Hopefully the damage to Scott won't make the difference in this close race, but even a discussion on MSNBC noted that people will remember the charge more than they will remember the reporter's apology. Hot Air has a discussion describing what happened as a failed "gotcha moment."
Friday, October 31, 2014
“Tillis even led the effort to pass the kind of ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws that caused the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.”
The Washington Post has this evaluation of the campaign ad:
The Washington Post has this evaluation of the campaign ad:
It is telling that Senate Majority PAC does not bother to offer any defense of this radio ad. Perhaps it hoped it could slip this past reporters asking too many questions. . . . .Even if Harry Reid isn't defending the ad, Alex Wagner on MSNBC is defending it.
Thursday, October 30, 2014
John Lott's newest piece at Fox News starts this way:
The recent spate of “lone wolf” terrorist attacks both here and in Canada seem to have come out of nowhere. And it’s clear that they have left Americans and Canadians as sitting ducks.
Simply by using the Internet, ISIS has encouraged “lone wolf” individuals. These “wolves” have initiated attacks on their own with no planning or coordination with others and without leaving a trail of clues about their intentions. Law enforcement authorities and our government are not well suited to defend against such individual terror strikes. As Israel has learned about such attacks, there are just too many targets to defend.
So what can be done to protect public safety? When police and the military can’t be everywhere, the last line of defense is having more citizens carry guns.
Just look at the alleged lone wolf attacks in the last few months. A clear pattern seems to be developing: from the beheading a month ago in Oklahoma to last week’s car attack in Quebec, the shooting at the National War Memorialin Ottawa, and the hatchet assault in New York City.
Jerusalem last week also experienced a similar Jihadist attack, with a terrorist driving his car onto a crowded sidewalk.
The announcement Wednesday that the federal government is beefing up security at federal buildings misses the real problem: as we’ve already seen in the last month, there are an uncountable number of targets. Publicly announcing beefed up security at federal building simply makes it more likely that other targets will be hit.
After the attack on Parliament, Canada rushed to give more detention and surveillance power to security agencies. Not only is such a move more costly, . . .
The piece is continued here.
Tom Corbett has consistently been one of the best governors in the country on gun control issues. His signing the new law that ends the patchwork quilt of local gun regulations is just one example of that. It is interesting that gun-control advocates who keep pushing state and Federal gun control laws support letting local gun control laws when it gets them what they want. Unfortunately, Corbett has been unjustly beaten up over other issues, such as privatizing state liquor stores or introducing some competition to public schools. Unions are taking a big stand against him.
From The Blaze:
The bill specifically would prevent local governments from passing gun laws that are more restrictive than the state gun laws and basically erases existing local gun laws.
The bill signing could rally support from gun owners for Corbett in the final stretch of his campaign where he trails Democratic candidate Tom Wolf by double digits in most recent polls.
The National Rifle Association called the bill, “the strongest firearms preemption statute in the country.” . . .
A notice of the public hearing before the Australian Senate later today (5:30 PM EDT US) is available here.
A copy of my testimony is available here.
A copy of my testimony is available here.
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
From Alabama's WVTM TV in Birmingham:
. . . Around 6:30 Sunday night, two men walked into KFC in Ensley and they were armed. At the time, there were no customers inside the fast food restaurant but it was filled with employees. One of those employees was forced into action.
"He wanted to flee for cover. So in the process of fleeing he was shot and after he was shot he grabbed his weapon and returned fire,” Lt. Sean Edwards with the Birmingham Police Department described.
That employee shot one of the suspects in the stomach before both suspects fled the scene.
The injured suspect eventually turned up at a local hospital for his injuries. The second suspect is still on the loose. . . .
What happened at KFC is unusual and the response is not something law enforcement recommends. But in this situation, Birmingham police say this employee's quick action could have meant the difference between life and death. . . . .Thanks to Michael Wahl for this link.
The difference in price between Obamacare plans and these alternative ones provides strong evidence that Obamacare increased insurance costs and that the higher premiums are due to all the new regulations. In any case, this death spiral implies even greater increases in insurance premiums. From Fox News:
A fast-growing, short-term alternative to ObamaCare that allows customers to get cheap, one-year policies could put the government-subsidized plan into a death spiral.
The plans, the only ones allowed for sale outside of ObamaCare exchanges, generally cost less than half of what similar ObamaCare policies cost, and are increasing in popularity as uninsured Americans learn they are required to get health coverage. The catch -- that the policies only last for a year -- is not much of a deterrent, given that customers can always sign up for ObamaCare if their short-term coverage is not renewed.
“Applications rose 30 percent compared to last year,” eHealthInsurance.com Enrollment Specialist Carrie McLean told FoxNews.com.
Other providers said they also see rapid growth in the plans, which have a typical monthly premium of just over $100, compared to traditional plans that cost an average of $271.
“It’s because the product is typically half the cost of ACA plans, and you can chose any doctor or hospital,” Health Insurance Innovations CEO Mike Kosloske told FoxNews.com. . . .This article was written by my son, Maxim.
Similar problems have also been discovered yet again in Maryland (see here for a story by the Baltimore CBS affiliate).
UPDATE: "Nearly 70 percent of voters will be casting ballots by hand on Tuesday" From The Hill newspaper:
States have abandoned electronic voting machines in droves, ensuring that most voters will be casting their ballots by hand on Election Day.
With many electronic voting machines more than a decade old, and states lacking the funding to repair or replace them, officials have opted to return to the pencil-and-paper voting that the new technology was supposed to replace. . .
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
From EducationViews.org:
Since the launch of Obamacare, at least 122 colleges and universities across the nation have cut student and faculty work hours to skirt the federal law’s mandate requiring employers to provide healthcare for people who work 30 hours or more per week.
