ERIC CANTOR LOSES HOUSE SEAT IN VIRGINIA PRIMARY

Progressives can gloat over the House Majority leader's loss in today's Virginia primary but that's

Eric Cantor

only if that translates into a negative reaction to Tea Party candidates as it did in 2012. Eric Cantor trails his Tea Party backed opponent, David Brat 55% to 44%. Apparently no one saw it coming and hopefully this might be a precursor to the Democrats taking back the House in November. TPers have an inherent ability to really piss off sane voters and one can only dream of a replay of some of the 2012 races. But if Cantor is considered the most conservative in the House, God help us if Brat does win. Everyone says this seat is solidly GOP but time will tell.

LAS VEGAS SHOOTING CONCEALED CARRY CIVILIAN SHOULDN'T HAVE DIED

I've said it before and now it's happened again; a vigilante type carrying a gun in public has died as a

Cici's Pizza Las Vegas shooting

result this time. He shouldn't have but it is this kind of cowboy mentality promoted by the National Rifle Assn. that leads these folks to think they are ready to defend the American public. They aren't. It takes months of training for a police officer to know what to expect in crucial situations like this but I doubt if the armed guy, Joseph Wilcox, had anywhere near that. He didn't anticipate an accomplice and she shot and killed him. In the Gabby Giffords Tucson shooting in 2011, two Arizona gun gauchos tried to come to Giffords' aid and nearly shot each other. In Arizona the only thing necessary to carry a gun around on the streets is to have a pulse. I am firmly against open and concealed carry permits and hope that the Supreme Court will soon make this a thing of the past.

WHERE IS OBAMA? WHERE IS CONGRESS? AS THE CHILDREN KEEP DYING

Reynolds HS evacuation

My wife said this morning with the news that there was another shooing in Oregon with two dead, one a student at Reynolds High School in Troutdale, Oregon, just outside Portland, "It's beginning to look like a conspiracy." But who are the conspirators? Maybe the National Rifle Assn. is involved since we have had so many shooting incidents with absolutely no action from lawmakers. On the other hand each mass shooting fires up the gun nuts that much more to protect their right to own a gun. Which means gun manufacturers sell more guns and then shower the NRA with more cash donations to keep its head, wacky Wayne LaPierre happy. I'd hate to think I am right about this and I'm probably not. But this is coming to a crisis level, if it hasn't already, and if something isn't done for reasonable gun control soon, the National Guard will have to escort your kids to school, sit with them all day, and then escort them home.

NRA WANTS TO ARM MENTALLY ILL

I touched on this in an earlier post, “NRA wants to weakenVirginia Gun Violence Prevention Law.” but the mentally ill factor deserves more coverage. Although the Newtown shooting was horrendous due to the number of young children shot and killed, the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007, was the worst ever. Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed 32 people and injured 17 others. He was mentally ill. MSNBC provides some background: the Gun Control Act of 1968, prompted by the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, said once you were banned you stayed banned. After Virginia Tech, Congress passed the NICS Improvements Amendment Act, requiring states to submit mental health records to the national database.

After consideration, the NRA said this is no good for their membership. But you could pass it, if first the words "mentally defective" in the amendment were more narrowly defined, which I am guessing would keep it from identifying many of their members. Second there had to be an easier way for those deemed mentally unbalanced to get their guns back. Meaning some backwoods justice of the peace could say, "Halleluiah, they have been cured." A doctor's order would even be sufficient to get back his or her arsenal. The Gun Control Act of 1968 blown to smithereens. Does anyone else get just how stupid this all sounds?

And doesn't this remind you of the fact that Iowa wants to arm the blind.

 

 

 

 

 

TEA PARTY IS WORRIED WHETHER OBAMA IS SANE?

Now here is the epitome of the pot calling the kettle black except in this case the pot should be called an idiot. In a recent Tea Party post the headline read, "Psychology Expert Worries ‘Erratic’ Obama May Not Be ‘Sane.’" Either the guy is completely incompetent--something an association with TPers might suggest--or it's the usual misinformation we get regularly from Fox News, this time coming from CNN castoff Lou Dobbs.

Here's a typical quote from this organization of fruitcakes:

             “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways of shutting that whole thing down.”     -Todd Akin.  

 

The Tea Party is the group that thinks that people don't die of breast and prostate cancer anymore, believes you give off more CO2 riding a bicycle than driving a car, when a physician removes a child from a woman's body he has removed the biggest organ in her body, and there is no one who doesn't have health care in America...the list goes on. It is hard to imagine these individuals functioning in a normal society, and, of course, some of them don't. Hopefully November will be the deciding factor whether or not this bunch of morons survives or expires, preferably the latter. 

