On the way home from Mt. Jackson today (where I was hoping to have a phone bank, but alas), I heard an advertisement from Senator Jim Webb, informing me that he was a proud NRA member, that his father had given him a rifle, and that he had given his son a rifle. From this, plus his heartfelt assurances, I was supposed to believe that Barack Obama is not going to fight to strip away our Second Amendment rights.
Putting aside the fact that Obama has already shared his thoughts that the Constitution is an outmoded document that is halting “progress,” I was struck by how I was supposed to believe that because Jim Webb is good on guns Obama is too.
Well, I’m touched that Jim Webb believes in sharing the tradition of hunting and the shooting sports with his son. It’s pretty common, if not downright universal, for one generation to find something to leave to the next. My father is still on this earth, but by far the best thing he’s ever given me is his advice. Alot of them are great nuggets, like “Dance with the one that brung you,” “You can judge a man by the company he keeps,” and “It’s not the number of friends but their quality.”
Perhaps the one rule that pops up again and again in politics that my father gave me is “A man should be judge by his actions, not his words.” And so that’s why I have so much trouble when, although Barack Obama keeps telling me that he believes in my fundamental right to self-protection and the balance of power through the freedom to bear arms, his record as an Illinois State Senator tells a much different tale:
- Voted to limit handgun purchases to one a month while a State Senator (Illinois Senate, HB2579, vote 34, 5/16/2003)
- Proposed raising taxes on guns and ammunition over 500% (Chicago Defender, 12/13/1999)
- Voted for a bill that would have banned most target rifles, semi-automatic shotguns and even muzzleloaders and would have allowed law enforcement to enter homes to retrieve the guns (SB 1195, 3/13/03)
- Voted against saving homeowners from prosecution when they used a firearm to stop a home invasion (SB2165, 3/25/04)
As a United States Senator, he continued to leave a trail of anti-gun actions, even as he carefully parsed his words while running for the nomination:
- Refused to sign, with over 300 other members of Congress, an amicus curiae brief supporting gun rights during DC vs. Heller
- Supported Senator Edward Kennedy’s bill that would have banned numerous popular center-fire cartridges on the grounds that they are “armor piercing ammunition”
- Voted to allow reckless lawsuits that do little more than bankrupt honest gun manufacturers (United State Senate, S 397, Vote 219, 7/29/05)
I’m sorry, but those simply are not the actions of someone who respects either the balance of power the second amendment ensures or the rights of millions of Americans to enjoy pastimes that have been handed down through generations.
I think I’ll stick with Dad instead of Jim Webb on this one.
Filed under: Domestic Policy, Election 2008, Election Fraud, Election law and process, State Government and Politics, Uncategorized
Earlier this month I wrote that Fairfax County General Registrar was engaging in some questionable behavior by targeting jails over other locations for on-site absentee ballot registration. Now, some even more disturbing news is emerging from Fairfax, this time in the form of absenstee ballots from our men and women in uniform being thrown out en masse. From Human Events:
Fairfax County Registrar Rokey Suleman is disqualifying an overwhelming majority of the military federal write-in absentee ballots received in his county on the basis that no address had been given for those witnessing the voter signatures on the ballots. According to Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity and four former members of the military who held a press conference on Thursday, over 98 percent of these military absentee ballots in Fairfax County are being rejected.
“The federal write-in absentee ballot is a federally mandated ballot that allows military service members and their dependents to cast an absentee ballot when they haven’t received a [state] ballot before the election,” Herrity said. “For them it’s a safety net. It allows them to vote if the mail truck hasn’t reached his or her remote base in Iran or Afghanistan in time to cast a regular absentee ballot.”
When asked how many ballots had been rejected, Herrity responded, “Out of the 260 military federal write-in ballots received to date, only five included an address for the witness. The other 255 have been set aside for rejection.”
Fortunately, Attorney General Bob McDonnell, a veteran himself, is doing his best to make sure that every vote cast by our country’s finest is counted. From the Virginian Pilot (based out of Hampton Roads, where even more people will be on the lookout for this sort of behavior due to the region’s large military population):
State elections officials and Attorney General Bob McDonnell are taking a new look at a thicket of state and federal voting laws that threaten to invalidate some of the thousands of absentee votes being cast by military members and other Virginians overseas.
