Okay, the Republicans are having their retreat today in Williamsburg, Virginia. They're had a discussion on how to have successful communications with Minorities and Women today at 10:15am.
[W]hat better place to talk about making inroads with oppressed groups than in a room named after a famous Williamsburg plantation, located in the tony Kingsmill Resort, which itself is on the site of another plantation? The GOP has heard your complaints, blacks and Latinos and women, and they're going to try to suss it out while sitting atop dead slave bones.
Listening to Randi Rhodes tell the story of her former Father-in-Law having the temerity, the presumption to bring a loaded firearm into her home really really got me thinking. How much of this Gun Debate is really about people with Guns soooo used to getting their way in all things?
Yeah, a lot of this is tied into race. If young white people were dying at the same clip young black people were dying because of gun violence, the NRA would be the most toxic Lobby in America.
Well, unfortunately it happened to a bunch of young white children in Newton,and America finally had enough. Thing of it is, the African-American community has been facing their own Newtons every day for years now. It was just a nice reminder that Black Lives never count for as much as White ones.
Now that America has finally had enough, it looks like we’re going to get at least Universal Background checks, and maybe even a closing of the Gun Show Loophole. You do those two things, and all of the sudden an Assault Weapons Ban becomes a nice thing to have, but not necessary for the protection of the nation. (That being said, I’d still like to have see the Assault Weapons Ban passed).
What has the NRA’s reaction to this otherwise mild legislative rebuke? Well, they’re shaking their fist and trying to threaten and bully us. They’re saying an Assault Weapons Ban won’t pass. Conveniently leaving out the part where it may not be necessary. Then again, given their history of selectively quoting the Second Amendment, can we be surprised?
But there it is again. When in doubt, threaten. When in doubt, demand. No negotiation. No discussion, which is what you’d expect in a Democracy. For them, it’s always my way or the Highway.
I’m glad this two-bit Terrorist, James Yeager is so concerned about my rights that he’s willing to kill people for it.. If it were up to me, we would round up all the guns. But you know what? We can’t. Why? I’ve read the Constitution. Why hasn't James Yeager? This supposedly a document he loves. This is supposedly the simplest of the amendments...he somehow keeps misquoting:
A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
I shudder to ask, which brings me to the thing that has bothered me all this time.
What are my rights as a non-gun owner?
I feel that I have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness...and to not have those things taken away from me by a nut with a gun. And I have the right to these things with or without a gun.
Gun advocates, apparently disagree.
It’s a question that Randi has posed a number of times on her show, but listening to Yeager, and every other gun nut out there, you hear a couple of common refrains. They need their guns to fight off the Government, to "preserve Liberty" as they call it.
Hmmm. Let's think about it. Why would they feel the need to fight the Government? Well, probably to prevent them doing stuff they don’t much like.
Like say, being forced to do something, whether they wanted to or not?
Like say...buying a gun??
Why are the Gun Nuts of the world definitely trying to do to me what they only imagine the Government doing to them???
I don’t want a gun. I don’t want a gun anywhere near me. I don’t want Guns anywhere near where I live. That’s a free market choice I’ve made for myself.
But in Gun Nut land, that's the only choice I have. It's the only choice people like Alex Jones and James Yeager want me to have.
That is the only solutions to any gun problems really being offered by the NRA and their affiliated Gun Nuts. Well, they have their guns. They need to keep their guns, and if you really want to feel safe like we do, you need to buy a gun like we did.
And there you have it.
My fellow citizens trying to dictate to me how I should live. There are my fellow citizens daring to impose their values on me whether I want them or not. This is the very thing that Gun Nuts say they’re afraid of the Government doing, yet here they are doing it to me instead.
Seriously, what’s the difference between the Gun Nuts and their Fascist state of their dreams (or is it nightmares, I get ‘em confused)??
Get it through your head, I DON’T WANT A GUN!!! And you have no right to demand that I buy one.
Yet here you are, demanding just that.
You’re willing to fight for (and apparently kill) to preserve your freedom. Mine you could give a @#$% about.
You don’t care about the Government. You don’t care about the Constitution. You sure as hell don’t care about your fellow citizens. All you do care about is holding on to the illusion of safety you get from having a gun, and damn everyone who gets in your way.
Only now you want me to get your Cancer. In fact, you insist on it. Your paranoia is more important than my safety, our liberty, or our collective sense of peace.
Well, guess what?? You’re going to lose this time, because you and your Lobby have finally gone too far.
You know what’s the worse part of this? Everything you’ve suggested, everything you say you want is the perfect solution for the true constituency of the NRA, the gun manufacturers.
No matter what the problem, what the cause, the solution for the NRA is always the production, distribution and sale of more guns. How else do we view their “idea” about Armed Guards in public schools? Never mind that an armed guard didn’t stop shootings in Colorado.
This is a cheap con, perpetrated by people who stand to make a lot of money off the sale of a lot of guns, and their willing sheep willing to be bought and sold by their fear, and willing to push us around in the process.
I’m glad America has finally decided to take on the NRA. It’s overdue.
I haven't written my grand "apologies for not posting more" post, because...frankly I'm still recovering from Campaign Season.
But I wanted to put up this video, because a lot of crap (and that's what it is, crap) is being talked about in regards to Social Security Cuts, and Chained CPI. Here is Robert Greenstein of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities explaining it all to Lawrence O'Donnell, in a segment that was on the web only.
