Newsmax on Zogby:

Massachusetts senator John Kerry holds a three-point lead (47 percent to 44 percent) over President George W. Bush among likely voters, according to a new Zogby International poll. The poll of 1,049 likely voters was conducted Thursday through Saturday (April 15-17, 2004). Overall results have a margin of sampling error of +/- 3.1.

Foxnews:

As worries about the Iraq war and terrorism have pushed ahead of the economy among the public’s priorities, President Bush has edged ahead of Democratic challenger John Kerry, national polls suggest.

The ABC-Washington Post and CNN-USA Today-Gallup polls, both released Monday, showed Bush with a slight lead over Kerry in a three-way matchup with independent Ralph Nader.

Seems the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy isn’t so vast nor is it particularly conspiratorial. Maybe they should get together?

Buzzflash writes that Cheney supports gun control:

All the NRA gun guys who wanted to hear Mr. Cheney speak about God and Guns and Freedom and the evils of Gun Control had to leave their guns in their hotel rooms and go through metal detectors, among other screening procedures, before they could gain entry to the meeting hall where Cheney addressed them. In short, if you were an NRA member and wanted to hear Cheney, you had to go through gun control. In fact, security screening for Cheney started three hours in advance of his NRA speech.

So, Dick Cheney tells the NRA members gun control is bad for America, but is apparently good enough for him. Excuse us, but we want some of what Cheney gets: you know, the treatment where the gun guys can’t be in the same room with us while packing heat. If it’s good enough for Cheney, it’s good enough for BuzzFlash!

What does it say about politicians that they don’t trust you?

Tomorrow will be the fifth anniversary of the Columbine tragedy and there was an NRA convention this weekend. Chalk one up to poor timing. As such, anti-gun hysteria is reaching levels comparable to that annoying homeland security chart. One article on debating the statistics says:

The two sides in the Senate debate over extending the decade-old ban on assault weapons are convinced of the bill’s value — and both think they have the numbers to prove it.

“We got the bill passed a decade ago, and America has been safer for it, ” argued Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who pushed through the original bill in the face of roaring opposition from the National Rifle Association and its allies.

“In fact, the percentage of assault weapons used in crimes since this bill has passed has diminished by two-thirds,” she added during a Senate debate last month. “That is the good news.”

But Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, an NRA board member, said the 1994 ban was a bust.

“The restrictions imposed by this law make no sense and only create a burden on law-abiding citizens and businesses,” he told the Senate.

Craig had his own statistics, from the Justice Department, to prove his point.

“Before the semiautomatic-firearms ban, less than 2 percent of crimes in this country were semi-auto. After the ban, from 1997 and forward, less than 2 percent were. Same figure,” he said

Either side is prone to finding stats that support its conclusion. Strangely absent from a lot of this debate is the issue of freedom. After all, who are you to tell me (a law abiding citizen with no intent to harm anyone) what my rifle should look like?

Next up is this opinion piece on the ban which is quite short on facts and long on VPC talking points. Don’t even bother to read it unless you just want a refresher on the talking points.

Unsurprisingly, Cheney didn’t mention the Assault Weapons Ban at the NRA convention. Bush has said he supports the ban but he has not actively pursued it. Some argue he’s playing politics for votes by supporting it and keeping votes by not actively pushing it. Cheney has also vowed to protect gun owner rights. I’ll believe it when I see it.

Additionally, there was some emotional blather by the parent of a child killed in the tragedy that outlined the touchy-feeliness of the issue. Even more unfortunate is that other reports suggest that the NRA members were making rather rude comments to the parent.

Spoons concludes Illinois voters are idiots:

I’d like to conduct another poll, and ask my fellow Illinoisans the following questions:

What does the assault weapons ban, ban?

Under what circumstances do you have to have a federal background check when you buy a gun at a gun show?

Under what circumstances do you not have to have a federal background check when you buy a gun elsewhere than a gun show?

Describe how the laws regarding federal background checks differ at gun shows, versus all other locations.

How many U.S. states allow citizens to carry concealed weapons?

How do the crime rates of states with concealed carry compare to the crime rates of states without concealed carry?

How many states that have adopted concealed carry over the past ten years have seen their crime rates go up?

How many have gone down?

One reported bit of good news is that the assault weapons ban is off the legislature’s table until at least spring. The good news is that some gun rights will be restored in September. The bad news is that the 11 high capacity magazines I have at the house will drop in value. A price worth paying.

Looks like Dayton, whose council tried to outlaw homosexuality recently, will be having a gay pride event. This could get ugly.

