Confessions of a Pilgrim

I have a love-hate relationship with Senator Williams.  Lately it’s been a more hate than love.  He has reached his paws into my pocket book one time to many.  Apparently the same is true of some of the folks in his own district.

The 5th district GOP Lincoln dinner was fairly uneventful until after the program ended. One attendee came to the press table with a flier which had been placed on the windshield of every car in the parking lot.

The article contained copies of two Lexington Herald Leader stories about tax increases in which Senate President David Williams expressed his desire to raise taxes and his confidence that the Senate would play along, regardless of the state of economy.

heh.  Sorry Senator but we’ve about had it with your RINO ways.  I’d vote against you if I could.

The story continues over at Kentucky Progress.

I think it’s a rare thing when someone posts to their blog to thank another blogger for an open thread.  Since we are in the era of Hope and Change©, I want to thank Intellectual Redneck for just that thing.

WHAT!?!?!  I just learned he’s a Kentuckian too!!  Outstanding!

SecState Clinton made a fool of herself today when she handed Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov a gift supposedly to show a change in course of American Foreign Policy as it pertains to Russia.  Apparently someone found the gift on Ebay and she didn’t consider having someone take a look at it who actually KNOWS Russian.

Perhaps she sent the same gift to the US Congress.

President Obama has been on the edge with me with his fiscal decisions of late.  I really want to support my President and offer him the “reasonable people can reasonably disagree” card on issues.

THIS, however, would force me to a place I really don’t want to go.

For the link impaired, there seems to be rumors afoot that a certain waste of Carbon, who served in Vietnam, might be considered for SecDef.  If you are still in the dark, check under the fold.

(more…)

Congressman Bobby Rush (D-IL-1, that’s Chicago BTW) sponsored this gem. The text of the bill illustrates for the first time the new tactic by the anti-firearm lobby:

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

(a) Findings- Congress finds that–

(1) the manufacture, distribution, and importation of firearms is inherently commercial in nature;

(2) firearms regularly move in interstate commerce;

(3) to the extent that firearms trafficking is intrastate in nature, it arises out of and is substantially connected with a commercial transaction, which, when viewed in the aggregate, substantially affects interstate commerce;

(4) because the intrastate and interstate trafficking of firearms are so commingled, full regulation of interstate commerce requires the incidental regulation of intrastate commerce;

(5) gun violence in the United States is associated with the majority of homicides, over half the suicides, and two-thirds of non-fatal violent injuries; and

(6) on the afternoon of May 10, 2007, Blair Holt, a junior at Julian High School in Chicago, was killed on a public bus riding home from school when he used his body to shield a girl who was in the line of fire after a young man boarded the bus and started shooting.

(b) Sense of the Congress- It is the sense of the Congress that–

(1) firearms trafficking is prevalent and widespread in and among the States, and it is usually impossible to distinguish between intrastate trafficking and interstate trafficking; and

(2) it is in the national interest and within the role of the Federal Government to ensure that the regulation of firearms is uniform among the States, that law enforcement can quickly and effectively trace firearms used in crime, and that firearms owners know how to use and safely store their firearms.

So now the sale of firearms in two states is a threat to all states simply because the process of purchasing the firearm may be different.  Congressman Rush wants all firearm owner and perspective owners to be licensed.  Not just licensed but they will have to be a dealer if this legislation is passed:

SEC. 101. LICENSING REQUIREMENT.

Section 922 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

`(aa) Firearm Licensing Requirement-

`(1) IN GENERAL- It shall be unlawful for any person other than a licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, licensed dealer, or licensed collector to possess a qualifying firearm on or after the applicable date, unless that person has been issued a firearm license–

I honestly don’t think this particular assault will be successful.  However, I’m quite certain that there will be others targeting ammunition (rumors abound on this one already), attempts to govern legal firearms owners’ behavior, or attempts to label the casual sale of a firearm as an illegal act.  The current status of this bill is:

H.R.45

Title: To provide for the implementation of a system of licensing for purchasers of certain firearms and for a record of sale system for those firearms, and for other purposes.

Sponsor: Rep Rush, Bobby L. [IL-1] (introduced 1/6/2009) Cosponsors (None)

Latest Major Action: 2/9/2009 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.ALL ACTIONS:

1/6/2009:

Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

2/9/2009:

Referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.

Bottom line is, how important is this issue to you?  Important enough to protest against it?  It should be.  There is a movement afoot to stand up against some of these wildeyed policies coming out of DC.  It started with the notion of the Stimulus bill and it’s called “The Tea Party”.   I think this movement can be extended to support the 2nd Amendment.

Would you be willing to stand up against the Feds for your firearms?  Or more to the point for your Constitutional Right to purchase MORE firearms?  If so, find your local Tea Party organization and get organized.

http://newamericanteaparty.com/

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=63266978155

Catching up on some of my Civil War blog reading I stumbled up on this piece on President Obama’s plan to allow photographs of our fallen soldiers at Civil War Memory.

I find it incredibly insensitive to the families of the fallen to allow their remains to be used as a political pawn in the ongoing social debate.  President Bush’s policy wasn’t about hiding the cost of the war.  The various appropriation bills that landed in Congress to continue the fight in Iraq were as public as they could possibly be.  The unrelenting reports of the victims of attacks on our troops and the innocents in Iraq made front page above the fold in every national newspaper.

The now discredited Lancet report of Iraqi deaths is a strong indicator of what would happen if we allowed the press to photograph the remains of our fallen soldiers.  Each flight into Dover AFB, whether or not they have a single coffin on board, will be photographed and published under a headline along the lines of: “How many in this one?”  What’s that?  Think they are above it?  They were not above this.  Or this.  Lord knows Congressman Murtha had no issues either.  In commenting on a tragedy in Haditha, Iraq long before any investigation had been concluded he said:

Now, two days after I made my statement, on November 19th, we had an incident in Haditha in Anbar province, where a Marine was killed with an IED. Time magazine reported it, and it’s kind of a puzzling report, because they’re investigating it right now. Let me tell you what the consequences of this have been.

It’s much worse than reported in Time magazine. There was no fire fight. There was no IED that killed these innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood. And that’s what the report is going to tell.

Since that time all but one of those Marines have been cleared and SSGT Wuterich’s trial has been put on hold.  To date there has been no apology from Murtha even though he is staring a defamation lawsuit in the face brought about by SSGT Wuterich.

President Bush’s decision was about protecting the fallen and their families from the same kind of treatment Congressman Murtha handed out to the Haditha Marines.  The far left in this country doesn’t give a damn about the military, the men and women who give their lives in the military, or what it takes to win a war.  They would sellout the memory of their own children to see America defeated  and gain some cheap political points.

President Obama allowing these remains to be photographed is wrong.    I hope that no family of an American warrior finds themselves on the wrong end of one of these photographs.

The Shelby 427 just completed at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Kyle Busch was the winner.  Virtually every driver that was wrecked out, worn out, or give out was just glad to go home.  The Nationwide series was no different.  Greg Biffle survived for the win but WOW, what a strange race.

Darlington has the tradition of being the track from hell but this past weekend LVMS made a proud attempt at claiming the title itself.  Whether it was engines mysteriously going away from teams that are renowned for their engine strength(Hendrick), Turn two taking the traction away from cars, or Goodyear playing mad scientist with their tire compounds we had cars sliding all over the place.

Glad this one is over.   See you at Atlanta.