Friday News Roundup - Domestic
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2013-02-01/friday-news-roundup-domestic
The U.S. economy shrinks slightly in the fourth quarter. A bipartisan group of senators and the White House propose immigration reform. And a Senate committee holds hearings on gun violence. A panel of journalists joins Diane for analysis of the week's top national news stories.
Guests
Ron Elving
senior Washington editor for NPR.
David Leonhardt
Washington bureau chief for The New York Times.
Molly Ball
staff writer for The Atlantic.
Friday News Roundup Video
Ed Koch, former mayor of New York City, died Feb. 1 at age 88. New York Times reporter David Leonhardt, who grew up in New York, recounted a dinner party he attended at Koch's house in which the mayor cooked a roast chicken. "For me, for many New Yorkers, you can't separate your own childhood and the city of New York from Ed Koch," Leonhardt said.
Comments
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Don't any of you democrats think it's a little sleazy to bring out these victims or people touched by gun violence from the mentally ill. Our legislators are supposed to legislate upon reason and facts, not pity and emotion. I'm sure you can find people involved in car accidents with drunks that hate cars, or people involved in stabbings that hate knives or hammers, clubs etc etc. Could you imagine what every law would look like if it was based on emotion. There is no rational reason to ban semi autos or magazines of any kind. Mentally ill people will always find a way to murder if that's what they are determined to do.
That government PSA about scissors and hiding says it all, that level of helplessness is unacceptable to most Americans.
Here it is.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/shear_bravery_beats_guns_feds_d9Ba...
Dan D.,
Thank you. I don't get it either. Here's the deal. I feel for Gabby Giffords. No one, and I mean no one, can begin to imagine what she went through. I wish her the very best. I wish this had never happened to her.
But ... how does this qualify her to testify before Congress? And how do you ask that question without sounding like a heartless boob? But, the sole intention is to pull at the heartstrings of everyone who hears her impassioned testimony. It pulled at mine for sure. But you are right, Dan D. You cannot make laws - especially laws as fundamental as those affecting Constitutional rights intended to be protected by the state - based on emotion.
ecgberht2 wrote: "And how do you ask that question without sounding like a heartless boob?"
That's it, that is exactly why they are there. You can't question them, you can't dismiss them. You have to sit there silently and respectfully and accept everything they say as if they are expert witnesses. It's all a cheap and dirty scam to steal rights.
The media is up to their usual tricks again, editing to create a lie.
Media claim father of Sandy Hook victim heckled at hearing
Unedited video shows different story
http://news.yahoo.com/video/media-claim-father-sandy-hook-192236603.html
On guns.
Many argue that congress should not pass gun restrictions because criminals would just get around the law and obtain guns anyways. However, the Sandy-Hook shooter was a law-abiding citizen even while we was driving to the school to commit this horrific acts. Fact of the matter is, that because guns are so widely available, the likelihood of this kind of massacres increases. Other says that if the principal or teachers were armed, many of the andy-Hook shooter's would have been saved. However, all of his victims would have been saved if he had no guns.
Eduardo
Miami, Florida
Nonsense, Dan. Not only is this a time-honored tradition on all sides, we even allow it in the court rooms (a place where, arguably, impassioned decision-making should trump all other considerations). These testimonials have a way of showing how the laws under consideration affact ordinary people, something our aloof law-makers badly need more of. This is actually a "conservative" argument.
Hamburger wrote:
"Nonsense, Dan. Not only is this a time-honored tradition on all sides, we even allow it in the court rooms (a place where, arguably, impassioned decision-making should trump all other considerations). These testimonials have a way of showing how the laws under consideration affact ordinary people, something our aloof law-makers badly need more of. "
First, court decisions do not have the force of law. They exercise the force of law.
Second, if "These testimonials have a way of showing how the laws under consideration affect ordinary people", why did we not hear impassioned testimony from anyone SAVED by a gun played ad nauseum in the MSM?
Diane --
Please discuss the new government policy of sending helicopters over cities (Houston, Miami) and -- unbeknownst to the traumatized citizens! -- firing blanks!!!! Of course, they call it a "drill"!! Some school districts (Wakulla FL) also fire blanks inside schools as a drill!!!
This is unbelievable! Meanwhile, a 5 year old gets in big trouble for shooting a bubble gun at a classmate!!
A lamentable circumstance of our current gun laws is the risk of tragedy.
Between John Mccain and the NRA,Washington`s had an interesting week. It seems Republicans aren`t interested in the results of their ideology and doctrine. The Iraq war was a fraud and sham. But,not according to McCain.The $1 trillion in debt we added was justified because of a magical word called "SURGE". The "SURGE" created by Bush/Fox News as a` propaganda tool,it made folks forget what we did.
The NRA did it`s usual job of painting gun terrorists and terrorism as wonderful. The NRA says,don`t cry for the bullet riddled victims,cry for the shooters and their second amendment rights.
"A decent economic recovery"? Who is this guy?!
