Maybe This Time Really Is Different

On Sunday, newly minted North Dakota Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp was not only dismissing the President's position on gun control out of hand, sight unseen, but then she called gun control something that "shouldn't even be talked about."

That lasted approximately 48 hours before the rookie got her welcome to DC. This time around, it's different.

Chalk one up for the gun control crowd? A spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence said Tuesday that his group had scared freshman Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) off of her tough criticism of the White House gun violence task force.

The group ran newspaper ads on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. and North Dakota, two days after Heitkamp went on television to express serious concerns about gun control ideas the White House was reportedly considering in the wake of the Newtown, Conn. school massacre. A spokesman for the group said the ads worked.

“She got the message,” Ladd Everitt, spokesperson for the CSGV, told TPM. He said the 48 hours since Heitkamp went on TV showcase a new, more aggressive tactic by gun control advocates to push politicians to back its agenda.

In fact, it didn't take long at all for Heitkamp to go the Full Manchin:

“Senator Heitkamp believes that Americans have a right to bear arms. But with that right, come responsibilities. And we have a responsibility to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill, while protecting the rights of law abiding gun owners. Senator Heitkamp also believes that the problem of violence in America must be dealt with in a multifaceted way. While every option must be considered there is no one single answer. The discussion and ultimate solution to these mass violence tragedies must go beyond a singular focus on gun laws, and that the discussion must examine mental health, school security, and community development to help parents identify and address children potentially suffering from mental illness. Senator Heitkamp has clearly stated that all options must be on the table when it comes to addressing gun violence in America.” 

It's a start, at least.  We'll see where her votes lie.

StupidiNews!

• US officials say the White House is considering the possibility of removing all US troops from Afghanistan in 2014.
• Cyclist Lance Armstrong will discuss allegations of doping in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, scheduled to air on January 17th.
• Tunisian authorities have released the only suspect held so far in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks in Benghazi, prompting new worries about the Libyan investigation.
• After five years of steep cuts, state and local governments are expected to finally start adding more than 200,000 jobs in 2013.
• As more and more gamers turn to online purchases, brick and mortar GameStop has cut 4th quarter estimates from a slight gain to a 7% loss.

Last Call

As you probably expected if you followed the weather news this year or live in the continental US and experienced it yourself, 2012 is now in the books as the warmest year on record.  The staggering piece of news here is that the old warmest year on record, 1998, was beaten by a full degree.

The warmest weather compared to average was concentrated in the central part of the U.S. but was so pervasive that only coastal sections of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska had average or below average temperatures. In the contiguous U.S., every state had above average temperatures. Nineteen states had their warmest year on record and an additional 26 states had one of their top 10 warmest years.

2012 contributed to a streak of 16 consecutive months of above average temperatures over the U.S. that started in June 2011.

“That has never occurred [before in U.S. climate records] and is clearly symptomatic of a changing climate,” NCDC’s director Tom Karl said.

The year began very warm with the fourth mildest winter on record followed by a record-setting spring, more than five degrees above average.

The early warmth produced a “tremendous green-up” in corn and soybean growing areas of the Midwest and farmers planted their crops as early they could, Karl said.

But this backfired as temperatures continued to climb and rains diminished. July was the hottest month ever recorded in the U.S. and the summer overall ranked second warmest on record.

“An estimated 99.1 million people experienced 10 or more days of summer temperatures greater than 100°F, nearly one-third of the nation’s population,” NCDC said.

And not only was 2012 the hottest year on record, it was one of the driest.  Enjoy folks, you'll be wishing for 2012's "cool" temps ten years from now.

The Right Kind Of Payback On DADT

Yet another example of social justice that would never have happened under Presidents McCain or Romney:  the Pentagon is giving full back pay to servicemembers discharged under Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

In a landmark settlement, the Pentagon has agreed to give full back pay to U.S. service members who were discharged due to their sexual orientation under the military's “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

The payouts will be granted to service members dismissed from the military under the now-repealed policy on or after November 2004.

“This means so much to those of us who dedicated ourselves to the military, only to be forced out against our will for being who we are,” former Air Force Staff Sgt. Richard Collins said in a statement from the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the lawsuit.

Under "Don’t ask," service members who were honorably discharged automatically had their separation pay cut in half.

