Carry Me Back

We have a governor here in Ol' Virginnie who seems unable to stop paying off on the political favors he thinks he owes to his supporters.

It started early when he stripped out the prohibition of discriminating against LGBT in the hiring decisions of State Government officials.

Then he sent Atty Gen Ken Cuccinelli on a dual quest - to attack AGW and Climate Change researchers at UVa; and to challenge The Affordable Care Act in federal court.

You may have heard about the recent beating he took on the first Anti-Choice attempt to punish women seeking to terminate pregnancies - to the point that he earned the nick name Governor McTransVaj.  He has since been pushing a version of the same bill that's just slightly less invasive, but still intends to put a TheoCon Bureaucrat between women and their doctors.

Well, the hits just keep rollin', because yesterday, he signed a bill repealing a law that restricts the purchase of hand guns to one gun per month.  This was in place for almost 20 years, and was supported by an awful lot of law enforcement organizations, and was recognized as having been fairly effective in cutting down on the supply of weapons for bad guys all along the east coast.  So apparently, since gangs are clever and they find ways around these little roadblocks - and of course, since our politicians and cops aren't clever enough to keep up with them, or something - there's no sense lettin' some other outfit profit from all the carnage; we need to get us a piece o' dat fer our own selves.

From WaPo:

McDonnell, who voted for the purchase limit as a delegate but campaigned for governor on a promise to overturn it, signed the bill just days after participating in a conference call with relatives of those affected by the mass shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007. The relatives had urged McDonnell not to sign the bill.

“He said, ‘I have a duty to protect the Second Amendment,’ ” said Lori Haas, a gun-control activist who participated in the call and whose daughter was injured during the Virginia Tech shooting. “The governor’s number one duty is to keep the citizens of Virginia safe. ... Expanding the ease with which criminals can get guns is certainly not going to keep Virginians safe.”

The comments section of the article is chock full of the usual crap about how the VT shooter had two guns that he bought a month apart, and it had no effect on the outcome, so why bother even having restrictions of any kind - everybody's safer if everybody's armed blah blah blah.  It just makes me sad.

Here's the thing:  If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.  Which will then make it a fuckload easier for us - AND THE COPS - to identify them as the bad guys!  What're ya, fuckin' stupid!?!

Some Local Shit

I'm trying to bring my political involvement a little closer to home, so my blogging will include a bit more concentration on issues at the State and County levels - here in Albemarle County, Virginia.

The GOP, having abandoned reason almost altogether; and having lost the issues of Recession and Unemployment; and being in the process of losing on The Role Of Government - the Repubs are reverting to form by whipping the 4 Dead Horses of the Non-Apocalypse: God, Guns, Gays and Gestation, plus 1, GOTV.

Here's the gist of Virginia's Voter Registration setup vs Gun Sales per PolitiFact Virginia via Richmond TImes Dispatch:

Identification
To register to vote, you must present a document that shows your name and address. It can be a valid photo ID, utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck or other government document.

To cast a ballot, you must show identification or sign a statement -- subject to felony conviction for false information -- that you are the registered voter you represent yourself to be. This requirement is being altered by the General Assembly this year, a point we’ll address later.

To buy a gun from a licensed dealer in Virginia, you must show primary and secondary forms of identification. The primary document must be a state-issued photo ID. The secondary identification just needs to contain your current address and can be a utility bill, voter registration card, bank check or hunting or fishing license.

But in the case of private guns sales -- if you buy a firearm from an individual who is not a licensed dealer -- the identification requirements go away.

Application
To register to vote, you must fill out and submit an application 22 days before a general or primary election. The form can be submitted at variety of locations or by mail.

To buy a gun from a licensed dealer, you have to submit to a computerized background check run by the state police. It’s usually completed in a matter of minutes, but can take as long as four days. The background check does not apply to private gun sales, and such transactions can occur instantly.

Disqualification
You can’t vote if you are a felon and have not had your rights restored, or if you have been judged mentally incapacitated.

