The following email exchanged occurred during the last few days:

-----Original Message-----
From: PainfulQuestions@XXX.com
Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2004 11:23 PM
To: Joe
Subject: Since you have experience with explosives...

would you like to take a closer look at the photos from the Pentagon security camera and help settle the dispute over whether the flash is from an explosive or from jet fuel?

Here is a video here that can help you understand why there is a controversy:

http://911sb.org/911CommissionReport.wmv

You can find that video, and more infor, here:

www.HugeQuestions.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Joe
Sent: Friday, December 03, 2004 7:43 AM
To: PainfulQuestions@XXX.com
Subject: RE: Since you have experience with explosives...

I looked at several of the presentations and I didn't see the security camera with a flash.  Could you give me a direct link to that image or video?

Thanks.

-joe-

-----Original Message-----
From: PainfulQuestions@XXX.com
Sent: Friday, December 03, 2004 10:38 AM
To: Joe
Subject: Re: Since you have experience with explosives...

Sorry, I assumed you knew about those security videos. They have been creating controversy around the world for years. This is why "French Fries" became "Freedom Fries".

In case you never saw this, the site in France that started this controversy is still available: http://www.asile.org/citoyens/numero13/pentagone/erreurs_en.htm

That web site scrolls left to right, not up and down.

The issue has since been looked into more deeply by people around the world. The security camera videos I refer to, along with an analysis of them, can be seen in the videos here:

http://reopen911.org/pictures_and_videos.htm

Look near the bottom of the page for:

         To download the free Internet Version
         of "Painful Deceptions" DVD click on
          the following links

Then watch those videos. Prepare yourself for the possibility that some of our government officials might be dishonest. Those videos should help you understand the anger towards the USA that you find in Europe.

That video is available in DVDs if you want higher quality, and for as low as $10 with shipping included at:
http://www.EricHufschmid.net/PainfulQuestionsBook.html

Jimmy Walter is also selling the DVD at 888-Investigate, along with books, in at attempt to cover some of his advertising costs.

Eric

-----Original Message-----
From: Joe 
Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2004 10:13 AM
To: PainfulQuestions@XXX.com
Subject: RE: Since you have experience with explosives...

I got a chance to review one of the videos that gave some pretty good shots of the Pentagon.  In terms of the fireball I don't see anything suspicious about it.  The fireballs that I produce are done with one to four gallons of gasoline and one to four pounds of explosives.  Take a look as some of these.  Go through them frame by frame and you will see the fireball does actually expand.  As long as the fuel supply is increasing the fireball with increase in size.  In the case of a plane smashing into a solid object it seems entirely reasonable to me that a fireball starts shortly after the exposed fuel ignites and then as the rest of the fuel is exposed as the tanks are flattened and ripped apart the fireball grows in size.  And consider that some of my fireballs are 30 to 40 feet across with only four gallons of gasoline.  With thousands of gallons of jet fuel much larger fireballs should be expected.  But depending on how it is dispersed and ignited the fireball could be almost any size from non-existent to several hundred feet across.  You will also see that the flame appears to be white hot and actually causes the video camera to adjust the exposure compensating for the brightness to the point that the surrounding landscape turns dark although it is during the middle of the day.

In the case of explosives, properly oxygen balanced explosive mixtures do not generate a fireball at all. There may be very short flash but not a fireball. TNT, by itself, produces a fireball because it has a shortage of oxygen.  Or in other words an excess of fuel.  As the fuel gets exposed to the air it will produce a fireball.  What is usually done is that another compound is added to achieve oxygen balance.  That is why "fuel oil" or diesel is added to ammonium nitrate.  During detonation the AN produces excess oxygen and by adding a fuel the oxygen can be used to increase the heat and hence the pressure of the detonation.  The increased heat also means the reaction is easier to initiate and it propagates easier.  The reason this is important is because I would expect any missile to have an efficient explosive and not have excess fuel to produce a fireball.  Hence if there is a fireball it would have to come from the target not the missile.  Since I doubt the Pentagon was struck in an office containing a tank of some sort of fuel I have to conclude it came from the object that struck it.  Hence, a plane containing fuel is an entirely plausible explanation for the fireball.

I can't explain everything in the video but many of the things are out of my area of expertise.  I can tell you why I would put the gravel on the lawn however.  Heavy trucks were going to be hauling debris away and new material in.  If the ground had any significant amount of moisture in it the repeated truck crossing would have softened soil and they would have gotten bogged down and stuck.

