GEE, WHO COULDA PREDICTED IT? Sales of Electric Vehicles Collapse in January

Never mind that the United States sits on hundreds or thousands of years of fossil fuel supplies. Never mind that. The federal government wants you to drive electric cars. The problem is, you ain't buyin' em.

EV sales had shown minor signs of life in the last quarter of 2012, only to collapse sharply in January. “Sales of the Chevrolet Volt, the Toyota Prius Plug-In and Nissan Leaf each had deep dropoffs in January from December,” Reuters says.

“Even after accounting for the fact that January is one of the slowest months of the year for auto sales, the dropoff for plug-in electric cars was considerable,” Michelle Krebs of Edmunds told the wire. According to Krebs, consumers are opting instead for less-expensive standard hybrids, rather than plug-in electric cars. OEMS blame other factors, such as limited supply, model year changeovers, or changeovers from Japanese to U.S. production, as it is the case for the Nissan LEAF. GM says January sales were down for the Volt because people bought before the end of the year to gain the 2012 tax credit. Which may have been the power behind the last quarter rise of the still tiny segment...

Ain't central planning grand?

I mean, how many billions of dollars did this administration waste on electric cars and batteries when the technology just isn't ready? When the full history of the Obama green energy program is written (starting with Solyndra, Fisker, A123 Systems, Tesla, etc.), it will make the Teapot Dome Scandal look like a shoplifting incident.

Thanks to Chief Justice John Roberts' outrageous Obamacare decision, though, it would seem the federal government has the legal right to command you to buy electric vehicles. So we got that goin' for us.


Hat tip: BadBlue Car News.

UNBELIEVABLE: Bloomberg secretly distributed abortifacients to teens without telling parents: "population control on blacks and Latinos"

When it comes to Mayor Bloomberg, salt and 16-ounce sodas are out -- but abortifacients are in.

Plan B has become Plan A in the Bloomberg administration’s stealth war on teen pregnancy.

Handouts of the “morning-after pill” to sexually active students have skyrocketed under an unpublicized project in which health centers in public schools offer girls a full menu of free birth-control drugs and devices, records obtained by The Post show.

Last September, the city revealed it had started giving out Plan B and other birth control in the nurses’ offices of 13 high schools. At the time, officials said 567 girls had gotten Plan B... But the birth-control blitz was much bigger than the city had acknowledged. About 40 separate “school-based health centers” doled out 12,721 doses of Plan B in 2011-12, up from 10,720 in 2010-11 and 5,039 in 2009-10, according to the newly released data.

...The revelations stunned Mona Davids, president of the NYC Parents Union, whose 14-year-old attends a Manhattan high school... “I’m in shock,” she said. “What gives the mayor the right to decide, without adequate notice, to give our children drugs that will impact their bodies and their psyches? He has purposely kept the public and parents in the dark with his agenda... “This was population control on blacks and Latinos without our knowledge,” she said.

Plan B, which can block pregnancy if taken up to 72 hours after sex, is just one weapon in the city Department of Health’s arsenal for its Reproductive Health Project, an internal report reveals... Besides “emergency contraception,” about 40 school-based clinics have dispensed prescriptions for birth-control pills, intrauterine devices (IUDs), hormone-delivering injections and Patch and NuvaRing — covering a total 93,569 monthly cycles through June 2012, the report says.

This pint-sized, would-be dictator must have some deadly serious psychological issues.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

HARRY REID TO DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Sorry, Grandma, But the Dog Ate Your Assault Weapons Ban

I'll give the Democrats this much: they rarely engage in internecine warfare. But Harry Reid's debt to the National Rifle Association runs wide and deep.

On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, NV) took a pass on directly supporting the most talked about Democrat-sponsored anti-gun legislation in Washington. The bill, sponsored by California’s Dianne Feinstein (D, CA), would renew and enlarge a federal ban on assault weapons.

Feinstein’s legislation was introduced to great media fanfare last week, but this week Reid told reporters that he’d bring other legislation to the floor and allow it to undergo what promises to be a lengthy amendment process.
Reid declined to commit to bringing Feinstein’s bill to the floor even though that bill was publicly supported by the Democrat’s second and third ranking senate members.

Senate Leader Reid praised Senator Feinstein for her enthusiasm for her bill but suggested hers wasn’t the only game in town. “We’re going to have votes on all kinds of issues dealing with guns, and I think everyone would be well advised to read the legislation before they determine how they’re going to vote,” he said to reporters.

As part of that process, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy (D, VT) also announced plans to hold hearings on gun violence.

One would hope this news will begin to stabilize the prices of my favorite toys.

JUST LIKE THE NLRB: Lawless EPA "thumbing its nose" at nation's second highest court #Bastiat

Yesterday the EPA became the second arm of the Obama administration to execute a rhetorical middle-fingered salute to a federal court.

Just days ago the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), responding to a federal Appeals Court that found the president's recess appointments were illegal, said that it would ignore the court's order and continue business as usual.

