Category Archives: Politics

Quote of the day–Ben Franklin

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God grant that not only the love of liberty but a thorough knowledge of the rights of man may pervade all the nations of the earth, so that a philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its surface and say: This is my country.


Ben Franklin
[Unfortunately just the opposite has happened. Anywhere I may set my foot on this planet is oppressed and there is no place that I can say I want to live with this system of government. Now that Cheerios are being considered a drug (and here) will the fields in which we raise the oats for them be treated like fields of opium poppies?–Joe]

Progress at the Federal level–amazing

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This afternoon I watched with fascination on my cell phone as I got Twitter updates from bitterb on the amendment to a Senate bill that would allow guns in National Parks. It was debated and passed 67-29.


Can it pass in the House? Will Obama veto it if it reaches his desk?


Last November I could not have imagined any pro-gun bill passing by a 2/3s majority in either house at the Federal level.

I have to laugh

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Socialism. It’s made of FAIL:



The state budget deficit has nearly doubled in the past two months, climbing past $15 billion, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger disclosed Monday.


The sober news comes a week before a May 19 statewide vote on a set of ballot budget-related measures that, if defeated, would push the deficit past $21 billion, Schwarzenegger warned in a letter to legislative leaders.


It was Socialism that brought about the collapse of the U.S.S.R. It will be socialism that brings about the collapse of the California government. And I’ll not be surprised if it brings down the U.S. government as well.


And as painful as it will be to most people I’ll still laugh because I’m not above saying “I told you so.” And I’ll have all the food, clean water, and the guns and ammo to defend it while the socialist “intellectuals” are unable to find a way to dispose of their own waste in a sanitary manner let alone find water or food fit for consumption. They can tell me, again, how important, how right, how justified they are in their cities as they cry themselves to sleep with an empty stomach, in their own filth, in the dark.

Quote of the day–Traction Control

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As the “Right Wing” is now being singled out by the Janet Nepolitano’s DHS as “extremists” and taxation is inevitably being prepared to bankrupt generations to come, perhaps we should realize that War has already been declared on American Values, Heritage, Birthright and Prosperity.


I say we prepare to designate households, then neighborhoods, towns, cities, counties, States, Regions and eventually the whole country as “Hell No” zones.  Starting with the refusal to pay ANY TAXES, and showing up en masse to prevent the lawyers from enforcing any individual seizure of private property in a self-proclaimed “Hell No“ zone.


Rolling back every law enacted since the Constitution was ratified would be a good start, too.


I hereby declare ALL Taxes are against my consent.  And pledge to defend any other household to declare itself a “Hell No” zone. 


Beginning with mine.


ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ!


Traction Control
May 2, 2009
Democracy Overrun in Pakistan. In the US? Hell No!
[I admit to getting a warm pleasant feeling from the thought. But most of my taxes are paid without my control via payroll deductions and as part of the purchase price as in sales and gas taxes. It will take people “unplugging from the grid” to even to begin to accomplish this on a wide scale. That doesn’t mean I might not support others that can establish a “Hell No” zone but I’m not sure how much that would help.–Joe]

Is that what you call it?

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From the New York Times:



Two weeks ago, Mr. Schumer, a prominent gun control advocate, invited Ms. Gillibrand to a news conference in Manhattan to unveil a gun control plan.


When it was her turn to speak, Ms. Gillibrand faced skepticism, given her past support for gun owners’ rights. “How much of this is political expediency?” one reporter asked.


Eventually, Mr. Schumer, stepped in, saying he, too, made adjustments when he went from a House seat to the Senate. “When you start representing a new area, you learn, you meet other people and you grow,” he explained.


Then the news conference came to an end and the two senators strolled off to lunch.


Would you call it “growth” if a defender of equal rights for blacks started praising George Wallace’s segregation policies? For Gillibrand to support a gun control plan and “stroll off to lunch” with Schumer is like a NAACP supporter going to lunch with David Duke. Gillibrand is just another politician without principles.

Platform of a bigot

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Keep in mind that laws aren’t written or enforced which punish inanimate objects or violent crime. Laws only punish people who possess those objects or commit those crimes. Hence what District Attorney candidate Richard M. Aborn says he plans to do is actually attack people who own guns–people exercising a specific enumerated right:




He has received endorsements from a former police commissioner, William J. Bratton, and from several elected officials, and on Monday, he released his first detailed policy paper, a five-point plan for combating gun violence in Manhattan.


The plan calls for a regional interdiction approach to gun trafficking; more gun buyback programs and a program in which parents could give the police permission to search homes for guns; a requirement that pistols sold in New York include micro-stamping technology; a five-year renewal process for handgun permits; and support for a national gun-control strategy.


What would be the public response if he announced his “five-point plan” for combating Jewish vermin in Manhattan? Or putting uppity blacks in their place? And what of the people that endorsed such a person? They would, and rightly so, have a tough time getting a job as a janitor in Manhattan. A job as an elected official? The only thing they could get elected to would be a prison cell by a jury.


But this isn’t the way things are supposed to be. This is New York and an article in the New York Times. Where such bigotry is the norm and bigots such as Aborn are not only tolerated but praised. Just like some deep south sheriff who roughs up blacks for entertainment on Saturday nights Aborn is praised and endorsed by many. He should be prosecuted under 18 USC 241 and/or 242.

It’s not paranoia if they really are out to get you

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Senator Crapo via Joe Durnbaugh on the Lewiston Pistol Club email list. Emphasis in the letter body is mine:



From: senator_crapo@crapo.senate.gov
Sent: Monday, April 27, 2009 2:37 PM
Subject: Correspondence from Senator Crapo


April 27, 2009



Mr. Joe Durnbaugh
Lewiston, Idaho 83501


Dear Joe:


Thank you for contacting me regarding your opposition to the Inter-American Convention Against Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and Other Related Materials (referred to by its Spanish acronym CIFTA). I agree with you and welcome the opportunity to respond.


On November 14, 1997, the Organization of American States (OAS) adopted the CIFTA treaty, which among other things, aimed to curtail the small arms trading of deadly weapons often used during the traffic of illegal drugs. Although President Clinton signed the CIFTA treaty, it received less than the requisite two-thirds majority vote in the U.S. Senate. As a result, it was never ratified.


As you may know, President Barack Obama is now urging its ratification in order to combat the Mexican drug cartel. The CIFTA treaty would ban any firearm that falls under a misleading classification of “illicit” manufacturing. For example, the treaty would make illegal the assimilation of a lawful firearm from a kit. Further, it would criminalize any modifications made to a firearm. Additionally, this treaty would prohibit pro-gun organizations. Most alarming is that a broad interpretation of this treaty would call for the extradition of U.S. gun dealers.


The Second Amendment reads: “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” I firmly believe this provision prohibits the federal government from denying citizens this right.
Let me reassure you that I do not support gun control. We must protect and preserve our constitutional right to bear arms. I will not support any legislation that requires a waiting period for the purchase of a firearm, bans the ownership of firearms, promotes or requires the rationing or taxation of firearms, or the taxation of ammunition.


As you may know, gun control advocates continue to seek creative methods of advancing their agenda, both through legislation and litigation. You may be assured that I will continue to oppose all efforts to weaken Second Amendment rights.


Again, thank you for contacting me. Please feel free to contact me in the future on this or other matters of interest to you. For more information about the issues before the U.S. Senate as well as news releases, photos, and other items of interest, please visit my Senate website, http://crapo.senate.gov.


Sincerely,     
   
Mike Crapo
United States Senator


MDC:js


If U.S. Senators are saying this does that mean I’m not really paranoid after all?

Bill Whittle vs. John Stewart; A Knockout in One Punch

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There are many recurring themes among the left.  Then there are mantras for every leftist, but one that gets passed around, modified, recycled and reused a lot is the “America is evil for having actually used the A-bomb” meme.  The jihadists have been using that one, as have socialist and communist governments around the world, for years.  At least someone agrees with John Stewart besides a few pimple-faced high school students watching Comedy Central on their parents’ TVs. 


Whittle does a wonderful job of refuting this blatant ignorance.  “Ooh! Ouch!”


Watch the whole thing.  Whittle didn’t even have to mention what the Japanese did in China.


I almost feel sorry for Stewart.  Almost, but then I have to think that surely he knew all this stuff beforehand, and was just playing out a shtick on his show.  That would be giving him the benefit of the doubt I suppose.  Maybe he really is that vacuous.


The left however will be clinging to this worn-out meme for generations to come, no matter how many times it’s proven wrong.  As they say; there’s sucker born every minute.

Quote of the day–Milton Friedman

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The problem of social organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm, capitalism is that kind of a system.


