Homestead mailing list

["Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>]

Have you read the whole list? 
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/national/13apply..questionnaire.pdf

Some are just plain silly.  For example, list every speech you ever given 
and provide the text for it.

Or how about, if you've ever kept a diary and it might have something 
embarassing in it, please describe it.  Ah, HELLO!   Like anyone would?

The list is a bit strange.

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "bob ford" <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>


> I read people talking about this on a couple of sites earlier, but saw no 
> news source, until now.  BO is (for the first time, ever) including a 
> questionarre about gun ownership for themselves and their family members, 
> for anyone inclined to work for his administration
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Would-be appointees quizzed on guns
>
> AP
>
> President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team is asking potential 
> appointees detailed questions about gun ownership, and firearms advocates 
> aren’t happy about it.
>
> The National Rifle Association has denounced the move, which has already 
> led one Republican senator to consider legislation aimed at ensuring a 
> president can’t use an applicant’s gun ownership status to deny 
> employment.
>
> It’s just one question on a lengthy personnel form — No. 59 on a 
> 63-question list — but the furor over the query is a vivid reminder of the 
> intensity of support for Second Amendment rights and signals the scrutiny 
> Obama is likely to receive from the ever-vigilant gun lobby.
>
> Obama’s transition team declined to go into detail on why they included 
> the question, suggesting only that it was done to ensure potential 
> appointees were in line with gun laws.
>
> “The intent of the gun question is to determine legal permitting,” said 
> one transition aide.
>
> But even some Democrats and transition experts are baffled by the 
> inclusion of the question.
>
> Tucked in at the end of the questionnaire and listed under 
>  “Miscellaneous,” it reads: “Do you or any members of your immediate 
> family own a gun? If so, provide complete ownership and registration 
> information. Has the registration ever lapsed? Please also describe how 
> and by whom it is used and whether it has been the cause of any personal 
> injuries or property damage.”
>
> Paul Light, professor of public service at New York University, said there 
> was no such question for potential appointees when President George W. 
> Bush took office in 2000.
>
> “It kind of sticks out there like a sore thumb,” Light said.
>
> He expressed uncertainty over why it was included but surmised it was out 
> of an abundance of caution, a desire to avoid the spectacle of a 
> Cabinet-level or other high-ranking appointee who is discovered to have an 
> unregistered handgun at home.
>
> “It’s the kind of thing that, if dug out, could be an embarrassment to the 
> president-elect,” Light said.
>
> Clay Johnson, deputy director of management at the Office of Management 
> and Budget and the head of Bush’s 2000 transition, also didn’t quite 
> understand the purpose of the question.
>
> “It could be their way to say to prospects that they will have to answer 
> all these questions sooner or later, so be prepared,” Johnson observed.
>
> Matt Bennett, a veteran campaign operative who did a stint at Americans 
> for Gun Safety and who now works for the moderate Democratic think tank 
> Third Way, was equally befuddled.
>
> “It strikes me as overly lawyerly,” he said, noting that only a small 
> percentage of guns owned by adults are ever used improperly.
>
> Only half-joking, Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) alluded to the shooting accident 
> involving Vice President Dick Cheney, suggesting the query could be a 
> better-safe-than-sorry measure.
>
> “Given the behavior of the vice president under the last administration, 
> you may want to know these things,” Ryan said.
>
> On a more serious note, Ryan suggested that the new president was being 
> “very, very thorough” in his approach.
>
> An Obama ally and pro-gun Democrat from a blue-collar region of Ohio, Ryan 
> dismissed the notion that the inclusion of such a question would do any 
> political harm to the incoming president.
>
> But other gun rights supporters want Obama to know the question has raised 
> their antennae.
>
> “It’s very odd and very concerning to put out a question like that,” said 
> Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), adding that it may also be “unprecedented.”
>
> The freshman senator, who is up for reelection in 2010, had his campaign 
> organization send an e-mail to supporters this week, pledging to enact 
> legislation to bar federal hiring discrimination on the basis of gun 
> ownership.
>
> “Barack Obama promised change, and this is proof positive that we are 
> going to see some of the most liberal change in our nation’s history,” 
> wrote DeMint’s campaign in the e-mail.
>
> DeMint conceded it was unrealistic to try to get a bill on the matter 
> through during the lame duck session this week.
>
> Still, it’s the sort of symbolic issue that may provide a political 
> opening for Republican members of Congress from conservative-leaning 
> states to contrast themselves with the new Democratic administration.
>
> “I want him to know that we’re looking for areas we can work with him but 
> also looking for areas of concern that we want to let him know we’re going 
> to fight on,” DeMint said.
>
> The NRA, the gun-rights group that spent millions to defeat Obama, only to 
> see him easily carry sportsmen-heavy states such as Michigan and 
> Pennsylvania, is signaling that it intends to keep up the fight.
>
> “Barack Obama and his administration are showing their true colors and 
> true philosophy with regard to the Second Amendment,” said Chris Cox, the 
> NRA’s top political official. “It shows what we’ve been saying all along — 
> this guy doesn’t view the Second Amendment as a fundamental constitutional 
> right.”
>
> Cox said the group had put the word out to their members on the question.
>
> Bennett, though, argued that approach would have little resonance.
>
> “The real question is whether he’s doing harm to the broader image of 
> Democrats on guns, and the answer is probably no,” he said. “It may gin up 
> 350,000 hard-core NRA types, but it won’t really bother 65 million other 
> gun owners.”
>
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20081120/pl_politico/15835
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Homestead list and subscription:
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead
> Change your homestead list member options:
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/options/homestead/lurine%40softcom.net
> View the archives at:
> https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/homestead


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG.
Version: 7.5.549 / Virus Database: 270.9.7/1799 - Release Date: 11/19/2008 
8:58 AM