Saturday, February 23, 2013

February 23

Last week Mississippi abolished slavery and today Texas bans shooting immigrants from helicopters!

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Oh, it is toooo rich:

GOP Rep. Steve Stockman of Texas, bff of gun-nut and NRA board member Ted Nugent, is holding a very special meeting in the US Capitol building next week to blast President Obama and the entire notion of "gun free zones."

Stockman's meeting is being called "The Fallacy of Gun Free School Zones."  He's offered legislation repealing the federal gun free zone law that protects schools.

So where is Stockman holding his meeting blasting the dangers of gun free zones?  In the US Capitol building, a gun free zone.

No guns will be allowed at Stockman's meeting in order to guarantee Rep. Stockman's safety.

What a damned shame that the irony will be completely lost on the attendees.

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Guns! Guns! Guns! - Mississippi (Motto: We're Number 50!) state House Speaker Philip Gunn (R-Trigger Happy) is urging gun manufacturers to relocate to that state (TPM):

"We need more businesses to establish home base in Mississippi. We can provide these companies with an educated workforce, a superior quality of life, an evolving education system for their children, and the peace of mind that comes with knowing we support their industry."

That's the only time those Mississippi kids will ever hear the word evolve.

Meanwhile, Texas favorite loose screw Louie Gohmert tells us to be vewy, vewy quiet because he's hunting drones, and advises that you will need "at least 50 rounds in your magazines" to shoot one down. In your backyard. Sent by the gubmint to spy on you. (Raw Story)

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Right Wing Watch:

Gun Owners of America president Larry Pratt appeared Tuesday on the Talk to Solomon Show alongside conservative blogger Greg W. Howard, of Twittergate fame, for another chance to spew anti-Obama conspiracy theories.

Pratt predicted that President Obama may begin confiscating guns in order to provoke a violent response to justify further oppression, which host Stan Solomon feared would lead to the imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of people.

Pratt once again insisted that Obama is acting like King George III, a sentiment with which Solomon concurred, saying, "That will happen quickly and they will wipe those people out to set an example."

But Solomon wasn't finished: "I believe they will put together a racial force to go against an opposite race resistance, basically a black force to go against a white resistance, and then they will claim anyone resisting the black force are doing it because they are racist."

Howard agreed: "You may be right because he has been sowing the seeds of racial hatred; we were healing quite well as a nation on racial issues until Obama came along and now we have a lot of racial discord."

There's video at RWW, but I won't inflict it on you here. Suffice it to say that these three feel secure enough to broadcast this crazy-assed stuff to the world. I love the way that Solomon makes up an insane, racist conspiracy theory that eventually winds up with him being the victim of reverse racism; "Obama's black army's gonnasteal my guns and if I complain, they'll call me racist! Typicallibtards…" And all the rest are all "Yup, yup, yup!"

You couldn't be more clownish if you actually tried. And you can't possibly satirize these people. They're a joke in their pure, uncut form. It'd just be trying to add a punchline to a punchline.

But hey, 'baggers! Want to know why we keep thinking you're racist? Because you wag your heads up and down whenever dipwads like these open their mouths. If you think these guys have a good point, you are racist.

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Lesson learned. Never store ammo in the oven.

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TPM's David Taintor is out with another storythis afternoon on John McCain's interactions with an Arizona couple whose son was killed in the Aurora movie theater massacre last year.

You may have already seen the video where McCain told the young man's mom that she needed "some straight talk" on assault weapons. Now you can see the impersonal form letter McCain's office sent earlier this month in response to a very personal email written by the man's father.

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Republicans in Montana are going all-in on passing the most insanely lax gun legislation imaginable which, among other things, will legalize silencers.

The House also backed measures that clear the way for nearly anyone to carry concealed weapons without a permit, and would allow the use of rifle sound suppressors when hunting. All three measures must pass a final vote before going to the Senate. [...]

It says that anyone who would qualify for a permit under current guidelines could carry concealed without getting a formal permit. People who determine themselves qualified would be exempt from having to actually get a permit. [...]

"This bill basically says if you think in your head you can carry concealed, then you can carry concealed," said Rep. Margie McDonald of Billings.

Anyone who deems themselves fit to carry without a permit will be allowed to do so, and they can even use a sound suppressor if they want to.

It's as if Republicans want more murders, more accidental shootings, and an overwhelmingly hostile environment for law enforcement.

I'm among those who believe our police departments have become overly militarized, but it's increasingly hard to blame them for it as politicians spark an arms race between law enforcement and gun fetishists who, in some cases, are more well armed than the police. Police departments will prepare accordingly as additional barriers to your ability to possess weapons which you have no business possessing are broken down.

Legislation currently being considered by the Montana state House would also nullify federal law and regard attempting to enforce federal law as a felony. Because of course.

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Montana Bill Would Give Corporations The Right To Vote

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Richmond cop fired for blowing whistle on death threat against Obama


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This is very troubling:

After enduring last summer's destructive drought, farmers, ranchers and officials across the country's parched heartland had hoped that plentiful winter snows would replenish the ground and refill their rivers, breaking the grip of one of the worst dry spells in American history. No such luck.

