Alabama

Expanded upon from elsewhere, because, as Tamara likes to say, why waste it at an away game?

I'm laughing at all the people acting like Roy Moore was the GOP-anointed candidate for Alabama's Senator.

They clearly paid no attention to this race until last week.

I have spent little time in Alabama, too little to parse these events from the POV of a resident of The Heart of Dixie, but I have some thoughts on what this means, (some supplied or inspired by others):

• The US Senate is now 51 (R) 49 (D). 
• Since Harry Reid introduced "The Nuclear Option", this means less than it might.
• Long will be a two-year Senator. Alabama is still the reddest of states
• The Ds cannot, now, accuse the Rs of harboring a pedophile. (Whether you believe those claims about Moore or not.) I expect Franken will be out in the coming days, not weeks.
• Steve Bannon's influence is much diminished, if not completely eliminated. He owns this.
• I've been seeing items to the effect that Mike Pence, not Donald Trump, is the head of the GOP. 
• Normally, the sitting president is considered the head of the party, but Obama had little or no interest (or was an even bigger SCOAMF than we thought) and Trump has little or no influence over the GOP, being an outsider. (Arguably, being an outsider is what got him elected.) 
• So the question is, can Mike Pence take the bull by the horns elephant by the tusks and force them into a coherent, effective strategy?
• The Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution should be repealed. 
• Ironically, it was implemented in Alabama before it became national...
• Any suggestion that the mainstream media is even remotely impartial and unbiased should be met with derision and howls of laughter, followed by "...oh, wait. You're serious. Maybe you should get that looked at." 
• (Addendum)  Part of the objection to Roy Moore seems to be that he was removed from the bench for allowing his religious convictions to interfere with his judicial decisions.
• If Judicial activism is wrong for Conservative Christians, it is wrong for Progressive... Progressives. 
• Granted if it wasn't for double standards the left would have no standards at all.
• Time for a revival of A Man For All Seasons, perhaps. (I prefer the Charlton Heston version, for esthetic reasons. The Scoville version is probably more likely to get a hearing these days, though...)

I have no great love for Trump, but he is still a vast improvement over either Sanders or (shudder!) Clinton.

I have even less love for Roy Moore. His emails go directly to my spam folder, where they belong.

I don't know if his personal politics go over well in Alabama these days, but I do know they do not play well on the national stage. (FWIW, I noted that while in Alabama this past September on my way to Florida for a date with Irma, I saw only one sign for Judge Moore, and that was handmade.)

I'm not sure the fact that he has (or had) a habit of dating women young enough to be his daughters matters; I note that the "evidence" of his one alleged relationship with an underage woman is, to say the least, dubious. (And is now admitted to have been altered. Anyone who actually used the term "pedophile" should probably be leery of lawsuits, just sayin'...)

I do know that this election in and of itself is not a great victory for the left, and hardly spells the death knell for the right. There are aspects of this election, however, that could be symptoms of just what is wrong with politics in the USA.

I am glad I live in a country where we can hash these things out in public without resorting to wholesale violence.

So far.

a pox on both their houses!

with apologies to e.e. cummings.

listen; there's a hell of a good universe next door. election 2016 is ted cruz v james webb. let's  go.

— Drang (@DWDrang) October 22, 2016

H.R.1217 - National Commission on Mass Violence Act of 2015 (EDIT)

Not sure how I missed hearing about this one.

EDIT: Realized I left off a link to the bill's page. Interestingly, while the text is the same, there seems to have been a name change: H.R.1217: National Commission on Mass Violence Act of 2015 - U.S. Congress - OpenCongress is what is listed  now, but Representative King's page lists the title as "H.R.1217 - Public Safety and Second Amendment Rights Protection Act of 2015."

To protect Second Amendment rights, ensure that all individuals who should be prohibited from buying a firearm are listed in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, and provide a responsible and consistent background check process.

Introduced by Representative Peter King, R-NY, in March. been in limbo in the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs and House Committee on the Judiciary since then.

