The opening stages of the George Zimmerman trial started today.

                 17 year old Trayvon Martin was walking down the street with a pack of skittles and an iced tea; when George Zimmerman decided he was dangerous. Something clicked in Zimmerman’s head saying Martin was dangerou. Zimmerman called 911, which told him not to follow, Zimmerman ignored them. He followed anyway, a conflict followed. In the end Trayvon Martin lie on the ground dead from Zimmerman shooting him.

The question here us not whether Zimmerman is guilty of shooting Martin, that has already been established. The question is whether it was in self-defense or not. Under the Florida Stand Your Ground Law, several other states have adopted similar laws, Texas was in the news for it most recently, you do not have to retreat if you are threatened. It authorizes you to use deadly force if you feel you are threatened. This was an ALEC model bill that has had a negative effect on society.

Unfortunately the focus of this case will be on a bogus law passed by Republicans, with tremendous support from ALEC. The focus of the case should be on the fact that a grown man followed a child, instigated an altercation with a minor and then killed the minor during the struggle. These are the unmitigated facts of the case. A grown man killed a child, how does some bogus law make that ok. Is this the kind of country we want to live in? The Judiciary System has been removed by a man known to be touched in his head.

The implications of this case are far reaching. If Zimmerman is found innocent, people have been given the ok to kill basically at will. I can shoot my neighbor because we exchanged cross words, as long as I felt threatened. If Zimmerman is found guilty, well that is a victory against big business, the Republican party and deals a major blow to the laws ALEC and the NRA are trying to push. I want to know how these laws slipped past Democrat lawmakers. Lobbyist and Republicans are trying to turn this into a free for all to please the gun nuts. How about pleasing the majority of Americans, we don’t want these laws.

How far are we from total anarchy?

                   We are living in an extremely polarizing time in politics. Democrats and Republicans cannot see eye to eye on anything. Republicans and their party members despise President Obama. Everything that happens is a scandal in line with Watergate and Republicans believe that each is the big one they will impeach him with. People hate each other based upon party affiliation. Elected lawmakers are hurting our country to make the President look bad.

We have people in states talking of secession, not just people but also law makers. They disagree with Gun Control, Abortion laws, and anything else the President has to say. I am 39 and have never seen a political climate like this. Every truth is distorted by both sides, the media edits politicians to make it seem like they are saying something they are not. You would swear owning guns was more important than protecting children. Oh, that’s right it is to the NRA and Republicans, whose supporters only know half of the 2nd Amendment. I guess only half really works for them.

Each day I cringe when I hear how far right Republicans have gone. They have given up the illusion that they are working for the greater good. They only care about Pro-Life, scandalizing President Obama and guns. They are firing up a base, but not the normal Republican base, the wackjobs from the far far right. How far are they from completely driving us off the tracks and into a walk? They have done it already this century, but it didn’t hit full fledged rebellion.

We need the clowns like Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh and Alex Jones to tone it down. Jones actually said that Obama has a weather weapon that he used to create the tornadoes in Oklahoma. They are inflaming hatred of anyone who does not agree with their ideology. That creates a very murky political picture. There are people calling for armed rebellion, backed by the NRA. If we are stupid enough to repeat the mistakes of the Civil War, we deserve the mess we make. We need to wake up from this nightmare scenario and move forward or we are sure to make the same mistakes again.

Texas vigilante law allows the use of deadly force to retrieve stolen goods at night.

                A Texas jury aquitted a man for the murder of a woman he hired as an escort. His lawyers claimed he used deadly force after she refused sex. Ezekiel Gilbert shot Lenora Ivie Frago in the neck on Christmas eve 2009. She denied his request for sex and wouldn’t return the $150 that he paid her.

               Under Texas law, an individual is authorized to use deadly force to retrieve stolrn property at night. Gilbert’s lawyers cited that provision as justification for his actions. They say Frago had stolen $150 from him by taking his money and not delivering sex. In a police interview played for jurors, Gilbert nevered mentioned anything about theft. Frago, who was 21, was critically injured and died several months later. Her occupation seems to have altered the jury’s decision. I don’t think they would have ruled in his favor if she was not an escort. Add the fact that he had to find her for any of this to occur and it seriously clouds the verdict.

While Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law, which made headlines because of the murder of Trayvon Martin, authorizes the use of deadly force without having to retreat in defense of one’s person or home. Texas’ law goes well beyond this. Ot allows the use of deadly force in protection of any tangible or movable property. The Texas law not only authorizes the use of deadly force to retrieve stolen property at night but also during criminal mischief at nighttime. Deadly force is even authorized to prevent someone who is fleeing immeadiately after a theft during the night or a burglary or robber, so long as the individual reasonably thinks their property cannot be protected by other means. It seems as if the Texas legislature thinks we should return to the Wild West.

