Friday, September 9, 2011

Enough is enough. It’s time to challenge the 2nd Amendment-Part 2


In Part 1 of this series, I commented on how gun rights advocates had amassed so much power under the 2nd Amendment, and their constant whining over their rights under its protection.  But even with an improvement in gun violence, there are daily reports in the media about shootings using handguns, with the responsibility clearly on the 2nd Amendment’s interpretation that allows states like Arizona to pass ridiculous weapons laws.



As an example, in Arizona you need no permit to purchase a handgun, nor do you need a permit to carry a concealed weapon.  No background check in some cases, no gun education classes, just walk in and buy whatever you want and walk out the door.  You might choose a handgun like Jared Loughner used in his Tucson massacre, a Glock 19 with a high capacity gun clip.  It’s all available throughout the state of Arizona, and you can even carry a gun in a bar if you don’t drink.

Texas requires no permit to buy a handgun, but at least they had the sense to place some provisions on concealed carry.  A background check is required and the person must attend classes on firearms education.  They were one of the states, along with Arizona, to reject a guns on campus bill.  In Texas a person can carry a concealed, loaded weapon without a permit while heading to their car.

In comparison, more reasonable states with rational gun laws like California, Illinois and New York make Arizona and Texas look like what they are.  The untamed, backward old west.  More on this later.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Major league basketball is a Social Democracy

Social Democracy is a political ideology of the left and centre-left.  It advocates the creation of a democratic welfare state that combines capitalist and socialistic institutions and practices.  Rather than challenge the capitalist system, its aim is to reform it.  It is sometimes described as a “wide array of welfare and social insurance functions and removing large chunks of wealth and commodity distribution from the market.”  Put simply, it is a sharing of the wealth.

Almost all of the world’s developed countries think of themselves, and are, social democracies; however not the United States.  SD does work in countries like the United Kingdom and Canada.  But what does it have to do with major league basketball?

In a recent article about theNational Basketball Assn. lockout, the owners are crying foul over player salaries and want to slap new caps on them for the future.  In effect, the teams want new contracts that will return them to the black.  In dispute is an argument over how to split a very large amount of money from TV revenue that would ensure that every team is profitable.  The key here is the term “every team.”

The players are already making ridiculous salaries, especially when it comes to what teachers, police and firemen are paid.  In a recent articleon the economy, Paul Wiseman writes that the “economy’s meager gains are giving mostly to the wealthiest…and higher corporate profits.”  In the NBA lockout the general agreement is there should be revenue sharing to make every team—especially the smaller ones with less revenue—profitable.  Sharing of the wealth.

What’s good for the NBA is good for the American public.  A Social Democracy would carve up some of the absurd high salaries of overpaid people in sports, entertainment and the business world, as well as the profits of large corporations, and divide that among the less fortunate.  Just like the National Basketball Assn.

Read more about Social Democracy here.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Add insensitivity to the fanaticism of gun bubbas

by Deadcatdreaming
The Pima County, Arizona RepublicanParty is raffling off a Glock 23 handgun to raise money for Democrat Gabby Giffords reelection campaign.  Rep. Giffords was shot and severely injured by Jared Loughner using a Glock 19 in an attempt to assassinate her in January of this year.  Make good sense?  Of course it does…in Arizona.  The massacre at a Safeway in Tucson left 6 people dead and 13 injured.  Oh, by the way, the winner will also receive three 12-round magazines.

To justify the move, Greg Harris, exec. dir. of the Pima GOP, said that Giffords herself owns a Glock.  I have written about gun dimwits in the past but this guy takes the cake.  Well maybe not.  Mike Shaw, interim Pima County GOP chairman, said: "That Glock is no more responsible for those deaths and the congresswoman's injuries than a Number 2 pencil is responsible for cheating on a test."  A completely, and even more idiotic, new twist to “Guns don’t kill, people do.”

James Kelley, Republican chairman in Tucson’s Legislative District 29, said “I advised against this raffle from day one.  This is insensitive and stupid and a no-brainer.  The chairman and our executive director did the wrong thing.”  To which  the two replied, “Well, we've done it before.”  Kelly responded, “Yes, but not since January 8, and we shouldn’t be doing it now.”  The last I heard, all the raffle tickets had been sold.

As far as I know, Gabby Giffords hasn’t made a statement on the issue yet.  One would have to wonder just how much she still supports the wide-open Arizona gun laws after the January incident.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

AZ Gov. Jan Brewer’s beheaded bodies yet to be found

Whoever you are—that group of misguided and misinformed individuals that continues to try and run every illegal immigrant out of Arizona because they are crime-ridden and the cause of all the problems in the state—will simply have to eat crow, or worse.  A Brookings Institution report, something this conglomeration of bigots, above, would never understand, has shown just how outrageous these fanatics are with facts that cannot be denied.

The 2011 report, City and Suburban Crime Trends in Metropolitan America surveyed the last 20 years of crime data and discovered that, "crime declines significantly with increases in the proportion [of residents] that is foreign-born and Hispanic."  As an example, the increase of Hispanics, including illegal immigrants, has increased dramatically in the past few years in Phoenix, AZ.  Yet the crime index went from 638.8 in 1999 down to 396 in 2009, a ten year decrease of 38 percent.  Murders were down from 17.5 per 100,000 population in 1999 to 7.6 in 2009.

The Brookings report showed a diversified population helps decrease crime, but input from another expert on the subject, Richard Florida, author of "The Rise of the Creative Class," found that “immigrants are good neighbors” and in their drive to succeed discourage criminal behavior not only in their community but in others as well.

