Drawing The Fire Of Fools

For all the discussion of the gun safety reform bill fighting its way through the hostile lobbyist fire of the extremist Republicans on Capitol Hill, several other issues also seem to be pushing their way to the front of the media space this week.

From an oddly timed audio leak from the office of Republican Senator Mitch McConnell and juvenile yet scientific stories about sexual organs, to the more serious stories of how Wall Street banks cheated millions of homeowners and President Obama's controversial budget plan, it seems more than a few of our colleagues in the media don't have the professional fortitude to tackle the single biggest topic of the week.

Thankfully, our staff and some of our more ethical colleagues in the media haven't taken our eyes off that target, the topic of effective gun legislation reforms, on a national level.

Like a child running with a fluttering kite, the very real possibility of effective gun safety legislation being enacted hasn't just drawn the eye of most Americans who are sick and tired of lax and dangerous gun laws, while supporting items like universal background checks. The opportunity to update and revise gun laws to actually be more effective - as they already have been in New York, Colorado, Connecticut, and Maryland - has also drawn the fire and the fear of the gun manufacturers' lobbyists.

For once, it appears a growing number of Congresspersons, on both sides of the aisle, are finally finding the courage to stand up for what 90% of the American public wants.

Surprisingly, Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid - who lately has shown an amazing lack of courage when performing his job - stepped up and filed the Senate paperwork forcing debate and possible votes on the gun reform bills in the Senate, this Thursday.

As of Wednesday morning, the attempt by Republicans like Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Mitch McConnell to filibuster and block even the discussion of those bills appears to be falling flat on its face. Not only have Democrats stepped up to demand Senators in Congress actually debate the gun reform legislation, but Republicans have joined their Democratic colleagues in demanding the end to threats of a spineless filibuster from extremist Republicans.

Meanwhile, Democratic Senator Joe Manchin and Republican Senator Pat Toomey appear to have found a compromise on the issue of universal background checks, that they seem to think could pass the Senate, and maybe even the House.

One more state is even loudly moving forward on its own gun control legislation, Rhode Island, led by former Republican-turned Independent, Governor Lincoln Chaffee.

For all those in the media who've said more times than we can remember since the horrible shootings of 12/14, that the effort to enact sensible, effective, gun reforms was dead, we want to remind you of two things that certain ethical members of the media have championed all along - including us.

First, that the primary goal in the battle for sensible gun safety reform has NEVER been to renew the federal assault weapons ban, but rather - as Greg Sargent has diligently noted almost daily for months - the real goal has always been to enact an effective universal background check system.

Secondly, we remind everyone - this battle isn't over by a long shot. No matter what happens in Congress this week, no matter what you hear on cable TV and talk radio, this fight still won't be over anytime soon.

Don't get distracted.

Time For A Cattle Prod

Today, if it sounds like we're pretty damn fed up with the Republican Party, and specifically, the Republicans in Congress, you'd be right. Of course, if you think it's just Republicans we're angry at, you'd be wrong.

Today, for the first time in two weeks, both the House and Senate are returning to Capitol Hill, in theory to get some work done. One of the most important issues they have sitting before them currently happens to be a package of gun safety reform laws, including universal background checks, reduced capacity magazines, and an assault weapons ban.

The gutless cowards of the gun manufacturers' lobby - including both the NRA and the mislabeled "Gun Owners Of America" lawyer group -  have done everything they can to try to delay serious consideration of new gun safety reforms. As E.J. Dionne noted in Monday's Washington Post, even though a record 91% of Americans support universal background checks, and majorities support ideas like reduced capacity magazines, the law firms - which is what lobbying groups are - that represent the companies that make guns have taken to leading Congress around again by the nose.

On issues from guns, to immigration, to job creation, real Americans of all kinds want one thing - and corporate executives want another.

This is extremely obvious in the gun reform debate, where the coward from Oklahoma, Republican Senator Tom Coburn, has recently been pushed around by the gun manufacturer's group. Coburn went from supporting common sense reform that even his conservative Okalahoma residents support, to a bevy of excuses about why he suddenly can't support gun rational gun laws.

This isn't just about Republicans, however.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has had so many chances to reform the filibuster system that now holds him - and America - hostage on these issues, we're beginning to wonder if he too isn't just another bought and paid-for political lackey of the multi-billion dollar gun makers.

