Archive for universal background checks

VIDEO: “Typical moms” defending Kelly Ayotte’s gun vote in ad are actually GOP activists

kelly ayotte

Team Ayotte appears to be getting desperate, and for good reason. Since she and 45 other Republicans voted against gun background checks, her  poll numbers took a nose dive, Gabby Giffords’ group targeted her, and the daughter of a Newtown victim confronted her at town hall meeting. Did I mention 91 percent of New Hampshire adults support expanded background checks?

So what do her supporters do to rebuild her image and poll numbers? I mean other than applaud her grandstanding during the Benghazi Senate hearing. Glad you asked.

Think Progress:

[A] national conservative group based in Iowa is running television ads featuring seemingly ordinary New Hampshire moms and law enforcement officials defending the one-term senator from out-of-state “partisan” attacks.

[A] cursory search of individuals in the advertisement reveals that the supposedly typical New Hampshirites are actually long-time Republican party activists and officials.

Here’s the ad:

oops4

VIDEO– GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte: I support “full equality for women” except for that equal pay thing; “already existing laws.”

kelly ayotte 2

women pay wage gap

Senator Kelly Ayotte isn’t doing herself any favors these days. Recently, the daughter of a Newtown shooting victim confronted Ayotte on her position on gun safety measures at a town hall meeting. As you may recall, Kelly Ayotte voted against the gun background check bill. As a result, her poll numbers have plummeted.

Now the New Hampshire senator has opened her big, insensitive GOP mouth yet again:

Ayotte, who laughably claims in the video that she supports “full equality for women,” said this:

We have existing laws — Title VII, um, Lilly Ledbetter, all those existing protections in place — that, I believe, enforce and provide that people doing equal jobs are, certainly in this country, should receive equal pay.

So, um, that bill, in my view, didn’t add — in fact I think it created a lot of additional burdens that would have been hard, um, to make it more difficult for job creators to create jobs. …

The reason that I voted against that specific bill is that, I looked at it, and there were already existing laws that need to be enforced and can be enforced and I didn’t feel like adding that layer was going to help us better get at the equal pay issue.

She opposed the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would not exactly “make it more difficult for job creators to create jobs.”

Via Think Progress, where there is much more:

[A]t a town hall earlier this week, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) claimed that Congress has done enough to ensure that women receive equal pay for equal work. Indeed, she justified her vote against legislation intended to prevent employers from dodging federal equal pay law with an excuse similar to the National Rifle Association’s explanation for why we do not need any more gun laws — we just need to enforce the ones we have. [...]

It should go without saying that, if similarly situated women are not making the same amount as their male colleagues, then we aren’t doing enough to close this pay gap. So Ayotte’s suggestion that our current laws are sufficient cannot be squared with the reality facing women in the workplace. [...]

So when Ayotte voted against this bill, she stood up for employer’s rights to make completely irrational judgments about how much a female worker should be paid, and their right to retaliate against employees who are trying to figure out if they are being treated fairly.

Please keep proceeding, Kel. We American women can almost feel your outreach efforts from here. Kidding.

Daughter of #Newtown victim confronts Sen. Kelly Ayotte on guns at town hall meeting

gun protest NHkelly ayotte

Video via Concord Patch, Rabbi Robin Nafshi of Temple Beth Jacob in Concord, one of many who were shocked by Kelly Ayotte’s vote against gun background checks, spoke at a gun safety presser.

Kelly Ayotte held her first town hall meeting since voting against the gun background check bill. She might be regretting that right about now.

Erica Lafferty– whose mother, Dawn Hochsprung, the principal of Sandy Hook Elementary School and who was tragically killed by the shooter– had this to say:

“You had mentioned that day you voted, owners of gun stores that the expanded background checks would harm. I am just wondering why the burden of my mother being gunned down in the halls of her elementary school isn’t more important than that.” [...]

After her exchange with Ayotte, Lafferty stood and stormed out of the town hall.

Asked afterward why she had done so, Lafferty said: “I had had enough.”

oof 2Ayotte usually takes pre-submitted questions at her meetings, and then a pre-selected moderator chooses and reads them. In other words, there are a lot of “pre’s”.

But at this particular town hall, that didn’t work out quite the way she expected.

Via First Read, here’s what happened just prior to Lafferty’s exchange:

You can’t deny people the right to speak because they haven’t filled out a card. I have a question,” [Eric] Knuffke shouted. Supporters of Ayotte shouted back at him.

“I do every single town meeting this way, and we have a process,” Ayotte responded, though her voice — thin and high-pitched from a cold — was drowned out by the noise.

You want to regulate that but you don’t want to regulate guns,” Knuffke yelled back.

Why Eric, what an excellent point. Say it with me: Hy-poc-ri-sy.

So then what happened?