Milton Friedman
[The socialist would disagree of course. But that is because they always imagine that “good people” will be in government. But that kind of concentration of money and power inevitably attracts “the worst people” with the predictable results of Stalin, Castro, etc. with them and their cronies satisfying their greedy desires not to mention the substandard lifestyle of their subjects and all the torture and executions of their political enemies. As in most cases the socialists only see the possible good in their world view and not the costs.


Once I demanded that an admitted communist give me the measurement of “fair” that he used just so we could be clear on what he was talking about. He refused. It boiled down to “he knew it when he saw it”. Apparently he wanted to be the ultimate judge of “fairness” because what he thought was “fair” was completely different than mine. That is how they gain power. They say vague things that most people can agree with such as “fairness”, “justice”, etc. I think it is fair that I keep my results of my work but they think it is fair that I share half of my income with them.


Ask them how they measure “fairness” or “justice”, if they can’t express it in numbers then it’s just unsubstantiated opinion.–Joe]

We Get it, Already

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This is an open letter to all the talk show hosts, pundits, party hacks, cheaters, scumbags, sick twisted freaks (you know who you are) and pro-freedom bloggers.  We could spend the rest of our lives cataloging the outrageous behavior of nasty, America-hating, ignorant, self-loathing, cultist, freedom-hating, anti-human, leftist politicians including Progressive Republicans.  We know they’re bad, OK?  If there are three or four people who still don’t get it, that’s all right.


I’d rather try to figure out how we’re going to get some principled Americans nominated so we’re not always forced to choose between bad and worse– between more socialism slower, and more socialism faster.  This last national election was a real puker.  The Republican Party is, at the moment, just as lost, dumbfounded, selfish and clueless as ever.  They’re a herd of does, staring blankly into the headlights of an on-coming truck, and the worst part of it is; they don’t even suspect that they’re clueless.  They in the Republican leadership think they have some really clever answers, which amount to more of what got us into this mess.  I recently heard it described as rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.  That fits very well.  The Republicans have some really super great, super ultra smart ideas for rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.  No really, listen…  (all the while we have this simple, proven model for success, and it’s being ignored.)


We need to change that.  You need to change it.  I need to change it.  There isn’t anyone else.  I suppose, since it’s up to us, it will have to be on the local level for most of us, being as we’re not billionaires.  That’s OK.  We can still do what we can do.  A lot of people are jazzed up right now.  They just need somewhere to start.  Well, pick a place, a local issue or a local politician that needs a hand (or a very public spanking) and get to it!


That there are clueless people is not the issue.  There will always be the clueless.  They’ll sit on the sidelines, worrying about who likes them and who doesn’t, trying to figure out where the “center” is so they can position themselves in it and claim superiority for having done so, while someone else does the lifting.  Are you a sitter or a lifter?


I have a bad feeling that things could come to blows before this government is brought under control, and I really don’t want that to happen.  Do you?  This country is far too important in the grand scheme of things.


And with that; I don’t have much more to say on here, other than to repeat myself or talk about the weather and what I did last weekend, unless it’s to tell you what I’m doing on the local level to influence politics.  Now I think I have some calls to make.


(Note that I placed this in nearly every one of Joe’s categories. It’s relevant to everything we do and every opportunity we want for our kids in the future)

Homeland Security Assessment

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To be completely transparent about the Homeland Security Assessment titled “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment” which I first saw at Kevin’s place. I didn’t see what the big deal was about it. The left has been saying I was a threat to humanity since I purchased my first gun, a SKS, back in December ’93 right after President Clinton (and her husband) were elected. I live in Idaho, so of course I’m considered a sexist, racist, bigot who would get violent now that we have a president who is of (one quarter) African descent. Never mind I would have cheered until I was hoarse if were Condoleezza Rice who had been elected President.


The “assessment” looked perfectly reasonable to me. What’s the big deal? It’s politics as usual. I’ve read enough garbage DHS reports and draft reports and given feedback on reports that never made it to the public that I don’t have any illusions about their ability to think their way out of a paper bag let alone be able to connect with reality.


But some people figured it was a forged document. I looked at it and didn’t see anything which indicate forged to me. Sure, the best lie is one that you want to believe. But the left wants to believe that too. They could just be lying to themselves. [shrug] Whatever. It’s kind of amusing. The irony is a bit funny.


