Category Archives: Politics

Quote of the day–Dmitry Orlov

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So that’s what we have now. The ship is on the rocks, water is rising, and the captain is shouting “Full steam ahead! We are sailing to Afghanistan!” Do you listen to Ahab up on the bridge, or do you desert your post in the engine room and go help deploy the lifeboats? If you thought that the previous episode of uncontrolled debt expansion, globalized Ponzi schemes, and economic hollowing-out was silly, then I predict that you will find this next episode of feckless grasping at macroeconomic straws even sillier. Except that it won’t be funny: what is crashing now is our life support system: all the systems and institutions that are keeping us alive. And so I don’t recommend passively standing around and watching the show – unless you happen to have a death wish.


Dmitry Orlov
February 13, 2009
Social Collapse Best Practices
[I don’t know whether to believe we are really in a life or death situation but I suppose it is possible. What I am fairly confident of is that the current administration doesn’t have a clue as to what to do. They may think they have a clue but it’s all “hope and change” and almost zero knowledge.–Joe]

This is How the Problem Can be Solved

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Posit; We know our government is out of control.  We know the U.S. and many of the state constitutions are being willfully violated.  We know that more people need to be made aware of the scope of the problem.  What then?  What do we actually do about it?  I’ve been talking to you all here, I attended one of the “We Surround Them” meetings, plus I’ve talked with friends and acquaintances for years about it.  It’s not a partisan issue– it’s pandemic.  We tried the Republican Party.  We handed them both houses of Congress and the Whitehouse at the same time, but clearly they are not, and have not been, at all serious about reducing the size and scope of government and restoring lost liberties.


If we were to try the (barely) successful model of the 1770s, we’d be storming government offices right now, tarring and feathering politicians, etc.  I don’t think that’s necessary at this stage, however.  Not just yet.  We have tools that were not available to the American colonists.  We have the legal process at our immediate disposal on our own soil.  Here is one example;



Former State Sen. Vincent Fumo was convicted of all 137 counts against him today as his marathon federal corruption trial ended in a stunning victory for prosecutors.


We can talk to our neighbors, local business owners, law enforcement, legal scholars and prosecutors.  Nearly every locale in America has a target rich environment for criminal prosecutions of politicians who are blatantly over-stepping their authority, intimidating innocent people, and attempting to pass laws in violation of our constitution.  Cases and jurisdictions need to be carefully examined, but there are rich pickings all across America right now.


If there is an epidemic of such cases, some of those in office will start to get the point.  If they don’t get the point after that or if the courts fail in their duty, we’ll have to start buying tar.

Substance or Hypocritical Posturing? Which one works for you?

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The following started as my comment at Say Uncle, but I decided it needed its own post.  It’s in response to the now age-old maneuver of calling for more enforcement of existing anti-gun laws rather than passing more, and considering ourselves clever negotiators.  It doesn’t matter who said it recently.  It’s been said for many years;


“…should enforce existing laws rather than propose additional laws they said could infringe on Second Amendment rights.”


Additional laws “could” infringe?  What; existing laws couldn’t infringe on Second Amendment rights?  Not a single one of them?  Next time someone’s house is busted into, guns are confiscated and destroyed, lives are turned upside down over a technical violation when no one has harmed or threatened any other person, you’ll be perfectly OK with that?  It’d be great, so long as no one bothers you with more laws?  You thought Ruby Ridge was cool, and you want more of the same, so long as it’s convenient for you?  You want to keep innocent people in jail over paper-work errors, or over an inch of barrel length or a quarter inch of buttstock?  Would that make you a proud supporter of the second amendment or a sadistic and immoral jackass with anti American tendencies?  You decide.


Lets put this into perspective; “The Justice Department should enforce existing laws against negroes rather than propose additional laws that could infringe on Civil Rights.”


That sounds stupid as all hell, doesn’t it?  How many people would take that as a pro Civil Rights stance and call for more of it?  Yet we have been conditioned over the years to think that’s perfectly acceptable language when discussing second amendment rights.  Any politician says something stupid like that and we think, “Yeah, Baby!  You tell ’em!  That guy’s on OUR side, Man!”


