In which the Radtke campaign goes gonzo
By Norman Leahy | Tuesday, October 11th, 2011 | Politics, VirginiaJamie Radtke’s campaign has decided that George Allen is not only a “liberal politician,” but also one of the prime reasons why the “Occupy [insert city name]” phenomenon is spreading. From a Radtke campaign press release we learn:
“These left-wing radicals’ claims against Capitalism are fueled by career politicians like George Allen and Tim Kaine and Barack Obama, who are
actually rejecting Capitalism and manipulating the markets for their friends.”Radtke told WLNI the protesters on Wall Street are wrong to blame capitalism for the country’s economic woes. Instead, she said, *”These protesters should be mad at liberal politicians like George Allen and Tim Kaine and Barack Obama for thinking they have the right to bleed working families in order to reward the fat cats that are bankrolling their campaigns.
Quite a novel approach, linking George Allen to Mr. Kaine and the President. And calling Allen a “liberal”? That will come as a surprise to just about everyone.
There are a few ways to view all this…
It’s an attempt to drive-up Allen’s negatives with a timely press hit.
It’s an attempt to remind people that Allen, with a long political resume and a list of votes that still rankle tea party types, hasn’t always been a small government champion and that crony capitalism (while not mentioned in the release) is a very real and growing problem.
By aping the language and cadence of the “occupy” folks, the Radtke campaign hopes to become organizers for (and maybe inspirational leaders of) the various Virginia “Occupy” protests. Lot’s of votes waiting to be had there for the right candidate, after all…
Or the campaign has gone full gonzo. And as Hunter S. Thompson told us: “There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge.”
With this salvo against Allen, the Radtke campaign seems to have inhaled the whole bottle.
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About the author
Norm Leahy has written about Virginia and national politics online since 2002, beginning with One Man's Trash (OMT), and continuing through Bacon's Rebellion (both the blog and the e-zine), Sic Semper Tyrannis, NBC12's Decision Virginia, Richmond.com and Tertium Quids. He is the chief blogger at "The Score" and a producer of "The Score" radio show as well as being a Washington Post contributor.
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60 Responses to "In which the Radtke campaign goes gonzo"
The release itself was a tad bit confusing. Is Radtke endorsing the Occupier movement as an extension of the angst tapped by the Tea Partiers?
Tough to watch her slip from distant second to distant third place… the self-destruction here is starting to reach masochistic proportions.
Norm and Bearing Drift,
Uh-oh. Stand by for a 5,000-word tirade from Britt Howard…
Jamie Radtke = sinking ship
Sad to see her go to the negative campaign tactics of Bachman and now I am sad to say Perry. Eating our own has found a whole new level lately.
Kathy
The issue is not the criticism per se; it is using the rhetorical positions of the leftists against Repubs which is offensive. At least use a conservative argument against an opponent. As for Radtke, her comments are over the top but she is not making a leftist argument – just a silly one.
If it wasn’t there already, her campaign is entering the theater of the absurd
Kathy-eating your own? Watch how quickly conservative Republicans who were talking about getting Christie into the race two weeks ago start calling him a “useless liberal” now that he’s endorsed Romney.
Allen as liberal- just more of the over the top rhetoric we’ve been getting from all sides for the past few years. If GWB was “a nazi” and Obama is “a socialist” then sure George Allen can be “a liberal.”
SV,
The only outrageous adjective in your list was GWB as Nazi. Obama most certainly is a socialist ideologically but a very corrupt one and realistic enough to know that machine socialism will take 20 years to implement. Allen, Christie (as well as WBush and Romney) are simply big government Republicans. The one quality that separates Christie is his aggressive response to the leftists in media and government.
Obama is so bad even Democrats in Va are doing everything they can to distance themselves from him.Phillip Pucket even said he wouldn’t even support Obama for re-election.
Norm,
You know better than to write the truth about the Rat-ke campaign. The teahadists will be on here calling you a socialist, Progressive, et al
Whatever Henry.
Henry,
Please tell us what you Don’t like about socialism or progressivism?
Our country was founded as a Republic, not a socialistic, nor a progressive, nor a communistic country. Care about your country and fight for your country. The whole world is in shambles right now and we must pull together. Let’s be the Americans that our forefathers hoped for us when they were fighting to make it. Make it for us.
