Iraq is working on its Constitution, and someone has leaked a copy of Bill of Rights. A number of versions have been circulating recently, so there may be a newer one than what I am commenting on here.

If the final version of their Bill of Rights looks anything like the ones in circulation it looks like we are going to be jump-starting a socialist republic. It does have its good points, but key rights such as freedom of the press, firearms and security are all exempted with the clause ‘in accordance with the law’.

Instead of protecting the basic rights of its citizens they have thrown in a load of social welfare crap, including free education and free medical care. The goal of their society is ‘social justice’, whatever that PC term means.

In the original draft that I saw they had exempted Israelis from becoming Iraqi citizens. This has now been removed.

It does have fairly strong property rights –

Section 10
a. The Iraqi citizen has a complete and unconditional right to ownership in all parts of Iraq without limitation.
[Oddly, this is one of the few rights that is absolute, not depending on implementing legislation.]
b. Private ownership is protected. Nobody may be prevented from using his property except within the boundaries of law. Nobody may be deprived of something he owns except for purposes of public welfare in cases specified by law and in the manner stipulated therein and with the condition of just and prompt compensation.

Strong prohibition on torture (understandable, given what they endured for the previous 35 years) -

Section 11
e. The dignity of the individual must be honored and protected. All forms of bodily and psychological torture are forbidden. Those harmed have the right to demand compensation for the material and moral harm they suffered in accordance with law.

I don’t agree with the ‘…psychological’ part. I don’t have a problem with playing mind-games with suspects to try and get them to reveal information.

Their ‘free speech’ clause is a bit weak –

15. All individuals have the right to express their opinion and publish it in any manner in accordance with the law, provided it does not disturb the public order of public morals.

As with many of the other sections, they recognize, or as is more likely give, a right but then qualify it with the ‘in accordance with the law’ exception. This means that their constitution is going to be up for grabs to the group with the power to change ‘the law’.

I understand their need to integrate their cultural views into their founding documents, but I think that without a basic framework similar to the US Constitution they will be setting up a socialist republic that is more concerned with entitlements from the State than with the citizen’s basic rights. I would suggest that they start with our constitution and modify it to fit. (Some are joking that they could use ours since we obviously aren’t, but I’m ready to go that far yet).

Hat tip to Joe Huffman for the link.

In Professor Williams’ latest essay he asks an essential question, ‘Will we defend ourselves?’. This is an especially good question in light of Wednesday’s sentencing of Ahmed Ressam where the judge gave him 22 years before launching into a criticism of the administration’s handling of terrorists.

This excerpt from the essay pretty well explains my view of how we should be treating terrorists -

During World War II, German soldiers captured not wearing their own army’s uniforms were lined up and shot. In 1942, a German submarine landed eight Nazi saboteurs on the beaches of New York and Florida. Two months after a secret military tribunal, convened by President Roosevelt, six of the eight were executed, even though they hadn’t killed or bombed anyone — just being here was enough.

For those of us who were around during World War II, can we imagine anyone, much less a government high official, having said, “The treatment of detainees is a taint on our country’s reputation, especially in Germany, and there are many questions that must be answered. These questions are important because the safety of our country depends on our reputation and how we are viewed, especially in Germany”? If you substitute “the Muslim world” for “Germany” in that statement, you have House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s, D-Calif., statement.

You can read the rest of the Professor’s latest essay here.

I have just re-enabled access to my mirror of Eric Krout’s 9/11 image archive. I am using the cache system from nyud.net to decrease load on my systems, so the updates may be a bit slow. I am also having trouble viewing the videos using Microsoft’s Media Player or WinAmp. The files are ok, they play fine under Linux when using Xine or Totem. If anyone has a windows solution I’d appreciate hearing it.

You can access the archive here. The normal link will become active in about 11 hours when the cache of my test page times out.

If you have suggestions for other images and videos please contact me.

Richland, WA — Today a report was released, exposing crucial information behind the recent firing of Joe Huffman, a former senior cyber security scientist with high level clearance at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), a government research facility.

“My gun rights activism got me a pink slip, and the truth is in the web logs,” says Joe Huffman, who was fired from his Senior Scientist position at PNNL on June 3, 2005, with no substantial explanation from his former employer.