Yard work has been kicking my butt (although I guess I’m not the only one so kicked), else I would be blogging up a storm, you betcha.

Oh what the heck; it’s just typing. Here we go.

Saturday one of my shootin’ buddies and I went to the range. I wanted to try out the 30-round M1 carbine magazine I had picked up for cheap at the last gun show; I had heard they weren’t no good but I wanted to find out just how not-good they were. My buddy wanted to put a lot of rounds through his Ruger P89.

The 30-round magazine turned out to be more-or-less OK, but the last round didn’t feed properly because the “bump” on the magazine follower is designed hold the bolt open when the magazine is empty, unlike the 15-round magazines.

Les Jones reviewed the Ruger P95, which is probably similar enough to my friend’s (except the one I fired had a manual safety). I think I agree with most of what he said, except that I didn’t quite get the hang of the magazine catch.

Also, I think the pistol seems kind of bulky-feeling. I’m pretty sure I have larger-than-average hands, and while I didn’t have any problems getting a good grip while firing, I did find it awkward to work the slide release and safety with the thumb of my strong hand, especially compared to some other semi-autos I’ve fired. I also don’t think it would be very easy to carry concealed.

It may be that I just needed more time to get used to it, plus the fact that I’m more familiar with revolvers. I did like the sights, and I did like the controllability—recoil was hardly noticeable, although that could be due to the “wussy Europellet” as some people call it. All in all, I’d say it would be a great home-defense handgun.

And then, after we’d fired over 300 rounds, we capped off the testosterone-laden afternoon by taking in a matinee showing of The Punisher. Hoo boy! As my buddy said afterwards, “It was a pretty decent action movie, even though there wasn’t a single thing in it that could have possibly happened in real life.”

But then I had to do yard work the rest of the weekend. At least the weather was pretty!

Veep Cheney has called Kerry a threat to gun owners. The NRA members began shouting four more years. Obviously, the NRA members haven’t been keeping up with Bush’s record on guns:

“John Kerry’s approach to the Second Amendment has been to regulate, regulate and then regulate some more,” Cheney said, citing votes against legislation that would protect gun makers from lawsuits and in favor of allowing federal authorities to randomly inspect gun dealers without notice.

Cheney lauded the NRA for its safety programs and said the best way to prevent gun crimes was to enforce existing laws. Federal prosecutions of crimes committed with guns increased 68 percent under President Bush, he told the crowd.

Bush “has shown you respect, earned your vote and appreciates your support,” Cheney said.

[Snip]

Kerry, in a statement issued before Cheney’s address, said “most voters don’t know that (Bush and Cheney) are standing against major police organizations and breaking their promise to renew the assault weapons ban — which helps keep military-style assault weapons out of the hands of criminals and terrorists.”

Update: Publicola has more.

Half acre lot in the country: $30,000

Sod so your back yard isn’t a mud pit: $3,600

Fence to keep the good guys in and the bad guys out: $3,300

Popping an over-sized tennis ball:

And playing tug with a friend:

Priceless!

Bush, apparently realizing Saturday is not a big news day, is urging congress to renew the Patriot Act, which is set to expire next year:

“Key elements of the Patriot Act are set to expire next year,” Bush said in his weekly radio address. “Some politicians in Washington act as if the threat to America will also expire on that schedule.”

Although it was supported by a large majority of lawmakers when it came up for a vote in Congress in the weeks after the attacks, the Patriot Act has become controversial.

Opponents fear it may give federal agents too much power, for example to invade privacy with provisions such as those that make it easier to tap telephone conversations.

But the president accused those who would allow the law to lapse of having “willful blindness” to the terrorist threat.

I’ve been told I speak with a bit of an accent. I don’t really see it that way myself; it always sounds to me like THEY have the accent. I saw a link to this post by Geitner Simmons (ht: Donald Sensing), that discusses the origins of the Southern accent and dialect, and the long tradition of the entertainment folks getting it wrong:

The movie “Cold Mountain” has given moviegoers new reason to complain about bungled or exaggerated Southern accents in Hollywood films. But I recently ran across a similar gripe voiced way back in 1897, about stage productions. The complainer was Thomas Nelson Page (1853-1922), whose extravagant writings did much to promote a moonlight-and-magnolia romanticizing of the Old South. From Page’s 1897 book “Social Life in Old Virginia: Before the War” (emphasis added):

Quite a large crop of so-called Southern plays, or at least plays in which Southerners have figured, has of late been introduced on the stage, and the supposititious Southerner is as absurd a creation as the wit of ignorance ever devised. The Southern girl is usually an underbred little provincial, whose chief characteristic is to say “reckon” and “real,” with strong emphasis, in every other sentence. And the Southern gentleman is a sloven whose linen has never known starch; who clips the endings of his words; says “Sah” at the end of every sentence, and never uses an “r” except in the last syllable of [the N-word]

This is something that bothers me, too. Movies almost NEVER get Southern accents right. So when I saw Fargo, I had to be skeptical that they got that accent right. I’ve been told they did, but I can’t really say from experience.

Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius vetoed a bill Friday to allow Kansans to carry concealed handguns. There are not enough votes to override.

Sounds like a good way to be a one-termer to me.

Kevin rips JoinTogether a new one over their claim that people under 40 are children. Well, not exactly but they do imply it.

Ford Offers Armored Lincoln Town Car:

Ford Motor Co. is marketing an armored Lincoln Town Car that can withstand rounds of fire from assault rifles, handguns and submachine guns, according to a Local 6 News report.

Of course, it’s no protection against the Evil Armor Piercing .30-30 Sniper Rifle. And if your enemy has a .50 BMG…fuggedaboudit.

Seriously, though, it’s interesting what they’ve listed. Don’t submachine-guns in general fire handgun ammunition? And of course, doesn’t the real definition of assault rifle include something about firing a cartridge of “intermediate” power (i.e., more powerful than a handgun, but less powerful than a traditional rifle)?

I blame the marketing weenies.

A pit bull was apparently shot while defending its owner from a home invasion. The story is also just odd:

The owner of a pit bull who was shot to death by armed intruders said the dog died a hero.

“The dog saved my mom’s life,” the victim’s daughter said Wednesday from her home on Pacific Place in North Kelso.

She declined to speak further, saying the family was shaken by the events of late Tuesday night, when two or three men masked with bandannas and armed with a shotgun tried to push past her mother and enter their home.

[snip]

Kelso police Capt. Vern Thompson said that after the intruders fled, officers arrived and found a large homemade bomb under the front wheel of a car parked in front of the house.

Alex Knapp writes that the recent discovery of Iraq’s WMD related program activities turning up in Europe is a result of the Bush administration’s misunderestimating strategery:

I’ve been saying for almost a year now that the biggest Bush scandal of all is the fact that nuclear facilities and suspected WMD sites were allowed to be looted and destroyed even while under the watch of American troops. Who knows what material fell into what hands? Well, now it looks like some of that has been discovered on the black market.

It begs the question: what don’t we know about? What was smuggled from Iraq and sold to enemies of the United States? When will we find out? When nuclear, biological, radiological or chemical weapons are used against Americans by terrorists? Will someone finally give a shit then?

He also includes links to items from the past about the looting of their weapons programs. This is big.

I was supposed to buy a gun yesterday!

Well, I wasn’t actually planning to buy one, but I was planning to pick up some ammo. Curse that two-hour Apprentice finale!

According to Drug War Rant, the war on drugs costs $11B a year.

Thomas has the latest VTP up with a cool mapped image.

Looks like despite earlier warnings, Air America is coming back on the air in Chicago and LA.

So, Jesse Ventura is considering a 2008 presidential run. Hell, I’ll vote for any candidate that is not a Republican or Democrat that stands a chance at winning. I don’t think the body really has a shot as an independent but I can dream can’t I?

Totally unrelated but did anyone catch Chapelle’s President Black Bush the other night? Hysterical.

Black Bush 2004: Mars, bitches!

Actually, they knew that Islamic extremists were likely to attack U.S. aviation, Washington landmarks or Wall Street and by 1997 had identified Usama bin Laden as an emerging threat on U.S. soil, a senior intelligence official said Thursday. This is a far cry from stating that they knew a specific attack was coming, which is what the headlines would have you believe.

For example, right now I know that eventually there will be another attack by Islamic extremists on Americans at some point in the future. But I can’t stop it because I don’t know any thing concrete. This whole notion that because Clinton/Bush/CIA/Bureaucracy knew something was afoot does not mean that any of them could have prevented it.

Our state legislature is looking to pass baby steps toward cracking down excessive fees and other predatory lending practices.

Most of these issues could be avoided if people actually learned to read contracts and understand them. However, most people don’t. I think it’s a good step toward some serious reform even if it is a token gesture. What’s next? Hopefully credit card vendors on college campuses. I’m sure a lot of graduates get out of school with thousands in credit card debt, at 24% effective interest, and make only minimum payments.

