon in their possession when we see it again. This has to be one of the most ill advised operations in history. A rookie officer would have known this was just plain stupid. This wasn't just a few guns, over two thousand including the FN 57 which carries an armor piercing .224 caliber round, AK-47's, .50 caliber sniper rifles and assorted other rifles and pistols were allowed to get into the hands of Mexican drug runners. This was very controversial within the ATF as the agents knew people were going to die from the weapons they were letting walk. They had been through this type of gunrunning operation earlier where the guns were tracked, surveillance carried out, and arrests were made when they were handed off. During Fast and Furious the agents were not allowed to intercept the suspects and weapons. Two agents, Olinda Casa and John Dodson attempted to intervene and were stopped by their supervisors. Supervisor David Voth sent out an email in March 2010 in an attempt to quell the questions within the agency over Fast and Furious. http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/Grassley_2011_03_page14.pdf

Guns traced back to operation fast and furious started turning up quickly at crimes scenes on both sides of the border. One of the most notable was that of Border Agent Brian Terry. On December 14th, 2010 Terry and other agents were patrolling approximately 11 miles from the Mexican border in Arizona when they came across five illegal immigrants. A firefight occurred leaving Agent Terry dead on the desert floor. Two AK-47 type rifles were found at the scene and traced to operation fast and furious. After hearing of the murder Dodson and several other agents attempted to bring the operation to the attention of ATF Headquarters, ATF Chief Counsel, the Ethics office and even the Justice Department's Inspector General and didn't receive a response. Several then decided they had no alternative but to contact someone who may be able to stop this madness. I'm sure they knew this was probably a career breaker but morally felt they had no alternative. So they contacted Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa who was the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and an investigation was started into Fast and Furious.

In January 2011 Senator Grassley sent two letters to Acting Director of the ATF. One requesting information into the operation and a second accusing the ATF of going after the whistleblowers. Congressman Darrell Issa began a congressional investigation as Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and, as it should be, he has been like a pit bull and not backing down regardless of political pressures.

As has been the Obama administration's answer to everything that has gone wrong since they came into power, they gave the same answer to this debacle, "It's Bush's Fault." Sorry, not this time. The ATF did carry out a similar operation during 2006 and 2007. Only a few hundred guns were purchased and this was done with the knowledge and assistance of the Mexican government. It was agreed that the Mexican officials would intercept the weapons once they crossed the border and the suspects would be arrested. Surveillance was done and tracking devices placed on the weapons. Once the criminals learned of the tracking devices they figured out how to disable them. When the firearms started disappearing the operation was shut down and the files closed with the notation, "Never Again." During Fast and Furious the Mexican government was never notified an operation was ongoing. There was never an attempt to arrest the suspects or retrieve the weapons on the Mexican side of the border. How could they when the US was conducting these operations without their knowledge?

The Attorney General, Eric Holder testified, under oath, to the House Judiciary Committee on February 3rd, 2011 stating that he had only heard about the operation  "for the first time over the last few weeks."  Documents were revealed that showed he had been sent briefings on the operation as early as July 2010. On June 7th Holder testified for the seventh time, still stating there were no "high level officials" with knowledge of Operation Fast and Furious. By this time several thousand pages of documents had been turned over to investigators. There are still approximately 1400 pages which have been subpoenaed and not turned over. Holder continued to refuse to turn over these documents and was threatened with a contempt citation. Early on June 20th President Obama invoked executive privilege over the documents after Holder had earlier sent a letter requesting Obama to do this.

If there is nothing to hide why did Holder only turn over documents in a piecemeal fashion? Why did he request the President invoke executive privilege? From everything I can find a President can only invoke executive privilege in a case he was personally involved in. So if he didn't know about Fast and Furious he can't make the claim. If he did know then he has some serious explaining to do.

It seems I still have more questions than answers. Why did the news media not start reporting on this from the beginning? They only made  mention of Fast and Furious after the threat of the contempt citation. Where are our Woodward and Bernstein? We need someone to really go after the truth. Without a strong and free press we may never know what really happened. I'm talking about a press that does not attempt to whitewash everything this president does.

Heads should roll over this. If it goes all the way to the top, then so be it. If it doesn't then why not turn over the documents? Either way the American Public needs the truth. If not for each one of us in this country, then at least for the people killed by these weapons which were placed into the hands of criminals by this administration.