"Employment gains in excess of 250,000 a month over a sustained period are needed to make a DENT in UE. NYT continues to carry water for this President's FAILED ECONOMIC POLICIES!!!
Last year, I requested some information about employment from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. What I requested was the approximate number of jobs available during two years; specifically 1950 and 2010.
Their reply was that they couldn't provide that information. They went on to explain that certain types of employment aren't recorded. As an example, farm labor.
Interesting. Farm labor is not considered worthwhile to be counted.
So this seems to be an admission that no one really knows what the labor situation is.
So how would we know what the employment rate is?
Seems we don't.
Therefore, all the unemployment figures are false.
Why is this information hidden?
Well, if people keep inviting "Lucky Pierre" from the NRA it's a sideshow where anything goes. These are not "serious" hearings any more than having one on women's reproductive health with all male witnesses is serious, any more than the pretend angry dialogue between McCain and Hegel is serious, any more than failure to bring up jailing whistleblowers is serious. We need to quit calling them elections and call them something closer to the actuality: casting couch porn. Even fuddy-duddy Bill Moyers concedes that they are all whores together in the same brothel. As for the 2nd amendment, all guns, no matter how fast they waste powder and lives, are now anachronisms. With the level of surveillance and tracking our military and government have, with their drones and other firepower I feel sorry for old Dandy and eggy when they secede. I'd rather have my phone and a Youtube feed. Notice how the "toters" in Mali were self-deported in one week. (Isn't Morsi the same actor as Obama, just with a fake beard and padding like Santa?) It's these believers in illusion holding our survival back. Somebody call the maternity wards and elementary educators: Don't make any more "toters". They are a liability and they've lost their entertainment value.
Yes, ecg. --
Similarly, I felt it was a sickening stunt by Obama during that press conf. to have those kids up there to "advise" us to make more gun control laws.
Like you, I OF COURSE was horrified by both Gabby G's shooting + Sandy Hook, but making important far-reaching laws based on pure emotion, with little thought to logic and FACTS, is unacceptable to most Americans. What an insult to "We the People"!
If you read the Constitutional amendment on guns, it's quite obvious that it was aimed at those who were potential militia. Nothing at all here about the general public.
I know there are those who claim that it refers to everyone who could possibly carry a gun. But it doesn't say that specifically.
So the law is too vague. There needs to be a new amendment that states specifically that the general public, not just those in the militia, can carry guns.
Why isn't the NRA pushing this? Perhaps because an amendment that was specific would make them irrelevant? Put them out of business?
Gee! They would have to go out and get a real job!
They would no longer be living off the money provided by their members.
Clever guys, those boys at the NRA.
Dianne, could you please ask your guests why the commentary about the sequester focuses exclusively on defense cuts? Doesn't it occur to anyone that any contraction of government funding will adversely impact the economy, which would include the non-defense cuts (of equal size to the defense cuts) included in the sequester?
Law enforcement officials and real victims of gun violence discussing the unrestricted proliferation of guns in the US vs the NRA's gun salesman and some nut who believes every mommy needs an AK47. Who do you think the MAJORITY of Americans agree with?
gary k wrote: "If you read the Constitutional amendment on guns, it's quite obvious that it was aimed at those who were potential militia. Nothing at all here about the general public."
The militia as defined in the second amendment are the people or the general public. Any man capable of bearing arms.
The militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves, ... all men capable of bearing arms;..."
— "Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republic", 1788 (either Richard Henry Lee or Melancton Smith).
"Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom? Congress shall have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birth-right of an American ... The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the People."
— Tench Coxe, 1788.
gary k: You''re correct. Unemployment as a BLS statistic considers only "non-farm labor." Because so much of our food is imported now and because farm land has been exhausted or developed, and because we've moved to industrial agriculture the farm jobs are a fraction now of what they were in 1950; 1960; even 1980. (Immigration from Mexico is now slightly negative if ICE deports are included.) Notice also how our federal inflation index does not include food or fuel. (Not of concern in normal times.) I think you already know that raw unemployment figures are derived from interviews, and that respondents are often ashamed to admit they can't get a job, can't get 40 hours, or can't pull down a living wage. I was a canvasser and a statistician as a grad student in the 90s and I could see under-reporting and fudged figures in the regional office. Like any corporation the USA as a going concern is a numbers bluff, just like Wells Fargo. All the ownership is in so few hands they can count most of it on their fingers, so what do imaginary measures matter? For the average citizen it's all down the memory hole and the rabbit hole until we can start counting in our own neighborhoods. (But then we'd be flagged as terrorists.)
NO PROFIT in restricting or monitoring gun and ammo sales, that is why the NRA is opposed ALL gun control laws. Crazy wayne will do and say anything for the $1 MILLION the gun and ammo makers stuff in his pocket each year.
gary k wrote:
"Last year, I requested some information about employment from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. What I requested was the approximate number of jobs available during two years; specifically 1950 and 2010.