On Thursday, the EPA replied to another federal Appeals Court decision. The court had just thrown out the agency's mandate to the oil industry that it use non-existent biofuels; the EPA in return metaphorically spit in the court's face.

Days after a federal appeals court said the Obama administration is setting overly optimistic production quotas for the struggling biofuels industry, the government issued new standards Thursday that raise production estimates for 2013.

New standards announced by the Environmental Protection Agency require production of 14 million gallons of so-called cellulosic biofuels made from grasses and woody material. That's up from an 8.7 million-gallon requirement in 2012 -- when actual production was near zero.

An oil industry representative said the Obama administration was thumbing its nose at a ruling last week by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The court threw out the 2012 mandate for cellulosic biofuels, saying it was based on wishful thinking rather than accurate estimates for an industry the Obama administration wants to encourage. Administration officials have said that increased use of biofuels could lower greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming, as well as lower U.S. dependence on foreign fuel.

"The court recognized the absurdity of fining companies for failing to use a nonexistent biofuel," said Bob Greco, director of downstream operations for the American Petroleum Institute, the principal lobbying group for the oil and gas industry... Greco said he was astonished that EPA would nearly double the mandate for biofuel in 2013. "EPA needs a serious reality check," he said, calling the mandate a "stealth tax on gasoline" and an "egregious example of bad public policy."

This administration is engaging in, as Frederic Bastiat termed it, "legal plunder":

It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change and a greater evil than this: the conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder.

What are the consequences of such a perversion? It would require volumes to describe them all. Thus we must content ourselves with pointing out the most striking.

In the first place, it erases from everyone's conscience the distinction between justice and injustice. No society can exist unless the laws are respected to a certain degree...

...imagine that this fatal principle has been introduced: Under the pretense of organization, regulation, protection, or encouragement, the law takes property from one person and gives it to another.

...how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.

Then abolish this law without delay, for it is not only an evil itself, but also it is a fertile source for further evils because it invites reprisals. If such a law — which may be an isolated case — is not abolished immediately, it will spread, multiply, and develop into a system.

The person who profits from this law will complain bitterly, defending his acquired rights. He will claim that the state is obligated to protect and encourage his particular industry; that this procedure enriches the state because the protected industry is thus able to spend more and to pay higher wages to the poor workingmen.

Do not listen to this sophistry by vested interests. The acceptance of these arguments will build legal plunder into a whole system.

The entire federal government has, at least by Bastiat's definition, become a monolithic apparatus designed to facilitate legal plunder. From General Motors to Solyndra and the Stimulus to Obamacare, the taxpayers' trillions have been stolen -- "legally" -- and directed to the president's political backers.

It is a recipe for disaster and a societal model that cannot long survive.


Hat tip: BadBlue News Service.

INTERESTING CHART O' THE DAY: Inflation vs. Gold, 1915-2010

In order to pay for excessive government spending, the United States and other countries around the world are busy printing money. This practice, known as "debt monetization", is the precursor for inflation. Sometimes, in fact, the act of paying sovereign debt by printing money can lead to hyperinflation and currency collapse; the Weimar Republic and Zimbabwe's recent experience being two noteworthy examples.

I was thinking to myself how a typical investor might be able to profit from a sudden burst of inflation. After all, the printing can only go on so long before a currency becomes a joke. We also know that America's most recent bout of severe inflation took place during the Carter administration.

Knowing that gold and silver are bellwether commodities that tend to march inversely against a devaluing currency, I decided to compare those metals against CPI to determine whether any obvious trends could be discerned.

History tells us that timing a peak is well nigh impossible. Perhaps once gold and silver go parabolic it will be time to sell. And given this administration's march to currency collapse, parabolic it will go.


Hat tips: Wikipedia: Consumer Price Index by Country and MacroTrends.

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER TRAGEDY: Curiously, gun control capital of the U.S. is also its murder capital

It's enough to make you sick. No matter how badly their gun-control policies fail, no matter how many people die, Democrats will keep pushing and pushing and pushing their dictatorial agenda.

Yesterday a talented 15-year old -- an Honor Roll student who had performed in the presidential inauguration ceremony earlier this month -- was shot and killed in the Chicago neighborhood just blocks from her home. And, once again, Chicago is on track to suffer more than 500 murders this year.

CBS 2’s Mike Parker reports the victim, 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, was taking shelter from the rain with a group of 10 to 12 teenagers under a canopy in Vivian Gordon Harsh Park on the 4500 block of South Oakenwald Avenue around 2:30 p.m., when someone jumped a fence, ran up to them, and opened fire.

...Just days before, Hadiya performed with her high school band at President Obama’s inauguration.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel called Hadiya’s mother, Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton, to try to offer a measure of comfort...

...CBS 2′s Suzanne Le Mignot reports the park where Hadiya was shot is just blocks from King College Prep High School — where she was an honor student, volleyball player, and majorette with the school band.

