Of course, just because it’s bold, doesn’t mean it’s not stupid.  It takes a certain kind of person to advertise to the world, in big bold letters, that you’re a total idiot. We can look forward to more of this over the next four years.
Year: 2008
Where Political Polarization Gets Started
Apparently it starts pretty young. I for one am glad urban dwelling progressives are so tolerant of diversity. Kudos to this girl’s teacher for making a lesson out of this.
Are You Reigstered?
Want to work for the Obama Administration? Here’s one of a long list of personal things they want to know about each of their employees:
Do you or any members of your immediate family own a gun? If so, provide complete ownership and registration information. Has the registration ever lapsed? Please also describe how and by whom it is used and whether it has been the cause of any personal injuries or property damage.
I guess they don’t know that in 99% of the country there is no registration of firearms. Unless, of course, they only intend to hire people from Chicago. Either way, if I had an employer put this before me as a condition of employment, I’d be out the door so fast I’d leave a vapor trail behind me. The New York Times has more.
UPDATE: You know, it says a lot about people who would subject themselves to this kind of rubber glove treatment. How are we expected to build a competent government when this is what it takes to vet someone? Who would do this except to wield power? Who does not have some skeletons in their closets, or family secrets they don’t wish revealed. Who has not said too much? Either we’re going to have to develop a sense of perspective as a society, or we’re doomed only to have Barack Obamas, Hillary Clintons and Rahm Emanuels in the cooridors of power.
Lessons for the Republicans
Peter brings up a very good example of how Republicans can win:
First of all: You are Republicans, you are supposed to be the party of smaller Government, lower taxes, and smaller budgets. When you run on those principles, you win. When you don’t, you lose. If you want an example, I can provide 2. Paul Ryan, who is fairly hard Right, won big in areas of his district that went hard for Obama, and Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, who is another strong Conservative, who has won in Milwaukee County in landslides, the same year they voted heavily for Democrat Jim Doyle for Governor.
There are a lot of examples of conservatives who ran clear, articulate campaigns that managed to win in this overwhelmingly Democratic year. The problem Republicans too often have, and a big problem McCain had, is being unable to translate conservative values into people’s lives. You can try to explain the Laffer Curve to people, but half won’t understand, and the other half won’t care. But you can get people to relate to having more money to provide for their families, and keeping more money on Main Street, rather than in Washington. Great politicians know how ordinary people think, and can translate their values into showing how it will positively effect their lives and their communities. One reason I think libertarians have been so stunningly unsuccessful is because we’re a lot more interested in philosophy, economic theory, liberty, and other abstract concepts, when most people are interested in improving their lives. We have to learn to speak about our issues on that level, or people will never vote for them.
Republicans Sue to Overturn McCain-Feingold
I agree with Bucks Right, this should have been done a year ago. My guess is McCain would have thrown a temper tantrum, though.
We’ll Remember
Add John Patrick Williams, former Congressman from Montana, to the list of Democrats who are pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes:
The bad news? Groups such as the NRA have been hoodwinking you about that very issue — wastefully spending your hard-earned dues money on politics, and useless protesting by having people like Charlton Heston give that phony “pry it from my cold dead fingers” speech. A case in point is the recently publicized rush by some gun owners to “stock up” on assault weapons before they are banned by the NRA’s latest boogey man, Barack Obama.
The urge to blame President-elect Obama is a transparent example of how utterly partisan the gun groups and far too many of their adherents have become.
Pat, you might want to ask Barack Obama why renewing the assault weapons ban is still part of his platform before you start accusing NRA members of being paranoid of the boogey man. We’re going to remember all these Democrats who falsely assured us that Obama is a man of the Second Amendment when 2010 rolls around.
Lead Free
Two stories today which affect the continuing narrative of lead in bullets being a real problem. Lake City brags of producting 600,000 rounds of green ammunition for the military. 600,000 is a fraction of their daily production. It’s made from a bismuth alloy. The only problem with bismuth is that it’s only about twice as abundant as gold, and is only mined as an ancillary to other ores. In other words, you can’t scale bismuth production to the levels needed to replace lead at any reasonable cost. With its scarcity, prices would quickly go through the roof. The devil is in the details, and if we’re attacked along this route, it’ll be tough to speak to the public about the problems of using other metals. You can bet our opponents will be saying there are substitutes for lead — much like a helicopter can be a substitute for an automobile.
The other is a new study out of Jackson that suggest grizzly bears are being posioned by lead.
JACKSON – Preliminary results of a study by a University of Montana graduate student suggest that lead bullets may be poisoning grizzly bears in the Yellowstone ecosystem.
Tom Rogers sampled blood from 13 grizzlies during hunting season and found nearly half had elevated levels of lead, possibly because the bears had eaten lead bullet fragments in big-game carcasses left behind by hunters.
Here’s a question. How is the Yellowstone Ecosystem being poisoned by hunters when hunting isn’t allowed within the Yellowstone Ecosystem, and guns aren’t allowed either?
UPDATE: Some folks have corrected that the Ecosystem is a vast area that ecompasses more than just the National Park. Either way, here’s an idea — aren’t bears busy gaining a lot of fat for hibernation during hunting season?  Wouldn’t that tend to drive the levels of a lot of ecological contaminants higher, including lead?
The Eurocentric View of the World
Lawsuits Going Forward
Apparently City Council is once again headed to court to try to prove the Pennsylvania Constitutional actually says:
The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State shall be questioned by Philadelphia City Council.
Rather than what it actually says. One thing from the article:
The NRA is challenging all five ordinances, although attorneys focused on the proposed assault-weapons ban in court Tuesday.
“Most of my clients have machine guns,” Shields said. “They are absolutely lawful.”
Police already have the authority to seize weapons if they are being used unlawfully, he said.
Way to go doing Josh Sugarmann’s legwork in helping confuse the public that the assault weapons issue has anything to do with machine guns. Your clients may have them, and they may be legal, but that’s not what’s at issue here.
The Plan for Universal Service
Rahm Emmanuel talks about the plan for Universal Service.
There are certainly aspects of this which are decidedly fascist. I mean this kind of fascist, not this kind of fascist. We have seen this before:
“CCCers… wore World War I uniforms; were transported around the country by troop trains; answered to army sergeants; march[ed] in formation… went to bed in army tents listening to taps; woke to reveille.”
These must be resisted, because they are bad ideas, that are ill suited to a nation such as ours. We do not need a new “New Deal.” I took some criticism yesterday for pooh poohing the comparison to the Nazis, but I will still stand by it. The people who are proposing this crap because they are misguided, and infatuated by their own ideas and intellect. I don’t believe these people, least of all Emmanuel, is looking to march us off to the ovens, or create a police state. They might be unwittingly laying the groundwork for something much worse, and I think that needs to be pointed out. But we must be careful in trying to hang the swastika or the fasces on our opponents necks.
I agree with Jonah Goldberg’s proposition that our political opponents share intellectual roots with the fascist ideology, but that they are not evil, they are wrong, and dangerously misguided. If Obama puts Bill Ayers or Bernadine Dohrn in charge of his service initiatives, then I might change my mind, but for now, all the evidence points to Obama being a solidly naive progressive, within the framework that they’ve existed within in this country for most of the 20th century. That doesn’t mean our opposition should be any less intense, but we’re not fighting Nazis.
It’s worth remembering that the very people who created the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the National Recovery Administration, also fought a costly and difficult war against the worst horrors that fascist ideology has to offer. We must fight what is coming, but I think we also need to be wary of strained hyperbole, which not only weaken our arguments in the public eye, but also obscure the sheer horror of what Nazism and Facism actually are.