Even the New York Times concedes that Zimmerman's defense looks strong after the first week

The New York Times goes out of its way to blame the problems in the case on ineptness by the prosecution, but, with witnesses such as Mr. Good supporting Zimmerman's description of what happened, any prosecution would have faced a very difficult case.

. . . The defense scored a number of points during cross-examination. It showcased Mr. Zimmerman’s injuries, including a “likely” broken nose, as a physician assistant testified. The first police officer to arrive on the scene said that Mr. Zimmerman’s back and jeans were wet and that his jacket had bits of grass, suggesting he was on his back at some point. The officer also said that Mr. Zimmerman told him he had been yelling for help.

In addition, the resident with the best view of the altercation that night said the person “with lighter skin color” in red or white was being straddled on the ground by someone wearing dark colors. (Mr. Zimmerman was wearing a red jacket.) The witness further described a “ground and pound.” The person on the top, he said, was moving his arms in a downward motion (though the witness added he did not see actual punches). . . . .

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CNN shows bias in discussion of the Supreme Court decision on DOMA

Remember when you read this passage that this is supposed to be a news story at CNN.

There was little doubt that later that morning, this quietly powerful justice would be having a major say in the legal, political, and social path of gay rights moving forward.  

And at precisely 10 a.m., Kennedy kicked off the public session with his eloquent majority ruling striking down a key part of a federal law that blocks a range of benefits for legally married gay and lesbian couples. . . . 

It was vintage Kennedy -- a mix of sweeping rhetoric mixed with practical legal and social considerations. . . .

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Are taxes the secret weapon in the gun control debate?

In a piece earlier this year entitled "Can poor people be trusted with guns?," I wrote about how the common feature of the different gun control bills pushed this year involves their taxes and fees imposed on the purchases of guns or ammo.  Now Fox News recognizes this issue, though they miss out on many of the taxes and fees that are being imposed that I discussed in my article.

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Obama's EPA Regulatory Overreach in One Diagram

Under Obama, the EPA has disapproved state proposals at an astounding rate.   The number of regulatory disapprovals under Obama's first four years is greater than the number during the preceding 12 years combined.  Even more amazing is the number of times that the EPA has taken over state regulatory programs is eight times greater than that during the entire preceding 12 years (including four of those under Clinton).  The information was put together by the American Legislative Exchange Council.

The ALEC report documents the huge costs of the EPA's intervention and shows the trivial benefits produced by it.  Because the EPA has more mandates than it can handle, the EPA has replaced state participation with that of environmentalist groups like the Sierra Club.

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Has the NSA collected massive data on all American's credit card purchases, pharmacy records, library records, guns, financial information, and on and on?

A bipartisan group of 26 senators asked Director of National Intelligence James Clapper whether the Patriot Act has been interpreted differently "from an intuitive reading of the statute" to allow massive data collected on all American's credit card purchases, pharmacy records, library records, guns, financial information, and on and on.  Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) lead the group of Senators.  Their letter is produced here (Click to make text larger):

The Senators who signed the letter are: Ron Wyden (D-Or), Mark Udall (D-Co), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt), Mark Kirk (R-Il), Dick Durbin (D-Il), Tom Udall (D-NM), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Jon Tester (D-Mt), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Dean Heller (R- Nev),Mark Begich (D-Alaska), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt), Patty Murray (D-Wash), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Al Franken (D-Minn), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Chris Coons (D-Del), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn), Max Baucus (D-Mont), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc) and Mike Lee (R-Utah)

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Are you smarter than the President? How many members of the US House of Representatives have the title "Speaker"?

Would the media point out this misstatement if a Republican had made it?  From Obama's statement today:

"I’ve called both speakers -- Speaker Boehner and Leader Pelosi, and encouraged them to find a path to get this done."

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Two Dozen House Republicans propose plan for concealed weapons in school zones

This doesn't go anywhere near far enough, but the notion that people could object to off-duty or retired police from carrying guns in school zones is very difficult for me to understand.  Is there any evidence that police with guns will endanger others?  Seriously?  From The Hill newspaper:

Two dozen House Republicans proposed legislation on Thursday that would allow off-duty and retired police officers to carry concealed weapons in school zones to help protection children from attacks.
Supporters of the Police Officers Protecting Children Act, H.R. 2541, say the bill would give schools the ability to seek this added layer of protection from random acts of violence, like the one that claimed the lives of 20 children last year in Newtown, Conn.
"This common-sense bill addresses a question on all of our minds: how do we keep our children safe?," said Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.), the lead sponsor of the bill. "These dedicated men and women of law enforcement should not be barred from providing an extra layer of security for our schools just because they are off the clock or have retired from active service to their communities." . . .

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Devastating blow to prosecution in Zimmerman case, prosecution's own witness says that Trayvon Martin was on top of Zimmerman beating him, Zimmerman was the one calling for help

CBS has a detailed discussion available here regarding Mr. Good's testimony.

From Fox News regarding another witness:

State witness Joe Manalo testified that he took the photos with his cell phone that showed blood on Zimmerman's lip and scalp.
"He had blood running down his nose from both nostrils and over his lips," Manalo told Prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda.
Manalo said Zimmerman asked him to call his wife, Shellie, and tell her that he just shot someone as cops arrived on the scene.
"He had a cell phone in his hand and he tossed it on the ground asking if I could call his wife," Manalo testified. "He gave me her number. I had a connection right away and said, 'Your husband has been involved in a shooting. He's detained by Sanford police.'" . . . .

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Is Obama serious that the Supreme Court homosexual marriage decisions were "a victory for American democracy"?

President Obama makes me think of the book 1984 when he claims that the Supreme Court decisions on same sex marriage "a victory for American democracy."  But how exactly is the decision to strike down an initiative supported by a clear majority of the California voters "a victory for American democracy"?  A position that was twice approved by California voters.  The point of the unanimous California Supreme Court, which the Supreme Court overturned, was that the very point of the initiative process was to force outcomes that politicians didn't want to happen.  If you then leave it up to politicians to decide whether to defend the initiative, you give them the power to gut initiatives they don't like.  Finally, it is amazing how inconsistent the two SC decisions are on standing.  The court gutted initiatives, but since the Obama administration wouldn't defend DOMA, if they had used the same reasoning there, the court wouldn't have been able to gut DOMA.  Whatever one's views on same sex marriage, these court decisions are lawless and are an attempt by justices to get political outcomes no matter what the cost is in other areas.

