Maddow: Fast And Furious Investigation Is The "Specific" Version Of NRA Leader LaPierre's Obama Gun Conspiracy
June 21, 2012 1:13 am ET
From the June 20 edition of MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show:
Previously:
NRA's LaPierre Reveals "Obama Conspiracy" To Fool Gun Owners, Repeal Second Amendment
"Communist-Trained" Obama's "Massive" "Conspiracy": Extremist NRA Goes Over The Edge
NRA's LaPierre: Obama Will "Break The Back" Of 2nd Amendment In 2nd Term
LaPierre Doubles Down On "Obama Conspiracy" In Washington Times
Media Matters: Changing The Tone, Or Changing Our Understanding?
Media Matters: Fox's 2012 GOP Influence
Media Matters: The Fox News divide that never was
Trying to discredit President Obama is simply a way to gain more influence.
When, or if, Americans realize they have been played by the righwing, the gun lobby should be their first to pay restitution for their lies.Oil and gas will also be in that line.
If you want guns, that's fine but don't misrepresent their true nature. Do not make so many false claims about how they "increase" your safety.
I'm not greedy. My biggest money concern is having enough to retire. I grew up in Lousiana, Alaska & Oklahoma. I've had white friends, black friends, Eskimo friends, Vietnamese friends, Native American friends and I am friends with many people from India I work closely with. One of my best friend's family escaped Castro. Mexico is one of my favorite places to vacation. Mexicans have more warmth, friendliness & hospitality in their little toes than in the entire country of France. I fell in love with and made a fool of myself chasing after one of the most beautiful, charming & intelligent woman I have ever known, who happened to be African America.
So now I am deemed a greedy, racist, irrational & hopeless human being because I don't march lockstep with the liberal mindset.
Liberals rant & rave about intolerance to minorites (and I agree that racism is evil) but absolutely hate & despise anybody who disagrees with their politics or economic theories.
What's it like to perfect in every way and 100% correct about every aspect of the human condition? Were you born that way or did you learn it from the the Supreme Being?
Taxes and regulations don't prevent manufacturing in this country. Without said laws, our quality of life would be deplorable for the few places that still have factories left. Greed has been the reason for sending work offshore: companies see that its much more profitable to go to a country where they can exploit the populace and soil the land without having to worry about the consequences, and our tax code outright encourages it.
Constantly harping about how NOT racist a person is denigrates their own tolerance. You should go on a speech about how you are not racist. You should prove it without saying it. Talk is cheap. I do too have a very diverse group of friends, but i don't talk about it because i don't see the need.
No would be a "greedy, racist, irrational & hopeless human being" when you start acting like one.
The bankrupt economy...caused by the "conservative" deregulation of the financial sector.
The debt, caused in large part due to "conservative" wars and tax cuts that were unfunded.
Underfunded pensions, the result of conservatives rolling back workers' rights, along with financial deregulation allowing bankers to gamble with that pension money.
Government waste, like 10 year wars against the wrong people? Like tax breaks to people and corporations that don't need them? Like subsidies to big oil and gas?
More taxes? Taxes are at an all time low.
And I wish regulators were half as powerful as you make them sound. A "conservative" tax code that actually incentivizes outsourcing has done a fine job killing off our manufacturing jobs unassisted. Or how about the "conservative" demonization of education, the refusal to reign in tuition growth because of "free market principles", the insistance that education is a privelege and not a right, and the apparent disdain for federal student loans that result in fewer Americans having access to an education that would prepare them for a good manufacturing job?
Really, you just made one of the worst arguments for your cause I've ever seen.
I know number of Republicans who are ashamed of the direction their party is going towards. They remain because they want to try to bring their party back to true conservative roots. They don't like Obama, but they know that a lot of the attacks on his policies have a lot to do with not just racial prejudices but also irrational fear mongering. I don't know who they are going to vote for, but they don't like Mitt based upon his record and the fact that he's flip flopped from what he told voters during the primary and what he's saying right now.
This is an open letter to you, and Mr. LaPierre specifically, to clear up a few matters.
Let me begin by saying that even though you would likely call me a liberal, I firmly believe in the 2nd Amendment and the rights it protects. I think that the right to keep and bear arms is important to our American way of life.
My second point is that, among thinking Americans such as myself, the violence on our Southwestern border has almost nothing to do with the failed operations of Project Gunrunner. Rather, and ironically, it is the result of 40 years of failed Republican drug policy.
How amusing, then, to see you castigating the Left for something that the Right has actually done! The last piece of significant gun legislation was passed, if I recall correctly, under the Reagan administration, just after Mr. Brady was shot.
The upshot is that the reason that President Obama didn't do anything during his first term regarding gun rights is because he has NO PLANS to do anything of the sort, either this term or during the next. And if he does try enact draconian legislation concerning firearms, you will quickly find out how many whom YOU think comprise the 'other side' will come to your defense.
Signed,
The_Cat
I'm glad to see you believe in the 2nd amendment. But if you truly believed in what the 2nd amendment says "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." then you believe the right to bear are went away with the necessity of a well regulated militia. Why does everyone who wants to wave a gun in the air refuse to acknowledge this is one sentence if you take away the cause you must take away the effect. The 2nd amendment was never about vigilante justice, just read it.
