Murkowski becomes third GOP senator to support marriage equality

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Wednesday June 19, 2013 · 2:38 PM PDT

2013/06/19 · 14:38

I can't believe that no one has diaried this here (or if they did I missed it). I came across it on Yahoo News:

Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said on Wednesday that she now supports allowing same-sex couples to legally marry, becoming the third U.S. senator in her party to change positions on the issue.
"Countless Alaskans and Americans want to give themselves to one another and create a home together. I support marriage equality and support the government getting out of the way to let that happen," Murkowski said in a statement on Wednesday after announcing her new position during a radio interview with NBC's affiliate station in Alaska.

Poll

40 votes Show Results

Which of the 3 Dems that still oppose marriage equality will be next to come to terms with equality?

40 votes Vote Now!

Which of the 3 Dems that still oppose marriage equality will be next to come to terms with equality?

Joe Manchin

6 votes

Mark Pryor

1 vote

Mary Landrieu

21 votes

None of the above.

5 votes

Equality of Pie for All!

7 votes

Abortion and Demographics

DefendOurConstitution

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday June 18, 2013 · 2:07 PM PDT

2013/06/18 · 14:07

The changing demographics will very soon completely marginalize the Republicans into a regional party, even fringier than they are now. They have lost young voters, are tied or losing with the middle age brackets, and only have one reliable age group in the over 60 voters.

We all know this and what does any of this have to do with abortion?

Poll

161 votes Show Results

Which war will be the key to the Republicans in the future:

161 votes Vote Now!

Which war will be the key to the Republicans in the future:

The War on Women - TM

27 votes

The War on Blacks (no longer TM as this has been worn out for centuries now)

0 votes

The War on Workers (definitely not TM as that would mean a corporation would collect royalties)

25 votes

The War on <s>scary brown people</s>Hispanics-MR (Marca Registrada)

10 votes

The War on teh Gayz-LGBTM

5 votes

The <s>un</s>Civil Wars that will break out among them as they get fringier and lose more of the electorate - R.I.P. GOP

94 votes

Here is where Jeb Bush was going today when he talked about Hispanics and their fertility-Update 2

DefendOurConstitution

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday June 14, 2013 · 4:05 PM PDT

2013/06/14 · 16:05

Updated with more readable chart. Thanks for all the comments.

Second update. As shmuelman pointed out, the Republicans are also doomed by the age demographics/trends (not just the gender/ethnic/racial demographic trends), so I plotted these from the same data and this chart appears at the bottom of the diary.

Ok, so we had several diaries chronicling Jeb Bush's ~~desperate realization~~assertion that ~~Hispanics~~immigrants are more fertile than ~~white~~native born Americans. In addition to that great front page diary by Hunter, we had a few others (it was first covered by AlyoshaKaramazov in "Jeb Bush Touts 'Higher Fertility' of Immigrants" and later covered by jamess in "Republicans say the darnest things ...").

This of course comes on the heels of the hate fest about an American boy singing the National Anthem at a basketball game - h/t JoanMar. No siree, Republicans cannot help themselves.

I think that the best description of what Jeb Bush was saying was said by david78209: "Help! They're outbreeding us!"

While I agree with that characterization, I think there is more going on. Follow me below the fold ...

Poll

227 votes Show Results

Jeb Bush is prepping for the 2014 primaries that:

227 votes Vote Now!

Jeb Bush is prepping for the 2014 primaries that:

Will give us a primary field that makes the 2012 GOP primary field look (almost) normal.

26 votes

Will see a whole lot of Crazy!

37 votes

Will give him the victory cause he's the only normal one in the bunch.

15 votes

Did I mention crazy?

6 votes

All of the above.

29 votes

All of the above and fertility pie.

114 votes

My comments last week were abhorrent and inexcusable. Please forgive me.

DefendOurConstitution

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday June 07, 2013 · 8:49 PM PDT

2013/06/07 · 20:49

I was put in a timeout for about a week and I deserved it. My comments were completely out of line and they do not belong at a place like DailyKOS.

Rather than rehash what happened and get into the well worn “he said - she said” recount of pie-fights, I will just say I want to apologize to the diarist, to the people I directed my comments at, and to all others commenting in the diary. I also want to apologize to all the members of this community as my comments detract from the mission of this site and give ammunition for those who may seek to demonize DailyKOS for political gain (paraphrasing what Greg Dworkin said on KOS Radio a couple of days ago, people try to say that if something is coming out of DailyKOS it must be wacky; so idiots like me acting in a way that allows others to see wacky behavior on this site gives them ammunition against us). I especially want to apologize to the editors, front pagers, diarists and to all members at DailyKOS that share a passion for justice in such areas as politics, civil rights, healthcare, the economy, equality (for women, minorities, LGBT and all Americans) and so many more topics that are so important and so well fought for in this community. I failed you all and I am sorry.
Read More

Wow, even tradMed is starting to notice the ludicrous "private" sales!

