Winnebago County Continues It's March Toward Concealed Carry -- Wresting The Constitution Away From Daley/Chicago Control

Winnebago County, IL- Winnebago County voters will be getting a say in November on whether Illinois should become a conceal carry state. Thursday night the county board voted overwhelmingly in support of a proposal to put a referendum regarding conceal carry on the fall ballot. Come November Winnebago County voters will be facing one more question on their ballot: should the Illinois General Assembly create legislation allowing concealed firearms to be carried? ... Another measure that authorizes the sheriff to allow Winnebago County residents to carry concealed weapons still sits in subcommittee. The sheriff and state's attorney are worried such a plan may break state laws. But supporters say the referendum vote is a good indication of what the full board may decide when the issue goes before them this summer. "I think people pretty much have already decided what side of the issue they're on," says Owens. If the referendum passes, supporters are hopeful other counties will follow their lead in putting the question of conceal carry before voters.

This is a good move for the County. If the voters approve it by an overwhelmingly margin it will demonstrate to the Daley controlled state (and soon to be Fed's if Obama wins) that opinion has truly shifted from their 60's era oppression.

The Daley/Chicago gun control side knows this -- the gun control efforts will get statewide and possibly national support. This really needs organized support from statewide or national gun right organizations! Look for ads against this in the future.

Winning this is an important step forward in one of only 2 states without some form of concealed carry.

Then there are the politics of the issue -- I would enjoy seeing support for this from our elected representatives -- 21 to 5 is a dramatic vote in favor of letting the people choose. If that represents public opinion then it is a winning issue for whoever grabs hold first and loudest.

I would have to see the polls but I would think this would be advantageous for Congressman Manzullo in a year when Republican turnout may be depressed. Driving voter turnout on what is a conservative issue could help him if this gets the right support. However if the opportunity is missed and organizational efforts on the left exceed those on the right this could hurt him in the fall. Manzullo's campaign staff needs to do some outreach on this and, if nothing else suggest the Winnebago County Republicans get the jump on this one.
DKK
Mystateline.com

The Power Of The Markets

Meanwhile, the head of Total, Christophe de Margerie, told the Financial Times the company's planned development of the huge South Pars gas field in southern Iran would not go ahead.

"Today we would be taking too much political risk to invest in Iran because people will say: 'Total will do anything for money'," he said.

Total was the last major Western energy group to have seriously considered investing in the country's huge gas reserves.

Analysts say the move will be a big blow to the Iranian energy industry. It means Iran is now unlikely to significantly increase its gas exports until late into the next decade, they add.

DKK
BBC -- US Warns Iran On Missile Threat

Esquire To Publish Details Of Police File Of NIU Gunman Investigation

Information for the 12,400-word story came from interviews with Kazmierczak’s friends, including former girlfriend Jessica Baty, and a 1,500-page police file that included e-mail records, police reports from incidents when Kazmierczak was in high school, psychiatric evaluations, military records and interviews people gave police, according to Esquire. The magazine would not say how it got the file.

NIU Police Lt. Todd Henert said he didn’t know but was trying to determine which of several law-enforcement agencies involved with the investigation might have released the file.

This guy admired the plans the Columbine shooters used and the Virginia Tech gunman's chaining of the doors to prevent victims escaping.    The article discloses his previous suicide attempts as well as his, "sexual encounters with both women and men."


By the way, I lived down the block form Lt. Henert through High School!  This is a high school week I guess.
DKK

RRstar -- Esquire magazine: NIU gunman struggled with sexuality, admired Va. Tech shooter

FISA Bill Passed, President Says He Will Sign!

The FISA bill passed the Senate on Wednesday and it is headed to the President for his signature.

John McCain, and more interestingly Barack Obama voted yes while Hillary voted no.

Politics aside it is a very good thing that we now have a policy in place that will allow the monitoring of terrorists communications.  The sheer volume of information that now flows through US based servers has got to be staggering!
DKK

You Want To Do What, Mr. Jackson?

Jesse Jackson, on an open mike during a Chicago interview with the local Fox station whispers that he is not happy with Barack bad mouthing black people and says, "I want to cut his nuts off!"  Complete with hand motions.

Strange that this will go by with little notice from anyone outside the right. 

If you or I were to say this we would most likely end up with a visit from the Secret Service, but this will get a pass, after all he called Obama to apologize.

Is this the start of a conflict in the black community and will this add credibility to Obama's reputation of not being a typical civil rights leader?
DKK

Yea Barack, About Us Idiots Needing To Learn A Second Language -- Again Your Elites Are Showing

Attending to the news of the day, Scott Rasmussen polled the comparative importance to Americans of immigrants learning English versus Americans learning a foreign language. Rasmussen reports, in English, that Americans reject Obama's call for bilingualism, with 83 percent of respondents placing a higher priority on encouraging immigrants to speak English as their primary language. Just 13 percent took the opposite view saying it is more important for Americans to learn other languages. Rasmussen does not report how many respondents associated the latter view with Obama.

Rasmussen also found that only 26 percent believe that every American should be able to speak at least two languages. Breaking the results down along party lines, Rasmussen found that 79 percent of Republicans and 59 percent of Democrats reject the idea that all Americans should know multiple languages. Sixty-eight percent of independent voters rejected the importance of American bilingualism.

DKK
Powerline Blog -- Gracias, Señor Rasmussen

Obama Mocks Unilingual American Idiots -- Only

The spectacle of Obama and his fans enjoying their presumed superiority over the rest of us benighted Americans--the most telling feature of the video is the "knowing" laughs Obama elicits from his audience--is not pretty.
One thought, though: isn't this one more example of how out of touch Obama is? The ugly American abroad is a stereotype from the 1950s and 1960s. Does Obama really not know that for the last several decades, every school district in America has been relentlessly pushing the study of foreign languages? Is he unaware that it is now commonplace for American high school students to travel abroad in school groups to practice their German, French, Spanish, Japanese, and so on?

DKK
Powerline Blog -- Obama Snickers At His Countrymen

Happy 45th Birthday To A High School Friend

Long ago I lost contact with a friend from my youth who I have thought about quite a bit lately. Wayne Schandelmeier SSG USAF (and either is close to retirement or has recently retired and wanted to work his family farm in Durand, (congrats on your dad's retirement). This is all info pieced together from on online searches.)

It has been 20 years since I saw him but Monday I had a dream we were doing the wild things we did in high school, in the same cars! All my best on this special day, leave a comment if you read this or know him.

David