...Police said Hadiya had no gang affiliation and likely wasn’t the intended target. Several of the teens with her at the time, however, were believed to be gang members.

According to the Stuffington Roast, Chicago -- which has the strictest gun control laws in the country -- is far more dangerous than Afghanistan.

"If only one child can be saved"?

And Rahm Emanuel, who serves as mayor of the most violent city in America, wants to tell the rest of America about the importance of banning guns?

I've got an idea, Rahm: why don't you drink a big tall glass of Shut-Up Juice and start letting law-abiding citizens carry weapons? And then watch your crime rates go down as the gang-bangers your "Great Society" pals have spawned will have no earthly idea who's packing heat.

As it stands in Murder-town, only criminals bent on violence have guns while law-abiding citizens are reduced to cowering in fear or begging for their lives.

That's why concealed carry laws have been proven to reduce gun violence, over and over and over again, in city after city and state after state. Try and read a book for a change, you statist kook, before you dare tell us how to live our lives. Schmuck.

If we can only save one life? How about 1,200 lives?

Joe Biden and Barack Obama routinely resort to the Statist's traditional rhetoric in pushing their anti-Constitutional agenda.

The quote they frequently employ -- "if it saves only one life" -- is demonstrably specious.

Last month, ICE (Immigrations and Customs Enforcement) released statistics on the tiny fraction of illegal aliens who were actually deported in 2012.

Just this small slice of the illegal alien population was determined responsible for:

• 1,200 murders

• 5,550 rapes and other sexual offenses

• 40,000 drug crimes

• 36,000 DUIs

Thousands of murders. Thousands of rapes. Thousands of sexual assaults. Thousands of pedophiles. Thousands of drug crimes. Thousands of DUIs.

If it only saved one life?

These Leftists are the lowest of the low.

JUST PERFECT: Cuomo and his Statist Oath-Breakers Don't Even Know Which Guns They've Banned

Bob Owens explains:

In 30 pictures describing “pistols that are not assault weapons,” the NY SAFE web site incorrectly identifies 6 of 30 handguns presented by name, and 16 of 30 by type.

...NY SAFE serially confuses a rifle’s caliber with its model, and worse, can’t tell the basic difference between a rifle and a shotgun...

...or tell the difference between a weapons that are legal, yet function identically as “evil assault weapons”...

...… and we’re supposed to take them seriously? It would be laughable, other than the fact that if you mistake the NY SAFE Act web site a being a competent guide, you could end up in prison for violating the NY SAFE Act since the Web site and the actual law have very little in common...

And these are the masterminds who think they can prevent psychopaths from committing violent acts through unconstitutional restrictions on law-abiding citizens?

No wonder New Yorkers -- in huge numbers -- say they will defy this flatly unlawful idiocy.

Perhaps Mayor Bloomberg and the rest of the elites should disarm first, just to show the citizens how it's done.


Hat tip: BadBlue Guns.

I don't know this Jason Mattera fellow, but I like the cut of his jib

Now this right here is a real journalist.

In an explosive exchange outside the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in Washington, D.C., security guards for billionaire New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg accosted senior Talk Radio Network investigative reporter Jason Mattera when he asked the mayor about his strong support for gun control.

In the video, Bloomberg is seen surrounded by security. Mattera approaches Bloomberg and asks, “In the spirit of gun control, will you disarm your entire security team?”

Bloomberg’s reply: “Uh, you, we’ll get right back to you.”

“Why can you defend yourself but not the majority of Americans?” Mattera asks as the mayor walks away. “Look at the team of security you’ve got. And you’re an advocate for gun control?”

The video then cuts to Mattera walking further down the street when one of the men guarding Bloomberg, identified as Officer Stockton NYPD, stops Mattera and asks to see his photo ID...

One rule for the elites, one rule for the peons.

After all, that's the evil that Statism always devolves into. Which is why these progressive miscreants continually lobby for more control, whether it's health care, guns, unions, education, or light bulbs.

They can't articulate any limits to the power and control they seek. They're making it up as they go along.

Their only goals are controlling you and solidifying their power, not about following the Constitution, not about following the law, not about honoring America's traditions or its moral code or its ethics.

It's about keeping a white-knuckled death grip on power that Bloomberg, Feinstein, Schumer, and Obama seek to hold over you, the individual. We are witnessing history here. It is our sacred duty to preserve this, the world's last best hope for liberty.

Soros Mascots at Media Matters Used Illegal Handgun in DC, Attended Events with... Dianne Feinstein

The hypocrisy, it burns.

A staffer at left-wing Media Matters for America committed numerous felonies in the District of Columbia and around the country by carrying a firearm to defend the organization’s founder, David Brock, The Daily Caller has learned.

According to a knowledgeable source, multiple firearms used to protect the Media Matters founder were purchased with Brock’s blessing — and apparently with the group’s money.

TheDC has previously reported that Brock’s one-time aide, Haydn Price-Morris, carried a concealed Glock handgun as he traveled with the liberal leader to public events in Washington, D.C.

...Price-Morris was regularly armed when accompanying Brock on trips around the country, according to a source, and his firearm possession in Washington, D.C. constituted multiple felonies.

On at least one occasion, Brock — accompanied by his armed aide — visited California to attend a “Democracy Alliance” summit of major Democratic donors and lawmakers.

That gathering included such major figures in Democratic politics as billionaires George Soros, Peter Lewis and Bill Benter, former Service Employees International Union Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger, and the politician behind the federal government’s 1994 “Assault Weapons Ban,” California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Just when you think the hard left Democrat Party can't become any more hypocritical, they warp the space-time continuum and create brand new dimensions of sleaze.

Suffice it to say that Media Matters' felonious activities will go unpunished, presumably through the same "talk show loophole" that protects David Gregory.

Remember folks: we're the rabble. They're the elites. Laws don't matter for them, just as arithmetic, history, logic, facts and reason are irrelevant to the suicidal policies of the Democrats.

ABC's Martha Raddatz hosts Sen. Bob Menendez, fails to ask about FBI investigation into his alleged dalliances with underage hookers

Alternate headline: Exhibit 9,036 proving that the media is a fully-owned subsidiary of the federal government

ABC’s This Week invited Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) on the show this weekend to discuss current issues.

On Friday the news broke that the FBI has been investigating top Democratic Senator Bob Menendez for engaging in sex with underage Dominican hookers on junkets with a wealthy Democrat donor.

For some reason the ABC host Martha Raddatz forgot to ask Menendez about the hooker scandal.

That’s outrageous. You could imagine the grilling this man would get if he had an “R” behind his name instead of a “D”. Instead, ABC willfully keeps the public in the dark on this horrific scandal.

The federal government and the media have formally merged into a single, holistic entity bent on destroying the Constitution of the United States.

Which is why I urge all regular Americans to boycott ABC, NBC, CBS and the rest of the alphabet channels. Never watch them. Never link them. Never refer to them.

They deserve nothing but your ridicule.

What can and must be done about the media

An important post at Ace of Spades deserves our focused attention. Its title -- "We Must Do Something About The Media" -- hints at some trademark snark, but its theme is deadly serious.

I've mentioned this before, but I'm truly alarmed about it: What we are witnessing is the full and seamless fusion of media power with government power.

...The media no longer hides it in their actions. They are fully fused with the Obama Administration and DNC. The only way in which they do hide it is by simply lying when confronted about it: They'll issue a snide denial, then go about doing precisely what it is they were accused of doing.

...it is dangerous and ultimately fatal for democracy for media power to fuse with government power, that the adversarial press is vital.

...The media considers its adversarial function to consist of serving as adversaries to critics of Obama and the Democrats; thus Terry Moran shaming himself by rushing out to ask what right a Senator has to question the Secretary of State on matters of foreign policy.

...This is dark, and dangerous, and will lead to horrors. It always has [led] to horrors before.

...Consider: The government locked up a filmmaker because the filmmaker expressed his free speech rights in a way the president found politically problematic. Not only has the press shown no fears about this, they've actively campaigned for the man's jailing.

That's frightening. Even if you come down on the side that the guy did what he's accused of and all that... to have absolutely no trepidation about the government jailing people primarily for their Speech Crimes? That's something.

...I don't think I'm being alarmist. At every point in history when media power has fused with government power -- whether involuntarily or, for one of the first times in history, now voluntarily -- it has resulted in disaster and misery.

So do we just sit there and take it? I'm no genius, but here are a few ideas for actions that each of us can take:

• If you have a subscription to any newspaper that advances the Statist agenda -- The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe foremost among them -- cancel that subscription. Enthusiastically encourage subscribers you know to cancel as well, even if they have no particular ideological bent. Tell them they can save money by reading the news on their iPad.

• For television, ignore all news programs save those on the Fox News Channel. Your cable box is likely sending your viewing information back to corporate headquarters. So don't give any ratings whatsoever to any of the alphabet channels' news program, or their insipid Sunday Talk Shows, or any of their propaganda efforts. Don't watch any of the Statist media's news shows. Ratings matter -- and each one of us can make a difference.

• Subscribe to Investors Business Daily, American Spectator, and other conservative outlets.

• Support new media outlets like PJTV by signing up or offering financial assistance.

• Don't take your favorite blogs and news sites for granted: many sites offer a voluntary "subscription" donation via PayPal. Even very small donations can help (and, no, that's not a personal bleg).

If you agree, tell your family members, friends and like-minded colleagues about the plan. It's time to stick it to the government's media complex. Each of us can make a difference.

