May 17, 2005

"...This is about America, the place where no civil rights

    movement has ever failed..."

 

        -California State Senator Sheila Kuehl, as quoted in

         the Sacramento Bee, in regards to recent committee

         actions related to domestic partner conditions in

         California.

 

 

To All,

      From Senator Kuehl's lips to the Ninth Circuit Court's ears, say NRA members who belong to one of the oldest civil rights organizations in the land. Perhaps this is the long awaited "payback" for that primary against Wally Knox a few cycles ago. Of all the things for a Democrat to be tight-fisted with....

 

In other news:

 

Night Of The Living Brain Dead:

     California is currently "blessed' with a wide array of policy wonks in state government, a situation that projects the Fool's Golden State's image far and wide. Unfortunately that image is one that makes the phrase "Only in California" more of an epithet than one of admiration.

 

     For example, California pols have decided to permanently "lo-jack" (equip with GPS tracking units) the California Condor so as to keep track of every released member of an endangered species. But at the same time the Solons of the State Senate refuse to apply the same policy to the states' paroled sex offenders and child molesters, so as to protect the state's endangered children.

 

    In California we have legislators who are proposing to register every round of ammunition used by Olympic athletes and law enforcement to make them potentially traceable in future criminal investigations. Yet we also have politicians (special mention belongs to Carol Migden and Gloria Romero over their handling of Dylan Pardo) who would seemingly allow juvenile rapists to continue to be eligible for supervised release programs and a clearing of criminal records after their 18th birthday that could include certain kinds of murder and rape (The State Senate's hesitance on SB 520 would seemingly bring a new meaning to the old term "no harm, no foul").

 

     And lastly, only in California would a politician introduce a bill that would allow illegal/undocumented immigrants to keep from having their cars impounded if found during a traffic stop to not be in possession of a valid driver's license. (Of course, those licensed drivers-cum-potential voters who can establish lawful residency in the United States would get no like consideration at the same type of traffic stop.).

 

     Perhaps it is something in the water or the air that allows California's politicians to believe their own hype about California being the state to emulate. But the view is different from down here in the trenches. Here is where the organic waste products that make up a good deal of the legislation propagated in the State's capitol accumulate, like so much bio-solid dumped on a Kern County land parcel. Eventually we will all come to discover that if the status quo is not made to change, and politicians convinced through the electoral process as to the error of their ways, we will soon be up to our chins in drakh. Stay tuned.

 

 

Story links may be found at:

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/
12834424p-13684442c.html

http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200%7E20954
%7E2854495,00.html

http://www.aroundthecapitol.com/billtrack/
billview.html?bill=sb_520

http://www.bakersfieldonline.us/news/read/
2/29665

 

 

Fail/Safe:

     Geoff Earle and Albert Eisele report today that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid have broken off talks on a Democrat compromise offer that would have kept certain Bush judicial nominees from ever seeing a floor vote in the Senate. This could mean a vote on a Senate rule change on cloture after the all-important highway bill, and it's career-saving pork, is safeguarded and authorized within the next couple of days.

 

     Previous offers by Minority Leader Reid have all involved the kind of horse-trading where Democrats would be able to preserve the ability to stop any judge at will (Given that California Barbara Boxer has put a personal hold on the Bolton nomination for UN Ambassador, this seems to be extending to Executive Branch nominees as well.). One name mentioned anecdotally in some quarters for not passing Donkey Muster is Priscilla Owens of Texas (Apparently she is rumored to be a close acquaintance of Karl Rove, which seems to be the main reason for the Left to oppose her.).

 

     Now, it should surprise no one that certain "moderate" Republicans are squeamish at the thought of giving up a key technique in the "pork extraction" process that passes for deliberation these days. Likewise certain "red-state" Democrats, up for re-election in 2006, are hesitant in earning the obstructionist moniker that will look so well in the television advertising of their opponents the weekend before the polls open. Whether the squirming of these political critters will be viewed as "principled consideration" or not will depend upon how they side with the wishes of the voters of their respective states (Hugh Hewitt noted the other day that "squish" Republicans such as Susan Collins and Olympia Snow should think of the "poker chips" that they will need in the upcoming military base reduction hearings before making any adverse decision on "the constitutional option".).

 

     But in what appears to be an escalation of the now famous Borking Maneuver, Robert Novak reports that a political opposition research firm with close ties to Harry Reid has filed FOIA's (Freedom of Information Act requests) with the U.S. Judicial Conference. They are asking for financial disclosure filings from a host of judges that court watchers consider to be on appellate and Supreme court "short" lists.

 

     Novak also states that this "intelligence raid" is being funded for by NARAL, the National Abortion Rights Action League, in it's efforts to impose an abortion rights litmus test on all judicial nominees of import. (Novak reports that sources believe that NARAL is fronting the information for Reid and the rest of the Senate Democrat Caucus).

 

 

     Given the recent editorial comments by such NRA luminaries as Wayne LaPierre and Sandra Froman, firearms activists do understand the import of the current battle over judicial appointments. Just about every judge being opposed by Harry Reid and the Left Rump of the Democrat Party just happens to be a judge that takes the concept of "original intent" of the Founders seriously. If gun-owners are to strengthen the Second Amendment in the minds of the judiciary, then Senator Reid is going to have to be convinced of the import of letting these judges come to a vote.

 

     Also, it should be made clear to Senator Reid that brinksmanship with the Bill of Rights is not conducive to further tenure in the World's Most Deliberative Body. Otherwise, the fallout will land on the heads of those who would turn Madison's handiwork into a rotting pile of wooden nickels. The upcoming votes on judicial appointments may turn out to be as important a vote for gun owners as previous votes on civilian-legal service rifles and shall-issue concealed carry legislation. The more that gun-owners let their elected Senators know this, the better off we all will be.

 

    

Story basis may be found at: 

http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/
News/Frontpage/051705/nuke.html

http://www.suntimes.com/output/novak/
cst-edt-novak16.html

http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/
20050516-091559-7947r.htm