NRA Gun Control Crusade Reflects Firearms Industry Financial Ties

Source: Huffington Post

The NRA’s deep ties to the gun industry dismays some lawmakers who have introduced gun control bills responding to the mass shootings.

“The NRA is basically helping to make sure the gun industry can increase sales,” Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, a New York Democrat and longtime gun control advocate, told The Huffington Post. McCarthy last week proposed a bill that would ban new sales of new large ammunition clips that increase the lethality of weapons like those used in mass shootings in Connecticut, Colorado and Wisconsin.

“No one is challenging NRA members' right to own guns,” McCarthy said. "We’ve had large mass shootings which have [involved] large mass assault weapons clips. These clips aren’t used for hunting.”

McCarthy’s husband and five other people were shot dead in a brutal assault in 1993 on a New York commuter train by a man wielding a gun with a large-capacity ammunition clip.


Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/11/nra-gun-control-firearms-industry-ties_n_2434142.html

Reality versus GOP Talking Points -"Who Is The Smallest Government Spender Since Eisenhower?" Obama

It just amazes me how during the Sunday News shows interviewers quietly sit and listen to Republicans accuse President Obama as being a big spending Democrat who has not cut spending. Not only have trillions already been cut, but the fact of the matter is that President Obama is the smallest government spending since Eisenhower. The President, Nancy Pelosi, and Democrats have pointed this out, but the media continues to push a false equivalency as if this fact were merely a matter of political opinion.

Yet, here is Forbes of all magazines, confirming that President Obama is hardly a big spender. True, President Obama would like to fund more programs, but the fact of the matter is that we are spending less than ever in modern history.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/05/24/who-is-the-smallest-government-spender-since-eisenhower-would-you-believe-its-barack-obama/

It’s enough to make even the most ardent Obama cynic scratch his head in confusion.

Amidst all the cries of Barack Obama being the most prolific big government spender the nation has ever suffered, Marketwatch is reporting that our president has actually been tighter with a buck than any United States president since Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Who knew?



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No doubt, many will wish to give the credit to the efforts of the GOP controlled House of Representatives. That’s fine if that’s what works for you.

However, you don’t get to have it both ways. Credit whom you will, but if you are truly interested in a fair analysis of the Obama years to date—at least when it comes to spending—you’re going to have to acknowledge that under the Obama watch, even President Reagan would have to give our current president a thumbs up when it comes to his record for stretching a dollar.

Debt Ceiling - How Obama Can Beat Republicans By Taking Their Advice - 3 Steps

My take is that to start putting pressure on Republicans stop jerking the American people around with the debt ceiling, President Obama should give Republicans what they ask for. As they say, be careful what you ask for or demand.

Step One - As Boehner suggests, dare the House to actually propose and pass a debt ceiling bill that slashes middle class benefits, rather than trying to guess what will make Republicans happy. After all, didn't Boehner promise that he would no long negotiate with the President, and would now work "through regular order and let the House work its will." If Republicans want to slash popular social programs, let them propose it and see how the public reacts.

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/275295-boehner-tells-gop-hes-done-with-one-on-one-obama-talks

Step Two - As Senator McConnell suggests, set an early February deadline for the House to raise the debt ceiling. If the House cannot meet this deadline on a relatively routine matter without trying to hold the debt ceiling hostage, then move on to step 3.

http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/275257-mcconnell-demands-quick-debt-ceiling-bill

Step Three - As Senators Cornyn and Toomey suggest, start a partial government shutdown if the House has not passed a clean debt ceiling increase by the early February deadline. Republicans like to minimize the threat of a debt default so that the public does not freak out by the outrageousness of their actions. Well, rather than simply default on everything, start a partial government shutdown sooner, rather than later, to buy additional time. The last government shut down ended up hurting the GOP under Gingrich, yet many House Republicans seem to have forgotten that the public hates these GOP caused shutdowns of the government. So, give the GOP what it demands, and start shutting down non-essential governmental services in early February.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2013/01/04/the-gop-is-already-threatneing-to-shutdown-the-government-to-win-spending-cuts/

HuffPo - "Debt Ceiling Crisis 2013: The Media Needs To Be Trained" - No False Equivalency!

This is a nice article that calls out the mainstream media for enabling Republicans by not pressing them on the fact that they are proposing to damage the economy on purpose. If Democrats seriously made similar extortion demands, the media would be whipping up the public similar to what the media did in whipping up the Tea Party hysteria, which of course was powered by millions in corporate astroturf.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/04/debt-ceiling-2013_n_2410622.html

But what's changed to make things worse is that this is no longer mere idle talk and procedural bravado -- there are people in Congress who truly see default as an ideal alternative to having to concede any points in what should be a rational process of negotiation and deal-making. Rep. Michele Bachmann made her willingness to destroy the global economy for the glory of Tea Party Caucus a central selling point for her presidential candidacy. And now, legislators who were once considered reasonable have become enablers to the lunatics. (And unfortunately for everyone, a key enabler to this madness has been that former Illinois Senator, who opened the door to negotiating over the debt ceiling back when he was still hopeful of a "grand bargain" on the debt.)

But the enabling isn't just happening in Congress, it's happening in the media, as well, which is why another thing I would like to make clear is that those who see debt ceiling lunacy as a legitimate side in a debate or just one more interesting point of view among many are just as culpable in what could be a pending economic calamity as the lunatics themselves. I'm not alone in this concern. Greg Sargent has done a fine job outlining the logical fallacy behind legitimizing debt ceiling hostage taking and notes in particular that by and large, the media has framed the entire fiscal debate incorrectly.

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It wasn't always this way. But as Alec MacGillis explains over at The New Republic, as idle talk over debt ceiling hostake-taking evolved, seemingly overnight, into a more serious and dangerous psychosis, the media coverage has shifted in reverse. Where the hostage-taking was once portrayed properly, as "brazen and unprecedented," the media now gives the hostage-takers a pass.

And since the "fiscal cliff" was "averted" and the media has shifted focus to the next big battle, discussion of the debt ceiling dead-enders and their future plans has only gotten more blithe and unconcerned. MacGillis provides a fine example of what's been steeping in the Beltway brain since New Years Day -- this passage from the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza that treats debt-ceiling hostage taking as a perfectly natural and polite thing to do, never registering even a scintilla of shock over the implication of using the threat to tank the global economy as a bargaining tactic

Maddowblog - "Political hostage taking should never be normalized" - Great Take

The problem with the false equivalency that the corporate media uses to cover up for Republicans is that it hides the truly outrageous and disgraceful conduct of Republicans. Republicans are actively threatening to bring the United States economy to ruin unless they get their way. And, it is apparently okay, because Democrats are just as bad. All parties are "villains" as CNN Gloria Borger columnist wrote in a column today. Thus, the corporate media portrays itself as being objective and above the fray by portraying a false equivalency between Democrats trying to protect Medicare, Social Security, Education and Infrastructure funding, and Republicans threatening to tank the Nation's credit rating unless we leave the rich alone.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/01/03/16330009-political-hostage-taking-should-never-be-normalized?lite

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) freely admits, without a hint of shame or regret, that he intends to hold the debt ceiling hostage until Democrats accept deep cuts in social insurance programs like Social Security and Medicare. Indeed, McConnell yesterday urged Democrats to act quickly, "rather than waiting until the last minute."

That's right, Mitch McConnell isn't just planning to hold the nation's economy hostage, he's already complaining about the speed with which Democrats will pay the ransom.

It's not just McConnell, of course. Every member of the congressional Republican leadership in both chambers is saying the same thing: President Obama may not want to negotiate over the debt ceiling, but as far as the GOP is concerned, the president doesn't have "any choice."

How many Republicans are standing up to say this is wrong and that their party shouldn't deliberately put the global economy at risk? So far, zero.

"Ousting the speaker: House Republicans' long history of regicide"

Interesting story talking about the growing propensity of Republicans to take out their leaders. If anything, this underscores why Boehner has been such a weak speaker who has been willing to let a radicalized minority of the House set the agenda. At best, Boehner is merely a reasonable sounding figurehead for the nihilistic members of the Republican House. While a more extreme Republican Speaker could overtake Boehner, at least it could serve to take the lipstick off of the pig that has become the heart of the Republican party,

The question is how can anyone negotiate on behalf of the Republican party when there is someone out there who is ready to usurp you by claiming that they are even more purely right wing than the current Speaker. If anything the threat of a backstabbing will render Boehner even more ineffective as a spokesperson for the House majority when it comes to negotiations. Thus, expect another endless stream of symbolic votes designed to pander to and please the radical right.

http://theweek.com/article/index/238252/ousting-the-speaker-house-republicans-long-history-of-regicide

After a painful rejection by his own party in his attempt to pass a bill to avoid the fiscal cliff, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is at the center of ouster talks. While Boehner is undoubtedly still in a strong position, past history might give him some reasons to worry. House Republicans have had a propensity, throughout the 20th century, for periodically getting rid of their leaders.

