Of the many so-called solutions to protecting our society from gun violence, placing armed guards in schools is one of the most popular on the right. Keeping schools safe has to be a high priority, but I question the validity of the notion that guns are the solution to gun violence. Here’s one reason why.
A school district in New York has put a program to put armed officers in schools on hold after a policeman’s handgun went off at Highland High School.
At a Wednesday meeting with parents, Highland Central School District and police officials explained that Officer Sean McCutcheon had been suspended after his Glock .45-caliber pistol “accidentally discharged” in a school hallway at around 1:38 p.m. on Tuesday.
Lloyd Police Department Lt. James Janso said that a suspension was standard procedure while the incident was under investigation. Officials offered no further explanation as to why the gun discharged.
This video isn’t that good, but it will give you the flavor of feelings in the community.
I don’t blame the policeman. Accidents happen, and I really don’t know enough about the specifics. However, if accidents like this can happen, even with the best trained professionals, police officers, putting guns in the hands of teachers, untrained school officials, and especially volunteer vigilantes is a virtual guarantee that tragic accidents will happen. I think that regulations to enforce responsible firearms use will be more effective and less dangerous, but, if there are to be armed individuals in schools, they should be police officers, or perhaps retired police officers.
Yesterday I slept virtually all day, and it was just what I needed. I’m feeling much better, except that I can’t stand springing ahead. An hour is too valuable to give up. I have a month’s grocery delivery coming today. Hopefully unpacking and stowing them won’t take too much out of me. I’m current with replies, and should be here tomorrow.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:37 (average 4:45). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From MoveOn: WARNING: You May Actually Weep While Watching The Film Version Of Wisconsin’s Epic Uprising [This Short Take is about 1 1/4 hours long.]
Walker sucked so much Koch that he is still Fartfuhrer of Fitzwalkerstan. Through the dedication of oppressed people like these, that SHALL change.
From USA Today: President Barack Obama is poised to select Justice Department official Thomas Perez to be the next labor secretary, according to two people familiar with the deliberation process.
With solid support from Labor and Latinos, Perez appears to be an all too infrequent excellent choice.
From The Hill: Attorney General Eric Holder’s surprising comments this week about difficulties prosecuting big banks has lit a new spark under the debate over large financial institutions that has lingered for years on Capitol Hill.
Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday, Holder tackled a wide range of issues from drone policy to gun control, but it was his comments on big banks, after hours of testimony, that raised eyebrows among Wall Street backers and critics…
…“The size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy,” he said. “That is a function of the fact that some of these institutions have become too large."
If they are too big to be held accountable for their crimes, which amount to open class warfare, they are too big to exist. Even if breaking them up will hurt the economy, lets get it over with. The longer we wait, the worse it will be.
I don’t know why, but my COPD was very severe yesterday and I’ve only had about an hour’s sleep because of it. I’m going to reply to comments, post this and go to bed. Hopefully I’ll be rested tomorrow.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:57 (average 4:43). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From MoveOn: There Are 17,000 Of These Now. What If There Was Zero?
Nukes in silos are like Republicans in office. Every one is one too many.
From NY Times: A fresh feud over federal judgeships has again begun to agitate the Senate, with Republicans so far blocking President Obama from filling any of the four vacancies on the nation’s most prestigious and important appeals court…
…If Republicans were to continue to steadfastly block a series of appeals court nominees, Democrats say they might then have justification to revisit Senate rules and claim new power to thwart filibusters.
This is the so called nuclear option. It has never been used before. Nuke the filibastards!
From NBC: Republicans have lashed out against the Obama administration’s decision to bring a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden to New York City for trial, a high-profile move that would help the president follow through on one of his earliest campaign pledges.
One of the unmet promises from President Barack Obama’s first term involved closing the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and bringing suspects to the continental United States for trial.
Article Three courts have successfully convicted dozens of terrorists. Military tribunals have convicted only 5. Gitmo should be closed and would have been were it not for Congressional cowards.
