States are now pushing for media literacy programs in public schools to battle the proliferation of "fake news."

Courtesy of the AP: 

Alarmed by the proliferation of false content online, state lawmakers around the country are pushing schools to put more emphasis on teaching students how to tell fact from fiction. 

Lawmakers in several states have introduced or passed bills calling on public school systems to do more to teach media literacy skills that they say are critical to democracy. The effort has been bipartisan but has received little attention despite successful legislation in Washington state, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Mexico. 

Several more states are expected to consider such bills in the coming year, including Arizona, New York and Hawaii. 

"I don't think it's a partisan issue to appreciate the importance of good information and the teaching of tools for navigating the information environment," said Hans Zeiger, a Republican state senator in Washington who co-sponsored a bill that passed in his state earlier this year. "There is such a thing as an objective source versus other kinds of sources, and that's an appropriate thing for schools to be teaching."

I am totally behind this effort, and see it as a complete necessity moving forward.

I think on the first day of class, lesson one should be do not listen to a damn thing this guy says.

Connecticut Representative rips new GOP tax plan to pieces.

"This is outrageous!"

Congressman John Larson shows his outrage & goes off on the GOP for their shady practices regarding their Tax Scam Plan. 🔥👊pic.twitter.com/GgSqBu5qtX

— Ricky Davila 🇵🇷 (@TheRickyDavila) November 8, 2017

I think this bill may die just like those Republican attempts to repeal and replace Obamacare.

Not only are their policies terrible for the American people but they are so ashamed of them they will not even allow any hearings or expert testimony.

This is some shady shit my friends. 

I actually think that the Sarah Palin victory lap the day after a Donald Trump blowout might be the worst part.

Interesting that she left off all of the SarahPAC logo except the bear.

She has one graphic posted for each of Trump's victories, and THEY have the complete SarahPAC logo.

But let's not kid ourselves I doubt very seriously she will raise any money by pimping for Trump right now. Even the few supporters she has left are not so ignorant as to believe that she had anything to do with his success.

I think right now it is more than obvious that the 2016 race will come down to Clinton vs Trump.

Which means when Hillary beats this orange tinted asshole it will be especially enjoyable to watch Palin lose her shit over it.

Actually I think that once that happens it will be essentially over for Palin in the political realm.

It is hard to imagine any politician, no matter how desperate, wanting Palin associated with their candidacy after watching her piss on every conservative talking point she every vomited forth and then throw her support behind a reality show star only to have him lose to the first female President.

THAT is the kind of loser stench that even tomato juice and hydrogen peroxide cannot wash off.

Okay kids you know what day it is right? Yep, it's PRIMARY day again! Update!

Okay so up for the taking today are Pennsylvania with 189 delegates, Maryland with 95, Connecticut with 55, Rhode Island with 24, and Delaware with 21.

Currently Hillary is leading Bernie by double digits in both Pennsylvania and Maryland, is slightly ahead of Sanders in Connecticut and Delaware, while Sanders is slightly ahead in Rhode Island.

Just a reminder that even if Hillary only gets half of the votes tonight it will put her over 2000, and she will only need a little over 300 to clinch the nomination.

On the GOP side it appears that Donald Trump is positioned to take every primary tonight, so really not a lot of drama there.

For that one idiot who claimed that Hillary Clinton is NOT making gun legislation a focus of her campaign.

If our leaders won't stand up to the gun lobby, we need to hold them accountable.https://t.co/M5ryVG4glD

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) April 26, 2016

Sucks to be wrong doesn't it?

Polls close in all five states in about a half an hour so let the games begin.

Update: Donald Trump is projected to win Maryland, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, while Hillary is projected to win Maryland.

Update 2: Trump is now projected to win Rhode Island.

Update 3: Delaware was just announced for Clinton and for Trump.

Update 4: Now Hillary is projected to win Pennsylvania.  That was of course predicted, however it is always the biggest prize of the night.

Update 5: Bernie Sanders just put one on the board with a projected win in Rhode Island. 

Update 6: And finally Hillary wins her fourth primary tonight with Connecticut now added to her total.

Hillary Clinton releases new ad in preparation for today's primary.