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Audio version of "At the Brink" is now available!

It took a little while but the audio version of "At the Brink" is now available!

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Eric Holder's "sixteen scandals"

I don't think that I would include all of these sixteen as scandals, but there are a few that I had forgotten about that should be included.  Here are nine that may well be regarded as scandals.

One – Discriminatory Hiring Practices 

Two – Fort Hood 

Three – AP Surveillance 

Four – DOJ Secretly Targets Fox News Reporter, James Rosen 

Five – Marc Rich Pardon 

Six – Weather Underground Pardon

Twelve – New Black Panther Intimidation 

Thirteen – Opposition to Voter ID Laws 

Fourteen – Fast & Furious 

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Here is what I think is the key quote from Kennedy's dissent in the California Prop 8 case

From Justice Kennedy's dissent:

The Court’s reasoning does not take into account the fundamental principles or the practical dynamics of the initiative system in California,which uses this mechanism to control and to bypass public officials—the same officials who would not defend theinitiative, an injury the Court now leaves unremedied.The Court’s decision also has implications for the 26 other States that use an initiative or popular referendum system and which, like California, may choose to have initiative proponents stand in for the State when public officials decline to defend an initiative in litigation. . . .

So the US Supreme Court claims that it knows more about how the California laws should be interpreted than a unanimous decision by the California Supreme Court.  But worse, as Justice Kennedy says, if the politicians in office don't like a decision, they can just encourage a lawsuit against the law and then refuse to defend it in court.

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Obama administration lining up NFL, NBA and Hollywood Stars to push for Obamacare

From The Hill newspaper:

The White House is working to recruit Hollywood celebrities to help promote ObamaCare, a top celebrity political adviser told The Hill. 
Trevor Neilson, a veteran of the Clinton White House, said he's in talks with the Obama administration and that his clients are "looking at ways to be involved." 
Neilson represents Eva Longoria, John Legend and many other stars as president of Global Philanthropy Group. . . .
"I think the White House is very wise to identify partners to help market the Affordable Care Act," Neilson said Tuesday.  . . . .

From The Hill newspaper:

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Monday she is in talks with the NFL to help promote new insurance options under ObamaCare.
Sebelius said the football league has been "very actively and enthusiastically engaged" in discussions about a partnership to encourage people to enroll in newly available insurance plans."We're having active discussions right now with a variety of sports affiliates" about both paid advertising and partnerships to encourage enrollment, Sebelius told reporters.HHS is reportedly also in talks with the NBA to promote the law. . . . 

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Dramatic diagram: Pathetic GDP growth, first recovery to be falling further and further behind trend GDP

This has the latest update to the GDP numbers.  Click on figure to make larger.

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IRS agents use government issued credit cards to pay for wine, outrageously expensive meals, and wine

From Fox News:

. . . The report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that between fiscal 2010 and 2011, the more than 5,000 IRS card accounts racked up $103 million in purchases.
"While the majority of IRS cardholders appear to use their purchase cards properly, TIGTA's audit identified some troubling instances of inappropriate usage," J. Russell George, the inspector general, said in a statement.
The report said the cards were at one point used to pay for a dinner that cost roughly $140 per person -- four times the amount allowed by federal rules. They were also used to pay for a lunch that cost about $100 per person, five times the allowed amount.  
The report said IRS credit cards paid for 28 bottles of wine at the 2010 luncheon for tax officials from other countries. There were 41 guests.
In another case, cards were used to make questionable purchases of decorative and give-away items including plush animals, bandanas, kazoos and a rented popcorn machine.
Another cardholder allegedly made $2,655 worth of personal purchases -- the report said credit card information indicates it was spent on diet pills, romance novels and other items, and that the purchaser may have provided false receipts to justify it. . . .

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The Mayors Against Illegal Guns's “No More Names” bus tour is making more than one mistake

Mayors Against Illegal Guns not only listed terrorist Tamerlan Tsarnaev as a victim of gun violence, they list all cases where a police officer or civilian fatally shot a criminal as victims.  They also listed all suicides as victims of gun violence, completely oblivious to the fact that research shows that these individuals would have committed suicide some other way.  It might also be nice to differentiate gang shootings from other deaths.  From Politico:

Tsarnaev’s name was read aloud during a stop on [Mayors Against Illegal Guns'] “No More Names” bus tour in Concord, N.H., prompting loud shouts from the crowd, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader. Several protesters shouted "he’s a terrorist” when Tsarnaev was named, the Union Leader reported on Tuesday. 

Mayors Against Illegal Guns told The Atlantic Wire in a statement Wednesday that they “relied on the public list compiled by Slate.com entitled 'How Many People Have Been Killed by Guns Since Newtown?', and his name was on the list.” The group said his name should have been deleted, called Tsarnaev’s inclusion a “mistake” and apologized. . . . .

But there is another problem.  You just can't evaluate whether we should have guns based on their cost.  You need to compare the number of defensive gun uses against the number of bad things that happen. 

Note: I was in Raliegh, North Carolina on Saturday giving a talk to GRNC.  Apparently just that day MAIG was having their bus tour in Raliegh and, despite their best efforts not to let anyone know that they were going to be in Raliegh, the GRNC was able to get more people at the event than could MAIG.

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Bias in The Hill story about Supreme Court decision on Voting Rights Act?

Did the voting rights Act really require a "higher criteria"?  Or was it a political standard?  My guess is that the Obama administration decides to accept decisions for states such as Texas based upon whether it benefits the Democratic Party, not whether it meets some higher moral standard.  The very concern that former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Martin Frost (D-Texas) raises is what motivated Democrat decisions on what redistricting to allow.  From The Hill newspaper:

. . . Barring congressional action, that means a number of states — most of them southern and GOP-controlled — no longer have to meet higher criteria to pass voting laws.  

The ruling holds big implications for congressional redistricting and voter identification laws that Democrats claim are aimed suppressing minority turnout. 

"This makes it much easier for Republicans to draw districts in away that minimizes the opportunities for Democrats in the south, minimizes opportunities for minorities in the South," said former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Martin Frost (D-Texas). . . .

