Background check defeated...Obama pissed.

Guitar92player

josevolution wrote:

Senator McConnell agreed that yesterday’s vote “sent a powerful message,” adding, “If the American people think that just because they voted us into office and pay our salaries, benefits, and pensions, we are somehow obliged to listen to them, they are sorely mistaken.”


This prick above is the 1st asshole i wanna see voted out ...

link?

josevolution

Spoony C wrote:

josevolution wrote:

Senator McConnell

This prick above is the 1st asshole i wanna see voted out ...

Unfortunately, I wouldn't count on it. Kentucky's a pretty fully red state at this point. Even the celebrity UK basketball fan (a bigger "pro" argument in these parts than you'd think if you weren't from here) Ashley Judd would have had a hard time beating him. A generic democrat will probably just wilt away. I always figured McConnell's biggest threat in 2014 would come from getting "primaried" by a farther-right absolutist, but he's doing such a good job obstructing Obama that he'll probably survive.

Our other state senator is Rand Paul, who did "primary" McConnell's preferred establishment candidate in 2010, and it feels like he's not going anywhere (unless his inevitable run for president in 2016 keeps him from running for reelection). At this point, outside the three big metro areas (Louisville, Lexington, and the Cincinnati suburbs of Northern Kentucky), there's not much blue on the Kentucky map--and those cities are probably some of the more conservative-leaning urban hubs.

Implorements to "write your senator" always depress me--both of mine are such hard-liners, I feel like my opinions are just pissing into the wind.

Sorry to hear ...

chadwick

Jeanwah wrote:

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

BinauralJam wrote:

I don't he's personally pissed, i don't think he gives a shit one way or the other.

did you watch his speech yesterday?

either he is a great actor, or he is really pissed. i have never seen him scold congress like that before. not even for the debt ceiling.

can you post a link?

ETA: found it. http://www.upworthy.com/president-obama ... rica?c=cd1

is that huge dude one of Obama's secret service? dude's massive...

chadwick

josevolution wrote:

Senator McConnell agreed that yesterday’s vote “sent a powerful message,” adding, “If the American people think that just because they voted us into office and pay our salaries, benefits, and pensions, we are somehow obliged to listen to them, they are sorely mistaken.”


This prick above is the 1st asshole i wanna see voted out ...

hopefully he leaves soon

josevolution

chadwick wrote:

josevolution wrote:

Senator McConnell agreed that yesterday’s vote “sent a powerful message,” adding, “If the American people think that just because they voted us into office and pay our salaries, benefits, and pensions, we are somehow obliged to listen to them, they are sorely mistaken.”


This prick above is the 1st asshole i wanna see voted out ...

hopefully he leaves soon

I'm hoping something else happens that would make him retire , heart attack or stroke would suffice for my taste !!!

Chadwick that big dude is one of the Parents from Newtown hi's daughter was killed there ...

Kat

Just sharing.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/the-on ... ne:default

Also, loved that New Yorker piece, thanks for bringing it here.

chadwick

josevolution wrote:

chadwick wrote:

josevolution wrote:

Senator McConnell agreed that yesterday’s vote “sent a powerful message,” adding, “If the American people think that just because they voted us into office and pay our salaries, benefits, and pensions, we are somehow obliged to listen to them, they are sorely mistaken.”


This prick above is the 1st asshole i wanna see voted out ...

hopefully he leaves soon

I'm hoping something else happens that would make him retire , heart attack or stroke would suffice for my taste !!!

Chadwick that big dude is one of the Parents from Newtown hi's daughter was killed there ...

karma & the like find its way into all our lives. this politician & many are just stupid, evil & should leave as soon as humanly possible.

dude is huge. needs to work for Obama as a body guard or some shit.

blackredyellow

You guys read Gabby Gifford's editorial that came out last night?

Powerful stuff...

A Senate in the Gun Lobby’s Grip
By GABRIELLE GIFFORDS
Published: April 17, 2013

SENATORS say they fear the N.R.A. and the gun lobby. But I think that fear must be nothing compared to the fear the first graders in Sandy Hook Elementary School felt as their lives ended in a hail of bullets. The fear that those children who survived the massacre must feel every time they remember their teachers stacking them into closets and bathrooms, whispering that they loved them, so that love would be the last thing the students heard if the gunman found them.