Oh, how far we have fallen.


Would we sit idly by and accept a federal department of alcohol, tobacco, negroes and explosives (BATNE)?  Do you like the juxtaposition there?  Lovely, isn’t it?  Should anyone sit by and accept such a thing as an inevitability, and proudly claim that as a clever, politically “reasonable” stance?


If you reject the idea that gun restrictions equal crime control, and instead believe (as do I) that gun laws are not only counterproductive to their stated goals and an attack on liberty, but unconstitutional, you don’t call for more enforcement of them.  What would be the point in that, unless it’s an unprincipled attempt to appear “reasonable” to people who know nothing of the issue and nothing of the constitution’s history?  For that matter, what law enforcement officer who has taken an oath to the constitution could in good conscience enforce any gun laws against peaceable citizens?


Are we trying to appeal to the sensibilities of idiots at the expense of our credibility, at the expense of the constitution, at the expense of reason, at the expense of public harmony, and at the expense of liberty?  Yeah; that makes us look like geniuses.  Sure it does.  Or cowards.


It’s hypocritical.  It’s McCainian (to perhaps coin a new term).  It’s relying on ignorance for public support.  It’s what Republicans do when they listen to their super-smart advisors.


Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to clean my guns.  And to “fondle” them.  You know, ’cause I have a small penis or something.

Where the Founders Went Wrong

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In pre-revolutionary times, the British government (some say the King, but England has had a Parliament since after the civil war in the middle 1600s) was trying to control religion and the press.  The practice, in some form or another, was ancient by the time of the American Revolution, as we see the Bishop next to the king and queen on a chessboard.  When the U.S. was formed it was therefore fresh in the minds of the Founders that there should be some strict protection of both religious freedom and freedom of speech.


Why?  Why is it so important that government not be in control of religious practices or of the press?  It’s because as we all know, governments invariably grab more and more power for themselves at the expense of liberty.  What better way to help that process along than to control the thinking and the beliefs of the people, and what better way to control the thinking and beliefs of the people than to control religion and the press?


But there is something missing.  If you can’t have control of religion and the press, there is something just as powerful as a means of controlling the minds and beliefs of the people.


Education. (I’ll also include science, which would be seen as a sub set within education until we see the vast amounts of money poured into government research grants and the like)


It’s a pity the Britts weren’t trying to establish political and social indoctrination centers disguised as schools, circa 1770.  In that case our first amendment would have been slightly different;



Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or respecting the establishment of education, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.


As it is, your kids are being taught what to believe, not in a Church Of America and not by a U.S. version of Pravda, but in government schools.


(If the kingdoms of Medieval times had used education as it is being used today, maybe we’d see a “College President” or maybe a “Head of Education”, or perhaps a “Head of the Teachers’ Union” in the same line with the king and queen, the knights, and the rooks on a chessboard)

Democrats–the party of gun control

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Alan Gottlieb via CCRKBA says:



“Once again,” he said, “Democrats are revealing themselves as the party of restrictive gun control. If the citizens of Washington, D.C. have a right to full congressional representation, they also have a right to own the firearm of their choice. For Democrats to argue that one right is more important than another – especially after last year’s Supreme Court ruling on the Second Amendment – they are engaging in world-class hypocrisy.”


…

“Democrats argue that the right to representation is not related to the right to keep and bear arms,” Gottlieb said, “but that’s nonsense. This country was born because our founders were being taxed without representation, and because British troops tried to disarm the citizens. Those issues are just as equal today as they were 230 years ago, and Democrats on Capitol Hill need to understand that.”


I keep wondering how close we are to the taxes and disarmament thresholds of another country being born. The Democrats may also be the party that creates a revolution.

A sign of the times?