“Every eligible vote will be counted,” David Clementson, a McDonnell spokesman, said Friday.
The review by the State Board of Elections and McDonnell’s office comes amid calls from some of the attorney general’s fellow Republicans for the state to count all votes submitted using a federal write-in absentee ballot.
In a conference call arranged by the McCain for President campaign, former Attorney General Jerry Kilgore said Friday that federal law should “trump” a state statute that the elections board has said would require it to set aside some votes submitted on the federal ballot.
At issue is a state requirement that the completed federal ballot provide both the name and address of a witness to the absentee vote – unless the voter has also requested a separate, state-furnished ballot. The federal form, used for voting in all 50 states, does not provide a space for the address and does not specify which states, such as Virginia, require it.
The federal ballot is intended as a backup, for use when voters have applied for, but not yet received, a Virginia ballot. The state form requires the witness’s signature but not an address.
More from the Waynesboro News Virginian:
State Board of Elections Spokeswoman Susan Pollard said the 100 ballots in the Northern Virginia area are under investigation by Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell.
Under state law, Pollard said, the ballots must be witnessed and also include a signature of the witness and the witness’ printed name and address.
She said the 100 ballots in question lack all the witness requirements of the state law.
She said McDonnell’s office is working to review both federal and state law and said the status of the 100 ballots is uncertain.
“We are also looking to see if this is occurring elsewhere in Virginia,” Pollard said of the witness information problem.
Back in July Delegate Todd Gilbert, former chairman of this very committee, caught alot of flack for suggesting that Barack Obama was a “borderline communist” and that he held “Marxist views.” Putting aside for a moment the complex arguments that could be held about whether or not Obama’s views fit into Marxist thinking (and the far simpler and petty argument that this is simply race or red baiting), the comments indicated how many conservatives view Obama as a radical, even dangerous, departure from the norm of American politics and conversely just how fiercely the left will defend their guy after losing many elections over these sorts of issues.
So it came as no surprise when Joe Biden chose to simply laugh off a serious question from a Florida reporter about how Obama’s views might be viewed by some as fitting into the mold of Marxist thinking:
What was the campaign’s response? From the Orlando Sentinel:
Biden so disliked West’s line of questioning that the Obama campaign canceled a WFTV interview with Jill Biden, the candidate’s wife.
“This cancellation is non-negotiable, and further opportunities for your station to interview with this campaign are unlikely, at best for the duration of the remaining days until the election,” wrote Laura K. McGinnis, Central Florida communications director for the Obama campaign.
McGinnis said the Biden cancellation was “a result of her husband’s experience yesterday during the satellite interview with Barbara West.”
And yet, as a State Senator in 2001, Barack Obama didn’t seem to want to shy away at all from questions about the redistribution of wealth. Or rather, just what the best way to do it is:
That’s the Democratic nominee for President agreeing, in principle, that the redistribution of wealth needs to occur in this country and that the civil rights movement didn’t go far enough towards that ends.
This time from the political arm of the nation’s largest Taxpayer’s group. From Marketwatch:
The National Taxpayers Union Campaign Fund (NTUCF), the political action arm of the 362,000-member National Taxpayers Union (NTU), today announced it has endorsed former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore (R) for the state’s U.S. Senate seat.
“When he held Virginia’s executive position, Jim Gilmore time and again proved his commitment to reduce the burden on taxpayers,” NTUCF President Duane Parde said. “He espoused pro-growth economic policies, chief among them cuts in the state’s dreaded car tax, which inspired many similar platforms across the country.”Gilmore, who also served as Virginia’s Attorney General, emerged as a national leader in the fight against predatory Internet taxes. He’s expressed strong opposition to the recent $700 billion bailout of the financial industry. Gilmore’s Democratic opponent, meanwhile, supports the bailout package, along with a number of other damaging policies, such as cap-and-trade energy legislation, expensive new infrastructure programs, and large tax hikes.
