The Murderous NRA... And The Democrats

92% of voters-- that's 98% of Democratic voters and 86% of Republican voters-- agree that there should be universal background checks for gun purchases. Even 92% of gun owners are on board with that. 91% of gun owners also say that there should be laws to prevent people with mental illness from buying guns. This week, PPP surveyed New Hampshire voters and found only 9% opposed to universal background checks on gun buyers. In New Hampshire 96% of Democrats, 82% of independents and 79% of Republicans want background checks. So why are Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Republican Rep. Frank Guinta so adamantly opposed to background checks?

Mike Thompson, a Napa Blue Dog and gun owner, says, "The only thing standing in the way of it passing is the Republican Majority in the House... [I]f the Republican Majority would allow a vote, my bill would pass." It didn't pass; Boehner, at the behest of the gun manufacturers' lobbyist group, the NRA, refused to allow it to come to a vote

In fact, there hasn't been a vote on gun legislation on the floor of the House since 2011, and that was to hamper the feds from investigating gun crimes committed with semi-automatic weapons, an amendment that was introduced by Oklahoma Blue Dog Dan Boren (who was subsequently forced to retire from Congress or face defeat). 41 mostly conservative Democrats voted for it along with all the Republicans, and it passed, 277-149. 

Most of the Democrats who did the NRA's bidding that day were, like Boren, driven out of Congress. But not all of them. Still in the House today:

• Sanford Bishop (Blue Dog-GA)
• Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN)
• Jim Costa (Blue Dog-CA)
• Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)
• Pete DeFazio (OR)
• Gene Green (TX)
• Brian Higgins (NY)
• Ron Kind (New Dem-WI)
• Ben Ray Luján (DCCC Chairman)
• Ed Perlmutter (New Dem-CO)
• Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)
• Jared Polis (New Dem-CO)
• Dutch Ruppersberger (MD)
• Tim Ryan (OH)
• Kurt Schrader (Blue Dog-OR)
• Adam Smith (New Dem-WA)
• Tim Walz (MN)
• Peter Welch (VT)

At the time, Boren justified his pandering to the NRA by saying:

Last December, ATF published an emergency request…It asked… for the power to collect information from firearms retailers on all sales of two or more semi-automatic rifles within five consecutive business days. This would include many of today's most popular rifles used by millions of Americans for self-defense, hunting, and other lawful purposes.…I strongly oppose granting ATF this information-collecting authority for three reasons: first, it would subject responsible firearms sellers who are often small business owners to burdensome reporting requirements. Second, ATF would catalog records on Americans who purchase rifles, thereby compromising their privacy. And, finally, ATF lacks legal authority to collect this information.

Judy Chu, a Los Angeles-area progressive, spoke for almost all Democrats when she explained why she opposed Boren's murderous NRA amendment:

Thirty thousand. That's how many people were violently slaughtered by the Mexican drug cartels in just 4 short years. One of them was Bobby Salcedo, an American citizen and rising star from my district. He was kidnapped and murdered last year with a semiautomatic rifle. I oppose this amendment because it makes it harder to stop these types of violent acts. This amendment will prevent the tracing of bulk sales of the military-style rifles, popular with cartels, that have resulted in tragic murders like Bobby's. Last year, the U.S. military announced that, if the drug war continues, it could cause the Mexican Government to collapse, and the cartel war could spread over the border into the U.S. This amendment makes the drug war worse. Every day, people are dying from this war, even American citizens. We must stop it, and we can by opposing this amendment.

Almost every Republican scored a ZERO from ProgressivePunch for their lifetime voting record on gun safety. No big surprise. But today there are 4 Democrats who score that same ZERO: Bill Foster (New Dem-IL), Gene Green (TX), Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN) and Dina Titus (NV).

