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Jobs? Ha! House GOP’s new “jobortion” bill would ban abortions in D.C. after 20 weeks of pregnancy

Posted by GottaLaff

· Monday, April 29th, 2013 at 2:24 pm

Rachel Maddow, April 29, 2013:

Rachel Maddow, August 2012:

This is what the Republicans did with their big new majority after the
2010 election. Republicans’ jobs, jobs, jobortion agenda is so fast they`re focusing on the area of legislation so intently that it kind of seems like there should be a monthly newsletter for following this sort of thing.

I repeat, “And by jobs, Republicans mean abortions.“

Today Steve Benen at The Maddow Blog is reporting that the people in Washington D.C., the ones who have no voice in Congress, have more of that idiocy to contend with, via The Hill:

Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) is bringing back a bill to ban most abortions in the District of Columbia after 20 weeks of pregnancy. [...]

It will be opposed by supporters of abortion rights and the D.C. “home rule” movement, which believes Congress should not set policy in the District.

There’s that warm and fuzzy GOP outreach again. I write about that a lot, because the hypocrisy is so astounding.

Benen writes that the Franks bill will “almost certainly not” have a chance of becoming law. But that doesn’t mean that the constant and astounding Republican hypocrisy doesn’t extend to their claims of coveting “small government” as they try to jam their intrusive laws down America’s throats:

[L]et’s call this what it is: a big government proposal in which federal lawmakers want to overrule the judgment of local officials, overriding the wishes of a city because some in Congress feel like it.

Another “jobortion” bill will bite the dust, right alongside what’s left of “Republican credibility.”

1 Comment

Categories : Uncategorized

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

Posted by GottaLaff

· Wednesday, April 24th, 2013 at 1:00 pm

· 13 Comments

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.

13 Comments

Categories : Uncategorized

Tags : background checks, D.C., enough already, gop fail, gun control, gun crazies, gun safety, gun violence, guns, march, NRA, Seriously it's time to stop, U.S.Senate, universal background checks, washington d.c., what does it take?

Cliff Notes: Bipartisan-ship of fools in DC, where “being right-wing, malevolent, & wrong is an actual career advancement plan”

Posted by GottaLaff

· Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013 at 1:48 pm

· No Comments

My dear friend and mentor, Cliff Schecter, has a new post up; Cliff has given me permission to share his work with you, so I’ll give you the latest edition of what I call Cliff Notes.

He skewers better than a chef at Smokey Joe’s BBQ. He has comedic insights that rival those of our mutual friend, the hilarious Lizz Winstead. He’s sharper than the point on Sarah Palin’s pin head.

Here are a few excerpts from his latest, with permission. Please read the whole thing, because he has way more than I’ve included here. He explains why DC bipartisanship, as opposed to real outside the Beltway bipartisanship, should be taken to task for it’s warped values and how it repeatedly fails us and promotes evil and stupid people, while ignoring important things.

It’s a must-read. Here are bits and pieces that don’t do it justice. Please, link over for the entire post:

Bipartisan is just so darn cool. It’s hip! It’s now! It’s Rand Paul’s talking filibuster [...] Or, and I’m just thinking aloud here, perhaps when that word is uttered in Washington there is only once choice to be made: Run.

Because you see, there is actually bipartisanship that makes sense. It is all over the US. It will tell you that over 90 percent of the American public thinks there should be a 3-minute background checks before you purchase a combat weapon that can dismember kindergarten-aged kids, that the minimum wage should surpass that of Heilongjiang Province and that marriage equality is a concept long overdue.

But that is not the bipartisanship that exists in Washington… It’s the variety that just gave us the 10-year anniversary of the tragedy in Iraq and rewarded Condoleezza Rice of the “smoking gun”, “mushroom cloud” and “what does ‘Bin Laden determined to attack in US‘ mean” with a new role as a political analyst on CBS – as if she can figure out day in and day out how to tie her shoes.