Official Summary

Public Safety and Second Amendment Rights Protection Act of 2015 Amends the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act to reauthorize for FY2016-FY2019 the grant program for improvements to the criminal history record system. Amends the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 to:
(1) establish a four-year implementation plan to ensure maximum coordination and automation of reporting of records or making records available to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System;
(2) direct the Attorney General to make grants to states, Indian tribal governments, and state court systems to improve the automation and transmittal of mental health records and criminal history dispositions;
(3) provide for withholding grant funds from states that have not implemented a relief from disabilities program and the reallocation of such funds to states that are in compliance;
(4) make federal court information available for inclusion in the System; and
(5) allow the submission to the System of mental health records that would otherwise be protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Provides that nothing in this Act shall be construed to:
(1) expand the enforcement authority or jurisdiction of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives;
(2) allow the establishment, directly or indirectly, of a federal firearms registry; or
(3) extend background check requirements to transfers of firearms other than those made at gun shows or over the Internet, or to temporary transfers for purposes including lawful hunting or sporting, or to temporary possession of a firearm for purposes of examination or evaluation by a prospective transferee. National Commission on Mass Violence Act of 2015 Establishes the National Commission on Mass Violence to study the availability and nature of firearms, including the means of acquiring firearms, issues relating to mental health, and the impacts of the availability and nature of firearms on incidents of mass violence or in preventing mass violence. Requires the Commission to conduct a comprehensive factual study of incidents of mass violence, including incidents not involving firearms, to determine the root causes of such mass violence.

I found out about it when I idly clicked the link to "How your U.S. lawmakers voted | The Seattle Times and read that

Background checks on gun sales

By a vote of 244 for and 183 against, the House on Oct. 8 blocked a parliamentary tactic by Democrats aimed at bringing to the floor a bill (HR 1217) now stranded in two committees that would greatly expand background checks on commercial gun sales. The bill would require checks on sales conducted over the Internet, between private parties at gun shows and through classified ads. It would plug existing loopholes that allow an estimated 40 percent of U.S. gun sales to avoid mandatory background checks. Conducted via the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System, these checks are intended to prevent domestic abusers, the mentally ill and individuals with criminal records from obtaining firearms. The bill, which also prohibits the establishment of a national registry of gun owners, is nearly identical to the so-called Toomey-Manchin amendment that failed in a Senate vote in April 2013 four months after the Newtown, Conn., school shootings.

The voting was pretty much along party lines, at least here in the Northwet.

QOTD, 08/11/15

...as much as democrats like to think that they’re all about tolerance, there is something incredibly emasculating about watching your candidate get chased off the podium of his own rally. There’s a reason the Black Lives Matter protestors haven’t invaded Hillary’s space, because we all suspect she’d shriek “GUARDS! SEIZE THEM!” super villain style, and then have them devoured by her nanotech enhanced attack weasels. {Emphasis added, DWD}

Larry "Monster Hunter" Correia
My Election Predictions | Monster Hunter Nation

Which is worth reading in it's entirety. 

Some good advice

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal tells GOP: 'Stop being the stupid party.' - New York Daily News
And then the Democrats can stop being evil, too!
But then what would I blog about?

Gun Bills in the House of Representatives of the United States

On Gov Track

• Full Text of H.R. 21: NRA Members’ Gun Safety Act of 2013 - GovTrack.us  Deserves special derision for a title which is misleading, to say the least...
• Blair Holt’s Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2013 (H.R. 34) - GovTrack.us
• Safe Schools Act of 2013 (H.R. 35) - GovTrack.us 
• Full Text of H.R. 65: Child Gun Safety and Gun Access Prevention Act of 2013 - GovTrack.us
• Handgun Licensing and Registration Act of 2013 (H.R. 117) - GovTrack.us
• Citizens Protection Act of 2013 (H.R. 133) - GovTrack.us 
• Fix Gun Checks Act of 2013 (H.R. 137) - GovTrack.us
• Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act (H.R. 138) - GovTrack.us
• Gun Show Loophole Closing Act of 2013 (H.R. 141) - GovTrack.us
• Stop Online Ammunition Sales Act of 2013 (H.R. 142) - GovTrack.us
• Full Text of H.R. 226: Support Assault Firearms Elimination and Reduction for our Streets Act - GovTrack.us I think the value of my Kel Tec Sub 2000 carbine just went up...
• Full Text of H.R. 227: Buyback Our Safety Act - GovTrack.us&nbsp By all means, let's run up the debt and the deficit for feel-good measures that accomplish nothing!
• Full Text of H.R. 236: Crackdown on Deadbeat Gun Dealers Act of 2013 - GovTrack.us
• Full Text of H.R. 238: Fire Sale Loophole Closing Act - GovTrack.us

I could not find any reference to Steve Stockman's H.R. 35, I suspect he withdrew it in favor of Thomas Massie's H.R 133.

