Last Call

So, how did those Gun Appreciation Day rallies across the country go, anyway?

If the gun advocates behind this year’s inaugural Gun Appreciation Day had hoped to use the day’s festivities to build support for their anti-regulation platform, they are going to have to wait another year.

Emergency personnel had to be called to the scene of the Dixie Gun and Knife Show in Raleigh, North Carolina after a gun accidentally discharged and shot two people at the show’s safety check-in booth just after 1 pm. Both victims were transported to an area hospital, and the Raleigh Fire Department announced that the show would be closed for the rest of the day.

Responsible!

Two similar incidents occurred at entirely separate gun shows in the Midwest, one in the Cleveland suburb of Medina, Ohio and the other at the state fairgrounds in Indianapolis, Indiana. In Ohio, the local ABC affiliate reports that one individual was brought to a hospital by EMS, and in Indiana Channel 8 WISH says that an individual shot himself in the hand while trying to reload his gun in the show parking lot. That brings the tally to 4 victims of gun violence so far at three different gun shows during the country’s first Gun Appreciation Day.  

Super responsible!

CNN is reporting that three people were injured at the gun show in Raleigh, not two as originally reported. All were victims of a shotgun that fired while the owner was removing it from a case.

You get the picture.  So at least five people were injured at three separate WOOHOO GUNS ARE AWESOME rallies.  And let's remember, these were organized specifically to counter that awful, heartless National Day of Service for Dr. King's birthday that wingers despise so much.

Go figure.

The Kroog Versus Humble Pie

Given the complete surrender on the debt ceiling by the House GOP this weekend (via Greg Sargent)...

Big news. Eric Cantor has just made it official: The GOP leadership is prepared to agree to a three month debt ceiling hike. This is a major de-escalation of the crazy and effectively means Republicans have all but taken the threat of default off the table completely.

First, the key bit from Cantor’s statement:

We must pay our bills and responsibly budget for our future. Next week, we will authorize a three month temporary debt limit increase to give the Senate and House time to pass a budget. Furthermore, if the Senate or House fails to pass a budget in that time, Members of Congress will not be paid by the American people for failing to do their job. No budget, no pay.

Here’s why this matters: This increases the debt ceiling to authorize borrowing to pay the country’s bills well into April. That punts the debt limit deadline until after the deadline for funding for the government to run out, which is on March 27th. In other words, Republicans will now use the threat of a government shutdown along with the coming expiration of the sequester to extract the spending cuts it wants. Presuming this all gets resolved by then, or soon after, it means the threat of default is no longer a factor. This will all but certainly get resolved in advance of this three month deadline, and a long term debt limit hike will get attached to that agreement.

It's good to know that Paul Krugman will admit when he was wrong about the President.

When you’re wrong, you’re wrong. I thought that by ruling out any way to bypass the debt limit, the White House was setting itself up, at least potentially, for an ignominious cave-in. But it appears that the strategy has worked, and it’s the Republicans giving up. I’m happy to concede that the president and team called this one right.

Yeah, well, us amateur pundits kinda knew this was going to happen.

The key point to remember here is that Obama achieves his main goals simply by surviving. Above all, health reform gets implemented, and probably becomes irreversible.

That's been the case for two years now, Kroog.  Pay attention.

StupidiNews, Inauguration Weekend Edition!

• UK and Norway officials confirm the special forces assault by Algerian troops to rescue dozens of hostages is over, but seven hostages and 11 terrorists are listed as dead.
• The charity Oxfam has issued a scathing report stating the combined $240 billion fortunes of the 100 richest billionaires on earth could end poverty on the planet four times over.
• House GOP leaders say they will pass a three month extension on the debt ceiling limit in order to force Senate Democrats to pass a budget or forfeit Congressional salaries.
• The Dow hit a five-year high on news of the GOP deal, and stronger than expected housing start and employment numbers this week.
• The Texas high school student who refused an RFID badge as "the mark of the beast" has been kicked out of the state magnet school and is headed for home.