Those who have seen their paychecks shrink as a result of the Affordable Care Act include students who work on campus at restaurants, bookstores or gyms, teaching assistants, Residence Advisers, officer workers, student journalists, and a variety of other workers, such as part-time maintenance crews and groundskeepers. Educators’ work hours have also been cut due to the mandate, including part-time instructors and adjunct professors.
A long and growing list of 450 companies, school districts, colleges and institutions that have slashed and capped work hours to comply with the employer mandate – which goes into effect next year – has been compiled by Jed Graham of Investor’s Business Daily, whose tally chronicles employers both public and private. . . . .
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Following the CPRC study showing that there were about 11.1 million concealed handgun permits by the beginning of the year, I then showed that the number of concealed handgun permits in just seven states had increased by over 400,000 from the end of 2013 to July 2014. Since then Florida's permits have increased by another 50,000, Alabama's by almost 100,000, Utah's by 31,000, Minnesota's by about 2,800, and Illinois by about 50,000. It is my understanding that California's permits have increased by about 20,000 to over 50,000. That adds another over 250,000 permits from just four states. Taken together all this adds up to to well over 11.8 million permits. There is no doubt that other states have also seen a significant increase over the same period of time. Again, these numbers do not include the six states where people can carry without a permit nor do they include the numbers for a couple of other states that don't report their information.
The Huffington Post is quite happy about this:
The Conservative government appears to be quietly shelving its controversial “Common Sense” gun bill in light of Wednesday’s shooting.
Government House Leader Peter Van Loan’s office was silent Friday about the future of Bill C-42. Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney’s office refused to comment, directing inquiries to Van Loan. The Common Sense Firearms Licensing Act was scheduled to be debated for the first time on the day of the shootings, with three days set aside for discussion. It no longer figures on the government’s stated agenda.
But NDP Public Safety critic Randall Garrison told The Huffington Post Canada on Friday that he understands why the government might want to shelve this bill for the time being.
“I think it’s obvious that the climate where firearms were used to murder a member of the Canadian Forces and to bring an attack into the House of Commons means that the climate for a discussion on a bill that would loosen, in any way, restrictions over the licensing of firearms is unlikely to be something the government wants to do right now,” he said. . . .Unfortunately, these restrictions are the exact opposite of what they should be doing.
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Iowa Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst made this statement in 2012:
"I do believe in the right to carry, and I believe in the right to defend myself and my family -- whether it's from an intruder, or whether it's from a government, should they decide that my rights are no longer important."Paul Begala, always one to misinterpret what someone says when it serves the right political cause, has this comment:
This notion -- that the Second Amendment gives citizens the right to fire upon federal officials, or their local police, or sheriffs or even U.S. military personnel -- is common among right wingers. But it's one thing to hear, say, goofball Ted Nugent honk off that way. (The Nuge, by the way, has boasted about how he avoided taking up arms in defense of his country during Vietnam.) It is another to know that someone with those loopy views is one step away from the United States Senate.
The Washington Monthly blogger Ed Kilgore has asked the right question -- the one any Iowa voter should be putting to Ms. Ernst: "Since you brought it up, exactly what circumstances would justify you shooting a police officer or a soldier in the head?"
Good question, Ed. Is it OK to do so if, say, the Supreme Court stops the counting of votes so as to give the presidency to the candidate who got fewer votes? I don't think so.
How about segregation? If ever American citizens were oppressed by their government it was African-Americans under Jim Crow. Thank God we had Dr. King and not Ms. Ernst leading the civil rights movement. . . .Clearly, with just over a week to go before the election, we have officially entered the political silly season. First, I should note that Begala misquotes Ernst in a small but very significant way. Ernst talks about "a government" taking away her rights, not "the government" as Begala claims. Begala’s misquote makes it appear as if she is referring specifically to our government, when she is obviously referring broadly to governments (including a foreign power).
In any case, Ernst isn't just talking about one right or even some rights that people have, but all rights. She didn't say if the government takes away "one of our rights" or "some of our rights," but clearly "my rights." Presumably, Begala would be upset if Americans tried to fight back against a foreign or domestic totalitarian government that would tried to take away all their rights. But others would think that it is reasonable. Begala asks bizarre questions of whether it is OK for us to shot federal officials if they take away segregation. Seriously? Is this what Begala thinks anyone would define as all their rights?
Begala responded as shown in these Tweets (click on them to enlarge).
Again, the fact that she was referring to "a government," not "the government," seems important here. In addition, she was not referring to losing just one right, but her rights, is also important. Begala's misquoting her creates the wrong impression as referring to "a government" can obviously involve a foreign government taking over and taking away all her rights. Begala did finally acknowledge that he had misquoted her.
UPDATE: Begala later acknowledged that Ernst had been misquoted and CNN changed the text of her quote.
Friday, October 24, 2014
Hillary Clinton: Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs.So incentives don't matter? In the Clinton world, the government creates jobs.
You know that old theory, "trickle-down" economics. That has been tried, that has failed. It has failed rather spectacularly.
You know, one of the things my husband says when people say "Well, what did you bring to Washington," he said, "Well, I brought arithmetic.”
For someone who has made a career of getting people to think that conservatives like Sarah Palin are dumb, it is clear from these pictures that Ms. Fey has trouble knowing how to correctly swipe a credit card. (Click on screen shots to enlarge.) The first picture shows her swiping the card and the second is a close up of how she apparently believes the card should be swiped. Indeed. Ms. Fey appears to a slow learner as the American Express ad shows her twice swiping the credit card the same way.
