Bloomberg buying support

On: By: admin

In the past Mayor Bloomberg has tried dolling out campaign cash to politicians who support his hot button issues, especially gun control, in hopes of advancing his political agenda.  He’s had limited success going this route.  Next he formed Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which is essentially just a front for Bloomberg himself and is designed to give the impression of widespread political support for his agenda.  MAIG too has met with limited success.

Now it seems he’s come up with a new way of spreading money around through his charity Bloomberg Philanthropies.  A story at the Ledger-Enquirer has some details, “Bloomberg gives mayors $24M grants for innovation“:

“… mayors in Chicago, Louisville, Ky.; Memphis, Tenn.; and New Orleans will split $24 million in grants to fund programs addressing what they have identified as priorities in their cities, from energy efficiency to handgun violence.  New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the grants Thursday as part of the Mayors Project, a new government innovation program at Bloomberg Philanthropies … Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton Jr. … will tackle two priorities: revive areas of Memphis cut off by highway construction and approach handgun violence as a public health crisis …”

Impressive.  He’s figured out a new tax deductible way to try and screw us.  Wonder if he’s trying to set this up as a money funnel similar to what the Joyce Foundation does in bankrolling all sorts of gun control groups?

The Plan

On: By: admin

The Daily Beast reports on Obama’s gun control plan, “Obama’s Quiet Guns Crackdown“:

“… Administration officials told Newsweek and The Daily Beast that starting as early as next week, Obama will begin a series of changes designed to tighten regulations and penalties under current laws—bypassing a fight in Congress with the pro-gun National Rifle Association in the process.  The changes will include:  A national electronic system designed to make background checks for handgun buyers simpler and faster, leaving an electronic paper trail under a law named for James Brady, Ronald Reagan’s press secretary who was wounded in the 1981 assassination attempt on the president …”

We need to watch to see if this becomes defacto registration.

“… A new reporting requirement that federally licensed gun shops report any person who tries to buy two long-arm weapons near the Mexican border over a five-day period …”

Bloomberg loves this.  NRA does not.

“… Tougher sentencing guidelines for straw buyers that Holder’s department pushed through procedural hoops at the U.S. Sentencing Commission earlier this year …”

Going to have see what exactly this is.

This whole thing looks like Obama is trying to shift the discussion away from the Fast & Furious scandal. Brit Hume is right on when he calls it a cover-up:

Not again

On: By: admin

Do we really need to go through this crap again?  From the Boston Globe, “Spokeswoman: Giuliani to decide ‘very soon’“:

“Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani will decide whether to run for president “very soon,” his New Hampshire spokeswoman said today …”

Dear God, why?  His last campaign was a total farce.  The man has no support.

“… Giuliani will visit New Hampshire this Thursday and Friday, yet spokeswoman Alicia Preston said he is not expected to announce his plans on this trip … He will then meet with gun owners, National Rifle Association members, and motorcyclists at Manchester Harley Davidson, followed by a private dinner …”

While I don’t see Giuliani’s campaign going anywhere, this is why it was a big mistake for David Keane to basically say NRA is going to endorse the GOP presidential candidate regardless of their record.

Helmke bows out

On: By: admin

Today is the last day for Paul Helmke at the Brady Campaign.  Despite suffering major defeats in the court and an inability to move an agenda in Congress and most of the states, Helmke insists the antis will win in the end.  A successor has not been named yet.  I don’t think Colin Goddard will be it.  He’s a bit young and I don’t believe he has the management skills necessary to run their operation.

In any event, Paul decides to leave us laughing with these closing remarks:

… “I am not trying to ban all guns,” he said. “I don’t want to take everyone’s guns away. I’m not anti-gun. And I’m constantly having to say Brady doesn’t mean we are going to disarm everybody …” …

Announcements coming soon?

On: By: admin

USA Today reports, “Obama aide: Gun legislation in ‘near future’“:

“… White House spokesman Jay Carney said a special task force has been “working through these complex issues, and we expect to have some more specific announcements in the near future.” …”

Wonder if that “special task force” has anything to do with Project Gunrunner?

