Is Obama planning to bar gun owners from holding office in his administration, and what does that mean for gun rights nationwide?
Any time you apply for a job you can expect to fill out an application and answer some questions, yet few of us have ever experienced the level of scrutiny as those seeking jobs with the new administration with a nine-page questionnaire delving into every aspect of the applicant's life with 63 detailed questions. They want to know just about everything you've ever done or thought; every article, every speech, every financial transaction, every association and every relationship. They even want to see your MySpace page, your emails, and your comments and posts on the Internet.…
Article comments
— go to most recent comments26 - Baronius
Ah, but Clavos, do you want a bunch of armed kooks in the government?
27 - Clavos
Somebody's gotta keep the pentagon honest, Bar...
28 - Dr Dreadful
The very last question seems to me to be the oddest one of all.
"(63) Please provide any other information, including information about other members of your family, that could suggest a conflict of interest or be a possible source of embarrassment to you, your family, or the President-Elect."
I mean if the poor bastard filling out the questionnaire still has other skeletons in the closet after answering the previous 62 questions...
29 - Baronius
Dread, that last question is essential. There's always some fetish, or addiction, or family name ("Dad changed it to Hilter") that you'd never think to ask about, that'll come back and bite you. The whole section about nannies and gardeners didn't used to be on the list, I'll bet. As for blogging, Daschle could lose his job when people find out that he used to post on Blogcritics as Just One Man.
30 - Dr Dreadful
LOL...
31 - Brunelleschi
Clavos-
Don't kid yourself.
If you think you can pull out the Second Amendment and take up arms against "the man," you won't get very far. You are powerless and just have to get used to it.
32 - Dr Dreadful
I think he just wants to take arms against a sea of troubles.
33 - Brunelleschi
"...the right of the people to keep and bear an inflated ego, shall not be infringed...."
34 - Dave Nalle
After Scooter Libby you'd think they'd have questions about whether you'd written any peculiar Japanese-themed fetish porn novels.
Dave
35 - pablo
hello all you sheople, I know that I have not been missed but nevertheless I am back.
I happened to be in Berkeley California the night of the selection for president. What a spectacle, I am now firmly convinced that the only type of people dumber than republocrats are their left leaning brethren. Oh the cheers, the hoots, the hollers for the new messiah, with all the political insight of numbskulls.
I remember watching Obama being asked when he was a candidate about the CFR, and he actually acted like he knew very little about it, and certainly did not know if he was a member. Then he slyly said that there was no secret handshake.
Its the oldest trick in the book, it is called good cop bad cop, obama is just another bush with a human face, and the sheople are in ecstasy.
Here are a list of his closest advisors, many of whom will be in cabinet level positions momentarily, all CFR branded, many of whom are also Bildergers, a few skull and bones thrown in for good measure, and don't forget the Rhodes Scholars. :)
Zbignew Brezsenski
Joe Biden
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Madeleine Albright
Richard Holbrooke
Dennis Ross
Martin Indyk
Anthony Lake
Lee Hamilton
Susan Rice
John Brennan
Jami Miscik
Bill Richardson
John Kerry
Robert Gates
Ivo H. Daalder
Sarah Sewall
Michele Flournoy
Tom Donilon
Wendy Sherman
Roll back the Patriot Act perhaps? Methinks not
Military commissions act? Hardly
Start war with an Act of Congress? Sure
Stop the looting of the Treasury? Yeah right.
Tax the air that we breathe for the Rothschilds? You fucking bet.
baaaaa baaaaaaa baaaaa sheople, keep on dreaming the dream, as your wealth and belongings and freedom go up in smoke. Enjoy!
36 - pablo
And now we have Timothy Geithner, CFR and head of the most powerful branch of the foreign owned FED being picked as Treasury Secretary. Change my ass.
Have fun sheople. :)
37 - Baritone
All I can say is that I truly hope that Obama keeps on stoking those fears.
As to Pablo? What a fu... (Personal attack edited by B.)
