SayUncle links to a piece on the Genessee County, Michigan Sheriff using narcotics stops. This is a practice that has already been thrown out by the Supreme Court, and as such it is well-established precedent for the purposes of overcoming qualified immunity. So you could probably reach the Sheriff personally in a 1983 suit. I’m also fairly certain anyone caught in these roadblocks can get all the evidence against them tossed as fruit of the poisonous tree. So there is recourse here if you want to nail these guys personally. Though, I’m not sure how much you’ll recover if you were just stopped. Someone who had to hire a lawyer to fight charges that were a result of evidence obtained from the illegal stop might have a decent case though.
Category: Politics
Latest in Fast and Furious
If these allegations turn out to be true, and they did indeed try to frame one of the whistle blowers for a crime, then someone needs to go to jail. I think they really need to name a special prosecutor to look into this. Orin Hatch was on NRA News last night, and was being wishy washy on the subject of naming a special prosecutor, but it has to be done in this case. There’s too much we just don’t know, and the DOJ is likely not to be cooperative. Hatch’s reluctance is based on the history of special prosecutors, which is not a remarkably good one, and that’s understandable. But sometimes it’s the right tool for the job, and this is one of those times.
New Jersey Gun Laws Explained
Senate Race Against Casey Suddenly Gets Interesting
I’m working on a review of all the races Pennsylvania gun owners have to worry about in 2012, even though we’re still weeks out from Election Day 2011. The Keystone State will be an interesting place to be. Even though it’s been solidly blue for presidential elections, Obama’s popularity is in the toilet here.
We have a Senate race where the incumbent’s staff can’t even confirm whether the Senator is actually alive. There’s even a Facebook group dedicated to figuring out if Sen. Bob Casey is breathing. And yet, just to keep things interesting, a possibly dead Senator with a reputation of not even showing up to do his elected job as part of an unpopular party still couldn’t attract any top-tier challengers. D’oh.
The last couple of weeks have seen that change, and now we have two who I would classify as top-tier for fresh blood. They haven’t held office before, but they have solid networks in place to put together real campaigns. One ran in a heavily Democratic district for Congress and lost by pretty narrow margins in 2010, and the other didn’t have a chance to shine given that the GOP incumbent in his district suddenly “un-retired” from the race and pushed him out. Specifically, they are Tim Burns and Steven Welch.
Burns had an A rating from NRA in his campaign against John Murtha’s former chief of staff. While Welch never had the opportunity to be graded, he does have a “2nd Amendment” section on his issues webpage. (Bob Casey previously had an A rating, but that could change based on his behavior in office.)
I still can’t say much about Congressional races since we’re losing a House seat, and no one knows where the district lines will be drawn. The likely result will be two A-rated Democrats pitted against one another in a primary. Boo – at least based on the gun issue. The state races will also be big. We have at least one gun-unfriendly candidate for Attorney General – a race that will impact Pennsylvania’s ~600,000 concealed carry license holders. So, yeah, 2012 will be an interesting year for gun folks.
A Sign of the Times
I figured the Obama Administration was never going to live up to people’s high expectations. What I did not expect is that Congress would need to insert a funding amendment that would essentially tell the Administration that it can’t traffic firearms to drug cartels anymore. This funding rider passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. I am pleased that not trafficking firearms to drug cartels is a position that draws support from both parties.
Funding riders like this have actual teeth. While F&F arguably broke a number of federal laws, misappropriating funds is also a crime, and one that’s easier to prosecute for.
“Florida Loophole” in the Press
This time in St. Louis, but still using Philly as an example. We’ve documented previously that these articles have been popping up all over. The purpose of this article is to help defeat HR822, it would seem. It’s worth noting that HR822 does not extend to residents in their home states, so both before and after HR822, this Florida issue is still completely a matter of state prerogatives.
The city argues that it needs latitude in determining who is a threat, because of long-standing problems in the court system. A Philadelphia Inquirer report last year noted that while prosecutors in other big cities win felony convictions in half of violent-crime cases, in Philadelphia, prosecutors had been winning only 20 percent.
It seems to me that this is the real problem to fix. You can’t have a revolving door justice system and expect to turn your city as a whole into a kind of low-level prison, where we all have to deal with more restrictive laws because the City can’t serve basic functions such as controlling crime. It is also absolutely inappropriate to consider arrests, rather than convictions, in determining who is permitted to exercise a constitutional right.
Quote of the Night – GOP Debate
The quote of the night didn’t come from any of the candidates. Nor is the quote of the night CNN’s false promise of a right to keep and bear arms question (and subsequent failure to deliver). It came from Wyatt on Twitter:
Why am I picturing Rick Perry riding the A-bomb to campaign destruction a la Slim Pickens?
“Go Obama!” Or Not.
As a reddish-purple Pennsylvanian who hates living in a sea of blue, I find this heartening:
Minutes stretched on awkwardly after U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis spoke to local Democrats. Yet that was less uncomfortable than one man’s attempt to break the silence.
“Let’s go Obama!” he shouted, clapping loudly.
No response.
Obama’s Pennsylvania Problem, in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Obama has a Pennsylvania problem, particularly with working-class Democrats and women who supported Hillary Clinton in 2008.
Looks like we get the fun of being a swing state yet again. Maybe this time we’ll actually swing.
Pro-Gun “Heros”?
This seems to be a common theme among our opponents, to try to make us wear the shame of Tennessee State Representative Curry Todd, sponsor of Tennessee’s restaurant carry bill, who was caught in a DUI while he also had a pistol holstered inside his vehicle. To do this, they are classifying him as our “hero.” While forcing responsible, law-abiding gun owners to accept responsibility for those who misuse guns is a tried and true tenet of our opponents philosophy, this one I think is particularly laughable.
I can’t think of too many politicians I would regard as heroic figures, even ones that are on my side on the gun issue. In addition, many of the politicians who are on my side on the gun issue are decidedly not on many others. Just thinking here in Pennsylvania, I’ve always appreciated Rep. Daryl Metcalfe’s tenacity on the issue of Pennsylvanian’s Second Amendment rights, but I disagree with him pretty strongly on just about every other social issue of the day, and have always thought him a demagogue on a number of those issues.
Politicians aren’t our heroes. They are instruments that the interests of citizens are represented through. No more, no less. Todd is certainly not a hero of mine, as I had never even heard of the guy until this incident, and I certainly hope he’s appropriately punished for his transgression. But our opponents will continue to try to make us wear his shame as if it were our own. As if we were the ones who were caught in an aggravated DUI with a pistol strapped between the seat cushions. That is part and parcel for how they operate, and likely how they justify their intrusion into our personal choices.
Another Illegal Mayor Supporting Mike Bloomberg
It’s not a criminal matter, but it’s still worth noting that Bethlehem, PA Mayor John Callahan illegally used money from his mayoral campaign coffers for his congressional campaign – to the tune of nearly $10,000.
He used money raised for his federal campaign to pay just half of the amount taken from his local campaign chest. Callahan settled with the FEC, paying back the rest of the money and an addition $1,200 fine.
Callahan is contemplating another run for Congress in 2012. Though he works against the rights of lawful gun owners, let’s hope he’ll learn to respect election laws next time around.