Will 08 Be Different Than 06?

Posted on February 14, 2007 by Phil Kadath

It seems that the FEC will finally be getting around to looking at the 527s that did most of the dirty work for the candidates in the 2006 elections. Groups like MoveOn.Org will be under the glass, as will the Swift Boat Vets.

The Federal Election Commission said yesterday that it will police “527” groups, political organizations that largely operated outside the new campaign finance limits during the 2004 presidential election, by looking at how the groups word their appeals for contributions, how they describe themselves, and how they spend their money.

If the groups make clear that they are advocating for or against a specific candidate, the FEC would regulate them.

Of course, getting rid of McCain-Feingold would make this irrelevant, but the fed never passes up a good opportunity to make new laws.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Those eevviill toy companies

Posted on February 14, 2007 by Phil Kadath

Already teasing kids with toys to be coming out just before Christmas

Long time readers know that I grew up here in the Seattle Metro area, so I was amused when the Grouchy Old Cripple posted this announcement from Mattel about a new line of Barbies. While his focus on models being offered for his hometown of St. Louis, I went to Mattel’s site and discovered that they will be offering like models of Barbie’s for the greater Seattle area.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Mattel recently announced the release of limited-edition Barbie Dolls for the Seattle, Washington market:

“Medina Barbie” – This princess Barbie is sold only at Pacific Place and Bellevue Square. She comes with an assortment of Kate Spade, Prada and LV Handbags, Rolex watch a Lexus SUV, a long-haired foreign dog named Honey and a 25,000 sq ft. patio home. Available with or without tummy tuck and face lift. Workaholic Ken sold only in conjunction with the augmented version.

“Issaquah Barbie” – The modern day homemaker Barbie is available with Ford Wind star Minivan and matching gym outfit. She gets lost easily and has no full-time occupation. Traffic jamming cell phone sold separately.

“Lakewood Barbie” – This recently paroled Barbie comes with a 9mm handgun, a Ray Lewis knife, a Chevy with dark tinted windows, and a Meth Lab Kit. This model is only available after dark and must be paid for in cash (preferably small, untraceable bills) unless you are a cop, then we don’t know what you are talking about.

“Kirkland Barbie” – This yuppie Barbie comes with your choice of Bentley convertible or Hummer H2. Included are her own Starbucks cup, credit card and country club membership. Also available for this set are Shallow Ken and Private School Skipper. You won’t be able to afford any of them.

“Renton Barbie” – This pale model comes dressed in her own Wrangler jeans two sizes too small, a NASCAR t-shirt and tweety bird tattoo on her shoulder. She has a six-pack of Bud light and a Hank Williams Jr. CD set. She can spit over 5 feet and kick mullet-haired Ken’s butt when she is drunk. Purchase her pickup truck separately and get a confederate flag bumper sticker absolutely free.

“Belltown Barbie” – This collagen injected, rhino plastic Barbie wears a leopard print outfit and drinks cosmopolitans while entertaining friends. Percocet prescription available as well as warehouse conversion condo.

“Lynnwood Barbie” – This tobacco-chewing, brassy-haired Barbie has a pair of her own high-heeled sandals with one broken heel from the time she chased beer-gutted Ken out of Renton Barbie’s house. Her ensemble includes low-rise acid-washed jeans, fake fingernails, and a see-through halter-top. Also available with a mobile home.

“Fremont Barbie” – This doll is made of actual tofu. She has long straight brown hair,
arch-less feet, hairy armpits, no makeup and Birkenstocks with white socks. She prefers that you call her Willow . She does not want or need a Ken doll, but if you purchase two Wallingford Barbies and the optional Subaru wagon, you get a rainbow flag bumper sticker for free.

“Rainier Beach Barbie” – This Barbie now comes with a stroller and infant doll. Optional accessories include a GED and bus pass. Gangsta Ken and his 1979 Caddy were available, but are now very difficult to find since the addition of the infant.

“Enumclaw Barbie” – She’s perfect in every way. We don’t know where Ken is because he’s always out a-‘huntin’.