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Via my Sitemeter I discover that the city of Virginia Beach is looking for a minority supplier of ammunition:




























































































Domain Name   vbgov.com ? (Commercial)
IP Address   198.252.245.# (City of Virginia Beach, Virginia)
ISP   City of Virginia Beach, Virginia
Location  

























Continent  :  North America
Country  :  United States  (Facts)
State  :  Virginia
City  :  Virginia Beach
Lat/Long  :  36.8061, -76.0612 (Map)
Distance  :  2,189 miles
Language   English (U.S.)
en-us
Operating System   Microsoft WinXP
Browser   Internet Explorer 6.0
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; InfoPath.1; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648; MS-RTC LM 8)
Javascript   version 1.3
Monitor  









Resolution  :  1280 x 1024
Color Depth  :  32 bits
Time of Visit   Mar 4 2009 6:31:55 am
Last Page View   Mar 4 2009 6:31:55 am
Visit Length   0 seconds
Page Views   1
Referring URL http://search.msn.co…minority%20suppliers
Search Engine search.msn.com
Search Words ammunition minority suppliers
Visit Entry Page   http://blog.joehuffm…unitionSupplier.aspx
Visit Exit Page   http://blog.joehuffm…unitionSupplier.aspx
Out Click    
Time Zone   UTC-5:00
Visitor’s Time   Mar 4 2009 9:31:55 am
Visit Number   451,178

Quote of the day–Milton Friedman

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There’s no such thing as a free lunch.


Milton Friedman
[One would think that those people who advocated for the “stimulus package” would have heard of this bit of wisdom before. Some will say overlooking Friedman can be blamed on deficiencies in our public school system. Others will claim many of those pushing the stimulus package know exactly what they are doing — creating a socialist America. I think it is likely they are both correct in their claims.–Joe]

D.C. now wants statehood

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Because the Senate told them they are going to have to abide by the Second Amendment the D.C. City Council now wants the district to become a state. Do they think that will change things? Just because Alabama and Mississippi are states doesn’t mean they can disregard the 13th Amendment.

Uplifting

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“That was uplifting.” That was what Barb said after I read this to her:



President Barack Obama has set his course for battle with America’s powerful interest groups over his ambitious, some say radical, spending blueprint that aims to remodel American society.


Even as he has rammed through emergency economic spending that easily could top $1 trillion, Obama has asked Congress to adopt a budget that is ripe with programs to improve the lot of lower- and middle-income Americans at the expense of the wealthy and the farming and industrial complexes under their control.


…


On the budget plan Obama presented on Thursday, the president said it would help millions of people but only if Congress overcomes stiff resistance from well-financed lobbies.


“I know these steps won’t sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they’re gearing up for a fight,” Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and video address. “My message to them is this: So am I.”


Under the president’s proposal, America’s wealthiest 5 percent would pay a whopping $1 trillion in higher taxes over the next decade, while most others would get tax cuts. Industries would buy and trade permits to emit heat-trapping gases. Higher-income older people would pay more for government health insurance benefits. Drug companies would receive smaller profits from the government. Banks would play a much smaller role in student loans.


We are living in interesting times.


Sleep well and have a nice day.

Mike is making progress

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Mike Brown is the Idaho Sport Shooting Alliance lobbyist in Boise and he announced, as did the Apex of The Triangle of Death (info on the Triangle of Death), the good guys advanced another few yards in the battle for gun owner rights.


If that passes and is signed by the Governor it will ease some of my Boomershoot worries.

Quote of the day–Joseph Scheidler

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I think contraception is disgusting — people using each other for pleasure.


Joseph Scheidler
Director, Pro-Life Action League
August 11, 1985
Chicago Tribune,
[See also other “interesting” quotes that give credence to The Handmaid’s Tale view of politics.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Trica Nixon

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You can’t underestimate the power of fear.


Trica Nixon
[I was inspired to post this one after reading Jeff’s post and this line in particular, “If hoplophobe describes a fear of guns, what’s the Latin word for fear of pro-gun voters?”–Joe]

Just backward

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How would you deal with someone that got everything exactly backward? When they want the car to stop they step on the accelerator and when they want to go they step on the brake. Instead of washing their hands before meals they soil them in the most foul manner possible. They put water on the campfire that is keeping them warm and they put gasoline on the Christmas tree fire in their living room.