Their reply was that they couldn't provide that information. They went on to explain that certain types of employment aren't recorded. As an example, farm labor.
Interesting. Farm labor is not considered worthwhile to be counted.
So this seems to be an admission that no one really knows what the labor situation is.
So how would we know what the employment rate is?
Seems we don't.
Therefore, all the unemployment figures are false.
Why is this information hidden?"
It isn't hidden. Farm payrolls are too hard to track accurately because much of the labor is very temporary in nature and would distort employment figures month to month. This is not a conspiracy, sorry. This information COULD be reported separately, and might be interesting, but it is not collected as far as I know.
mike dell wrote:
"Law enforcement officials and real victims of gun violence discussing the unrestricted proliferation of guns in the US vs the NRA's gun salesman and some nut who believes every mommy needs an AK47. Who do you think the MAJORITY of Americans agree with?"
Polls say the majority (in fact the vast majority) agree with the guy you call "the nut".
Dandy: I'm tired of telling you guys history: The state "militias" were slavehunters and stood ready to put down slave rebellions. 2nd Amendment was conceded to Virginia and other slave states to persuade them to ratify the Constitution. By 1789 the Industrial Revolution was beginning to dwarf freehold farming on which the Constitution was based. Maybe wage slaves should only count as 3/5 as stated in those bygone lines. Strict Constructionism would make it OK. We've got some militia activity in the "South" today, and not the National Guard. They operate more like the Hell's Angels than well-regulated troops. Seems like the CIA keeps them around as Boogermen. Tim McVeigh was one.
mike dell wrote: "NO PROFIT in restricting or monitoring gun and ammo sales, that is why the NRA is opposed ALL gun control laws. Crazy wayne will do and say anything for the $1 MILLION the gun and ammo makers stuff in his pocket each year.'
The NRA has over 4 million dues paying members at $35 a head, that does not count the donations made by members throughout the year. Do the math.
It makes me nervous that nobody on the show went past the headlines regarding Walmart's limiting ammunition. Their choice does not reflect public opinion but, rather, as all of the news stories state reflects a lack of supply due to people running out and buying up ammunition thinking that the state is coming to get their guns. I find this discouraging, but not very surprising.
What is more discouraging is that I expect news people to go beyond the headline. Maybe we all move too fast. (And if I'm wrong, please accept my apology).
It makes me nervous that nobody on the show went past the headlines regarding Walmart's limiting ammunition. Their choice does not reflect public opinion but, rather, as all of the news stories state reflects a lack of supply due to people running out and buying up ammunition thinking that the state is coming to get their guns. I find this discouraging, but not very surprising.
What is more discouraging is that I expect news people to go beyond the headline. Maybe we all move too fast. (And if I'm wrong, please accept my apology).
Dear Diane and guests: You talked about Walmart restricting ammunation sale and made it appear that Walmart has capitulated to the pressure of anti-gun sentiment. However, it has not. Limiting ammunation sales to a few boxes is simply driven by the extremely high demands and is a measure to make sure everyone has a chance to get ammunation. As far as I know, Walmart so far stands firm with us the people, not capitulating to gun-grabbers in the White House. Thanks.
NRA, a shill for the gun industry. I must admit I don't get the love affair with cold, hard, steel killing machines. And regarding the 2nd amendment, let's talk about the 1st and the restrictions on "free speech" such as libel, slander, defamation of character.
Even Justice Scalia says "the 2nd amendment, like most rights is not absolute."
"For centuries, he observed, judges and legal scholars have tended to agree that the right to keep and bear arms is "not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose."
Guns and profits over people - sad state of affairs.
Check out this pro-gun myths fact check:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/01/pro-gun-myths-fact-check
eggy repeats "The Big Goebbels Lie" long and hard to Mike Dell hoping it will come true. Imagine the roadrage if every car on the Interstate had a Bushmaster at rush hour. The chicken farmer does not arm his fryers with spurs and beak knives. The People's Mike is stronger than the Oligarchs' PA.
We have avoided the debate underlying immigration. It isn’t racism. It’s resources and national or cultural identity. The financial and natural resources of this nation are growing strained as we try to provide for ever larger numbers of people with no growth in our land base. When does this population growth game come to its painful end? With every ten million more people the pain grows. Also, cultures lose or yield their identity when they are required to combine or overwhelmed by numbers of another group. Many people love and respect other cultures, but don’t want to lose their own identity. Is this something we force upon all Americans anyway?
Pancake Rankin wrote:
"I'm tired of telling you guys history: The state "militias" were slavehunters and stood ready to put down slave rebellions. 2nd Amendment was conceded to Virginia and other slave states to persuade them to ratify te Constitution. "
Hey Pancake, that little bit of history is new to me. Could you provide a credible source that supports your telling of it? I'm really interested in learning about the militia slavehunters as the purpose of the second amendment. Obviously my education is lacking on this subject so I'm hoping you can provide a credible reference from which I can learn about it.
TIA.