(I found no news articles directly related to firearms today.) Tangentially Related: In one of the opening skirmishes in the long - and almost certainly bloody - GOP battle for the 2012 nomination, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney won the annual Conservative Political Action Convention straw poll Saturday. While hardly a scientific poll, the CPAC straw vote offers early insight into conservatives' thinking as Republicans find themselves shut out of power in the White House and Congress for the first time in 16 years. And Romney's victory will give some credence to growing sentiment that he has quietly put himself in strong position for the 2012 contest after losing to John McCain last year... (A 2008 convert to the RKBA, Romney doesn't make me feel warm and fuzzy. I suspect that a lot of his appeal, in light of the state of the economy, is his successful business background.) http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/19443.html The political conspiracy to destroy Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal began last Tuesday, moments after the governor gave his response speech to President Obama's Mardi Gras Day address to Congress... Expect others on the far left - and even some on the Republican left - to join the Destroy Jindal Conspiracy. I bet the same Democratic team of lawyers and political dirt-diggers (opposition research specialists) that parachuted into Wasilla and Anchorage, Alaska last year to coordinate the smear campaign against Sara Palin are in Baton Rouge right now... http://chuckhustmyre.blogspot.com/2009/02/political-assassination-of-bobby-jindal.html Barack Obama might be the new president, but to hear Republicans tell it, Nancy Pelosi is really running things. At least that is how it appears from the way Republicans single out the speaker as the cause of everything from their near-blanket opposition to the economic stimulus legislation, to the 9,000 earmarks in the overdue spending bills. "It's disappointing that less than 24 hours after President Barack Obama urged Congress to restore fiscal responsibility, Nancy Pelosi's House Democrats passed a spending bill laden with pork," Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said as he chastised the speaker... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/us/politics/28web-hulse.html?_r=1&ref=us ...Last year, congressional Democratic leaders scheduled very few votes on controversial social issues that might split their party. One view is that the leaders avoided such hot-button subjects because they didn't want to force Democrats in GOP-leaning districts to make tough votes -- and potentially risk the party's majority in the process. Altmire has a different theory. "The reason, in my opinion, they didn't have those votes is because they wouldn't have won them," he said. A case in point was a 2008 bill that Altmire co-sponsored, backed by the National Rifle Association, to overturn the District of Columbia's gun control laws. The House passed the bill 260-160, with 82 Democrats and 178 Republicans forming the winning coalition. Altmire believes that his position would prevail this year too, even with fewer Republicans in Congress. "I would expect guns and immigration still would favor the conservative side," he said... http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/nj_20090228_4878.php --- NRA-ILA Alerts: List members are encouraged to check alerts for the week on the NRA-ILA website. http://www.nraila.org/GrassrootsAlerts/read.aspx --- From John Farnam: 23 Feb 09 With all the other ills currently faced by Western Civilization, illegal meth-labs continue to represent a significant threat to those of us who travel extensively. This from a police investigator in PA: "Aside from the danger of inadvertent exposure to toxic chemicals, there is also the danger of being in close (albeit unintentional) proximity with violent, desperate criminals and their voluntary and involuntary associates. Police are a form of 'involuntary associates' when they show up unexpectedly and raid the meth-lab in the room next to yours and encounter active, violent resistance. Typically, meth-lab operators prefer to set up in small, rural, old motels that are independently owned and that have individual room ingress/egress points, like sliding glass doors. This arrangement provides immediate access to vehicles parked directly outside the door. They can move in and out of the room as they set up the lab without creating constant traffic through hallways and lobby areas. They also prefer areas where police departments are small, spread thin, and poorly equipped. Motel-room meth-labs can be set up, and be in full operation, in less than four hours! Typically, meth-lab operators check-in at ten in the evening, operate all night, and then depart in the morning, invariably leaving behind a dangerous, toxic mess! Thus, when traveling, select upscale, major-franchise hotels with high occupancy. Above all, pay attention to any room that has a lot of traffic during the night and to strong, unusual chemical smells. Depart immediately when you suspect your hotel is inadvertently hosting a meth-lab. When it becomes necessary to escape out the window of your hotel room, first put a bedspread under the window to collect glass shards. The bedspread, along with shattered glass, can subsequently be rolled up and moved out of the way so that escape through the window is possible without getting cut. Windows in newer hotels cannot be opened, so they must be broken out when escape become necessary." Comment: Once again, we need to be alert and always suspicious. We're on our own, and we need to make decisions that adequately address our own best interests, even such decisions are abrupt and inconvenient. /John (In June 1999, I traveled to Las Vegas for an instructor-development school, conducted at the Las Vegas Metro PD range. My former teaching partner had located relatively inexpensive lodging for me at a motel that offered weekly rates and a kitchen attached to the room. At that time there was no legal provision for me to carry concealed in Nevada so I carried openly. This attracted the attention of the LVMPD officers in the class, who paid particular attention to the fact that I used revolvers both in and out of class. At one point, one inquired where I was staying. When I named the motel he remarked, "It's a good thing you're carrying that revolver. We're in there about once a month busting meth labs." Perhaps weekly rates and attached kitchens are also clues. An acquaintance who worked narco on LASD was troubled with respiratory problems for months after another deputy picked up a bag that had contained "red phosphorus" and shook it, dispersing the powdered chemical into the air of an abandoned meth lab.) -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .