So, you get a little snow and then you can suspend the Second Amendment! Amazing!!!! Who do they think they are? —- New Orleans??? From WXII Channel 12 News, Winston-Salem, NC — Residents Fumed Over Weekend Alcohol, Firearm Ban:

KING, N.C. — Residents in King were fumed over the weekend after a state of emergency declaration restricted the sale of alcohol and the carrying of firearms in vehicles.

King Police Chief Paula May said she’s received hundreds of threats related to the restrictions, which banned driving from 12 a.m. Sunday to 5 a.m….

Under North Carolina law, May said, when a state of emergency is put into place that includes a ban on driving, the sale of alcohol and carrying of firearms in vehicles is also banned….

Democratic congressman John Murtha (PA-12th) died of complications following gall bladder surgery in a Virginia hospital today. He had served in Congress for 36 years, most of his time there from a heavily gerrymandered district that ensured his tenure. Good coverage of his life history is summarized in this article — Rep. John Murtha, Iraq war critic, dies at 77:

Born June 17, 1932, John Patrick Murtha delivered newspapers and worked at a gas station before graduating from Ramsay High School in Mount Pleasant….

He left Washington and Jefferson College in 1952 to join the Marines, where he rose through the ranks to become a drill instructor at Parris Island, S.C., and later served in the 2nd Marine Division.

Murtha moved back to Johnstown and remained with the Marine Reserves until he volunteered to go to Vietnam. He served as an intelligence officer there from 1966 to 1967 and received a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts.

After his discharge from the Marines, Murtha ran a small business in Johnstown. He went to the University of Pittsburgh on the GI Bill of rights, graduating in 1962 with a degree in economics.

He served in the Pennsylvania House in Harrisburg from 1969 until he was elected to Congress in a special election in 1974. In 1990, he retired from the Marine Reserves as a colonel.

“Ever since I was a young boy, I had two goals in life—I wanted to be a colonel in the Marine Corps and a member of Congress,” Murtha wrote in his 2004 book….

Clearly, he realized his two goals.

His later career was characterized by pork for friends and relatives, government favors in return for campaign contributions, allegations of corruption (he was an unindicted co-conspirator in ABSCAM), and untruthful criticism of our troops.

The mainstream media conveniently forget the sins of self-serving polititians when they depart this life, and deliver positive eulogies. So the fact that Murtha was a participant in ABSCAM, and saved his own bacon by testifying against fellow bribe-taking congressmen, is glossed over. A little over six months ago, upon Teddy Kennedy’s passing, the newsreaders gave him a pass on his cowardly abandonment of Mary Jo Kopechne, whom he left to drown in his car after a drunk-driving accident. Maybe John and Teddy can shovel coal together.

A Staten Island fourth grader was snatched up from lunch period, hauled to the principal’s office, and almost suspended by the South Beach school principal for playing with a plastic Lego police figure holding a toy machine gun, barely two inches long. The boy’s mother said her son loves the toy figure because his dad is a retired police officer. 

“The gun was so little,” the boy said. “I don’t understand why the principal got so upset. I was a little nervous. They made me sign a statement.” 

The perp, 9-year-old Patrick Timoney, and a friend were playing with Lego figures during lunch when the plucky PS 52 Principal, Evelyn Matroianni, spied the harmful, threatening toy and apprehended the disobedient child for violating the school’s no-tolerance policy for toy guns, thereby defusing a potentially explosive situation, ensuring the safety of the children, and avoiding an outbreak of violence. 

Margie Feinberg, a Department of Education spokeswoman, praised Matroianni for her actions in confiscating the pinky-sized plastic toy and checking with the DOE security administrator to determine if the perp should be suspended. The DOE regards all imitation weapons as harmful to the school community.

A conference was held with Matroianni, the perp, and his parents to discuss the violation, and it was decided no further disciplinary action would be taken against the perp. School officials were satisfied that the perp had agreed to leave his harmful, threatening toy at home from now on. 

“The issue was resolved,” said Feinberg.  ”The child will not be bringing the toy gun into school.” 

Matroianni’s action was decisive, daring, and swift, and as evident by the frightened perp’s own admission, quite effective. 

“I’m never bringing a toy to school again,” he said.

Interesting: The Obama Recession now has cost more jobs than any other in modern times. Obama and the Democrats have spent a massive amount of borrowed money promising to produce some 3 Million new jobs — but have produced less than 100,000. Is that performance, Mr. Democrat Politician? The Obama Administration does not have one senior person that has ever run a business or had to make payroll — no wonder they know nothing about business and finance or how to get out of their recession. Is that performance, Mr. Democrat Politician? And, then the Obama Administration wants to give a $3,000 tax credit to those firms that hire people — a bit stupid inasmuch as business hiring decisions are not made on the basis of tax credits but on business needs.

The Obama Administration is quietly hoping the housing market gets better before the citizens figure our how and why the problem came into being. Senator Dodd, Senator Kennedy, and other democrats in Congress rammed through a bill changing the actuarial base for lending — then forced financial institutions to make risky loans which stood a good chance of going into default, which is what happened. The Democrats were hoping to buy votes. Senator Dodd is calling it quits — before the citizens of Connecticut tar & feather him and run him out of town on a rail. Senator Kennedy has been sober now for almost six months. Is that performance, Mr. Democrat Politician?

