The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
He may not be my representative, but I do believe that Representative Stephen Bloom is my favorite lawmaker in Harrisburg. He uses social media frequently to keep in touch with his constituents. Yesterday, he posted a picture on Facebook that you could say highlights his dedication to making use of every possible resource…
I also get Mr. Yuk stickers, which come in extremely handy when reviewing stacks of legislative co-sponsorship memos…
Fortunately, today I managed to get over to the Freedom Trail a bit for some sightseeing before it got dark. Here’s some sights around Boston:
The driver let me drive the water taxi over this morning. First time I’ve handled a boat since I was 18, I think, when my Uncle kept a boat on the Chesapeake in Maryland. I was surprised by this, I figured in Nanny America, there’d be police waiting her haul her off. She even offered to let me dock it.
I don’t even know where to start. Wyatt has the story about a Chinese company making a line of sunglasses named for Helen Keller.
He provides a punchline that I fear the company will take to heart:
The company is currently working on an FDR running shoe.
I am concerned that he just gave their marketing department a new idea.
Wow. If anyone thought that incumbents could cruise to safety in 2012, Pennsylvania just showed that voters are still pissed off. The Speaker of the House – a race I didn’t see anyone mentioning as seriously competitive prior to last night – just barely squeaked out a challenge from within his own party. He even lost the part of the district he lives in! A total of five sitting incumbent state lawmakers lost their seats last night, and members of Congress were sent some walking papers, too.
For gun owners, here’s what’s relevant:
Babette Josephs is gone. She was defeated in a primary after she was caught illegally campaigning inside of a polling place. This video made from soundbites of Philly politicians pushing gun control features her rants about how only a few people who show to protest in Harrisburg are the only people in all of Pennsylvania who oppose radical gun control. She was pushing the idea of overturning Castle Doctrine here in the Commonwealth in honor of Trayvon Martin. My favorite comment from her was actually on Facebook about breastfeeding. She said a staffer was a new mom and bragged that her office was breastfeeding-friendly. Great, that’s the law since it’s a state building. I guess as a Philly lawmaker, she probably should be patted on the back for not breaking the law, but I still like to hold my standards a little higher. Sebastian had an experience with her office that showed they may be breastfeeding-friendly, they were hardly tolerant of gun owners coming in to have a conversation.
No, the seat isn’t going pro-gun. Regardless, gun owners should still celebrate the victory of ousting a lawmaker who wasn’t even willing to give them the respect of her time. The future representative also walks into the office as a freshman rather than with her seniority.
Patrick Murphy‘s political career was largely summed up as this: Over. He lost his Congressional seat in 2010, and then he set his sights on Attorney General as a stepping stone to Governor. He seemingly expected to walk right into the position with his national fundraising contacts and support of Barack Obama. What he didn’t count on was an opponent who has, oh, actually tried cases in Pennsylvania – a teeny, tiny thing missing from Murphy’s resume. And the woman brought in Bill Clinton to campaign for her. In case Murphy didn’t notice, Pennsylvania Democrats actually like the Clintons. They didn’t support Obama in the primary in 2008, a reflection that he was out-of-touch with the state outside of Philadelphia.
The Attorney General‘s race is big for gun owners. That’s the office that handles reciprocity with other states for carry licenses. Gov. Tom Corbett made an effort to seek out states that would sign agreements when he was in the office. We know that anti-gun groups have put a target on cutting reciprocity agreements – something they previously tried to attack in the legislature when they knew the Attorney General wouldn’t do it. I believe that the woman who beat Murphy is more anti-gun than he was in Congress. It seems odd that I would celebrate her win, but she ended Murphy’s political career as a whole. Now, it’s time to beat her.
We mourn the loss of pro-gun Blue Dogs last night. Congressman Tim Holden was NRA A-rated, but he was dealt a devastating loss last night. The Democratic nominee for the district, Matt Cartwright, has never held office before and refused to return NRA’s questionnaire. However, he told the local media that he swears he’s pro-gun even though he also generally campaigned on the message that he’s farther to the left than Rep. Holden. It sounds like Democratic gun owners in that part of the state need to start picking up their phones and firing up their keyboards to actually demand some answers from Mr. Cartwright.
