Bitter – Page 93 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Obama is Addressing Important Middle Class Needs

There is nothing this nation needs more right now than the splashy new offerings from the official Fashion Designers for Obama campaign coalition group.

The 99% protesters who graduated college with tens of thousands of dollars in debt who can’t find jobs – they are absolutely looking to pick up the $55 tank top or the $95 silk scarf. The blue collar worker who got laid off in 2009 and still hasn’t found steady work can totally turn his life around with the Vera Wang campaign gear. And what single woman struggling to keep her job and balance the rising healthcare costs that are coming when her low-cost insurance is banned by Obamacare won’t see her life turned upside down with an $85 Diane von Furstenberg nylon totebag?

I’m not sure that tone deaf begins to adequately describe the campaign.

Blaming Guns

Three teens are dead in Philadelphia (17 homicides in the first 12 days of 2012), and Mayor Michael Nutter is making headlines for strong words against the parents. He ranted that late on a Tuesday night, kids should have been in bed, getting ready for bed, or doing homework. They shouldn’t be driving around looking for fights and other trouble. A little shocked by his rant? Well, you won’t be shocked to know that the next thing he blamed was the lack of gun laws. But, that’s not actually the problem with why the shooter was on the streets:

Meanwhile, Eyewitness News has learned the suspect in the shooting, Axel Barreto, has a lengthy criminal record, including at least seven arrests since 2000, mostly for drugs. But on Saint Patrickâ€™s Day 2004, court records show Barreto was arrested for illegally possessing a gun, but those weapons charges didnâ€™t stick. …

They found him in possession of marijuana but also with a gun, which was illegal because he was already a convicted felon according to Tasha Jamerson, a spokeswoman for District Attorney Seth Williams.

Barreto was charged with five gun-related crimes, including trying to scrape off the serial number on the gun, but the charges were dropped six months later. His defense attorney at the time, Anthony Stefanski, says the judge ruled that police illegally searched Barreto that day without cause, so prosecutors were left with no evidence and little choice but to drop the charges. (emphasis added)

This guy committed at least five gun-related crimes in one incident. That’s not an indication of too few laws on the books. The reason this guy is on the street isn’t because the charges were too light, it’s because the police didn’t follow the law. There’s no gun law that will help Philadelphia if they conduct illegal searches so that all of the evidence of the search has to be thrown out in court. Hell, even an outright ban on possession by any civilian under any circumstance wouldn’t have put this guy behind bars since they found the gun in an illegal search.

The Modern Day Temperance Movement Comparison for Gun Control Advocates

Sebastian has often cited the temperance movement as a model that many of the modern gun control proponents seem to be latching on to in an effort to restrict rights. Well, it looks like Bloomberg has decided to go down that path, too.

He plans to use grants from the Obamacare in order to push and agenda with a goal of “reducing alcohol retail outlet (e.g. bar, corner store) density.” He wants to ban advertisements for alcohol products and bars on the transit system, as well as retail settings such as stores and restaurants.

What is Responsible 911 Use?

Pardon this very off topic rant, but this is something that irritates me to know end.

I was reading up on the Washington state NRA license plate bill, when I noticed an ad sponsored by King County to remind citizens to use 911 responsibly. What does that even mean beyond the obvious stories of idiots?

I pose the question because I’ve had several questionable experiences with 911 over the course of my life, and I try to do the right thing.

One of the first times that I had problems with 911 was when I encountered a massive car fire on the Beltway in Virginia. I slowed down, but continued on to my exit which was very near the fire. I called 911. I had to call six times before I didn’t get a busy signal. When I didn’t get a busy signal, I was told to hold, had to wait through several messages, then I finally had it ring three more times before I got an operator. It’s a damn good thing I saw the people from the car on the side of the road watching their car go up in flames instead of actually trapped in the car. By this time, there were still no emergency vehicles on the scene. In theory, that was an emergency. In practice, the operator acted quite annoyed with the fact that I was reporting a massive vehicle fire on a major commuting route.