In negotiations between Obama and Republicans for a grand budget bargain, chained CPI appears to be back on that table. I explained chained CPI last month. In short, it is a method of calculating the increases in Social Security benefits, as well as benefits for disabled veterans and the families of soldiers killed in action, that offsets increases in the cost of living with decreases in the quality of living. Over time, it is a substantial decrease in the benefits you have earned and are earning by paying your premiums throughout your working lives. Chained CPI is NOT an option! Fortunately, Bernie Sanders, and my fellow Oregonian, Peter DeFazio are leading the opposition to it.
As politicians in Washington discuss proposals to reduce the federal deficit, one of the ideas that keeps coming up is known as the "chained CPI" or consumer price index, a new way to calculate cost-of-living adjustments to Social Security.
This method assumes people will make lower-cost choices to offset any reductions in their Social Security adjustments, said Lisa Lamkins, advocacy director for AARP Wisconsin. However, she added, that doesn’t reflect reality.
"Seniors in particular aren’t able to make lower-cost substitutions for items that they buy," she said, "like prescription drugs and health care."… [emphasis added]
After ten years, annual benefits for current and future seniors, veterans, and military survivors will be hundreds less under chained CPI, by saying that decreases our quality of life are not increases in the cost of living.
Here is Bernie Sanders take on it. I seldom lift an entire article from a website, but in this case, I’m sure Bernie will not mind.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today introduced legislation cosponsored by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to strengthen Social Security by making the wealthiest Americans pay the same payroll tax that nearly everyone else already pays.
Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) introduced the companion bill in the House. He joined Sanders at a news conference in the Capitol to discuss their bill to bolster Social Security without raising the retirement age or lowering benefits.
“Social Security is the most successful government program in our nation’s history. Through good times and bad, Social Security has paid out every benefit owed to every eligible American,” Sanders said. “The most effective way to strengthen Social Security for the future is to eliminate the cap on the payroll tax on income above $250,000 so millionaires and billionaires pay the same share as everyone else.”
Reid said, “I want to thank Sen. Sanders for his outstanding leadership in support of Social Security and the millions of Americans who rely on the program. His legislation should make people think twice before assuming that the only way to strengthen Social Security is to take away benefits that seniors have earned, or raise taxes on the middle class.”
DeFazio added, “Despite the hype, Social Security is not now, and never was, the cause of our deficit. Those spreading these false claims are the same people who have for years been working with Wall Street to privatize the program. We shouldn’t cut benefits or try to balance the budget on the backs of seniors who have earned these benefits. We can just close a tax loophole that allows millionaires and billionaires to pay a lower percentage of their income into Social Security than everyone else.”
In addition to Majority Leader Reid, the Senate measure is cosponsored by Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D.-R.I.), Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).
Under their legislation, those with yearly incomes of $250,000 or more would pay the same 6.2 percent payroll tax already assessed on those who earn up to $113,700 a year. Applying the Social Security payroll tax on income above $250,000 would only affect the wealthiest 1.3 percent of Americans, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Social Security officials say that simple change would yield about $85 billion a year to keep the retirement program strong for at least another 50 years.
The legislation is based on a proposal that President Barack Obama made in 2008 during his first campaign for the White House. (Watch the video.)
Since it was signed into law 77 years ago, Social Security has kept millions of senior citizens, widows, widowers, orphans, and the disabled out of poverty. Before Social Security, about half of senior citizens lived in poverty. Today, less than 10 percent live in poverty and more than 55 million Americans receive retirement or disability benefits.
The most successful government program in our nation’s history has not contributed to the federal deficit. It has a $2.7 trillion surplus, and it can pay out every benefit owed to every eligible American for at least the next 20 years, according to the Social Security Administration.
As usual Bernie is spot on, and the solution he proposes is the same one I have supported for years. This is also the solution Obama proposed while campaigning, when he said that he would not cut Social Security benefits, would not raise the retirement age, and would not decrease the CPI. Raise the cap!
Most of you know that I live in Portland, which is located at the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers. Up the river from me is one of the most critical environmental threats in the US, one that could devastate millions of people. It appears that the Republican sequester may increase that risk significantly.
Here in the place where plutonium production for the nation’s bomb arsenal was elevated to industrial scale, in the rolling scrub country of south-central Washington, dangerous industrial pollutants are still getting into the soil only a few miles from the Columbia River.
Gov. Inslee said he was disturbed that the possibility of automatic federal budget cuts came to light just as it was confirmed that radioactive waste was leaking from tanks at Hanford.
