The Arizona Republic editorial staff is very mad at Gabby Giffords for an ad about gun violence:
Do you know what you’re doing?
That’s our question to the Americans for Responsible Solutions PAC after it aired a 30-second ad attacking Martha McSally, GOP candidate for Congress in District 2.
The ad is a nasty piece of work. Demagoguery in heart-rending tones.
A mother with sorrowful eyes appears on screen and tells the real-life story of a family horror. “My daughter was just 19 when she told her boyfriend their relationship was over. And he got a gun and shot her and my husband.”
Portraits emerge of the two victims — a pretty young girl and her father in military dress. The mother tears up. Her voice cracks. “He (the stalker) had threatened her before, and I knew, I just knew.”
Then appears the face of Martha McSally, with words both spoken and superimposed on screen: “Martha McSally opposes making it harder for stalkers to get a gun.”
The ad waves the bloody shirt. Takes the tragic killing of two innocents and drops it at McSally’s feet, as if she were responsible. A murder indictment implied.
But, of course, McSally had nothing to do with these deaths.
The ad is meant to help Democratic incumbent Ron Barber in his bid for re-election. It is emblematic of a wave of tough new advertising the gun-control lobby pushed out after the slaughter of children and teachers at Newtown, Conn. did not result in meaningful gun-control legislation.
The anti-McSally ad is more than hardball politics. It is base and vile. It exploits a family’s tragedy to score cheap political points.
And when the ad makes news because it goes too far, Gabrielle Giffords makes news with it. Because it’s her group.
It’s not demagoguing an issue to point out what happens with easy access to guns. Guns that McSally wants to keep easy to access.
I guess Gabby Giffords is slightly miffed. Getting shot in the head can tend to be a clarifying moment and may make someone testy, you fucking assholes. It would be nice if you were as concerned about the victims of gun violence and those who want to keep flooding our country with easy to access guns as they were with decorum.
Florida, Texas, Arizona, Alabama- it has to be the heat that is making everyone down there nuts.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
The ammosexuals get really pissy when you point out the downsides to their fetish. Especially when it’s done in an election.
some guy
Guns don’t kill people, gun owners do.
Villago Delenda Est
Piss up a rope? I don’t think so.
More like fuck off and die, hack scum of the Arizona Republic
Too fucking bad for ammosexual McSally, too.
JDM
Dear Arizona Republic,
Fuck you.
Your friend,
JDM
some guy
Base and vile are how I think of politicians who do the bidding of the NRA.
Litlebritdiftrnt
If I were Gabby I’d be pissed off too. I would also tell these people to piss up a rope.
chopper
@Litlebritdiftrnt:
Then i would beat them with the rope. So now they’re beat up and covered in their own piss.
Gex
Fearmongering is only acceptable in order to sell guns, duh. /snark
Not that I think the Gabby Giffords side of this issue is fearmongering. Statistics, studies, and the all too numerous stories of gun problems are what we call reality based. The fevered dreams of Dirty Harry wannabes and Wolverines are not.
Litlebritdiftrnt
@chopper: I like your ideas.
Comrade Dread
No, it’s not the heat. As I recall, the Arizona Republic (much like the OC Register where I live) has always been a vile libertarian rag promoting Rand-style conservatism.
So yeah, they tend to get pissed when you point out the poor and bloody victims of their disgusting and putrid ideology.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Any chance Mexico would take Arizona and Texas back, say if we threw in New Mexico?
Villago Delenda Est
@Comrade Dread: Speaking of the unfit to line bird cages or wrap rotting fish OC Register, they published a very stupid editorial this week in which they deliberately misrepresented reality and insisted that all that deficit since 2009 is Obama’s fault. I guess it is, because Obama is the guy who stopped lying about the bill for the Great Mesopotamian Adventure of the deserting warmongering coward who preceded him. They suggested that Obama owed aforementioned deserting warmongering coward an apology for “increasing” the deficit.
These maggots need to hang from the same gallows as the scum of the Arizona Republic
Steeplejack
I presume the Republic expresses equal disappointment when the Republicans demagogue every issue on an almost daily basis.
Major Major Major Major
Oh my god, go fuck yourselves with a rusty pitchfork, whoever wrote that.
ETA: Sideways.
GregB
One side wants sensible gun laws and the other side wants to arm 9 year old girls with Uzis.
Major Major Major Major
OMG and the headline is an “I’m rubber you’re glue” joke. Fuck you. Nothing bounced off Gabbi Giffords, it embedded itself in her skull which I guess is a way of sticking to something.