Sit down and shut up!” a member of the crowd shouted back at him, with others joining in.

Well now, that meeting went well. Way to go, Kel!

But wait! There’s more! WaPo:

We have her on the record,” [Nancy] Martlind said of Ayotte. “Then there’ll be another big shooting incident, and we’ll know where she stands.

Lafferty, whose parents used to vacation at a mountainside inn just a few towns away, said Ayotte’s answer on Tuesday was different than what she’s heard before.

I’m going wherever she goes next,” Lafferty said.

By the way, Kelly, how are those poll numbers workin’ out for ya?

It is ON. March on NRA lobbyists! DC! April 25! Noon! Please share.

it's on

Please feel free to post and tweet! NRA Lobbyists can no longer hide in the shadows!

Go DC!

Here’s the press release:

Activists to Target NRA “K” Street Lobbyists – Hand Deliver NRA Checks & Post-Mortem Victim Photos

“March on NRA Lobbyists” Begins at Noon, Thursday, April 25th at McPherson Square

Unveiling of new Shepard Fairey anti-NRA artwork

WASHINGTON, DC –Riding a wave of public anger at the Senate’s failure to pass even minimal gun control legislation, a coalition of activists, advocates and campaign finance reformers will lead a march on Washington firearms lobbyists this Thursday, April 25 at NOON. The goal is to drag the lobbyists out of the shadows where they prefer to operate and expose exactly how the National Rifle Association subverts democracy.

The event will begin with a news conference in McPherson Square, where gun violence prevention leaders will lay out the web of influence controlled by the NRA and unveil a new anti-NRA artwork by Shepard Fairey, who produced the most memorable image of Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.

The protest will then move along the K Street corridor, symbolically holding up giant checks from the NRA made out to key lobbying firms and delivering crime-scene photos illustrating the devastating effects of gun violence to those firms’ offices.

Participating organizations include Public Campaign, Occupy the NRA, CREDO, Every Child Matters, Moveon, United For Change, USA, New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, The Other 98%, and We Act Radio.

“Victims of gun violence and their surviving family members in Aurora and Newtown can’t write big checks to buy time and influence with elected officials,” said Nick Nyhart, president and CEO of Public Campaign. “It’s no accident the Senate could not bring itself to close the gun show loophole and institute universal background checks for gun purchasers — a measure supported by more than 90 percent of the public. Americans deserve a political system that allows politicians to do what’s best for the majority, not just their big campaign donors.”

The news conference will not only name NRA lobbyists; it will also name the non-NRA clients of those lobbyists and challenge them to distance themselves from their firms.

Who:

Nick Nyhart, Public Campaign

Nardyne Jefferies, gun safety advocate whose daughter was killed in a drive by shooting on South Capitol

Maria Roach, United For Change, USA

Leah Gunn Barrett, New Yorkers Against Gun Violence

Stephen Clermont, Every Child Matters Education Fund

Cliff Schecter – Gun safety advocate and writer – moderator

What: A news conference starting at McPherson Square targeting NRA lobbyists and proceeding along the K Street corridor

When: This Thursday, April 25, 2013 at 12:00 NOON

Where: McPherson Square, South Lawn

Why: Because the NRA’s lobbyists are culpable. They can no longer hide in the shadows while Americans are killed by their handiwork. Their other clients have the right to know how little they value public safety.

VIDEO: Shame on you, Sen. Heitkamp – Serve Your Constituents, not the NRA!

heidi heitkamp

Sometimes you gotta hit ‘em hard so they hear you. My newest Blunt video sure did. Now there’s this:

OccupyNRA:

This week, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D, North Dakota) voted against commonsense regulations that would curtail gun violence, despite the fact that 94% of ND voters support background checks for ALL gun buyers.*

CONTACT Sen. Heidi Heitkamp to ask her why she put the interests of the gun lobby before her own constituents:

Twitter: @SenatorHeitkamp
Facebook: fb.com/SenatorHeidiHeitkamp
Phone: (202)-224-2043

*http://www.northdecoder.com/Latest/94…

And from Bill Daley, who was White House chief of staff from 2011 to 2012 and Secretary of Commerce from 1997 to 2000, an op-ed titled, “Heidi Heitkamp betrayed me on gun control,” via WaPo:

I’ll have some advice for my friends in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles: Just say no to the Democrats who said no on background checks. [...]

It’s shameful when politicians put what they perceive is their own interest or that of some lobbying group ahead of what the great mass of the American people want. [...]

When I think about the Democrats I will focus on supporting in 2014, Sens. Mary Landrieu (La.) and Kay Hagan (N.C.) will be at the top of my list. Both represent states where Republicans typically have an advantage and where there is a long and deep tradition of gun ownership. Both had the wisdom to understand that making it harder for criminals to get guns protects, rather than endangers, the rights of responsible, law-abiding gun owners.