I'm glad to see you believe in the 2nd amendment. But if you truly believed in what the 2nd amendment says "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." then you believe the right to bear are went away with the necessity of a well regulated militia. Why does everyone who wants to wave a gun in the air refuse to acknowledge this is one sentence if you take away the cause you must take away the effect. The 2nd amendment was never about vigilante justice, just read it.
I don't know where you're getting this "militia" rubbish.
</snark>
It's not that there's a big investigation into this disaster now that's the problem- the program should have been cancelled on January 20, 2009 and the investigation should have been launched THEN. But this Administration is, and always has been, too damned busy trying to play Let's Make Up and Work Together with people who have no interest in anything except destroying it.
Once again, it's come back to bite the President and his cabinet. Will he learn anything from it? Heck, why start now?
However, I wonder if Obama might be tiring of the games. His policy change in regard to the young undocumented immigrants, seems to me, to be his way of saying "Eff you guys, this is how it's about to be from now on." (I might be dreaming)
Next week, Congress debates the Bush tax cuts. I am very, very interested to see if Obama will come out and take a firm stand this time around. I swear, I do not know if I could completely stand by him anymore if he does not declare that these tax cuts should end. To me, I believe this issue and his handling of it, will draw that proverbial line in the sand. If he really cares about this economy and all Americans, he will do the right thing. We shall see...
I cannot help but feel that the sinister ways of the right wing, complicit with the also corporate owned Democrat party, will be the ultimate undoing of the middle class in this country.
I am not middle class. I am now poor. The only time I have ever had experience being middle class was during the Clinton administration. I was married and my husband and I both had good paying jobs. In retrospect, of course, Clinton had a big hand in the eventual demise of so many American jobs. (NAFTA). Therefore, I am suspicious of both Dems. and Repubs. I am not unaware of the ugly nature of politics and politicians in general.
I feel so hopeless at times. I really do.
I hope you see a turnaround real soon.
Congero says: What was there to disagree with in jj's post? Many posters here have said the same thing voicing there frustrations about this administration.
Congero, Pete...seriously?
Do you both think I just arrived here yesterday? How many times has jjamele posted something about Obama that was honest but put the President in a negative light & then gotten pounded on here by folks who can't stand this President being criticized or blamed for anything? And outside of always the same handful of posters I have seen very little venting of frustration about this administration. No, it's always someone else's fault.
Whatever guys. Offer up your revisionist history, but don't expect me not to remember what really took place.
Have a nice weekend.
Yes, that you'll be beaten up by the same person who has beaten you up eight times in the past is "easy to see in hindsight." Know what? It's easy to see in foresight, too, if you just try.
jamele2880, I ask you , WHY ? Do you not think that this was his ( Obama) Plan all alone .
First try to get Bipartisanship , if that failed , as it did . Then he ( Obama ) could come out Fighting , Shining a Light on Republican Tactics to Stall Americas recovery .
Good for his re-election plans. Bad for Americans who needed real health care reform and jobs.
We are speaking two different languages. My bottom line is "did the middle class and the poor get what they needed?" Yours is clearly "did the President put himself in a good position to win re-election?" Yours is much, much more popular here than mine, I get that. But it doesn't change my position.
I don't give a flying damn about the Democrats or Obama's prospects in November if "victory" doesn't result in a better deal for the 99%. Get it?
jjamele2880 , What would you have done ?
jjamele2880 , What would have done if you found yourself wakening in a burning Building and gasoline being thrown on the fire . You are inside of the building with a Bucket of water . The Fire Department,GOP Congress, the Gasoline throwers were elected to Save the building , instead they are trying to Stop you from putting out the Fire .
jjamele2880 , What would you have done ?
jjamele2880 , I am one of those POOR, you Speak of !
jjamele2880 , I am one of those Middle class !
jjamele2880 , I still Believe President Obama has my best Interest as his Top Mission ! The President just needs help putting out the Fire !
Exhibit A, in the case against President Obama being on our side.
SOCIAL SECURITY:
1) The President appointed Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, two foes of Social Security, as co-chairs of his "Cat Food Commission" in early 2010. Republicans did not make him do this. Blue Dogs did not make him do this.
2) Here's John Conyers:
"We've got to educate the American people at the same time we educate the President of the United States. The Republicans, Speaker Boehner or Majority Leader Cantor did not call for Social Security cuts in the budget deal. The President of the United States called for that..."
Social Security is the most successful and popular government program ever. A Democratic President who is on our side would not be trying to cut it. There is no economic reason for cutting Social Security. Our plutocrats want it cut to pay for their wars, their tax cuts, their deregulation, and their bailouts.
~
The reality of course tells us what has really happened. Gun rights under Obama have only expanded. Period. He has made no moves to put in gun control measures anywhere or at any time. To say otherwise is to be ridiculed for being completely ignorant of the facts.
I found it interesting that now Lapierre is calling for a special prosecutor to investigate this. Why? He thinks apparently Holder and Obama broke the law.
When asked why he wasn't mad when POTUS Bush started this whole thing, he essentially said Bush wasn't coming after our guns. What a moron this man is.
(emphasis added)
If a DVD of the first part of Rachel's program were mailed to members of Congress, d'ya think that maybe, just maybe, some of them might pull their heads outta their asses?