Tag Archives: Politics News
The Republican way, “must’ve been a foreigner”?
According to one Republican Tea Party (GOTP) member of Congress – Steve King from Iowa – the Boston Marathon bombings show that immigration reform could endanger the public. So, what’s the “Congressman” alleging? Oh nothing, just that the bombings were probably the work of some foreigner, never mind the fact no suspects had been named when King made his claim.
“Some of the speculation that has come out is that, yes, it was a foreign national and, speculating here, that it was potentially a person on a student visa,” King said to the National Review’s Robert Costa. “If that’s the case, then we need to take a look at the big picture.”
King says the Boston bombings should slow movement on immigration reform because that’s the standard grumpy old white guy, or GOTP, response; let’s blame the Asian, Mexican, Black, or Muslim … anyone but who it might be.
“If we can’t background-check people that are coming from Saudi Arabia, how do we think we are going to background-check the 11 to 20 million people that are here from who knows where?” King mewed.
So, another uber-conservative shoots his mouth off without having the facts, and without thinking – GOTP standard operating procedure.
Bush says he’s “comfortable” with his legacy?
Former President George W. Bush has said during a recent interview with the Dallas Morning News he’s comfortable with his decision-making regarding the Iraq War.
“I’m confident the decisions were made the right way,” Bush explained. “It’s easy to forget what life was like when the decision was made.”
Actually, no it’s not; we were recovering from the 9-11 attack, troops in Afghanistan were closing in on Osama Bin Laden, our nation’s debt and deficit were nowhere near where you left them and U.S. troops hadn’t started torturing prisoners.
“I’m comfortable with what I did,” he said. “I’m comfortable with who I am.”
Well, that makes two people I suppose, you and Dick Cheney.
Bush’s legacy will be one of abject failure; he failed to keep American’s safe, ignoring intelligence reports prior to the attacks on 9-11; he failed to get Osama Bin Laden, and probably allowed him to escape into Pakistan when he invaded Iraq; he led the country off a fiscal cliff into the worse economic downturn since the Great Depression. He’s not just a failure however, he’s a delusional failure, there’s no other explanation for being “comfortable” with one of the worse presidencies in United States history.
How quickly they forget
I think it almost goes without saying that Republican Tea Party (GOTP) Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is an idiot, and he most recently proved this point while making a big splash in the little pond of far-right American conservatism for his disrespectfully unprofessional heated confrontation with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
It was during that hearing this moron alleged President of the United States had “purposefully misled” about the nature of the Benghazi, Libya, terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2012 that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
What is there to mislead about Senator? It was a terrorist attack, by a small group of individuals, which killed four Americans on a consulate building which had inadequate security because the GOTP House had cut spending for such frivolous things. By-the-way, the President said it was a terrorist attack as soon as the very next day after the attack, but of course when it comes to GOTP Senators facts are merely inconveniences in today’s world.
Concerning Johnson’s open criticism; how quickly the weak minded forget what they’ve said in the past; in fact during his senate bid in 2010 against Democratic Senator Russ Feingold, a very outspoken critic of the Bush Administration’s mishandling of two wars, then candidate Johnson disapproved of criticizing foreign policy publicly when there are troops in the field. “There’s an appropriate way of opposing a policy and an inappropriate way,” he told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. “The appropriate way if I’m a U.S. senator is going to be not public. If I’m opposed to something, I’ll make those views known very, very well, but privately with the administration.”
Johnson obviously has forgotten he ever held such a view, and even called Secretary Clinton’s answers a “good excuse,” to which Clinton replied, “Well no, that’s a fact.”
Eventually the Secretary of State had enough of the Senator’s sophomoric behavior and told Johnson, “With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk last night who decided to kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, Senator.”
“Senator” Johnson’s a bully plain and simple; he’s a disgrace and embarrassment in an ever growing long line of disgraceful and embarrassing conservatives currently serving Washington. But that’s OK; keep it up, eventually there’ll be enough sound bites and video clips for your next opponent to be able to show what an absolute waste of space you’ve been. The people of Wisconsin, and certainly the American deserve better than this.
First New York, now Connecticut …
According to news reports Connecticut lawmakers have announced a deal calling for some of the toughest gun laws in the country following the December mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, including a ban on new high-capacity ammunition magazines like the ones used in the brutal massacre of 20 children and six adults.