That’s bipartisanship DC style. It ignored Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Trayvon Martin and finally got around to thinking we have a gun problem after grotesque inaction reached its logical conclusion, with 20 six and seven year olds mowed down like cattle in their classroom. [...]

Spawn of the dead, Liz Cheney, is close buds with key DC media gatekeepers – so by all means let’s have her on the Sunday shows even though she’s a cretinous dolt whose father is so evil – he’s literally burned through something like four hearts by now.

A recent Sunday morning talk-show lineup resembled a chain gang, with Ralph Reed, onetime Jack Abramoff water boy, Tony Perkins… alongside the Ku Klux Klan and the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre… Because being right-wing, malevolent and wrong is an actual career advancement plan in Washington!

Cliff Schecter is an author, pundit and public relations strategist whose firm Libertas, LLC handles media relations for political, corporate and non-profit clients.

Follow him on Twitter: @CliffSchecter

No Comments

Categories : Uncategorized

Tags : bipartisanship, Cliff Notes, Cliff Schecter, corruption, D.C., gop fail, makes no fucking sense whatsoever, warped, washington d.c.

Firefighters under investigation by department for appearing with Pres. Obama. “It leads us to question the chief’s motives.”

Posted by GottaLaff

· Saturday, February 23rd, 2013 at 12:57 pm

· 3 Comments

When President Obama held a news conference last week, he was surrounded by men and women in uniform to make the point that austerity (spending cuts) doesn’t work (it doesn’t). He was trying to emphasize the impact such cuts would have on police officers, firefighters and other first responders. As it is, hundreds of thousands of public sector workers have already been laid off.

In fact, “we have never cut government jobs when we were trying to save the economy. Until this time.”

And now something else happened that usually hasn’t. Until this time:

(CNN) – Washington firefighters who stood with President Barack Obama at a public appearance Tuesday are now under investigation by their department. [...]

The White House sent a request to the International Association of Fire Fighters, said Ed Smith, president of DC Fire Fighters Association Local 36. Firefighters are routinely requested for events such as 9/11 memorial ceremonies and it has “never been a problem,” Smith said. “It leads us to question the chief’s motives.”

Smith is right, something doesn’t feel kosher about this.

DC Fire & EMS Chief Kenneth Ellerbe says he’s not considering any disciplinary action.

3 Comments

Categories : Uncategorized

Tags : D.C., firefighters, first responders, investigation, President Obama, the obama white house, uniforms, washington d.c.

Largest gun show in DC raises admission to help bankroll fight against Obama’s gun safety measures

Posted by GottaLaff

· Saturday, February 9th, 2013 at 2:43 pm

· 4 Comments

Stop Handgun Violence sign, Massachusetts

What is so damned hard about processing this Constitutionally protected right and fact: America, you are still, and will continue to be, able to “keep and bear your guns.”

Oversight and common sense safety measures to keep more children and adults from being sprayed with bullets will not infringe on anyone’s Second Amendment rights. You know what infringes on rights? People who kill other people with weapons that belong– exclusively– in the hands of our military service members.

“Right-to-lifers” might want to check their hypocrisy at the door for two minutes and think about who and what they’re defending.

They might want to consider twenty children and their right to not get killed.

They might want to have just a tad of empathy for those who couldn’t fight back against an angry gun owner who fully intended to slaughter living, breathing human beings with his seemingly endless stream of bullets aimed at their heads… like Gabby Giffords, for example.

Or the five-year-olds at Sandy Hook Elementary whose little faces were blasted and shredded beyond recognition.

But clinging to the “right” to an assault rifle trumps men, women, and children clinging to their last breath.

And to make matters worse, these same self-righteous gunners prioritize lobbyists and profit over real liberty: The freedom to breathe.

Via The Hill:

Thousands of gun enthusiasts are descending upon the “Nation’s Gun Show” at the Dulles Expo Center this weekend and, for the first time in five years, are being greeted with a higher cost of entry as the gun rights community wages a tough, and costly, campaign to stop Obama and Congress from stiffening certain gun laws.