The ACLU of New Mexico sued the Pentagon on behalf of 181 service members who were dismissed under the policy to recover their full pay. Each solider, sailor, airman and Marine in the case will receive, on average, a payout of $13,000, the ACLU said.

The Defense Department will pay a total of $2.4 million to the plaintiffs.

It's the least we could do for these folks, in a federal job where they were fired for even suggesting they were LGBT.  It was nonsense when Clinton proposed it, and the country finally caught on to what an ingrained policy of discrimination meant for the federal government.  The rest of the country (and especially this President) is coming around, thankfully.

No doubt we'll be hearing about Republicans screaming to cut the defense budget now, right?

The Weight Of Finali-Tea

When even Rasmussen has the Tea Party in the single digits among Americans, you know the movement is dead.

Views of the Tea Party movement are at their lowest point ever, with voters for the first time evenly divided when asked to match the views of the average Tea Party member against those of the average member of Congress.  Only eight percent (8%) now say they are members of the Tea Party, down from a high of 24% in April 2010 just after passage of the national health care law. 

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 30% of Likely U.S. Voters now have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party. Half (49%) of voters have an unfavorable view of the movement. Twenty-one percent (21%) are undecided.

And yet the GOP is scrambling to serve the whims of 8% of America at the expense of the other 92% of us.  Sounds like the death knell of a fringe party to me.

StupidiNews!

• The Alabama Crimson Tide rolled to their second straight BCS college football championship and third title in four years, dispatching Notre Dame 42-14 and prompting talk of a new dynasty.
• With NASA's estimation of 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, data suggests there may be as many as 17 billion Earth-sized planets out there.
• South Sudan's second anniversary approaches, as civil war continues to rage on the border with Sudan to the north.
• New noise rules being proposed this week would require electric cars to be outfitted with external speakers to prevent the near silent cars from injuring the visually impaired.
• GOP Rep. Darrel Issa wants the Federal Trade Commission investigated as the possible source of leaks in 2012's antitrust case against Google.

Last Call

But racism is dead, they told me.  It's all "reverse racism" now.  Old racism simply doesn't ha...errm, uh-oh.

 

A Mexican restaurant in Columbia, South Carolina is being criticized for its racist T-shirts showing a wooden trap using tacos as bait with the caption “HOW TO CATCH AN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT”.

As the Palmetto Public Record notes, a South Carolina reporter tweeted a photo yesterday of someone who appears to be a Taco Cid restaurant employee wearing the offensive shirt.

ThinkProgress spoke with an employee at Taco Cid who confirmed that restaurant workers indeed wear the shirt. He also noted that patrons can purchase it as well.

Taco Cid, a one-star restaurant that has shuttered franchises in recent years, appears to have cribbed the design from the “Offensive Obscene & Sex Related Tees” section of an online apparel designer.

Keep it classy, South Carolina.  Home to a bunch of racist jagoffs who can't even come up with an original racist idea and steal it off a website because they're lazy on top of being clueless bigots.

Nice work, clowns.

Reading The Hagel-ography

Fred Kaplan over at Slate thinks he has the reasons why Republicans hate Chuck Hagel as Defense Secretary:

The real question is what kind of job Obama wants his next secretary of defense to do. I have no inside knowledge on this, but judging from some of his actions and remarks on matters of national defense, Hagel seems to be the right choice. And that’s what disturbs the most outspoken Hagel-resisters.

These resisters have four main concerns. They fear that Hagel will cut the military budget. They fear that he’ll roll over if Iran builds a nuclear weapon. They fear that he’s too reluctant to use military force generally. And they fear he doesn’t much like Israel; the extremists on this point claim he’s anti-Semitic.

Kaplan then discusses these points, and finds they're all nonsense.

Let’s look at the real issues. Hagel is a former two-term Republican senator. He won two Purple Hearts as an infantry squad leader in Vietnam. No one could possibly dispute his devotion to the country, its security, or its armed forces. But he is a pragmatist, and there may be the rub. What Republicans seem to fear most is that by appointing Hagel as secretary of defense, Obama can claim a false bipartisanship in his national-security team. In fact, these critics say Hagel does not reflect the values or positions of the Republican Party; his presence in Cabinet meetings would not constitute real bipartisanship.