I haven’t been paying all that much attention to what people have been saying about it. I’ve been very busy working on domination of the galaxy and planning to make a couple thousand pounds of explosives and gathering up a couple hundred people with guns for next weekend. Why should I care about what DHS says? It doesn’t really apply to me doesn’t? Surely they couldn’t have been thinking of me when they wrote it.


I did get an email from CCRKBA on the topic which I think is worth sharing. The came out with a news release with a line that made me smile:



“It’s ironic,” Gottlieb concluded, “that President Obama’s friend, William Ayers, is a leftwing terrorist bomber, but nothing in this report suggests monitoring his activities.”

Crazy mixed up world

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The world is kinda messed up right now. Economic conditions are scary. We have a socialist government in D.C. that is apparently working toward the destruction of the capitalism and our freedom. It’s hard to understand what is really going on. Barb and I have spent a lot of time on the issues and this weekend she got me a card, “Just because it is so appropriate.”



The front.

The inside.

Idaho Sport Shooters Alliance makes progress

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The good guys made progress on two bills in Idaho. First H194, the Idaho Sport Shooting Activities Immunity Act is going to the governor for signature. And second, H287 (employer immunity for allowing parking lot gun storage) passed the House 50-19.


Yeah Mike!

Washington Ceasefire makes progress

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From their first blog posting since February 19th we find the anti-gun organization known as Washington Ceasefire crowing about the first progress they have made with the Washington State Legislature in decades:



Today the Washington State Senate passed the first piece of gun violence prevention legislation in over two decades by a vote of 39-1. The bill, HB 1498, which passed in the House unanimously last month, will bring WA state law into conformity with federal law by prohibiting firearm possession if an individual is involuntarily committed by a court for a period of up to 14 days. The new law will ensure that the approximately 4,000 Washington residents who are found by a court to be at risk of self-harm or to harm others will be unable to possess a firearm until they have successfully managed their condition.


Additionally, the legislation will reform the records reporting system to ensure that all individual records are flagged in the background check databases within three days of the commitment. Washington CeaseFire staff worked for the last two years to help bring the legislation to fruition. CeaseFire worked cooperatively with both sides of the aisle, the Seattle Mayor’s office and other groups to achieve the historic victory. The legislation was a led by a strong bi-partisan effort in the House spearheaded by Representative Ross Hunter (D-48).


The bill would not have succeeded without the support of our members – thank you for all of the contributions you make every day. Please thank your legislators – the ONLY legislator to vote against the bill is Senator Dale Brandland (R-42). This is truly an unprecedented victory for our fight to save lives.


Yes, I’m sure it was all their work for the last two years and the support of their members that made the difference. I can’t image that the pro-gun group Gun Owners Action League of WA (email, no mention on the website) that also supported it made any difference.

Quote of the day–Fitzroy

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False, dangerous, misguided . . . and justified. Liberalism in a nutshell.


Fitzroy
October 6, 2008
False But Justified
[Others, and rightly so, quoted this when it first came out. I’ve been saving it for “the proper occasion”. Today is that day. My next post will explain.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Ann Coulter

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I guess Mixon also raped that 12-year-old girl in “self-defense.” Clearly, the pimping industry has lost a good man. I wish I’d known him. I tip my green velvet fedora with the dollar signs all over it to him. Why do the good ones always die young? Pimps, I mean.


Ann Coulter
April 8, 2009
Let’s all surrender our weapons – you first!
[Like I said. Amazing snark.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Sean Flynn

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Jim: If Barney Frank could reach into my pocket he would take everything in my wallet and…
Sean: If Barney Frank could reach into your pocket that isn’t all he would grab.


Sean Flynn
March 26, 2009
During a conversation about economics and politics.
[I had lunch with Jim, Sean, and Steve yesterday. It was great. Jim and Sean, always fantastic with their wit and insight, were in top form.–Joe]

Central Committee in action

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Now that we are all socialists our legislators have dropped all pretenses of being something other than the Central Committee. Via reader Rob I discovered the Senate reviewing how college football picks No. 1.

Enumerated powers? What’s that?

Quote of the day–Clayton Cramer

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Abandon all hopes of utopia – there are people involved.


Clayton Cramer
http://thinkexist.com/quotes/clayton_cramer/
[Dystopia, on the other hand, is well within our grasp and I fear we are approaching it at warp speed.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Senator James Abourezk

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The bigger the appropriations bill, the shorter the debate.


Senator James Abourezk
[The Senator left office over 30 years ago but it appears to me his observation has withstood the test of time.–Joe]