Apparently, some one is upset that the NRA’s Eddie Eagle is in Pittsburgh-area schools this week to teach children about gun safety. Even anti-gun nuts should realize that teaching children firearm safety is a good thing.

Some guy stole two different vehicles and (apparently) ran over pedestrians deliberately.

A string of hit-and-run accidents ended with one person dead and several injured.
…
Officers say Abdullah El-Amin Shareef, 25, stole a City of Fayetteville van and a pick-up truck Wednesday morning and hit at least five people. Police say the slain man was found pinned under the stolen van. They’ve identified him as Lonel Bearl Bass, 56.
…
“He tried to back over me, missed and then went forward to try to hit me again and then got out and started beating me,” [said hit-and-run victim David] McCaskill.
…
The Highway Patrol says the suspect has a history of driving violations, including citations for driving without a license and driving while impaired.

Unbelievable. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of Mr. Bass and the other victims.

The WAPO:

Large amounts of nuclear-related equipment, some of it contaminated, and a small number of missile engines have been smuggled out of Iraq for recycling in European scrap yards, according to the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog and other U.N. diplomats.

Mohammed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned the U.N. Security Council in a letter that U.N. satellite photos have detected “the extensive removal of equipment and, in some instances, removal of entire buildings” from sites that had been subject to U.N. monitoring before the U.S.-led war against Iraq.

ElBaradei said an IAEA investigation “indicates that large quantities of scrap, some of it contaminated, have been transferred out of Iraq, from sites monitored by the IAEA.” He said that he has informed the United States about the discovery and is awaiting “clarification.”

First, the good news: It is also Buy a Gun day. So, go buy a gun or two.

Some bad news: Phelps writes:

. . . a communist long-term goal has been achieved. (Second Plank of the Communist Manifesto.) Half of the population effectively pays no income tax, making this a tax progressive enough that a majority has absolutely no personal financial impact in reducing this tax. (They have a giant indirect impact, but that is hard to explain to people with government educations.)

Of course, that half of the population gets shafted by other taxes (sales, payroll, use, etc.). But it’s tax day, we’re all getting shafted.

Here’s a presentation that tells us we don’t have to actually pay taxes on most income. You better get over there quick before some judge shuts them down.

And your Happy Fun Tax Fact for today:

Bribes and kickbacks to governmental officials are deductible unless the individual has been convicted of making the bribe or has entered a plea of not guilty or nolo contendre.

-IRS official taxpayers’ guide

Here’s some Happy Fun Tax Facts from the past:

In 1999, taxpayers contacted the IRS for assistance approximately 117 million times.

The Internal Revenue Code consists of approximately 1,395,000 words.

There are 693 sections of the Internal Revenue Code that are applicable to individual taxpayers, 1,501 sections applicable to businesses, and 445 sections applicable to tax-exempt organizations, employee plans, and governments.

As of June 2000, the Treasury Department had issued almost 20,000 pages of regulations containing over 8 million words.

In 2000, there were 129,373,500 returns filed. Of which, 96,817,603 were taxable and 32,555,897 were not.

In 2002 individuals, businesses and non-profits will spend an estimated 5.8 billion hours complying with the federal income tax code (henceforth called “compliance costs”), with an estimated compliance cost of over $194 billion

As of 1998, 32% of individual federal income taxes are needed in order to pay the interest on the national debt.

It is estimated that total income tax receipts in 2003 will be $1,211,843,000,000.

The instructions for filing the Easy Tax Form are 32 pages

It is now four days after tax freedom day and I’m not feeling so free.

Update: Gets better and better. Blake points to this article on how taxes violate civil liberties.

See, I told you so.

Update: Smijer alerts us the crash is not as bad as it sounds. And I’m apparently a right-wing profit err prophet (though I think I’d rather be a profit).

Les has the weekly gun links thing up.

Supposedly, Bin Laden has released a tape offering a truce to European nations. I’ve assumed for a while that he was likely just sticky goo on a cave wall somewhere. Otherwise, we’d be seeing video.

But if he is alive, this tape probably indicates he’s running out of options.

Angel Shamaya was interviewed by the AP. His point (again) is that Bush is losing his pull with gun owners.

Not to worry though as Cheney will address the NRA in an effort to soothe us gun owner types.

Tom is having some trouble training his dog. I suggest he check out dogreader, which isn’t currently updating but has excellent archives on training issues. I also suggest he read an old post of mine.

