McCain gets his nasty on

MoonHowler

I am ashamed that McCain behaved this way. I am not a supporter of Hagel. I neither like him or dislike him.

I don’t like our senators talking this way to anyone. This isn’t a gotcha game. I want to find out information, not watch McCain get his nasty-on. There simply isn’t a reason to cut people off like that and talk down except for showing off.

McCain showed off.  He wasn’t a gentleman.  It didn’t make him more of a man or more of a Senator.  He just made himself look like an ass.

I am certainly glad he didn’t end up in the White House.

LaPierre testimony…extremist driven

MoonHowler

LaPierre sounds like a survivalist.  His attempts to explain himself actually made him sound like a jackass.  The “It won’t work” mentality just doesn’t cut it.

LaPierre speaks for himself.  He has convinced me of nothing.  I would be curious why LaPierre says  that that armed security words at schools.  What is he basing that blanket statement on.  What are the metrics?

Federal gun prosecutions are down?  His conclusions are absurd and unfounded.   He is grasping.

Background checks don’t work?  Give me a break.  Non-logic used on that one.

My fight is not with the concept of the NRA.  My fight is with the folks who were trotted out today with the worst analogies in the world.

 

Just out of curiosity, why is the NRA training our military, as suggested by LaPierre?

 

Connecticut Task Force On Gun Violence Holds Hearing At Newtown High School

MoonHowler

An excerpt:

Huffingtonpost.com:

 

Dave Wheeler, whose son Benjamin died at Sandy Hook Elementary on Dec. 14, quoted a founding father at a public hearing in Newtown, Conn., on Wednesday. “Thomas Jefferson described our inalienable rights as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” Wheeler said. “I do no think the order of those important words was haphazard and casual. The liberty of any person to own a military assault weapon and high-capacity magazine and to keep them in their home is second to the right of my son to his life.”

Wheeler was one of more than 100 parents, police officers, clergy members and Newtown residents who spoke at the fourth and final public hearing held by the Connecticut legislature’s Bipartisan Task Force on Gun Violence and Children’s Safety. While the first three hearings covered school safety, gun violence and mental health, respectively, Wednesday’s hearing provided an opportunity to address any of those subjects.

Response?

To read other parent remarks, go to Connecticut Task Force On Gun Violence Holds Hearing At Newtown High School .

Bad News that just makes you smile

MoonHowler

Politico.com:

Fox News had its worst ratings since 2001 in January, according to the latest figures.

The network had a 12-year low in the coveted 25-54 demographic in primetime and fell to its lowest total day ratings since 2008, a press release from rival cable channel MSNBC stated on Tuesday.

And January marked the worst month ever for Fox’s “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren” among the 25-54 demo, as well as the channel’s lowest total viewership in the 10 p.m. hour since July 2008.

At  MSNBC, the cable network saw its ratings go up 11 percent in the 25-54 demo compared to January 2012. And “The Rachel Maddow Show” topped CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight” this month, and also ranked number one among the 18-34 demo.

Fox News, meanwhile, had nine of the 10 top programs in January — Maddow’s show was the only non-Fox News program to enter the top 10, in the last slot, as the Huffington Post pointed out.

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Vermont gun club bars Burlington police from range practice

MoonHowler

 

Huffingtonpost.com:

A Vermont shooting range has banned Burlington police in protest of a city council gun control proposal.

The national debate over gun control got very local for police in Burlington, Vt., earlier this month, after an area shooting range barred officers from practicing on its premises. The move came in protest of the city’s proposed ban on certain assault weapons.

The resolution, which the Burlington City Council recently voted 10-3 in favor of, would ban assault-style firearms and large-capacity magazines within city limits. Similar initiatives have gone before city governments across the United States even as President Barack Obama met with law enforcement officials to discuss gun control measures Monday.
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Open Thread……………………………………………..Tuesday, January 29

MoonHowler

frozen fallsIce is a rather miraculous form of water.  It can create great beauty, entice us with its mystery, or cause us great danger.

Traffic accidents, falls, icicles falling off of buildings and roofs not only can injure, they can kill you.   Frozen pipes can cost a fortune.  Snow and ice removal costs industry and municipalities millions each winter.

Driving in snow is one thing.  Driving on ice is quite another.  Ice alters one’s ability to stop or go.  It doesn’t matter what you drive if you are driving on ice.   The moral of the story is, don’t drive on ice.

SPOILER Alert

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Senate announces bipartisan immigration deal

MoonHowler

Here it is folks.  It is still in infancy.  President Obama will announce his plan on Tuesday which is supposedly more liberal than the Senate version.

The gang of 8 includes:

The Gang of Eight senators who formally introduced the proposal include Democrat  Sens. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), Bob Menendez (N.J.) and Dick Durbin (Ill.) and  Republican Sens. John McCain (Ariz.), Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Lindsey Graham  (S.C.), who couldn’t attend.

I seem to be missing 2 senators.  Senator Flake of AZ and Senator Bennett of Colorado are also part of the gang of 8.

These senators seem clearly united that this bill will not be like the one in 1986 that was passed  nor the one in 2007 which did a swan-dive in defeat.

