Hey remember how yr Wonkette told you, over and over, that the Senate’s gun control bill was going to die…with (well really without) votes? We now declare this meme dead along with the bill. Today the Senate votes on the package of amendments to the watered-down gun control bill it has spent three months painfully laboring to birth. The most famous is the Manchin-Toomey amendment, which would have expanded background checks to gun shows and private sales that account for 40% of all gun sales in our society. Only 90% of Americans support this measure, which is not a majority out in the precincts of Wingnuttistan. Despite that number, the amendment only needs 60% of senators to vote in favor in order to pass, and it can’t even garner that, as 42 senators have publicly announced they will vote against it.
<blockquote>And why bother pretending Democrats are all that much different</blockquote>
Vote counts, perhaps? Or maybe Harry Reid and Chris Murphy tearing up on the Senate floor as they begged their (almost exclusively Republican) colleagues to please FFS stop being total dickbags and flip their votes to do the very least imaginable to dry the river of blood flowing through American streets?
The truly depressing thing? Awful as she is, the opponent she beat in the general was far worse. Also, the Democratic bench in North Dakota is thin like a near-death anorexic.
Hard to blame Democrats for John Boehner&#039;s decision making, I feel. Don&#039;t you think Nancy Pelosi would have brought a vote?
I don&#039;t dispute that some Democrats are pathetic excuses for human beings. But look at the <a href="http:\/\/www.senate.gov\/legislative\/LIS\/roll_call_lists\/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm\?congress=113&amp\;session=1&amp\;vote=00097" target="_blank">roll call</a> for the Manchin amendment. 50 of the 54 Yeas were Democrats or D-caucusing Indies, and they include several of the questionable ones - hell, one of the most suspect Dems has his name on the thing; also Donnelly, Tester, Landrieu, Hagan - all from red states. Reid was only a Nay for procedural reasons.
There&#039;s a <em>big</em> difference between a party that&#039;s 51-4 for the right thing and one that&#039;s 4-41 against. There&#039;s a <em>big</em> difference between a party whose worst members sometimes do the wrong thing, and one whose best members occasionally do the right thing.
ETA: Haha, and just to prove how suspect they are, Donnelly, Hagan, Landrieu and Tester all <a href="http:\/\/www.senate.gov\/legislative\/LIS\/roll_call_lists\/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm\?congress=113&amp\;session=1&amp\;vote=00098" target="_blank">joined</a> the Repubs in voting for Chuck Grassley&#039;s alternative let&#039;s-make-it-easier-for-crazy-people-to-get-guns alternative amendment. We all know who the usual suspects are on our side.
The derp is strong. I reckon a fair few of &#39;em believe the absurd nonsense peddled by John Lott and the NRA that somehow more instruments of death will lead to less death. But yeah, it&#39;s a desperate state of affairs when the repeatedly demonstrated support of 90% of the public is overridden by the quiet delivery of a package of transparent lies by Wayne LaPierre.<br /><br />About a month ago my atheist gay-rights-supporting actually-smart actually-somewhat-informed libertublican boss declared that tens of thousands of deaths a year was an acceptable price to pay for derperty, and I knew there wasn&#39;t any point talking guns issues with him any more. It&#39;s hard to be hopeful sometimes.
Well, at least the Senate didn&#039;t quite manage to stoop to the depraved depths down to which John Cornyn was trying to bring it. His forced-reciprocity of concealed carry permits amendment &quot;lost&quot; 57 yeas to 43 nays. Giant bags of salted syphilitic rat dicks to Sens. Baucus, Begich, Donnelly, Hagan, Heinrich, Heitkamp, Manchin, Pryor, Tester, both Udalls and Warner for being as dreadful as the entire Republican caucus on that one. For about the only time ever, I feel grateful for the 60-vote threshold. I don&#039;t expect to feel that again until at least 2015.
ETA: and the feeling&#039;s worn off immediately now I&#039;ve seen the roll call on the Leahy anti-trafficking amendment. The shitty Dems all got back in the boat for that one, and props to Sens. Collins, Kirk and Murkowski for having the &quot;courage&quot; to buck their party and take a &quot;brave&quot; stand against illegal gun trafficking. But to the rest of the Republican caucus: fuck <em>all</em> y&#039;all.
Oh for&hellip; How bad does it have to get before common sense is instilled in these morans? I suppose if we wait a few more years every other person will know someone who has been gunned down by an insane gun toting evil SOB. Maybe then?
The 40% covers all private transfers, the vast majority of which do not occur at gun shows. It does also include the transfers from straw purchasers to the real purchasers, which oftentimes the Feds know about but can&#039;t do anything about because under current law to secure a conviction they have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the straw purchaser bought the gun with the intention of transferring it immediately after. Current law makes the story the defense will tell - that the straw purchaser merely accepted an offer from a random total stranger allowing them to make a quick profit right after they walked out the door with a shiny new tool of death - perfectly legal.