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER SLAPDOWN FOR WHITE HOUSE: EPA slammed for mandating use of nonexistent biofuels

It seems like just yesterday that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit blasted President Obama's unprecedented act of claiming the Senate was in recess to place unpopular appointees on the National Labor Relations Board. Oh, that's right. It was just yesterday.

Slamming the administration in a blistering unanimous decision, Chief Judge David Sentelle wrote, "We will not do violence to the Constitution by ignoring the Framers’ choice of words."

Early this morning, The Daily Caller reports, another federal judge slammed the Obama EPA for mandating the use of nonexistent biofuels. Go figure.

A federal court delivered a serious blow to the Environmental Protection Agency’s renewable fuel agenda, ruling that the agency exceeded its authority by mandating refiners use cellulosic biofuels, which isn’t commercially available.

The court sided with the country’s chief oil and gas lobby, the American Petroleum Institute, in striking down the 2012 EPA mandate that would have forced refineries to purchase more than $8 million in credits for 8.65 million of gallons of the cellulosic biofuel. However, none of the biofuel is commercially available.

“[W]e agree with API that EPA’s 2012 projection of cellulosic biofuel production was in excess of the agency’s statutory authority,” reads the court decision...

The Obama administration is operating without any concern for the law. I believe that they have failed to consider the full implications of their behavior.

Lawlessness begets lawlessness. Which explains rallies like this one.

And signs like this.

If a president operates with reckless disregard for the law, why would the citizenry behave any differently?

THE DIVERSION: What are the Democrats really after with Dianne Feinstein's gun-ban bill?

There's a consensus building, across the political aisle, that Dianne Feinstein's gun-ban bill is DOA, in a manner of speaking.

That said, what are the Statists really after? Bob Owens suspects they seek to negotiate several important restrictions as a solid start down the road to a de facto repeal of the Second Amendment.

...What Feinstein and her fellow bullies want is to browbeat legislators to “compromise.”

... In Democratese, “compromise” is when they demand a dozen liberties be stripped from you, and give the most outlandish rights away and “accept” just one or two of your freedoms being stripped away.

The apparent real targets of the various Democratic bans floating through Washington are:

• Bans of standard capacity magazines

• A national gun registry

• tracking, limiting sales of ammunition, or stopping online sales of ammunition

...Do not allow your congressperson or Senator to compromise away your rights to standard capacity magazines, which are a necessary part of the kit for a “well-regulated militia.”

...Do not allow your congressperson or Senator to create a nation gun registry. Registries exist as a prerequisite for confiscation, which allowed the unopposed democide of 262 million souls in the 20th Century alone.

...Do not allow your congressperson or Senator to pass legislation tracking or limiting the sale of ammunition, and do not let them stop the online sales of ammunition. It serves no purpose in stopping street crime, and only serves to give the government more power over the people.

There must be no compromise with these Statists. None of these laws would have had any bearing on the tragic actions of a suicidal madman in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.

But, then again, Democrats aren't interested in what works: Chicago's skyrocketing murder rate is proof of that. They're interested in seizing more of your liberty and consolidating more power in Washington.

Mark Levin suggests that the House of Representatives bring Feinstein's bill up for a vote so that Democrat lawmakers can be put on record once the bill is defeated. This would allow the House to table the Democrats' gun-grabbing nonsense and instead focus on the nation's imminent fiscal collapse.

Levin's is a perfectly sound idea, which is why the RINO establishment is certain to ignore it. Call your Congressman now and demand the Speaker put Feinstein's bill up for a vote. It's time to end this charade and start addressing the nation's real problems.

HECKUVA JOB, NAPPY: DHS Lets Naturalized Terrorists, Spies and Criminals Keep Their Citizenship

Well, this is a man-caused disaster waiting to happen:

An astonishing number of naturalized U.S. citizens have been convicted of grave national security crimes—including terrorism, espionage and theft of sensitive technology—yet the government allows them to keep their American citizenship.

As unfathomable as this may seem it’s simply business as usual in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the massive agency created after 9/11 to keep the nation safe. The agency rarely strips foreigners of citizenship even when they prove to be national security threats who hustle the system. In fact, DHS has no system in place to examine such cases or weed out future threats.

The alarming details of this inept operation are outlined in a scathing report (“Upholding the Value of Our Citizenship: National Security Threats Should Be Denaturalized”) published this week by an organization that researches legal and illegal immigration into the United States. DHS rarely denaturalizes individuals, even after they have committed serious national security offenses, the probe found.

This can't come as any surprise to those following the career of Janet Napolitano. She has consistently refused to enforce the nation's immigration laws and has illegally concealed documents related to the agency's activities.

Because with this crew, it's all about consolidating power by changing the electorate. It has nothing to do with enforcing America's laws.

PLAIN TEXT FORMAT: The Feinstein Gun Ban Bill of 2013

The following is the full overview of Dianne Feinstein's proposed gun ban. There are several key differences between this bill and the original (failed) assault weapons ban of 1994:

• This time around, virtually every sporting rifle imaginable is banned;

• And the sale of all high-cap magazines will be prohibited, period.