On Wednesday, a minority of senators gave into fear and blocked common-sense legislation that would have made it harder for criminals and people with dangerous mental illnesses to get hold of deadly firearms — a bill that could prevent future tragedies like those in Newtown, Conn., Aurora, Colo., Blacksburg, Va., and too many communities to count.

Some of the senators who voted against the background-check amendments have met with grieving parents whose children were murdered at Sandy Hook, in Newtown. Some of the senators who voted no have also looked into my eyes as I talked about my experience being shot in the head at point-blank range in suburban Tucson two years ago, and expressed sympathy for the 18 other people shot besides me, 6 of whom died. These senators have heard from their constituents — who polls show overwhelmingly favored expanding background checks. And still these senators decided to do nothing. Shame on them.

I watch TV and read the papers like everyone else. We know what we’re going to hear: vague platitudes like “tough vote” and “complicated issue.” I was elected six times to represent southern Arizona, in the State Legislature and then in Congress. I know what a complicated issue is; I know what it feels like to take a tough vote. This was neither. These senators made their decision based on political fear and on cold calculations about the money of special interests like the National Rifle Association, which in the last election cycle spent around $25 million on contributions, lobbying and outside spending.

Speaking is physically difficult for me. But my feelings are clear: I’m furious. I will not rest until we have righted the wrong these senators have done, and until we have changed our laws so we can look parents in the face and say: We are trying to keep your children safe. We cannot allow the status quo — desperately protected by the gun lobby so that they can make more money by spreading fear and misinformation — to go on.

I am asking every reasonable American to help me tell the truth about the cowardice these senators demonstrated. I am asking for mothers to stop these lawmakers at the grocery store and tell them: You’ve lost my vote. I am asking activists to unsubscribe from these senators’ e-mail lists and to stop giving them money. I’m asking citizens to go to their offices and say: You’ve disappointed me, and there will be consequences.

People have told me that I’m courageous, but I have seen greater courage. Gabe Zimmerman, my friend and staff member in whose honor we dedicated a room in the United States Capitol this week, saw me shot in the head and saw the shooter turn his gunfire on others. Gabe ran toward me as I lay bleeding. Toward gunfire. And then the gunman shot him, and then Gabe died. His body lay on the pavement in front of the Safeway for hours.

I have thought a lot about why Gabe ran toward me when he could have run away. Service was part of his life, but it was also his job. The senators who voted against background checks for online and gun-show sales, and those who voted against checks to screen out would-be gun buyers with mental illness, failed to do their job.

They looked at these most benign and practical of solutions, offered by moderates from each party, and then they looked over their shoulder at the powerful, shadowy gun lobby — and brought shame on themselves and our government itself by choosing to do nothing.

They will try to hide their decision behind grand talk, behind willfully false accounts of what the bill might have done — trust me, I know how politicians talk when they want to distract you — but their decision was based on a misplaced sense of self-interest. I say misplaced, because to preserve their dignity and their legacy, they should have heeded the voices of their constituents. They should have honored the legacy of the thousands of victims of gun violence and their families, who have begged for action, not because it would bring their loved ones back, but so that others might be spared their agony.

This defeat is only the latest chapter of what I’ve always known would be a long, hard haul. Our democracy’s history is littered with names we neither remember nor celebrate — people who stood in the way of progress while protecting the powerful. On Wednesday, a number of senators voted to join that list.

Mark my words: if we cannot make our communities safer with the Congress we have now, we will use every means available to make sure we have a different Congress, one that puts communities’ interests ahead of the gun lobby’s. To do nothing while others are in danger is not the American way.

chadwick

Byrnzie wrote:

Some things can only be confronted with satire:


http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/b ... eople.html

Courageous Senators Stand Up to American People
Posted by Andy Borowitz
April 18, 2013

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In the halls of the United States Senate, dozens of Senators congratulated themselves today for having what one of them called “the courage and grit to stand up to the overwhelming wishes of the American people.”

“We kept hearing, again and again, that ninety per cent of the American people wanted us to vote a certain way,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky). “Well, at the end of the day, we decided that we weren’t going to cave in to that kind of special-interest group.”

“It was a gut check, for sure, but we had to draw a line in the sand,” agreed Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S. Carolina). “If we had voted the way the American people wanted us to, it would have sent the message that we’re here in Washington to be nothing more than their elected representatives.”