With the selected set of evidence presented in the videos I can see why people would have some questions.  But I don't see anything I consider conclusive evidence that anything other than a commercial jet struck the Pentagon.

Here are some specific fireball videos to demonstrate my points:

http://www.boomershoot.org/2003/SundayFireballDemo.wmv
http://www.boomershoot.org/2003/Kim.avi

Or for a fairly complete collection of my fireball videos see this page:

http://www.boomershoot.org/general/fireball.htm
If you have any other questions about this feel free to ask.

 

-joe-

I don't think he got the answer he expected.  And I doubt he will stop selling his DVDs and books.  But at least I didn't bolster his crackpot ideas (there were lots of unbiased eye witnesses that saw the plane slam into the Pentagon).

I keep seeing references to the problems with airport screening and decided it was time to finish my essay on airplane security.  I also added some material to the problems with existing security.  This was inspired by an article I had run across some time ago but never got around incorporating until now.  I now have an answer, but not really a solution, to the concerns over explosives being brought on board.  Read the essay if you are interested in that aspect.

To help get more notice of my thoughts on the subject I also posted a couple links in the comments section of Bruce Schneier's blog posting about airplane security.

200 pledge willingness to carry out suicide attacks against Americans, Israelis.

TEHRAN, Iran, (AP) - Some 200 masked young men and women gathered at a Tehran cemetery Thursday to pledge their willingness to carry out suicide bomb attacks against Americans in Iraq and Israelis.

The ceremony was organized by the Headquarters for Commemorating Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement, a shadowy group that has since June been seeking volunteers for attacks in Iraq and Israel.

A spokesman, Ali Mohammadi, described Thursday's group as the "first suicide commando unit," though another official has claimed members already have carried out attacks in Israel.

"Sooner or later we will bury all blasphemous occupiers of Islamic lands," Mohammadi said.

...

Thursday's ceremony included the unveiling of two-meter (6-foot) stone column commemorating a 1983 attack on U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon as "the biggest suicide bombing operation against global blasphemy."

Another article says this:

The group, which has no links to official organizations, in September also placed a symbolic gravestone at the cemetery for two Palestinian suicide bombers who carried out a twin bus bombing that killed 16 Israelis earlier this year.

...

The group said more than 25,000 "martyrdom seeking" volunteers have so far signed up and one of its members said the registration drive would continue.

Why do they want to kill us?  It's not because we took (actually we purchased it) their oil.  It's not because we attacked Iraq.  It's not because we support the existence of Israel.  It's because we engage in 'global blasphemy”.  If you or I blasphemy then we deserve to die.

Typically www.boomershoot.org gets about 10 hits a day from people doing searches (such as on google) for bomb building help.  Just before the 4th of July it jumped up to about 15 or 20 per day then it went back down.  So far this month (part way through the 3rd day!) it has had 76 hits.  The hits I took the time to lookup are coming from the US, the UK, Australia, and Israel.  The one from Israel I sent to the Israeli police.  I probably should do the same for some of the others but it's a fair amount of work to find the proper LEO contact and explain.  And at 25 or 30 a day I simply don't have enough time to do that.  I suppose I should try to automate part of the process.  I could build up a collection of LEO contacts in various countries and have a form letter to send out.  A simple application could watch the log file and send me an email that I just have to forward on with minor tweaks for exceptions that come up such as a geographical location that I don't have a LEO contact for yet.

On the other hand it's not illegal in this country to ask for information on building a bomb as long as you don't have the intent to acutally build a bomb.

Heavy sigh...

It's been an expensive experiment.  Very expensive.  What the anti-freedom people claimed would only cost $2 Million (Canadian) is now $2 Billion (Canadian).  Read the timeline here of the failing gun registration scheme.  It may even bring down the liberal government.  A snippet follows:

Jan. 7, 2004

Prime Minister Paul Martin says the gun registry is under review. "We are committed to gun control and we are committed to the registration of weapons, but at the same time, common sense dictates that there have been a number of problems," says Martin. "They will be looked at and dealt with."

Feb. 13, 2004

Documents obtained by Zone Libre of CBC's French news service suggest that the gun registry has cost $2 billion so far.

May 20, 2004

The Liberal government, just days before an expected election call, eliminates fees for registering and transferring firearms. Ottawa will also limit its spending on the gun registry to $25 million a year, spending which has averaged $33 million a year and reached as high as $48 million. Licensing of gun owners and firearms will continue.

The problems they speak of are, in a large part, due to the resistance of the gun owners.  Any American politicians considering gun registration in this country should keep in mind the U.S. has far more gun owners who will put up far more 'resistance' than the Canadians.