The proposed new legislation creates the nation’s first statewide “dangerous weapon offender registry”, requires new registration for existing magazines carrying 10 or more bullets, imposes immediate universal background checks for all firearms sales, creates a new “ammunition eligibility certificate,” and extends the state’s assault weapons ban to 100 new types of firearms stipulating a weapon would need only one of several features in order to be banned and could no longer be bought or sold in the state, while those already legally owned would be grand-fathered in owners will be required to register the weapons with the state; the legislation also addresses mental health issues and school security measures.
“No gun owner will lose their gun,” said House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero Jr., a Norwalk Republican. “No gun owner will lose their magazines.”
While states like New York strengthened local gun laws quickly following the attack, momentum has stalled in the United States Congress, whose members have decided it’s better to be the lick spittle’s of the National Rifle Association (NRA) than to protect innocent lives from weapons designed for the battlefield.
Connecticut should be seen as an example for lawmakers elsewhere, said Senate President Donald E. Williams Jr., a Brooklyn Democrat.
“In Connecticut, we’ve broken the mold,” he said. “Democrats and Republicans were able to come to an agreement on a strong, comprehensive bill. That is a message that should resound in 49 other states and in Washington, D.C. And the message is: We can get it done here and they should get it done in their respective states and nationally in Congress.”
The proposed legislation will be brought up for a vote this week in the Democratic Party controlled General Assembly, where passage is thought to be all but assured, after which it will be sent to Governor Dannel P. Malloy for signature.
Connecticut’s taking the lead the Federal Government should be taking, and that’s OK; if those who believe the gun industry has acquired too much power, and that it’s past time for sensible gun control can’t convince lawmakers in Washington that 20 butchered first graders is where we, as a nation must draw the line on the Second Amendment can’t convince the members of Congress we’ll take it one state at a time; two down, 48 to go.
NRA Robocalls Newtown residents?
According to news reports some moron at the National Rifle Association thought it was either a good idea, or maybe just funny, to make robocalls to residents of Newtown, Connecticut site of the infamous Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in December, and the states two senators were not amused.
- NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre
Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy posted a letter to NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre demanding his organization stop making the calls.
Saying the calls “absolutely beyond the pale,” the two Democratic senators went further declaring the calls, which contained political messages attacking gun control, “open a wound that these families are still trying hard to heal.”
“You’d think [the NRA] could have scrubbed the list [of Newtown residents], just to be decent,” Newtown resident Tom Maurath told HuffPost. “Instead, you’re making an unsolicited call with no opt-out that my children could answer.”
Senator Blumenthal also reportedly wrote a blog post about the robocalls for Think Progress, saying, “NRA leadership demonstrated yet again last week just how low they are willing to go in their unconscionable effort to block any and all common sense, life saving gun violence legislation.”
Perhaps the NRA has overplayed its hand and enough people will take this latest affront to common decency as the opportunity to slap the group and its followers with real gun control – but I doubt it, the Democratic leadership in the Senate lacks any such courage.
If slaves were able to keep and bear arms?
This is why the battle over “gun rights” is so important; just a few short months ago a major gun advocate claimed “if African Americans had been given the right to bear arms, slavery might not have been a chapter in our history.”
One more “educated” gun enthusiast
Larry Ward, then the chairman of the strange “Gun Appreciation Day”, had appeared on CNN trying to defend his nationwide gun rally.
Ward insisted “Gun Appreciation Day”, which called on gun activists across the nation to rally in support of the “right to bear arms” and against President Barack Obama’s “post-Sandy Hook assault on gun rights,” was held on 19 Jan 13, because it actually was honoring “the legacy of Dr. King.”
Was he seriously saying the famed civil rights leader, who was gunned down on a hotel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee would be “honored” to have gun nuts holding a rally on his birthday, just over a month after 20 first graders were massacred in their class room with an assault rifle? That’s like saying today’s state’s rights advocates actually “honor the legacy of the Abraham Lincoln”.
“We are looking for a peaceful protest,” Ward said.
Yeah a peaceful protest full of people packing all kinds of firearms – including assault rifles – and carrying signs with misspelled slogans. A peaceful protest with weapons, that’s as much an oxymoronic statement as having an intelligent, level-headed discussion with far-right gun advocates.
Ward continued, “I think Martin Luther King, Jr. would agree with me if he were alive today that if African Americans had been given the right to keep and bear arms from day one of the country’s founding, perhaps slavery might not have been a chapter in our history.”
That’s probably the single most ignorant statement anyone on the right has made regarding the right to bear arms, bar absolutely none, and the amazing thing with these lunatics is their complete lack of historical understanding and factual knowledge. Ward’s an idiot plain and simple.
