Looks like the Democrats in New York have wrested control of the Senate back from the Republicans. This probably means it’s game on for the Dems gun control agenda in the Empire State.
Category: Politics
Some Good Witnesses on the Sotomayor Hearings
Volokh reports that Dave Kopel, Steve Halbrook, Sandy Froman, and Ilya Somin will all be testifying at Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings.  At the very least, Sotomayor’s hearing is shaping up to look like some good political theater.
There’s a saying …
… about bourgeois Bostonians, who wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, terrified at the prospect that there might be people out there having fun. That, in a nutshell, is northeastern leftism, and for the better part of a century that’s been the predominate philosophy in Washington D.C.
I suppose that’s why the Environmental Protection Agency thinks it’s time to crack down on boaters:
A proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency has boating organizations up in arms. Those organizations are now asking individual boaters for help in letting the EPA know the idea of allowing introduction of a new fuel that has not been independently tested in marine engines isn’t a good one. […]
That was proposed in March after Growth Energy, a pro-ethanol group collected fifty four other groups and petitioned the EPA to allow what is a fifty-percent bump in ethanol and reclassify E-10 fuel as E-15.
The boating industry is highly cyclical. When economic times get tough, people stop buying boats, and start selling them. It’s devastating to the boating industry. This is only going to make things worse. Hope and change, folks. Hope and change. This Congress and Administration aren’t about jobs. It’s about making middle class folks pay for our sins. A permanently reduced standard of living will be our penance.
Bi-Partisan Amendment to Save Pocket Knives
Knife Rights is reporting that an amendment has been introduced to stop the Customs enforcement of new regulations that would reclassify many types of common pocket knives as switchblades:
We now have a a bi-partisan amendment that has the critical support from the Senate committees which have responsibility for the FSA and which is endorsed by the Administration (Customs and Border Production have signed off on it). That gives it a very good chance of making it through the process, but first we have to get it voted into the Homeland Security Appropriations Bill.
They are asking people to write their senators and ask them to support it. The amendment basically adds a specific exception to the Federal Switchblade Act for assisted opening folding knives.
Article on Gun Rationing Law
Fred “One-Gun-a-Month” Madden seems to be trying to get some cover in the media, and I guess Bryan Miller called in some favors from his buddies at the Inquirer:
Corzine pushed the bill through the Legislature late last month only after agreeing to create a task-force team whose first job will be considering amendments to ensure that collectors, competitive shooters, and recreational gun users “are not adversely affected.”
That could open the door for exceptions.
With the plan stuck one vote short of passage in the Senate, the compromise was needed to win over Sen. Fred Madden (D., Gloucester), who agreed to vote “yes” on the condition that concerns of law-abiding gun users – specifically collectors and competitive shooters – were addressed.
So pass a bad law first, and then go back and fix it later. Always a winning strategy! Then you have Bryan saying the same thing:
“We don’t want to create any problems for the hunters, for competitive shooters, for legitimate collectors. If we can find a way to make it easier for legitimate competitive shooters, great,” Miller said.
How do you define a “legitimate competitive shooter?” or “legitimate collector?” There’s no certificate, you know. Am I a legitimate competitive shooter? How can you tell?
But via SayUncle, we have a new study from the Joyce Foundation. You know what it concluded?
The study found no effect on gun trafficking within the state from laws limiting handgun sales to a maximum of one gun per person per month.
Got that? Even Bryan’s funders can’t find evidence this law does anything. So why do we need it in New Jersey?
4 in 10 American Say They Have Grown More Conservative
Says a new Gallup poll. There’s a bit on gun control:
Gallup polling shows Americans becoming more conservative on gun control between 2004 and 2008, with opposition to banning handguns growing from 63% to 69%. And disagreement with making gun laws “more strict” grew, from 45% to 49%.
A lot of these trends could be demographic. A lot of younger people get more conservative as they get jobs and have to start paying taxes and raising families.
Lots of Discussion About Palin & the Tea Party Movement
Instapundit hosts a bit of speculation about the future of Sarah Palin, with some folks hoping she’s going to start an insurgent third party using the Tea Party movement as a base. I think that’s a lot of wishful thinking. This country hasn’t had a third party since the mid 19th century, and the issue that drove it was slavery. No issue out there today so divides the country like the issue of slavery did in the 1850s. If Sarah Palin tries to start a third party, at best it will divide the GOP for long enough to absolutely ensure we have to live with Hope and Change for the next 7 1/2 years. No thanks.
If she is planning anything, and I’m not sure she is, I think she really may be done with politics, she’ll drive her agenda from within the Republican Party. Reform in the Republican Party is really the only way forward. If she’s looking to take a leadership role in doing that, I’ll be thrilled. But I suspect she really might just be done with politics, and taking a public role.
UPDATE: SayUncle: “I’m not sure if she’s done with politics but I’d say politics ain’t done with her.”
If Only It Were True
I would love this to be the case, but my fear is that Sarah is really finished with politics.  I couldn’t blame her.
Sarah Palin Resigns
I’ve often said in conversations with Bitter than the reason our political system is so hopelessly messed up is because no one in their right mind would subject themselves and their families to what is required to be successful.  With that in mind, Sarah Palin has decided to resign as governor.  More coverage here and here.
I think this means her political career is pretty effectively over. Those who were hoping for Sarah in 2012 I think will be disappointed. I’m disappointed. But I don’t blame Palin. She’s a normal, well adjusted person, which means she does not have what it takes to survive in national politics. When you think of the implications of that, God help us all.
UPDATE: Here’s what disappoints me the most about this:
That spurred this terrifying thought: The lesson that the ruthless corners of the political world will take from the rise, fall, and departure of Sarah Palin that if you attack a politician’s children nastily enough and relentlessly enough, you can get anybody to quit.
It would be wrong to ask anyone to carry the kind of burden the Palin family did. But the snakes which are so predominant in politics won. Big time. That doesn’t give much reason to celebrate this 4th of July.
Bloomberg Campaign Commercial
He has Carolyn McCarthy shilling for him. I guess she is incapable of running on anything other than her hatred for guns and gun owners.