Today's edition of quick hits:
* Keep expectations low: "The House of Representatives will reconvene on Sunday evening, just less than 30 hours before the United States reaches the fiscal cliff."
* While President Obama continues to reach out to congressional leaders, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) apparently expects Congress to fail before the Dec. 31 fiscal deadlines.
* Gun buy-back initiatives may be a drop in the bucket -- less than that, really -- but it's always interesting to see strong public responses to the efforts. Take this one in Los Angeles, for example.
* Putin punishes orphans: "[Russian] President Vladimir V. Putin said on Thursday that he would sign into law a bill banning the adoption of Russian children by American citizens, retaliating against an American law that punishes Russians accused of violating human rights."
* The housing recovery really is underway: "New single-family home sales accelerated in November to the fastest pace in 2 1/2 years and median sales price jumped from the same month in 2011, signs that the U.S. housing recovery is gaining some steam."
* Good call: "Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has denied a request to block part of the federal health care law that requires employee health-care plans to provide insurance coverage for the morning-after pill and similar emergency contraception pills."
* U.S. drone strikes nearly quadrupled in Yemen this year: "In the wake of the killing of Osama bin Laden, Yemen -- home to al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula -- has come close to eclipsing Pakistan as a key focus of American counter-terrorism efforts."
* Sorry to see Jackson go: "Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, who pushed through the most sweeping curbs on air pollution in two decades, announced Thursday morning that she will resign her post."
* Keep an eye on this one: "The fiscal cliff is no longer the only threat facing the U.S. economy. Some 14,500 dockworkers from Texas to Massachusetts are threatening to strike next week, a move that could throttle East Coast ports and disrupt commerce across the country."
* Wow: "Steven Nafziger and Peter Lindert report that the contemporary United States has a less egalitarian distribution of income than did Russia on the brink of the Revolution of 1905."
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
Leave a Comment:
On the gun buy-back results in L.A., totally agreed. It's a token. But somehow, some way, the conversation needs to start that everyone owning guns is just as silly as everyone smoking in restaurants and at their desks and IN YOUR HOME! (Did people really used to do that???)
I know I'm going to get jumped on for saying this by people who believe in their God-given right to pack heat, but it's the perception that needs to change. Right now, too many people think it's the cool thing to do.
Unfortunately JL gangbangers - like the thousands we have here in Chicago - DO think it's cool and don't think it is silly. They will not sell back theirs.
Skippy: go back to whacko world, you won't be so obvious, walking around with your head up your ass permanently.
Great example of an informed, factual debate. More please.
No, Skip is actually right. They'd be among the LAST to willingly give up their guns. The gangsta types are surely not the low-hanging fruit. But the low-hanging fruit is where we need to start.
Whenever this gun debate comes up, I think about this movie from a dozen years ago called It's the Rage. It stars Joan Allen, Jeff Daniels, Robert Forster and Gary Sinise, among others. Black comedy about how it's all the fashion for everyone to have a gun, even people you'd never suspect. Very funny and worth watching several times.
What the NRA has done so well is keep the conversation from starting at all. And just as MADD slowly got the ball rolling on drunk driving and the surgeon general's report back in the '60s started people thinking about the dangers of tobacco, this is something that won't happen overnight. Of course, it's not to say that everyone is going to have his gun confiscated, either. But certain people shouldn't have access to guns at all and certain guns and ammunition don't need to be out in the general public. Let's focus on that, at least.
Not everyone CAN have guns and it is NOt a God given right.
If it were a God given right, we might have a shot. God-given rights can be overcome with a simple Republican majority or 60% vote by Democrats.
It's a CONSTITUTION-given right which requires a constitutional amendment saying the right to bear arms CAN be abridged.
No amendment mentions mental illness as cause for removing people's rights. If ex-felons are citizens, barring THEIR 2nd amendment rights may be questionable. Step 1 is an agreement that not everyone can have any gun they please.
I look forward to hearing from the first Republican who admits that allowing ex-cons to buy machine guns may not be something we want to say is not just okay, but he has an absolute Constitutional right to.
Barring ex-cons in this way abridges their right to bear arms. Entirely reasonably, sure, but it's STILL unconstitutional. If you can vote, you can buy a machine gun. The 2nd amendment says so. If it's a bad idea, the suggestion to tweak it may be a good one.
I agree with JL in that the process has finally begun and as painful as it is to have this remote control murder madness go on, Sandy Hook has left an impression that lasts longer than a news cycle. One needs a gun like one needs a tattoo, they are a dangerously vain and stupid substitute for self-worth and self-identification whose expiration is long overdue.
That last bullet should be a full blog post. More interesting than a lot of endless inside-the-beltway he saids and she saids.
