Archive for federal judge

Conservative Buffoons: Special Comment by my 72-year-old friend

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My impassioned 72-year-old  friend (who is now 75, but who’s counting?), who goes by the Twitter name @42bkdodgr, would like to share his feelings about a few Republican gun-revering buffoons and their response to the Newtown massacre. I am more than happy to oblige.

But first, a personal note from 42bkdodgr:

Many of you may wonder why I chose to use the “72 year old friend” as the introduction to my Special Comments. I selected the moniker so readers could see that from my age and life experiences I give a different perspective to the issues of today.

Buffoons

Last Friday, an horrific event occurred in our country, where 26 human beings, 20 of them young children, were murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut, by a deranged individual.

Like many of you, I shed tears over the weekend as we learned more and more of the facts as to what actually took place at the school. When I think about what took place and the horror those children, teachers and school official went through, I still tear up, even as I write this special comment.

But I get extremely upset, mad, angry, irate or whatever word that describes outrage, when I read and hear the remarks coming from the religious right and the right wing of the Republican Party regarding what took place at the school.

Consider the following remarks and statements:

  • James Dobson, Focus on the Family Founder, linked the shooting to turning back on God with regard to abortions and the institution of marriage. In effect linking Sandy Hook shooting to abortions and gay marriage.
  • The National Review in an editorial written by Charlotte Allen, suggested the shooting occurred because the school was totally run by women, suggesting if a man or men were teachers or administrators at the school, the killings would not have happened.
  • Then we have birther Orly Taitz blaming President Obama for the Sandy Hook massacre. Read this article and it will make your head spin. Why the media still covers her is beyond me. Her 15 minutes of fame should be over.

Huckabee in his remarks about God being removed from schools, forgets there is such a thing as the separation of church and state.

As far as Gohmert and Perry, I wonder what they would say if a student overpowered a teacher and took a gun and used it. Who would they blame? The teacher for not be strong enough? Would they expect a 100-pound female teacher to take on a male high school student?

Will getting a teaching degree or certification require taking Hand Gun 101 and Shot Gun 102?

No one seems to have taken into consideration the possible ramification of an armed school. It’s like they want to take us back to the wild, wild, west.

The fact that Ms. Allen could make such a remark when six women gave their lives trying protect the students in their schools is disgusting and outrageous.

All of the above statements, were from buffoons pushing their own agendas and not really trying to address the issues that confront the nation. I hope the task force being headed by Vice Pres. Joe Biden can come up with the solutions that will prevent such tragedy from ever happening again.

Many thanks again for another thorough, relevant piece, @42bkdodgr. You often say what many of us are thinking and feeling, and we thank you for your unique perspective.

PhotOH! “World’s foremost oufitter” is “causing anguish” in Connecticut with gun ads

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Cabelas, “the world’s foremost oufitter, is “causing anguish” in Connecticut as is obvious by the above tweets and these ad inserts:

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It’s only been a few days since the Newtown, Connecticut massacre, but apparently the priority is getting guns into the hands of more customers and making a profit, all while wishing everyone a happy holiday! Those pesky family values keep popping up at the most inopportune time, don’t they?

If the inclusion of such insensitive ads was unavoidable, then how about another insert explaining that? It wouldn’t eliminate the problem, but it would go a long way to soothe feelings and show a little empathy.

Have yourselves a merry little Christmas, Cabelas.

Conservative judge: “I don’t care whether it’s called gun control or a gun ban. I’m for it.” VIDEO ADDED.

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Video added. Thank you Lawrence.

Larry Alan Burns, a federal district judge in San Diego, California, sentenced Gabby Giffords’ shooter– who murdered six including a nine-year-old girl– to seven consecutive life terms plus 140 years in federal prison. He also wrote an op-ed that’s in today’s L.A. Times. He writes that Jared Loughner was only subdued after he emptied a 31-round magazine into his victims and was trying to load another.

Newtown, Connecticut murderer Adam Lanza used a semiautomatic rifle with 30-round magazines to spray bullets into his tiny human targets.

Judge Burns is a self-described conservative and gun owner who has become an Enough is Enougher and is now questioning “the social utility of high-capacity magazines” and “lamented the expiration of the federal assault weapons ban in 2004.”

In his op-ed, he notes that half of the nation’s deadliest shootings occurred after the ban expired, and as he also notes that the ban wasn’t “all that stringent.” He understands that no law will completely stop the crazies from killing, but agrees with many of us whose goal is to “be able to take the ‘mass’ out of ‘mass shooting,’ or at least make the perpetrator’s job a bit harder.”