Courtesy of CBS News: 

In her closing ad before Tuesday's East Coast primaries in five states, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton is looking past the primaries with a message of unity. 

Her new ad, "Love and Kindness," presents a positive message of coming together and protecting each other--a sign she is beginning to move toward unifying Democrats behind her candidacy for the general election. 

"Let's break down barriers so we can all rise together," the ad says, in text running across the screen over footage of Clinton speaking and meeting supporters. "Do all the good we can in all the ways we can for all the people we can."

You probably saw Gabby Giffords in the advertisement, and this is what she is saying about Hillary and why she supporters her on mailers going out in Connecticut:   

“Time and time again, Hillary Clinton has done and said what is right, not what is politically expedient,” Giffords says on the mailers. “She is the only candidate I trust to stand up to the corporate gun lobby’s intimidation and bullying.” 

 Of course Connecticut, where that terrible Sandy Hook massacre took place, is one of the states holding primaries today. So clearly this message is tailored to them specifically.

However I think that the message of improving gun control laws, and working to keep military style weapons out of the hands of dangerous individuals, is one that resonates with ALL progressives.

I have mentioned in the past that I am not particularly inspired by Hillary Clinton as a rule, but her  courage in putting gun control front and center in her campaign is something that certainly gets my attention.

President Obama has said that one of his biggest frustrations as President was his failure to pass "common sense gun safety laws."

Will Hillary Clinton be any more successful?

Who knows, but at least she is willing to make it a priority. And that is certainly more than any other candidate has been willing to do.

Sandy Hook families case against gun makers will go forward.

Courtesy of CT Mirror:  

A Connecticut state judge's decision Thursday allowing a lawsuit to go forward against the maker of the Bushmaster rifle used in the Sandy Hook killings focused attention on a law that Connecticut lawmakers – and now Hillary Clinton – hope to repeal. 

Remington Arms, maker of the Bushmaster rifle used to kill 20 first-graders and six staff members at Sandy Hook, is relying in its defense of the suit on a law Congress passed in 2005. Known as the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, or PLCAA, it protects gun manufacturers and dealers from liability when crimes are committed with their products. 

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is hoping Congress repeals the law so it can't be decisive in the lawsuit, though there is virtually no chance of a repeal in the present Congress. 

The families of some of the children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School won a victory Thursday when Connecticut state Judge Barbara Bellis rejected the gun companies’ motion to dismiss the case citing PLCAA. She said the immunity granted the gun makers and dealers does not strip her court of jurisdiction to hear the case. 

“It’s a very positive step, possibly historic,” Blumenthal said. “I think we should be very glad and grateful that the Sandy Hook families have demonstrated this courage and strength.”

Good news for the Sandy Hook families, and for Americans as a whole.

Not such good news for Bernie Sanders who voted in favor of the law.

And finally remembering the three year anniversary of Sandy Hook.

Courtesy of NBC News:  

There are at least 555 reasons to ask whether American children are safer from gun violence today than they were three years ago, when the unthinkable happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School. 

That's how many kids under the age of 12 have died from gunshots — both intentional and accidental — since Adam Lanza stormed into the school in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012, and shot dead 20 children and six staff members, according to an NBC News analysis.

That figure, derived from news reports, other publicly available information and data from the Gun Violence Archive, is likely significantly lower than the true number of child gun deaths, as suicides often are not covered by news media and other gun deaths sometimes go unreported. Even so, it works out to a rate of just under one death of a child by firearm every two days in this country.

I don't know about all of you but the massacre at Sandy Hook hit me almost as hard as the attacks of 9-11.

Just like 2001 I was riveted to my TV, completely unable to fathom what I was seeing.

And then I thought, "Well this is it. Surely NOW we will start working on comprehensive gun legislation to keep our children safe from another attack like this one."

And I could not have been more wrong.

It was not that there were more victims in the Newtown shooting than in other massacres before it, but these were babies. Surely that would be enough to shock people out of their complacency and get the country angry and frightened enough to insist that we do something.

Something perhaps like what Australia had done in the wake of THEIR mass killing.

But that didn't happen.

Instead NRA President Wayne LaPierre blamed the politicians and the schools themselves:

" Politicians pass laws for gun free school zones, they issue press releases bragging about them. They post signs advertising them. And, in doing so, they tell every insane killer in America that schools are the safest place to inflict maximum mayhem with minimum risk."