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How to predict which Supreme Court Justice will write the remaining Supreme Court decisions

My friend John Eastman sent out an interesting email explaining how Supreme Court decides who will write up their decisions.  The short of it is: you look to see who has already written decision for cases based on the month that oral arguments were heard and whatever are left go to the Justices that hadn't yet written a decision on that month's cases. 

. . . 5 cases were decided on Monday, and another 3 today.  That leaves 3 to go, and the Chief Justice announced this morning that they would be released tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time.  There is a biggie -- Sekhar v. United States, which considers whether advice from a government lawyer can be considered "property" that can form the basis of an extortion charge.  And there are two cases that have garnered little attention -- United States v. Windsor and Hollingsworth v. Perry.  Oh, wait.  Those are the marriage cases!   

It appears as though Justice Scalia may be writing the opinion in Sekhar, Justice Kennedy the opinion in Windsor (the constitutional challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act, DOMA), and the Chief Justice writing in Perry (the constitutional challenge to California's Proposition 8).  This prediction is based on reviewing the authorship of the opinions that have already been released from each sitting of the Court and then lining up the remaining opinions with the Justices who have not yet authored an opinion from that sitting.  For example, the only case argued all the way back in October that had not been released before this week was Fisher v. University of Texas, and the only Justice who had not authored an opinion out of the October sitting was Justice Kennedy.  True to form, Justice Kennedy was the author of that opinion when it was released yesterday -- holding that Texas's race-based affirmative action plan has to be subjected to strict scrutiny by the lower courts and will therefore likely be held to be unconstitutional.  (That, by the way, is not as far as we urged the Court to go in our brief in the case -- we'd like to see the promise of color-blind treatment for all citizens be fully vindicated -- but it is an important step in the right direction!). 

Similarly, Justice Alito was the only Justice without an opinion from the January sitting, and Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District (another case in which the CCJ was involved!) was the only undecided case.  This morning, Justice Alito was the author of the majority opinion inKoontz, an important property rights case holding that government cannot condition the issuance of a permit on the relinguishment of property rights that would be unconstitutional "takings" if done directly.  Another win for the good guys, for property rights, and for the Constitution!   

So the only case still undecided from April is Sekhar, and the only Justice without an opinion from that sitting is Justice Scalia.  And the only two cases undecided from March are the two marriage cases, and the Chief Justice and Justice Kennedy are the two justices without an opinion from that sitting. . . .

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Democrat Colorado Senate President John Morse is desperately pulling up all the stops to prevent recall over his support for gun control

After the Colorado Secretary of State certified Morse's recall, Morse has gone to all sorts of lengths to stop the recall.  Hardly the type of confidence you would expect from someone who thought that he would win.  Morse wants to argue that the boilerplate petitions provided by the Secretary of State were in error.  From the Daily Caller:

. . . Morse’s attorney, Mark Grueskin, challenged the entire effort because the petitions circulated by the El Paso Freedom Defense Committee didn’t specifically mention that there would be an election if enough signatures are collected, a requirement of the state constitution.
“This isn’t some technicality or loophole,” Grueskin told Denver’s 7News. “This is a critical piece of information that the proponents of this petition decided not to impart to petition signers.”
Richard Westfall, an attorney with the Colorado Republican Party, told the Denver Post that Morse’s lawyers are misreading the constitution.
“The state constitution very much protects a citizen’s right to recall elected officials,” he’s quoted as saying. “A hyper-technical argument suggested by Sen. Morse’s attorneys would unduly limit the citizens’ rights to recall their elected officials.”
The petitions were boilerplate fill-in-the-blanks forms provided by the secretary of state’s office. The conservative Colorado Peak Politics blog points out that the language on the forms dates back to the previous secretary of state, Democrat Bernie Buescher. . . .

Colorado Senate President John Morse is pulling up all the stops to keep from facing the voters in a recall, but with only 10 percent (even according the Democrats) agreeing to take their names off the petitions, the Democrats aren't even going to be close to stopping the recall -- all these expenses are going to be for nought.

. . . "We've called several hundred people.  We are seeing about a 10 percent return," she said.  Le Lait said people sometimes sign without paying attention and that some voters have already confirmed that.
"Some people thought they were signing a petition to keep John Morse in office, some people thought they were signing a petition to support the gun laws, one woman thought she was signing a petition to impeach Barack Obama," said Le Lait.
A woman who only wished to share her first name, Ann, said she is one of thousands who signed the petition.  She also got a call from the Morse campaign.
"She goes, 'we wanted to find out do you remember signing the petition to recall John Morse?' I go yeah.  I said I signed the petition because I wanted to and I don't want my name removed," said Ann.
Organizers of the recall petition needed more than 7,100 valid signatures to force a recall election.  Last Tuesday, Colorado's Secretary of State's office verified they had the signatures needed.  In fact, they exceeded the signatures by about 3,000. . . .

Meanwhile, another Democrat state Senator is going to have to face the voters again.  From the Denver Post:

The votes cast by state Sen. Angela Giron in support of tougher gun laws now have the Pueblo lawmaker faced with a looming fall election date as organizers Monday amassed enough valid signatures in their recall effort.
Only about 6 percent of the signatures submitted in Giron's recall effort were deemed invalid by the Colorado secretary of state's office — a striking percentage that her opponents said showed strong support for their cause.
Organizers with Pueblo Freedom and Rights submitted more than 13,400 signatures to the Colorado secretary of state's office and had 12,648 verified. They needed about 11,300 verified for a recall election and outpaced that figure by about 1,300.
Giron becomes the second Democrat in less than a week — along with Senate President John Morse — who now must deal with a recall election . . . 

 The Washington Times has a story about how extreme lengths Colorado Democrats are willing to go to not face the voters.

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Shooting spree in China leaves six dead

So a regular "hunting rifle" was used in this case.  From the UK Guardian:

In a rare case of gun violence in China a man fatally shot five people and beat a sixth to death, including some of his factory colleagues and a soldier, police have said. 

The 62-year-old man's killing spree started when he used unspecified tools to beat a colleague to death over an economic dispute, according to Shanghai police. The man identified as having the surname Fan killed his colleague on Saturday afternoon at a chemical factory in Shanghai's Baoshan district, the Shanghai Public Security Bureau said. 

The bureau said Fan then took a hunting rifle that was hidden in his dormitory, asked a driver to take him to another district and shot him on the way. After killing the man Fan drove the vehicle back to Baoshan and killed a soldier who was guarding the entrance to a barracks. He also took the soldier's gun. 