Also, sorry for the lack of posts last night.  I had to replace a hard drive that melted down and restore data from my weekly backups.  That took most of last night and this morning.  I'm back now, and I'm sure you're all just thrilled.

Gonna Sing The Doom Song Now

Greg Sargent does not believe that the House and Senate GOP can stand up to the overwhelming agreement among American voters that universal background checks are needed for purchasing firearms:

Every member of Congress, Democrat and Republican, needs to be asked this question: Do you believe people should be able to buy guns in America without undergoing a background check designed to prevent criminals and the mentally ill from getting their hands on lethal weapons that can ultimately be used in crimes and mass killings?

In one sense, this is arguably the most important question at the heart of the gun debate. But it’s being obscured by the widespread media focus on the assault weapons ban. To read many accounts is to come away believing that the assault ban is the centerpiece of Obama’s package of initiatives — and that because the ban faces a tough road in Congress, Obama’s whole proposal is doooooomed.

OK, I'll bite.  Why not, Greg?

There’s a lot of chatter to the effect that the House GOP leadership won’t allow a vote on any of Obama’s proposals. In the case of background checks, however, historical precedent suggests the contrary. In the wake of the Columbine massacre in the late 1990s, public pressure — mobilized by then-President Bill Clinton — forced the GOP controlled House and Senate to allow votes on requiring background checks for all gun show sales and other gun provisions. Though Republicans were hostile to the bill, they ultimately relented and allowed votes on it. It passed the Senate but failed in the House, but that doesn’t mean it would fail this time. The point is that public anger in the wake of horrific massacres has been known to break the GOP’s determination to block votes on gun regulations — particularly one as rational as improving the background check system.

Clinton's push for background checks still failed.  This was back when Republicans were slightly less clinically insane than they are now (or at best, equally so.)  What actually makes you think the outcome's going to be any different?  The NRA is going to back down in shame after going after Obama's daughters and screaming that the next step will be confiscation of firearms and an open, bloody civil war?  They'll somehow throw their hands up after 4 years of HE'S COMING FOR YOUR GUNS and BUY MORE GUNS NOW BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE and say "Well gosh, you're right, we went too far" and surrender?  That the GOP after endlessly demagoguing the point and basically vowing to kill everything this President has announced so far since the election, will suddenly see reason?
Seems totally legit, bro.  Look, it's one thing for the Powers That Be over on Wall Street to tap the GOP on the shoulder and say "Knock it off on the debt ceiling, guys."  It's another thing entirely for the NRA to tap the GOP on the shoulder and say "Argle Bargle Bloogity Confiscation!" and stuff.
So yeah, if the GOP was worried about backlash from the public with the way they've gerrymandered everything, I haven't seen any evidence.  We're talking about a bunch of clods who didn't ever feel the need to have a vote on the American Jobs Act.  I'd love to be happily surprised on this.  But betting against the GOP doing the inconceivably evil and stupid thing in 2013 is for suckers, full stop.

StupidiNews!

• The world continues to wait on details after Algerian forces stormed the natural gas fields where Islamist militants were holding dozens of hostages.
• Two Ohio men were arrested after their target practice with an AK-47 hit a neighboring home and barely missed a police officer responding to reports of gunfire.
• Former Mexican President Felipe Calderon's office issued nearly 100 casino permits on his last day in office as a scandal grows in Mexico City.
• Madrid's regional government in Spain will auction off nearly a dozen government buildings and 100 properties over 3 years in order to reduce government deficit.
• Utah Democrat Jim Matheson wants to fine video game makers up to $5,000 for games without an ESRB rating as the latest effort to regulate video games begins.

Last Call: And It Continues In Earnest, Part 5

And the Obama Derangement kicks up another very serious notch, as Mississippi Republican Gov. Phil Bryant and a couple dozen GOP state lawmakers held a press conference just after President Obama's announcement of several executive action involving gun control to say that the state really doesn't give a damn about this whole union thing, and will simply refuse to enforce federal regulations the Governor doesn't like.

