January 12, 2006

"...You are a fluke of the Universe.

    You have no right to be here,

     and whether you can hear it or not,

     The Universe is laughing behind your back..."

 

 

                    - Partial lyric from National Lampoon's parody

                      song, "Deteriorata", written by Tony Hendra

                      (1972, Visa Records)

 

 

 

To All,

     Who would have thought that so many of the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee could have come out of the same little clown car at the Alito Hearing?

 

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels:

     Charles Hurt is reporting at the Washington Times about the frantic efforts of certain Liberal Democrats to destroy the Alito nomination to the Supreme Court, and by any means necessary.

 

     Unfortunately for the likes of Ted Kennedy, Patrick Leahy, Dianne Feinstein, and Charles Schumer, Samuel Alito Jr. has so far demonstrated a more thorough grasp of the law than their entire opposition research staffs combined ( If this were a boxing match, the referee would have already stopped the fight out of common decency). His adherence to the principle of limited powers and defined roles under the Constitution could go a long way in mitigating the concerns of firearms rights activists (And if that doesn't do it, then the unyielding enmity of the Brady Bunch towards Alito since the day of his nomination should do the trick)

 

     As such, they are left to the kind of innuendo and smear techniques normally found in the kind of desperate last stands one associates with Baathist Information Ministers, or perhaps Paul Martin's Liberals in Canada. It took only until the second day of questioning for their campaign of character assassination to claim it's second victim (the first victim was truth) in the person of a tear-ful Martha-Ann Alito, who preferred to exit the hearing for a time rather than listen to outrageous slander.

 

     Of course, the wages of such demagoguery are usually failure on a massive scale. Even such die-hard liberals as Erwin Chemerinsky (who is also scheduled as a "Democrat" witness today against the Alito nomination today) are conceding that Alito is now likely to be confirmed, given the ineptitude of Liberal Opposition to date.

 

     In the end, it will be recorded that the "Murderer's Row" of American Liberalism went down in order during one of the great political moments of this century so far. Notwithstanding a gaggle of recent polls that seem uniquely focused on everyone else besides likely voters (or at least with what appears to be an 8-10 point over-sampling of self-admitted Democrats), a mainline conservative nominee such as Samuel Alito has to yet inspire the ire of even a significant plurality of Americans. Given that this is after almost 2 solid months of negative campaigning, one can get a feeling where the real center of gravity of public opinion lies. Perhaps the balance of the Democrat Party can reconsider it's allegiance (some would say subservience) to a left-wing "rump" bereft of intellectual capital. Otherwise, the next milestone is more likely to be Chapter 7 than a new chapter of Socialist ascendancy.

 

Links at:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060111-114621-7423r.htm

 

 

 

The Horror, The Horror:

    There are some things that one should not be forced to see early in the morning, at least before one's daily ration of liquid caffeine.

 

    One of these is a newly-minted "Re-Elect Hillary" bumper sticker, headed southbound on Interstate 5 into the heart of LA's morning rush-hour. (Though there is some comic relief in that said campaign advertisement was on the back bumper of a GMC Yukon). Given the absence of a viable Republican opposition candidate to date in her 2006 re-election run, one can probably assume that Phase 1 of her nefarious scheme to turn Bubba in the very first "First House- Husband" is nearly complete.

 

     Still, there is hope that the Junior Senator from New York will continue to endear herself to national voters by consorting with such patriots as Harry "The Banana Man" Belafonte, or finally having that little tete a tete with Cindy Sheehan.

 

     If not, then how else is she going to offset those terms of endearment she is sending into the Red States, in the form of a Federalized New York State Gun Detail? After all, who else is more likely to be as "welcome as the proverbial skunk at a garden party" than a host of Barney Fifes who are inherently hostile to the concept of armed taxpayers?

 

     And surely she does not expect to wow them in Wichita with her expertise on military grade body armor, given the paucity of her experience in "humping" 16 pounds of SAPI plates in 120 degree temperatures, or having to be mobile when the situation calls for a 3 minute mile.  (Hopefully she does not expect to equate riding around in an air-conditioned armored limo with the trials and tribulations of the modern infantry soldier.).

 

     Still, one should not underestimate la Rodham at this juncture. Given that she is one of the frontrunners for a potentially re-ascendant New England in 2008 (The North-East is potentially hedging it's bets all around, given that Mitt Romney, John Kerry, and Rudy Giuliani are considered to be "favorite" Presidential hopefuls.), she is accumulating a war chest that would rival even the one in Charles Schumer's underground vault (Rumor has that he installed a quicksand-filled moat around it as back-up, after being inspired by the economy of one he saw in an old Lucille Ball rerun).

 

    Add to that the recent addition of more liberal voices singing her praises during Fox News's daytime coverage (Murdoch is hedging bets, it seems), and even what appears to be an alliance of convenience between Hillary and Newt Gingrich in the press, and one gets the hint that important ground work is being laid well in advance of the Iowa and New Hampshire Primaries.

 

     As such, firearms activists should start getting ready now for 2008 by recruiting new members, warming up phone trees, and otherwise doing the organizational work that has proven so effective in the past. With less than 2 years to go, our heirs will never forgive us if all the gains of the past few years were to go up in smoke due to inaction. Stay tuned.

 

Link at:

http://www.observer.com/thepoliticker/2006/01/clinton-and-belafonte.html

 

 

Fulano Magnet:

     Whether it is the prospect of an official wage differential of $ 2.10 per hour from other adjacent states, or a Los Angeles City Mayoral Administration willing to cut parade permit waiting times from months to days for the "right" kind of protest group, it seems that the issue of undocumented/illegal immigrants is going to remain a contentious and political one in the Fool's Golden State.

 

     Currently, the economic determinism of certain income groups-cum-legal voters and the need to control the growth in certain kinds public spending seems to be trumping the politics of social security demographics and the need to minimize inflation through some of the more libertarian aspects of the underground labor economy.

 

     As such, certain politicians who have proven reliable in the past on Second Amendment issues may become casualties of the current war over the place of undocumented/illegal immigrants in American Society, at least if they cannot determine the center of gravity of the issue in their home districts.

 

     Now, this is not to say that it is not a national problem. After all, when even major hotel chains in the Ohio Valley have housekeeping staffs which largely consist of non-English speaking Hispanics, one can easily envision the complex economic impacts of the immigration legislation currently headed over to the U.S. Senate.

 

    But for California firearms activists, relevant immigration issues largely would involve identification legislation that would easily allow firearms dealers and retail sellers to keep from providing a regulated product to an otherwise prohibited immigrant. Anything else could mean being on the wrong side of "immigrant" opinion should more liberal policies of national residency come to pass. Given that the movement to protect the Second Amendment is about educating people as to the individual right to keep and bear arms, it could be counter-productive to the firearms rights movement in the least to take an overt position on many of the un-regulated aspects of the current immigration debate. It is here, at least, that the policies that counsel a more exclusive focus on the singular issue of firearms and the individual right would be the wise way to go.