Please get the facts and look at all sides of this argument. Don't just take my opinion on this. Get on the internet, look at reliable news sources from the TV or radio. I hope that everyone who reads this will share it  via Facebook, email, whatever it takes to get the population to stand up and shout. Call your elected representatives and beg them to get to the bottom of this. Our country cannot take much more scandal from our elected politicians. Thanks for reading.

Great Day. Beautiful Partner. Wonderful Ride. Amazing What You Can Find If You Just Look.

I ran a little harder than usual yesterday so I could try and get my load delivered to Graniteville. If I could pull it off it would allow me to get home to spend a little of father's day with Diane and make it to church with her last night. I did it, and actually had a few minutes to spare. That also was beneficial in finally giving me a lazy day with absolutely nothing on the "to do" list. I asked Diane if she was up for a motorcycle ride as she's never been more than about 25 miles at a time. The passenger seat on a Harley Sportster is not the most comfortable ride over a long distance. She wanted to get away for awhile and so did I.

Fill up time. 

We left with no destination in mind and no particular direction to go. We went to Kent's Corner in Graniteville and topped off the bike. It took every bit of $3.48.

Diane taking photos

Vaucluse Mills Pond

Diane wanted to go toward Vaucluse. Her mom and dad had lived there when they were first married, they are both buried there and, she still has relatives living in the area. So off we went. We traveled back down Bettis Academy Rd. and turned onto Old Vaucluse Rd. We have been here several times as Diane goes there frequently to take care of her mother and father's grave site and make sure the flowers are fresh. The ride is beautiful with high pines on each side but the road is in a terrible state of disrepair. The community sits in a deep valley and as you drop down the hill into the town it gives you a false sense of what is to come. As you cross the one-lane bridge into town the old Vaucluse Mills Pond is on your left. On the right is one of the many Graniteville Mills buildings which have been long vacated and are now dilapidated. The community echos the look of the mills. Some homes are vacant and boarded or have just been left and are falling apart. Almost all of them are old mill houses that were rented from the Mills by the workers when they were first built and then later they were sold. People working at the mills and living in the homes were given first option to buy them. The rents were low on the homes when they were owned by the mill but so was the pay. It was extremely hard work. I have family and friends who worked in the mills, including my wife who worked at the Hickman Mill in Graniteville for a short time right out of high school. The mills closing took a toll on the people living here, not only financially, but psychologically as well.

From there we followed SC 191 toward Graniteville. This is an amazing place to ride a motorcycle. It's only about 5 miles but the road twists and turns and there is a stream running alongside. We wanted to stop to take pictures but the traffic was backing up and I had to speed up since there are no pull offs.

As you pull into Graniteville the first thing you notice, once again, are the closed mills. They are everywhere. The mills here employed thousands of people in their heyday from all over the Central Savannah River Area. As the jobs were outsourced, the mills slowly closed. 

The mill closings were not the only problems this community has had to overcome. When I went to work for the Aiken County Sheriff's Office in early 1987 as a narcotics investigator it was the number one narcotics area in the county and probably within fifty miles. It was the epitome of the crack epidemic in the 80's. The people of this community were actually being held hostage in their own homes. It appeared to be an unsolvable problem. It took a concerted effort of the Graniteville community, and all law enforcement agencies in the county. We did it. We retook this community with the help of the citizens who were tired of being pushed around by a bunch of loser punks and began to push back. It took a lot of courage to face off against them and ID them to us but they did it and won.

Avondale Mills came in during the 90's and bought out what was left of Graniteville Mills allowing some of the people to remain employed. Then fate came crashing down again on January 6th, 2005. 

On that date a Norfolk Southern Railway train encountered an open switch causing it to run onto a siding containing a parked train. 16 cars derailed including the locomotive. One car was breached that contained chlorine gas. Nine people died, over five hundred were sent to hospitals, and more than fifty-four hundred citizens had to be evacuated. They had to overcome the heartbreak of losing friends, neighbors, and loved ones. Added to the tragedy Avondale Mills used this as an excuse to close the final mills and move out of town.

Train Derailment Memorial

Once again the people of this community picked themselves up, cleaned themselves off and pushed right back. The community is mostly made up of God fearing, honest, hard working people. These people want to work. They don't, and never have, wanted handouts. New industry began to locate here several years ago and continues to come in. Over the last several months the factories here are beginning to expand along with new factories and warehouses being built. The colleges in the area took on the challenge of retraining the workers and the county worked out incentives to lure new industry. I was so glad to see the way these people have pulled together and overcome so many obstacles that were thrown in their paths.

