Coverage of the Situation In Georgia

The Belmont Club has been an excellent resource in the following the happenings.  Also be sure to read the comments.  It’s hard to see, if Putin and his puppet in the presidency are intent in extinguishing Democratic governments, how this shouldn’t reignite the cold war.  At some point, the governments of the west are going to have to stand up to Putin.  That’s going to be hard when Europe has become dependent on Russia for energy.

John Edwards to Attend Beijing Olympics

At the rate John Edwards has been digging, he’s sure to make it before the closing ceremonies.   Bitter points out why John Edwards doesn’t know when to just shut the hell up.  Over at Volokh, Jim Lindgren points out that Edwards says he was 99% telling the truth when he lied.  I expect next he’ll try to tell us that the reason he cheated was because his cancer ridden wife is just too sick to take care of his manly needs.

Considering what John Edwards has said about this whole affair, I would remove all kitchen knives and blunt objects from the Edwards’ house.  You have to figure, she doesn’t exactly have much to lose.  I don’t know if, at this point, to many people would blame her.

Concealed Carry Holder Defends Against Road Rage

Check out the story of this concealed carry permit holder:

A man driving a Porsche pulled in behind him and approached him carrying a baseball bat. The man was yelling about the student’s driving.

The student pulled a Glock 23 pistol from his glove box and got out of his car, the report stated.

The man with the bat put his hands up, returned to the Porsche and drove away.

The student called the sheriff’s office from his parents’ Hilton Head home. He was not charged in the incident.

No doubt this one won’t be showing up on the Brady blog.

Olympic Shooter Arrested

Tom King talks about one member of the United States National Shooting Team being arrested after attemping to transport a firearm in checked baggage as allowed by federal regulations.  Bloomberg apparently wants to host the Olympics at some point in the future.  Hopefully it New York does host, they won’t arrest all the shooting team competitors as they come into JFK.

How To Get Me To Donate

I will be happy to donate to Republican candidates if progressive political operatives are going to pull crap like this:

The warning letter is intended as a first step, alerting donors who might be considering giving to right-wing groups to a variety of potential dangers, including legal trouble, public exposure and watchdog groups digging through their lives.

Heh.  At least Mary McFate never tired to intimidate Brady supporters.  God help us if these people ever return to power.

TSA Exceeding Its Lawful Authority?

They are considering banning guns at airports entirely, despite what state law may say about the matter.  Since when did airports become federal installations?  I’m sorry to say, but if this passes, Philadelphia will, no doubt, exercise this authority, which means I won’t be able to go to the GBR III event, since it seems to indicate they can just ban them:

The Airports Council International said in a recent letter to Hartsfield, “There is no justification for permitting firearms at any airport.” Policies vary from state to state and from airport to airport. Some bar guns fully, others allow them, sometimes in areas such as a parking lot, said Charles Chambers, the council’s security chief.

Hartsfield spokesman Herschel Grangent said that someone firing a gun in the airport would force a massive evacuation that could disrupt flights nationwide. Hartsfield, with 89 million passengers in 2007, is the world’s busiest airport.

Just one more reason to avoid flying.  This is going to be a bitch on competitive shooters if TSA doesn’t make exceptions.  Does TSA even have the legal authority to do this?

UPDATE: Looking at the relevant US Code and Federal Regulations regarding airport security, it is my, admitedly non-professional opinion, that the banning firearms from airports entirely would require a change in the Code of Federal Regulations (which is subject to the rulemaking process), but because the US Code demands the screening of all passengers and property, essentially you’d have to make the entire airport a secured area, meaning banning them in the parking lots would be largely impossible.  The Aviation and Transportation Security Act doesn’t seem to grant TSA the power to regulate activity in the non-secured areas of airports.  They seem to be able to issue recommendations, so they could certainly recommend to the State of Georgia to ban guns in its airports, but in my reading, they can’t force the issue.