 

 

 

 

 





LAS VEGAS JUST THE MOST RECENT GUN VIOLENCE-WHERE'S THE UPROAR?

Why haven't we heard from wacky Wayne LaPierre, head of the National Rifle Assn., during the recent gun violence? There was Santa Barbara, then Seattle, Atlanta, and now Las Vegas. Four incidents of horrific gun massacre in four major cities in less than three weeks. A total of 13 killed and 16 injured. Did I hear, "Guns don't kill, people do?" Or maybe it was some left-overs from the mob in Las Vegas that made them do it. Could LaPierre be trying to decide whether we can call these "shootings." What bothers me most is the fact that the American public remains quiet, as if these kinds of events are now considered acceptable. Hey out there, don't you care that your friends, neighbors and relatives are being slaughtered with one of the 300 million guns on U.S. streets?

Maybe when it's one of your own you will.  

NRA WANTS TO WEAKEN VIRGINIA GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION LAW

The Virginia Center for Public Safety reports the NRA wants to scrap a Virginia database that is state-of-the-art and second to none in the nation. The National Rifle Assn. is calling on its members to help repeal the 1989 law, the Virginia Firearms Transaction Program (VFTP). The VFTP works along with the FBI’s National Instant Background Checks System (NICS) to check the background of those purchasing firearms in the Commonwealth of Virginia. This helps catch those people not eligible to purchase firearms like felons and the mentally ill. And the point is it works much better than NICS. So why would anyone want to get rid of it? Only a bunch of morons that value their stupid gun rights over the lives of innocent people. 

 ThinkProgress details how the Bush administration proposedlegislation requiring states to share mental health history. It was passed by Congress but not until after the NRA watered it down significantly. The final bill set up restoration programs for the mentally ill, in effect to put guns back into their hands. And the definition for "mental defect" was narrowed to make it easier for this person to get his or her gun back. It's the typical NRA gun-running philosophy to keep putting more weapons on the street. Which means gun manufacturers sell more and give more money to the NRA. Pathetic and disgusting but seemingly approved by a lot of the American public, also pathetic and disgusting.

DEMOCRACY ALLIANCE PAVING WAY FOR GUN CONTROL-NRA CRINGES

Wacky Wayne LaPierre in his glory

Let's just look at what this club for gun loving misfits is for and against. The National Rifle Assn. is against universal background checks, lawsuits against the firearm industry, micro stamping and any tampering with the 2nd Amendment. They are for assault rifles, large capacity magazines, concealed and open carry anywhere and Stand Your Ground Law. There's more but these are the ones covered in a recent release from their Institute for Legislative Action. They rail over former NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg putting up $50 million to fight gun control along with George Soros's group divvying up $40 million. Wacky Wayne LaPierre's NRA addicts spent $40 million in 2008, $10 million of that to defeat President Obama. On the Colorado recall alone they spent $350,000. We know the NRA is against anything that would restrict their beloved guns. But what this bunch of gun nuts is finding out is that there are many of us out there that place saving the lives of innocent individuals over their stupid gun rights.

SMART MONEY GOING TO GUN CONTROL SINCE NEWTOWN

Michael Bloomberg

As of the end of April, the dollars with sense have passed the dollars with blood on their hands prompted by the Newtown gun massacre where 26 lives were taken by shooter Adam Lanza, 20 of them children around six years old. And they have apparently done it through grassroots organizations, you might say just the opposite of the gun nuts of the National Rifle Assn. Michael Bloomberg kicked in $50 million, Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly's gun control group around $15 million. Gun control is about $5 million ahead of gun rights so far in the 2014 election cycle. They have trailed by over $31 million in the past. Now there are dour predictions out there for the GOP retaking control of the Senate and no chance of the Left taking back the House. Does this kind of momentum change that equation?

FAULT FOR GUN VIOLENCE PLACED EVERYWHERE BUT WHERE IT BELONGS...THE NRA

It's the media, it's the criminal world, it's video games, it's the U.S. government. The National Rifle Assn.'s list goes on and on but fails to identify the real reason we have so much gun violence in this country: The NRA. It's opposition to reasonable gun control, things like background checks. Wacky Wayne LaPierre, NRA head, has one solution to the problem: more guns. Based on the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, there are about 300 million guns in the United States. Access to firearms is about as easy as getting an ice cream cone, maybe easier. So we need more?

