Happy Birthday To Bitter

Yes, today is Bitter‘s birthday, and it’s driving her absolutely batty that I’ve been working on a nice birthday present for her (the kind that goes BANG!), and certain other bloggers know what she’s getting and she doesn’t. It’s going to have to be a little belated this year, as none of the local FFLs I know had one in stock, but Traction Control. That’s OK though, because she’s not really going to need it until spring.

Oh, also, yesterday was Aquarium Day.  For those that don’t get the reference, our first date was at the Baltimore Aquarium.

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Stifling Free Speech in The Garden State

Steve Lonegan, former Mayor of Bogota, New Jersey, and persistent thorn in the side of Governor Corzine, has just been handed a fantastic lawsuit opportunity under Title 42 USC Section 1983, and I do hope he takes the opportunity for the sake of anyone else exercising their constitutional rights in New Jersey.

Steve Lonegan, the former mayor of Bogota who is an outspoken critic of tax and immigration policies, was arrested Saturday afternoon outside a South Jersey high school while protesting Governor Corzine’s toll-hike plan.

Lonegan said in a telephone interview that he was handcuffed while handing out pamphlets a few minutes before the 2 p.m. start of Corzine’s town meeting in Cape May County. Corzine is holding the public events in each of the state’s 21 counties to try to sell his financial proposal.

Arrested outside a public event, on public property, and while peacefully demonstrating would seem to be to be a proper exercise of first amendment rights.

Paul Porreca, a retired Superior Court judge who served in Cape May County and is a member of Lonegan’s group, said he witnessed a verbal altercation between Lonegan, police and a school board administrator over the right of protesters to display placards outside the Middle Township High School. The unidentified administrator claimed the site was not public property and that school board policy prohibited protesting, Porreca said.

Police arrested Lonegan when he refused to get rid of his sign or clear off the property, Porreca said.

Porreca later said “I think it was outrageous. It was a clear abuse of our constitutional rights, our right to assembly, the people’s right to free speech. They were intimidated and, though they were not physically abused, certainly their sensibilities were abused.” I agree.

UPDATE: Not being a first amendment expert, I e-mailed Eugene Volokh to see if he knew whether the state has a case here.  He pointed me to U.S. v. Kokinda.  That case suggests it would depend on the nature of the property they were arrested on.  If it was a public sidewalk outside of the high school, that would be a traditional public forum, where they would be free to protest.  A sidewalk owned by the school, leading up to the school, would be a non-public forum, where the school district would be in its right to enforce a blanket prohibition on protesting.

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It’s McCain in South Carolina

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.

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This is More Like It

NRA has published a much better statement than their initial one in their latest Grassroots Alert:

Gun owners are understandably dismayed about the brief filed by the Department of Justice.

Although the DOJ brief was filed on the same day as “friend of the court” briefs supporting the District, it does not support DC’s position but rather its own unique point of view-a view with which the NRA still disagrees.

The District is asking the Supreme Court to reverse the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals and find that the Second Amendment does not protect a broad individual right. DOJ is supporting a different view-that the Second Amendment does protect an individual right, and that the case should go back to the lower court to apply a different standard of review. DOJ suggests applying a lower level of constitutional scrutiny than the Court of Appeals adopted. The NRA disagrees and believes the lower court’s ruling should be upheld.

NRA believes that the right to arms is a fundamental right; as with other fundamental rights, laws restricting that right deserve the highest level of scrutiny. The NRA and those seeking to overturn the gun ban believe that the scope of the Second Amendment is clear. Contrary to DOJ’s suggestion, this case is not about felons or machine guns. This case is about law-abiding people who want handguns and long guns for self-defense. The total ban on self-defense gun ownership in D.C. is so severe that it should be found unconstitutional under any level of scrutiny, and we will make that point in our “friend of the court” brief when it is filed next month.

Finally, while NRA strongly disagrees with many of the arguments in DOJ’s brief, there are a few areas of agreement. Notably, DOJ agrees that the Second Amendment protects an individual right, and that it applies to the District, even strongly hinting that under the lower “heightened scrutiny” it supports that D.C laws could be unconstitutional. This was not the position of the previous administration. In fact, Clinton administration Attorney General Janet Reno and Solicitor General Seth Waxman, along with other DOJ officials from the Clinton administration have filed their own brief in support of the District, arguing that there is no individual right at all to possess guns outside of government service.

DOJ also recognizes that the Second Amendment protects a right to self-defense, and that the right to arms was a pre-existing right protected, but not created, by the Constitution.
If you would like to express your opinion of this brief directly to DOJ, please call the Department’s Press Office at: (202) 514-2007.

Follow the link for some more background on the brief filers. This is a much better statement than the original one, and I am pleased that they had more to say on this.

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Huckabee on the First Amendment

From Marshall Manson:

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.”

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.”

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.

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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.

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UFO Sightings in Texas

Apparently dozens of towns in Texas reported a UFO sighting:

The reported sightings have become a catalyst on blogs and in chat rooms, triggering scientific and philosophical debates, religious inquiries, conspiracy charges and bad Texas jokes.

“It’s amazing how this has taken on an international profile,” said Kenneth Cherry, president of the Texas chapter of the Mutual UFO Network. “I’ve had calls from Japanese and British newspapers. I’m supposed to be doing ‘Larry King Live’ on Friday.”

All this thanks to reports of a strange, silent object over Stephenville, Texas, a town about 70 miles southwest of Ft. Worth.

No word yet on whether Jennifer W. Stein, PA CeaseFire Board Member and UFO researcher, was seen packing her car to head to the Lone Star State to investigate.

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The 5 Millionth 10/22

It can be yours on GunBroker.  Current price is at $6200.00.

The 5,000,000th Ruger 10-22 was presented to the 4-H Shooting Program by Ruger President Steve Sanetti to help raise support and awareness of this vital program that provides 300,000 youths shooting instruction and opportunity each year.  Following the presentation, the rifle was turned over to the Ruger Custom Shop for further enhancements, resulting in one of the finest 10-22’s ever made.

Go take a look.  It’s certainly the nicest looking 10/22 I’ve ever seen.

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