Showing posts with label guns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guns. Show all posts
Friday, February 1, 2013
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Quote Of The Day
May 23rd, 2012
"The fear of not being able to buy guns has led to buying so many guns that now we can’t buy any guns... just like we feared."
-- Stephen Colbert cracking wise about the results of ongoing Obama Derangement Syndrome
-- Stephen Colbert cracking wise about the results of ongoing Obama Derangement Syndrome
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
A Nightmare Next Door, cont...
Jan 17th, 2012
Here name was Jackie, dammit. Not, "Jacqueline."
She was a good neighbor and a warm soul. She lived on the other side of my house.
She liked football and animals and Pinot Grigio. She liked the latter quite a lot.
All that separated our lives was a few thin layers of drywall. She was gorgeous, not the frowning face the newspapers have chosen to show.
More than that, she was beautiful in a way that didn't even threaten my girlfriend, Jenni.
Jenni's first reaction, upon seeing the ID photo or mug-shot or whatever bad-shot the gutter-draggers passing themselves off as "journalists" published was to exclaim, "Where's her smile?"
Indeed. Jackie's smile could light up the whole out of doors, not just a room.
She was murdered this weekend. According to a friend of Jenni's privy to local law enforcement, it was grisly. A single shot from a large caliber weapon.
My girlfriend apparently heard it. Not knowing what guns sound like, outside of the fiction of film, she thought it might have been one of our cats engaging in the casual destruction of which they are so very adept.
She was wrong. I was asleep. It didn't even register. Then, this happened.
For the last 2 days, our world has been cops. City cops. County cops. State cops. They all descended upon us. Multiple interviews with cops. Telling them all the same thing; "No. I don't know anything. No, it doesn't make sense. No, I never thought there were any serious problems."
And Vultures. Taking pictures. Plastering my exact address and photos of my home across the internet. Which has brought the gawkers, the rubber-neckers and the sick-fucks. You want a photo? Here's a fucking photo. From inside my house.
Then, there is the obvious suspect. His name is "Doug," although the media, as of this writing, has not yet released it.
I liked him, too. He was nice to me. We often talked while his crazy, dumb dog tried to jump on me and knock me over. I liked that he was such a good neighbor. Whenever he had friends over, he would knock and say, "Hey, buddy. Wanna hang out? Just lettin' you know we might be loud and stuff."
More often than not, I would decline. But, it felt great to have people we thought we could trust.
They were also very beautiful together.
To be honest, I thought of Doug as a very, very lucky man to have so lovely a lady.
Which just serves to make this uglier and harder to deal with.
It was his mother whom I consoled outside in the earliest hours of Monday morning.
She loved Jackie. Everybody loved Jackie.
Jackie was altogether lovable.
And special.
And now, our world is the stuff of bullshit TV-movies and hangers-on and quick-buck artists hawking manipulative crap about "domestic incidents."
And blah, blah, blah. And blah, blah, blah.
I just want her back...
Walking up the driveway in that ridiculous pancho she actually knew how to rock.
Flashing a peace-sign as if it were current. Beaming that smile and asking, "How are you?"
So that I might shoot back, "good... and you?"
As it is with all things that are too hard to fathom and, simultaneously, too ordinarily lurid...
I want a Goddamn explanation.
In spite of the fact that I know there will never, ever be one.
Here name was Jackie, dammit. Not, "Jacqueline."
She liked football and animals and Pinot Grigio. She liked the latter quite a lot.
All that separated our lives was a few thin layers of drywall. She was gorgeous, not the frowning face the newspapers have chosen to show.
More than that, she was beautiful in a way that didn't even threaten my girlfriend, Jenni.
Jenni's first reaction, upon seeing the ID photo or mug-shot or whatever bad-shot the gutter-draggers passing themselves off as "journalists" published was to exclaim, "Where's her smile?"
Indeed. Jackie's smile could light up the whole out of doors, not just a room.
She was murdered this weekend. According to a friend of Jenni's privy to local law enforcement, it was grisly. A single shot from a large caliber weapon.
My girlfriend apparently heard it. Not knowing what guns sound like, outside of the fiction of film, she thought it might have been one of our cats engaging in the casual destruction of which they are so very adept.
She was wrong. I was asleep. It didn't even register. Then, this happened.
For the last 2 days, our world has been cops. City cops. County cops. State cops. They all descended upon us. Multiple interviews with cops. Telling them all the same thing; "No. I don't know anything. No, it doesn't make sense. No, I never thought there were any serious problems."
