by Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News interviewed Rep. Darrell Issa about the letter he sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking for information on Project Gunrunner and the State Department’s involvement.
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More Than One Way To Skin A Cat
First, before all the cat lovers out there get upset, this has nothing to do with felines. So you can rest easy.
Back on March 4th, Sen. Chuck Grassley sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton requesting information on the visit to Mexico City by Asst. Attorney General Lanny Breuer to discuss Operation Gunrunner with the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. Frankly I missed this letter in amongst the letters sent by Sen. Grassley. Coming as it did about the same time as Sharyl Attkisson interviewed ATF Senior Agent John Dodson, it got lost in the shuffle.
While I may have missed it, Rep. Darrell Issa, Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee didn’t. His office released a letter this afternoon that he sent to Secretary Clinton asking for the same materials requested by Sen. Grassley. He also asked why she was refusing to answer Sen. Grassley. The letter included a reminder that his committee may at “any time” investigate “any matter” as set forth in the House rules.
2011-03-29 DEI to Clinton-State – Breuer Docs
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Concealed Carry In NC Restaurants And Parks Final Vote Tomorrow
House Bill 111 which would allow concealed carry in eating establishments and restaurants that serve alcohol has passed the Second Reading in the North Carolina State House. The bill would also allow concealed carry in state and local parks.
From WRAL’s Twitter feed:
@NCCapitol #ncgaHouse passes H111, concealed guns in parks and restaurants, 77-41. 3rd reading objected to. Final vote tomorrow.
As soon as the final draft bill is posted along with the roll call vote, I’ll post it. I don’t know yet whether the Ross Amendment was deleted or not.
UPDATE: There were three amendments proposed today to HB 111. The first amendment to the bill by Rep. Leo Daughtry (R-Johnston) stripped out the Ross Amendment which would have allowed servers in a restaurant that was not posted against concealed carry to ask a person who ordered alcohol if he or she were carrying. This passed on a vote of 72 – 46 with only one Republican voting no.
The second amendment proposed by Rep. David Guice (R – Transylvania) allows local governments to post recreational facilities in parks to forbid concealed carry. However, it strictly defined recreational facilities as being only playgrounds, athletic fields, swimming pools, and athletic facilities. It did contain a provision that would allow a concealed carry holder to lock his weapon in his car if the recreational facility was posted. This provision passed 70 – 48. While the majority of Republicans voted against this amendment, enough Republicans joined with virtually all of the Democrats to pass this amendment.
The third, and final, amendment was proposed by Rep. Bill Faison (D-Orange). This amendment failed in a 44 – 74 vote. It would have only allowed concealed carry in North Carolina State Parks which permitted overnight camping. There are only 16 out of the 34 state parks that allow overnight camping.
On the Second Reading, the amended HB 111 passed by a vote of 77 – 41. The Third Reading, which is mainly a formality, will be tomorrow because there was an objection to the vote today.
The final roll call was as follows:
AYES
Democrats
Representative(s): Alexander, K.; Brandon; Brisson; Crawford; Hill; Lucas; McGuirt; McLawhorn; Owens; Spear; Wray
Republicans
Representative(s): Avila; Barnhart; Blackwell; Blust; Boles; Bradley; Brawley; Brown, L.; Brown, R.; Brubaker; Burr; Cleveland; Collins; Cook; Current; Daughtry; Dixon; Dockham; Dollar; Faircloth; Folwell; Frye; Gillespie; Guice; Hager; Hastings; Hilton; Hollo; Holloway; Horn; Howard; Hurley; Iler; Ingle; Johnson; Jones; Jordan; Justice; Killian; Langdon; LaRoque; Lewis; McComas; McCormick; McElraft; McGee; McGrady; Mills; Moffitt; Moore, T.; Pridgen; Randleman; Rhyne; Sager; Samuelson; Sanderson; Setzer; Shepard; Stam; Starnes; Steen; Stevens; Stone; Torbett; Warren, H.; West
NOES
Democrats
Representative(s): Adams; Alexander, M.; Bell; Bordsen; Bryant; Carney; Cotham; Earle; Faison; Farmer-Butterfield; Fisher; Floyd; Gill; Glazier; Goodman; Graham; Hackney; Haire; Hall; Hamilton; Harrison; Insko; Jackson; Jeffus; Keever; Luebke; Martin; Michaux; Mobley; Moore, R.; Parfitt; Parmon; Pierce; Rapp; Ross; Tolson; Wainwright; Warren, E.; Weiss; Wilkins; Womble
Republicans
none
Not Voting – Speaker Thom Tillis and Rep. Tom Murry (R-Wake)
UPDATE II: HB 111 is on the House legislative calendar for its Third Reading this afternoon. The House reconvenes at 2pm. It is listed as a “non-roll call” vote.