Here's Gov Track's "general" tracker for firearms and explosives bills. That's how I found HR35, not sure why just searching for that didn't work...

Who's got the popcorn?

GOP congressman threatens impeachment if Obama uses executive action for gun control | The Daily Caller

QOTD, 09/21/2012

Seen on Shooters' Northwest:

Compare and Contrast

From the GOP Platform:

The Second Amendment: Our Right to Keep and Bear Arms
The Second Amendment: Our Right to Keep and Bear Arms (Top) We uphold the right of individuals to keep and bear arms, a right which antedated the Constitution and was solemnly confirmed by the Second Amendment. We acknowledge, support, and defend the law-abiding citizen’s God-given right of self-defense. We call for the protection of such fundamental individual rights recognized in the Supreme Court’s decisions in District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago affirming that right, and we recognize the individual responsibility to safely use and store firearms. This also includes the right to obtain and store ammunition without registration. We support the fundamental right to self-defense wherever a law-abiding citizen has a legal right to be, and we support federal legislation that would expand the exercise of that right by allowing those with state-issued carry permits to carry firearms in any state that issues such permits to its own residents. Gun ownership is responsible citizenship, enabling Americans to defend their homes and communities. We condemn frivolous lawsuits against gun manufacturers and oppose federal licensing or registration of law-abiding gun owners. We oppose legislation that is intended to restrict our Second Amendment rights by limiting the capacity of clips or magazines or otherwise restoring the ill-considered Clinton gun ban. We condemn the reckless actions associated with the operation known as “Fast and Furious,” conducted by the Department of Justice, which resulted in the murder of a U.S. Border Patrol Agent and others on both sides of the border. We applaud the Members of the U.S. House of Representatives in holding the current Administration’s Attorney General in contempt of Congress for his refusal to cooperate with their investigation into that debacle. We oppose the improper collection of firearms sales information in the four southern border states, which was imposed without congressional authority.

The Democratic Party Platform | Democrats.org:

Firearms. We recognize that the individual right to bear arms is an important part of the American tradition, and we will preserve Americans' Second Amendment right to own and use firearms. We believe that the right to own firearms is subject to reasonable regulation. We understand the terrible consequences of gun violence; it serves as a reminder that life is fragile, and our time here is limited and precious. We believe in an honest, open national conversation about firearms. We can focus on effective enforcement of existing laws, especially strengthening our background check system, and we can work together to enact commonsense improvements—like reinstating the assault weapons ban and closing the gun show loophole—so that guns do not fall into the hands of those irresponsible, law-breaking few.

Emphasis added.

Not that I have any real faith or confidence in the prospects of any platform lasting past Day 1.

Still.  Note that the GOP goes on to say things like:

