January 2008 – Page 12 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Huckabee on the First Amendment

In essence, Governor Huckabee yesterday repudiated the First Amendment and the concept of free speech by announcing that he would like to â€œoutlawâ€ any political speech not expressly â€œauthorized and approved by the candidate.â€

According to Jawaâ€™s Rusty Shacklford, the quote in question came from an interview with NPR yesterday morning. Rusty quoted Governor Huckabee as saying:

â€œI personally wish that all of this was outlawed. I think that every candidate should speak for themselves, and that every thing that involves the candidateâ€™s name or another candidateâ€™s name should be authorized and approved by that candidate, otherwise it shouldnâ€™t be spokenâ€¦.

â€œThe point is that candidates canâ€™t force these special interest 527 groups to stop. I wish we could.â€

I really thought the basic tenets of Constitution were generally past debate. It never occurred to me that a candidate for President might simply come out against individual freedom. Even Senator McCain â€” no friend of free speech â€” has the sense to at least try to be subtle about it.

Read the whole thing.Â I hate to say it, but I think I now have to rank Huckabee below Mitt Romney in terms of Republican candidates that I find to be completely unacceptable.Â The question is, when the evangelical vote learns about what Huckabee is really about, will they still support him?Â I hope not, but I’m not holding my breath.

Ron Paul Letters

Thanks to Megan for pointing me to this, which contains a link to this article:

Financial records from 1985 and 2001 show that Rockwell, Paul’s congressional chief of staff from 1978 to 1982, was a vice president of Ron Paul & Associates, the corporation that published the Ron Paul Political Report and the Ron Paul Survival Report. The company was dissolved in 2001. During the period when the most incendiary items appearedâ€”roughly 1989 to 1994â€”Rockwell and the prominent libertarian theorist Murray Rothbard championed an open strategy of exploiting racial and class resentment to build a coalition with populist “paleoconservatives,” producing a flurry of articles and manifestos whose racially charged talking points and vocabulary mirrored the controversial Paul newsletters recently unearthed by The New Republic. To this day Rockwell remains a friend and advisor to Paulâ€”accompanying him to major media appearances; promoting his candidacy on the LewRockwell.com blog; publishing his books; and peddling an array of the avuncular Texas congressman’s recent writings and audio recordings.

Of course, now Paul’s Congressional Chief of Staff is coming out and saying it was indeed Rockwell who was responsible for the letters.Â Trying to fan the flames of racial bigotry is quite despicable, and while I leave open the possibility that Ron Paul is not himself a racist, I have no problem with judging the man by the company he keeps.

UFO Sightings in Texas

Apparently dozens of towns in Texas reported a UFO sighting:

The reported sightings have become a catalyst on blogs and in chat rooms, triggering scientific and philosophical debates, religious inquiries, conspiracy charges and bad Texas jokes.

“It’s amazing how this has taken on an international profile,” said Kenneth Cherry, president of the Texas chapter of the Mutual UFO Network. “I’ve had calls from Japanese and British newspapers. I’m supposed to be doing ‘Larry King Live’ on Friday.”

All this thanks to reports of a strange, silent object over Stephenville, Texas, a town about 70 miles southwest of Ft. Worth.

No word yet on whether Jennifer W. Stein, PA CeaseFire Board Member and UFO researcher, was seen packing her car to head to the Lone Star State to investigate.

Tam is betting …

… this guy “won’t have the balls to try that again!“.Â Â It would appear not.

The 5 Millionth 10/22

It can be yours on GunBroker.Â Current price is at $6200.00.

The 5,000,000th Ruger 10-22 was presented to the 4-H Shooting Program by Ruger President Steve Sanetti to help raise support and awareness of this vital program that provides 300,000 youths shooting instruction and opportunity each year.Â Following the presentation, the rifle was turned over to the Ruger Custom Shop for further enhancements, resulting in one of the finest 10-22’s ever made.

Go take a look.Â It’s certainly the nicest looking 10/22 I’ve ever seen.

Georgia Bill Passes Senate

Dave Hardy isn’t sure what the gutted version of HB89 really accomplishes other than allowing carry in State parks.

The news article says that it’s limited to CCW holders who have permission from the employer. But that’d make little sense — if you have the parking lot owner’s permission, anyone can store a gun there. So I have no idea what the Senate bill would do in that regard.

So what are the chances of getting rid of Georgia’s other carry restrictions at this point?