Now I realize that Tina Fey was possibly just swiping the card the way that the producer wanted her to swipe it, but for someone who convinced Americans that Palin had actually said that she could see Russia from her house, there is some justice in this.
Thursday, October 23, 2014
This news article misses the point that even to the extent that a ban takes some guns from criminals, that is offset by the fact that victims are easier targets. From The Age newspaper:
Banning semi-automatic handguns won't take such guns off the street, Victoria Police has told a federal inquiry into gun violence.
Victoria Police told the submission such a ban "would most likely have little effect on the number of illegally held firearms in Australia".
"The majority of semi-automatic handguns seized are from criminals who are prohibited persons," the submission says. "It is unclear whether a ban on semi-automatic weapons will diminish their ability to obtain such weapons."
It also warns that a ban could make it more profitable to import such weapons illegally, potentially pushing the market even further underground. . . .
"It is likely that 3D printing of firearms will increase, posing a significant risk to community safety and law enforcement agencies," the submission says. . . .By the way, there has just been an attack where three people were killed in a shooting attack in Australia. Again from The Age newspaper:
Two men and a woman are dead and a man has been arrested following a shooting and siege north-west of Melbourne that police say was triggered by a neighbourhood dispute.
Police were called to the property, near Wedderburn and about 210km from Melbourne, about 8.30pm on Wednesday after reports of a minor dispute between neighbours.
Fairfax Media can confirm that Peter Lockhart, president of the Wedderburn Historical Engine and Machinery Society, his wife Mary Lockhart, and Mrs Lockhart's son Greg Holmes died on Wednesday night. . . .
A couple of days ago, news reports came out saying that the Obama administration is buying enough special paper to make 34 million green cards. Here is an amazing video of Ed Henry and Major Garrett nailing WH Press Secretary Earnest on his unwillingness to answer a simple question. This should be on every evening news broadcast.
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
From the WSJ:
Speaking in an interview with foreign media, Mr. Leung reiterated that the student demand for direct input from the public on candidates for the city’s top post was impossible. He said using a nominating committee as required by Beijing gives representation to a wide range of groups.
He warned that if candidates were nominated by the public, the population that earns less than the median monthly salary of $1,800 could dominate the process.
“If it’s entirely a numbers game and numeric representation, then obviously you’d be talking to the half of the people in Hong Kong who earn less than $1,800 a month,” Mr. Leung said.
Hong Kong has one of the world’s biggest wealth gaps and some of the world’s highest property prices, factors that have increased the frustration of young people. . . .
My newest piece at Fox News starts this way:
Top of the page at Fox News.Tensions are still high in Ferguson, Mo., after the Aug. 8 police shooting of Michael Brown. On Friday, it was reported forensics showed Brown’s blood was on both the inside of police officer Darren Wilson’s car as well as Wilson’s gun. The gun had also been fired twice within the car. This evidence hardly squares with early witness accounts that Brown was shot with his hands in the air while he was surrendering.
With forensic evidence finally coming in, Officer Wilson’s shooting Brown is looking as if it were justifiable self-defense. But that hasn’t stopped people from making it a racial issue.
Over the weekend, the New York Times noted some black leaders, such as Congressman Elijah E. Cummings, D-Maryland, “often invoke voting rights and the death of Michael Brown, the unarmed black man shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., as a way to mobilize black voters.”
About a week ago journalists at ProPublica and Slate further fueled the anger many blacks felt about the shooting. Slate’s headline read: “Black Teens Vastly More Likely to Be Killed by Police Than Whites Even After Adjusting for Crime Rates.”
The incendiary finding got massive uncritical news coverage . . . .
The piece was the most read opinion piece at Fox New during the whole day.
From My Fox Tampa Bay:
. . . Deputies said the homeowner, Chris Bane, heard glass breaking at about 5:40 a.m. He grabbed his gun and went into the hallway, where he came face to face with Calvin Yoder.
"The burglar fired a shot and the homeowner returned fire, striking and killing the intruder," said Wendy Rose, a spokesperson for the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office. "Apparently the homeowner has been the victim of burglary recently so he was on alert, he was on edge, and as soon as he heard glass breaking he armed himself to protect himself and his 11-year-old child who was in the home."
Rose said Bane's home had been broken into as recently as Sunday, but deputies aren't sure if Yoder was involved.
Yoder, 22, has had several run-ins with the law; he'd been arrested at least five times and spent several months in prison. . . .
"[Bane and his son] were both uninjured," Rose said. "Clearly they're shaken up and speaking to investigators." . . .
Regarding Colorado:
James O’Keefe, the guerilla filmmaker who brought down the ACORN voter-registration fraudsters in 2010 and forced the resignation of NPR executives, politely disagrees. Today, he is releasing some new undercover footage that raises disturbing questions about ballot integrity in Colorado, the site of fiercely contested races for the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House, and the governorship. When he raised the issue of filling out some of the unused ballots that are mailed to every household in the state this month, he was told by Meredith Hicks, the director of Work for Progress, a liberal group funded by Democratic Super PACS.: “That is not even like lying or something, if someone throws out a ballot, like if you want to fill it out you should do it.” She then brazenly offered O’Keefe, disguised as a middle-aged college instructor, a job with her group. . . .From Illinois:
Early voting in Illinois got off to a rocky start Monday, as votes being cast for Republican candidates were transformed into votes for Democrats.Illegals registered to vote in North Carolina:
Republican state representative candidate Jim Moynihan went to vote Monday at the Schaumburg Public Library.
“I tried to cast a vote for myself and instead it cast the vote for my opponent,” Moynihan said. “You could imagine my surprise as the same thing happened with a number of races when I tried to vote for a Republican and the machine registered a vote for a Democrat.”
