Innocents Betrayed is now available. What is Innocents Betrayed you might ask? It's a film produced by the JPFO based on the book Death By Gun Control: The Human Cost of Civilian Disarmament written by Aaron Zelman & Richard W. Stevens. Here's a link to a page that has a clip of the film's introduction. It explores the link between genocide & civilian disarmament. I haven't seen it yet but it sounds like it's worth the investment. I'm thinking it would be an appropriate gift should someone you know have an empty space beside Bowling for Columbine on their shelf. Or better yet, should someone wish to make an empty space where Bowling for Columbine once lay.

This has been your public service announcement.

Through a collaborative effort (that means we yelled at each other 'til someone did something or another) there's a new blog to go to for information on shooting. It's called The Shooter's Carnival.

It's a group blog that concerns itself with the techinical aspects of shooting. There's already a few posts over there & so far the topics range from basic firearms safety to building an AR-15 from a parts kit. The goal is to provide help & advice to every level of shooter - from beginners who are considering purchasing their first firearm to people who have been shooting all their life & want to improve their technique a bit.

For the political stuff please visit the respective co-bloggers' blogs.

The Shooters' Carnival is brought to you by:

Alphecca
Boone Country
Hell in a Hand Basket
LayLines
Publicola
SayUncle
The Smallest Minority
Stop the Bleating

The House of Representatives has decided, in its infinite wisdom, that members of Congress simply could not get by on what its members were making. So they voted a 2.2% raise for themselves. In 2004 they'll "earn" about $158,000.00 which is a big improvement over the $154,700.00 they made this year. & don't bring up those dark days of 1999 when they had to get by on $136,700.00 a year per member.

They have also decided that a pay raise of 4.1% is appropriate for almost all federal employees.

From the article:

"Only one House member — Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah — voiced objections to the congressional increase during the debate.
'We are fighting terrorism on numerous fronts and our economy is in serious trouble, unemployment is at record high levels and our future budget deficits are predicted to be the highest in the history of this great nation,' Matheson said. 'Now is not the time for members of Congress to be voting themselves a pay raise.'
By a 240-173 vote, the House rejected Matheson's procedural attempt to get a direct vote on the pay raise for lawmakers. In 1989, Congress voted to make cost-of-living pay increases for themselves automatic unless they voted otherwise.
Without counting outside sources of income, the earnings of members of Congress rank within the top 5% of the nation."

I'm disturbed that those who tax us against our will by threat of force, who make our means of defense illegal, who create laws & systems designed to subjugate us, who legislate our Rights away as well as those who do their dirty work, are doing their jobs so well that they receive raises for it.

Paper Money and Tyranny by Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.

I was trying to find a paragraph or two to excerpt in order to tantalize you into clicking the link & reading it, but I can't find a paragraph or two that stands alone well enough to do the essay justice. So go & read the whole thing. It's worth the time it takes.

Charley Reese has a short but interesting piece called The Truth About The Confederacy: Parents - Teach Your Kids The Truth. I'd have liked Mr. Reese to have expanded upon his points, but even if it's a bit abbreviated it's worth a look.

According to this article at Newsmax.com Sen. McClintock not only has Michael Savages endorsement, but is in the double digits in the most recent poll. Though it's not too specific it does say that support for Sen. McClintock is growing.

In fact another story says that 30% of California voters polled felt Sen. McClintock was the winner of the debate held on Wednesday. Compare that to 22% favoring Lt. Gov. Bustamante as the winner, with 24% undecided.

& we have this from Newsmax.com:

"Yesterday during a rally in Temecula, McClintock laid it out as clearly as he could for the throng of supporters, stating he's 'always placed my principles above party,' and 'I am in this race to the finish line,' emphasizing that he will not step aside for Arnold.
McClintock's boring, but he's also ethical and principled, a long-missing character trait in California politics. Arnold has scheduled a Sept. 10 appearance on the O'Reilly Factor. It better be good, or it will be Arnold coming on-board with the McClintock team in order to help the Republicans avoid splitting the vote, not the other way around as all of punditry had suggested just one week back."

hmmm. If Sen. McClintock has "'always placed [his] principles above party" then that would explain why some Republican apologists won't endorse him.

As I've said before, I think California is lost. I could be wrong but California is a long ways down the road to destruction already with no signs of slowing down. However, Sen. McClintock may be able to put on the brakes. Certainly he stands a better chance of fixing what's broken than any of the other candidates.

Add that to the claims of racist behavior, albeit in the past, by Mr. Schwarzenegger & things are looking better for Sen. McClintock's chances.

As reported The Drudge Report last night, former Mr. Universe Robbie Robinson has accussed Mr. Schwarzenegger of making racist comments. Another former Mr. Unvierse, Rick Wayne, had made similar allegations.

If these turn out to be true Mr. Schwarzenegger's support base could fall enough to lose him the election. Then again, even if they're not true it could affect his image enough to make winning difficult.

Michael Gaddy has a piece entitled Second Amendment Supporters: Battle Stations Everyone!.

It mainly focuses on the fight we're gonna have to keep the "assault weapons" ban from being renewed &/or strengthened, but the links he has in the body of the piece are worth checking out as well.

When I first read the headline for this story over at Keep & Bear Arms.com I thought for a moment they were talking about Los Angelos. I should have known better.

"PORT ALLEN [Louisiana]-- Two women with knees bent and feet planted wide apart to ensure a steady aim held a pair of would-be burglars at gunpoint Thursday afternoon until West Baton Rouge sheriff's deputies could arrest the suspects, the Sheriff's Office said."

Course if it would have been in Los Angelos, the burglars would have been escorted to a trauma center because of their understandable emotional distress. Meetings with lawyers to sue the women for emotional damages would have been arranged while the women would have been arrested for attempted assault with a firearm. Louisiana on the other hand seems to have its priorities straight: arrest the criminals & leave the citizens be...at least in this case.