Really? Allen is pro life while his family underhadedly donated more than once to planned parenthood (verifiably) on his behalf? Allen voted everytime to raise debt while never voting to reduce spending?
Allen is a conservative like Mitch McConnell and will side with Mitch every vote.. even if it flies in the face of conservative voting. Allen voted like this in the past.. what is different now?
I guess what Ghandi said is true. First they ignore you, then they ridicule you. Right on schedule. You guys have Radkte right where she wants you.
Whit,
I knew Ghandi. Ghandi was a friend of mine. And Jamie Radtke, sir, is no Ghandi.
You Tea Party clowns really need to get over yourselves. Your inflamed egos are writing checks that your skinny butts can’t cash. Your expectations for a political revolution are about as realistic as those of the losers camping out in southern Manhattan.
Speaking checks you can’t cash and clowns, how about giving us proof that you personally knew Ghandi, HisRoc………
All the Radtke campaign is probably saying is what is obvious to all you George Allen apologists. You just won’t admit the painful truth. They are saying for at least some part OWS is a reaction to a “big government” and fiscal mismanagement problem. As was the Tea Party. So, YES, there are correlations even though politically these 2 groups hold big differences. Some are plants some are real frustrated Americans to the left of the Tea Party that are also angry that their elected officials are not doing their job.
Allen voted for assaualt weapon bans like a good liberal. He voted for tons of earmarks and subsides like a liberal. He voted to raise the debt ceiling several times like a liberal. George Allen was in lock step with Barney Frank on letting Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae implode devastating our economy. I can understand anyone calling him something other than conservative or Republican.
Stop it, Britt, you’re killing me with laughter. What part of
don’t you understand?
BTW, as a retired military officer, I have to ask: why do civilians need military assault weapons, rocket launchers, grenades, or anti-personnel mines? Are you one of those Walter Mitty militia types who plans to conduct an armed resistance went “they” take over. You clowns really crack me up.
Turbo is going after George Allen’s family now. Real classy, scumbag. Typical Radtke campaign behavior. By the way Turbo, what are your qualifications for being pro life? I don’t recall seeing you at the March for Life.
HisRoc,
The military complex and second amendment rights are two separate arguments.
It seems your fellow college grads are out proudly advocating against capitalism, saying its for the people. Sounds like an oxymoron.
Most of your fellow college grads are participating in OWS. …and they are proud of let you know they have a $80K student loan and blame the banks for it. Right now, the college education system is not doing itself any justice.
HisRoc, with the Ghandi thing was humor on your part, but it was misused. He actually knew JFK, you don’t know Ghandi. Not on the same level. Besides, you don’t have BE Ghandi or even near his level to appreciate and understand his point. The point was on philosophy and how it applies in this situation as Whit pointed out. You just run with a clownish attack and say Radtke is no Ghandi. True, but not the point.
As a retired military officer you have a problem with the 2nd amendment? Please tell your fellow Republicans how you and Allen have a problem with guns.
Truth or youtube fiction.. George Allen was caught campaining pro choice in nova? Not fully bore Lib prochoice but “its ok in some instances other than in the cases where the life of the mother is at risk”.. such as..?? The morning after pill aka Plan B (RU-486) is an abortifacient (if the egg is fertilized), not a contraceptive.. a recreational after sex abortion drug that Allen is or is not an investor in? If Allen is not fully pro life, fine, be honest. That does not make him fully pro choice either. But Allen has said repeatedly that “life begins at conception” is that true or rumored?
According to RNC For Life: “In 2000, Senator Allen responded to a Project Vote Smart questionnaire, saying abortions should be illegal when the fetus is viable, with or without life support. In other words, he supported abortion until viability, when 98% of the abortions are performed. He said abortions should be legal when pregnancy resulted from rape or incest, when the life of the woman is endangered, and he added that abortion should be legal for gross fetal abnormality. Of course, he supported the usual restrictions such as a partial-birth abortion ban, waiting periods, and opposed public funding of abortions. But the views he expressed can only be described as pro-choice, not pro-life.”