The conservative website Illinois Review reported that “While using a touch screen voting machine in Schaumburg, Moynihan voted for several races on the ballot, only to find that whenever he voted for a Republican candidate, the machine registered the vote for a Democrat in the same race. He notified the election judge at his polling place and demonstrated that it continued to cast a vote for the opposing candidate’s party. Moynihan was eventually allowed to vote for Republican candidates, including his own race . . . . .
The voter rolls kept by the State Board of Elections contain 145 names that belong to a certain category of ineligible voter – immigrants in the U.S. under a federal program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, according to elections officials.
Josh Lawson, an SBOE spokesman, said that election officials found out about the number Tuesday night, after the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles ran a specific search for drivers with DACA licenses.
Letters from the SBOE will be sent to the 145 people asking for documentation that they are U.S. citizens, Lawson said.
More people who are ineligible because they are not U.S. citizens may be on the voter rolls. Nearly 10,000 names on the rolls are tagged by the DMV as "legally present," according to elections and transportation officials. But that doesn’t mean that all 10,000 are ineligible to vote at this time. . . .
Michael Zehaf-Bibeau's name was apparently previously known as Michael Joseph Hall prior to converting to Islam. He had been designated a high-risk traveler and that his passport had recently been confiscated. Zehaf-Bibeau had a long criminal history with arrests for robbery, making threats, and various drug offenses. He served time in prison on at least a couple of occasions (67 days for the uttering the threat), but he was still able to obtain a gun. Apparently, he wasn't on the government's watch list of about 90 high-risk individuals and few under the radar.
This attack comes on the heels of another recent muslim convert who used his car to run over two soldiers in Canada, killing one of them.
Sadly, but not surprisingly given these two attacks on soldiers, the Canadian government is urging members of the military not to wear their uniforms when they are off duty. In the attack today, the ceremonial guard who was in uniform was definitely targeted.
Possibly the weapon used in the attack was a shotgun. Reports from the Chicago Tribune to the CBC indicate:
This attack comes on the heels of another recent muslim convert who used his car to run over two soldiers in Canada, killing one of them.
Terrorist ideology inspired a recent convert to Islam to drive his car into two Canadian soldiers, killing one, before he was shot dead by police, authorities said on Tuesday.
Quebec police spokesman Guy Lapointe said the act was deliberate and that one of the two soldiers was in uniform. There were no other suspects.
Public safety minister Steven Blaney called it a “terrible act of violence against our country, against our military and against our values” that was “clearly linked to terrorist ideology”.
Police identified the dead military member as Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent, 53.Martin Couture Rouleau staked out the parking lot for 2 hours waiting for the soldiers. He was apparently arrested in July, but was let go because he hadn't committed a crime and they did not view him as a threat to others.
The suspect, Martin Couture Rouleau, 25, was known to authorities and recently had his passport seized, police commissioner Bob Paulson said. . . .
Sadly, but not surprisingly given these two attacks on soldiers, the Canadian government is urging members of the military not to wear their uniforms when they are off duty. In the attack today, the ceremonial guard who was in uniform was definitely targeted.
Possibly the weapon used in the attack was a shotgun. Reports from the Chicago Tribune to the CBC indicate:
"He was wearing blue pants and a black jacket and he had a double barrelled shotgun and he ran up the side of this building here and hijacked a car at gunpoint," construction worker Scott Walsh told Reuters. . . .In Jerusalem, an Arab terrorist rammed his car into a crowd, killing an infant and wounded several others.
A three-month-old girl, identified by her grandfather as Chaya Zissel, was killed and several US citizens and Israelis were wounded Wednesday evening when a convicted Palestinian terrorist from the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan rammed his vehicle into a crowd of people in the capital. . . .
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Eric Holder: “I think the inability to pass reasonable gun safety laws after the Newtown massacre is, for me, something that I take personally as a failure, and something that I think we as a society should take as a failure.”Given that passing legislation isn't supposed to me Holder's job, possibly this tells up part of the problem with this administration.
If this is even remotely true, there will be a flood of people who think that they will be able to get US citizenship for free. Republicans might challenge all this in court, but with millions of people flooding into the country, no one believes that those millions of new people will be asked to leave. It is clear that the Democrats will be wining a lot of elections in the future. From the UK Mail:
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services plans to seek a vendor to produce as many as 34 million blank work permits and 'green cards' – the paperwork that authorizes illegal immigrants to live and work in the United States – as the White House prepares to issue an executive order after the Nov. 4 midterm elections.
According to a draft solicitation published online, the government agency will look for a company that can produce a minimum 4 million cards per year for five years, and 9 million in the early stages.
President Barack Obama has pledged that he will make a move on immigration reform this year. His original timetable called for a decision by the end of the summer.
Republicans have decried the plan as an 'amnesty' for millions of illegal immigrants, including hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied minors who have come across the U.S.-Mexico border this year. . . .
Monday, October 20, 2014
Everybody values competence, and Obama's approach of never taking responsibility and blaming others might be wearing thin. Obama surely hasn't show competence when claiming that he didn't know what was happening with everything with IRSgate, EPAgate, APgate, VAgate, NSAgate, Secret email gate, StateDepartmentgate, etc. If women are generally more risk averse then men, possibly this incompetence
Sunday, October 19, 2014
From Sylacauga, Alabama (Al.com):
. . . Police Chief Chris Carden . . . said in a news release that a man was walking near Beth Yates Park on West Spring Street Sunday at about 6:15 p.m. when he was approached by Hall, who threatened him with a large stick and demanded money.
