Pentagon Shooter, Las Vegas Shooter's guns both from same place

This is strange. With state and city budgets getting the shaft, I'm sure this will only get more common. More here about the Pentagon shooter.

WASHINGTON -- Two guns used in high-profile shootings this year at the Pentagon and a Las Vegas courthouse both came from the same unlikely place: the police and court system of Memphis, Tenn.

Law enforcement officials told The Associated Press that both guns were once seized in criminal cases in Memphis. The officials described how the weapons made their separate ways from an evidence vault to gun dealers and to the shooters.

The use of guns that once were in police custody and were later involved in attacks on police officers highlights a little-known divide in gun policy in the United States: Many cities and states destroy guns gathered in criminal probes, but others sell or trade the weapons in order to get other guns or buy equipment such as bulletproof vests.

(snip)

A nationwide review by The Associated Press in December found that over the previous two years, 24 states - mostly in the South and West, where gun-rights advocates are particularly strong - have passed 47 new laws loosening gun restrictions. Gun rights groups are making a greater effort to pass favorable legislation in state capitals.

John Timoney, who led the Philadelphia and Miami police departments and served as New York's No. 2 police official, said he doesn't believe police departments should be putting more guns into the market.

"I just think it's unseemly for police departments to be selling guns that later turn up," he said, recalling that he had once been offered the chance to sell guns to raise money for the police budget.

State Income Tax Revenues Plunge

Sounds like more than one state is about to go the way of California.

The Rockefeller Institute of Government reports that state individual income tax revenues fell 26% in in the first four months 2009 as compared with the same period last year.

Preliminary data for May indicated a continued decline of about 25% in income tax collections.

Perry says "secede", TX House votes to wipe out his budget; Vets win

By GottaLaff

I love it when the good guys score a win:

House members virtually wiped out Gov. Rick Perry's office budget Friday in order to help veterans and the mentally ill.

With little debate, the House on a voice vote approved erasing 96 percent of the nearly $24 million that budget writers had recommended for Perry's office operation over the next two years.

Some Democrats cast the House's move as a rebuke of the governor's recent comments about Texas seceding from the Union.

"That's the headline: 'Two days after governor says we ought to secede, House zeroes out the governor's budget,' " said Appropriations Committee vice chairman Richard Raymond, D-Laredo. [...]

"At the end of the day, the governor will be fully funded," said House GOP caucus chairman Larry Taylor of Friendswood.

In that case, I hope the Nation of Texas accepts U.S. dollars.

Cartoon Of The Day

Ouch. Via.

VIDEO-- The state of my state: Governor Ebenezer Arnold's nightmare before Christmas, "A California Carol"

By GottaLaff


True to form, the Governator has reduced everything to sag status: His own body, our miserable Kahl-ee-forn-ee-ah economy, schools, health care, and collective morale.

The Courage Campaign:

When Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the Democratic budget solution last week he gave a lump of coal to every Californian. His veto places the state in danger of bankruptcy as Arnold demands spending cuts and rollbacks of laws protecting workers and the environment. Arnold has become California's own Ebenezer Scrooge.

So we thought you might enjoy this special video we put together about Arnold's nightmare before Christmas. What do the ghosts of California past, present, and future have to say to the Governor after a year of failure? Watch the video and see!

Unfortunately, California's Ebenezer Scrooge isn't going to have a Christmas morning change of heart and suddenly decide to provide funding for schools and health care. Not unless we the people demand that he stop cutting and start saving California by signing the Democratic budget deal.

That's why we're asking you to sign a holiday card that we're going to deliver to the Governor. Tell him that California deserves a leader, not a Scrooge, this holiday season!

Alaskan Republican says thanks, but no thanks to Palin's Budget to Nowhere

By GottaLaff

Two Alaskan bloggers are calling Grandma Also out. First, The Mudflats edition:

[Rep. Mike] Hawker, the Republican co-chair of the House Finance Committee wrote a nice little letter to the Governor which basically said, “We got the budget. It’s very pretty. Now, try again.”

Next, Celtic Diva lays it all out for us:

From the ADN Politics Blog:

State House finance co-chair Mike Hawker told Gov. Palin today in a hand delivered letter that she's based her budget on an unrealistically high expectation for state revenue. He wants her to rework the numbers to reflect a possible $2 to $3 billion deficit.

Palin's budget proposal is based on her revenue department's projection that oil will average $74.41 a barrel over the next budget year, which starts in July. "Many, if not most, professional economic analysts believe that the actual average prices will be significantly less than that," Hawker wrote.

I believe that this may be good news for those of us who have been afraid that the Legislature is just going to roll over and die for her.