Fan then returned to the factory and fatally shot three more people with his hunting rifle, including a manager. Police said they captured him in the factory about six hours after his killing spree started. . . .

Thanks to Rich for the link.

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iPhone saves man's life in New Zealand who was trapped under bike during freezing night

Apparently, the ability of the iPhone to give the exact coordinates for where this man was stranded allowed the helicopter to arrive fast enough to save the man's life.  From Stuff.co.nz:

A 20-year-old worker was found trapped under his 4WD, which had rolled on him, Feilding police Sergeant David Burmeister said.
''He'd been out there all night stuck underneath it.''
Weather conditions last night were ''terrible'' - wet and cold - with the temperature in single figures.
The man was found down a gully and the police constable on the scene was able to use his new iPhone to give the Palmerston North Rescue Helicopter the co-ordinates of where to land, Burmeister said. . . .

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Concealed handgun permit holder stops armed robbery outside Atlanta store

Police have determined that this concealed carry permit holder acted in self defense when he shot the robber.  From the Associated Press:

Police say an armed man trying to rob customers outside an Atlanta shoe store was fatally shot by one of the patrons waiting in line to buy sneakers.
WSB-TV reports the shooting happened Saturday morning in the city's Little Five Points neighborhood, where people lined up outside Wish Clothing to buy new $180 sneakers endorsed by Miami Heat star LeBron James.
Witnesses told police a man armed with a gun tried to rob people standing outside the store. But one of the customers drew his own handgun and shot the robber. Police say the suspect ran just a few yards before he fell dead. . . . .

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Sun City, AZ homeowner wounds armed man who broke into their home at 2 AM

From Fox TV in Phoenix:

Police have arrested a man who broke into a home in Sun City. In this case, the homeowner fought back and shot the man.
It's hard to imagine how any of us would react waking up in the middle of the night to find someone with a gun in your home trying to rob you.
But this suspect picked the wrong home. The homeowner has law enforcement training and a gun, and he used that to fight back.
Video shows the suspect face down on a golf course in Sun City, surrounded by Maricopa County Sheriff's deputies. They say he's the suspect in a home invasion early Friday at a home only a few blocks away. . . .
This started around 2 a.m. The couple living here was sound asleep when a man armed with a gun broke in.
The homeowner, Dave Sobley, is a military veteran and an MCSO posse lieutenant. Deputies say he grabbed his gun and shot the intruder, who then ran off.
"I was afraid for my life and my wife's life. I knew if he got us together it may be over," said Sobley. . . .

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Joe Biden claims that five Senators want to change their votes on background checks

Joe Biden keeps pushing on gun control.  It is amazing that Biden claims that there are five Senators who want to switch their vote on background checks when they need to pick up six votes to have Reid bring up the bill again (the original vote was 54 to 46).  As of right now it is a claim that he will never have to prove.  From Politico:

. . . Speaking to the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Las Vegas, Biden said the 45 senators who voted to block the background checks deal brokered by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) have seen “the bottom fall out” of their approval ratings. 

Biden said, as he did Tuesday during a gun violence event at the White House, that he has been fielding calls from senators interested in signing on to some kind of gun control measure. On Friday he offered slightly more specific detail about the number of senators and the difficult path ahead for gun control legislation. . . . 

“I’ve had at least five senators call me and say, ‘Can’t we do something about this?’” Biden said. “The calculus has changed, and so we’re in an effort to try to work out how we can provide another opportunity for those who voted no to change their vote. We all know that’s the hardest thing in politics, to change your vote. That’s why we’ve got to get a rationale, another reason why this could be done by changing the specifics of the legislation.” . . .

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"Is Michael Bloomberg Using City Resources For His 'Mayors Against Illegal Guns' Group?"

Even with $27 billion in wealth, Bloomberg has to depend on taxpayers to subsidize his gun control efforts.  The Ace of Spades has this discussion available here.

It turns out I didn't even have to look that closely, because the mayorsagainstillegalguns.org domain is registered to the city of New York. As you can see there, the registrant name is "NYC DoITT", which is the New York City Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications. . . .

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Texans equally divided on letting concealed handguns be carried on college campuses

Given the political biases of the UT and the Texas Tribune, these results are actually pretty positive.  From the Texas Tribune (a UT/TT poll):

Allowing faculty, staff and students to carry concealed handguns on college campuses is supported by 46 percent of Texas voters and opposed by 48 percent. . . .

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Obama IRS gives Union-tied group special treatment

Obama's "Organizing For Action" apparently wasn't the only liberal group that got special favors from the IRS.  From Fox News:

. . . Florida Watchdog has obtained a copy of ROC's tax exempt acceptance letter, dated June 1, 2010, and approved by Robert Choi, director of exempt organizations at the Cincinnati office of the Internal Revenue Service.
The Cincinnati office is blamed for much of the harassment and delay tactics incurred by conservative groups applying for similar tax exempt treatment, which is no fault of ROC.
What is of concern, according to a coalition of restaurant owners and workers calling itself the Restaurant Opportunities Center Exposed, is the multi-state "union front" continues to slip by the watchful eye of the IRS.
"It does raise the question of whether they're receiving a pass because they're ideologically in line with the administration. But we'll have to see if the IRS will now investigate. We've presented them with some pretty strong documentation of lobbying and we've juxtaposed that with filings the IRS already has in their possession," said Mike Paranzino, communications director for ROC Exposed. 

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Obama administration made it very difficult for media to get info on the IRS

Remember Obama's promise in 2009 to have the most transparent administration ever?  Well, from using secret email accounts to evade reporting requirements to now adding new rules to make it harder to get public records for documents, the Obama administration is doing what it can to hide information. From Fox News:

Even as the freshly minted Obama administration was pledging a "new era of open government" in 2009, officials were quietly adding new rules that had the potential to slow down public requests for documents. 

Those rules, detailed in memos reviewed by FoxNews.com, could even trip up present-day efforts to dig into the IRS' practice of targeting conservative groups. The rules detailed in the memos largely emanated from the Treasury Department and, specifically, the IRS.
"It would seem to repudiate this notion that this is going to be the most transparent government in history," said Dan Epstein, executive director of Cause of Action, the group that first obtained the memos. 