Sarah Palin responded by suggesting no real answer to gun violence other than more prayer:   

Unspeakable evil slammed America in the beautiful little town of Newtown, Connecticut, just days ago. No words can express the collective shock and sorrow shared by Americans who know the murder of innocent children is the most horrendous crime imaginable. The Connecticut state motto, “Qui transtulit sustinet,” promises that only God can sustain us. Though still insufficient and unfulfilling for the grieving families of these beautiful babies in the Lord's arms now, perhaps those words are all the inconsolable loved ones can hold on to at this time. May God show His sustaining love to them right now. Please Lord.

(Palin also claims in her book "Good Tidings and Great Joy" that she responded to the calls for more gun laws after Sandy Hook, by buying Todd a new gun.)

Other conservative politicians responded in similarly cowardly ways, as did a few Democrats, and then of course we have the Sandy Hook Truthers who simply refuse to believe the attack happened at all.

However it was President Obama who went to Newtown and tried to comfort the people who had lost loved ones and try to ease their pain:  

The president took a deep breath and steeled himself, and went into the first classroom. And what happened next I’ll never forget. 

Person after person received an engulfing hug from our commander in chief. He’d say, “Tell me about your son. . . . Tell me about your daughter,” and then hold pictures of the lost beloved as their parents described favorite foods, television shows, and the sound of their laughter. For the younger siblings of those who had passed away—many of them two, three, or four years old, too young to understand it all—the president would grab them and toss them, laughing, up into the air, and then hand them a box of White House M&M’s, which were always kept close at hand. In each room, I saw his eyes water, but he did not break. 

And then the entire scene would repeat—for hours. Over and over and over again, through well over a hundred relatives of the fallen, each one equally broken, wrecked by the loss. After each classroom, we would go back into those fluorescent hallways and walk through the names of the coming families, and then the president would dive back in, like a soldier returning to a tour of duty in a worthy but wearing war. We spent what felt like a lifetime in those classrooms, and every single person received the same tender treatment. The same hugs. The same looks, directly in their eyes. The same sincere offer of support and prayer. 

The staff did the preparation work, but the comfort and healing were all on President Obama. I remember worrying about the toll it was taking on him. And of course, even a president’s comfort was woefully inadequate for these families in the face of this particularly unspeakable loss. But it became some small measure of love, on a weekend when evil reigned.

In the end there were a few laws passed in Connecticut, New York, and Maryland, but nothing on the Federal level.

And here we sit, three years later, just as vulnerable as we were on December 14, 2012.

In fact it could be argued with this push for increased gun ownership and more conceal carry permits in the wake of recent terrorist attacks that the possibility for another school, mall, or theater mass shooting has only increased.

Because despite what the NRA might tell you, more guns mean more bullets, and more bullets mean more people killed and wounded.

It's just math.

Sarah Palin compares registering military style weapons to Colonists being asked to register their single shot, muzzle-loaded, muskets. Oh yeah, so similar.

So the above graphic is currently posted over at the Facebook home of the addle-brained albatross from Arizona. 

There is in fact so much stupid about this that I hardly know where to start.

Should I start with the fact that an AR-15 can fire 700 rounds per minute, while a musket can fire only.....one? (Okay maybe two if you are Fess Parker.)

Or that the Colonial army was fighting for the right to form a government that would represent their interests, and create laws to protect them from the kinds of people who might someday want to own an arsenal of weapons which could include a 700 round per minute firing AR-15?

Or that in colonial times long rifles were the only weapons owned by the majority of Americans and these were not something easily concealed or used to mug pedestrians on the street?

I can tell you with some certainty that if the Founding Fathers had been dealing with a reality which included the possibility of the average citizen owning hundreds of automatic weapons, grenade launchers, and easily concealed handguns, they would have dramatically tightened up that language in the 2nd Amendment. Or possibly done away with it altogether.

By the way the inspiration for this post was nothing more than the opportunity to pimp  Brancy's post from the other day, about the Connecticut gun owners refusal to register their military style weapons, that I already ridiculed here.

My assumption is that with the SarahPAC funds running low there is only so much money available for ghostwriters. So instead of having two separate Facebook posts written, this way they can have one and then share it.

They're wasting their time really, I think that at this point everybody recognizes that the Palins as a unit are against ANY laws which might protect citizens from having bits of their body shot off, believe that the 2nd Amendment was written by Jesus while riding a dinosaur, and that anybody who introduces any gun legislation is probably an America hating communist Nazi.

Or something like that.

Well it looks like it won't be too much longer before the Republicans won't have Obamacare to kick around anymore.

Courtesy of the LA Times:  

Despite the disastrous rollout of the federal government's healthcare website, enrollment is surging in many states as tens of thousands of consumers sign up for insurance plans made available by President Obama's health law. 

A number of states that use their own systems, including California, are on track to hit enrollment targets for 2014 because of a sharp increase in November, according to state officials. 

"What we are seeing is incredible momentum," said Peter Lee, director of Covered California, the nation's largest state insurance marketplace, which accounted for a third of all enrollments nationally in October. California — which enrolled about 31,000 people in health plans last month — nearly doubled that in the first two weeks of this month. 

Several other states, including Connecticut and Kentucky, are outpacing their enrollment estimates, even as states that depend on the federal website lag far behind. In Minnesota, enrollment in the second half of October ran at triple the rate of the first half, officials said. Washington state is also on track to easily exceed its October enrollment figure, officials said. 

You know whenever I see statistics like this I  cannot help but think of all of the millions of Americans who could have been helped to get health care if only those Republican governors had allowed the expansion of Medicaid in their states and had set up state exchanges of their own.

I just hope that the people in their states are paying attention, and are prepared to punish them come election day.

"If there's just one thing we can do to keep one father from having to bury his child, isn't that worth fighting for?" President Obama's must see speech yesterday in Connecticut.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I think the next time Chris Matthews suggests that President Obama has not taken the lead on trying to pass gun legislation somebody should slap him upside his head.

The Yin and Yang of gun laws in America. Connecticut introduces strictest gun laws in the nation while city in Georgia mandates everybody own one.

Courtesy of the AP:  

Connecticut lawmakers have announced a deal on what they called some of the toughest gun laws in the country that were proposed after the December mass shooting in the state, including a ban on new high-capacity ammunition magazines like the one in the massacre that left 20 children and six educators dead. 

The proposal also called for background checks for private gun sales and a new registry for existing magazines that carry 10 or more bullets, something of a compromise for parents of Newtown victims who had wanted an outright ban on them, while legislators had proposed grandfathering them into the law. 

The package also creates what lawmakers said is the nation's first statewide dangerous weapon offender registry, immediate universal background checks for all firearms sales and expansion of Connecticut's assault weapons ban. 

A new state-issued eligibility certificate would be needed to purchase any rifle, shotgun or ammunition under the legislation. To get the certificate, a buyer would need to be fingerprinted, take a firearms training course and undergo a national criminal background check and involuntary commitment or voluntary admission check. 

The deal is "the most comprehensive package in the country because of its breadth," said Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, a Fairfield Republican whose district includes Newtown.

Now, you see THAT is how to address the issue of gun violence in this country! Good for Connecticut!

However virtually the same time that Connecticut was leading the way on responsible gun ownership, a little town in Georgia seems adamant to encourage even MORE gun deaths.

This also from the AP: 

Backers of a newly adopted ordinance requiring gun ownership in a small north Georgia town acknowledge they were largely seeking to make a point about gun rights. 

The ordinance in the city of Nelson — population 1,300 — was approved Monday night and goes into effect in 10 days. However, it contains no penalties and exempts anyone who objects, convicted felons and those with certain mental and physical disabilities. 

City Councilman Duane Cronic, who sponsored the measure, said he knows the ordinance won't be enforced but he still believes it will make the town safer. 

Wait they aren't even going to enforce it? So what's the point?

Another purpose, according to the city council's agenda, is "opposition of any future attempt by the federal government to confiscate personal firearms." 

Aha, so essentially it is just a giant middle finger to the Obama administration.What a delightful use of the people's time and resources.

Of course in the meantime there will undoubtedly be residents of this town that will feel encouraged to purchase a weapon, some perhaps for the first time, so I am confident the town can looked forward to more reports of accidental shootings and incidents of domestic violence in the relatively near future.

