Kopel:

Speaker-in-waiting Nancy Pelosi has endorsed John Murtha for Majority Leader, according to The Hill. Murtha is a a southwestern Pennsylvania Democrat with a long-standing A rating from the National Rifle Association. Hoyer is a Maryland Democrat, with a long-standing and well-deserved F rating, although he has sometimes worked to procure federal military contracts for Beretta USA, a firearms manufacturer in his district.

Who would rather elect a dead person than a Democrat. Heh.

Cam says the congress isn’t as pro-gun as we thought:

Just going down the list, I’d have to disagree with his assessment of Carper in Delaware. Countertop says he’s in the middle, but NRA gave him an “F” (as did GOA). Countertop says Florida’s Bill Nelson’s in the middle, but the NRA and GOA both gave him an “F” as well. Same for Tom Harkin in Iowa and Amy Klobuchar in MN. In fact, don’t even get me started with Klobuchar.

Countertop also says Missouri’s Claire McCaskill’s a pro-gun candidate, and I have no idea where that came from. She was rated “F” by both NRA and GOA, she opposed concealed carry in Missouri (as Klobuchar did in Minnesota), and supports renewing the Clinton Gun Ban. Maybe she turns out to vote with gun owners, but there’s nothing in her past that would indicate that’s going to be the case.

Miss any gun news last week? GLN rounds it up.

Xrlq takes me to task for calling Missouri Senator-elect Claire McCaskill “not that pro-gun”, noting her F from the NRA. Fine, she’s anti-gun. So anti-gun that she touted the endorsement of an anti-gun group that fakes being pro-gun to deceive people. See here.

The LA Times says the old liberals (you know, the dumb ones) will be duking it out with the new ones:

After toppling the long-dominant Republicans, the Democratic Party’s incoming congressional leaders have found themselves in another difficult struggle – with their own supporters.

Some of the very activists who helped restore the Democrats to a majority in the House and Senate last week are claiming credit for the victories and demanding their due: a set of ambitious – and politically provocative – actions on gun control, abortion, national security and other issues that party leaders fear could alienate moderate voters and leave Democrats vulnerable to GOP attacks as big spenders or soft on terrorism.

The Democrats are going to have to deal with their internal issues. More:

Similar vows are coming from lobbyists for abortion rights, who want to expand family-planning options for poor women and scale back Bush’s focus on abstinence education, and from gun-control advocates, who hope to revive a lapsed ban on assault weapons. Labor unions, a core Democratic constituency, are demanding universal health care and laws discouraging corporations from seeking cheap labor overseas.

A lot of those pretty new seats you guys have went to pro-gun Dems. I wouldn’t go pushing a ban on weapons that look like assault weapons. See:

At the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the leading gun-control advocacy group, Paul Helmke has high hopes for the assault-weapons ban – and he, too, can list races where candidates backed by his organization defeated those supported by the National Rifle Association.

But Helmke, the Brady Campaign’s president and a former Republican mayor of Fort Wayne, Ind., acknowledged that his challenge is to persuade potentially squeamish Democrats that his cause is not “radioactive.”

Many Democratic strategists have come to believe that supporting gun-control laws alienates rural voters and many independents. “Guns are a tricky issue,” Helmke said. “But the elections show there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

You’re half right. The elections were still close and there was only about 6% turnover. I wouldn’t go betting the farm that guns won’t cost the Democrats again, like it did in 1996 after the passage of the assault weapons ban. Remember, even Clinton conceded that:

On November 8th, we got the living daylights beat out of us, losing eight Senate races and fifty-four House seats, the largest defeat for our party since 1946….The NRA had a great night

Don’t go there, guys.

Jed is sporting new blog digs at Freedom Sight.

Contributing to a worthy cause.

Aunt B. thought it was a good idea to have some. So, she wrote some.

I’ve had terms of use and a contact page for a while in full smart ass glory. But, all you lawyer-type readers out there, it begs the question: Do these things really matter or provide any level of legal protection at all?

I guess I need to a link policy and privacy policy too.

