NOTE: There were several folks at the event where Gabby was shot who were armed. NOT ONE OF THEM pulled their weapon and took down the shooter. The shooter was tackled to the ground while he was reloading.
Gabby Giffords' husband, astronaut Mark Kelly:
I’m pro-gun ownership but anti-gun violence. Rights demand responsibility. This time must be different.
On another subject, we have some fabulously wonderful news:
Fox News Sinks to a 12 Year Low in Ratings as Obama Approval Hits 60%
In January, Fox News has its worst prime time month in the key age 25-54 demographic since August 2001. Greta Van Susteren had her worst month ever on the network, and her show registered the lowest prime time ratings for 10 PM on Fox since July of 2008.
While MSNBC’s ratings were up 9% in total viewers, Fox News registered their single worst day with viewers age 25-54 July of 2008.
Meanwhile, a new poll released today by ABC News/Washington Post revealed that President Obama’s favorability rating has reached its highest level since November 2009. Obama’s favorability is now at 60%, and has grown ten points since the summer.
Obama now has more more people strongly in favor of him (39%) than strongly opposed (26%). The president has a 60% favorable rating with Independents, and a 68% favorable rating with moderates.
The president also has a 66% with young adults, and middle/lower income people. It is isn’t a coincidence that as approval of President Obama soars, Fox News’ ratings plummet.
Guns In Churches: Arkansas Senate Approves Bill To Allow Concealed Firearms In Churches
ReplyDeleteNF:
ReplyDeletePerfect. It's the NRA's dream come true guns in homes, schools, and churches.
We are the A.S.A.! AssAh!
The Armed States of America!
But Fox news still crushes the competition, with MSNBC's audience still fitting in a phone booth.
ReplyDeleteFox embarrassed themselves with the 2012 election coverage (So did MSNBC with their usual fawning coverage of democrats, but everybody expects that from them), Ailes has made correction, pissing off some conservatives, but I predict they continue to bring the best of the right as well as the left.
CNN has also overhauled. I look for them to make a run at FOX, but MSNBC will remain in the basement. They are just too nutty to appeal past their far-left base.
I think CNN does the best playing it down the middle, and therein lies their problem. People on both sides like their news channels extra-spicy.
ReplyDeleteMe, I tune it all out, other that passing by the TV at work.
Meanwhile in GOPville where firearms are the toy of choice, the legislators insisted that
ReplyDelete"Signs were erected outside the House and Senate galleries after the 2012 Occupy protests. They list prohibitions: food, drinks, men wearing hats, signs, sitting on rails, cell phones, distracting noises. Bags are subject to search, but there is no firearm ban."
...so come on in to the statehouse, bring your bushmaster,
but don't be wearing a hat...welcome to GOP Idaho!
Kirsten Powers asks a good question:
ReplyDeleteCan someone explain to me how it’s “liberal” to try and shut down a media organization?
Before you accuse her of paranoia, read her article.
No one wants to shut down FAUX NOOZ, I watch them for comedy, and I watch Jon Stewart for the news.
ReplyDeleteWe have mountains of evidence that show FAUX NOOZ promoting biased, skewed, and often just plain WRONG "news."
Remember FAUX NOOZ is the cable "news" station that featured Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck as legitimate news analysts.
LOL! Can anyone with any brains look at those two melonheads and consider them incisive news analysts?
Palin is gone from FAUX and Beck is out in Paranoia Land still suckering his fans. Maybe Sarah can get a gig with him.
Plus we don't need PBO to "delegitimize" FAUX, they've done a bang-up job of it themselves.
ReplyDeleteThey're losing viewers. Their audience is mainly old white guys--nothing wrong with old white guys, my father and grandfather were old white guys.
Anyway, it doesn't matter. Their glory days seem to have peaked.
Plus we don't need PBO to "delegitimize" FAUX, they've done a bang-up job of it themselves.
ReplyDeleteContinued strong viewship and #1 status says otherwise.
By the White House's own statements and the media matters docs Powers links to, there indeed are people who want to delegitimize them.
Like my daddy used to say, they only try to tackle the guy with the ball...
Arkansas allows concealed carry in church. There was no restriction before so this law means nothing. You cannot carry a concealed firearm into a place that sells or serves alcohol, government building or schools. Says nothing about churches.
ReplyDeleteShaw,
Most news organizations are biased. Fox for the republicans,.
NBC,ABC,CBS,CNN,MSNBC for the democrats. I guess Matthews, Shultz, Madcow, Sharpton and of course O'Brien all all non-biased. Maybe in your world but no the real world.