And of course this attitude goes hand in hand with the recommendations coming today from the NRA's "School Shield Program: "

The National School Shield program would give schools the opportunity to designate certain personnel as licensed and trained firearm carriers. While many schools are deemed gun-free zones, Hutchinson made the case that arming school officials is one of the only ways to make sure teachers can protect their students in time. 

Yes because more guns in a school setting equals more safety for its students. Brilliant logic.

And people wonder why we need to pass comprehensive gun control laws.

Father of victim in Sandy Hook shooting heckled by 2nd Amendment advocates. Update!

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Courtesy of MSNBC:

“He was my son, he was my buddy, he was my best friend,” testified Neil Heslin, whose six-year-old son, Jesse Lewis, was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting in December before a Connecticut gun violence prevention hearing Tuesday. “And I never thought I’d be speaking like this and asking for changes on my son’s behalf. He’s my only son, he’s my only family.” 

As Heslin asked legislators to tighten restrictions, gun rights activist interrupted his testimony, yelling “our rights will not be infringed!” and “Second Amendment!” Local news sources reported that there were nearly a dozen hecklers, who were quickly silenced. 

Heslin’s son, Jesse Lewis, died after trying to flee the gunman with other students.

I quite literally have no words.

Update: For those who are confused by the NRA dipshit in the comments section claiming that the audience was only responding to Mr. Heslin's question, I refer you to Mr. Lawrence O'Donnell's response to that same bullshit excuse.

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Doing it right, Pennsylvania Gun Show bans assault weapons.

Courtesy of TPM:  

With the debate over gun control raging in Washington, the organizers of a major gun show in Harrisburg, Penn., have banned assault weapons at their February event, Lancaster Online reports. 

The organizer of the annual Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show in Harrisburg apparently is banning so-called assault weapons from this year's show. 

Reed Exhibitions has informed some exhibitors -- including Kinsey's Outdoors in Mount Joy and The Sportsman's Shop in New Holland, representatives of both stores said -- that AR-style rifles and high-capacity ammunition magazines capable of holding 30 rounds or more may not be sold or displayed at the show, scheduled for Feb. 2-10 at the State Farm Show Complex on Cameron Street.

Nice to see that SOME people are getting the message and making changes.

However as you would expect not everybody is so quick to recognize the writing on the wall.

This from Think Progress:

A small Wisconsin town school board will vote Monday night on whether or not to grant the Indianhead Rifle and Pistol Club access to the local elementary school this April for its annual gun show. 

Spooner Elementary School has hosted the show without much objection for the last two decades. But less than a month after the mass shooting at Newtown elementary school that claimed the lives of 20 first graders and 7 others, some community members are raising objections to the idea of welcoming hundreds of guns and gun owners into a public elementary school. 

Tim Brabec, a member of the club and organizer of their annual gun show, told ThinkProgress that the decision to use the elementary school is one of convenience. 

“Who doesn’t have sympathy with the families in [Connecticut]?” said Brabec when asked about whether the visual of a gun show at an elementary school was appropriate so soon after the deadly shooting in Newtown. “But we don’t associate one with the other. We don’t go there for the shock value.” 

Shock was but one reaction to the news that the town was considering granting the show permission to use the school. “I do not agree with it at all,” said one commenter online. “I was shocked to hear about it last year, and can’t believe they would even consider it this year after the shooting in CT.”

Personally I find this almost impossible to digest, considering the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary, and that the type of weapons used there may be on sale in this place that used to be the very definition of a safe place for children.

In other news today the parents of Newtown, Connecticut announced the organization of violence prevention effort:    

Nelba Marquez-Greene put her two children on the school bus on the morning of Dec. 14. Only one came home. Nicole Hockley still finds herself reaching for her son’s hand in parking lots, or expects “him to crawl into my bed for early-morning cuddles before school.” 

“It’s so hard to believe he’s gone,” she said. 

The grieving mothers and other parents and relatives of victims killed in the Dec. 14 elementary school massacre gathered here at a news conference on Monday to help begin a campaign intended to prevent the kind of bloodshed that has turned this quiet New England community into a national symbol of grief. 