The victim pulled out a handgun and aimed it at Hall, who then fled the scene, Carden said. The victim was unharmed, and he returned home to give a detailed description to police of the man who threatened him. Patrol officers located Hall near Ogletree Plaza, matching the man's description.
Carden said . . . "I'm also extremely proud of the victim whom I spoke with today and thanked for his service."
From Lake Elsinore, California (The Press Enterprise):
. . . About 10:45 p.m., a woman called 911 to report a burglary in progress, Riverside County sheriff’s officials said in a news release. The woman said a man was trying to force his way into their home in the 100 block of South Torn Ranch Road and that her husband had armed himself with a handgun.
Sheriff’s officials said the husband, who is in his 40s, warned the man that he was armed and would shoot if he continued. The intruder did not heed the resident’s warning, breaking a window, and the homeowner opened fire, according to sheriff’s officials.
Sheriff’s officials said there is no known connection between the intruder and the residents. Sgt. Mike Manning said the intruder threatened the family and demanded to be let inside. He said the intruder was not armed.
“The Sheriff’s Department is not seeking charges against the homeowner at this time,” Manning said in the release. . . .
From Reuters:
A U.S. government watchdog agency is asking the Air Force to explain why it decided to destroy 16 aircraft initially bought for the Afgan air force and turn them into $32,000 of scrap metal instead of finding other ways to salvage nearly $500 million in U.S. funds spent on the program.
John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, asked Air Force Secretary Deborah James to document all decisions made about the destruction of the 16 C-27J aircraft that were stored at Kabul International Airport for years . . .
"I am concerned that the officials responsible for planning and executing the scrapping of the planes may not have considered other possible alternatives in order to salvage taxpayer dollars." Sopko said in a letter to James that was dated Oct. 3 and released Thursday by his office.
Sopko also asked if any other parts of the planes had been sold before they were destroyed by the Defense Logistics Agency.
Sopko's office has been investigating the matter since December 2013 after numerous non-profit groups and military officials raised questions about funds wasted on the planes. . . .
Thursday, October 16, 2014
The fact that the individual who stopped this robbery was outside his business when he saw what was happening indicates that it is a concealed handgun permit holder who stopped this robbery. From Phoenix, Arizona:
. . . Two armed suspects wearing masks entered the Desert Schools Credit Union near Cactus and Tatum around 3 p.m. and attempted to rob it, police said. A witness then opened fire on the suspects. It is not known if the suspects returned fire.
Authorities said one of the suspects was shot and transported to a local hospital where he died. The second suspect fled the bank and stole a vehicle from someone at gunpoint, damaging several cars as he fled.
That suspect struck a mini-van, which then ran into a wall near 44th Street and Thunderbird. Two people in the mini van were taken to the hospital with minor injuries. The suspect was taken into custody.
The owner of the salon next door to the bank said it was another business owner who opened fire. . . .
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
From SF Gate:
28-year-old woman from Campbell whose car tumbled hundreds of feet down an embankment on Mount Hamilton east of San Jose was rescued and taken to a hospital Tuesday morning after she spent more than 12 hours stuck and injured, officials said. . . .
On Monday afternoon, just after 2 p.m., Campbell police officers received a report from General Motors’ OnStar system saying there had been a rollover accident involving Melissa Vasquez’s Chevrolet Cruze in the area of White Oaks Road and Shelley Avenue in Campbell, said Capt. Gary Berg. . . .
Officers spent two hours searching the area, Berg said. But the pegged location wasn’t right. Police had OnStar honk the car horn remotely, to no avail. A second strategy — having officers run sirens in different locations to see if they could be heard over the OnStar system — also failed. . . .
Officers then contacted Vasquez’s cell company, which provided a location of her phone within a 7-mile radius of downtown San Jose, Berg said. Authorities were still unable to locate the car. Campbell police officers broadcast the vehicle’s description to all agencies in the county, he said.
Then, just before 3 a.m. Tuesday, Campbell police officers received a missing person’s report from Vasquez’s stepmother, with whom she lives, officials said. She said she hadn’t heard from her.
Officer Dave Cameron met with the stepmother and asked if Vasquez had Find My iPhone, an app that allows you to locate your misplaced iPhone using cell signals. The stepmother responded that Vasquez owned an iPad — but she didn’t know where it was. . . .The officer was able to find the woman's iPad, guess her password, guess that she used the same password on her iPhone and they use the "Find My iPhone" app to figure our where she was.
“Amazingly, Officer Cameron was able to guess the correct password after only 3-4 tries using his knowledge of commonly used password combinations,” officials said.
The Find my iPhone app was also locked. But the same password opened it up.
Cameron activated the “lost phone” feature and saw a map of the location of Vasquez’s iPhone — 14555 Mount Hamilton Rd. . . .
This event occurred on Tuesday night. From the Philadelphia Inquirer:
The two alleged assailants were caught a few blocks away, and two additional teenagers were later arrested as accomplices, Harrisburg police said Wednesday.
Arrested were Jamani Ellison, 17; Jyair Leonard, 15; Derek Anderson, 17; and Zha-quan McGhee, 15. They were charged with attempted homicide, conspiracy, robbery, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, and carrying a firearm without a license. They were charged as adults, police said, and officers recovered the gun they used. . . .
Flynn and Bizzarro were returning from a late dinner with four other lawmakers at a Second Street Restaurant about 11 p.m. when a male "pointed a gun first at Flynn and then at Bizzarro and demanded their wallets," according to the statement.
A second male in the meantime was across the street, shouting directions to the gunman.Flynn drew his handgun and "exchanged shots" with the gunman. The lawmakers and the assailants then fled in opposite directions.
