Republican Vote For Another Virginia Tech Massacre

Twenty-three year old Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people on the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, before taking his own life. Cho had been ordered by a court to seek mental health help, and had a history of bizarre behavior and violent threats. Cho picks up a Walther P-22 pistol he purchased online on February 2 from an out-of-state dealer at JND Pawn shop in Blacksburg, across the street from Virginia Tech. Cho purchases a 9mm Glock pistol and 50 rounds of ammunition from Roanoke Firearms for $571. On April 16, 2007 hco murdered 32 people at Virginia Tech.

Now Republicans want to open the “Crazy Peple” loophole up again at the behest of the NRA.

Senate Does NRA’s Bidding, Lets 75,000 Mentally Ill People Buy Guns

Republicans voted to end a policy that sends the names of people unable to work because of ‘severe’ impairments to have their backgrounds checked.

Wednesday morning, the Senate decided to join their brethren and sistren in the House of Representatives and vote to place guns in the hands of people too mentally unstable to manage their own bank accounts. Really.

With every Republican and a few mindless Democrats joining them because “please don’t hurt me, voters, already supporting my opponent” seems like sound strategy, the Senate gave its imprimatur to H.J. Res. 40. This will rollback the Social Security Administration (SSA) policy begun under President Obama to share with our NICS background check system the 75,000 individuals who are unable to work because of “severe mental impairment” and an inability to manage their own Social Security benefits.

No worries—here’s your AR-15!

You might think to yourself, given that we’ve just learned that the Trump Campaign had regular get togethers with Russian intelligence to share secrets and play Twister last year, that the Senate might have something better to do with its time. You might also think that Republican legislators who pretend to support better mental health after each mass shooting would gag at the irony piled upon hypocrisy of passing legislation such as this. But then you’d have to have never observed the people running the majority in both our House and Senate.

When folks out there—usually those who have busy lives and understandably just want Washington to solve our major problems—ask “why can’t both sides just work together and get common sense, moderate legislation passed?”, this is your answer. This is why.

For there’s a legitimate debate to be had about many gun laws proposed by those, like me, who think we need much stricter regulation. It can honestly be contested whether someone who has passed a background check should have the right to an assault weapon, or whether that’s too much military firepower for citizens to possess in a democratic society (my position). There can be legitimate arguments also about how loose or stringent we should make concealed carry laws for legal gun owners. I’d argue that without proven need, a written test and serious time on the range, it’s a no go, but others can make legitimate cases for other positions.

There, however, is no legitimate argument for not requiring that people purchasing firearms do what private babysitting services ask of their employees: a comprehensive background check. Why would any sane society not do every single thing in its power to prevent those who have proven criminally violent or incapable of taking care of themselves from getting their hands on weapons that kill?

 

Tennessee Republican Sponsor of Anti-LGBT Bill…Is a Sexual Predator

Yet another white deviant Republican sexual predator playing holier than thou….

GOP cosponsor of anti-trans bathroom bill is a danger to ‘unsuspecting women’, probe finds

A Republican state lawmaker in Tennessee who is pushing to strip transgender people of bathroom rights has been found to be a danger to “unsuspecting women.”

Last week, Tennessee House Speaker Beth Harwell exiled state Rep. Jeremy Durham from his offices at the War Memorial Building and limited his access to other areas after Attorney General Herbert Slatery issued a warning that the lawmaker’s behavior posed “a continuing risk to unsuspecting women who are employed by or interact with the legislature.”

Slatery’s office is leading an investigation into multiple sexual harassment complaints against Durham. Although the investigation is not complete, Slatery said that the warning was necessary because of information learned during interviews with 34 different women.

“With few exceptions, the women who related incidents felt they could not report Representative Durham’s behavior because nothing could be done and they did not want to lose their jobs or be considered ‘untrustworthy’ by employers, clients or legislators,” the letter said.

According to the report, women said that they “avoid or refuse to be alone with Representative Durham, a situation which has affected their ability to perform their jobs.”

Speaker Harwell said in a statement that she was moving Durham’s office “to the ground floor of the Rachel Jackson Building, and limiting his access to the Legislative Plaza, War Memorial Building, Rachel Jackson Building, and 2nd floor of the State Capitol for official legislative business only.”

The Advocate reported that Durham is one of the key sponsors of House Bill 2414, which would prevent transgender people from using public bathrooms corresponding to their gender. The bill mirrors anti-LGBT bills that have been recently passed in North Carolina and Mississippi.

Proponents of the bill argue that it would protect women from being harassed. And although 34 women have stepped forward to complain about Durham, there have been no reported cases of transgender people sexually harassing others in public bathrooms.

 

Teen Shake Up How New Jersey Counsels Teen Abuse Victims

Wow…Making it better for Teen abuse victims…

These Teens Just Made It A Lot Easier For New Jersey Kids To Get Counseling

When one young man was let down by the system, he decided things had to change.

It all started three years ago, when Jordan Thomas, then 16, decided he needed to talk to a counselor.

