| OO |
On the House Floor
This week the House approved H.R. 85, the Energy Technology Transfer Act, by a vote of 395 to 1. The bill will award grants to nonprofit institutions, state and local governments, or institutions of higher education to establish a geographically dispersed network of Advanced Energy Technology Transfer Centers. Additionally, H.R. 985, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, passed 331 to 94. It protects federal employees for disclosing evidence of waste, abuse, gross mismanagement, or substantial and specific danger to public health or safety without restriction as to time, place, form, motive, context, or prior disclosure.
Gun Ban Reversal
Last Friday, the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Washington, DC’s comprehensive prohibition on the private ownership and use of firearms by individuals. In its ruling, the court concluded that: “…the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. That right existed prior to the formation of the new government under the Constitution and was premised on the private use of arms for activities such as hunting and self-defense, the latter being understood as resistance to either private lawlessness or the depredations of a tyrannical government (or a threat from abroad).” Our tradition of permitting appropriate uses of firearms predates the establishment of the United States as a sovereign nation and is rooted in the inherent human right to self defense. Significantly, the court also “rejects the argument that the Second Amendment does not apply to the District of Columbia because it is not a State.” I am glad to see that the Second Amendment still applies to the District of Columbia. Americans should not lose their constitutional protections just because they live in the nation’s capital.
This ruling will do more to keep the streets of Washington safe than any gun control policy will ever do because gun bans only disarm law abiding citizens, making them more vulnerable to violent crime. As the gun crime rate in Washington attests, criminals misuse guns even when they are not supposed to have them. They don’t obey the law in the first place. Legal analysts expect that the decision may be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court sometime in 2008. When that happens, I am hopeful that the Constitution will again prevail.
Terror Reminder
More than five years have passed since the horrors of September 11, 2001, awakened the American consciousness to the dangerous state of the world. In the aftermath of that infamous day, we banded together as a nation with a greater seriousness of purpose to prevent similar atrocities from occurring here again. Remarkably, despite the mistakes we have made and the daunting nature of the task, we have succeeded thus far. Much of that success is a result of our capturing and killing the bad guys – thugs like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who confessed to a U.S. military tribunal on March 10th that he “was responsible for the 9/11 operation from A to Z.” Not only that, but he helped to plan and execute a total of 31 terrorist attacks resulting in approximately 3,280 murders. Furthermore, he intended to assassinate former Presidents Clinton and Carter, and unleash a wave of post-9/11 attacks targeting skyscrapers in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Seattle, nuclear power plants in “several U.S. states”, and New York’s suspension bridges and stock exchange. We should welcome his remarks as a status check on the effectiveness of our counterterrorism efforts and a call to renewed vigilance in confronting the threats to our lives and liberty.
Quote of the Week
“I know that [Rep. Obey] might have sounded a little bit confused there, but unfortunately that is the actual name of the bill: the ‘Troops Out of Combat Role by October – I mean August of 19 – no wait, August 2007, 2000, no 2008 – Bill.’” – Jon Stewart, host of “The Daily Show”, on the ever-changing nature of Nancy Pelosi’s slow bleed strategy for ending U.S. military involvement in Iraq, March 13, 2007.
|
|
