Blog Heap of Links for the day 13 July 2011

In a move that should outrage every freedom-loving American, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has decided that the way to correct the utter failure (and criminality) of Operation "Fast and Furious" is to punish gun store owners. That's right: in response to the growing public outcry over the hundreds upon hundreds of guns which illegally crossed the border into Mexico with the ATF's blessing, the DOJ is requiring gun stores in Arizona, California, Texas and New Mexico to report individual purchases of multiple rifles of greater than .22 caliber to the ATF.

The Justice Department's new policy on requiring all gun shops in four Southwest border states to report frequent buyers of semi-automatic weapons is drawing both praise and criticism. ... the National Rifle Association (NRA) said it plans to sue the administration over the rule. "This is a blatant effort by the Obama administration and ATF to divert focus of Congress and the general public from their gross incompetence in the Fast and Furious scandal," NRA executive director Chris Cox said in a statement. "This scheme will unjustly burden law-abiding retailers in border states," he said. "It will not affect drug cartels and it won't prevent violence along our borders."

[Issa & Grassley to Eric Holder:] As our investigation into Operation Fast and Furious has progressed, we have learned that senior officials at the Department of Justice... were unquestionably aware of the implementation of this reckless program.

Allen West says that Obama needs to understand that it's his job to prioritize spending so that Social Security checks will go out and we don't default ... Real leaders don't use intimidation and scare tactics

Law enforcement representatives are planning to endorse a proposed federal law that would require Internet service providers to store logs about their customers for 18 months, CNET has learned. The National Sheriffs' Association will say it "strongly supports" mandatory data retention during Tuesday's U.S. House of Representatives hearing on the topic.

Rob Grill, the longtime lead singer and a very nearly original member of the Grass Roots, the immensely popular rock group of the 1960s and afterward, died on Monday in Tavares, Fla. He was 67. … complications of a head injury he sustained in a fall last month …

Speaking with individuals inside, police learned there had been a party at the house when a small group of people — one of whom was later identified as Morrow — showed up wearing "fitted" hats, not "snapback" hats as the rest of the party goers in the house wore, according to a witness. He told police it was then, during a fight about their wearing fitted hats, that Morrow pulled out a gun. He said at this point the group was kicked out of the house and that was when he heard the shots and the house was hit with bullets.

A young man who has had a world-first double leg transplant in Spain cried with joy on seeing his new limbs and might walk in six or seven months, the head surgeon say. ... "I imagine he will be able to walk with crutches. I imagine that in the long term he will even be able to leave the crutches but that depends on how his rehabilitation goes," the doctor said. "If everything goes as we hope we could realistically think that in six or seven months he could be walking."