“Admission has gone up because we are using the money to fight so you can keep and bear your guns,” read the sign on the front doors to the gun show.

“We have already spent $25,000 this year to stop impending legislation by hiring lawyers, lobbyists, and writing bills.” [...]

“Got to get them while you can,” said one man, who had just purchased an AR-15 assault-style weapon for $1,599 and a 42-round clip for $45. He did not want to be identified.

It has been well-established that military-style weapons and high-capacity magazines are not necessary for hunting, nor have any gun “enthusiasts” documented a case in which they’ve been used to defend a homeowner from an intruder.

That much was made clear at the Senate hearings on gun violence and in this video of Lawrence O’Donnell eviscerating gun hugger Gayle Trotter. But that didn’t stop “the steadily paced stream of gun buyers slow[ing] to a stop in front of the dealers hawking assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines.”

It’s rather important to note that the largest gun show in the DC area allowed for private sales. That means no sales tax and no background checks required.

What could possibly go wrong?

4 Comments

Categories : Uncategorized

NBC Asked To Use High Capacity Clip For MTP, Was Denied

Posted by Paddy

· Wednesday, December 26th, 2012 at 10:30 am

· 9 Comments

I take back what I said before, Gregory and whoever runs MTP are just as stupid as the wingers. Doesn’t seem like they’ll get more than a slap on the wrist for it, but it did give the wingers a new notch in their belts

NBC News asked D.C. police for permission to use a high-capacity ammunition clip as a prop on Sunday’s “Meet the Press” show, a request District authorities said Wednesday they denied.

But host David Gregory appears to have used one anyway — and then displayed it on national television. Now D.C. police say they’re investigating whether the District’s gun laws were violated in the incident.

(snip)

The District’s code says that “No person in the District shall possess, sell, or transfer any large capacity ammunition feeding device” whether or not it is attached to a firearm.

After the show, people contacted D.C. police asking whether they would charge Gregory with a crime. A response from the department’s customer service section sent to a group called Patriot Perspective, and confirmed as accurate by a police spokeswoman, said “The Metropolitan Police Department is in receipt of your e-mail regarding David Gregory segment on ‘Meet the Press.’

Special thanks to Nicole Naum

9 Comments

Categories : Uncategorized

Tags : david gregory, gun control, guns, high capacity magazine, Meet the Press, Television, washington d.c., Wayne LaPierre

Washington D.C. police investigating whether NBC’s David Gregory violated law

Posted by Paddy

· Tuesday, December 25th, 2012 at 1:17 pm

· 2 Comments

This is just so f’ng childish and stupid. A bunch of RW sites started cawing the other day that for all that Gregory was attacking LaPierre, the mere fact that he had a magazine in D.C. made him more of a law breaker than Wayne, and where is the OUTRAGE!! So they went and ginned up a crime and actually got the D.C. police to investigate. Ugh.

Washington (CNN) – Washington Metropolitan Police Department is investigating whether NBC’s David Gregory violated D.C. gun laws when he displayed what he described as a 30 round magazine as part of an interview during Sunday’s “Meet the Press.”

“So here’s a magazine for ammunition that carries 30 bullets. Now isn’t it possible that if we got rid of these, if we replaced them and said well, you can only have a magazine that carries five bullets or ten bullets, isn’t it just possible that we could reduce the carnage in a situation like Newtown?” show moderator Gregory asked Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president of the National Rifle Association.

It’s not known whether the magazine Gregory had in his hand was authentic or a prop. D.C. police spokeswoman Gwen Crump told CNN the department is investigating the matter and would have no further comment at this time.

Hat Tip to Price Benowitz Criminal Defense

2 Comments

Categories : Uncategorized

Tags : david gregory, gun magazine, law, Meet the Press, nbc, NRA, sset the press, washington d.c., Wayne LaPierre

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