October 8, 2015

Congressman John Lewis Endorses Hillary Clinton

Congressman John Lewis will back Hillary Clinton's run for the White House.

"As our former Secretary of State, Senator from New York, and first Lady of the United States, Hillary Clinton is the most qualified person to be President of the United States," said Congressman Lewis in a statement released Wednesday by the campaign.

"I know her heart. We need her leadership, not just here in America, but all over the world. She is tireless in her advocacy for those who have been left out and left behind. She is ready to be President on day one. Hillary Clinton has my wholehearted endorsement, and I plan to work and campaign for her to see that she is elected the next President of the United States."

The civil rights legend first endorsed Clinton's historic candidacy in October 2007, but then shifted his support to back Barack Obama by February 2008.

On Wednesday, the Clinton campaign announced the launch of a grassroots-driven volunteer team, the Hillary for Georgia Leadership Council (HFGA LC). In a press release the campaign describes it as a group of "60 elected officials, community, student, coalition and grassroots leaders... that will help Hillary to win the Georgia Primary on March 1."



http://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/congressman-john-lewis-endorses-hillary-clinton-n440201

October 7, 2015

Carson: Losing Gun Rights Is More 'Devastating' Than Bullet-Ravaged Body

Republican presidential candidate and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson said Monday in a Q&A on Facebook that he had not seen a body with bullet holes "more devastating" than it would be to take away the right to bear arms.

On Facebook, a commenter Carson identified as Dan, asked the doctor whether his stance on gun rights had wavered following the community college mass shooting in Oregon.

"He wants to know if the tragedy has altered my position as a supporter of the Second Amendment," Carson wrote.

Noting that he had grown up in "the slums of Detroit," where he saw gun violence and, as a doctor, he had spent "many a night pulling bullets out of bodies," Carson said, "There is no doubt that this senseless violence is breathtaking — but I never saw a body with bullet holes that was more devastating than taking the right to arm ourselves away."


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ben-carson-bullet-holes-gun-rights

October 7, 2015

Jindal: Oregon Gunman's Father Is A 'Failure' Who 'Owes Us All An Apology'

In a lengthy blog post published on his presidential campaign website Tuesday, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) claimed the father of Oregon gunman Chris Harper Mercer was a "complete failure" and demanded that he apologize for the shooting.

In the blog post -- titled "We fill Our Culture With Garbage, And We Reap The Result" -- Jindal blamed the prevalence of mass shootings in America on "deep and serious cultural decay in our society," jumping from a condemnation of violence in media and a reference to abortion to a discussion of the reported absence of the father of the Harper Mercer in the young man's life.

"This killer’s father is now lecturing us on the need for gun control and he says he has no idea how or where his son got the guns," Jindal wrote. "Of course he doesn’t know. You know why he doesn’t know? Because he is not, and has never been in his son’s life. He’s a complete failure as a father, he should be embarrassed to even show his face in public. He’s the problem here."

The father, Ian Mercer, has told the media he believes the shooting wouldn't have happened if gun control laws had prevented his son from accessing the 13 weapons linked to him during the investigation into the shooting, which left 10 dead including Harper Mercer. It's been reported that Harper-Mercer's mother Laurel Harper had bragged prior to the shooting about the stockpile of firearms she had been collecting, and that she and her son were frequent visitors of the local gun range. According to the New York Times, Laurel Harper and Ian Mercer had divorced about a decade ago, and Ian had not seen his son in the two years since Chris Harper-Mercer moved to Oregon with his mother.

"He brags that he has never held a gun in his life and that he had no idea that his son had any guns. Why didn’t he know? Because he failed to raise his son. He should be ashamed of himself, and he owes us all an apology," Jindal wrote. "When he was asked what his relationship was with his son, he said he hadn’t seen him in a while because he lived with his mother. Case Closed."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/jindal-oregon-shooter-father

October 6, 2015

This is my governor.

To the Members of the California State Assembly.

ABx2 15 is not an ordinary bill because it deals with life and death. The crux of the matter is whether the State of California should continue to make it a crime for a dying person to end his life, no matter how great his pain or suffering.

I have carefully read the thoughtful opposition materials presented by a number of doctors, religious leaders and those who champion disability rights. I have considered the theological and religious perspectives that any deliberate shortening of one’s life is sinful.

I have also read the letters of those who support the bill, including heartfelt pleas from Brittany Maynard’s family and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. In addition, I have discussed this matter with a Catholic Bishop, two of my own doctors and former classmates and friends who take varied, contradictory and nuanced positions.

In the end, I was left to reflect on what I would want in the face of my own death.

I do not know what I would do if I were dying in prolonged and excruciating pain. I am certain, however, that it would be a comfort to be able to consider the options afforded by this bill. And I wouldn’t deny that right to others.

Sincerely,
Edmund G. Brown, Jr.


http://qz.com/517618/read-california-governor-jerry-browns-moving-letter-in-support-of-assisted-dying/

October 6, 2015

Bernie Sanders, a Hunting-State Senator, Treads Lightly With Guns

After the mass shooting at a movie theater in Colorado, Senator Bernie Sanders said that gun control was a matter best left resolved in state capitals.

In the aftermath of the massacre at an elementary school in Connecticut, Mr. Sanders voiced support for new gun control measures, but also noted that the rights of law-abiding gun owners “must be protected.”

In fact, Mr. Sanders sounded downright skeptical of the push for tighter new laws.

“If you passed the strongest gun control legislation tomorrow, I don’t think it will have a profound effect on the tragedies we have seen,” he told Seven Days, an alternative weekly in Vermont.

Mr. Sanders’s statements on gun control, while less forceful than those of some other Democrats, did not seem out of place for a senator from a state where hunting is prevalent.