Web logs — files that detail site visitor traffic to/from websites — expose in-depth activity from PNNL’s investigation team, revealing that, prior to firing Huffman, representatives from the company spent dozens of hours scouring Huffman’s personal websites, including sites run by his children and their friends. PNNL was particularly fixated upon Huffman’s site postings pertaining to firearms rights, as revealed by the company’s intense web activity on those pages from May 4 through June 3, the day he was fired.

Joe Huffman is the organizer of BoomerShoot, as well as a security expert, blogger, 2nd amendment activist and speaker. His firing from PNNL occurred under a veil of secrecy that even Joe has been unable to penetrate.

It appears from weblogs that it has something to do with his websites and his blog, but PNNL isn’t being very forthcoming. You can read the rest of his story at Joe’s new website at www.pnnl.info

It good to see him standing up for his rights. When you get fired you at least deserve to know the details. It looks to me like someone decided to go on a witch-hunt. They picked the wrong guy. It is also interesting to note that a major article in the NRA’s flagship publication, American Rifleman, concerns gun owners being fired from their jobs.

I went out and shot Mr. Completely’s e-Postal Handgun Match #1 – “Fly Swatter” yesterday. I didn’t do great, but I did swat a couple of the little buggers.

Here’s the best with the Kimber .45, I got 2 on the left one and 3 on the right by my count.

Here’s the Taurus .38 special, 5 on the left one and 3 on the right.

Good for the NRA — the Columbus City Council voted to ban ‘assault’ rifles (you know the ones — they look bad, like the one I used for the e-Postal Match) so the NRA has canceled its plans to hold the 2007 convention there. Read the Press Release Here

Lots of ‘gunnies’ like to bash the NRA for this or that, but I have to give them credit for sticking up for all of us. I’m a Life Member so maybe that makes me biased, but I look at the same way I see politics these days. Idealism doesn’t get you anywhere if you don’t have support, so hook up with whomever has the best chance of getting at least some of your adjenda enacted. I used to be a libertarian, I now consider myself a Republitarian (libertarian working inside the Republican party), my vote has had more positive effect when directed to the Republican candidates who have won than it ever had in my ‘protest/idealistic vote’ for Libertarians.

This story came via Michelle Malkin. Apparently the TSA takes their job of protecting us so seriously that it took them a year to fire a screener who was discharged from the military for “…statements in support of Osama Bin Laden, said he was not against the 9/11 attacks, that the U.S. deserved to be attacked, that he wouldn’t fight if the U.S. took action in Iraq, and that U.S. aircraft over Iraq should crash.”

If that isn’t enough, they only just recently fired the “Arabic Assassin”, who worked as a screener for the last 7 months. Here is his band info page, with a sample of his ‘work’. The translated ‘lyrics’ can be found here at “My Vast Right Wing Consiracy”

Sorry about that! The template I based this on is apparently a piece of junk and I hadn’t even noticed that the login and registration links were broken. Maybe that’s why I haven’t been getting any comments? Doh! Should be all better now. You have to login to post comments, everything is moderated because of the amount of spam.

ed.

Man, I need to get to the range more often. Analog Kid and Mr. Completely are organizing matches conducted via email and calling them e-Postal Matches. I took my AR-15 (with the flattop upper) out to the range on the way home from work tonight.

Here are the rules for the rifle match and the rules for the upcoming pistol match from Mr. Completely.

Here’s what the target looked like after 10 rounds, offhand, at 50 yards:

I’m waiting for the official score, but to me that looks like a 47. Ugghh. Need more ammo, need more range time.

The equipment – PCR 99 Olympic Arms with Olympic flattop upper and Bushnell Holosight and Adventureline magazines.

The KRRC range. Those targets look pretty darn small at 50 yards.

I met a fellow black rifle owner at the range and let him give it a try with my gun. He’d never used a Holosight before. Shot a 59 by my count!

This is what happens when Congress passes their ‘authority’ (the buck) on to a bureaucracy. Up until yesterday it was possible for firearms dealers to import replacement parts for guns that are not ‘allowed’ to be imported as complete weapons (eg. barrels for your Uzi, or replacement receivers). But now the ATF has issued this letter removing permission. They will be … “Importers holding approved import permits for non-importable barrels and receivers will receive a letter prior to September 10, 2005, advising them that their permit has been suspended.” although they are being generous enough to “… forgo enforcement of this import restriction for 60 calendar days and allow importers holding existing permits to continue to import barrels and receivers for a period of 60 calendar days.”