Immigration is still a federal issue and something Washington must address.  The Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, along with several of Phoenix’s leading businesses was instrumental in stopping five more immigration laws sponsored by the lunatic State Sen. Russell Pearce, who is currently being recalled.  When will the general population finally get the word?

Read more here.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Corporate executive pay tarnishes the meaning of Labor Day


Compliments Kheel Center, Cornell University
Today is Labor Day, a day that was launched in 1882 by the Central Labor Union of New York to celebrate the economic and social contributions of American workers.  It is also the end of summer and the kids are back in school.  It’s a time for backyard barbecues and general get-togethers to eat and drink to the accomplishments of the labor movement. 

But there’s a fly in the ointment that sours the efforts of the working man and woman.  It is that corporate executive pay outpaces any increases the labor force has experienced recently and promises to continue on a path for the future that is literally obscene.  Just look at the facts below.

According to a study reported by David Kocieniewski of The New York Times, “At least 25 top United States companies paid more to their chief executives in 2010 than they did to the federal government in taxes.”  Companies like eBay, Boeing, General Electric and Verizon.  The Institute for Policy Studies report found that CEOs for those companies were paid an average of $16 million annually.  If ever there was a case for sharing the wealth, this is it.

The study concludes that in the regulatory filings of 100 companies with the best paid chief executives, current U.S. policy rewards tax avoidance rather than innovation.  There was “ample evidence” that suggests company heads are prioritizing avoiding taxes now more than ever.  That means the working person ends up paying more taxes to compensate for the shortfall from corporations.  Less pay, more taxes; sounds like the perfect environment for a Social Democracy.   

Business leaders complain of the top corporate statutory tax rate of 35 percent.  However, the report found that many of the country’s largest companies paid far less than this 35 percent figure.  On the other hand, 18 of the 25 corporations had offshore subsidiaries where income can be sheltered.  One author of the study concludes, “corporations are rewarding C.E.O.’s for aggressive tax avoidance.”
by DonkeyHotey
So as we celebrate another Labor Day, think of the GOP conservatives out there in Washington that champion big business and couldn’t give a crap about the workforce that has supported and promoted progress in this country for years.  Elections are right around the corner and maybe the time has come to consider throwing every incumbent out of office and starting over.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Another shooting death in Arizona…So what the hell


I am almost convinced that no matter how many deaths are caused by guns, nothing will be done about it.  I say almost because I still believe in those people who talk about reasonable gun control, and just the one-in-a-million chance they will eventually get the right gun legislation in place.  The laws that are currently on the books obviously don’t work.  A 30-year-old Mesa, AZ, man was gunned down recently.  He got into a fight in a convenience store parking lot and was shot by his opponent.  If nothing else, the public has a right to know:

  1. If the gun was registered, did the assailant have a concealed-carry permit?
  2. Did the gun come from a gun show where anyone can make a purchase?
  3. Did the killer obtain the gun in Arizona?

Based on the ridiculously lax weapons laws in Arizona, these three questions could provide significant input into how to fix the gun laws.

In February of this year a truckleft New York City with a billboard of the running tally of Americans killed by gun violence since the January 2011, Tucson, AZ, massacre by Jared Loughner, which severely injured U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords and killed 6.  As the billboard left Times Square for a 2-month swing through 25 states, the tally of gun violence deaths was 1,300, with 24 more added shortly thereafter.  The driver was Omar Sheeha, whose sister was killed in the April 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech.
 Since Arizona’sgun-death rate is among the worst in the country, the feds should start by analyzing this state’s extremely lax gun laws and pass federal legislation to correct the problem throughout the U.S.  Among those factors to consider are concealed carry, required gun education, background checks, and where firearms can be taken, like bars and schools.  The momentum seems to be building and maybe, just maybe, we could all be surprised

Thursday, September 1, 2011

The Tea Party reminds me of the Mafia

When I read the recent Assoc. Press article, “As tea Party reshapes GOP, some cheer, some worry,” by Charles Babington on MSNBC, there was something in the back of my mind that reminded me of a similar gang.  Prodding on I went to the Tea Party site and found they were still bellowing over the same hogwash that we hear from their supporters on a daily basis. 

Stuff like the TP’s ridiculous Cap and Trade bill that went nowhere, getting rid of Obama’s health care reform, and promoting racist, anti-immigration laws like Arizona’s SB-1070.  But what really caught my eye was their “Voter’sGuide,” which I clicked on.  And I found out that these people are organized, providing a complete list of the candidates who ran in the 2010 election with the issues they supported.

Returning to the above article, I learned from a CBS/New York Times poll that “…only 20 percent of Americans and 41 percent of Republicans have a favorable view of the Tea Party…”  And “…just 18 percent of Americans now view themselves as Tea Party supporters…”  This latter figure was 31 percent following the 2010 election.  So how does this group of wackos wield so much power?

I’ll tell you.  The “Family” the Tea Party reminds me of is the Mafia, also known as La Cosa Nostra, the mob.  No organization I can remember had the discipline of these guys, and the same perseverance is prevalent in TP members.  Something—and the only thing—you have to admire them for. 

They even call themselves “patriots” which is hard to stomach when the TPers in the recent debt ceiling fiasco exclaimed they would rather see the USA default than compromise their “principles.”   The mob also never gave ground, and destroyed anyone and anything that stood in their way. 

Just how far will this madness go?

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