It’s runoff time, folks, and here’s what you need to know:

Harris County: View a sample ballot and find your polling place.
Fort Bend County: View a sample ballot and find your polling place.
Galveston County: View a sample ballot and find your polling place.
Brazoria County:  View a sample ballot and find your polling place.

Happy voting!

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Congratulations to Michael Ramirez for his second Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Cartooning.  He is a Senior Editor/Editorial Cartoonist for Investors’ Business Daily and syndicates his cartoons to 400 newpapers.  Ramirez is a Lincoln Fellow at the Claremount Institute, winner of numerous awards and fired by the LA Times, most likely for his conservative perspective of politics.  Michael was born in 1961 to a Mexican-American father and Japanese-American mother.  He discovered his editorial cartooning talents in college and became a full-time cartoonist thereafter, probably to the disappointment of his parents, whose other four children all became prominent physicians.

The subject of the hilarious cartoon above reminded me of the exchange that took place at Instapundit on Sunday.  Glenn Reynolds wrote the following reponding to a reader’s e-mail comments on economic reporting by the MSM:

Which doesn’t mean that the economy is necessarily doing better than they say, since their bias is exceeded only by their laziness and ignorance. As I noted some years ago about their Iraq reporting, the fact that they’re transparently playing up bogus bad news doesn’t mean that there isn’t genuine bad news that they’re not reporting, because reporting that would require knowledge and effort. So you can’t just apply “Kentucky windage” and assume that things are better than the reports say. They may actually be worse, just in a different way than is reported ….

As the Democratic Primary in Pennsylvania approaches Sen. Barack Obama is trying to paint himself as a candidate who “strongly supports the right and traditions of sportsmen”:

The Obama campaign is taking a shot at what might appear to be an unlikely constituency in Pennsylvania — gun owners. The Politico reports Obama is trying to highlight his background in constitutional law and downplay his voting record of consistently supporting gun control legislation. Obama has voted for bans on semi-automatic weapons and concealed weapons, and voted for limits on handgun purchases.

Pennsylvania has one of the largest per-capita gun ownership rates in the nation. The Obama campaign Web site calls the senator a former constitutional law professor who, “greatly respects the constitutional rights of Americans to bear arms.”

The campaign has sent an e-mail to the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs urging members to, “learn the facts” and saying Obama, “strongly supports the right and traditions of sportsmen.”

Okay, let’s “learn the facts“:

• The National Rifle Association gives Obama an “F”
• Gun Owners of America gives Obama an “F”

The Brady Campaign, an anti-2nd Amendment lobby, doesn’t rate candidates, but here’s what their communications director has to say:

Peter Hamm, communications director for the Brady Campaign, noted approvingly that Clinton and Obama both have long records supporting tighter regulations on guns. “We would be happy with either of them,” he said.

What does Obama have to say about gun control? From his Senate website:

…the passage of legal protection for the gun industry would mark an enormous setback for gun control advocates and for leaders of cities such as Chicago, who have filed suit against gun dealers and manufacturers.

From The Black Commentator:

Thus, while I may favor common-sense gun control laws, that doesn’t keep me from reaching out to NRA members who are worried about their lack of health insurance.

Obama on the “Assault Weapons Ban“:

I believe we need to renew–not roll back–this common sense gun law

In fact, the only vote I could find where Obama cast in favor of Second Amendment rights was voting against an amendment outlawing gun confiscations during a national emergency.

Thanks for the advice, Mr. Obama. I now consider myself learned.

CORRECTION - The amendment in question was sponsored by Sen. David Vitter of LA. Obama voted for the amendment which would make it illegal for federal agents to confiscate firearms during an emergency or major disaster. The 16 Senators voting against the amendment were:

Akaka (D-HI)
Boxer (D-CA)
Clinton (D-NY)
Dodd (D-CT)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Levin (D-MI)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Reed (D-RI)
Sarbanes (D-MD)
Schumer (D-NY)

Here is a synopsis of the amendment.

It’s Tuesday morning. Have a Dum Dum!

Belated hat-tip: Clotille the Lawyer

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