The memos follow reports about the administration's use of private email accounts, and coincide with ongoing debate about government transparency -- particularly with recent disclosures about widespread surveillance programs. . . .

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Gun control group counts terrorist killed by police as victim of gun violence, so what is new? Gun control advocates count mass shooters as victims

I have often complained to the media after these mass shootings that the number of people "killed" includes the killers themselves.  To me, it had always implied a very disturbing equivalency between the victims and the killers.  From Fox News:

A gun control group that sought to raise awareness to their cause at a New Hampshire rally by reading off the names of 4,500 people killed by firearms since the Connecticut school shootings drew jeers when they included the name of Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, according to a report. 

Supporters of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns movement held the rally on Tuesday, in Concord. And while it is true that Tsarnaev was shot by police -- and then run over by his fleeing brother -- during a gun battle four days after carrying out the deadly terror attack, several in attendance questioned including him as a "victim" of gun violence, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader. 

“He's a terrorist,” several gun rights protesters in attendance shouted, according to the paper. . . .

In addition, they also include suicides in their inflated numbers.  Is a suicide, where people would find some other way to commit suicide, the same as a murder?  Is it really that necessary to inflate their numbers?

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The long term (may be permanent) damage Obama has done to investigative reporters

The big problem here is that once a government shows that it is willing to break its own rules, even if it says that it had good reasons, how will anyone who sees a government abuse ever come forward and tell the press?  This is time where we will never be able to get back to where we used to be.  From the Associated Press:

The US government's secret seizure of Associated Press phone records had a "chilling effect" on newsgathering by the agency and other news organizations, AP's top executive said Wednesday. 

"Some longtime trusted sources have become nervous and anxious about talking with us," AP president and chief executive Gary Pruitt said in a speech to the National Press Club. 

"In some cases, government employees we once checked in with regularly will no longer speak to us by phone. Others are reluctant to meet in person ... This chilling effect on newsgathering is not just limited to AP.

"Journalists from other news organizations have personally told me that it has intimidated both official and nonofficial sources from speaking to them as well." . . .

From Politico:

Associated Press president Gary Pruitt on Wednesday slammed the Department of Justice for acting as “judge, jury and executioner” in the seizure of the news organization’s phone records and he said some of the wire service’s longtime sources have clammed up in fear. 

Pruitt said the department broke its own rules with the seizure, which he said was too broad, and by failing to give the AP notice of the subpoena. Pruitt questioned the DoJ’s actions concerning the subpoena — had the DoJ come to the news organization in advance, “we could have helped them narrow the scope of the subpoena” or a court could have decided, he said. 

“There was never that opportunity,” Pruitt said during a speech at the National Press Club in D.C. “Instead the DoJ acted as judge, jury and executioner in private, in secret.” . . . . 

Note that the government has gone after James Rosen, Sharyl Attkisson, and William Lajeunesse.  Three of the best investigative reporters.  The AP also apparently posed a problem.

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Obama's "Organizing For Action" quickly granted tax exempt status, also granted retro active status

With conservative groups taking years to get approval, the IRS gave Obama's group approval at amazing speed and did so retroactively.  From Breitbart.com:

the group’s 990 filings for 2008 and 2009 were submitted to the IRS on May 30, 2011, and its 2010 filing was submitted on May 23, 2011.
Lerner signed the group’s approval [pdf] on June 26, 2011.
It is illegal to operate for longer than 27 months without an IRS determination and solicit tax-deductible contributions. . . . .

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Very few people show up the Obama orchestrated gun control rallies

From Breitbart.com:

Last week, Obama's political action arm, Organizing For Action, held rallies throughout the country advocating for stricter gun laws. Their rallies drew small numbers as seen here and here.  

We can thank the vigilant San Bernardino Sun for putting a spotlight on perhapsthe smallest of the rallies. . . . 

"The protest drew three members of Organizing for Action, a nonprofit group that supports President Barack Obama's agenda, to the National Orange Show Events Center." . . .

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Democrats are trying to destroy IRS investigation

The way investigations work is that you start with lower level people and figure out a set of facts that you are certain about.  You then move to the next level up the chain to see whether you can catch them in inconsistencies when you interview them.  Catching people who have lied under oath creates leverage that can then be used to get additional information out of those individuals and so on up the chain of command.  By Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) making public the initial interviews he makes it possible for those higher ups to know how to tailor their stories to prevent from being caught up in any inconsistencies.  If the media had any integrity, they nail the Democrats for trying to destroy this investigation. Unfortunately, I am far from convinced that the media is really explaining exactly how releasing all these transcripts damages the investigation.  From The Hill newspaper:

A senior House Democrat on Tuesday defied Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) by releasing a full transcript from the congressional investigation into the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups. 

The more than 200 pages released brought few revelations, but represented an escalation in the increasingly bitter battle between Issa and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the Oversight panel’s ranking member. 

Issa had warned Democrats that releasing a full transcript would be “reckless,” and said Democrats were trying to shut the door on the Internal Revenue Service investigation by providing a “roadmap” for other officials who might be interviewed. 

“Americans who think Congress should investigate IRS misconduct should be outraged by Mr. Cummings’s efforts to obstruct needed oversight,” Issa said in a statement after the transcripts were released. . . .

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Environmentalists excited: It takes 63% longer to fly a single-seat solar plane from Cincinnati to DC than to drive

The fastest route for cars between Cincinnati and Dulles International Airport (IAD) outside DC is hardly a straight line.  But despite that disadvantage the new solar plane that environmentalists are excited that a solar powered plane that can hold nothing more than the pilot took 14 hours and 4 minutes.  The car, which you could load down with all sorts of cargo, would take 8 hours and 37 minutes.  To put it differently, the solar plane took 63 percent longer to make the trip -- non-stop, not a very fun trip.  The trip apparently averaged 30.9 miles per hour over the 435 miles (not exactly the "around 40 mph" noted in the article).  Can the AP do division to check out the facts that they are given?  Possibly environmentalists simply don't value people's time.  From the AP:

. . . Solar Impulse's website said the aircraft with its massive wings and thousands of photovoltaic cells "gracefully touched down" at 12:15 a.m. EDT after 14 hours and four minutes of flight from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Dulles in Washington's Virginia suburbs. . . . 

It's the first bid by a solar plane capable of being airborne day and night without fuel to fly across the U.S, at speeds reaching about 40 mph. The flight originated from San Francisco via Arizona, Texas, Missouri and Ohio onward to Dulles with stops of several days in cities along the way. 

Organizers said in a blog post early Sunday that Piccard soared across the Appalachian mountains on a 435-mile (700-kilometer) course from Cincinnati to the Washington area, averaging 31 mph (50 kph). It was the second phase of a leg that began in St. Louis. 

The plane, considered the world's most advanced sun-powered aircraft, is powered by about 12,000 photovoltaic cells that cover its enormous wings and charge its batteries during the day. The single-seat Solar Impulse flies around 40 mph and can't go through clouds; weighing about as much as a car, the aircraft also took longer than a car to complete the journey from Ohio to the East Coast. . . . .

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What Republicans might do when they get control of the Senate if Democrats trigger Nuclear option

From The Hill newspaper:

Senate Republicans are threatening to use the nuclear option to repeal ObamaCare and make other major legislative changes if Democrats use it to confirm judicial nominations. 

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), a former member of the GOP leadership close to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), has assembled an agenda Republicans would pursue with the nuclear option if they retake control of the upper chamber. 

It includes repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act, converting all federal education spending into school vouchers and scholarships to middle-income and low-income children, opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling and repealing the estate tax. . . . 

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Obama defends NSA spying on Americans as "transparent," respecting "privacy"

Possibly the NSA spying on Americans can be rationalized by the need to provide security.  But that claim is quite different than saying that the operation was "transparent" and that it respected Americans' "privacy."  Could someone please explain to me how the spying on Americans was "transparent" if it wasn't even public knowledge that it was occurring?  If it was "transparent," what new information could Snowden have possibly revealed?  I am not even sure how it was "transparent" to the secret court that oversaw this operation since there was no alternative viewpoint provided to the court, no adversarial debate where information could be produced that called into question Obama administration claims.  An adversarial approach would be more likely to reveal to the judges information that the Obama administration might not have offered to them on its own.  From Fox News:

. . . Obama also defended the National Security Agency spying programs and called them "transparent."
“That’s why we set up the FISA court,” he said, referring to the secret court set up by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that authorizes two recently disclosed programs: one that gathers U.S. phone records and another that is designed to track the use of U.S.-based Internet servers by foreigners with possible links to terrorism. . . .

As to the claim that this respected people's privacy, could someone please explain how keeping track of who you talk to, how long you talk to them, and where you are when you make the calls respects people's privacy?

Obama, who repeated earlier assertions that the programs were a legitimate counterterror tool and that they were completely noninvasive to people with no terror ties, said he has created a privacy and civil liberties oversight board. . . . 

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Vote Fraud in Indiana

From Fox News:

. . . The plot successfully faked names and signatures on both the Obama and Clinton presidential petitions that were used to place the candidates on the ballot. So many names were forged -- an estimated 200 or more -- that prosecutor Stanley Levco said that had the fraud been caught during the primary, "the worst that would have happened, is maybe Barack Obama wouldn't have been on the ballot for the primary." . . . 

In court, former longtime St. Joseph County Democratic Chairman Butch Morgan, Jr. was sentenced to one year behind bars, and is expected to serve half that, as well as Community Corrections and probation. Former St. Joseph County Board of Elections worker and Democratic volunteer Dustin Blythe received a sentence of one year in Community Corrections and probation, which means no jail time. . . . 

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The Obama administration believes everyone will still be buying gasoline powered cars despite massive government subsidies, so why are they spending this money

Here is an amazing claim that despite all the massive government subsidies and regulations, almost all the cars being sold two decades will now will still be powered by gasoline.  I have have little fiath in such long term predictions, but the amazing thing is that prediction comes from the Obama administration.  Even they believe that with all their massive subsidies, everything will still be gasoline powered.  From the Detroit News:

The U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts that even in 2035, more than 99 percent of cars and trucks sold will still have internal combustion engines. . . .

Here is a little more from the piece:

. . . . But a good look at the latest advances in the gasoline-powered engine —and those on the horizon — jars this opinion, and the surge in U.S. oil production from shale drilling further refutes the idea that conventional engines are old technology. 

Already powering more than 230 million cars in the United States, internal combustion engines have the potential to become substantially more efficient, while providing economic and environmental benefits that extend well beyond the money consumers save at the pump. 

Imagine if your car uses advanced computing to control fuel injection far more precisely than before, improving the fuel efficiency of big cars by more than 15 percent. Or what if your car is able to knock another 30 percent off fuel consumption — and corresponding greenhouse-gas emissions — by partly cooling hot exhaust gas before it is pumped into the engine? . . . 

Don’t expect all of these technological advances in next year’s models, but automakers expect to hit their fuel economy targets over the next decade, rising from about 32 miles-per-gallon today to about 51 by 2025. Importantly, they are achieving technological breakthroughs with the internal combustion engine on their own, without the government subsidies that support the development of electric vehicles. For now, the most cost-effective technology changes in the near term are improvements in conventional cars — advanced internal combustion engines and diesel engines — that will reduce our energy consumption and enhance energy security. . . .

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Audio from my hosting Jason Lewis Show on June 13th and 14th

Hosting Jason's national radio show for two days was a lot of fun.  We covered everything from the economy to health care to gun control.  You can listen to the archives for the three hours on June 13th and 14th here.  Please let me know what you think!

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IRS and NSA concerns collide in poll

With IRS data being used to harm political opponents, is it much of a stretch to think that the NSA data could be used the same way?  From Rasmussen Reports:

There is little public support for the sweeping and unaccountable nature of the National Security Agency surveillance program along with concerns about how the data will be used. 

Fifty-seven percent (57%) of voters nationwide believe it is likely the NSA data will be used by other government agencies to harass political opponents. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that just 30% consider it unlikely and 14% are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.) . . .

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It is too bad that this bill wasn't a law a few years ago, we might still have Intrade

The Obama administration has killed Intrade, which allowed for prediction markets for everything from elections to stock markets.  If this bill had been law, we might still have these prediction markets operating.  From the New York Daily News:

Rep. Peter King proposed a measure that would set a common federal standard for online gaming, but said that it would also give states and Native American tribes the right to opt-out of a federal system and keep their own internal gaming practices. . . . 