Across the West, lakes are half full and mountain snows are thin, omens of another summer of drought and wildfire. Complicating matters, many of the worst-hit states now have even less water on hand than a year ago, raising the specter of shortages and rationing that could inflict another year of losses on struggling farms.

Reservoir levels have fallen sharply in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada. The soil is drier than normal. And while a few recent snowstorms have cheered skiers, the snowpack is so thin in parts of Colorado that the government has declared an "extreme drought" around the ski havens of Vail and Aspen.

"We're worse off than we were a year ago," said Brian Fuchs, a climatologist at the National Drought Mitigation Center.

There really isn't much they can do if there is no snow, is there? Other than start rationing earlier in the year, I guess. Food prices are going to go through the roof.

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David Brooks is a fraud.

David Brooks should never, ever, consent to be questioned by Ezra Klein again. Holy mother of Jesus did he make a jackass out of himself. And Ezra is so polite and well-mannered; it could have gone much worse if he'd wanted to take a tone with Bobo.

I mean, Ezra invited Brooks to respond on the record to the observation that he had just published the most deceitful horseshit in the paper of record, and Brooks (after agreeing to post a correction) proceeded to peddle more confused and misleading horseshit.

The best part? It's hard to choose. Was it when Brooks said Obama should be more like Robert Rubin and Ezra pointed out that Obama was asking for less revenue than Rubin? Was it when Ezra mentioned that the Simpson-Bowles plan had more defense cuts and higher taxes than what Obama is asking for, and Brooks said that he's no longer a fan of Simpson-Bowles? Was it the part where Brooks tried to explain what a good deal would look like, gave up, and referred us all to a column written by Yuval Levin?

What a bunch of gobbledygook Brooks spewed in that brief interview!

What a clown he is.

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The Root: Make no mistake about it, the NRA's plan to keep the U.S. from regulating guns involves a heaping dose of racism.

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At least six tanks leaking at nuclear waste site in Washington state

Aerial view of part of the Hanford nuclear site on Washington state on March 21, 2011. AFP

Energy Secretary Steven Chu informed its governor Jay Inslee on Friday that more leaks had been discovered. Read More

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Man with high-powered rifles and 'tank buster' bullets arrested for posting liberal 'hit list'Larry Mulqueen arrested for death threats and illegally possessing weapons

According to WCBS, 49-year-old Larry Mulqueen was arraigned on on charges of "making terroristic threats, illegally possessing weapons and harassment." Read More

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Fecal tooth brushing in the naked city

There are eight million stories in the naked city, and this is two of them. The water in the Cecil Hotel indowntown Los Angeles was trickling in. Two British tourists, Michael Baugh and his wife, complained. "What kinda country you got here? You don't know about water pressure?!" So the management checked out the system. The pipes seemed fine. That's when they found an obstruction in the water tank. It was a dead body.

It's a sad story—two sad stories. You see, the people were having trouble brushing their teeth. And if that's not enough, there was that soggy dead dame. She was 21-year-old Elisa Lam from Canada. She was supposedly going to Santa Cruz, which is over 300 miles closer to Canada than where her body was found. There are 60,000 stories in Surf City, and this was not one of them.

The authorities are trying to figure out if her death was the result of an accident or foul play. I wonder—I really do! According to the Associated Press, "The opening at the top of the cistern is too small to accommodate firefighters and equipment, so they had to cut a hole in the storage tank to recover Lam's body."

I'm thinking "accident": she takes the elevator to the top floor; she climbs the stairs up to the roof; she deactivates the alarm and picks the lock on the door; she climbs the later up to the tank and then climbs up the straight sides of it; And then she squeezes into the small hole at the top, because, you know: who hasn't wanted to go swimming inside cistern; but she forgot she couldn't swim and drowned. It's the most likely thing to have happened!

As for the more important story: that poor British couple brushed her teeth with that water. Even more shocking: they brewed coffee with it. Personally, I'd rather be murdered and have my body disposed of in the bottom of some hotel cistern. But the police say not to worry! The only thing to worry about is from fecal material. Apparently, when people die they often defecate. That's right: defecation.

There are eight million stories in the naked city, and two of them have to do with murder and brushing your teeth with the victims feces.

Afterword

Before anyone gets on me: my point is that as creepy as the couple's story is, what most matters is that this young woman was murdered. But the murder alone would not have made the AP.

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Philly Archbishop To Bus Parishioners To NOM Hate March On SCOTUS

Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput has issued the above letter in support of NOM's hate march on SCOTUS and tellsCatholic Vote that he'll be organizing buses from all five of his districts.

RELATED: In 2011 the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced that it was investigating 37 active priests on suspicion of child molestation.  In June of 2012, high-ranking Philadelphia Archdiocese official Father William Lynn was convicted of child endangerment for shielding the crimes of pedophile priests. Father Charles Englehart was convicted of molesting an altar boy last month. More trials are coming. NOM's hate march is surely a welcome diversion for Archbishop Chaput.

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