You probably won't see this in the mainstream media, and if you do, reports like this one will be dismissed as a "conspiracy theory," but I should remind you right up front that the legal definition of a conspiracy requires that only two people be party to it.

Did you know that the Department of Homeland Security is stockpiling some 450 million bullets of the type that are intended only to kill people and play havoc with the human body? These are .40 caliber, hollow-point bullets which mushroom upon impact causing massive shock, blood loss and damage to internal organs. That's nearly one point five bullets for every man, woman and child in the United States, including illegal aliens.

(I understand that any bullet that pierces the body can play havoc with what it hits, but these bullets are designed to leave nothing in doubt, they are anti-personnel bullets.)

But wait, there is more. In addition to stockpiling bullets, I received notification over the Internet the other day that the Department of Homeland Security also is amassing armored vehicles of the type used by our troops for street fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan – but this time they are right here at home! And we aren't talking about training exercises on military bases either.

Like this one.

Or this one.
And right alongside the DHS, other federal agencies are stockpiling ammo too, hollow-point .357 magnum rounds in this case, purchased by the Social Security Administration – 175,000 bullets, and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration – 46,000 bullets! And to really top things off, the feds say the bullets are for target practice!

As a lifelong shooter, one-time NRA certified instructor, and former member of a competitive rifle and pistol team I can tell you this; you don't normally use expensive hollow-point, anti-personnel bullets for target practice unless you have an endless supply with someone else (taxpayers) picking up the tab. You use target bullets which give you a reasonable level of accuracy to make sure that when you squeeze the trigger the bullet goes where you believe it is going, and they cost far less especially in these quantities.

The benefit of using hollow points is that they provide increased velocity, higher accuracy and the aforementioned results when they impact a human body. They generally don't go through the body, meaning there is reduced likelihood of collateral damage.

But get this; they are illegal in war! That's right, our military can't use hollow points in combat anywhere – legally – but investigators from the Social Security Administration can quell uprisings of 80-year-old pensioners by giving them lethal body shots from a .357 magnum! (The use of hollow points in combat was outlawed in The Hague Convention of 1899 according to Wikipedia.)

Now, after all hell broke loose on the Internet about this issue FOX News did post a blurb on its website. It said: "Federal agencies triggered a firestorm of conspiracy theories this week after they put out orders for thousands of rounds of deadly hollow-point bullets.

But the agencies, most recently the Social Security Administration, are trying to put a damper on the speculation -- noting the ammunition is "standard issue" and simply used for mandatory federal training sessions.

The Social Security Administration solicitation, called for 174,000 rounds of ".357 Sig 125 grain bonded jacketed hollow point pistol ammunition."

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, found itself scrambling to respond to a similar report this week about an order for 46,000 rounds of ammo. Though the agency initially indicated it was for the National Weather Service -- leading to questions about why the National Weather Service could possibly need so many bullets -- a spokesman clarified the bullets are actually meant for the NOAA Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement.

According to NOAA, the specialized agents are supposed to have 200 rounds in their "duty bag," and qualification and training requires another 500-600 rounds per agent.

Yet, even if the Social Security Administration and the Weather Service can make some sort of case that they need armed agents, the .357 hollow points still leave big questions in my mind. Does a forest ranger really need to carry hollow point bullets in case he gets into a tiff with a guy who's keeping trout when he's fishing in a catch and release area?

This smells. And don't forget, the attention has been diverted to the Social Security and National Weather agencies because it seems redundant for them to have law enforcement contingents, but Homeland Security has ordered four-hundred and fifty million rounds of ammunition. For what?

I can go on at length here, but instead I'll just point out that these purchases have a lot of people very suspicious and the reason is that they don't trust the Obama Administration. Period.

The Unity President has been anything but, and he is surrounded by advisers who are openly communist, in addition to a few Islamic extremists, who believe the United States should be dismantled and reassembled as a third-world cesspool. Some of his mentors follow the belief that to effect change in the populace you have to kill 20 percent of the people and the remaining 80 percent will fall in line.

You can't blame Americans who have been listening to four years of non-stop propaganda from these people for not trusting the primary source of that propaganda.