I would have to conclude they are insane. And unless there are some sort of drugs or therapy available for their condition they should be locked up for the protection of themselves and others.


But that’s doesn’t appear to be an option in this case where the political leaders of D.C. are demanding Congress commit an unconstitutional law and object to the a law that brings them in line with the constitution on another matter:



D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and D.C. Council members disagree with that conclusion. They furiously protested the firearms amendment.


“The District of Columbia leadership is fully united in its opposition to unwarranted amendments that would dramatically damage the District’s carefully revised gun law and expose the District to great harm through the undoing of its laws,” D.C. Council President Vincent C. Gray and Council Member Phil Mendelson, chairman of the council’s public-safety commission, said in a letter to Congress released yesterday.


In a statement after the Senate’s vote, Ilir Zherka, executive director of D.C. Vote, a lobbying group, said the city has passed a “significant hurdle in our fight for full democracy for DC residents.”


But he added of the gun amendment: “If anything, this amendment has strengthened our resolve to continue to fight for the rights of Washingtonians. Congress repeatedly treats the District as a testing ground for flawed, dangerous legislation. This has to stop – and we’ll keep fighting to ensure that the bill signed into law is not tainted by this amendment.”

Questions for Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal?

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Earlier this month I asked if anyone had questions for Patrick Leahy when he came to speak to people at Microsoft. I then live blogged about his appearance.


Early next month Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal will be speaking to a group I plan to be a part of.


Any questions you want asked? This is assuming I’m aggressive enough to get my question(s) presented.


Background on Governor Jindal:



  • Bobby Jindal was sworn in as Governor of Louisiana on January 14, 2008.
  • He was elected Governor of Louisiana on October 20, 2007, with 54 percent of the vote in the primary, winning 60 of 64 parishes. Shortly after taking office, Governor Jindal called a Special Session to address comprehensive ethics reform, the cornerstone of his election platform. Since the conclusion of the session, the Better Government Association and the Center for Public Integrity announced that Louisiana’s new ethics laws are among the best in the nation.
  • Additionally, the Governor’s second Special Session eliminated burdensome taxes that deterred investment in Louisiana and limited the growth of existing Louisiana businesses.
  • Governor Jindal has put forth detailed plans for reforming our state’s health care, education, and transportation systems, as well as for encouraging workforce development and continuing recovery efforts in areas devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, as well as Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.
  • Governor Jindal led the historic response to Hurricane Gustav by successfully moving 1.9 million people out of harms’ way, the largest evacuation of citizens in the history of the United States, including the largest medical evacuation in history moving more than 10,400 people from hospitals, nursing homes, and other medical facilities out of the path of the storm.
  • Governor Jindal has worked tirelessly to eliminate the bureaucratic red-tape that has slowed the recovery process in the past, allowing recovery from Hurricanes Gustav and Ike to progress quickly. Louisiana’s oil and gas, agriculture, fisheries, and transportation industries were all affected by the storms and Governor Jindal continues to work with local, state, and federal entities to ensure that all individuals and industries affected are provided with the necessary assistance.
  • Jindal was born in Baton Rouge on June 10, 1971. He graduated from Baton Rouge High School in 1988 and went on to attend Brown University where he graduated with honors in biology and public policy. Following his graduation from Brown he attended Oxford University in England as a Rhodes Scholar, having turned down admissions to medical and law schools at both Harvard and Yale.
  • In 1994, Jindal went to work for McKinsey and Company as a consultant for Fortune 500 companies before entering public service. In 1996, he was appointed Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH). There were many issues that needed resolving during his tenure, not the least of which was the growing deficit in Louisiana’s Medicaid program. During Jindal’s tenure as DHH Secretary, he rescued Louisiana’s Medicaid program from bankruptcy, childhood immunizations increased, Louisiana ranked third best nationally in health care screenings for children, and new and expanded services for elderly and disabled persons were offered.
  • In 1998, Jindal was appointed Executive Director of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare. As Executive Director, he was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Commission, whose work continue to be the driving force behind much of the ongoing debate on how to strengthen and improve Medicare.
  • At the conclusion of the Commission’s work, Jindal was appointed President of the University of Louisiana System, the 16th largest higher education system in the country. While serving as President, Jindal worked to establish areas of excellence at each individual institution. President George W. Bush appointed Jindal to serve as Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2001. In that position, he served as the principal policy advisor to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. He later resigned from the position in 2003 to return to Louisiana and run for elected office for the first time. In that race, Jindal went from being a relatively unknown candidate for Governor, to receiving the most votes in the primary election and eventually 48 percent of the vote in runoff.
  • In 2004 he was elected to the 109th United States Congress representing the First District of Louisiana. In Congress he was elected Freshman Class President and served on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, the House Committee on Homeland Security, and the House Committee on Resources. Bobby also served as Assistant Majority Whip. In his first term he passed a number of notable pieces of legislation and played an instrumental role in Louisiana’s recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. His noteworthy accomplishments include the passage of legislation to bring significant offshore energy revenues to Louisiana for the first time and legislation that keeps Federal Emergency Management Agency from taxing certain recovery grants as income.
  • Jindal was re-elected to Congress in 2006 with 88 percent of the vote majority.
  • Jindal and his wife Supriya have three young children.