Republican Representative Hawker is in essence requesting that Palin lay more realistic cards on the table up front, rather than rely on her typical modus operendi...lay back and let the Legislature take the hits for the unpopular decisions while she takes the credit for those choices that are popular with the public. If the fantasy budget she's proposed is allowed to stand unchallenged, she'll simply say that she's "forced" to go along with the tough budget cuts ahead because Alaska's income didn't live up to Revenue's expectations.

That...once again...it's not HER fault...

Of course, this year she has much stronger motivation to follow that tried-and-true formula...the presidential election in 2012. She has quite a tightrope to walk since the national media is watching her every step. While a budget full of red ink would make the fiscal conservatives happy, it would also provide fodder to her critics who would analyze every area she slashed.

Quite the sticky-wicket, wouldn't you say?

So while some are giving her the benefit of the doubt regarding this budget submission, I have NO doubt that it was a calculated CYA move.

Rep. Hawker's letter states it in language that sounds vaguely familiar (emphasis mine):

"No one can accurately predict the future of these markets. However, the consensus of opinion among the best economic minds in the country indicates that basing the state budget for 2010 on $74.41 a barrel is certainly aggressive. I am concerned that it may also be imprudent. It is important the budget process be open and transparent to the Alaska public. Introducing budget bills founded on the unlikely hope of a rapid return to high oil prices is contrary to that principle and inconsistent with a responsible and productive budget dialogue between the branches of government and with the Alaska people."

My interpretation: You are NOT going to make us the bad guy THIS time!

Playing in the big leagues is hard work, isnt' it Grandma Also? Sometimes reveling in that big, bright spotlight can have its downside.

By the way, how's the family?

Obama plate might give Illinois state budget a boost

Screw Illinois, I say every state should start offering an Obama plate, g-d knows we need the income.

Illinois' license plates proudly boast we're the Land of Lincoln. Now, we're the Land of Obama, too. So what would happen if state leaders gave drivers the option of buying a special license plate to commemorate Barack Obama's historic inauguration as president?

Judging by calls to Secretary of State Jesse White's office and an examination of state records, the idea might offer a boost for the state's cash-strapped budget.

The secretary of state has been getting 10 to 15 calls a day since Obama's Nov. 4 victory asking if an Obama commemorative plate is in the works, White spokesman Dave Druker said.

Specialty plates bring the state millions of dollars each year. An Obama plate -- priced higher than normal plates, of course -- might bring in money that could be used for any number of purposes.

Not-So-Working-Class-IWRC* Palin

By GottaLaff

Heck! For a hockeymommin', moose-shootin', Joe-Six-Packer, IWRC* sure has a big mouth to nowhere. Here's what she said (re: the economy) at a campaign event:

“Todd and I, heck, we’re going through that right now even as we speak — which may put me again kind of on the outs of those Washington elite who don’t like the idea of just an everyday, working-class American running for such an office.”

Oh really?

But her income, assets and access to health care place her higher up the economic ladder. While she describes herself as a member of the working class, when faced with policy choices on issues important to blue-collar voters, Palin, over the course of her political career, rarely breaks in their favor.

A close examination of Palin’s record on such issues as health care, the minimum wage, taxes and retirement funds shows that she has remained silent on proposals that would channel public money to programs beneficial to working-class Alaskans. In other instances, Palin supported programs that favored wealthy Alaskans over low-income families.

Financially, Palin and her husband, Todd, are far from being members of the working class. [...] The Palin’s assets total $1.2 million, including a lakefront house valued at about half a million dollars, a snowmobile and a float plane.

Todd, a union worker on the North Slope, and Sarah Palin both have jobs that include comprehensive health benefits for their family. And, unlike most Americans, Todd Palin and the Palin children are entitled to federally funded comprehensive health care because of Todd’s Native Alaskan ancestry. [...]

Many working-class advocates in Alaska say that Palin’s affinity for the working class has not resulted in increased funding for programs that benefit working families.

Instead, as her supporters say, Palin has established her fiscal conservative bona-fides in resisting spending on social programs — even when the state’s budget surplus is expected to reach between $5 billion and $9 billion next year in a state of about 650,0000 people.

Palin has been specifically criticized for allowing Alaska to remain one of the least generous states in a federally backed health-care program for the children of working-class families; for remaining silent on a proposal to raise the state’s minimum wage; for tacitly supporting the privatization of public employee pensions; and for implementing a regressive tax in her hometown of Wasilla while mayor.

Maybe if she downs enough six-packs, she can continue to fool herself into believing she's "just an everyday, working-class American". Or maybe it's all her devotees who have been drinking. That might explain a lot.

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"