Whether it's the guy he always had in mind, or he just decided

to shove the worst he could forward for the job, Andrew Traver for BATFE head. Read all the links, and this piece from NLOGM:
Traver has significant connections to projects of the notoriously anti-gun Joyce Foundation. The Joyce Foundation provided $675,000 in funding for the International Association of Chiefs of Police - IACP - to put on the 2007 Great Lakes Summit on Gun Violence. Traver was a participant in this meeting along with such gun control notables as Gary Wintemute, Director of UC-Davis' Violence Prevention Research Program, Nina Vinik and Robyn Thomas of the Legal Community Against Violence, and David Hemenway of the Harvard School of Public Health. There were also a number of representatives from some of the local gun control organizations and a selection of anti-gun politicians and police chiefs including Mayor Richard Daley.

It is important to note that Traver was not a mere attendee at this meeting, he is listed as an advisor to it along with others like Tom Diaz of the Violence Policy Center and Nina Vinik of LCAV. The acknowledgments thanks the advisers who "worked tirelessly to help us design and accomplish a powerful policy summit by attending many meetings and events and by voicing their invaluable counsel as we moved forward with this important initiative."
Part of their wish list:

• Requiring that all gun sales take place through Federal Firearms License (FFL) holders with mandatory background checks
• Enacting an effective ban on military-style assault weapons, armor-piercing handgun ammunition, .50 caliber sniper rifles and other weapons that enable criminals to outgun law enforcement
• Repealing the Tiahrt Amendment, which hinders investigation of illegal gun trafficking
• Destroying guns that come into police possession once their law enforcement use has ended
• Mandating safe storage of firearms by private citizens and providing safe facilities where gun owners can store their weapons
• Mandating reporting of lost and stolen firearms
• Develop a best practices protocol for voluntary gun surrender programs
• Congress should restore funding for the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant Program for state, local and tribal agencies to investigate and prosecute cases of gun trafficking and gun violence
• The federal government should increase funding to ATF for personnel and technical assistance to combat gun violence
• Congress should enact legislation to allow federal health and safety oversight of the firearms industry

Be sure to check out the opinion of the guy from ATF agents at the bottom of the post; just the kind of guy we expected The Obama to shove in. As someone put it "There damned well BETTER be a confirmation fight."


In the same "You need to be controlled by the Government for your own good" line,
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said using a cell phone while driving is so dangerous that devices may soon be installed in cars to forcibly stop drivers — and potentially anyone else in the vehicle — from using them.

“There’s a lot of technology out there now that can disable phones and we’re looking at that,” said LaHood on MSNBC. LaHood said the cellphone scramblers were one way, and also stressed the importance of “personal responsibility.” …

“I think it will be done,” said LaHood. “I think the technology is there and I think you’re going to see the technology become adaptable in automobiles to disable these cell phones. We need to do a lot more if were going to save lives.”
Once again, 'necessity' is the mother of "We need to control you" with these people. What? Ticket people driving carelessly ore recklessly because of their phone use? No! WE NEED MORE LAWS!!!


Andrew Dodges' experience with the friendly fast-food rejects at TSA.


And last, there's a bunch of people at DOJ who need to be fired over this. And banned forever from any government job.