Calling yesterday’s Senate action “a bipartisan effort,” Senator Mark Pryor (D-Arkansas) said, “This proves that on a matter that affects the safety of every man, woman, and child in the nation, we can reach across the aisle to defy the interests of all of them.”

Senator McConnell agreed that yesterday’s vote “sent a powerful message,” adding, “If the American people think that just because they voted us into office and pay our salaries, benefits, and pensions, we are somehow obliged to listen to them, they are sorely mistaken.”

truly amazing

fife

unsung wrote:

But here’s the thing about rights. They’re not actually supposed to be voted on. That’s why they’re called rights. ---Rachel Maddow, Aug 2010

This quote doesn't fit due to the fact that no one is taking your rights away.

Godfather.

fife wrote:

unsung wrote:

But here’s the thing about rights. They’re not actually supposed to be voted on. That’s why they’re called rights. ---Rachel Maddow, Aug 2010

This quote doesn't fit due to the fact that no one is taking your rights away.

no but they keep trying.

Godfather.

riotgrl

Godfather. wrote:

fife wrote:

unsung wrote:

But here’s the thing about rights. They’re not actually supposed to be voted on. That’s why they’re called rights. ---Rachel Maddow, Aug 2010

This quote doesn't fit due to the fact that no one is taking your rights away.

no but they keep trying.

Godfather.

Personally, I think corporations are doing more to take away our rights than anything the government is doing. Where's the tyranny against Big Ag, Big Pharma, Big Banks?

fife

Godfather. wrote:

fife wrote:

unsung wrote:

But here’s the thing about rights. They’re not actually supposed to be voted on. That’s why they’re called rights. ---Rachel Maddow, Aug 2010

This quote doesn't fit due to the fact that no one is taking your rights away.

no but they keep trying.

Godfather.

i don't see that concerning gun ownership, i do agree that the government does try to take rights away. for example the R who apparently care about rights are trying to take rights away from the LGBT community.

josevolution

blackredyellow wrote:

You guys read Gabby Gifford's editorial that came out last night?

Powerful stuff...

A Senate in the Gun Lobby’s Grip
By GABRIELLE GIFFORDS
Published: April 17, 2013

SENATORS say they fear the N.R.A. and the gun lobby. But I think that fear must be nothing compared to the fear the first graders in Sandy Hook Elementary School felt as their lives ended in a hail of bullets. The fear that those children who survived the massacre must feel every time they remember their teachers stacking them into closets and bathrooms, whispering that they loved them, so that love would be the last thing the students heard if the gunman found them.

On Wednesday, a minority of senators gave into fear and blocked common-sense legislation that would have made it harder for criminals and people with dangerous mental illnesses to get hold of deadly firearms — a bill that could prevent future tragedies like those in Newtown, Conn., Aurora, Colo., Blacksburg, Va., and too many communities to count.

Some of the senators who voted against the background-check amendments have met with grieving parents whose children were murdered at Sandy Hook, in Newtown. Some of the senators who voted no have also looked into my eyes as I talked about my experience being shot in the head at point-blank range in suburban Tucson two years ago, and expressed sympathy for the 18 other people shot besides me, 6 of whom died. These senators have heard from their constituents — who polls show overwhelmingly favored expanding background checks. And still these senators decided to do nothing. Shame on them.

I watch TV and read the papers like everyone else. We know what we’re going to hear: vague platitudes like “tough vote” and “complicated issue.” I was elected six times to represent southern Arizona, in the State Legislature and then in Congress. I know what a complicated issue is; I know what it feels like to take a tough vote. This was neither. These senators made their decision based on political fear and on cold calculations about the money of special interests like the National Rifle Association, which in the last election cycle spent around $25 million on contributions, lobbying and outside spending.

Speaking is physically difficult for me. But my feelings are clear: I’m furious. I will not rest until we have righted the wrong these senators have done, and until we have changed our laws so we can look parents in the face and say: We are trying to keep your children safe. We cannot allow the status quo — desperately protected by the gun lobby so that they can make more money by spreading fear and misinformation — to go on.