There are so many outrageous elements to this story, I hope you & your great team of investigative journalists will look into some of them:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2012/12/georgia_s_war_against_the_poor_the_southern_state_is_emptying_its_welfare.single.html
It would be an understatement to say that it's unfortunate that MSNBC won't cover this issue (today, it's all about/only about the middle class) because so few people even know what's going on. There is no actual welfare, an entitlement to basic poverty relief, today. TANF is a subsidized work program (essentially, a super-cheap temp help agency). It's not an entitlement. If your county already reached its enrollment quota, you'll be turned away, regardless of your situation. It is also strictly time-limited. General Assistance (welfare) was cut down to zero, and AFDC was "reformed" right out of existence. The last welfare check issued was in 1996. The trap that locks impoverished single parents into the system is Medicaid/food stamps. What we refer to as a lazy lifestyle is a hellish struggle on incomes far below the poverty line. As a direct result of these "popular" policies, infant mortality rates have risen among our poor, while the life expectancy of our poor has been on a downhill slide.
Saw this story.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/27/tom-horne-arizona-school-safety_n_2369788.html
It's not a secret around here that I'm fairly pro-gun, but this guy in Arizona is a freaking nutcase.
There's a basic reality when it comes to guns. They are less useful for self-defense if you're going to be around crowds of people.
Principles should focus on administering schools, not learning how to shoot and kill people. As usual, Arizona is full of insane nutbags.
Interesting point about guns' reduced protective value when crowds are present. Yes, that makes total sense.
For one thing, a mugger would surely prefer not to put himself at risk of crowd retaliation; he'll wait for a moment when no one else is close by. And besides, how does a citizen know for certain he won't hurt an innocent bystander if he tries to take out a bad guy? Or how does he know for certain--making an instant judgment call--that the other person even IS a bad guy? Easy to know in hindsight, but in the heat of the moment, he may just be all wrong in his assessment. Who's at fault, then?
ask george zimmermen
JL, when you're trained to use a gun defensively, that's one thing they drill in your head. If you're defending yourself, that's one thing, but if you step in as a bystander to stop a robber, then you really don't want to hurt other innocent bystanders. So you're taught to never take a shot, unless you're positive you won't harm others.
In a school, where there's a ton of innocent bystanders, or like say a filled sports stadium, or a crowded shopping mall, using a gun for self defense becomes next to useless.
It's also dangerous to use a gun if your attacker is within arm's reach. There's always a chance that someone can take your gun from you. In those cases, you're better off if you use a knife for self-defense.
Over the summer of 2012 volunteers collected nearly 1/4 million petition signatures to put Michigan's emergency manager law (which allows the state to seize control of municipalities while"dismissing" the elected officials) on the November ballot. This successful petition effort allowed the citizens of Michigan to exercise their constitutional right to referendum...in other words, to have final say regarding legislation. Subsequently, Michigan voters repealed the emergency manager law through their votes in the November 2012 election.
The republican controlled Michigan legislature re-wrote the law, with minimal changes, and re-passed it. But, this time....through a legal maneuver, ensured that the new law cannot be brought before the voters for referendum. Today, Gov. Snyder signed this new bill into law.
It seems that Michigan republicans (and for that matter, nationally as well) don't give a damn what the citizens want, they do not honor their votes, nor do they respect even the basic tenants of a democracy.
REMEMBER: The 2014 election started in November. Don't forget this affront to our democracy!
It's "tenets", not "tenants".
Saw this today on Democracy Now!. I really wish Rachel would cover this story.
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/12/27/the_fbi_vs_occupy_secret_docs
Did the realignment of sorts in Washington state possibly have to do with preventing gun restrictions from coming to the floor of the legislature? The story being floated Has the legislature being too Seattle centric but I'm not aware of too many raging right wingers in Wa state altogether. There is a very very very large number of folks who are pro choice, pro marijuana legalization, pro same sex marriage and pro gun. The Australia and England arguments are ridiculous I'd rather have the $17 hour min wage from Australia or the national healthcare from either one but i'll pass on the monarchy even if its symbolic.
Wouldn't it be great to have a point by point, open debate on a key topic instead of deterioration into emotional party-related rants?
Problems with arming school staff
1. More guns on campus raises the probability of one going off.
2. This supplies another channel for children to get guns
3. You would have to train people to stay calm while getting shot at.
4. We would have to teach the teacher how to kill a human being and possibly a child
"...sign into law a bill banning the adoption of Russian children by American citizens, retaliating against an American law that punishes Russians accused of violating human rights."
Set aside the nutty disconnect between these two phenomena.
Children, like oil, are fungible.
American will simply adopt from other countries and more non-American adopting parents will take in the Russian young'uns.
I suppose this may be a devastating blow to those who want to adopt a "healthy white infant". Someone pass the box of tissues to the "white power" crowd. As for adoptions in general? It's a non-event.
Be ready to pay a lot more for milk as soon as the USDA gets their plans in place to take care of the failure of Congress to pass a farm bill. Farmers would get paid more for a while, and then as demand drops they lose their herds and farms. Hilarious that Krauthammer is all agaisnt such "special interest payoffs" but doesn't have a peep to say about the same things going to energy companies.