“Capital Hill Barbie/Ken” – This versatile doll can be easily converted from Barbie to Ken by simply adding or subtracting the multiple snap-on parts.

Posted in Life in the Atomic Age | 4 Comments

It’s Done

Posted on February 13, 2007 by Phil Kadath

Finially.

Everything seems to have loaded up and gotten settled in its storage place. Let’s hope it stays that way.

4 hours of video editing. 2 hours of audio editing. And 18 hours of loading it onto GoogleVideo’s servers at 50k per second.

We will return to regular blogging tomorrow. What, you think I haven’t been saving links since Saturday?

Posted in Life in the Atomic Age | 2 Comments

SB 5197: Updated and Complete

Posted on February 12, 2007 by Phil Kadath

Last Thursday, Mr. Completely and I went to Hearing Room #4 in the John C. Cherburg Building (which also houses the Washington State Senate offices) to hear testimony on SB-5197, the Anti-Gun Show bill.

Washington State has one of the highest, if not THE highest, NRA per capita membership rates in the nation. Firearms bills, be the pro-gun or anti-gun, are always a filler of seats in the hearing rooms. The Democrats in the Washington State Legislature have tried to pass a bill of this nature multiple times in the past, and since their ascension to supermajority staus in the last election, this year was no different.

However, this time they figured that if they tried to sneak it through the Labor, Commerce, Research and Development Committee instead of the Judiciary Committee, that maybe it would not have such a rough go. They also scheduled the hearing for mid-afternoon late in the week, quite probably in the hopes that not too many folks would be able to make it down.

Unfortunately for their plans, and thankfully for the Bill of Rights, that wasn’t the case.

Around 400 or so pro-Bill of Rights supporters, men, women and children, showed up full of vim and vigor, filling two hearing rooms as well as at least one conference room. Because of the late hour for the start of the hearing, testimony was limited to select members of the pro/con groups, and even though they were out numbered by at least 20-to-1, the anti-gun groups were given equal time for testimony.

You will never see a hearing for a hotly contested bill such as this such this one scheduled for any time in the AM for the sole reason that the folks running the committee can then control the debate as such.

And that debate is what I have recorded here.

I was able to capture approximately one hour and fifteen minutes of the hearing on video. Unfortunately, I did not know if they would even let me into the building with my video camera, so I did not bring my tripod along. There is some wobble in the first part of the handheld video which ends when I was able to find a decent place to set the camera down. Also, the battery died before the hearing was over. Luckily, I had brought my MP3 player and have another thirty minutes of audio covering the remainder of the hearing. Since Mr. C and I were both stuck in one of the conference rooms, there is plenty of audience response, which is what makes this video/audio so great to watch/listen to.

I have loaded these videos up onto GoogleVideo (mostly because I already had an account with them, AND because they will let me upload 300+ MB vids onto their server, but also because watching the “Brady Backed People” get their asses handed to them on their own turf is what that said anti-gun corporation probably would not like you to see). I am not, however, able to find an embed code for these videos, so I have supplied links instead.

As for the audio, I have them loaded up on my own server. Feel free to listen to them as you like, but if you could save them on your computer and not listen to them of off the server repeatedly, that would be great. Also, if you have your own site, I would encourage and appreciate it if you loaded them up at your place to save my bandwidth. A simple link back here will suffice.

I have supplied short descriptions of each of the 18 parts (13 Video/5 audio) and you can choose which ones to watch/listen to, although the whole hearing was quite entertaining.

So here we go

Video

Part 1 – Just over 7mins.

Committee Chair and Professional Gun Bigot, Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D) from the 36th LD begins the hearing by mentioning the time constraints and asks for the SB-5197 to be read to the committee. Jennifer Strus, Committee Staff Member does so after reading the current law.

The other committee members ask a couple of questions of Ms. Strus and Senator Kohl-Welles interupts Senator Janea Holmquist (R) of the 13th LD, causing Senator Holmquist to rephrase her question. The answer from Ms. Strus is rather funny. Senator Rosa Franklin (D) of the 29th LD asks a question about if this bill will effect people selling firearms out the back of a vehicle (which has been known to be a problem in her district). That answer is quite laughable.