And Vultures. Taking pictures. Plastering my exact address and photos of my home across the internet. Which has brought the gawkers, the rubber-neckers and the sick-fucks. You want a photo? Here's a fucking photo. From inside my house.
Then, there is the obvious suspect. His name is "Doug," although the media, as of this writing, has not yet released it.
I liked him, too. He was nice to me. We often talked while his crazy, dumb dog tried to jump on me and knock me over. I liked that he was such a good neighbor. Whenever he had friends over, he would knock and say, "Hey, buddy. Wanna hang out? Just lettin' you know we might be loud and stuff."
More often than not, I would decline. But, it felt great to have people we thought we could trust.
They were also very beautiful together.
To be honest, I thought of Doug as a very, very lucky man to have so lovely a lady.
Which just serves to make this uglier and harder to deal with.
It was his mother whom I consoled outside in the earliest hours of Monday morning.
She loved Jackie. Everybody loved Jackie.
Jackie was altogether lovable.
And special.
And now, our world is the stuff of bullshit TV-movies and hangers-on and quick-buck artists hawking manipulative crap about "domestic incidents."
And blah, blah, blah. And blah, blah, blah.
I just want her back...
Walking up the driveway in that ridiculous pancho she actually knew how to rock.
Flashing a peace-sign as if it were current. Beaming that smile and asking, "How are you?"
So that I might shoot back, "good... and you?"
As it is with all things that are too hard to fathom and, simultaneously, too ordinarily lurid...
I want a Goddamn explanation.
In spite of the fact that I know there will never, ever be one.
A Nightmare Next Door
Jan 17th, 2012
by F. Grey Parker
I didn't have time to read much over the last day and a half. Unlike last year, I didn't have time to publish anything about MLK Day. I slept through the South Carolina GOP debate. Our world was turned upside down over the last 2 days.
At a little before Midnight on Sunday evening, my doorbell rang. I got out of bed, grumbling mildly, expecting to see a friend who occasionally drops by at that hour. Instead, standing in front of me, there was a policeman.
"When was the last time you saw your next door neighbor?" he asked hurriedly.
by F. Grey Parker
I didn't have time to read much over the last day and a half. Unlike last year, I didn't have time to publish anything about MLK Day. I slept through the South Carolina GOP debate. Our world was turned upside down over the last 2 days.
At a little before Midnight on Sunday evening, my doorbell rang. I got out of bed, grumbling mildly, expecting to see a friend who occasionally drops by at that hour. Instead, standing in front of me, there was a policeman.
"When was the last time you saw your next door neighbor?" he asked hurriedly.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Well, This Is Familar
Oct 14th, 2011
Remember how George W. Bush pretty much collapsed the country? You know how it's all Obama's fault now, according to the jolly right wing? Does this seem familiar? TPM reports:
"As House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) continues to try to pin the flawed "gun walking" tactic employed in Operation Fast and Furious on the Obama administration, it's becoming increasingly clear that problems with ATF's Phoenix division date back at least into the Bush era.
TPM has obtained the documents relating toanother Bush-era ATF operation (on top ofOperation Wide Receiver) which deployed the "gun walking" tactic. The development was firstreported by Pete Yost of the Associated Press.
In fact, ATF officials wrote in 2007 that the gun walking tactic had "full approval" of the U.S. Attorney's Office being run by an interim Bush appointee and that the U.S. Embassy in Mexico was "fully on-board."
I can't wait to hear how they spin this over at The Murdoch Device.
"Under DOJ policy, illicit arms shipments are supposed to be intercepted whenever possible. But the emails show that just like in Operation Fast and Furious, official planned to allow guns to "walk" across the border and into Mexico in an attempt to identify traffickers higher up in the operation (rather than low ranking "straw purchasers," who are difficult to prosecutethanks to the lack of an anti-trafficking gun law).
On Sept. 27, 2007 -- when the Justice Department was reeling from the resignation of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales -- ATF agents in Phoenix and Mexico were conducting partial surveillance of suspects who purchased numerous weapons at a federally licensed firearms dealership.
After they watched the group purchase 19 weapons on Sept. 21 and 24 and additional weapons on Sept. 27, they watched as the weapons crossed the border into Mexico.
"Phoenix AZ ATF agents observed this vehicle commit to the border and reach the Mexican side until it could no longer be seen," ATF assistant director Carson Carroll wrote in a Sept. 28, 2007 email. "We, the ATF (Mexico) did not get a response from the Mexican side until 20 minutes later, who then informed us that they did not see the vehicle cross."