It was nice stopping there, walking around, looking at the town remembering how people can work together to overcome anything.

Horse Creek Valley Veterans Park

Next we rode through Horse Creek Valley seeing the progress being made there, especially around the Langley Pond area.

Then we stopped at the Horse Creek Valley Veterans Memorial Park. This is a beautiful park that was built from donations and anyone close should go and visit. It is on Hwy 421 in Burnettown.

We then continued into Augusta and had lunch at Bill's Family Restaurant on Peach Orchard Road. It was wonderful as usual. If anyone wants to have a good lunch for a reasonable price this is the place to stop. When I was a teenager over 40 years ago I would stop here for breakfast on Saturday mornings. I was 16 years old and thought I was cool going into a restaurant and sitting at the counter like the older guys. It still has the same ambiance as it did back then and the food is still great. Lunch including meat, 3 vegetables, bread and your drink for $7.50 is not bad at all.

After lunch we rode through my childhood neighborhood on the south side of Augusta. Next it was off to the Old South Augusta Lock and Dam. We parked and walked over the locks and out onto the catwalk. Diane said she had never been on them. I thought as many times as we had been there we had walked out there. We then left for the ride back home.

I loved the day. Diane and I had a wonderful day together and saw and relived some wonderful times from our past. We also learned that you don't have to spend a fortune going out of town on gas, food, motels and shows. Our total cost for the day was $18.48. There is so much to see right in your own back yard if you'll just take the time to look.

40 Years Away From the Church, But I'm Back

My last post was about politics and this week it'll be about religion. I know I'm treading on dangerous ground because those are two things guaranteed to get an argument started, if not an all out brawl when discussed in a crowd. Fact is, I didn't need to be in a crowd when I was growing up. All I had to do was sit, listen, and watch my own family when they started to discuss either one, especially religion.

On one hand was my Dad. He was what I called a "functioning drunk." He would work all day, but then stay out drinking and partying most of the night. Then there were the occasional binges where he would stay drunk for days on end but, he somehow ended up sobering up and heading back off to work. He was a new car salesman, and one heck of a salesman because when he sobered up his job was always waiting on him. I was watching him work his magic on a young couple one day when the dealership owner walked up behind me, put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Boy, that man could sell ice to eskimos." One day at the dealership a few of us were talking about our beliefs when my Dad walked up. I asked him what he believed in. He smiled and said, "I believe there's a butt that fits every new car seat made and I believe in 100 proof JW Dant." He laughed and walked away. To him that pretty much said it all. He didn't have a lot of religion in him, or at least none that he talked about, but say the Lord's name in vain and he'd backhand you across the room.

On the other hand was my Mom. She was the daughter of a Church of God minister and evangelist, the Reverend "Happy Tom" Brooks. She didn't attend church a lot but she made sure that her children were there every Sunday, even if it was to simply put us on the church bus or drop us off at the church. We would go see my Grandfather preach occasionally in Greenwood at his home church, or if he was near Augusta preaching a revival she would take us to hear him. While Mom and us kids were in the church Dad would usually sit in the car drinking. Mom believed in God but I saw her start to question her faith and beliefs as she started approaching mid-life. She finally divorced my dad when I was about ten and I watched her as she drifted farther and farther away from her long held beliefs. This sure didn't help me because by then I was questioning my own faith and as I watched her I became even more disillusioned.

Then there was a silver lining. All I had to do to renew my faith was to spend time with my grandfather. He had always been my hero, the person I looked up to. I would go spend weeks during the summer with him and my grandmother. I loved them so much and they were the stability I didn't have in my life. Every evening we would gather in the living room where my grandfather would read a passage from the Bible and then we'd kneel and pray. He instilled a deep love of God in you and was an inspiration to everyone he met.

I continued in the church as I became a teenager, attending Southgate Baptist in Augusta, Ga where I had been going since I was a little kid. After I got my license I would drive myself to church instead of hanging out with my friends somewhere. Even though I was watching my mom drift away from religion I was starting to find my own way. When I was seventeen I was dating a young lady from my high school who was also a believer and we would attend services together. Usually she would go on Sunday mornings with her parents to their church and we attended my church together in the evenings. We were always dressed for church and never would go in jeans or anything loud, which was the norm in the early 70's. I had let my hair grow out although it was no where near my shoulders and it was always neat and clean. One Sunday night after church as we got in the car and were preparing to leave someone tapped on my window. I looked over and it was the good preacher, Reverend Kent. He told me, "We don't need your kind in this church." I was puzzled and asked him what he was talking about. He said, "Long haired, dope smoking hippies," and he turned and walked off. The good Reverend, calling me names without even really knowing me. I had never and, by the way, have never, smoked dope. Sure my hair was a little long, but like I said it wasn't even down to my shoulders. I was not a happy camper. I called him a hypocrite and drove off.