Another time, I called the regular operator after discovering I had been shorted change by a Delaware tollbooth worker just as I pulled away. I tried to get the number to the relevant agency, and was finally transferred. After insisting that I was clearly mistaken and was making outrageous charges against their top notch employees, they told me I needed to call 911. It was $10 that I will (giving the benefit of the doubt) assume was mistakenly not included with my change because I paid in an unexpectedly high denomination. I was irritated, but not ready to scream that it was a criminal emergency. They absolutely refused to take my report, and insisted this was a 911 matter. I called 911, apologized, and explained that I was told to call by a state agency even though it was not a life threatening emergency. They actually said that the agency was correct! What the heck? Why is 911 handling these sorts of complaints? So, I gave them the information, and they took it down. A couple of months later, I received a check for $10 from Delaware. I would have rather they kept the $10 and reconsidered appropriate use of emergency numbers.

Various other times, I’ve been told to call in order to report debris in the road and other things. I thought that was the purpose for non-emergency numbers to law enforcement and other related agencies. Apparently, I am mistaken.

So, I guess my question for King County and readers who work in this field, what exactly is responsible use of 911? When there are “flames shooting into the sky” emergencies, I’m treated like it’s burden to answer the phone, and when it’s not, I’m greeted with enthusiastic operators ready to chase down my $10 like there’s no tomorrow.

Arlen Specter Called Bitter by Philly Press

Arlen Specter has largely been quiet since he was sent packing back to Philadelphia by Democratic voters in 2010. While we can at least take some comfort that he’s not blaming it all on Bush as most of his new old party leaders tend to do, now that he is speaking out, he is blaming Obama for his loss. That’s right, it’s not the “party & ideological flip to save my job that I feel entitled to on the taxpayer’s dime” that rubbed Democrats the wrong way. It’s not the fact that his opponent, Joe Sestak, ran as a hardcore liberal in a state where those on the left felt threatened by a shift to the right on many other political fronts. It’s Obama’s fault.

Should President Obama dump Joe Biden as his running mate and replace him with Hillary Clinton?

Arlen Specter was asked that hot-potato question, circulating in some Democratic circles, in a meeting Tuesday with The Inquirer editorial board.

His answer showed that the former 30-year senator hasn’t lost his knack for blunt talk – nor, perhaps, his bitterness over what he feels were slights from Obama during his failed 2010 Senate campaign.

He suggested maybe Obama is the one who should be dumped.

“That’s the second best alternative,” he said of replacing Biden. “A better alternative is to make Hillary the [presidential] nominee. As long as we’re talking about dumping, let’s go to the core problem.”

He complains that Obama flew over Pennsylvania twice in 2010 without stopping to campaign with Specter. I’m just amazed at how Specter can’t see how many on the left would have only held that against Obama as playing politics as usual with a candidate who could not be trusted to carry the flag for the progressive agenda. In a state with closed primaries where only the party faithful can vote to select a candidate for the general election, Specter couldn’t find too many friends on either side of the aisle. It wasn’t because he was some kind of true moderate. Honestly, most people just didn’t think he could be trusted based on his own actions that would throw one party and ideology under the bus so quickly – twice in his career, I might add.

The New CeaseFirePA Motto: Rules Don’t Apply to Us!

I presume that the new mission of CeaseFirePA will emphasize that laws must be applied differently depending on your status as a favored class member. Why is it safe to assume that? Well, the background of the organization’s new board president gives us one clue:

He also worked with the group while serving as Chief Counsel to Pennsylvania state Senator LeAnna Washington (D., 4th).

Followers on Twitter might recall that Sebastian and I were passed by his boss on the Pennsylvania Turnpike this year as she drove her state car through lanes and around other vehicles going in excess of 85 mph. (During an open spot in traffic, I tried to keep up to her to verify her license plate, but gave up and slowed down to normal speeds when I hit 85 and wasn’t close to keeping up with her. It’s not an exaggeration, and we did verify it was her driving when she suddenly slowed to pull into the King of Prussia service plaza.) So, given that he works for a woman who considers laws to be for the little people, I’m so curious to see if this philosophy will become the new standard for the anti-gun organization.

As a bit of side humor to his elevation, he sees success on the horizon for the anti-gun agenda. His evidence is rather amusing.

He pointed specifically to the state Supreme Court’s decision that it would not hear the NRA’s challenge to a Pittsburgh ordinance that requires gun owners to report lost or stolen firearms to police within 24 hours of discovery. The court ruled that the organization does not have legal standing to dispute the ordinance.

Success, by his definition, is the fact that officials refuse to use the ordinance they are pushing in municipalities; the reason NRA has no standing is because the illegal local laws aren’t being used at all.

