James O’Keefe & Co. formed a fake group called “Citizens Against Senseless Violence” and visited the homes of media personalities, offering to put signs in their yards advertising their homes as gun-free. Their targets included people who work for the Journal News newspaper that published the names and addresses of New York gun permit holders on an interactive map. They got no takers, particularly from the people who had armed guards posted outside their homes. Apparently there are limits to their opposition to firearms. A new law in New York will prevent the Journal News from repeating its stunt – it prohibits disclosure of the names in the state gun registration database and requires counties with their own databases to offer residents the option of exempting their names and addresses from disclosure.

Those new gun control laws were drafted behind closed doors, then passed and signed in a hurry. The new laws require mental health professionals to report to law enforcement any patients they believe shouldn’t have access to weapons. Unfortunately this may deter people from seeking treatment.

Five cases of potential voter fraud in Hamilton County, Ohio were referred to prosecutors, with about a dozen other potential cases still under investigation. At least one case was discovered by happenstance: “The five cases include one in which an individual who lives in Florida tried to use her old Greater Cincinnati address to vote in Hamilton County. That was discovered when the voter’s request for an absentee ballot was handled by a temporary board of elections worker who bought the woman’s local house when she moved to Florida.” (via Election Law Center)

Kevin Williamson reacted to Barack Obama’s list of federal expenditures that would be delayed by failure to raise the debt ceiling (Social Security checks, military payrolls, etc. – the usual fear mongering) by pointing out that the $3 trillion the federal government is collecting in taxes every year would cover the 2008 budget, with a small surplus.

One of Mike Pence’s first acts after being sworn in as Indiana’s governor was to enact a regulatory moratorium.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is considering the elimination of oil and gas extraction taxes, which would be a big deal in that state.

The Washington Free Beacon obtained an email exchange that included contributions by David Fenton, James Fallows, and Robert Naiman (among others), all of them coordinating efforts to defend Chuck Hagel’s nomination as Secretary of Defense by attacking Hagel’s opponents.

New documents provided to Congress show that the Department of Homeland Security delayed the arrest of an illegal immigrant working as a volunteer intern in Senator Robert Menendez’s office due to the approaching November election; previously Homeland Security denied this. Menendez was re-elected with 58% of the vote.

The State Department believes Assad’s forces used chemical weapons against Syrian rebels last month.