June 22, 2006

" ...For 2 1/2 years I have been concerned about U.S. policy and the

     plan in Iraq. I have addressed my concerns with the Administration

     and the Pentagon and have spoken out in public about my concerns.

     the main reason for going to war has been discredited. A few days

     before the start of the war I was in Kuwait- the military drew a red line

     around Baghdad and said when U.S. forces cross that line they will

     be attacked by the Iraqis with Weapons of Mass Destruction- but US

     forces said they were prepared. They had well trained forces with the

     appropriate protective gear.

 

     We spend more money on Intelligence than all the countries in the

     world together, and more on Intelligence than most countries GDP.

    But the intelligence concerning Iraq was wrong. It is not a world

    intelligence failure. It is a U.S. intelligence failure and the way that

    intelligence was misused..."

 

                                    - Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), in a press release

                                      on November 17, 2005

 

 

 

"...After a search that has consumed nearly two years and millions of

    dollars, and a war that has cost thousands of lives, no weapons of

    mass destruction have been found, nor has any evidence been

    uncovered that such weapons were moved to another country. Not

    only was there not an imminent threat to the United States, the

    threat described in such alarmist tones by President

    Bush and the most senior members of his Administration did

    not exist at all.

 

    Citing the continuing search by the Iraq Survey Group, President

    Bush has refused to concede what has been obvious for months:

    the primary justification for the invasion of Iraq was not supported

    by fact. Now that the search is finished, President Bush needs to

    explain to the American people why he was so wrong, for so long,

   about the reasons for war..."

 

                                - House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA),

                                  in a press release on January 12, 2005

 

 

 

  "...1,184 days ago, American troops invaded Iraq to rid Saddam

       Hussein of weapons of mass destruction. The weapons

       weren't there. But American troops still are..."

 

                                - Rep. Jane Harman, (D-CA, Ranking Member

                                  on House Intelligence Committee), in a

                                  press release on June 15, 2005

 

 

"...Key Points:

 

     - Since 2003 Coalition forces have recovered approximately 500

        weapons munitions which contained degraded mustard or

        sarin nerve agent.

 

      - Despite many efforts to locate and destroy Iraq's pre-Gulf War

        chemical munitions, filled and unfilled pre-Gulf War chemical

        munitions are assessed to still exist..."

 

                                - Excerpt from an Unclassified Report provided

                                 by DIA Chief John Negroponte, and as furnished

                                 to various House and Senate Intelligence

                                 Committee Members on 6-21-2006 (External

                                 distribution list includes Representatives

                                 Harman, Pelosi, and Murtha).

 

 

 "...What we announced was that after two and a half months of being

     aware of this document, we were able to get a copy of the document,

     and convince the intelligence community to give us a declassified

     version of the document. It is a very short synopsis, and I would

     argue incomplete synopsis, but nevertheless, it's vitally important,

     because what it does say, and I'll quote from it, '  since 2003,'  so

     since the Iraq War, '  coalition forces have recovered approximately

     500 weapons munitions which contain mustard or sarin nerve agent..."

 

                                  - Senator Ric Santorum (R-PA), in an interview

                                    on the Hugh Hewitt Radio Show, June 21, 2006

                                    (Transcript at www.radioblogger.com).

 

 

 

To All,

     Somewhere, out there in the Fruited Plain, crows are scared over this evening's news. But despite whatever honeyed glaze Chef Karl might have in mind, should more declassified findings of WMD's be released, crow still tastes like crow.

 

In other news:

 

 

Mother's Milk Update:

     Josephine Hearn reports at thehill.com that Federal fundraising subtotals for the 6th Quarter of the 2005-2006 Campaign cycle are being touted to the Press, in an article otherwise dealing with the announcement that Rahm Emannuel will step down from his DCCC fundraising post after November of 2006.

 

      Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee totals from May of 2006 show that the DCCC raised $ 5.5 million, leaving them with some $ 24.5 million on hand.

 

      In comparison, the NRCC raised $ 5.6 million, leaving them with some $21.9 million on hand.

 

 

     Over in the National Party's Senate Campaign Committees, Hearn reports that the Democrats have at two to one advantage on cash on hand for the same time periods. The DSCC reports having some $ 32.5 million on hand, while the NRSC reports having a little over $ 17 million on hand.

 

     On the other hand, the RNC has a $ 30 million-plus advantage over Howard Dean's DNC, having some $ 43.1 million on hand to the DNC's $ 10.3 million.