For the nation’s largest environmental cleanup project, a legacy of World War II and the cold war, the announcement last month of six newly confirmed leaking tanks of radioactive waste was added evidence that even after decades of work and billions of dollars in taxpayer sacrifice, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation’s risks remain unresolved.
But as Washington’s new governor, Jay Inslee, swept onto the site on Wednesday for a hard-hat tour and a briefing, and federal officials warned of layoffs from budget cuts rippling through the federal Department of Energy, the reminder was equally clear, state and federal officials said, that government has always been the real defining force at this place…
…“I’m very disturbed that at the very month that we have six new leaking tanks of radioactive material, the sequestration hits, which could result in the furlough of several thousand people,” said Mr. Inslee, a Democrat and a former congressman.
The federal Department of Energy said this week that up to 4,800 workers out of Hanford’s 9,000-person work force, mostly employed by private contractors, could be hit with furloughs or layoffs starting April 1… [emphasis added]
Republicans are seeking to insulate the Defense Department from the random nature of the sequester cuts, and I have no problem with that. However they want to limit it to defense. If we are going to allow directed defense cuts, we most also allow directed domestic cuts so that we can cut things like corporate subsidies and leave in place those programs that we need most, like care for the poor and environmental disasters.
Yesterday I got lots of sleep, and I needed it. I’m current with replies. Tomorrow should be routine.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:44 (average 5:41). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From MoveOn: The Funniest Anti-Gay Marriage Ad We’ve Seen In At Least Two Weeks
This obvious satire makes an excellent point. Republicans act as though who other people love threatens their ability to love. It does not. If threatens only the popularity of their hate.
From NY Times: Four years ago, as a newly elected president began his efforts to rescue the economy and strengthen the social safety net, conservative economic pundits — people who claimed to understand markets and know how to satisfy them — warned of imminent financial disaster. Stocks, they declared, would plunge, while interest rates would soar…
…Sure enough, this week the Dow Jones industrial average has been hitting all-time highs, while the current yield on 10-year U.S. government bonds is roughly half what it was when The Journal published that screed…
…the important point about these particular bad predictions is that they came from people who constantly invoke the potential wrath of the markets as a reason we must follow their policy advice. Don’t try to cover America’s uninsured, they told us; if you do, you will undermine business confidence and the stock market will tank. Don’t try to reform Wall Street, or even criticize its abuses; you’ll hurt the plutocrats’ feelings, and that will lead to plunging markets. Don’t try to fight unemployment with higher government spending; if you do, interest rates will skyrocket.
And, of course, do slash Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid right away, or the markets will punish you for your presumption.
Click through for the rest of Krugman’s excellent editorial that explains why Republican policies are no better than their predictions.
From ABC: Standing firm on new firearm restrictions, Colorado Democrats are on the cusp of advancing aggressive gun-control proposals Friday in a state balancing a history of heartbreaking shootings with a Western heritage where gun ownership is treasured by many.
There is really no conflict between the two. Sensible regulation poses no threat to responsible gun use, just like licensing and registration poses no threat to responsible driving.
Yesterday I got lots of sleep, and I needed it. I’m current with replies. Tomorrow should be routine.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:44 (average 5:41). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From MoveOn: The Funniest Anti-Gay Marriage Ad We’ve Seen In At Least Two Weeks
This obvious satire makes an excellent point. Republicans act as though who other people love threatens their ability to love. It does not. If threatens only the popularity of their hate.
From NY Times: Four years ago, as a newly elected president began his efforts to rescue the economy and strengthen the social safety net, conservative economic pundits — people who claimed to understand markets and know how to satisfy them — warned of imminent financial disaster. Stocks, they declared, would plunge, while interest rates would soar…
…Sure enough, this week the Dow Jones industrial average has been hitting all-time highs, while the current yield on 10-year U.S. government bonds is roughly half what it was when The Journal published that screed…
…the important point about these particular bad predictions is that they came from people who constantly invoke the potential wrath of the markets as a reason we must follow their policy advice. Don’t try to cover America’s uninsured, they told us; if you do, you will undermine business confidence and the stock market will tank. Don’t try to reform Wall Street, or even criticize its abuses; you’ll hurt the plutocrats’ feelings, and that will lead to plunging markets. Don’t try to fight unemployment with higher government spending; if you do, interest rates will skyrocket.
