September 19, 2008

 

"...(g) It shall be unlawful for any person-

 

    (8) who is subject to a court order that-

         (A) was issued after a hearing of which such person

               received actual notice, and at which such person had

               an opportunity to participate;

 

         (B) restrains such person from harassing, stalking, or threatening

               an intimate partner of such person or child of such intimate

               partner or person, or engaging in other conduct that would

               place an intimate partner in reasonable fear of bodily

               injury to the partner or child;  and

 

         (C) (i) includes a finding that such person represents a credible

                    threat to the physical safety of such intimate partner or

                    child; or

 

                (ii) by it's terms explicitly prohibits the use, attempted use,

                     or threatened use of physical force against such intimate

                     partner or child that would reasonably be expected to cause

                     bodily injury....

 

        to ship or transport in interstate or foreign commerce, or possess in

        or effecting commerce, any firearm or ammunition; or to receive any

        firearm or ammunition which has been shipped or transported in

        interstate or foreign commerce..."

 

                                            - Excerpts from Title 18, Part I, Chapter 44,

                                              Section 922 (g) of the US Code, more

                                              colloquially known as being part of the

                                              "Violence Against Women Act", whose

                                              original author is cited by Wikipedia to be

                                              Senator Joe Biden (D-DE).

 

 

To All,

    Say it ain't so, Joe....

 

Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others Update:

     Never has the old adage, " What Goes Around, Comes Around", had a more pertinent meaning than with the current Alaskan "Trooper-Gate" scandal and attempts by Obama partisans to sink Governor Sarah Palin, if reporting by Townhall.com's Amanda Carpenter has any standing at all.

 

    Carpenter reports on the possibility that the "key witnesses" being cited by Leftist "netroots", Trooper Mike Wooten and Former Commissioner of Public Safety Walt Monegan, were law enforcement officers who may have violated certain "hallowed" gun control provisions in the course of their careers.

 

    Also, it is unclear at this time that the way Wooten and Mondegan's individual cases were ultimately handled would meet the usual standards of anti-gun, feminist, and preservation forces currently allied with the Obama/Biden ticket (Whether said liberals give a "free pass" to anyone that could sully McCain and Palin is a totally different matter....).

 

    What is clear from coverage by Carpenter, the Anchorage Daily News' Lisa Demer, and court docket documents is that from April 11 to May 9, 2005, Mike Wooten was under a temporary restraining order that might have made Wooten a "prohibited person" under the terms of the Federal Violence Against Women Act. (As Wikipedia notes, the language for VAWA was largely written by Joe Biden and his staff. In all probability, this is the same language that has been renewed by both the House and the Senate in the intervening years. It is not known as of this posting if Obama was present in the Senate for voting for VAWA in 2005.).

 

    Demer notes that the filing was enough for Wooten's superiors to require him to relinquish his duty firearm and police badge and unit, subject to the results of an internal investigation. But it is unclear at this time that the court or the commanders required him to turn in his personal firearms and ammunition either to the department or to an FFL for "safekeeping". If Wooten continued to possess at least the .300 Win Mag that Demer notes was used in a moose-poaching incident, or other personal firearms as well as any ammunition at all, Wooten would also appear on the surface at least to have violated the TRO as well as VAWA.

 

     Said violations could be sufficient, if then prosecuted (or prosecutable, depending upon if the statute of limitations on this kind of incident is still applicable 3 1/2 years later) to result in Wooten being classified as a "prohibited person" for firearms ownership. This, in turn, would most likely have resulted in the end of his law enforcement career, "kinda like" in the way that forty or so officers were removed from the LAPD back in the aftermath of VAWA's enactment in September of 1994.

 

     Carpenter's inclusion of the Monegan case may be more complicated, in that Monegan's estranged wife, Georgene Moldovan, filed for a temporary restraining order on Monegan in October of 1994, barely a month or so after VAWA was signed into law. What is more, given that Philip Matier and Andrew Ross of the San Francisco Chronicle report that Moldovan had moved back to "The Peninsula" (apparently referring to the Bay Area, since they note that Moldovan was an emergency room doctor and professor teaching at Stanford), it could be that any TRO against Monegan may have been known to authorities in California as well as Alaska just when the publicity on VAWA was "hitting home" in January of 1995. Whether they, in the course of doing back-round checks on law enforcement personnel suddenly subject to VAWA's restrictions gave Mondegan a "pass", is not known at this time.