The First Amendment: Speech that is Protected
The rights of citizenship do not stop at the ballot box. They include the free speech right to devote one’s resources to whatever cause or candidate one supports. We oppose any restrictions or conditions that would discourage Americans from exercising their constitutional right to enter the political fray or limit their commitment to their ideals. As a result, we support repeal of the remaining sections of McCain- Feingold, support either raising or repealing contribution limits, and oppose passage of the DISCLOSE Act or any similar legislation designed to vitiate the Supreme Court’s recent decisions protecting political speech in Wisconsin Right to Life v. Federal Election Commission and Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. We insist that there should be no regulation of political speech on the Internet. By the same token, we oppose governmental censorship of speech through the so-called Fairness Doctrine or by government enforcement of speech codes, free speech zones, or other forms of “political correctness” on campus. The Fourth Amendment: Liberty and Privacy Affirming “the right of the people to be secure in their houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures,” we support pending legislation to prevent unwarranted or unreasonable governmental intrusion through the use of aerial surveillance or flyovers on U.S. soil, with the exception of patrolling our national borders. All security measures and police actions should be viewed through the lens of the Fourth Amendment; for if we trade liberty for security, we shall have neither. The Fifth Amendment: Protecting Private Property The Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment- “nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation”-is a bulwark against tyranny; for without property rights, individual rights are diminished. That is why we deplore the Supreme Court’s Kelo v. New London decision, allowing local governments to seize a person’s home or land, not for vital public use, but for transfer to private developers. We call on State legislatures to moot the impact of the Kelo decision in their States by appropriate legislation or constitutional amendments. Equally important, we pledge to enforce the Takings Clause in the actions of federal agencies to ensure just compensation whenever private property is needed to achieve a compelling public use. This includes the taking of property in the form of water rights in the West and elsewhere and the taking of property by environmental regulations that destroy its value.

Not to mention

Federalism and The Tenth Amendment We support the review and examination of all federal agencies to eliminate wasteful spending, operational inefficiencies, or abuse of power to determine whether they are performing functions that are better performed by the States. These functions, as appropriate, should be returned to the States in accordance with the Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. We affirm that all legislation, rules, and regulations must conform and public servants must adhere to the U.S. Constitution, as originally intended by the Framers. Whether such legislation is a State or federal matter must be determined in accordance with the Tenth Amendment, in conjunction with Article I, Section 8. When the Constitution is evaded, transgressed, or ignored, so are the freedoms it guarantees. In that context, the elections of 2012 will be much more than a contest between parties. They are a referendum on the future of liberty in America. The Republican Party, born in opposition to the denial of liberty, stands for the rights of individuals, families, faith communities, institutions – and of the States which are their instruments of self-government. In establishing a federal system of government, the Framers viewed the States as laboratories of democracy and centers of innovation, as do we. To maintain the integrity of their system, they bequeathed to successive generations an instrument by which we might correct any misalignment of power between our States and the federal government, the Tenth Amendment: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Like I said, whether the presumptive Romney Administration will actually follow the many Small Government, Tea Party libertarian principles enshrined in this platform remains to be seen. But I hope I may be excused for optimistically thinking it's a good sign.

A few more on Romney/Ryan

Larry Correia: Economists for Romney and my opinion on Paul Ryan « Monster Hunter Nation.  Key 'graphs:

Paul Ryan is a moderate republican who stayed awake through accounting 201.
You want an example of extreme, how about Harry Reid and the democrat senate not passing a budget for THREE YEARS… Think about that. We were able to pass budgets during the Civil War. What’s their excuse now? Paul Ryan is so extreme that his budget got a couple hundred votes, while Barack Obama’s budget got zero.
Ryan’s budget is only extreme if you operate under the belief that having 51% of Americans pay no tax at all and over 100,000,000 Americans on some form of welfare is a good thing. Ryan’s budget is only extreme if you think that every single government program is sacred and can’t be cut at all, ever. The second you start to cut any program you get the screams of anguish and suffering and killing grandma and blah blah blah, so nothing ever gets cut, so the government just keeps on getting bigger and stupider, until it will inevitably mathmatically collapse. Then we get to leave our kid’s generation to figure out how to pay the tab. Bravo, democrats. How very extreme of you.

Two from the Wall Street Journal:

• The day His Imperial Majesty got up to give a speech about his budget, and turned it into an ad hominem attack on Paul Ryan: For White House and Ryan, Deficit Became Personal - WSJ.com. (Granted, it was a Seattle-style, passive aggressive, not-naming-names, ad hominem attack...)  
• Review & Outlook: The Ryan Choice - WSJ.com

I think anyone wishing for an ideological pure candidate team should keep in mind that it has been said that Politics is the Art of the Possible, and Milton and Rose Friedman are not available in any case.

Good Lord, though, what a wonderful administration that would be!

EDIT:  Added title. Ooops.

