Aurora Shooting: I Wish I Were Surprised

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
~George Santayana

I awoke yesterday morning to an AP alert on my phone about the shooting in Aurora, Colorado. By the time I read the two sentence alert to my wife, I was over the shock. I shrugged my shoulders, shook my head and we went about our morning. I mean, really, how can we continue to be surprised at the constant repetition of tragedies like this, when the collective "we" don't or won't do a goddamn thing about it?

Later on I channel surfed a bit knowing all news would stop this day, as it had for the previous mass shooting. And the one before that. And the one before that. And the one before that.... The President made his requisite comments. The candidate followed with much the same. They would suspend their campaigns and pull all ads from Colorado; word of that news was immediately followed by an RNC anti-Obama ad in New York. On MSNBC of all places. (Who are the RNC trying to convince?)

My cynical side started asking questions. What pundit would be the first idiot to politicize this event? How soon before someone blamed Hollywood violence? What right winger would be the first to either blame Obama or spew some backwards conspiracy that it's another attempt to take away your guns? What politician would make a complete ass of him/herself? (The answer to that last question is Rep. Louis Gohmert, by the way, who has vaulted into first place in the Dumbest Congressional Fuckwad Race. Michelle Bachmann has some competition.)

Here's a list of mass shootings since, and including, Columbine (via Newsmax):

April 1999 - two teenage schoolboys shot and killed 12 schoolmates and a teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, before killing themselves. 

July 1999 - a stock exchange trader in Atlanta, Georgia, killed 12 people including his wife and two children before taking his own life. 

September 1999 - a gunman opened fire at a prayer service in Fort Worth, Texas, killing six people before committing suicide. 

October 2002 - a series of sniper-style shootings occurred in Washington DC, leaving 10 dead. 

August 2003 - in Chicago, a laid-off worker shot and killed six of his former workmates. 

November 2004 - in Birchwood, Wisconsin, a hunter killed six other hunters and wounded two others after an argument with them. 

March 2005 - a man opened fire at a church service in Brookfield, Wisconsin, killing seven people. 

October 2006 - a truck driver killed five schoolgirls and seriously wounded six others in a school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania before taking his own life. 

April 2007 - student Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed 32 people and wounded 15 others at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, before shooting himself, making it the deadliest mass shooting in the United States after 2000. 

August 2007 - Three Delaware State University students were shot and killed in “execution style” by a 28-year-old and two 15-year-old boys. A fourth student was shot and stabbed. 

December 2007 - a 20-year-old man killed nine people and injured five others in a shopping center in Omaha, Nebraska. 

December 2007 - a woman and her boyfriend shot dead six members of her family on Christmas Eve in Carnation, Washington. 

February 2008 - a shooter who is still at large tied up and shot six women at a suburban clothing store in Chicago, leaving five of them dead and the remaining one injured. 

February 2008 - a man opened fire in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, killing five students and wounding 16 others before laying down his weapon and surrendering. 

September 2008 - a mentally ill man who was released from jail one month earlier shot eight people in Alger, Washington, leaving six of them dead and the rest two wounded. 

December 2008 - a man dressed in a Santa Claus suit opened fire at a family Christmas party in Covina, California, then set fire on the house and killed himself. Police later found nine people dead in the debris of the house. 

March 2009 - a 28-year-old laid-off worker opened fire while driving a car through several towns in Alabama, killing 10 people. 

March 2009 - a heavily armed gunman shot dead eight people, many of them elderly and sick people, in a private-owned nursing home in North Carolina. 

March 2009 - six people were shot dead in a high-grade apartment building in Santa Clara, California. 

April 2009 - a man shot dead 13 people at a civic center in Binghamton, New York. 

July 2009 - Six people, including one student, were shot in a drive-by shooting at a community rally on the campus of Texas Southern University, Houston. 

November 2009 - U.S. army psychologist Major Nidal Hasan opened fire at a military base in Fort Hood, Texas, leaving 13 dead and 42 others wounded. 

February 2010 – A professor opened fire 50 minutes into at a Biological Sciences Department faculty meeting at the University of Alabama, killing three colleagues and wounding three others. 

January 2011 - a gunman opened fire at a public gathering outside a grocery in Tucson, Arizona, killing six people including a 9-year-old girl and wounding at least 12 others. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was severely injured with a gunshot to the head.

Slaughter after slaughter and yet, what is the response? We can't possibly be callous enough to talk about something political like gun control laws so soon after the tragedy. We really shouldn't legislate something in a desperate attempt to prevent another heinous act while she should still be in mourning.  Besides, deer hunters really need access to semi-automatic rifles. And armor-piercing bullets. And pistols with 30 round clips.

