Gabrielle Giffords, April 17, 2013

[babylonsister]

[SidDithers]

1. Kick and fucking rec...

Sid

[DevonRex]

46. I couldn't do better than this

so I repeated it.

[SidDithers]

58. Awesome...

Powerful statement from Giffords.

Sid

[Cha]

2. But, some of the Senators were voting NO because

they thought they would lose their jobs.

Gabby has a Better Solution.

thanks babylonsis

[madokie]

3. Yes I agree

Enough of the bought and paid for congress critters

[Auntie Bush]

4. Congressmen are suppose to represent their constituents wishes...i.e. Representatives.

Instead they represent those who pay them the most. They are bought and paid for! They are actually taking bribes. Disgusting! Dems need to point this out more often.

[DainBramaged]

5. What a great group of people in this thread!!!

gunnies should take a lesson.....so should the Senators who voted for death.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

6. Now this I can agree with.

[Carolina]

7. K&R

[Robb]

8. Yep.

[DemoTex]

9. K .. R

I stand with this wonderful person .. Gabby!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

10. Watch,...Republicans will claim, "Vote for us or America will turn COMMIE!!!" as usual.

[steve2470]

11. k&r nt

[hue]

12. Gabby, You are beautiful!!! K&R

[Loki]

13. Amen Gabby, amen.

[apocalypsehow]

14. We're 100% with you, Gabby.

[bluestate10]

15. Yet. There are some on DU that are advocating sitting out the 2014 election, or voting for

a no hope candidate. How utterly, fucking foolish. My one hope is that the majority of Independents are as disgusted with republicans as sane Democrats are, we will need their votes to bring about real progressive change.

[freshwest]

64. +1

[Aristus]

16. Holy shit! PLEASE post something that says: "Giffords said" or "To quote Giffords"

I thought she had died! Or been killed. Lots of crazy shit happening today...

[babylonsister]

17. No end date, just a quote. Calm down. :) nt

[Aristus]

19. Okay.

I'm calmer now...

[babylonsister]

23. Phew. Me, too!

[samplegirl]

18. I'm with Gabby!!!!!!!!

All the way!!!!!!!!!1

[FailureToCommunicate]

20. She has a way with words!

[russspeakeasy]

37. get lost.

[undeterred]

38. This is a very strong, intelligent woman

and nobody tells her what to say or do.

Perhaps you're thinking of Republican women.

[FailureToCommunicate]

41. How have you lasted at DU this long (since April 3rd) ?

I see your username is spot on.

[Ilsa]

21. She has a blistering Op-Ed tomorrow in

The NY Times.

[malaise]

22. Gabby's Op Ed NYT tomorrow - A Senate in the Gun Lobby’s Grip

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/opinion/a-senate-in-the-gun-lobbys-grip.html?_r=0
<snip>
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.

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.

[SunSeeker]

31. Yes, you are. nt

[jeffrey_pdx]

32. How the fuck do you know that?

[freshwest]

66. Whatever *IT* had to say, which I thankfully missed, is gone now. Good riddance.

[malaise]

69. LOL

and I never even read di rubbish

[shireen]

40. Writing is about conveying thoughts

Her husband probably helped her find the right words to express her thoughts, like a translator. As far as I'm concerned, that's makes her the author of that OP.

[freshwest]

65. Very strong piece, thanks for linking it.

[cbrer]

24. GODDAM RIGHT K&R nt

[leftieNanner]

25. Thanks for posting sister

I would love to see Turtle Man McConnell defeated. The only reason he pushed this filibuster was to avoid a right wing primary challenge. Sick and twisted man. But if Kentucky would vote for Rand Paul, then we might have some trouble there.

Great Post!

[sheshe2]

26. To Gabby,

To her courage and resolve! We thank you.

Thanks, bsister.

[nolabear]

27. I am so damned tired of seeing beautiful, damaged people. And gaping holes where people once were.

SO tired.

[Aerows]

34. I know

She's the best of us, and here she is with a damn gunshot would by a lunatic. It makes me want to cry, and I've done enough of that for my fellow runners in Boston. It's senseless.

[Stellar]

72. I couldn't agree with you more...

I can't stand to listen to any more news. We've got to get rid of those people!!!!!

[SunSeeker]

30. K&R

[Aerows]

33. Speechless

She is so brave, I'm speechless.

[politicasista]

35. Kick

[russspeakeasy]

36. Plus a lot......................................

[mountain grammy]

39. The senators should hang their heads in shame. I'm picturing enormous demonstrations

throughout the country this summer.

[Initech]

42. Any politician who directly supports the NRA - they need to be fired.

Do not pass go do not collect $200. We need to start branding the NRA as the enemy. We need to make them irrelevant.

[Indridc0ld]

43. The Senate Vote on Gun Safety

I can honestly say that I have never been so infuriated by our nation's government representatives as I am at this moment. When you consider that I have personally witnessed the numerous scandals and fo-paux of our all too human politicians over 50+ years, that is truly saying something. From Watergate, to Chappaquiddick, and from the Lewinsky affair, to water-boarding, I have seen how long and far even well-meaning men and women can fall from the ideals that one would hope brought them to public service. In some instances, temptation and personal weakness brought about the questionable or illegal behavior. In other cases, it was an over-inflated ego or sense of personal privilege rising even above the laws of our society that made transgression irresistible.