? Martin
@Villago Delenda Est: Why were you reading the OC register to begin with? I get it every Sunday for free but it goes immediately into lining the bunny cage.
suzanne
@Comrade Dread: Yes, the AZ Republic is a PO Libertarian S, and I haven’t read it in years. The other thing is that it doesn’t really matter, because in Barber’s district, the main paper is the AZ Daily Star. It’s conservative Phoenix tut-tutting at liberal Tucson yet again.
I went to that Safeway a couple of months ago—I used to live very nearby. Just to remind myself what can happen.
Phoenix_Rising
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka BellExperimenting protest that suggestion!
What did we in NM ever do to you?
Seriously, back to door knocking for Ron Barber. Who is at least better than McSally.
Villago Delenda Est
@? Martin: Oh, my local fishwrap up here in Tracktown felt it had a need to pass on the wisdom of the jackholes of the OC.
suzanne
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): As long as some kind Juicer in Washington or Oregon or Long Island doesn’t mind putting me up for a bit, I am so down with that plan.
Howard Beale IV
Yet when the paper factchecked the ad, they gave it four stars – True.
Guess when it comes to the truth, The AzCentral editorial board clutches Pearls and needs their fainting couches -next time, they should use a bed of sharp nails instead.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@suzanne: You don’t want to live on Long Island.
scav
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): We really need to stop dumping all our home-grown yet unwanted toxic waste in other countries though. They can maybe go drifting out to the high seas, floating about and refused entrence at ports? Make continental drift work for us for once.
suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): I grew up on Long Island, for the first half of my kid-hood.
jl
Silly editorial with silly point, which is besides the point, and purposefully misses the point of the ad, and accuses the ad of doing something it did not do. Other than that, fine editorial which does the newspaper real proud.
JCT
The “don’t politicize a tragedy” sop is all the ammosexuals have and they throw it around with abandon. McSally has been bitching and moaning about this ad with her nonsensical “I was once stalked so this ad is all wrong” comments.
It’s not like Gabby wants to ban guns, she still owns them, but these guys is this bizarro state worship at the altar of constitutional carry and guns guns everywhere. They truly believe in no restrictions. At all.
But Barber may be in trouble – even in purple Tucson, he has not been very visible around here.
jl
@Howard Beale IV:
‘ Yet when the paper factchecked the ad, they gave it four stars – True.’
I can’t find link at AZ Republic. I assume you mean charge that McSally opposes gun control legislation that would make it harder for stalkers to get themselves armed up?
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@suzanne: So you know then. Cool.
PurpleGirl
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I doubt Mexico would want to take them back. Just too much trouble to integrate them into Mexican society and besides Mexico has its own gun laws which are much stricter than ours, IIRC.
Roger Moore
@Howard Beale IV:
FTFY.
The Dangerman
Does the “don’t politicize a tragedy” apply to people losing their heads care of ISIS/ISIL?
mai naem
I have Doug MacEachern on my twitter feed. He’s on the AZ Rep editorial board. I used to watch him on a local PBS current affairs show years ago when he worked for another local rag. I don’t remember him coming across as a RWNJ but jeezus seeing a lot of his tweets definitely make you think he has a bad case of ODS.
Southern Beale
Speaking of responsible gun ownership: today’s 2nd Amendment hero is a man who went golfing with his wife and while removing a gun from his pocket, dropped it, shooting her in the head. Why yes, it’s Florida, why do you ask?
SixStringFanatic
It’s the obvious corollary to IOKIYAR; to wit, If You’re a Democrat It’s a Fucking Outrage.
trollhattan
@Villago Delenda Est:
The “rope” shall be 2-gauge copper cable. The copper cable shall be charged with 10kv@200 amps. The pisser shall be standing in a metal tub of saltwater, amply grounded. We shall be the judges, I give it a 9.8–stuck [to] the landing!
I hate these people.
Yatsuno
@suzanne: Mom can watch the kidlets at the ranch & I plan on getting a 2 bedroom here soon. This is a doable thing.
pseudonymous in nc
@some guy:
Assume every gun is loaded; assume every gun owner is dangerous.
And that’s what makes people like the AZ Republic editorial board have a sad. If we treat Responsible Gun Owners as About To Be Irresponsible Gun Owners — which we should — then they take it personally. Tough shit. It’s up to you to clean up your peers’ act using the limited tools at your disposal, tools that you demand be limited. I’m not a fucking court of law, so I’m perfectly entitled to go with ‘guilty until presumed innocent’.
