June 3, 2008

 

                             

                                                                                                                      

 

 

                            - Picture of Liberals In The California Assembly During

                              The Legislative Week Preceding The Memorial Day Weekend

                              ( Note- Eyes blanked for the purposes of semi-privacy).

 

 

 

"...Here's your ticket pack your bag; time for jumpin' overboard

    Transportation is here

    Close enough but not too far, baby you know where you are

    Fightin' fire with fire

 

    All wet yeah you might need a raincoat

    Shakedown thieves walking in broad daylight

   Three hundred sixty five degrees

   Burning down the house..."

 

                            - Partial lyrics from the song "Burning Down the House",

                              by the Talking Heads in their album "Speaking In Tongues",

                              1983

 

 

To All,

     Do we really get the government we deserve?

 

Burning Down the House:

     How do you know when the uniquely anti-gun California Assembly has been in session? Why, when they pass out legislation the kind of which has been seen of late, that's when.

 

     For example, Assemblywoman Fiona Ma's AB 2716 would require all businesses of 10 employees or under to "pay" up to 40 additional hours per year of time to employees for "sick leave" that could also be used for care of family members or recovery from a selection of criminal assaults. Given that many gun shops (not to mention dry cleaners, convenience stores, and bail bonds offices) often have only one to two additional workers besides the owner, one can fully expect small business owners and managers to compensate for the additional mandated cost by being stricter on setting their hourly shift schedules (in other words, because there is not such thing as a "free lunch", said paid time off will most likely come entirely out of the gross earnings of the hourly workers originally targeted for Ma's largesse.).

 

     Or another example is Assemblyman Mark Leno's AB 2948, which would ban the sale of firearms and ammunition at any event held at the Cow Palace (One would think that a state some $ 20 billion in the hole would appreciate the sales tax revenue from all the kinds of purchases that hunters, sportsmen, target shooters, and other kinds of gunowners normally make at such events). Given that Pittman Robertson funds come from firearms and ammunition sales, one can only think that endangered wildlife species will be hurt by such "politically correct" shortsighted-ness from the Bay Area's pols.

 

    But perhaps one of the more interesting attempts at disarming the masses this session is Assemblyman Mark Leno's (D-AD 13) AB 2062. In keeping with the old adage "No Moh Buwwhets", Leno attempts to impose a kind of rationing on fixed ammunition, reloading components, magazines, speed loaders, and possibly even those little pink umbrellas that indoor firing ranges like to put in the promotional soft drinks handed out at "Lady's Day" fun shoots.

 

    The rationing aspects of AB 2062 include limits that the legislation would impose on shooting courses for Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and other civilian-run youth programs where the course provides the ammunition. Since AB 2062 limits transfers to non-family members, non-spouses, and non-domestic partners to 50 rounds per month, AB 2062 seems almost designed to specifically halt youth shooting programs in their tracks.

 

    One can only guess why a Bay Area Assemblyman would sponsor legislation that would more likely have a negative effect on the Boy Scouts than on the drug dealers and gang bangers that seem to have an affinity for those well-heeled pedestrians that wander the streets of San Francisco. Suffice it to say that it is not surprising that a Liberal who would more likely countenance the tax-free (not to mention on-line) sale of medicinal marijuana opposes the lawful interstate trade of precision sport-shooting components. The only question remaining in this election year is what you, the voting public, intend to do about it.

 

 

Links at:

http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/973250.html

 

http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/asm/ab_2051-2100/ab_2062_bill_20080523_amended_asm_v96.html

 

 

One Man, One Vote, Except When.....:

     On the eve of Barack Obama's "Adlertag" over Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2008 Democrat Primary, one is struck by some of the tracking numbers that can be found over at RealClearPolitics.com.

 

    With 31 pledged delegates to go in the primaries in South Dakota and Montana (How supposedly pro-gun Montana Democrats are going to vote for an anti-gun Senator Obama over Hillary Clinton is beyond this commentator), Senator Obama's is going to have to continue relying on Democrat Super-delegates to put him over the top when it comes to the magic number of 2118.