Unlike many, I like knowing what a particular outlet's "spin" is.
ReplyDeleteI am a conservative guy, but I avoid World Nut Daily and other similar fonts that exist only to keep the base stirred up.
It's all about selling newspapers. So long as we remember that, it's easier to keep it all in perspective.
"Shaw,
ReplyDeleteMost news organizations are biased. Fox for the republicans,.
NBC,ABC,CBS,CNN,MSNBC for the democrats. I guess Matthews, Shultz, Madcow, Sharpton and of course O'Brien all all non-biased. Maybe in your world but no the real world."--skudrunner
Yes, they're all against you and the FAUXers! It's a conspiracy.
Pure paranoia.
BTW, where exactly did I write that there's no bias in the other news corporations?
Oh, yeah. I didn't you made it up and pretended I did.
Paranoia. No wonder Glenn "I'm a recovering dirtbag" Beck still has a following.
"Like my daddy used to say, they only try to tackle the guy with the ball."--CF
ReplyDeleteAnd my Pappa used to say the empty barrel makes the loudest noise.
Also:
ReplyDeleteFox's prime-time really does skew old.
A remarkable 1.6 million watched on average in primetime in January, but only 267,000 of them were between the ages of 25 and 54. That's the lowest number of that demo since 2001.
With January complete, Fox News has completed 11 straight years of being number one in cable news in both primetime and total day. That said, the network saw significant ratings declines in January–particularly in the pivotal adults 25-54 demographic–though its perch remains unthreatened for now.
The ratings for January, 2013:
Primetime (Mon-Sun): 1.617 million total viewers / 267,000 A25-54
Total Day Mon-Sun): 1.029 million total viewers / 209,000 A25-54
Fox News was down -6% in total viewers and -22% in the key adults 25-54 demo in total day in January, the lowest demo numbers since July 2008.
In primetime, the network was down -17% in total viewers and -40% in the demo, posting its lowest demo numbers since May 2006.
Yeah. It's still #1.
For now.
Only the United States and Yemen consider gun ownership a right, and Yemen is beginning to enact stricter gun control measures.
ReplyDeleteThough the United States has 4.5% of the world population, accounts for 40% of its civilian firearms.
The numbers speak for themselves. We have a problem in this country, and if you can't see it, you're blind. We have more guns than anyone else, but that's not the problem. Proportionally peaking, Canada and most of Europe have a significant number of guns, yet nowhere near the number of gun homicides and deaths experienced annually in the United States. How do you explain three times the number of guns, but 40-100 times the number of gun deaths?
The difference seems to be that other countries seem to have a handle on their guns, and we do not.
If so many people were dying from any other consumer product, we’d demand answers. But when it comes to guns, we treat them as a sacred cow. The numbers don’t lie; our firearm statistics are more in line with third world dictatorships than a developed country. No other developed country is even close to us on this. Why aren’t we fixing it?
"If so many people were dying from any other consumer product, we’d demand answers."
ReplyDeleteAutomobiles?
Imagine if we took the "even if it saves one life" approach. We could declare a national speed limit of 10 MPH and cut automobile deaths by orders of magnitude.
Yeah, I know. We need cars, but we don't need guns...
Just food for thought.
Again, cars are necessary for people to live. Guns are not.
ReplyDeleteMy parents and grandparents managed to live their entire lives without guns. But they needed cars to get to stores, doctors' apptmts., church, visit relatives.
Plus, cars are licensed, insured, and in some states taxed [excise taxes] and inspected. And one has to be retested in order to renew a drivers' license.
I understand "arms" are protected by the 2nd Amendment, and cars are not.
But neither you nor anyone else on this earth will ever convince me that the founding fathers believed that Americans would be armed with AK-47s or Bushmasters or any of the other weapons of mass murder that are out there and that the N.R.A. has been telling naive people they need to own.
The N.R.A. has corrupted this whole issue with their insistence that there be no impediment to own any firearm for any reason whatsoever, even to the point where they stopped research into what the causes of gun deaths are! And even to the point where they successfully passed legislation to make it unlawful for pediatricians to ask parents if they own guns and if they keep them safely locked up!
The N.R.A. are part of the causes of gun violence in this country.
If you own firearms you are more likely to die as a result of owning them [suicide, accident, rage killing] than you are likely to die from home invasion.
I have no illusions about taking firearms away from people. That will never happen. But we can make people more responsible by making them accountable for their negligence and stupid use of guns.