If that is true, the real problem is with the present-day Republican Party. It’s often said that today’s GOP wouldn’t nominate Ronald Reagan for president. By the same token, much of its leadership would rail against Robert Gates for secretary of defense.

For once, Kaplan is right.  Also, let's not forget that the real reason the Republican party will fight Chuck Hagel as Pentagon head is the fact that Barack Obama is the one nominating him.  President Obama could nominate anyone -- even a Republican, mind you -- and they would be shot down.

Republicans are going to block anything the President tries to do, and then cry "DICTATORSHIP!" when the President is forced to use executive orders and recess appointments to do anything at all.  That certainly didn't change just because the President, you know, won the election.

Drunk With Power

Sen. Rand Paul, call your office please.

The son of U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, and the grandson of former presidential candidate Ron Paul, was arrested Saturday morning at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.

Police said William Hilton Paul, 19, was traveling early Saturday from Lexington, Ky., to Charlotte.

When the plane landed about 10:49 a.m., Paul was charged with consuming beer/wine underage, disorderly conduct and being intoxicated and disruptive.

“He was possibly served alcohol on the flight,” Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Lt. Blake Hollar said.

Rand Paul’s office issued a brief statement: “Sen. Paul is a national public figure and subject to scrutiny in the public arena. However, as many parents with teenagers would understand, his family should be afforded the privacy and respect they deserve in a situation such as this.” 

Really?  He's legally over 18 and doing a drunk and disorderly in an airport at ten in the morning.   That's 60 to 120 days in jail and a suspended license for a year on just the underage charge, plus the D&D.  Now, nobody expects a US senator's son to end up in the Mecklenburg County jail for two months, but you know, isn't that a states' rights issue, as both Rand and Ron Paul have said?

Should get interesting if the charges aren't dismissed outright.  He's still the son of a senator.  Not exactly subject to the laws their parents write, you know.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/01/06/3768359/man-idd-as-rand-pauls-son-arrested.html#storylink=cpy

StupidiNews!

• President Obama is expected to formally nominate former Nebraska Republican Senator Chuck Hagel to the post of Secretary of Defense.
• Scientists studying dark matter have managed to break the absolute zero temperature barrier, creating readings below zero degrees kelvin.
• Construction is finally complete on a new hybrid airship that combines a zeppelin and an airplane for large cargo lifting, with the airship's first flight soon.
• As Chinese flat screen TV makers are getting into the US market, analysts say competition could sharply lower prices of new TV sets in 2013.
• The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas gets underway this week as tech companies show off the latest and greatest for 2013.

Mitch's Chainsaw Massacre

To recap, Republicans like Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell still haven't figured out the difference between playing your hand, and badly overplaying your hand.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Sunday said Republicans will demand steep spending cuts during the next round of budget negotiations.

McConnell, in an interview with ABC’s “This Week,” said President Obama had won all he’s going to get on taxes in last week’s agreement to extend the Bush-era tax rates for most taxpayers.

“The tax issue is, finished, over, completed. That’s behind us now. The question is: what are we going to do about the biggest problem confronting us and our future,” McConnell said.

McConnell said next round of negotiations over a deal to raise the debt-ceiling would need to include Democratic concessions on spending.

Mitchy here believes steep cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security are going to make him popular here in Kentucky (one of the poorest states in the nation) in 2014.  Sure, Mitch.  Even the Village is calling you out on this fantasy.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me just interrupt you there. In the last year in the Budget Control Act, the Congress actually cut $1.5 trillion in spending. That’s more than was raised in revenue in this last fiscal cliff deal. So are you saying that any discussion of revenue is completely off the table going forward? You will not accept any new revenues in any new deal?

McCONNELL: Yeah, absolutely. The tax issue is behind us. Now the question is, what are we going to do about the real problem?

The "real problem" is that Mitch McConnell, a guy who has seen his personal wealth jump nearly 800% to $27 million dollars since 2004, feels the poor and the elderly of Kentucky and the nation have to suffer even more.  Mitch is going to be able to retire quite comfortably.

What about you, fellow Kentucky voters?  Do you feel that your retirement money is the "real problem" in America like Mitch does?

One Heck Of A Hat Trick

And I woke up this morning to a nice surprise: a new tenative deal between NHL players and management could mean that what's left of this year's NHL season may be saved after all.