At the time, Thomas was experiencing emotional and physical abuse at home, and he wanted to talk to a professional. Because Thomas was a minor, New Jersey law said he needed the consent of a guardian to do so. But when Thomas asked his mother for permission, she said no.

“I have no idea why she would say no,” said Thomas, now a freshman at Rutgers University. “All I know is that she did say that.”

Thomas, now 19, was never able to get his mother’s permission, but his experience ignited in him a desire to fix the system. Working with his peers at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Hudson County, Thomas helped fix the law that had stopped him from accessing mental health services.

Thomas and the BGCHC were the driving forces behind the Boys & Girls Clubs Keystone Law, which passed this month in New Jersey. Thanks to their efforts, New Jersey minors no longer need permission from a guardian to receive therapy.

Not every teen experiencing abuse is as lucky as Thomas, who had a support system of peers and adults in the Boys and Girls Clubs of Hudson County, of which he was president in 2014. He ended up entering the foster care system just a few months after his request for counseling was rejected.

At the same time that Thomas was struggling to find help, the Keystone Club — the service branch of the BGCHC — was looking for ways to address the problem of teen suicide. In 2014, the National Keystone Project called on participants to address the issue. Jordan shared his story with Keystone members, leading others to speak up about their own experiences.

“A parent might not want to give consent to a kid seeking mental health services… because sometimes they might not want outside people to know what’s going on in their house,” said Damiya Critten, 19, a member of BGCHC’s Keystone Club. “They might say, ‘What happens in the house stays in the house.'”

The teens met with the family of Tyler Clementi, the Rutgers University student who took his own life in 2010 after being cyberbullied. They also met with state Assemblymen Carmelo Garcia and Raj Mukherji, who agreed to sponsor a bill on the topic. In October 2014, four members of the BGCHC testified before the New Jersey Legislature.

“[Thomas] ended his testimony saying that he easily could have become another teen suicide statistic had it not been for the Boys and Girls [Clubs] and the support he got here,” said Janet Wallach, director of program development and teen services at BGCHC. “But not every child in New Jersey has that support, and he wants to make sure there are not other young people in that situation.”

The teens said the two-year process of getting the bill passed was a lesson in civics for all of them….More…

 

NRA Supports Selling Terrorists Guns

The whackjobs over at the NRA have truly gone off the deep end. If you are a terrorist…You can buy a gun in America! In fact, you can walk into a gun show, and by as many as you want.

Daily News Compares NRA To Jihadists On Front Page

The New York Daily News used its front page Wednesday to lash out at the National Rifle Association in a big way, comparing the powerful pro-gun group’s lobbying efforts to a “SICK JIHAD.”

“Over 2,000 suspects on terror watch list have legally bought firearms in the U.S. because gun nuts are blocking law that would end this madness,” the front page screamed.

The corresponding story — an editorial written by the paper’s staff — rips into the NRA and its “cowardly” supporters in Congress for blocking passage of the Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act, a bipartisan bill introduced in February by Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Caf.) and Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.):

Setting a new record for lethal insanity, Washington’s pro-gun absolutists insist that suspected terrorists must have an unfettered right to buy assault weapons rivaling those wielded by ISIS in Paris.

These members of Congress are radical fundamentalists of the Second Amendment kind, their extremism so intense that they stifle legislation aimed at denying weapons to potentially violent radicals while at the same time declaring that Syrian refugees, even toddlers, are security threats.

Although felons, domestic abusers, drug addicts and others are prohibited from buying firearms in the U.S., those on the FBI’s consolidated terrorist watch list are not currently disallowed from doing so. According to the Government Accountability Office, people on the watch list purchased guns 2,043 times between 2004 and 2014. …Read the rest Here…

 

The Marathon Bombers…And Gun Control

Not much is being said about this, and it certainly hasn’t risen to the attention of the mainstream media – but…

How exactly did the Boston Marathon terrorists get their explosive material to make a bomb?

 

 

I took a bit of artistic liberty with Michael Ramirez’s excellent and poignant cartoon commentary to add a bit of truth.  The “cowards” in this case sit in the US Congress.

You see – the explosive material for the bombs constructed by the Tsamaev brothers  is commonly available in just about every gun store, and gun show in America.

Now in an America where Homeland Defense is busily putting cameras in just about every spot except up your ass – although if some Republican Senators have their way they will be able to shove them up women’s vaginas… Why is it harder to buy a joint of Marijuana than the tools to kill and maim dozens of your neighbors? (Speaking of – what the heck is the deal with the pot heads in Denver shooting up- instead of smoking –  the joint?)

Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t turned into an advocate for drug use – but guns in America are now paraphernalia for addicts and drug dealers…. And mass killers.

And no sportsman, we aren’t talking about your trusty Remington shotgun here.

This is what I am talking about …

 

This is a one pound container of “gunpowder” (It’s not really “gunpowder” anymore, but it is the fuel which goes bang when you pull the trigger). It also comes in 8 lb packages.  You see – there is a group of, in vast majority law abiding, shooters who like to make their own bullets. (And no – I don’t mean to pick on NORMA, as far as I know they are a perfectly law abiding company with no criminal connection, and there is no published evidence that their product was used in the Boston bombings). However – I can buy this “explosive” in many states he same way I can buy ammunition which already has been assembled containing it – cash and carry. Which apparently is exactly what the Boston Marathon terrorists did.