On the far western edge of the state, two A+ rated Democrats engaged in a pretty bitter primary fight. While they are rated the same on guns, Rep. Jason Altmire has actually made time for the NRA by speaking at the convention and actually leading on the Democratic side of the aisle. Unfortunately, unions painted a giant target on his back and vowed to end his political career for opposing Obama’s healthcare law. With gun control not a major difference between the two Democrats, Altmire fell last night to Rep. Mark Critz.
In better news, NRA’s endorsed candidate in PA-4 (the former PA-19) won the GOP primary with more than 50% of the vote. That doesn’t sound too impressive until you consider that Scott Perry won a seven-way race. Yeah, huge. That race was effectively the general election. It also goes to show that money isn’t everything in a contest because Perry wasn’t the biggest fundraiser of the field.
On its Web site, the N.R.A. calls itself the “largest pro-hunting organization in the world.†Yet during election season, the N.R.A. makes endorsements based largely on candidates’ voting records on gun control — with little if any concern for their views on other issues of interest to hunters.
I’m sure it will be news to the Board’s hunting policy committee, and also to ILA’s hunting policy department, that NRA doesn’t do anything for hunting. You have a lot of these lefty hunters that think the only thing matters is an environmental record, as is the animal rights whack jobs and access to land are not big issues.
It sounds like she’s new to hunting, so I’ll give her the benefit of doubt, but if she thinks they won’t go after her hunting rifle high-precision long range sniper rifle, she’s delusional. If she thinks groups like PETA or HSUS won’t ban or restrict hunting as much as possible, she’s delusional. I would welcome a serious discussion with this author on the issues, because I think she’s missing the big picture. The hunting community is an ecosystem, and a very unhealthy one at that. If the health of that community isn’t freshly nurtured, hunting is finished. Hunters will be reduced in numbers until they no longer retain the political power to stave off attacks, and if Lily Raff McCaulou has her way, I will not be in that fight, because as a shooter, you’ve acquiesced to banning the guns I shoot with, so why would I then lift a finger when you’re finally eaten last?
This bill, to ease SYG in Louisiana, is interesting in what it requires:
The bill, which received unanimous approval from the Senate Judiciary C Committee, would require a “full investigation” by law enforcement and coroners in any death that results from violence or under suspicious circumstances in which a claim of self-defense is raised.
So only when self-defense is raised should we expect a full and thorough investigation? Someone is found face down in a swamp, and we can short change that investigation, eh Senator? This sounds like a mandate that the police be competent, and how do you enforce that? Another bill has already failed in committee:
Another bill inspired by Martin’s killing, Senate Bill 719, did not make it out of committee. Sen. Yvonne Dorsey-Colomb, D-Baton Rouge, said her bill was aimed at closing a potential loophole in the stand your ground law that would allow people to start a fight, try to withdraw and then claim self-defense if the other person continued to come after them.
That’s a “loophole?” I believe traditionally, and correct me if I’m wrong, you lawyers out there, but you could always regain faultlessness if you attempted to retreat from the fight, but your opponent kept pressing the fight.
And that is my big fear, but also a bit of a comfort; that our opponents will not merely try to repeal SYG, but will try to gut self-defense laws even further. It is a fear, because I always worry they could be successful. It is a comfort, because this kind of overreach is what’s ruined their fortunes in the past.
According to reader and faithful voter/activist Adam Z., his precinct in Philadelphia seems to be ignoring the new voter identification law in Pennsylvania. The law requires that election staffers request to see identification during today’s primary. Because this is the first election post-passage of the law, if a voter answers that they don’t have identification on them or they show a form of id that doesn’t count for voting, then they will still be given a ballot. They are also supposed to be told at that point that they need to provide valid id when voting November. So let’s look at his account of what happened at his precinct:
Voter ID law? What’s that, according to the reaction of the local polling people? Told them my name and was pulling out my Driver’s License (although I knew it was not necessary during this primary in PA but will be during the General election in November) but was wavied off with a statement to the effect of “Don’t need that, Thanksâ€. Technically speaking they were right but one would like to think they would get people used to showing their ID for voting…Nahhh! Additionally noone mentioned that I will need ID for the General Election.