Many things could turn up on a background check that would bar someone from buying a gun from a licensed dealer. They include conviction or indictment on felony charges, an outstanding warrant for a misdemeanor or felony, outstanding protective or restraining orders, use of illegal drugs, mental incompetency judgement, orders for mental health treatment, dishonorable discharge from military, and conviction on domestic violence charges.

In private sales, it is a felony to knowingly sell a gun to a person who would be disqualified under the instant background check. But there is no onus on a private seller to inquire about a buyer’s background, and no requirement that a purchaser disclose whether he or she is legally qualified to buy a firearm in Virginia.

Interesting little mash-up between Gun Rights and Voting Rights, with Repubs being far more concerned that too many of "the wrong kinda people" get to vote than they are with those gettin' to buy a gun.  Classic.

Holy Fuck, Batman

Just when I tho't the GOP couldn't get much weirder:

On Friday, the Wyoming House of Representatives advanced a bill to set up a task force to prepare for the total economic and political collapse of the United States. Per the bill, the panel would investigate things like food storage options and metals-based currencies, to be implemented in the event of a major catastrophe.

Then it goes three steps further. An amendment by the bill's GOP sponsor, state Rep. David Miller, calls on the task force to examine "Conditions under which the state of Wyoming should implement a draft, raise a standing army, marine corps, navy and air force and acquire strike aircraft and an aircraft carrier." As Miller explained to the Casper Star-Tribune, "Things happen quickly sometimes."

A Navy - in Wyoming.

This is what you've been voting for, folks.  You either don't bother voting, or you actively participate in electing Republicans and this is the shit-for-brains, dangerously delusional, messages-from-outer-space-thru-your-dental-work asshats you're handing power to.

Does it simply not occur to anybody that putting these clods in office is actually precipitating the kind of collapse they're so paranoid about?

Please point out the Librul, or the Democrat who has proposed anything close to the equivalent of this horseshit.

The Richmond Clown College

We actually pay these guys for this.



Notice how (apparently) Mr Albo feels he has to trick his wife into having sex with him.  OK, so a little wine and some slow-hand maneuvering can be romantic and seductive (even in this High School Fuck-Around kinda way), but why do we need to know any of that?  What's the point?  And why exactly did she really lose her lust and bolt from his clutches warm and tender embrace?

This guy seems to think it was because of Mr Englin's use of the term 'vaginal', which Mr Albo can't even bring himself to utter.  But isn't it just as likely she was so turned off by this moron's attempts to install the Virginia State Government in every woman's crotch that she felt a sudden and urgent need to slap his doughy little face around to the other side of his stupid fuckin' head, and so her only real option was to flee?

Just askin'.

And remember - the bad guys don't show up looking like bad guys.  Sometimes, they show up looking all soft and cuddly and jovial; like this Albo schmuck.

(hat tip = Wonkette)

Today's Pix

Art Lover

The Official Publication of the Republican National Committee
"because the rubes will swallow anything" 

Yeesh

A Repub Rep from Oklahoma went a little over the top as he was speaking at a town hall meeting recently (from TPM):

Rep. John Sullivan (R-OK) sent TPM a public apology Thursday after we obtained audio of the five-term Republican telling constituents at a town hall this week that he’d have to personally shoot members of the U.S. Senate to get a budget passed through the chamber.

Obviously, it's not good to suggest you might have to go all Saddam on them mutha-fuckahs; and it doesn't really help when you put out the standard un-apology.  But the thing that stuck for me is the reference he makes to the 28 Jobs Bills that he claims were passed by the House, but hung up in the Senate.

A little checking, and oh look - that rarest of natural occurrences - a politician lyin' his ass off.

Back in January, Crooks and Liars posted a pretty good breakdown of what this lunkhead considers "Jobs Bills".  (And BTW, the main clue that politicians might be lying - other than the fact that their lips are moving - is when they can't quite agree on the actual number of great things they've done for us lately).

To make sure they back up their public claims with what might appear to be "fact", they've built a page on the House of Representatives site with a list of their so-called jobs bills, which number 27 and not 30 as the Speaker claims. What follows is a list and a brief explanation of why they are not jobs bills. Feel free to share it widely with your friends who might be inclined to believe Mr. Tobacco Lobbyist Check Distributor without questioning it.