“… the real action in Washington this week isn’t the partisan wrangling over the debt ceiling but something — literally — even more incendiary: Operation Fast and Furious, which seems about to explode right in the face of Attorney General Eric Holder — and maybe other administration officials, too … With the Obama administration wedded to the fiction that 90 percent of the guns Mexican cartels use originate here — they don’t — many suspect that “Fast and Furious” was a backdoor attempt to smear domestic gun aficionados as part of its stealth efforts on gun control by executive fiat …”

I still cannot see Obama coming out with a grand scale gun control proposal along the lines of the Clinton AWB.  With his approval ratings heading south, I can understand the need to shore up his base but pandering to the antis isn’t the way to do it.  They have no organized constituency like big labor, no voter base to turn out and no money to throw around.  It makes little sense for him to reach out to fringe groups which cannot give him the political support he needs if he wants to be re-elected next year.

Not going to happen

On: By: admin

Some rumormongering from Fred Dicker, “Obama to ask Cuomo to be 2012 running mate: sources“:

“… Former New York GOP boss William Powers … was effusive in his praise of Cuomo’s successes in the just-ended legislative session, and in his prediction of the freshman governor’s political future … “I don’t think there’s any doubt Obama is going to pick him as his running mate. The president is in trouble and [Vice President Joseph] Biden doesn’t bring anything to his ticket.   “The president will call him up later this year and say, ‘Andrew, you have to do this for the good of the country.’ What’s Andrew going to say, ‘No?’ ” …”

Yes, he’d say No.

Andrew Cuomo’s political stock is rising, Obama’s is sinking.  There’s simply no reason for Cuomo to tie his political fortune to the Obama administration.  If he were to join an Obama ticket he would inherit all of Obama’s negatives.  Assuming he is even interested in running for president, Cuomo could just wait until ’16 or later and run on his own record which thus far has been considerably better than I and most other people expected it would be.

That being said, I don’t see Obama dropping Biden from the ticket unless a major health issue arises.  First off, who would want to run with him?  Obama’s popularity is clearly on the decline.  Second, it wouldn’t help his re-election bid.  The problem with the Obama administration is Obama.  Biden is background noise.

Why MSNBC’s ratings are in the tank

On: By: admin

Why are MSNBC’s ratings in the tank? They give airtime to Mayor Bloomberg’s guns & terrorists PSH.

Principles my ass

On: By: admin

Seen over at MidHudsonNews.com:

“The chairman of the State Conservative Committee said he expects the party to pull its endorsement of State Senator Stephen Saland (R-Poughkeepsie) for his vote in support of gay marriage in New York … “The Conservative Party has to be true to its principles and those principles are supporting marriage between a man and a woman and we can no longer endorse people who don’t respect that or honor that commitment,” [Mike Long] said …”

Putting aside the issue, this statement is laughable.  The last thing Mike Long or the CP does is stand on principle as is evidenced by the people their party has endorsed over the years (remember Rick Lazio?)  They don’t support the RKBA and I cannot recall them ever trying to hold their endorsed officials accountable on it.  They give lip service to cutting taxes, but don’t follow up at election time when giving out endorsements.  They make some noise about abortion, but generally don’t follow up with that at election time either.  They only thing they’ve been pretty consistent on is dumping on homosexuals.  While I don’t doubt that is in fact an issue for them, what Long & Co. are really bent out of shape about is the fact that Saland and a few other Republicans decided to give them a very public middle finger.  For that reason alone Saland deserves a round of applause.

Mistake to say this

On: By: admin

Washington Whispers reports on NRA President David Keene’s goal to knock off Obama next year:

“… “Our major goal is to defeat Obama because if he’s re-elected, he’s going to attempt to change the Supreme Court.  All he needs is one vote and he will rewrite the Second Amendment,” says Keene …”

While this is certainly true, it is equally true that an antigun Republican could do the same thing.  By announcing their intentions this early in the campaign season, they’re essentially acknowledging that any Republican including antigun Mitt Romney will be acceptable to them even if they have terrible public records on the issue.  Any leverage NRA had in a possible GOP primary is now gone as is any they had for influencing the V.P. pick.  This was seriously stupid of Keane to open his mouth.

Recess & recap

On: By: admin

The state legislature has gone into recess.

We continued to make small, positive advances in Albany.  The only gun control bill to come up was microstamping A-1157A and it took much arm twisting to get 77 Yea votes, the slimmest majority for any antigun bill I can recall over the past 20 years.  Big game rifle hunting bills for several counties passed giving us some minor victories.  If we continue at the same pace next year, and have good turnout at lobby day, next year may be the first year in who knows how long that no gun control bills come up.