That’s what insty calls it. Here it is. Simpler version: Ooh, pretty.

We just bought a plasma on Sunday. Should be here Wednesday. I was sort of disappointed as the the mantle above the fireplace (which I had a media slot put in) was about 1.5 inches too short for the 50 incher. We got the 42 incher.

Here’s my bizarro psychology: Back in 2000 when me and the Mrs. decided to live in sin, our first major purchase together was a big screen TeeVee. Not just a big screen, the biggest screen. We bought a 60 inch projection set (a month later, the 72 inch came out and I was pissed). This was when HD was not as popular and we saw no point in that kind of bling for 4 HD channels. We still have that TeeVee in our rec room. It’s a great TeeVee, with a good picture. Honestly, me and the Mrs. really like that TeeVee a whole lot. But a part of me kinda wishes Junior would throw a hammer through it or something so I can get a plasma for the rec room.

So long Jack.

I love East Tennessee. Even the County Commissioners are strapped:

My good friend Greg “Lumpy” Lambert who is also a Knox county commissioner had a little run in today that ended with guns being drawn. I happened to call Lumpy today and got the full story. Lumpy does used car sales for a real job. A customer came and wanted to purchase a car for about 10k. Lumpy was happy to sell but got a little concerned when the person had little interest in having the car checked by a mechanic.

The customer went out side to smoke a cigarette. Lumpy went outside to tell him it was time to do some paper work. When the man came back in Lumpy had a bad feeling and had his hand on his gun he keeps on him at most all times. The man started to pull his gun…..Bad move. Lumpy does quick draw competitions for fun and had his gun pointing down the criminals throat before the criminal had his own gun half drawn. After some harsh words the criminal dropped his gun.

The main reason that people carry handguns is for protection. The question now is will the firearm you have do the job?

A woman was released from the hospital a day after she was shot in the head six times in an attack police blamed on her ex-husband, Brazilian media reported Saturday.
………
Doctors could not explain how Pereira survived the attack. The .32-caliber bullets didn’t break through her skull and didn’t even need to be immediately extracted, doctors said. Pereira also was shot once in the hand.

I hear a lot of guys suggest smaller calibers for the ladies. Nice, but does it leave them underpowered?

Here, Tom says:

Are some people finally going to stop calling it [McCain-Feingold] the “Incumbent Protection Act?” Because from where I sit, it looks like it did a piss-poor job of protecting incumbents

Really? Well, let’s see:

Consider that there were 435 races in the House and Senate with an incumbent trying to retain his or her seat. Only 26 – 6% — of challengers in these races have won. That’s pretty low for a “throw the bums out” election. Pending the outcome of three or four yet-to-be-determined races, this year’s 94% incumbent reelection rate appears to be slightly higher than the 90% rate of 1994.

So, it’s more like throw a small amount of the bums out. So, yeah, in a year supposedly marked by fed up and angry voters, only 6% of politicians lost their jobs. It’s a higher incumbency rate than the Republican Revolution. If that ain’t protecting incumbency, I don’t know what is.

Make your own here. Meanwhile, putting your losers in charge seems to be working.

Tam’s book should be a better seller though.

Update: OK, one more:

I’ve been highlighting a lot of the good. Michael Bane says not so fast:

I got a quick bulletin from Jim Shepherd at The Shooting Wire, the only guy in this business with more (and sneakier) contacts than moi, that elements of the gun control agenda WILL be in the Dems’ “First 100 Hours” Pelosi action plan

Folks, if that’s the case, the only thing that can stop it is from within the Democrat party. Don’t count on Republicans, they couldn’t even stand up to one another.

Update: Countertop says nyuh-uh:

Heck, what your gonna find is that no anti gun legislation is getting through the senate – indeed we might even be able to move pro gun legislation through (and withstand filibusters). No matter what the Nancy Pelosi House does, they will have to contend with this simple fact.

See what I mean.

same as the old boss.

Oooh, Tommy Gun.