Leading the charge to ignore new federal regulations is Mississippi, where the state’s Republican governor and state House speaker took to the mics right after Obama finished announcing his plans and pledged to ensure the ones they don’t like don’t take effect in the state.

The Constitution is clear that such an effort would be illegal. Nevertheless, the Mississippi leaders say they have a plan.

From the Jackson Clarion-Ledger:

Gov. Phil Bryant and House Speaker Philip Gunn said they would block any federal measures limiting the right to bear and possess arms from being enforced in Mississippi. … State Rep. Chris Brown, R-Aberdeen, said he is drafting legislation to say that firearms manufactured in Mississippi would fall under state law and wouldn’t be subjected to federal regulations.

Earlier in the day, Bryant made his intentions known in a letter posted online. Bryant wrote that Mississippi lawmakers should be read to block any Obama executive actions that infringe on the right to bear arms. Once the list of Obama’s executive actions were announced, Bryant held a press conference in the capitol to say they don’t all bother him. “He isn’t opposed to background checks and enforcing laws already on the books, but he doesn’t believe in limiting the type of guns or ammunition a person can possess,” according to the Clarion-Ledger.

“When it’s for self protection, you need as much firepower as needed to protect your family,” he said.

Two issues here, the Governor's nullification of executive orders, and the argument that any guns or ammo made in the state aren't subject to any federal regulations.  Either one of those would be laughed out of the Supreme Court.  The much larger problem is we have a sitting state Governor and over two dozen legislators saying they reserve the right to ignore the federal government.

The last time that happened, it didn't work out so well for the country.

This has now gone beyond mere bluster if Bryant goes through with this:  it's open rebellion of a state government against the federal.

Welcome to Obama's second term, folks.

Use As Directed

To all the "guns don't kill people" out there:  yes, they do.  And they kill people right here in Kentucky.

A 12-year-old girl was fighting for her life at a Lexington hospital Wednesday after a shooting that killed her father and a cousin Tuesday in a parking lot at Hazard Community and Technical College.

Killed were Caitlin Cornett, 20, who was living in Letcher County, and her uncle Jackie "Doug" Cornett, 53, of the Perry County community of Happy, Hazard Assistant Police Chief Joe Engle said.

Jackie Cornett's daughter, Taylor Cornett, a sixth-grader at R.W. Combs Elementary School in Perry County, was in critical condition at University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital, hospital spokeswoman Julie Phillips said.

Hazard police charged Dalton Stidham, 21, Caitlin Cornett's former boyfriend, with two counts of murder, one related to domestic violence, and one count of attempted murder. Stidham turned himself in to Kentucky State Police after the shooting.

So where'd he get the firearm?  Two hours earlier.

Kenny Woods, a Baptist minister who owns H & K Gun & Pawn Shop in Perry County, said in a telephone interview Wednesday that Stidham bought the gun legally at his shop about 1 p.m. Tuesday.

"He cleared a background check without even a delay," Woods said. "Everything was fine with him."

Sure.  And then the guy supposedly takes the gun he just bought, offs his ex-girlfriend, offs her father, and puts another round in a 12-year old girl just because she was there.   I know.  "Unfortunate cost of the freedom that the Second Amendment provides the rest of us," right?  Two dead, one in critical condition, that gun "sure solved that problem with that stupid bitch who dumped him", right?  He bought the gun just a neatly as you please, "proves background checks don't work," right?

Please continue to justify to yourself how the problem has nothing to do with the tens of millions of firearms in the country, and has everything to do with everything other than the tens of millions of firearms in this country, you know?

Guns.  Used as directed.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/01/16/2478339/12-year-old-critical-after-hazard.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/01/16/2478339/12-year-old-critical-after-hazard.html#storylink=cpy

RIP, Dearest Abby

MINNEAPOLIS — Pauline Friedman Phillips, who under the name of Abigail Van Buren, wrote the long-running “Dear Abby” advice column that was followed by millions of newspaper readers throughout the world, has died. She was 94.