<blockquote>And why bother pretending Democrats are all that much different</blockquote>
Vote counts, perhaps? Or maybe Harry Reid and Chris Murphy tearing up on the Senate floor as they begged their (almost exclusively Republican) colleagues to please FFS stop being total dickbags and flip their votes to do the very least imaginable to dry the river of blood flowing through American streets?
House Democrats?
The truly depressing thing? Awful as she is, the opponent she beat in the general was far worse. Also, the Democratic bench in North Dakota is thin like a near-death anorexic.
Hard to blame Democrats for John Boehner&#039;s decision making, I feel. Don&#039;t you think Nancy Pelosi would have brought a vote?
I don&#039;t dispute that some Democrats are pathetic excuses for human beings. But look at the <a href="http:\/\/www.senate.gov\/legislative\/LIS\/roll_call_lists\/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm\?congress=113&amp\;session=1&amp\;vote=00097" target="_blank">roll call</a> for the Manchin amendment. 50 of the 54 Yeas were Democrats or D-caucusing Indies, and they include several of the questionable ones - hell, one of the most suspect Dems has his name on the thing; also Donnelly, Tester, Landrieu, Hagan - all from red states. Reid was only a Nay for procedural reasons.
There&#039;s a <em>big</em> difference between a party that&#039;s 51-4 for the right thing and one that&#039;s 4-41 against. There&#039;s a <em>big</em> difference between a party whose worst members sometimes do the wrong thing, and one whose best members occasionally do the right thing.
ETA: Haha, and just to prove how suspect they are, Donnelly, Hagan, Landrieu and Tester all <a href="http:\/\/www.senate.gov\/legislative\/LIS\/roll_call_lists\/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm\?congress=113&amp\;session=1&amp\;vote=00098" target="_blank">joined</a> the Repubs in voting for Chuck Grassley&#039;s alternative let&#039;s-make-it-easier-for-crazy-people-to-get-guns alternative amendment. We all know who the usual suspects are on our side.
The derp is strong. I reckon a fair few of &#39;em believe the absurd nonsense peddled by John Lott and the NRA that somehow more instruments of death will lead to less death. But yeah, it&#39;s a desperate state of affairs when the repeatedly demonstrated support of 90% of the public is overridden by the quiet delivery of a package of transparent lies by Wayne LaPierre.<br /><br />About a month ago my atheist gay-rights-supporting actually-smart actually-somewhat-informed libertublican boss declared that tens of thousands of deaths a year was an acceptable price to pay for derperty, and I knew there wasn&#39;t any point talking guns issues with him any more. It&#39;s hard to be hopeful sometimes.
Well, at least the Senate didn&#039;t quite manage to stoop to the depraved depths down to which John Cornyn was trying to bring it. His forced-reciprocity of concealed carry permits amendment &quot;lost&quot; 57 yeas to 43 nays. Giant bags of salted syphilitic rat dicks to Sens. Baucus, Begich, Donnelly, Hagan, Heinrich, Heitkamp, Manchin, Pryor, Tester, both Udalls and Warner for being as dreadful as the entire Republican caucus on that one. For about the only time ever, I feel grateful for the 60-vote threshold. I don&#039;t expect to feel that again until at least 2015.
ETA: and the feeling&#039;s worn off immediately now I&#039;ve seen the roll call on the Leahy anti-trafficking amendment. The shitty Dems all got back in the boat for that one, and props to Sens. Collins, Kirk and Murkowski for having the &quot;courage&quot; to buck their party and take a &quot;brave&quot; stand against illegal gun trafficking. But to the rest of the Republican caucus: fuck <em>all</em> y&#039;all.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we comment here, but it can never forget what they posted here.
oh that&#039;s sweet.
Hitler?
Oh for&hellip; How bad does it have to get before common sense is instilled in these morans? I suppose if we wait a few more years every other person will know someone who has been gunned down by an insane gun toting evil SOB. Maybe then?
Why is there a picture of Jim Hoft atop this post?
It&#039;s OK I&#039;ll just sue the fuckers for contaminating my organic crop. I hear the courts will be totally on my side.
Guess you&#039;re off the hook though, just almost everyone else isn&#039;t ;)
Pshaw, you with your facts and logic!
Yeah, that&#039;s totally &quot;the country&quot; I meant.
The 40% covers all private transfers, the vast majority of which do not occur at gun shows. It does also include the transfers from straw purchasers to the real purchasers, which oftentimes the Feds know about but can&#039;t do anything about because under current law to secure a conviction they have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the straw purchaser bought the gun with the intention of transferring it immediately after. Current law makes the story the defense will tell - that the straw purchaser merely accepted an offer from a random total stranger allowing them to make a quick profit right after they walked out the door with a shiny new tool of death - perfectly legal.