I've been actually working on the Pasadena part of the Campaign, so I haven't blogged much recently. Needless to say, I'm elated, relived...and exhausted.
Pretty much every Black person in America, upon hearing this, will draw the same conclusion I just did. (Also, every white racist is going to hear the same dog whistle as well...only they'll applaud with approval.)
We know the code, guys.
We've been listening to you for 300 years. Our very survival has depended on it.
If there’s one thing I can’t stand about being a Liberal myself, is that it puts me in the company of other Liberals.
Mainly, it puts me in the company of the kind of chicken@#$% Liberals, who think they know it all...yet somehow magically manage to keep losing us elections.
Yet somehow, those seem to be the only kind of Liberals that are allowed to speak on matters, or allowed to be pundits on Television.
Basically, the headline I've gotten from Liberals and Obama Supporters is "Yeah, Romney lied to our collective faces, but he did it so well. Therefore, I gotta give him debate." Seriously?
I may be the only Liberal in America who thinks Barack Obama won last night (okay, that's not fair...one of the few).
Why?
Well, first off I didn’t watch the Debate on CNN, or MSNBC...and Lord knows I didn’t watch it on Fox. I watched it on C-SPAN, a technique I picked up from beloved radio goddess, Randi Rhodes.
You watch C-SPAN only one thing happens, you see the event. You don't get spin, telling you what to think about what you just saw. You don't get pre-spin, telling you what to think about what haven't seen yet. You just get the event.
To me Debate Strategy is all about missions. The Candidates come in with a mission, something they want the tape to show the next day. Here's what the Press won't tell you, because they want you watching the debates. Candidates always succeed at accomplishing their mission. Almost always. Very rarely do they fail.
The only question is whose mission is the better campaign strategy over the long haul.
Romney’s mission was to go on the attack, be more aggressive and get in the face of the President. Well, mission accomplished. Then again, he had to do that. Everyone knew he was going to do that.
The President’s mission was to look...well...Presidential. Mission accomplished as well.
But the President had a second mission as well. He wanted to get Mitt Romney on tape shape-shifting. He wanted him flip-flopping one of his “severely conservative” positions. I think the President thought it was going to take all night to get him to do that.
Instead it happened in the first answer of the night, when Mitt Romney ditched his Tax Plan, right there on Live Television.
The Pundits saw a President who “didn’t want to be there” last night. I saw a President, with his jaw-dropping after Mitt gave his first answer, and all but looking at the camera and saying: “Uhhh, did you get that? Is that on tape? Are we good?”
Romney’s focus though came at the cost of a few key things.
He basically tossed aside his own tax plan or said he would if his numbers didn’t add up. But then he insisted that he could find enough loopholes to close to afford a $5 trillion tax cut for upper income earners. These are more numbers on the table. That’s really what most of the debate was about — budget numbers. Romney insisted with a straight face that up was down.
The Obama team isn’t going to try to get into a fight about whether their guy was on his game. There’s no point. (This is what I meant a couple days ago when I said Obama is not a great debater. Not a great night. But I’ve never seen him great at debating.) What I fully expect, what they’ll do if they’re smart is go full court press on Romney’s numbers and press for details about his budget plan.
The numbers simply don’t add up. Over a few news cycles that can build up really fast. He says he’ll push massive upper income tax cuts and those have to come at the cost of much higher deficits or big tax hikes for middle income people. His campaign agenda is based on a massive deception.
That’s the vulnerability Romney brings out of this debate. And it may be bigger than people realize.
My fellow Liberals can twist themselves into all the knots they want. Romney @#$%ed up tonight, severely.
He has promised across the board Tax Cuts of 20%. These will cost us $5 Trillion dollars. He can deny it all he wants, but those are just facts.
He’s promised to reduce the deficit with spending cuts, spending cuts he won’t specify.
And he went back on ALL of that last night, onstage. He said his tax cuts won’t hurt the deficit, and later promised he won’t enact them if they do. He said he won’t touch Defense Spending, as well as calling any notion of a $2 Trillion defense spending hike a lie. He also said he won’t touch Education spending, saying that the states should do more...and promising that the Federal Government will help if needed.
He was saying these things sometimes within the same answer.
As my Father, who was watching the same C-SPAN feed I was, texted me: if we keep having debates, Romney won’t be left with anything to cut.
The President did not lose last night. It’s hard to lose a debate when the other guy is lying to America’s face, and doing so...so blatantly that its hard to believe.
The only way the President loses this debate is if we don’t see ads in the next 48 hours showing Mitt Romney from the debate contradicting the Mitt Romney from the campaign trail. The only way the President loses this debate is if he doesn’t remind America, with both Ads and on the stump just how badly Mitt Romney lied to their face.
Just watch, because it's coming.
The only way the President loses this election is if Liberals keep whining, and talk themselves out of a victory. Unfortunately, that can still happen.
UPDATE: 10:29am Pacific Time: Guess what? Obama has his first ad out. That only took what? Twelve hours?
It's time for a new economic patriotism. Rooted in the belief that growing our economy begins with a strong, thriving middle class. Read the President's plan. Compare it to Governor R--
--wait a minute, does Governor Romney even HAVE a plan? Last I checked, there were still "details" he had to "work out" with Congress. Details he didn't need to share with the likes of us.
Kinda like his Tax Returns.