Part 2 – Just under 5mins.

Senator Kohl-Welles sets up the rules for the hearing and demands “decorum” from the audience. Senator Clements (R) of the 14th LD makes a statement about how he will listen to both sides, despite being a member of at least two of the anti-SB-5197 groups.

Part 3 – Just over 5mins.

Senator Kohl-Welles calls SB-5197’s sponsor, Senator Rodney Tom (D) of the 48th LD, and Senator Adam Kline (D) of the 37th LD, one of the co-sponsors (and Senator Kohl-Welles’ historical cohort in gun bigotry), up to speak about the bill.

Senators Tom and Kline put out some of the Ceasefire Washington propaganda into the official record.

My apologies for the close-up of my left index finger for a couple seconds in this shot. I had found a stable place for the camera to sit and was wedging my MP3 player up under it.

Part 4 – Just under 7mins.

The Committee members ask their questions of the Senators. Starting with Senator Mike Hewitt (R) of the 16th LD.

More Ceasefire Washington/Brady propaganda gets spewed and the underlying motive for this entire bill is revealed.

Every handgun purchase at an FFL in Washington State is registered with the county it was purchased in AND the state. These records are entered and stored in a computer database. When you get pulled over for a traffic stop, if you have a Washington State issued Concealed Pistol License, the officer can request, via his onboard computer, every pistol you have purchased through an FFL in Washington State.

The sponsors and proponents of SB-5197 repeatedly state that they want “to get information” about how many guns are bought and sold in Washington State gun shows. Methinks that that is not the only information they want.

Part 5 – Just under 2 1/2 mins

Senator Kohl-Welles makes her statement as a co-sponsor of the bill and fills in the record with more of the Ceasfire Washington propaganda. You’ll notice that she hasn’t a clue what the NICS acronym stands for.

Part 6 – Just under 6 1/2 mins.

Senator Kohl-Welles introduces the first panel. Jenny Burdick, Oregon State Senator from that state’s 18th LD takes up half of the first panel’s time talking about a similar bill she was able to get passed via a vote of the citizens in Oregon after the Oregon State Legislature killed the one she proposed there.

Part 7 – Just over 7 mins.

The rest of the first panel speaks. Members include: Bob Ricker of the anti-gun group which masquerades as a pro-gun group, The American Hunters and Shooters Association; Dr. Garen Wintermute, Director of the UC Davis Violence Resource Program; and Dr. Warren Appleton, Director of Emergency Services at Evergreen Hospital.

Bob Ricker contends that since there are 70 Million gun owners in America and the NRA has only 4 Million members, that 66 Million gun owning Americans are more in favor of gun control than the NRA. What a twit. And the stupidity doesn’t end with his statements, folks.

Part 8 – Under 3mins

The Committee asks questions of the panelists, starting with Senator Karen Keiser of the 33rd LD, asking the ever-idiotic “.50 caliber rifles shooting down airplanes” question. The panelists stick to their doom and gloom predictions about what will happen if this bill doesn’t pass, even though not one single crime has ever known to have been committed with a firearm bought at a Wahington State gunshow, airplane or not.

Part 9 – Just under 6 mins.

The second panel is seated. This video is all Brian Judy of the NRA. Mr. Judy talks a tough game, starting right in with correctly labelling the non-existant “Gun Show Loophole” the “Private Transaction Loophole”. The writers and sponsors of SB-5197 already know of this “Loophole” and really dislike the fact that Brian Judy comes right out and tells them that we all know that they want us to have to register our guns with them and that this is just the first step in their plan.

My only real beef with Mr. Judy is that he takes up precious testimony time that could be used by the other panelists to answer questions that were asked previously in the hearing and have a 99% chance of being asked of him during the untimed Q&A session after this panel’s 12 minutes is over.

Still very good and very forward testimony by Mr. Judy.


Part 10 – Just over 6mins

The other panelists in the second panel are as follows: Ed Owens of the Hunters Heritage Council; Mike Brown from Doctors for Sensible Gun Laws; and Dave Workman, former NRA Director and Senior Editor of Gun Week.

