Shall-Issue Update -- CCW politics in Iowa

(Dramatic music UP , FADE , and OUT to intonation Welcome to today's episode of ... The Eleventh Hour.)

Lawmakers in Des Moines are saying they will debate and perhaps vote today on SF2379 which would make Iowa a a shall-issue state and add CCW reciprocity. The current plan is to begin in the Senate, then, if it passes, to flip the bill to the House. Any assignment to a committee is a bill killer.

You always look for a little humor when dealing with these critters, but the only funny thing I've seen so far is the Des Moines Register headline; "Gun Bill Doesn't Please All." ( Really? No shit Sam Spade?)

But the headline does highlight a possibly ugly little scenario. While the NRA backs this bill, rival Iowa gun organizations differ. One favors the measure while another believes it is too weak. I am sure some of the reported disagreement is manufactured as political cover for some politicians to vote against it on grounds that it didn't go far enough. Allowing for the usual ignorance among the electorate, the lawmaker can tell his leftie constituents that he voted against CCW expansion. He can tell his 2A backers he did so because he was waiting for a better bill to come along. Politics as usual.

The other routine killer ploy is passage in the Senate and amendment in the House, complicating things just enough so that all 150 solons can throw up their hands. They're trying to make this their final day, and the action down there has already begun looking like a bunch of community college freshmen on spring break in Matamoros.

Again, Iowa readers, please pick up the phone and ask your critter nicely to support Senate File 2379.

Some of the details are here, especially in the sidebar.

EDIT at 10 a.m. -- A longer-than-expected House Judiciary Committee meeting was still underway a little bit ago. The length leads my mole to think Democrat leaders are likely to permit a vote, He opines that if the vote occurs, the bill will pass. In any case, no one on the liberal side is paying much attention to the merits of the bill. They're slicing and dicing all the ingredients of having a plausible story to tell their people between now and Nov. 2.

If the bill passes, Democratic Gov. Chet "Ya Big Lug" Culver will play the same vote-counting game. He is up for election this year and quite vulnerable. He'll sign if his pollsters tell him to, veto otherwise.

Sort of a BULLETIN on Iowa Gun Rights; Shall Issue

If you're reading The Travis McGee Reader in Iowa,* I have suggestion for you, and you have very little time to act. The legislative action could come in the next few minutes, possibly some other time before projected adjournment Sunday or Monday.

As a matter of strict political calculation, Democrat leaders in the House and Senate +may+ permit a vote on a shall-issue CCW bill. My reports (I have spies on the floor.) indicate they haven't yet decided if it's politically advantageous to allow their rank and file to vote. Earlier, the top dogs had scuttled the bill.

Radio Iowa, a news service of some integrity, summarizes it:

"Legislators made some final decisions Thursday, with still more looming today — including a possible debate over gun rights. A bill backed by the National Rifle Association could be among the last to clear the legislature. It would set a statewide standard for issuing gun permits, replacing the current system which gives the sheriffs in each of Iowa’s 99 counties the authority to decide who gets a permit to carry a gun and who doesn’t."

The needed action is simple: Call your lawmaker and ask him or her to speak out in favor of permitting the vote. Ask them to put the pressure on the leaders -- Sen. Gronstal and Rep. McCarthy -- to permit the vote. Most Republicans favor the bill, as do enough gun-rights Democrats to provide a margin of victory. Frame your words accordingly, and it can't hurt to politely but firmly emphasize to Democratic lawmakers that your November vote will be heavily influenced by his action here.

(As political background for folks not fortunate enough to live here. Democrats control everything in Iowa right now, governor's office, house, senate. They're frightened to death of losing it all this year. Iowa is a pro-gun state, but rather laid-back about it, so there's never been any very serious pressure by 2A friends to enact shall-issue. The mere fact the liberal Democratic leaders are considering CCW reform indicates their belief that shall-issue has substantial election implications.)

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Edit: There isn't time for USPS to do any good. Email is better than nothing, but I suspect the legislators' email boxes are overflowing, so our best shot at this is the telephone. Let's keep trying to get through. And please don't be afraid to talk with your lawmaker's clerk if that's the best you can do. Most of them are faithful about relaying constituent comments.

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*McGee foiled some evil here, not far off the Lincoln Highway west of Ames. Free Fall in Crimson is the tag John D. gave the yarn in which Trav allowed as how this was a great place to visit but he wouldn't care to live here.

OK, THAT'S ENOUGH READING. GET ON THE PHONE. DO IT +NOW+!

A little more on the health care bill

Even some of the proponents agree the cost will be horrible, but they like to point to the "savings"* and tax hikes on the "rich." Personally I would be a little happier with these folks if they had they decency to admit they plan to continue creating money out of thin air forever, or until the Chinese withdraw their permission for America to do so, which ever comes first.

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* The "savings" are in fact a politician's guess about what certain costs would have been without this bill minus the same politician's guess about what the those costs will be under this bill. It is a number as meaningless at the term "Honorable" which congress critters apply to one another despite massive evidence to the contrary

A man should keep his cool about President Barack Obama. He should be mocked as a figure of fun, as a caricature of a President because this is what he is. President Obama is ultimate expression of Chicago ethnic-group and precinct politics.

But it is hard to stay detached and calm while watching him milk government by sob story for every crocodile tear he has in his demagogic soul. He gloats over the Democratic Party Payback Decree he is about to sign. His White House audience of American political masters is applauding wildly as he displays his glee at a bill which (a) will adversely affect millions, because, he claims, (b) it might help three of four of the saddest cases he could find after sending his messengers throughout all the provinces of his realm, looking for anecdotes to fill the void left by his abandonment of rational discourse.