I am asking every reasonable American to help me tell the truth about the cowardice these senators demonstrated. I am asking for mothers to stop these lawmakers at the grocery store and tell them: You’ve lost my vote. I am asking activists to unsubscribe from these senators’ e-mail lists and to stop giving them money. I’m asking citizens to go to their offices and say: You’ve disappointed me, and there will be consequences.

People have told me that I’m courageous, but I have seen greater courage. Gabe Zimmerman, my friend and staff member in whose honor we dedicated a room in the United States Capitol this week, saw me shot in the head and saw the shooter turn his gunfire on others. Gabe ran toward me as I lay bleeding. Toward gunfire. And then the gunman shot him, and then Gabe died. His body lay on the pavement in front of the Safeway for hours.

I have thought a lot about why Gabe ran toward me when he could have run away. Service was part of his life, but it was also his job. The senators who voted against background checks for online and gun-show sales, and those who voted against checks to screen out would-be gun buyers with mental illness, failed to do their job.

They looked at these most benign and practical of solutions, offered by moderates from each party, and then they looked over their shoulder at the powerful, shadowy gun lobby — and brought shame on themselves and our government itself by choosing to do nothing.

They will try to hide their decision behind grand talk, behind willfully false accounts of what the bill might have done — trust me, I know how politicians talk when they want to distract you — but their decision was based on a misplaced sense of self-interest. I say misplaced, because to preserve their dignity and their legacy, they should have heeded the voices of their constituents. They should have honored the legacy of the thousands of victims of gun violence and their families, who have begged for action, not because it would bring their loved ones back, but so that others might be spared their agony.

This defeat is only the latest chapter of what I’ve always known would be a long, hard haul. Our democracy’s history is littered with names we neither remember nor celebrate — people who stood in the way of progress while protecting the powerful. On Wednesday, a number of senators voted to join that list.

Mark my words: if we cannot make our communities safer with the Congress we have now, we will use every means available to make sure we have a different Congress, one that puts communities’ interests ahead of the gun lobby’s. To do nothing while others are in danger is not the American way.

Yeap good advice from her ..

cincybearcat

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

Guitar92player wrote:

Its a failure of common sense. 90% of America wanted it.

our system is broken.

when 90% of the population supports something, it should be reflected in congress. it should be a no brainer.

it just shows that lobbyist power is out of control. the nra lied and said that this bill would pave the way to a federal gun owner database, when the actual text of the bill made such a registry illegal.

:fp:

I see where you are going with this and I agree with you on this issue. But just because people are for it doesn't directly mean it must be law carried out by Congress. Congress has to take things into effect like say...the constitution, that the general public does not.

Then again, maybe they shouldnt. Maybe they should pass laws based on majority rule and let the courts sort it out.

William Wallace

How can any educated person in the US still vote for the Republicans?
They shit on peoples opinion and just deliver to lobby groups.
Insulting for such a great nation!

polaris_x

riotgrl wrote:

Personally, I think corporations are doing more to take away our rights than anything the government is doing. Where's the tyranny against Big Ag, Big Pharma, Big Banks?

this is the crux of the majority of problems ...

it's sad that it takes kids dying in a suburban school to have people engaged but the reality is this coat tailing to corporations has been going on for years ...

gimmesometruth27

cincybearcat wrote:

I see where you are going with this and I agree with you on this issue. But just because people are for it doesn't directly mean it must be law carried out by Congress. Congress has to take things into effect like say...the constitution, that the general public does not.

Then again, maybe they shouldnt. Maybe they should pass laws based on majority rule and let the courts sort it out.

i see what you are saying, but the congress has a duty to vote according to what the people want. they are the representatives of the people. 90% of americans are astonished by how easily their opinions are disregarded.

gimmesometruth27

i will just come out and say it.

obama wanted this passed. i promise you that that is one of the reasons those that opposed it actually opposed it.

mickeyrat

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

cincybearcat wrote:

I see where you are going with this and I agree with you on this issue. But just because people are for it doesn't directly mean it must be law carried out by Congress. Congress has to take things into effect like say...the constitution, that the general public does not.

Then again, maybe they shouldnt. Maybe they should pass laws based on majority rule and let the courts sort it out.

i see what you are saying, but the congress has a duty to vote according to what the people want. they aresupposed to be the representatives of the people. 90% of americans are astonished by how easily their opinions are disregarded.

fixed that for you.

Cincy? This would have simply included some other sales in what is ALREADY law?