We all have them. And they’re all pandered to. AC keeps it real:

It’s BS though. The term “special interest” means nothing. Everyone has some interests they are against and some interests they support. Just saying you are against “special” interests doesn’t say anything about you other than you are interested in gaining votes or maneuvering voters to support your interests — which, of course, are certainly not special.

Jeff has the latest on anti-gun bias in the media.

The state is giving out some rather large raises, to the right people.

How big will your raise be this year? If you’re lucky, it will be better than the one percent state workers will receive in July. But the I-Team has found that some top state officials have been getting big raises that the public does not hear about.

Those “big raises” are to state legislative staff members.

In 2003, Durham made around $115,000. Now, he makes more than $145,000 — a 26% increase from three years ago.
Russell Humphrey is Wilder’s chief of staff in the Senate. His salary increased from $104,000 to $134,000 — 28% in three years.

My mom and wife are state workers and to say they are not happy is truly an understatement.

These people must be doing a GREAT job. Right?

“Are these raises tied to performance?” asked Amons.

“No, not at all. We do not pay for performance in the legislature,” said Frederick.

A rare moment of honesty..

Today is Election Day and the undecided voters must make an important decision. Who should they vote for in the race for Knox County Mayor? I suggest you consider the important aspect of fiduciary responsibly. How well has our current County Mayor managed the County’s finances? Not very well at all.

Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale has made the newfound “harmony” between his office and the office of Knoxville City Mayor Bill Haslam a central point of his administration. It is one of the crowning achievements of his first administration.

Harmony sounds like a good thing; but in the history of the human race we have learned that harmony is not always what it appears to be. Neville Chamberlain thought there could be “peace in our time”, yet the harmony was only a bitter illusion.

Politicians through out history have told us of new and exciting ways that we can all get along. People want harmony. It is a natural human desire. So how has the new harmony business between the City of Knoxville and Knox County gone in this new era of understanding?

It has been a great deal for the City of Knoxville. Take for example the City’s plunder of the old Farmers Market. You see Knox County spent over 12 million dollars purchasing the land and creating the Farmers Market and an additional 7 million dollars over the next eight years operating it. It was Knox County’s “White Elephant”, our version of the Convention Center.

What happened with the old Farmers Market demonstrates that Mayor Ragsdale is not a good financial steward of the taxpayer’s money. The old Farmers Market was sold at a bargain price of 7.64 million dollars to Target for 30.56 acres of property and abandoned buildings that would have to be torn down. Then Target turned around and offered to sell 18.5 “excess” acres of land it did not need for 7.6 million dollars. Any red flags yet?

I know, it sounds awful. Could it possible get any worse? Is this Knox County? It can. The City of Knoxville decided to annex the Target so Knox County would lose the very important sales taxes.

What did Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale do? He encouraged the plan. Yes, you read that correctly. Up until this time of new harmony the previous Knox County Executives Dwight Kessel and Tommy Schumpert would wage war in the courtroom over such nonsense. But Neville, er, the County Mayor had different ideas.

It gets worse if you can believe it. The City then wanted to give Target a C-4 zoning that would harm the surrounding community and then Mayor Ragsdale had to come and fight with the community to wage a war over the proposed City zoning. It would have been better if the new harmony had not existed to begin with.

So how does this tie into the wheel tax and the new West Knox High School? Do the math. If Target could turn around and offer for sale 18.5 acres for the same price it paid for 30.56 acres what does that tell you about the sales price? That maybe it was 7.6 million dollars to low? How much sales tax would a Target generate for Knox County in ten years? I do not know, but lets agree it would be several million dollars. Say 3 million dollars.

So you take the 7.6 million lost on the sale of the property and the 3 million lost in sales tax and now you have the missing 10 million dollars needed for the new West Knox High School.

Does that sound like good financial management to you?

Go out today and vote for Steve Hall. I did and you should too.

Yesterday, I said:

Gun control is about to become a major issue again. It died off for a bit but it is coming back and sooner than you think.

Now, just today, there were two anti-gun pieces I mentioned on this blog. I usually comment on those about twice a week. Also, the NRA notes:

Lest we become complacent, the following stories and editorials should remind us that the efforts to take away our 2nd Amendment rights have not abated.

Shooting Down The Gunmakers – New York Daily News

Seven Years After Columbine – Senator Carl Levin

Campaign For Rational Gun Laws – Seattle Times

It`s Time To Infringe On The Second Amendment – Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Brady Campaign Pledges Support For Anti-Gun Mayors

I told you it was coming. Expect more. Now is the time to start calling your congressmonkeys and telling them what’s up. I mean it.

Ramesh Ponnuru:

The press has not shown any general reluctance to adopt politically contested phrases. When Congress banned “assault weapons,” the NRA bitterly protested that the phrase had been made up and referred to no distinct class of firearms. Yet the press adopted it without resorting to locutions such as “a class of guns called ‘assault weapons’ by advocates of gun control” or “Congress Bans Type of Gun.”

Interesting chart on gun murders in New York. In most cases, the murderer knew the victim. And murder occurs mostly in Brooklyn and The Bronx, which is odd because guns are essentially banned in all those places.

Alphie brings our attention to:

On April 7, U.S. Senator David Vitter (R-La.) introduced S. 2599-the Senate companion bill to H.R. 5013, the “Disaster Recovery Personal Protection Act of 2006” introduced on March 28, by U.S. Representative Bobby Jindal (R-La.). This NRA-supported bill would amend federal emergency statute laws to prohibit local authorities from confiscating lawfully owned firearms during times of disaster.

Now, I realize that gun absolutists would have a problem with this given that whole second amendment thing. But, good idea or not?

