A federal court in New Mexico rules in favor of a man suing police for a violation of his civil rights. Not a Second Amendment case, but still good news. It only takes a few of these for authorities to get the message.
Year: 2009
Useful Commentary on the Great Divide Among Our People
Joe has a very well done and in-depth post about the whole philosophical divide between the pragmatists and the hard liners. Â I am actually not terribly against the “line in the sand” as a political philosophy. Â After all, the Second Amendment is such a philosophy. Â And if it ever came to a serious destruction of our rights, the “deal with us, or you get to deal with them” might be able to help arrive at a political solution. Â What I am against is the current form of the hard line philosophy. Â Like Joe, I just don’t see any reason to make a public spectacle when we’re still winning more than we’re losing. Â That could change, and if it changes, my attitude toward hard liners might change with it.
“You Lie!”
I did not watch the President’s address. I didn’t feel the need to listen to the same version of a speech he’s been delivering since before the election. But as soon as I heard about Congressman Joe Wilson’s outburst, I cringed. I just knew that would come back to haunt him, and he obviously did as well given his near immediate apology.
However, the more I thought about it, the less upset I am about how the affair reflects on health care reform opponents. First, the comment was in reply to Obama’s statement that Republicans are lying. While that doesn’t make the breach of decorum appropriate, it does provide an important opportunity to refute Democratic talking points that the GOP otherwise may not have had.
On top of that, I think the style of the British Parliament is kinda awesome. Spirited debate with a bit of spice isn’t always a bad thing. It is not the process our Congress uses, and I understand that. But, seeing the jokes on Glenn’s site about a transition to that style did crack me up.
Ultimately, Wilson will pay a price for his outburst. Daily Kos and ActBlue mobilized to use it as an opportunity to raise more than $100,000 for his Democratic challenger over night. Some members of Congress are calling for formal punishments. His district is a fairly solid GOP area (PVI R+9). But between the negative attention that Wilson will attract to South Carolina, along with the fiasco that is Mark Sanford, hopefully the Republican voters don’t feel too beaten down by 2010.
Pretty Picture
I would refer to this picture as a moment of zen, but since it is a dying star, there’s probably very little zen-like about it.
Click to enlarge.
Patrick Murphy: Arrogant Bastard
For a second term Congressman, Patrick Murphy is one arrogant bastard. While he did win his last race handily and is a very successful fundraiser, the more stories of his absolute disrespect of residents come out, the less important money and past performance will be in future races. When it comes down to votes, constituents who actually show up to the polls don’t like this form of arrogance.
Take, for example, his refusal to do town hall meetings. He’ll claim he did have town hall meetings, but only because citizens crashed his private meetings and demanded he open the doors. He absolutely will not listen to residents with concerns, and there are numerous reports that he won’t answer questions. During a so-called town hall meeting, rather than talking to constituents, he decided to take time for an interview with a left-wing organization in DC where he explained that as a Congressman, it is his duty to explain to residents what is best for them. Funny that most citizens, regardless of political affiliation, would consider it your job to STFU and listen to them.
After being called on to host town halls, Murphy told the local media he would do it – on the day that many regional government health care opponents would be in DC. Except one new upstart group of citizen activists wasn’t too confident in that claim given his past performance. A few phone calls to the owners of the restaurants where the town halls were scheduled confirmed the suspicion. It turns out Patrick Murphy quickly canceled the town hall events.
As if that isn’t enough arrogance, he won’t even send staff in to do the dirty, lowly work of talking with the residents of his district. When the Thomas Jefferson Club organized their own health care forum when Murphy refused to host one in the district, they reached out to him with an invitation. Patrick Murphy decided a DC fundraiser was more important, but at least agreed to send a staffer to represent him. Except when more than 300 constituents turned out last night to hear from their Congressman’s staff member, they found he/she was a no-show.
