Bits and Pieces

From the Sinecure Foundation for the Advancement of Easy Jobs:  “The Republican leader (John Boehner) said during a speech at the Ripon Society Tuesday that after listening to the president’s inaugural address, there was no doubt in his mind that in order to get his full agenda accomplished before he leaves office, Obama will be trying to “annihilate the Republican Party.” [Media-ite]   This from the party of Self-Deportation, Gerrymandered Congressional Districts, Electoral College Manipulation, Carry Your Rapist’s Child to Term, Cut Medicare, Privatize Social Security, Start a Lovely War with Iran, Only Sluts Take Contraceptives, Hillary Clinton Cries on Cue, Guns Have More Rights Than People, Corporations Are People My Friend, Only Black People Are On Welfare, and We Have To Cut Social Security Benefits to Protect The Income of Uber Wealthy Americans…. to which one might say, “Please Proceed.”

From The Myopic Vision Division of the Stunt and Special Effects Department:  Nevada Senator Dean Heller evidently can’t discern the difference between an unconstitutional publicity stunt and the stuff of which budget and policy are made.  See more at Nevada Progressive.

From the Real World With Numbers In It:  The U.S. Department of Labor reports that unemployment insurance initial claims are the lowest they’ve been for the last five years.   The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports: “An offender was armed with a gun, knife, or other object used as a weapon in an estimated 22% of all incidents of violent crime.” And, “Firearms (28%) were the most common weapons used in robberies.” Contrary to the amount of press and media coverage given, violent crime doesn’t lead the statistics.  The most common crime in the U.S. is good old fashioned theft.  Of the 20,057,180 crimes reported in the country as of 2009 — 11,709,830 were thefts, (pdf) which dropped by 6% from the previous reporting period in 2008.  Violent crimes were down 11.2%, assaults were down by 10.8%.  So, if crime rates are trending down, and only 22% of crimes involved an offender armed with “something,” then explain to me why my House Must Be A Fortress?

From the Department of the Do-Able: “The deal will address the filibuster on the motion to proceed by changing the amount of debate time that would follow a cloture vote from 30 hours to four, speeding up Senate business and allowing more legislation to reach the floor. But the deal still requires Democrats to muscle 60 votes to invoke cloture on that motion, despite Reid’s earlier suggestion that he would bar a filibuster on that motion entirely. [full story Huffington Post]  OK, I’m not thrilled with this, but it’s do-able, and cutting the time from 30 hours to 4 hours after a motion to proceed, does make it possible for things to….proceed.  And there is this:

“First, senators who wish to object or threaten a filibuster must actually come to the floor to do so. And second, the two leaders will make sure that debate time post-cloture is actually used in debate. If senators seeking to slow down business simply put in quorum calls to delay action, the Senate will go live, force votes to produce a quorum, and otherwise work to make sure senators actually show up and debate.”  (emphasis added)

Must Reads and Good Info

** Nevada Progressive offers a good summary on the politics of comprehensive immigration law reform.  Add to this, Antonio Villaraigosa’s op-ed piece, “Comprehensive Immigration Reform: The Time Is Now.”

** The recent exceedingly insensitive and hyper-hypocritical ad from the National Rifle Association gets the treatment it deserves in “NRA ad targets Obama’s kids…” and welcome advice in “Trolls don’t deserve a seat at the table.”

The gun-lusters keep telling me that “Gee Whiz, the AR-15 isn’t the most powerful gun out there…A person could use a ____________ (fill in the blank with the caller’s weaponry of choice.”  The point appears to be that the poor AR (A for Assault, R for Rifle) is getting picked on.   I wouldn’t want to try to make this point to the parents of Ben Wheeler, one of the victims of the Sandy Hook Massacre. [MSNBC with video]  Perhaps this is the time for us to deal with the graphic gore in that tragic classroom?  This, from the chief medical examiner tasked with doing the autopsies on the slain children:

“Everybody’s death was caused by gunshot wounds and obviously the manner of death on all these cases have been classified as homicide,” Carver said.
He said that he personally performed seven autopsies and those children had between three and 11 wounds each. Two of them were shot at close range, the others at a distance.
….
“This is a very devastating set of injuries,” Carver said. “I believe everyone was hit more than once.”

“I’ve been at this for a third of a century and  my sensibility may not be the average man’s, but this is probably the worst I’ve seen.”   [DKos links with video of the press conference]

There are sentient points to be made about the technicalities of firearm classifications, BUT (1) merely because illegal weapons can be purchased in black markets doesn’t preclude the necessity of banning the sale of military style weaponry which places our children, our law enforcement officers, and even ourselves in danger.  As one who generally opposes the extension of drug availability, I don’t see any reason to make either contraband drugs or contraband firearms easier to obtain.  All too often drugs and guns create a toxic mix — especially for law enforcement; (2) and, no we’ll not de-glamorize gun violence statutorily, but we can, and should, make the acquisition of firearms a more stringent process; and (3) while no single package of legislation will ever eradicate gun violence, we can, and should, take rational steps to make firearms more difficult to obtain by those who are irrational, or criminal.  We make bank robbery a criminal act, even though we know that the presence of a statute in the books doesn’t prevent the lazy and greedy from attempting it, and periodically succeeding.  We need to make the same effort to make gun massacres more difficult to perpetuate.

** Filibuster reform is another hot topic du jour:  The inimitable Bill Moyers urges we take action on Filibuster Reform.  As the cliché goes — if you don’t read anything else, make it this piece.