Rock solid testimony from all three of these panelists. Ed Owens represents more people than the NRA does in Washington State; Mike Brown quite literally slaps down everything the previous anti-2A panel’s doctors said and Workman adds a little necessary levity to the proceedings, due to Senator Kohl-Welles bumping heads with the previous three Pro-2A panelists.


Part 11 – Under 6mins

Questions from the comittee for the pro-2A panelists, and some damn good ones. Starting with Senator Don Benton (R) of the 17th LD, who is not on the LCR&D Committee, steps into the hearing to ask two very good ones. Senator Kohl-Welles counters with abject ignorance of the issues being discussed.

Part 12 – Just under 7mins

Senator Clements closes the Q&A session with a statement. The second anti-2A panel is introduced and seated. There are only two panelists here (Ceasefire couldn’t even find a total of 8 people willing to speak) and the first panelist is none other than Seattle Police Chief, Gil Kerlikowske, hereafter to be known as “Numbnuts”, due to his utter hatred of firearms, as witnessed by the entire nation, when he refused to wear his duty pistol outside of his police cruiser, leaving it in the vehicle, where it was subsequently stolen from while the vehicle was parked it outside the SPD-HQ. That and I can never type his name correctly on the first try.

Part 13 – Just under 5mins

The other panelist is Officer Mike Burris from the Auburn Police Department. Officer Burris is a stand-in for Auburn Police Chief, Jim Kelly, who was busy at another hearing. With both Numbnuts and Officer Burris speaking, they can only supply 7 minutes of testimony, and forgo the last five. We then go into questions from the committee, starting with Senator Holmquist and her very excellent question that Numbnuts refuses to comprehend and the Senator tells us about her family gun show tradition.

You should also look at about half way through this segment at the chair on the lower left hand side of the committee seats. The woman sitting there is Senator Pam Roach of the 31st LD. Like Senator Benton, she is only visiting this hearing to ask a couple questions.

The local left-wing gun bigots call her “Pam the Pistol” because she has the audacity to proudly be the holder of a Washington State Concealed Pistol License as well as memberships in the Washington Arms Collectors and a number of local ranges. In the first bit of audio that follows, you’ll hear that she raises a bit of a ruckus with her couple of questions.

Audio

I fired the MP3 recorder up just before the camera went out so as to have continuity. In the future, not only will I be bringing an extension cord and the AC adapter for the camera, I will also be recording both video and audio for the full hearing.

Sorry for the scratching in certain sections. This was my first time recording with the thing and I wanted to make sure it was recording. The scratching comes from me spinning the dial to bring the recording screen up. I did not know it would make such a noise and will refrain from that on future occasions.

Audio Part 1 – Just under 7mins. 30sec.

Questions to the panel from the committee. Senator Jim Clements asks Numbnuts a question that has Numbnuts admitting that there is no problem with gun show guns being used in crime “but that we need to stop it before it becomes a problem” or some such nonsense. Senator Roach asks the first of her questions to Officer Burris. He answers that, personally, he has no problem with private citizens selling firearms to one another at gun shows. Senator Roach continues with her questions until she is pretty much verbally tossed from the hearing by Senator Kohl-Welles.

Great stuff. Someone in the background yells “Pam for Governor!” Frankly, I wouldn’t mind that a bit.

Audio Part 2 – Just over 4mins 30sec.

Second pro-Bill of Rights panel. And the panelists are: Ray Carter, Founding President of Cease Fear (aka The Pink Pistols); Joe Horn, retired LS County Sheriffs Deputy, Mike McKinney, retired LA Police Officer, and Joe Waldron, President of the Washington Arms Collectors.

Joe Waldron takes the first bite at the apple in this piece and does one hell of a job. He talks about Project Safe Neighborhoods and how SB-5197 would double up the paperwork on Curio & Relic dealers.

Audio Part 3 – Just under 4mins

Ray Carter steps up to the plate. Users of the term “Gun Bigot” will thoroughly enjoy this piece.

Audio Part 4 – Just over 4mins

Joe Horn AND Mike McKinney both speak and are repeatedly interrupted by Senator Kohl-Welles.

