Thirdpower highlights an Illinois lobbyist, Brady Campaign volunteer, National Gun Victims Action Council board member, and spokesman for gun control issues who convinces the press that he’s not a formal activist. And what is it about those traditional media outlets that claim the benefit from the presence of editors?
Month: February 2012
Media Matters Has No Credibility on Guns
I was relatively amused yesterday when reports from readers started coming in that I had garnered the attention of the world-class hypocrites at Media Matters. It’s always difficult to decide how to respond to an organization, who’s one of the biggest boosters of gun control out there, but whose leader has been condoning one of his underlings illegally toting a Glock around Washington D.C to protect him from imagined enemies. But by waiting, I can at least report to you that Media Matters sent me  a grand total of 18 visits yesterday. So much for the power and reach of Brock’s merry band of discontents.
I would think that Media Matters, of any organization, would support Starbuck’s policy, since it’s pretty obvious that the vast right-wing conspiracy Brock needs to protect himself from doesn’t have any compunction about headed in for a Chai Latte and a scone while peaceably strapped. But I guess if you’re fine with breaking the gun laws of the District of Columbia, you’ll have someone nearby with a hog leg tied on, no matter the wishes of Starbucks on the topic of carry. The rules are for the little people, after all; people like you and me.
For the record, the Starbucks BUYcott was a resounding success. The gun control folks were utterly destroyed, and we captured the media stories about it. My call was a call for politeness; to keep buying, sending a note to corporate every once in a while, and telling Starbucks we appreciate them. But I wanted to let Starbucks go back to selling coffee without having folks trying to continuously drag them into their cause, and making their social media outlets into a battleground of pro v. anti. It’s a shame there’s no voice on the other side of this issue calling for restraint, since the same ten or so anti-gun fanatics have been continuously, and quite rudely, spamming Starbucks Facebook Wall with  all matter of hysterics unrelated to coffee. And unlike me, who never owned this event, and is just another voice in the wind, they could coordinate a stop to their haranguing if they wanted.
No matter though, it’s the weekend, and the shills don’t get paid to troll on the weekends. Perhaps Starbucks will catch a break after all.
Replicating the NRA Strategy
Bloomberg recently engaged in some yammering about how anti-gun folks need to replicate the strategy of the NRA. I agree with Jacob:
Good advice except for one, tiny problem: antigunners do not have a voting constituency.  The organizations which represent them are largely just front groups for professional politicians and activists which are funded by large foundations including Joyce and Tides.  They can’t turn out people to vote because they aren’t membership-based; they’re mostly astroturf.
That’s the beauty of it. They couldn’t replicate our success even if they wanted to. They cling bitterly to the notion that polling matters. It does not. If it did, Pennsylvania would have free market liquor right now. But the fact of the matter is, people don’t care enough about boozing it up free market style to actually turn it into a real political movement, and hold politicians accountable for results. Without passion, there can be no movement. We have passion, in large number. Their passionate folks are infinitesimally small in comparison.
More Media Coverage of the Starbucks Buycott
From the Christian Science Monitor on how we learned to stop worrying and love Starbucks:
A coalition of secular, religious, and gun-control groups backing the boycott claim to represent 14 million Americans. But the ability of gun control groups to influence the lawmaking process has waned in recent years, with gun-rights legislation outnumbering gun-control laws by a 3-to-1 margin, according to a recent Associated Press analysis.
I heard NGVAC’s leader, Elliot Fineman on CSNBC talking about how they did Monte Carlo analysis to determine their overall impact. For those of you unfamiliar with statistical methods, Monte Carlo if a random sampling technique most often used to achieve results in mathematical systems that are too complex to do by systematic calculation. I’d love to know how this method is applied to Mr. Fineman’s model, but doubt it will be forthcoming, since we probably have enough collective statistical knowledge among the blogger folk to find flaws. If I had to bet, I’d bet that Fineman is completely full of crap, and largely pulled the number of our his posterior.
Auto Union Opposes Scrapping the Canadian Gun Registry
Perhaps someone who knows more than I do about Canadian politics can help me understand why the Canadian auto workers union is getting involved in the fight to keep the long gun registry data and touting the importance of symbolic gun control.
New 2A Law Review Article
From Professor Glenn Reynolds, “Second Amendment Penumbras, Some Preliminary Observations.” I encourage folks to go download a copy, even if you don’t get around to reading it, because it helps boost the profile of the paper so others are encouraged to read it.
