Bloomberg’s Next Target

Over at VSSA, there’s speculation that Bloomberg’s next spending target may be Virginia. It is noted that the off-year gubernatorial election in a purple state would certainly make a nice pick-up for Bloomberg’s anti-gun crusade. With the the Democrat calling for handgun rationing and semi-auto bans, it be quite the trophy.

His two big federal wins haven’t been real “wins” in many ways. His win in Pennsylvania for the Attorney General is the closest thing he has to making a real impact, and even that race was still largely about a scandal involving child rape.

VSSA asks a good question about the dedication of gun owners in these target areas:

There has been a reawakinging of the grassroots. The question is, will it last long enough to put Bloomberg in his place. Virginia in 2013 could be the first test.

Maryland Senate Passes Draconian Gun Ban

Apparently Martin O’Malley doesn’t want to be President either. They mention they expect the House to act quickly. We should not make this easy for them. The bill makes some people who seek some voluntary treatments subject to a prohibition on guns, which I would call the “You can just suffer through depression without getting help, evil gun owners.” Additionally, you do get the draconian magazine ban, and the assault weapons ban, which has been the standard ban for most modern semi-automatic firearms.

This is a sad day, but the Democrats will have their revenge on us for daring to oppose them. Any state where the Democrats are in charge we are in trouble. Remember this come election time. It is time to get active in the electoral process and punish these people.

UPDATE: Matt in the Comments:

Not over yet.  Has to pass the House and people are mobilizing.  The rally on the 6th was the largest in State history.  So the politicians are betting we will not punish them for their hubris and ignoring their constituents.

Be there in Annapolis on the 1st and 6th!

Bloomberg Mayor in Hot Water Over Personal Security Spending

The Pittsburgh mayor who has signed letters to Congress opposing concealed carry for mere citizens has been spending big taxpayer bucks to pay police officers to escort him everywhere – including nightclubs where he’s busy making out with young women.

A local report shows that Luke Ravenstahl has been spending an average of more than $110k a year in tax dollars for the last three years to pay just the overtime costs of multiple police officers to escort him and keep him safe from whatever threats a mayor faces. The video shows a photo taken of the mayor and his taxpayer-funded security hanging out at a bar with a young chick on his lap wrapped around him while he was still legally married. (According to reports, he was separated from his wife at the time, but had told the press that he had no intention of actually divorcing her. Publicly screwing around her, apparently, but not divorcing her. She filed sometime after the photo was taken.)

As this news comes to light, political reporters note that this MAIG mayor is no longer attending political events and is expected to announce that he will either end his re-election campaign or possibly even resign over this and other police-related scandals that have involved his administration.

I would say that this sounds like a big improvement for the people of Pittsburgh. It’s bad enough to have a mayor who uses your public resources to go party and screw around on his wife. But to have that mayor saying you need to fund his personal security to those parties while you shouldn’t have the right to carry and defend yourself, well, that’s just insult to injury.

Racism at Bloomberg?

And here I thought us knuckle dragging gun owners were the racists. People these days are often quick to cry racism when non exists or is intended. I’m not sure it was really intended here, but I can’t blame Blacks or Hispanics if they find these caricatures racially demeaning. I imagine it’s roughly similar to how we feel about this, this, and this.

What Democracy Looks Like

From Albany:

Gun Rights Rally in Albany

Meanwhile, Cuomo wants to make technical amendments to the bill. The answer should be no. No fixes. Repeal is the only acceptable way forward. Cuomo rammed this through without so much as a peep of debate. He gets to live with it. He gets to wear the consequences.

Stay angry, my friends.

More Time to Mobilize

The Senate Judiciary Committee was set to possibly start moving gun control today, but they’ve decided to put it off for at least a week. They are waiting on a Tom Coburn/Chuck Schumer deal before they act. However, Sen. Grassley is saying that he thinks the universal background check bill could be passed without a deal. (Iowa, it sounds like you need to be making more phone calls…)

I’m happy with the delay since now it means I know I can go to the gun show this weekend and get lots of people signing postcards to Senators Bob Casey and Pat Toomey asking them to oppose gun control legislation. We’ll use the extra time to mobilize more people.

Spending More Bloomberg Money

Joe Baca is considering a rematch. Baca was made considerably weaker in redistricting when his majority hispanic district was redrawn, and he would have been pitted up against Maxine Waters in a primary. Baca decided that wasn’t going to be in the cards, he decided to run in the open primary for California’s 35th congressional district, against Gloria Negrete McLeod. Like a shark smelling blood in the water, Bloomberg dumped a ton of money into that race too:

“It seemed like Bloomberg was more interested in unseating me and in sacrificing the truth during that campaign,” he said. “Hopefully this time I run against [Negrete McLeod] and not against the mayor of New York.”

I don’t view Joe would have much of a chance in a primary against an incumbent, but I’d be happy to see him run again. Two million might be money found in the sofa to Bloomberg, but I don’t see any reason to make this struggle cheap for him. Like I said, he’s been taking easy bets.

Bloomberg in DC, Lobbying

Meeting with lawmakers while the Senate is considering new gun control. It’s critically important that people call their Senators (202-224-3121) and express opposition to new gun control.

Bloomberg also visited Capitol Hill on Wednesday, and talked about guns with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and found the meetings productive. “While none of them made a specific commitment — so you can’t go back and say, ‘you told Bloomberg this’ — I walked away comfortable that they understand the issue and that they will be there,” he said.

Bloomberg and the media have been happy to spin the victory over Debbie Halvorson as his having bought that seat, but the Chicago Tribune thinks there’s more to it than that, and there certainly is. This was a long shot pickup possibility for us. I like making Bloomberg spend big money on long shots.

Also, the fact that McCain has been so non-committal on a private sale ban, instead of enthusiastically leading the charge, as you might expect, is surprising. I’m not certain he’s has a change of heart on the issue, but perhaps he realizes how bad it would damage the GOP if they are seen as caving to Bloomberg and the Administration on gun rights. If he doesn’t realize that, he should. And so should every other Republican.

We Have Come to This?

The left is basically tearing Bob Woodward to pieces, because, well, the White House asked them to, because he wrote a piece critical of the Administration’s position that the sequester is all the fault of the Republicans. I know what what has become of the journalism profession, but it is a very dark place they are in right now. The journalism profession is, in my opinion, the largest threat to the Republic currently. A sensible media, with strong values and a deep love and respect for our constitutional freedoms, would be circling the wagons around Woodward and ripping the White House to pieces. This is a sad spectacle for freedom.

The Sad Spectacle

I’ve cut the whole hearing to just the parts with our pro-Second Amendment panelists, and part of the Question and Answer. There was a lot of raw emotion on display, including one of the Newtown fathers, who we’ve seen before, and who could not testify without breaking down. It was truly a very unfortunate spectacle, and it was hard to watch. Nonetheless, while I can empathize with a grieving father, I can’t empathize with the politicians who engage in this kind of emotional blackmail with the intent to lambast me and those on my side as uncaring monsters. I think rights are important. I think constitutional rights are very important, and that’s a bigger issue than you, me, or anyone. That does not make us monsters, it makes us concerned Americans. First, the testimony of our people:

Next, the utter disrespect on display by the shameless anti-gun politicians here. You’ll also note that there were no murders in Philadelphia with rifles in 2012. None. Zip. Zero. Also note Blumenthal talking about how this is just a reasonable first step. What’s next Senator? Does anyone still believe these people aren’t going to ban your guns? Why wouldn’t they? They hate you, and make that abundantly clear: