Free In Idaho!

No, I’m not talking about her recollection of dodging snipers, which, if you ask me, is a flat out lie, not a “misspoke”.  No, I’m talking about her complete misunderstanding about what it means to be President, and just what the bounds of the job really are. 

As much as she focused on ways to ease the mortgage crisis, Senator Clinton also dwelled on what she called “a crisis of confidence in our country,” and portrayed herself as the candidate best able to address the economic problems of middle-income and economically struggling families.

“We need a president who can restore our confidence,” she said. “We need a president who is ready on Day 1 to be commander in chief of our economy.”

NO!  It is NOT the President’s job to be “commander in chief of our economy”.  That’s precisely what’s wrong with our economy right now.  Too many people think that it’s the President’s, or the Congress’, or (God help us) Bernanke’s job to control the economy.  Damn socialists.  Read the Constitution, please.  Then stop mucking with it!

Last week I was mentioning that winter is giving spring a pretty difficult time of it.  But I’ve got two of the new raised beds done and waiting to place out back.  We went to the big nursery and checked out the dirt.  We’ll need about 2 1/2 yards for these first two, and no, they don’t deliver loads that small, so it looks like me and the pick-up will be spending some quality time next week.  And of course, as soon as I get going on a project like this, half finished but all planned out, the weather guy delivers the wonderous news that we could be waking up to snow in the morning… what’s THAT about?

So, I guess that means I’ll have to skip the garden tomorrow and go get that scope put on the new rifle.  Better go tell my sweetie… wonder if she would like to the range and shoot an e-Postal with me?  Speaking of which, Mr Completely has a couple new posts about the e-Postals, one on how to design them, and another on this year’s schedule as it stands so far.

So Washington D.C. and Boston, how are those friendly little “we’ll search your home for illegal guns FREE!” deals going?  You know, officer friendly knocks on the door and the good citizens invite him in to search for the hidden illegal guns that little Johnnie and little Brittany have under their mattresses… that’s working pretty good for you over there, eh?

Not so much.  This is from Washington D.C.

Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said the “safe homes initiative” is aimed at residents who want to cooperate with police. She gave the example of parents or grandparents who know or suspect their children have guns in the home.

Community leaders went door to door in Ward 8 Monday to advise residents not to invite police into their homes to search for weapons.

“Bad idea,” said D.C. School Board member William Lockridge. “I think the people should not open your doors under any circumstances, don’t even crack your door, unless someone has a warrant for your arrest.”

Ron Hampton, of the Black Police Officers Association, said he doesn’t expect many in the community to comply.

“This is one of those communities where the police even have problems getting information about crimes that are going on in the community, so to suggest, now, that the police have enough community capital in their hand that the community is going to cooperate with them, I’m not so sure that’s a good idea,” Hampton said.

Similar results in Boston , and the only surprise is that the idiots who thought this up are surprised that almost no one else thinks it’s a good idea

Boston police officials, surprised by intense opposition from residents, have significantly scaled back and delayed the start of a program that would allow officers to go into people’s homes and search for guns without a warrant.

The program, dubbed Safe Homes, was supposed to start in December, but has been delayed at least three times because of misgivings in the community. March 1 was the latest missed start date.

One community group has been circulating a petition against the plan. Police officials trying to assuage residents’ fears have been drowned out by criticism at some meetings with residents and elected officials.

Here again is an example of targeting the guns as the problem instead of the crime or the criminals.  Yes, there are tremendous problems in some of those neighborhoods, as there are in nearly every city in America.  But the problem is not the gun.  Let’s skip for a minute that searches like these are suspect on Constitutional grounds.  Who is naive enough to think they might do any good?  If Officer Friendly convinces Mom or Grandma to allow a search of the kid’s room, and a gun is found and removed, how does that help anyone?  Little Johnnie will have another by Friday, and an even worse attitude to boot.  He’s still a gangster, still a criminal, the family is still a mess, and the neighborhood is no safer.  You have a people problem, not a gun problem, and the answer will never be so simple as taking the gun away from the kid.