Harry Reid Drops Scary Looking Gun Ban From Anti-Gun Legislation

You could almost see this coming. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) is a fan of guns, and also knows that legislation like an assault weapons ban could seriously damage the Dems chances for the 2014 mid-terms for Senate races. And, really, how often did you hear him discuss the ban? Beuller?

(Politico) Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said on Monday that a controversial assault weapons ban will not be part of a Democratic gun bill that was expected to reach the Senate floor next month.

After a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Monday, a frustrated Feinstein said she learned that the bill she sponsored — which bans 157 different models of assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines — wouldn’t be part of a Democratic gun bill to be offered on the Senate floor. Instead, it can be offered as an amendment. But its exclusion from the package makes what was already an uphill battle an almost certain defeat.

The ban is supported by more than a dozen Senate Democrats and the White House, as well as gun-control groups.

In fact, S.150 is supported by only 21 other Senate Democrats, none of them named Harry Reid, which is a pretty low number considering how quickly Democrats attempted to use the Sandy Hook tragedy to assault 2nd Amendment Rights. Reid also knows that the Some Scary Looking Guns bill will most likely not make it past a filibuster.

Aside from the ban, three other major pieces of gun legislation have been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee: a gun trafficking bill, a Democrats-only background checks measure and a proposal to increase school safety.

The gun trafficking bill should pass. The background check measure will most likely not be part of the bill brought to the floor, since it is will probably receive no support from Republicans, as it goes very, very far, particularly in retaining people’s information. And there’s a big danger in making the mental health information of citizens readily available to The Government.

Anyhow, we’ll see if DiFi brings her big and complicated scary guns legislation to the floor. It goes after not just the guns you expect, but bolt action and single shot rifles, competition rifles, and lots of shotguns.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

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Memeorandum: Obama Apparently Looks Like Teenage Girls In Bikinis

There’s apparently this big kerfuffle about Satan in the History Channel’s show The Bible. Here it is

I love when Memeorandum puts some random photo next to a story that is totally irrelevant. Here’s the photo

Yeah, that’s from the upcoming movie “Spring Breakers”, an R rated bit of silliness which one source termed “The Movie About Selena Gomez & Vanessa Hudgens in Bikinis”.

Then again, Obama does like to spend lots of time on vacation, and has his own partially taxpayer funded spring break coming up.

And, yeah, I guess Satan does look a bit like Obama, when you stop and look at the still shot. Didn’t notice it myself while watching the show last night.

Read: Memeorandum: Obama Apparently Looks Like Teenage Girls In Bikinis »

If All You See…

…is the flag of the world’s worst carbon polluter which will cause the seas to rise up and cover all the land (especially your posh beach side manor), you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is This ain’t Hell… with a post on the Iraq war.

Read: If All You See… »

White House Lowers Expectations For Obama Israel Trip

Expectations were lowered from “throwing Israel under the bus and supporting Islamists” to “mostly throwing Israel under the bus and supporting most Islamits”

(Fox News) As President Obama heads to the Middle East this week, including his first visit to Israel since becoming commander in chief, the White House is downplaying expectations, saying the president hopes only to help leaders come together to bring peace and democracy to the region.

Will Obama leave the drones at home?

The White House’s apparent strategy is to lower expectations to create breathing room for frank peace talks between both sides that hopefully will include discussions about what it will take to get back to the negotiating table.

Yet, the administration is still whining about Israel expanding settlements. Obama has never moved off his 1967 borders talk. Me, I’m expecting a big gaffe from O on this trip, which the media will dutifully excuse and cover up.

Read: White House Lowers Expectations For Obama Israel Trip »

Global Temperatures Not Matching Warmist Prognostication

Climate doom? Yeah, not happening

(UK Daily Mail) The Mail on Sunday today presents irrefutable evidence that official predictions of global climate warming have been catastrophically flawed.

The graph on this page blows apart the ‘scientific basis’ for Britain reshaping its entire economy and spending billions in taxes and subsidies in order to cut emissions of greenhouse gases. These moves have already added £100 a year to household energy bills.

Let’s see that chart

The graph confirms there has been no statistically significant increase in the world’s average temperature since January 1997 – as this newspaper first disclosed last year.

And now the climate astrologers will attack the Daily Mail and probably talk about “cherry picked data”, Big Oil, etc and so on. Alas

Its source is impeccable. The line showing world temperatures comes from the Met Office ‘HadCRUT4’ database, which contains readings from more than 30,000 measuring posts. This was added to the 75 and 95 per cent certainty bands to produce the graph by a group that amalgamates the work of 20 climate model centres working for the IPCC. (snip)

The awkward fact is that the earth has warmed just 0.5 degrees over the past 50 years. And Met Office records show that for the past 16 years temperatures have plateaued and, if anything, are going down.

None of this proves that the Earth is not in a warm period. It is. The temp increases could kick back on, or they might dip, like during the time period from the 40’s to the 70’s. What this does show is that all the Warmist models, usually obtained using computers with little real world data but with notions that the only thing that can cause increased temperatures during this period are due to Mankind, are flawed. And hysterical. Over-the-top. Prognostications from carnival palm readers. And that CO2 (and other GHG) output from Mankind is not the main driver of the global climate.

The works of Mankind surely have an effect on the local climate. This is known as the Urban Heat Island Effect. Globally? Not so much. Someone needs to create a 12 step process to ween Warmists off their narrow dogma.

Read: Global Temperatures Not Matching Warmist Prognostication »

GOP Growth And Opportunity Plan Looks To Be Mostly Squishy

Perhaps there will be more in it once it is released than media outlets are reporting, but, probably not. The entrenched GOP leadership doesn’t seem to have a clue

(Daily Caller) Why did Republicans fail to stop Barack Obama from winning another four years in the White House and what can they do to get back on the path to victory?

Those are the topics tackled inside the 100-page report being released by the Republican National Committee’s Growth and Opportunity Project on Monday.

“The GOP today is a tale of two parties,” the report states. “One of them, the gubernatorial wing, is growing and successful. The other, the federal wing, is increasingly marginalizing itself, and unless changes are made, it will be increasingly difficult for Republicans to win another presidential election in the near future.”

That’s because the State level Republicans have caught a clue and are sticking with Conservatism, and have been willing to go on the offensive along with standing for Conservative principles. At the federal level, we often nominate non-conservatives. Look, I liked Mitt Romney, he would have been the right guy at the right time for this dismal economy, but much of his past agenda was slightly liberal. He was more JFK than Reagan. His campaign was also too nice, refusing to get down in the mud.

One way to attract younger votes, the report states, is having Republican leaders spend more time going on “The Daily Show,” “The Colbert Report” and MTV, and giving interviews to publications like People and Us Weekly.

Sadly, in today’s Inside Hollywood type politics, this is necessary, and seems the only way to reach the low information voters.

And citing how outside Democratic groups successfully dug up dirt on Republican candidates in 2012, the committee suggests that well-funded conservative groups improve their opposition research on Democrats in order “to define our opponents as early as possible in the process.”

In case the GOP missed it, the groups do. But the GOP mostly refuses to use the research. Nor their own. They want to play nice with the bullies on the left. Here’s where we start getting really squishy

“If Hispanic Americans hear that the GOP doesn’t want them in the United States, they won’t pay attention to our next sentence,” the report states. “It doesn’t matter what we say about education, jobs or the economy.”

Does that sound like they’re getting squishy on illegal immigration? Let’s flip to the Washington Post

To broaden its appeal, the party must reach out to minority voters and others, according to one recommendation in the report obtained by The Associated Press before its release: “We must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform. If we do not, our party’s appeal will continue to shrink,” it said.

And

The RNC will also push for a tone of “tolerance and respect” in the immigration debate….

That theme seems to be infused throughout the report and in many stories about it. In other words, the GOP just needs to become Democrats in everything but name. To give up conservative principles. To approve of legalizing people who are in the US illegally.

The report does offer some smarter ideas, like long term outreach to minorities and younger voters, a better ground game, better infrastructure and modern technology programs (seriously, how many bloggers, from big to small, were ever engaged by anyone in the GOP?)

In his Monday speech, Preibus will say that the perception of the GOP as the “party of the rich” continues to grow, and that focus groups described Republicans as “narrow minded,” “out of touch,” and “stuffy old men.”

“The Republican Party needs to stop talking to itself,” the report says. “We have become expert in how to provide ideological reinforcement to like-minded people, but devastatingly we have lost the ability to be persuasive with, or welcoming to, those who do not agree with us on every issue.”

One cannot be persuasive when one doesn’t stridently defend one’s ideas. Too many of the GOP insiders fail to make their case strongly, often pushing their ideas softly with the idea that the Media and Democrats will attack them. Clue for the GOP: they’ll get attacked regardless by the 90% liberal media, so attack as well as forcefully defend your own ideas.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

Read: GOP Growth And Opportunity Plan Looks To Be Mostly Squishy »

Congrats To The Lonely Conservative For Winning An Award At CPAC!

Was scrolling back through the feedreader (all this attempting to find a replacement for Google Reader messed up links), and noticed that Karen at The Lonely Conservative won for

Best Kept Secret

at CPAC. She gets a plaque from Right Wing News and theTeaParty.net, and a pirate dance and grog from me!

.

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Watcha Reading?

Finished the latest Bob Moore book by Tom Andry (Hostile Territory). It was good, perhaps 4 stars instead of 5.

Omega Days by John L. Campbell was a pretty good zombie book, focusing on several characters and their travails as they cross the San Francisco-Oakland area after a breakout, and these characters come together (or get close to it) near the end. Waiting for part 2.

Started Waiting to Die by Richard M. Cochran, got bored with that one. Started well, bogged down after about 20%.

Reading Quantum Physics and the End of the Universe right now……well, not really, another zombie book, What Zombies Fear. Kinda short, only 193 pages, should have it done tonight. Not great, but more than readable.

How about you?

Read: Watcha Reading? »

If All You See…

…is a banner for planet killing beer which is infused with CO2, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Watts Up With That?, with a post wondering when the Marcott paper will have to be retracted.

Read: If All You See… »

Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

Happy Sunday! Another gorgeous day to remember the once and future nation known as the United States Of America. This pinup is by Gil Elvgren, with a wee bit of help.

What is happening in Ye Olde Blogosphere? The Fine 15

  1. Outside the Beltway has a hissy fit over Rand Paul winning the CPAC straw poll
  2. American Power features Sarah Palin at CPAC
  3. Wake Up America has NRA head Wayne LaPierre at CPAC
  4. This ain’t Hell… features the new Colorado gun laws being unenforceable
  5. Doug Powers has hypocritical rich Dems complaining about taxes
  6. At The Lonely Conservative we have the Feinstein Follies
  7. The Jawa Report has more Islamist riots over Korans
  8. Wild Thing has a big post on St. Patrick’s Day
  9. neo-neocon discusses the latest Iraq casualties report
  10. Goldfish and Clowns has thoughts on CPAC and Blog Bash
  11. Gay Patriot has tolerance from Democrats
  12. Fire Andrea Mitchell takes on the LA Times over gun control
  13. Director Blue has an overlooked snippet from the Cruz-Feinstein rumble
  14. Bookworm Room has the Imperial President and food tasters
  15. And last, but not least, No Frakking Consensus has old time climate religion

As always, the full set of pinups can be seen in the Patriotic Pinup category, or over at my Gallery page. While we are on pinups, since it is that time of year, have you gotten your “Pinups for Vets” calendar yet? And don’t forget to check outwhat I declare to be our War on Women Rule 5 and linky luv posts

Anyone else have a link or hotty-fest going on? Let me know so I can add you to the list. (BTW, since someone asked, the reason I leave links for the previous week up (or you might see a *) is because they are place holders for later in the day or for next weeks. Easier than rewriting all the time. Also, the listing order has to do with how they are added over time, not how good a post is. I just copy and paste from the previous week, then edit. If you see one of the *’s, go ahead and check out the blog anyhow, see if there is an update. I cannot update with my Android during the day.

The posts do take a long time, so, if you want to send me your links for Rule 5 babeage or links, use ye olde email in the header bar (remove the NOSPAM part). Preferably, create the html link so I can copy and paste how you want it to read.

Read: Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup »

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