Democrats threatening New Hampshire's Primary Placement

It isn't obvious to me that this threat by the Democratic party will have much of an effect. So you lose the delegates from New Hampshire? How is important is that compared to the benefit that you get from all the publlicity of winning the early primary? Especially if several candidates start campaigning in NH, I don't see how they can stop the others from doing so.

The Democratic Party is moving to enforce its rules in the battle between states over who goes first in the presidential primaries, taking aim at candidates in case the states themselves won't go along with the party's rejuggled 2008 schedule.

New Hampshire, with its traditional first-in-the-nation primary, says it's not going to worry about "a handful of Washington insiders."

A change recommended Friday by the party's rules and bylaws committee would deny national convention delegates to any presidential candidate who campaigns in a state that leapfrogs its primary over others. . . . .

"If you campaign in a state that is outside the rules, then you're not entitled to delegates from that state," said Carol Khare Fowler, a rules committee member from South Carolina who offered the change. . . .

"Restaurant Robbery Foiled By Gun-Packing Customer"

The Indy Channel has some interesting details (August 18, 2006):

INDIANAPOLIS
-- An armed customer foiled a robbery at a fast-food restaurant on Indianapolis west side on Thursday afternoon, according to Indianapolis police.
Police said William McMiller Jr., 40, ordered a bucket of chicken before demanding money from a cashier and threatening to shoot at the KFC in the 2800 block of West 16th Street.
Police said the clerk didn't understand what McMiller wanted and thought he was asking for a refund.
Investigators said McMiller repeated his demand two more times before the clerk reached for money.
Investigators said that when McMiller began to climb over the counter, Paul Sherlock, a customer in the restaurant at the time, approached from behind and pulled out a Taurus 9mm handgun.
Sherlock held McMiller until police arrived. McMiller was held in the Marion County Jail on Friday. He faces a robbery charge.
Police later determined that McMiller did not have a gun, but did have a long screwdriver. Investigators said Sherlock has a valid gun permit.
Watch 6News beginning First At 5:00 for updates.

Some Democrats threatening Lieberman with loss of senority

Angry Democrats
A group of Senate Democrats is growing increasingly angry about Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman's campaign tactics since he lost the Democratic primary last week, the Hill newspaper reports.
If he continues to alienate his colleagues, Mr. Lieberman could be stripped of his seniority within the Democratic caucus should he defeat Democrat Ned Lamont in the general election in November, some senior Democratic aides told reporter Alexander Bolton.
In recent days, Mr. Lieberman has rankled Democrats in the upper chamber by suggesting that those who support bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq by a certain date are bolstering terrorists. He also sparked resentment by saying last week on NBC's "Today" show that the Democratic Party was out of the political mainstream.
Democrats are worried that Mr. Lieberman may be giving Republicans a golden opportunity to undermine their message, the reporter said.
"I think there's a lot of concern," said a senior Democratic aide who has discussed the subject with colleagues. "I think the first step is if the Lieberman thing turns into a sideshow and hurts our message and ability to take back the Senate, and the White House and the [National Republican Senatorial Committee] manipulate him, there are going to be a lot of unhappy people in our caucus."

Update of Gun Law Changes in Texas and Arizona

Alan Korwin has updated his gun law books for TExas and Arizona. Here is his discussion of the updated volumes:

TEXAS
Complete lists of changes for Texas and Arizona are now posted. Texas saw 83 changes since the last (fifth) edition of The Texas Gun Owner's Guide -- a whopping 13% increase in the amount of gun law. Most of it is good news. The BRAND NEW Sixth Edition has all the changes, is due out this week, and the first people to order will receive autographed copies. See the changes here:
http://www.gunlaws.com/tgogup3.htm

ARIZONA
Arizona saw changes to 17 key statutes, most of which were excellent. The state now recognizes virtually all legally issued firearm permits, a strong Castle Doctrine is in place, and more. Most intriguing new law -- it's now illegal to interfere with a hunt by putting yourself in the line of fire. Sheeesh.
See the changes here:
http://www.gunlaws.com/AGOG2006.htm

Rasmussen: Republicans seen keeping control of the Senate

My guess is that things will get better from this point on.

If the mid-term elections were held today, Republicans would narrowly retain control of the U.S. Senate according to Rasmussen Reports polling data. Our Balance of Power summary shows the GOP is favored in enough races to hang on to 50 Senate seats at the moment. Forty-seven seats would be in Democratic hands while 3 are in the Toss-Up category.