B
38 - Clavos
Watching him name his cabinet, all old Washington insiders so far, it's beginning to look like his will not be an administration to rock many boats; any more than any other Democratic administration. To date, there doesn't seem to be anything groundbreaking or innovative about it, just more of the same old, same old.
"Change we can believe in" is beginning to look like "Change we can recognize."
39 - Dave Nalle
It's quite clear that Obama's change is mostly rhetoric. It's as much an illusionm as Pablo's fantasies about global conspiracies.
Dave
40 - pablo
sure davey
41 - pablo
Gee Baritone and here I thought you were a gentleman, how wrong I was!
42 - pablo
change my ass
43 - pablo
dave
do a google news search on new wold order, how many hits? your naivete knows no bounds
44 - Clavos
Do a Google search on The Wizard of OZ. So what? Numbers of hits are meaningless.
45 - pablo
Clavy,
I know your reading comprehensions skills are not up to par, I said google news.
google news on wizard of oz 2,218 hits
new world order 68,411
google news are stories in the news clavy about a particular topic or phrase
google search is a different animal altogether.
46 - STM
New World Order.
Weren't they a Brit Band?
47 - pablo
Actually they were a brit band. Cecil Rhodes on bass guitar, Lord Rothschild on drums, Milner on lead guitar, and Orson Wells on keyboards, only problem is their music sucks.
48 - Baritone
Well Pab, I didn't note anything "gentlemanly" in your scathing diatribe. There's not much favorable mention of pomposity, contempt or condescension anywhere in the Emily Post lexicon. I don't know though, maybe I missed it.
B
49 - Clavos
I know your reading comprehensions skills are not up to par, I said google news.
google news on wizard of oz 2,218 hits
new world order 68,411
Sorry, pablo, but I AM trying. My mother says I'm up to a second grade level already--c'mon, a little credit where it's due.
So, let's see on google news which I think you said consists of stories in the news about a particular topic or phrase, you got 68411 hits on the phrase new world order, versus only 2218 on the phrase wizard of oz.
Meaningless, pablo. Ubiquity does not connote inerrancy.
50 - Clavos
Here are a list of his closest advisors, many of whom will be in cabinet level positions momentarily...
Oh, well if they're only gonna be in the cabinet momentarily, we don't have anything to worry about. How much damage can they do with only a moment in which to do it?
51 - Dan(Miller)
Gee whiz, only 539 for "unicorn" and 10,969 for "vampire." Now that proves something!
Dan(Miller)
52 - Clavos
I hope the RNC takes note of that, Dan(Miller). Obviously, if the Dems run their unicorn in 2012, the Reps need to bring the ol' vampire out of retirement, saddle him up, and turn him loose.
Clav(os)
53 - Ruvy
Repeating for your benefit the CFR doggies that Pablo was so nice to round up for you. These are the schmucks who have flushed America down the drain (and have been busily flushing Israel down the same toilet). I'd repeat my little ditty about Jack Horner, but from the looks of things, there is no Christmas pie to munch on. For you folks anyway.
How 'bout the Rawhide theme instead? YOu can enjoy some nice chewy leather....
change my ass
Pablo, you keep repeating that. Is this a diaper changing station? I was under the impression it was an online magazine.
If you want to complain about Obama, at least write "Change comman my ass period"....
Consider this editing a promotion. Further services will be billed.
54 - Ruvy
Darn, I fergot the list!
Zbignew Brezsenski
Joe Biden
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Madeleine Albright
Richard Holbrooke
Dennis Ross
Martin Indyk
Anthony Lake
Lee Hamilton
Susan Rice
John Brennan
Jami Miscik
Bill Richardson
John Kerry
Robert Gates
Ivo H. Daalder
Sarah Sewall
Michele Flournoy
Tom Donilon
Wendy Sherman
All CFR endorsed and stamped "kosher".
55 - Baronius
That's funny. You just know that if the parties had to pick a unicorn or a vampire for president, the Dems would pick the unicorn and the R's would choose the vampire. Unicorns bring peace and rainbows. A vampire would have experience and probably a tough foreign policy.