Grass Roots North Carolina sent out a message last night warning that opponents of the bill might try to add more amendments. While they are pleased that the Ross Amendment was removed from the bill, they are unhappy with the amendment that would allows municipalities to restrict firearms in recreational facilities.
The Raleigh News and Observer, in their Under the Dome column, quotes a couple of the Republicans who supported that amendment.
Several Republican members who support the bill said they were concerned, though, about people taking guns into parks where organized youth sports are held. Parents can get pretty hot-headed, they said.
Those GOP members, some with longtime experience with youth sports and others from law enforcement backgrounds, succeeded in attaching an amendment that would allow county governments to prohibit concealed weapons in recreational facilities. The amendment also would allow people to leave their guns locked in their cars in those situations.
“I’ve seen firsthand the violence on the Little League field,” said Rep. David Guice, a Republican from Brevard, who added that he has a concealed-carry permit. Guice said a mayor of Brevard was once banned from a city park because he assaulted an umpire.
Nobody Ever Said Righthaven Was Smart (Updated)
A lot of things can be said about attorney Steve Gibson and his copyright troll firm Righthaven LLC. Crafty, slick, tricky, or sly might apply but smart really isn’t one of them.
Reporter Eriq Gardner is being sued by Righthaven for his article in Ars Technica about a Righthaven lawsuit. That lawsuit was one that Righthaven brought against the Drudge Report for using a picture involving a TSA patdown that appeared in the Denver Post. Gardner used a grainy, black and white photo and the headline in question to show his readers what the Drudge Report was being sued over. His caption on the photo shown in his article read: “The photo in question as it appeared on Drudge Report”.
Gardner is a contributing editor of The Hollywood Reporter and the Ars Technica article is reported to be the only one he has ever written for that publication.
It isn’t entirely clear why Righthaven chose to sue Gardner individually. But arstechnica.com is one of many websites owned by Conde Nast’s parent company, Advance Magazine Publishers, for which it has registered a DMCA takedown agent with the U.S. Copyright Office. That probably would have limited Righthaven to merely sending a takedown request to Ars—something it never does.
The story in Paid Content by Joe Mullins speculates that Gardner got the photo from court documents which are in the public domain.
Steve Gibson was asked if this lawsuit was due to the negative story about Righthaven.
Gibson wouldn’t answer that. Noting that the photo in question appeared to be pulled from court records, I asked: “Do you believe reporters have a right to use court documents to report on Righthaven?” Gibson didn’t really answer that one either, saying: “That’s going to be based on facts and circumstances.” He said he disagreed with the premise of my question, and went on to say: “The line of your questioning is so intimate with the issues that are going to be litigated before the court, I don’t feel comfortable having any further discussion on this subject matter with you.”
There is an old saying that you don’t pick fights with people who buy ink by the gallon. Somewhere along the way Steve Gibson and Righthaven LLC never learned that piece of wisdom. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. My guess is that Righthaven is going to be very sorry that they filed this lawsuit.
UPDATE: Well that didn’t take long. Today, attorneys for Righthaven marched into U.S. District Court in Las Vegas and said, oops, sorry, we didn’t mean to sue you, and we’d like to ask for a Voluntary Dismissal With Prejudice.
The Ars Technica website discusses the story which they are calling “Righthaven’s epic blunder”.
