It’s disappointing, but Fred’s third place finish doesn’t bode well for the future of his campaign.  Nonetheless, Fred gained at Huckabee’s expense, and pulled away some evangelical vote, he might just be a spoiler for Huckabee, which means I surely hope he’ll stay in the race and keep fighting. I had sincerely hoped Fred’s campaign could do much better in South Carolina than in previous states, but I don’t think it’s there for him this year. I sincerely hope whoever walks away with the nomination will consider Fred for his Vice Presidential running mate, especially McCain, who is old as dirt and likely to die in office.
Category: Politics
Huckabee on the First Amendment
In essence, Governor Huckabee yesterday repudiated the First Amendment and the concept of free speech by announcing that he would like to “outlaw†any political speech not expressly “authorized and approved by the candidate.â€
According to Jawa’s Rusty Shacklford, the quote in question came from an interview with NPR yesterday morning. Rusty quoted Governor Huckabee as saying:
“I personally wish that all of this was outlawed. I think that every candidate should speak for themselves, and that every thing that involves the candidate’s name or another candidate’s name should be authorized and approved by that candidate, otherwise it shouldn’t be spoken….
“The point is that candidates can’t force these special interest 527 groups to stop. I wish we could.â€
I really thought the basic tenets of Constitution were generally past debate. It never occurred to me that a candidate for President might simply come out against individual freedom. Even Senator McCain — no friend of free speech — has the sense to at least try to be subtle about it.
Read the whole thing. I hate to say it, but I think I now have to rank Huckabee below Mitt Romney in terms of Republican candidates that I find to be completely unacceptable. The question is, when the evangelical vote learns about what Huckabee is really about, will they still support him? I hope not, but I’m not holding my breath.
Ron Paul Letters
Thanks to Megan for pointing me to this, which contains a link to this article:
Financial records from 1985 and 2001 show that Rockwell, Paul’s congressional chief of staff from 1978 to 1982, was a vice president of Ron Paul & Associates, the corporation that published the Ron Paul Political Report and the Ron Paul Survival Report. The company was dissolved in 2001. During the period when the most incendiary items appeared—roughly 1989 to 1994—Rockwell and the prominent libertarian theorist Murray Rothbard championed an open strategy of exploiting racial and class resentment to build a coalition with populist “paleoconservatives,” producing a flurry of articles and manifestos whose racially charged talking points and vocabulary mirrored the controversial Paul newsletters recently unearthed by The New Republic. To this day Rockwell remains a friend and advisor to Paul—accompanying him to major media appearances; promoting his candidacy on the LewRockwell.com blog; publishing his books; and peddling an array of the avuncular Texas congressman’s recent writings and audio recordings.
Of course, now Paul’s Congressional Chief of Staff is coming out and saying it was indeed Rockwell who was responsible for the letters. Trying to fan the flames of racial bigotry is quite despicable, and while I leave open the possibility that Ron Paul is not himself a racist, I have no problem with judging the man by the company he keeps.
Bush Stimulus Plan
Bush is admitting the economy is in trouble, and will be laying out a stimulus plan:
Taxpayers could receive rebates of up to $800 for individuals and $1,600 for married couples under a White House plan. Although lawmakers were considering smaller rebate checks and more money for food stamp recipients and the unemployed, Bush told congressional leaders that he favors income tax rebates for people and tax breaks for business investment.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke entered the stimulus debate Thursday, endorsing the idea of putting money into the hands of those who would spend it quickly and boost the flagging economy.
I don’t think this is going to amount to much, but I won’t complain if Bush wants to cut me a check to send some of my money back to me. There’s only so much effect fiscal policy is going to have on the economy. To me this move is purely political, as it will make people feel better about the Administration, and Republicans in 2008. The Democrats will have to pass it, because if they oppose it, guess who the Republicans are going to blame for failing to pass the Presidents stimulus package? This move, I think, has a lot more to do with the 2008 elections than with the economy.
More Carry Nonsense in Pennsylvania
[I asked the] Sheriff why was my license to Cary denied? He stated someone came in two days before I applied on 11/16/07 and asked If I had a license to Cary. he said he looked in the computer and told them no there is no one in here by that name. He said he asked this person why he said this person told him he observed me with a gun in my waist band on my property. I said Yes Sheriff I do Cary my gun in a holster on my property and not in my waist band. I also stated that its not against the law To OC In PA he agreed. I then asked why was my permit being denied. He then said “I called the Clifford police as part of my investigation and they said yes they had a report of me walking around with my side arm. never once has the police been to my house never once have I been in trouble with the law! I said this is why you denied me he said yes he said it shows lack of character and thats the grounds hes denying me on. I told him I was going to appeal he then said I guess I was right in denying you then You are arguing with me. I said I’m stating facts and laws I’m not arguing with you and mean no disrespect. He said stay out of trouble and reapply in a year until then get yourself some pepper spray. WTF
I am so mad what can I do?
My advice is to retain an attorney and appeal the denial. Meanwhile, I’m going to continue to advocate for altering or abolishing § 6109 (e) (1) (i) “An individual whose character and reputation is such that the individual would be likely to act in a manner dangerous to public safety.” so that this discretion clause, that more than a few Sheriffs appear to not be able to use without abusing, doesn’t stop law abiding gun owners from getting licenses.
