The Freshman Fifteen

Makes you end up looking like this:



J/K. These grounded little piggies are courtesy of Tori Croft, National Manager for the NRA's Collegiate Shooting programs (another absence from the AHSA).

When I was in school, I signed up for an intro shooting course for fun. When I showed up for the first day, I was informed that the instructor had retired and wasn't being replaced. They had neglected to mail the the letter informing me. The secretary in the office ,when I inquired about it ,told me "If you want to learn how to shoot, you shouldn't do it at a university". Never mind the fact that target shooting was one of the first categories of events for the revived Olympic Games in 1896. I personally think that such ignorance and contempt shouldn't be allowed in an institution of learning.

But that's just me.

Lots of people don't realize that when they send in their dues, that money goes to support programs like this. They're led to believe that it goes to the ILA or PVF, two separately funded entities. I wonder where they got that impression from? But of course topics like that don't sell papers.

While they don't get as much attention, these programs are just as important to keep the shooting sports alive as preventing politicians from 'reasonably restricting' firearms to the point of defacto bans.

Urban Change

Now that Obama is going to be president, he's traditionally obligated to pay back all the folks that funded and stumped for him. The problem is is that he said he wasn't going to play politics as usual. So what will he do? Establish a new office for "Urban Policy" so he can justify directing lots of tax dollars to Chicago and other Obama strongholds:

# Create a White House Office on Urban Policy: Obama and Biden will create a White House Office of Urban Policy to develop a strategy for metropolitan America and to ensure that all federal dollars targeted to urban areas are effectively spent on the highest-impact programs. The Director of Urban Policy will report directly to the president and coordinate all federal urban programs.

His plans to ban semi-autos and other scary looking guns is well established so I won't even bother restating it right now.

Illinois Elections by the Numbers....

The Brady Campaign is bragging that they had a 77% success rate in their endorsements in Illinois. That's really not saying much when you compare it to the actual numbers.

In comparison to the NRA:

The Brady Campaign endorsed a total of 34 people for Illinois seats.

For Federal Elections they endorsed Dick Durbin for Senate and 11 for the House. They won the Senate and 9 out of 11 seats for the House (82%).

The NRA didn't endorse a US Senate candidate and endorsed 8 people for the House with 8 wins (100%).

There were two head to head contests. Both were losses for the Brady Campaign.

For state offices, the Brady Campaign endorsed a total of 22 people for the IL House and Senate. 17 and 5 respectively out of races. They won all 5 in the Senate (100%) and 12 out of 17 in the House (70.6%).

The NRA endorsed 19 for the State Senate with 19 wins (100%) and 57 for the State House with 55 wins (96.5%).

There were zero contests in the Senate but Seven in the House. The Brady's are crowing about their 'big win' over Dist 85 incumbent Hassert. What they're NOT telling you though is that of those seven contests, the Brady's came out behind in five of them. A 5:2 ratio.

In comparison to the ISRA:

The Brady Campaign endorsed a total of 22 people for the IL House and Senate. 17 and 5 respectively . They won all 5 in the Senate (100%) and 12 out of 17 in the House (70.6%)

The ISRA endorsed 68 candidates and had 21 'preferred' for the IL House and Senate. 17 in the Senate and 51 in the House endorsed. 7 and 14 preferred.

For endorsed candidates, all 17 won in the Senate (100%) and 50 won in the House (98%)

For preferred candidates, it was 6 and 12 respectively (85.7% each).

Now the head to head results:

There were zero Senate races w/ endorsements by both the BC and ISRA. Of 'preferred', there was one with a Brady endorsed candidate win.

Of House endorsements, there were three races w/ BC/ISRA endorsements. Two were ISRA wins and one Brady win. 2:1 for the ISRA.

Of House 'preferred', there were also three races. Same results as endorsed candidates. 2:1 .

The ISRA had a 2:1 success ratio against the Brady Campaign in head to head elections. 5:3 if you include 'preferred' candidates.

So when it comes to endorsing (non-presidential) candidates , all of the various groups are good at picking easy winners.

When it comes to competing (non-presidential) endorsements, the NRA and ISRA come out ahead every time.

Broken down :

NRA vs BC:

President 0:1
US House 2:0
IL House 5:2

ISRA vs BC (preferred candidates)

IL Senate (0:1)
IL House 2:1 (5:3)

Data:
NRA
ISRA
BC
Election Results

This post inspired by SailorCurt's earlier breakdown of elections in his home state.

Bitter has PA results.

Supporting Conservation?

Ray Schoenke goes on and on about how the big bad NRA supports politicians who are raping our planet and that the AHSA is the only ones able to 'really' support hunters by conserving our environment.

Why then do I have a feeling we'll hear nothing but crickets over this latest bill by the IL legislature stripping millions from conservation funds in the state?

In an unprecedented move to reduce Illinois’ budget deficits, the Illinois Legislature passed a bill authorizing Gov. Rod Blagojevich to sweep $18 million from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, including $9.25 million from dedicated conservation funds, which are primarily generated through the sale of hunting and fishing licenses, stamps and permits...

“Hunters and anglers pay for the opportunity to hunt and fish by purchasing licenses, stamps and permits, as well as through the federal tax on firearms, ammunition and sporting equipment,” said Kent Adams, National Wild Turkey Federation regional biologist for Illinois. “These funds are dedicated for conservation, wildlife management and public land acquisition, and sweeping them would cause Illinois to lose $15 million in federal funds that would be used for wildlife conservation. That loss would continue annually, until the swept funds were restored, so this action does nothing to solve the state budget deficit.”