But there is one last point that should be made – and this is for information purposes only. Alarming the populace is never a good idea. Upset masses of the general public have been known to grab torches and pitchforks and storm the palace gates, bringing down all kinds of repressive, dishonest governments over the centuries.

"Y'all" might want to think about that before you go alarming the populace by driving around America in armored war wagons and purchasing massive supplies of anti-personnel ammunition.

There are very few people I know who work as hard as Republican Joe Visconti, the one-time West Hartford Town Council member, candidate for the 1st Congressional District in 2008, and most recently a staunch supporter of former Connecticut Congressman Christopher Shays who lost his bid to be the GOP's US Senate candidate in Tuesday's primary.

Joe Visconti

Visconti put in a ton of time and effort with admirable success in getting some earned media for Shays. I saw the result of his efforts all over the Internet, which is saying something because I didn't see much else about Shays until the last week before the voting.

Visconti is as loyal as he is hard-working, brimming with unconventional ideas about getting noticed, and he should be commended for adding an element of seriousness to a campaign that a lot of people didn't appear to take seriously.

That being said, Linda McMahon beat Shays conclusively, which makes her the unquestionable GOP candidate, endorsed by both the convention of party regulars and the wider base of Connecticut's GOP voters. Thus I hope that Shays carries out his promise to vote for Mrs. McMahon and I hope Joe puts as much energy into her campaign as he did for Shays.

I know it is hard to recover from a loss to a candidate you don't support. Been there, done that, don't like it! (Fortunately very few times compared to the overwhelming number of my clients who win). But even before yesterday's primary vote I was watching the McMahon commercials about her Democratic opponent, Chris Murphy and his voting record in Congress. (Another Chris for an opponent. Hmmmm.)

She has a real campaign issue there and should continue to exploit it. But I also heard his commentary after he won the Democratic primary last night and it sounded like a replay of the negativity and avoidance of the issues coming from national Democrats. He accused her of wallowing in sex and drugs while he, the erstwhile Boy Scout, was out creating jobs for Connecticut's workers.

Oh, really? The coming debates on job creation should be very interesting!

I won't pretend that I haven't criticized Mrs. McMahon in the past for the shortcomings of the World Wrestling Entertainment that she built over a couple of decades with her husband. But the fact is, that was then and this is now.

I have no intention of standing by idly while the Obama Administration systematically destroys this country with false claims of race-based class warfare. I have no intention of sitting back and watching as the US Senate retains a Democrat majority, led by Harry Reid. So as I said in a previous column, in November I'll be voting for the Romney/Ryan ticket and I'll be voting for Linda McMahon for US Senate.

I can't think of anything in her past that matters as much to America as what she will do with the future. I know as much about her record and her past business issues as most people I guess; I have read pretty much everything that is out in the public domain.

Yesterday, Republican voters in Connecticut chose Linda McMahon by an overwhelming margin, and that is that.

Murphy started out blasting her history as CEO of the WWE. Ho-hum. I was doing that three years ago. Didn't stop her though did it? I am far more interested in his vote to gut Medicare when I am only a few months shy of being eligible for it, and his non-existent attendance record at key meetings of Congressional committees.

So, Joe, I know how hard you worked and how disappointed you must feel. But today is a new day, and we all are faced with taking back our country and our Constitution. If Linda doesn't have all the answers, then my suggestion is we help her find them.

Because we already know the alternative. Four more years that could very well mark the last four years of the United States of America as it was intended. Want to know what Obama has in store for us instead of fixing Medicare? Take a look at this video. It should give you a pretty good idea what we're in for.

I realize it is dated in that it was made before ObamaCare passed the Democratically controlled Congress and some sections may have been altered. However, as the YouTube version notes "This video is based on HR3200 but it is very closely related to HR3962 with the exception that HR3962 is deemed to be worse!"

My suggestion is to heed the advice at the end of the video. Read the bill, educate yourself on its contents and contact your Congressman. And vote in November!

Mitt Romney ended the speculation and early Saturday morning on the deck of the USS Wisconsin battleship introduced Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan as his vice-presidential running mate.

The squeals of indignation coming from the White House, the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Headquarters were reminiscent of a particularly nasty scene in the movie Deliverance and proved that Romney was dead on with his choice.

