In an update to my post on consent searches, Ravenwood has more:

Shooting of Oshkosh police officer results in knee jerk neighborhood gun grab

Oshkosh, Wis. — Following the shooting of an Oshkosh police officer Saturday night, area residents were forced from their homes, their lawful firearms being confiscated by police.

The Oshkosh Police Department’s Special Weapons and Tactics Unit responded to the area, with a K-9 police dog in pursuit of the perpetrator who was reported to have fled on foot.

Citizens’ guns were seized through searches of area homes. The police promised to return the firearms after forensic tests proved they were not involved in the crime. The injured officer’s name was withheld, but media reports indicate his condition is not life-threatening.

If that happened at my house, I (and some others) would be dead. Ravenwood offers this bit of advice:

This is why all police business should be conducted on the porch. If a policeman wants entry into my home, unless they have a warrant the answer is always “NO”. I don’t know about you, but if you hear that Ravenwood’s guns have been taken, you’ll know Ravenwood is dead.

Indeed.

Update: Jed has more.

You gotta be careful when you cold-call people asking them for money. I just got off the phone with someone raising money for the 21st Century Democrats, an organization that supports “progressive” Democrats. I asked him what positions their candidates would take. He said they wanted to reduce the deficit.

I asked if they were going to cut spending. He said yes. I asked if they were going to cut spending on welfare. He said yes. I asked if they were going to cut spending on the arts. He said yes.

The world’s turned upside down!

He wouldn’t tell me what their position on gun rights was.

The LA Times discusses why some conservatives would view a Bush defeat as good:

First, President Bush hasn’t been as conservative as some would like. Small-government types fume that he has increased discretionary government spending faster than Bill Clinton. Buchananite paleoconservatives, libertarians and Nelson Rockefeller-style internationalists are all furious — for their very different reasons — about Bush’s “war of choice” in Iraq. Even some neocons are irritated by his conduct of that war — particularly his failure to supply enough troops to make the whole enterprise work.

The second reason conservatives might cheer a Bush defeat is to achieve a foreign policy victory. The Bush foreign policy team hardly lacks experience, but its reputation has been tainted — by infighting, by bungling in Iraq and by the rows with Europe. For better or worse, many conservatives may conclude that Kerry, who has accepted most of the main tenets of Bush’s policy of preemption, stands a better chance than Bush of increasing international involvement in Iraq, of winning support for Washington’s general war on terror and even of forcing reform at the United Nations. After all, could Jacques, Gerhard and the rest of those limp-wristed continentals say no to a man who speaks fluent French and German and has just rid the world of the Toxic Texan?

The third reason for the right to celebrate a Bush loss comes in one simple word: gridlock. Gridlock is a godsend to some conservatives — it’s a proven way to stop government spending. A Kerry administration is much more likely to be gridlocked than a second Bush administration because the Republicans look sure to hang on to the House and have a better-than-even chance of keeping control of the Senate.

The fourth reason has to do with regeneration. Some conservatives think the Republican Party — and the wider conservative movement — needs to rediscover its identity. Is it a “small government” party, or does “big government conservatism” make sense? Is it the party of big business or of free markets? Under Bush, Western anti-government conservatives have generally lost ground to Southern social conservatives, and pragmatic internationalists have been outmaneuvered by neoconservative idealists. A period of bloodletting might help, returning a stronger party to the fray.

And that is the fifth reason why a few conservatives might welcome a November Bush-bashing: the certain belief that they will be back, better than ever, in 2008. The conservative movement has an impressive record of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Ford’s demise indeed helped to power the Reagan landslide; “Poppy” Bush’s defeat set up the Gingrich revolution. In four years, many conservatives believe, President Kerry could limp to destruction at the hands of somebody like Colorado Gov. Bill Owens.

Yeah, I’ve said a Bush defeat would be good for us real conservatives. So have Spoons and a few others.

Update: And before someone takes me to task for calling myself a real conservative, I don’t mean in the party-line-toeing sense. I mean in the sense that it refers to application of government (to apply liberally would mean to apply more). I extend my desire for fiscal conservatism to social issues as well. I don’t think the government should throw money at pet projects and silly programs on the tax payer dime. Nor do I think it’s particularly beneficial to over-regulate social issues.

Actually, some in the past have accused me of being a liberal from 40 years ago.

But stupid enough to send some angry correspondence.

An article about the assault weapons ban, that focuses on how the local police officials disagree about it, is factually correct in describing the ban as a ban on assault rifles with certain attachments. Further, it says:

The 1994 Assault Weapons Act made semiautomatic assault weapons illegal if they had detachable magazines and two or more of the following: a folding or telescoping stock, a pistol grip, a bayonet mount, a flash suppressor or a grenade launcher. Such features often are applied to guns such as the AK-47 and AR-15. The act is set to expire in mid-September.

Good for the Herald-Mail.

Just caught Michael Moore on TV blathering about how evil everyone but Democrats are. I really wonder if he’s a mole placed by the GOP to get people to think Democrats are all moonbats. His speech was about one part righteous criticism of the press and the establishment and three parts moonbat, coo coo for CoCo puffs. His rantings are good at riling the party faithful but those middle of the road folks (you know, the one’s whose votes people need to get elected?) will likely be unimpressed.

Update: Oh yeah, he said that polls prove that most Americans are liberal (he used the codespeak term progressive), favoring gun control (no code speak here), women’s rights (code speak for abortion), and pro-labor (codespeak for liking unions). I’d like to see some of these polls. If people really are these things, why the codespeak?

Oh, and he said Republicans get up at six in the morning and decide which minority they’re going to screw that day. That goes over well with moderates.

Tom Humphrey, who we now see why he’s not blogging, writes in the KNS:

Al Gore said Tuesday that President Bush’s “saturation television advertising” in East Tennessee indicates Republicans fear that John Kerry can win the state he lost in 2000.

Speaking to Tennessee delegates a day after addressing the Democratic National Convention, Gore contended that the GOP fears were justified though most polls show Bush with a solid lead in his home state.

Sorry Al, you’re dreaming. Tennessee was Gore’s to lose and he did. Tennessee, however, is also Bush’s to lose but Kerry isn’t the guy that’s gonna do it for us genteel Southerners.

Apparently, new citizens in Florida are presumed to be Republican:

Dario Cruz has lived in the United States for 16 years, but just became a citizen last week as he and about 200 other immigrants were naturalized.

One of the things he had always wanted to was register to vote, but when he was offered the chance to do that right outside the ceremony, he knew something wasn’t right — the place on the form where you’re asked to choose Democrat, Republican or independent was already filled out.

“It’s like one side,” Cruz said. “You don’t get to choose.”

According to Cruz and his family, every form was checked off Republican.

I thought he KNS DemCon blog would be a good thing but one entry per day? I do that in my sleep. Seriously, I’m asleep now.