Pretty Much Sums up Mitt Romney
NYT Worries Philly Papers to Become Democratic Propaganda Tools
I had to laugh. According to the coverage of the potential sale of the two primary Philadelphia newspapers, the New York Times seems concerned that the papers will become nothing more than mouthpieces for the Democratic Party and union leaders. I would like to ask them how that is any different than it is today.
The NYT breaks down the coverage by the papers about their own sale. The CEO called his senior editors into a three hour meeting to demand editorial control over all stories regarding the potential sale of the papers. Of course, he denies it. (Well, he ultimately admitted it, but still tries to deny it.) Then one of the bloggers did a story about another group of buyers not lead by local Democratic leaders, and the paper deleted the post. Of course, they deny it. (Well, they ultimately admitted they deleted it, but still try to deny they meant to delete that post.) In other words, it’s deny, deny, deny until they are proven wrong, then it’s concede a little, but deny, deny, deny the fact that they have actually become shills for the local political party and its leaders who are trying to buy them.
Why would the NYT be concerned about two papers in another state becoming a formal propaganda tool for the Democratic Party? Well, it appears that the lead buyer, Governor Ed Rendell, has a history of getting a bit too “hand on” with the press.
Mr. Rendell has a complicated relationship with the media, which may have reached a low point in 1994 when he clamped his hand around the neck of Amy S. Rosenberg, an Inquirer reporter who was questioning him about potentially losing federal money for the homeless.
I kid you not when I say that his spokeswomen actually defends the action as a reflection of a guy who is “an extremely engaging, friendly person.” I don’t know too many women who consider the hands of man she doesn’t know wrapped around her neck as a friendly action.
Oh, it should be noted that Rendell has promised the CEO gets to keep his job if his group buys the paper. So clearly, the CEO has no personal financial interest in making sure Rendell gets favorable coverage. Deny, deny, deny.
Time to Give Starbucks a Break
I notice there’s still quite a lot of pictures of guns and coffee appearing on Starbucks’ Facebook page. I would like to note that Starbucks never asked for their brand to be associated with gun rights; all they want to do is sell coffee. Now that two days have passed since the end of the appreciation day, I’d like to ask everyone to support Starbucks by continuing to buy their coffee, and yummy baked goods. That is what I intend to do. For the purposes of really playing up the Buycott, I think we’ve gotten our message through. It’s time to let them go about hawking their product. By all means, let’s keep the gratitude pouring into corporate, and pouring into their coffers, but I think we ought to let Starbucks’ brand go back to just being about great coffee. That means not engaging in, what in a person-to-person analogy would be walking up to the barista, and continuing to stick pro-gun stickers all over her, and handing her guns. She didn’t ask for that. She just wants to serve you coffee.
UPDATE: I should note that, I don’t want to dissuade anyone from polite engagement with the anti-gunners bringing fourth their own hate on Starbuck’s page. But I would concentrate on shaming them for dragging coffee into politics, rather than trying to turn their FB into a battleground.
GOP in Virginia Backing off Most Pro-Gun Measures
While we’re certainly happy, in Virginia, to see the state’s gun rationing scheme disappear, the GOP controlled legislature is still killing a number of pro-gun bills. It would seem our opponents’ fear of a flood of pro-gun legislation are unfounded. The GOP controlled legislature has killed a measure to shield permit information from public view. I can understand why the GOP might not want to take up the issue of guns on campus this legislative session. I can even understand why, in the state where Liberty University spawns many members of the GOP establishment, they might want to avoid the Sunday hunting issue. But making permits private? I can’t imagine this will push the legislature over the edge into “just too pro gun” in the eyes of the public. The only folks who ought to make an issue out of this are a handful of antigun reporters. I’m aware that open government groups have taken a position here:
“This is not a Second Amendment issue, but it is about the public’s ability to monitor how government conducts the process,†Stanley said. “We would urge you to err on the side of keeping the public’s right to know with court records.â€Â Megan Rhyne of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government said the fact that the state has chosen to require licenses to carry concealed weapons means information about those licenses should be open.
I’m generally for complete transparency when it comes to government, but my chosen method of self-defense ought not be a public matter. The logical result of the obstinance of folks like Megan Rhyne and the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, is that we’ll push to eliminate the permit process altogether. Take your pick, because how I choose to defend myself being a matter of public record is not an option here.