So, thanks to the fact that Congress has given the ATF the authority to decide at their whim how they want to enforce the firearms laws some of your weapons may become even more collectible. But hey, as JP has been saying – “We were born free”. I think the emphasis in on were.

Thanks to Kim du Toit’s reopened blog for the lead to this info.

I came across this excellent article by Radley Balko on Joe Huffman’s Blog this morning. While I agree with everything it says, especially this part –

Every right we have stems from government’s recognition that we, the people, are born with our rights intact. We own them. We have property in them. We voluntarily forfeit some of these rights to government, in exchange for protection from outside threats, the administration of justice, and the rule of law. The purpose of the U.S. Constitution, then, is not to tell us what rights we have. We’re born with the right to do as we please, so long as we don’t harm others. The Constitution’s purpose is to outline what rights we give to the government, and to firmly define the limits of government power.

I’m not ready to go as far as Kim DuToit and Ogre. I still think we can pull off this experiment. But its going to take more vigilance on our part.

Yesterday Washington State saw a tidal wave wash over the elitist state legislature and leave in its wake a group that should be quaking in their boots at their prospects in the November election. In 30 days the No New Gas Tax Initiative 912 group turned in 420,518 signatures. This is about 200,000 more signatures than are required to qualify for the November ballot.

We’ve sent a message to Olympia. WAKE UP! Listen to the people when we limit your powers. Thanks to the founding fathers of Washington State we have the ability to overturn the 9.5 cent gas tax hike. More coverage can be read at the Seattle Times

It looks like Washington State isn’t the only place where vote fraud can happen. The President of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, has had 10 of her cabinet members resign and audio tapes of her trying to influence the election posted to the internet!. A usual Michelle Malkin has more excellent coverage here on her blog.

The Philippines have been a hotbed of Islamic terrorist activity for years now. Remember that they were the country where the original idea to use 12 airliners as flying bombs originated. They have also paid off terrorist sin Iraq, supporting the terrorists with their weak-knee response to the capture of one of their citizens.

Prof. Walter E. Williams’ latest essay is about the dramatic increase on American Citizen’s dependency on Government.

William Beach has just written a report for the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation titled “The 2005 Index of Dependency.” Between 1962 and today, American dependence on government has more than doubled and shows little sign of abatement. The growth areas of dependency examined in the report are: welfare and medical care, housing, retirement income, education, and rural and agricultural services. The budgetary impact of dependency threatens perpetual budget deficits and high taxes, but to focus only on the budgetary impact is to trivialize the more devastating aspects of dependency.

You can read the rest here. He leaves us with this quote from Benjamin Franklin – “[T]he best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it.”

Note: This is posted early, I’m going to be camping on the 4th

Stop it. Right now. Stop with the ’4th of July’ PC crap. This is Independence Day. The day that Americans took hold of the reins of their destiny and threw off the yoke of British tyranny. Today is not about fireworks, family or friends. Its about Freedom from oppressive government.

Today is about remembering how our country was founded. Its not about any of the PC crap that we are going to see on television, read in the newspapers or pontificate about on the radio. It is about the one thing that scares the shit out of every totalitarian government in the world: An armed population rising up against injustice and taking control of their own lives. It is about the fact that without the right to keep and bear arms we are no better than slaves, serving at the whim of an uncontrollable government master.

So in addition to sitting around and kibitzing with Aunt Martha why don’t you do something useful and take the relitives to the range. You could teach them how shoot, or participate in Claire Wolfe’s unique approach to a rifle competition – The TCF Combat Rifle Postal Match.

As I would expect, Michelle Malkin gets it right and wishes everyone a happy Independence day weekend.

It looks like the 1st Amendment no longer applies in Washington State. A couple of reasons – Pierce County council limits what citizens can say to the council. They have also been turning off the TV cameras for the last 17 months when the public is allowed to speak and now they want to limit ‘attacks’ on council members (they leave the definition of attack open for interpretation).

More disturbing is Thurston County Judge Chris Wickham’s ruling that KVI talkshow hosts airtime supporting I-912 No New Gas Tax must be reported as donations to the campaign! The 1st Amendment guarentees that you can speak your mind, especially about government, without interference. Declaring their on air support for I-912 a campaign domation sets a very dangerous precedent for government squelching opposition.