Newt's Manifesto

From: Get the Word Out | Daily Pundit

Okay, he's a politician, his lips are moving, but he also has the clearest plan of anyone running:

In the next few days, we’re going to develop the equivalent of the contract from 1994, except this is going to be a personal one between me and you, because I’m asking you to make me president and therefore, I have a personal responsibility. It’s going to come in two parts. Part one is conditional and requires your help. Part two, I can do if I win the election, without having to condition it.
Part one only works if you help me and we run a team campaign, which means, by the way, we have to replace Bill Nelson with a conservative.
But if you help us, and in addition to winning the presidency, we elect a Republican Senate and a Republican House, I will ask them on January 3rd to stay in office, and I will ask them to immediate pass the repeal of Obama-care.
I will ask them to immediately pass the repeal of the Dodd-Frank bill, which is killing housing, killing small business and killing independent banks.
And I will ask them to pass the repeal of Sarbanes- Oxley, which is crippling American businesses with no net profit.
And my goal is to have all three bills sitting there, waiting, so the minute I am sworn in, I can sign all three and we’re off to a pretty good opening morning.
(CROWD GOES NUTS–M)
Now those three promises are conditional. We have to win the Senate by a big enough margin to manage it and we have to increase our strength in the House. Help me do that, I’ll do those three.
Now let me tell you some things and we’re going to put this together in a way that you’ll be able to see in writing with my signature and you’ll be able to hold me accountable. There are a series of executive orders I can issue that the Congress can’t stop as long as they’re within the law. The very first executive order will abolish all of the White House czars as of that moment.
We will issue immediately an executive order on the same day. All of this is going to happen about two hours after the inaugural address.
OK? No point in hanging out and having fun. Before we get to go to the various balls that night, we’re going to have a work period. This is going to be a working presidency.

Full transcript of speech at Video: Newt's Florida Speech: 46 More States to Go | Newt Gingrich 2012.

When he starts talking about Executive Orders that Congress can't stop... well, OK, I get a little nervous, because that, after all, is what His Imperial Majesty is doing.

OTOH, he's talking about using that power to undo damage done by his predecessors...

Really?

Winter/Holiday dinner for Mrs. Drang's office last night.  (Turns out to be easier to get space in January than December, go figure...)

One thing I learned is that members of the party of Evil are ecstatic at the thought of a Newt Gingrich candidacy, because they are convinced that His Imperial Majesty can totally pwn him.  Easily. 

I refrained from pointing out that Obama's fine in a debate as long as the teleprompter works and the other guy stays on script, but there's no evidence to suggest that Gingrich will do that.  And as for marital issues, does the party of Kennedy(s) and BJ Clinton really want to go there?

Further thoughts on Iowa

Over at Tam's.  Read the comments, too.  Ass-you-me'ing you haven't already, not many folks come here that don't go there.  (And I promise not to whinge about the reverse not being true...) 

The way I see it, with those percentages, it is effectively a three-way tie for the GOP position, which is effectively a defeat for the GOP Gentry and their Fair-haired Boy, Romney.

Unfortunately, as Bill Quick has pointed out many times at Daily Pundit, the GOP, AKA The Party Of Stupid, seems bound and determined to serve us up a crap sandwich:  If the Fix is In, it won't matter how many state swing Paul or Santorum, we'll still get Obama Without A Tan.

Which could well be the end of the GOP.

Thoughts on Ioway

Re: The results of the Iowa Republican Caucus, as reported by the Des Moines Register, as of 1:40 am, CST.

High muckety-mucks within the GOP have been quoted, and even recorded, as stating that Romney will be the candidate this year. 

• So winning the caucus by a whole 8 votes is actually losing.
• If this was a Democratic caucus, they'd be producing "previously lost" bags of ballots until the Inauguration.
• Sucks for the high muckety-mucks that the voters didn't get the memo.

Santorum came out of nowhere.  Whoever he has working for him, deserves a raise.  (And Perry should fire whoever he has running his campaign.)

Gingrich is probably as PO'd about Santorum as Romney should be.  (So the Bachman back-stabbing may have been for naught.  Good.)

Maybe the other candidates need to reconsider their position on socially conservative positions.  (I don't necessarily hole with all those positions, myself, but the other candidates should be thinking how to not agree while still appealing to the social conservatives...)