 

     On the other hand, that these cases highlight the kinds of problems noted by the NRA during the campaign against certain VAWA provisions, is more than evident.

 

     Much still has to be revealed as to the processes and timelines involved with these two cases. Questions as to potential "favorable treatment" by authorities and commanders of these two law enforcement officials remain, (Monegan was on the Anchorage Police Department at the time of his divorce in 1993 and 1994) given the apparent restrictions of Federal law. But it will be interesting to see if VAWA author and sentinel Joe Biden is called to account on the Left's use of these "characters" when such issues as these remain outstanding. If it turns out that favorable treatment was meted to these two officers, then it could only reinforce Governor Palin's narrative as to the nature of the "good ole boy network" that she has been working against since becoming involved in state-level politics. And it would also be apparent that the Left's use of such tactics as these would have blown up like a Weather Underground nail bomb right in their faces. Stay tuned.

 

 

Links at:

 

http://townhall.com/blog/g/bcd9ee89-b16e-40ec-948f-d2dab47baf2e

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_Against_Women_Act

 

http://www.adn.com/politics/story/476430.html

 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/15/BALE12T2N3.DTL

 

http://sarahpalintruthsquad.wordpress.com/2008/09/11/palin-backstab-commissioner-praised-then-fired/

 

http://www.newsweek.com/id/158140

 

http://apocalyptickiwi.wordpress.com/2008/09/09/

new-details-from-the-mccannwooten-divorce-suggest-

that-sarah-palin-is-an-abusive-scumbag/

 

http://www.courtrecords.alaska.gov/pa/pa.urd/pamw2000.docket_lst?66592709

 

 

 

 

 

 

With Friends Like These....

     Team Obama's PR flacks must be deep into their cups this evening with the boisterous declaration by House Ways and Means Chairman (And Obama Supporter....) Charles Rangel (D-NY) that Governor Sarah Palin must be "...disabled..." due to her foreign policy views.

 

     Rangel, who is currently maneuvering to keep his chairmanship despite having been caught not reporting real estate income for a number of years, appears to believe that the best way to win friend and influence people is to make disparaging and insensitive remarks about the mother of a special needs child.

 

     Next thing you know, Rangel will be parking his 1972 Mercedes Benz out in the Handicap "blue zones" near his Harlem digs. With luck, someone in NYPD's Parking Enforcement will weld on a "Denver Boot" to the old rust bucket and cart him, er...it...to the disposal yard.

 

Links at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvovJ1Q-Ogg

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080919/ap_on_go_co/rangel_ethics

 

http://wcbstv.com/campaign08/congressman.charles.rangel.2.821541.html

 

http://www.nypost.com/seven/09182008/news/regionalnews/big_wheel_benz

_the_rules_129646.htm

 

 

When We Practice To Deceive...:

     The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Barack Obama appears to be pressuring Illinois state officials to enact "pay to play" reform- any reform at all- before the YouTube Battalion of McCain's Opposition Research Brigade can post their latest videos.

 

     But Christopher Wills reports that tarnished Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has his own ideas about lobbying reform (probably involves legislation that will get him off the hook...), and is trying to get Obama to choose his plan over a plan being promoted by another Obama mentor, State Senate President Emil Jones (How many mentors does Obama have, anyway??).

 

     What is more, Dems in the Land of Lincoln appear to not be able to get anything done without (ahemmmm, ) "adult supervision". Construction project legislation may have to receive Obama's imprimatur, or the voters will be treated to Republican efforts to draw attention to the "Do Nuthin" nature of current Democrat politics at local, state, and even national levels.

 

     It will be interesting to see if Obama can get anything done in Illinois in the next 40 or so days (Actually 7 working days, since politicians will probably want to spend the whole month of October working the hustings). But if nothing is resolved, one can only wonder how Obama expects the voters to trust him with running the country, dealing with prickly foreign leaders, and saving the planet at the same time.

 

Link at:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/wire/chi-ap-il-xgr-paytoplay-oba,0,2882909.story

 

 

 

Respectfully,

 

 

Anthony Canales

SFVMC-NRA