Seen at Knoxviews:

I would offer that Digby has hit upon something important here. Southern conservatism and its self-centered agenda has been thrust into the national spotlight, and undeservedly so. He argues (convincingly, to my eye) that not only has that agenda been repudiated in this electoral cycle, but also that the Democratic Party has demonstrated conclusively that a majority can be held without the South.

Yes. Make sure the first thing you do is abandon that thing that put you guys in power. Your guys ran in the south, west and other red states by acting, well, red. Period. Remember, your guys here in Tennessee hate gay cooties too. They cannot win unless they do. And that’s just how it is. Follow this guy’s advice, and you’re out in two years.

Remember this guy’s advice.

I’d heard rumors that the 45GAP would become a police cartridge pretty quickly. It is in NY now:

New York State Police Superintendent Wayne Bennett announced today that the New York State Police has purchased 5,400 new Glock pistols to replace older Glock models that were called into question following the death of Trooper Andrew J. Sperr on March 1 in Chemung County.

The state police have purchased the new model Glock 37 which is a .45 G.A.P. caliber after what Bennett called careful consideration by a special committee.

Side note: I did read up on Sperr (cliff notes here). Not sure that a different weapon would have made much difference.

Update: looks like Claire McCaskill isn’t that pro-gun.

Breaking the mold:

She’s pro-gun rights, pro-death penalty and wary of big government waste.

Meet Claire McCaskill, the senator-elect from the generally conservative state of Missouri. She’s a Democrat.

Like many of her freshman Democratic colleagues in the Senate and the House of Representatives, McCaskill defies the long-standing stereotype of Democrats as the party of San Francisco liberals. Consider:

• Sen.-elect Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, calmly and resolutely against abortion rights.

• Sen.-elect Jon Tester of Montana, a flat-topped farmer and butcher who loves his guns.

• Sen.-elect Jim Webb of Virginia, a virtual compendium of alpha-male machismo who wore combat boots on the campaign trail and served as President Reagan’s secretary of the Navy.

• In the House, freshman Democrats include Heath Shuler of North Carolina, a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

• All three new Democrats from Indiana oppose abortion.

Each of them is pro-gun too.

Rich has planned one for the local bloggers:

BlogFest Friday, Nov 17 6:30PM until whenever, at Barleys in the Old City.

Someone once said that to find bias in the press, one need only look at the adjectives or other descriptive words. The British press becomes a bunch of hysterical ninnies when it comes to guns:

Chilling haul of 400 guns handed in for Jessie firearm amnesty

A frightening haul of guns, rifles and crossbows containing enough firepower to supply a small army has been handed over to police following the gangland murder of schoolboy Jessie James

…

But what is even more terrifying is that, until several weeks ago, these weapons were sitting in British homes and carried by homegrown criminals.

In other news, some folks in Britain turned in their guns whereas I bet not one gang member in did.

Just wanted to remind everyone of Jane’s Law:

The devotees of the party in power are smug and arrogant. The devotees of the party out of power are insane.

A Chuck Schumer staffer is reading. Hello. Now, go shut that fucking guy up before he ruins it for your party.

R. Neal to Democrats in Congress:

Please don’t do anything stupid for the next two years. Thank you.

Since I’m no longer smoking, I’m experiencing Dysgeusia, which means that my sense of taste is changing. Dysgeusia can be caused as a side effect of the medication Chantix (which I am taking and recommend for quitting smoking) and as a result of quitting smoking in general.

I used to drink my coffee strong, black and with sugar. Now, I take it a bit weaker and with cream. Odd. I had a beer earlier this week and it wasn’t that good. Of course, that was likely because it was shitty beer and not due to Dysgeusia. Still, I’ve had no urge to drink a beer since, even the good ones.

And, suddenly, I love the cinnamon. Seriously. Red Hots, Hot Tamales, and those cinnamon gummy bears rule.

Les Jones Word of the Day:

A minced oath is an expression based on a profanity which has been altered to reduce or remove the disagreeable or objectionable characteristics of the original expression; for example, “gosh” used instead of “God”

I still think it’s fudging stupid.