The fight to save the A-10 continues. Yahoo/Reuters

Yahoo/Reuters.

Senator John McCain is leading the fight in congress to prevent the Pentagon from retiring the venerable A-10 Thunderbolt II, more commonly known as the Warthog. Yahoo/Reuters.  The Pentagon wants to cut the strike plane to save $3.7 billion in operating and maintenance costs as well as $500 million in upgrades. Several Senators, including McCain, want to save the aircraft due to how effective it is in combat. The A-10 is armed with a massive and effective 30mm cannon, missiles, and bombs and is capable of long flights on station. The aircraft is also extremely durable. The aircraft is extremely popular among ground troops due to the amount of firepower it can deliver. The Pentagon has offered to retire only some squadrons but this plan was also rejected by Republican senators. The budget shortfall that cutting the A-10 is supposed to fix is due to Sequestration.

My Comment:

I have to admit some bias here, I love the A-10. It's my second favorite American aircraft right after the F-86 Saber. I've had the pleasure of seeing them in flight a few times and up close at an airshow. As much as people think they are ugly, I think they are awesome. And they are a frighteningly effective aircraft as well. I recently read a book about the A-10 in the first Gulf War. It's called Warthog: Flying the A-10 in the Gulf War, and it was a great look at how it was a key reason why we had such an easy time in that war. I recommend it if you are interested in military history or aviation. 

I'm obviously happy about this move. One of the good things about the Republicans gaining the senate is that they will most likely be able to save this airplane. They may be able to reverse the Sequester or force the Pentagon to cut something else. I know that other aircraft can take the A-10's roles. The F-15/16/35 can do air support, helicopter aviation can destroy tanks and drones can do everything, but none of them can do it as well as the A-10. 

 And the A-10 can have a huge effect on morale, both for our soldiers on the ground and for the enemy. Just look at this and tell me that it wouldn't scare you half to death if it was directed at you. And tell me our soldiers wouldn't be happy to see this coming down on our enemies. 

That's just what the main gun can do.

The election was a great night for Republicans but a terrible one for gun rights.

Guns bought in a buyback in LA. IBT/Reuters

As you all know by now, last night was almost a complete victory for Republicans. The party gained control of enough Senate seats to control it, picked up and defended several governors offices (including my state) and  increased control of the House by several seats. In theory this would be a great day for gun rights supporters because the Republican party tends to support gun rights. Unfortunately, in one state the rights of the people to keep an bare arms was viciously attacked by a voter referendum. 

I am of course referring to Washington State. I do not live in Washington, and I have never been there so I can't begin to under stand how the anti-gun Washington Initiative 594 passed and how the pro-gun Washington Initiative 591 failed. Initiative 594 bans all sales of private firearms unless they go through a background check. The only exceptions would be for inheritances, transfers between family members and for antique guns. As always this is a dirty trick by anti-gun advocates. The wording of ballot initiative, restates the classic lie that there is a "gun show loophole" and that guns can be bought online without a background check. Neither of those things are true. 

So why did it pass? I have a few theories...

1. Voters didn't understand the implications of the bill or thought that the "gun show loophole" existed. This is plausible I guess. People rarely seem to research these initiatives, so it is very possible that they just didn't understand.

2. The recent school shooting in a Washington High School could have had a major effect. How background checks would have stopped a shooting where the gun was stolen is beyond me, but people tend to react emotionally to these shootings despite the fact that they are incredibly uncommon. 

3. Gun rights groups were just outspent. According to this IBT article, pro-gun groups were vastly outspent. 594 managed to get 11.2 million dollars in funding will the pro-gun 591 was only able to raise 1.4 million dollars. The discrepancy is huge and is due in large part to massive donations by billionaires like Bill Gates and famous enemy to all freedoms, Michael Bloomberg. 

Of the three options only the last one scares me. If people are being influenced by terribly misleading adds paid for by millionaires then how can we possibly fight that?  Bloomberg alone has more money then any lobbying group. He's worth $33 billion, and that goes a long way to buy influence. I hate to be pessimistic about things because it's clear that the country is changing course and is tilting right, which is good news for gun owners, but I just can't believe this passed.

 I also can't believe that Governor Hickenlooper is still in the running in Colorado. As of right now that race is too close to call despite the fact that he supported massive draconian gun control laws in Colorado that led to the ouster of a couple of state legislators. If things were right in the world he would be blown out by his Republican challenger on the issue of gun rights alone, but we don't live in a sane world. 

Perhaps I am being to pessimistic but I really am upset that 594 passed. It seemed for a while there that gun control was dead in all but the bluest of blue states. Washington is admittedly very blue but I thought that this wouldn't happen. At least my state is safe from any new gun restrictions, and national gun control isn't going to happen for at least another two years, but who knows what happens after that? 

I know that this is more then a rant then a traditional blog post, but what can I say? I'm very disappointed with the people of Washington now and the state of the American Republic. 

Editor's note/more musing on the election.

Voting is done. I was #471 and it was busy! Not sure if I will have anything up for the election or not. Depends on when the polls close and when they call things. I should have something posted about it and my reaction to it!