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Repeal of the Love Shack law

MoonHowler

love shack

The State of Virginia might just be well on its way to making honest men and women out of all of us.  There is legislation, introduced by Sen. Adam Ebbin, to repeal the ban on unmarried couples living together.     Sen. Ebbin is the only openly gay legislator in Virginia.  I don’t believe, however, it is illegal for same sex couples to live together.  If that is the case, a whole lot of colleges are breaking the antiquated Virginia law when assigning student housing.  But I digress…..

 

Washingtonpost.com:

 

RICHMOND — A Senate panel on Monday unanimously advanced a bill to repeal an old law that makes it illegal for unmarried couples to live together in Virginia.

It is a misdemeanor in the state, under a law dating to the late 19th century, for “any persons, not married to each other, [to] lewdly and lasciviously associate and cohabit together.”

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Deportation traps in the Old Dominion?

MoonHowler

deportation

Most of the time illegal immigrants convicted of minor crimes are led to believe that they will be required to pay a fine and surrender a drivers license, if they have one, for 6 months.  That isn’t what really happens.

Often the immigrant is not told that a guilty plea or being convicted could have them lumped in with violent criminals and deported.   Some crimes do not carry jail time.  Or do they?  Luis Lopez found out differently with a small marijuana charge.Read More

The background check

MoonHowler

guns lots

Politico.com:

Here’s how the system is supposed to work: Before buying a gun from a federally  licensed dealer, you are required to fill out a federal form with basic questions about criminal history.  The seller calls the information into the FBI’s National Instant Criminal  Background Check System (NICS), in Clarksburg, W. Va, and on the spot your name  is run through the database. In a matter of minutes, you can complete your  purchase if no red flags pop up.

So who can’t get a gun? The federal law instituting instant  background checks was activated in 1998 and bars convicted killers from being able to buy firearms, as  well as anyone imprisoned for more than two years; those convicted of domestic  abuse; fugitives from justice, illegal immigrants; soldiers who have been  dishonorably discharged; and people who are under indictment for a crime  punishable by more than a year behind bars.

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Palin and Fox News part company, $ listed as the cause

MoonHowler

sarah palin

It appears that Sarah Palin’s rising star is crashing to earth.  According to Thedailybeast.com:

Fox News offered Sarah Palin a new contract before she decided to part ways with the network where she has held forth as a commentator for the last three years.

However, it would be hard to describe it as a generous contract.

Palin was a hot property when Roger Ailes landed her in 2009, fresh off her colorful run for vice president, and paid her an annual salary of $1 million. Fox even built Palin a studio at her Wasilla home.

But relations cooled between the two sides, and Palin was appearing on Fox less often—complaining on Facebook one night during the Republican convention that the network had canceled her appearances.

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Stephen King: Whoop-ass call for greater gun control

MoonHowler

guns stephen king

Amazon Kindle has a new format out called Kindle Single.  It is a way that authors can respond quickly to current events in a format that is a little longer than what a newspaper, magazine, or blog can accommodate.  Stephen King finished his essay entitled, “Guns” last Friday late morning and  submitted it.  By Friday night, Amazon had accepted it and had it ready to publish today.

Washingtonpost.com:

Determined and at times profane, the 8,000-word essay confronts NRA members straight on: “In the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings,” King writes, “gun advocates have to ask themselves if their zeal to protect even the outer limits of gun ownership have anything to do with preserving the Second Amendment as a whole, or if it’s just a stubborn desire to hold onto what they have, and to hell with the collateral damage.”

“I have nothing against gun owners, sport shooters, or hunters,” King writes, but “how many have to die before we will give up these dangerous toys? Do the murders have to be in the mall where you shop? In your own neighborhood? In your own family?

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HB1491 would allow schools to start before Labor Day

MoonHowler

Kings Dominion

 Smithmountaineagle.com

 

RICHMOND – Lawmakers from across Virginia are pushing a half-dozen bills this legislative session to let public schools start classes before Labor Day.

Delegate Kaye Kory, D-Falls Church, is among legislators sponsoring bills to repeal Virginia’s “King’s Dominion law,” which prevents local schools from opening before Labor Day unless they get special permission from the state.Read More

VA Republicans attempt to change electoral college

MoonHowler

electoral college

Washingtonpost.com

Republicans in Virginia and a handful of other battleground states are pushing for far-reaching changes to the electoral college in an attempt to counter recent success by Democrats.

In the vast majority of states, the presidential candidate who wins receives all of that state’s electoral votes. The proposed changes would instead apportion electoral votes by congressional district, a setup far more favorable to Republicans. Under such a system in Virginia, for instance, President Obama would have claimed four of the state’s 13 electoral votes in the 2012 election, rather than all of them.

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Dianne Feinstein Introduces Assault Weapons Ban

MoonHowler

 

No one cares what I have to say anyway.  Let’s just get right to the heart of the matter:

 

Huffingtonpost.com:

 

Feinstein spent nearly a year crafting the bill and said she did her best to keep it specifically focused on “guns designed for military use and used for mass murder.”

“No weapons will be taken from anyone,” she emphasized. “The purpose is to dry up the supply of these weapons over time.”

Weapons List

Own one by the day the legilslation is signed in to law or do without.