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This Week marks the passings of actor Fess Parker, politician and environmentalist Stewart Udall, former Johnson aide and humorist Liz Carpenter and photojournalist Charles Moore. In addition, the Pentagon released the names of six servicemembers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Marine Cpl Jonathan D Porto, 26, of Largo, FL

Army PFC Erin L McLyman, 26, of Federal Way, WA

Army SFC Glen J Whetten, 31, of Mesa, AZ

Army SPC Steven J Bishop, 29, of Christiansburg, VA

Army SSG Richard J Jordan, 29, of Tyler, TX

Marine GySgt Robert L Gilbert II, 28, of Richfield, OH

According to iCasualties, this brings the total number of allied servicemembers killed in Iraq to 4,704; in Afghanistan, 1,693. During this same period, Iraq Body Count lists 58 Iraqi civilians killed. Ironically, this week, news came that Gen. Stanley McChrystal has been charged by the US government with reducing the number of Afghan civilian deaths, as the US/NATO forces have been accused of indiscriminate killing. But some question if he the right man for the job.

So last week the Thune Amendment was thankfully defeated. A group I work with, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, took on the task of defeating this insane legislation, which only had a chance of passing due to the extremism of the NRA/Birther crowd and the ever-present cowardice of the usual Blue Dog Democrats.

I guess they weren't busy enough trying to destroy health care reform or climate-change legislation, so overriding state laws trying to prevent criminals from enjoying the right to concealed carry seemed like a good idea.

Thankfully, the NRA lost a gun battle for the first time in five years, but no thanks to squeamish Blue-Dog Democrats. Take Colorado Democratic Senators Udall and Bennet, for example. They waited to the end to vote, as if calculating which way to go right up until the last possible moment, and then voted with the gun nuts. Interestingly, two Republicans from generally pro-gun states, Senators George Voinovich of Ohio and Dick Lugar of Indiana, didn't feel a need to cave to the Bonkers Wing of the GOP. Nor did some other Democrats from pro-gun states, like Senators Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Bill Nelson of Florida and Sherrod Brown of Ohio.

In response, a Columbine dad, who suffered what is the nightmare scenario for all of us with children in school, decided to remind these two men about what is and is not leadership in today's Denver Post. It says everything that needs to be said on this issue, as well as a host of others the Blue Dogs continue to practice duck & cover.

Sadly, the biggest threat to rational legislating right now is not from Republicans, who are and should be irrelevant, but from Blue Dogs. These people need to be taught not to fear their big contributors, but We The People.

(**As I stated in the piece, I am working with Mayors Against Illegal Guns.)

Ah your "librul" media at work.

Zappatero at SquareState.net noted this article at the Denver Post.

The Denver Post, while finding an astonishing fact about Big Oil Bob Schaffer, proceeds to muddy up the comparison between Schaffer the extremist and the eminently reasonable Mark Udall.

One analysis of Schaffer's three-term congressional record places him as the 14th most conservative out of more than 3,400 lawmakers to go to Washington since 1937. Udall, though less extreme, falls squarely within his party's liberal wing — and based on his votes is more liberal than Clinton and Obama.

Less extreme? Schaffer was ranked the 14th most conservative out of more than 3,400 lawmakers. Udall was ranked 509th, although that number doesn't show up in the article. 14th (R) = 509th (D). It's fair and balanced! And according to the Post article, both need to work on coming to the middle.

The Post continues to compare Apple Pie to Oranges:

Those voting records present significant problems for the early strategies of both campaigns, which depend on repositioning their candidates to appeal to the moderate and independent voters who most experts say will decide the race.

That would be ok if it was true. Unfortunately, for all of us Denver Post readers, and the candidates and the voters, it's not. Here are some stats on how voters now trust Democrats overwhelmingly on the issues

There's more...the update looks at the data and finds that if you look at the data for the current crop of politicians (the data used for the Post study goes back to 1932), the numbers become even more stark and surprise, surprise! Schaffer is on the far right extreme and Udall is basically right there in the middle as he claimed.