Politics – Page 67 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Jeff Flake Stays with Us

With media rumors going around that Jeff Flake was going to switch his vote and support gun control, he is speaking out on the issue:

It was reported by some media outlets today that I am changing my vote on Manchin-Toomey, and that I am somehow linking this vote to a vote on the internet sales tax.

Neither is true. I am not changing my vote on Manchin-Toomey (I voted against it). I voted against the internet sales tax as well. There is no connection between these two votes.

Arizona gun owners should definitely let his office know that they appreciate his stance. (h/t Great Satan, Inc.)

OFA Gun Control Petition Plans

CSGV must be absolutely giddy for tomorrow. They are on the short list of groups selected by the President’s organization to present OFA’s gun control petitions to the Senate & House along with MAIG & Protect Minnesota. This is almost relevancy!

I think it’s quite funny that OFA spent quite a bit of time on their conference call with supporters tonight highlighting how many pieces of paper they plan to print and how many cars they plan to fill with these dead trees to drive in their pollution-generating cars to Capitol Hill to be delivered to all of those Senators who voted against them. Yet, CNN highlights how it is all a silly PR stunt.

Rules prevent the boxes of paper from being delivered directly to lawmakers, so names will be sent digitally…

According to the call leaders, their target states are New Hampshire, Arizona, and Nevada. They also touted the 1.4 million button clicks for the online petition were “unprecedented,” but oddly enough, didn’t let their supporters know that NRA now has 5 million dues-paying-members.

OFA’s only meetings that they announced for tomorrow are with California Democrats – Nancy Pelosi and Mike Thompson. But, you know, bipartisanship. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want Republicans to take their calls, but I do think it makes their claims about being bipartisan just a tad false–a pretty common theme in tonight’s phone call.

OFA is claiming that Sen. Ayotte is a success story of their gun control push because she is supposedly being hit on the issue from both the left and the right. Do any New Hampshire readers have any evidence of the right attacking Ayotte for her gun control vote? I think that may be an outright lie. They also claim that Ayotte has changed her mind on the vote, which is not at all what I have seen.

In the greater scheme of things, their leading topic tonight was immigration. The other big topic was climate change. The first two questions were also about those issues. The single question on gun control was best paraphrased as, “Does all this organizing on gun control actually work or are we wasting our time?”

Backing Sen. Ayotte against Bloomberg

If you’re a New Hampshire gun owner, the last few weeks and even coming weeks have been a great time to write letters to the editor of local newspapers. It’s a huge help when locals stand up for their own lawmakers supporting their rights.

NRA has gone to air in at least one $25,000 ad buy on WMUR with this ad in defense of Ayotte:

But supplemental letters always help. There’s still time to make a thank you phone call to her offices, too.

Shame!

I am on OFA’s mailing list, and it’s amazing how much they enjoy scolding people for not supporting Obama’s agenda.

The first email I received yesterday reminded me that they would consider it to be a huge shame if I did not sign their petition. They said that yesterday, “The gun lobby is pretty happy with itself.” Yup, I have to admit that the many, many individual Americans who were at the NRA convention were happy that 86,228 members showed up to stand up for our rights.

Shortly after that email landed in my inbox, they sent another reminding me that I haven’t signed their petition yet.

I do find it interesting to see the kind of language that OFA supporters appear to respond to when it comes to action. As over-the-top as NRA can sometimes be in order to motivate some on our side of the issue, I can’t fathom that this style of language would encourage our base to act.

Another Illegal Mayor City

We have not had an arrest of the individual mayor, but I would classify this news as being under the responsibility of Mayor Linda Thompson, a MAIG mayor.

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged the City of Harrisburg, Pa., with securities fraud for its misleading public statements when its financial condition was deteriorating and financial information available to municipal bond investors was either incomplete or outdated.

An SEC investigation found that the misleading statements were made in the cityâ€™s budget report, annual and mid-year financial statements, and a State of the City address. This marks the first time that the SEC has charged a municipality for misleading statements made outside of its securities disclosure documents.

Rule by the Ignorant

Polls show that 38% of pro-lifers think highly of Planned Parenthood. Says Jim Geraghty:

I suppose we should be thankful that the public can still differentiate between Kermit Gosnell and Kermit the Frog.

That’s not all the news in the ignorance department, either. These people help choose our leaders. Unfortunately, this is what democracy looks like.

Sandy Hook Families Heading to Trenton

It looks like the anti-gun groups are flying in non-residents in order to campaign for Democrats in New Jersey.

Let me repeat that.

The anti-gun groups in New Jersey are resorting to flying in Newtown, CT families in order to participate in Democratic campaign meetings and to lobby for gun control. This is New Jersey, it’s amazing they have to fly in outsiders to promote Democrats and make the state more anti-gun.

Of course, local gun owners are also planning to visit the State House and remind lawmakers who they really represent. Let us hope that these lawmakers remember that these Connecticut residents don’t vote in New Jersey.

Gun Owners Continue Owning Guns & Won’t Help Gun Control Groups or Assist in Promoting Partisan Agenda

That absurdly long headline sums up the contents of this UPI article.

I kid you not, there’s an entire piece running documenting the complaint of a single “Democratic political consultant” who supports gun control about how gun rights groups aren’t helping her to pass her partisan agenda.

“We have to balance the right to bear arms with the right to be safe. A gun giveaway right now inflames emotions and does not help us achieve that goal.”

How is this considered news? Would it make headlines that I did not assist the Brady Campaign in their effort to ban guns that I shoot? Is it now a major news story that I am not offering my services to Mike Bloomberg’s MAIG coalition to keep people who have no criminal record from owning guns? I mean I don’t do these things every day. I didn’t realize that it was somehow newsworthy.

The Problem of Pennsylvania

This is why the gun control debate isn’t going away in Pennsylvania.

It’s kind of funny that we’re not currently facing any serious threats at the state level, yet Pennsylvania seems to be right on an edge of voting for major gun control supporters.

It doesn’t make me feel any better that some are speculating a MAIG mayor who raised tons of cash for a re-election effort that was abruptly cancelled may turn that into a super PAC fund.

Understatement of the Year

I linked to this article earlier, but I wanted to highlight a quote:

But the problem might be less with Obama and more with democracy itself. To be a citizen in a mass democracy is to live in a permanent state of politicalÂ frustration.Â There are so many people in the country with so many different views,Â and the institutions of a mass democracy are inevitably so clunky,Â that the political process isnâ€™t going to give you what you want very much of the time.

Like the people who founded this country, I’ve never been convinced that more democracy in government is always a good thing. The old saying that democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what’s for dinner is cliche, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Our system was supposed to be a Constitutional Republic, with some democratic features, but with enough restraints placed on government that we could govern a large, diverse country without constantly being at each other’s throats. Unfortunately, the more democracy you add to the mix, the more it seems like those restrains don’t matter.