3 Boxes of BS

Local media Fox News on Channel 4 has been running this in some variation or another all morning.

Reporter Layota Sillmon this morning was saying that “alcohol caused” the collision – WRONG.

Sorry but the alcohol did nothing by itself.

It was the driver who decided to purchase the alcohol.
It was the driver who decided to open one or more cans.
It was the driver who decided to break the law by driving impaired.
It was the driver who hit the SUV.

My sympathies go to the family of the deceased; they are having a hard enough time I’m sure without the media trying to excuse the actions of the criminal involved.

This is a great example of media bias. Had it been a firearm instead of a vehicle, the media would be “The shooter fired a shot after drinking” instead of “The police believe that alcohol lead to a deadly shooting”.

Come on Fox 4, you are better than this.

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Pretty even handed report from CNN.

The changing tide idea comes not from more women owning firearms ( a great thing to see ) but that even CNN is producing fairly decent news reports on firearms; that is a huge shift from the past.

Many politicians are often accused of being tone deaf. I think President Obama takes it to a new level here.

President Obama is suggesting that House Republicans on the issue of gun control appear neither willing to work with him nor inclined to listen to the American public on the issue.

Well, this is where he gets part of it right — House Republicans (mostly) aren’t willing to work with him but he completely misses the part about them not listening. Look at the numbers — how many Concealed Handgun Licenses, how many firearms (of all sorts) being sold, ammunition of most self defense calibers hard to find. Yet strangely enough, many hunting calibers are still plentiful. More on that later..

“The House Republican majority is made up mostly of members who are in sharply gerrymandered districts that are very safely Republican and may not feel compelled to pay attention to broad-based public opinion, because what they’re really concerned about is the opinions of their specific Republican constituencies,” the president said in an interview with The New Republic.

Would make a joke about pots and kettles here but I would just be called racist. Is there a single district out there that isn’t ‘sharply gerrymandered’?

Obama also said he can get 50 percent of public support for many of his upcoming initiatives, but “I can’t get enough votes out of the House of Representatives to actually get something passed. … I think there is still shock on the part of some in the party that I won re-election.”

President Obama, with all due respect — Get over yourself you pompous egotistical prick! This isn’t about you, it is about the policies that have worked to disarm America for decades. Enough is enough !

And that is what you are seeing. I find it stunningly ironic that you claim earlier the public is with you but here you say you can get ’50 percent of public support’. So which is it? Is there a broad base of people pushing for gun control or is the nation almost evenly divided?

The president said he has a profound respect for the traditions of hunting that date back for generations.

He said that moving forward on the topic means understanding that the realities of guns in urban areas are very different from the realities of guns in rural areas.

Reality changes based on location? Could you publish a scientific paper on that? Yeah, that is what I thought. Just another line trying to divide the country. Funny how people in the country are worried about slow response times and I, a city dweller, am also worried about slow response times. Country folks worry about home invasion; Wow….so do I.

It is almost as if you don’t have a frakkin’ clue.

He said it’s understandable that people are protective of their family traditions when it comes to hunting so “gun-control advocates also need to do “a little more listening than they do sometimes” in the debate.

The interview appears in the Feb. 11 issue of The New Republic.

Obama also said one of the biggest factors in the gun-control debate will be how it is shaped by the media.

I absolutely agree with you on this one. The main stream media is doing all the can to demonize standard capacity magazines, modern muskets (AR-15s) and anyone who owns them.

“If a Republican member of Congress is not punished on Fox News or by Rush Limbaugh for working with a Democrat on a bill of common interest, then you’ll see more of them doing it,” he said. “I think John Boehner genuinely wanted to get a deal done, but it was hard to do in part because his caucus is more conservative probably than most Republican leaders are, and partly because he is vulnerable to attack for compromising Republican principles and working with Obama.”

Another part I think you are right….this must be a record. I do think the “Republican Leadership” is left, very left/liberal than the majority of the party. It shows in their actions over the last decades.

The president argued  that “the more left-leaning media outlets recognize that compromise is not a dirty word” and that party leaders, including Senate Majority Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, are “willing to buck the more absolutist-wing elements in our party to try to get stuff done.”

