Slightly new coverage here...

I've been giving it some thought, and decided to add some more political content aboard the Privateer. Nothing too extreme, but I'd like to cover some of the "local scene" here in the land of Cheddarheads...

Without further ado, I'd like to introduce you to Dave Zweifel. He's the editor emeritus at the Capitol Times in Madison. And he just wrote this , er, interesting piece. Some snippits:

He figured -- correctly, as it turns out -- that he would be able to get his amendment attached to the credit card bill with help from his Republican colleagues and a handful of Western state pro-gun Democrats. That would then force the members of Congress who favor some control on guns to either kill the long-awaited credit card reforms or approve them along with the completely unrelated provision to allow guns in the parks.

Likewise, President Barack Obama would have to live with the amendment unless he was willing to veto the credit card reforms.

This practice has a LONG history in legislation. It's usually called a "poison pill". Gun owners have gotten them shoved down their throats (or up other orafices) many times in the past...

But it has left a bad taste in the mouths of not only many members of Congress, but citizens who believe this isn't the way democracy ought to work. If you want to allow guns in the parks, then vote on it. If you want credit card reform, vote on it. What kind of parliamentary system allows two completely unrelated matters to be joined?

And how many times, laddy-buck, have we seen unrelated "progressive" measures attached to unrelated legislation? Sauce for the goose, no?

The irony may come when the NRA puppets in Congress succeed in adding a pro-gun amendment to whatever health coverage reform legislation eventually emerges this year.

I'm hoping for the machinegun registry to be reopened, myself.

Go forth, read the whole thing. Wow, how they whine when one of their favorite tactics is used against them!