As Republican Senator Rand Paul and his group of extremists, including the always milksop Sen. Mitch McConnell, attempt to stop even a single vote on gun reform bills - bills that Paul, McConnell, and their gang have yet to even read - we join with the attitude President Obama displayed on Monday in Connecticut, at a rally for voters to get Congress moving.

"Connecticut has shown the way," on gun reform, President Obama said angrily. "And now is the time for Congress to do the same."

This is not about the President. This is not about party politics. This is about doing something nine of every ten Americans want. The only thing that might stop Americans  right now is the nearly unlimited corporate-backed dark money "feedbags", that DC lawyers are using to stop Congress in its tracks.

It's time American voters stopped being nice, and got out the cattle prods on both sides of the aisle.

If you want background checks? Call Congress, today. The switchboard number is (202) 224-3121. Ask for your Senator or Congress person. If you'd rather send them a tersely worded letter? USA.gov has a handy list of the e-mail and postal mail addresses of every member of Congress.

If you don't think members of Congress get scared when they see piles of notes, messages, and letters coming their way, from angry constituents? They do - almost more than when the rich lawyer lobbyists take the moneybags away.

Blame Yourself

While the temperamental season of spring appears to have finally come to most of the United States, over the weekend, we still noticed plenty of people still huddling inside barber shops, beauty salons, bars, and coffee houses, talking about the Husker Spring Game, or grousing about the stupidity in their state and federal government organizations.

We're not going to disagree about there being some amazingly stupid legislators at the state levels, in every U.S. state and territory, from Alaska and Guam, to Maine and Puerto Rico, and everywhere in between. There's been an amazing number of idiotic state government actions so far this year - even just in the last ten days.

For example, a Republican state Senator in Nebraska wants to allow legally concealed weapons to be carried inside the state capitol - which is already fully protected by armed and trained members of the Nebraska State Patrol. In the face of a wave of growing right-wing violence in states like Texas and Colorado, putting more guns in the untrained hands of those whose primary job is not law enforcement, but rather law making, seems just plain stupid.

In North Carolina, lawmakers last week were attempting to establish an official state religion, while state legislators in Tennessee want to punish the families of those receiving state aid by reducing that aid if the children of those desperately poor parents happen to perform badly in school.

In Kansas, North Dakota, Arkansas, and Alabama, state legislators there have all passed or are about to pass laws that effectively outlaw the fully legal practice of abortion - as if those states had more authority than the Federal government to re-decide previously settled Federal law. It may be news to the ill-informed idiots in those statehouses, but nullification was decided by the Civil War - and the pro-nullification side lost, badly.

For all the dolts we see in Congress, the morons at the state level of government often make their DC legislative cousins look like absolute amateurs in a contest of who can be the most stupid.

Sadly, if you're having this same discussion at the coffee shops and kitchen tables in your neighborhood, you're also probably looking at some of the people responsible for the actions of those legislators - namely you and your neighbors.

Some of the problem is certainly what we pay our state legislators, who are in most states part-timers. Twenty-five states pay less than poverty level wages for their lawmakers, so it's no surprise that lawyer-filled lobby shops prey like vultures on underpaid state legislators.

Some of the problem is also the laws we have regarding serving in government. Simple term limits don't work and the effectively worthless limitations on lobbying and campaign "dark money" corrupt government at all levels. The laws regarding campaign finance must be changed if we expect to see the power of unregulated money change. Effective media reform also must be undertaken so that the job of honestly informing the public doesn't fall so much on the shoulders of comedians and cartoonists.

That's where the other part of the pay problem comes in.

So long as we allow continue to allow income inequality to get worse in America, we will be paying an increased price in time, robbing from ourselves more and more of the ability to govern, as we work harder for less, and are able to save nothing for when (or if) we get old. Meanwhile, our inability to pay attention to our government will continue to allow the wealthiest to effectively steal part of the earnings of those who actually know how to work hard for an honest day's living.

We'll agree with the neighborhood fool at the cafe that our representatives in most states aren't exactly the brightest bulbs on the string.

Then again, we all get what we pay for - and as employers, on a state legislative level, we the people of America don't pay enough in dollars or with our time and attention to what they do.

If we, as citizens, want things to change in our government, we have to start by changing how we handle that government ourselves.