Last cycle alone, the NRA gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republicans in Congress and running for Congress. Again, no surprise. But the NRA also spent money on Democratic shills for their blood-soaked agenda. Many, like hideous Georgia Blue Dog John Barrow (in the video above), were defeated. But still in Congress today, taking NRA blood money and with their heads up the NRA's ass, are:

• Sanford Bishop (Blue Dog-GA)- $3,500
• Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)- $1,000
• Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)- $5,950
• Kurt Schrader (Blue Dog-OR)- $2,000
• Tim Walz (MN)- $2,000

Yes, it's easy to demonize Republicans for the gun violence in this country-- easy and appropriate-- but this is a somewhat bipartisan holocaust, even if Republicans in Congress are overwhelmingly more to blame.

Yesterday I got a frantic plea for money from conservative Arizona New Dem Ann Kirkpatrick. She's running for the Senate against the worthless John McCain. But she's pretty worthless herself-- another "Democrat" with an "A" rating from the NRA. And Schumer recruited her to run for the Senate. Why? So she can vote for the NRA's toxic, deathly agenda. Her e-mail missive said, "We could flip the Senate," but she didn't mention that she would be "flipping" it more in favor of the NRA. And she isn't the only Senate candidate Schumer recruited who is beloved of the NRA. In Ohio, Ted Strickland has been a forever supporter of the NRA, and unlike Kirkpatrick, who they rated "A," they gave Strickland an A+.

The NRA rarely endorses Democrats over Republicans but sometimes a Democrat is so subservient to them that they just go for it. And that was the case in 2010 when they backed pet Democrat Ted Strickland and his losing campaign over Republican John Kasich. Both the NRA and the Buckeye Firearms Association scored Strickland an A+ that year-- again, not an A, a much more coveted and rare A+.

What, exactly, did Strickland do to endear himself so to the gun lobbyists? Here are a few examples of his fealty to the murder machine:

• Voted YES on prohibiting product misuse lawsuits on gun manufacturers
• Voted YES on prohibiting suing gunmakers & sellers for gun misuse
• Wrote that he opposes restrictions on the right to bear arms in a survey for the Christian Coalition in 2010
• On the 1996 National Political Awareness Test, he indicated that he supports the principle of repealing all bans and measures that restrict law-abiding citizens from owning legally-obtained firearms.

And that barely touches the surface of the mutual admiration society between Strickland and the gun industry.

Ted Strickland has a pro-gun voting record in Congress. As such, he was endorsed by both the NRA and Buckeye Firearms Association in his party primary last May. In the early days of his gubernatorial campaign in Ohio, he spoke out against a Columbus ban on most semi-automatic rifles that cost the city $20 million in convention revenue, voiced support for Ohio's two year-old concealed carry law, and told legislators they should pass a bill which would prevent municipal gun control laws and make firearms laws uniform across the state.

The progressive Democrat running for the Ohio Senate seat held by Rob Portman is Blue America-endorsed PG Sittenfeld. This morning we asked him how he would differ from Portman and Strickland on issues around gun safety.

In the Senate, I will fight for common sense gun safety measures, starting with universal background checks with no gun show loopholes. Senseless killings by people who never should have had a gun in the first place must stop, and it's going to take more senators willing to stand up and do what's right  to make that happen.

If you'd like to help make sure Sittenfeld beats the NRA's Ohio Tweedle-Dum and Tweddle-Dee, you can do that right here. Needless to say, the big establishment money is all flowing to Portman and Strickland, so whatever you can spare would be immensely appreciated. Democrats can whine about gun violence till the cows come home, but as long as the party machinery is promoting NRA shills like Strickland and Kirkpatrick, nothing will ever change.


UPDATE: Report From Congress

A progressive Member of Congress read the post above and e-mailed me that I forgot to mention someone who deserved recognition for his efforts on behalf of the NRA, "Zach Space, who did far worse than vote for NRA stuff; he actually lined up votes for it." Now a lobbyist, Space was a 2 term Blue Dog from Ohio who "won" Bob Ney's seat after Ney withdrew from the race and pleaded guilty to taking bribes from Jack Abramoff (for which he went to prison). The NRA gave Space a rare A+ rating and endorsed his reelection campaign against eventual Republican victor Bob Gibbs.