A few days later, William Newell -- the ATF official in charge of the Phoenix division -- tried to assure colleagues that everything would be okay."
Indeed, this is clearly a structural failing and an entrenched bureaucratic crisis.
Just like the economy.
This culture of corruption was inherited by President Obama.
Just like the economy.
Somehow, I am sure Murdoch's stable of trained drones will tell us that it's still only fair to blame to the black guys..
Remember how George W. Bush pretty much collapsed the country? You know how it's all Obama's fault now, according to the jolly right wing? Does this seem familiar? TPM reports:
TPM has obtained the documents relating toanother Bush-era ATF operation (on top ofOperation Wide Receiver) which deployed the "gun walking" tactic. The development was firstreported by Pete Yost of the Associated Press.
In fact, ATF officials wrote in 2007 that the gun walking tactic had "full approval" of the U.S. Attorney's Office being run by an interim Bush appointee and that the U.S. Embassy in Mexico was "fully on-board."
I can't wait to hear how they spin this over at The Murdoch Device.
"Under DOJ policy, illicit arms shipments are supposed to be intercepted whenever possible. But the emails show that just like in Operation Fast and Furious, official planned to allow guns to "walk" across the border and into Mexico in an attempt to identify traffickers higher up in the operation (rather than low ranking "straw purchasers," who are difficult to prosecutethanks to the lack of an anti-trafficking gun law).
On Sept. 27, 2007 -- when the Justice Department was reeling from the resignation of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales -- ATF agents in Phoenix and Mexico were conducting partial surveillance of suspects who purchased numerous weapons at a federally licensed firearms dealership.
After they watched the group purchase 19 weapons on Sept. 21 and 24 and additional weapons on Sept. 27, they watched as the weapons crossed the border into Mexico.
"Phoenix AZ ATF agents observed this vehicle commit to the border and reach the Mexican side until it could no longer be seen," ATF assistant director Carson Carroll wrote in a Sept. 28, 2007 email. "We, the ATF (Mexico) did not get a response from the Mexican side until 20 minutes later, who then informed us that they did not see the vehicle cross."
A few days later, William Newell -- the ATF official in charge of the Phoenix division -- tried to assure colleagues that everything would be okay."
Indeed, this is clearly a structural failing and an entrenched bureaucratic crisis.
Just like the economy.
This culture of corruption was inherited by President Obama.
Just like the economy.
Somehow, I am sure Murdoch's stable of trained drones will tell us that it's still only fair to blame to the black guys..
Friday, September 2, 2011
Shoot!
Sept 2nd, 2011
Here a case for stronger government regulations and oversight of an industry if I've ever seen one. Via RawStory:
Here a case for stronger government regulations and oversight of an industry if I've ever seen one. Via RawStory:
"A report released Thursday highlighted that more than 16,000 firearms have been reported "lost" from licensed gun manufacturing plants before sale since 2009, an average of 18 guns lost per day. Many of these guns don't have serial numbers affixed yet, making them nearly impossible to trace and thus desirable for criminals.
The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence's report, "Missing Guns: Lost and Dangerous" (PDF), used data gathered by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and makes an argument for amendments to federal laws governing gun manufacturers.
Daniel Vice, the center's senior attorney and the author of the report, told Raw Story that the lack of security and hiring standards at the plants contributes to the gun losses.
"Federal law is so weak that there's no law that says they have to do anything to secure their plants," Vice said. "They can write off 'lost' guns as a business expense. They can leave their doors wide open at night if they want to."
The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence's report, "Missing Guns: Lost and Dangerous" (PDF), used data gathered by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and makes an argument for amendments to federal laws governing gun manufacturers.
Daniel Vice, the center's senior attorney and the author of the report, told Raw Story that the lack of security and hiring standards at the plants contributes to the gun losses.
"Federal law is so weak that there's no law that says they have to do anything to secure their plants," Vice said. "They can write off 'lost' guns as a business expense. They can leave their doors wide open at night if they want to."
I expect the GOP to ignore this completely.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Maddow, Meghan and Guns
May 17th, 2011
If you missed this, you missed a rare example of Left and Right achieving a meeting of the minds and agreeing on common sense solutions in record time. Oh, right. They aren't elected politicians.
If you missed this, you missed a rare example of Left and Right achieving a meeting of the minds and agreeing on common sense solutions in record time. Oh, right. They aren't elected politicians.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