Bush Stimulus Plan

Bush is admitting the economy is in trouble, and will be laying out a stimulus plan:

Taxpayers could receive rebates of up to $800 for individuals and $1,600 for married couples under a White House plan. Although lawmakers were considering smaller rebate checks and more money for food stamp recipients and the unemployed, Bush told congressional leaders that he favors income tax rebates for people and tax breaks for business investment.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke entered the stimulus debate Thursday, endorsing the idea of putting money into the hands of those who would spend it quickly and boost the flagging economy.

I don’t think this is going to amount to much, but I won’t complain if Bush wants to cut me a check to send some of my money back to me. There’s only so much effect fiscal policy is going to have on the economy. To me this move is purely political, as it will make people feel better about the Administration, and Republicans in 2008. The Democrats will have to pass it, because if they oppose it, guess who the Republicans are going to blame for failing to pass the Presidents stimulus package? This move, I think, has a lot more to do with the 2008 elections than with the economy.

The Irony

Anyone listening to Cam’s show last night to listen into The Other Sebastian’s interview got treated to some very poignant background noise.

More Carry Nonsense in Pennsylvania

Here we go again:

[I asked the] Sheriff why was my license to Cary denied? He stated someone came in two days before I applied on 11/16/07 and asked If I had a license to Cary. he said he looked in the computer and told them no there is no one in here by that name. He said he asked this person why he said this person told him he observed me with a gun in my waist band on my property. I said Yes Sheriff I do Cary my gun in a holster on my property and not in my waist band. I also stated that its not against the law To OC In PA he agreed. I then asked why was my permit being denied. He then said “I called the Clifford police as part of my investigation and they said yes they had a report of me walking around with my side arm. never once has the police been to my house never once have I been in trouble with the law! I said this is why you denied me he said yes he said it shows lack of character and thats the grounds hes denying me on. I told him I was going to appeal he then said I guess I was right in denying you then You are arguing with me. I said I’m stating facts and laws I’m not arguing with you and mean no disrespect. He said stay out of trouble and reapply in a year until then get yourself some pepper spray. WTF

I am so mad what can I do?

My advice is to retain an attorney and appeal the denial. Meanwhile, I’m going to continue to advocate for altering or abolishing Â§ 6109 (e) (1) (i) “An individual whose character and reputation is such that the individual would be likely to act in a manner dangerous to public safety.” so that this discretion clause, that more than a few Sheriffs appear to not be able to use without abusing, doesn’t stop law abiding gun owners from getting licenses.

Besides, if you’re a sheriff, and you don’t like open carry, shouldn’t you want to give the guy a license to he can carry concealed.

More Thoughts on the DOJ Brief

Ian has some interesting thoughts on the DOJ brief.

In particular, the standard arm of the US military is considered a machinegun by law (M-16, as it can fire more than one bullet per trigger press). But because it is a machinegun, it can be banned for public safety reasons under the federal government’s ability to regulate, for the purposes of ensure a well-regulated militia, what arms the People can Keep and Bear… One more time: The government may ban the civilian possession of the standard arm of the military under its ability to sure that the militia is effective. IE – to ensure the militia is effective (well-regulated) the government may ban arms demonstrably suitable for the individual soldier.

Yeah, pretty much. I guess they figure we’d be a little too well-regulated with M16s. I found an interesting and provocative bit of commentary over on The High Road too:

This kind of DOJ brief was one of those risks. It’s not surprising to me that the brief introduces governmental concerns about machine guns. How could it be a surprise to anyone else either? This forum and other gun forums are filled with irresponsible declarations that once this case is won there will be attempts to strike down restrictions on machine guns. You want to be heard. You have been heard. When gun owners insist upon raising red flags and press hot button issues, they need to recognize that they will set off explosions. They always make those explosions someone else’s fault. This one isn’t anyone else’s fault. It’s an obvious response to the red flag that gun owners have insisted upon raising most unwisely.

I can see the author’s point, but I doubt the Solicitor General or Supreme Court justices are much reading The High Road, or any of our blogs. Heller most definitely won’t be on the issue of machine guns, and whether it will lay the groundwork for a getting rid of the ban is unknowable at this point. What disappointed me was that the brief raised that issue, but I suspect the reason is because the federal bureaucracy gets a lot of mileage out of enforcing those laws, rather than The Administration noticing that gun owners have been raising the issue.

Nonetheless, we must tread lightly on the machine gun issue while this case is before The Court.Â We really would rather the court not consider that right now, and the less they say in the ruling, even if it’s dicta, the better we’re all going to be.