As a member of Congress, Space has demonstrated his commitment to our Second Amendment rights by cosponsoring legislation to restore self-defense rights in our nation's capital, as well as signing the pro-gun congressional amicus brief to the Supreme Court supporting our individual right to keep and bear arms in the Heller case. Additionally, he is the lead sponsor of legislation to force much-needed reform of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and cosponsored the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity amendment, which would provide a national standard for carrying concealed firearms.  Space also signed a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder opposing re-enactment of the failed 1994 ban on semi-automatic firearms and ammunition magazines.

Furthermore, Space voted for an amendment that ensures access to federally-owned or administered lands for hunting, fishing, trapping and recreational shooting, as well as an amendment that allows carry permit holders to carry concealed in national parks and wildlife refuges. Most recently, he signed the pro-gun congressional amicus brief arguing that the Second Amendment guarantees a fundamental right that protects all Americans in the McDonald case.

Zack Space's commitment to preserving our right to keep and bear arms has earned him an "A+" rating and the endorsement of the NRA-PVF.

Although Space massively outspent Gibbs in the 2010 election-- $2,931,978 to $1,090,872-- Gibbs beat him 54-40% because Democratic base voters had gotten wise to Space's conservatism and refused to show up and vote for him again. Chris Hollen, then head of the DCCC was determined to save Space-- and the other pro-NRA Democrats-- and wasted $1,559,434 on the race, while allowing progressive incumbents to sink beneath the waves of a Koch brothers spending tsunami.

Teabaggery Isn't Just About South Carolina Republicans

Today Politico asked two very related questions: What's the matter with South Carolina? and How is it that the GOP allows its most extremist cranks to dominate the health care national debate? And it isn't just Joe Wilson fitting so smoothly into both stories that makes them related. Sure, Wilson's possibly drug-fueled, possibly premeditated, outburst has "Republicans worried that their party is becoming known less for the power of its ideals and more for the pettiness of its vitriol." But the image of Republicans as a bunch of dangerous kooks and unsavory whackjobs and sex perverts goes way beyond the problems of South Carolina's Republican Party.

Here’s Orly Taitz, insisting that the commander in chief was born in Kenya. There’s a flock of town hall protesters, waving photos of the president in a Hitler mustache. Former GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin warns darkly that Obama is planning “death panels” for senior citizens. Georgia Rep. Paul Broun equates the president’s plans with “Nazi” policies. Ohio Rep. Jean Schmidt-- last heard calling John Murtha a “coward”-- tells a birther: “I agree with you, but the courts don’t.”

And then, in the midst of all the catcalls, hand-held signs and “I’m not listening” BlackBerrying, Wilson interrupts Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress by shouting, “You lie!”

...Republican leaders were quick to distance themselves from Wilson’s outburst. John McCain said Wilson should apologize, and he did-- although he also insisted that he was right about Obama’s lack of candor.

Brian Jones, a former communications director for the Republican National Committee, finds it frustrating when lawmakers like Wilson hijack the party’s public persona.

“You have a little bit of tyranny of the minority with these people,” he says. “It may raise their profile, it may make them more attractive in their district-- but does it really help the image of the party in the midst of an important debate? I think no. Obviously, there are some who will be cheering this, but I think the cake is baked with them in terms of how they feel about Obama and health care.”

But Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the chairman of the Republicans’ campaign arm in the Senate, suggests that it’s not fair to tar the GOP with its fringier elements-- and that the criticism won’t last anyway.

“I think that it’s a free country,” he says. “Anybody can say what they want, they can identify themselves as a Democrat, independent, a Republican, a socialist or whatever they want to call themselves. That doesn’t mean they were representative of a political party or the mainstream of a political party.”

