The Uninvited Ombudsman Report – No. 47

Taken from the most recent “Page Nine” Alan Korwin’s “The uninvited Ombudsman Report”

HELLER UPDATE:

The SCOTUS process is pretty secretive, but it's generally understood that right after orals, the Justices go into a room behind the curtain and take a tentative voice vote to see where they stand, so they likely knew the thrust right after orals on March 18.

By now, rough or near final drafts must be circulating, so the authors of the opinion, the concurrences and the dissents if any are known, with the parameters sketched out. Each Justice has four clerks, so at least 45 people know what's up. And they ain't talking. Decision could come out any day, typically on a Monday, and not later than 6/23/08. I sure hope it doesn't come out while I'm on vacation from 6/6 to 6/15.

Whichever side "wins," I predict the other side will scream "judicial activism of the worst kind!" (watch for that phrase!) ignoring any facts or the arguments of the decision, which I predict will be robust. The media will report from the Syllabus (the non-binding summary), without reading the case, and news reports will be spin-heavy. I'll study the entire decision, talk to experts, and tell you what it really says a few days later.

2- Space Station Gun

The lamestream media told you:
Almost nothing.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
In a report found at Florida-based WESH-TV.com and at other sites, the Russian built International Space Station keeps a gun on board. NASA and federal officials have been quiet about the RKBA in space.

The type of gun is a mystery, but it doesn't seem like anything most people have ever seen. Cosmonauts have apparently been carrying firearms into space routinely in their survival kits.
http://www.wesh.com/news/15298911/detail.html

MSNBC, in typical gun-ignorance fashion, rambles on about spy control, bug-eyed alien monsters, a practical need for arms in off-course tundra landings and asks the inevitable, "Is it safe?" question, disregarding the more obvious question (to people who understand the role of firearms), "Is it safe without one?"

According to the posting, "astronauts and cosmonauts take a few hours to fire several rounds from each chamber off the deck of the training ship." It was unclear why it takes a few hours to fire several rounds.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23131359/page/2/

One astronaut describes, "firing flares, birdshot and a hard slug from its three barrels, during sea and winter survival training," and mysteriously says, "I can't say it is very unique."

The report also says, "Astronaut Dave Wolf, who spent four months aboard Russia's Mir space station in 1997-98, agreed that the space weapon was 'a wonderful gun. I found it to be well-balanced, highly accurate and convenient to use.'"
MSNBC says it is an "all-in-one weapon with three barrels and a folding stock that doubles as a shovel and contains a swing-out machete." I am not making this up. "Three types of ammunition -- rifle bullets, shotgun shells and flares -- come in a belt attached to the gun."

A retail selling price or model number was not listed. If anyone can find a picture, do send it along.

3- Traffic Stop Surprise

The lamestream media told you:
Sheriff Joe Arpaio, "America's Toughest Sheriff," has been pulling over motorists for traffic violations, and then interrogating them to determine if the passengers are undocumented migrant workers. His efforts have led to the identification and deportation of countless migrants from the county's streets, driving cars with improper equipment or in violation of traffic laws.

Immigrant advocates protest the efforts, saying it amounts to racial profiling, is an unfair discrimination against immigrants, outside the Sheriff's authority, and frightens people legally in the country.

Unfortunately for the protesters, federal authorities recently cited Sheriff Joe's campaign as exemplary and a model for other agencies to copy.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
A driver was pulled over in Guadalupe, a virtually Mexican shanty town in the southern suburbs of Phoenix, for driving at night with only a single headlight. On questioning, the driver had no proof of insurance and no proof of vehicle registration in the vehicle, in addition to the broken headlight violation.

The driver complained bitterly, and publicly, claimed unfair treatment, suggested she should have been let off with only a warning, and said it was retaliation against her, and that the sheriff is racially profiling people of color, despite the dangerous broken headlamp. She asked the deputy on the scene why he works for someone "who harasses people with brown skin."

The driver was the mayor of Guadalupe, Rebecca Jimenez. She said she'd like to end the 30-year contract with the Sheriff for providing police services (the town has no police of its own). Sheriff Joe with typical candor said he would be glad to get out of there because, "Nobody wants it."
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/116355

5- Self Defense Denied

The lamestream media told you:
"Campus-gun bill dies in Senate"

"A bill that would allow some students, professors and administrators to carry guns on Arizona's college campuses is dead -- at least for this year," writes Scott Wong, on page one on the local "news" section in Gannett's number two paper, The Arizona Republic.
http://tinyurl.com/47lgx8

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
Self Defense Bill Killed by Senate

A bill that would ensure the civil rights of FBI-certified, trained, permitted, specially taxed and DPS-monitored citizens to possess sidearms for self-defense when on college campuses was denied a vote by the state senate.
The bill's sponsor, Sen. Karen Johnson, said she thought many lawmakers, facing re-election, didn't want to take a position on such a controversial issue, and brought pressure to have the bill killed.

With news coverage that perpetually casts self-defense, personal-safety and civil-rights-protection bills as students-with-guns laws, this comes as little surprise.

The issue was exposed in the paper itself, in a letter I wrote to them, which some people said was a miracle to see in print.
http://tinyurl.com/6ysrpd

Full contents of items covered in this week’s report.
(searchable by item number)
1- Global Warming Waning
2- Space Station Gun
3- Traffic Stop Surprise
4- Government Declares Summer
5- Self Defense Denied
6- Jews Score One
7- Special Guest Columnist Craig Cantoni:
How Mack the Millionaire became Mack the Knife
8- Counterintuitive Man says:
"Democrats are Republicans!"
9- Counterintuitive Man says:
Support unequal treatment!

If you would like to read this type of reporting in your local paper, send the editor a note asking them to reprint the "Page Nine." If enough of us ask, we may be pleasantly surprised by the results.

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