From Renew America: “Senator George Allen (R-Va.) is one of the best potential candidates for President. He is a man who after a term in the Senate knows Washington well, but also has the benefit of executive experience that a man like Senator Brownback or Congressman Tancredo lacks. He was a key player in Republican gains in the Senate last term as leader of the Republican Senate Campaign Committee.
Allen has two real problems. First, his record on fiscal issues while not terrible has been mediocre at best. He backed the prescription drug benefit for Medicare which creates a huge new entitlement. Allen has also issued ambiguous statements on abortion. Professor Ed Lynch writes:
“Allen has to clarify his position on abortion. During his run for the Senate in 2000, I twice heard Allen attempt to explain his stand on this issue. Neither attempt was very successful. Allen said that he would not restrict abortion during the first trimester, since at that early point in the pregnancy, it is not certain that there is another person involved.”
Now Professor Lynch is confident that with some study, Allen will come to the conclusion that life begins at conception and provide a clear position on the issue. As he has yet to do so, its not at certain that he will be able to unite Conservatives, or whether when he faces closer scrutiny, he will in fact, divide Conservatives.”
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/graham/051009
So, let’s be frank.. George Allen is on record for decades as supporting first trimester abortion and that is fine with you Allen conservatives but not with Radtke and to his credit Donner conservatives. Is there such a thing as a 2/3 pro life conservative? Fine, Allen is 2/3 pro life. Morally what is this equivalent to?
Hey BR, thanks for the inspiration.. love ya man er, woman.. whatever!
Forgot to add this http://www.rnclife.org/faxnotes/2006/apr06/06-04-07.html
Oh, the Dem tracker who stood up and asked Bush era George Allen if he “still” supports an earmark ban.. PRICELESS! Anyone have it on youtube? How many tens of thousands of earmarks worth Billions and BBBillions, with a lotta B’s followed by zeros, did Jeffersonian Conservative George Allen vote for? In 2006 George Allen bravely declared “Every single earmark I’ve gotten, I’m proud of.” And then George Allen pointed the finger at fellow republicans asking them to stop earmarks altogether until the national budget is balanced, then require a 2/3 majority to pass any earmark.
This is one of those “follow the money trail” cases.. This senate election is all about the benjamins, who has them and who is supporting whom. Kaine and company have major backing and Soros is not ignoring VA.. neither is Obama.
Can’t make this stuff up.
Valentinus,
First, socialism and Progressivism are terrible at producing wealth. Second, their stances on moral issues are terrible in the eyes of this devout Catholic.
Henry,
Thank you for your succinct response. I would add their totalitarian aspects to the mix as well unless you mean moral issues over and above abortion. Regards.
Britt,
I have no problem with the Second Amendment. And I’m in good company with the Supreme Court who has held that the right to keep and bear arms is not limited to participation in the militia but that there is an individual right to keep and bear arms for self-defense. But the Supremes also held that the individual right is not unlimited. I know very few, if any, military professionals who believe that civilians should have fully automatic weapons.
BTW, I am a lifelong (so far) gun owner and a longtime CCP holder in Virginia. In my opinion, the two greatest threats to the Second Amendment are the Brady Bunch gun-grabbers, on one hand, and the extremist NRA/GOA types on the other hand who create support and sympathy for the gun-grabbers with their wild-eyed, unrealistic demands for no firearms restrictions at all.
Please allow me to be honest & direct. There are many things wrong with Jamie Radke. She is not my preferred candidate in this primary, but the facts do support her claims about George Allen. Just as James above has demonstrated. Anyone and everyone is free to support George Allen, but it would be dishonest to claim that he didn’t vote for budget’s with cronie capitalist spending, funds to support unconstitutioanl Federal agencies and supporting the borrowing of astronomical amounts of money to finance it. YUnless he voted no on every budget during his term as sentor. Well, did he?
Roc, “BTW, I am a lifelong (so far) gun owner and a longtime CCP holder in Virginia.”… what is a CCP? I have a Virginia Concealed Handgun Permit (CHP) and have never heard of a “CCP” unless it is a special permit only issued to retired military officers.
I now live in a world where a man (George Allen) who has a life-time rating of 97% from the American Conservative Union is now considered a liberal
Unbelievable
Bryan Stuart, why would anyone care what anyone rating him said when the facts of what he did in office absolutely scream something else besides conservative?
