Archive for the 'Obama Administration' Category

The Washington Post:

President Obama, addressing yet another memorial gathering after a deadly mass shooting, said Sunday evening that he senses “a creeping resignation” in the United States that homicidal lunacy like the Washington Navy Yard massacre “is somehow the new normal.” But he said “it ought to be a shock to us all” and should spur Americans to demand “a common sense” balance between gun rights and gun control.

“We cannot accept this,” Obama said of the Sept. 16 attack that killed a dozen people at the Navy Yard. “As Americans bound in grief and love, we must insist here today there’s nothing normal about innocent men and women being gunned down where they work.”

Obama was addressing about 4,000 people, including loved ones of the slain, who gathered outdoors at the Marine Corps Barracks at Eighth and I streets SE, a few blocks from the Navy Yard. The president did not vow to throw the weight of his presidency behind an effort to enact gun-control legislation, as he did in December at a memorial service after the slaughter at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Instead, he urged the nation to demand such measures.

He used a shotgun – a gun most often used in America for hunting Turkey and water fowl.

Uh huh.  Did the Syria “crisis” evaporate Mr. Obama?  Do you need another crisis to deflect attention from the horrible economy and impending doom of Obamacare implementation?  Do you want people to waste their time figuring out how to make shotguns illegal instead of how to handle the clouds of economic meltdown on the horizon?

Move on.  Nothing to see here, go look at … yea, that’s it … guns again.

David Codrea:

The final 60 to 40 cloture count that brought the confirmation vote to the floor was enabled by the flipping of Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who changed her vote today to join five other Republicans, John McCain of Arizona, Susan Collins of Maine, Mark Kirk of Illinois, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire. That some of these ended up holding out against Jones on the confirmation vote does not alter the fact that their cloture vote enabled the confirmation.

David is correct.  Don’t let a ‘no’ vote on Jones fool you.  The cloture vote nonsense is a misdirect and tactical trick to get the Senate to a 50 vote majority rather than 60 or more votes to stop a filibuster.

I expected this from McCain and Graham, both of whom are enemies of America, but I had hope for Kelly Ayotte.  As it stands now, she has proven that this isn’t even about whether the ATF should exist, whether they deserve funding, or whether federal firearms laws are constitutional.  These are second order questions.

What Kelly Ayotte has said with her vote is that it’s acceptable to her to have a criminal at the head of the ATF, a man who helped organize and arrange the deception of the American public in Fast and Furious and the deaths of U.S. border patrol agents and Mexican authorities (we are still counting the affects) – all for the purpose of justifying more gun control on the American people.

Ayotte cannot undo this vote, she cannot go back.  She cannot turn this around, she cannot reverse history.  She has declared herself an enemy of gun owners everywhere, forever.  McCain and Graham were already there years ago.  Ayotte is in horrible company.

CNS News:

“Self-defense can be an important crime deterrent,”says a new report by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The $10 million study was commissioned by President Barack Obama as part of 23 executive orders he signed in January.

“Studies that directly assessed the effect of actual defensive uses of guns (i.e., incidents in which a gun was ‘used’ by the crime victim in the sense of attacking or threatening an offender) have found consistently lower injury rates among gun-using crime victims compared with victims who used other self-protective strategies,” the CDC study, entitled “Priorities For Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence,” states.

The report, which notes that “ violent crimes, including homicides specifically, have declined in the past five years,” also pointed out that “some firearm violence results in death, but most does not.” In fact, the CDC report said, most incidents involving the discharge of firearms do not result in a fatality.

Well, of course.  But the key here is that I don’t need this study to tell me that if I have a firearm while being accosted I stand a better chance of survival.  Neither do my readers.  What’s interesting here is that the very group of “experts” upon whom Obama was relying to tell the public that firearms are a public health concern are supplying him with inconvenient information.

Look for the Obama administration to summarily ignore this study because it doesn’t fit the narrative.

Politico:

Via WRSA, Ray Kelly is being considered for the new top cop of the DHS, and there is this directly from Kelly himself.