From the UK Telegraph:

"We are conducting random stop and search under current anti-terrorist legislation," began the constable, addressing me through my open side window. "Would you mind if we searched your vehicle? We're training these new community support officers."

Although a little worried about being late for my meeting, I agreed to the search. I unlocked the doors and they went through my car and its contents: my overnight bag, my washbag and glove box. Next, they gestured towards my briefcase. As I lifted the lid I pointed out to them a Victorinox Swiss multi-tool, contained in a small webbing case, and a small collapsible baton, contained in another piece of webbing.

It is perfectly legal to buy both of these items. The penknife I carry because I find it useful for many small everyday tasks - cutting through packaging, opening bottles. The baton I bought to keep at home for security reasons. I live in a rural part of Suffolk that, although relatively crime-free, is policed very sparsely. I often hear people outside the house at night and I feel more comfortable with the baton inside the front door. A week or so before, I had discovered my young daughters playing with it and had locked it in my briefcase for safekeeping.

The community support officers reacted immediately. They behaved as if they had never seen a penknife before, pulling out the bottle-opener, the corkscrew, the thing that gets stones out of horses' hooves. "This device has a locking blade," said the constable. My goodwill towards the police began to give way to alarm. I reached for my mobile to call the lawyers and explain that I was going to be late but the constable stopped me. "Turn that phone off," he said. "You're about to be arrested for possessing offensive weapons and carrying a bladed instrument in public. You'll be allowed one call when we get you to Charing Cross police station."

I asked the constable whether this was, in his opinion, a valuable use of police time and resources. This was when the policemen and the PCSOs started to become hostile. "You've committed an offence, mate, and you'd better get used to the fact that you're going down for six months," said one policeman.

There's more but the tone doesn't change much.  Tell me again.  Why are the politicians there still breathing after they started taking guns away from the people?  It seems to me the people in the UK are relearning the hard way some lessons from the 20th Century originally taught by schoolmasters Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Mao Tse-Tung and Pol Pot:

Lesson No. 1: If a bureaucrat, or a soldier sent by a bureaucrat, comes to knock down your door and take you someplace you don't want to go because of who you are or what you think-- kill him. If you can, kill the politician who sent them. You will likely die anyway, and you will be saving someone else the same fate. For it is a universal truth that the intended victims always far outnumber the tyrant's executioners. Any nation which practices this lesson will quickly run out of executioners and tyrants, or they will run out of it.

Lesson No. 2: If a bureaucrat, or a soldier sent by a bureaucrat, comes to knock down your door and confiscate your firearms-- kill him. The disarmament of law-abiding citizens is the required precursor to genocide.

Lesson No. 3: If a bureaucrat tells you that he must know if you have a firearm so he can put your name on a list for the common good, or wants to issue you an identity card so that you may be more easily identified-- tell him to go to hell. Registration of people and firearms is the required precursor to the tyranny which permits genocide. Bureaucrats cannot send soldiers to doors that aren't on their list.

Lesson No. 4: Believe actions, not words. Tyrants are consummate liars. Just because a tyrant is "democratically elected" doesn't mean that he believes in democracy. Reference Adolf Hitler, 1932. And just because a would-be tyrant mouths words of reverence to law and justice, or takes a solemn oath to uphold a constitution, doesn't mean he believes such concepts apply to him. Reference Bill Clinton, among others. The language of the lie is just another tool of killers. A sign saying "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Makes You Free) posted above an execution camp gate doesn't mean that anybody gets out of there alive, and a room labeled "Showers" doesn't necessarily make you clean. Bill Clinton notwithstanding, the meaning of "is" is plain when such perverted language gets you killed. While all tyrants are liars, it is true that not all political liars are would-be tyrants-- but they bear close watching. And keep your rifle handy.

In an article out of Scotland with the title of So what do you do when your home is burgled?  Is this incredible statement:

To this end it is perhaps important not to dwell on the situation involving Mr Martin because, regardless of the appeal procedure he successfully went through to secure his freedom, in many ways the law still points to his particular attack on the intruders who entered his home as a pre-meditated assault. He had previously been the victim of a number of burglaries within his home and as a result of this he was effectively prepared for further intrusion and reacted as such when his farmhouse was broken into again.

I'm aghast!  If you prepare for further intrusions into your home you are guilty of “pre-meditated assault”?  And what is it if you have your life insurance paid up and you get in a car accident and die?  Is it suicide?

