Gun legislation in Illinois and New Jersey
Thu May 30 19:19:32 CDT 2013 by TriggerFinger. Comments [Tweet]
Former Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Doug Shulman visited the White House 118 times between 2010 and 2011. Acting Director Steven Miller, who took over at the IRS in November, also made numerous visits to the White House, though variations in the spelling of his name in White House visitor logs makes it difficult to determine exactly how many times.Sarah Hall Ingram visited the White House 160 times between 2011 and January of 2013. The majority of those visits appear to be related to Obamacare (she was visiting Jeanne Lambrew, who is Deputy Director of the new White House Office of Health Reform), but she would have had lots of opportunities to coordinate with White House staff on other matters.
The frequent trips to the White House under Obama far outnumbered the times other administrations felt the need to meet with the IRS, according to Mark Everson, who led the IRS under former President George W. Bush. Everson said he remembers making only one trip to the White House between 2003 and 2007 and said he felt like he'd "moved to Siberia" because of the isolation.
Thu May 30 08:44:03 CDT 2013 by TriggerFinger. Comments [Tweet]
Thu May 30 08:42:12 CDT 2013 by TriggerFinger. Comments [Tweet]
Thu May 30 08:34:00 CDT 2013 by TriggerFinger. Comments [Tweet]
Thu May 30 08:28:13 CDT 2013 by TriggerFinger. Comments [Tweet]
Wed May 29 09:10:16 CDT 2013 by TriggerFinger. Comments [Tweet]
"But here is the bottom line -- the media shield law, which I am prepared to support, and I know Sen. Graham supports, still leaves an unanswered question, which I have raised many times: What is a journalist today in 2013? We know it's someone that works for Fox or AP, but does it include a blogger? Does it include someone who is tweeting? Are these people journalists and entitled to constitutional protection? We need to ask 21st century questions about a provision that was written over 200 years ago."The First Amendment was clearly written to protect everyone, not just a special group of people. Media shield laws give special protection to government approved speech. That means the government can take away that protection for speakers it doesn't approve it, which tends to shut them up, or deny it altogether for those who it suspects would say things it doesn't like.
Wed May 29 03:29:54 CDT 2013 by TriggerFinger. Comments [Tweet]
Wed May 29 03:14:27 CDT 2013 by TriggerFinger. Comments [Tweet]
5.56 mm ammunition was reaching a dollar per round, but that has trailed off to around 75 cents per round, and I expect it to go lower. The stores around me (and you know exactly who you are) who were selling 5.56 mm ammunition for four dollars per round now have customers who are royally pissed off (and I noticed that you have backed way off on your prices now). You reap what you sow. I'll keep increasing my stockpile of 5.56, but not by purchasing from you.Why be mad? If you didn't have ANY 5.56 ammo, you might be willing to pay $4 a round and be happy to now have SOME 5.56 ammo. If you already have 5.56 ammo, and just wanted to stockpile more, you'll pass because the price is too high and you don't actually need it -- thus making sure there is some available for the person who does need it. This is how the free market allocates resources when they are scarce. It's natural, normal, and entirely appropriate.
Unless those who don't have 5.56 mm ammunition know that the price will go back down. The losers will be the stores who charged 4 dollars per round. I already see it around here.Those who don't have it and are willing to wait until the price comes back down are doing the right thing for them, and making sure that the people who are willing to pay that higher price have ammunition available to buy when otherwise there would be none.
Tue May 28 22:07:41 CDT 2013 by TriggerFinger. Comments [Tweet]
Tue May 28 21:55:58 CDT 2013 by TriggerFinger. Comments [Tweet]
Adair's husband, Shane, and other witnesses told police she was drinking with friends in her garage Tuesday night and wanted to show off the weapon. It fired twice, hitting her once in the head as she brought it to the room and passed it to Shane.Guns and alcohol don't mix. That's an important rule to remember.
Tue May 28 21:52:15 CDT 2013 by TriggerFinger. Comments [Tweet]
Tue May 28 00:58:26 CDT 2013 by TriggerFinger. Comments [Tweet]
There is, of course, a legitimate argument that background checks would not have prevented the Newtown massacre. This is likely true, but it's also equally true that Lanza would have been denied easy access to legal firearms if his mother, the purchaser and owner of the assault weapons he used (and the first one to be murdered by Lanza) had utilized trigger locks and/or a gun safe -- prudent safety features that any good NRA member would wholeheartedly advocate.So, the argument is that expanded background checks would have stopped Lanza from getting a gun, or at least made it more expensive and risky to get a gun illegally rather than getting one legally. That might make some sort of sense... if Lanza had purchased firearms legally.
Every inmate admitted into the Arizona Department of Corrections is required to take a mandatory psych test. I took it on four separate occasions, one for each time I was sentenced to an Arizona State prison. The test runs about two hours, and was quite proficient at identifying the mentally disturbed?especially those prone to violence. Incoming inmates who failed this test were automatically removed from general population and redirected for further psychological evaluation.A two-hour psychological examination before buying a firearm? For everyone? Take a moment to let it sink in: this person, this felon, is recommending that every American who wants to exercise their second-amendment right to own a gun be treated like a convicted criminal going into prison.
This simple test should be mandatory for any individual who wishes to purchase a firearm.