That you blindly follow any banner rather than make informed decisions for your self based on someone’s REAL actions……….THAT is unbelievable.
Well, HisRoc, that is a reply I can work with. I disagree, but honest and reasonably thought out. I don’t believe in unlimited weaponry either, but a M16 is/was a standard military firearm and believe I should be able to own one. I’m not asking for a missle launcher or anything else the gungrabber lobby puts in their rhetoric. With every bit of respect, the military is not the appropriate authority to say what we civilians should or should not have.
Eventhough we differ on that a little HisRoc, I can appreciate that stated view.
Bryan, George Allen has a 100% Rino rating from tea party patriots.
Britt,
Thank you for the reasoned response. I did not mean to imply that the military should dictate what weapons civilians may possess. That would run counter to our strict culture and professional ethic of civilian control over the military, something we take very, very serious. Those are decisions for the legislature to make, following court precedents. However, having hands-on experience with automatic weapons, most of us cannot fathom what possible legal purpose a civilian would need such firepower for, except for the case of a collector and there is an ATF license for that.
What troubles me about automatic weapons in the general population, other than obvious concerns such as Virginia Tech and Tucson, is the stated need by militia groups to be heavily armed in the event of our government becoming undemocratically oppressive. I have watched some of these groups’ “training exercise” videos on YouTube and laughed my butt off at the idea of them taking on a trained Army squad. I’ve seen better tactics and organization in 12 year-old kids playing paintball and capture-the-flag. As a former Infantry officer I can tell you that a fire team led by a buck sergeant could take out 20-30 of these clowns with no casualties.
So, having said that, why would any civilian need an M-16? BTW, I would outlaw the AR-15 as well. I have been to guns shows where you can buy the necessary parts, with instructions, to convert an AR-15 to full automatic for a couple of hundred dollars. That’s bad news.
Hisroc, Guns do not kill people.. Neither do cars or many other things legal to own. I am much more concerned about people texting or under the influence of alcohol or Obama while driving than legal gun ownership. My ancestors two generations back in the EU were wiped out. I wish they had the weapons my father and both grandfathers could legally buy but their countrys took them away before the war.
Turbo,
I grieve for your loss and all of the victims of the Fascists. With all due respect, do you really believe that civilians with sub-machine guns would have been a match for the SS?
http://www.holocaustsurvivors.org/data.show.php?di=record&da=encyclopedia&sf=entry_name&sv=Warsaw+Ghetto+Uprising
The few survivors who escaped to Israel and other countries know that everyone would not have been able to survive but they also know they would have saved more lives. Guns save more lives than they take by many orders of magnitude. I fear a society where private gun ownership is outlawed.
http://www.holocaustsurvivors.org/data.show.php?di=record&da=encyclopedia&sf=entry_name&sv=Warsaw+Ghetto+Uprising
“So, having said that, why would any civilian need an M-16″ = HisRoc
I kinda thought the 2nd amendment explained why. If the M16 is a standard military firearm then good enough! In my view anyway.
I certainly share your concern about the .1% of crazies that will find a way to kill. We can only do our best to prevent them from succeeding. Let’s point out though, that a M16 would do less damage than a truckload of fertilizer or a box cutter on an airplane.
As for your deluded fantasy warriors training for doomsday, I think they’re pretty much harmless and will never do anything. Let them have their fun. But it does bring up that interesting point that you made!
“As a former Infantry officer I can tell you that a fire team led by a buck sergeant could take out 20-30 of these clowns with no casualties.” – HisRoc
EXACTLY!! I know you use that as an argument for why they don’t need a machine gun, but I use it to point to the beauty in the check & balance that the 2nd amendment represents.
Like you, unlike some extremist groups or drug cartels, I want it that way!! Both of us want the military or even just a SWAT team to be able to easily take out a gang of thugs with machine guns that they will get with or without a law allowing it. We don’t want criminal organizations that care nothing for individual liberties of the people the prey on to succeed. When Libertarians or Republicans talk about taking up arms against our own government it would be under the most dire of circumstances. Frankly, I still don’t see those circumstances ever happening. We’re too free for that. Even after all the diluting of the Constitution, we’re too free to even think about that.