Bizzarro and Flynn made it back to the front of their residence and called 911. Flynn told an responding police officer that he had fired his gun and handed over his weapon."Bizzarro and Flynn expressed relief that nobody was struck by gunfire, and they thanked the Harrisburg police for the remarkably quick response," the caucus statement said. . . . .
Monday, October 13, 2014
This is a dramatic story from last Friday in Flint, Michigan. From MLive:
The mother of a woman who told police she was attacked inside an eastside home said she is thankful for neighbors who rushed to her daughter's aid, including a man who held the alleged attacker at gunpoint then chased him down and helped hold him until police arrived. . . .
"If it wasn't for all these people who cared enough to help her, and not turn the other cheek like so many people would, my daughter would be dead right now."
Jessica Abels, who lives near the spot on Cronk Avenue near Illinois Avenue where the woman was found walking bloodied and naked, said she looked out the window when she heard a woman screaming for help around 2 p.m. Sept. 26.
She saw the woman jump out the window of a nearby vacant home, she said.
"Her eyes were all swollen and she had blood all over her and in her mouth," Abels said. "She was pretty messed up." . . .
Several area residents offered the 21-year-old woman clothing and comfort while a man who holds a valid concealed pistols license ordered the suspect out of the house at gunpoint, according to Flint police.
The man took off running but was chased down by the gun-wielding citizen who, with the help of an undercover auto theft police officer, tackled and held him down until police arrived.
Jeffery McSwain, Jr. was arrested and charged with one count of assault with intent to commit sexual penetration. During a preliminary exam on Wednesday, Oct. 8, a Flint District Court judge ruled McSwain will stand trial in Circuit Court on the charge, a 10-year-felony. . . .
Sunday, October 12, 2014
If the Washington Post gives this scandal 1/4th the coverage that it gave former Senator George Allen's macaca quip, Warner will be toast. McAuliffe has already been implicated in the scandal to bribe state Senator Puckett to stay in office. Now it appears that Warner was also directly involved. From the Washington Post:
The son of a former Virginia state senator has told federal investigators that U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner discussed the possibility of several jobs, including a federal judgeship, for the senator’s daughter in an effort to dissuade him from quitting the evenly divided state Senate.
Warner was part of a string of high-powered Virginia Democrats who in early June pressed then-state senator Phillip P. Puckett not to go through with plans to give up his seat in the middle of a bitterly partisan battle over health care.
A Warner spokesman acknowledged Friday that the conversation occurred, but he emphasized that the senator had made no explicit job offer.
Puckett eventually resigned, throwing control of the chamber to the Republican Party and dooming Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s top legislative priority — expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The incident also triggered a federal investigation into Puckett’s surprise exit, which came at a time when Republicans were planning to give Puckett a job on the state tobacco commission and confirm his daughter to assume a judgeship.
On June 6, three days before the state senator’s resignation became official, Warner called Puckett’s son, Joseph, and discussed an appointment to the federal bench as well as a potential corporate position for Martha Puckett Ketron, according to Joseph Puckett’s attorney, Charles E. “Chuck” James Jr. of Williams Mullen.
James said that Warner suggested a post for Ketron at CGI, at high-tech firm Warner helped lure to Southwest Virginia when he was governor a decade ago. . . .UPDATE: After the initial article in the Washington Post, little discussion is occurring. However, Jennifer Rubin as this online discussion.
Then things got very interesting when Warner was implicated in a scandal. The Post reported: “The son of a former Virginia state senator has told federal investigators that U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner discussed the possibility of several jobs, including a federal judgeship, for the senator’s daughter in an effort to dissuade him from quitting the evenly divided state Senate.” Gillespie told Right Turn, “The report that Sen. Warner may have suggested a federal judgeship or other job in relation to a political decision is deeply troubling. We all need more answers on this matter, and he owes Virginians a full explanation of his actions”
At issue is whether the state senator was bribed by one side or the other in his decision to resign and thereby switch control of the state senate to Republicans. Warner’s response was less than a full-throated denial: “Warner spokesman acknowledged Friday that the conversation occurred, but he emphasized that the senator had made no explicit job offer.” Not explicit but perhaps an obvious effort to induce her father not to resign his seat. (“Warner was part of a string of high-powered Virginia Democrats who in early June pressed then-state senator Phillip P. Puckett not to go through with plans to give up his seat in the middle of a bitterly partisan battle over health care.”) . . .
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
An armed gunman got more than he bargained for when he tried to hold up a store clerk at a BP Gas Station in the 3100 block of South Grand early today.
St. Louis Metropolitan Police provided sketchy details and said the shooting happened at 1:30 a.m. when the clerk managed to fire two shots at the gunman wounding him in both legs. The man was taken to a local hospital. His condition is not known. . . .Thanks to Tony Troglio for the link.
DC claims that it lost all the finger prints of everyone who has registered their guns in DC. Emily Miller has the story available here.
Friday, October 10, 2014
CNN's John Blake has a new article on how race and guns. Bob Cottrol is also interviewed for the piece. Here is part of the discussion where he discusses my work:
Some gun rights advocates say contemporary black communities could learn from that tradition of self-defense.
Restrictive gun control laws often victimize black people more than any other group because they suffer disproportionately from violent crime, says John R. Lott Jr., author of "More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws."
A black person is 6.5 times more likely to become a murder victim than someone who is white; and 92% of black murder victims are killed by members of their own race, Lott says.
"Given the anger about police in many black communities, it might make more sense to let the law-abiding citizens in those communities have a greater chance to defend themselves," says Lott, founder and president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, a group that examines the links between gun control and crime.