So what is it you think this “expert” advises people to do if they are the vicitim of a “hot burglery”?  Get this.  He advises:

...the victim should adopt a state of active passivity.

I'm of the opinion that giving them the universal hand signal for “GO AWAY!” is more effective.

Free Muslims against Terrorism are asking all people to sign a petition.  This is very encouraging to me.  This does not mean we should let our guard down in the slightest.  It only means we may be getting some allies. The complete petition is below.  I found it via Jihad Watch:

Sign Petition to Punish Religious Leaders who Preach Violence and Justify Terrorism

November 30, 2004
Freemuslims.org

Sign Petition to Punish Religious Leaders who Preach Violence and Justify Terrorism

The Free Muslims Against Terrorism (Free Muslims) have partnered with progressive Arabs and Muslims to hold religious leaders accountable for justifying violence and encouraging terrorism.

The Free Muslims are petitioning the UN Security Council and the United States government to establish an international tribunal to prosecute religious leaders, including clerics who issue “fatwas” which are religious opinions, edicts, rulings and conclusions that incite violence and justify the use of terrorism. These religious leaders are especially dangerous because some of their followers consider their opinions to be gospel.

This petition is a follow up to the recently adopted UN Resolution 1566 that reads in part:

“…[A]ll members of the Security Council to consider and submit recommendations… on practical measures to be imposed upon, individuals … involved in or associated with terrorist activities…bringing them to justice through prosecution or extradition, freezing of their financial assets….”

It is crucial to hold these religious leaders accountable because most terrorists who kill in the name of Islam rely on the fatwas and conclusions of these religious leaders to convince themselves that they are going to heaven after their death.

The Following is an example of a Fatwa that encourages terrorism:

• Sheikh Yousif Al-Qardhawi issued a Fatwa permitting the killing of “fetuses” (unborn) Jews, because (according to him) when Jews are born and grown-up they will join the Israeli army. Furthermore, on September 3, 2004, (at the Egyptian Journalist Union) Al-Qardhawi issued a fatwa to kill all American civilians working in Iraq. And on July 3, 2004, he issued another fatwa permitting the killing of Muslim intellectuals as being apostates, claiming that Islam justifies the killing of such apostates.

These extremist clerics continue to issue fatwas that incite terrorism under the false umbrella of Islam. Join us in stopping these religious leaders by signing this petition requesting the U.N. to create an International Tribunal to prosecute them.

This petition has been organized by Dr. Jawad Hashim (Iraq’s former Minister of Planning), Lafif Lakhdar (A Tunisian Intellectual), and Dr. Shakir Al-Nabulsi (A Jordanian writer and author). The Free Muslims Against Terrorism has joined this effort and we seek 20,000 people to sign this petition. More than 3000 people have already signed.

All people are invited to sign this petition by sending your name, profession, country of residence and nationality to Jmhashim@hotmail.com and cc: President@freemuslims.org. Write “petition” in the subject line.

For more information Visit www.FreeMuslims.org

If anyone ever complains about the U.S. not fighting WW III by the rules of war remind them of all the weapons and fortifications found in Mosques.  Michelle Malkin has the most succinct posting on this topic I've seen so far:

BAGHDAD - A mosque raided by security forces in southern Baghdad contained a workshop to rig suicide car bombs, with seven vehicles ready for terror attacks, an Iraqi Defense Ministry official said Sunday.

Car bombings and remote-controlled roadside blasts have become routine in the Iraqi capital in recent weeks, including a blast Sunday that wounded two U.S. soldiers...National guard forces raided the Sunni Muslim Al Yassen Mosque in the southern Baghdad area of Abu Dshir on Saturday, said Gen. Saleh Sarhan of the Defense Ministry. In addition to seven cars rigged with explosives, the guardsmen found 30 rocket-propelled grenades, high-powered rifles, mortars and remote control detonators, Sarhan said.

Churches loose their special status once they are used by enemy combantants.  Converting them into a SCAD (Smoking Crater of Ash and Dust) is fine with me.  If it saves just one American life it will be worth it.

I got a call from Barb about 6:30 this morning.  Joy had just died.  Barb and her sisters had spent the night at the nursing home with their mother and were with her when she died.

See also Xenia's posting.

