We Voted!

We went and participated in early voting Thursday evening. With the longest Colorado ballot since 1904 and what is certain to be a contentious, high turnout election, we decided to beat the lines and vote early. Here is my recap, especially for those who are still going to vote here in Colorado.

Candidates: Although it goes against my independent streak, straight ticket Republican this year. The deception, scare tactics and voter fraud on the part of the Democrats has been terrible. Obama the Communist terrifies me. I just wish I could have voted Palin-McCain rather than McCain-Palin.

Ballot Measures: (Take a cheat sheet with you when you vote - you'll never have time to read all of them in the booth!) Since there's so many of these, I'll try and keep it short.

Colorado Amendments

46 - Yes - Colorado Civil Rights Initiative - No preferential treatment based on race, sex, or ethnicity for state hiring, education, or contracts. Well, duh!

47 - Yes - Right to Work - Outlaws agreement requiring union workers to pay union fees for union representation. Workers cannot be forced to join a union in order to get a job. You should see the scare tactics the labor unions have been using on this one... Liberty!

48 - YES - Definition of Person - Defines human life as beginning at fertilization. Let's have our policies line up with what science has been telling us for the last 20 years. At the moment of conception it is a unique human life. It's a baby!

49 - Yes - Public Payroll Standards - Ban governments from taking deductions directly from employee paychecks for any nongovernmental special interest group. See number 47, above.

50 - No - Expanded Gaming - Allow casino towns to vote on whether to increase bet limits to $100 from $5, expand hours of operation and add games. Doesn't anybody see the damage gambling does to families and neighborhoods where casinos operate?

51 - No - Sales Tax for disabled services - Increase the state sales tax (by 2 cents on every $10) to fund services for those with developmental disabilities. Either I'm a heartless monster or I think that the state already has funds for this - tied up in various pork projects and wasteful spending.

53 - Yes - Severance Tax Reallocation for Transportation - Improvements to I-70 in the mountains, which improves roads without increasing taxes. Although I think this is part of a government shell game, they're not increasing taxes to do it, and I-70 definitely needs the work.

54 - Yes - Campaign Finance Curbs - Bar sole-source government contractors and unions with exclusive bargaining powers from making contributions to political candidates. This is a "no" to graft and corruption. See 47 and 49, above.

58 - Hell No - Severance Tax - Governor Ritter's huge tax energy tax increase. And the Democrats say they don't want to tax the middle class. What the heck is this? Tax and Spend Liberalism at its finest.

59 - No - K-12 Schools Funding - Increased taxes, but the legislature spent the money this is replacing elsewhere. This is a classic tax and spend shell game. We won't vote to raise taxes for the projects they shifted the funds to, but they cry about the suffering children in the schools and everyone's heart breaks. Put the money back where it belongs and fund your pork out of your own pockets!

Referendums

L - No - Reduce the age of a Colorado legislator from 25 to 21. These knuckleheads are already inexperienced enough.

M - Yes - eliminate obsolete provisions in the state constitution about land value increases. I read the provisions. They don't make sense, so remove them. Now, keep going and keep removing laws that don't make sense or are offensive to rational citizens...

N - Yes - eliminate obsolete provisions in the constitution about intoxicating liquor. Ditto for M.

O - No - Increases the number of people required to sign petitions for constitutional amendments. Let's see, government doesn't want the people interfering with its business, so make it harder for the people to submit constitutional amendments for the rest of the people to decide on. Oh NO!

El Paso County Issues

1A. Hell NO! - 1% Sales Tax Increase - The largest tax increase in county history - *doubles* the county sales tax from 1% to 2%. They claim it's for essential and emergency services, but they're asking for way too much. Clean out the government waste and your pet projects and come back with a more reasonable request and we'll talk about it.

Colorado Springs City Ballot Issues

#200 - Yes - Rescinding Stormwater Fees - The stormwater fees aren't much, but they were an end-around of the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR). If you need the money, show us your budget and convince us a tax increase is necessary. Don't try to pull a fast one and call a tax a "fee."

#201 - Yes - Rescind Non-Voter Approved Taxes - The title is pretty self-explanatory.

Blackballed by Obama/Biden

What happens when you ask the Obama campaign tough questions? You get blackballed. No more interviews, sorry. Why are they afraid of hard questions? Of course, when you get used to the mainstream media throwing you softballs all the time, I can imagine you'd get upset when a real journalist asks some tough questions:



More discussion here. Let's see.

Is "spreading the wealth around" Marxist? Yes.

Is Obama a socialist? Yes.

Can we expect suppression of free speech under an Obama presidency? Absolutely.

Another Reason to Carry in National Parks

FoxNews reported on Saturday that Mexican Drug Cartels, hurt by post-9/11 border security, are now growing marijuana on public lands, including National Parks and Forests up and down the West Coast, Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia. According to AOL News, "The pot growers pose a risk to the public. In some cases, growers are operating near campgrounds, roads and beaches. " According to King5 News in Washington State, "Agents go in heavily armed knowing the growers often are too." It seems the drug cartels have to watch out for "patch pilots," competing drug dealers who steal from their crops, so they often post armed guards on the site to shoot anyone who comes nosing around, like you and your family out for a nice Fall hike.