Sure, a fire team could dispatch a group of 30 deranged men. However, what about 75 million? Think about what happened during the occupation stage of Iraq to our men and women with far superior technology and training. In an extreme situation where undoubtedly many in the military would defy command, the population at large could overwhelm with numbers and asymetric warfare. Realize however, this will never be necessary.
Getting a machine gun btw, isn’t exactly a priority with me. More just a political position on that issue.
Libertarians are often the most vocal supporters of gun rights. However, we’re also insistent on everyone keeping their individual liberty and understand our personal desires don’t allow us to trample on the rights of others. We only take one party oath as Libertarians. Basically that we never advocate the use of force to achieve political ends. I guess rebellion against tyranny of a king or future hypothetical villain would be political by technicality, but that is a far fetched unlikely scenario. Although, one could argue a mass scale of self-defense. Libertarians do hold the 2nd amendment and self-defense as necessary principles of liberty.
Since we are fairly free and we do still have the First Amendment, better to fight our wars on blogs and in the voting booth.
Good points Turbo!
HisRoc, even if it didn’t save even one more Jew from the SS, wouldn’t they still want to go down fighting? I wouldn’t deny them that. Eminent murder does not negate your right to self-defense up until your last breath.
Can someone please lay out for the specific parts of Radtke’s platform with which he/she disagrees?
Ground zero for me Va Patriot is Pro Life. Radtke is 100% PRO LIFE. Allen is NOT PRO LIFE.
One area I have disagreed on is military intervention in Libya..
Turbo, Britt,
The genius of our Constitutional form of government is balance and compromise. None of the Bill of Rights protections are absolute. You cannot scream “fire” in a crowded theater under the protection of the First Amendment, you cannot possess a nuclear warhead or other military weapons under the Second Amendment, and the death sentence is not proscribed by the Eighth Amendment despite the fact that it is infrequently and arbitrarily imposed.
Britt, would you have machine guns legalized for the general population on the unlikely case that an Amerikan SS would arise and start rounding up “undesirables?” This is why people have trouble taking the Tea Party seriously. You speak of Armageddon situations in hyperbolic rhetoric, all of which is detached from any sense of reality.
Turbo,
If you are Pro-life then can we assume that you are opposed to the death penalty?
HisRoc,
What Constitution? When is the last time a war was declared? an search warrant sought and now due process for Americans for the death penalty. All we need is a President and a kill list.
Killing a defenseless embryo and punishing someone’s crime are different, it’s a shame that needed to be explained. Due process…another Constitutional Right denied to an American.
This is why Globalist Republicans are not taken seriously. …and are being challenged.
John,
Okay, then you are cool with American citizens being put on kill lists by the NSC or do you think that traitorous Americans who plot mass murder must be captured and brought back to face American courts before they can be taken out as threats to our country?
No, HisRoc. My reasoning is not just because of that highly unlikely scenario. My reasoning has to due with the entirety of the 2nd Amendment. Maybe you see the cutoff as an Enfield rifle or something. I just see it as standard military firearms of the day.
The same argument of “need” is used by the gun grabbers to say we don’t need any guns. And again, your fear (understandable but still wrong) about the danger should be balanced by our trained forces. Additionally, sometimes fully auto is a mistake. You will make more kill shots on semi than just spraying and then there is the question of wasting ammo you can’t afford to throw away. Again, you can be far more deadly with other means. The IRA and Al Qaeda should have made that clear by now.
My view of the 2nd amendment has nothing to do with the Tea Party. That’s a view held by Libertarians and many Republicans already. I doubt all Tea Partiers argue for machine gun access. I have never seen it on Tea Party agendas as goal to go after. Remember that the Tea Party is a coaliton of fiscal conservatives that disagree on many other issues. For example: Jamie Radtke is Pro life, but abortion is not a Tea Party issue. As much as I admire Ken Cuccinelli, I disagree with him passionately when it comes to gays. You and the media seem to maked the Tea Party into something it is not.
All I can say is my thoughts on the M16 isn’t my highest of priorities. Just my interpretation of the 2nd Amendment. It isn’t JUST about a doomsday scenario that will admittedly, probably never happen. Crazies could do far more harm with other readily and legally available weapons and improvised explosives. Although a common view among Tea Partiers it isn’t 100% so and certainly not on the Tea Party agenda of must haves to fix our ECONOMIC mess. We will simply just have to disagree as to wear the cut off is. Btw, if this was the ONLY disagreement with Allen, I could easily get past it. Just another issue on top of a plethora of others.