“I don’t think it ever should have been made secret. I think the American public can accept the fact if you tell them that every time you pick up the phone it’s going to be recorded and goes to the government … ”

First of all, this reminds you of what kind of person you have for president.  Obama isn’t ignorant of Kelly’s views, he knows full well what he believes, and that’s why Kelly is being considered.

Second, the DHS shouldn’t even exist as an organization.  It’s existence is an obscene, repugnant, despicable blight on the face of America.  So the fact that Kelly is being considered for the top cop of the federal government shouldn’t surprise us.  Obama isn’t going to appoint someone who does away with this monstrosity.

Finally, I will remark that God hates totalitarianism in all of its forms – Communism, Nazism, Fascism, Fabian Socialism, and whatever else – and God hates totalitarians.  There are no accidental totalitarians.  They all know what they do, intend it, and want all power to themselves.  They all usurp His authority.  Their end will draw nigh, sooner or later.  And then, eternal judgment.

Politico:

Vice President Joe Biden said Friday that “at least five senators” have called him looking for a way to change their votes to support expanded background checks.

Speaking to the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Las Vegas, Biden said the 45 senators who voted to block the background checks deal brokered by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) have seen “the bottom fall out” of their approval ratings.

Biden said, as he did Tuesday during a gun violence event at the White House, that he has been fielding calls from senators interested in signing on to some kind of gun control measure. On Friday he offered slightly more specific detail about the number of senators and the difficult path ahead for gun control legislation.

“I’ve had at least five senators call me and say, ‘Can’t we do something about this?’” Biden said. “The calculus has changed, and so we’re in an effort to try to work out how we can provide another opportunity for those who voted no to change their vote. We all know that’s the hardest thing in politics, to change your vote. That’s why we’ve got to get a rationale, another reason why this could be done by changing the specifics of the legislation.”

Biden hasn’t conveyed which senators he’s spoken with or how the background checks bill might be altered.

Just like myth that 90% or more of all Americans wanted the Senate to enact more gun laws, this is the latest make-believe story.  The fairy tale du jour is that five Senators want to change their vote on gun control and see “the bottom fall out of their approval ratings.”

Here’s what I think.  The court jester is becoming increasingly delusional.  There aren’t five Senators who want to change their vote, and Biden never fielded any such phone call.

USA Today (via WRSA):

When a National Security Agency contractor revealed top-secret details this month on the government’s collection of Americans’ phone and Internet records, one select group of intelligence veterans breathed a sigh of relief.

Thomas Drake, William Binney and J. Kirk Wiebe belong to a select fraternity: the NSA officials who paved the way.

For years, the three whistle-blowers had told anyone who would listen that the NSA collects huge swaths of communications data from U.S. citizens. They had spent decades in the top ranks of the agency, designing and managing the very data-collection systems they say have been turned against Americans. When they became convinced that fundamental constitutional rights were being violated, they complained first to their superiors, then to federal investigators, congressional oversight committees and, finally, to the news media.

To the intelligence community, the trio are villains who compromised what the government classifies as some of its most secret, crucial and successful initiatives. They have been investigated as criminals and forced to give up careers, reputations and friendships built over a lifetime.

Today, they feel vindicated.

They say the documents leaked by Edward Snowden, the 29-year-old former NSA contractor who worked as a systems administrator, proves their claims of sweeping government surveillance of millions of Americans not suspected of any wrongdoing. They say those revelations only hint at the programs’ reach.

Some are saying that Edward Snowden is a hero.  That word is bantered about too casually for me these days, and frankly, I would never have worked for the IRS, NSA or any division of the DHS (including the ATF).  I’m not being a snob, I’m just pointing out moral choices and the fact that I would never have even been in the position of relinquishing this information to the public.

Furthermore, I’m not sure what he’s telling the government of China right now, but if they asked me I would tell them where they can stick their questions.  You see, I don’t cotton to communists.  Totalitarianism in any form or manifestation is wicked.

No ruler becomes a totalitarian by mistake, looking to do the right and good thing and just overreaching because he let himself go too far.  No.  Totalitarians are what they are by choice.  They are evil men with evil designs, and their plans are wickedness and abomination in all cases and all of the time.  God hates them – every one of them, whether they are Chinese or American.