All that and not even a mention of Michele Bachmann, Jim DeMint, Lord Boustany, Virginia Foxx, Dick Cheney, Glenn Beck, Newt Gingrich, David Diapers Vitter, Mark Foley, Tom Coburn, Patrick McHenry, Larry Craig, Rush Limbaugh, or California's latest Republican Party dynamic duo, Mike Duvall and Jeff Miller.


As for South Carolina, it's following old secessionist patterns that go back before Abraham Lincoln's time and has not just "emerged as a beachhead for the president's most aggressive conservative critics, a secure launching point for some of the harshest attacks on the administration’s policy initiatives," but as a place where the worst fringe elements in contemporary American politics are perfectly comfortable spouting their racism and anti-American poison in public, more often than not to the cheers of their fellow kooks. Almost every top Republican leader in the state is a sexually repressed deviant whose frustrations and self-loathing seem to be expressed in extremist politics.

But Republicans are striking back and claiming that sexually related mental illness isn't strictly a GOP dilemma. An Ohio Republican Party activist points an accusatory finger at Blue Dog Zack Space. He even wound up on the Republican Party TV network. GOP sociopath David Daubenmire, a religionist fanatic who's been sleeping in front of Zack Space's office for a week, claims he represents "hundreds and thousands of Joe Six Pack men and women" and refuses to take up Space's offer to spend some time with him "back in some smoke-filled room." Now, DWT hasn't had anything much nice to say about the corporately-oriented Space, but local Republican Party operatives seem to be barking up the wrong tree when they make allusions to Space slamming right-wing loons with sexual innuendoes.

After my prominent appearance at a teabagger rally in Alhambra, I've been placed on the mailing list of dozens of crazy right-wing mailing lists. Mostly I just forward everything to Secret Service and FBI agents but now and then I read some of the crackpot rantings. Here's one I saw yesterday after Space's office commented on the kook-- previously best know for burning copies of the Koran in public-- sleeping on the sidewalk and whining that the congressman knows the etymology of the word "teabagger":

"Coach doesn't comprehend reality.  The rain or fatigue must be getting to Mr. Daubenmire.  There was a town hall meeting yesterday five blocks from where he is setting up camp featuring Secretary of Energy Tom Vilsack, Senator Brown and Congressman Space.  It had been publicized for days by all offices.  If it was "secretive," then more than 300 people found out the secret, including a number of Mr. Daubenmire's teabagger colleagues who were there and talked to the Congressman."
 
Local small business owner Darin Hill took offense to Space's remarks.
 
"The unmitigated gall of Mr. Space's comments is shameful," says Darin Hill, owner of Hillsway Ag and Turf in Gratiot, Ohio.  "Those words are disrespectful, condescending, and more than that, they're dishonest.  Mr. Space is completely misrepresenting the event.  The meeting with Secretary Vilsack was not billed as a town hall.  It was explicitly addressing the concerns of farmers and our district's agricultural industry.  If Representative Space hosted a true town hall, a lot more than 300 people would have shown up."
 
Although Space's office claims that they announced the event beforehand, the event wasn't promoted as a town hall nor was it widely known that the Congressman would be in attendance at the event.  But Mr. Hill is more concerned about the insult.
 
"I don't feel comfortable with my Congressman using sexually perverse terms like teabagging.  He shouldn't be talking that way to constituents," continues Hill.  "If Zack Space needs a history lesson on taxation without representation and the Boston Tea Party, I'd be happy to enlighten him.  There's nothing perverse about an American citizen questioning his government."
 
Darin Hill has no affiliation with Daubenmire or Fairfield Christian Academy, but he plans to be at Daubenmire's rally on the Zanesville courthouse steps on Thursday at 6 PM.

And like flies to cowshit Michael Steele and Ohio Republican Party Chairman Kevin DeWine showed up as well. I mean, how can anyone expect to have a serious discussion of the ins and outs of teabagging without Steele and DeWine in the peanut gallery? Do you think showing teabaggers this video would help at all?



