David Bernstein, February 18, 2008 at 9:48pm Obama and Gun Control: His record isn't likely to win back the rural "pro-gun" voters who've fled to the Republicans in recent years, likely costing Gore the election in 2000. From the Chicago Defender, Dec. 13, 1999:

Sweeping federal gun control legislation proposed by Sen. Barack Obama (D-13th) would increase the penalties on gun runners who are flooding Chicago's streets with illegal weapons. At an anti-gun rally held at the Park Manor Christian Church, 600 E. 73rd St., headed by the Rev. James Demus, Obama also said he's backing a resolution being introduced into the City Council by Alds. Toni Preckwinkle (4th), Ted Thomas (15th), Leslie Hairston (5th) to call for a "shot-free" millennium celebration. Obama outlined his anti-gun plan that includes increased penalties for the interstate transportation of firearms. The maximum penalty now for bringing a gun across the border is 10 years in prison. Obama is proposing to make it a felony for  a gun owner whose firearm was stolen from his residence which causes harm to another person if that weapon was not securely stored in that home. [!!!] He's proposing restricting gun purchases to one weapon a month and banning the sale of firearms at gun shows except for "antique" weapons. Obama is also proposing increasing the licensing fee to obtain a federal firearms license. He's also seeking a ban on police agencies from reselling their used weapons even if those funds are used to buy more state-of-the-art weapons for their agencies. Obama wants only those over 21 who've passed a basic course to be able to buy or own a firearm. He's proposing that all federally licensed gun dealers sell firearms in a storefront and not from their homes while banning their business from being within five miles of a school or a park. He's also banning the sale of 'junk" handguns like the popular Saturday Night Specials. Obama is requiring that all people working at a gun dealer undergo a criminal background check. He's also asking that gun manufacturers be required to develop safety measures that permit only the original owner of the firearm to operate the weapon purchased. Additionally, he wants an increase of the funds for schools to teach anger management skills for youth between the ages of 5-13. Obama is also seeking to increase the federal taxes by 500 percent on the sale of firearm, ammunition [sic] -- weapons he says are most commonly used in firearm deaths. http://volokh.com/posts/1203389334.shtml He's also banning the sale of 'junk" handguns like the popular Saturday Night Specials.Seems like Obama found a missing word in the Second Amendment: "the right of the _rich_ people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." But poor people who live in crime-ridden neighborhoods, and thus who would seem to have great need to defend themselves against crime, are effectively prohibited from buying a handgun that they can afford. Interestingly, none of this info is available on Obama's campaign web site.  Even more interestingly, some of these policy ideas were on his web site a few months back.... Be assured my friends, one can go to certain areas an any large city, any hour, day or night 24-7 and within a very short time have nearly any weapon desired and ammo to go with it for a price.  Anyone who has been around the block knows this!  Gun control is just another strike against our constitutional rights and and a means to eliminate any resistance to a fascist government! Doctors kill more people per year than do people with guns!  That's a fact, google it!  So ban Doctors! Guns are like abortions; if you don't like them, don't get one.

As the Supreme Court gets ready to render a decision this Spring on the challenge to the District of Columbia's stringent hand gun law, I was curious what people think about the 2^nd Amendment to the Constitution. It follows:

“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

I interpret this as stating the necessity of an armed militia and the need for keeping arms. The people make up the militia in their bearing of their arms. At that time in history your neighbor literally was the militia. Today your neighbor may have weapons at home but it probably has nothing to do with the country's defense.  I don't believe the 2nd Amendment states that all citizens have the right to bear arms. In my mind if that were the case there would be no need to mention militia, all people would bear arms. To me it seems more like the legal guarantee to create and arm a standing army if necessary rather than a grant for everyone to own a gun.

What do you think?

Teh Poorman

"No one could have predicted that letting a semi-retarded dry drunk with a history of abject business failure run the country for 8 years might end up having negative economic consequences."

I figured out how to stop ruining the page format!