Phillips was always in competition with her twin sister, the famous Ann Landers (Esther Lederer), but the two women brought advice columns to the attention of the general population.  They may not have been the first, or the only, but they were the best.  Their styles were different but that also let them cover wider topics.

Phillip's daughter had taken over the column years ago when Pauline was officially diagnosed with Alzheimer's.  Though sources conflict, the rumor is that Phillips and her famous sister buried the hatchet after years of arguing.  Ann Landers eventually handed the column down to her daughter before she died in 2002.  Jeanne Phillips is better known as Dear Margo now.  The fact that just about everyone alive, old or young, knows the phrase "Dear Abby" is a testament to how many people this family of helpful authors have reached.

Rest in peace, dear lady.  You most certainly earned it.

And It Continues In Earnest, Part 4

The derangement never stops, folks.  This time we have yet another House Republican calling for impeachment because of "executive overreach" on gun control enforcement.

Rep. Trey Radel (R-Fla.) said Wednesday that "all options should be on the table" when asked about the possibility of Republicans initiating impeachment proceedings against President Obama.

In an interview with Florida political website The Shark Tank, the freshman lawmaker was asked about the possibility of impeaching the president for executive overreach. Citizens "have completely lost our checks and balances in this country," he said. "The Congress needs to hold the president accountable for the decisions that he’s making right now, and that's why, again, I would say that all options should be on the table.”

I say to Rep. Radel what I said to Rep. Stockman yesterday:  please proceed, gentlemen, preferably sooner.  Please, please do this before 2014.  It'll be awesome.

Meanwhile, the excellent Roy Edroso flags down this diatribe from winger blog Confederate Yankee:

Were an angry group of disenfranchised citizens to target in a strategic manner the substations leading to a city or geographic area—say, Albany, for example—they could put the area in the dark for as long as it took to bring the substations back online. Were they committed enough, and spread their attacks out over a wide enough area, perhaps mixing in a few tens of dozens of the residential transformers found every few hundred yards along city streets, they could overwhelm the utility companies ability to repair the damage being caused or law enforcement’s ability to stop them...

How many days with partial power or no power, how many nights in the dark, would it take before the local economy collapsed in the targeted area? Insurgents could cripple a city, region, or state, without ever firing a bullet at another human being. 

Progressives seeking to undermine the Constitution seem to think they hold all the cards. I would warn them that they are not remotely prepared for what will happen if they attempt to cross Constitutional boundaries and natural rights. 

It could be a cold, dark winter. 

Tread carefully.

But don't you dare call them the right wing Taliban, right?   FBI should be knocking on this clown's door any minute now.

StupidiNews!

• President Obama signed a number of executive orders and unveiled a list of legislative goals for Congress to tackle on gun safety, but any legislation faces near total GOP opposition.
• A group of America's CEOs, the Business Roundtable, is calling for Social Security and Medicare cuts and raising the eligibility age of both to 70.
• Islamist militants in Algeria are holding dozens of foreign energy workers hostage at a gas field in retaliation for the French escalation of ground forces in neighboring Mali.
• The FAA has officially grounded all US Boeing 787 Dreamliners after a rash of electrical fires in the planes.
• The federal court district of East Texas is back on top when it comes to patent trolling cases filed by foreign companies to attack US patent holders.

Last Call

Bobby Jindal is the latest governor to shift the tax burden away from the 1% to the middle class and poor, his latest scam to eliminate the state's income and corporate tax and nearly double the state's sales tax from 4 to 7 percent would end up raising taxes on the bottom 80% of Louisiana residents, and cutting them massively on businesses and the wealthy.