This law allows individuals to become vigilantes, which is illegal. It allows them to impose the death penalty for crimes that would not warrant the death penalty. Even with Texas law making vigilante justice legal, it is difficult to see how Gilbert’s behavior can be justified. Especially given that escorts are not entitled to deliver sex under the law and delivering sex for money is illegal.

While it is similar to Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law, which was supported by the NRA and the Koch Brothers, the Texas law goes even further. Texas and the Republucan majority in the state government further and further away from sanity. The Koch Brothers and the NRA have their fingerprints on these laws all over the country. These are the type of laws that move us backward in history. The NRA has their hands so far in the Republican party’s pocket they can scratch thrir knee. Democrats have to stay vigilant and united to stop these laws before they happen and possibly remove money from American politics. President Obama wants gun control and Republicans do the complete opposite in their obstructionist way.

     

NRA has funded a ban on federal gun research.

               The NRA has funded a ban on federal funding for gun violence research. Congress, backed by the NRA, voted to ban federal funding for gun violence research. According to an Institute of Medicine panel report there is a clear research agenda for answering life and death questions about gun violence. But in order fir any study to happen, Congress needs to lift the NRA funded ban.

                  The panel convened in response to President Obama’s directive that the CDC develope a plan for research on gun violence. It was tasked with developing a list of questions about gun violence that haven’t been sufficiently examined by current research. Since the 1990’s the NRA supported legislation has stripped the CDC of $2.5 million in grant money. That is the exact amount the CDC had for gun violence research. The legislation also stipulated that no funds made acailable for injury prevention and control at the CDC may be used or advocated to promote gun control.

Federal funding makes up 60% of all support for acedemic research. The federal ban has crippled research in a field as specific as the effects of gun violence. Today there are fewer than 20 acedemics working on gun violence. Very odd for something that causes 32, 000 American deaths per year.

Because of this ban there is a whole in the data about gun possession, distribution, ownership, aquisition and storage. What data there is, is weak and of little use. The panel identified 14 priority areas for federal research. For example, Improve the understanding of whether reducing criminal access to legally purchased guns reduces gun violence. Are there methods to enhance the reporting of stolen guns in order to reduce illegal access. To what degree would mandatory reporting of private ownership of guns be effective in reducing illegal access.

Despite the gaping hole in gun violence research, there is string evidence of a few things. Counties with more guns typically have more crime. The best available evidence suggests that background checks significantly reduce gun homicides. Stopping criminals from breaking once they have broken into your home with your gun is very uncommon, in fact the evidence suggesting that is dubious. Since Sandy Hook, more than 4, 200 have been killed by gun violence. There was also a spree of accidental shootings at gun shows. As well as children shooting other children.

What is unfortunate here is the incredible power lobbyist have over the laws governing our country. The NRA asserted their power by paying over $300, 000 to Senators before the Manchin/Toomey Gun Bill vote. The Republicans say they stand up for the 2nd Amendment, but they only seem to stand for the second part of it. But I guess that is what they are payed to do, not by the people but by their corporate sponsors. A few of the Democrats are just as bad, voting against their party and President Obama. There was a lot of solidarity shown for a change on the Democrats side. This debate is not over and the NRA will lose. We need to stay persistent and believe or your neighbor will be parking a rank in their driveway.

Republican ideology us fundamentally flawed, elections are only proof I really need.

                 The Republican party is perplexed as to why they cannot win a Presidential election. After what George W. Bush did to our country, how fan you blame people for mistrusting your party. He lied us into a major war, didn’t pay the tab for both wars we were in and his economic policies decimated our country. Yet Republicans push the blame on President Obama and expect the country to forget what Bush and his cronies did.

               The Republican party now says they want to reach out to Latinos, yet one Republican lawmaker from Alaska called them “wetbacks” and the Heritage Foundation, a Republican thinktank, had a known racist assist in writing their immigration study. Of course you can’t forget Rush Limbaugh and the prophet Glenn Beck for their wonderful support of women.

              Instead of focusing on our economy and creating jobs, they are focused on Benghazi. Yes it was a tragedy, we already had hearings, figured out the problems and put things in place to hopefully prevent it from happening again. Remember there were 11 attacks on embassies/consulates during Bush’s tenure, with about 60 deaths and not one Republican called for a Congressional hearing.

         While Republicans are busy protecting our 2nd Amendment, they continuing stepping on our voting rights and our 1st Amendment rights. I guess the money the NRA gives them not only overpowers 90% of Americans, but also our Constitution. They force creationism and their religious beliefs on abortion on us. Abortion us legally protected by our Constitution, which also days Federal law is the law of the land. So why don’t states follow or.