On the other hand, there are those who say that Snowden is a traitor and villain.  Of course, this is silly talk by totalitarians.  Those who say this don’t really believe it, they just feel threatened that Snowden said the things he did.

Listen carefully.  Edward Snowden didn’t divulge any secrets.  We have all known for a very long time that the government was dumping every one and zero that went across the lines to a government data base.  Snowden simply brought it to the attention of a nation because he found a main stream media outlet that was willing to publish it.

If someone argues that Snowden is a traitor because he divulged secrets being used to protect American citizens, you can tell them that the American government doesn’t now and has not been protecting American citizens.  Anyone who argues that Snowden revealed American “secrets” and should be prosecuted for treason is either a moron or takes you to be a moron.  Snowden simply used his voice to inform the stupid American people that they had better wake up and look the Leviathan in the face.

I’m doubtful that the American people will have the attention span to do anything about it.  As long as idiot workers have their stupid sitcoms to watch at night, and as long as little girls can text naked pictures of themselves to their boyfriends, American will stay fixated on bread and circuses.

David Codrea:

The Department of Defense Trade Controls has “requested” Defense Distributed to remove files associated with its Wiki Weapon Project, an announcement posted on the DEFCAD website today announced …

This development is occurring mere days after the announcement that a complete working 3-D printed firearm, the Liberator, had successfully been built, and follows speculation from earlier today when a “temporarily unavailable” message appeared when trying to access the downloadable files.

Read also David’s War On Guns post about this subject.  Now take a quick look at what Mike Vanderboegh says, and take note that if anyone has files they would like to send to me I’ll take possession and distribute them like Mike.

Totalitarians will be totalitarians.  But they will not win.

UPDATE: The thought occurs to me that Holder is several days late (and if he was one second late it’s game over).  Bit torrent sites will have the files forever now, encrypted.  So it’s game over.  There’s nothing Holder can do about it.

Examiner:

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told Kansas Governor Sam Brownback that the legislation he signed titled the Second Amendment Protection Act, SB 102 will be ignored by the federal government and the Obama administration will enforce firearm confiscation regardless of state laws, the New American reported yesterday.

The Kansas governor signed the Second Amendment Protection Act, SB 102 last month that strengthens the constitutionally protected rights of Kansans to keep and bear arms but it appears that the Obama administration and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder want nothing of it, claiming that the federal government has sole-rights over states rights when it comes to the second amendment matters.

This is good.  It’s a positive sign that Holder is acknowledging the coming conflict.  Kansas and all of the other states who are enacting nullification laws had better listen to me – and listen carefully.

You had better not enact such laws unless you intend to enforce them.  Don’t enact them as emblematic measures, or legislative actions to send a message.  This is a silly way to send a message.

If you don’t intend to enforce them, your own state residents will see you – the lawmakers and law enforcement officers – as a bunch of wind bags who fold like a cheap tent in the slightest wind.  Also, if you plan to appeal this to any of the federal courts, you will lose.  The Marbury versus Madison ruling forever ensures that the totalitarians in Washington will have friends in the judiciary.

No, if you plan to enforce your nullification laws, you had better plan to arrest some federal law enforcement officers and throw them in the state penitentiary with the general prison population – the rapists, pedophiles and murderers.  You will have to be the ones to ignore federal laws and judicial rulings, orders and decisions.  You will have to be prepared to use the power of the state and local law enforcement, unorganized militia and possibly the state national guard.

If you do not currently plan on doing this, just don’t bother.  This isn’t a game folks, and Holder is the one who launched the first shot across your bow.  He’s already fully engaged.

NBC News:

President Barack Obama vowed Thursday during a trip to Mexico to continue pushing for new, tighter gun control rules in the United States, saying his proposals’ recent defeat in Congress was “just the first round.”

Speaking following a meeting with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, whose country has been ravaged by gang violence supported in part by gun trafficking into Mexico, Obama vowed to return to the issue of gun control in the United States.

“The last time we had major gun legislation, it took 6, 7, 8 tries to get passed,” Obama said at a press conference following his meeting with the Mexican president. “Things happen somewhat slowly in Washington, but this is just the first round.”

Any time you feel froggy, big boy.  We won the first round, we’ll win the next one, and the next, and the next.