Politics – Page 57 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Justice Ginsberg and the Second Amendment

Justice Ginsberg still believes in the militia theory of the Second Amendment, but I think it’s goodÂ she doesn’t feel any pressure to retire while Barack Obama is President. She believes the next President will be a Democrat anyway. It’s a gamble for the Heller dissent. If Ginsburg retired during Obama’s Administration, there’d be a strong likelihood she’d be replaced by another justice who would like to overturn the Heller decision and redact the Second Amendment right out of the Bill of Rights.

But I don’t really blame Justice Ginsburg for wanting to hang on. For one thing, she might be right about a Democrat winning in 2016. Conventional wisdom for Democrats in DC is that the Republicans are finished, and they need not worry about losing the White House again. I think that’s wildly optimistic on their part, but it’s a common belief. The other reason I don’t blame her is I’m not sure I’d want to retire either. What would you do all day? I’d find things to amuse myself, sure, but I’d imagine Justice Ginsburg’s work is far more interesting than anything one would typically find for amusement in retirement.

Attn: West Virginia Gun Voters

As part of the government shutdown publicity tour, Democratic Senator Joe Manchin wants you to know that he’s even willing to answer his own office phone! If you’re a pro-gun voter who still isn’t happy with Sen. Manchin over his anti-gun bill earlier this year, this would be a great opportunity to possibly reach him directly and let him know how much you look forward to voting for the other guy or gal on the ballot.

It’s Not Just the Policies, It’s Your People

Reading a bit more about the situation in California that broke yesterday with a girl being ordered to take off her NRA t-shirt by a public school official, it appears that there are consistent issues of late with this particular school and its officials.

The first piece of evidence is the NRA shirt case, where the district now admits that the shirt never violated any policies at all. However, these are the same people who specifically wrote the policy to state that if anything a student wears is declared “divisive or offensive to a staff member,” then it is banned. In other words, expressing an opinion contrary to any staff member in the school on your t-shirt is banned for being divisive. Needless to say, that’s not remotely constitutional since it gives staff the power to ban political expression they consider divisive or anything they don’t like for personal reasons.

The same school, apparently under a different principal, but largely the same staff, had to apologize last year and undergo more training on policies when they endorsed “Seniores” and “SeÃ±oritas” events that encouraged the overwhelmingly white school kids to dress up to fit ethnic stereotypes. Some kids apparently opted to dress as gang members and pregnant chicks. Gee, who couldn’t see that kind of poor decision-making coming from a mile away? But the school district promised that more training and more policies would keep the school out of trouble.

While the two incidents seem pretty different, there is one common theme to both of them. Perhaps it’s time to admit that policies aren’t the only problem here. Perhaps it is time to admit that the people incapable of making reasonable decisions, even after they’ve been given all of these policies and all of this training, are the problem. In fact, I would say that the fact the new principal, appointed after the “Seniores” and “SeÃ±oritas” snafu made headlines, is the one defending the unconstitutional t-shirt policy, it really just goes to show that no one in the school really learned anything in all of their “training.”

Sadly, even if the school district leaders did admit that no amount of training will fix the situation, there’s not really much they would do to change it.

How’s That Shutdown Working For Ya?

Today the sun came up, the Internet still works, I was able to buy gas, and it would seem that a partial shutdown of the government has no effect on the properties of concrete and asphalt. I can keep this up as long as they want. I don’t get why people get so angry over stuff like this, as polls show the government shutdown is unpopular. Do you notice? I don’t. Apparently NICS is considered critical, so gun sales aren’t stopping. I guess Obama didn’t want to risk the default proceed.

Colorado’s MAIG Leader to Run for Senate Seat

In the district where voters just sent Sen. John Morse home for not only pulling gun control to the floor, but also complaining to the media that having his constituents call his office was toxic to the process of shoving legislation down their throats, the Democrats have a new candidate who, it would appear, may have similar views on how to treat those with whom he disagrees. Oh, and it is a man who was once employed by Bloomberg to push gun control – the other big argument against Morse’s continued tenure.

As the former head of MAIG in Colorado, a candidate for Sen. Morse’s old seat seemingly developed his views on religion and Hell around how he defines your political opposition to him. Based on a quote from an email that he admits to writing in the featured interview at the link, he declared that people who support private/charter schools or vouchers have “a special place in Hell…they deserve it.”

I wonder what level of Hell he believes is reserved for gun owners?

Crazy Like a Fox for 2016?