Sadly, this, and the treatment he describes for daring to mention that he was voting in the GOP primary, are par for the course in Philadelphia. In fact, there are widespread reports of poll workers choosing to ignore the law in the city according to The Daily News. Why would the poll workers feel like they need to follow the law when there’s a report of election violations by a lawmaker in the city?
A voter just called to complain that Babette Josephs, who is fighting to keep her House seat, was inside the 8th ward/3rd division and said to him: “I know I’m not supposed to be doing this, but please vote for me, Babette Josephs.†Unless they have a valid poll watcher’s certificate, candidates are not permitted to enter a polling place except to cast their own vote.
(h/t on the Josephs tidbit from PoliticsPA)
Leave it to me to dig into the ongoing controversy over booth babes at gun convention and shows. John Richardson provided a little photographic evidence that some booths got the “babe” concept very wrong. Too much make-up, over-the-top jewelry, absurdly out of place clothing, and enough skin to offend the family crowds that walked through the exhibit floor. Don’t even get me started on the look that qualifies more as a sneer than a smile.
She wasn’t the only one hired by exhibitors that was a complete miss on the concept of using attractive women to get more people to the booth. I saw one woman on Sunday who was wearing underwear over the top of her skin-tight leggings that she took a razor blade to so that they didn’t hide much. Yes, underwear as outerwear. Mix that with some very bad highlights, and that’s not what too many people call sexy. Certainly, none of the guys I was talking to in the area were looking at it with anything complimentary to say.
As a fairly feminist woman, I actually have very little objection to idea that sex sells – especially sexy women. But sexy is doesn’t mean trashy. The funny thing is that I don’t think there’s even a thin line between the two – it’s usually pretty damn clear. Night club and strip club wear isn’t exactly a fit for the NRA crowd. There were other booth babes in clothes that snuggly hugged the curves and even dipped to show quite a bit of cleavage who didn’t cross the line into trashy. They tied their look to the look of the booth and the gear they were trying to sell.
I would also say that even though NRA’s Annual Meeting is more family-focused than something like SHOT, women aren’t inherently turned off by the idea of selling sex. This week, the NYT Bestseller list for fiction has erotica with a BDSM focus written for women at the numbers 1, 2, and 4 spots. (On a side note, did John Grisham ever expect to come in behind a novel with a plot created for no other purpose than putting the characters in a position to have sex again?) Women are fine with it and even appear to be spending big money on it. It doesn’t offend the vast majority of us. But trashy? Yeah, not the same as sexy. It is a turn-off, and it will make women (and some men) walk in the other direction.
One of the best uses of sexy to sell was a booth I passed far too quickly to notice the brand, but their ads used pinup-style models. A well-done pinup look for an ad or a booth babe is pretty much a way to win the sex sells game at a venue like the NRA exhibit hall. It’s sexy, it harkens back to a time of patriotism, and it doesn’t have to push the boundaries of anyone in attendance in order to get attention.
I don’t know what it was about the exhibit hall this year, but the times I did notice booth babes, it tended to be the wrong reasons. Usually, it’s not that much of a problem at this event. I don’t quite know what happened if the company standards went down temporarily, if the selection of ladies to hire in St. Louis isn’t quite the same as other convention cities, or if generally this is the path some companies want to take in the future. I sincerely hope it isn’t the latter option.
Evan Nappen posted a rather humorous bit of satire about opponents to Stand Your Ground that’s about the “Turn Tail and Run” law.
Senator Lousenburg (D. NJ) has filed the “Turn Tail and Run†(TTR) bill in the U.S. Senate which, if passed, would preempt ALL State “Stand Your Ground†(SYG) laws. The new bill would impose a national duty to retreat at all times when one encounters a criminal threat or is about to become a victim of violent crime. New York City Mayor Bloomingidiot has made passage of the “TTR†a centerpiece of his national “Second Chance at Shoot First” campaign. The mayor heartily approved of TTR, especially since bodyguards of celebrities, VIP’s, and political figures were exempted.
There’s more, so go read the whole thing.