Then again, maybe I'm wrong. Unicorns support virginity, which is more of a Republican thing. And Democrats like government regulations that can suck the life out of you.
56 - scott
I find it pretty hard to believe that Obama would do something as politically suicidal as implementing a hard-line stance on gun control or "taking away our guns!" so to speak. He would only do it if he doesn't want to be re-elected and would have to realize it would most likely be overturned somewhere down the line by either Congress, the Supreme Court or the next president.
Really, this whole article smacks of paranoia. Why so worried, Dave? To quote the Eagles: "Take it easy."
57 - Dave Nalle
If we take it easy we end up getting our rights trampled because we didn't stand up for them.
Obama won't be the one initiating gun right restrictions. It will come from the Congress and Obama will be there to rubber stamp it.
Dave
58 - Baritone
Paranoid bullshit. Conspiracy theory lives in Austin, TX.
Someone really should take Dave's guns away from him. He's apt to start shooting at anything that moves, especially anything on his left.
B
59 - Dave Nalle
Are you a betting man, Baritone? Care to bet that there won't be a new version of the expired Assault Weapons Ban in the next 4 years?
Dave
60 - zingzing
"Care to bet that there won't be a new version of the expired Assault Weapons Ban in the next 4 years?"
as there should be! for heaven's sake... what do you want, bazookas on the street?
dave, you can't think those weapons should be on american streets, can you? my god.
61 - Clavos
Oh, zing, can it.
You know what he means.
62 - zingzing
maybe i don't...
the ban on assault weapons was good...
am i missing something?
63 - Dave Nalle
What bothers me is that people can defend something like the assault weapons ban when they don't even have the first idea what it does - they just assume that anything that bans weapons has to be a good thing. It bothers me even more that zing thinks that without the assault weapons ban bazookas are legal.
All reminders that the basic qualification of the gun haters is total, abyssmal ignorance.
Dave
64 - handyguy
Dave's articles about guns are reliably his nuttiest. This one is no exception.
Out of everything that's going on in the world, do you honestly think this is important and worth discussing? Quite amazing.
By the way, I filled out an application for the new administration. I didn't get asked any of these questions. Apparently they are only for the top-level jobs.
My assumption is that every single one of them is about avoiding embarrassing snafus like the two Clinton attorney general nominees who both had issues with nonpayment of social security taxes for their nannies.
I welcome the fair and thorough scrutiny of the new administration by skeptics on here, I really do. It's healthy. But Dave's paranoid gun stuff and Clavos's rah-rah-yeah-right-on comments thereon are just foolish, and unworthy of these two, who are more than capable of discussing genuine issues that deserve to be addressed.
And why does Dave feel the need to couch both his don't-touch-my damn-assault-rifles and the sneak-preview of his coming Eric Holder slander in the same ominous, conspiracy-mongering tone? Does he mistake this for what actual journalists do? Hint: It isn't.
65 - zingzing
dave: "What bothers me is that people can defend something like the assault weapons ban when they don't even have the first idea what it does."
for fuck's sake dave. it's not a complicated thing. i know what it bans and what it doesn't. and it really doesn't ban much at all. do you know what it bans?
"It bothers me even more that zing thinks that without the assault weapons ban bazookas are legal."
jesus christ. have you ever heard of exaggeration? of course bazookas aren't legal. i was ASKING YOU if you WANTED BAZOOKAS on the street. as in, where do you stop?
come on. bazookas? if i had said gatling gun, would my intent have been any more clear to you?
All reminders that the basic qualification of the gun nuts is total, abyssmal arrogance.
66 - Cannonshop
#65 Considering that Gattling guns are also (For the most part) illegal without an Assault Weapons Ban? yah, it helps to know what the hell you're talking about before you endorse yet-another-redundant-law.
67 - Christopher Rose
Cannonshop, I know you're getting a bee in your bonnet (looked so cute too) about this but try and understand what people are trying to say before calling for the closure of the entire internet. It's called empathy, and has been known to render weapons fairly redundant in many a civilised country, if not yet the teenage wasteland we know as the USA.