Slavery began in this nation long before the constitutional guarantee of the Second Amendment was argued in Philadelphia when the first slaves arrived in Jamestown, brought by Dutch traders, not long after that first English colony was established.
If Ward were to read some other part of the Constitution besides the Second Amendment he might understand not only were slaves not citizens, and thus weren’t protected by the “right to bear arms”, they were only counted as 3/5 of a person for purposes of the national census; but of course Ward doesn’t know this, because he’s a moron.
So, Mr. Ward, clearly you’re an idiot. You don’t understand the Second Amendment and you clearly don’t understand your history. You’re an ignoramus, which makes you and others like you dangerous. If the uber-right’s really concerned about its right to bear arms you’re not the sort of person who should be the face of the argument.
It’s worth noting that five people were shot attending “gun appreciation day” events.
Drone Strike to Kill U.S. Citizen on American Soil Legal?
Holy time warp Batman, according to news reports the United States Attorney General thinks it could use military force to kill an American on U.S. soil in an “extraordinary circumstance”; no we’re not talking about George W. Bush’s administration here, we’re talking about President Barrack Obama’s, but fortunately it has “no intention of doing so,” at least according to a letter from General Eric Holder.
The letter was disclosed by Republican Tea Party (GOTP) Senator Rand Paul, who had asked whether the Justice Department believed the President had legal authority to order a targeted strike against an American citizen located within the United States.
According to Holder, while the President rejected the use of military force where “well-established law enforcement authorities in this country provide the best means for incapacitating a terrorist threat.” Theoretically, it’d be legal for the him to order such an attack under certain circumstances, he claimed.
“The question you have posed is therefore entirely hypothetical, unlikely to occur, and one we hope no president will ever have to confront. It is possible, I suppose, to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the Constitution and applicable laws of the United States for the President to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States,” Holder wrote.
“For example, the president could conceivably have no choice but to authorize the military to use such force if necessary to protect the homeland in the circumstances like a catastrophic attack like the ones suffered on December 7, 1941, and September 11, 2001,” Holder continued, referring to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Holder said he would “examine the particular facts and circumstances” if such an emergency were to arise.
On this issue the Attorney General needs his head thoroughly examined; there are no legitimate uses of drone strikes within the United States on its own citizen’s, period. There is no “theoretical” for which this would ever apply, period. Would the Attorney General also “theorize” there are legitimate times when the President would authorize the use of nuclear weapons by the government on American soil against its own?
Just as the Bush Administration was wrong on everything from failing to protect the United States against terrorists, to lying about WMDs in Iraq to approving water boarding and torturing of prisoners, so too is the Obama Administration wrong on this. Fix it Mr. President; if we’d wanted more of the same we’d have elected the other guy.
Vice President Says There’s No Need to Own Assault Weapons?
According to news reports, Vice President Joe Biden said there’s no reason that people should need to own an assault weapon.
The Vice President was taking part in a Facebook Town Hall hosted by Parents magazine, and took a handful of questions from readers about gun violence. One question cited a well worn right wing talking point, mewing how gun owners would be unable to protect themselves if Congress passed a bill banning certain weapons and high-capacity gun magazines.
“Kate, if you want to protect yourself, get a double barreled shotgun,” the Vice President responded. “I promise you, as I told my wife, we live in an area that’s wooded and somewhat secluded. I said, Jill, if there’s ever a problem, just walk out on the balcony here, walk out, put [up] that double barreled shotgun and fire two blasts outside the house.”
“You don’t need an AR-15,” he said. “Buy a shotgun! Buy a shotgun!”
The Vice President also said he doesn’t support making changes to the Second Amendment and described America’s “really healthy gun culture,” which was a “part of my father’s ethic.” He clarified to another questioner that nobody wants to take away people’s guns.
“I have two shotguns at home,” he said. “No one is going to come and take my guns.”
OK, thank you Mr. Vice President, will it make any difference with right wing gun fanatics? No it won’t. However, facts are a shot gun is the best possible weapon for home defense; an assault rifles muzzle velocity makes it an extremely dangerous weapon in the home, as it can send a round through multiple walls and possibly into your neighbor’s house or out into the street, putting a lot of innocent people at risk, whereas a shotgun’s ammo will not do that, while combing excellent stopping power in the confined space of a home. No it’s not as glamorous, but what do you want, glam or stopping power? Do you want to look cool, or stop an intruder? You don’t need assault rifles or high capacity magazines to protect your home from an intruder, and you’re not going to fight off the imagined “guvmint” bad guys either; this isn’t 1775 – ever heard of drones?
The Liberty Tree 