Category: Domestic Policies

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Domestic Policies Foreign Policies News ObamaCare Politics Russia

The Pause

Perhaps it’s just me, but this time of year seems to be the boring period between the fun of a nasty winter and the beginning of a well-earned spring. And I’m not just talking about the weather. American politics is on hiatus at this moment because it’s too early to get too riled up by the prospect of electing another do-nothing Congress, and since the one we have now is essentially done for the year, what else is there to talk about? The Affordable Care Act? Boring. Marriage equality? Done. The lost Malaysian plane? Probably found and the story will make a great movie one summer. Ukraine? Potentially deadly and maybe the foremost threat to world peace presently in the news.

This is not to say that these stories are not important because they are, but there doesn’t seem to be any movement or progress or yes-we-canism alive at the moment. The Republicans are still trying to figure out what it believes in and how it can appeal to groups that have shunned its message so far. The House will most likely remain in their hands, which guarantees us another two years of bills that will not become law until a GOP president is elected (shudder). And the Senate will probably also go red, but I’ve already treated that scenario.

I am not, though, down in the dumps. The Supreme Court is hearing arguments about whether religious companies can stop providing certain forms of birth control the ACA requires because it would be a violation of their religious rights. I’m thinking that Justice Roberts is aching to get back on the conservative horse he dismounted two years ago in the health care law case, but Justice Kennedy might be the wild card in this one. It is certain that Justice Scalia will lament the end of the republic if he’s on the losing side.

And the health care law will survive because about six million people will have signed up for insurance through the exchanges or Medicaid and throwing them off the rolls is just too mean for even today’s Republican Party. The law needs fixing and that’s where the focus is going to be in 2014 and 2016 and 2018 as companies and states decide that insurance is too expensive and want employees to sign up for the policies on the website. This will be revolutionary and the effect will be profound. I’m not surprised that neither party is really talking about this out loud, but it’s almost certain to come to pass sometime within the next five years.

As for Vlad the Invader, I’m not ruling out a bit of shooting in Ukraine or areas local to it. It will depend on whether he heeds the economic warnings his aides are no doubt giving him. My sense is that Putin will ask for something big in return, negotiate, and take something smaller that gives him a say in Ukraine, but not the whole country. In the end, Ukraine will make a deal with the EU, but will always need to watch its eastern back.

All of this is in the future, and you can feel free to pay attention to it since you’re obviously not winning $1 billion dollars on March Madness because nobody has a perfect bracket left. The best we can hope for is common sense and pride in a job well done. Some things never change.

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gun control Gun Control Politics shooting

#GunsUp – 15 Year Old Accidentally Shot his 11 Year Old Cousin Dead

Tragedy has struck an Ohio family after a 15-year-old boy accidentally shot his 11-year-old cousin dead when they were left home alone.

According to News Net 5, Ashton Nicholson was pronounced dead after his unidentified cousin killed him with a gun found in his parents bedroom.
Lt. Gregory Johnson told the site:

“I have nothing to indicate that it was an intentional act, nothing to indicate that whatsoever. This is a terrible tragedy that he was involved in, but I have to give him credit for standing up.”

The gun was not secured, which was how the 15-year-old boy knew where to find it in the house. The boys were home and not at school because it was a snow day.

When the 11-year-old – who was said to have also handled the gun at one point – was shot, the 15-year-old’s older brother called 9-1-1 and told the dispatcher:

“My brother just shot my cousin on accident… Oh my God, he shot him with a pistol.”

Johnson also said that he wants this case to be a lesson to parents who hold guns in their house to be more responsible about securing them.
We pray for family of these young boys during this tragic time.

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democrats Domestic Policies Healthcare News Politics Teaparty

The Party’s Been Over

I think I’m just going to assume that the Democrats will lose the Senate in November and prepare myself as I would for any frustrating event I’ve endured over the past few years. That way, if they do eke out a win or tie, then it will be that much sweeter.

There’s been no shortage of discussion about the ramification of a GOP takeover of the Senate, but not much would really change, save for the fact that no judges or executive appointments would be ratified. The Congress would pass some bills that President Obama would veto, and the country would be treated to an intramural fight as the far more conservative House would pass more extreme bills that the less extreme Senate would either ignore or try to temper so that they’re palatable to the larger caucus. In short, how would this term be different from all other terms, save for Obama’s first two years in office?

Which makes former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs’ comment that a Democratic loss would mean that “The party’s over” seem rather quaint. The party’s been over and it doesn’t look like it’s coming back anytime soon. Even if the Republicans take the Senate, they will most likely lose it back to the Democrats in 2016, because the GOP will have to defend a whopping 27 seats and convince the young, the Hispanic and the African-American that they have their best interests at heart. And they’ll have to win the presidency, which at this point doesn’t look like it will ever happen.