Jacob brings up an interesting question in regards to the 2016 election cycle:

I wonder if [Governor Cuomo] was set up, possibly by supporters ofÂ HillaryÂ and/or other Democrat interests who would benefit by his greatly diminished stature? Â I havenâ€™t seen anyone try and claim credit for knocking him down (yet.).

I’m not sure they are really playing that kind of 3 dimensional Chess, but the Clintons are well aware of what his issue is capable of. It does make you wonder if someone is thinking ahead. The Democrats don’t control that many states, and Governor’s mansions are usually one of the better stepping stones to the White House.Â O’Mally, Cuomo, Hickenlooper, and Malloy are all potentially strong rivals to Hillary in 2016, have all soiled themselves by voting for extreme gun control measures. Again, I’d be surprised, but the Clintons are very shrewd politically, and still have a lot of clout in the Democratic Party by being allied with a lot of big donors. This was probably a case of heads the Clintons win and tails the Clintons win.

UPDATE: And when you consider that the working class, blue collar Dems that Hillary was strong with and who also sent Giron packing in Colorado, it really does make you go “Hmmmm…” doesn’t it?

Meme Wars

I’ve seen this going around Facebook pretty virtually. This is a pretty good metaphor for how we argue politically these days: take the worst straits of jerks on the Internet and apply it to your political opponents as a whole.

Miss America Racism Meme

Maybe I just don’t run with any real “right-wingers” but I don’t know anyone who a) give a shit about the Miss America contest or b) gives a shit that it was won by a woman of Indian descent. The great thing about the Internet is that there are plenty of ignorant jerks on it, and the left have become expert at taking jerks and making those of us right-of-center own them. It’s an odious tactic, but it works. I think when new media first came out, the right owned it. I think the left owns social media. They are so much better at this stuff than the right, it’s not even funny.

My big fear with the direction of political discourse in this country is that we’re all increasingly viewing other people who don’t agree with us, that nebulous “other,” as a hapless caricature. It you really look at how this works, such that it takes off as a meme, it feeds on every caricature people on the left think about people on the right. Politics is increasingly becoming people shouting at each other in a cartoon world.

Bloomberg Eyes the West

Attention gun owners in Washington, Oregon, Nevada, New Mexico, and Minnesota: You’re likely the next targets for Bloomberg’s cash.

In Oregon, they want to target Sen. Betsy Johnson & will be trying to find Senate Republicans to break from the pack. If you live there, you need to get involved with these targets now. Don’t wait. Give them the incentive to hang up the phone when Bloomberg calls by being visible and involved right now.

For Minnesota, it sounds like they plan to hire more lobbyists to try and drown out constituents.

Nevada gun owners should make sure to step up for any lawmakers who stood against gun control, but might have had some tight races in recent years. Bloomberg is apparently going to fund some challengers. They also said they will get involved to try and keep Sen. Justin Jones if he faces recall.

In Washington, it looks like he’s going to focus on dropping money to turn out the vote on the ballot initiatives.

Their plans in New Mexico are even more vague, but it looks like they want to take aim at anyone who got in the way of gun control this session.

What Are You Doing With Your Newly Discovered Enthusiasm?

By the comments posted on this blog, I’m assuming most people are as thrilled as we are with the Colorado recall results. With the new enthusiasm, I’m curious to know how people are thinking they might turn that into action in their own backyards. If you have ideas for how you might step up your own local election activism in coming months, please post. It would be interesting to see what kinds of races you guys think are winnable.

For myself, I plan on contacting a local mayoral race after my mother & grandmother go home from their visit next week. Why the local mayoral race? Because it’s winnable with some extra energy and resources, and it’s in opposition to a MAIG mayor.

In fact, all Pennsylvania gun owners who have a little extra spring in their step today might want to look at the local races on the ballot this November to see if there’s a MAIG opposition candidate who could use a hand distributing literature or putting together yard signs.

Senator Says MAIG Should “Fold It Up”

I didn’t realize that one of last night’s losing lawmakers in Colorado actually argued that losing even one seat was sign enough that Mayors Against Illegal Guns should just wrap it up and go out of business. Alas, she did.

If you live in area with a tempting target for Mike Bloomberg, then this is a worthy quote to share with them from a lawmaker who was promised she would be taken care of by the billionaire. The billionaire didn’t deliver. Joe Biden called these lawmakers, and not even Obama could save them in blue districts in a blue state.

The original reporter who printed the bold remarks by Sen. Giron is already in spin mode. While he said in his original article that the Bloomberg was taking the issue as seriously as Giron framed it, today’s message is that gun control voters have better things to do, like attend back to school nights for their kids. The implication, I guess, is that gun owners don’t have kids who they love enough to be involved in their education.