The National Hockey League and the NHL Players' Association struck a tentative agreement early Sunday that may end a more-than-100-day lockout of unionized players, the league said in a statement posted on its website.

The new agreement reached in New York still must be approved by both the players and owners, the NHL said. 

"After a marathon 16-plus hour negotiating session at the Sofitel Hotel that began Saturday afternoon, the sides announced an agreement in principle shortly after 5 a.m. Sunday," the league said.

Some players had a "crucial role in the final stages" of reaching the agreement, the union said. "Players in the room early Sunday for the announcement were: Craig Adams, Chris Campoli, Mathieu Darche, Shane Doan, Andrew Ference, Ron Hainsey, Jamal Mayers and George Parros," the players association said.

A shortened season would at least mean we'd get to see hockey this year, but as I said earlier, two crippling lockouts in eight years means I've got no real incentive to go to any games and make the drive to Columbus, let alone Pittsburgh, Detroit, St. Louis or Chicago...and remember, it's still not even a done deal.

NHL has a lot of work to do to make it up to the fans.

Last Call

We leave tonight with an interesting and disturbing point from Steve M. on "crisis pregnancy centers" and the right's virtual nullification of abortion in a growing number of states spreading to other things they don't like:

It makes me wonder what will happen if, someday, the Supreme Court decides that there's a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. Will couples seeking marriage licenses (straight and gay, or maybe just gay) be required to undergo counseling that warns of the evils of homosexuality and the describes heterosexual marriage as the bedrock of civilization? Will some state actually try to compel gay couples seeking marriage licenses to at least undergo one session of gay-conversion therapy? And will conservative federal judges conclude that these are "reasonable" hoops to jump through in order to get married? 

Conservatives are doing this with voting laws that make voting as difficult and as time-consuming as they can to lower the number of people voting,  laws to make programs to help the poor as shameful and as onerous to qualify as possible, and everything having to do with women's health as awful as possible. Why wouldn't they make gay marriage as difficult as possible too?

Like A Five Alarm Fire(arm)

President Obama and the Democrats see an opportunity here with the GOP still reeling from the fiscal cliff foolishness and the new 113th Congress just seated to pivot to new gun control laws.

While the fiscal cliff has dominated Washington’s attention in recent weeks, lawmakers and activists are laying the groundwork for their big push. Vice President Joe Biden, tasked with heading a commission to investigate gun violence, has been quietly meeting with experts, interest groups, and public officials and is expected to release a set of recommendations within weeks. Boston mayor Thomas Menino, co-chair of Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns, told the Boston Herald this week that an optimistic Biden had assured him that Obama would sign legislation “by the end of January.”

“We had been led to believe their report would come by end of January, but we’re hearing they may want to have something out by January 15, even quicker than expected,” Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, told TPM.

House Democrats are moving ahead with their own plans as well. On Friday, Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA), chair of the newly created Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, announced the appointment of 12 vice chairs, including Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), the body’s leading voice on gun control. According to a Democratic aide, the group plans to release its recommendations in early February and is already organizing public hearings on the issue.

Obama has personally identified an assault weapons ban and limits on ammunition magazine size as top priorities. Other possible reforms could include background check requirements for purchases at gun shows, a loophole that’s helped create a huge market of off-record arms purchases. 

In addition to public hearings and new legislation, Vice President Biden's task force and a big push from gun control groups, the United States Conference of Mayors in DC later this month is expected to be a pretty big platform for the country's mayors to have a say in the matter.

We'll see what becomes of this blitz, but I'm betting this will dominate the news starting next week, especially given today's latest shooting tragedy in Aurora, Colorado.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• A magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck off the southern coast of Alaska, but tsunami warnings have been canceled as the quake only created swells of less than a foot.
• Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords met with several families of victims of the Newtown massacre on Friday.
• Idaho GOP Sen. Mike Crapo has plead guilty to a DUI charge in Virginia from December, earning a $250 fine, a suspended license for a year, and a 180-day suspended jail sentence.
• Hulu TV service CEO Jason Pilar is stepping down only months after receiving a multimillion dollar payout from the company.
• A California teenager and her friend have been arrested for drugging her parents' drinks in order to stop a wi-fi curfew.