DefendOurConstitution for Shut Down the NRA

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Thursday May 30, 2013 · 3:20 PM PDT

2013/05/30 · 15:20

Earlier this week we had a diary on the rec list for a couple of days about how tradMed covers - or rather doesn't cover, or barely covers - shooting sprees in the US while these are covered by international media outside of our Country. h/t docterry

Imagine my shock reading Yahoo News this morning and they actually are covering how easy it is to buy guns for people in Chicago (and anyone on the internet for that matter).

In fact, the Lake Michigan region, including Chicago and Milwaukee, was among the most active territories for ArmsList.com sellers and buyers during the period Yahoo News studied. In the past four months, at least 1,300 handguns were advertised for sale or trade within 150 miles of Chicago, where there have been more than 100 homicides already in 2013. There were 1,700 rifles advertised as well. Over 400 people in this same radius posted wanted ads for handguns.

The chart is pretty informative

Screen capture from Yahoo News article

I rarely agree with "news people" on Yahoo News, but this conclusion is very telling (emphasis mine):

At the present time, the odds that Congress will pass any sort of expansion on background checks for online gun purchases, much less a ban on assault weapons, appear very long. Barring such an action, sites like ArmsList.com are free to operate with the freedom of a gun show and the namelessness of the Internet.

Poll

34 votes Show Results

Will the gun carnage get reported nearly as much as Benghazi:

34 votes Vote Now!

Will the gun carnage get reported nearly as much as Benghazi:

NO!

4 votes

NO FREAKING WAY!

12 votes

NEVER!

9 votes

Scandal Pie!

9 votes

Civil Rights and Gun Rights

DefendOurConstitution for Repeal or Amend the Second Amendment (RASA)

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Tuesday May 21, 2013 · 3:23 PM PDT

2013/05/21 · 15:23

So here we are in 2013 and the civil rights struggle is showing a lot of progress, but the job is nowhere near done.

To wit we have these horrendous atrocities in the recent past:

Gay man murdered in West Village hate crime, suspect in custody. h/t by Dave in Northridge
Three teens raped a 12 year old girl at gunpoint and post video on Facebook. h/t SheLawyer

and, even though it has been over a year, who can forget about Trayvon Martin getting shot for "walking while black." h/t Black KOS

The above are all clear examples of civil rights violations.
Read More

Poll

45 votes Show Results

POP QUIZ: Which of these is not like the others? (hint - see the Bill of Rights)

45 votes Vote Now!

POP QUIZ: Which of these is not like the others? (hint - see the Bill of Rights)

The rights of Matthew Shepard not to be beaten to death for being gay

2 votes

Rosa Parks sitting on a bus in protest

4 votes

The right to own firearms without any infringement whatsover

37 votes

Women's rights to equality in voting, the workplace, and elsewhere

2 votes

Personalized Handgun Safety Act of 2013, or using technology to stop the carnage

DefendOurConstitution for Repeal or Amend the Second Amendment (RASA)

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday May 15, 2013 · 3:21 PM PDT

2013/05/15 · 15:21

While I don't have my hopes up that Boehner and the teabagging Republicans will allow this bill to ever see the floor of the House, just the fact that it is filed will put a little more heat on the Congress-critters that continue to bow to the NRA (and the gun Cult that the NRA created).

As stated in the title, the bill is called the Personalized Handgun Safety Act of 2013, and it has been filed by John Tierney (D-MA). The bill essentially

mandates within two years that newly manufactured handguns be equipped with the technology that allows the guns to only work in the hands of their owners or other authorized users

DefendOurConstitution for Repeal or Amend the Second Amendment (RASA)

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday May 08, 2013 · 3:32 PM PDT

2013/05/08 · 15:32

You read that right. If you attend a public university in N.C. your life is worth a little less as the N.C. House has just passed laws that forbid public universities from banning guns on their campuses/classrooms.

Private universities and schools could opt not to permit weapons on campus, but public schools and universities would have to comply.