Howard Beale IV
@jl: It was listed on the editorial page as a fact check link.
mai naem
The AZ Republic is a Gannett property now but used to be owned by Dan Quayle’s family(maternal grandparents.) Also, I’ve had a few long time Arizona residents tell me that the Pulliam family held back freeway development in the metro Phoenix area because the Pulliams owned land that they wanted bought up for freeways so the Republic editorials would actively lobby against freeway development that was obviously not going to make $$$ for the Pulliams. Of course, this is back in the 50s/60s when editorial board carried weight with the local bigwigs.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@pseudonymous in nc:
Even the gun you just personally unloaded, disassembled, and put back together without reloading should be treated as loaded. I own guns and think of them as tools. I afford them the kind of respect and care that I afford a table saw – a table saw that can kill someone a mile away and/or through a couple of walls.
mai naem
@Southern Beale: How fucking hard is it to secure your gun and follow basic safety procedures? Jeezus. The idiot should be prosecuted for stupidity.
And, yeah, the idiot celebrities with their nekkid photos on their phones. Really? Are you stupid? What if you lost your phone? You really don’t think there’s a very good possibility that if you lose your phone as a celebrity that people aren’t going to poke around your phone? Dumbass.
azlib
@mai naem:
Doug is a right winger. He is by far the most reactionary of the AZ Republic editorial board. His editorials pretty much parrot right wing talking points. Others are the Board are more reasonable, especially Linda Valdez. In fairness the Board opposed SB1070, the anti-immigration measure.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@mai naem:
Sorry, I don’t buy the comparison at all.
2liberal
or onto an electric fence?
GxB
I’m in the camp of hitting them with the “responsibility” buzzword they like to trot out so much. Any and all legislation framed with the phrase “It is the responsible thing to do.”
Living in gun nut country (and knowing more than a couple since high-school) I realize the futility of ANY attempt to legislate some sanity, but maybe a play out of old Karl Rove’s handbook is in order. Own all the guns and hoard all the ammo you feel you need, but you are liable for any and all damage they do, whether you are the one pulling the trigger or not – It’s the responsible thing to do.
Not Adding Much to the Community
@mai naem: Yeah, but the thing was, those celebrities’ photos weren’t on their phones. The photos were stolen from supposedly secure repositories, i.e., The Cloud. And not just any The Cloud, but an Apple-flavored one. And when you yell at 20-somethings not to take pictures of themselves with their phones, you may as well be yelling at clouds.
Mike J
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
If you spent $10,000 on forks and kept display cabinets in your home and a rack in your truck and insisted on strapping a wide selection of forks to your body everywhere you went, “just in case”, people would think you were mentally ill.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Not Adding Much to the Community: This as well.
jibeaux
“Exploits a family’s tragedy” when the family recorded a bit for use in the ad? Just because you don’t want to hear what they have to say doesn’t mean they’re being exploited.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Mike J: I don’t have a truck, but let’s not discuss my tape expenses.*
*More seriously, the “important” part of my comment came later.
jl
@Howard Beale IV: Oops. Thanks. Right there, third bullet point near the top. I have a short attentions span sometimes.
WaterGirl
Is anybody watching The Good Wife tonight? This is the second or third time in a week that I noticed that I no longer view the police even on TV in the same way as I did before Ferguson.
I find that I notice overly aggressive police response and that I am expecting abuse of power; I worry for the safety of the character that is being arrested and I think there’s a good chance that they are being railroaded. That’s pretty telling, I think. And discouraging.
Gex
@Southern Beale: We charge parents who kill their kids by leaving their kids in cars. Sure it’s usually accidental. But there’s a lot less of this “they suffered enough” b.s. because we don’t want to make it that easy for parents to murder their kids.
How many “oops, I accidentally shot my wife” stories have I seen? Too many. I guess if you say oops, you can murder people with guns.
Tommy
She got shot in the head. You might not not agree with her. Oh and all the people around her were killed. Just taking a step back might be helpful.
jl
@Mike J:
” If you spent $10,000 on forks and kept display cabinets in your home and a rack in your truck and insisted on strapping a wide selection of forks to your body everywhere you went, “just in case”, people would think you were mentally ill. ”
Heck I do that with suck tubes and valve keys, in honor of my farm upbringing. People tend to stay away and not mess with me, I don’t need no guns and ammo.
Citizen_X
“Don’t politicize a tragedy” = “don’t do anything about it.”