So we wait just long enough until the event seeps out of the public consciousness, which these days is about 12 seconds - who's on Dancing with the Stars this season? - and the N.R. Fucking A. has enough time to circle the wagons and threaten some bullshit scoring on a bill which has nothing to do with actual gun legislation. And we forget about the shooting du jour until the next time when the whole cycle starts all over again.

Until we stop sucking NRA cock, nothing will happen. And I won't be surprised the next time either.

(Cross-posted at ABLC)

Another Republican Coward

Former Florida Governor and once Presidential hopeful (until George W. put a stake through the heart of the Bush name) Jeb Bush, was recently in the news doing what some would describe was "standing up" to Grover Norquist and his ridiculous tax pledge...

“If you could bring to me a majority of people to say that we’re going to have 10 dollars of spending cuts for one dollar of revenue enhancement – put me in coach,” Bush told the House Budget Committee. “That would be wonderful. Let’s see it. That’d be spectacular.”

A week later he posited that today's GOP would have been too extreme for his father, George H.W., as well as invoking St. Ronald's name.

"Ronald Reagan would have, based on his record of finding accommodation, finding some degree of common ground, as would my dad – they would have a hard time if you define the Republican party – and I don't – as having an orthodoxy that doesn't allow for disagreement, doesn't allow for finding some common ground," Bush said, according to the website Buzzfeed... 

..."Back to my dad’s time and Ronald Reagan’s time – they got a lot of stuff done with a lot of bipartisan suport," he said. Reagan "would be criticized for doing the things that he did."

But all it took was a little bitchslapping from Norquist to set Jeb back in line and blame partisanship on... you guessed it, President Obama. This despite the fact that unless you've been living under a rock for the last three and a half years to completely miss the overt musings of GOP leaders making an Obama election loss their primary goal, you'd know who was trying to "find common ground" and seek bipartisanship, and who was flipping the bird at compromise.

Earlier Tuesday, Bush used Twitter to say his remarks were taken out of context. He told the AP that he was talking about partisanship in Congress as a whole.

"Both parties are at fault. Rep. Paul Ryan is one of the few who has shown courage. He proposed a well thought-out budget as a starting place for real discussions," Bush told the AP.

"What was he met with - incredible criticism from both parties. But, I hold Democrats more accountable because they control two of the three offices - president & Senate. Over the last four years, they have had multiple opportunities and have opted to take the politically expedient route over working together to find a policy solution."...

..."I don't believe it's a party that doesn't allow for disagreement among members - but that is often what it sounds like," he said.

A spine! A spine! My kingdom for a Republican with a spine!

The Spine of America

POSTED BY JHW22

OK, after this post, I will no longer give anti-Obama Democrats an ounce of my energy, a second of my time. Why? Because as much as they say they believe it's American to criticize or they're just holding him accountable or yadda yadda fart fart, they really just want to focus on certain things while removing all nuance, complexity and reality. They want to pretend that it's all easy peasy to get exactly what they want despite millions of Americans who don't want those exact same things the exact same ways at the exact same time. After about two years of their shit, I realized there is NO POINT debating, discussing or even acknowledging them. But I still try. Not anymore. After tonight, I am done with the anti-Obama left. We have an election to win and a fantastic President to re-elect. We need to ensure better state and federal legislatures and governorships. We have school boards and city councils to pay attention to. And the anti-Obama left doesn't deserve a fraction of me.

I want to make my final statement on them about one specific thing. One thing that I think symbolizes the difference between them and me.

"Spine."

For years now, I've heard Democrats say Obama "needs to grow a spine" or that he's "spineless." And as often as I, and other sensible Democrats, have tried to counter with facts and reality checks, we never looked at an actual spine.

A spine is the center of our body uniting the left and the right. It bends forward and backward, it turns side to side. It moves. Its point is to connect all the parts and keep us balanced. It is the part of the body used for movement and thought. It's a part of the body that, if damaged, could cause the entire body to stop moving completely. It's made up of parts rather than a single bone. It's a part of our body that we take for granted until we need an excuse to get out of heavy lifting. And it always has our back even when we don't see it. Our spine is what makes us flexible and strong. It makes us able to dodge or walk tall. It does what it needs to do on reflex. It supports the rib cage that houses our hearts and is the base of all the magic of our minds.

When you think of the truth of a spine, of the reality, of its actual role in our lives, Barack Obama not only has a spine. He IS our spine.

Coward

Karl Rove spoke the truth for a change... and found the wingnut backlash so objectionable to his sensitivities, he caved to them and endorsed the nominee he thought was unelectable just hours earlier.

Karl then.



Karl now.



Heckuva job, Turdblossom.