Even if all three Toss-Up states went to the Democrats, the GOP would remain in nominal control of the Senate. In the case of a 50-50 tie, Vice-President Dick Cheney would cast the deciding vote as the presiding officer of the Senate. . . . .

"Legal Victory for New Orleans Gun Owners?

(CNSNews.com) - A federal judge on Wednesday rejected an attempt to dismiss a Second Amendment lawsuit against the City of New Orleans.

The National Rifle Association and the Second Amendment Foundation sued New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin and Police Superintendent Warren Riley last year to stop the confiscation of firearms from private citizens in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Judge Carl Barbier of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana on Wednesday denied the city's motion to dismiss the lawsuit -- and ordered the city to submit a response.

"We're encouraged by this latest ruling," said SAF founder Alan Gottlieb. "For almost a year, we've been fighting the city's delay tactics, which included outright lying by city officials that any firearms had been seized.

"Only when we threatened Mayor Nagin and Superintendent Riley with a motion for contempt did the city miraculously discover that they actually did have more than 1,000 firearms that had been taken from their owners."

The Second Amendment Foundation said the lawsuit is intended to protect the rights of New Orleans gun owners - and also to "make sure that this serves as a warning to public officials across the country to forget about seizing firearms from their law-abiding owners in the event of a natural or man-made disaster." . . . .

Self Defense Gun Use and the Reasonable Person Standard

From the Times Leader in Pennsylvania:

“The (new) law is written very clearly. You must believe your life is in danger.”

Ashley Varner NRA spokeswoman

If Jacob Trucan’s life is threatened, he thinks he could pull the trigger.

“I believe in protecting yourself, especially in cases of rape or something like that,” said the 15-year holder of a concealed-weapon permit. “A woman or a guy should have the right to protect themselves.”

Turcan, an avid hunter and shooter, supports a law recently proposed by a Lycoming County Republican that could change the idea of self-defense. Pennsylvania law currently requires victims to retreat if faced with threat or attack in public, but allows people to use deadly force against intruders in their homes.

The passage of the so-called stand-your-ground bill would allow holders of concealed-weapon permits to shoot someone in public if they are threatened with death, rape, kidnapping or serious injury.

The bill sponsored by state Rep. Steven W. Cappelli, R-Lycoming, mirrors laws passed in 15 other states beginning in October 2005 in Florida and most recently in Michigan. Cappelli’s proposal is different than those in other states. Here the exception is only extended to the state’s concealed weapon permit holders.

Chad Ramsey, field director for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, believes the bill will encourage thoughtless shootings. “This will embolden somebody who might not normally take out their gun. Knowing they have the legal protection, they will be more likely to shoot.”

National Rifle Association lobbyists pushed for the legislation in states such as Pennsylvania, where the duty-of-flight laws are on the books. . . . .

The above article is much more accurate than a very recent piece in the New York Times.

I had sent the following letter into the NY Times:

Dear Letters Editor:

Your article on state laws that do not require that people retreat before they are able to defend themselves was extremely misleading and left out one important aspect of these laws (Adam Liptak, "15 States Expand Right to Shoot in Self-Defense," August 7). There was perviously and still is a reasonable person standard. People can only use their gun defensively if they are threatened and they use force that is commensurate with the threat that they face.

The previous law only required that one retreat if you could do so in complete safety (not simply "must retreat if possible"). Given that, it appears that all three of the examples provided in the article are not useful for illustrating a defensive action that was illegal previously that are somehow legal now.


Sincerely,

John R. Lott, Jr.
The Dean's Visiting Professor
State University of New York at Binghamton

(Given that they just published another letter by me, I really can't complain that the NY Times did not publish this letter.) The only point that I would have clarified more in the Times Leader piece is the reasonable person standard. It is not simply up to the victim to decide if they are in danger.

Lobbyists in Washington DC hiring more Democrats in anticipation of Dems taking control of Congress

Possibly this is just confirming the obvious. When it comes to the war against the Islamic Fascists, the risks of even more regulation, higher taxes, the issues of illegal immigrants, etc., this doesn't bode well for the future.

Washington lobbying firms, trade associations and corporate offices are moving to hire more well-connected Democrats in response to rising prospects that the opposition party will wrest control of at least one chamber of Congress from Republicans in the November elections.