Lawdog lays the smackdown on your idea of compromise so I won’t repeat it here but I will tell you that many people are getting tired of your idea of compromise.  The main stream media can go stuff itself in their own orifices. I will note that your idea of ‘get stuff done’ seems to include trampling over the traditional rights of people. Sorry President Obama but you lost most of your credibility when you tried to link the 2nd Amendment to hunting. Read the history of this country and you’ll find out what we already know — it is about being able to stand up to people who ‘try to get stuff done’ over the objections of the people.

Has Obama himself ever fired a gun? Yes, he says, he and others shoot skeet frequently at the president’s Maryland retreat, Camp David.

Oh and just when does this happen? I thought you were too busy playing golf.

The president also said much of the challenge in Washington is to make Americans feel that national politics is indeed connected to their day-to-day realities.

“And that’s not an unjustifiable view,” he said. So everything we do combines both a legislative strategy with a broad-based communications and outreach strategy to get people engaged and involved, so that it’s not Washington over here and the rest of America over there.”

Right, you want to make me think Washington is connected to my day to day reality but you talk about Hunting instead of crime, you talk about compromise instead of mental health, you issue Executive Orders without batting an eye or worry about the consequences.

No Mr. President you aren’t connected to reality in any shape form or fashion.

Listen carefully Mr. President; you are the representative for more then 50% of the country. Many of us do not agree with you ideas, plans or executive orders for ‘gun control’ — and isn’t it amazing that not one of your ideas included arresting criminals for outstanding warrants ?

We will not sit idly by as our rights are taken from us piece by piece, compromise by compromise. Hear what I and millions of others are saying; I beg of you to listen.

Please join the discussion.

Edited to Add — by the way Mr. President, I expect to hear today that the Secret Service Details on you, your wife and children have all switched over to double barreled shotguns. After all, your expert, your vice-president has told the country that is the best weapon for protection.

Not sure how accurate this report is and I doubt it will make much of a difference but we need to push for the truth to be told anyways.

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Seems the calls to wait, to find out the facts before making emotional and ineffective laws might have been correct. I have noticed how little play his mental health is getting in the media; guess it doesn’t fit the narrative they want to push.

H/T to MaddMedic)

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Over at CNN; two people whose father was killed at Fort Hood penned an opinion piece.  I’m not going to fisk the article but simply try to answer their last paragraph.

Here is the question we are haunted by: “What is wrong with us that it takes 20 children dying in one shooting to make us change?” And some of us still won’t. We have to address the answers, and we have to have the conversation. Let’s start fixing the problem instead of treating the symptoms.

First, I’ll answer your straw-man argument that we waited until 20 children were shot; the short answer is only people like you waited.Sorry if that sounds offensive, I don’t mean it to be but it is the simple truth. Many of ‘us’ have been trying to get things done for years now. We haven’t waited. We’ve pushed for actual and vigorous enforcement of the existing laws. Firearm charges are too often plea bargained away and killers  or future killers are back on the streets too soon.

Second, also part of  your same mistake is that action has to be at the national level in the form of more restrictive laws. Those restrictive laws, Connecticut does have the 5th most restrictive laws in the country, didn’t stop the Sandy Hook Elementary atrocity. So please tell me how another restrictive law or a dozen would stop another shooting?
I will call your attention to what does work to reduce the death toll; firearms carried responsible people already at the scene. Pearl Mississippi High School, Appalachia Law School, New Hope Church in Colorado; the list goes on.

Please don’t ignore the evidence because it doesn’t fit your mindset.

Which brings up the last point; treating the problem. The first step in treating the problem is to accurately identify the problem. As long the focus is on firearms, we will not identify the root cause; mental illness and/or the drugs used to treat it. Look at the numbers, look at the links, look deeper than the tool used; please don’t fall for the rhetoric that the ‘guns are the problem’.

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Media and the gun control advocates (sorry for repeating myself) seem to be focusing on the wrong culture. They seem to think the ‘gun culture’ is to blame instead of the drug/thug culture.

Airel Santos is accused of killing Dwaine Plummer, 24, who was found shot in the chest Dec. 9 in an apartment in the 5100 block of Flamingo Road.

Investigators learned that Plummer sold drugs from the apartment, homicide Sgt. Cheryl Johnson said. Santos met Plummer there, they argued, and Santos shot Plummer, she said.