Well done. We need people in office who have common sense and listen when 90+% of the people speak as loudly as we have.

U.S. Senate: “Yellow-bellied cowards, gutless craven chicken-hearted invertebrates. More comfortable with guns than books.”

mad as hell not gonna take it any  more

Today’s guest post by the one, the only, Will Durst:

YELLOW BELLIED COWARDS

And now for a few choice words about the recent Senate vote which scuttled universal background checks on gun purchases. And the first three of those words are… Yellow- Bellied Cowards. Here’s a couple more. Gutless Craven Chicken- Hearted Invertebrates. Dastardly Lily- Livered Spineless Jellyfish with the moral compunction of inbred Piranhas crowded into a too- small tank filled with liquid meth.

That giant arrogant pimp known as the NRA should be laughing hysterically after its lackeys trashed the ephemeral spirit of compromise that had settled over Washington like a soft dawn mist. 90% of Republicans voted against an issue 90% of the American people support. A bipartisan bill that was so watered down, it was translucent. Leaked moisture all through the Senate chamber to a depth of a half- inch. Would have easily supported 2 schools of guppies.

The Senators that deigned to speak before scurrying down their greasy little wormholes to bunk in the nether regions of hell, whined that pro-gun forces punish politicians for votes, while pro gun-control forces don’t. Nobody mentioned the right thing to do or keeping automatic weapons out of the hands of felons or making the country or our schools safer. You know, their job.

The NRA, itself worried about being primaried from the right by other gun associations, encouraged its well-compensated hookers to compete among themselves to see who could lie most outrageously. Numerous Senators claimed the bill would lead to a national gun registry even though the very bill they spoke of included provisions to specifically prohibit such a thing. Perhaps it needs to be spelled out in simpler language like: “Gun Registry- Bad. Not Good. No-Go. Not Going to Happen.”

Besides, exactly what is wrong with a national gun registry? You have to register a car. Most cities mandate bicycles be licensed. You need a card to take a book out of a library for crum’s sakes. Proving that some people are much more comfortable with guns than they are books. Which is part of the problem.

In what was surely meant as an inside joke, Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn complained the bill would raise taxes. Why stop there? And child pornographers will camp in your back yard practicing Shariah law with uncircumcised goats riddled with Chinese bird flu.

This time the NRA may have overreached. Perpetrated an outrage too far. A revulsion too great. Could very well have created its own Frankenstein monster. 90% is a big figure. You’d think even the most casual of voters might tend to remember when someone turns their back on the country, jumps up and down on a litter of new born puppies then parties. And it would only take a committed few to throw their allegiance to candidates who pledge loyalty to the nation rather than a lobby that focuses on weapons of mass destruction.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal wasn’t kidding. The GOP’s path is clear. It is doomed to be the rich, white guy, anti-science, pro-gun, stupid Party. Destined to slowly strangle on its own gurgling incoherencies until it is no longer comprehensible or relevant. Couldn’t happen soon enough to a nicer bunch of rich white guys. And their grinning gun-toting treacherous minions.

5 time Emmy- nominee Will Durst performs his new one- man show “BoomerAging: From LSD to OMG” every Tuesday at the Marsh, San Francisco. Go to themarsh.org or willdurst.com for more info.

National Review Online: Gabby Giffords’ “childish display in the New York Times is an embarrassment.”

pot kettle embarrassing childish displays

Recently, in a New York Times op-ed, Gabby Giffords wrote, “Speaking is physically difficult for me. But my feelings are clear: I’m furious.”

She’s not the only one. You will be, too, once you read this, via Media Matters:

In an NRO post, Kevin D. Williamson attacked Giffords [...]

“While Ms. Giffords certainly has my sympathy for the violence she suffered, it should be noted that being shot in the head by a lunatic does not give one any special grace to pronounce upon public-policy questions, nor does it give one moral license to call people “cowards” for holding public-policy views at variance with one’s own. Her childish display in the New York Times is an embarrassment.”

Pot. Kettle. Embarrassing childish displays.

Juxtaposed next to that example of sensitivity, compassion, and fairness was this ad:

nra ad in national reviewHere are a couple of excerpts from Giffords’ embarrassing childish display. The first example could be why the National Review went after her the way they did:

These senators made their decision based on political fear and on cold calculations about the money of special interests like the National Rifle Association

Speaking is physically difficult for me. But my feelings are clear: I’m furious

[T]hey looked over their shoulder at the powerful, shadowy gun lobby — and brought shame on themselves and our government itself by choosing to do nothing… [T]rust me, I know how politicians talk when they want to distract you — but their decision was based on a misplaced sense of self-interest.

Yeah, wow, what a baby.