I picked up sister-in-law Susan at the Spokane airport today.  She started talking about politics, the war, etc. and I expressed my concerns about another attack on U.S. soil.  She wanted to know what she and her family could do to prepare for such an event.  Earlier today I had heard an advertisement on the radio from DHS.  I haven't really looked at it very close yet, but I'm sure the people behind http:/www.ready.gov have put more thought into how to prepare than I have.  I suggest that website as a good first effort at being prepared.  In my quick look through the site I didn't see any mention of a generator, firearms, or a geiger counter however.  I have all of those in my collection of materials for personal homeland security but those are somewhat expensive items and perhaps beyond the level of committment some people are comfortable making..

Kim du Toit has a rant up today about the TSA.  Lots of good comments too.  I've been working on and off for a while on a research/white paper on airport security.  It's almost done and I think it's time to start letting people take a look at it and give me some feedback.  My biggest concern at this point is how to deal with FREDS.  The conventionally armed hijacker is an annoyance but not a serious threat if we set up the proper environment.  Since this is reality we are taking about the laws of physics, chemistry, and economics must be obeyed.  Please read and if you have any ideas that I incorporate I'll be glad to give you credit.  Long term I hope to do a full blown research paper with government money and access to classified reports.  But I want to have some novel ideas that have a reasonable chance of being successful before I approach it from that direction.

Now... I'm off to the airport to pick up my sister-in-law Susan who wants to see her mother one last time before she dies.  At least I don't have to go through airport security to do that and can 'carry' for the entire trip there (Spokane) and back.

Columnist John Railey wrote an opinion piece asking for 'compromise' and 'common sense' in regards to gun control.  I responded with the following:

-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Huffman 
Sent: Sunday, November 28, 2004 2:13 PM
To: 'jrailey@wsjournal.com'
Subject: "Common sense" gun control.

Unfortunately, as near as I can tell, whenever and wherever governments have tried to restrict access to weapons of any type they do not succeed in making the average person any safer.  There are basically two ways to look at the problem. 

1) Compare geographically and politically similar areas during the same time frame which have different laws regarding weapons.  Examples would be Washington D.C. (handguns banned) versus nearby Virginia (both concealed and open carry of handguns is legal).
2) Compare the situation before and after a weapons law is passed.  Did the crime rate change for the better when the laws were more restrictive.  Examples include the "Assault Weapons Ban", the passage of laws against handguns in D.C. and laws making the concealed carry of weapons easier or more difficult.

Both methods come up empty if you are looking for successful (in terms of making the average person safer) gun control.  However there are numerous examples where gun control has enabled genocide (Germany, Soviet Union, China, Rwanda, etc.)

So the question is, "What is 'common sense' in regards to 'gun control'?"  The only answers I come up with are that gun control means being able to hit your target and the individual maintains complete control of their own guns.

Regards,

Joe Huffman
----
http://blog.joehuffman.org
http://www.boomershoot.org

We got a call from the nursing home where Barb's mom, Joy, lives today.  She is ill and fading fast.  They said it could be just hours or maybe days but the end is near.

We made all the phone calls and then went to be with her for several hours.  Barb and Xenia read to her and James stroked her head for a long time.  Her body is in such bad shape and her mind has slowly faded since she had the tumor removed and then all the strokes.  It's time for her to go but it's still hard on us.  Especially so soon after Karen died.  This has to be really really hard on Grace.  Grace is Karen's mother and Joy's sister.  She was here today visiting Joy and left before we got the news.  She will be back from the Tri-Cities tomorrow.

I've finished reading American Jihad by Steven Emerson except for the appendices which I am part way through.  The author appears to be a moderate in comparison to some people but still the facts he presents are compelling and very scary.  I've been reading Jihad Watch and Dhimmi Watch and doing research on my own as well.  We, non-Muslims and many Muslim moderates, are in a battle to the death against the extremists.  There are numerous Islamic scholars who advocate the complete extermination of all infidels:

Al-Qaeda has adopted a broader interpretation of the religious command concerning the killing of infidels. It is considered an absolute command that does not depend on political circumstances, the need or will to take revenge, or a wish to liberate Muslim lands from infidel rule. Saif al-Din al-Ansari, in an article in al-Qaeda's official periodical, presented the new, comprehensive concept of total extermination of Islam's enemies based on the Quranic verse: "And that He may purge those who believe and deprive the unbelievers of blessings" (Al-Imran, 142). According to al-Ansari, this is the way Allah deals with infidels, who are doomed throughout history to total extermination through various types of death, as was the fate of the people of Noah, Hod, Saleh, Lot, Midian, and Pharaoh. Al-Ansari asserted that the extermination of infidels is a permanent Islamic law and unchangeable fate for infidels that is as relevant today as it was in past generations. According to al-Ansari, "Just as the law of extermination was applied to the infidel forces among the nations in previous days and no one could escape it, so it will be applied to the infidel forces in our day and no one will escape it. Namely, similar to the fate of the Thamoud and 'Ad peoples [two pagan Arab peoples which, according to Islamic tradition, were exterminated due to their rejection of the words of the Prophet], so the American state, the Jewish state, and all other infidel countries will certainly be destroyed.