In what lobbyists are calling a harbinger of possible upheaval on Capitol Hill, many who make a living influencing government have gone from mostly shunning Democrats to aggressively recruiting them as lobbyists over the past six months or so.

"We've seen a noticeable shift," said Beth Solomon, director of the Washington office of Christian & Timbers, an executive search firm that helps to place senior lobbyists and trade association heads.. . . .

JonBenet Ramsey Murder Solved

Finally, this horrible crime has been solved. It is amazing that someone can get away with such a high profile murder for so long. While the Fox News article below mentions how her parents had to live with the false accusations that they had killed their daughter, what is upon on websites such as the New York Times ignores this important part of the story. Could one imagine what it must have been like for her parents to live with the horrible stigma of killing one of their children? Possibly that was related to Patsy's getting cancer and dying this past June, just months before her daughter's killer was caught.

A former schoolteacher has been arrested in Thailand in the slaying of 6-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey — a surprise breakthrough in a lurid, decade-old murder mystery that had cast a cloud of suspicion over her parents. . . . .

UPDATE: It is too early to tell what is going on here. There is too much second hand information that is unreliable. We will just have to wait and see what really happened here.

Grateful to friend with a gun " 'cause my kids were in the house"

(Columbia, South Carolina) August 16, 2006 - A break-in at a Richland County home ended with one of the suspected robbers being shot to death.

The homeowner says a friend came through to help stop the crime, suffering a bullet wound. The homeowner tells WIS, "I'm sorry he had to get shot in the process but I'm really grateful 'cause my kids were in the house and everything."

The man, who we'll call "Mark" showed us where he says two armed robbers hid, waiting for him to come home. Mark says the crooks snuck in through the fence and broke into his Richland County home after his two friends dropped him off.

Mark says they demanded money. He gave them what he had but they wanted more, "After they snatched chain off my neck, they took my car keys. They told me to call the two guys that just left to come back and they were going to rob them also."

"When he called me back and I just told him hurry up and come back over here. He said he kind of detected something. He kind of knew something was wrong."

Within minutes Mark's friends arrived, armed and ready, "When I opened up the back door I saw the gun in his hand so I told him they had guns in the house and I ran out of the house and that's when the shooting started."

A bullet pierced the back door and one hit a car window, leaving glass on the ground. And then one shot struck Mark's friend, but he managed to fire back, killing one of the robbery suspects, 29-year-old Jevis Rogers, a Columbia man who's been in prison many times for several crimes including burglary. Mark's friend won't be charged in Rogers' death. . . .

As he's learned from an experience, that could've been worse if it weren't for the help of a friend. "He means the world to me. I'd do anything for him." . . . .

Life is full of trade-offs

As with most things in life, there are both benefits and costs from drinking coffee. What might make sense for some people who have a high risk of cirrhosis of the liver may not make sense for someone else who is prone to irregular heart beats.

"Researchers have found strong evidence that coffee reduces the risk of several serious ailments, including diabetes, heart disease and cirrhosis of the liver."

NICHOLAS BAKALAR
New York Times
August 15, 2006
Coffee as a Health Drink? Studies Find Some Benefits

"U.S. scientists say they`ve determined a single cup of coffee might cause a heart attack in some people within an hour of drinking it."

United Press International
From the Journal Epidemiology
August 16, 2006
Coffee may cause a heart attack danger

Ohio: "Few conceal-carry permits revoked, records show"

Of the 73,530 licenses issued from April 2004 through the first quarter of this year, sheriffs’ offices reported 391 suspensions and 217 revocations. That means roughly one of every 121 licenses was suspended or revoked.

More than half of the 100 revocations issued statewide this year came from the Cuyahoga County sheriff’s office after accusations that dozens of license-holders were trained by a weapons instructor who didn’t provide the training required by state law.

The instructor has been charged with 46 felony counts of forgery and 23 felony counts of tampering with records.

But the reasons for other suspensions and revocations are largely a mystery. The concealcarry law Ohio legislators enacted keeps private most of the information about license-holders. . . . Cuyahoga County has issued 1,906, suspended 16 and revoked 57.

If one looks at all revocations, the revocation rate is 0.29%. If you substract off the one case where the problems appear to be due to the instructor not keeping the forms properly, the revocation rate is 0.2%. Interestingly, a huge portion of the remaining revocations took place in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland). The revocation rate outside of Cuyahoga County was only 0.13 percent. Were permit holders more troublesome in Cuyahoga County or was there a different standard that the local sheriff tried to use to determine revocations?