And Romney really needs to work on this, what with having set the standard for what became ObamaCare, and having firmly established himself as a gun banner.  

"No Preference" 135 votes, "Other" 117 votes, and Herman Cain 55 votes.  

Email I received from one of the Tea Party organizations predicts that Rick Perry and Michelle Bachman are about to drop out.  Almost a certainty that Santorum will pick up those votes, if they do.  And that Romney is soooo hosed if that happens...

Honestly?  I wish Sarah Palin was running.  Among the contenders on the ballot in Iowa, I'd probably go for Perry or Gingrich--but Santorum will do.

While I was working...

...--and having a rather rotten time of, BTW, but never mind that--the S&P, as everybody knows, downgraded the US Government from a AAA rating to AA+.*

His Imperial Majesty Barack Hussein "Hindmost" Obama promptly spent the weekend golfing.

This morning, after three days, he made a speech.

And while he resisted the urge to accuse us of having settled into a great malaise, which to the Chinese was described as "The Emperor Has Lost The Mandate of Heaven", he did blame "political gridlock" for the downgrade.

This from a guy who gets petulant and stomps out of meetings when people disagree with him, who's definition of "compromise" is "You guys must do things my way", and was told by his own party to go away and don't come back!

Not to mention his own budget recommendation was such a shit sandwich it garnered ZERO "yea" votes in the Democratic controlled Senate.

Gridlock.  Right.

Meanwhile, the political talking point amongst HIMBO's fellow jackasses is that this is the "Tea Party Downgrade."  Because, obviously, the people responsible for the action are those people who have been doing the most to try and prevent it.

The related talking point, of course, is that the "members of Tea Party" are a bunch of terrorists, strapping explosive vests to the Capitol (what???) and holding the country hostage. Because, obviously (again), advocating sound financial practices and an adherance to the Constitution are the moral equivalent of blowing up school buses full of handicapped children in the name of whatever lunatic 'ism you follow.

I have no great love for the GOP, and the RNC can KMA, largely because they work at being The Party of Stupid; too make matters worse, many of them also try too hard to work hand in hand with the jackass party, which truly does seem to earn the title Party of Evil.

*No links this time.  Bingoogle 'em if you want.  If you're unaware of any of these events in general, you're probably on some Combat Outpost somewhere, in which case why are you wasting your precious internet time reading me?

Dear GOP

h/t Traction Control

In re: Gunwalker

Sipsey Street Irregulars is following Congressman Issa's investigation, so the Lamestream Media don't have to.

Well, okay, make that "since the Lamestream media won't Sipsey Street is."
David Hardy has more here and here, among others; the second link is from today, post-first hearing, and includes link to the formal presser, which says the next hearing will be on Wednesday, 15 June, at 1000 EDT.

When Congressman Issa is through reaming the Justice Department, he needs to start in on the proliferation of Federales, with an eye to the Federal Hall Monitor's recent raid in Stockton, Ag's raid on Amish farmers who insist on using traditional dairy-product making techniques, and the like.

We'll leave things like the Police War On Photography, and the tendency to act like a simple warrant service = Fallujah, for next year...

"Hope Isn't Hiring"

So, His Imperial Majesty has announced that he is standing for re-election in 2012, and his minions have released their first campaign video.

I'd embed  it here, but "there's no there, there."  Seriously, it's a waste ot 2 or 3 minutes of bandwidth to watch.

It says nothing.

Sums up his whole career, if you ask me.

The Party of Stupid National Committee released their latest bid for relevance here:

I know I've said it before, but... Alas, just because the RNC seems to get it, doesn't mean their candidates do.

Guys, get back to me when you've shitcanned McCain, Graham, Romney, Gingrich, Brown...

ADDED late:
Jim Hoft posted the following at Gateway Pundit:

That Was Quick… Media Commits to Fully Support Obama in 2012 Campaign: "
This was at the bottom of the LA Times article today announcing the start of Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign.



They don’t waste any time, do they?

Who Are You?

And what have you done with the GOP I know and loathe?

h/t Donnie Baseball.

Now, if only the entire GOP would back this up...

Ten Score and Two Years Ago Today...

... Abe Lincoln was set forth upon this land.

No links necessary, right?