I don’t care how much pot you sell, it doesn’t warrant the death penalty.

I don’t really care about Rush Limbaugh and don’t listen to him. But I found this odd:

The conservative commentator also must continue treatment for his addiction and cannot own a gun, according to details of the deal made public Monday. And the agreement says he “will refrain from any violation of any law.”

Ravenwood asks:

What does gun ownership have to do with it? For starters, Rush isn’t being convicted of anything. He is only agreeing to conditions to get them to drop the charges and discontinue their witch hunt. Why would gun ownership even be a condition of the agreement?

The NY Daily News:

Sharp shootin’ Jack Weinstein, judge of the Eastern District, has used a silver bullet to single-handedly keep alive Mayor Bloomberg’s battle to get illegal guns off the street. The judge rightly ruled that the city can use federal data it already has against gunmakers and distributors who carelessly deliver their wares to unscrupulous dealers who, in turn, sell to criminals. Weinstein is the man in the white hat against the firearms black market.

Again, in New York there is no difference between legitimate firearms manufacturers or distributors and the black market, even though every where else, one is lawful and the other is not.

The Detroit Free Press:

Opponents of gun control often pretend to represent the interests of law enforcement, while painting people who favor sensible firearms regulations as naive liberals who wouldn’t know a 9 mm from an AK47. They should take note that most of those on the front lines of gun violence support tougher gun control measures, including laws to require background checks on all people purchasing firearms.

A new study — Police Chiefs’ Perceptions of the Regulation of Firearms — found that law enforcement leaders back gun control proposals that are generally opposed by groups such as the National Rifle Association.

The study, conducted by researchers from Wayne State University, the University of Toledo and Kent State University, found that more than 80% of police chiefs favored mandatory background checks for all handgun, rifle and shotgun purchases; equipping new handguns with trigger locks; and requiring tamper-resistant serial numbers on firearms.

I do not know that the NRA ever opposed any such measure. The NRA pushed the instant check system; supported the 1968 Gun Control Act (which required serial numbers on firearms); and was largely indifferent on requiring trigger locks. So, that is a lie. And the next paragraph says:

The gun lobby has consistently opposed such sensible measures and others, including a modest ban on assault weapons, which have the support of most Americans. For the most part, politicians have rolled over.

They repeat the lie. Then they attempt to imply that police chiefs supported a particular bill.

Contempt for the Constitution.

Aunt B. asks:

Do People Have a Right to Be Stupid?

Or is it okay to impose your will on them if your will is that they remove their heads from their asses?

I say yes. She continues:

I start to suspect that this is the fundamental question of our time.

Indeed it is. Seat belt laws, helmet laws, anti-smoking laws, drug laws, the coming war on fast food, and a variety of other stuff is designed to keep you from hurting yourself. The .gov should only be concerned with protecting me from others. I’ll protect me from me.

R. Neal has the skinny on what is sure to be the most contested election Knoxville will ever have.

Apparently, a bunch of immigrants took the day off. Other than news accounts telling me so, I haven’t noticed.

Parenting will win, of course. That’s the point of this peice:

Really, it all comes down to education. Guns, the NRA and the Second Amendment are not the enemy. They don’t advocate murder or school shootings.

And, again, sorry for the light blogging and all the linky-no-thinky posts. Busy.

So many issues facing the state but our legislators want to card senior citizens for alcohol. Bob Krumm says:

If the Legislature is now busying itself debating laws with no practical effects, while avoiding debates where action is still necessary, then it’s time to save the taxpayers’ money, and send them home early.

The Carnival of Cordite is up.

Rich on group blogs:

But somebody else did think of it. They called it a newspaper.

Heh.

Publicola sums up his absolutism with respect to gun rights in a long post called Subdivisions. I discussed my acceptance of incremental absolutism. Read it and come back. It has a good time line on gun control.

Now, all that said, here’s the deal. Gun control is about to become a major issue again. It died off for a bit but it is coming back and sooner than you think. There have, lately, been several mentions of global arms control treaties for citizens, of which the US has largely ignored. The mayor of New York has a real hard on for gun control lately because guns that are legal nearly everywhere but New York keep showing up in New York. He even has a coalition of mayors supporting him. Couple those things with this being an election year and gun control will be an issue. So, whether you’re content to be an incrementalist like me or you’re a balls-out absolutist like Publicola, we’re on the same side. And this isn’t the time to be fucking around with petty disagreements among the ranks while those pushing gun control walk all over both of us.

Is it just me or does it seem like we’re getting our kids accustomed to a police state? For example:

According to the New York Post via mopocket, “the New York City Police confiscated 129 cellphones and 24 electronic devices yesterday from students at the first city high school subjected to a new random scanning initiative aimed at purging the school system of weapons.

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein called the initiative a success and said the ban on cellphones and other gadgets deemed disruptive would stay in place despite an outcry from parents and students.

Confiscated items, with the exception of drugs and weapons, are usually returned at the end of the day but principals can require the student to be accompanied by a parent to get their stuff back.

The scannings, conducted by police with mobile metal detectors, may take place unannounced each day at as many as 10 middle schools or high schools without permanent magnetometers.”

David Hardy has some info on the Firearms Commerce Modernization Act and the NICS Improvement Act.

Xrlq tells us the difference between the two. That’s only a difficult concept if you’re the LA Times.

Off to the hospital today with a new baby coming. Not much action here for the next few days but check out The Gun Blogs for your gunblogging fix.

Via Brittney, comes news that federal income tax deduction for the six states without an income tax is now gone. You’d think that would have made the news or something.