Politics – Page 369 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Georgia Could Gain a Seat or Two in House

It makes sense, since a lot of southern and western states are gaining population lost from the Northeast.Â Massachusetts is probably going to lose one congressional seat when the next census is taken.

Pennsylvania isn’t experiencing population loss, but we’re growing at about 1/4th the rate of the rest of the country, and, most importantly, the state is having difficulty keeping young people from leaving.Â In the long term, Pennsylvania will probably also begin to lose population, unless we can improve the business climate in the state.Â Our governor, who has never seen a tax he wouldn’t like to raise, certainly isn’t helping in this regard.

2008 Election Roundup

I agree that Congressman Paul got the shaft from Fox by not being invited to the debates.Â War on Guns is wondering why too.Â Drudge is reporting that Hillary may drop out of the race.Â That would leave the race a scrap between Breck Boy and Obama.

More on the New Jersey Issue

Armed and Safe doesn’t like the legislation either, but mentioned one thing I wanted to talk about:

The amendments also remove language specifying that the legal owner of a lost or stolen firearm who complied with the reporting requirements would not be civilly liable for any damages resulting from a crime.

Yep–the bill initially contained language that would protect the owner from liability stemming from his being the victim of a crime, but the legislators, in their infinite wisdom, removed that provision.

That’s actually a bit we wanted them to remove. Currently there is no tort that exists for a person being held responsible for the criminal misuse of property that was stolen from them. By removing liability on the part of a gun owner who reported a lost or stolen firearm, the legislature would have been implying a tort did exist for those gun owners who failed to report a lost of stolen firearm under this statue. Therefore a gun owner in violation could not have only been fined, but also could be sued by the victims.

Not too Late for New Jersey

The vote is today.Â Call your senators and ask them to oppose this legislation.

Losing in New Jersey

Looks like those bills are passing. Here’s how they think of honest gun owners in The Garden State:

Failing to report a loss or theft could result in fines of $500 for a first offense and $1,000 for all subsequent offenses.

Assemblyman Louis Manzo, D-Hudson, said the intent is to force straw purchasers to either risk large fines and exposure to lawsuits or report to law enforcement they’re losing handguns in bulk.

“Taken alone, as they would be for an honest firearms owner, the fines are not financially devastating. But for straw purchasers, who would have to report 10, 20 or even 50 guns at or near the same time, problems quickly start to arise,” Manzo said.

Yeah, I mean, it’s only a few thousand dollars for you honest gun owners who get a gun stolen but don’t know about New Jersey’s onerous reporting requirement. It’s not a big deal right? Not to mention the humiliation of being put through the ringer by the legal system. Louis Manzo can go to hell.

I do want to make a point that a lot of folks over in New Jersey, particularly Scott Bach of the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs, have worked very hard to try to defeat these bills. It’s worth pointing out that the bills that eventually passed are far less bad than they would have been had it not been for the efforts of ANJRPC. Why don’t you drop Scott a note and thank him for the effort he’s put into this. It’s New Jersey, so we won’t always win, but we have to fight there, and it helps those people who decide to stay and do that on our behalf to know their efforts are appreciated.

Interesting Tactic

According to Thirdpower, there was a march for Ron Paul inside World of Warcraft. He ponders:

I have to admit, that’s pretty inventive. Wonder if the various other politicos are going to try and start organizing cyberspace rallies now.

Inventive, yes. Effective? Probably not. What do you think a WoW player would rather do? Play World of Warcraft? Or go vote? His supporters are to be commended for their dedication, but if there’s one thing we’ve seen in this election and in past ones, buzz online doesn’t translate well into electoral success. Traditional campaign methods still rule the day.

Ron Paul’s Iowa Showing

The Ronulans predicted time and time again that Ron Paul was going to win Iowa, and win big; they were going to show us all that the Ron Paul revolution was huge, and would not be stopped.Â Well, it didn’t turn out that way, but I don’t think Paul supporters should feel disappointed.

I am not a casual observer of politics.Â Some people like hockey, some like baseball, others are football fans.Â My sport is politics, and I’ve followed it with an intense interest since I was a wee one.Â If there had been Senator trading cards, I probably would have collected them.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in years of observing politics, is that candidates like Ron Paul not only seldom win, but seldom draw more than a few percent of the vote.Â If someone had asked me a few months ago what I thought Paul would do in Iowa, I would have said 5%, tops.Â The actual number was 10%, which in my mind is incredible.Â I don’t think that’s so much a testament to Ron Paul, who I think is a quite imperfect vehicle for advancing liberty, as much as it is a testament to how awful and uninspiring party politics in this country has become.

I’m honestly not sure what’s driving the Ron Paul machine.Â I’d like to think it’s a love of liberty, but I think he’s become a vehicle for a lot of quite disparate people who have just become disillusioned and upset at the whole political process, and that allows a lot of different groups to attach themselves enthusiastically to his message, which is fundamentally anti-establishment, and about as far away form status-quo as you can get.

Ron Paul’s 10% should be a shot across the bow to both parties that people are fed up.Â Even the Democrat who won, Obama, ran as an agent of change.Â If Paul wasn’t such an imperfect vehicle, I would argue that this 10% could be the beginning of something larger, but I don’t think Paul has the political acumen to turn his strong showing in Iowa into a real political movement that’s going affect lasting change on the Republican Party.Â It’s a pity, because the end result is going to be the folks that pushed Huckabee over the top having all the political power, and liberty minded people having nowhere to turn.

Huckabee and Obama

Shoot me now!Â Please.Â The sadder part is that there are probably at least a dozen other permutations that would cause me to say the same thing.Â The only real hope in this whole sad affair is that Iowa often has a habit of not predicting the overall winner.

Iowa Called for Huckabee

All the major networks seem to have conceded that Mike Huckabee has won the Republican caucus in Iowa.Â All I have to say is this:

What the hell are they putting into the corn in Iowa?Â Are you people nuts?Â This guy is a big government nanny stater!

Hopefully other states have better sense.Â I really fear for the future of our country if Mike Huckabee is the best the Republicans can do.

Standard Weekly on Bulb Ban

Standard weekly is running an article on the light bulb ban passed out of Congress and signed into law by President Bush recently, that I talked bout here and here.