Why am I not surprised?  You get called out for coming really close to advocating physical violence against your political opponents; and then you issue a statement that you call an apology, but which is actually intended to deflect attention away from the fact that you're a strutting tin-plated Martinet.

"Yes, I was talking about wanting to murder people who disagree with me - but why is the media hung up on that and paying no attention to the totally fucked up legislation we've been pushing through?"

Fairly good question.  I'd usually say something like 'this is no accident', but I doubt this bozo is that smart.

And shit - I almost forgot.  Both sides do it, except when they don't.  Please show me the Dems who're saying they wanna shoot their colleagues.

Relaxed And Groovy

When Repubs are in the White House, we get Up With People and Pat Boone and Toby Keith - and it seems like everybody in the country's walking around with a big stick up their butts.

Put Dems in charge, and we get BB King and Derek Trucks and Mick Jagger - and even tho' we have plenty of big problems to sort out, and lots of very heated arguments to get through, it all just feels a little better now.  Dunno why.  It just does.

But - you know - all them politicians; they're all the same.  There's no difference.  

Are you fucking kidding!?!

Leadership is hard to put your finger on.  It doesn't lend itself well to objective measurements and the stuff they teach you in Business School about Planning and Action Items and Progress Metrics and the like.  It's difficult to see by direct observation, but leadership - management style - is always well-reflected in the postures and attitudes of the people in the organization.  Help people get their feet under them, let them get a little leverage, and you won't fucking believe what they can do.

It Just Slips Out

It's the old saw - "A gaffe is when somebody in politics accidentally tells the truth"

A big one at about :30.

(hat tip = TPM via Balloon Juice)

That's Great

My adopted home of Virginia is (deservedly, I'm sad to say) becoming the latest poster child for Stoopidly Brutal Government Intrusion.  You may have heard that our legislature has decided women need to be punished and humiliated - to get their minds right and to keep their place - whenever they feel the need to terminate a pregnancy.  If Gov McDonnell signs the bill, women seeking abortions will be required to submit to trans-vaginal sonography; and they will be required to view the pictures while being "counseled" by a clinician.

And the "procedure" has been given a name.  We call it "The Virginia Rape".  Now ain't that just wun-fuckin'-derful.

But guess who's defending this proposed atrocity - and with what kind of rhetoric?

(hat tip = Little Green Footballs, via Wonkette)


Not that it needs a lot of translation, but here it is in case you missed it: "Any woman seeking an abortion is obviously just a slut who wants to have sex with any-body, any-time, any-where, any-way, so what's one more little poke in the twat to a hag like her?"

Nothing could put a clearer focus on the simple fact that the Right Radicals in this country are no different than the Islamo-Fascists they say we need to hate.  As always, they are consumed by their zealotry, and they've become what they claim to despise.

There was a silent protest at the capitol in Richmond yesterday, and sources tell me there's a possibly huge push-back starting to gather steam among OBGYN clinicians.  Fingers crossed.

Ahh - Now I Get It

Let's connect some dots, shall we?

Rick Santorum is hell bent to stop abortion and to get them rascal wimmins off birth control.  Is it because he just luvs dem babies so much?  Well kinda, but not really.  At least not in the way he's been selling it to the rubes.

It's never about what they say it's about.

One good bite at about 1:55 ("What must we do to win?") with the big payoff starting at 2:25.  Give a listen.



Little Ricky's plan is all about beating Islam - by outbreeding them.  All of it.  Abortion, Contraception, Marriage, Immigration; the whole thing is about building up the Enemy into a mighty and malevolent threat, and making yourself out to be the man on the white horse - reluctant, but ultimately willing to lead the forces of good blah blah blah - sometimes my only wish is that I could spell the sound I make when I puke.

Silence Implies Consent - updated

Rick Santorum in 2011:


(hat tip = Democratic Underground)

He'd criminalize the abortion procedure; and he'd go after the doctors, but not the women seeking and/or consenting to the procedure.

Isn't that like saying you'd throw the bartender in jail, but not the drunk driver?