Last time around, high-cap magazines manufactured before the ban could still be legally bought and sold, albeit at outrageous prices. Now, if my reading is correct, high-cap mags will only be available to criminals who somehow failed to read the latest Congressional Record.

 Assault Weapons Ban of 2013

The legislation bans the sale, transfer, manufacturing and importation of:

 All semiautomatic rifles that can accept a detachable magazine and have at least one military feature: pistol grip; forward grip; folding, telescoping, or detachable stock; grenade launcher or rocket launcher; barrel shroud; or threaded barrel.

 All semiautomatic pistols that can accept a detachable magazine and have at least one military feature: threaded barrel; second pistol grip; barrel shroud; capacity to accept a detachable magazine at some location outside of the pistol grip; or semiautomatic version of an automatic firearm.

 All semiautomatic rifles and handguns that have a fixed magazine with the capacity to accept more than 10 rounds.

 All semiautomatic shotguns that have a folding, telescoping, or detachable stock; pistol grip; fixed magazine with the capacity to accept more than 5 rounds; ability to accept a detachable magazine; forward grip; grenade launcher or rocket launcher; or shotgun with a revolving cylinder.

 All ammunition feeding devices (magazines, strips, and drums) capable of accepting more than 10 rounds.

 157 specifically-named firearms (listed at the end of this document).

 

The legislation excludes the following weapons from the bill:

 Any weapon that is lawfully possessed at the date of the bill’s enactment;

 Any firearm manually operated by a bolt, pump, lever or slide action;

 Assault weapons used by military, law enforcement, and retired law enforcement; and

 Antique weapons.

 

The legislation protects hunting and sporting firearms:

 The bill excludes 2,258 legitimate hunting and sporting rifles and shotguns by specific make and model.

The legislation strengthens the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban and state bans by:

 Moving from a 2-characteristic test to a 1-characteristic test.

o The bill also makes the ban harder to evade by eliminating the easy-to-remove bayonet mounts and flash suppressors from the characteristics test.

 Banning dangerous aftermarket modifications and workarounds.

o Bump or slide fire stocks, which are modified stocks that enable semi-automatic weapons to fire at rates similar to fully automatic machine guns.

o So-called “bullet buttons” that allow the rapid replacement of ammunition magazines, frequently used as a workaround to prohibitions on detachable magazines.

o Thumbhole stocks, a type of stock that was created as a workaround to avoid prohibitions on pistol grips.

 Adding a ban on the importation of assault weapons and large-capacity magazines.

 Eliminating the 10-year sunset that allowed the original federal ban to expire.

 

The legislation addresses the millions of assault weapons and large-capacity magazines currently in existence by:

 Requiring a background check on all sales or transfers of a grandfathered assault weapon.

o This background check can be run through the FBI or, if a state chooses, initiated with a state agency, as with the existing background check system.

 Prohibiting the sale or transfer of large-capacity ammunition feeding devices lawfully possessed on the date of enactment of the bill.

 Allowing states and localities to use federal Byrne JAG grant funds to conduct a voluntary buy-back program for grandfathered assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition feeding devices.

 Imposing a safe storage requirement for grandfathered firearms, to keep them away from prohibited persons.

 Requiring that assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition feeding devices manufactured after the date of the bill’s enactment be engraved with the serial number and date of manufacture of the weapon

 

List of Firearms Prohibited by Name

Rifles: All AK types, including the following: AK, AK47, AK47S, AK–74, AKM, AKS, ARM, MAK90, MISR, NHM90, NHM91, Rock River Arms LAR–47, SA85, SA93, Vector Arms AK–47, VEPR, WASR–10, and WUM, IZHMASH Saiga AK, MAADI AK47 and ARM, Norinco 56S, 56S2, 84S, and 86S, Poly Technologies AK47 and AKS; All AR types, including the following: AR–10, AR–15, Armalite M15 22LR Carbine, Armalite M15–T, Barrett REC7, Beretta AR–70, Bushmaster ACR, Bushmaster Carbon 15, Bushmaster MOE series, Bushmaster XM15, Colt Match Target Rifles, DoubleStar AR rifles, DPMS Tactical Rifles, Heckler & Koch MR556, Olympic Arms, Remington R–15 rifles, Rock River Arms LAR–15, Sig Sauer SIG516 rifles, Smith & Wesson M&P15 Rifles, Stag Arms AR rifles, Sturm, Ruger & Co. SR556 rifles; Barrett M107A1; Barrett M82A1; Beretta CX4 Storm; Calico Liberty Series; CETME Sporter; Daewoo K–1, K–2, Max 1, Max 2, AR 100, and AR 110C; Fabrique Nationale/FN Herstal FAL, LAR, 22 FNC, 308 Match, L1A1 Sporter, PS90, SCAR, and FS2000; Feather Industries AT–9; Galil Model AR and Model ARM; Hi-Point Carbine; HK–91, HK–93, HK–94, HK–PSG–1 and HK USC; Kel-Tec Sub–2000, SU–16, and RFB; SIG AMT, SIG PE–57, Sig Sauer SG 550, and Sig Sauer SG 551; Springfield Armory SAR–48; Steyr AUG; Sturm, Ruger Mini-14 Tactical Rife M–14/20CF; All Thompson rifles, including the following: Thompson M1SB, Thompson T1100D, Thompson T150D, Thompson T1B, Thompson T1B100D, Thompson T1B50D, Thompson T1BSB, Thompson T1–C, Thompson T1D, Thompson T1SB, Thompson T5, Thompson T5100D, Thompson TM1, Thompson TM1C; UMAREX UZI Rifle; UZI Mini Carbine, UZI Model A Carbine, and UZI Model B Carbine; Valmet M62S, M71S, and M78; Vector Arms UZI Type; Weaver Arms Nighthawk; Wilkinson Arms Linda Carbine.