Obama up to 60% approval?
ReplyDeleteLincoln was wrong. Maybe you can't fool all of the people all of the time, but, apparently, you can fool a large majority of them too much of the time.
How tragic!
Helen Highwater
"Bushmaster" is a brand, like Colt, not a type of gun.
ReplyDeleteFew people are advocating an Uzi for every citizen.
Is the NRA really so powerful that they have stopped all research? By everything think tank, advocacy group, and university?
I understand that emotion-based movements need an enemy, but that's quite a stretch.
Do you realize how unprofound this
statement is?
If you own firearms you are more likely to die as a result of owning them [suicide, accident, rage killing] than you are likely to die from home invasion.
The number of people who die as the result of a home invasion is infinitessimal, and you've got suicides stacked on the other side.
Japan has a higher suicide rate than the US, and they manage it without guns.
"But we can make people more responsible by making them accountable for their negligence and stupid use of guns."
Don't we have laws for reckless discharge, murder, shooting somebody?
Besides penalties after the fact for improper storage, and verification of who you are selling a gun to, what else do you propose?
I guess I should have anticipated Shaw's rebuke. Getting their news from Jon Stewart says volumes.
ReplyDeleteRegardless what BHO grandstands for with gun control, slimy will not bring it to the senate floor for a vote. The democrats would have to show where they stand instead of blaming the republicans. Many up for reelection are from large gun owning states. When it comes down to it, it is all about politics not people.
ReplyDelete"The number of people who die as the result of a home invasion is infinitesimal, and you've got suicides stacked on the other side."
The woman who testified yesterday at the hearings made it sound like every stay-at-home mother risked home invasions by 5 or 6 gun-wielding maniacs. IMO, she's nuts.
"Japan has a higher suicide rate than the US, and they manage it without guns."
Certainly you must know that suicide is a cultural phenomenon in Japanese society. In Japanese culture it is an honorable way to deal with family or business shame and scandal.
"Don't we have laws for reckless discharge, murder, shooting somebody?"
Those laws obviously aren't drastic enough, because people who own guns still leave them unsecured. IMO, if a child dies as a result of an unsecured firearm, the owner should be severely punished.
"Regardless what BHO grandstands for with gun control, slimy will not bring it to the senate floor for a vote. The democrats would have to show where they stand instead of blaming the republicans." --skudrunner
ReplyDeleteNone of what you wrote in that makes a whit of sense. "Slimy?"
No Democrat "blames" Republicans for gun deaths. As usual you get it wrong, set up straw men, then misdirect.
RE: "The woman who testified yesterday at the hearings made it sound like every stay-at-home mother risked home invasions by 5 or 6 gun-wielding maniacs. IMO, she's nuts." Saw her on Faux this AM. She has to have an AR-15 with a huge magaxine. Right off, she reminded me of Adam Lanza's mother....
ReplyDeleteThat same woman is also against the Violence Against Women Act.
ReplyDeleteGayle Trotter, the conservative activist who became the breakout star of Wednesday’s gun violence hearing in the Senate with her adamant cry that women need assault rifles to defend themselves, wrote last year that she opposed the Violence Against Women Act.
The reason, she said at the time, was the law would create the prospect of “false accusers” stealing taxpayer money by using shelters and legal aid.
On Wednesday, Trotter used the fear of violence against women to support gun laws that allow access to large capacity magazines and assault weapons in her testimony.
Go figure.
Both sides of the 2nd Amendment issue are screaming at each other.
ReplyDeleteHere's what I find interesting....I grew up in "the gun culture." I think that I knew as many people of various ages as I do now.
Yet, not a single one of the people who owned guns back then or who own guns now have ever shot any other human being -- and have very rarely threatened to do so.
Why?
AOW,
ReplyDeleteProbably because the people you knew who owned guns were responsible gun owners.
Unfortunately, not everyone is. That's why one of the biggest dangers to children is unsecured guns left laying about by irresponsible gun owners.
A lot of the gun owners -- or those who had access to guns, anyway -- were kids, typically above age 13.
ReplyDeleteA lot has changed since those days, and I think that we need to assess those changes to see what some of the contributing factors to irresponsible gun us are.
"IMO, if a child dies as a result of an unsecured firearm, the owner should be severely punished."
ReplyDeleteWe agree!
"IMO, if a child dies as a result of an unsecured firearm, the owner should be severely punished."
ReplyDeleteThat won't stop the carnage, so now what?