Not content with just suing sources, small out-of-state nonprofits, bloggers who get 20 hits per day, and other massive copyright pirates, newspaper litigation firm Righthaven this week trained its guns on Ars Technica. The company filed a federal lawsuit against one of our freelance writers over a post (about Righthaven) that appeared on the site back in December—only to dismiss it this morning.
Why was the case ever brought? It was (cough) a “clerical mistake.”
Steve Green of the Las Vegas Sun – the journalist who has followed the copyright trolls of Righthaven since day one – has an article about this case as well. He quotes journalist Eriq Gardner on the case:
“I’d buy a ‘I survived Righthaven’ T-shirt, but won’t for trademark reasons,” Gardner quipped in a Twitter tweet after the dismissal.
Green also quotes one Las Vegas attorney familiar with the cases as saying Righthaven “must have been insane” to have even brought this case as it was clearly “fair use”.
Melson – Thanks For The Invitation But No Thanks
Kenneth Melson, Acting Director of ATF, was scheduled to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, and Global Narcotics Affairs this Thursday. I even speculated that this would be a great time for the Senators to grill Mr. Melson about Operation Fast and Furious.
Mr. Melson must have had the same thought because he has decided not to testify. Moreover, no one from either ATF or the Justice Department are on the new list of witnesses. Given the topic was counter-narcotics and citizen security, it would seem that DOJ might have sent someone. After all the Drug Enforcement Administration is a line DOJ agency just like the FBI and ATF.
Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News contacted the Subcommittee for more information on why Melson will not be testifying.
We contacted the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to ask why Melson is no longer scheduled to appear. They referred us to the office of Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) who chairs the subcommittee holding the hearing. A press spokeswoman at the senator’s office said it was Melson’s decision not to testify, and that the subcommittee doesn’t have jurisdiction over ATF.
Later, a spokesman told us in an email, “The Subcommittee had invited, but not confirmed, Mr. Melson as well as other officials from ATF to testify at the hearing this week. In the end, ATF declined to send a representative.”
It is also speculated that one of the main reasons for the delay in confirmation hearings for Andrew Traver is the fallout from Operation Fast and Furious.
My gut feeling is that the only way we will have public, on the record, under oath hearings into Operation Fast and Furious and gunwalking is if the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform under Rep. Darrell Issa holds them. The House Judiciary Committee could also hold hearings as they have oversight over the Department of Justice.
As much as I am thankful for all the great work that Sen. Chuck Grassley has done to find the truth about Project Gunwalker, he is still only the Ranking Minority Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Unless Sen. Pat Leahy and the Democrats decide to hold hearings into it, they just aren’t going to happen in the Senate.
Project Gunwalker Goes To The Cartoons
Operation Fast and Furious aka Project Gunwalker was featured in not one but two cartoons today. You know you are in trouble when even cartoons start covering something.
From Hope n’ Change Cartoons:
And from the very popular Day by Day Cartoon we have this:
Counter-gun Gun Buy Back In Texas
Texans for Accountable Government and a number of private citizens decided that they would have a counter-gun buy-back when the Austin Police Department held a recent gun buy-back program. The APD was offering a grocery card worth $100 for each firearm turned into them which would be destroyed. TAG offered $110 cash and plans to give the firearms purchased to needy individuals (who are lawful to own them) for self-protection.
More on the story can be found here at Buckeye Firearms Association.
Thank You, John Moses Browning
Today is the centennial of the War Department’s adoption of the the Caliber .45, Colt Model 1911 automatic pistol. It replaced the Colt, Model 1901, Caliber .38 Revolver and the Colt, Model 1909, Caliber .45 Revolver shown below.
 |
|
| Colt Model 1901 |
 |
| Colt Model 1909 |
The semi-automatic pistol submitted by Colt and designed by John M. Browning bested the design submitted by Savage Arms and was adopted on March 29, 1911. The rest, as they say, is history.
UPDATE: To read about the Model 1911 that wasn’t – in other words, the Savage submission, go here. There is an excellent article about it.
Astroturfing
The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV) is making a big deal out of a letter to The Oregonian purported to be from “a former Army officer, gunsmith, member of the NRA and a competitive marksman”. Their tweet on this – sent both last week and today – says “A gunsmith takes on the extreme, militia-based ideology of the NRA in a memorable piece.”