Pistols: All AK–47 types, including the following: Centurion 39 AK pistol, Draco AK–47 pistol, HCR AK–47 pistol, IO Inc. Hellpup AK–47 pistol, Krinkov pistol, Mini Draco AK–47 pistol, Yugo Krebs Krink pistol; All AR–15 types, including the following: American Spirit AR–15 pistol, Bushmaster Carbon 15 pistol, DoubleStar Corporation AR pistol, DPMS AR–15 pistol, Olympic Arms AR–15 pistol, Rock River Arms LAR 15 pistol; Calico Liberty pistols; DSA SA58 PKP FAL pistol; Encom MP–9 and MP–45; Heckler & Koch model SP-89 pistol; Intratec AB–10, TEC–22 Scorpion, TEC–9, and TEC–DC9; Kel-Tec PLR 16 pistol; The following MAC types: MAC–10, MAC–11; Masterpiece Arms MPA A930 Mini Pistol, MPA460 Pistol, MPA Tactical Pistol, and MPA Mini Tactical Pistol; Military Armament Corp. Ingram M–11, Velocity Arms VMAC; Sig Sauer P556 pistol; Sites Spectre; All Thompson types, including the following: Thompson TA510D, Thompson TA5; All UZI types, including: Micro-UZI.

Shotguns: Franchi LAW–12 and SPAS 12; All IZHMASH Saiga 12 types, including the following: IZHMASH Saiga 12, IZHMASH Saiga 12S, IZHMASH Saiga 12S EXP–01, IZHMASH Saiga 12K, IZHMASH Saiga 12K–030, IZHMASH Saiga 12K–040 Taktika; Streetsweeper; Striker 12.

Belt-fed semiautomatic firearms: All belt-fed semiautomatic firearms including TNW M2HB.

In other words, irrespective of actual utility or functionality, all scary-looking guns are banned.

As for high-cap magazines, a father can't legally give one to his son.

Should this bill pass, the stage is set for gun confiscation. Which is, of course, the Democrats' true goal. If they can obliterate the Second Amendment, disposing of the remaining Bill of Rights is cake.

Dianne Feinstein's Scary-Looking Weapons List

We already know -- from the last assault weapons ban -- that outlawing scary-looking weapons has no impact on firearm violence. It turns out that criminals don't follow the law.

But history, facts, logic and reason never stopped a Democrat from stealing more of your liberty. Witness the latest witless proposal from Dianne "Concealed Carry" Feinstein.

Feinstein calls for banning more than 150 types of firearms during dramatic press conference

California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein staged a dramatic press conference Thursday on Capitol Hill with 10 weapons at her side and unveiled legislation instituting a government ban on more than 150 types of firearms, including rifles, pistols and shotguns.

Flanked by other anti-gun liberal lawmakers, including New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, Feinstein announced the introduction of the “Assault Weapons Ban of 2013.”

...the Democrats described these firearms as “dangerous military-style assault weapons.” The bill would also ban high-capacity ammunition feeding devices that can hold more than 10 rounds.

Feinstein said the country’s “weak” gun laws allow massacres like the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occur.

Really, Dianne? Pray tell us, which of these dictates would have prevented a madman from slaughtering children with a shotgun, or an IED, or Molotov cocktails, or hundreds of other deadly contraptions?

Obamacare has nothing to do with improving the delivery of health care; its goal is controlling the citizen's physical and mental health. Similarly, the Democrats' "assault weapons" ban is designed to centralize even more power with the federal government.

Apparently, Americans are too stupid to make their own choices when it comes to health care, what kind of cars they should drive, how big their toilet tanks are, and whether they can be permitted to defend themselves.


Hat tip: BadBlue Guns.

The sad truth about Social Security

Please hide this particular article from any young hopenchangers who suffer from the delusion that Social Security will be around when they're ready to retire.