Here goes:

Bite inhibition: I cover that in the link above, but here’s the relevant portion:

Biting, chewing and mouthing! That cute pup has big, gnarly fangs. Ok, they’re actually small, sharp teeth and they hurt. One school of thought is to discourage all pups’ attempts to touch their mouths to human flesh. It’s generally safer since you don’t want to encourage your dog to bite people. However, I realize that dogs experience so much of their lives with their mouths and it’s how they play. So, I teach my dogs bite control. They know they can nibble on me gently when playing. They learn the commands ‘Easy’ and ‘No bite.’ Teach them ‘Easy’ by giving them a treat while covering most of the treat in your hand so that they have to put their mouth on your hand to get it. If he bites hard, tell him ‘Easy’ and withdraw the treat. Try again. He’ll figure out that when he gently tries to take the treat that he gets the treat. Only do this with puppies. It’s dangerous to try to teach this to a full grown dog who has no bite control. Also, whenever pupster bites too hard, yell ‘ouch’ sharply enough to scare him and immediately stop playing with him. He learns that hard biting means no play time.

Jumping up: This one is easy. Pup jumps, raise your knee into his chest enough to knock him back but, obviously, not enough to do damage. In addition to you and the wife doing that when he jumps, get a friend that the dog is accustomed to seeing (and often excited to see) to come over periodically. Tell this friend when the dog jumps on him to knee him as mentioned above.

Heel: First, buy a choke collar or pinch collar. It is important in the case of choke collars that they are on correctly. When looking at pupster’s face from the front, the loop should look like the letter P. If the loop looks like a backward letter Q, you can damage pupster’s throat. And use it correctly. Don’t tug or pull on it. Merely snap it. The noise is mostly what gets their attention but it should be used to lead some times. By snap it, I mean raise the leash up quickly then drop the leash quickly (kind of like a whip). With a pincher, a quick tug is all you need.

Start with a sit command (it also helps to put some treats in your pocket). With the dog on your left, give a sit command (praise him for complying or give a treat). Give the heel command, snap the leash once, and start walking. Decide your comfort zone for heel (mine is about 3 feet). If he strays from that zone, give the heel command and snap his leash toward you. Repeat as needed. If pupster gets it right, continue to saying heel periodically and praise him.

Come when called: Another easy one. Buy a 30 feet long (or so) rope, nylon canvas ties will do. It doesn’t have to be too strong. Tie the rope to his collar. Put on his choke collar. Start with a sit and stay. If he doesn’t, correct him with a snap and tell him to sit and stay again. Take the end of the rope not attached to pupster and walk away from him, making sure he sits and stays. Turn around and give the come command. If he doesn’t come, snap the rope. As he gets closer to you, actually start walking briskly backward away from him. This will actually make him speed up to get to you. When he gets to you, reward him (praise or a treat). Repeat for about 10 minutes per day until he gets it.

Down: He may hate it but he needs to know who’s boss. My dog hates stay and down, but he does it. He whines the entire time but does it. Essentially, if he doesn’t comply physically put him down. You can do this by lifting his feet. The other method is to do it with his collar on and snap his collar down toward the ground. He may still hate it but he’ll do it. He needs to be taught who’s boss. Here’s some dominance advice from my previously mentioned post that may help in showing him who is boss:

Show the pup who is boss! Your dog thinks that your home is a pack. Every dog pack has a leader who is dominant. Your pup will eventually (unless you take steps) get to a point where he will try to assert his dominance over you. He’ll do this by humping your leg, nipping harder than usual to get you to say ‘ouch’, or just pouncing on you. There are two schools of thought on this, both of which (in my opinion) work. One is to display regular dominance over your dog by rolling him on his back, placing your hand on his chest, and staring him in the eyes until he looks away. Once he looks away, let him up and praise him silly. This seems cruel, but that’s what dogs do when they fight for dominance. One dog holds the other down and it submits. Also note, don’t do this violently. If you do this too harshly, your dog will let you know by pissing on you. Squirting urine during confrontations is a sign of submission, just like looking away. The other method (much more fun for you and your dog) is to start rubbing your pup’s belly. He’ll eventually roll over and willingly submit to you. The former method typically works better for older dogs who are unwilling to accept that they aren’t dominant. The latter works better with pups since you’re teaching them who is the boss from the start. Fixing your dog also curtails lots of these problems.

Eliminating hand signals: This will require re-training. The dog has already learned to associate the hand signals with the behavior. Hand signals are good because if the dog can’t hear (loud noises) it can still obey. Now, you just need to train him to sit, stay, etc. without using the hand signals. It’s good that he knows both.

Hope that helps.