Audio Part 5 – Just over 7mins

Senator Clemens opens up the questions for this panel with a statement of “No Confidence” in SB-5197. Despite Senator Kohl-Welles’ attempts to re-invigorate the debate, this bill has been, for all intents and purposes, called dead by Senator Clements.

In the last minute of this last piece, Joe Waldron reminds the committee that the Washington State crime rate is less than half the national average and that California’s is 2.5 times our rate, and that if they are going to import California style gun laws, the result will be a California style crime rate.

On a personal note, one thing that truly bothered me in this hearing was Senator Tom and Numbnuts repeated use of the “2400 NICS denials last year in Washington State” figure. No one who was allowed to speak thought to ask the question as to how many arrests were made from those denials. I would feel very comfortable saying that out of the 2400, the number of arrests will be very close to zero.

I do hope you enjoyed these. I wish that the uploading had gone a bit smoother, but such is life of an self-funded blogger. Maybe if I’d quit calling Chief Kerlikowske “Numbnuts” somebody’d toss money my way.

But criminals would start buying large quantities of their firearms at gunshows before that’ll happen.

Posted in Have Gun, Will Travel | 8 Comments

Part 1 Complete

Posted on February 11, 2007 by Phil Kadath

I’ve got the videos of the SB-5197 Anti-Gun Show Bill Committee debate from Thursday edited and ready to load up to the host. The problem is that the host doesn’t seem to be accepting.

I’ve tried my GoogleVideo account and it sends me to a DNS screen when I hit the “upload” button and YouTube says that these files are too large. I’ve whittled them down to 12 vids of 4-6 minutes each, and I can’t get them any smaller.

If you know of any video hosting service that hosts 300MB vids and isn’t a royal pain this ass, please e-mail me or leave note in the comments.

I’ll be loading them up later today, when I get back from, coincidentally, a gun show.

Have a good one folks.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Lying Liars and Their Enablers

Posted on February 11, 2007 by Phil Kadath

For years now, the leftists have tried to claim that all of the stories of Vietnam Veterans returning home and being spit on were just urban legends. A few years back, some uber-leftist apoligist authored a book claiming that he could find absolutely no evidence of spitting on vets happening. None.

Some dingbat at Slate named Jack Shafer recently wrote an article there which he supposed would be used as something “Definitive” that leftist and their apologists could use on this here interweb to quickly dispel anyone who brought it up.

The trouble is, both Shafer and the author of the book from a few years back were wrong. Or too stupid to do any research.

First, Dan Reihl busted their urban-legend-busting myth with a number of direct links at Reihl World View.

Having seen how easily Reihl was able to find these, Jim Lindgren of The Volokh Conspiracy did a search, and came up with oodles more evidence that, YES, multiple Vietnam Veterans were spit on when they returned to the US.

This still isn’t enough for most leftist apologists, and especially not enough for Jack Shafer, and he placed an order in to have the goalposts moved back. To characterize his response best, I think would have to involve quoting Ace of the AoSHQ

Original Claim: There are no contemporaneous journalistic reports backing up the “urban legend” of Vets being spat upon

Revised Claim, now that such contemporaneous reports have been produced: There are no court documents proving the Vets who made these charges were not simply flat-out lying

Jack Shafer, you’re an asshole. You lied (or were too ignorant to tell the truth, which is the same thing) and you got stepping on your dick.

Go crawl back into whatever hole you scrambled out of and go nurse your intellectual bruises. In the meantime, don’t even try to call yourself a journalist, or a researcher, or even a decent human being.

And to the rest of the apologists for the gobbers back in 1966-1974

finger.gif

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

I’ve Done Some Goofy Things

Posted on February 11, 2007 by Phil Kadath

But I’d never try to sneak into the Barrett Firearms factory

Gun manufacturer reports suspicious people try to enter building

A statewide alert was issued Thursday for subjects who asked questions of Barrett Firearms Manufacturing employees and tried to enter the facility, according to the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Department.

According to a release issued today, the subjects trying to enter the facility were described as being of Middle Eastern descent.

The sheriff’s department is working with the manufacturer and the Department of Homeland Security concerning the situation. Extra patrol of the facility is underway.