See also Say Uncle’s comments about him as well as Tam’s.


Update: After thinking about it while I was taking a shower if I were fairly certain he would get the reference to both books I would be inclined to ask Tam’s question:



Why does the GOP insist on offering me The Handmaid’s Tale as its cheery alternative to the Democrat’s promise of 1984?


Update2: This post is being attacked via spammers every few minutes. I’m turning off comments for now. Send me an email if you want to make a comment and I’ll post it for you.


Update3: The meeting has been canceled for now:



We received word this weekend that President Obama is travelling to Louisiana on March 5th – to meet with Gov. Jindal and tour Katrina recovery efforts.  This unfortunately means that he will not be able to travel to the NW for meetings this week.  Governor Jindal is very sorry to make this last-minute cancellation, but we look forward to working with his staff to find a new date for his visit in the future.

Quote of the day–Clayton Cramer

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Idaho has this reputation for being a bunch of anti-federal government crazies, but I don’t think that’s particularly deserved. I mentioned last February that Montana officials had warned the Supreme Court that Montana joined the Union on the understanding that the Second Amendment protected an individual right, and they might have to rethink that situation if the Court ruled wrongly on D.C. v. Heller (2008). Fortunately, the Court got it right, so there was no need for Montana to seize the Air Force missile silos there, and become the world’s lowest population and density nuclear power.


Anyway, it appears that the Montana legislature is preparing for the Obamination of restrictive federal gun control laws.


…


Adding to the amusement of this is that those who were upset about the Raich decision (and they were right to be upset, even if it was for a very stupid cause: marijuana) will have to admit that if California has the right to legalize marijuana that doesn’t move across state lines, free of federal intervention, then Montana has a similar right to tell the federal government that guns made in Montana are exempt from federal rules.


Clayton Cramer
February 25, 2009
Those Pesky Montanans
[Although I probably am as amused about this as Clayton people don’t “have to admit” anything. I literally know a person that will insist to your face that “the fence line is over there and has always been over there” even though you could break a leg stepping into the ancient fence post hole in front of you and get tangled in the rusty barbed wire as you fell. This same person also convinced a judge that it was legitimate self-defense after a neighbor caught him sitting on his ex-wife pounding on her face who was flat on her back on the sidewalk (had it been me that caught him the judge would not have been required to make a decision). Some people are just reality impaired and/or have an infinite capacity to lie.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Rupert Murdoch

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As you all know the downturn we are operating in is more severe and global than anything we have seen before.

We are in the midst of a phase of history in which nations will be redefined and their futures fundamentally altered. Many people will be under extreme pressure and many companies mortally wounded.