According to an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Jindal’s plan will raise taxes on the bottom 80 percent of Louisianians, while cutting them for the richest 1 percent:

– The bottom 80 percent of Louisianans in the income distribution would see a tax increase from repealing the personal and corporate income taxes and replacing them with a higher sales tax.
– The poorest 20 percent of taxpayers, those with an average income of $12,000, would see an average tax increase of $395, or 3.4 percent of their income, if no low income tax relief mechanism is offered.
– The middle 20 percent, those with an average income of $43,000, would see an average tax increase of $534, or 1.2 percent of their income.
– The largest beneficiaries of the tax proposal would be the top 1 percent—a group with an average income of well over $1 million. Louisianans in the top 1 percent would see an average tax cut of $25,423, or 2.3 percent of their income under the plan described above.

Seems like a raw deal there for most folks, because it is.  All this "revenue-neutral" scheme does is transfer the burden of taxes from the wealthy to the poor.  It doesn't raise additional taxes for services to help the poor (that's what "revenue neutral" means), it just makes everything they buy cost more:  food, clothing, other essentials.  You know, because the poor aren't paying their fair share, it seems.  If the rich pay less in taxes, that frees up money for them to...what, exactly?  Stash in offshore accounts rather than go into the state's economy?

Meanwhile, taxes go up on the little people and of course they'll rebel, and Bobby will say 'Well poors, you can either pay your sales tax or I can cut it along with your programs.  Your choice."  because We Can't Afford Nice Things.

And It Continues In Earnest, Part 3

If you thought the Birthers have wandered off into that good oblivion, you'd be wrong too.  This weekend the tinfoil hat morons are trying to do everything they can to find a way to stop Monday's inauguration and save America from a "foreign-born Muslim usurper".

Most Americans have moved on from earlier dalliances with denials of the president’s biography. National opinion polls have shown increases over the past three years in the percentage of Americans who agree that Obama was born in the United States and that he is a Christian. But a persistent minority — between a tenth and a fifth in most polls — still believe he is Muslim, foreign-born or a socialist.

Those voters tend to be vehement opponents of Obama, and on Inauguration Day, they will not be at the party — and they’re still searching for ways to have the president declared illegitimate.

“Let’s face it, this is a man very deep into an ideology that is not American,” says the Rev. Clenard Childress, a New Jersey minister and antiabortion activist who says black and white voters alike returned Obama to office “to feel better about ourselves and get the guilt of racism off us.”

Childress says it’s 50-50 that Obama is a Muslim who was born in Kenya: “But what I really care about is do we have the same values? Do you believe in the sanctity of life? Do you believe in marriage as being between man and woman? And this president does not.”

Gosh, what's different about this president?   At least one defender of the Obama administration has figured out the real issue with the birther idiocy.

Those who monitor anti-Obama movements say the inauguration will do nothing to quiet the rapids. “The rhetoric since the election has actually gotten more vicious,” says Kevin Davidson, better known as “Dr. Conspiracy,” his handle on his Web site, Obama Conspiracy Theories, which keeps tabs on those who declare Obama’s presidency illegitimate.

Davidson, a retired software developer in South Carolina, has been predicting for four years that hardcore anti-Obama agitation would dissipate, but it keeps going, driven, he believes, by anti-black sentiment. “I’ve seen more openly racist remarks since the election,” he says. “Before November, they were careful to control the racist language because they were trying to persuade people to vote against him. Now they sort of don’t care.”

Got it in one.  The lunatics aren't going away because the President is still black.  It's always been about race for millions of these bigoted fools.  And since these are the loons that control the GOP, expect impeachment to be on the menu before it's all said and done, as the President faces charges of Executive Leadership of the United States while Black.

Count on it.

And It Continues In Earnest, Part 2

Texas isn't about to let any county mountie in East Nowhere, Kentucky take the prize for the most unhinged response to gun control regs.  No sir, one Lone Star State Republican wants the state to not only refuse to enforce any federal firearms regulations at all, but to imprison anyone in the state who tries to enforce them.