68 - zingzing
cannonshop: "#65 Considering that Gattling guns are also (For the most part) illegal without an Assault Weapons Ban?"
that's my fucking point! my god, how dense can you be?
"yah, it helps to know what the hell you're talking about before you endorse yet-another-redundant-law."
i do know what i'm talking about. it's you and dave that can't move from point a to point b without someone holding your hand.
jesus, how hard is it to figure out? i KNOW those weapons are illegal without the assault weapons ban. and i know what the ban actually bans. i'm asking what it is that you gun nuts want.
69 - Baritone
I hope to hell they do reinstitute an assault weapons ban, one that is more inclusive and one that has far stronger teeth than the one allowed to lapse.
I personally think that pretty much any gun use outside of the military and law enforcement is childish bullshit. Basically, those who believe that owning guns and other deadly weapons is necessary for personal security and/or to thwart a rogue government are in fact high on the nutball conspiracy theorist list, and live their lives in fear and loathing of their fellow human beings. It's all owing to a stunted moral and social maturity. The only way in which gunsters can feel confident is if they have a means to take out the room within easy reach. You look upon everyone as a potential enemy and as a potential danger - after all anybody might be plotting to take your stuff.
B
70 - Clavos
Basically, those who believe that owning guns and other deadly weapons is necessary for personal security and/or to thwart a rogue government are in fact high on the nutball conspiracy theorist list, and live their lives in fear and loathing of their fellow human beings.
Sorry to disappoint, B-tone, but I like guns simply because I'm a damn good marksman, and I like to do most anything I'm good at; I like to hunt animals, and a day spent at the range shooting at targets is a day well spent, in my book.
71 - Dave Nalle
jesus, how hard is it to figure out? i KNOW those weapons are illegal without the assault weapons ban. and i know what the ban actually bans. i'm asking what it is that you gun nuts want.
We want not to be called 'gun nuts' by people who are ill-informed on gun issues and irrationally terrified by the very concept of owning a gun.
Dave
72 - Dave Nalle
Baritone's #69 expresses exactly why I support gun rights and would do so if I didn't own a gun, and in fact did before I ever bought a gun.
The issue is indeed a litmus test - as the article suggests. It separates those who are rational from those who are utterly deranged and whose mental processes are bizarrely twisted by irrational fear and hatred.
I could get rid of every gun I own and I'd still pay the NRA to keep on top of the issue, just so that I could tell who the dangerous nutjobs in congress and in society are by their reaction to the fight for gun rights.
Baritone demonstrates exactly the reaction which confirms to anyone who believes in individual liberty and a government based on reason, that there are people who are not emotionally or intellectually capable of thinking clearly and dispassionately about issues.
Dave
73 - zingzing
dave, you're nuts about guns. it's true.
and everyone's misinformed if they disagree with you, right? i'm not irrationally terrified of anything... it's quite rational to look at the amount of gun violence in this country and come to certain conclusions. as in, this country would be better off with less guns in it. and certain types of guns have absolutely no business being on the street.
74 - zingzing
"The issue[...] separates those who are rational from those who are utterly deranged and whose mental processes are bizarrely twisted by irrational fear and hatred."
true!
75 - handyguy
If Dave thinks #72 is a meaningful example of a gun-rights-enthusiast's being 'rational,' then he is living in a different universe than I and probably most other Americans too.
Considering the economic crisis and the multiple potential foreign-policy flashpoints that the new president and congress will have to deal with, it would be pretty shocking if they tried to push through any kind of gun legislation. This issue has been a non-starter politically for the Dems for a long time now, and they realize it.
Maybe at some point they will try to reverse some of the action/inaction of the Bush years regarding guns, but if they do it will be largely symbolic rather than big sweeping legislation. A reinstatement of the assault weapons ban wouldn't change Dave's life or anyone else's in any major way. The knee-jerk reaction towards even the possibility of it would be laughable if so many more crucial things weren't at stake right now.
So I find articles like this irrelevant, offensive and decidedly unnecessary.