Rupert Murdoch
February 24, 2009
Peter Chernin’s little shocker
[Risk and opportunity abound. Keep your eyes open for both. I’m listening to The Black Swan which appears to be applicable to the times as well.–Joe]

Some Foreign News to Relieve Your Boredom

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From our friend Howard in Israel.  Saturday, Feb. 21;



Friends:

 

Winter wind and rain have returned, but so far not as harsh as predicted.  And, knock-on-wood, no electric power outages.

 

John Kerry is here. He lied about getting a letter from Hamas to deliver to President Obama.  Senator Kerry lied?  Go figure!

 

Under cover of bad weather (fog up north) two Katusha rockets were fired at northern Israel from within southern Lebanon.  One hit an Israeli target and three civilians were wounded.  The UN forces and Lebanese (now spelled Hezbollah) army are at a loss to find the terrorists who launched the attack.  True to form the EU quickly condemned Israel for violating Lebanon’s sovereignty by firing several artillery rounds at the location from which the Katushas were launched.  Hezbollah said, “Katushas?  What Katushas, we no nut-in about no Katushas.”

 

I would tell you that Kassam missiles and mortar bombs continue to fall in the Negev, but saying so would simply be redundant and repeating the obvious.  Last week a Kassam took out three cars by my younger daughter’s (going to college in Sderot) apartment.  Hope she brings me some pieces of the Kassam next time she comes home.

 

Tomorrow Bibi starts trying to really form the next Israeli government.  When you hear that Liberman’s party wants the Ministry of Police and that they also want the present Minister of Justice (an Olmert appointee) to be reappointed and the anti-Lieberman forces say he is trying to gain control over the ministries pursuing the criminal investigations about him remember two things.  Being “under investigation” is about as close to a condition precedent to being an Israeli politician as there is.  Second, the investigations in Lieberman have been ongoing for 10 years…and counting.

 

Enjoy your weekend.

 

Howard

Yup; Katushas flying in from the North, Kassams from the South, politicians playing childish games, and the EU Press denouncing Israel for even the slightest, half-baked attempts at self defense (why is it that only the enemies of the West have what is referred to in the Press as “sovereignty”).  Sorry; I suppose none of this is “news” after all.  Is it?

Quote of the day–Richard Nixon

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Sure there are dishonest men in local government.  But there are dishonest men in national government too.


Richard M. Nixon
[Nixon was right–examples abound from Chicago to the Whitehouse (have you paid your taxes recently?). And as a country that celebrates diversity we elect them to office to represent us.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Edward Abbey

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May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.


Edward Abbey
(1927 – 1989)
[For some reason this struck me as perhaps describing our political and economic future. Dangerous but yet full of opportunity.


But then on a physical front I’m suspicious that our universe is actually a black hole with an event horizon several billion light years across and we are rushing toward the singularity at the speed of light on the time axis. So, in the long run, it doesn’t matter even if we do get off this planet and out of the solar system everything we know will be ripped apart down to the sub atomic particle level eventually anyway.


Have a nice day.–Joe]

NRA wins in 3-0 victory

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Via the Triangle of Death:



Today, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously in support of allowing employees to store legally owned firearms in locked, private motor vehicles while parked in employer parking lots. This decision upholds NRA-backed legislation passed in 2004.


“This is a victory for the millions of American workers who have been denied the right to protect themselves while commuting between their homes and their workplace,” said NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre. “This effort was aimed at skirting the will of the American people, and the intent of legislatures across this country while eviscerating Right-to-Carry laws. This ruling is a slap at the corporate elitists who have no regard for the constitutional rights of law abiding American workers.”


Keep in mind this only applies to states that have passed such laws. Currently that is only a handful of states.


I have mixed feelings on this. It’s a balancing act between property rights and gun owner rights. Generally I just remain silent rather than cheer for either side. But I have to admit it makes it more publicly acceptable to be a gun owner. Just as requiring a license to carry wouldn’t be necessary in a Utopian world it did make it more acceptable to the general public.