The GOP seems to think that young people are in play because they aren’t signing up for health insurance at the rate that the ACA needs in order to function, but recent surveys show that the millennials aren’t attached to either political party, and less so to the Republicans. It is true that many people become more conservative as they gather life experiences such as marriages, children and mortgages, but let’s remember that on social issues, the younger generation is far removed from the right wing scolds who want to decide who gets rights and who doesn’t. And we’ve also seen the effects of less government involvement in, say, North Carolina, that should scare people away from a more libertarian direction.

It hasn’t been a good year for Democrats so far, but nothing that a more robust turnout can’t alter. But the party? Turn out the lights.

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Gun Control Politics shooting

#GunsUp – 14 Year Old Boy Goofing Off with Gun Accidentally Shoots Older Sister

A 14-year-old Queens girl was shot Friday by a younger brother who was goofing around with a gun, police sources said.

Jessamin Lopez is in stable condition at Jamaica Hospital after being blasted in the abdomen by her 12-year-old brother, sources said. The bullet exited the teen’s back.

A source said the brother was only playing with the gun and did not intentionally strike his sibling.

A friend who is staying at the family’s 164th Street apartment told police she woke up to find the boy playing with a .22-caliber Colt revolver.

“She tells him, ‘What are you doing? Stop playing with the gun,’’’ a source recounted. “The boy says, ‘Don’t worry about it’ – and starts pulling the trigger.’’

The children live with their mom, Silvia Peralta, two other siblings, the mother’s boyfriend and two family friends, sources said.

The same caliber gun was used in the Jamaica neighborhood earlier this week; cops are investigating whether there is a connection.

Wall Street worker Mohammed Hamwi, 48, was shot in the head and torso just after midnight at a Jamaica Station street corner.

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Featured Gun Control

Kentucky Churches Giving Away Guns to “Point People to Christ”

The Kentucky Baptist Convention wants to “point people to Christ” by giving away guns at Second Amendment Celebrations hosted across the state.

In the words of spokesman Chuck McAlister the strategy is “outreach to rednecks,” and 1,000 people are expected to attend the next event. To lure the nonreligious into the fold, the churches are offering a handgun, shotgun, or long gun as door prizes. Winners attend church for a photo-op with their new gun, but they must pass a background check before collecting their prize.

“The number of unchurched men who will show up will be in direct proportion to the number of guns you give away,” McAlister told The Courier-Journal. “And I can almost tell you the number of men who would show up based on the make or model. There is a huge interest among unchurched men in the state of Kentucky regarding guns and gun rights that is even more of a draw than a toaster or money would be.”

At one event in February, McAlister reportedly took the stage surrounded by guns and discussed politics, saying gun violence is “not the gun, it’s the man behind the gun,” and “criminals don’t care about a bunch of rules.” God did not come up for the first 30 minutes. After polling the audience about who had a gun, McAlister said, “We’ve got an army right here!”

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Gun Control Politics shooting trayvon martin

Trayvon’s Dad Tells The Truth – We Love Guns More Than We Love Our Kids

Two years ago today,  on February 26th, Georgia Zimmerman murdered seventeen year old Trayvon Martin. Two years later, the loved ones of Trayvon are still feeling the pain of their loss.

Trayvon’s dad Tracy, marked the anniversary of his son’s death by making an appearance on Politics Nation with Al Sharpton and dropped a sad truth – that America shows more love to guns, than they do to the life of our kids.

Watch the clip below.

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Featured Gun Control Politics

Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law Allows Blind Killer to Walk Free, With His Guns

Four years ago, he pulled his gun and shot his cousin. Then in March 2012, legally blind John Rogers pulled his gun again and killed his 34-year-old friend, James DeWitt. He stayed a short while in jail while the court went through the motions, but after it was all said and done, Stand Your Ground allowed John to walk free.

Last week, Stand Your Ground required a Seminole County Judge, John Galluzzo to return the murder weapon along with all his other guns to Mr. Rogers. This, according to WESH.

Even though the he said he didn’t want to do it, a judge in Seminole County, Florida, was forced to return a Glock pistol and a rifle to a blind man who won immunity for killing another man under the state’s “stand your ground” law.  The surreal hearing took place in the Seminole County Courthouse in Sanford—the city where Trayvon Martin was killed and his shooter set free under the same self-defense statute.

