Cam Edwards interviews Senator Grassley (R-IA), who’s been spearheading the Project Gunrunner scandal investigation. Grassley is the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee, which is the highest minority party position. The Committee is chaired by Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont.
Category: Politics
Anti-Gun Amendments Defeated
We’ve gotten beyond this hurdle, and now it’s on to final consideration, which will happen in April.
NRA Calling for Hearings into “Fast and Furious”
In a letter dated today to Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, and Ranking Member Charles Grassley, and House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Lamar Smith and Ranking Member John Conyers, NRA is calling for a Congressional investigation and hearings on Operation Fast and Furious.
Anti-Gun Amendments Readying in PA House
A floor vote for HB40, the Castle Doctrine vote, is proceeding, but our opponents in the legislature are planning on trying to add anti-gun amendments, including the “Florida Loophole” nonsense and Lost and Stolen. NRA is alerting that you need to contact legislators now. Our goal is to get a clean bill out of the House so this can proceed quickly.
Like a Cheap Bourbon
ATF’s not-so-fast and not-so-furious has been aging four the past four years like a cheap bourbon no one wants to drink (especially not the Mexicans, who, rumor has it, are going to declare ATF’s liaison to that country persona non grata.) Uncle notes that the Mexican gun canard started up around the same time.
Refreshing Words to Hear
The big “excuse” to get the Pennsylvania government out of the liquor business is the infusion of cash the state desperately needs that would come when licenses to sell wine & liquor would be sold or auctioned off when it comes time to privatize the retail stores. It’s an easy way to sell the idea to people who don’t really care about the issue one way or another. So imagine how refreshing it was to read that our Governor took a direct free market argument to the General Assembly today.
Government can’t create jobs. And when it tries it usually makes a mess of it. Industries are built on a singular vision, not by committee. My administration is committed to a study that looks at how best to get us out of a business we should never have entered. I’m talking about the liquor business. This isn’t about the money. It’s about the principle. Government should no more run the liquor stores than it should run the pharmacies and gas stations.
To say that government messes it up is an understatement. I’ve watched state employees sell liquor to visibly intoxicated & borderline violent people. (That was fun to watch the male store employee refuse to back up the female clerk who was trying not to sell to the guy & wanted to call the cops for assistance.) The store I visited today had an anti-alcohol poster up in the window. (I bought 3 items in spite of the poster – sherry for a dish, bourbon for man, and wine suggested by Food & Wine for our pizza later this week.) When we visited a store this weekend, the clerk was yelling at a customer when we walked in. The volume of the argument did not go down once others entered the store. (I will concede the clerk was right, but there’s no reason to scream at the customer.)
The system doesn’t save us money, and we have fewer and crappier choices because of it. At least if it was a free market system, I would know the stores suck because my neighbors have crappy taste. Right now, it’s due to bureaucratic incompetence. So yay to Tom Corbett for making the free market case for privatizing the liquor & wine stores. The fact that it will help the state put its financial house back in order is just a side benefit. This needs to be done for the right reason – the government doesn’t belong in the liquor business.
Castle Doctrine Passes Senate
We’re clear of one house of the General Assembly. The vote was 43 to 4. The only four Senators to vote against were Farnese, Hughes, Kitchen and Tartaglione. Even Leach was a yes, if you can believe that. Now we just need to clear the House.
Standing Against Federal Overreach
New Jersey? Really? Legally, the Supremacy Clause is a problem for this legislation, but laws like this have useful symbolic value. But seriously, can you believe even New Jersey is looking to nullify federal law when it’s gone too far? I’m generally pretty unenthusiastic about the Firearms Freedom Laws, but that’s mostly because I think this isn’t the right time, rather than it being a bad idea. But it is the right time for states to stand up to the TSA nudo-o-scoping, so for once I’ll cheer on the folks in Trenton.
Good to Know I’m a Racist
This is simply unbelievable. This is from NPR’s Senior Development VP Ron Schiller:
And not just Islamophobic, but really xenophobic. I mean, basically, they are – they believe in sort of white, middle America, gun-toting … I mean, it’s pretty scary. They’re seriously racist.
Cut their funding… now.
Oh, And They Need Traver Too
The head of ATF is a key law enforcement position. It’s particularly critical now, as the U.S. grapples with weapons smuggling from this country to Mexico. As Tribune Newspapers reported Friday, ATF ran a weapons-tracking operation that went terribly awry, allowing hundreds of firearms into Mexico that were later used in crimes.
It went terribly awry, so clearly ATF needs anti-gun leadership at the top. The bureaucrats solution to failure is more funding. The spoils of success is more funding. They can’t lose. It’s a shame we the taxpayers certainly can.