But law abiding citizens with concealed carry permits are not allowed to bring loaded concealed weapons into National Parks? It sounds like some National Parks are not the "completely safe" places that the liberals have been leading us to believe.

Puh-leaze!

McCain vs Freddie and Fannie, 2006. Nuff Said.

The Truth About the Economic Mess

Who caused the current economic mess? Barack Hussein Obama says it's John McCain and the Republican policy of deregulation. Palin didn't even respond to Biden during the debate last night when he made that claim. The real causes?

Social engineering. Political correctness. Regulation. The Democrat's own risky, socialist housing policies, forcing banks to make subprime loans to those who in all financial reality should never have received a loan in the first place.

Check this out:




If McCain doesn't rip Obama on this during the debates, something is very wrong. He needs Ross Perot charts, mass TV marketing, and web sites with all the gory details.

Priceless!

Needles and Leather Thread - $4
Scrap Leather from Tandy - $8
Metal Clip from a Cheap Nylon Holster - $Free
Free time while I'm looking for work - $Expensive
Having enough leather left to do another one - $Priceless!

I have been wanting an Inside the Waistband (IWB) holster for quite awhile now, but options are limited to get a leather holster built specifically for my Magnum Research Baby Eagle. My Dad used to do leather work as a hobby, and recently made himself a holster for his Ruger Super Blackhawk when he couldn't find a crossdraw holster exactly like he wanted. (Of course, Dad has all the right tools so his looks 100 times better than mine...) Since I'm out of work and money is pretty tight, I decided to give it a try myself. The result is a sub-$10 holster that would cost me at least $70 new. Admittedly, mine doesn't have quite the same fit and finish as the commercial ones, but for something that is hidden by my clothes and is actually pretty comfortable, I'm very happy.



One of the things I really wanted, but is hard to find, is a flap that covers the rather sharp tang on the back of the Baby Eagle. I didn't want it digging into my side all day. The other thing I was looking for was a fairly strong cant to the holster. However, after making it, the one thing I would change is to increase the cant even more - to somewhere around 30 degrees or more. The "FBI Cant" is really comfortable wearing it just behind the hip on the strong side. The last requirement was a holster stiff enough to stay open so I can re-holster the weapon one handed. The extra layer of leather on the outside works perfectly!



I'm going to use the leftover leather to make an OWB (outside the waistband) holster for hunting and the range. I still like my fanny pack, but this gives me a few more options, especially when I need to dress up a little more for work. (That is, when I get my next job.)

Why buy it when you can make it yourself, and have fun doing it?

New Scope - Sightron SI HHR 3-9x40

My new scope is on its way, a Sightron S1 with their new Hunter Holdover Reticle (HHR). I picked the scope because for the price, reviews said Sightron's optics were very comparable with many more expensive scopes. I looked at one at a local shooting store before ordering it (for $40 less, not counting tax...) online. You can't beat free shipping.

One of the things I was really excited about was the ballistic holdover reticle, which allows you to determine where to hold the Point of Aim (POA) for different ranges. Of course, it's set for the ballistics of a particular factory ammo, but with a little tinkering and handloading with my Savage 11GL in 308 Winchester, I should be able to determine the appropriate ranges for each of the hash marks.

Another reason for choosing the ballistic reticle was that it can be used for determining the range to target for objects of known size. The military uses the mil-dot system, which uses equally spaced dots of a specific size across the vertical and horizontal axes to determine windage and elevation as well as distance to target. The problem with it is that you either have to have a spotter to do the math for you, or you have to carry ballistics cards to simplify the process. I wanted something a little easier. Since hunting is a little more forgiving than target shooting (especially at the ranges I'm capable of actually hitting anything!), I figured that it would be possible to use the HHR reticle to get a good approximation of the range to my target - a deer or an elk.

Sightron's website has the dimensions for the reticle at both 3x and 9x power at 100 yards, so a little simple algebra in Excel, and a little graphics wizardry in PowerPoint, and I came up with the following chart (click to see it full size). (I also have one for Elk). According to Chuck Hawks, the average size of a deer from back to chest is 18 inches. (An elk averages 24 inches.) The resulting chart lets me set the scope at either 3x or 9x, then based on the measured size of the animal, tell approximately the range of the deer. I added in the Point of Aim (relative to the scope reticle, not the deer in the image!) to help me remember the amount of holdover for that range. A little practice, and memorizing my charts, and hopefully I'll be able to get a good working estimate for range and holdover very quickly when I'm in the field. The little X's on the diagram are to show that those are outside the view of the scope, out of range for my level of skill, or beyond the responsible killing ability of the ammunition.

For those who are wondering, I based the holdover on the averages of ballistics data from available over the counter loads from Winchester and Remington. Once I work up my handloads, I'll adjust the diagram accordingly.