Tossing out a speaker is in many ways a drastic measure because, unlike other congressional leaders, the Speaker of the House has demonstrable power over the institution. In one of the many ironies of American politics, the House of Representatives, which was intended to channel voters' opinions, has been a top-down, leadership driven branch of government, in contrast to the historical every-Senator-for-himself model on the other side of the Capitol. Due to this top-down structure, the speaker, unlike the majority leader of the Senate (frequently referred to derisively as the majority pleader), can bend the chamber to his or her will.

Nevertheless, speakers occasionally have had to ward off intra-party threats to their power. These attacks are unusual — in The Ambition and the Power, John Barry compares overthrowing a speaker or minority leader to regicide. And, perhaps surprisingly, all of the successful overthrows have been on the Republican side of the aisle.

The most notable of which was Newt Gingrich, who was originally revered for leading the party back to the promised land of the majority after 40 years in the minority, but then had a very rocky tenure. Gingrich was forced out right after the party's unexpectedly poor showing in 1998. It wasn't even the first coup that Gingrich had to deal with — in 1997, other members, including Boehner, looked to toss him out, but failed.

Jon Huntsman: GOP 'Devoid Of A Soul'

Source: Huffington Post

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman (R), who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, had harsh words for his party in an interview published Sunday in Britain's Daily Telegraph.

"The party right now is a holding company that's devoid of a soul and it will be filled up with ideas over time and leaders will take their proper place," he said.

"We can't be known as a party that's fear-based and doesn't believe in math," he added. "In the end it will come down to a party that believes in opportunity for all our people, economic competitiveness and a strong dose of libertarianism."

Hunstman, who dropped out of the Republican race after coming in third in the New Hampshire primary, has criticized the rightward tilt of the party. In a recent interview with The Huffington Post, he took issue with the obstructionist policies of the GOP, describing them as "thwart the opposition, stymie the opposition, obfuscate, be a flamethrower, go out there and destroy the system, and here we are."


Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/31/jon-huntsman-gop_n_2387879.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

Rachel Maddow's Surge Is Fox News' Worst Ratings Nightmare

Source: Atlantic Wire

After prophesying a landslide win for Mitt Romney, Fox News has seen its ratings decline a lot more than usual since the election — and Sean Hannity's viewers in particular keep disappearing, while Rachel Maddow's continue to tune in over at rival MSNBC.

The last batch of Nielsen data available before year's end shows Hannity's viewership getting chopped in half after November 6, according to the New York Daily News's Don Kaplan. Politico's Dylan Byers argues this decline simply brings Hannity back to pre-election norms. Or perhaps these vanishing viewers are just disgruntled voters who can't stomach the news cycle anymore. Kaplan, however, attributes this decline to Hannity's implied predictions:

... viewers who basked in his preelection anti-Obama rhetoric tuned him out when they were stunned to wake up on Nov. 7 and discover that the President had won a second term — a scenario that Hannity had all but promised could never happen.

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz — who both, of course, did not predict a Romney victory — have retained most of their viewership in the weeks following election night, and CNN's Anderson Cooper has lost almost none. With ratings holding strong after Obama's reelection and Maddow appearing on The Colbert Report, it appears like MSNBC is making good on president Phil Griffin's plan to bolster the channel's brand awareness.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/rachel-maddows-surge-fox-news-worst-ratings-nightmare-212956162.html

Ezra Klein - "Here’s what Republicans really hated about Obama’s news conference"

Interesting take from Ezra Klein who has argued that President Obama is going to pocket what ever tax revenues he gets now, then demand additional taxes in the future in response to Republican demands to cut spending. This is why McConnell is claiming that Obama is moving the goal posts, even though he really hasn't.