They don't just justify the killing of military and police but even pregnant women because the child could grow up to be a solider and attack a Muslim.  And it's beyond “justification”, it is a duty to do “good works”.  The killing of infidels is how many Muslims show their faith.

One might think that here in the middle of the U.S. this doesn't really affect us that much.  Sure, we got hit on 9/11, but that was a long time ago and it's really all about the mid-east and Israel.  But according to American Jihad because the U.S. has such a tolerance for speech, religion, and economics they operate with far greater freedom in our country than any other.  Their home countries have far less tolerance for them than we do.  The U.S. is now the worldwide leader in Islamic Jihad fundraising and “education“.  They raise millions of dollars in funds that go to Hamas, al- Qa'ida, Hizballah, and others that use the funds for weapons and operating expenses for their warriors.  They sometimes claim the money goes to widows and orphans and that is sometimes true.  The widows and orphans of the warriors that died in battle or were suicide bombers.  By taking care of the families of the warriors they enable more warriors to take up their cause.  Emerson reports that at least 80% of the Islamic “educational” and “charity” organizations in the U.S. have direct ties to extremist Islamic organizations.  They may have started out benign but they have been taken over by the extremists.

I have concluded we are now in the middle of World War III. It's not just the middle east.  It's not just about Isreal.  It's not because we are in Iraq.  This fight won't go away even if we were to give up Israel completely.  Even if we were to withdraw from foriegn soil completely they would still attack us.  Our culture is a corrupting influnence to their young and we must convert to Islam or die.  Other nations are also becoming aware of it.  Read about the Swedes, the Dutch, and the Germans.  And surely you know about Austrailia, Spain, Thailand, the Philippines, Russia, Sudan, and of course Israel.  Here is a map showing all the countries with recently confirmed Jihad activity

Red indicates Jihad activity

If they have made a mistake in their Jihad it is that they have attacked too many places at once.  There are roughly a billion Muslims world wide.  If only one percent want Jihad then that is still 10 million willing to kill and die for their beliefs.  It is is 10% then it is 100 million.  And whatever the number they are in our midst and they will strike on our soil again.

The berserk hunter incident in WI is a real tragedy but that doesn't justify the anti-freedom crowd going berserk.  Here is a snippet:

"Over the years, we have seen that these military-style, semi-automatic assault rifles are the guns of choice for cop-killers and mass murderers," said Jeri Bonavia, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort. "There is no good reason for hunting with a spray-fire gun, capable of `hosing down' a target area. Military-style guns, such as the SKS, do not belong on our streets or in our fields and woods."

“Semi-automatic assault rifle” is a contraction in terms.  All assault rifles are capable of fully automatic fire (even if only in burst mode).  I think what Bonavia meant was “assault weapon”.  However even that is questionable because the recently expired “assault weapon ban” did not cover the SKS.  By the definition used in Federal law it was not an assault weapon without some serious modification.  Furthermore it cannot be used to “spray-fire” (whatever that means) any more than any other semi-auto gun commonly used for hunting.

Their ignorance and hysteria would be fodder for a comedy routine if there weren't so many people that took them seriously..

20 minutes ago the AP reported that Rossi won by 42 votes even though the Secretary of State web page doesn't show the result yet.

The Drudge Report currently says “WASHINGTON GOV WINS BY 29 VOTES!“ but the link (as of this minute) shows results that differ by 1487 votes.  I wondered what was going on and realized that not all the counties have reported in and probably several hadn't when Drudge wrote his headline but he didn't realize it.  Currently gun owner hating Christine Gregorie is ahead by 1487 votes.  Kitsap county is the only county that hasn't reported in.  Kitsap will most likely give it to Rossi.  Yeah!!!!

How do I know this?  In the original count Rossi was up by 262 votes.  So far in the recount Gregorie has gained 1274 votes and Rossi has gained 1089 votes.  A difference of 185 votes.  Since the delta is only 185 more for Gregorie Kitsap County must have gone for Rossi before.  I'm predicting a Rossi victory by about 75 votes.

You heard it hear first folks.

(Hope I don't have “egg on my face” in a few hours).