In some of their first public statements since the shooting, which killed 20 children and 6 staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the families of 11 of the victims called for a national dialogue on issues of mental health, school safety and what their nonprofit group, called Sandy Hook Promise, described as “gun responsibility.”

You know perhaps the people thinking of holding that gun show in Wisconsin would like to see the autopsy pictures of these poor innocent victims in Connecticut.

Perhaps THAT would provide some context for them so that they could come to understand that these weapons are not simply for show, or target practicing, or making a pansy ass feel like a real man. They are for killing, in a way that tears human bodies into chunks of meat and rips loved one out of the arms of their families forever.

Just a thought.

Only three weeks after Sandy Hook NRA launches shooting game I-Phone app directed at young children.

Courtesy of America Blog: 

 In a somewhat creepy, and certainly tone-deaf, move, the NRA recently launched an iPhone game app that kids can use to shoot coffin-like targets. And the game is rated for kids aged “4+” – meaning, 4 year olds and up. Four year olds? Seriously?

The game, called “NRA: Practice Range,” was released on January 9, a little more than three weeks since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 six- and seven- year-old children were murdered in a spray of gunfire from a legally-bought weapon. Three weeks later, and the NRA is back is back in the business of peddling guns to kids. But it’s actually worse than that…

One of the options in the “game” is indoor target practice that has kids shooting at things that look like coffins. 

Just as troubling is the fact that this isn’t just a kid’s game – it’s part of the NRA propaganda machine, helping to push political criticism of the White House and Democratic members of Congress to impressionable children. 

Well, so much for the NRA blaming video games for the violence instead of guns, don't you think?

Let's face it the NRA could care less about shooting deaths, or the safety of children in this country.

Their only concern is to sell more guns and attract new members. And apparently they have learned from the church's example that indoctrinating them early is a sure way to create a lifelong congregant.

Final emotional reminder of the day.

From the YouTube site:  

This was made entirely by Newtown Students, Danny Bittman and Sarah Clements. This video is a dedication to all of our 26 neighbors, demanding that we change our attitude towards others. The Sandy Hook Promise group, like the video's message, is open minded, and is not trying to attack, or support just one side of any argument. 

Out of the mouths of babes.

Just when you thought that NOBODY could be crazier than Alex Jones!

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

A communications professor from Florida Atlantic University isn’t backing down from his theory that the mass killing of 20 children in Newtown, Connecticut may have never happened. 

Writing on his Memory Hole blog last month, Professor James Tracy asserted that it was “not unreasonable to suggest the Obama administration [had] complicity or direct oversight of an incident that has in very short order sparked a national debate” on gun control. 

“While it sounds like an outrageous claim, one is left to inquire whether the Sandy Hook shooting ever took place—at least in the way law enforcement authorities and the nation’s news media have described,” he declared, noting that no surveillance video of photos of bodies had been released by authorities. 

“Moreover, to suggest that [President Barack] Obama is not capable of deploying such techniques to achieve political ends is to similarly place ones faith in image and interpretation above substance and established fact, the exact inclination that in sum has brought America to such an impasse.” 

On Tuesday, WPTV caught up with Tracy, who also doubts the official versions President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks and the mass shooting at a theater in Aurora, Colorado last year. 

“In terms of saying that Sandy Hook — the Newtown massacre — did not take place, is really an oversimplification of what I actually said,” he explained. “I said that I think that there may very well be elements of that event that are synthetic to some degree, that are somewhat contrived. I think that, overall, the media really did drop the ball. I don’t think that they got to the bottom of some of the things that may have taken place there.” 

As for the deaths of 20 elementary children, the professor said, “I think that most likely that took place.”

So to be clear he is NOT saying that the children are not dead, only that President Obama was the one that killed them. Oookay.

And believe it or not the Professor has company on his "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride of Conspiracy."

This from Salon:  

But in the crazy world of Sandy Hook conspiracy theories, this one may be the worst yet. (Maybe you’ve already heard some of the others, like the one about fantasy ties between the gunman’s family and the LIBOR banking scandal and a related theory about the Aurora shooting and the “Dark Knight Rises.”) Most of the theories are really pieces of a larger meta-theory: that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax, perhaps by the Obama administration, designed to stir demand for gun control. 