To their credit, this new organization here in Bucks County really seems to be capitalizing on the discontent, and based on the events we have attended with organizers, it is clearly not an off-shoot of the local GOP. I don’t know if the GOP could turn out these kinds of results. 300+ to a health care town hall on a Tuesday night. More than 100 attended a general meeting in August, up from 50+ in July. This is the organization that developed out of the highly successful Bucks County Tea Party we attended in April. These folks are really taking it to the next level and turning the energy and passion into something useful. Perhaps if the GOP can find a quality candidate, we can show Patrick Murphy what arrogance in politics buys you – a one-way ticket home.
More on the Company that Cannot be Named
Freedom Group announced their new leader this morning. I find it absolutely fascinating that they are so desperate to disassociate themselves with the Cerberus name that in all the companies named in the release and all of the experience cited, Cerberus isn’t mentioned once. At this point, it’s almost a comedy to see how they go out of their way to avoid saying the name that cannot be said.
So, think we’ll see a new name on the NRA ballot in coming year?
More Mayor Updates
As updated on PAGunRights.com, there have been a few members dropping out of the Bloomberg coalition over recent days. Specifically, two mayors in Pennsylvania have removed themselves from the coalition and another member passed away in recent days. While it would have been nice to change the mind of the mayor of State College who recently passed due to complications from surgery, we can at least celebrate the opening of minds of the mayors of Ulysses and Summit Hill.
View Bloomberg’s Anti-Gun Mayors in Pennsylvania in a larger map
Non-Pennsylvania losses also include:
Mayor Jerry Taylor of Boynton, FL
Mayor Linda Riner-Mizell of Dundee, FL
Mayor Mark Hawke of Gardner, MA
Mayor A.J. Holloway of Biloxi, MS
Mayor Jim Bouley of Concord, NH (New Hampshire’s only mayor on the list!)
Mayor Dale Strasser of Brunswick, OH
Mayor Kathy Taylor of Tulsa, OK
Mayor Thomas M. Taylor of Franklin, WI
Mayor James Schmitt of Green Bay, WI
Mayor Dave Ross of Superior, WI
Utica Mayor Taking Heat
It looks like gun owners in Utica, New York are making some waves with the very anti-gun mayor.
Members of the National Rifle Association and the administration of Mayor David Roefaro verbally fired back and forth Wednesday, after an NRA mailer targeting the mayor showed up in some city mailboxes.
The mailer focused on the Roefaro’s involvement of “Mayors Against Illegal Guns,†which it said was founded and funded by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Unfortunately, the article reveals that he is standing firm with Bloomberg. It’s not completely a shock, and he was a surprising target given that he has been an outspoken critic of gun rights.
You’re Not William F. Buckley!
Truer words have never been said:
While it is certainly true that Buckley ousted the John Birch society from the conservative movement, it is also important to note that you’re not William F. Buckley. My point is that there is no single conservative leader today who has earned the respect and credibility required to take such bold action. This is especially true of young conservatives who are the future leaders. Still, it’s important to realize that of all the great conservative leaders and voices of his generation, only Buckley — and possibly Reagan — had the gravitas to have made such a pronouncement — and have it generally honored.
This kind of reflects on something I mentioned last night after watching Jon Henke on MSNBC. Â Matt Lewis goes on to say:
Lastly, I would argue that conservatives are, by nature, resistant to taking orders and following others blindly. Conservatives — especially those with libertarian instincts — are skeptical, rugged individualists who question authority. And bloggers — regardless of ideology — are notoriously difficult to manage (if they wanted to take orders and behave themselves, they would have become operatives or politicians). Bloggers are ornery and argumentative by nature, so it’s probably to be expected that many conservative bloggers would not fall in line easily. It’s essentially like herding cats.
That’s an understatement if I ever heard one, but that’s why we’re stuck using persuasion. I think even more than suffering from a lack of intellect, as Henke notes, the Republica Party also suffers from a lack of talented coalition builders, who can take all the various Republican interests and get them all moving in a similar enough direction that everyone is relatively happy.
Matt Lewis goes on to offer ways that this kind of problem can be mitigated so people can work together to accomplish things. Â It’s worth a read.
Confusing Headline of the Day
Manatee market for illegal guns booming. Â And here I thought they were just peaceful sea creatures, distantly related to the elephant. Â When they outlaw guns, only sea cows will have guns.