There are some who say that gun laws actually discriminate against poor blacks by making it more difficult for them to buy guns for protection, he says. He says states do this by raising the costs of concealed gun permits, training and other fees that price out poor minorities.
And gun restrictions don't help black people living in violent neighborhoods, he says. Every time guns have been banned, Lott says, murder rates have increased. When the state of Massachusetts increased the costs of gun ownership, the number of registered gun owners in the state plummeted -- and the state's murder rate rose. Other academics say Lott's research is faulty.
"The big problem," Lott says, "is that law-abiding good citizens, not criminals, obey the gun control laws."
But are gun proponents like Lott really promoting safety or, as one scholar says, are they selling fear?
Gallagher, the sociologist, says gun producers and the NRA create a perpetual state of fear so that people can buy their products. An NRA spokesman, Andrew Arulanandam, was repeatedly contacted but declined to answer questions submitted for this article. . . .
From Fox News:
. . . a large hawk took offense to the quadcopter drone loudly buzzing in the same airspace. The GoPro camera captured the hawk swooping in from above and slamming into the drone. At this point, Schmidt throttled down the props to avoid doing any serious damage to the hawk and the drone is filmed falling to the ground where it lands upside down on a grassy area of the park.
According to Schmidt, the hawk zipped away and was apparently unharmed from the encounter. Detailed in the description of the YouTube video, Schmidt states “As far as I could tell, the hawk came out unscathed,…The quadcopter came out unscathed as well.” . . .
Of course, this isn’t the first time that birds have taken out a drone that was invading nearby airspace. During December 2013, YouTube user Buddhanz1filmed a similar scenario where an entire flock of birds started dive bombing his DJI phantom drone. Also filmed with a GoPro Hero 3+ Black, repeated attacks from the birds ripped the battery connector and control of the drone was slowly lost as it plummeted to the ground below. . . .
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Remember the scandal where the EPA was accused of trying to charge conservative groups fees while largely exempting liberal groups. The fees applied to Freedom of Information Act requests -- allegedly, the EPA waived them for liberal groups far more often than it did for conservative ones. The Obama administration has done what it always does. Delay, delay, delay, and then say that the information has been destroyed and that all this is old news. Of course, this isn't the first time that the EPA has tried to hide information. EPA administrator Lisa Jackson resigned over emails that she tried to hide under a pseudonym. From Fox News:
The EPA is being accused of pulling “an IRS” for reportedly planning to inform the National Archives it has lost text messages being sought in an open-records request.
The Washington Times reported Wednesday that lawyers from the Department of Justice informed a federal court of the EPA’s plans to tell the National Archives it cannot produce the text messages because they have been deleted.
The open-records request in question came from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which is seeking text messages from the devices of EPA administrator Gina McCarthy.
Christopher Horner, a senior fellow for the institute, told FoxNews.com in a statement it is clear the EPA has not learned from the IRS’ mistakes. . . .
“Here we see EPA agreeing to the court to 'do an IRS', which is to say: notify the National Archivist of the loss of every one of Gina McCarthy's thousands of text messages we have discovered she destroyed, just as the IRS finally agreed to notify (the National Archives) about the emails lost from (former IRS official) Lois Lerner's destroyed hard drive,” he said. “The IRS's insincere efforts at following through on Federal Records Act obligations drew the court's ire – the same court now hearing the EPA case. Taxpayers should rightly expect EPA to have learned the proper lesson from the IRS's experience and hope for better.” . . .
the [EPA] argued that text messages are personal and therefore do not have to be stored as part of the agency's official record as required by law. . . .
From Fox News:
The actor is particularly vocal about gun rights. He said a frightening experience at his home in Los Angeles helped shape his opinion on the topic.
“I was terrified. I’m a big, strong guy and my knees were buckling like ‘Oh my gosh,’” Cain said of a night when he awoke to a stranger pounding on his door. “I’m armed to-the-teeth now. At 4 o’clock in the morning come bang at my door, my knees won’t buckle.” . . .This provides a contrast with recent news that Liam Neeson opposing guns. On the other hand, you have people such as Jerry Lewis and Robert De Niro who are gun owners.
My newest piece at Fox News starts this way:
When former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s gun control groups release a report, they consistently garner massive, uncritical news coverage. Alas. With the huge number of factual mistakes in these reports, you would think that reporters would have grown wary of pushing their propaganda.
For example, Bloomberg’s Everytown, Mothers Demand Action, and Mayors Against Illegal guns have been caught padding the number of school shootings. While Everytown claimed 74 school shootings occurred between the Newtown, Connecticut shooting in December 2012 and June 2014, Politifact, which rated Everytown’s claim as “mostly false,” put the number of “incidents such as Sandy Hook or Columbine in which the shooter intended to commit mass murder” at 10.
Every single report released by Bloomberg’s groups has contained major errors. A new report by the Crime Prevention Research Center has corrected Everytown’s July study on “mass shootings”: again, it is no different – lots of errors, but worldwide publicity touting the erroneous claims. . . .
The piece continues here.
So much for all the people who have bought more dangerous cars because they thought they were getting better fuel economy or saving money on gas. From the UK Telegraph:
There are at least a couple US cars with 1 Liter engines.
2014 Ford Fiesta 1.0L EcoBoost
2014 Smart fortwo
UPDATE: Here is something that I found at Green Car Reports:
Drivers looking for savings at the petrol pump could be making a mistake if they swap their estate or 4x4 for a smaller car, according to research which suggests that fuel economy estimates are biased against larger vehicles. . . .
The discrepancy between manufacturers’ claims and the road data was especially stark for vehicles with smaller engines, which generally have to work harder to accelerate.