          Democrats offer more stability and are there for all the people, not just 7% of them. Compromise is the true key to Democracy, when one side won’t compromise nothing will happen. So until Republicans realize it is not their way or the highway we can never move forward as a country.

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44% of Republicans believe an armed rebellion may he necessary.

               44% of Republicans believe an armed rebellion may soon be acreality in the U.S. As for Independent voters, 27% indicated that guns would soon be used to settle the country’s political problems, according to a Fairleigh Dickinson University poll. The partisan gap, about whether armed revolution will play a role in America mirrors the difference on gun control. While 50% surveyed said that gun control was important to protect the public, only 24% of Republicans agreed, while an incredible 73% of Democrats favored gun legislation, according to the survey.

             The idea of using weapons to prevent a democratically elected government from doing the will of the people began with the Koch Brothers funded Yea Party protests. Republican and conservative “experts” inflamed right wing supporters that the U.S. government was infringing upon the peoples rights. Republicans, with support from the Koch Brothers,  claim their liberties are being infringed upon because the Constitution prevents them from opposing religious edicts on the people. 1st Amendment is there for a reason.

             What the Republican threats of armed revolution really shows is that anything that isn’t in line with Republican ideology is an assault on their liberties. They believe that gay rights, contraception, gun control, free and fair elections are reason enough for an armed uprising. Nearly half of all Republicans chosen form of government is fascism, Democracy be damned. Democracy, which is one the best forms of government in world history, but because we elected a Democrat as President, nearly half of all Republicans believe armed revolution may be necessary to protect their liberties. In order to impose an authoritative regime.

                It is difficult to imagine Americans abandoning Democracy for another form of government. There are a large number of Republican inspired people who hate our representative Democracy that they are leaning heavily towards an armed overthrow of government and installing a fascist dictatorship. This transition has Bennett done in plain sight and with full cooperation and assistance from establishment Republicans and state legislatures nationwide. If Americans are foolish enough to believe the Republican use of armed revolution is predicated on the right to unrestricted firearm possession, Democracy is already doomed. All that is left is to hand the power to a Koch Brother installed fascist regime.

               President Obama was hated before he became President. He is hated because he represents change, not just in politics, but in the face of the country. Whites are no longer the major majority we have been in the past, the melting pot has truly become just that. The Republican ideology scares many minorities as well as many white people. This alone gas caused many to be wary of any policy Republicans put forth. This is the party that said if you didn’t support the Iraq war you were un-American, but yet calling for an armed revolt is not.

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Treasonous calls for armed rebellion from new NRA president and Tea Party.

              Jim Porter was just introduces as the new president of the NRA. He said that President Obama is a fake president. He also called the Civil War that war of Northern aggression. He seems like a wise pick for the position. He is also calling for armed rebellion if states enact gun control of any kind.

                This is the same organization that thinks it is a good idea to store a gun in your childs room. That seems like a really wise idea. It is odd they would mention something like this just days after a 2 year old was shot dead by his 5 year old brother. These are the people calling for an armed revolt because their rights are being infringed upon.

            The sad part is that a good portion of Republicans support this Koch Brothers edict. The Koch Brothers fund and feed ideas to the Tea Party movement, where the armed revolution talk started. They believe that any kind of background checks or common sense gun laws are an infringement of their rights and reason enough for an open revolt.

                 This is treason, calling for open revolt against s Democratically elected government where both parties are represented. Anyone that is inciting this or financially supporting this should be incarcerated. People can get hurt and most likely will with the right wing firing up these jack wagon nut jobs with assault rifles. Any Republican calling for this should be relieved of their seat and face charges for inciting a riot. Of you want to play with fire, you most assuredly deserve to be burned.

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NRA is having there 142 annual convention, a nut jobs paradise.

             These conventions have speakers, including Ted Nugent,  who said if President Obama was reelected he would he dead or in jail. Of course that was untrue. There will be a lot of gun sellers selling a lot of guns. It is a gathering of people who believe the 2nd Amendment takes precedence over all others in the Bill of Rights.

          Outside the convention center will be another politically powerful group. Survivors of Gun Violence and Families of Gun Violence victims including one relative of a Sandy Hook victims. They will be reading put loud the 4,000 names of people killed by guns this year. These groups are becoming a thorn in the NRAs side.

         Many of the Senators who voted against the Manchin/Toomey Gun Bill that supporter Universal Backgrounds Checks. The drops in approval have been between 6-19% and have these Senators scrambling to make up for this loss in momentum. The NRA has plastered Congress with their lobbying cash and have stopped Senator Dianne Fienstiens Assault Weapons Ban and High Capacity Magazine Ban. Their main attack dog on that one is Canadian born Senator Ted Cruz.

              A bit off subject here, but Republicans, Tea Party and conservatives kept asking for President Obama’s birth certificate. We already know that Ted Cruz was born in Canada to an America citizen and a father who was born in Cuba. Yet he is being touted as a Presidential hopeful by these wackadoos.

