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…
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.
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.
We vote in a school. Traditionally, we go down a long hallway toward the gymnasium where each half of the room is divided off to support two different precincts. This morning, we were directed into a fenced area with different doors and different rooms than we’ve used before. The person outside directing people told us, “It’s about keeping the children safe.”
Wow. I didn’t realize that voters who care enough to turn up to vote on Primary Day at 7am were a threat to children. As Sebastian said when we passed a large group of kids waiting to catch the school bus on a busy street, how could we leave them so unprotected from voters? The might learn about being engaged with their community or something!
Seriously, this annoyed me on so many levels. First of all, the woman just said I was a threat to kids. Second, the doors had to be propped open so they would remain unlocked, and it was 40 degrees out this morning with windchill in the mid-30s. The election workers were all in long sleeves and coats and still talking about being cold. How much extra will we pay in heating bills today for those rooms to never get warm? Third, there are no signs to tell the people who have been voting there for years that things changed. Just a woman who will inform any lost looking adults that they must enter the fenced area and go in the designated rooms so they are kept away from the children in the name of safety.
On a random note, I was voter number 1. I should have let Sebastian go first since he’s never been the first voter before. This is not my first time. Yes, I take a little pride in it.
As for the controversial voter id law here in Pennsylvania, it was painless. I didn’t even have to pull my license out of the holder in the little wallet. My only complaint is that you’d think the poll workers could learn how to spell our names even when we are spelling them verbally AND showing them identification. But no. Alas, expecting poll workers who can see, hear, or spell simple names is too much.
Tomorrow is Election Day in the Commonwealth. Now that the presidential race is largely locked up, attention focuses on our Senate primary to take on Sen. Bob Casey. For those of you who only loosely follow politics in the Keystone State, this is a great article summing up the problems the GOP has created for itself in this race.
For those who don’t follow Pennsylvania politics, well, the state Republican Party powers that be endorsed a guy who wanted to host a fundraiser for very liberal (and extremely anti-gun) Joe Sestak and was a Democrat who voted for Obama in 2008. In the lead is a guy who was a Democrat for 40 years and hasn’t even been a Republican long enough to have voted in a GOP primary before. Somewhere between those two is Sam Rohrer who has already shown he’s not so great at running a statewide campaign when he made bizarre campaign investments in his failed gubernatorial race.
So you might see why Republicans in Pennsylvania are kinda “eh” about the whole thing. Here are a few funny quotes I’ve found in the media surrounding the race:
Welch [the GOP endorsed former Democrat] is hoping the high amount of undecided voters — even in Smith’s own most recently released survey, about a third of the Republican electorate was undecided — will gravitate to him.
I love the logic of this businessman. If a voter tells a pollster they are undecided, they will come to me! Unfortunately, that’s flawed logic. We’re undecided, but I know my indecision is over which non-Welch candidate will get my vote. I will not reward the state party officials who handpicked pretty much the worst possible candidate. It will be a blow to the party, and maybe a few more county leaders will oppose the endorsement process all together next time.
Next is the view of a voter:
“Most of the time, it’s Election Day before I make up my mind,†said Richard Beard, a dinner attendee from nearby Chambersburg, Pa., who couldn’t name the Republican candidates.
What dinner was he attending? The area GOP dinner. This is someone who cares enough about the party to show up to dinners with potential presidential candidates. Yet he can’t name any of the GOP candidates in the primary, much less the party-backed candidate. Yes, that my friends is what we call enthusiasm. And that’s what awaits us for November.
That said, we will both be at the doors to the school as soon as they open tomorrow morning. Make sure you know which Congressional district you are in this year since those maps changed. NRA is endorsing in the primaries in the new PA-4 (old PA-19), PA-17 (dramatically redrawn), and PA-18.
I admit that I laughed. I also shared it on Facebook to my friends and family who have probably donated.
The anti-gun leaders keep trying to deny that more people are buying guns. Even when they finally concede that maybe there’s a smidgen of evidence from the NICS numbers, they claim that it’s just current gun owners buying more guns because we are all crazy and paranoid.
However, an interesting report came out of the NRA Board Meeting yesterday morning. And, no, it wasn’t just the news we broke on Twitter about the record-setting 73,740 NRA members attending the Annual Meeting & Exhibits. Kayne Robinson, Director of General Operations, told the crowd that they have seen a surge of training demands and had to really focus attention on being able to easily sell materials to the thousands of instructors across the country since the early days of the Obama guns sales surge. If you thought things were tapering off with Obama’s first term coming to a close, don’t be fooled.
So far in 2012, Kayne reported that the NRA sales are running about $265,000 above what they expected at this point in the year.
Yes, people are buying guns. New shooters are getting involved. People are taking the training classes to become safe and proficient shooters. Current shooters are coming out to support all of these new folks. Though the media likes to argue that NRA leaders don’t really have any solid foundation or following, about 1,500 grassroots supports came out to the National Friends of NRA Banquet to raise $450,000 for the NRA Foundation programs which put a particular focus on youth- and women-focused shooting programs. Across the country, local banquets are running 14% ahead of their expected fundraising goals. If most committees are like the one I have served on, there’s statistically only one way to raise more money – have more attendees.
While we were visiting with John Frazer, the Director of Research for ILA, in the NRA booth on the show floor, a gentleman who is active with his local VFW came up to ask about who he could talk to about funding a new shooting league. I gave him the information about how to find his local Friends group to put in a grant request since that’s the type of stuff I know our regional Friends committees love to support.
But remember, our opponents say we’re just making it up. There aren’t any new gun buyers seeking training. No shooters are really looking to become active. Current gun owners aren’t really any more involved with gun groups than they have been before. It’s funny how hard the anti-rights crowd has to work to ignore all of the mounting evidence that we are not only winning, but we plan to continue that winning streak far into the future as long as possible.