In the latest angle, theorists think they have found “absolute proof” of a conspiracy to defraud the American people. “You reported in December that this little girl had been killed,” a reader emailed Salon in response to a story. “She has been found, and photographed with President Obama.”

Do you remember how we all joked that after President Obama's reelection that certain Teabaggers and fringe conservatives were going to lose their shit? Well folks I think this is what "losing their shit" looks like.

In other, reality based, news here is Slate with the number of gun deaths that have occurred SINCE Sandy Hook and here is a portion of Diane Sawyer's interview with Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly as they discuss taken some common sense approaches to dealing with gun violence in this country.

You know I knew this debate would get crazy, but even I was not quite prepared for this level of crazy.

P.S. In case some of you are just now joining us, and don't know who this Alex Jones character is that I am referencing in the title. Here you go.

Mother of Christina Taylor Green, tiniest victim of the Tucson shooting, appears in commercial to end gun violence.

Courtesy of TPM:  

Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a gun-control initiative co-founded by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, released on Monday an ad as part of the group's "Demand a Plan" to end gun violence campaign featuring the mother of a girl killed in the Tucson, Ariz., shooting two years ago. "I have one question for our political leaders: When will you find the courage to stand up to the gun lobby?" Rozanna Green said in the ad. "Whose child has to die next?" 

The ad goes on air Tuesday in Tucson, Ariz.; Waco, Texas; Roanoke, Va.; Fargo, N.D.; Denver, Colo.; Binghamton, N.Y.; and Milwaukee, Wis. It will continue to air in the Washington, D.C. market through Jan. 14.

You know I had a troll on a previous thread who attacked me, and all of you, for not recognizing the difference in the caliber of weapon that is mentioned in talks about banning assault weapons and those used in the military or for hunting.

I don't think these people understand that this is NOT about simply taking one kind of gun off of the streets, it is about making sure that ALL guns are carefully monitored in this country, and that people who should never have access to them, never GET access to them.

That is certainly not going to happen overnight, but this is also not going to be a short term solution to a long term, and increasing growing, problem.

And if people are not aware of the kind of passion that is driving the desire to do something significant about gun violence, then take a look at the blow back endured by a Connecticut Republican who had the temerity to demand on Facebook that Gabby Giffords "stay out of my towns:"  

"Gabby Giffords stay out of my towns," the post on the Facebook page for State Rep. DebraLee Hovey, a Republican who represents Newtown and Monroe, said last week. On Monday, she issued an apology for the comments she posted online. 

"The remarks I made regarding Congresswoman Giffords' visit were insensitive and if I offended anyone I truly apologize," Rep. Hovey said in a statement. "My comments were meant to be protective of the privacy of the families and our community as we work to move on, and were in no way intended as an insult to Congresswoman Giffords personally. Our community has struggled greatly through this tragedy, and we are all very sensitive to the potential for this event to be exploited for political purposes. This is what I wish to avoid," she added.

I imagine that a lot of  big talking NRA defenders are going to be reevaluating their positions as this issue moves forward.

We should have done something after Columbine, and we didn't.

We should have done something after Tucson, and we didn't.

But this time I think the excuse making is over, and that the fear of the NRA's influence is not going to be nearly enough to stop legislation from being passed that will have a real impact on the guns being sold in this country, and the kind of people they are being sold to.

If that does NOT heppen then the blood of the next movie house audience, school classroom full of children, or mall full of shoppers is on our collective hands.

Well sure the Newtown, Connecticut shootings were tragic. But not tragic enough to stop a gun show from taking place forty miles away.

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

Connecticut residents are outraged that a gun show will take place this weekend just 40 miles from Newtown, where 26 people were killed in a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School just weeks ago. The East Coast Firearms Show is being advertised as the “best of the best of vendors, offering 250 tables of antique and historical arms.” 

Local lawmakers say they wish the event had been cancelled, as had been similar shows across the state. “It seems insensitive to have the event continue,” Stamford Mayor Michael Pavia told local reporters. 

Since the shooting, several Connecticut newspapers have also apologized for publishing advertisements for a gun show next to articles about the tragedy.

Jesus, what is wrong with these people?