Tests showed that vehicles with an engine size up to one litre had an average advertised 60.3mpg, but consumption was measured at 38.6mpg in tests, a drop of 36 per cent.
Average consumption for cars with one to two-litre engines was measured at 46.7mpg, 21 per cent lower than the advertised 59.1mpg. This meant they travelled further on the same amount of fuel than the average smaller car. . . .It is also interesting that there is almost no difference in fuel economy between midsize and larger cars.
There are at least a couple US cars with 1 Liter engines.
2014 Ford Fiesta 1.0L EcoBoost
2014 Smart fortwo
UPDATE: Here is something that I found at Green Car Reports:
The worst offenders were vehicles with engines displacing 1.0 liter or less (no sub-1.0-liter engines are available in the U.S.), which missed the mark by 36 percent. Engines between 1.0 liter and 2.0 liters were second worst, at 21 percent. . . .
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
From WTAE.com:
The House voted 143-54 for a bill that would discourage local governments from imposing illegal gun restrictions by giving anyone whose rights are violated by such laws the ability to sue and recover legal fees, as well as reimbursement for any lost income.
That bill also would require the state police to submit mental health data within 90 days to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, run by the federal government. . . .
Apparently, a number of Democrats are not very optimistic about their election prospects. From The Hill newspaper:
Democrats are starting to play the blame game as they face the possibility of losing the Senate in November.
Tempers are running high a month out from Election Day, with polls showing Democratic candidates trailing in the crucial battleground states that will decide whether control of Congress flips to Republicans. . . .
“Yes, you’ve seen pre-emptive finger pointing in the last couple of weeks,” said Gerald Warburg, a former Senate Democratic leadership aide and assistant dean at the University of Virginia’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. . . .
With control of the Senate in jeopardy, some Democrats are eyeing potential scapegoats: Obama’s low approval rating; low turnout from Hispanic voters; overly centrist messaging; and the media, to name just a few. . . .From the New York Times:
. . . As November nears, Mr. Obama and his loyalists are being forced to reconcile that it is not only Democrats in conservative-leaning states, like Senator Mark Pryor of Arkansas, who are avoiding him. . . .
Democratic senators in Colorado, North Carolina and Virginia — states that were pivotal to his success and whose demographics reflect his winning coalition of young, minority and female voters — do not want him. Nor does his party’s Senate nominee in Iowa, where Mr. Obama won twice and whose youth-filled 2008 Democratic caucuses vaulted him toward the nomination.
Some leading Democrats say it would be better for him to make the case for the party’s economic policies safely away from the most crucial races — as he did last week in Illinois.
“It’s not so important where he says it — it’s what he says,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York.
Yet even the slightest injection of the Obama brand into this election seems perilous for Democrats.
Last week, speaking at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., Mr. Obama declared that while he was not up for re-election, his “policies are on the ballot.” Immediately, Republicans pounced, putting the clip in videos to link their rivals to the president. Democrats winced, and David Axelrod, the longtime Obama adviser, acknowledged Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the remark was “a mistake.” . . .
Obamacare has a funny way of reducing the number of people without health insurance. From the Associate Press:
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to eliminate health insurance coverage for some of its part-time U.S. employees in a move aimed at controlling rising health care costs of the nation's largest private employer.
Wal-Mart told The Associated Press that starting Jan. 1, it will no longer offer health insurance to employees who work less than an average of 30 hours a week. The move affects 30,000 employees, or about 5 percent of Wal-Mart's total part-time workforce, but comes after the company already had scaled back the number of part-time workers who were eligible for health insurance coverage since 2011.
The announcement follows similar decisions by Target, Home Depot and others to completely eliminate health insurance benefits for part-time employees. . . .
Monday, October 6, 2014
This is an interesting case where a frequent and well-known customer stopped a robbery, but apparently the people who work at the bar and the other customers can't identify him to police. Presumably this concealed carry permit holder knew that he wasn't allowed to carry in the business and wants to avoid an possible criminal penalties. I know one person who undoubtedly wishes that she had violated the prohibition against carrying a concealed handgun in a bar when Tennessee used to ban it. From KHOU in Houston:
Instead, a customer inside the bar, which is located on the 16500 block of Kuykendahl Road, pulled out his gun and started exchanging fire with the robbers. He shot and killed two of them while the other two ran. Once the heated exchange ended, the patron left, too.
"We're still trying to determine who he is, and why he left the scene," said Harris County Sheriff's Sgt. Robert Spurgeon.
Harris County Sheriff's deputies are looking into whether the same robbers held up a gas station on Cypresswood earlier in the night.
Most folks driving by EJ's Place Saturday afternoon thought the patron there was in the right.
"He has his right to protect himself and his family and his friends," said Charles Webb. "It's just unfortunate something like that happened." . . .
Another longtime customer said that the patron who killed the robbers always stays until closing to walk the female bartenders to their cars. The friend said the man would never start anything, but would always protect his friends. . . .
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Fox News is broadcasting a discussion that I had on Bloomberg's misinformation on guns three times this weekend. They did it yesterday at 5:15 PM EDT, and today at 10:15 PM EDT and tomorrow morning at 1:15 AM EDT. Fox Business will also show the discussion at 9:15 PM EDT.
However, you can watch the two segments from the show on youtube here and here.
Bloomberg's people were invited yet again to participate, but they continue to refuse to appear with anyone to debate. If you would like to embarrass them for refusing to debate anyone, please consider following this link available here and retweeting it.
However, you can watch the two segments from the show on youtube here and here.
Bloomberg's people were invited yet again to participate, but they continue to refuse to appear with anyone to debate. If you would like to embarrass them for refusing to debate anyone, please consider following this link available here and retweeting it.
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