Missouri repealed a law requiring background checks leading to a 16 percent increase in the state murder rate, according to  Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research in Think Progress. Another study from this site reports that states, "...with more expansive background check laws experience 48 percent less gun trafficking, 38 percent fewer deaths of women shot by intimate partners, and 17 percent fewer firearms involved in aggravated assaults. How many facts like this are necessary to convince Congress and...wacky Wayne? 

HERE'S A NEW ONE-NRA DOESN'T WANT TO CALL SHOOTINGS "SHOOTINGS"

So what the hell do you call them, a reunion for gun nuts? This gaggle of reality restricted gun lovers over life complains the media "race[s] to label anything with a gun as a shooting." Although not directly related to the Isla Vista California shootings--oh sorry, I meant to say a completely innocuous use of firearms to kill innocent people in order to protect the rights of the radical double digit gun culture--the video was released right after that killing spree. Maybe the NRA is just pissed since in Santa Barbara three people were stabbed, only three killed with a gun; how could this killer be so inconsiderate to use a knife. Strange reasoning but then we're talking about the National Rifle Assn. The above article points out, "Firearms are used in 69.3 percent of murders. Of 37 public mass killings between 2006 and 2013, 33 involved firearms..." All gun control advocates eagerly await the latest epiphany from wacky Wayne LaPierre, NRA head.  

SOUTH RISES AGAIN...WITH MORE RACISM

Not just the old South anymore

Jim Crow days are back again...in Memphis, Tennessee. I spent several years there going to college and working in television, in fact, the very TV station that reported this story, WREG-TV. I left the South as fast as I could because in those days, the 1960s, racism was rampant all over that part of the country. I know that because I traveled six southeastern states with a publishing company. And one of my neighbors was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, something I found out after leaving Memphis. By reading and through friends still there who share my views on racism, the stigma has never left the South; it just became somewhat subdued.

But not like the supervisor at the Memphis cotton company who told a black employee, you can't drink from the "white" water fountain and if you do we'll hang you. He was fired but the damage was already done. You just wonder how much more of this is going on in the South, or the North, or the Midwest, or the Southwest, or the West or the Northwest.

NRA CRACKS BUT DOESN'T BREAK

Some unknown but probably guilt-ridden staffer in the lobbying arm of the National Rifle Assn. , the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA), chastised the morons in Texas for flagrantly brandishing their weapons in public. Does wacky Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's head, have a revolt going on? Probably not since any loosening of the rules would bring every gun manufacturer in the country, their bread and butter, down on the organization. Be damned with the membership, these pathetic individuals out there swaggering around with assault weapons to prove their manhood while looking completely asinine. But the NRA's top mouthpiece, Chris W. Cox, better known as Mr. Propaganda, set the record straight. He had a discussion with the staffer, who is probably now in the unemployment line, telling him we do not, "criticize the lawful behavior of fellow gun owners,” even if they are complete idiots.

SEATTLE YESTERDAY-ATLANTA TODAY-GUN VIOLENCE GOES ON-ANYBODY CARE?

Masterminds of columbine

On a college campus again, this time in Seattle, one dead from a gunshot, three injured. A man, not believed to be a student, used a shotgun this time to wreak havoc on a quiet community of religious students. This guy, who was finally subdued, was apparently captivated with the 1999 Columbine High School shootings. He had even traveled to the Colorado school where two students killed 15 people and wounded 21 others. You might say the inauguration of the ensuing spree of mass killings. And then today another attempt at massacre with an assault weapon this time in Atlanta. Thanks to a sharp deputy, who was shot in the leg by the gunman, the guy was killed before he could do any additional damage. He was armed with explosives, grenades and loads of ammunition. And the question arises, does anyone care?

TEA PARTY STUPIDITY

Your Tea Party in action

There are suspicions about Bowe Bergdahl’s capture by the Taliban, something the army will have to deal with. And it is a fact that there are questions about whether or not Obama's prisoner trade should have been made which the President will have to deal with. Both are items that are newsworthy and deserve attention by the media. Whether or not Obama smiles when Bergdahl's father supposedly praises Allah is not news. It is pure idiocy. Only the bottom-feeding Tea Party site, perhaps the repeatedly erroneous Fox News, would be guilty of even mentioning this sort of thing so egregious it isn't even up to sensationalism.  But the Tea Party did and is further confirmation of what a gang of morons this organization is.