Obviously, my point with the Constitutionality has been made. …and your stance as to the Federal Government’s ability to ignore the Constitution is understood.
Al-Awlaki’s assassination can be left for another day.
I had an interesting debate with Chris Stearns on Al-Awaki. Chris is a great guy and I agree with him on a good deal of things. I part with him on this issue.
He argued due processs etc. I made the point that a citizen actively avoiding due process and being a continual threat to American lives was actionable. Much as a hostage taker can be shot in the back of the head by a SWAT sniper, I believe that a mass murderer that is actively avoiding Due Process should expect such treatment. I wouldn’t apologize for traversing foreign soil, but some form of compensation for acting in their sovereign terroritory without permission might be the right thing to do.
Hopefully, HisRoc doesn’t lose grasp of the true topic, the Constitutionality of our out-of-control Federal Government.
But on that subject…
1. Being killed on the enemy battle field. Check. He should not have been there.
2. Being extradited from a foreign country. Check. We waited nearly 35 years for the return of Roman Polanski while Hollywood worshipped this guy. How is this crime any less than Al-Awlaki’s crime?
3. But being put on a kill list…Obama (and Bush) being judge, jury and executioner. Totally Unconstitutional.
Careful with your reply because you may be on that list, whether your guilty or not.
A kill list does send chills, doesn’t it? I get your drift on that John. I certainly am against political assassinations.
Where questions come up is like the hostage taker scenario. Somebody on the fly makes a decision that it is ok for a sniper to take a shot. They are also in effect, judge, jury, and executioner are they not? Eventhough hostages are real time vs. Past actual murders and probable future ones, can we say Al- Awaki was less a threat to cause death? If they run from due process, does that not affect things?
That is one issue I think I have doubts on.
We probably at this point are going off topic though.
Hisroc, I do believe capital punishment is a deterrent to murder crimes and we should broadcast executions to prisons on cable television.. Forget American Idol or housewives of Sanfranfreako.
The rest of us should see courtrooms where little children cry about their parent who was murdered and parents mourning the loss of their child to some molestor/murderer. Do you think that would deter some criminals or make more of them!
Genesis 9:6: “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.” We live in an age when its politically correct to be more concerned with human rights of murderers and God has been practically ignored, as if He had no rules to deal with rights and wrongs. All that said, if we are not willing to televise death sentences publicly then I would argue we should not have any.
I only have to go back 2 generations to see about 2/3 of my ancestors who were murdered to see things from my angle but it does not make my view wrong or right.
To answer Hisrocs question, I am pro life and pro capital punishment for those who take life.
Britt,
We will be able to discuss this subject in ample detail later because it will not end with Al-Awaki.
Don’t let HisRoc use his diversionary tactics. Let’s not lose this moment in him explaining the unconstitutional acts of this regime and his global Republican cohorts, including George Allen.
I believe George Allen voted yes on the Patriot Act…which we can add to his Pro-Choice stance.
You are correct, John. He did vote for reauthorization looking at google sources. That is another strike against him for me, but let’s face it. Many Republicans won’t have a problem with the un-patriot act.
HisRoc: “I have been to guns shows where you can buy the necessary parts, with instructions, to convert an AR-15 to full automatic for a couple of hundred dollars.”
Only a Class 2 manufacturer can “make and register” a machine gun and that gun becomes a Post May-19th, 1986 Gun, salable only to police, State, local, Federal-Government, and the military. Components such as registered “auto-sears,” “lightning-links,” trigger-packs, trunnions, and other “combination of parts” registered as machineguns or machinegun parts before the 1986 are worth nearly as much as a full registered machine gun. A transferable M16 auto assault rifle costs approximately $11,000 to $18,000, while a transferable “lightning-link” for the AR-15 can sell for $8,000 to $10,000. In contrast, new manufacture M-16s sell to law enforcement and the military for around $600 to $1000. The transfer process of a registered auto M16 or component to an individual takes about 3 – 6 months and a truckload of ATF paperwork, fingerprints, special ID photos, background checks, signed permission from local law enforcement, etc.. If a registered weapon needs to go in for repair longer than 24 hours, it must be transferred to the gunsmith/armorer.
