Enemies of gun rights can't hide their hostility to Constitution

Ezra Klein wonders what good a Constitutional cite will do on future legislation
Ezra Klein got himself in a bit of hot water by saying some things about the Constitution that appear to have been misinterpreted.  He originally commented on the subject while talking about the new GOP rule that requires a Constitutional reference be put on every bit of Legislation offered to, one assumes, prove it’s Constitutional viability.  Unfortunately, it isn’t Congress which gets to decide what is or isn’t Constitutional. The old saying, “the Constitution says what

SC Senator Wants Guns Regulated By State
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Many South Carolina gun owners will be closely watching a bill that will come before the State Legislature in the new year. Sen. Lee Bright, of Spartanburg, filed a bill that would bring authority over Gun Rights and Regulations to South Carolina rather than the Federal Government. The South Carolina Firearms Freedom Act would ensure that firearms manufactured in South Carolina, that stay in South Carolina, will not have to be federally regulated. "The state law will still be...

Legislators caught up in holiday spirit, too
Halloween? Oct. 31. New Year's Day? No sweat: Jan. 1. It's not a celebration you'll find in your desk calendar. But it's an example of one of the Pennsylvania Legislature's biggest exports: so-called "holidays" passed by resolution, the whim of a representative written into the record to commemorate subjects that vary from sickle cell disease to Spanish water dogs. And for your information, Pennsylvania Health Care Information Technology Day happened April 20. In 2010, State Legislators introduc...

Lifers gain parole at faster rate
The rate at which the state Parole board doled out “get out of jail free” passes to lifers skyrocketed by 50 percent last year — a shocking spike that enraged State Legislators who proposed tough new laws after the tragic shooting death of a Woburn cop. Gov. Deval Patrick’s seven-member Parole board sprang 35 out of 88 convicts serving life sentences in 2009, or 40 percent, a Herald review found. By comparison, the board paroled just 29 out of 108 lifers, or 27 percent, ...

Lifers gain parole at faster rate
The rate at which the state Parole board doled out “get out of jail free” passes to lifers skyrocketed by 50 percent last year — a shocking spike that enraged State Legislators who proposed tough new laws after the tragic shooting death of a Woburn cop. Gov. Deval Patrick’s seven-member Parole board sprang 35 out of 88 convicts serving life sentences in 2009, or 40 percent, a Herald review found. By comparison, the board paroled just 29 out of 108 lifers, or 27 percent, ...

Ezra Klein Less Well-Educated Than Thought
Twitter users have been ripping Ezra Klein apart for his dim-witted pronouncement that the Constitution is too difficult to understand because the document was written "more than 100 years ago." The thing is Klein isn't nearly done on displaying his ignorance of the Constitution, baring his ignorance for all to see in print as well. My friends on the right don't like to hear this, but the Constitution is not a clear document. Written more than 200 years ago, when America had 13 states and very...

New Hampshire legislature will reintroduce the Castle Doctrine; warn Governor Lynch to put away the veto pen
  When the new New Hampshire state legislature convenes next month one of the first issues that will be brought forth is a reintroduction of the “Deadly Force” bill that has failed twice under the previously Democrat controlled state legislature. Unfortunately the Union Leader article that I will be quoting from is only available in the print paper and not online, so I cannot provide a proper link to the source material.    Basically, the “Deadly Force&...

What the tea party wants from the Constitution
I'm very curious to know what the GOP -- or the tea partyers they're presumably pandering to -- think will happen when every piece of Legislation requires "a statement from its sponsor outlining where in the Constitution Congress is empowered to enact such legislation." What's the evidence that this will make Legislation more, rather than less, constitutional, for whatever your definition of the Constitution is? Let's take an example: Most Legislation doesn't currently include a statement of con...

