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Posts Tagged ‘Washington Post’

CNN Commentator and NRA Mom S.E. Cupp Gets Grief from WaPo Blogger for Doing NRA Ad

Posted in gun rights, Politics, tagged , , , on May 7, 2015| Leave a Comment »

A couple days ago, Washington Post Blogger Erik Wemple reacted in dismay that a network personality, in this case S.E. Cupp, who is paid by CNN for her opinions, would appear in a magazine ad for the NRA:

Her participation in an NRA advertisement, however, isn’t opinionating so much as advocacy. Agreeing on general terms with the NRA about gun rights, the media and many other topics is one thing. Another thing is advancing its membership agenda. By doing that, she aligns herself not only with the group’s gist but also with its lobbying tactics, its fundraising strategies, its approach to handling press inquiries, its Web site design, its color choices in its shooting range. Everything! She’s taking her affiliation with CNN and channeling it toward the proprietary agenda of a Beltway special interest.

I wonder if Wemple would have reacted the same way in 2005 when CBS 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace appeared at a Brady Campaign fundraiser?

Cupp spoke with NRANews.com’s Cam Edwards about the non-controversy:

 

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Did DC Police Chief Throw Gun Ban Lobby Under Bus?

Posted in gun rights, Politics, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 1, 2014| 1 Comment »

Yesterday, the Washington Post had this article where District of Columbia Police Chief Cathy Lanier said she isn’t worried about law abiding citizens being able to carry firearms in the District, but being able to provide security for the dignitaries and special events in the area.  One has to ask, if she isn’t worried about law abiding citizens using firearms to commit crimes, why would she worry about them being a security threat?  It also appears the chief may have come off the gun ban reservation with her comments about law abiding citizens carrying firearms not being a criminal threat.  That’s not what we usually hear from those wanting to restrict our rights.

Lanier also questioned the position that armed citizens have a deterring affect on crime:

“When Heller came out in 2008, people said, ‘Oh, street crime’s going to go down.’ Well, Heller only allows you to have a handgun in your home, and guess what happened? Burglaries went up. So I don’t know that there’s any valid debate on the crime side. My one focus, really, now is going to be security of our dignitaries in those really highly sensitive large events.”

NRA News’ Cam Edwards talked about this yesterday (and suggested was throwing the gun control crowd under the bus) and he said when he went back and looked at the numbers, he had to wonder what the chief was talking about because while robberies were higher in the first part of 2008 than they were for the same period in 2007, the Heller decision did not come out until June of 2008, and the final robbery numbers for ’08 were lower than the final numbers for 2007.  He said they were also lower in 2009 than in 2007.  While robberies did spike in 2010, they went down again in 2011 and were lower than 2007.

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After Primary Victory Brat Focuses on Economy

Posted in Politics, tagged , , , on June 17, 2014| Leave a Comment »

The Washington Post reports today that Dave Brat is focused on the economy after his stunning upset of Representative Eric Cantor last Tuesday.  He also is keeping the media at arm’s length:

Despite staging the biggest political upset in recent memory, Brat has remained completely out of sight since his victory party, while Cantor went on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.

Probably not a bad idea and not really all that unusual really.  Brat was not expected to win.  He took down Goliath and the national media wants to talk to him, and likely try to show he is not ready for the national stage.  Here’s a news flash – Brat isn’t running for the “national stage.”  He is running to be the congressman for the 7th Congressional District.  Apparently a lot of people wanted Cantor to be the 7th District congressman and when he ascended to the national stage they thought he lost touch with the people back home.  I don’t necessarily agree with that assessment but that seems to be what caused a lot of former Cantor supporters into Brat supporters this primary season.

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Interesting Article on Smart Guns

Posted in gun rights, Politics, tagged , , , , , on February 19, 2014| 2 Comments »

The Washington Post has this story on so called “Smart Guns.” The interesting point in the story is that one of the gun control group that you would think would be in favor of this , the Violence Policy Center, seems to be adamently opposed to the idea – not because it won’t work, but because it might work so well it will encourage more people to become gun owners:

Policy Center officials argue that the new technology is unlikely to stem gun homicides, which often occur between people who know each other, and that personalization will have no effect on the more than 300 million guns in circulation. The organization also questions whether the technology would deter the nearly 350,000 incidents of firearm theft per year, though some of the proposed technologies are add-ons that can be installed on existing guns.

And perhaps most important, the Violence Policy Center worries that smart guns will increase the number of firearm owners, because marketing that touts safety could sway those previously opposed to guns to make their first purchase.

Can’t have anything that creates more gun owners can we.

I remain skeptical.  My reason can best be summed up in this quote from the story:

The chief concern for potential buyers is reliability, with 44 percent of those polled by the National Shooting Sports Foundation saying the technology would not be reliable at all. A commenter in an online Glock forum explained the concern this way: “They can’t even make a cellphone that works reliably when you need it, and some dumbass thinks he can make a reliable techno-gadget gun that is supposed to safeguard you in dire circumstances?”

 

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Did Democratic Senators Threaten Retribution for Endorsing Cuccinelli?

Posted in Politics, tagged , , , , on September 17, 2013| Leave a Comment »

That’s the question Bearing Drift is asking this morning.

Democratic Sens. Dick Saslaw, Janet Howell and Barbara Favola all sent emails to members of the Northern Virginia Technology Council PAC when word got around that the PAC was going to endorse Ken Cuccinelli rather than Terry McAuliffe. The email from Howell, excerpted in the Washington Post, was scathing:

The Post article mentioned on Bearing Drift reports that the lobbying effort by Saslaw, Howell and Favola was “intense.”

“For them to endorse a guy with his views, a supposedly enlightened group of people — ­science-oriented — would have been the same as in the 1960s, the NAACP supporting George Wallace,” Saslaw said.

The Post noted that when the two candidates interviewed for the endorsement, that Cuccinelli came off as an intelligent, serious candidate, and that McAuliffe came off as, well, McAuliffe.

Terry-McAuliffee

“Terry was his normal, flamboyant self,” said a board member present for both interviews. “He didn’t want to get pinned down to any details. He didn’t give any details. He was all about jobs, jobs, jobs — ‘I’m just going to take care of the situation when the time comes. I’m just going to do it.’ It was all [expletive].”

The endorsement was due out last Friday but the McAuliffe campaign protested, leading to what the Post said was an “intense lobbying effort.”  It’s clear McAuliffe is not ready for prime-time, does not know the issues and is in no way prepared to be Governor of Virginia:

On a question about whether Virginia should stay in something called the “open-trade-secrets pact,” Cuccinelli gave a thoroughly researched response, the person said.

But McAuliffe answered, according to the source: “ ‘I don’t know what that is. I’ll have to look it up later.’ And then he turns back to the guy [who asked] and said ‘Well, what do you think we should do?’ And the guy says, ‘We want Virginia to stay in it.’ And then Terry says, ‘Okay, we will.’ ”

We have less than two months before the election.  Here is one more example of why we need to keep McAuliffe from leading this state.

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