Besides, if you’re a sheriff, and you don’t like open carry, shouldn’t you want to give the guy a license to he can carry concealed.
Good News
Fred Thompson is surging ahead in South Carolina.  From the campaign:
Fred’s South Carolina surge is working!
Two new polls by Zogby and Rasmussen, conducted just this week, show support for Fred growing. Thousands of internal calls by the campaign show Fred’s strength increasing.
It’s Day 10 of Fred’s South Carolina bus tour, and Fred is on fire!
I certainly hope Fred can pull ahead. Â Winning South Carolina will be critical for his campaign.
I’ll Mention It
If they wanted to reduce gun deaths why not eliminate Drug Prohibition? The elephant in the closet.
It worked for alcohol prohibition.
I note it is never mentioned by pro gun folks either.
I’m pretty sure if you did a poll of gun bloggers you’d find most of them would admit that the War on Drugs is an abject failure and maybe we should rethink it. The problem is, there’s virtually no political support for this position. I think the reason for this is that parents envision drug decriminalization as making it easier to sell drugs to their kids, or making it more likely their kids will do drugs.
If decriminalization does happen, it won’t happen fast, and there probably won’t ever be political support for legalizing, say, heroin. But we do indeed pay a high price in terms of cost and liberty trying unsuccessfully to keep drugs out of this country, and our inner cities pay most of the cost of the violent black market that results from prohibition.
I actually do tend to use the drug war’s abject failures with people who argue that despite that, we can be successful at keeping guns out of the country.
Someone Needs to Get This to Rendell
Toll roads apparently divert traffic and increase accidents.
The researchers analyzed decades of data from the Ohio Turnpike and nearby alternate routes in Ohio, comparing both to national data to determine the effects the toll rates had on nearby free roads. Ohio raised toll rates in the 1990s and subsequently lowered them, allowing an easier calculation of the effect of different rate levels. The study showed that as the Turnpike toll increased, truck traffic increased on alternate, free routes as truckers balanced the monetary savings with the cost of the extra time needed to take an indirect route.
I doubt Rendell will care. The sections of Pennsylvania that I-80 goes through are the parts that didn’t vote for him. If their costs go up, so what? As long as everyone else can keep paying more for Philadelphia dysfunctional mass transit system, I’m sure that’s fine by him.
The Candidate on a Mission from God
Ahab explains why I don’t like Huckabee either, and can’t vote for him. If Fred can’t pull a South Carolina win, I will start taking another look at McCain. Not a perfect choice, but I can’t abide by this statement:
“I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution,†Huckabee told a Michigan audience on Monday. “But I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that’s what we need to do — to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view.â€
Thomas Jefferson would be rolling over in his grave. Christian political activists are beginning to become as big a force for reducing liberty as the left was in the 20th century, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult for people like to me to abide by being in coalition with them. I agree with Ian Argent in the comments, who said:
I do believe, though, that we are on the cusp of a major realignment of the political parties – with parts of each coalition bolting their current party for the opposition. But it may take the Baby Boomers becoming inactive in politics first. And while they are, look out…
I think so too, but I think this realignment is going to be dangerous to gun owners. People like me won’t be in a God and Guns coalition, but nor can I vote for elitist progressive weasels like this. I suspect a number of other gun owners are in the same position. Many of us are Christian, but we aren’t going to be happy with folks who want to monkey with the Republic because they think it doesn’t please God. It’s not meant to please God, it’s meant to preserve liberty and limit government power. It’s a good thing most of these people are OK with me keeping my guns, because if they get real power, I might need them.
Beware
Hillary is being all pussy cat with the gun issue, but beware:
And we need to enforce the laws that we have on the books. I would also work to reinstate the assault weapons ban. We now have, once again, police deaths going up around the country, and in large measure because bad guys now have assault weapons again. We stopped it for awhile. Now they’re back on the streets.
Of course that’s patently ridiculous to anyone who understands what the federal assault weapons law did and didn’t do, but she’s convinced that it worked, despite the fact that it banned nothing, and studies show it was useless. Obama has decided to stake his flag on the Tiahrt Amendment:
I don’t think that we can get that done. But what I do think we can do is to provide just some common-sense enforcement. One good example — this is consistently blocked — the efforts by law enforcement to obtain the information required to trace back guns that have been used in crimes to unscrupulous gun dealers.That’s not something that the NRA has allowed to get through Congress. And, as president, I intend to make it happen.
Of course, he’s completely full of shit too. Tiahrt doesn’t prevent law enforcement from tracing guns in criminal investigations. It never has. Breck Boy has stakes his flag pole on the assault weapons issue as well:
I don’t believe that means you need an AK-47 to hunt. And I think the assault weapons ban, which Hillary spoke about just a minute ago, as president of the United States I’ll do everything in my power to reinstate it. But I do think we need a president who understands the sportsmen, hunters who use their guns for lawful purposes have a right to have their Second Amendment rights looked after.
You don’t need any type of rifle to hunt, but Kalashnikovs get the job done effectively. Given that the AR-15 is the most popular sporting rifle in the United States today, I don’t think John Edwards, despite him being from “the rural South” has any understanding of sportsmen at all.
Nonetheless, this is a very defensive stance, and has to frustrate the Brady Campaign to no end. All candidates are willing to restore Brady’s recent lost ground, but that’s as far as they dare go. We are winning folks, and we have to defeat these clowns in 2008 in order to keep winning.