Ohio Supreme Court Strikes Down Strict Cleveland Gun Laws
Yahoo! Buzz These are heady times for gun-rights advocates. The Supreme Court in recent terms shot down laws in D.C. and Chicago banning Handguns. Gun-rights advocates notched another win yesterday, this time in the Ohio Supreme Court, which struck down Cleveland laws that banned assault weapons and required handguns to be registered. (Click here to read the ruling.) At issue in the case is whether Cleveland’s tough Gun Laws can be trumped by more lax statewide gun Regulations. Cleveland c...

Ezra Klein Tries To Explain His Way Out Of Saying The Constitution Isnt Binding
WAPO’s Leftist columnist Ezra Klein today: This morning, I gave a quick interview to MSNBC where I made, I thought, some fairly banal points on the GOP’s plan to honor the Constitution by having it read aloud on the House floor. Asked if it was a gimmick, I replied that it was, because, well, it is. It’s our founding document, not a spell that makes the traitors among us glow green. It’s also, I noted, a completely nonbinding act: It doesn’t impose a particular i...

Yes, the Constitution is binding
This morning, I gave a quick interview to MSNBC where I made, I thought, some fairly banal points on the GOP's plan to honor the Constitution by having it read aloud on the House floor. Asked if it was a gimmick, I replied that it was, because, well, it is. It's our founding document, not a spell that makes the traits among us glow green. It's also, I noted, a completely nonbinding act: It doesn't impose a particular interpretation of the Constitution on legislators, and will have no practical i...

Rationing Revealed at the Heart of Obamacare
If you like police officers having quotas for speeding tickets, you will love the Obama Administration's new Health Care Regulations. Doctors are going to be paid for giving "end-of-life counseling," one version of what was labeled as "Death Panels" during the Health Care debate this last spring. Combining this with ObamaCare giving doctors a financial incentive for withholding medical care as well as financial penalties if they give out too much care, it is easy to see where things are going an...

Government By Regulation...Shh!
WASHINGTON -- Most people don't remember ObamaCare's notorious Section 1233, mandating government payments for end-of-life counseling. It aroused so much anxiety as a possible first slippery step on the road to state-mandated late-life Rationing that the Senate never included it in the final Health Care law. Well, it's back -- by administrative fiat. A month ago, Medicare issued a Regulation providing for end-of-life counseling during annual "wellness" visits. It was all nicely buried amid the ...

Healthcare reform ups Medicare payments
"Starting Jan. 1, Insurance Companies will have to spend a larger share of premiums on the care of patients and consumers -- not on Chief Executive Officer salaries," Pelosi said in a statement. "Taxpayers will save, as government cracks down on overpayments to insurers. Seniors will gain free access to annual check-ups and screenings, and those in the 'donut hole' will get a 50 percent discount on brand-name Prescription Drugs. "In 2010, we kept our promises by helping small businesses cover th...

Doan scores twice, Coyotes beat Kings 6-3
Phoenix Coyotes defenseman Ed Jovanovski, front right, drops to the ice in pain after being hit by a shot as he defends against Los Angeles Kings left winger Ryan Smyth, left, in front of Coyotes goalie Ilya Bryzgalov, rear, in the first period of an NHL hockey game Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2010, in Glendale, Ariz. Shane Doan scored two goals and Scottie Upshall and Keith Yandle each had three points in the Phoenix Coyotes' 6-3 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday night. The Coyotes set s...

Waxman: Tea Party rancor next session
WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., a close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, predicted the next Congress will be "most rancorous." Waxman, the top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, told KPCC, Pasadena, Congress in the past two years has been "very productive" but the institution is now entering what he predicted will be "one of the most rancorous periods of time in our country's history," The Hill reported. With Republicans in control of t...

Ticket Replay: It took a guy to do this? New Speaker Boehner orders a change to benefit just 71 members
During the Holiday Season, as in years past, The Ticket is republishing some of our favorite items from the previous political year. This story was originally published on Dec. 2, 2010: For some reason it took a male Speaker of the House to accomplish this: The nearly six dozen female members of the incoming House of Representatives will have a new restroom just as close to the chamber's floor as their male colleagues. A sometimes significant comfort, given legislators' propensity to b...

UPI Sports Calendar for Friday, Dec. 31
Notre Dame vs. Miami-Florida at El Paso, Texas, 2:11 p.m. Georgia vs. Central Florida at Memphis, 3:30 p.m. South Carolina vs. Florida State at Atlanta, 8 p.m. Phoenix at St. Louis, 8:30 p.m. LONDON, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Britain's Queen Elizabeth II has become a great-grandmother for the first time, her press representatives confirmed Thursday. U.S. President Barack Obama hits a chip shot on the 9th hole of the Mid-Pacific Country Club in Honolulu, Hawaii on December 28, 2010. UPI/Cory Lum Bad: y...

Newly elected Jerry Parisella heading to Iraq
BOSTON - Jerry Parisella doggedly campaigned to become a Massachusetts State Representative. His hard work paid off. But a month after his election, he learned he’d be headed to Iraq for a year with his National Guard unit. Parisella will be sworn in Wednesday at the Statehouse and is scheduled to leave for Baghdad less than four weeks later, at the end of January. His impending absence has caused something of a split in his hometown of Beverly, the North Shore city among several claiming ...

New GOP majorities could repeal fresh legislation
(12-29) 04:00 PST Madison, Wis. -- Tougher rules for payday lenders and revamped gun measures are among the laws set to take effect around the country on Jan. 1. But some of them may not be on the books for long. In January, the statutes will kick in just as freshly elected governors and legislators arrive for work. And if new GOP majorities succeed in getting Legislation repealed, the result may be sudden U-turns on issues that were only recently debated. Before the November election, Democr...

EPA's moves on emissions carry risks for Obama, GOP
WASHINGTON — With the Federal Government set to regulate climate-altering gases from factories and Power Plants for the first time beginning Sunday, the Obama Administration and the new Congress are headed for a clash that carries substantial risks for both sides. The administration is on notice that if it moves too far and too fast in trying to curtail the ubiquitous gases that are heating the planet it risks a congressional backlash that could set back the effort for years. But the newly...

Antitrust/Media Consolidation: A Liberaltarians Manifesto
The public choice school has a lot to say about anti-trust. You can start with the classical/neo-classical economic argument that in a Free Market barriers to entry will normally be low enough to prevent monopolies from forming or persisting. If they do manage to develop, their monopolistic behavior (raising prices, reducing innovation, etc.) that creates monopoly-level profits will result in competitors eyeing them jealously and jumping into the market, destroying the monopoly and competing pri...

How Government Regulations Push Up Cost of Medicine and Limit Patient Choice
It’s no secret that Health Care is an industry beset by huge problems. The problem doesn’t as much stem from “evil Insurance Companies” as it does from a system created by federal and State Governments to make a system as economically inefficient as possible. For instance, most people do not pick their own Insurance companies. Their employer does. The customer then isn’t the consumer, it is the business that contracts them to provide Insurance for their employees....

EPA and Congress at odds over emissions
WASHINGTON — With the Federal Government set to regulate climate-altering gases from factories and Power Plants for the first time beginning Sunday, the Obama Administration and the new Congress are headed for a clash that carries substantial risks for both sides. The administration is on notice that, if it moves too far and too fast, a congressional backlash could set back the effort for years. But newly muscular Republicans in Congress also could stumble by moving too aggressively to h...

Inside the Beltway
RESOLUTION REVOLUTION Lose weight, stop Smoking? Uh, no. Revere the U.S. Constitution and save money? You betcha. Newt Gingrich collected more than 200 citizen recommendations for New Year's resolutions, congressional style, only to find that more than half of them advised lawmakers to uphold the Constitution. "Many of these suggestions mentioned the Tenth Amendment specifically and asked for Congress to return power and control back to the State Governments. Others asked for a requirement tha...