Social security is not earned retirement income, an entitlement nor a benefit.

Many people believe that Social Security is an “earned right.” That is, they think that because they have paid Social Security taxes, they are entitled to receive Social Security benefits. The government encourages that belief by referring to Social Security taxes as “contributions,” as in the Federal Insurance Contribution Act...

...However, in the 1960 case of Fleming v. Nestor, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that workers have no legally binding contractual rights to their Social Security benefits, and that those benefits can be cut or even eliminated at any time.

Nestor sued, claiming that because he had paid Social Security taxes, he had a right to Social Security benefits.

The Supreme Court disagreed, saying “To engraft upon the Social Security system a concept of ‘accrued property rights’ would deprive it of the flexibility and boldness in adjustment to ever changing conditions which it demands.” The Court went on to say, “It is apparent that the non-contractual interest of an employee covered by the [Social Security] Act cannot be soundly analogized to that of the holder of an annuity, whose right to benefits is bottomed on his contractual premium payments.”

The Court’s decision was not surprising. In an earlier case, Helvering v. Davis (1937), the Court had ruled that Social Security was not a contributory insurance program, saying, “The proceeds of both the employee and employer taxes are to be paid into the Treasury like any other internal revenue generally, and are not earmarked in any way.”

In other words, Social Security is not an insurance program at all. It is simply a payroll tax on one side and a welfare program on the other. Your Social Security benefits are always subject to the whim of 535 politicians in Washington. Congress has cut Social Security benefits in the past and is likely to do so in the future...

Unfortunately for the drones (i.e., the Obama Cultists), the math always defeats the political rhetoric. Always. And the fuse on the fiscal time-bomb is fizzling away, without any of our leaders making the slightest effort to douse it.


Hat tip: R.F.

OH, HOW THEY DESPISE THE CONSTITUTION: And they're not even trying to hide it any more

A brilliantly titled op-ed at The Wall Street Journal ("We the Government") lays bare the lie that the modern Democrat Party remains moored to America's values, traditions and laws.

White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer expressed the current mood in the West Wing this way to the Washington Post on Inauguration Day: "There's a moment of opportunity now that's important. . . . What's frustrating is that we don't have a political system or an opposition party worthy of the opportunity."

So neither the checks and balances of U.S. democracy nor the Republican Party that controls one branch of Congress is worthy of President Obama's grand aspirations. Presumably they must bow to his superior moral purposes. It's important to appreciate how much such contemptuous talk deviates from normal public White House respect for the men and women a President must do political business with.

Democrats and the media -- but I repeat myself -- continually decry the "polarization" of today's government. But the reason for that dichotomy lies with the radical sixties retreads who have overwhelmed the Democrat Party, laying waste to the once-dominant JFK/Scoop Jackson wing.

As historian Trevor Loudon and many others have proven with overwhelming evidentiary documentation, the modern progressive epoch is is an offshoot of the Cold War and Soviet-era Communism.

America's new divisions are so obvious, and the Democrat leadership so radical, that local law enforcement officials from around the country have told the President and the Justice Department that any attempt to revoke the Constitution's Second Amendment will be immediately repudiated.

Some officials have gone so far as to "pledge their lives" to resist the administration's lawless proposals. One such group is the Utah Sheriff’s Association, which wrote the administration the proverbial strongly worded memo [PDF]:

We respect the Office of the President of the United States of America. But, make no mistake, as the duly-elected sheriffs of our respective counties, we will enforce the rights guaranteed to our citizens by the Constitution. No federal official will be permitted to descend upon our constituents and take from them what the Bill of Rights — in particular Amendment II — has given them. We, like you, swore a solemn oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and we are prepared to trade our lives for the preservation of its traditional interpretation.

Here's an entertaining thought experiment: when was the last time in American history that large groups of state and local officials promised retaliatory violence against a tyrannical, authoritarian government operating outside the law?

Oh and hey, remember when then-candidate Barack Obama said, "There's not a blue America or a Red America, there is the United States of America"?

Yeah, that was funny.

RUH ROH: please keep this chart hidden from any Chinese government officials you may know

I mean, would you loan money to someone with this kind of balance sheet?

This is the balance sheet from hell. And not a great fiscal legacy for Timothy Geithner. From the U.S. Treasury Department’s just-released Financial Report of the U.S. Government for Fiscal Year 2012 [PDF]...

...As of September 30, 2012, the Government’s total debt outstanding subject to the debt limit was $16.027 trillion, $367 billion below the current limit. As budget deficits continue to occur, the Government will have to borrow more from the public. Instances where the debt held by the public increases faster than the economy for extended periods can pose additional challenges.

I love that last bit: “Instances where the debt held by the public increases faster than the economy for extended periods can pose additional challenges.” Yup.

But don't worry, folks: Paul Krugman -- who won a Nobel Prize for his work advising Enron, if memory serves -- says America's fiscal house is in perfect order--and, in fact, needs more debt.