Two Virginia legislators pushing for stricter gun laws made an undercover video of themselves buying a gun without undergoing criminal background checks.
“You don’t look like you’re ready to go do a bank heist or something,” a gun show vendor remarks to state Sen. Adam P. Ebbin (D-Alexandria) and Del. Patrick A. Hope (D-Arlington) before they buy a handgun and a high-capacity magazine.
The sales were perfectly legal under Virginia law, which does not require background checks on gun sales between private individuals, or on any ammunition sales.
President Obama: Executive action
Let’s keep it simple.
Today, the President is announcing that he and the Administration will:
1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevan tdata available to the federal background check system.
2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health InsurancePortability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from makinginformation available to the background check system.
3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.
Stop the Violence Measures by Obama Adminstration
(video removed because defective)
President Obama on Wednesday formally proposed the most expansive gun-control policies in generations and initiated 23 separate executive actions aimed at curbing the nation’s gun violence.
Obama signed executive orders and paperwork initiating immediate administrative actions, including steps to strengthen the existing background-check system to keep guns out of the hands of potentially dangerous people as well as to improve mental health and school safety programs.
No one has to pry your gun out of your “cold dead hands.” This was a long time coming and I believe it is the beginning of a comprehensive approach to a societal crisis.
The president also called on Congress to swiftly pass legislation to ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines for civilian use and to require universal background checks for all gun buyers. Obama’s proposals include mental health and school safety measures, as well as a tough new crackdown on gun trafficking.
Open Thread………………………………………Wednesday, January 16
These guys tend to be psychotic. Perhaps narcissistic is a better word. Some male cardinals continually dance in front of reflective surfaces. We have one here to dances in front of the car mirrors, the stainless steel grill, and windows. He has also been known to fly into windows. I had to put stuff animals up there to scare him off.
Do robins still migrate south? How about mockingbirds? I think some robins hang back. I think I saw one about a week ago.
Monday Morning- PWC Schools have a 2 hour delay.
Joe Scarborough: High cost of the NRA’s extremism
From Politico.com :
By JOE SCARBOROUGH |
1/15/13 7:12 PM EST
Wayne LaPierre can’t say we didn’t warn him.
Several weeks ago, I spoke on “Morning Joe” about how the tragedy at Newtown changed everything. On the set that morning and on many occasions since Dec. 14, we have warned that the extreme faction of the NRA will either face political reality or face political disaster.
As a longtime supporter of the Second Amendment, I had hoped their executives and lobbyists would not take an absolutist position on the issue since that would ultimately set back the cause of gun rights. Unfortunately, Mr. LaPierre chose to respond as if it were 1994.
Trashy, NRA, just Trashy
The National Rifle Association released a video Tuesday calling President Obama an “elitist hypocrite” for being skeptical of armed guards in schools when his daughters receive armed Secret Service protection every day.
“Are the president’s kids more important than yours?” a narrator asks. “Then why is he skeptical about putting armed security in our schools when his kids are protected by armed guards at their schools? Mr. Obama demands the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes, but he’s just another elitist hypocrite when it comes to a fair share of security.”
The president’s children are typically off limits, even in the grittiest political warfare in Washington. But the NRA salvo is likely only the first of many in what promises to be one of the toughest battles Obama has committed to fighting in his second term.
About that 401k
Some folks are going to be in trouble during their retirement years. More and more people are whittling away at their retirement savings.
With federal policymakers eyeing cuts to Social Security benefits and Medicare to rein in soaring federal deficits, and traditional pensions in a long decline, retirement savings experts say the drain from the accounts has dire implications for future retirees.
“We’re going from bad to worse,” said Diane Oakley, executive director of the National Institute on Retirement Security. “Already, fewer private-sector workers have access to stable pension plans. And the savings in individual retirement savings accounts like 401(k) plans — which already are severely underfunded — continue to leak out at a high rate.”
WFB knew: be an uber-con at your own risk!
From Politico.com:
(Joe Scarborough op-ed)
Had GOP voters also followed Buckley’s advice to vote for the most electable conservative instead of the most right-wing choice, Harry Reid would be in retirement and a Republican would be the Senate majority leader.
For the GOP to win again, it must dare to embrace Buckley’s ruthless, pragmatic approach to primary elections and learn again to vote for candidates who can win sweeping majorities and just say no to ideological indulgences that only advance the Democrats’ cause.