But with last week’s mass shooting at a community college in Oregon stirring debate about America’s gun laws, Mr. Sanders’s attitudes toward gun control and the Second Amendment are facing fresh scrutiny as his presidential bid gains steam.



http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/06/us/politics/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-gun-control.html?_r=0

October 6, 2015

Alan Grayson teams up with Karl Rove. This should tell you everything you need to know.

Liberal U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Orlando, and the American Crossroads super PAC, which was co-founded by former George W. Bush operative Karl Rove, are both taking aim at the Senate aspirations of U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter.

Murphy, with strong Democratic Party establishment support, is running against Grayson in Florida’s 2016 Democratic Senate primary. Many Republicans see Murphy as a tougher general election opponent, so it’s not surprising that American Crossroads and the conservative Club For Growth have taken shots at him.

Grayson’s campaign and American Crossroads both promoted a liberal blogger’s claim that Murphy was repeatedly snubbed by Hillary Clinton when she visited South Florida for three fundraisers and a rally on Friday.

But the snub story is full of holes — including, most conspicuously, the fact that Clinton told donors at one fundraiser that she’s “so proud” of Murphy.

Grayson’s campaign on Saturday — and American Crossroads today — sent out emails linking to a blog post claiming that Murphy was “barred from entering” a Friday fundraiser for Clinton at the home of Fred Cunningham in North Palm Beach; then ignored by Clinton at a public rally in Davie in which she gave a shout-out to U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton; then similarly turned away at two later fundraisers.


http://postonpolitics.blog.palmbeachpost.com/2015/10/05/alan-grayson-campaign-and-karl-rove-pac-team-up-on-bogus-patrick-murphy-story/

October 6, 2015

Road-raging motorcyclist points gun at car — and Georgia cops let him go

An angry motorcyclist who threatened another driver with a gun on a Georgia highway Sunday was allowed by the police to go free.

According to Atlanta’s CBS Channel 46, a former police officer who filmed what appeared to be a clear case of road rage now wants to know why the gun-waving man wasn’t charged.

The witness told Channel 46 that the motorcyclist was placing himself and the lives of everyone around him in danger.

“Drawing a firearm, in just about every case, should be an absolute last resort. It seems like it was this guy’s first resort,” he said.

The witness followed the cyclist, filming him with his dashboard camera while calling 911.

When police caught up with the motorcyclist, they briefly detained him, then removed his handcuffs and let him go.


http://www.rawstory.com/2015/10/watch-road-raging-motorcyclist-points-gun-at-car-and-georgia-cops-let-him-go/

October 6, 2015

Bernie's message to 'Urban America": Respect rural gun culture.

"I can understand if some Democrats or Republicans represent an urban area where people don't hunt, don't do target practice, they're not into guns," Sanders continued. "But in my state, people go hunting and do target practice. Talking about cultural divides in this country, you know, it is important for people in urban America to understand that families go out together and kids go out together and they hunt and enjoy the outdoors, and that is a lifestyle that should not be condemned."


http://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/10/02/npr-bernie-sanders-gun-control

October 6, 2015

Bernie voted to allow guns on Amtrak. What could possibly go wrong?

He has also voted to allow guns on Amtrak, against the Brady Bill and against legislation that would have allowed lawsuits against gun companies. In fact, the NRA even helped Sanders win his first race for Congress.

In June, just after the race-motivated shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., Sanders continued to sound a more muted tone on gun control reform than many of his Democratic colleagues were calling for.

"I think guns and gun control is an issue that needs to be discussed," Sanders said in an interview with NPR's David Greene. "Let me add to that, I think that urban America has got to respect what rural America is about, where 99 percent of the people in my state who hunt are law-abiding people."




http://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/10/02/npr-bernie-sanders-gun-control

October 6, 2015

Hillary runs to Bernie's left on guns.

President Obama made what almost sounded like a pitch for Hillary Clinton’s gun-control stance at his passionate Friday press conference (even as he gently chided his former secretary of state for backing a Syrian no-fly zone). A visibly angry Obama promised to “politicize” the issue, and then he offered advice to gun-control forces:

The people who are troubled by this have to be as intense and as organized and as adamant about this issue as folks on the other side.… here’s what you need to do: you have to make sure that anybody who you are voting for is on the right side of this issue. And if they’re not, if they’re great on other stuff, for a couple of election cycles, you’ve got to vote against them. And let them know precisely why you’re voting against them. And you just have to, for a while, be a single-issue voter, cause that’s what is happening on the other side.

If Democrats listen to Obama, that could be bad news for Bernie Sanders. Clinton has announced an ambitious new push for gun limits, in the wake of the massacre at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, Thursday, and she’s hoping it changes the momentum in the unexpectedly close Democratic primary.

Gun control is one issue where Clinton stands to Sanders’s left. The Vermont socialist isn’t terrible on guns: Though the NRA endorsed him in his first race for Congress, he has a D-minus rating from the group. He supported the 2013 background-check bill, in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre, and closing the gun-show sales loophole.

Yet Sanders has troubled gun-control advocates with a few vexing apostasies, most notably his vote against the Brady Bill. On that and other gun issues, he has said that he believes states and not the federal government should set limits. He also voted for NRA-backed bills granting gun manufacturers legal immunity against claims by gun victims, and making it possible to carry guns on Amtrak. He told Bill Maher last year that mental health was “maybe the more important issue” in stopping mass shootings than gun control. “We’ve got millions of folks walking the streets who are need of mental health and they can’t walk into a place and get it,” he said. “This is the NRA talking point.… that’s what they say.” Maher replied.


https://www.thenation.com/article/hillary-clinton-is-running-to-bernie-sanderss-left-on-this-one-issue/