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North Carolina is close to expanding where concealed handguns can be carried

Virtually all the states in the country allowed concealed handguns in places that serve alcohol.  It looks like that there will soon be one more.  From Channel 5 in Raleigh, N.C.:

North Carolinians with concealed handgun permits would be able to carry firearms in more places – including businesses that serve alcohol, funeral processions and playgrounds – under a bill that the Senate gave tentative approval to Wednesday. 

The legislation is a broad measure that backers say will broaden the application of Second Amendment rights and increase penalties for certain gun crimes. 

"We should not fear the armed citizens protecting themselves, protecting their families ... they don't commit crimes," said Sen. Thom Goolsby, R-New Hanover. . . . .

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CBS confirms that Sharyl Attkisson's computer was hacked several times by very sophisticated source

Here we have a reporter's computers (both work and personal) hacked last fall by a very sophisticated source right around the time that she releases a news report using leaked information on Benghazi.  From The Hill newspaper:

CBS News said Friday it has confirmed that a computer used by one of its reporters was hacked by an unknown party several times in 2012, and that it’s taking steps to investigate who is responsible for the attack. 

“A cyber security firm hired by CBS News has determined through forensic analysis that Sharyl Attkisson’s computer was accessed by an unauthorized, external, unknown party on multiple occasions late in 2012,” a statement from CBS reads in part. “CBS News is taking steps to identify the responsible party and their method of access.” 

CBS said a party remotely accessed Attkisson’s accounts and “executed commands that appeared to involve search and exfiltration of data.” The breach was covered up using “sophisticated methods to remove all possible indications of unauthorized activity, and alter system times to cause further confusion,” according to CBS. . . .

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air.com notes that this hacking coincided with a news report that she did "relying on anonymous military sources that called into question the Obama administration’s claim that they couldn’t have responded in time to assist in the attack."

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With six month anniversary of Newtown, Obama and Bloomberg continue major push for more gun control, but no explanation for how the law would have stopped that attack

info@barackobama.com sent out the following email today in support of the passing background checks.

My mom, Dawn Hochsprung, was the principal at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Six months ago today, she was shot and killed in her school, along with five of her coworkers and 20 of her students. In the weeks and months after that horrible day, lawmakers from across the country told us, the families of the victims, that they'd take action to make our communities safer. What we found out is that, for some of our members of Congress, those were empty promises. And in those six months, thousands more people have been killed by guns. I've been doing everything I can to reach out to members of Congress. But my voice isn't enough. Today, on the six-month anniversary of Newtown, every single person who cares about reducing gun violence in America needs to recommit to this fight.

In her last minutes, Mom was just as brave and caring as I knew her to be. After telling everyone to hide, she went running into the hallway, saw the gunman, yelled and lunged at him in an effort to protect the school she loved. I miss her every second of every day. I'm getting married in just a few weeks -- to a guy she was rooting for, in a dress we picked out together -- but because a dangerous man got his hands on a gun, my mom won't be there to see it. I'm still grieving -- and I'm not alone. On average, 33 Americans are killed by a gun every single day. That's 33 new families a day who mourn like I do. If a background check saves even one life, and keeps even one family from hurting like this, then this fight will all be worth it. I think my mom would like to know that the tragedy that fell on Newtown meant that another tragedy could be stopped before it even started. I'm asking you to join me today, six months after that horrible day, to keep this fight going -- take action for my mom, Dawn, and the 25 other people who we lost in December.

What does Newtown have to have with background checks?  No notion of how these laws would increase crime.  Again, Obama is making the argument that if one life is saved to justify this law, but the real question is the net effect effect it has on crime.

And from Bloomberg:

Mayors Against Illegal Guns will launch a bus tour that will travel to 25 states over 100 days to build support for background checks legislation. Legislation to expand background checks for gun buyers failed in the Senate in April.
The mayors group is also holding events in 10 states calling for lawmakers to expand background checks and urging senators who opposed the bill to reconsider. Those events, which include gun violence survivors and gun owners, will be held in Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Montana, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania. . . .  

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Even Cornyn's amendment to Immigration Bill keeps troublesome measure of 90 percent apprehension rate

We are in trouble when even the best Senators don't understand the problems with how the apprehension rate is measured.

Republicans argue that Cornyn’s RESULTS amendment to secure the border is not radically different from language already in the bill. Both Cornyn’s proposal and the broader bill call for 100-percent monitoring and a 90-percent apprehension rate of illegal entrants along the Southern border. The crucial difference is that Cornyn’s amendment would require these goals be met before an estimated 11 million immigrants receive permanent legal status in 10 years. . . . .

My discussion on the problems with this 90 percent measure is available here.

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If Obama thinks that gun-free zones are such a great idea, let's make the White House a gun-free zone

The Daily Caller has this word about a petition on the White House’s official petition website to make the WH a gun-free zone (see here).  

Eliminate armed guards for the President, Vice-President, and their families, and establish Gun Free Zones around themGun Free Zones are supposed to protect our children, and some politicians wish to strip us of our right to keep and bear arms. Those same politicians and their families are currently under the protection of armed Secret Service agents. If Gun Free Zones are sufficient protection for our children, then Gun Free Zones should be good enough for politicians.

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Horrible story of retired Vet who went in for counseling and found his 100 year old antique guns confiscated

From the Daily Herald:

Arthur Lovi sat down with a therapist one day last August to talk about some things that were bothering him. He had high blood pressure, and his physician suggested he talk to someone.
He already spoke to a VA psychiatrist once a month — he has persistent memories from his days as an Air Force crash rescue helicopter pilot in the 1960s — but he agreed. He’d been through a lot lately and figured it couldn’t hurt to get some of it out.
“I felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders,” he said.
Lovi told her about the loss that had been all around him the past few years: his mother, a 3-year-old granddaughter who drowned, a son-in-law lost to a drug overdose, and worst of all, his wife of 33 years…
…After the session, Lovi’s therapist was concerned. She called the Arlington Heights police to report he had made a threat against the first doctor who saw his wife. . . .
According to an Arlington Heights police report, officers contacted the doctor who diagnosed the cold. The doctor told police he "did not feel like his safety was in immediate jeopardy."
But that night about 11 p.m. there was a knock at Lovi's door. His son answered and saw four or five police officers standing outside. . . .