 

 

 

IT'S TIME TO AMEND THE 2ND AMENDMENT

The title above guarantees that I get the attention of gun owners and their renegade bunch of gun nuts. My congressman, Rep. Paul Gosar, a Republican, says that new gun laws that would interfere with the rights of these gun huggers would be unconstitutional. Like background checks that could have prevented most of the recent mass shooting. Yes, I know, it would also have to include a mental health database, something that Gosar and his GOP buddies are holding up. So, if changing the 2nd Amendment won't work, let's amend it to an interpretation that the Founding Fathers really meant. You know what it says, "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed."

A one-sided Court

Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens has written a book, Six Amendments: How and Why we Should Change the Constitution. He was, by the way, was against the District of Columbia v. Heller outcome. He says for one thing that Heller didn't preclude the barring of assault weapons. That's a start but his revision of the 2nd is even better: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms when serving in the militia shall not be infringed." Amen. That will get many of the guns off the street.

WHY ISN'T CDC ALLOWED TO DO GUN VIOLENCE RESEARCH?

Ask wacky Wayne LaPierre who heads up the National Rifle Assn. He or his minions tell us it isn't needed. But the real reason is that the horrifying statistics that would result would shatter all the bullshit coming from the NRA that protects guns under their trumped up figures. Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA), who gets an A+ rating from the NRA, is willing to reconsider gun control and has talked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about the gun violence research. They are ready now as they were in the 1990s until the NRA forced cuts in funding. But more than a year ago Kingston opposed this same funding when competing in a primary. Just shows you what these people will do to get reelected. Congress did approve some funding for the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS), which keeps tabs on things like youth violence, child maltreatment, domestic violence, and sexual violence.

But what we need are hard figures on how many people are getting shot each day and how many of them die.

WRITING CONGRESS A WASTE OF TIME

On the recommendation of Josh Horwitz, Exec. Dir. of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence I wrote to my congressman, Paul Gosar, a Republican, to let him know I favor reasonable gun control. He let me know that the 2nd Amendment was something he revered and compared it with the right to trial by jury. It's the same old sanctimonious bullshit that's been coming out of most Republicans for years. Gosar is firmly supported by the Tea Party, which should tell you something about the man right there. But my reasoning for not wasting your time writing these eight balls is that they never answer you. I stated simply to Gosar that I couldn't see how anyone could oppose background checks to purchase a gun. I also asked him to fight for a federal database of the mentally ill to support those background checks. He didn't mention either in his five paragraph reply, only canned crap that had probably been dictated by wacky Wayne LaPierre, head of the National Rifle Assn. (NRA).

So, Arizonans, don't vote for Paul Gosar in November. Vote for Democrat Mickel Weisser.

GUN CONTROL SUPPORTING THE RIGHT CANDIDATES

Gabby Giffords v. wacky Wayne laPierre

The gun control group Americans for Responsible Solutions, founded by former Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly, will spend at least $14.5 million to elect candidates that are pro-gun control. Giffords was shot in the face by Jared Loughner in 2011, at a Tucson Safeway where six people also died. It seems to be a trend now in the fight to pass reasonable gun control laws like background checks. Former NY Mayor Mike Bloomberg pledged $50 million to challenge the NRA. And billionaire George Soros has spent $7 million to fight gun violence. If I were wacky Wayne LaPierre, head of the National Rifle Assn., I think I might start worrying. I wrote my congressman in Arizona, Rep. Paul Gosar. a Republican, and I might as well have flushed the email down the john. 2014 has been predicted to sway toward the GOP and if it doesn't we gun control advocates will know we're making progress.

BULLYING SHOULD BE A CRIME AND PARENTS ACCOUNTABLE

Most of us are in no position to judge the reason some kids and adults are bullies. It is said that bullies have an inferiority complex, thus, this is their way to feel superior. I was bullied once by a kid in grammar school who was half my size. I won but learned later that he was from a broken family and had to fight for everything he got. But I do not remember anyone in those days--or even when my kids were in school--resorting to suicide as a result of being bullied. If my kids had done it, they would have been grounded for life. Mark O'Mara, the former attorney for George Zimmerman and a family practice and criminal defense attorney, has tried to get a law passed to outlaw bullying in Florida with no success. He is trying again.

My take is that schools, where a lot of bullying takes place, should be more vigilant in monitoring episodes. When discovered, the parents should be notified at once and told to take measures to prevent it in the future. If the same child is a repeat offender, he or she should be suspended from school and the parents then held accountable. Yes, that would take a law against bullying.