Conservation and hunting organizations banded together to request Gov. Blagojevich veto SB 790, but on Oct. 7, 2008, Gov. Blagojevich quietly signed it into law. Now, many are contacting the Governor’s office asking that he not harm the future of conservation and hunting in Illinois, or the state’s economy, by sweeping dedicated sportsmen’s funds.

potentially affected conservation funds:

Illinois Habitat Fund
Wildlife and Fish Fund
Fish and Wildlife Endowment Fund
Illinois Habitat Endowment Trust Fund
State Migratory Waterfowl Fund
State Pheasant Fun


Ray, Any comment?

The Chicago White House

Obama's pick for Chief of Staff? Chicago insider and former Clinton advisor Rep. Rahm Emanuel. Another long time gun control advocate.

Yeah, this is gonna be a fun 4 years.

Sugarmann Irony

Our good buddy Josh has put out another tirade on Huffpo. I guess they paid their internet bill this month. One could choke on the amount of irony in it:

The gun industry's attempts to exploit outside events--

Followed by:

as we saw when Timothy McVeigh bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, stoking the fear of government can provoke violent acts.

And that's the .01 percent we have to worry about.

Like Josh says "Sometimes context is everything".

And just to make sure that the "Inaugural Special" really stains Josh's shorts, I'm going to plug for them.

Ruger Mini-14 Magazine Promotion
Fans of Ruger Mini-14 Target Rifles and Mini-14 Ranch Rifles can purchase Ruger manufactured 20-round magazines for a discount.


I won't even get into his long debunked myth of decreasing firearm ownership.

The first push?

The first of the international community to put their tests forward to see what kind of backbone the US will maintain under the next administration?

Medvedev: Russia to Deploy Missiles in Response to U.S. Missile Shield

MOSCOW — Russia will deploy missiles near NATO member Poland in response to U.S. missile defense plans, President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday in his first state of the nation speech....

He said he hoped the next U.S. administration would act to improve relations. In a separate telegram, he congratulated Barack Obama on his election victory and said he was hoping for "constructive dialogue" with the incoming U.S. president.

Translation: Medvedev is hoping Obama will have policies closer to Chamberlain than Churchill.

Making Lemonade

Well, that was fun. I basically stopped watching after they called PA and OH for Obama. As Sebastian said, now we wait and see what happens.

Some good state news though.

The CCW referendum in IL passed in 10 of the 14 counties that had it on their ballot.

The referendum calling for a new Constitutional Convention also failed 2:1.

Overall there are a few close recounts still going on but it looks like the State Senate and House demographics will stay pretty much the same + or - one or two seats.

Sad.

A 'professor' who admitted to stealing McCain signs stated:

"yanking out the signs and running like a scared rabbit back to my idling car was one of the single-most exhilarating and empowering political acts that I have ever done."

I say the same thing about voting for the first time.

To state though, that you feel 'empowered' by theft and vandalism reveals a lot about your personal ethics and morals.

Where England used to be.

Coastguard banned from using flares over safety fears and told to use a torch instead

Coastguards have been banned from using flares in rescue missions after they were ruled to be a risk to health and safety.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency says the devices, which are used to illuminate large areas of land and sea during night-time searches, could cause 'considerable injury'.

Rescue teams have been told to use 'safer' alternatives such as torches and night-vision goggles during land-based cliff and beach rescues.

They're not used everyday so get rid of them because they 'might' hurt someone.

So sad. And we're headed in the same direction.

Does Obama need Congress?

A discussion on Huffpo revolved around Executive Orders and how they've been used to ban importation of certain scary firearms amongst other things. Both Bush Sr. and Clinton signed EO's stopping the importation of particular semi-auto firearms. We also had the Clinton administration turn Smith & Wesson into the firearm industry equivalent of Vichy France.

In 1999 White House domestic policy chief Bruce D. Reed said, "The country is tired of waiting for Congress to respond to the tragedy in Littleton. The administration is going to do every thing in its power to make progress on guns."

We can expect the same from an Obama administration. Congress may or may not pass new 'gun control' bills but we will certainly see instructions and orders quietly coming from the Oval Office.

Tomorrow, Tomorrow, It's Over...Tomorrow...

Well, probably not, it will most likely go on through the late hours into Wednesday unless there is a sweep and even then we'll hear about lawsuits and 'irregular voting' and whatever new scandal terms the 'authorized journalists' come up with to sell their papers for weeks on end.

I'll be voting on the way to work. With Illinois pretty much a 'gimmee' for Obama , especially with my dead grandparents voting early and often in Chicago, the main issue will be voting against the State Constitutional Convention.

Some people are supporting it saying that we need a new Convention to get rid of the graft and abuses by corrupt Illinois politicians (redundant I know). Who, I wonder, do these people think will be WRITING this new Constitution?

Anyway, it will be nice to get away from campaign editorials for a few months. I'm sure the next batch will start stumping for the 2012 election around the time that the next president is being sworn in. It will be nice to get back to number crunching, gun porn, the occasional court case, and showing how Helmke, Miller, Schoenke, et al aren't telling the truth as the primary posts instead of reading campaign rhetoric day after day after day.

So go out Tuesday to vote. Vote for who you will. Then, when it's over, we can get back to the real business after two years of show business and bad sitcoms.