John Wayne Rogers had stood accused of premeditated first degree murder for shooting a “drinking buddy” in March 2012 “after a long drinking session,” according to the Orlando Sentinel. The killing was done “once in the chest with a .308 Remington assault rifle from a distance of 18 inches or less.”

But amid differing eyewitness accounts at his trial last month, a judge dismissed the jury and awarded Rogers immunity under Florida’s “stand your ground” law.

That led to Thursday’s hearing, in which Judge John Galluzo reluctantly admitted he’d have to give Rogers his rifle and a Glock 10 mm handgun. “I have to return property that was taken under the circumstance,” the judge said. “I have researched and haven’t found case law to say otherwise.”

Rogers—who has done probation for firing 15 rounds at a cousin and was jailed for pushing and punching a woman in a domestic disturbance three years ago—will have to buy new ammunition, however, since the state considered his cache “too old and dangerous.”

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Featured Gun Control Iowa Politics

Did You Know that Blind People in Iowa Can Legally Carry Guns?

An Iowa law allowing the legally or completely blind to acquire permits to carry guns in public has stirred up debate as to whether or not the visually impaired should have “full access” to firearms.

“Up until 2011, it was solely up to the sheriff of your county who decided who got a gun permit and who did not,” Cedar County Sheriff Warren Wethington, who has been granting gun permits to the visually impaired since he became sheriff in 2007, told ABCNews.com. “So you were basically at the mercy of whether you had a pro-gun sheriff or an anti-gun sheriff.”

In 2010, Iowa became a “shall-issue” state when the legislature amended a law to create a uniform procedure for issuing gun permits statewide. As a result, Iowa residents could get a gun permit so long as they did not have a criminal background or history of mental illness, Wethington said.

“Once those restrictions were limited, we basically had to approve anybody who applied for a permit,” said Delaware County Sheriff John LeClere. “Our opinion no longer matters and our information on an individual, as far as their character, was something we could no longer consider.”

While applicants need to take a firearm safety course to obtain a permit, it is available online and does not need to include hands-on firearms training, which “makes it a little difficult,” LeClere said.

“If we have a person who is possibly eyesight impaired, he is certainly entitled to defend himself,” he said. “But should he be carrying [a firearm] in public? Should there be further restrictions placed on him based on eyesight?”

“I have some reservations about full access for people who are blind,” said Patrick Clancy, superintendent of the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School in Vinton, Iowa. “That’s just because shooting requires a lot of vision to be accurate outside of controlled settings with safety courses.”

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Gun Control

#GunsUp – Man Accidentally Kills Himself While Putting his Gun in Truck

A Utah man has died after accidentally shooting himself while loading his truck, Salt Lake City TV station KSL reported Tuesday.

Rowland Denison, 50, shot himself with a rifle he was loading into his truck on Monday morning. He was conscious and talking when police arrived at the scene, according to KSL.

Weather conditions had prevented Denison from being flown to Provo, Utah for surgery. He underwent surgery in a local hospital and was later flown to Provo, where he died around noon, according to Spanish Fork Police Lt. Matt Johnson.

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Domestic Policies Immigration Immigration Reform News Politics

The Changing Immigration Landscape

Although the main stories in the press focus on gridlock and the lack of compromise, that doesn’t mean that things aren’t slowly changing in the United States. As usually happens, change is driven by the people as they react to circumstances created by the politicians, and that in turn leads to more calls for change. Politicians, meanwhile, usually lag behind the grass-roots calls because they are essentially reactive beings loathe to offend or move too fast.

Consider immigration. There is clearly a need to reform out immigration laws, and most of that is related to things other than a path to citizenship. The Republicans have already felt the wrath of Hispanic voters, but because most of the conservatives have safe districts, and because of their irrational fear of giving President Obama any political victory, the party doesn’t full see the urgency for a vote this term.

The latest argument is that Obama is not to be trusted with the law because he’s already made executive changes to the ACA, and the GOP fears that he will make similar changes to anything they negotiate with him. Now, though, they’re being called out by Senator Charles Schumer. His idea is to pass the law, but have it become operative in 2017, after Obama leaves office. After all, the ACA was passed in 2010 and didn’t become fully operational until 2013. Why not immigration? The GOP’s answer, through Rob Portman of Ohio, seems somewhat promising, but overall the Republicans have little interest in taking voters’ minds off the health care rollout, even if millions of Americans now have the security of health insurance.

Make no mistake that immigration reform will get done sooner or later. Sooner, it will be done with Republican input. Later, it will be done solely by Democrats because the growing Hispanic community will see the GOP as an obstacle. The next Republican presidential nominee had better drop the deportation rhetoric if they want to have any chance of being elected.