DOES LIMITING CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS REALLY INFRINGE ON THE 1ST AMENDMENT?

I say no and here's why. Democracy is a form of government in which all eligible citizens participate equally—either directly or indirectly through elected representatives—in the proposal, development, and creation of laws. The key word here is citizens participate "equally." How can anyone compete against secret big money the likes of which is fostered by the infamous Koch brothers. Yes, I have one vote as does any American citizen but what good is that vote if Congress is already bought by the Bobbsey Twins? And it's not just conservatives who pull this trick; Democrats are also guilty. So did the Supreme Court screw up? I think so in their zeal to protect 1st Amendment rights. As with the numerous quirks from the interpretation of the 2nd Amendment, did the Founding Fathers envision giving the right to billionaires to rig elections?

THANK GOD I'M NO LONGER A DEMOCRAT

As many as ten gutless Democrats in the Senate are believed to have decided to vote against President Obama's nomination for surgeon general, Dr. Vivek H. Murthy. Because he tweeted, "Tired of politicians playing politics w/ guns, putting lives at risk b/c they're scared of NRA. Guns are a health care issue." Guess who went ballistic. And, oh yes, here's a doctor that supported the Affordable care act, probably also a negative by some of these same Democrats. But it's Wacky Wayne LaPierre's National Rifle Assn. herd of misguided fanatics that put the icing on the cake. Of course the un-news network Fox picked it up and did their part to skew facts. And as I said in an earlier post on Democratic Socialism, the only focus of these Senate Democrats is to get reelected, even if they feel Murthy should be confirmed. Pathetic.

AMRERICAN DEMOCRACY v. DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM

According to Wikipedia, a Democracy is a form of government in which all eligible citizens participate equally—either directly or indirectly through elected representatives—in the proposal, development, and creation of laws. But we all knew that since we have lived in what is supposed to be a democratic society for all our lives. Democratic Socialists believe that both the economy and society should be run democratically to meet human needs, not to make profits for a few. Sounds like both sides agree, sorta, but the differences arise in the implementation of the political philosophy. If there is anyone in the U.S. that believes the people are in control of our government, then they simply have their head in the sand. The elected representatives of the United States Congress have one common goal in what they do...get reelected. Canada is a social democracy and so is Great Britain, as well as many other European countries. Many have modified the philosophy to fit their needs but it works.   

NRA DISCOVERS ANOTHER WAY TO JUSTIFY GUN VIOLENCE - A PARODY

PARODY: Wacky Wayne LaPierre, head of the National Rifle Assn., has found the solution that will solve most of his problems when it comes to someone being shot by one of the guns he is sworn to protect. We all know it is his life's work to insure that every gun manufacturer in the U.S. sells at least one handgun to every person in the country, and that does include newborns. So with millions of guns on the street it was incumbent on LaPierre to get help for the millions of people who would be shot. He admits the numbers will be in the thousands, eventually the millions of those wounded, but unfortunately there is nothing the bloody crusader can do about the victims who die. These people are no longer a priority because they can't purchase guns.

The wacky one, Wayne LaPierre

The process is simple. Each time someone is shot but not killed they pull out their Wounds R Us kit which includes a secret "Save a Life for Gun Rights" pen  that fires a spongy projectile into the wound coated with something to stop the bleeding immediately while it expands in the bloody hole. The NRA sells the product online and it is available in all gun stores, where, unfortunately, you must ask for the product since it is kept under the counter. Wacky Wayne is elated by his new discovery, and as he has explained to his many gun company benefactors, at last we have the perfect answer to all these unreasonable gun control advocates.

Now there is a new product designed to close gunshot wounds which looks like an invention that will save many lives in the future. You can read about the real XStat here.

BRITS ARE GOOD WITH STRICT GUN CONTROL

AR-15 ASSULT RIFLE

They can buy shotguns and rifles, with certain restrictions, but handguns have been banned since 1997, according to Slate. Now listen to this zany premise, "...only the police and military are permitted to carry automatic weapons." Are these people nuts? Here's another quote by a British citizen: "I do not want it to be any easier than it is now to legally purchase a gun, and I know very few people who do." Are these people just more intelligent than us or are the gun nuts in the U.S. in complete control? I go with the latter. Here's another wild idea, 82% of responders from a survey of the Police Federation of England and Wales were opposed to being armed. They were that sure of their gun control laws that they were willing to walk around unarmed. The Brits must have exported that militia mentality across the ocean, aimed directly at the United States.