Are they so determined to add to their arsenal of penis extenders that they simply cannot postpone this damn thing for a year or two. Or how about altogether?

Apparently a number of others DID cancel their shows, but not these douchebags.

I sincerely hope that part of the legislation that Congress brings forth after Joe Biden does his thing, is legislation that places SERIOUS restrictions on what kind of weapons can be sold at these shows, and insists that EVERY potential customer undergoes a comprehensive background check before being able to purchase that special "Welcome to the Man Club" peashooter.

White House prepares to overwhelm NRA and pass legislation to deal with gun violence. Oh, this is great news! Update!

Courtesy of TPM:  

The White House and gun control supporters are gearing up for a whirlwind month, with plans to pass reform legislation before outrage over the Sandy Hook massacre has a chance to fade. 

While the fiscal cliff has dominated Washington’s attention in recent weeks, lawmakers and activists are laying the groundwork for their big push. Vice President Joe Biden, tasked with heading a commission to investigate gun violence, has been quietly meeting with experts, interest groups, and public officials and is expected to release a set of recommendations within weeks. Boston mayor Thomas Menino, co-chair of Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns, told the Boston Herald this week that an optimistic Biden had assured him that Obama would sign legislation “by the end of January.” 

“We had been led to believe their report would come by end of January, but we’re hearing they may want to have something out by January 15, even quicker than expected,” Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, told TPM. 

House Democrats are moving ahead with their own plans as well. On Friday, Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA), chair of the newly created Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, announced the appointment of 12 vice chairs, including Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), the body’s leading voice on gun control. According to a Democratic aide, the group plans to release its recommendations in early February and is already organizing public hearings on the issue. 

Obama has personally identified an assault weapons ban and limits on ammunition magazine size as top priorities. Other possible reforms could include background check requirements for purchases at gun shows, a loophole that’s helped create a huge market of off-record arms purchases.

This is SUCH good news!

I had been worried that the attention span of the American people and Congress would prove to short for anything of importance to be done on this issue before we became distracted with other breaking news items or partisan political battles.

However I have also believed that this time things were different and that we would finally see some real impactful legislation passed to deal with what I think we can all agree is an out of control situation.

You know I believed the President when he said that hearing about the Newtown massacre was the worst day of his presidency.  I saw that man's heart breaking when he addressed the nation after that attack, and believed that he could not simply allow things to remain the way they are without doing something to protect our children.  I am glad to see that I was right to have faith.

Update: Gabby!

Courtesy of the New York Daily News:  

Limping slightly and leaning on astronaut husband Mark Kelly for support, Giffords smiled as she entered town hall and embraced Schools Superintendent Janet Robinson. 

“We’re so glad you came,” Robinson said. “Thank you.” 

“How horrible,” Giffords replied, holding on to Robinson for a beat longer. 

Then Giffords was ushered inside for a private meeting with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D—Conn.) and Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman.  

Giffords brought with her a perspective that only a select few share — that of a person who came face-to-face with the kind of madness that left 20 innocent children and six school staffers dead on a cruel December morning. 

You know I thought I was filled with hope after reading of the President's plans, but seeing Gabby in Newtown, and realizing that she will most likely lend her voice to this issue as well, increases that hope tenfold.

Gabby Giffords to visit Newtown, Connecticut Friday.

Courtesy of NBC Connecticut:  

Former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, who survived after being shot at a campaign event in her home state of Arizona two years ago, will visit Newtown on Friday. 

Giffords will be at a home in Newtown for a private event, according to a spokesperson for Gov. Malloy's office. The event is not open to the public. 

The visit in Newtown comes just two days after Giffords met with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, met with Bloomberg Wednesday to discuss gun control, according to the New York Post. 

 Bloomberg has pushed for stricter gun laws in the wake of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

You know I kind of wonder if Joe Biden and the President are involved in any way with Gabby making these visits. Not that she wouldn't on her own, I'm just sort of thinking out loud.

Good lord could you imagine how powerful a gun control bill would be if Gabby put her name to it and walked onto the floor of Congress to introduce it?

The Republicans and NRA lobby would be hard pressed to attack her in any way, and the American people would rally behind the bill en masse.

I kind of hope something like that is in the works.