Ryan chairs the House Budget Committee and is credited with being smart, a true rarity in Washington D.C. these days, both in and out of Congress. He has an affinity for numbers, leads a clean life, reportedly sleeps on a cot in his office during the session and goes home to his family every weekend as soon as his Congressional work is done.

He is revered by the conservative faction of the Republican Party but he also is highly attractive to fiscal conservatives everywhere because he knows how to shrink government without hurting "the poor" or even "the middle class," and he can prove it.

Which explains the horrendous, grating, screeching, howling cacophony of response from national Democrats when his selection was announced.

Despite the pontifications from the pundits who say Romney has given the Democrats a huge target to shoot at, Ryan is a more-than-competent communicator who not only has the skills to rewrite the federal budget but also to explain how it can be done - in layman's terms - without resorting to spin and obfuscation.

Ryan also has had plenty of practice deflecting false claims from the Democrats that his budget will harm senior citizens through changes to Medicare. Actually, his budget, beginning more than a decade from now, will give people who turn 65 at that time options that can be tailored to their specific needs, and will save billions of dollars.

People who already are over 65 and those turning 65 for the next decade won't be affected by Ryan's plan, but frankly I wish the nation's elderly could have more choice for Medicare coverage. Currently, if you are turning 65 you automatically are enrolled in Medicare for major medical issues and then given an option of having additional money taken from your Social Security income for drug plans and less drastic medical costs. Big Whoop!

If Romney and Ryan are elected this fall and sufficient like-minded Senators and Representatives turn up in the Congress it is quite possible that my children will have some real choices and real options by the time their turn to become senior citizens comes up. That would be one of the greatest gifts I could give them, rather than the institutional bankruptcy their government is forcing on them now.

It was obvious from the Democrats' responses that they know Ryan is the real deal and makes Joe Biden look like … well, Joe Biden.

I hadn't planned on watching Fox New Sunday today to see the reaction to Romney's VP choice because I really didn't want to listen to Debra Whatshernameschmaltz chair of the Democratic National Committee who was one of the guests. But when I turned on the TV to check the latest news it was already tuned to the FOX channel because I left it there before I turned in last night.

Sure enough there was Whatshernameschmaltz but she wasn't screaming about Ryan, I guess I missed that. She was, however, screaming about that lousy ad the White House likes that accuses Romney of being an accessory to murder because a guy who used to be a highly paid steel worker, who foolishly turned down a buyout from Bain Capital years earlier, blamed his wife's cancer death on Romney. The guy and his wife actually had health insurance and she did get medical coverage, and Romney had been gone from Bain Capital years before any of this happened but why let the facts get in the way of perfectly good slander?

But Whatshersnameschmaltz kept shrieking that intent of the commercial is to show that Romney doesn't understand the consequences of his actions not label him responsible for a death. But isn’t that the same thing, especially considering that the commercial features the former custodian saying that Romney was directly responsible for his wife's death? No one is buying that crap; but they don't have any other explanation for such reprehensible behavior.

Anyway I watched the later panel discussion because Democrat Joe Trippi and Republican Liz Cheney were on, and I figured I'd get some good commentary from them, which I did. I also agreed with Cheney when she said she really didn't catch everything that Whatshernameschmaltz had to say because she – Cheney – was laughing too hard. Me too.

Oh, can someone tell Bill Kristol that just because he knows a guy who served in Iraq who knows that when ambushed you charge to the sound of the guns, that concept did not arise in the Iraqi War as Kristol implied? In fact, I wrote exactly the same thing back in September 2006 when Ned Lamont challenged Joe Lieberman for Senator, after Lamont ignored a group of veterans and ran away when they booed him. Please go here and scroll down to the Sept. 11 entry.

So, it now looks like the run-up to the GOP convention in Tampa is going to be exciting and the final 60 days of the campaign are going to be barn burners. I hope Ryan not only comes out swinging, but can take the fight to the Obama/Whatshernameschmaltz's thugs with all the energy and effectiveness they deserve.

Romney/Ryan already have my vote, but it will give me plenty to write about.

Remember that song the Kingston Trio did back in the '60's – The Merry Minuet? OK, maybe that was before your time but I do remember it.