Yup, if you're a professor and give someone a bad grade be prepared for a little more than an angry student - the students will now be able to take action and put these "elitist professors" in their rightful place (six feet under is clearly where the N.C. legislature believes they belong). Read More

Poll

42 votes Show Results

The new N.C. Law is:

42 votes Vote Now!

The new N.C. Law is:

moronic

16 votes

moronic

1 vote

moronic

5 votes

moronic

5 votes

moronic

7 votes

moronic

7 votes

UPDATE: Sandy Hook Ride on Washington - March 10 (Day 2) - In Awe of the Spirit - with Action Alert

DefendOurConstitution for Shut Down the NRA

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday March 10, 2013 · 3:01 PM PDT

2013/03/10 · 15:01

UPDATE: After covering 107 miles today (in addition to the rallies), the Team will be spending the night at Exton, PA. Tomorrow they will ride on to Baltimore.

Team 26 sets off on Sandy Hook Ride on Washington

Getting started on day 1 of the Ride

Our mini-blogathon to cover the Sandy Hook Ride on Washington (SHRoW) was kicked off yesterday by tytalus, followed up by LilithGardener and wrapped up for the day by Glen The Plumber. To say that it was an awesome day is an understatement.

While it is sure hard to pick a single moment that stands out among so much courage and so much love, for me it was Gabby Gifford's tweet:

If your legs get tired, remember we're in this together keep pedaling! Best wishes to our friends on #newtown2dc ride against gun violence.
— Gabrielle Giffords (@GabbyGiffords) March 9, 2013

Today was off to a great start (thanks to Dave in Northridge and LilithGardener for their chronicles) with the cyclists cruising through New Jersey in the morning for a midday event at Frenchtown, NJ. They were seen off by Parsippany Mayor James Barberio, had a cheering section on the Morristown Green (arranged by Morristown councilwoman Rebecca Feldman), and were joined by other cyclists along the way.

Team 26 flying through the Garden State

Team 26 Crosses over the Delaware River into Pennsylvania at Frenchtown, New Jersey

Entering Pennsylvania

At mid-day they held a moving ceremony in Frenchtown, NJ featuring comments by Mayor Warren Cooper, Michael Pohlie (a man who lost his son at Virginia Tech) and our own Monte Frank. This was covered by the Hunterdon County Democrat. After that they crossed into Pennsylvania where they continued to ride south and stop overnight.

Here is an excerpt from The Sandy Hook Ride On Washington Home Page:

We support measures to help curb gun violence:
• Requiring all gun buyers pass criminal background checks*
• a ban of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines*
• making gun trafficking a federal crime, including real penalties for “straw buyers”*
• strengthen gun ownership restrictions for people with severe mental illness

We understand this issue is complex; but together we can ensure that specific actions are taken to prevent tragedies like those in Newtown, CT. Keeping children safe is an obligation we all share.

*source: Mayors Against Illegal Guns

DefendOurConstitution for Repeal or Amend the Second Amendment (RASA)

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday March 06, 2013 · 7:38 PM PST

2013/03/06 · 19:38

My oh my! who could have foreseen this?

From the Boston Globe:

States with the most gun control laws have the fewest gun-related deaths, according to a study that suggests sheer quantity of measures might make a difference.
snip

In the dozen or so states with the most gun control-related laws, far fewer people were shot to death or killed themselves with guns than in the states with the fewest laws, the study found. Overall, states with the most laws had a 42 percent lower gun death rate than states with the least number of laws.

snip

The results were published online Wednesday in the medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

I know it ain't so! Wayne LaPierre clearly tells us that the opposite is true plus we know the Boston Globe is a liberal rag full of gun confiscationists.

Sure we have all of them piling on responsible gun owners like trying to use the victims of Newtown for political gain in order to take away my guns. They even stoop to finding actual survivors of mass shootings (even if they happened over 20 years ago) to scare up some sympathy and even try to equate their right to live to my right to bear arms without any meaningful regulation as was clearly spelled out by our forefathers. Don't any of these people understand that it is too soon to talk about any of those events?

Poll

27 votes Show Results

Which right beats my right to bear arms without any meaningful regulation?

27 votes Vote Now!

Which right beats my right to bear arms without any meaningful regulation?

Life

16 votes

Liberty

0 votes

Pursuit of happiness

1 vote

As we all know - none of the above because of π!

10 votes

We clearly don't have a gun problem, it is a dog problem - with poll

DefendOurConstitution

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday March 04, 2013 · 5:04 AM PST

2013/03/04 · 05:04

Just a brief diary to show another example of how we clearly must do something about dogs in our Country as these are more dangerous than anyone thought.