The Obama Administration is now wanting to raise taxes on all portions of the economy. How stupid — but keep it up Mr. President and you will have a Republican majority to deal with. Why don’t the Democrats adopt a few Republican ideas and get the country our of the Obama Recession? From The Washington Times — Obama, GOP sparring over job creation proposals:

….Obama pushed Congress to use $30 billion that had been set aside to bail out Wall Street to start a new program that provides loans to small businesses, which the White House calls the engine for job growth. Republicans, meanwhile, taunted Obama with a familiar refrain: Where are the jobs the president promised in exchange for the billions of dollars already spent?….

To help the recovery, Obama asked Congress to use leftover money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, to provide to small banks so they can make more loans to small businesses. Republicans have criticized the move, arguing any money leftover from the bailout should be used to reduce the budget deficit.

In the weekly GOP address, Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas chided Obama for proposing a [2010] budget last week that would increase spending, taxes and the national debt….

Hensarling … said the stimulus package and the growing government debt have added to the country’s economic problems.

“Democrats chose to go it alone and jam through their stimulus,” Hensarling said. “What did the American people get? A bill for $1.2 trillion and 3 million more jobs lost.”

Will AG Holder be joining Rev Wright under the bus? We hear more and more bipartisan grumbling about AG Eric Holder’s decision to hold terror trials in NY City.

We read now that Chief of Staff Emmanuel was opposed to the trials, too. COS Emmanuel warned Pres BO that the KSM trial in NY City would turn into a PR disaster and open up the old wounds about Dems being soft on national security. It raises the question: How much longer will AG Holder be around? Not long! In fact, I don’t see him around by summer!

However, when will Pres BO take responsibility for the decision too? It’s hard to believe that Pres BO delegated such a huge decision to AG Holder. If he did then someone needs to remind Pres BO that he is the commander-in-chief. If he did not then someone needs to remind Pres BO that he has got an AG “going rogue” in his government.

No matter what, Pres BO looks weak and indecisive, exactly the kind of image that the Dems are fearful of as they face the voters in 2010. Since Vietnam and Pres Carter, the Dems have been fighting the perception that they are “soft” and won’t stand up to bad guys. AG Holder, and Pres BO’s silence, is making the Dems look “soft” again!

P.S. Check out Andy McCarthy’s critiicism of AG Holder’s decision:

The fundamental problem with the attorney general’s line of argument is that it unfolds as though there were no war and no president. Abdulmutallab, Holder believes, is just like any other person arrested in the United States: When an arrest happens, government officials automatically employ “long-established and publicly known policies and practices.” It does not matter who sent the person or what he was arrested trying to do. Miranda warnings are given, lawyers are interposed, charges are filed, and trials are conducted. Even if the nation is at war, we don’t inquire into whether the arrested person is an operative dispatched here by hostile forces to commit mass murder. We don’t concern ourselves with whether he knows about other people plotting the same thing. All that matters to Holder is that we have our procedures, and they must be followed.

A recent poll shows Patrick Kennedy in danger of losing his Rhode Island seat in Congress. 

Hot on the heels of the Massachusetts miracle where Republican State Senator Scott Brown toppled Democrat Attorney General Martha Coakley, a recent WPRI-TV, Channel 12 poll reveals Congressman Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) could be facing his most difficult bid for re-election. 

The poll, conducted by Fleming & Associates for WPRI-12, shows the eight-term incumbent with a 56 percent unfavorable rating in his district and a 62 percent unfavorable rating statewide. According to the poll, only 35 percent of voters in the First Congressional District said they would vote to re-elect him, 31 percent would consider a different candidate, and 28 percent would vote to replace him.

Eyewitness News analyst and pollster Joe Fleming said:

It looks like it could be a very competitive race, which we haven’t seen in many years.

Among independents, only 26 percent would keep him in office, 42 percent would consider someone else, and 25 percent would vote ABK (anybody but Kennedy). Fleming added:

The numbers for independent for [sic] voters have to be a big concern especially with what happened in Massachusetts with Scott Brown. He has to get independent voters back and support him in order to win re-election for congress.

Republican state Representative John Loughlin who announced his candidacy Thursday was not mentioned in the telephone poll of registered voters, conducted between Jan. 27 and 31 with a margin of error of at least 3.8 percent.  Commenting on the poll results, Loughlin noted:

Clearly this is a Congressman who is out of touch. He’s lost touch with his constituents and that’s certainly reflected in the numbers.

Rhode Islanders are not just unhappy with Kennedy. None of the congressional Democrats polled well, including Senator Sheldon Whitehouse who managed only a 33 percent job performance rating, which is down 11 points from Brown University’s December poll. 

The poll also shows that support for Obamacare has waned; only 38 percent of Rhode Islanders responded favorably to Washington’s health-care overhaul, a seven percent decrease from December. 

Considering what happened among independent voters in Massachusetts, the son of leftist icon Edward M. Kennedy has reason for concern about his political future. 

“This could become the race of Patrick Kennedy’s life,” said Fleming. “It depends on how strong his opponent is. If [they] can raise money, this could become a very serious race.”

On Thursday, Patrick Kennedy called the election of Senator Scott Brown “a joke.” It may turn out that the joke is on him.

Related:

Hot Air — Another “Kennedy seat” at risk?