And, of course, do slash Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid right away, or the markets will punish you for your presumption.
Click through for the rest of Krugman’s excellent editorial that explains why Republican policies are no better than their predictions.
From ABC: Standing firm on new firearm restrictions, Colorado Democrats are on the cusp of advancing aggressive gun-control proposals Friday in a state balancing a history of heartbreaking shootings with a Western heritage where gun ownership is treasured by many.
There is really no conflict between the two. Sensible regulation poses no threat to responsible gun use, just like licensing and registration poses no threat to responsible driving.
When the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a report in 2009 that there was an increased danger of hate crimes by right wing extremists, the right wing extremists, aka the Republican Party objected so strenuously that the author was fired. The DHS now has only one agent investing right wing terrorism, and that is a huge mistake.
The number of antigovernment “Patriot” groups on the American radical right hit an all-time high in 2012, the fourth straight year of explosive growth, according to a report released today by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). As the new year began, serious talk of gun control, prompted by a Connecticut school massacre in December, fueled even more rage on the right, and the threat of violence loomed .
The new report, contained in the latest issue of the quarterly investigative journal Intelligence Report, found that the conspiracy-minded Patriot groups, which numbered only 149 in 2008, soared over the first four years of Barack Obama’s presidency to 1,360 in 2012 — an astounding 813% increase. At the same time, it found that hate groups remained at near-record levels of over 1,000 (see interactive map and state-by-state lists of 2012 hate groups here)… [emphasis added]
It’s not just in the South. Click through to the SPLC map, pictured above to see, that these violent hate group are everywhere. Of course, Republicans are at the forefront of calls for violence, like former NH Republican State Committee Chairman, Jack Kimball.
Jack Kimball, of the Granite State Patriots Liberty PAC and a former Republican State Committee chairman, is mustering support for another 2nd Amendment rights rally at the Statehouse and warning gun owners that complacency amid recent attacks on constitutional rights "will eventually turn into gun confiscation."
Kimball, who owns a business in Portsmouth, promoted the "Honor Your Oath" rally April 13 on the GSPLP’s Facebook page and underscored that elected leaders must be true to their oath of office.
"It is up to ‘We the People’ to make it clear to those who would violate their oath that we want them to step down or to be forcibly removed from office," Kimball wrote on the Facebook page. "Time is running out. We need a massive turnout to send a clear message that the Sleeping Giant has awakened and we are coming. Remember: ‘All it takes for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.’ It’s time to join the fight."… [emphasis added]
When confronted, Kimball later claimed that he was really referring to impeachment, but that excuse does not hold water. The US Senate is not going to uphold bogus impeachments of Obama or other Democratic officials.
Ed Schulz and his panel examined the rise of Republican hate.
Note that the he had to look no further than Faux Noise, the Republican Ministry of Propaganda for examples of Republican hate on display. We should not be surprised. In 2010 Republicans celebrated the anniversary of the Murrah Building bombing with “open carry” events featuring Rep. Paul Braun (R-GA) and Larry Pratt, the subject of a recent Republicans on Parade segment.
Mark my words. InsaniTEA is a far greater threat to our National Security than Al Qaeda.
A school district in New York has put a program to put armed officers in schools on hold after a policeman’s handgun went off at Highland High School.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today introduced legislation cosponsored by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to strengthen Social Security by making the wealthiest Americans pay the same payroll tax that nearly everyone else already pays.
Here in the place where plutonium production for the nation’s bomb arsenal was elevated to industrial scale, in the rolling scrub country of south-central Washington, dangerous industrial pollutants are still getting into the soil only a few miles from the Columbia River.
The number of antigovernment “Patriot” groups on the American radical right hit an all-time high in 2012, the fourth straight year of explosive growth, according to a 
Jack Kimball, of the Granite State Patriots Liberty PAC and a former Republican State Committee chairman, is mustering support for another 2nd Amendment rights rally at the Statehouse and warning gun owners that complacency amid recent attacks on constitutional rights "will eventually turn into gun confiscation."