Durbin grows a pair

Sen. Dick Durbin threw a sizable roadblock in Roland Burris' path to the U.S. Senate on Friday, saying firmly the former Illinois attorney general cannot be seated without a missing signature certifying his appointment.

Whether he's legally correct or not isn't the point. It's that he's opposing the Lightbringer.

Will they remain solid or will they shrivel like Blago's chances at re-election?

And Another MAIG Mayor Indicted

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon has been indicted on public corruption charges. The 31-page, 12-count indictment includes charges of perjury, theft, and fraudulent misappropriation and misconduct.

This makes what? Seven?

Seems being a member of MAIG gives you greater odds of being arrested and/or convicted than either firearm ownership or CCW.

H/T to ProGunProgressive.

Interesting if True

I'm not attesting to the validity of this nor the circumstances, just its surreal nature.

Apparently the guy who brought the Obama citizenship case up convinced Chief Justice Roberts to at least hear it:

Chief Justice John Roberts agreed to hear my case, Lightfoot v Bowen, challenging eligibility for presidency of Barack Hussein Obama. He distributed the case to the full conference of the Supreme Court. The timing of this decision by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, is absolutely remarkable.

Dr.Orly Taitz, ESQ
drorly.blogspot.com
dr_taitz@yahoo.com

No. 08A524
Title: Gail Lightfoot, et al., Applicants
v. Debra Bowen, California Secretary of State