A few days ago we had perterfallow's Guns don't kill people - dogs kill people, a tail (sp?) of a responsible gun owner "accidentally" (yeah right!) shot in the leg with a gun (that he thought was unloaded) by his DOG! Don't you get it people? This responsible gun owner said he made sure his piece was unloaded so it is clear to me that the dog loaded it before firing it.

Now if that is not enough to get people to understand that we have a serious dog violence problem in our Country, here is another instance that happened yesterday where a police dog sear"accidentally" pulled the trigger with its paw and fired a gun.

Poll

22 votes Show Results

The dog violence problem in this Country is:

22 votes Vote Now!

The dog violence problem in this Country is:

Is out of control!

2 votes

Is out of control!

0 votes

Is out of control!

1 vote

Is out of control!

1 vote

All of the above and pie!

18 votes

Gunman killed 2 Santa Cruz cops - UPDATED

DefendOurConstitution

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday February 27, 2013 · 8:04 PM PST

2013/02/27 · 20:04

UPDATE - Thanks to everyone for the comments, the recs and the tips. A great suggestion made by BentLiberal in the comments:

If you'd like to donate to the surving families of the detectives who were killed, there are 3 ways to do so:

Memorial Fund
1. Bay Federal Credit Union is accepting donations for the families of Santa Cruz police Sgt. Loran "Butch" Baker and detective Elizabeth Butler.
Checks should be made payable to the Santa Cruz Police Officers Association and mailed to 3333 Clares St., Capitola, CA 95010. Donations also can be made at any Bay Federal branch.

2. In addition, the Police Officers Association and Police Department have set up a "Baker/Butler Scholarship Fund" with Wells Fargo. Anyone can go to any Wells Fargo branch anywhere in the country and make a deposit to this account number #999 245 1154.

3. City finance chief Marcus Pimental said the city also will accept donations mailed to 809 Center St., Room 101, Santa Cruz CA 95060 to the attention of the Baker/Butler Scholarship Fund.
'We will also take credit card donations over the phone during normal business hours (831-420-5070) with no cost to donors,' Pimental said. 'All funds received by Wells Fargo or to the City's Finance Department address will be held in a special trust to be distributed to the detectives' families.'

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/...

Remember this is about the victims, not about some pie-fight where one person's rights are more equal than others. Some suggested in the comments that this may be the police's fault, which is entirely possible but nothing indicates that was the case. While I understand that there are police that abuse their power, I find it odd that some would first lay the blame on the victims or the police and have no ire for the killer or the lax laws that allow someone like him to purchase guns and body armor.

_______________________

Loran 'Butch' Baker with his son, Adam, when Adam joined the Santa Cruz Police as a Community Service Officer in September of 2010.  (Larissa Mueller/Sentinel)

Loran 'Butch' Baker with his son, Adam, when Adam joined the Santa Cruz Police as a Community Service Officer in September of 2010. (Larissa Mueller/Sentinel)

I didn't see this diaried, so I am posting another senseless killing of two police officers.

From the LA Times:

Jeremy Goulet, the man suspected of killing two Santa Cruz police officers Tuesday, was wearing body armor and carrying three handguns, authorities discovered after Goulet was fatally wounded in a shootout with authorities, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Phil Wowak said.
Police suspect Goulet was carrying the guns of the two officers, Elizabeth Butler and Loran "Butch" Baker, Wowak told reporters. The officers were killed on the doorstep of Goulet's Santa Cruz home, he said.

The shootings began about 3:30 p.m. when a man, believed to be Goulet, opened fire on the two officers, who were conducting a follow-up investigation at a home, authorities said.

Two police officers doing their job and checking on a guy that appears to be a deviant end up dead, just for trying to ask him questions. Read More

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Murkowski becomes third GOP senator to support marriage equality

Abortion and Demographics

Here is where Jeb Bush was going today when he talked about Hispanics and their fertility-Update 2

My comments last week were abhorrent and inexcusable. Please forgive me.

Wow, even tradMed is starting to notice the ludicrous "private" sales!

Civil Rights and Gun Rights

Personalized Handgun Safety Act of 2013, or using technology to stop the carnage

Go to a Public University in North Carolina? You life is now worth a bit less than before.

UPDATE: Sandy Hook Ride on Washington - March 10 (Day 2) - In Awe of the Spirit - with Action Alert

Who could have foreseen? Study shows more gun laws = fewer deaths.

We clearly don't have a gun problem, it is a dog problem - with poll

Gunman killed 2 Santa Cruz cops - UPDATED