Santos was arrested Dec. 13 on a murder warrant. He was transferred Thursday from the Mansfield Jail to the Tarrant County Jail. Bail was set at $300,000.

Plummer’s brother, Deshunn Plummer, was shot to death in November 2010 in Fort Worth in what police said started as a fistfight over drugs and gang activity and escalated into gunfire.

Just over two years ago, the murder victim’s brother is shot to death in a fight involving gangs and drugs. I talked about his brother here. For many people, a death in the family would be a wake up call to change behavior. Not so with those in the drug culture as we see here.

Criminal gangs commit as much as 80 percent of the crime in many communities, according to law enforcement officials throughout the nation. Typical gang-related crimes include alien smuggling, armed robbery, assault, auto theft, drug trafficking, extortion, fraud, home invasions, identity theft, murder, and weapons trafficking.

So, if ‘criminal gangs‘ commit as much as 80% of crime; how does it make sense to restrict my rights? Do you really think those importing tons of drugs, those raping, and trafficking in weapons are really going to be bothered by a background check requirement?
And if they are concerned about a background check, there are ways around it. Using a friend or family to buy the guns legally. When many people in the area are involved in criminal activities, it is easier to get involved.  All too often drugs become a family/neighborhood expectation.

RESULTS:

Existing data indicate that approximately 10% of male, urban, African-American early adolescents report having engaged in drug trafficking, with a higher percent of youths reporting having been asked to sell drugs and/or indicating that they expect to become involved in drug trafficking. Rates increase with advancing age. Reported rates of drug trafficking are comparable with rates of tobacco and alcohol use among early adolescents and are substantially higher than use rates of illegal drugs. Drug trafficking is associated with increased mortality, accounting for one third to one half of homicide-related deaths in some studies. The practice is also associated with other health-risk behaviors, including nonfatal violence, substance use, and incarceration. Perceived social pressures by family members and/or peers to engage in drug trafficking and the belief that a youth’s wage-earning potential is limited to drug trafficking are highly correlated with involvement in this activity.

CONCLUSIONS:

Drug trafficking is a prevalent risk behavior among adolescents that has several negative health consequences.

If you want to address ‘cultural issues’ why don’t you start with the drug/thug culture.

That culture isn’t a problem.

Please join the discussion.

Oh no, what they found was there were problems in the State Department.

The leaders of an independent panel that blamed systematic State Department management and leadership failures for gross security lapses in the deadly Sept. 11 attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya will explain their findings to Congress on Wednesday.

What was your first clue folks? The hours long attack? The 4 dead people?

Despite those deficiencies, the board determined that no individual officials ignored or violated their duties and recommended no disciplinary action. But it also said poor performance by senior managers should be grounds for disciplinary recommendations in the future.

Huh? Hate to bring this up but don’t they have a duty to keep their people safe? I think denying multiple requests for increased security falls into the category of ‘violated their duties’.

It did confirm, though, that contrary to initial accounts, there was no protest outside the consulate. It said responsibility for the incident rested entirely with the terrorists who attacked the mission.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, administration officials linked the attack to the spreading protests that had begun in Cairo earlier that day over an American-made, anti-Islamic film. Those comments came after evidence already pointed to a distinct militant attack.

Chants of  “Obama and Rice Lied, People Died” won’t be heard. Heck this probably won’t be covered again by mainstream media. Had this been a Bush presidency little details like the following completely fabricated white wash would be news for months

The report also discounted speculation that officials in Washington had refused appeals for additional help after the attack had begun.

“The Board found no evidence of any undue delays in decision making or denial of support from Washington or from the military combatant commanders,” it said. To the contrary, the report said the evacuation of the dead and wounded 12 hours after the initial attack was due to “exceptional U.S. government coordination and military response” that helped save the lives of two seriously wounded Americans.

12 hours!!! It is completely unbelievable to say help couldn’t have gotten there sooner, not with ground forces  available just 3 hours away and fighter coverage an hour away.

Sadly despite best efforts of many people to see justice done for Ambassador Chris Stevens, information specialist Sean Smith and former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods the media and the administration will sweep this under the rug. They’ll use the furor and uproar over the Sandy Hook murders, the ‘fiscal cliff crisis’ to avoid repercussions.

And that is a shame if we let it happen.

Please join the discussion.