Today's senate vote was nothing of the kind. It went in total contradiction of the electorate's clear and stated desire to take back control from the "wild west" mentality of a small vocal minority of gun lobbyists. Even in the face of horrific tragedy that has resulted, at least in part, from the failure of our current laws to apply reasonable scrutiny to transactions involving fire arms, our elected representatives ignored the safety of the public they took an oath to serve. What are we to make of such action? Have the perks and prestige of elected office been allowed to grow so bloated and obscene, that no amount of negligence is too great if it serves the purpose of re-election? Are we as citizens, expected to simply endure blood spilling events that would utterly crush even the strongest amount us were we to directly experience them?

I ask in this public forum for an answer to this question. I wish to know what could so powerfully deter reasonable men and women from acting on behalf of the impassioned pleas from parents to take such tiny steps to deter the repetition of such events as Newtown, Columbine, and Virginia Tech. You owe us an answer.

[jmowreader]

51. I am so tired of the term "wild west mentality"

I know it's not your fault. The wingers have this fantasy that the American Revolution was won by untrained people who grabbed the hunting musket from over the fireplace, and there were shootouts in western saloons ievery night.

Reality was a little different. The patriots had raised armies to fight the British, and western towns had gun control that would make a teabagger cringe.(Most Old West towns required you to store your guns at the police station.)

[marions ghost]

61. "wild west mentality"

is in the collective memory from movies. It is a term used in the context of what we would like to achieve in gun control in a civilized country. Today we DO have people grabbing the musket off the fireplace.

The reality of the wild west doesn't matter. The usage of the term today is what matters.

[jmowreader]

62. I know...

Did anyone do more to fuck up America than John Wayne? My teabagger brother loves John Wayne. Just loves him. And he made sure to play John Wayne movies all the time I was at the parents' house for Christmas...since I had to work that night it wasn't long.(Today's hint: if you have annoying relatives get a job at a newspaper and you'll always have a reason you can only stay a few minutes.)

Back to ol' Marion: this was one of those movies where he had his belt-fed revolvers. He and his buddies were hull-down behind a rock firing hundreds of rounds at whatever group was today's designated evil and not hitting shit...people see this and think that's what the old west was like. I see these films and think, what were the production expenses, just film and blanks?

[lark]

68. Money from the gun mfg. lobby is all they care for.

Lives of their constituents are not important to them, obviously! So sickened!

[DevonRex]

44. kick and fucking rec

[Recursion]

45. Amen (nt)

[liberalla]

47. hell yeah!

[Hekate]

48. An assassin tried to kill her; even with part of her brain blown away she has more insight...

... than any of the cowards that voted this bill down.

She is a better human being, too.

[Wounded Bear]

49. K & R for truth...nt

[myrna minx]

50. K&R.

What a bunch of political hacks.

[Nanjing to Seoul]

52. K&R big time!!!!

[DFW]

53. Her injury may inhibit her ability to articulate verbally

It does not inhibit her ability to communicate what she feels, and she was already one of the most empathetic people I know, well before she was shot. If the gun lobby wants to silence Gabby, they'll have to send another nut case after her, because she will not silenced otherwise. Anyone who thinks differently has no idea who they're dealing with.

[freshwest]

67. Her statement on courage and Gabe Zimmerman:

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.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/opinion/a-senate-in-the-gun-lobbys-grip.html?_r=0

Glad to see your friend doing what she does best, standing up for humanity.

[bucolic_frolic]

54. Rethuglicans will be burned on this issue

The Thugs make us pee in a cup to get a job.

And regulate our bedroom at every turn.

But any drunk, drug-addicted, mentally ill fool

can get an assault rifle.

It makes no sense, and you can't fool the
American people forever.

[Highway61]

55. The extreme right wing in this country

Are very very dangerous...this proved it. In 30 years around 3000 people died at the hands of terrorists....900,000 at the hands of guns in this country. WTF!

[reformist2]

56. We are very close to restoring sanity. NRA extremism is in its last gasp.

[BrainDrain]

57. Part of the reason why.....

This loss will enhance the reputation of the NRA. Here we had a HIGHLY emotional situation that under-pinned the effort for at least a minimal step forward in controlling gun violence. The atmosphere could not have been more favorable with national polling showing overwhelming support among the populace for the measure. Yet it still failed. The NRA didn't have to convince anyone outside of a few senators who were at risk for political defeat if they voted for the bill. The field they had to cover was narrow and well within their capability to exploit.

In today’s world politics is not about knowing right from wrong or even something as simple as doing the right thing because the greater majority supports it. For most, it is about getting re-elected. And when you represent a state where a conservative majority make you vulnerable to electoral defeat, it makes a special interest group like the NRA that much more powerful. It also helps that those they target are weak of character to begin with and have no faith in themselves to be able to stand up front of their own constituents and be able to explain why it was so important to take this step and lay to rest the NRA lie that somehow this is an attempt to take their guns and freedoms away from them.

We the people suffer because far too many of those we elect lack the courage to do the right thing. They are more afraid of losing their privileges and status than they are of losing themselves.

That just makes this whole episode just that much more sad.

There comes a point where everyday, ordinary people must make a choice not to be ordinary anymore.

Let the Revolution...........begin

[sonias]

59. Incredibly smart woman

That's the exact strategy that will move this legislation forward.

[babylonsister]

60. Hey, you!

How ARE you? Long time...

[CountAllVotes]

63. Go Gabby Go!!!!!

& recommend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[The Wizard]

70. Gabby Giffords

Speaks for me.

[VA_Jill]

71. Gabby ROCKS! n/t