No? How about this one? It's more up their emotional alley, don't you think?

Do You Think People In Ohio And Missouri Want Health Care Reform? Ask A Repug And A Blue Dog

The Space family & the Blunt family get
great health coverage that we pay for

Perhaps you heard about how Blue Dogs are doing Republicans' work for them by watering down the health care bill as much as possible. The slimy Ohio Blue Dog who took over for Republican Bob Ney when he was caught accepting bribes and was shipped off to prison is Zack Space. Space couldn't wait to run to the media to take credit for barring immigrants from getting any benefits from whatever comes out of the health care reform bill he's helping the GOP eviscerate.

"I am preparing an amendment to make it clear that this legislation is not designed to benefit those persons who are undocumented," Space, D-Ohio, said during a conference call Thursday. "It should benefit only those who are American citizens.

"There has been a lot of concern among the public about this issue, and I want to make sure the beneficiaries of this legislation are tax-paying Americans."

Under his amendment, those applying for government-funded health insurance would have to show proof of citizenry - just as is currently required by those receiving Medicare, according to Space.

Good thing Lou Dobbs was lying as usual when he made up all that crazy nonsense about how immigrants are bringing leprosy to America! Otherwise Space might be condemning schoolchildren in Chillicothe, Zanesville and New Rumley to falling off toes and fingers and a life without noses, just so he could seem like even more of a Republican than he already has been since being elected in 2006.

But keeping immigrants from getting medical treatment isn't all that the Blue Dogs been obsessed with. They and their reactionary allies on the other side of the aisle are also trying to make sure women's reproductive health is controlled by politicians like themselves, rather than by doctors and women. On Thursday night the Blue Dog-infested House Energy and Commerce Committee passed an amendment that would bar women's reproductive health from being part of the public option. Fortunately, committee chair Henry Waxman was paying close attention and figured out how to counter the Republicans and their Blue Dog cronies.

The amendment, offered by Rep. Stupak (D-Mich.), Reps. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) and Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), originally passed 31 to 27. Republicans voted unanimously for the measure. On the Democratic side, all but one Blue Dog-- Rep. Zack Space (D-Ohio) who did not vote–supported the amendment. ("I just missed the first vote," said Space, who went on to vote against the amendment.)

But before the first round of voting closed, Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) changed his vote from NO to YES. The switch let him to take advantage of a House rule that allows supporters to bring an amendment back for consideration later. The tactic paid off: Waxman brought the amendment up for another vote, and the committee defeated it 30-29.

The amendment would have prevented the public plan from covering abortion unless the mother's life was at risk.

"I misunderstood it the first time," said Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.), who originally voted for the amendment but opposed against it the second time around.

I wonder what got Gordon to come around. He has a disgraceful voting record on women's reproductive health and certainly votes like an anti-choice nutcase most of the time. Anyway... "nice" that Space isn't trying to penalize most women, only immigrants.

By the way, as long as we're talking about health care and Mr. Space, his district is one of the poorest in Ohio. (The medium income in Ohio is $40,956 but in OH-18 it's only $34,462.) The Center For American Progress took a look at the need for health care reform across Ohio; the need is even greater in Space's district but here's what they found for the whole state:

• 390 residents of Ohio are losing health insurance every day, and 14,000 Americans nationwide lose insurance daily.

• The average family premium in Ohio costs $1,000 more because our system fails to cover everyone-- and $1,100 more nationally.

• Our broken health insurance system will cost the Ohio economy as much as $7.1 billion this year in productivity losses due to the uninsured-- and up to $248 billion nationally.

• In Ohio there has been a 14 percent increase in the uninsured rate since 2007.

• 1,500,000 are uninsured today in Ohio.

• In Ohio the combined market share of the top two insurers is 58 percent, limiting employers’ and families’ health insurance options as well as the care they receive.

