Congratulations, President-Elect Obama

Congratulations to you and Vice-President-Elect Biden on your historic victory. May God grant you the wisdom to govern and lead our nation wisely, and the grace to uphold and defend the Constitution in accordance with the solemn oath to do so that you will take before assuming our nation's highest office.

Frankly, your past actions regrettably leave me skeptical that you will truly support the intent and spirit of the Constitution, but hope springs eternal. In your victory speech you call on us to resist the "partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long." When you are sworn in, as my President, I hope that you will lead by example in that regard.

Again, congratulations to you on your historic victory, and good luck in the coming four years as President of our great nation. God bless America.

Champions of gun-control

Barack and Joe, "supporters" of the Second Amendment, from their own website:

Address Gun Violence in Cities: As president, Barack Obama would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace information, and give police officers across the nation the tools they need to solve gun crimes and fight the illegal arms trade. Obama and Biden also favor commonsense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals who shouldn't have them. They support closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof. They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent, as such weapons belong on foreign battlefields and not on our streets.

See here. As I've noted previously, the Tiahrt Amendment doesn't "restrict the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace data" for legitimate law enforcement purposes.

What am I talking about?

In humble anticipation of Joe "Gaffemeister" Biden's performance tonight:

VP debate moderator may gain financially from Obama victory?

The lone vice-presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden takes place tonight. PBS' Gwen Ifill will be moderating the debate. Apparently, it turns out Ms. Ifill has written a book entitled The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, whose publication is scheduled for January 20, 2009, a.k.a. Inauguration Day.

It stands to reason that Ms. Ifill's book will likely sell a lot more copies if Obama is elected President, than if McCain is elected President. So it looks like the moderator of the vice-presidential debate has a vested financial interest in seeing the Democratic ticket get elected over the Republican ticket.

Yet Ms. Ifill reportedly failed to disclose that she was writing the book to the Commission on Presidential Debates, the body that sponsors and organizes the presidential and vice-presidential debates:

The host of PBS’ “Washington Week” and senior correspondent on “The NewsHour” said she did not tell the Commission on Presidential Debates about the book. The commission had no immediate comment when contacted by The Associated Press.

We will have to see whether Ms. Ifill will moderate in a non-partisan way despite her apparent conflict of interest. Thanks to the blogosphere, at least we know about her potential conflict of interest.

Biden's very own bridge to nowhere

From CNN:



More uh, "Hope-O-cricy" from the Obama/Biden "Change" ticket.

Gun control issue again in elections

From the Washington Times:

Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama's hopes for carrying Montana have diminished over the past few months, and Montanans say it comes down to one word: guns.

"In Montana, we like our guns. We like big guns. We like little guns. We like shotguns. We like pistols. Most of us own two or three guns. Gun control is hitting what you shoot at," the state's Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer told the New York Times in April. When asked why he thought the Democratic nominee would not win his state, he replied, "guns."
...
This year, Mr. Obama's voting record, coupled with that of running mate Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, has resurrected the gun issue, and John McCain's campaign sees it as a major wedge issue to win over gun-owning swing Democrats and working-class union members in key Democratic bastions.

"Absolutely, we're going to emphasize guns and the Second Amendment. They're fundamental issues for Democrats, independents and Republicans in the battleground states that will decide this election," said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers.

Mr. McCain has compiled a largely pro-gun voting record in the Senate, but he has had some differences with the National Rifle Association on his support for background checks at gun shows and his campaign finance reform law, which restricts certain campaign TV ads among advocacy groups such as the NRA. More recently, though, his selection of running-mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a hunter and NRA member, has boosted his standing.

Article here. Try as they might, today's Democrats seem unable to pick pro-gun candidates for the presidential and vice-presidential race. Which is surprising, given gun control is such a loser issue for them.

Biden Tax Returns: Charity begins at (someone else's) home

Senator Joe Biden, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, released his tax returns for the past ten years last week. An analysis of his charitable giving by tax law professor Paul Caron shows that the Bidens haven't exactly been paragons of charitable giving:

... the returns show that the Bidens have been amazingly tight-fisted when it comes to their charitable giving. Despite income ranging from $210,432 - $321,379 over the ten-year period, the Bidens have given only $120 - $995 per year to charity, which amounts to 0.06% - 0.31% of their income[.]
[chart omitted]
...
It is jarring that a couple earning over $200,000 per year would give as little as $2 per week to charity. This giving compares very unfavorably to John McCain, whose tax returns show that he gave 27.3% - 28.6% of his income to charity in 2006-2007. During the same period, the Obamas' tax returns show that they gave 5.8% - 6.1% of their income to charity. [emphasis added]

Professor Caron cites IRS data that shows that the average taxpayer with adjusted gross income of $15,000 to $30,000 has charitable giving of $1,916. In contrast, the Bidens highest level of charitable giving reported in their ten years of returns was $995, or just about half what an average taxpayer making about ten times less gives to charity. In the Bidens' tax bracket of $200,000+ adjusted gross income, the average taxpayer in that bracket donates $20,434 a year, or over twenty times the Bidens' highest contribution in the past ten years, and over 170 times the Bidens' lowest charitable contribution. So much for charity beginning at home.