Oh, and we’re not talking about a “tragedy,’ we’re talking about a crime. These people keep enabling crime.
Citizen_X
@Mike J:
Don’t judge me!
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Citizen_X: I still think it is important to note that I don’t own a truck. Just saying.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): But you’re not denying the gun rack!
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@WaterGirl: Can’t have a gun rack without a truck. I do not not have one.
Tommy
@Gex: I note here everybody I know owns guns. They are all locked up. I can’t get to them. Totally sure their kids can’t. It is just gun ownership 101. I do not own a gun. Not my cup of tea. But my father taught me about guns. Just not something I mess with. Something I respect.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): I knew that, I was just teasing.
P.S. You can’t have a gun rack on a Saab?
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@WaterGirl: The trunk is big and the back seats lay down. I am okay.
Gex
@Tommy: what? Why are you telling me that?
Anoniminous
@WaterGirl:
Possible to have a gun rack in a 1925 Rolls Royce Phantom or a Volt. It all depends on determination and ammosexuality index.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
Giffords is obviously punching down at those poor souls who have their rights to their opinions about anything, no matter how poorly informed those opinions are.
/snark
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Gex: It is one of the things he does.
Villago Delenda Est
@trollhattan: OK, I can get behind your “rope” concept. Heh, indeedy I can!
Captain C
As a former, 12 year resident of AZ, all I have to say to the Republic is Fuck You with a prickly pear, sideways!
Gex
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): but why? His posts are usually of the same tenor. I have trouble characterizing them.
max
@Southern Beale: Speaking of responsible gun ownership: today’s 2nd Amendment hero is a man who went golfing with his wife and while removing a gun from his pocket, dropped it, shooting her in the head. Why yes, it’s Florida, why do you ask?
How is it, exactly, that about half the time you hear of someone dropping a gun and accidentally shooting someone, they manage to get a headshot?
max
[‘Or, put another way, how is it that accidental marksmanship in this country is much better that actual marksmanship?’]
trollhattan
@WaterGirl:
‘K, so, here’s the deal. Hatchbacks might could have a bitchin’ gun rack bolted to the hatch, but you’d have to, like, triple the hatch struts to lift the goddamn think iffn’ you kept…I’m thinkin’ two ARs and one riot shotgun. Them’s heavy.
The ‘verts might accommodate a rack iff’n you added a rollbar and bolted the goddamn rack to it. Imagine some abortion clinic picketers are all chillin’ and harrassin’ when a bumblebee Saab 900 turbo ‘verr rolls by, blasting k.d. Lang and they’re all, “fucking lesbo hippies!” but you’re like, “Jane Roe says eat my lead!” while you shred their fetus photo signs with some 2nd Amendment love.
Could happen.
Also, too, there was briefly a 9^2x “Saabaru” that might could have had a rack but they’re all stranded in various farmers’ fields.
Steeplejack
@Gex:
*cough* Blogsperger’s syndrome. *cough*
Steeplejack
Reduced to watching The Saint on one of the third-tier junk-TV channels. I really don’t like Roger Moore, but you have to half admire a career built completely on smirking.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Gex: He riffs randomly off other people’s comments. He also lives in Mayberry if his comments are to be believed.*
@trollhattan: Mine’s an ’06 SS. Plenty of room for guns, no room for a rack.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Steeplejack: The P1800 Volvo is nice.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
With him at the wheel, I just keep hoping for a Vauxhall Victor to come out of nowhere and T-bone him.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
And he’s just jumping into the Volvo now. Fingers crossed. Look both ways, Simon Templar!
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Steeplejack: Don’t hate the car, hate the driver.
Mike J
@Steeplejack: Which third tier channel shows the Saint? I’d gladly watch it.
Steeplejack
@Mike J:
MeTV. Specializes in fine aged cheese from the ’50s-’80s. I came for Perry Mason and stayed for Peter Gunn and The Rockford Files.
PurpleGirl
@Steeplejack: I watch MeTV on Saturdays for original Star Trek.
Steeplejack
@PurpleGirl:
It’s usually a good source of “when there’s nothing else on” viewing. I tend to gravitate to the ’50s-’60s stuff. Naked City is fascinating for its overwrought “gritty drama” approach. Makes me wonder how, say, Law and Order will age.
ETA: And, of course, with all those shows, it is interesting to spot later stars in early bit parts.
piratedan
well this IS the same state that declined to bring the Tucson shooting inspired gun control legislation to the floor for debate but managed in the same session to pass legislation designating a state handgun. Hence, why it’s so difficult to keep turning Arizona purple, although there have been a fairly significant amount of grass roots voter registration drives ongoing.