Any dealer at a gun show that that is knowingly in possession of unregistered “necessary parts” to “convert an AR-15 to full automatic”, is in violation of and is subject to the penalties prescribed in 26 USC Chapter 53. Section 5871 states: “Any person who violates or fails to comply with any provisions of this chapter shall, upon conviction, be fined not more than $10,000, or be imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.” By the way, we have a full auto fam-fire private event on the Eastern Shore every quarter, and BATF agents, FBI and SOF guys and gals have an open invitation to participate, as long as they purchase ammo on site or provide their own. Many of them are good friends and attend all of the public gun shows as customers as well as monitors. We consider them as our first line of defense against ignorance and idiots who don’t have a clue about the true extent of our 2nd amendment rights, and they are also mentors and coaches for those of us who are politically active through the NRA.
Great stuff, Tim. I’m glad you posted it.
Wow. Talk about “a face that launched a thousand ships,” how about a simple question that launched ten thousand words? I’ll say this for you Tea Partiers–you are never at a loss for words.
Abortion versus the death penalty. Personally, I am in favor of both. There are instances and circumstances where lawful termination of life is medically and morally justified. What I cannot understand is how someone can oppose abortion in any and all circumstances and favor capital punishment. Is abortion immoral in the case of rape or incest? Is it immoral in a case where carrying the fetus to full term would endanger the mother’s life? Is it immoral in a case where the fetus has irreversible defects that will result in a short life full of pain and extensive medical treatments? As in the case of the death penalty, I would like to see abortion reserved as an option of last resort and not something available at the convenience of the mother. But, like any other ethical medical procedure, that is a decision best left between the patient and her physician.
The Second Amendment. You really need to go read District of Columbia v. Heller. The court drew a clear distinction between the militia clause of the amendment and the individual right. The ruling held that the framers clearly intended to prohibit Congress from banning individual ownership of weapons to be used by the citizen militias so that a politically motivated militia or a standing army could dominate the population. But the court also held that there is a constitutional right to own weapons for lawful purposes such as self-defense in the home. I would contend that if you need a fully automatic assault rifle for defense in your home, then you should seriously consider moving. That is one bad-ass neighborhood you are living in. As for the crazies getting their hands on otherwise legal weapons and making IED’s, no question about that. The DC gun ban for over 30 years proved that the bad guys will always get guns no matter what the law says. That doesn’t mean that we should make it legal any more than we should make drug-dealing and car theft legal.
BTW, please stop hanging George Allen around my neck. I’m not so much pro-Allen as I am opposed to Jamie Radtke and the rest of the Tea Party wannabes who seem intent on keeping Harry Reid as the Senate Majority Leader.
TimJ,
Want to go to a gun show with me? The last one I was at where the parts were being sold, the dealers had poster signs advertising “M-16 Conversion Kits” and many of the parts they were selling were still in the brown military packaging complete with the NSN label. I subsequently found out that some Army installations were shipping out excess parts to property disposal instead of destroying them (de-miling) as required by the catalog data.
It doesn’t sound to me like your ATF pals are doing such a hot job “monitoring” anything but their belly buttons. Or maybe they have been too busy selling weapons to Mexican cartels.
For all of the gun shows I have attended over the years, I have never seen anything such as you have described. BATF is very clear and there are cases where people have been fined and are in jail for possessing an unregistered M16 autosear or aftermarket component equivalents. I will give a heads up to my ATF and FBI friends to look for illegal components at the Nation’s Gun Show in Chantilly, VA on Nov 18-20.
“Fast and Furious” and the other scandals breaking is a very public bloody nose to BATF and FBI and there are plenty of field agents I know who are really pissed off at DOJ leadership. Privately they perceive the programs as a setup to take a wild political swing at legal gun ownership and gun dealers.
Hisroc, regardless of your or my position on abortion, which candidate supports making abortion a states rights issue and which candidate supported leaving it with the federal govt? This is not a trick question.
People do not realize that politicians vote 9 times against a bill before voting for it making their record 90% conservative. The first 9 votes are useless if they were intended just to boost their voting record. We should count only the tenth vote.
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