November 18, 2008

 

 

 

 

To All,

    Can't we all just get along? After all, we are armed taxpayers.

 

In other news...

 

The Moron and The Macher:

    The implied Question of the Week this week has to do with one of the oddest questions to hit politics since Tom Foley's little blunder back in 1994.

 

    To Whit, why is NRA "A" rated Blue Dog Congressman Jim Cooper from Tennessee on the "whip team" for "F"-rated Henry Waxman in his campaign to become Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee over the current NRA "A"-rated John Dingell?

 

    Per a story in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review by Salena Zito, it seems that folks in general are supposedly not paying attention to an intra-party battle that has huge implications for the Second Amendment and the ability of firearms manufacturers to continue in business during the (hopefully) "4 and out" Presidency of Barack Obama.

 

    But for all of us prisoners here in the Fool's Golden State, we are more than aware of what a Waxman chairmanship would mean to the very existence of such venerable firms as Remington, Ruger, Federal, and Marlin, or even the catalogue houses such as Cabela's, Sportsman's Warehouse, and Bass Pro.

 

   After all, the Ultra-Liberal Waxman is also the guy who brought a new kind of aggressive hearing methodology to economic sectors like the tobacco industry. He hauls up business executives to be forced to answer unanswerable questions in front of cameras, then pushes for legislation that would effectively bleed said companies white. Give Henry the Macher 4 years with an All-Radicals, All-The-Time Congress, and there won't be a domestic firearms industry in the United States.

 

    In reality, other than a wish to climb the Congressional hierarchy at the expense of the values of the citizen-voters of the state of Tennessee, it is hard to imagine what common interests Cooper could have with Waxman in this (or any other) lifetime.

 

   Unless, of course, Cooper is not who he has campaigned as.

 

   This leads us, in turn, to a very common problem given the makeup of the current Congressional Leadership. Politicians of one party or the other turn out for each election cycle swearing allegiance to the Second Amendment and/or America's sport-hunting tradition. (Governor Brian Schweitzer of Montana appears to be a case in point.).

 

     Yet after the confetti falls and the time comes for actions to protect the Second Amendment, they vote for leaders that have openly campaigned for an abrogation of the key Amendment of the Bill of Rights. This in turn sets up an agenda for gun confiscation, over-regulation, and even an anticipated attempt to disarm the American people so that we can receive the approbation of the dictators in the UN.

 

    It now appears to be the time, upon the organization of the new Congress, for firearms activists to make sure that their proven friends retain their positions of importance. What is more, it should be impressed upon certain members that helping gun-grabbing politicians obtain more power and seniority is activity inimical to the Second Amendment and approval from the firearms rights community. If we cannot influence those who so recently came to us with hat in hand for our votes, then perhaps it's time to start finding somebody else to represent us in government.

 

Links at:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/blogs/fortyfourthestate/

 

http://www.nrapvf.org/Elections/State.aspx?y=2008&State=TN

 

http://www.nrapvf.org/Elections/State.aspx?y=2008&State=MI

 

http://www.nrapvf.org/Elections/State.aspx?y=2008&State=CA

 

 

Hell Hath No Fury Like Feminists Scorned...:

   AP has a story on an upcoming interview between Diane Sawyer of ABC News and Ashley Alexandra Dupre.

 

   Dupre, for those with shorter memories, was the "call girl" that cost Elliot Spitzer his governorship in the Big Horseapple State (like we should trust New Yorkers with our investment and retirement accounts ever again...).

 

   But with rumors that Spitzer may be attempting a stealth comeback in Obama's Most Ethical Administration Ever and Traveling Roadshow, it is perhaps apropos that Ms. Sawyer starts to dance political flamenco on Spitzer's pointy little head before he is allowed back into polite company.

 

   In this case, one knows that Sawyer appears to be serious in bringing Spitzer "up short" (rumor has it that he bought Napoleon's lifts from some museum somewhere) due to the way Ms. Dupre has apparently gotten wardrobe hints from Monica Lewinsky for the interview.). With any luck, the interview will result in Spitzer's career being finalized much the way Bobby Riggs' was with the tennis match with Billy Jean King.

 

Link at:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27789850/

 

Honolulu Starbright, The Song Remains The Same...:

     Michael "Spikey" Isokoff is reporting at Newsweek that Barack Obama has chosen Eric Holder to be his Attorney General Nominee in the new Administration.

 

    Holder was Deputy AG under the Clinton Administration, and was a key spokesman for such Clinton Gun Control initiatives as mandatory purchase waiting periods, backround checks for all firearms transactions (methinks Sarah Brady would have been unable to give her son that deer rifle for Christmas should Clinton have gotten those rules past the Congress), handgun possession bans for anyone under 21 (even in lawful self defense shootings?), assault weapon possession bans for anyone under 21 (old enough to defend the country with, but not old enough to a semiauto version of the service rifle they trained on?), and increased personal liability for parents over juvenile firearms access and firearms storage.

 

    Given that Holder was on Obama's Vice Presidential Selection Team (Yes, he had a hand in picking Biden...), what the nomination suggests is that a good degree of Clintonism is going to return to the firearms rights debate in the Nation's capitol. While this may lead to a certain amount of chagrin among the Kennedy Wing of the Party initially, one gets the impression that the Congressional Leadership is more radically left than they were in 1993. Where this leaves the so-called "Blue Dogs" is anyone's guess.

 

    And given that Congress is being lead by Radical Lefties, the idea that a whole slew of risky gun control schemes are about to be imposed from the top down should be sinking in quite rapidly (Say, how are those firearms sales going in North Carolina, Virginia, and Florida. Thanks, guys.). It looks like it's going to be a tough 2 years. Stay tuned, and warm up your phone trees.

 

Links at:

http://www.blog.newsweek.com/blogs/poweringup/archive/2008/11/18/obama-s-attorney-general.aspx

 

http://www.justice.gov/archive/dag/speeches/2000/3200availdag.htm

 

http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/1999/June/257dag.htm

 

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_pjus/is_/ai_1582835070

 

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/congress/jan-june99/guncontrol_5-27.html

 

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=47852

 

 

 

Respectfully,

 

 

Anthony Canales

SFVMC-NRA