There is a shit-ton of outside cash in the state for the Arizona Congressional seats. McSally is portrayed as a “Moderate” GOP who has even taken ads out stating that she’s not afraid to vote against her party. Yet…. with the history of previous office holders like Jeff Flake, who reneged on his personal agreement to vote in favor of gun control, it’s unknown if those ads have any effect. I can say that I get polled at least once a day by phone requesting my political position that has a boatload of survey questions and then a couple of gotcha statements about Barber at the end in hopes of swaying and fence sitters. With my being at work full time and the house on the market, I can’t help out at the Pima County Democrats office like I used to, but I can tell you that there is a boatload of cash flying around here in regards to the political ads being tossed about and airtime being bought. Damn near all the ad time is political during such staples as Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. I assume the same is happening in the districts represented by Kirkpatrick and Sinema as well.
Steeplejack
@Mike J:
MeTV in Seattle.
Mike J
@Steeplejack:
I knew we had that at one point, but I think when Comcast decided to hide all of the local stations bonus channels from the great HD giveaway, they moved KVOS1 (the Me TV channel) to 72, which I never checked, and KVOS2 (which carries the Movies! network, owned by meTV ) on 320something.
For some reason Comcast hated having all the local stations together where people might find them. Even now, 114-120 are sitting empty. My guess is Comcast is trying to extort more cash from the locals to have their digital subchannels near the prime channel in the lineup.
Steeplejack
@Mike J:
So does that mean you get MeTV or not? LOL.
Part of the third-tier, bottom-feeding thing is definitely channel number location. On my system (Cox) MeTV is in a weird ghetto with stuff like Inside Taiwan, the Humidity Channel and way too many K-pop stations. I discovered MeTV because I did a title search for Perry Mason (original series), which is also shown on the Hallmark Movie Channel, which is in another ghetto of slightly better second-tier channels.
suzanne
@piratedan: Yes, Sinema is trying to blitz Rogers. I don’t love Sinema, but she’s the best I can hope for, so Mr. Suzanne and I have been volunteering a lot for her.
Mike J
@Steeplejack: We get it, but not where it used to be, which means I had forgotten it existed.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
And while I’m on the subject I will (once again) tout MHz, an odd international channel that shows generally good European crime dramas at 9:00 p.m. and midnight every night. (Maybe 6:00 and 9:00 p.m. on Pacific time.) Currently in rotation: Crime Stories, Antigone 34, Dolmen (fascinating but awful), Van Veeteren (excellent), The Inspector and the Sea, Private Eye Vares (hard-boiled Finnish!). Forget Don Matteo and The Young Montalbano. (Regular Montalbano is awesome.)
Bruce Baugh
“But, of course, McSally had nothing to do with these deaths.”
That’s an interesting standard. Democratic officials don’t run around buying steaks for the indolent poor to gorge themselves on, either. They seldom officiate at marriages, opposite-sex or same-sex. They don’t transport immigrants. By this standard, virtually nothing Congresspeople do should ever be held against them.
jl
@Bruce Baugh: Thanks. That is something I wanted to say, but could not pin it down. I suppose a person could get up a taxonomy of this sort of dishonesty, maybe going back to Wilie Horton ad against Dukakis. The majority of the archetypes of dishonesty would be from the GOP side.
Edit: “They seldom officiate at marriages, opposite-sex or same-sex”: Though, I did think any Democratic President and Senate leader were there, and actively assisting, for any gay sex activity that takes place between any men, anyplace. At least in spirit. I think I saw that in a campaign ad once, and I believed it, just ’cause.
piratedan
@Bruce Baugh: it’s the old tired standard of IOKIYAR, for some reason, they think it’s unfair when Democrats dare to try and connect dots to personal policy positions to bad things, you know like when the ACA was passed and the cadillac Medicare plans were phased out and they (the GOP) turned right around and claimed that the Dems were killing all of Medicare and taking away your insurance.
they loathe it when the Dems deign to hit back
Chris
You’ve said time and time and time again that, as Ordinary American “Joe” the “Plumber” put it, “your dead children don’t trump my constitutional rights.” It is your God-given right as an American to hold that position and trumpet it far and loud. One of the caveats of holding that position is that every time dead children “happen,” their parents and various others get to ask you whether the cost of “freedom” is indeed worth it. Deal with it.
