It’s official

BFA: Governor Kasich signs Ohio’s Restaurant & Car Carry Rules Fix & Restoration of Rights bills into law

Mark your calendars, the new rules go into effect in 90 days.

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Media Matters’ David Brock: We are shills for the Democrats

I’m paraphrasing, but only slightly.  Via Ace of Spades:

I had breakfast with Media Matters founder David Brock about 6 months ago to talk about his efforts to strengthen the Democratic party….

and

Brock also made clear that he saw his mission to try to the best of his ability to counteract Republican fundraising efforts, that had frankly exceeded in substance and sophistication, those of the Democrats.

and

Brock also made it clear to me that his focus was on the party, and providing and creating a level playing field for it and its advocates, rather than positioning himself as exclusively or even primarily as a media critic.

Remember this the next time someone points you to a Media Matters hit piece.

I cannot decide…

… which of these statements are more idiotic (both via Newsbusters).

NPR’s John Hockenberry: “The Taliban has never been an enemy of the United States.”

Or

Thom Hartmann: “The job creators are the people on welfare. The job creators are the people who are on unemployment. They’re the people who are working.”

I don’t think my liver could handle the amount of alcohol I would need to kill enough brain cells to be able to buy this tripe.

SB17 and HB 54 passed

BFA: OH General Assembly passes SB17 (Restaurant & Car Carry Rules Fix) and HB54 (Restoration of Rights); Kasich will sign!

Hot diggity dog!

As an aside, I’m amazed Clayton Luckie is let out in public, let alone able to hold public office.

GunWalker: An even bigger disaster than I imagined

A week ago I asked, “I’m trying to think of a good a reasonable purpose in selling them so many, but I just can’t see it.  If they thought they could track each weapon, why would such a large volume be needed?  If they knew they would lose track of them, why do this at all?”

Now I have my answer:

It has long puzzled observers of the case how the ATF planned to keep track of over 1,700 firearms dumped into Mexico by this operation.  Based on agent testimony before the House Oversight Committee, it looks like there was never any real thought given to tracking the weapons.  The geniuses who designed the Gun Walker concept and its “Operation Fast and Furious” were just waiting for crimes to be committed with the guns, presumably against Mexican civilians.  They planned to work backward from chalk outlines in Mexico to straw purchases in the United States.

So the short answer was, to the ATF bigwigs the ends justify the means.  Not that their ends were anything to crow about.

The plan was a miserable, bloody failure.  “Unfortunately, ATF never achieved the laudable goal of dismantling a drug cartel,” the House Oversight report concludes. “In fact, ATF never got close.”  After eighteen months, the program produced only twenty indictments… and all of them were gun buyers who were known to the ATF before Operation Fast and Furious began. The committee blasted claims of sweeping success by Special Agent in Charge William Newell as “incredible, false, and a source of much frustration to the agents” who voiced their concerns.

Of course it was a failure. This whole “operation” was even more hare-brained, half-assed, and cold-blooded than even a cynic like me could believe possible.  Yet again we see the wanton disregard for individual life that seems to be the hallmark of the bureaucrat.

You know what would suck? A mini Ice Age

The Register: Earth may be headed into a mini Ice Age within a decade

The announcement made on 14 June (18:00 UK time) comes from scientists at the US National Solar Observatory (NSO) and US Air Force Research Laboratory. Three different analyses of the Sun’s recent behaviour all indicate that a period of unusually low solar activity may be about to begin.

If you take out all of the completely unrealistic Gore-type disaster scenarios, Global Warming would be somewhere in the range between moderately inconvenient to a blessing, depending where you live.  As far as I can tell, a mini Ice Age would be all bad, especially for things like agriculture.

An email from my US senator, Sherrod Brown

I’m actually a registered Democrat, so I get stuff like this all the time.

As the budget debate heats up in Washington, some politicians are threatening to eliminate programs that are critical to older Americans: Social Security and Medicare. 

While I strongly support efforts to reduce the deficit, I don’t believe we should balance the budget on the backs of American seniors. 

Does this mean that you voted for Pat Toomey’s balanced budget plan which doesn’t try to change Social Security or Medicare?  No, you voted against it you two-faced viper.  You aren’t pro-senior, you’re pro-debt.

What do you think?

I think that since their grandkids are too young to vote, you’ve decided to screw them instead.

The House of Representatives passed a bill that would dismantle Medicare as we know it…

Yes they did, in 2010.  It’s called the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act”, a.k.a Obamacare. Did you not notice that vast amounts of money that were slated for Medicare are being diverted to this new entitlement program? I did.

… and open the door to unprecedented cuts to Social Security.

Which is also broke.

Please take my survey to share your thoughts about the future of Medicare, Social Security, and the federal budget.

Your opinion will help me review deficit reduction proposals in the Senate. Already, I’m getting my Senate colleagues on the record. Nearly 50 Senators have signed my letter opposing the privatization of Medicare through a voucher system that would limit medical care for seniors.

As opposed to letting the program collapse under its own weight in eight years, which is where we are without it.

I’ve also introduced a bill that would require Members of Congress to walk in the same shoes as working Americans by directly tying the age at which Members of Congress can collect their retirement benefits to the Social Security retirement age for the American people.

That’s nice.  How about a meaningful gesture, like making them get their own health insurance too?  Or better yet, how about you Democrats actually come up with a budget, instead of incessantly demagoguing those trying to fix your mess for you.