 

    Interestingly enough, with Saturday's decision by a DNC Rules Committee (co-opted by Howard "Primal Scream" Dean) that some of Michigan's delegates will re-allocated to Senator Obama, Americans are truly discovering the kinds of exceptions to the long-held rule of "one man, one vote" that the Democrats will countenance for the sake of power. Especially since adding the Michigan Primary results in a popular vote tally of 17,692,976 for Clinton with only 17,389,253 for Obama.

 

   In other words, what the Lamestream Media had previously had declared would not happen has actually happened. The Democrat Party professionals have chosen the party's nominee largely on calculation and not the will of Democrat voters. This is especially more specious given that many of Senator Obama's victories (or nullifications, given what happened in Texas) are based upon caucus results that are not truly reflective of direct vote principles.

 

  It is no wonder that Hillary supporters are incensed, given that her recent victories in the last states up to bat should have given pause to the smoke-filled room types. Instead, votes from two key states are diluted for convention purposes in such a way as to lower the threshold for the Democrat nomination, just at the same time that the media is putting pressure to get behind a candidate who is still, to borrow a Western turn of phrase, "wet behind the ears".

 

  It will be interesting to see how Senator Obama can unite the fractious groups within the Democrat Party. Given that he may not end up winning the popular vote within the primary structure, even after South Dakota and Montana, it will remain to be seen if the most liberal Presidential candidate since George McGovern or Jimmy Carter can lead his own party, let alone the country. Stay tuned.

 

Link at:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/

 

 

Let Me Get This Straight:

     Hunters were recently "stuck" in California with the costly nostrum of having to use premium non-lead projectiles so that the condor would not consume lead from big game carrion that DFG staff concluded did not have a definitive link to purported blood lead measurements in said Paleolithic buzzards. Cost was no object, given that the Holy Grail of the Endangered Species Act is to put Endangered Species above human personal and property rights.

 

     Likewise the country is burdened with limited crude oil supplies, and their ever rising costs on the international commodities market, because oil fields off the California and Florida coasts, or under the barren wastes of ANWR, could not be tapped for the sake of caribou, Nimby-ite interests in Carpenteria, MLPA aficiondadoes, and the usual slate of suspects over at the NRDC and the CBD.

 

    And even regionally, Central California farms and Southern California residents are to see their water bills triple, and live under the threat of water rationing, just so to maintain the flows of water to the California Delta in the name of environmental protectionism.

 

    Yet what are we to hear from reporter Matt Weiser at the Sacramento Bee? It turns out that Sacramento area residents are not treating their ...er...um....."poop" to a standard sufficient to keep ammonia levels discharged into the Sacramento River and the Delta within the limits set by the Clean Water Act.

 

    Now we know why the judge may have ruled the way he did in limiting water shipments south. One way to keep ammonia levels "down" for the Delta environment is the age old method of dilution. Water not shipped south so that crops can be grown or for residents to drink is water that can help Sacramento-area sewage ratepayers have "affordable" monthly bills.

 

    Now, if price was no object for hunters in "condor country", nor is no object for businesses forced to go "zero discharge" in Los Angeles just because of a court-ordered consent decree, then price should be no object for Sacramento ratepayers as well. (Don't worry- said declaration also applies to San Francisco, who apparently has not upgraded it's sewage treatment system since rebuilding it after the 1905 earthquake.).

 

    And, perhaps if a few more wallets were drained by the kinds of rules propagated by Legislative work product, and voters were to let the Executive Branch know that there is a limit to all Utopian ideas, then perhaps said regulations will get more reasonable in the future. Just don't hold your breath, otherwise the carbon dioxide generated might just get you "in Dutch" with the local Air Quality honchoes.

 

Link at:

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/979721.html

 

 

Respectfully,