If you think the collateral damage from your “tree of liberty” crock of shit is worth it because Price Of Freedom and all that, then you’re just going to have to explain why. Over and over. Every time something like this happens. We’re not your fucking publicists, we’re under no obligation to pretend the collateral damage isn’t happening just because it would make it easier for you to win elections.
Waspuppet
On one hand, it’s base and vile to use a family’s tragedy to make a pitch for gun control. On the other, we should TOTALLY start another all-out war in the Middle East because they cut those two guys’ heads off.
Yeah, “fuck you” is about right.
Bruce Baugh
@jl: Glad to help. :)
“Though, I did think any Democratic President and Senate leader were there, and actively assisting, for any gay sex activity that takes place between any men, anyplace. At least in spirit. I think I saw that in a campaign ad once, and I believed it, just ’cause.” I remember a gay friend of mine saying, back when the Oregon Citizens Alliance was at its height, that just once he’d like to see gay panic coming from someone who wasn’t entirely repulsive; in the meantime, he thought, maybe there could be something like a phone tree service to call the thugs so worried about it and reassure them that they were quite safe from pick-up attempts.
Southern Beale
After the way the Republicans have bankrolled Congressional campaigns on the Benghazi deaths? They’re not serious?
brantl
@max: Because these assholes who think they are the next Wyatt Earpe are legends in their own minds ownly.
Sherparick
I was reading on Salon’s web site the story of how Brynne Hartman killed herself and her husband, the comedian Phil Hartman, in 1998. They had two guns in the house “for protection” I guess. Also, it is amazing how sensitive and quick to grab the victim label and portray themselves as persecuted that right-wingers are: they must be pretty unconscious about it when Kevin Williamson portrays the People Climate Change marchers as “hippie filth” for his National Review audience (see nomoremister.blogspot.com/2014/09/i-got-your-unicorn-right-here-kevin.htm), and the Republican candidate in Illinois goes the full Willy Horton on a early prison release program in 2009-10 (which admittedly was poorly run, but Rauner is basically playing for the racial/crime anxiety angle – the Republicans have found their them for 2014, and the theme is fear – fear of Terrorists, fear of Islam, fear of the Brown (apparently ISIL is indoctrinating Roman Catholic and Evangelical Honduran, Salvadorean, and Guatemalan kids to become suicide bombers).
Platypus
Wow, sheesh, Giffords should just get over being shot in the head already. Stuff happens. Forgive and forget . . . like the Republicans themselves always do. I mean, it’s not like McSally ever seems to hold a grudge because of anything in the past, right?
“Unlike my opponent, I have been active and engaged in defending the A-10 against elimination since the threat first became known. In the spring of 2013, Congressman Barber’s first year in office, the Air Force leadership appeared before the House Armed Services Committee for its annual posture hearing. Rep. Barber didn’t even show up. It took an op-ed from me in August of 2013 to alert Ron Barber of his party’s own Administration’s plans to axe the A-10, and even after, when asked if the A-10 was threatened (August 31st, 2013), he flatly said, “no.” Since then he has been on a frantic campaign to cover his tracks and make up for lost ground, but it is too little too late, and at best, due to the leadership of Senators Ayotte and McCain, the mothballing may be delayed a year, but the long-term threat to the A-10 and DM remains.”
mcsallyforcongress.com/category/issues/
Oops, sorry, forgot we’re living on planet Earth, where Republican pols and their media lackeys are vindictive, egocentric, and above all hypocritical piles of crap. The magnitude of a wrong matters less than whether or not it benefits them, so being shot in the head matters less to them than a missed hearing. The Republican faithful will follow along, no matter how such an inversion of priorities would shock a moral person.
Chris
@Sherparick:
So, same basic theme as 2010, then.
Or 2012, for that matter.
Not to mention 2008.
Paul in KY
Have said it before, but I would like Mrs. Gifford or her husband to explain why it took her being shot in the head to change her mind on gun control. She sure was agin it before that horrible event.
Has she given any thought to what argument might work on people like her, short of what happened to her & the other victims.
mr_gravity
@max: Statistically speaking it would seem that for every person injured/killed by a gun that accidentally goes off after being dropped there would be another 359 guns dropped that would discharge without killing/injuring anyone.
If we disallow for all the guns that are dropped which fail to discharge at all I think we can conclude that people who associate with gun enthusiasts are statistically very unlucky.
If the 2nd amendment guaranteed the individual’s right to bear bulldozers we’d all be a lot safer.
John M. Burt
@Mike J: internationalhero.co.uk/b/blueraja.jpg