So finally some shit has stuck to Obama. His lame excuses over the last two days over bigoted and racially insensitive comments by his pastor Jeremiah Wright may be enough to sink his chances to win the Democratic nomination at the convention in August. Today, Barak Obama tried to diffuse the situation but all he ended up doing was acknowledging that he had lied two days ago when he said he never heard Wright utter these types of rants in church. For 20 years Obama sat in Wright's church in Chicago. When the story of Wright's bigotry broke, Obama denied hearing any of these kinds of words from Wright that are in constant rotation on Youtube and the news. Now, today, in a speech in Philadelphia he says he did hear some blatant racist and inflammatory comments from Wright but took his bad with his good. Sorry Obama, having your pastor, the man who married you and baptised your children say that America should be damned by god, is completely inexcusable and shows again that your judgement is poor. There is NO WAY white America is going to get past this. Whatever chance Obama had being the Democratic nominee and beating John McCain in November are now gone. Obama may well still get the nomination but he can not beat McCain with clips of who he now calls "his former pastor" spitting out anti-white and anti-America rhetoric flashing on tv screens across America. Or as Wright called the country, the US of KKKA. It is interesting that when Obama wasn't running for president Wright's comments were okay, but now that he is running, Wright is no longer his pastor. A convenient political decision of the kind that he criticizes Hillary Clinton for. Now the Democratic Party must move and move fast to ensure that Obama is not the nominee. The GOP will play the race card no matter what, and now Obama himself has provided them with the anti-white, anti-America rants from Wright, his pastor, that they can use to scare white people from voting for him. Call it what you want but that is politics. The smart thing for Obama to do now is to leave the race and help to unite Democrats behind Hillary Clinton.

"The size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be believed, for the vast masses of a nation are in the depths of their hearts more easily deceived than they are consciously and intentionally bad. The primitive simplicity of their minds renders them a more easy prey to a big lie than a small one, for they themselves often tell little lies, but would be ashamed to tell big lies."       Adolf Hitler Obama again repudiated the remarks made by his Chicago pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Wright was removed as the "spiritual adviser," to the campaign. In Wright's sermons over the years, which have been circulated in the media and on the YouTube Web site, he has called the September 2001 attacks retribution for U.S. foreign policy, cited the U.S. government as the source of the AIDS virus, and railed against a racist America. "Most recently you heard some statements from my former pastor that are incendiary and that I completely reject, although I knew him and know him as somebody in my church who talked to me about Jesus and family and friendships," Obama said. After being a member of this anti-American, radical, hate spewing racist church for twenty years we are supposed to believe Obama didn't know??? [ SEE BARACK OBAMA’S OWN WORDS  on  http://bartblog.bartcop.com/  2008/03/12/). OBAMA KNEW  WRIGHT'S ANTI-AMERICAN VIEWS YEARS AGO"In a 2003 sermon, he (Wright) said blacks should condemn the United States. "The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme." He also gave a sermon in December comparing Obama to Jesus, promoting his candidacy and playing down Clinton."] "But if all I knew was those statements that I saw on television, I would be shocked. And it reminds me we've got a tragic history when it comes to race in this country. We've got a lot of pent-up anger and bitterness and misunderstanding," he said. Obama Changed the subject quickly to distract and excuse it all and gain sympathy. If Obama thinks black people have a lot of pent-up bitterness and misunderstanding he should feel the pent-up bitterness and misunderstanding that WOMEN feel after 6,000+ years of patriarchy's never ending series of wars, enslavement of women, abuse, second class citizenship, and much less than equal rights, pay and enforcement of legalities we still experience EVEN TODAY, EVEN IN THE USA!  If this were not true, for just one example, the patriarchal governments and religions wouldn't be continually trying to pass laws concerning our vaginas and uterus.  Like we have been telling the pope for years, you don't have the equipment and you can't play the game so stop trying to make the rules! Wright, on Obama's African American Religious Leadership Committee???   Part of Obama's POLITICAL TEAM???  Well shades of Dubya's BORN AGAIN CONVERSION in another FUNDI CHURCH in Crawford, Texas. If that racist, anti-American, hate spewing church were to have it's tax free status removed for preaching politics in church, would it be considered a RACIST ACT or LAW ENFORCEMENT?  NEED YOU ASK!