It had a line about "hurricanes in Florida and Texas needs rain!"

I was thinking about that song when I saw news broadcasts on the drought in the nation's heartland and how food costs already are increasing even though the harvest would barely have begun normally and we really haven't seen food shortages yet. Meanwhile a major tropical storm was making its way across the lower Caribbean and heavy rains were expected in Mexico and the Northeast was getting bashed by severe thunderstorms.

The honest newscasters are mentioning – although often sotto voce – that the current drought is reminiscent of droughts that occurred in the 1950's. Most are just blaming it on global warming aka climate change aka It's Bush's Fault!

A very, very few also are mentioning that the current drought is reminiscent of similar droughts in the 1930's during the Dust Bowl years – indicative of the cyclical nature of weather regardless of which politicians are trying to stick it to the populace at the moment.

Meanwhile both outgoing US President Barack Hussein Obama and the presumed Republican replacement Mitt Romney are coming under fire from each other's campaigns for jobs programs that are alleged to be job killers instead of job creators. And the depth of the accusations on how much they would cost in taxes on the "middle class" would make a statistician's head spin.

Well I have a solution! How about an Interstate Water Supply system that can move excess water from areas with more water than they need to areas where crops are shriveling in the sun? It will create jobs, may or may not result in an increase in taxes but would help keep food costs down which would go a long way toward offsetting any public funds that would be necessary for its implementation.

Remember when the late President Dwight Eisenhower initiated a program to construct an Interstate Highway System? Still before your time? OK, trust me on this one. When you go out for a drive and you get on any road that has a designation starting with a capital I, it is there because President Eisenhower conceived of it, got it through Congress and now you can drive virtually anywhere in the US from anywhere else in the US in about three days.

Eisenhower saw the Interstate Highway System as necessary back in the early days of the Cold War in case we were invaded by Russia or China or both along with all their communist minions. He envisioned being able to move massive military units from one place to another to offset invading forces.

Eisenhower was after all the Supreme Commander of the European Theater of Operations in WWII and knew how much harder the Allied job would have been if Germany could have gotten what it needed where it was needed when it was needed.

The unintended consequence of the Interstate Highway System was the flight to the suburbs by middle-class Americans who no longer depend on public transportation to get to work and shopping.

Another unintended consequence is that the state governments now own the rights of way along the Interstates and connecting limited access state roads. Those rights of way probably won't have to be expanded to install a nationwide web of interconnecting water pipes with say, 8-foot diameters – which would be huge but still 4-feet in diameter less than the standard Interstate lane width.

A project of this magnitude could revive the US steel industry, and open up tremendous opportunities for research on other forms of metals that might prove to be better conduits for billions of gallons of water. It also would lead to jobs for people who make the nuts and bolts that keep the pipe sections connected, as well as the tools needed to install and maintain them.

Thousands of heavy equipment and other construction workers would be needed to build a huge network of massive retention ponds to capture excess storm water runoff that then could be diverted to areas where water was needed but not present. This project could be administered by existing bureaucrats of which there are plenty and way too many sitting around with nothing to do, which would make our government workers more efficient and not add more to overall costs.

I'd recommend the EPA or the Congressional Budget Office, as long as there was intensive oversight, but there probably are others.

Best of all, when it was done, Obama, the outgoing president, couldn't say that we didn't do it. I figure that if there was a partnership of public and private entities, the private sector would conceive of hundreds of ways to do it better and more cost effectively, so in the end everyone involved could take credit.

Photo Credit to the Internet

This project would go on for years, ensuring that jobs would be available on a much-needed improvement to our national infrastructure. We could use existing technology to reduce pollution from making steel – using natural gas as a fuel for example – and machinery with high fuel efficiency.

Ultimately the savings in food costs would likely offset the costs of the project and the United States would have gone a long way to taking the weather out of the farm production equation.

Also, in coming years, even if we have some years with sufficient water, there are sure to be other droughts and as the population increases the impact of lower food production will skyrocket. But we would be ahead of the curve for a change.

I figure, if the Romans could supply water to the Coliseum in Rome for war games and baths, with zero technology but great workmanship, using modern technology we can provide a steady water supply to ensure crop production and stable food prices. Pass this on to President Mitt please.