No – this isn’t C4 or SEMTEX or any of the vastly more powerful Military explosives used by international terrorists. Nor is it Ammonium Nitrate, previously featured in the Oklahoma City Bombing, currently starring in the leveling of an entire Texas town. But you walk into your local store and ask for a block of SEMTEX or C4, and there is a very good chance you will be invited to visit at your local Federal Law Enforcement Office, and get to met some swell FBI or ATF guys with a very limited sense of humor. Indeed – to purchase Ammonium Nitrate which is a common ingredient in many fertilizers requires a background check to make sure you are going to fertilize the fields instead of blow up a buildings.

Ergo in the NRA’s version of America (and 46 Senators), it’s easier to buy “gunpowder” than fertilizer.

So… The 46 azzwipes who voted down watered-down gun legislation are not only guilty of enabling the Newtown killer… But international terrorism via the Boston Marathon terrorists.

Do you really want to live in an America where you have to have armed guards so the kiddies can go to the playground and swing on the swing set?

 

 

 

 

Another Republican Initiative…Another Bigot.

Just like in Arizona – people from Hate groups now have access to state legislatures through Tea Party and Republican majorities. So expect a lot of Jim Crow legislation. Further, taking advantage of legislative majorities in a number of states, there are laws all Republican state legislatures are in lockstep trying to pass. One such law is a law prohibiting the use of Sharia Law in consideration of a court case. It’s nonsense – but Republican bigots are hot to attack Moslems – and just about every other minority group with punitive legislation. It’s time to fight back, just as the Unions are doing in Wisconsin, Indiana, and several other states…

Tea Party Republican Conservatism -- The Rise of the Fourth KKK

 

Meet the White Supremacist Leading the GOP’s Anti-Sharia Crusade

Last week, legislators in Tennessee introduced a radical bill that would make “material support” for Islamic law punishable by 15 years in prison. The proposal marks a dramatic new step in the conservative campaign against Muslim-Americans. If passed, critics say even seemingly benign activities like re-painting the exterior of a mosque or bringing food to a potluck could be classified as a felony.

The Tennessee bill, SB 1028, didn’t come out of nowhere. Though it’s the first of its kind, the bill is part of a wave of related measures that would ban state courts from enforcing Sharia law. (A court might refer to Sharia law in child custody or prisoner rights cases.) Since early 2010, such legislation has been considered in at least 15 states. And while fears of an impending caliphate are myriad on the far-right, the surge of legislation across the country is largely due to the work of one man: David Yerushalmi, an Arizona-based white supremacist who has previously called for a “war against Islam” and tried to criminalize adherence to the Muslim faith…

But it’s not just Muslims who draw Yerushalmi’s scorn. In a 2006 essay for SANE entitled On Race: A Tentative Discussion (pdf), Yerushalmi argued that whites are genetically superior to blacks. “Some races perform better in sports, some better in mathematical problem solving, some better in language, some better in Western societies and some better in tribal ones,” he wrote.

Yerushalmi has suggested that Caucasians are inherently more receptive to republican forms of government than blacks—an argument that’s consistent with SANE’s mission statement, which emphasizes that “America was the handiwork of faithful Christians, mostly men, and almost entirely white.” And in an article published at the website Intellectual Conservative, Yerushalmi, who is Jewish, suggests that liberal Jews “destroy their host nations like a fatal parasite.” Unsurprisingly, then, Yerushalmi offered the lone Jewish defense of Mel Gibson, after the actor’s anti-Semitic tirade in 2006. Gibson, he wrote, was simply noting the “undeniable Jewish liberal influence on western affairs in the direction of a World State.”

Despite his racist views, Yerushalmi has been warmly received by mainstream conservatives; his work has appeared in the National Review and Andrew Breitbart’s Big Peace. He’s been lauded in the pages of the Washington Times. And in 2008, he published a paper on the perils of Sharia-compliant finance that compelled Sen. Minority Whip John Kyl (R-Ariz.) to write a letter to Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Chris Cox.

 

 

President Obama Signs Matthew Sheppard/James Byrd Hate Crimes Law

Bad day for conservatives!

 

Debating Hate Crimes, Rep. Gohmert (R-TX) Conflates Bestiality, Sex With Corpses, and Voting for a Black Man

Bestiality and voting for a black man…

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Proving once again there are no minimum qualifications to be a Congressman in the United States, unlike most other professions. You don’t even have to be of the “sound mind” needed to write a will or get married in many states…

Or smarter than a 5th grader.

Which gets us to the issue of how in Gohmert’s picayune little mind are Hate Crimes Legislation, bestiality, necrophilia, and voting for a black man (Alan Keyes) related?

I mean Keyes may be crazy as a loon, but (as far as I know) he isn’t crazy enough to desire amorous relationships with Elsie the Cow.

This dude is another Republican Sick Puppy.

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