 

     In all, totals for the various Democrat and Republican fundraising efforts are as follows, 2005-2006 cycle,  through June 1, 2006:

 

    Democrat Party-                $  269,729,828

    Republican Party-              $  378,027,447

 

    DNC                                    $     79,553,596

    RNC                                    $   151,223,333

 

    DCCC                                 $    60,693,561

    NRCC                                 $     87,551,033

 

    DSCC                                 $     59,471,653

    NRSC                                 $     53,536,745 

 

 

 

    For a party that the Fourth Estate says is supposed to lose in November, quite a number of people are still donating their hard-earned shekels to Republican coffers. Of course,  much can come to pass between now and Decision Day (Given last week's vote in the House on the Iraq mission, and that nearly as many Democrats as Republican House members ducked a position on a vote supporting staying the course, one could assume that the numbers of "shaky" seats between the two party's are not so disparate.). So until  the public has their say, perhaps it would be prudent for the Punditocracy and the Jurassic Press to not count any more chickens than is truly necessary. Otherwise, they may just go the way of Dan Rather. Stay tuned.                                      

 

 

Links at:

http://thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/
Frontpage/062106/news1.html

http://thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/
Frontpage/062106/fundraising.html

http://www.opensecrets.org/parties/index.asp

 

 

 

They Are Devo:

     In what can be called a "World Turned Upside-Down" moment, it seems that certain Democrat players in the California State Legislature are Hades-bent on devolving power away from that institution known by friends and foes alike as the "Sacramento State Home For the Bewildered".

 

     Tucked into the fine print of such bills as AB 2714 and SB 59 are sections like the following:

 

" ...AB 2714, Section 1)( f)  Nothing in this section shall be construed to

      prevent a local government from regulating ammunition sales in a

      manner that is more strict than that specified herein...."

 

      While such verbiage appears to be a payment of homage to local supporters previously "hosed" in the Courts by the State's past monopoly on regulatory authority over firearms, it is also a precedent that might indicate that legislators can be "persuaded" to cede control in the future on other items of import (school funding, property taxes, and coastal development come to mind).

 

      Given the myriad of special interests arrayed up at the State Capitol, it actually may not be long before the precedents being trail-blazed by Assemblymember Torrico and Senator Lowenthal are demanded by other elected officials to feed the political demands of local governments.

 

      It is more likely that firearms activists might tend to look at bills like AB 2714 and SB 59 as just the latest example of how those who forget history are condemned to repeat it (One would have thought that today's pols would have remembered what happened when Democrats campaigned on gun control back in 1994, and an election year at that.). But given the vagaries of that contact sport known as politics, it may just be that we are looking at a real effort by Members of the Party in Power to decentralize authority throughout the state. Even if they survive the political campaign efforts of enraged gun owners this November, they may not make it past the various political machines dedicated to the proposition that patronage must flow down from the top. Stay tuned.

 

Link at:

http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/bill/asm/ab_2701-2750/
ab_2714_bill_20060530_amended_asm.html

 

http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/bill/sen/sb_0051-0100/
sb_59_bill_20050902_amended_asm.html

 

 

Inside Beanball:

    David Zahnhiser wrote in the LA Weekly back on June 14 about some inside "shenanigans" in the 43rd Assembly District primary back on June 6th.

 

    It seems that a political action committee with less-than-transparent origins engineered a "hit" on Democrat Assembly candidate (and subsequent primary victor) Paul Krekorian. On the weekend before the election, Zahnhiser reports that 43rd AD voters received a phone commentary trying to link Krekorian with a man allegedly linked to terrorism through a tenuous association through the Armenian National Committee. The phone calls apparently backfired, and appeared to have ruined the previously good relationship between Glendale City Councilman Frank Quintero and local Armenian voters.

 

    But what is most interesting is that Zahnhiser's investigation discovered that the committee responsible for the telephone hit piece was none other than the California Latino Leadership Fund. Zahnhiser also notes that the CLLF had spent some $ 60,000 on Frank Quintero's primary race for the 43rd, as well as funneling enough money to another committee that they spent some $ 47, 797 on Quintero as well.

 

    Zahnhiser seems to tie Assemblyman Joe Coto directly to the CLLF, along with State Senator Martha Escutia. Both of these pols are leaders in the Latino Legislative Caucus. Previous to the election, pundits had hinted that Latino politicians in Sacramento were very interested in having a Latino hold the 43rd Assembly seat, despite the obvious demographic shifts that have been taking place in the district over the past few years.

 

    Now, the upshot of the (failed) telephone calls was a certain amount of alienation of the Armenian community in the 43rd (This is the same community that was so important in the defeat of Mayor Manoukian's attempt at banning the Glendale Gun Show earlier this year.) as well as the primary win for Krekorian. In essence, it appears that some in the current Latino Democrat leadership in California have less than a stellar understanding of that prerequisite of political success, ethnic politics (Even the most dense of country-club denizens should have been able to realize that anyone involved in resistance to undue Turkish influence in the Trans-Caucasus is not going to be looked at unkindly by a goodly number of the 43rd's voters.).

 

    What still is to be determined, as far as firearms owners and activists are concerned, is where Paul Krekorian stands on firearms ownership and infringement on the right to keep and bear arms. Hopefully Krekorian is friendlier to firearms owners and their interests than his affiliation with the likes of Jack Scott, Jackie Goldberg, Brad Sherman, and Loretta Sanchez would indicate. In any case, only time will tell. Stay tuned.

 

Link at:

http://www.laweekly.com/index.php?option=com_lawcontent
&task=view&id=13782&Itemid=122

 

 

Respectfully,

 

 

Anthony Canales

SFVMC-NRA

 

Copyright 2006 Anthony Canales

All rights reserved.