A thought on Lieberman's General Election Race

I have been thinking about the Republican strategy of so openly helping out Senator Lieberman. Those who have read my bolg know that I have strongly supported his campaign despite disagreeing with him on many topics. But there is an interesting angle that I haven't heard mentioned by anyone else: the more Republicans openly support Lieberman, the more that I believe that the Moveon.org types will demand that other Democrats oppose Lieberman. This part of the Democratic base already dislikely Lieberman tremendously (something that I can't begin to figure out), but my guess is that to the extent that Republicans say anything nice about Lieberman or to the extent that they raise money to help out his campaign, other Democrats will feel forced to work agains him even more.

Former Congressman Tom DeLay will not be allowed to get back his Concealed Handgun Permit because of bogus money laundering charge

This is one case when an out of control DA in Austin actually endangers someone's life. On top of all the other injustices facing DeLay, this is one case where publicity about who has a permit is unjustified and dangerous. Why publicize that such a well-known person has been disarmed?

If a Thursday court ruling does wind up forcing Tom DeLay to run for Congress again, he’ll have to do so without his gun.

DeLay’s appeal of an October 2005 order by the Texas Department of Public Safety, suspending his concealed handgun permit, has fallen apart.

DPS sought the suspension after DeLay was charged in the fall of 2005 along with associates John Colyandro and Jim Ellis in two separate indictments alleging criminal conspiracy and money laundering.

The retired congressman lost the right to carry a concealed weapon in Texas due to provisions in state Senate Bill 588, passed into law in 1999, which says a state resident can’t carry a concealed handgun if he or she “is charged with … a felony under an information or indictment.”

Based on the charges pending against DeLay in Travis County, DPS said in court records, it suspended his concealed weapon license and notified him of that decision in an Oct. 28, 2005, letter.

An attorney for DeLay requested a hearing on the merits of the DPS order, which Fort Bend County Justice of the Peace Jim Richard held on Jan. 26.

Richard ordered DeLay’s gun license suspended during the hearing, in a default judgment because no one representing DeLay appeared.

But Richard received a Feb. 16 request from DeLay attorney Steve Brittain to appeal the suspension of DeLay’s gun license. So a transcript of the hearing in Richard’s court was forwarded to Fort Bend County Court-at-Law Judge Sandy Bielstein’s court.

Judge Bielstein said Friday that DeLay’s attorney never filed an actual appeal to state opposition to Richard’s order or the DPS decision to suspend the gun license.. . .

This will make profiling somewhat more difficult

Here is some depressing information coming out from last week's terror scare in the UK.

HATE-filled mums willing to sacrifice themselves and their BABIES are being hunted in the war on terror.
Security sources confirmed last night that alleged “baby bombers” were among those arrested over the plot to massacre thousands by downing transatlantic flights.

Those being quizzed included a husband and wife with a six-month-old infant.

The discovery prompted fears that there were fanatical mothers in secret al-Qaeda cells in Britain ready to become suicide bombers — and to die with their tots in their arms.

And it emerged as the reason why women at airports were ordered to drink from their babies’ bottles before being allowed to board flights during last week’s massive alert.. . .

Central Indiana Counties with about 8 to 8.5% of Residents with Concealed Handgun Permits

I haven't looked up the exact numbers but if you did these calculations of adults and not all residents, these numbers would imply around 10 or 11 percent of the adult population with concealed handgun permits. With the recent legislation that gotten passed that allow people to get a permit for life, this percent will rise.

Thousands of area residents are carrying around firearms, and Morgan County residents are among the most likely to be armed.

Based on the most recent population statistics available from the U.S. Census Bureau (through 2005) and merged with the entire database of gun permit holders in the state, the Indiana State Police issues one gun permit for approximately every 11.7 residents in Morgan County. . . .

Most south-central Indiana counties are fairly similar, at least demographically speaking, when it comes to permit holders.

Morgan County is the most heavily armed, followed closely by Martin (1 permit holder for every 12 residents), Owen (1:12.5), Greene (1:12.7) and Lawrence (1:12.8).

New stories on permits being issued in Kansas and Utah can be found by following the links. The Utah story indicates that 30% of its permit holders are residents in other states. Utah's permits are honored in 32 other states.