The Long Haired Hippie

Reverend Kent had been my preacher since I was a young child  and a he had demeaned and embarrassed me in front of someone I cared about and it cut me to the core. This really made me think and I thought about it for a long time. Maybe mom was right to leave her beliefs behind. I would not go back to church after that incident and shortly after that started to go downhill fast. The church had been a calming influence on me and since it wasn't there I began staying out late, skipping school and even work. My girlfriend broke up with me, partly because of the way I had started acting and treating her and partly because of the fact that I refused to step into another church although she tried. I never spoke of that incident to my grandfather because I didn't want to hurt him and I knew what it would do to him if he knew I had walked away from the church. He died a few years after that thinking I was still in the church and I was glad he never knew.

About eleven years after that incident I still hadn't stepped foot inside another church other than for my grandfathers funeral and a couple of other special occasions I felt obligated to attend. I was working as a Detective with the Greenwood Police Department and working part time at the Chrysler dealer as a salesman with my father. One afternoon my dad called me back to his office and there was another man sitting in there with him. He asked me, "Do you remember this man, he's your old preacher, Dr. Kent." I told Kent that I definitely remembered him and also told him that he was the reason I had never been inside another church. I reminded him of the incident that night and you could see the blood drain out of his face as he remembered. This time I was able to turn and walk away.

Over the years I've mellowed and I knew in my heart that I still believed in God, even if some of his messengers were hypocritical. My wife and I tried going to several different churches in recent years but something was always missing. It seemed as if everyone was looking at you, judging. I felt like I was under a microscope. Was my car nice enough? Was I dressed right? Then there was the constant dissention within the churches, people talking about other people in the church. It was just reinforcing my belief that I was better off without a church. God knows I believe and if the churches are like that I'd be better off to only worship in my home. I'm sure it all stemed from the incident at Southgate. Still I still felt like something was missing in my life. My wife was feeling the same thing.

One night I was sitting out in the middle of nowhere in my truck and just messing with the computer and looking at Facebook when there was a mention of Faith Riders Fellowship Church in Aiken. I had heard of them before but hadn't really given it much thought. This night I was bored so I started looking at anything I could find about the church. The more I found out the more I liked and I thought, "What the heck, worth a try." The next morning I called the wife and told her what I had found and asked if she wanted to give it a try. She agreed and since I was on my way home and would be there on Saturday we decided we would go that Sunday. We got there and saw the motorcycles under the porch and cars in the parking lot and I almost backed out thinking that maybe this wasn't quite what we were looking for. It was ironic that we had first really had our first "semi" date there and I kissed her the first time near where the entrance is now back when the place was a bar. I say it was curiosity, but more likely it was the hand of God, that got the better of us so in we walked in. From the minute we got to the door we were welcomed with handshakes and hugs and it felt truly sincere. Everyone made us feel at home, as if we had been members forever. I found out the Preacher, Reverend Jack Atkinson and I had worked together in the late 80's and early 90's at the Sheriff's Office in Aiken and I had also worked with the associate pastor JD Bledsoe at the Sheriff's Office. I had casually known some of the other members through the years and so did the wife. The sermon was fantastic and the music was wonderful. I left there on cloud nine. I didn't want to put any notions in Diane's head because I knew she would go along with me regardless of how she actually felt so I casually asked her what she thought after we left. She said she loved it. So did I. She asked if we were coming back that night and I told her I didn't think so since I had a lot to do to get ready to go back on the road the next day and I really didn't want to overdo it that quick. After we ate lunch I asked if she really wanted to go back and she said she did. I agreed and off we went to another great service. She has been there for every service since and anything else they need help with. I go every time I'm home.

Some people are former, retired, or current law enforcement officers and some are hard core bikers with records. There are all ages and races. No one looks down on anyone else and I have yet to hear any of the dissention or back-stabbing that I saw so frequently in other so called houses of God. I'm sure from time to time things aren't perfect here, but these people have learned to look inside a person to see what is there and work through their problems.

Diane and I have finally found that church home we have been looking for.