• The average family premium will rise from $12,672 to $21,623 by 2019 in Ohio without health care reform.

• In Ohio, without health care reform, 184,730 will have lost coverage from January 2008 to December 2010.

• In Ohio, 616,000 people would gain coverage as a result of the House health care reform bill by 2013, and 991,000 would gain coverage by 2019.

• A typical Ohio family will pay $21,623 for health coverage in 2019 without health care reform.

And what about Missouri, where Roy Blunt is now the congressman charged by the GOP leadership with killing health care reform-- while he is busy running for senator from that state? And, remember, the anti-choice provision that was beaten back by Waxman's quick wit was sponsored by Blunt, a raging anti-choice fanatic. Blunt is one of the House members who has benefited most from the legalized bribes given to "cooperative" members of Congress by the Medical-Industrial Complex. He's taken $1,660,898 from them and another $556,682 from Big Insurance. He expects them to pick up a major part of the tab for his Senate election bid next year and he's working his ass off to destroy health care reform hoping people in Missouri will be taken in by the barrage of lies being put out in the form of twisted TV ads. Meanwhile here's CAP's assessement of the health care need in Blunt's own state:

• 210 residents of Missouri are losing health insurance every day, and 14,000 Americans nationwide lose insurance daily.

• The average family premium in Missouri costs $400 more because our system fails to cover everyone-- and $1,100 more nationally.

• Our broken health insurance system will cost the Missouri economy as much as $3.7 billion this year in productivity losses due to the uninsured-- and up to $248 billion nationally.

• In Missouri there has been a 16 percent increase in the uninsured rate since 2007.

• 770,000 are uninsured today in Missouri.

• In Missouri the combined market share of the top two insurers is 79 percent, limiting employers’ and families’ health insurance options as well as the care they receive.

• The average family premium will rise from $12,908 to $22,025 by 2019 in Missouri without health care reform.

• In Missouri, without health care reform, 112,310 will have lost coverage from January 2008 to December 2010.

• In Missouri, 374,000 people would gain coverage as a result of the House health care reform bill by 2013, and 602,000 would gain coverage by 2019.

• A typical Missouri family will pay $22,025 for health coverage in 2019 without health care reform.

Blunt and his latest wife Abigail get the best health insurance and the best health care available on the planet-- courtesy of the American taxpayers-- so when he, and the rest of the Republican swine and their filthy Blue Dog allies, say they don't believe in government-sponsored health care, remember, they just don't believe in it for us; they love it for themselves and their families. They like things just the they are; do you?

THIS IS ONE HALFWAY HOUSE I WOULDN'T WANT IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD-- LOCK UP THE SILVERWARE; BOB NEY IS OUT OF PRISON

Ney's out of the hoosegaw

I doubt it was to make room for just incarcerated Brent Wilkes, but convicted Republican congressional crook Bob Ney, one of the several dozen who was taking bribes from Jack Abramoff (but the only one lame enough to go to prison for it so far), was let loose today. He'll be serving out the rest of his already far too short 30-month sentence in a halfway house. They refuse to divulge where the halfway house is.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons said Ney will be released from the bureau’s custody on Aug. 16, and he could be transferred to home confinement in Ohio before then. That release date depends on Ney continuing to compile “good time credit.”

Ney reported to the Morgantown prison to begin his sentence March 1, 2007. While there, he has participated in an alcoholism rehabilitation program.

Ney represented the sprawling 18th District in eastern and southern Ohio for six terms. Democrat Zack Space won the seat in the 2006 elections.

Space has voted more frequently with the Republicans on substantive matters than all but the most reactionary Democratic freshmen. The only new Democratic members as bad as Space were, from bad to worse, Chris Carney (PA), Emanuel's boy Heath Shuler (NC), Jason Altmire (PA), Brad Ellsworth (IN), Nick Lampson (TX), Joe Donnelly (IN).