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When Bill "Mr. Triangulation" criticizes Obama for relying too much on polls you know Obama is in real trouble.

 From Politico:

At another point during a closed-press event Tuesday, Clinton implied that Obama or any president risks looking like “a total fool” if they listen too closely to opinion polls and act too cautiously. He used his own decisions on Kosovo and Bosnia as a point of reference. 

The former president also said commanders-in-chief should avoid over-interpreting public opinion polls about whether the United States should get involved in crises overseas. . . .

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Obama's push for gun control, not going away

Politico announces that the administration will start pushing gun control again next week:

Vice President Joe Biden will try to restart the dormant gun control push next week with an event to tout the administration’s progress in combatting gun violence. 

The June 18 White House event will mark the first time Biden or President Barack Obama has held a public event on gun control since the Senate rejected expanded background checks for gun purchases April 17. . . .

But Biden apparently couldn't wait until the 18th.  Democrats are trying to divide the Republican party on the issue by blaming two Senators for forcing the other Republicans to vote against.

“On the gun issue, I don’t care what your position is -- I called 17 senators out, 9 of whom were Republicans. ... Not one of offered an explanation on the merits of why they couldn’t vote for the background check. But almost to a person, they said, ‘I don’t want to take on Ted Cruz. I don’t want to take on Rand Paul. They’ll be in my district.’ 

“I actually said, ‘Are you kidding? These are two freshman,’” Biden said, according to the pool report.  . . .

Meanwhile, Mayor Bloomberg is trying to put more pressure on the few Democrats who voted against the new regulations. 

Bloomberg is contacting more than 2,000 Democratic New York donors telling them not to give money to Sens. Max Baucus, Mark Begich, Mark Pryor and Heidi Heitkamp after they joined Republicans to block a bill expanding background checks on gun sales, POLITICO’s Mike Allen reports in Playbook. . . .

Of course, Baucus isn't running for re-election and Heitkamp isn't up again for 5 more years.

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Newest piece in the New York Post: The real hole in the border bill

My newest piece starts this way:

As the Senate begins to debate immigration-overhaul legislation today, skeptics of the bill are focusing on the wrong problem. 

Under the bill, illegal aliens already in the country could start obtaining “probationary” legalization once the Homeland Security Department submits a plan for catching 90 percent of the illegals trying to sneak in. 

Critics focus on whether that legalization is truly “probationary.” The real issue is: How do we measure the rate of apprehending illegals? 

Catching 90 percent of those trying to enter the country illegally sounds impressive. But, if measured as it is by the US Border Patrol, we’re almost already there, supposedly apprehending 86 percent of illegals. . . .

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A very detailed review in "The Free Market" of my newest book "At the Brink"

David Gordon has a very detailed review of my newest book available here.  The review starts this way:

John Lott is best known to the public for his outstanding analysis of gun control legislation, but his research as an economist extends far beyond that topic; and he here gives us a devastating account that covers the full range of the Obama administration’s economic policy.

Readers stirred to anger by the simpleminded statism of Paul Krugman will be delighted by Lott’s demolition of several of his claims. To those who urge that high taxes on the wealthy discourage invest- ment, to the disadvantage of us all, Krugman often recalls the palmary era of the 1950s. Did we not then see very high tax rates together with high rates of economic growth? “In the 1950s incomes in the top bracket faced a marginal tax rate of 91, that’s right, 91 percent, while taxes on corporate profits were twice as large, relative to national income, as in recent years.” (p. 200, quoting Krugman)

Lott is a master of economics statistics, and he quickly exposes a fatal flaw in Krugman’s argument.  . . .

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The remarkable partisan shift on NSA tracking your telephone calls. Can one explain the increased Democrat support without resorting to the fact that a Democrat is in the White House?

I am not sure if the numbers are directly comparable because the government tracking wasn't nearly as extensive back in 2006, but with a Democrat in the White House Democrats go from opposing tracking by a 61 to 37 percent rate to supporter it by 64 to 34 percent.  Republicans still support it though at a lower rate.  Independents go from opposing it to supporting it.  Given that the tracking is so much more extensive, can one explain the increased Democrat support without resorting to the fact that a Democrat is in the White House?

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Very sloppy claims that more government funding is necessary on guns

I get that researchers always want more money, but people have to take those desires with a grain of salt.  Just because researchers want more taxpayer money, doesn't mean that it is really needed.  From the New York Times:

. . . President Obama has included $10 million for gun-related research in his 2014 budget, the first federal financing for the topic in years, and the panel’s chairman, Alan I. Leshner, said the report was a first step to deepen evidence about the public health implications of guns. The panel was assembled by the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council at President Obama’s request.
“Policies are made on the basis of facts and values, and we are the facts people,” said Mr. Leshner, who is the chief executive of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. “We are trying to provide a tool for the country to address this very difficult issue more productively than it has been able to do in the past.”
Among the panel’s recommendations was a call for better data on guns. For example, there is no national count of how many guns there are in the country. And while federal law enforcement authorities, like the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, gather data on specific guns, they track only those used in crimes, and often the details are not accessible to researchers. One database, the National Violent Death Reporting System, which compiles information on deaths from police departments and medical examiners’ offices, covers only about a third of the states. . . .

The problem is also that creating this data isn't bias free.  The people who create it could have a political agenda and the concern is that the Obama administration could use political criteria on who they decide to give the money too.  The lopsided bias in terms of how this report was put together shows why we shouldn't trust the Obama administration to look at these issues objectively.

A copy of the report is available here.  Here is what the study writes on concealed carry research:

Even when defensive use of guns is effective in averting death or injury for the gun user in cases of crime, it is still possible that keeping a gun in the home or carrying a gun in public—concealed or open carry— may have a different net effect on the rate of injury. For example, if gun ownership raises the risk of suicide, homicide, or the use of weapons by those who invade the homes of gun owners this could cancel or outweigh the beneficial effects of defensive gun use (Kellermann et al., 1992, 1993, 1995). Although some early studies were published that relate to this issue, they were not conclusive, and this is a sufficiently important question that it merits additional, careful exploration. . . . . 

Seriously?  They act as if no research has been done on these questions since 1995, and I wouldn't even count Kellermann's research as providing serious research.  His research did a poor job of looking at the risks of guns in the home.  Yet, they make a claim that more research is needed in this area without even acknowledging all the research that has already been done.

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