Forget that The Daily Caller is reporting Progressive USA’s claim that NRA donated $10,000 to Debbie Halvorson, and that the contender for the Congressional seat vacated by disgraced anti-gun head case Jesse Jackson Jr. calls for “Universal Background Checks and registration of all firearms … Making sure that background checks work so people do not fall through the cracks in the National Data Base [and] Ending the Gun Show loophole” on her campaign website.
Those who play political chess will tell us Halvorson opposes banning semi-autos and some such, while hard-liners will point out the prospective ban is likely to fail anyway, and where we really need to put our focus is on opposing the very things Halvorson supports. That will be parried with the argument that if she does not win, someone worse will, and that Michael Bloomberg is pouring money into making sure she doesn’t. And that will be countered by asking how badly we’re willing to compromise all principles in order to make a nominal gain, and if a line in the sand even exists for the "art of the possible" aficionados on “our side.”
No doubt Halverson is going to be the closest we can get to a “pro-gun” Chi-Town rep, and the question of whether that’s good enough, and the ongoing, often heated differences between “pragmatists” and “absolutists” won’t be solved here, today. What we can focus on, though, is the money being funneled in from outside the district by those who wish to make the race all about guns, and to that end, The Caller piece shows just how some of that money will be used to supply foot soldiers to bolster the media blitz.
Progressive USA is hiring door-to-door campaigners. Their flyer says they’re paying $9 to $11 per hour. They’ll be sending them to walk the streets of Illinois’ 2nd Congressional District, which "includes southern Cook county, eastern Will county, and Kankakee county, as well as the city of Chicago's far southeast side."
That’s Chicago, which, according to NeighborhoodScout.com data, has a “crime index” of “8” (with “100” being the safest), and with the violent crime/chances of being a victim and murder, robbery and assault rates dwarfing both Illinois and national medians. That’s Chicago, which reached the “tragic” 500 homicides number last year, and which got off to an “outpacing” start in the first week of January.
It becomes fair to ask, especially since “progressives” claim so much credit for championing workplace safety laws that everyone else must abide by, what responsibility does Progressive USA have as an employer/contractor for fully informing those it dispatches of on-the-job hazards?
What liability will they incur if an employee or independent contractor is injured or killed in the performance of their job functions, and if it turns out they received inadequate warnings, training, precautions and protective gear?
If someone is injured or killed, what is the likelihood that there will be a subsequent civil finding that Progressive USA knew or should have known of that potential, especially considering what it is they say they’re trying to stop?
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