A quick sample of some individual clinical psychologists' fees shows them to be all over the map. Dr. Jeff Daly practices in Carlsbad, California. His hourly rate is $150 per session and $25 for additional services, such as extensive telephone calls. Legal testimony costs $300 an hour. Dr. Lisa Lombard of Chicago, Illinois, charges an hourly fee ranging from $35 for a 15 minute office consultation to $180 for a 90 minute counseling session. She also has different hourly fees for group and couples therapy and charges $200 an hour for expert testimony. Dr. Claudia Diez works in New York City, and her standard fee is $200 an hour. Dr. Amy D. Rouse of Westerville, Ohio, has an average fee of $130 to $150 per session, according to "Psychology Today."So we're looking at $300 per examination, roughly. The FBI says it conducted almost 20 million NICS checks in 2012. (99.5% of those were passed). So we're looking at $6B in direct costs -- before psychologists decide to increase rates in response to demand. No doubt these tests would be funded by fees levied on the person buying the gun -- which would dramatically increase the cost of most firearms, putting them even further out of reach for the people who most need them for self-defense... the poor.
Mon May 27 01:40:39 CDT 2013 by TriggerFinger. Comments [Tweet]
Fri May 24 12:57:29 CDT 2013 by TriggerFinger. Comments [Tweet]
Conservatives have long tangled with Lerner, who was director of enforcement at the Federal Election Commission from 1986 until 2001, when she moved to the IRS.More details from the Weekly Standard.
"Everything we have seen at the IRS was reeled out first at the FEC," says Jim Bopp, a noted election-law attorney who represented the Christian Coalition in its successful fight to quash the FEC's attempt to impose a $5 million fine on the group for political activities. The FEC lost the case on summary judgment in a 1999 opinion written by a Jimmy Carter appointed judge.
"In a dozen out of the 81 depositions in the case, the FEC wanted to know about people's religious beliefs or the content of their prayers," Bopp told me. "Lerner took the speech-chilling culture she developed at the FEC right over to the IRS."
Thu May 23 17:56:09 CDT 2013 by TriggerFinger. Comments [Tweet]
During a discussion on Monday about the Justice Department tracking and snooping into Fox News reporter James Rosen's personal emails, Fox News host Shepard Smith offered another, related claim. The network's computer servers were also looked into, he told Judge Andrew Napolitano. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office denied it.They hacked Sharyl Attkisson's computer, too.
"When they do issue this subpoena," Smith noted, "by law, they have to tell you they've done it, don't they? I mean, they went into our computer servers at Fox News, went around around our security, pulled things out, and didn't tell us they'd done so."
Tue May 21 23:52:41 CDT 2013 by TriggerFinger. Comments [Tweet]
Tue May 21 23:50:23 CDT 2013 by TriggerFinger. Comments [Tweet]
Gun owners do not want and will not accept this technology unless mandated by law -- as is already in place in New Jersey, assuming it becomes commercially available.
Free citizens will not ask permission from the State before defending themselves, no matter what laws the State has put into place.
But the State would love to use technology like this to make us submit.
Tue May 21 23:49:53 CDT 2013 by TriggerFinger. Comments [Tweet]
Lois Lerner, the head of the exempt organizations division of the IRS, won't answer questions about what she knew about the improper screening -- or why she didn't disclose it to Congress, according to a letter from her defense lawyer, William W. Taylor III. Lerner was scheduled to appear before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.There's an interesting dilemma here. Does Congress proceed to charge her with crimes, or offer immunity in return for testimony about involvement higher in the food chain?
Tue May 21 17:24:07 CDT 2013 by TriggerFinger. Comments [Tweet]
Tue May 21 09:42:56 CDT 2013 by TriggerFinger. Comments [Tweet]
Stevens' mission in Benghazi, they will say, was to buy back Stinger missiles from al-Qaeda groups issued to them by the State Department, not by the CIA. Such a mission would usually be a CIA effort, but the intelligence agency had opposed the idea because of the high risk involved in arming "insurgents" with powerful weapons that endanger civilian aircraft.I had classed this as a conspiracy theory. It looks like I was wrong.
Regarding General Ham, military contacts of the diplomats tell them that AFRICOM had Special Ops "assets in place that could have come to the aid of the Benghazi consulate immediately (not in six hours)."This will be devastating testimony. I don't have any idea whether this represents something actually illegal -- the President has a lot of latitude in foreign policy, but aid and comfort to an Al-Qaeda linked entity is certainly illegal for the general public. Refusing to send aid to Americans under attack is probably not criminal, but it's politically nuclear.
Ham was told by the White House not to send the aid to the trapped men, but Ham decided to disobey and did so anyway, whereupon the White House "called his deputy and had the deputy threaten to relieve Ham of his command."
Tue May 21 09:21:18 CDT 2013 by TriggerFinger. Comments [Tweet]
Mon May 20 22:17:19 CDT 2013 by TriggerFinger. Comments [Tweet]
Read the whole thing. It is the smoking gun.According to the White House Visitors Log, provided here in searchable form by U.S. News and World Report, the president of the anti-Tea Party National Treasury Employees Union, Colleen Kelley, visited the White House at 12:30pm that Wednesday noon time of March 31st...
April 1-2, 2010: The new Acting Manager, Technical Unit, suggested the need for a Sensitive Case Report on the Tea Party cases. The Determinations Unit Program Manager Agreed.
In short: the very day after the president of the quite publicly anti-Tea Party labor union -- the union for IRS employees -- met with President Obama, the manager of the IRS "Determinations Unit Program agreed" to open a "Sensitive Case report on the Tea party cases." As stated by the IG report.
Mon May 20 08:28:59 CDT 2013 by TriggerFinger. Comments [Tweet]
Mon May 20 01:27:09 CDT 2013 by TriggerFinger. Comments [Tweet]
Mon May 20 01:00:59 CDT 2013 by TriggerFinger. Comments [Tweet]