The only problem with this “memorable piece” is that it does not read like anything a modern-day gunsmith might write. It refers to “extended clips” as one example. Excuse me but I don’t think a gunsmith would call a magazine an “extended clip”.
I have searched all gunsmiths in the Portland area that hold an FFL and I don’t find any “Charles Ford”. I have also Googled Mr. Ford and again, I don’t find any gunsmith in Portland by the name of “Charles Ford”. Finally, I asked the members of the Oregon Hometown Forum on ar15.com if anyone had ever heard of a gunsmith in the Portland area by this name. No luck there either.
I believe a Charles Ford might exist but I doubt he is a real gunsmith. Real gunsmiths know the difference between a magazine and a clip. Moreover, real gunsmiths and actual NRA members don’t usually go spouting off about a “1,000 armed hate groups” – a number more usually associated with the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Here is the letter. Go to the link above to read the comments. They don’t think much of Mr. Ford either.
Regarding Mayor Adams’ proposals for gun control, I must add my perspective. As a former Army officer, gunsmith, member of the NRA and a competitive marksman, I see no reason why citizens, other than law enforcement, should have free access to armor-piercing rounds, military or automatic weapons, extended clips or undocumented purchases at gun shows.
Is this about hunting rights and self-protection or homegrown militias? There are currently more than 1,000 armed hate groups with their own agendas in the United States, all claiming the Constitution for their protection.
The creators of this magnificent document that protects us all never envisioned the effects of slavery, homegrown terrorists or crazies with a checkbook. So much of the rhetoric from the National Rifle Association sounds like “keep your hand off my junk,” testosterone-fueled hysteria, as if they’re about to be neutered by some tree-huggers.
The NRA has put its position forward that it is the last bastion of protection for America, as if an army that defeated the U.S. military would wither under fire from the unlicensed Uzis flooding our neighborhoods and taking the lives of thousands of young Americans. This might have made sense back in Colonial or Old West days, but now it’s just an anachronistic leftover, like chamber pots and the horseshoe smith on the corner.
When the U.S. faced the most egregious assault on our constitutional rights in its modern history, the NRA sat silently while George W. Bush emasculated the rights of us all. The NRA offers only the empty promise of protection and irrational justification for rendering us the most lethal country on Earth. It’s time to put reason back in the saddle.
CHARLES FORD
Southeast Portland
UPDATE: Sebastian at Snow Flakes in Hell has checked the list of all FFL’s in the state of Oregon and there is no one by the name of Ford listed.
And according to BATFE, a person must be licensed if one holds him or herself out to be a gunsmith:
Q: Is a license needed to engage in the business of engraving, customizing, refinishing or repairing firearms?
Yes. A person conducting such activities as a business is considered to be a gunsmith within the definition of a dealer.[27 CFR 478.11]
I wonder if Mr. Smith is one of those “unlicensed dealers” that gun control advocates love to talk about.
Buying Journalists
Bitter and Sebastian at Snow Flakes in Hell have been following Minnesota Public Radio reporter Brandt Williams and his “work” on gun violence. Williams is a Joyce Foundation Fellow and his pro-gun control reporting is based upon a grant from the Joyce Foundation.
Bitter nails it when she writes:
There’s no way that Williams and any other reporters involved can claim that their work is free of bias since a stipulation of taking the $5,000 was that their work be written in order to “have a major public policy impact.” In addition to Williams, Joyce was willing to fund up to six other writers or broadcasters who were based “in midwest and northeast region with priority given to journalists in Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.” Since Joyce doesn’t appear to list them, the coordinating organization doesn’t list them, and no results turn up on media sites for titles and terms such as “Joyce Journalism Fellow,” it could be hard to figure out exactly who was paid for these planted stories.
The Joyce Foundation has tried to influence courts on Second Amendment issues by paying for law review articles that pushed the collective right theory. Now it appears that they think they can “buy” stories in the media in the Upper Midwest through $5,000 fellowships to compliant anti-gun journalists.
Read both the postings from Bitter and Sebastian to get a better feel for how the Joyce Foundation is working to plant stories on “gun violence.”