State Rep. Steve Toth, a Republican, is looking to push his “Firearms Protection Act,” which would prevent any Congressional or Executive act banning or restricting so-called assault firearms and extended clips from affecting the state. In fact, any such action would be considered illegal, 1200 WOAI news of San Antonio, Texas, reported Tuesday.

Toth’s measure would make it a felony for federal officers to enforce any such ban in Texas, carrying the heavy punishment of a $50,000 fine and as many as five years in prison.

“If a federal official comes into the state of Texas to enforce the federal executive order, that person is subject to criminal prosecution,” Toth told the news station.

The lawmaker added that there needed to be a showdown between state and federal government over the Supremacy Clause, which dictates that federal law take precedence over state laws.

“It is our responsibility to push back when those laws are infringed by King Obama,” he said

Hey moron, nullification's been tried before.  Ask South Carolina what happened when it tried.   But these assholes want a rematch on the Civil War, well hey.

Let's see who wins that.

StupidiNews!

• After months of Republican delay, the House has passed the rest of the $50 billion Sandy relief measure, with a 241-180 vote.
• 18 human heads, misplaced medical specimens from Italy, turned up at Chicago's O'Hare Airport discovered by TSA officials.
• Japan's All Nippon Airways has grounded all of its new Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes after one was forced to make an emergency landing due to a battery fire Tuesday.
• McDonald's new McBaguette sandwich in France is debuting to solid reviews as the continuing EU recession drives more people to fast food offerings.
• Officials are reviewing how two US power plants were infected by a computer virus spread by a USB flash drive in November and December.

Last Call

The Washington Post's Sarah Kliff has a very sobering (if not outright depressing) piece about access to abortion in 2013. Here's a hint:  Seven out of eight women live in counties where there are no doctors providing abortion services.  That number is expected to get significantly worse.

It’s been almost 40 years since since the Supreme Court legalized abortion on Jan. 22, 1973, galvanizing people on both sides. Abortion clinics sprang up across the country. The National Right to Life Committee was founded. Opponents and proponents girded for an epic conflict.

But today, the battle is a slog of legislative fights and piecemeal regulations. Here, in a city where the battle over abortion was frequently and sometimes violently joined, combatants on both sides agree: They are dead-tired of the struggle over this clinic’s existence.

Claire Keyes, the longtime director of the Allegheny Reproductive Health Center, recalls thinking that the Supreme Court had settled the abortion argument, once and for all. “When I came into the clinic for the first time, the feeling that we had was this sense of giddiness,” she said. “Women had gained the right to control their own destiny.”

That was then.  This is now.

As the 40th anniversary of Roe approaches, Keyes is fearful about the future of abortion rights — and the clinic.

“It’s never been this frightening before,” she said. “I don’t know if we’re going to make it.”

A Pennsylvania law passed in 2011 requires surgical abortion clinics to become certified as ambulatory surgical centers and meet other rules.

Eight of Pennsylvania’s 22 surgical abortion providers failed to gain approval under the new law.
They can offer medical abortions, using a prescription drug, but not perform surgical procedures. To comply with the regulations, abortion clinics will need to install hospital-grade elevators and have a set number of parking spaces.

“Sometimes I think the regulations are what will actually get us, more than what we saw in the early years,” said Thompson, one of the clinic’s three doctors. He’s in his late 60s and isn’t sure who will take his place when he retires.

Pennsylvania had 50 providers of abortion care in 2008, an 11 percent decrease since 2005, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

With other clinics closing and the facility she spent three decades directing in jeopardy, Keyes now finds it difficult to find the optimism she has held for decades.

And at every turn, states are making abortion increasingly impossible for women to get, and increasingly impossible to provide.  Nobody seems to care much, frankly.  Republicans are passing rafts of abortion measures in state after state.

But frankly, the vast majority of women don't have access to abortions, not without an increasingly crazy maze of social shaming, expensive multiple trips, and assumption of mental incompetence that they are unable to make decisions about their own body.  The same "small government" types have no problem using the full power of the state to legislate morality.

Funny how that works.