Also, for a mid-term election it was incredibly busy at my polling place. Not sure if that was because it was early in the morning (7:30 am local time) or if people actually care about this election. I'd like the think it is the 2nd answer but I'm guessing it is the first... It was mostly old people, very few of them looked like they were under 30. I saw what looked like a couple of college age people but not many. My town is a college town but the college should be in another district.

I didn't really hear anyone talking about who they were voting for. People were mostly just waiting in line. Given the utter lack of young people and the massive amounts of old men and women I'm guessing that most of them were voting for Republicans. Who knows though?

Editor's note/musing on the election.

Blogging might be light for the next day or so. I'm going to be busy. I'll try to have something tomorrow night for the election but I am not sure if they will have results up by the time I can post. The election is dominating the news right now so there isn't much else to post about.

As far as the election goes it should be interesting. It really seems like the Republicans will take the senate, which, if nothing else, will be a major change. Love them or hate them, having the Republicans in charge will change things. I still don't think that they will get much done since Obama will veto anything they pass that he doesn't like.

Still, people forget that our government was designed around keeping the government from making rapid change. People today don't understand that we don't live in a democracy, we live in a republic. Our entire system of government is all about reducing democracy, not celebrating it. People need to understand that the "tyranny of the majority" was a major concern for the founding fathers. Change is supposed to be hard in America. That's the whole point of a republican government (ie not the political party, but the actual form of government).

As for me, I plan on voting tomorrow morning. I just moved so I will have to register there which is why I don't think I will be able to get any posts out tomorrow morning. I wanted to register today but when I went to city hall they said the cutoff was yesterday, which just sounds stupid to me. Oh well, nobody to blame but myself for waiting for the last minute. It's not a hugely important election in my state since I largely don't care about state politics. My congressman is not going to lose and the only other major election is for Governor. I'm mostly voting because of gun rights, plus I feel I have a duty to vote. I haven't missed a major election since I was old enough to vote so I'm not going to start missing elections now.

What are voters concerned about in the mid term elections? Yahoo/AP

Obama's not up for re-election but he is still part of the equation. Yahoo/AP

What are voters concerned about for this years mid term elections?  -Yahoo/AP. For the most part it isn't social issues. A new AP poll found that Economy was by far the most important consideration with 91% of likely voters finding it important. 74% rated the government response to Ebola as important while terrorism and the handling of the terror group ISIS came in at 77% and 73% respectively. Traditional wedge issues, that often favor democrats were not nearly as important. Only 32% of likely voters thought gay marriage was important while a slightly larger number, 43% said abortion was important. Immigration was ranked slightly more important 57% ranking it important and 61% saying illegal immigration was a serious or very serious problem. Health care was the big social issue with 78% of people ranking it important. Obamacare is still deeply unpopular with 58% of voters saying it should be repealed.

My Comment:
The link to the poll itself is here. 

Kind of an odd article by the Associated Press. The data was interesting but they spent most of the time talking about domestic issues... that nobody seems to care about. I know in my life when people are talking it is not about gay marriage or abortion. It is about ISIS and Ebola and how the government can't seem to do anything right. The news cycle right now is just insane and it's hard to focus on anything else then foreign policy. At least that's my take on it. I think that is an advantage for Republicans and I predict that they will probably take the senate. I'm not sure about the various governors races, but I'm expecting a major shift at the federal level. That tends to happen in mid term elections anyways but I'm guessing that this is going to be a big one.

As for me personally, I plan on voting. We don't have any senators up for re-election but we have a very close election between Scott Walker and Mary Burke. I'm voting for Walker just out of spite. I'm still mad about the recall election he had awhile back. Plus, being a huge supporter of gun rights, it would be almost unthinkable for me to vote for someone with a (D) in front of their name. Still, I'm no fan of Walker, I just don't see any other choice. If he is in the primary race for president he won't be my first choice.

Republicans are predicted to take the Senate in the mid-term elections. Yahoo/AFP

Barack Obama will likely have to work with a Republican Senate. Yahoo/AFP

Republicans are poised to take the Senate away from Democrats in the 2014 mid-term elections, according to new polling. Yahoo/AFP. The New York times polling says that Republicans have a 67% chance of winning the senate and the Washington Post says that they have a 76% chance. Nate Silver, a very respected predictor of elections gives Republicans a 60% chance. Democrats are not really contesting their seats in Montana, South Dakota and West Virginia, and Republicans only need to hold onto their current seats and win three more. Alaska, Arkansas and Colorado are the main battleground states while Iowa went from a dead heat to a six point lead for the Republican candidate. However, Democrats may take a seat away from Republicans in Kansas due to an Independent candidate who might caucus with them. 

My Comment:

Not too surprising. Mid-term elections tend to be a slaughter for the incumbent president's party in the best of situations. With how unpopular Obama is and how messed up everything is right now I predict that will remain the case this year. Having said that though, if Republicans do manage to capture the senate I don't see too much happening. Obama has shown time and again that he won't work with Republicans and they have shown the same thing to him. He can still veto any legislation he doesn't like and Republicans won't be able to muscle through whatever they want. 

As for my state, neither of our senators are up for election. We do have a very important governors race that could go either way. Scott Walker is up for election after the recall he had back in 2012. The race is a dead heat and has national implications since Walker is considered a possible Republican candidate for 2016. Either way though, I have to remember to register to vote!