Of course, liberals as a group are less generous with their own time and money than conservatives, with conservatives (particularly religious conservatives) donating more of both their own time and money than similarly situated liberals. So perhaps it's not surprising that Joe Biden's reported charitable contributions are so meager. He obviously prefers to spend other people's money (i.e., yours) to help the less fortunate.

I guess when Senators Obama and Biden exhort us towards more "public service" to improve the lives of others, the fine print must read "as long as it doesn't come out of our own pockets."

And once again, John McCain leads by example, giving as a percentage of his income over four times more than Barack Obama gave in the past couple of years, and more than 90 times what Joe Biden gave in the same period, as a percentage of income.

Joe Biden's anti-gun record

From NRA-ILA, on Senator Biden's long anti-gun record:

Just like fellow Democrats Edward Kennedy, Charles Schumer and Dianne Feinstein, Biden has voted for, and actively pushed, major anti-gun bills, including those:

* Banning semi-automatic firearms;
* Banning hunting, sporting and self-defense ammunition;
* Banning magazines holding more than 10 rounds; and
* Imposing a waiting period on handgun sales.

Biden also voted against the law that prohibits lawsuits designed to bankrupt law-abiding firearm manufacturers and dealers. And he voted against the confirmation of Supreme Court Justices who support the Second Amendment, and voted for the confirmation of Justices who do not.

The Brady Campaign sums it up in a straightforward fashion: "Senator Biden has been a consistent supporter of the Brady Campaign." According to the gun prohibition activist group, "Senator Biden was a key player in the fight for the federal assault weapons ban that passed in 1994. He also worked hard for passage of the Brady Law (sic)."

To hear Biden tell it, though, that's only half the story. Last year, during a debate with Obama, Sen. Hillary Clinton, and other contenders for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, Biden said, "I'm the guy who originally wrote the assault weapons ban."

Read the rest of Senator Biden's sorry history of voting against gun owners and the Second Amendment here.

Watchdog Group: McCain "Hero" to Taxpayers

The group Citizens Against Government Waste has called John McCain a "hero" for his lifetime record of resisting earmarks, while contrasting his record with the pork-friendly records of Senators Obama and Biden.

John McCain is a “hero” to U.S. taxpayers for his lifetime record of resisting earmarks, while Barack Obama and Joe Biden are “hostile” and “unfriendly,” a government spending watchdog group has concluded.

In its new report, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste gave the Republican presidential nominee a 100 percent rating for his votes in the Senate last year, and a lifetime score of 88 percent.

By comparison, the nonpartisan, nonprofit group, which is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, gave the Democratic presidential nominee a 10 percent score last year and a lifetime score of 18 percent. Biden, Obama’s running mate, scored 0 percent last year and an overall score of 22 percent.

Higher scores mean stronger resistance to federal earmarks. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate, was not included because the ratings only evaluate members of Congress.

Article here.

Sarah Palin, Moose Killer

Tonight's Sarah Eastwood bio video:



I can't wait for the Palin-Biden debate.

:) :) :)

Joe Biden: "I'm the guy that originally wrote the assault weapons ban"

Senator Joe Biden, the presumptive democratic vice-presidential nominee, from the CNN / YouTube debate (Biden's response starts at about the minute mark):



From Congressional Quarterly, on Senator Obama's VP pick:

One of the more surprising twists in the debut of Joe Biden as Barack Obama’s running mate has been the Democrats’ decision to highlight Biden’s work on the 1994 crime bill.
...
In addition to the funding for President Bill Clinton’s 100,000 cops initiative, the bill also included a ban on certain kinds of assault weapons. That provision almost sank the whole package in the House, when anti-gun control Democrats teamed up with Republicans to block the final bill from coming to the House floor. As ever-colorful Democratic Rep. Charlie Wilson of Texas put it, asking a lawmaker from an area like his East Texas district to vote for a gun ban was “like asking someone from Brooklyn to vote against Israel.”

But Biden didn’t want to compromise at all. The solution wasn’t to change the crime bill, he said at the time, but to “change eight votes in the House.” Clinton administration officials disagreed, and the negotiators made minor changes that picked off just enough moderate Republicans to allow the bill to pass, mostly by cutting spending on crime prevention programs. The assault weapons ban, however, stayed in the bill with only minor changes.

Article here. Senator Obama and Biden look like they're two peas in the gun control pod.