Docketed:
Lower Ct: Supreme Court of California
Case Nos.: (S168690)

~~~Date~~~ ~~~~~~~Proceedings and Orders~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dec 12 2008 Application (08A524) for a stay pending the filing and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari, submitted to Justice Kennedy.
Dec 17 2008 Application (08A524) denied by Justice Kennedy.
Dec 29 2008 Application (08A524) refiled and submitted to The Chief Justice.
Jan 7 2009 DISTRIBUTED for Conference of January 23, 2009.

I leave it to the readers discretion to do w/ it what they will.

Blago Impeached. 114 to 1

Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, who would take over if Blagojevich is ousted, said it's time for the governor to "face reality" and give up his office.

The single dissenting vote was Milt Patterson D- Chicago.

Now it goes to the Senate for trial to remove him. A good day for Illinois.

More on Stripped Funding..

When Blago and the IL legislator stripped millions of dollars from conservation funds, it apparently did so in violation of federal funding rules. According to Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever:

The Illinois General Assembly must act this month to restore $9.25 million in restricted funds diverted to pay state bills, or the state risks losing $16 in federal dollars for fish and wildlife management.

This was noted earlier. We'll see if the legislators bother w/ anything other than impeaching Blago.

And still no AHSA.

Blago Irony

Remember when Blagojevich stated he thought firearm owners should get psych exams?

Well apparently his advisors think he should get one as well.

But when Arya's run with Blagojevich came to an end, he had a story to tell — one of intense jealousies by the governor toward President-elect Barack Obama, House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) and others, a terrorized staff, and emotional instabilities that Arya said demonstrate the need for a psychological evaluation by the legislative panel weighing the governor's impeachment...

“Many staffers cringed at the notion of calling him and we were under strict orders to never let the phone ring more than three times.”

In fact, Arya said, the running joke among staffers used to Blagojevich's disdain for the office was that he should go “on a trade mission so he could be gone for a few months and things might actually get done.”

Looking back on his 23 months on the state payroll, which ended last October, Arya described Blagojevich as “a good father and a great guy to go to a ballgame with” but an ineffective, emotionally unstable chief executive.

The man who was a leader in the charge for more gun control in Illinois.

My thoughts on Holder

It's a done deal. That's my opinion.

I've written the letters but it's still a done deal.

As for the lack of active response by the gun groups, well, they know they'll get burned right now if they try. The Obamanation has the momentum. We're on the defensive. That's the reality. Get used to it. Digging in our heels at this point will just result in a political equivalent of the Maginot Line.

Let their momentum wear down, they extend their lines, and burn their own resources. People will start seeing that the Lightbringer doesn't walk on water and everything they thought he promised isn't .

Then we counter-attack.

We are the Militia

Think like Guerrillas

Think like Partisans

Think like Soldiers

Compare and Contrast

On one side we have Cooper Firearms whose CEO donated thousands to the Obama Campaign and H-S Precision which used a known murderer as an endorsement.

On the other we have Barrett Rifles refusing to sell his .50 cals to CA LEO's and Remington Firearms CEO who takes the people he sponsors and buys from to task for stupidity and/or ignorance.

To that second list, we now add STI who will no longer sell to CA law enforcement due to the continued attack on firearm ownership in the state.

I know to which companies my money will go.


h/t to Armed and Safe.

Firearm manufacturing

More fun w/ statistics.

As usual, claims that ownership, hunting, manufacturing between such and such dates tend to be exaggerated and/or the dates specifically chosen to make an argument. This is clearly shown in the classic case of the VPC claiming that the numbers of firearm owners have been declining. Obviously this is not even close to being the truth.

The same can be said about firearm manufacturing which is supposedly in decline. Particular dates are always chosen and terminology used to show the desired results. So I decided to take a look at the data from the BATFE which is available for the years 1998-2000.

Looking at the total numbers, it does show a drop of a little under 53,000 firearms manufactured during that period. Looking at the individual types produced during the years shows a different story however:


So Handguns and Rifles vary with a slight trend upwards, revolvers remain very stable, while shotguns decreased significantly but have stabilized over the last few years.

Looking back another decade using data from Shooting Industry Magazine reports continues to show a varied history. From 1987-2006 one could say that US firearm manufacturing increased by nearly 90,000 firearms but that would still bely the wide swings in manufacturing over the last 20 years from a peak of 5.16M in 1994 to a ebb of 2.9M in 2001. That trend shows a slight drop in handgun(combined w/ revolvers) and shotgun manufacturing but a significant increase in rifles. The sales figures over the last two years seem to imply that we're still on an upward slope for manufacturing.

And these are just US numbers w/o taking into account the +/- 250K exports or +/- 1.25M imports every year.

On Closer Examin(er)ation

Not only has David Codrea's Examiner column gone national and his Cleveland spot continuing under another author, LA Examiner now has a firearm rights column.

At the same time SF is discussing dropping its handgun ban.

Perhaps the state is not a complete loss.

Ray Schoenke says Nothing...

After a 2 month hiatus, he comes back to brag about his election victories. Still nothing on what he or his group is actually doing though.

Why?

Because his group is doing exactly that. Nothing. Their whole purpose is to get anti-gun candidates elected under the guise of 'supporting hunters and shooters' and to attack the NRA.

"I'm a Big Boy now!"

So says Senatorial hopeful Burris.

Better than Ringling Bros.

My letter to the General

In response to his paper as noted by Irons in the Fire and SayUncle:

Gen. McCaffrey,

In regards to your report from December regarding crime in Mexico, I would like to make some corrections to your assertions that military grade firearms are being smuggled into the country from the United States.

To legally purchase a Class III firearm, one needs to follow all the regulations of the 1934, 1968, and 1986 firearm acts. This includes a background check, $200 tax stamp, licensing, and registration through the BATFE. No new fully automatic or select fire weapons have been added to this registration since 1986. The cheapest firearms cost over $2500 with AK-47's averaging $5000 ea. Licensed dealer rarely have more than a few in stock at any one time if at all. RPG's, Grenades, and other heavy weapons are not available through any firearm dealer unless they are licensed for explosives as well, also not common. What the Mexican authorities are facing from the US are semi-auto only clones of military firearms, commonly known as 'assault weapons'.
Since every firearm of any type needs to undergo an NICS check from a licensed dealer, a purchase of "a hundred at a time" would flag the buyer and warrant an immediate investigation by the BATFE.

If you have direct knowledge that this is not so and dealers are actually selling fully-auto firearms and high explosives 'out the back door', it should be brought to light and these dealers indicted.

If the authorities are facing these types of firearms from the cartels, and I have no doubt they are, they need to look south, not north, and to their own house for the reason. Numerous Mexican officials have been caught in the US attempting to purchase firearms while the entire system, as you have stated, is rife with corruption. Which would make more sense, finding officers or soldiers who are willing to accept a bribe for them to 'lose' their weapon or leave an armory door unlocked, or travel to the US to try and find a very uncommon class of weapon costing thousands of dollars? The very existence of the "Zeta's" should answer that question.

Regards,
Thirdpower

Not a perfect letter but let's see if he responds.

Late X-mas

The magazines and frog bought w/ my X-mas money came today.


Two Hungarian 20 rd Tanker magazines for my SAR-1 and a Romanian leather AK-47 frog from AK-47s.com

View From the Kitchen

Looking up.

Is This Really a Suprise to Anyone?

SIH, SaysUncle, Michael Bane, The Shooting Wire, RobbAllen, and I'm sure others are reporting that there's noises about a new AWB is in the works as punishment for opposing the LightBringer.

Well duh.

We've already seen how vindictive this administration is when they attacked TV stations for running NRA ads. Anyone who thinks that the Obamessiah WOULDN'T go after firearms were just deluding themselves to justify their opposition to Bush. IIRC, Bill Schneider had a couple of running bets w/ posters over on New West. Methinks he's going to end up being sorry he made them. I'll place money on not hearing a word from 'hunting and shooting advocate' Ray Schoenke of the AHSA.

Two Forums added

One is the G/K43 Community Forum. These are the fine individuals who helped me out on details regarding my Mauser rifles.

The second is a new forum started by TexasFred. The United States Gun Owners Association. Politics, Gun Porn, Gunsmiths, Sales/Trading, the works.

Springfield Gun Show

Went to meet the Armed SchoolTeacher. Apparently we got our days crossed as he was there Sat. while I was there today (Sun). Oops.

I did, however, get a chance to talk to Tom Shafer at the Sangamon County Rifle Assoc. booth. He runs a local pro-gun cable show ( Wed. at 7:30pm Springfield Ch 4) and has been spending his time watching the Blago impeachment hearings. We chatted about Blago and Burris for awhile and I was pleased to give him some additional info to present on his show. Notably how Blago gave a gun control speech on the steps of the hospital he was blackmailing and Burris's hypocrisy on firearms. I gave him a UMPC patch to recognize in a small way all the hard work he does.


Also got a chance to talk to Ron Corzine of the ISRA and booth volunteer Terry.


Today was busy but I was told that yesterday it was packed w/ a line out the door. I picked up a stock extender for my SAR-1 and a frog for the bayonet I got at another show a few weeks ago. Had I had more funds, I would have walked out of there w/ (receipts for ) many new toys (damn waiting period).

Both fit most nicely now.