I’m happy to help him keep defining success down in order to claim victory. Perhaps their 2012 annual report could say that there was a 100% rate of refusal to issue licenses to carry to those Pennsylvanians who never bothered to apply. Maybe they will report NRA member activity has greatly decreased in the state over his predecessor’s tenure. (Without a near-record NRA convention in the state, that would be technically be true.)

Second Amendment Legacies

The Civil Rights Defense Fund posted a story on their Facebook page about the Next Generation RKBA Scholars Seminar, and the final sentence caught my attention.

The weekend event was one of the final things that the late Congressmen Harold Volkmer voted for as a Trustee of the NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund.

I pulled up our post on his passing last year, and I smiled when I saw a quote that his final days were spent reviewing a case for the CRDF.

I hate that we’re losing some of the leaders who have made such incredible contributions to the issue so that I grew up in a culture where I never realized gun rights were even seriously debated (it was rural Oklahoma), but I love that they have such dedication to ensure the Second Amendment scholarship keeps moving forward.

Tough Losses for NJ Gun Rights Supporters

There are times that gun rights supporters are prepared for the possibility of setbacks in a legislature, and that’s usually on Election Day. Unfortunately, New Jersey’s community has been hit twice since Election Day 2011 with losses that weren’t expected. Last night, Assembly Republican leader Alex DeCroce collapsed and passed away at the State House. The other loss was in November with the passing of Peter Biondi. Certainly, our thoughts are with the families of these two.

NRA PVF had both rated as A candidates in the last election, so this means that local Jersey gun owners will need to do what they can in any special elections to help us keep those seats in the hands of pro-gun folks.

On another note, it’s pretty appalling that the AP considers it noteworthy that Gov. Christie came back to the State House about an hour after the Assemblyman passed last night in loafers with no socks. They describe him as so upset that he broke down with other GOP leaders, having just lost a friend and mentor. Yet, they consider it important to note his lack of socks. Of all of the details to capture in the moment, this is what the Associated Press considers important.

Telling Our Own Stories

I attended the NRA Board of Directors meeting this weekend, and anyone interested in the general commentary can check my Twitter timeline. But there was at least one topic I thought worthy of a longer post.

Susan Howard of the Public Affairs Committee made an important point to the rest of the NRA Board of Directors when she gave her committee report on Saturday. She felt it was time for the board to tell their own stories about what they do and how they are involved with the movement to protect our rights. Susan reported that she talked to both Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox about some kind of page or site to really meet your NRA board of directors and get the information on what moves them to serve and stand up for the Second Amendment.

Personally, I say that it’s about damn time. Susan argued it was time to tell the stories that show we’re really the good guys. I think this is a good lesson we can apply more in the broader movement, too.

The anti-gun groups will try to say that if you care about the safety of your family, you’re just paranoid. We need to make sure that we counter with the fact we care about the safety of our families because we love them, and we will do what we must to protect their lives. The best way to counter it isn’t to argue with those groups. It’s to tell others who are undecided on the issue why we’re good folks who can be trusted to safely exercise our rights.

When it comes to the shooting sports, we can apply the same ideas. Anti-gunners will try to say shooters are just compensating for something else, but we know that recreational shooting is fun. The best way to counter it is to tell non-shooters why about what that great time at the range, along with an offer to get them out there to see for themselves. We’re the fun folks, and that’s our story to tell.

As much as we’ve mocked Meet the NRA before, this kind of project should really be CSGV’s worst nightmare. When our people start showing that they are normal folks who simply believe in the Constitution, want to defend their loved ones, and know how to safely have a great time at the range, it will be a perfect illustration to how out-of-touch the extremist anti-gun groups really are with average Americans.

Smarter Politicking

I see that Drudge is headlining with Rick Perry shooting news:

Ready, aim fire. Thatâ€™s apparently Texas Gov. Rick Perryâ€™s idea of relaxation before returning to the campaign trail this weekend.

Ahead of Saturday nightâ€™s ABC News-Yahoo-WMUR debate in New Hampshire Perry took a few moments to himself at an Austin-area shooting range.

I would suggest that smarter politicking would be to hit up a range in New Hampshire or South Carolina. Just sayin’. Maybe some Rick Perry supporters in those states would like to offer his campaign some local range recommendations. I wonder if the Brady Campaign will issue an update to their “We hate Rick” report with this news.