Evil gay judge is now numero uno with GOP
Washingtonpost.com:
Eight months ago, the House rejected Thorne-Begland for a General District Court judgeship in Richmond. Conservatives contended that the city prosecutor was unfit for the bench because years earlier, as a Navy pilot, he had challenge the military’s now-defunct “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy toward gays and lesbians in the armed forces.
About a month later, Thorne-Begland won an interim appointment from Richmond Circuit Court judges, who have the authority to fill vacancies on a temporary basis. Without approval from the General Assembly, his appointment will expire next month.
Eagles Nest
Nothing much can be said. Nature at its best. The father shows up ever so often.
As the nose grows…..State of the County
Parsing the state of the county might take a month. What stands out could be Corey welcoming each and every county newcomer. Is this Mr.Corey “Anti-immigration” Stewart? Has Corey had a frontal lobotomy? Is he now welcoming the dreaded illegal alien? My how things have changed.
Our Tax bills are 7% less than they were in 2007? My house is worth 30% less. Shouldn’t those two percents be a little closer?
Corey makes it too easy. I won’t hog all the fun. I will give you guys a turn. Have at it! Find the lies. Make Corey’s nose grow.
The new legislative session: ripe with social causes
This year’s session contains several important bills that bear watching.
From Loudoun Times:
In response to the rally, the House Democratic Caucus announced plans for legislation in support of women’s reproductive health later that morning.
“The Republicans did real damage to Virginia’s women by passing burdensome regulations” on a woman’s right to have abortion, Sen. Mark Herring of Leesburg said at the press conference.
Instead of legislators being motivated by ideology, “we should be motivated by helping Virginians,” said Herring, who represents parts of Fairfax and Loudoun counties.
Delegate Kaye Kory of Falls Church, who also represents part of Fairfax County, introduced House Bill 1560, which would remove the requirement to get an ultrasound before having abortion.
Delegate Vivian Watts of Annandale has introduced HB 1644, which would define birth control. “It makes it clear that using birth control is not considered an abortion,” Watts said.
Let’s catch up with Downton Abbey
Quite a few rat bastards were exposed on Sunday night’s Season 3 episode 2 of Downton Abbey. The biggest rat bastard of all has to be Sir Anthony Strallan who leaves poor Lady Edith at the altar. Lady Edith is humiliated and distraught as the show ends. Sir Anthony seemed to be her last hope as she contemplated life as an “old maid.”
2nd rat bastard has to be Sir Matthew Crawley. He is inheriting a vast fortune from Lavinia Swire’s father. His guilt over her death and his love for Lady Mary prevented him from using this fortune to bail out Lady Mary’s father after a bad business investment decimated the family fortune. He needed to be sent packing. His noble cause was …insane.
Is Mr. Carson in love with Mrs. Hugo?
What is Lady Violet up to?
Who is in our Downton Abbey Groupie club here at Moonhowlings?
WARNING: link to the characters contains spoilers from the viewing season in UK.
Edgar May, Vermont Senator, The Embodiment of a True Statesman
June 27 1929 – December 27,2012
Edgar May, he was the rarest of politicians. He never hungered to be more than a state representative or to help those who he felt were the voiceless in our society. He was a pragmatist, working across the aisle in order to get the job done, he was magical in his way of bringing people together to solve a problem. He was a true Kennedy progressive and I feel his loss personally, he was my dear godfather.
I wanted to share his story because for me, he is a symbol of everything in American that is possible, that is good, that is right.
He escaped on the last boat out of Switzerland in 1940 with his younger sister (Madeleine Kunin, she would later become the first woman Governor of Vermont) and his widowed mother. You see, they were Jews, escaping the horror of the Nazis. Most of Edgar’s French relatives perished in the Holocaust, even his favorite uncle who has served as a father figure.
Read More
Don’t step on your nose, Corey
From the State of the County Address (Corey Stewart):
We invested in our teachers and public servants. We provided the revenues the Schools needed to increase teacher pay and remain competitive, and we provided County staff a merit increase for the first time in four years.
When Corey? last year? This year, The upcoming year?
That is a blatant lie. You have not invested in the Prince William County teachers. Every year they come to the BOCS and ask for money. Their chief concern has been about class size. They asked the Supervisors to set the tax rate at a few cents more. That was not done.