Deputies were called to the plant, which manufactures the military’s M107 .50-caliber sniper system, Thursday morning to gather information about the Wednesday afternoon incident.

A plant employee was leaving the building about 4 p.m. when he encountered a man who appeared to be Middle Eastern who’d arrived in a white dually pickup truck towing a white utility trailer.

The subject asked questions about what was manufactured there, and when refused information by the BFMI employee began demanding entry to the building.

When the BFMI employee began studying the man’s truck, the subject became upset and was told to leave the area. There were two other male subjects in the dually and they had luggage in the bed of the truck.

Posted in Freaks, Mutants, and Morons | 3 Comments

This is Justice

Posted on February 10, 2007 by Phil Kadath

“Social Activists” have some very twisted ideas of what the word “Justice” means.

To some, it means soending my tax dollars to house those without the want to do it themselves.

Others also believe that if I, someone who was born in 1972, give a chuck of my money to someone who was also probably born around the same time, for the sole reason that they’re possibly a descendant of someone who was born a long time ago and was a slave, because my skin color matches the skin color of the people (who were a minority of white US population at the time) who owned slaves, that that is justice.

I, on the other hand, do not have my head in my ass and believe that this is justice

Also Thursday, police arrested a homeless woman on an outstanding warrant related to a 2005 misdemeanor theft charge from Lacey, said Lt. Phil Comstock of the Lacey Police Department. Carol Harmon, an outspoken supporter of the camp during Tuesday’s City Council meeting, was taken to Nisqually Jail, which Lacey contracts with to house misdemeanor offenders.

Harmon lived at the camp and had told the council, “I’m not going anywhere.”

Headmistress SondraK has been covering this spectacle of stupidity which has consisted of the attempt to ban sleeping on sidewalks in downtown Olympia, which the vagrants who hang out there took to mean that they could set up a tent city in the central park nearby. When the vagrants were told to “get the funk out”, they instead dug in their heels and stated they have every right to turn public property into their dumping and living grounds.

Surround the encampment with the city’s garbage trucks, send riot-suited officers in with spray bottles filled with kerosene. As they are walking through, spraying everything down, they roust the vagrants out and then set a match to the place.

The vagrants have shown that they have no respect for nothing or anyone else but themselves and their own useless “lifestyle choice”. To return the favor is the only “just” course of action.

Posted in Freaks, Mutants, and Morons | 3 Comments

Can you say?

Posted on February 10, 2007 by Phil Kadath

“Fuck You, Nancy. That day is already taken!”

I knew you could.

Now find out why you’ll want to

Pelosi calls for ‘mandatory action’ to control greenhouse gases, hopes for Energy Independence Day

Citing “a growing chorus of voices,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called Thursday for “mandatory action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution”and said she wants legislation ready for July 4th – which she declares “Energy Independence Day.”

The Speaker’s remarks came at the beginning of a hearing of the House Committee on Science and Technology this morning.

A hearing which Pelosi had to be driven to in a large SUV.

What a shitheel.

Posted in The Global Warming Death Cult | 2 Comments

Failure to Communicate

Posted on February 10, 2007 by Phil Kadath

I thought things were bad when I went to go get my license renewed and most of the applicants couldn’t speak english.

It looks like the Brits have an even bigger problem

One in ten doctors ‘may not have good English’

One in 10 doctors allowed to practise in Britain cannot speak good enough English, it has been claimed.

A total of 23,000 medics from Europe are working here without a basic grasp of the language, according to influential health regulators. They are calling for a change to European law to ensure all doctors arriving from the continent undergo language tests.

It comes as a coroner also urged the Government to change the law on foreign doctors being allowed to practise in the UK without taking English tests, following the death of a French GP’s patient.

Opponents of socializing medicine in America have had the statement that handing your healthcare over to the government would turn a doctor’s visit into a trip to the DMV.

While not exactly matching, this is proof that that analogy is close enough for any sane person to oppose it. Especially since the statists who want “Single Payer Healthcare” are also the ones who oppose making english the official national language.

Found at The Interested Participant

Posted in The Left is Never Right | Leave a comment