He also realizes it’s unrealistic to ban all guns and that, clearly, there are Second Amendment issues to contend with. However, he favors bringing back the assault weapons ban, only “with teeth.”

Ban the manufacture, importation, sale, transfer and possession of both assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Don’t let people who already have them keep them. Don’t let ones that have already been manufactured stay on the market. I don’t care whether it’s called gun control or a gun ban. I’m for it.

I say all of this as a gun owner. I say it as a conservative who was appointed to the federal bench by a Republican president. I say it as someone who prefers Fox News to MSNBC, and National Review Online to the Daily Kos. I say it as someone who thinks the Supreme Court got it right in District of Columbia vs. Heller, when it held that the 2nd Amendment gives us the right to possess guns for self-defense. (That’s why I have mine.) I say it as someone who, generally speaking, is not a big fan of the regulatory state.

I even say it as someone whose feelings about the NRA mirror the left’s feelings about Planned Parenthood: It has a useful advocacy function in our deliberative democracy, and much of what it does should not be controversial at all.

And I say it, finally, mindful of the arguments on the other side, at least as I understand them: that a high-capacity magazine is not that different from multiple smaller-capacity magazines; and that if we ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines one day, there’s a danger we would ban guns altogether the next, and your life might depend on you having one. [...]

Mourning is important, but so is decisive action.

The question is, will enough conservatives step up like this to make a difference? Will Congress members shake off their ideology long enough to make America safer? Will they show they care more about the lives of their fellow citizens than they do about donations from the NRA?

Please read the entire op-ed here.

Mississippi abortion law temporarily blocked

Remember this segment from the Rachel Maddow Show? Mississippi is trying to be the first state to completely ban abortion. That is their aim and they said it right out loud. Watch:

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Rachel:

“Watch this this weekend.”

It’s Monday, and this weekend there was a reprieve from one of those damned activist librul judges! L.A. Times:

JACKSON, Miss. — A federal judge Sunday temporarily blocked enforcement of a Mississippi law that could shut down the only abortion clinic in the state.

U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan in Jackson issued a temporary restraining order the day the new law took effect and set a July 11 hearing to determine whether to block it for a longer time.

“Though the debate over abortion continues, there exists legal precedent the court must follow,” Jordan wrote. [...] “Plaintiffs have offered evidence — including quotes from significant legislative and executive officers — that the act’s purpose is to eliminate abortions in Mississippi. They likewise submitted evidence that no safety or health concerns motivated its passage. This evidence has not yet been rebutted.

Federal Judge Blocks Citigroup’s Mortgage Settlement With S.E.C.

Via an email alert:

A federal judge in New York on Monday threw out a settlement between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Citigroup over a 2007 mortgage derivatives deal, saying that the S.E.C.’s policy of settling cases by allowing a company to neither admit nor deny the agency’s allegations did not satisfy the law.

The judge, Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the Federal District Court in Manhattan, ruled that the S.E.C.’s $285 million settlement, announced last month, is “neither fair, nor adequate, nor in the public interest” because it does not provide the court with evidence on which to judge the settlement.

The ruling could throw the S.E.C.’s enforcement efforts into chaos, because a majority of the fraud and other cases that the agency brings against Wall Street firms are settled out of court, most often with a condition that the defendant does not admit that it violated the law while also promising not to deny it.

Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/29/business/judge-rejects-sec-accord-with-citi.html?emc=na

Federal judge blocks part of North Carolina abortion law

Okay, this didn’t go far enough, but it’s at least something:

(Reuters) - North Carolina cannot require abortion providers to show and describe to pregnant women images from ultrasounds performed before the procedures, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.

The 24-hour waiting period before an abortion is still in effect.

So is the intrusive-when-it-suits-them GOP mindset.

Gay jurist in Proposition 8 case had no legal obligation to remove himself, judge rules. His same-sex marriage ruling stands.

Today’s Moment of Happy, via an email alert:

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Federal judge upholds ruling by gay judge that struck down same-sex marriage ban in Calif.

And this just in, via the L.A. Times:

A federal judge on Tuesday refused to invalidate last year’s ruling against Proposition 8, deciding the gay jurist who overturned the same-sex marriage ban had no obligation to step aside because of a possible conflict of interest.

The decision by Chief Judge James Ware of the U.S. District Court in San Francisco left the ruling by retired Judge Vaughn R. Walker in place. Walker’s decision remains on hold pending a separate appeal to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Gay rights for the win! And again, why oh why must this even be a battle?