Meanwhile, the country will move forward with or without the politicians. As it always has.

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Immigration Reform Politics

Teaparty Representative Promises to Challenge Boehner’s Seat if Immigration Vote is Held

Speaker John A. Boehner should lose his gavel if he pursues immigration this year, a prominent tea party Republican said in an interview with CQ Roll Call on Tuesday.

“I think it should cost him his speakership,” Rep. Raúl R. Labrador of Idaho warned, if Boehner puts an immigration overhaul on the floor.
But even if Boehner shelves immigration, Labrador said, the party needs new leadership — and the two-term lawmaker is not ruling out a run for leadership himself.

“There is a hunger in the conference for bold, visionary leaders, and this is not just conservatives — you talk to more middle-of-the-road members of the conference, they’re kind of frustrated with the direction of this leadership, and they’re looking for ways to change that,” he said.

Labrador, who was part of a failed coup attempt in 2013, has made a name for himself inside and outside the Republican Conference by pushing Boehner and other Republican leaders to embrace a new brand of conservatism.

“I think you’re going to see some changes here in the House over the next year,” he said. “I think that this is an opportunity for whoever wants to run for leadership to show that they have a clear vision for America.”

Labrador said the new GOP leadership in the 114th Congress could include members currently in leadership, particularly Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, with whom Labrador has a strong working relationship.

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bridgegate Domestic Policies News Politics

Christie Forecast: Cloudy With a Chance of Falling Sky

Forget about rain, snow, sleet, freezing rain or any other objects that might be falling down over the next few days in New Jersey. The real forecast is that the sky is falling on Governor Chris Christie and he has little time, and no room for error, if he wants to regain his reputation as a bully leader anytime soon.

The problem isn’t that he’s an able politician, because he is whether you disagree with him or not, or that he can get the Democrats to sign on to what will be his signature accomplishment, which was to raid public employees’ pockets and blame them for the recession enact a pension and benefits bill that made public employees pay more for their pensions and benefits (discovered the strike through key, didn’t I? OK, I’ll stop).

No, the problem with Chris Christie is that his style finally caught up to him. He is a big guy with a big personality who doesn’t suffer people whom he considers fools very patiently. Now his main personal strategy has him gasping for clean political air, which is usually in short supply in this state, and it’s choking him.

The latest example is a memo the Governor’s Office released in response to former Port Authority official and main player in the GW Bridge traffic scandal, David Wildstein, who said that he had evidence, still unreleased, that shows Christie knowing about the lane closings as they happened. That contrasts with what the governor told the public at his two hour news conference after the scandal broke.

Now, I understand that both parties play the blame game and the strategy has always been that if you’re accused of something to deny it, either truthfully or to stonewall and hope the investigation shows nothing, and to attack your opponents. This memo, though, is officially in the Hall of Fame for its vacuous and lame attempt at slurring Wildstein. From the article:

The memo listed five incidents as evidence, saying that “as a 16-year-old kid,” Mr. Wildstein had sued over a school board election; that he had been “publicly accused by his high school social studies teacher of deceptive behavior”; that he had a controversial tenure as mayor of Livingston, N.J.; that he had been an anonymous blogger; and that he “had a strange habit of registering web addresses for other people’s names without telling them.”

I’m assuming that you’ve stopped laughing.

Suing over a school board election? Doesn’t that qualify you to be in the  He-Man Government Hater’s Club? What about being accused of deceptive behavior in social studies class? As a social studies teacher, I now have ultimate political power over most of the approximately 2,500 students who have sat in my classes over the years. Can’t wait for some of them to run for office. Controversial politician? Like you, Governor? Anonymous blogger? Not anymore.

In sum, the governor has bupkis on this guy. If he did, he would have released it weeks ago and would have gone on the offensive as he did in most other cases. If he wanted to play hardball, he would have offered to pay Wildstein’s legal fees so he could defend himself without having to out Christie with what they both know is true. Firing Wildstein, and former Christie aide Bridget Anne Kelly,  has now opened the governor to all kinds of problems, because those people are now trying to save their lives. Some of what they say will be wrong, but much of it will be true. And Christie knows that.

The Bridge is not the only problem the governor has because there are reports that he didn’t implement the reconstruction aid program from Sandy until a full 10 months after the money was delivered to NJ. My sense is that this is going to be a bigger problem than lane closures. That was done for political payback; stalling aid to people whose houses were now in the Atlantic is far worse.

And pundits said the President had a rough fifth year. Christie’s win in 2013 will be his final election victory.

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