You'd go after the guy who shoots the husband in the face, but not the wife who hired him to do it?

I'm no scholar, but I think the Constitution works just a bit better than Little Ricky thinks it does - or wants it to.

And this is another one of those show-me-the-equivalence things.  Wingnuts like to get all frothy about "abortion on demand", but they just made that shit up.  I have yet to hear anything from "the left" that comes within a country mile of this kind of stupid.

So go ahead and run with this one, GOP - and you can kiss my ass good-bye for another 20 years.

(update) Leaving the woman out of the whole criminalization thingie is just more evidence that these Talibani Americanii aren't interested in anything women have to say about anything.  A woman has to "participate" beforehand, but once that part's over, then they can't possibly be trusted with any of the decisions that have to be addressed afterwards - only men get to do that stuff.  No soul and no honor.

Today In E'Ville

Winter in the Virginia Piedmont is usually just gray and damp and dismal, so we don't get many of these - where it snows a good bunch overnight, and the next day it's crisp and clear and all sparkly (added extra special bonus - the power stayed on the whole time - yay, and thank you, Jesus).  I'll take as many of these as I can get.

Here We Go Again - Maybe

Are we ginning up another war here?  I think prob'ly not.  This looks a lot like the kind of theater that gets put on when you're trying to work some of the levers internal to some other country.

(hat tip = Democratic Underground)



Of course, you can always count on Droopy Dog Lieberman to pretend Congress has anything at all to do with setting Foreign Policy; and the Press Poodles on DumFux News will run with it, especially when they can bring on a right-wing jughead to talk shit about Obama.

But this actually brings to mind a different point for me.  If you look at Americans who're likely to support the Iran-Must-Not-Go-Nuclear approach, I'll bet ass-wipes to Benjamins that demographic is gonna match up almost perfectly with people who say everybody's a lot safer when everybody owns a gun.  When a neighboring country owns nukes and ballistic missiles, how is that fundamentally different from your next-door neighbor owning shotguns and assault rifles?

A Small Question

Lots of righteous indignation this week when Darryl Issa (R-Haugpecker) held a committee hearing on the non-troversy over Contraception Coverage, neglecting to invite any women to participate.

Outrage was voiced by the pundits along these lines: "How does Congress debate a Women's Health issue without any women!?!"

I guess I'm wondering why anybody would accept any debate in Congress regarding ANY policy issue that doesn't include women.

You make your point stick a lot better if you can at least make it look a little less obviously political.

Rollin' 'Em

Along the same lines as the recent  "issue" of contraception, Obama follows it up with Eric Holder saying DoJ intends not to defend a provision in the Veterans' Bennies law that denies benefits to same-sex spouses.

It's not clear to me that they're saying the VA will stop denying those bennies, it's just that if you're denied and you challenge, then DoJ isn't gonna put up a fight.  Not quite as good as I think it oughta be, but they have to make it look like they're at least trying to follow the law.  There're still problems with the whole Torture and Illegal Imprisonment things out there, but hey - I'll take smallish improvements where I can get 'em.

Anyway, add this one to Contraception (and let's not forget DOMA), and we've got something that's starting to look like a pattern.

Obama is aware that the attitudes have shifted.  People who went along with the Right Radicals on the Culture War crap, thinking they'd get something good in return, are seeing now that there wasn't any real payoff at all - it was a gyp.  The Culture War is the agenda, and what you get for your trouble is fucked with your pants on.

So Obama rolls merrily along.  Once in a while he tosses a big hunk of juicy red meat out the window, and we all get to watch as a smaller and smaller pack of increasingly vicious feral dogs tear into each other trying to get at it.

One other little thing occurs to me.  I think this is looking like Obama is finding his footing, and learning how to use his expertise in Constitutional Law to drive the politics necessary to move his policy agenda forward.  Remember the big stupid show the House Repubs made of reading the Constitution, and requiring that every proposed bill include Constitutional compliance / justification?  I think Obama has taken that in hand like a blackjack and is in the process of wailin' the shit out of 'em with it.  I dunno of course, but it's more fun to watch now than it was just 6 or 8 months ago.