               The NRA has spent a lot of money in recent elections, mostly in 2012. But there money is not getting results, there success rate is about 25%. Not really worth the money they are spending. But this is what lobbyists do, they use money to move a vote in to their direction.

           As far as I know there is not any Democrats speaking at the convention. They rely on inconsequential people who have nothing to do with politics. Sarah Palin is a favorite among these well adjusted people. Sarah Paling has never done anything to help any Americans. But I guess they have to take what they can get to satisfy the nutjobs.

                 

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Why can’t we get Gun Control passed?

                  A well REGULATED Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed upon.

                That one sentence and 27 words included within it have been perverted by the NRA. The NRA which is a lobbyist group representing the gun manufacturers has threatened to withdraw support from any Congressmen voting for Universal Background Checks. 90% of Americans supported background checks, yet we could not get past a filibuster vote.

               When speaking with NRA supporters they seem to only know the second part of the 2nd Amendment. The right to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed upon. They conveniently leave the word REGULATE out. Regulate means to control or supervise by means of rules and regulations. Why would the NRA leave that out? It doesn’t work in their favor, if course.

                If we are to regulate something, in most cases it is a government agency that would do so. So in thus case I believe the ATF would qualify. We already have a Militia, our National Guard. So we don’t need a militia. I don’t believe there have been any armed conflicts between states. Federal law is Constitutionally the law of the land. Either way according to the Second Amendment should be someone overlooking the weapons people have.

            Senator Kelly Ayote, who voted against background checks, said she did so because it might create a Gun Registery. Which the Manchin/Toomey bill expressly said if anyone, including government agents, did so they would be convicted and spend up to 15 years in prison. Here is what confuses me. We have to register our car, have insurance on our car and home, but we don’t have to register or have insurance on a gun. Guns were made to kill things.

               After Sandy Hook, where 20 kids were brutally massacred, I like most Americans believe something needs to be done. Special interests and lobbyist should not have more power than the people. I did not see anywhere in the Constitution where it said we couldn’t have a gun registery. Lets make one, legal gun owners have no worries, just criminals. No one is going to take your gun, they haven’t taken gas guzzling cars from people. People need to use their heads and not believe all the bolahna the NRA pushes. President Obama is on the right side, most Democrats are on the side of the people, while of course Republicans side with corporate cash. 90% of the people can’t be wrong.

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Craig, Colorado considers requiring all homeowners to own an assault rifle.

                 The City Council of Craig, Colorado,  a small mountain town that relies on hunting for much of its economic activity is seriously considering a citizens proposal. The proposal would mandate that every household have at least one sporting rifle equipped to hold a high capacity magazine. This is in response to the state legislature “hammering” rural towns with new rules on gun ownership, energy policy and other issues.

           The proposed ordinance would include exemptions for those not mentally or physically capable of operating a firearm, those who cannot afford a firearm and those who oppose owning a firearm for personal or religious reasons. Although the town council agrees with the defiant message, they agreed they they should not pass an ordinance just to send a message. Many in the town rely on hunting for income, and the states recent Gun Control bill outlaws several gun accessories that hunters frequently make use of.

              This is despite , as I said,  tie recent law passed by the Colorado state legislature. The law restricts High Capacity Magazines and expanded background checks on gun buyers. I do not understand how a town can be exempt grimace state law. But Craig isn’t the first U.S. city to see such an arguably controversial measure.

                  In early April, the city council of a small town in northern Georgian approved an ordinance that would require certain households to have a gun and ammunition to “provide for emergency management of the city” the Associated Press reported. In February the Low Angeles Times reported on a small town in Utah that is seeking to do the same.

               In 1982 , Kennesaw, Ga. unanimously passed a law requiring heads of households to own at least one firearm with ammunition. The ordinance states the gun law is needed to ” protect the safety, security and general welfare of the city and its inhabitants,” Following the laws passage crime dropped 89% , compared to the modest 10% statewide drop. The ACLU challenged the law in Federal Court just after it was passed. In response the city added conciestious objecters to the list of those exempt.

              Although the law is now being credited with a drop in crime, Kennesaw did not have a big problem with crime before it. In 1981 the crime rate was 11 burglaries per 1,000 residents. The law in its final form had many loopholes, so not everyone is required to own a gun
The law contains no clause for punishment for violating the law.

              These laws show a distinct difference between Republican and Democrat ideology. Republicans want to force you to own a gun. But they say that Democrats are wrong by trying to get everyone health care. Both instances show that Republicans care more for big corporations than people. They don’t want to lower health vista and require insurance companies to cover ore existing conditions, but they do want to force you to own a gun. It is all about the scratch with the greedy Republicans.

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